Windows 10, Civ 4 & file associations

[Lark]

With Vista I could just click on a link to my QuickSave.CivBeyondSwordSave file, Civ would load it with the appropriate mod and I could just start playing.

With 10 that just starts BTS. I then have to click a bunch of times: SINGLE PLAYER, LOAD GAME, doubleclick single, quick, doubleclick the quicksave and finally click on OK to start it loading the mod.

Is there a way to get Win10 with BTS to use the older behavior so I can be lazy again?

 

[lymond]

This has been happening to me since windows 7, but it did used to work on win7 at some point. I think my DL vender (D2D) changed everything to the "complete" edition versions of Civ IV even though I own them all separately. I can tell by the folder layout.

Anyway, I've never been able to get it to work such that you can just click on the save and load the game directly. I've just gotten used to starting BTS normally and then loading the save directly.

You can load mods directly by creating a shortcut (of bts executable) and adding to the "target" field, so that saves a step as well. (note: BUG/BULL can be installed in custom assets anyway so that the mod always is "there")

Actually took me a while to get Civ IV to run at all on Win 10. I had to muck around with the compatibility settings. I use win7 option. (i think in part though that MS has provided some updates that broke it and then later more updates that fixed the issue..i think something with how win handles securerom)

Actually, on another note, there was a point back in win7 after D2D had changed the version that the file types were not associated at all. I had to go into win settings and fix that, but it did not resolve the load issue regardless.

I think it may be a combo of OS and possibly registry settings, but no clue how to fix it. I recall conversations with others who had the issue, but none of us could come up with a solution. If your issue is simply with loading a save directly, I would just get used to starting BTS first and maybe doing what I recommended about mods, so you cut out steps. It's really not bad at all once you are used to it.

By the way, here is an example of what I add to the "target" field of the shortcut to load mods directly:

mod="BAT Mod 4.1"

add it to the very end of the target field line with a space in between

 

[Lemon Merchant]

mod="BAT Mod 4.1"

I love you, lymond.

 

[lymond]

I love you, lymond.

always promote it when I can

 

[Drakarska]

Actually ( besides the promo love of Her Lemonyness ), on WIN 10 if you click the file explorer in the tray, up pops the latest files you have used. Simply double click your Mod or even your save game, and then Bob's your uncle ( or Aunt, I don't judge ). Enjoy.

 

[Lark]

Thanks, everybody.

The file explorer trick is actually one more click (and a pause), since that shortcut also only starts BTS.

The mod method has the advantage of saving the first base-BTS load. That's mere seconds, since I put it on a SSD. I got it to work with: "G:\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\Beyond the Sword\Civ4BeyondSword.exe" "mod= mods\Caveman2Cosmos" (note both spaces). That didn't work on the quicksave link, though.
It has the disadvantages that one longer wait is more convenient to me than a wait to load the mod and another to load the savegame and that I cycle through a lot of mods so would either need to edit it on every change or make a folder with a shortcut for each.

Finally got a computer than can run C2C!
Lazy way stopped working!

 

[s.bernbaum]

….. Bob's your uncle …..

Coincidently, I just read this expression in a book this afternoon and wondered about it. Could you explain what it means and where it came from?

 

[Drakarska]

Coincidently, I just read this expression in a book this afternoon and wondered about it. Could you explain what it means and where it came from?

Sure thing, and from the urban dictionary;

It's a catch phrase dating back to 1887, when, in a blatant case of favoritism, British Prime Minister Robert Cecil (a.k.a. Lord Salisbury) decided to appoint his nephew Arthur Balfour to the prestigious and sensitive post of Chief Secretary for Ireland.

So "Bob's your uncle" is another way of saying "your success is guaranteed."
You just put these parts together like this, and Bob's your uncle - you have a working model!

You want to go to the stadium? Go straight on until you reach the park, take the first left, and Bob’s your uncle - you're there!

 

[s.bernbaum]

Thanks Drakarska! Every now and then I've seen that and puzzled it over.

 

[Drakarska]

Not a problem, as it is always rather interesting on find out info on colloquial sayings.

 

[<Nexus>]

Sorry, for necroing but I'm curious if some recent Win10 updates fixed this issue or not.
Honestly, this is one major thing holding me back from changing to Win10 from Win7

 

[migalhone]

Sorry, for necroing but I'm curious if some recent Win10 updates fixed this issue or not.
Honestly, this is one major thing holding me back from changing to Win10 from Win7

By "this issue" you mean being able to directly load a mod when starting Civ4? If so, try the following (props to @Lemon Merchant) :

Go to the Civ.ini file in your \Documents\My Games\Beyond the sword folder and locate the "Load Mod =" tag set the tag to "BAT Mod 4.1" (no quotes).

This logic also works for Civ4 Colonization and the TAC mod, for example.

 

[<Nexus>]

By "this issue" I mean: Can you just simply double-click on a save file so that the game loads with the appropriate mod? E.g. I have a save file from 'Rome' from AND2 and an other one, 'Egypt' from C2C. So double-clicking on 'Rome' should load the game with AND2 but double-clicking on 'Egypt' should load it with C2C.
This is how it works with Win7.

 

[lymond]

By "this issue" I mean:.

No. And actually I recall this issue going back to at least the Win 7 days - one day it simply stopped working, probably after an Update. Clicking a save will load the game (but no mod) and will not actually load the save itself - it just opens to Main Menu. For years now, I've been used to simply loading BTS first before opening any save.

In Post #2 above I explain my preferred method for loading a mod by creating shortcuts. migalhone's suggestion is a somewhat common approach by some, but I dislike the approach since I use various mods. Having a shortcut created for each mod makes it very easy to load BTS + mods.

Regardless, I wish I kept my older gaming laptop on Win 7. 7 was the best. I would not upgrade your machine unless you have to have 10 for other reasons.

 

[<Nexus>]

No. And actually I recall this issue going back to at least the Win 7 days - one day it simply stopped working, probably after an Update. Clicking a save will load the game (but no mod) and will not actually load the save itself - it just opens to Main Menu. For years now, I've been used to simply loading BTS first before opening any save.

I'm running Win7 and it's working

In Post #2 above I explain my preferred method for loading a mod by creating shortcuts. migalhone's suggestion is a somewhat common approach by some, but I dislike the approach since I use various mods. Having a shortcut created for each mod makes it very easy to load BTS + mods.

My mod has a launcher app and I use an other little mod launcher app to load any other mod.

Regardless, I wish I kept my older gaming laptop on Win 7. 7 was the best. I would not upgrade your machine unless you have to have 10 for other reasons.

Yeah, the 'other reasons' are starting to battle those that still keep me on Win7 but Win7 is still winning for some time

 

[lymond]

I'm running Win7 and it's working
.

Like you, I used to load games directly from an existing save. I can't recall precisely when save loading stopped working, but I do know it has been many years now since I've been able to do it. The issue was discussed at the time. I think it was broken after some Windows Update at the time, but the cause was never isolated or identified. Why it works for you and not others is hard to say. Glad it is working for you. I'm so very far removed from the issue now that I don't think about it at all.

To top things off Win 11 has been announced..ha. I'm sure it will break something else. Win 10 had other issues like using the original disks versions.

 

[<Nexus>]

A fun fact:
A very early release of Win10 WAS able to load saves directly. I have a Win tablet with a 32bit Win10 and at first I could load the saves directly. Than I made some free space Win10 updates and I was shocked/confused about what is happening or rather nor happening.

 

[f1rpo]

The file associations work for me (and have always worked) on Win 8.1 with the disc version of the game. I'm attaching a screenshot that shows the Registry key (presumably) responsible for loading savegames from Explorer. Well, I don't suppose that the BtS Registry keys just somehow went missing on lymond's and Nexus's systems. Seems likelier that the system expects them in a different place or that Firaxis's fxsload argument no longer works. One could test the latter hypothesis by running Civ4BeyondSword.exe with that argument from the command line, as in the second attached screenshot. I had copied the QuickSave file into the same folder as the EXE for this, and only the fourth attempt (with slash, equals sign and quotation marks) worked.

And this post in the C2C subforum describes how the associations can be set up without editing the Registry – but I'm not sure if anyone has successfully tested that.

I don't think either approach (regedit, cmd) can work for the Steam version.

 

[<Nexus>]

Will need to try it

So with that approach you will need to put the save files to your BtS folder?

 

[f1rpo]

So with that approach you will need to put the save files to your BtS folder?

No, that would just be a convenience for testing which part of the mechanism is broken – the file association or the fxsload parameter. Come to think of it, if that second part works, then one could at least write a .bat script that loads the quicksave:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\Beyond the Sword\Civ4BeyondSword.exe" /fxsload="C:\Users\Administrator\Documents\My Games\Beyond the Sword\Saves\single\quick\QuickSave.CivBeyondSwordSave"
pause​

This works on my end; paths would have to be adjusted. (The "pause" is only there so that cmd gets a chance to display an error message if there is an error.)