Windows reinstalled - how to reinstall the cities

[Sporally 0]

After Windows crashed i need to get my cities back. I've stored everything, but i just need to find out how to do this right. I recall it made a mess the last time i did this where all the cities where randomly spread across the region aswell as the empty landscapes.

Maybe i did it wrong, but i guess there is a way to make sure they are installed in the right place or the regional map will be a mess and all my cities working together will be in serious trouble.

[High5flyier 7]

One method is to copy all your cities into the Download file of your Regions folder. Then start the game and enter that region where they go. Now its up to you to remember where they were before and simply import them to their correct location. Do you have an old backup copy of your regions folder that you could use as replacement guide?

[jacqulina 162]

make sure you have all the plugins that you had before other wise you will have lots of brown boxes

[CaptCity 4,915]

If you have your regions folder backed up, put those regions in the Regions folder in the My Documents\SimCity 4 folder. If any regions have the same name as the ones you are puttin in, delete them first. Doing an overwrite may be what caused your earlier problems. Hope this helps...

[Hahayoudied 3]

If you have a back up of the whole region, just place it in the region folder, in YOUR document. However, if you only have the backup of the cities, place them in the download folder, and create a new region. Hopefully you still remember where all the cities are located, other wise, you have to do the trial and error way to find if the cities match together.

[Sporally 0]

I've been very busy since you replied last, and i'm sorry i couldn't follow up on my own posts.

I've been trying all morning, but it seems to give me problems still (please read the posts above to get the full story). I tried to figure out which files i had to delete first in order to get all my cities into the region, but i am unable to find out which standard city maps i have to delete in order to get my city maps on the region map.

I have now made a screenshot and edited it by putting a red X over the empty city maps that i need to delete in order to put in my own city maps, so if any of you are interested in helping a poor guy like me i would be extremely happy with your assistance - so if i can send anyone the picture so they you can tell me which city maps i need to delete that would be great!!!

I have attached the file (if i did it right), but i am not sure if it works. In case it does, it is the red city maps i need to replace with my own, and then one of the two yellow ones, i'm not sure which one of those two though, but if you could just tell me the name of both of them.

It is the London region map.

The file names in the ... Documents\SimCity 4\London folder are all called:

City - New City ([number]).sc4

...except for those called Fulham, Kensington, Sydemham and Woolwich.

[CaptCity 4,915]

An initial question... Did you save (backup) your entire region or just the individual city files that you had been working on (and did you name them)? That will determine which method you need to use to get the originals back into the game. So... (and I hope I can explain this clearly)...

First, you don't need to worry about deleting any of the cities you want to replace. As others have suggested above, if you have a backup of the entire region that you want to put in your new installation, just delete (or move) the current region folder (London) from the My Documents/SimCity 4/Regions folder and copy/paste your backup region into the same folder.

If for some reason you need to pick and choose which cities to replace...

Then...

1. Copy and paste any of the original cities from your backups (your examples: Fulham, Kensington, Sydemham and Woolwich) into the Downloads folder in the My Documents/SimCity 4/Regions folder.

2. Start the game and open the new region.

3. In the Region view, click on (but don't open) the city you want replaced.

4. Click the import button (the little monitor icon) on the city popup.

5. Navigate to the Downloads folder and open it.

6. Select the city name one want in that position.

7. Select 'Import City'

That should do it.

NOTE: If you didn't name the cities as you built them, then they will have the default 'New City ([number]).sc4' names. This will make things a bit longer. You can copy all of the original cities into the Downloads folder and pick and choose as you import until the correct one is placed. Although, I think the cities are numbered from the top left to the bottom right (I may be wrong on that.), so can count them if you want.

Hope I've explained this clearly. Let us know if more help is needed.

[Sporally 0]

It worked - partly. Thx a lot!

What surprices me is that i have 10 cities (i had added numbers to the city names and could easily add them into the right spot) but it only showed the name of the 4 of them. I got those into place without a problem, but then i only had 6 cities names "New city" in the download-folder, although they had names in the actual download-folder found via Windows.

I figured i just had to try one of them in one of the spots that i wanted to add a city to and hope it was the right one i added, however, it simply put in an empty plot with lakes and stuff (could see it was terrains of a different location in London).

How can this be and is there a fix to this?

If not, can i use the region.ini that i've backup up to do something smart and adding them all at once. I figure there must be somewhere in the london-folder the region setup is saved since i can delete the entire folder and still have the original London-region.

[CaptCity 4,915]

Originally posted by: Sporally It worked - partly. Thx a lot!

What surprices me is that i have 10 cities (i had added numbers to the city names and could easily add them into the right spot) but it only showed the name of the 4 of them. I got those into place without a problem, but then i only had 6 cities names "New city" in the download-folder, although they had names in the actual download-folder found via Windows.quote>

 

If I understand correctly...

I was going to mention this this and forgot... If you are using the import method, the import box only shows those cities which will fit in the tile you have selected. In other words, if you have a medium city tile selected, small and large cities won't appear Likewise for other sizes.

If not, can i use the region.ini that i've backup up to do something smart and adding them all at once. quote>

You can delete the London (for example) folder in the Regions folder and replace it with a backup. The name in the region.ini file will be the in-game name. If you mean can you copy/paste the actual city files in the regions folder... No, that would result in the blank tiles that you may have been referring to in your original post. Copies of cities have to be imported.

 

I figure there must be somewhere in the london-folder the region setup is saved since i can delete the entire folder and still have the original London-region.quote>

You might be referring to the game copying regions from the Program File/Maxis/SimCity4/Regions folder. If the regions folder in My Documents does not contain any regions, the game will make new copies when started.


Ah... something just occurred to me...

I figured i just had to try one of them in one of the spots that i wanted to add a city to and hope it was the right one i added, however, it simply put in an empty plot with lakes and stuff (could see it was terrains of a different location in London).quote>

Sometimes the game will place city files in the Downloads. I think ( and I could be wrong. but...) this might happen when a city is deleted, so if you have deleted any cities, those files could be in the Downloads folder and you are simply importing them back into the game. You might try clearing your Downloads folder before copying your original files into it.

[Sporally 0]

Have tried, but when i delete everything in the Download-folder and then copy over my backup, go to the game and import the cities, only 4 of the cities are shown with the right name, while the last 6 cities are shown as 'New city' although they had different name in the Download-folder, and when i place them on the map i simply move one of the other terrains from the London-region to my own terrain location while the one i moved the terrain from is replaced by a totally flad landscape.

It's like the game can't read the 6 cities but know they are there, so i just put in some terrains - probably one of the terrains that i had the city on originally, but since they all have the same name i don't know which city/terrain is suppose to be located here and there.

Any further ideas?

[CaptCity 4,915]

Just so I'm understanding you correctly...

You are saying that you have city files in the Region/Download folder with specific names (not the default names), but those names do not appear in the Import function list. Do you also have cities in the Downloads folder that you haven't used and do have the default name {City - New City (#).sc4}? It sounds like the city names that are not appearing in the Import window are of a different size than the city tile you are attempting to import into (the Import window only shows cities of the same size as the one selected). You might try to select a different-sized city to import into and see if the other citiy names do appear as choices.

[Sporally 0]

Almost. First of there are no cities in the download-folder. Then i copy the 10 cities into it. The 4 of them work perfectly while the remaining 6 have a name in the download-folder, but when i go to import in the game it only writes 'New city' for those 6 cities, and when i import them i only get an original empty (with rivers, lakes and hills) city.

Maybe, if someone don't mind, i could send it by e-mail - one that works and one city that doesn't work.

[CaptCity 4,915]

Hmmm... Well, they must be the right size since they are appearing in the import window. Sounds like something happened when saving those 6 or the city files aren't what you thought. Any other backups of the same region? Can't think of anything alse...

Later: See my PM...

[Sporally 0]

I sent the files to CaptCity but we didn't find any solution unfortunately. I must have done something wrong when moving the files around, but i can't say exactly what went wrong. However, i am very satisfied with all your help although we didn't come up with a solution.

At least i am happy that it didn't erase my main city