Conquest included PTW, but guess what!??

ThePlagueRat · December 21, 2003, 14:04

Once again I got the very annoying "no cd found, insert PTW cd" message, as if I was a criminal. (the conquest works just fine, btw) But I want to play PTW with a roomate, using the Conquests cd.

So now I cannot play with my roomate who has PTW with the latest patch. We need the same patch to play, so that's why I installed it. Is there a "no-cd patch" to PTW or any way to "fix" this?

Dis · December 21, 2003, 14:55

this thread will be closed.

Links to no-cd patches are not allowed. And as far as I know, I have not seen one that allows you to play Conquests in the PTW version.

ThePlagueRat · December 21, 2003, 15:05

You misunderstand... I bought conquest, and that should include PTW, as printed on the box. Sorry for typing it so confusing.

I just need help, the latest patch ruined the PTW, because of a badly implemented copy protection.

ThePlagueRat · December 21, 2003, 15:08

Now I will try playing PTW with the latest conquest patch1.02, but I'm afraid I will still get that message. The computer let me play PTW unpatched using the conquest cd, but MP games don't work unpatched!

MrWhereItsAt · December 22, 2003, 01:13

You can load savegames form PtW in C3C and they work perfectly fine, just with the new changes to corruption and the gpt bug (unsure of the last one, probably though).

So you may be able to do the same in MP - just use your C3C CD for one game and PtW for the other. If not, you may need to take advantage of that truly disgustingly good price for another copy of C3C right now.

vmxa1 · December 22, 2003, 03:19

I put my C3C CD in and loaded a game from the board that was Civ3 1.29f, PTW 1.27F and C3C. They loaded as well with the respective CD's ( I have all three).

bongo · December 22, 2003, 05:12

I don't think this a 'no-cd' question.

ThePlagueRat , I had the same problem. PTW is included on the c3c disc, but it is difficult to get it working. Problem is, as long as you had PTW installed before you installed c3c then you can't get PTW to work from the c3c disc. Even if you can load PTW games in c3c you cannot save them(eh, you can actually, but those with PTW cannot read them, if you are playing a PBEM)

If you installed vanilla civ3, then c3c. You will be able to start PTW from the c3c disc.

I tried to get it working by unistalling PTW, then installing c3c but only managed to screw up my computer. Problem is that your setup may be a bit 'messy' after installing a handful of patches and then trying to unistall them.

My initial setup
Civ3+1.29f
PTW+1.14f+1.17f+1.21f+1.27f (well, you get the idea)
c3c.

My theory was that if I unistalled c3c+PTW then reinstalled c3c, I would be able to start PTW from the c3c cd.

First try
Unistall c3c
unistall ptw
uninstall ptw patches (now, this may be where I screwed up, if I unistalled the patches first or just left them alone thing may have turned out differently)

I also tried using system restore afterwards but it only added to the chaos by giving me a ton of duplicate files..
I then decided to remove all things civ completely.
First made a backup of all saves etc.
Then unistalled everything using 'add/remove programs'
, cleaned up more mess by manually deleting leftover files, ****inued by using 'registry editor'* to remove leftover registry entries. Rebooted system only to discover that logon took 15 minutes. Read an article in Microsoft knowledge base about how to remove useless entries from the 'add/remove programs' list. Did some more registry hacking, another reboot and Voila

Clean system, no civ left (Didn't tell my wife as she would probably insist that the comp should be left that way.)

Then the best part

Reinstall civ3+1.29f
Install c3c
Guess what, I can now start PTW from my c3c cd. If I want to I can leave the PTW disc at work now

*The 'registry editor' is a very powerful tool. You can really mess up your system with it if you don't know how to use it.

Dis · December 22, 2003, 05:29

you can still install multiple copies of civ3 can't you?

I did that before when I was running different pbem's with different patches after PTW came out.

I had one copy of civ3 on my C drive, and one copy of civ3 on my D drive.

MrWhereItsAt · December 22, 2003, 05:55

You bet you can. At present I only have Civ3 v1.29f, C3C and two versions of PtW installed. A far cry from the glory days of Civ3 v1.14f and 1.21f, and PtW v1.14f and 1.21f!

Paddy · December 22, 2003, 09:05

That is a lot of maintenance that you guys are going through.

Amazing dedication

vmxa1 · December 22, 2003, 13:20

With todays large HD, it is not a problem to have more than one installation. It is not a maint issue, since no maint is required for CivIII or PTW. No more patches will be coming out for them.

E_T · December 22, 2003, 19:52

Well sort of....

What you need to do, before Installing C3C, is to first rename the PTW folder to something like "oldPTW". Then you install C3C. At that point, you will have 2 PTW folders, the old one and the new one. Copy everything (that isn't in the new one, like save files, ect) from the old one to your new one and then delete the old one entirely.

Both PTW and C3C now work off of the C3C CD and you don't have to change them again.

E_T

bongo · December 23, 2003, 07:38

At last a simple solution

MrWhereItsAt · December 23, 2003, 09:02

Simple BAH! Gotta have multiple installs.

ThePlagueRat · December 24, 2003, 12:09

A very good idea E_T, I will try that one!

I might try bongo's solution with the registry, but to get the LAN-play to work I just need the latest patch, I guess... (?) And hacking the registry (which is totally legal, since it's yours registry ) is a quite tiresome job. Many programs use and/or mess up the registry and sometimes it's hard to know what to look for...

Shogun Gunner · December 24, 2003, 12:22

How much better is the performance when you use a program to image the entire CD onto your hard drive?

If the performance is better, I think I'll buy Alcohol 120 (is that the name) or some similiar program.

CanuckSoldier · December 24, 2003, 19:11

Well I can say for a fact(since I've done it) that if you remove all previous Civ3/PTW installs and delete the leftover folders. And do a fresh install of Civ3(no patches required) and C3C and then create a short cut on your desktop to the ptw EXE it WILL ask for the C3C disk to play PTW.

I strongly recommend that you do this after saving all your D/L'd scenarios ofcourse.

CS

LordVipper · December 24, 2003, 19:40

alcohol 120%

CanuckSoldier · December 24, 2003, 19:48

I use Daemon Tools, and it's free.

CS

bongo · December 24, 2003, 19:56

ThePlagueRat , with a fast comp I doubt you will note the difference when using cd-image software. If you're low on memory already, it will get worse.

Jaguar · December 25, 2003, 00:59

We're so dedicated that we install Civ in 3 or 4 locations.

ThePlagueRat · January 12, 2004, 23:01

About that no-cd patch for PTW, I said that because it would be great if they made one since it's easier for us who bought C3C to play on a LAN or internet with other people who has PTW. Dissident didn't understand this, I guess?

Paradox did it with some of their games, but I guess Infogrames are so greedy they will have morons go buying PTW-cd's in these days, although it is included on the C3C-cd. I was asking for a legal no-cd patch for PTW!

WhiteBandit · January 13, 2004, 00:42

There are no-cd patches around. You just have to look for them. Everyone goes crazy because they automatically think "PIRACY!" :-/ Safedisc checkins my cd-rom drive every few minutes and SLOWs the computer down. It's annoying and detracts from the game.

One option you can do (which I do) if you have loads of hard drive space, is just rip the CD image to your hard drive. Granted, this takes up over 700mb per disc. But there are programs you can use to mount the image as a virtual drive, among them: Daemon Tools, Alcohol 120 and CloneCD.

For most though, this is completely impractical as it "wastes" huge amounts of space.

CanuckSoldier · January 13, 2004, 01:38

Well, I play C3C or PTW fine with the CD out after the initial check, my game has never checked for the CD more than once.

I'm no fan of SafeCast for sure, but legaly you only bought a single copy of Civ and only can legally install it on one computer. So to play a game of Civ on a LAN does require you to buy multiple copies, if you disagree with Atari's sales policies then don't buy the game.

CS

bongo · January 13, 2004, 03:47

It's just a matter of convenience. As all my PBEMs are ptw, I can leave my ptw cd at work, my c3c cd at home and play my turns when they arrive without carrying the cd around at all times.

I plan to take part in a c3c PBEM soon and then I have to carry a cd around again

Oh, you might want to stay away from the hacker-made 'no-cd' patch. Anyone with the skills to move copy-protection from a game can easily add some nasty stuff to it as well(think viruses, trojans, backdoors or worse)

MrWhereItsAt · January 13, 2004, 06:29

Quote:

Originally posted by bongo

Oh, you might want to stay away from the hacker-made 'no-cd' patch. Anyone with the skills to move copy-protection from a game can easily add some nasty stuff to it as well(think viruses, trojans, backdoors or worse)

I don't really see this as an issue, but remember that if you are playing with some unofficial crack, it could introduce some OTHER bug that could end with your game crashing irrecoverably. Cracks are by their very nature messy, and made mostly by people without full access to the code used. Think propping up that wall with a few pieces of wood instead of spending the money for the builder to fix it properly. It may work fine, but there is always the risk of the roof tumbling on you, and probably when you least expect it.

ThePlagueRat · January 13, 2004, 19:50

Ok, in the beginning I could use the C3C-cd to play PTW.
But after installing the latest PTW patch, the computer asked me to insert a PTW-cd. Awful thing right? 'cause it's not possible to play PTW on the net without the patch...

CanuckSoldier · January 13, 2004, 19:52

You didn't need to patch the C3C version of PTW, it is already at 1.27. I'd do a fresh install of C3C and you'll be back to just using the C3C disk.

CS

ThePlagueRat · January 13, 2004, 20:04

That's great Canuck... thank you!
Silly me, didn't know.

I'll just hope the other PTW players uses 1.27 then....

vmxa1 · January 13, 2004, 21:11

CivIII and PTW are at their final levels with C3C. At least your partners can always get 1.27F if they don't have it already.