I downloaded the Lenin leaderhead for Civilization III on my Mac today and when I tried to play it in my account (I'm using Mac OS 10.3.3) it wouldn't work NOTHING would work, the game would load (CivIII itself) but I couldn't load or start a new game! So I go to the administrator's account and it works, so I was like ok, I'll just play in here then. I test out the leaderhead and it works, but I got bored and decided to load up my other saved file, the one where I played the most, and it works. Anyway, after about 1/2 hour playing I got off and ate. But when I come back I load up the game and it's saying that teh file is not a valid save file! WHAT THE F***??! I WAS JUST PLAYING IT LIKE AN HOUR AGO AND IT WAS FINE! I tried it in both my account and the admin's account and both are saying that it's not a valid save file! What should I do?? How can I fix this?? If need to I'm using Civilization III v1.29 beta2 and running iMac G4/800MHz 1GB ram and OS 10.3.3! PLEASE HELP!
Help!!
- Thread starter Alpha9
- Start date
1. I don't think the Lenin lederhead has anything to do with the problem.
2. The problem you had between the two accounts is probably related to which accont it's installed in and whether your own account had access to the relevant files, and to the relevant folders where temporary files are written. There was some discussion of this a while back and, as far as I recall, it seems the file permissions got screwed up in version 1.29 which has to make temporary files when compressing save files. Bottom line is there's a bug, and you have to install the game using the account you are going to play in.
3. The invalid file message usually means you are trying to open it in the wrong version of the software. If you double click the file to launch the application, and there is more than one version of the software on your hard drive there's no guarantee which one will launch. Do you also have a copy of 1.21 or older anywhere on your system? Are you sure you were playing it in 1.29b2 when you saved? Are you sure you are opening it in 1.29b2 now? The version appears at the bottom left of the main screen after launch.
2. The problem you had between the two accounts is probably related to which accont it's installed in and whether your own account had access to the relevant files, and to the relevant folders where temporary files are written. There was some discussion of this a while back and, as far as I recall, it seems the file permissions got screwed up in version 1.29 which has to make temporary files when compressing save files. Bottom line is there's a bug, and you have to install the game using the account you are going to play in.
3. The invalid file message usually means you are trying to open it in the wrong version of the software. If you double click the file to launch the application, and there is more than one version of the software on your hard drive there's no guarantee which one will launch. Do you also have a copy of 1.21 or older anywhere on your system? Are you sure you were playing it in 1.29b2 when you saved? Are you sure you are opening it in 1.29b2 now? The version appears at the bottom left of the main screen after launch.
I have a new update about this:
When I try to play the game in my account I don't get the introduction videos normally seen every time I launch the game, plus the main menu font is different from the one in the admin's account. In my admin's account the game is normal. Anyway I delete the game from my admin's account and reinstall it in my account yet it is doing that again! no introduction videos and the font is still different! What's the problem???!
When I try to play the game in my account I don't get the introduction videos normally seen every time I launch the game, plus the main menu font is different from the one in the admin's account. In my admin's account the game is normal. Anyway I delete the game from my admin's account and reinstall it in my account yet it is doing that again! no introduction videos and the font is still different! What's the problem???!
Well, the editor needs 1.21g and won't work with 1.29b2, which is one of the reasons people often have copies of both versions on their disk. Hence teh reason for my question about whether the save and reload were both using the same copy, or at least the same version, of the software.
The game is getting its preferences from your own preferences, and you didn't delete them between installations.
Mac OS X has a per-user preference system. Each user's home folder has a Library folder containing her own prefs for each applicaiton. To re-initialise your prefs quit th game and go to ~/Library/Preferences/ and delete"com.westlake.Civ3.plist" and "CivIII Preferences".
Well, the game was located in the admin's account in a folder called games and while in my account I access it and play it. But anyway I finally got it to work by reinstalling the game itself (I saved my .sav file) and installed it in my account and it works. Thanks for the help Alan, at first I was confused since this has never happened to me before but all I had to do was to reinstall it, thanks 
It doesn't matter where the game is in your folder hierarchy, only who you are when you launch it. That determines whose preferences are used. You can't use Admin's preferences because you don't own them and therefore can't change them.
