Help please - Can't load saved games

[Pampa]

Hi,

I can't load any saved games (autosaved or manually saved). I'm running Civ 4 and the Beyond the Sword expansion pack on an iMAC (OS X 10.6.5). I used the "Check for updates" option from Civ to get the latest patches and the game tells me is up to date.

Here is the info from the "about this build" section:

Civ version: 173
Save version: 103
Build version: 1.7.4.0
Build date: Sep 24 2007
Build: Final release
Mod name: None

Anyone running into the same problem? Any solutions/advice?

Thanks a lot in advance,
Pampa

 

[AlanH]

Hi, welcome.

You don't say what happens when you try to load a saved game. Can you see a list of saves? Can you select one? Can you click Load?


Your patch version shouldn't affect whether you can load saves. However, you can't upgrade the game from inside Civ4. That only checks the Windows version info. You have to download the latest Mac version patches from the Aspyr web site - one for Civ4 and one for Beyond the Sword. Check the sticky thread in this forum for links to the latest patches.

 

[Pampa]

Hi,

Thank you for the reply. The original problem was that after selecting one of the saved game files the game would take me to a menu where I can select "Play now", " play scenario", "play custom scenario" and a couple of other options, including "Load game". If I select "Play now" a new game starts (I start by choosing the terrain, etc.). It's like a closed loop without any error messages.

I used the links you gave me (thanks!) and downloaded and installed the Civilization IV 1.74.dmg patch. After that (and without trying to load a game first ) I downloaded the Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword 3.19 patch. However, I could not install it properly. I get this message"Civilization IV.app does not appear to be installed correctly. - the installation of Civilization IV appears to be incomplete. Re-intalling this item might solve the problem".

I gotta run now but I'll try again tonight.

Thanks for the help again!

Pampa

 

[AlanH]

Are you trying to load the save by double clicking it in Finder? If so, it won't work. A Mac application needs to be set up to handle this action as an "AppleEvent", and Civ4 has not been programmed to do it. You have to choose Load Game from within the game in order to select and load a save.

Not sure what the problem with your BtS patch installation is. You may need to launch Civ4 vanilla first, before trying to install the patch. The other possibility is that you may need to copy the patch installer across to your desktop and run it from there. Some of Aspyr's installers don't seem to run well when double clicked directly from within the disk image.

 

[Pampa]

I was using the Load option from within the game. That would get me to a two-pane window. On the left I had a couple of sub-dirs (Auto and Manual I think). On the right I had the files under each sub-dir. I tried selecting the files and then clicking on Load, then double-cliking directly on the files but always with the same result.

I now re-installed the game with the Civilization_4_1.74.dmg file. I loaded it and it worked. Then I installed the BTS pack with the CivIV_BTS.dmg file. I loaded the game, entered the reg key, and it does work.

Now, when I re-installed the game I over-wrote the files my son created (he did a lot of things and really wants to get his "empire" back I have time capsule and a backup available of the Civilization IV folder within Applications but I can't find where the games keeps the saved game files! Can you please help me with this?

In the mean time we'll try doing a little test, save it and then try to retrieve it.

Thanks again!

 

[s.bernbaum]

The saved games are not in the Applications folder. They are in Documents. So, assuming it is a BTS game that you want to recover, look in ~/Documents/Civilization IV Beyond the Sword/Saves/Single. Within the Single folder you will find the games that were saved using the Save command from within the game and a folder containing the Autosaves that the game does on its own. The Autosaves folder is actually called "auto". Unless you have changed the .ini file, it autosaves every ten turns. Autosave only keeps the opening of the game save and the last ten, overwriting the last ten as it goes.

 

[Pampa]

Thank you. I found the saved game files blush. I tried opening some Civ IV game files and was successful w/ 2 out of 4 files. I think what's messing things up is that the files names have accented characters.

Don't know if this has anything to do with the problem but the language for my Mac is set to English and I have a Spanish keyboard. The file names of the saved games started with Julio César be instead of getting the "é" I got other weird characters.

In any case, I made a test with BTS and I was able to save a game and load it later (didn't use any accented characters, just in case).

One last thing (for now , below is the info of the version I have of the game. Am I up to date with all the patches, etc.? Do you recommend installing anything else?

Civ version: 319
Save version: 302
Build version: 3.1.9.0 (128100)
Build date: Aug 24 2009 12:00:36
Build: FINAL RELEASE
Mod name: None


Thanks a lot,
Pampa

 

[s.bernbaum]

It takes me quite a while for BTS CIV to boot up, so I have not looked at the Build info. However, version 3.19 is the latest, and probably last, one.

I recommend installing the BUG mod. It does not modify game play at all. It just adds a lot of information and options to the user interface that make the game much smoother to play. You have to play around with the options it adds and decide which ones you want to use. For example, I found that using too many of the unit info display options can let them interfere with mouse selection of the units. I installed it in CustomAssets, so it is present in all my BTS games. The directions and location for finding it are in the sticky on this Mac forum about mods.

 

[AlanH]

You can ignore the in-game version info. You need to use Get Info in the Finder to check your Mac version number. On my system this shows Version: 3.19 (92131)

 

[Pampa]

It takes me quite a while for BTS CIV to boot up, so I have not looked at the Build info. However, version 3.19 is the latest, and probably last, one.

I recommend installing the BUG mod. It does not modify game play at all. It just adds a lot of information and options to the user interface that make the game much smoother to play. You have to play around with the options it adds and decide which ones you want to use. For example, I found that using too many of the unit info display options can let them interfere with mouse selection of the units. I installed it in CustomAssets, so it is present in all my BTS games. The directions and location for finding it are in the sticky on this Mac forum about mods.

Thank you. I'll look into that.

 

[Pampa]

You can ignore the in-game version info. You need to use Get Info in the Finder to check your Mac version number. On my system this shows Version: 3.19 (92131)

Couldn't see the version of the file using the Get info from Finder but the file I used to install it said 3.19 and it's working fine (and fast), for now.

I have so much to learn!

 

[AlanH]

Hmm. I use PathFinder instead of Finder. When I open Get Info in Finder I do see version 3.19, but with no build number, as it only displays the short version string.

If you are paranoid, you can find the build number by right clicking the applicaiton in FInder and selecting Show Package Contents. Then select the Info.plist file and hit the Space bar to Quick Look at the text in the file, or double click it to display its text. You should see a line that says: "VersionWithBuildString" and contains "3.19 (92131)".

I don't think this is a problem. As far as I recall there were three Mac releases of BtS. The original one sold on DVD was 3.17; the downloadable patch was to 3.19, build 92131 - the one I am running; and there was another release you can buy from Steam, which is also 3.19 but has one changed Python file to make it fully equivalent to the Windows release. Anything that is called version 3.19 should be OK.