Game Start Crash

[Mattygerst]

Hello all,

I have recently downloaded RFC Dawn of Civilization and the game crashes before startup. I read thru the bug reports and saw that, since I have the steam version, I had to change to the original beta thru the properties / beta menu in Steam. I have done this, but the game continues to crash at the "Init Engine" part of start up. I have attached a screen shot with the error message I get. When I hit "ok" the error message immediately flashes again and then freezes the computer. Can anyone provide any help with this?

Also, for what its worth ... the auto installer places the game in C: ... but since I have the Steam version of the game, my Mods folder is located in Documents/MyGames/BeyondTheSword ... so I had to move the folder to this location. This has worked with all other mods. In case you're wondering ... I cannot leave the game where the auto installer places it because it does not then show up in my mods menu upon starting the game.

 

[Leoreth]

Are you using any language but English by any chance?

 

[Mattygerst]

Nope ... live in St. Louis, MO. Using English for the game.

 

[Leoreth]

Did you install the HUD colour module? If so what happens if you skip it?

 

[Mattygerst]

Hi Leoreth ... thank you for the replies.

#1: I unistalled the mod and reinstalled it and de-selected the HUD colour module. When doing so, the upload said something along the lines of, "HUD colour module is not selected, but remains installed and not selecting will not uninstall, do you wish to continue?" ... when I say "yes" the mod installs as normal.

#2: After the mod installs, I have to move it from C: to Documents/My Games/Beyond the Sword/Mods (where all other mods are installed)

#3: This time ... the game uploads. But now ... there are no scenarios present and only a WB save which crashes the game when launched. I have attached screen shots to show you what Im talking about.

#4: Any thoughts on where I am now? To be sure, I re-read the Bug Reports Forum and followed any directions that seem necessary.

So ... now, the mod at least starts up ... but it doesn't recognize any of the scenarios / maps. I can't choose the 3000 BC, etc. scenarios ... only the WB save, and that crashes the game

 

[Alexius08]

Have you tried moving the mod folder to the game's installation folder (likely in Program Files)?

 

[Mattygerst]

Have you tried moving the mod folder to the game's installation folder (likely in Program Files)?

Since I have Steam ... the game's installation folder isn't in Program Files (at least not from what I can see ... and I did a pretty exhaustive search). Before I had my current machine, I had Civ installed from a disk. With my new machine, though, I uploaded with via Steam. This appears to force me to upload it thru Documents/My Games/BTS/Mods. And, also, uploading other Mods to this directory works perfectly. RFC Dawn of Civilization now also starts up after removing the HUD colour module ... but the actual scenarios don't show up. I checked the mod's assets folders and confirmed that the scenarios are in Private Maps, so they did upload correctly; however, I don't understand why they're not showing up.

 

[Leoreth]

For your first question, no need to worry about it, if you removed the mod manually the installer doesn't realise this and is still aware of the previous set of modules.

I'm not sure if this ever happens but isn't also possible to change the installation directory in the installer, instead of using the autodetected one? I fear that just moving the folder may mess up some file links including to the exe.

You also should take a look into your windows registry. The installer detects the installation location using the registry so if it still wants to install there, there might be something left that should be deleted. The same could also mess up how the mod is loaded.

 

[Mattygerst]

When I install the game ... it prompts me to install it into C: ... I actually cannot manually change this (the only other options it gives me are my DVD drive and my flash drive). I have to let it install it into C:. I imagine it does this bc it can't find C: Program Files / Civ IV, etc. etc., and so it just stops at C:. After the game downloads, I start up Civ IV BTS. At this point, the mod does not show in the mods folder. I then have to go into C:, copy & cut the mod from there and place it into Documents / My Games / etc. etc. and then I re-start Civ IV BTS. At this point, as I showed above, the game shows RFC Dawn of Civilization as a mod ... but doesn't have any of the scenarios available; however, if I go into the mod into the Documents folder, the private maps including the scenarios are there. So ... I don't know why the game isn't finding the scenarios to play?

 

[Leoreth]

Have you checked your registry? You should be able to do so with system properties -> install/uninstall software. If there is a DoC entry, delete it before using the installer again. If there are two BtS entries, uninstall BtS and delete both of them afterwards, then do another clean install.

 

[Mattygerst]

Ok Leoreth ... some major progress made, but also a new and different issue.

First ... I played around with the installer and found out where Steam stores Mods for Civ (in case any asks in the future ... this is the folder):

C: Program Files x86 -> Steam -> steamapps -> common -> Sid Meier's Civilization IV Beyond the Sword -> Beyond the Sword -> Mods

Now, here is the issue. I chose to upload everything but the HUD colour module as you recommended, but that I got many, many varietas delectat errors for units. I chose to ignore these errors (it wasn't for every unit, but it was for a few different civilizations) ... and once I got thru this process the mod installed and I ran the game, it opened up and the scenarios were present. I started a 600 AD game with China, played one turn, opened the world builder and then exited the game to post here. I have attached a screen shot with the errors for varietas delectat. I think I should note that these errors did not occur when I installed them to just C: and also to the My Documents folder ... so I'm not sure what changes with placing them in steam?

**I should note ... I don't yet know if the game will crash when one of the units that I ignored the error for is built and attempts to appear on the map. I imagine it would, but I am not sure?

 

[Leoreth]

Okay, so the mod should work for you, but you are running into issues because the combined paths for the Steam mods location plus the VD art files is too long for your OS. I cannot do much about that because some file names cannot be changed (at least with my knowledge) without breaking the art. So it should definitely work without VD.

If you want to get VD running, you should try to mount the path you mentioned above as a virtual hard drive. So assuming your computer has partitions C and D, you can mount this Steam BtS path as a virtual hard drive E, which simply maps to that folder but has significantly shorter file names. People mentioned that this worked for them, but I never tried it myself and therefore cannot tell you how to go about that exactly.

 

[Mattygerst]

So ... I played a 1700AD start last night using America and have played thru to something like 1950 with no crashes, yet. My question for you is ... would the game crash if it ran into one of those units that I hit 'ignore' on? Or, at least, why has the game not crashed already?

 

[Leoreth]

Two possible reasons: if just the unit model or texture is missing (which iirc are most of the too long file names) you'd either get a red blob or pink models without textures, and no crash. If something more critical is missing, including unit icons, you might still get a crash, and you were simply lucky because that particular unit has not been built by that particular civ yet.