Reset back to 4000 BC

[Joshua368]

Hey guys, I have a problem here that I hope someone can help me with.

In regards to my situation, a while ago a played a game that ended in terrible, terrible failure. To sum it up, it was simutaniously my first ever emperor game and my first ever isolated start.

However, I feel I took the wrong approach from the beginning and would really like to give the same game another go, to see if I can't win it. Unfortunately this was a while ago so the automatic saves are long gone and most of the regular saves were permamently deleted from the recycle bin. Fortunately I still have a copy of the most recent save in my archives... but I need to go back a little further than that.

Now I know that there's no easy button to reset back to the start of the game from a late save. However I'm fully prepared to take the save, clear the cities, clear the improvements, clear foreign relations and clear the tech tree. I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that this works. Only problem is, uh... how do I set the year back to 4000 B.C.? Do I need to go beyond world builder for that? Also what units/techs do emperor AI start with, so I know what to give them? And any other things I should know about for making a do-over?

 

[eris]

If you have not played another game and if you have automated saves, then there should be a 4000BC save in the automated save folder. Good luck! (choose Load Game, look for a folder called single, expand that, open the folder called auto)

 

[Joshua368]

If you have not played another game and if you have automated saves, then there should be a 4000BC save in the automated save folder. Good luck! (choose Load Game, look for a folder called single, expand that, open the folder called auto)

Yes I know, but as I pointed out this was a while ago, I've played quite a few different games since then. I need to know how to revert a later version of the game back to the start. Mostly how to change the year.

 

[Magma_Dragoon]

You can save a map as a worldbuilder save, then load it as a custom scenario map. I think you'll need to replenish the trees and jungle though.

 

[Joshua368]

You can save a map as a worldbuilder save, then load it as a custom scenario map. I think you'll need to replenish the trees and jungle though.

That resets the game year?

Because that's the main thing, I can't start the game fresh with a settler at around 1500 AD.

Well I'll give it a try. And yeah, I know I'll have to splatter trees around, won't be a perfect duplicate.

 

[Joshua368]

Well that didn't seem to work. It resets all the graphs and charts and bizarre things like great people points, but you're still placed in the middle of the game!

I suppose this whole thing isn't a very big deal, but I'd still like to think that there's some way to reset the game. Along with time period I'm not sure how to remove nations' knowledge of each other.

If it turns out this whole thing is impossible... well that sucks, I'll probably just recreate a similar situation.

 

[CoZe]

good old days; why don't you just write the current year/turn in a piece of paper, open the save via hex editor and look for these values ?

 

[Joshua368]

I have a hex editor but I have no idea how to use it. Is there a guide for editing saves with them? I search but I can only find stuff for Civ3.

 

[ruff_hi]

how much work are you willing to out in?

• start a new game with the same settings, opponents, map script, options etc.
• open that start in WB
• save as a WB file (WB File 1)
• load up in Civ any save of your desired game that you have
• open that game in WB
• save that as a WB file (WB File 2)
• open both of the WB files (notepad is fine)
• copy the map information from the WB File 2 to WB File 1
  • you will need to delete or skip unit details, city details, land improvements etc
  • you will also need to take note of the AI starting locations under WB File 2 (just record the location of their capital city - maybe put a spy in each in game and then look for those spies in the WB save

There is probably more that you have to do but that should get you close. Note: I haven't done this but I have edited the WB save for other items like this.

 

[Joshua368]

As far as I can tell, the save files are almost entirely full of gibberish and I have no idea how to tell its pieces apart. Plus if I ever open it up in Notepad and then save, it becomes unusable for some reason, even if I didn't actually edit anything.

No worries though, I eventually solved the problem on my own. Created a new map with the same settings/leaders, got a similarly shaped map (first try, yay!) and moved all the settlers to their previous general positions. Then I completely deleted the bottom half of a continent and manually replaced it, tile for tile, with the isolated continent from my game. I had taken screenshots and used windows mode so I could see them side-by-side. Took about an hour and a half altogether, but I got a perfect copy of my island and basically the same general post-optics world outside it.

This save was certainly more trouble than it was worth, and its not a tactic I recommend others to try, but at this point it was personal.

 

[CoZe]

WTF? You must be crazy to spend all that time to play the exact same map. What gives if a few tiles are different ?

 

[Joshua368]

Eh it was late at night with nothing to do, not exactly premium time. Trying to make a perfect recreation was kind of fun too. My continent wasn't that big anyhow.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Actually the easiest way is probably to go into Worldbuilder, put the forests back, and save it.

Then open the WORLDBUILDER file in notepad or microsoft word. Define the start year @ 4000BC (it's right in the beginning). Also wipe the starting units (find/replace beginunit and endunit lines out). You can also make it so that any difficulty/speed are playable and swap what techs civs have or even the civs in the game.

WB save editing is really basic - it's not hex editing or something you need programming acumen for - just a little logic/reasoning...try it and you'll see what I mean. Fireaxis really hit a home run with how easy they made it.

 

[Charonicus]

Or for future games... make a new folder and when you start a game, put a manual save in that folder. Then you can always go back and reload from that point.