unable to load savegame --- HELP

[chaotichero]

Der gewählte Spielstand ist geschützt, und kann nicht mit einer modifizierten Version gespielt werden!

thats the error message (playing german, really don't know the correct translation, i.e. the original text in english)

all other saves of this game (autosaves...) are affected, too

i played it 4 hours ago and since a few weeks and want to finish it and upload my first hof game

used mods are: BUFFY 3.19.xxx.dont know

used properties: raging barbs, permanent allies, cheating disallowed, i.e. some stuff with custom assets

i saved with quicksave using shift+f5 and quitted the game using alt+f4

i have changed nothing on civ4 in this time
just surfed through the www (and watched some youtube-videos) and made some stuff for work (using texniccenter, i.e. Latex, adobe reader and my explorer to save this on a usb-flash-drive)

please help, i have attached the last savegame (quicksave) and the initial (haven't tried this, for HOF reasons)

thank you and best regards
chaotichero

 

[ori]

Welcome back to the posting side

this error is due to *something* changing in the assets between you saving the game and trying to start it - most commonly: you altered some xml file - or added a file to the custom assets folder.
Another possibility would be (if this is Vista) that you are not running the game with administrator rights. Is this with a mod? from your saying HOF reasons I guess its with the HOF/BUFFY mod?

 

[chaotichero]

Hello Ori,

the game was started within the buffy mod (written above)
and i did not have changed anything civ4-relevant (xml-file, custom assets etc., noooothing ... ) since the last save
and i use winxp sp3
i have written above, what i've done since my last save, and i can't find any reason why civ is thinking that i have changed anything

is it possible for you to open this save? i don't know exactly how the "cheat prevention" is working...

doesn't the hof-guys have to open it?

thank you and best regards
chaotichero

 

[ori]

I cannot open it either - but maybe someone in the BUFFY/BUG/BAT subforum has an idea.
did you run the HOF - Assets checker yet? if not do so, please

Moderator Action: moved to BUG subforum

 

[chaotichero]

no, but i will do it this evening at home...

thank you for your efforts
yours sincerely
chaotichero

p.s.
just one question

should you could open the save file? just because, is there the possibility that our assets are different and therefore it isn't possible?

 

[ori]

any difference in assets will disallow the save to be opened - I have a pristine install of BUFFY though so that I should be able to open the file unless there was *something* altered on your install before you started this game. Another possibility would be that the save got corrupted somehow or that its assets check (I guess it uses a checksum) is altered somehow

 

[chaotichero]

hello again

here is the result of the assets checker (attachment)

now i'll try it again ... (almost) another day

edit:
same problem

 

[ori]

so there is no problem with the assets - if I read this correctly
maybe someone else has an idea

for those that don't know German: the original error message is the Locked Modified Assets warning (the save file you are trying to load has been protected and cannot be played with a modified version ).

 

[alerum68]

The only thing that could be is assets were changed, even slightly. I was thinking it could be just that the mod folder was renamed, but then Ori should be able to open it. One option is to reinstall BUFFY, and go back to the last working save and see if the error happens again. Another option is to zip up your BUFFY Mod directory, and let us compare file contents to what is in the default BUFFY install. You can do this yourself, by renaming BUFFY to something like BUFFY_Old.

The Assets check tells you only if the file is present or not, not if a file has been modified but the name not changed, correct?

 

[chaotichero]

well, i'll try this this evening, but just 2 things

i haven't done anything than the above mentioned stuff between the last save (quicksave) and the next attempt to load it

even an autosave couldn't be opened (and that is my last working save, if one can say so)

ok, let's conclude, this evening i'll do the following things:

zipping up my buffy-folder
renaming it to buffy_old
reinstalling buffy
trying the most recent saves
if nothing changed:
uploading my zipped buffy-folder to civfanatics
uploading all my save-files for this game (autosaves...)

r8?

thank you and best regards
chaotichero

p.s.
are there anymore places except "my games/beyond the sword/saves" where buffy may save autosaves?

p.p.s.
does anyone know the real habitus of the assets checker?

p.p.p.s.
is there a possibility, that quicksaving and/or loading the quicksave (via link) may influence the assets? or the "locked modified assets"-flag? if there is such a flag...

 

[EmperorFool]

I get the error when trying to open the initial save. The only way I know for that to happen is to have started this game, played for a bit, and then changed something in the Assets or BUFFY's Assets folder--except since the Assets Checker reports all is well now, it must have been corrupt when you started your game and you somehow fixed it after your last save.

I know, you said you didn't do this, and I believe you, but I can't think of any other cause. Can you start a new game, player a few turns, and post the initial and turn 10 save so we can verify that your setup is at least working now?

 

[chaotichero]

i'll do so, too... (not before 10 p.m. in germany...)

 

[Denniz]

hello again

here is the result of the assets checker (attachment)

now i'll try it again ... (almost) another day

edit:
same problem

The Assets check tells you only if the file is present or not, not if a file has been modified but the name not changed, correct?

It runs checksums on every file. So it should detect any differences as well.

________________________

@chaotichero, I took a look at your save file. Your XML checksum is different than the standard install. I am not sure what Civ4 is checking that I am not in Assetchecker.

Are you running BAT? (It's not compatable with BUFFY because it's config using XML which would alter the checksums.)

I hope this info helps you figure out what is different.