Save folder?

[Zombie69]

How do you change the folder where games are to be saved? The game by default saves everything on drive C, which i find rather stupid as that drive, on a properly set up computer, should only include the operating system. Even though i installed the game on drive E, it still saves games on drive C. And there isn't even a place in the game options that lets you change the save folder.

The only way i could find to change this was in the CivilizationIV.ini file. It has something like this :

; Save Path - relative to working (Civ4) folder
FileName = 0

However, entering another value doesn't seem to have any effect.

Keep in mind that i need to save files on another drive, not just a subfolder of the normal folder used. Do i need to use a format like /../../../GoingBackUp/SaveFolder, and if so, how do i specify a new drive?

The game really should have been delivered in a way that you don't need to type code in a file just to save your games somewhere else...

 

[Petek]

This question is answered in one of the topped threads:

Find the Civ4 shortcut (for example, on your desktop). Right-Click on it, and choose "properties". On the form that appears, click on the 'shortcut' tab, and find the box that says 'Target'.

Click in the box, and add the following to the end of it:

/ALTROOT=pathtosaves

For example, to get it to put the saves in the C:\Games\Civ4_Saves directory, change it to:
/ALTROOT=C:\games\Civ4_saves

Note: If you want the saves stored in the base Civ4 directory, change it to:
/ALTROOT=.

If you want to set it to a path that contains spaces, you need to enclose the path using quotation marks:
/ALTROOT="C:\Data\Civ 4 Saves"

 

[Zombie69]

I did try to change the shortcut's target before, but that didn't work. I just tried your method using /ALTROOT. It doesn't work either. The game still defaults to its dumb path for loading and saving, and doesn't even have the other one as an option (except by going everytime for F:, then Games, etc. but i could already do that before, however it's very tedious).

 

[Zombie69]

Oops, sorry, i turns out you were right. We weren't talking about the same shortcut. I was talking about the one in the civ directory called _Civ4Saves. Thanks, this did the trick.

Still, it seems strange to me that they wouldn't include the option to do this in the game itself...

 

[Kolyana]

I just want to add to this thread, because I wanted to do this myself, but the proposed method didn't work. I have, however, found the fix.

OBJECTIVE:
To have Civilization use an alternative location for all files normally found within My Documents/My Games/etc

Personally, I hate how Civilization forces this on you - even if you pick a custom install - especially because I have multiple partitions and I like my game related info on G:

I want all My Documents/My Games type files to be found in:
G:\Civilization\_UserFiles\

SOLUTION:
Thankfully, the solution is straightforward (just a little tedious).

I tried editing my target of my desktop shortcut (G:\Civilization\Civilization4.exe /ALTROOT="G:\Civilization\_UserFiles") but this didn't work ...

I installed the game as per default and patched up as normal.
I then added my custom folder to the game root folder (which I had installed to G:\Civilization through a custom install).

*THEN* you open the shortcuts in the game folder:
_Civ4Config
_Civ4CustomAssets
_Civ4CustomMods
etc
etc
_Civ4TransferredMaps

Right click on each one of these and notice that it has a default target of "My Documents\My Games\Sid Meirs Civilization 4\_Civ4Config" with that last little bit changing on the shortcut.

All you have to do is edit these to point to your new desired location for each ... theoretically you could have saves in one location, mods in another and so on ... the game follows these shortcuts to find the assests it needs.

There is also a Save shortcut: _Civ4Saves
So I edited this to: G:\Civilization\_UserFiles\Saves

The game now saves to this location and looks here by default when loading a save.

I now have *ZERO* game files under My Documents ... everything is stored under G:\Civilization\_UserFiles

 

[ainwood]

OBJECTIVE:
To have Civilization use an alternative location for all files normally found within My Documents/My Games/etc

Personally, I hate how Civilization forces this on you - even if you pick a custom install - especially because I have multiple partitions and I like my game related info on G:

Actually, I believe its a microsoft thing, rather than a Civ4 thing - microsoft games all default to My Documents\my games\

 

[Titi]

OBJECTIVE:
To have Civilization use an alternative location for all files normally found within My Documents/My Games/etc

Personally, I hate how Civilization forces this on you - even if you pick a custom install - especially because I have multiple partitions and I like my game related info on G:

I want all My Documents/My Games type files to be found in:
G:\Civilization\_UserFiles\

SOLUTION:
Thankfully, the solution is straightforward (just a little tedious).

Didn't work...

 

[Titi]

Didn't work...

Yes it did finally... But only after I restarted the computer.