How does a whole game disappear?!

[Mastiff_of_Ar]

Playing GOTM 12, I added the new mod, downloaded the game, and played for several hours, saving now and then. I go back two days later... nothing! The mod is still there, but even a search using .Civ4Saved doesn't show a thing! The autosaves are from another game, too.

I'd have to say I'm a bit miffed!

 

[ewokimpi]

Were you looking in the My Games\Sid Meier's Civilization IV\Saves\single directory?

Maybe you were looking in the multiplayer directory, or were over in the Warlords folder tree?

I hope you find them.

 

[CliftonBazaar]

The extension is ".Civ4SavedGame", but this should still come up if you search for ".Civ4Saved"
Keep looking, they'll be there somewhere.

 

[ewokimpi]

Try this for your search term: "*.Civ4Saved*"

One should only need to include "My Documents" in the search path.

 

[Mastiff_of_Ar]

No use... I don't understand it, either. It brought up all my saved games until November, then nothing. I just started a new one. I put all my cities in the same places, but not all the events happened the same. Guess I'm out of luck on this one.

 

[Denniz]

No use... I don't understand it, either. It brought up all my saved games until November, then nothing. I just started a new one. I put all my cities in the same places, but not all the events happened the same. Guess I'm out of luck on this one.

You might want to run chkdsk.

 

[Mastiff_of_Ar]

You might want to run chkdsk.

Come again?! What is that, how would I do it... and what would it accomplish?

 

[Thrallia]

its a windows utility that makes sure your hard drive does not have any damaged data sectors

 

[Meatbuster]

I'll play the bad cop here, and go from another angle:
Did someone else play the game while you were away? Did they delete your saves?

 

[da_Vinci]

Is the save problem continuing, or is your restart saving normally?

If you had enabled the save on exit in the mod for the first game, it saved (at least on my machine) with the name Man_Pri_Sta_ (etc., lots of three letter units that describe the game settings). So you could try searching for that.

Also if you have not already, try a search by dates.

If that finds nothing, then it is not on the disk. Could it have saved to a different drive?

dV

 

[balearicrazy]

Have you checked for the file name oppose to the extention?

I had a situation recently were I saved a game but it didn't use the extention, so windows just reported it as a "File" and didn't associate it with Civ4.

 

[Mastiff_of_Ar]

I'll play the bad cop here, and go from another angle:
Did someone else play the game while you were away? Did they delete your saves?

Nah... It's just my family. My kids don't even dare to save and exit when I'm playing GOTM.

And I restarted a new game, no problem with those saves, and I did a search for "mansa", "gotm", and anything I could think of... I'll try the Man_Pri_Sta thing, but it's kind of too late, I'm past the point where I was the first time. I'd like to submit the thing even if it doesn't count... I'm not good enough to win awards, but I like knowing where I stand.

How do I do the chkdsk, just type that in Start - Run?

 

[Denniz]

How do I do the chkdsk, just type that in Start - Run?

Open Windows Explorer and Right-click on your disk drive and select "Properties". It is on the Tools tab. You will have to restart windows for it to run.

 

[drkodos]

I'll play the bad cop here, and go from another angle:
Did someone else play the game while you were away? Did they delete your saves?

Even badder cop: Is it possible you never actually saved the game? Seems like the only plausible answer.


Just sayin.

 

[da_Vinci]

Even badder cop: Is it possible you never actually saved the game? Seems like the only plausible answer.

Just sayin.

But even the autosaves are not there, according to Mastiff_of_Ar. That is the really odd part!

@ drkodos: Since your last avatar, looks like you have been to Hair Club for Men! (Is that too much of an American inside joke?)

dV

 

[Thrallia]

whoa, what happened to richard, kodos?

 

[AlanH]

But even the autosaves are not there, according to Mastiff_of_Ar. That is the really odd part!

In Civ3 you can wipe out the autosaves just by starting a new game. Is that the case in Civ4?

 

[Gyathaar]

In Civ3 you can wipe out the autosaves just by starting a new game. Is that the case in Civ4?

yes, starting a new game will wipe all savegames in the autosave dir

 

[Mastiff_of_Ar]

No, I know I saved several times. I save everytime I get out of the chair by habit and was well into the game. I don't believe any other games were started, my wife will play on a rare occasion, but doubtful. I checked using several variations of the MOD saves, nothing...

Oh well, I really appreciate the replies. Maybe the GOTM staff will have pity and let me submit the game anyway, but if not, I'll live. I just hate missing a month, even though I have from time to time. It's good to know where you stand.

Really, the best part of GOTM and WOTM is seeing what others did so I can improve my play. I appreciate being able to play with y'all.

Mastiff

 

[AlanH]

t's good to know where you stand.

A replayed game would not be accepted I'm afraid, but once we publish the results, you'll be able to see the rankings of your game if you know your final date and score. The results are sortable by date, score, victory condition ... so you can just look down the sorted list to see what position you would be in.