No civics

[anenu]

I start a game on Civilization 4 beyond the sword and then a strange problem arises with civics. While I can get technology for new civics i can't change them after i get them and none of the civics have descriptions on the civics screen and their is no way to exit the civics screen without hitting the Esc button on my keyboard. I have been able to play with civics before and i have uninstalled and reinstalled. Everything else works find so i don't understand the problem.

 

[ori]

did you patch the game?
is this on xp or vista?

Welcome to CFC

 

[anenu]

Its vista.

I don't know if i have the latest patch but doubt i do.

Can you give me a link to were I can get it.

 

[ilfar]

http://www.2kgames.com/index.php?p=support

On a side note, the patch info sticky thread is horrifically out of date, all the info needed really should be in that first post... Would have helped you find it yourself.

 

[anenu]

I patched it up and it didn't work. It almost seems like their are no civics anywhere in the game though. I checked the civopedia thing in game were it shows info on wonders and civilizations and such and every civic was blank. Their was nothing their. Just like how in the civics screen non of their effects show up when you hold your mouse over them. They don't exist at all.

 

[ori]

this is likely a botched install or patch. The problem in Vista is that in some versions you need to install everything with admin rights. Just using an admin account does not cut it - you have to rightclick on all installers (both for the games and for the patches) and choose run as administrator. Do the below, if you do not have warlords ignore those parts, and make sure to run all installers with admin rights (i.e. do not just put the disc in and choose install - go into the windows explorer to manually click on the setup.exe on those discs).


install the most recent version of DirectX 9c from Microsoft

then do the following for a clean reinstall:

Uninstall and Reinstall Civ4 Warlords BtS :

Try to follow this order when doing stuff:
Use Control panel to uninstall Beyond the Sword, then Warlords, then Civ4
Delete "...\documents and settings\<username>\my documents\my games\sid meier's civilization 4" manually
Delete "...\documents and settings\<username>\my documents\my games\warlords" manually
Delete "...\documents and settings\<username>\my documents\my games\beyond the sword" manually
Delete "...\documents and settings\<username>\application data\my games\sid meier's civilization 4" manually
Delete "...\documents and settings\<username>\application data\my games\warlords" manually
Delete "...\documents and settings\<username>\application data\my games\beyond the sword" manually
Delete "...\documents and settings\<username>\local settings\application data\my games\sid meier's civilization 4" manually
Delete "...\documents and settings\<username>\local settings\application data\my games\warlords" manually
Delete "...\documents and settings\<username>\local settings\application data\my games\beyond the sword" manually
(note: application data is a hidden directory so you need to configure windows explorer to show hidden files, also these directories in application data are sometimes removed by the uninstall routine)
Delete "...\Program Files\InstallShield Installation Information\{CFBCE791-2D53-4FCE-B3FB-D6E01F4112E8}" (Civ4)
Delete "...\Program Files\InstallShield Installation Information\{3E4B349F-10B5-4586-9D99-489A90A8B228}" (Warlords)
Delete "...\Program Files\InstallShield Installation Information\{32E4F0D2-C135-475E-A841-1D59A0D22989}" (BtS)
(note: InstallShield Installation Information is a hidden directory so you need to configure windows explorer to show hidden files).
Install Civ4, immediately patch it to 1.61 (download it fresh from here)
Install Warlords, immediately patch it to 2.08 (download it fresh from here)
Install Beyond the Sword, immediately patch to 3.17 (download it fresh from here).

 

[anenu]

i unistalled BoTs and Warlords like you said but i got an error trying to unistall Civ 4

Error Code: -5004 : 0x80041f42
Error Information:
*C:\Program Files\Common Files\InstallShield\Professional\RunTime\12\00\Intel32\iKernel.dll
>inc\CoCreate.cpp (44)
>SetupDLL\SetupDLL.cpp (1390)
PAPP:Sid Meier's Civilization 4
PVENDOR:Firaxis Games (##IDS_PRODUCT_URL##)
PGUID:CFBCE791-2D53-4FCE-B3FB-D6E01F4112E8
$11.0.0.28844
@Windows (6000) BT_OTHER 55672.18

 

[ori]

remove all the other files I posted above and restart your computer then try to reinstall. If that does not work - rename the following folder:
C:\Program Files\Common Files\InstallShield
to anything else, e.g.
C:\Program Files\Common Files\InstallShield_old
and try reinstalling...
Just as an explanation: this error is caused by the install routine that most non-microsoft programs use to install and uninstall - however in your case something went wrong, most likely it tries to access something which windows does not allow it to do.