Problem editing Civilization.ini file (Win7 64)

[boneheed]

Hey all,

I finally have a few days to myself, so I reloaded Civ4 Complete for the first time in a few years.

Install went ok, Civ4 complete, followed by latest patch 3.19

Game seems to run ok, no glitches or obvious errors.

I went to change autosave settings - I need a few 'test' games to re-learn - and found that the file has only a few entries, maybe only ten lines of text and no auto-save code. I'm pretty sure the .ini file should display all kinds of settings but appears to be missing most of them. I've played for a few dozen turns and still the same.

It >seems< that, since the game is running ok, I just don't have the admin rights over the files - could this be the case and if so, does anyone know how to resolve it? I've searched all over but can't find a similar problem reported - maybe I'm just missing something really obvious?

I've tried installing and running in compatability mode for XP SP3 and installing and running the game as administrator. I'm also admin over the PC. I'm running Win7 Home Premium 64

many thanks.

 

[mintegar]

If your user is in Administrator group I don't *think* you need to do the "install as Admin" thingy, at least i didn't and the game installed fine.
Yeah i know i'ts recommended in this forums win7/vista-install sticky thread, doing it doesn't hurt i guess..

What i would recommend though is selecting custom install folder (not under /program files) because under w7 there appears to be some potential for trouble with some mods if you install to default location.

Would stay away from "XP Compatibility setting". Don't think you need it, and it might actually hurt.

As for the config-file, can it be that you edited the wrong file?
There are several (one for Vanilla, Warlords and BTS), and you can find their locations on the cmd line with "C:\>dir /s CivilizationIV.ini"

 

[boneheed]

Hey, thanks for the reply.

I've just tried a clean install with no compatability mode - I have already changed install directory as I read the 'how to' on the forum. Definately the correct ini file too.

Since the game seems to be running ok, I'll just have to deal with it, but I'd love to know what the solution is all the same.

 

[mintegar]

Which file are you looking at, and how big is it?

There should be several screenfuls of settings in there, if it's only a few lines something seems to be wrong to me.

C:\>dir /s Civil*.ini
 Verzeichnis von C:\Users\joe\Documents\My Games\Beyond the Sword

06/23/2011  12:56 PM             5,986 CivilizationIV.ini

 

[boneheed]

I can't post the cmd line info as i'm in the middle of reinstalling, but it was in exactly the same location as yours - it's the only one on my C: drive - file size was 4kb though, smaller than yours and perhaps only 8 or 9 seperate values. no screen size, no auto save. I'll post the contents if/when it happens again.

I know the game is ok, as I've played it a million times before on my old Xp/vista machines, but this is the first time on Win7. strange and very annoying..

 

[boneheed]

ok. clean install into custom directory. installed as admin. no compat mode stuff. played 20 turns. here are the contents of the .ini


[CONFIG]

; Don't show minimum specification warnings
HideMinSpecWarning = 0

; Random seed for map generation, or '0' for default
MapRandSeed = 0

; Random seed for game sync, or '0' for default
SyncRandSeed = 0

; Email address from which Pitboss reminder emails are sent
PitbossEmail = 0

[GAME]

; Map Script file name
Map = Fractal

; GameType options are singlePlayer/spLoad
GameType = singlePlayer

; Pitboss Turn Time
PitbossTurnTime = 0

 

[neilmeister]

I have exactly the same issue, Win7 64 bit and the BtS ini file is almost empty.

The Warlords file is fine, so I just copied over the settings I wanted to change from it (auto save stuff) and it worked. Make sure you add them to the right section though. Autosave stuff goes under [CONFIG]

 

[boneheed]

Unfortunately, all 3 .ini files have the same problem and if I try to copy in the relevent code, the file just gets overwritten whenever the game starts up. Defininitely a rights issue I think.

Anyway, the game and my PC are very stable so hopefully I won't need to rely on autosaves for anything and it's probably better to have the temptation of reloading taken away...

On a side note, I'd forgotten just how great Civ4 is. Having a blast playing Huayna Capac.

 

[boneheed]

So, I check the .ini file at around 300ad and it's complete and fully formed.... guess I'll never know what caused it but it's ok now.