City disappeared completely!

[joni 0]

Hi guys,

I've been playing sim city 4 RH now for several years without such a problem.

Since a few days my biggest city is vanished! Where the city has been there's now a hole through which I see the grey background that you usually only see around your region. I cannot click on the city (or hole) to load my city. Even more weird is the fact that the city's name appears on an adjacent city! When I move the mouse over that city the name disappears and you can read that neighbour city's normal name again.

Without my biggest city it's no fun (((   please help!!!

Greetings from Germany

[SC4BOY 20]

If you have no backup, your city is lost. This has been known when the save fails for some reasons.. this is often caused by trying to multi-task SC4 with other things in your op sys.. running in a window and switching back and forth to browsers, etc or alt-tabbing among app's (however some have reported it happening for no apparent reason). Hope you have a region backup that isn't too old.

[joni 0]

Thanks for the quick reply SC4BOY! Though not the reply I hoped to get...

[Mr_Maison 2,426]

Wow...this just happened to me too. Never happened in the seven years I been playing. There should be a sticky with this issue to warn everyone. This really caught me by surprise and I just put so much work and thought into my city that's now gone.

If I was aware of this issue I would've prepared myself. There's no way I'm gonna get that city back no matter how I try to duplicate. So mods, I humbly request that a warning sticky FAQ be posted in this section of the forums. Thanks for listening.

[Mr_Maison 2,426]

Wow...this just happened to me too. Never happened in the seven years I been playing. There should be a sticky with this issue to warn everyone. This really caught me by surprise and I just put so much work and thought into my city that's now gone.

If I was aware of this issue I would've prepared myself. There's no way I'm gonna get that city back no matter how I try to duplicate. So mods, I humbly request that a warning sticky FAQ be posted in this section of the forums. Thanks for listening.

[Mr_Maison 2,426]

Wow...this just happened to me too. Never happened in the seven years I been playing. There should be a sticky with this issue to warn everyone. This really caught me by surprise and I just put so much work and thought into my city that's now gone.

If I was aware of this issue I would've prepared myself. There's no way I'm gonna get that city back no matter how I try to duplicate. So mods, I humbly request that a warning sticky FAQ be posted in this section of the forums. Thanks for listening.

[SC4BOY 20]

Come now. Backups are discussed CONSTANTLY.. if you do not maintain more or less regular backups of your SC4 work, it is no one's fault but your own and you certainly can't say you didn't know about backups. A sticky is not required about such routine (and I might add, non-SC4 related) issues. If you had no backup I seriously doubt you would have backed up after reading a sticky. Now, would you?

And this problem is only one of many reasons you might have lost your work.. backups are the routine refuge of the prepared.

[SC4BOY 20]

Come now. Backups are discussed CONSTANTLY.. if you do not maintain more or less regular backups of your SC4 work, it is no one's fault but your own and you certainly can't say you didn't know about backups. A sticky is not required about such routine (and I might add, non-SC4 related) issues. If you had no backup I seriously doubt you would have backed up after reading a sticky. Now, would you?

And this problem is only one of many reasons you might have lost your work.. backups are the routine refuge of the prepared.

[SC4BOY 20]

Come now. Backups are discussed CONSTANTLY.. if you do not maintain more or less regular backups of your SC4 work, it is no one's fault but your own and you certainly can't say you didn't know about backups. A sticky is not required about such routine (and I might add, non-SC4 related) issues. If you had no backup I seriously doubt you would have backed up after reading a sticky. Now, would you?

And this problem is only one of many reasons you might have lost your work.. backups are the routine refuge of the prepared.

[tjh876 31]

Originally posted by: SC4BOY

Come now. Backups are discussed CONSTANTLY.. if you do not maintain more or less regular backups of your SC4 work, it is no one's fault but your own and you certainly can't say you didn't know about backups. A sticky is not required about such routine (and I might add, non-SC4 related) issues. If you had no backup I seriously doubt you would have backed up after reading a sticky. Now, would you?

And this problem is only one of many reasons you might have lost your work.. backups are the routine refuge of the prepared.quote>

Well said, again. Also, SC4 is a program that is MEANT to run alone, and not with or side by side with another one. NO MATTER HOW MANY CORES YOU HAVE. SC4 was published in 2003, and it was designed for use without other programs (unless they have a direct connection with it). Please take this into consideration too.

[tjh876 31]

Originally posted by: SC4BOY

Come now. Backups are discussed CONSTANTLY.. if you do not maintain more or less regular backups of your SC4 work, it is no one's fault but your own and you certainly can't say you didn't know about backups. A sticky is not required about such routine (and I might add, non-SC4 related) issues. If you had no backup I seriously doubt you would have backed up after reading a sticky. Now, would you?

And this problem is only one of many reasons you might have lost your work.. backups are the routine refuge of the prepared.quote>

Well said, again. Also, SC4 is a program that is MEANT to run alone, and not with or side by side with another one. NO MATTER HOW MANY CORES YOU HAVE. SC4 was published in 2003, and it was designed for use without other programs (unless they have a direct connection with it). Please take this into consideration too.

[tjh876 31]

Originally posted by: SC4BOY

Come now. Backups are discussed CONSTANTLY.. if you do not maintain more or less regular backups of your SC4 work, it is no one's fault but your own and you certainly can't say you didn't know about backups. A sticky is not required about such routine (and I might add, non-SC4 related) issues. If you had no backup I seriously doubt you would have backed up after reading a sticky. Now, would you?

And this problem is only one of many reasons you might have lost your work.. backups are the routine refuge of the prepared.quote>

Well said, again. Also, SC4 is a program that is MEANT to run alone, and not with or side by side with another one. NO MATTER HOW MANY CORES YOU HAVE. SC4 was published in 2003, and it was designed for use without other programs (unless they have a direct connection with it). Please take this into consideration too.

[Mr_Maison 2,426]

Originally posted by: Tommy7777

Originally posted by: SC4BOY

Come now. Backups are discussed CONSTANTLY.. if you do not maintain more or less regular backups of your SC4 work, it is no one's fault but your own and you certainly can't say you didn't know about backups. A sticky is not required about such routine (and I might add, non-SC4 related) issues. If you had no backup I seriously doubt you would have backed up after reading a sticky.

And this problem is only one of many reasons you might have lost your work.. backups are the routine refuge of the prepared.quote>

Well said, again. Also, SC4 is a program that is MEANT to run alone, and not with or side by side with another one. NO MATTER HOW MANY CORES YOU HAVE. SC4 was published in 2003, and it was designed for use without other programs (unless they have a direct connection with it). Please take this into consideration too.

quote>

Calm down guys! I did not play while running any other programs. I think my issue is due to my newly discovered CTD issue with multi core systems. I recently learned that setting affinity in the task manager AFTER loading to the region view via alt+tab was a way to help avoid that issue. However, no warning of losing an entire city because of alt+tabbing was mentioned. As I stated before, I been playing this since 2003 and this NEVER happened to me. I also do back up my cities but not every  time I save and exit. If I knew this was a risk factor in doing alt+tab, maybe I would've prepared myself better. I asked not for myself (since I now know first hand) that a sticky of known terrible things that can happen from doing what is suggested in certain cases where the practice is a must (in this case anyone running newer multi core systems).

I just upgraded my rig about a year and a half ago from a single core to a quad core and could not play a straight hour without crashing until I did some research and found a known issue with multi cores and SC4. I did not know this was a risk factor in alt+tabbing. I'm not blaming anyone here for not putting up a warning, I just asked. It doesn't hurt to ask does it? Just to make a point, even when I'm not having issues, I always stop by here (tech issues) just to see if there's anything I should be aware of with this game being driven by all this custom content and all. I can live with the occaisional CTD, in fact I expect it with this game, but losing an entire city that I lost sleep over is another type of animal.

Besides, how do you know you can back up your city after putting in hours of work not knowing whether you will have a city to back up after you quit the game? I may do a back up but after a session that usually last hours I might have serious changes by the time I exit. Perhaps the best thing I can do in the future is not to put so many hours in one session of play before exiting and backing up.

[Mr_Maison 2,426]

Originally posted by: Tommy7777

Originally posted by: SC4BOY

Come now. Backups are discussed CONSTANTLY.. if you do not maintain more or less regular backups of your SC4 work, it is no one's fault but your own and you certainly can't say you didn't know about backups. A sticky is not required about such routine (and I might add, non-SC4 related) issues. If you had no backup I seriously doubt you would have backed up after reading a sticky.

And this problem is only one of many reasons you might have lost your work.. backups are the routine refuge of the prepared.quote>

Well said, again. Also, SC4 is a program that is MEANT to run alone, and not with or side by side with another one. NO MATTER HOW MANY CORES YOU HAVE. SC4 was published in 2003, and it was designed for use without other programs (unless they have a direct connection with it). Please take this into consideration too.

quote>

Calm down guys! I did not play while running any other programs. I think my issue is due to my newly discovered CTD issue with multi core systems. I recently learned that setting affinity in the task manager AFTER loading to the region view via alt+tab was a way to help avoid that issue. However, no warning of losing an entire city because of alt+tabbing was mentioned. As I stated before, I been playing this since 2003 and this NEVER happened to me. I also do back up my cities but not every  time I save and exit. If I knew this was a risk factor in doing alt+tab, maybe I would've prepared myself better. I asked not for myself (since I now know first hand) that a sticky of known terrible things that can happen from doing what is suggested in certain cases where the practice is a must (in this case anyone running newer multi core systems).

I just upgraded my rig about a year and a half ago from a single core to a quad core and could not play a straight hour without crashing until I did some research and found a known issue with multi cores and SC4. I did not know this was a risk factor in alt+tabbing. I'm not blaming anyone here for not putting up a warning, I just asked. It doesn't hurt to ask does it? Just to make a point, even when I'm not having issues, I always stop by here (tech issues) just to see if there's anything I should be aware of with this game being driven by all this custom content and all. I can live with the occaisional CTD, in fact I expect it with this game, but losing an entire city that I lost sleep over is another type of animal.

Besides, how do you know you can back up your city after putting in hours of work not knowing whether you will have a city to back up after you quit the game? I may do a back up but after a session that usually last hours I might have serious changes by the time I exit. Perhaps the best thing I can do in the future is not to put so many hours in one session of play before exiting and backing up.

[Mr_Maison 2,426]

Originally posted by: Tommy7777

Originally posted by: SC4BOY

Come now. Backups are discussed CONSTANTLY.. if you do not maintain more or less regular backups of your SC4 work, it is no one's fault but your own and you certainly can't say you didn't know about backups. A sticky is not required about such routine (and I might add, non-SC4 related) issues. If you had no backup I seriously doubt you would have backed up after reading a sticky.

And this problem is only one of many reasons you might have lost your work.. backups are the routine refuge of the prepared.quote>

Well said, again. Also, SC4 is a program that is MEANT to run alone, and not with or side by side with another one. NO MATTER HOW MANY CORES YOU HAVE. SC4 was published in 2003, and it was designed for use without other programs (unless they have a direct connection with it). Please take this into consideration too.

quote>

Calm down guys! I did not play while running any other programs. I think my issue is due to my newly discovered CTD issue with multi core systems. I recently learned that setting affinity in the task manager AFTER loading to the region view via alt+tab was a way to help avoid that issue. However, no warning of losing an entire city because of alt+tabbing was mentioned. As I stated before, I been playing this since 2003 and this NEVER happened to me. I also do back up my cities but not every  time I save and exit. If I knew this was a risk factor in doing alt+tab, maybe I would've prepared myself better. I asked not for myself (since I now know first hand) that a sticky of known terrible things that can happen from doing what is suggested in certain cases where the practice is a must (in this case anyone running newer multi core systems).

I just upgraded my rig about a year and a half ago from a single core to a quad core and could not play a straight hour without crashing until I did some research and found a known issue with multi cores and SC4. I did not know this was a risk factor in alt+tabbing. I'm not blaming anyone here for not putting up a warning, I just asked. It doesn't hurt to ask does it? Just to make a point, even when I'm not having issues, I always stop by here (tech issues) just to see if there's anything I should be aware of with this game being driven by all this custom content and all. I can live with the occaisional CTD, in fact I expect it with this game, but losing an entire city that I lost sleep over is another type of animal.

Besides, how do you know you can back up your city after putting in hours of work not knowing whether you will have a city to back up after you quit the game? I may do a back up but after a session that usually last hours I might have serious changes by the time I exit. Perhaps the best thing I can do in the future is not to put so many hours in one session of play before exiting and backing up.

[tjh876 31]

Ok, that is some good info. I find it though that I have a good system (i5, ati dedicated graphics, 4gb of ram) but games still run poorly, and not much better than the old pent 4 2.8ghz I used to use. .12 ghz doesn't make a big difference. But also, SC4 is not a multicore game, and never designed to be one. It is something that we will have to live with. Thanks for sharing that with us too.

[tjh876 31]

Ok, that is some good info. I find it though that I have a good system (i5, ati dedicated graphics, 4gb of ram) but games still run poorly, and not much better than the old pent 4 2.8ghz I used to use. .12 ghz doesn't make a big difference. But also, SC4 is not a multicore game, and never designed to be one. It is something that we will have to live with. Thanks for sharing that with us too.

[tjh876 31]

Ok, that is some good info. I find it though that I have a good system (i5, ati dedicated graphics, 4gb of ram) but games still run poorly, and not much better than the old pent 4 2.8ghz I used to use. .12 ghz doesn't make a big difference. But also, SC4 is not a multicore game, and never designed to be one. It is something that we will have to live with. Thanks for sharing that with us too.

[Mr_Maison 2,426]

Your welcome Tommy! I long for the day that software and hardware share some real fidelity. I remember when all PC games just worked. Today sometimes upgrade=your favorite software will most likely be made crippled or useless.

[Mr_Maison 2,426]

Your welcome Tommy! I long for the day that software and hardware share some real fidelity. I remember when all PC games just worked. Today sometimes upgrade=your favorite software will most likely be made crippled or useless.

[Mr_Maison 2,426]

Your welcome Tommy! I long for the day that software and hardware share some real fidelity. I remember when all PC games just worked. Today sometimes upgrade=your favorite software will most likely be made crippled or useless.

[SC4BOY 20]

CTD's (and other forms of effort "lost") have occurred in the game since the beginning. The fact that you have gone some years without it ever happening is actually the exception, not the rule.. We learn a bit more now and then about SOME things which contribute to CTD's (and other forms of losing your work) but they're inevitable. Whatever method you use for backups will be some insurance.. whether you may lose an hour or a few days, or a few months.. or even sometimes years of work. Working to keep that to less rather than more is better. I have learned that when I'm doing some things, I even save immediately before I start or just after I finish certain things.. even though they only represent less than an hour of work.. it's still dang annoying to have to re-do it.. for example when I start some details surrounding some GLR layouts.. etc... Whatever the case, backup should be a simple part of your daily routine.. whether you're gaming or working or whatever... there's no alternative really.

You didn't answer my question.. .. if you'd seen a "sticky" would you have started backups? ... naw.. that's rhetorical.. I know you wouldn't

[SC4BOY 20]

CTD's (and other forms of effort "lost") have occurred in the game since the beginning. The fact that you have gone some years without it ever happening is actually the exception, not the rule.. We learn a bit more now and then about SOME things which contribute to CTD's (and other forms of losing your work) but they're inevitable. Whatever method you use for backups will be some insurance.. whether you may lose an hour or a few days, or a few months.. or even sometimes years of work. Working to keep that to less rather than more is better. I have learned that when I'm doing some things, I even save immediately before I start or just after I finish certain things.. even though they only represent less than an hour of work.. it's still dang annoying to have to re-do it.. for example when I start some details surrounding some GLR layouts.. etc... Whatever the case, backup should be a simple part of your daily routine.. whether you're gaming or working or whatever... there's no alternative really.

You didn't answer my question.. .. if you'd seen a "sticky" would you have started backups? ... naw.. that's rhetorical.. I know you wouldn't

[SC4BOY 20]

CTD's (and other forms of effort "lost") have occurred in the game since the beginning. The fact that you have gone some years without it ever happening is actually the exception, not the rule.. We learn a bit more now and then about SOME things which contribute to CTD's (and other forms of losing your work) but they're inevitable. Whatever method you use for backups will be some insurance.. whether you may lose an hour or a few days, or a few months.. or even sometimes years of work. Working to keep that to less rather than more is better. I have learned that when I'm doing some things, I even save immediately before I start or just after I finish certain things.. even though they only represent less than an hour of work.. it's still dang annoying to have to re-do it.. for example when I start some details surrounding some GLR layouts.. etc... Whatever the case, backup should be a simple part of your daily routine.. whether you're gaming or working or whatever... there's no alternative really.

You didn't answer my question.. .. if you'd seen a "sticky" would you have started backups? ... naw.. that's rhetorical.. I know you wouldn't

[SC4BOY 20]

CTD's (and other forms of effort "lost") have occurred in the game since the beginning. The fact that you have gone some years without it ever happening is actually the exception, not the rule.. We learn a bit more now and then about SOME things which contribute to CTD's (and other forms of losing your work) but they're inevitable. Whatever method you use for backups will be some insurance.. whether you may lose an hour or a few days, or a few months.. or even sometimes years of work. Working to keep that to less rather than more is better. I have learned that when I'm doing some things, I even save immediately before I start or just after I finish certain things.. even though they only represent less than an hour of work.. it's still dang annoying to have to re-do it.. for example when I start some details surrounding some GLR layouts.. etc... Whatever the case, backup should be a simple part of your daily routine.. whether you're gaming or working or whatever... there's no alternative really.

You didn't answer my question.. .. if you'd seen a "sticky" would you have started backups? ... naw.. that's rhetorical.. I know you wouldn't

[Mr_Maison 2,426]

SC4BOY...when you say backup, do you mean hit ctrl+s constantly? I have a serious habbit of doing that. Everytime I place something significant or feel satisfied with laying a subway network etc. I hit ctrl+s. So are you talking about that or copying the actual city file after exit?

If that's what you mean by backup, then is there a way to get my city back from the previous save?

[Mr_Maison 2,426]

SC4BOY...when you say backup, do you mean hit ctrl+s constantly? I have a serious habbit of doing that. Everytime I place something significant or feel satisfied with laying a subway network etc. I hit ctrl+s. So are you talking about that or copying the actual city file after exit?

If that's what you mean by backup, then is there a way to get my city back from the previous save?

[Mr_Maison 2,426]

SC4BOY...when you say backup, do you mean hit ctrl+s constantly? I have a serious habbit of doing that. Everytime I place something significant or feel satisfied with laying a subway network etc. I hit ctrl+s. So are you talking about that or copying the actual city file after exit?

If that's what you mean by backup, then is there a way to get my city back from the previous save?

[Mr_Maison 2,426]

SC4BOY...when you say backup, do you mean hit ctrl+s constantly? I have a serious habbit of doing that. Everytime I place something significant or feel satisfied with laying a subway network etc. I hit ctrl+s. So are you talking about that or copying the actual city file after exit?

If that's what you mean by backup, then is there a way to get my city back from the previous save?

[SC4BOY 20]

A backup is a file copied to a different location (the more "separate" the better.. ie another hard drive is better, an external drive is better, a remote location is even better, etc) than the game default. It is possible with a "raw harddrive reader" that you could rescue some version of your city. I haven't played with that sort of thing since DOS days, but I know they exist.. You'd have to google it to find something.. Unfortunately SC4 is poorly designed for saves from a "rescue" point of view.. that's why true backups are so critical.. Some programs (for example MS Word and most programming editors) maintain "version saves" but SC4 doesn't. In fact many games don't.. those that do include Alpha Centauri, Civ II, etc.. but that won't help you much.. sorry.. unfortunately when a "save" fails in SC4 it is a system "overwrite" so the failure is semi-final.. (barring raw editors) It is likely that somewhere on your drive is a copy of the city, but it isn't recoverable by "standard" methods.

BTW, I also make it a habit of routinely making a backup before I install a new set of downloads, or a major mod like starting CAM, or a big update like all new NAM releases, etc. The frequency or incidence of making a backup should be determined by how much you're going to be annoyed by that loss.. I believe there is even a mod that reminds you to "save" every so many minutes.. you could just make it a habit to "backup" every 3rd save or whatever (you don't have to quit SC4 to make a backup.. just  pause the game, alt-tab to a folder, and copy your region .. or at least the city you are doing all that work on)