Hello HeavenGames and Caesar IV fans!
Roughly two years ago I was here for a short while playing CaesarIV again. I played it for a few months and then took another break from gaming. I always come back to CaesarIV at some point. For the last three months I haven't played anything at all.
In order to come back this time I had to reinstall Caesar IV onto my current Windows 8.1 machine. I installed the Caesar IV game from my original game discs which of course is v1.0. I then applied the 1.0 to 1.2 game patch to bring it up to date. I however noticed an issue that I don't recall having before and it took me a bit over two hours to figure out how to resolve it. I'll explain in case someone else encounters this issue as well:
After installing the Caesar IV game from the original game discs I then updated it using the caesariv_update_en_10-11_12.exe. My game is now updated to v1.2.
I then ran the game to see if it would start up. I entered the game map and checked to see if things were functioning properly. Everything seemed alright but I noticed a couple of things that were different from the last time I played.
I immediately noticed I wasn't in windowed mode like I used to prefer. I also noticed that I needed to unlock all the scenarios again by playing them in order, and what was most bothersome to me was that when you go to use the build buttons, after you picked something to build, the build window with all of it's choices would remain opened. I can't be having that! hehe So I exited the game because I knew I had to make some manual changes to the CaesarIV.ini configuration file in the game's root folder where I installed it.
I made four changes to the .ini file:
1.) I edited "Empire Campaign Allowed 1" and changed it to a 0 (zero). -- This opens up the Empire campaigns to be played without having to do the Kingdom and Republic campaigns beforehand. Note: This just opens up the Empire scenario section, you still need to play them in order to open up each of them individually. If you wanted, you could use the "Unlock" cheat code in game as well. That cheat code opens up ALL scenarios without having to play them in order.
2.) I edited "Full Screen Mode 1" and changed it to a 0 (zero). -- This tells the game to turn off full screen mode and lets you play in windowed mode instead.
3.) I added "CloseBuildMenus 1" -- This makes it so the build menus close after you choose something to build on the map.
4.) I added "Weather 1" -- This is essentially the same as the game's default behavior which is to allow Weather to occur within the game, I (you) would change that to 0 (zero) if we wanted to turn Weather off.
Note: After patching the game to v1.2 the "readme.txt" file for the game shows the patch info for v1.2. Reading it I saw that #3 and #4 above were supposed to have already been added to my CaesarIV.ini file but that wasn't correct, those lines were missing so I had to add them in manually.
Please note that if you edit the CaesarIV.ini file or any other game files - if you have the game installed to your Program Files or Program Files (x86) folders you will have to make the edits via "Run as Administrator". If you don't then you will be unable to save your changes and you will get an "Access Denied" error message.
After making these edits to the CaesarIV.ini file I then made two more changes; I added the Map Grid mod found in the Downloads section of the CaesarIV website (this adds grid lines onto the game maps to make city planning a bit easier) and I removed the "splash" files from the Data\Movies folder so that I could start the game without having to see the splash screens or the cinematic movie. I was now ready to restart the game and begin playing.
This is where my issue happened; none of the changes I made to the CaesarIV.ini file made any difference! Everything was still at default behavior except for the splash screens and movie - those didn't show.
I didn't understand why these changes to the .ini file didn't work, they worked for me in the past but not this time.
After uninstalling/reinstalling the game a couple more times it still didn't work. I tried again and again to edit the .ini file to no avail. After about two hours of fussing around with this it occurred to me to try something. I right-clicked the game icon on the desktop/taskbar and went into the "Properties/Advanced" window and checked the box labeled "Run as Administrator", re-launched the game and this time everything worked properly.
For some reason running the game via "Run as Administrator" made the game recognize the .ini file. So if you ever make changes to the CaesarIV.ini file and notice your changes are not taking affect, this may be your solution.
Anyways, I am happy to be back with CaesarIV and HeavenGames. I know these forums don't get any traffic anymore, rarely ever but as long as I play CaesarIV I check them daily regardless. I am also going to see if CaesarIV and HeavenGames are on Twitter and Facebook. If so I will Follow and Like them to participate.
Bye for now.
~ Mark
P.S: I hope Kach (Kate) is still around! I still see her name as Moderator at the top of the forum. ;-)
Roughly two years ago I was here for a short while playing CaesarIV again. I played it for a few months and then took another break from gaming. I always come back to CaesarIV at some point. For the last three months I haven't played anything at all.
In order to come back this time I had to reinstall Caesar IV onto my current Windows 8.1 machine. I installed the Caesar IV game from my original game discs which of course is v1.0. I then applied the 1.0 to 1.2 game patch to bring it up to date. I however noticed an issue that I don't recall having before and it took me a bit over two hours to figure out how to resolve it. I'll explain in case someone else encounters this issue as well:
After installing the Caesar IV game from the original game discs I then updated it using the caesariv_update_en_10-11_12.exe. My game is now updated to v1.2.
I then ran the game to see if it would start up. I entered the game map and checked to see if things were functioning properly. Everything seemed alright but I noticed a couple of things that were different from the last time I played.
I immediately noticed I wasn't in windowed mode like I used to prefer. I also noticed that I needed to unlock all the scenarios again by playing them in order, and what was most bothersome to me was that when you go to use the build buttons, after you picked something to build, the build window with all of it's choices would remain opened. I can't be having that! hehe So I exited the game because I knew I had to make some manual changes to the CaesarIV.ini configuration file in the game's root folder where I installed it.
After making these edits to the CaesarIV.ini file I then made two more changes; I added the Map Grid mod found in the Downloads section of the CaesarIV website (this adds grid lines onto the game maps to make city planning a bit easier) and I removed the "splash" files from the Data\Movies folder so that I could start the game without having to see the splash screens or the cinematic movie. I was now ready to restart the game and begin playing.
This is where my issue happened; none of the changes I made to the CaesarIV.ini file made any difference! Everything was still at default behavior except for the splash screens and movie - those didn't show.
I didn't understand why these changes to the .ini file didn't work, they worked for me in the past but not this time.
After uninstalling/reinstalling the game a couple more times it still didn't work. I tried again and again to edit the .ini file to no avail. After about two hours of fussing around with this it occurred to me to try something. I right-clicked the game icon on the desktop/taskbar and went into the "Properties/Advanced" window and checked the box labeled "Run as Administrator", re-launched the game and this time everything worked properly.
For some reason running the game via "Run as Administrator" made the game recognize the .ini file. So if you ever make changes to the CaesarIV.ini file and notice your changes are not taking affect, this may be your solution.
Anyways, I am happy to be back with CaesarIV and HeavenGames. I know these forums don't get any traffic anymore, rarely ever but as long as I play CaesarIV I check them daily regardless. I am also going to see if CaesarIV and HeavenGames are on Twitter and Facebook. If so I will Follow and Like them to participate.
Bye for now.
~ Mark
P.S: I hope Kach (Kate) is still around! I still see her name as Moderator at the top of the forum. ;-)
[This message has been edited by Poorman (edited 09-22-2014 @ 11:04 PM).]