City tile missing from Region View

[TrickyMario76543 67]

I've shown this in the oddities thread, but this is starting to become a problem. I can't load the city & play it. How can I make the tile appear again?

[CorinaMarie 29,621]

I believe I found the solution in this post :

^ The relevant part for you starts in the 2nd paragraph with: "Found a fix. ..."

Good luck.

 

Edit: And the part: "exact same layout", is most likely referring to using the same, but uncorrupted config.bmp layout. (That controls tile sizes and placement and therefore overall region size and shape.) Which brings up the question for me: Is there such a thing as a corrupted config.bmp? I know I can create bad ones, but why would (or does) the game alter this file?

Edit again: Seems to me the steps of KD2's instructions to create a new region (with same layout) would be:

1. Create new region
2. Exit from new region
3. Open any other region
4. Tab out of game
5. In WinExplorer copy config.bmp to new region folder
6. Then proceed with KD2's city files copying

Wouldn't this be the only way to make the new region have the same layout as the corrupted one? (Assuming no back up of the config.bmp file.) :unsure:

 

2016.04.12.07.33

Trying to re-create the problem. So, I created a small region, started a city I named Corrupt:

Then exited and opened the city file in notepad, found some text:

And replaced said text with XXX and saved the file. My intention was to corrupt that file.

When I went back into this region, the tile was still there, but un-named. I created Corrupt on the same tile, saved it, and then went back to explorer to see what it did:

So, now there's a 2nd file with the same name with (2) added. This tells me I did successfully bork the City - Corrupt.sc4 file, but not in such a way as to cause the tile to go missing via a hole in the region view.

I'm now guessing the game can corrupt a ctiy tile file in such a way that the game first thinks it can load it and later decides something's wrong.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Your city is corrupt, probably due to an interrupted save.  You can only recover the tile.  The content is gone unless you have a backup.

[rsc204 21,817]

SC4 uses a checksum system, so any edit whatsoever to a save file will cause SC4 to ignore the city, because the checksum would not be correct. As has been stated there is no fix for such issues.

Bear in mind, switching focus (using another application/window) whilst saving is known to cause problems. As is using either the Save and Exit to Region or Save and Quit options. It's always safer to simply use Save, then exit/quit without saving.

[Compdude787 916]

1 minute ago, rsc204 said:

Bear in mind, switching focus (using another application/window) whilst saving is known to cause problems. As is using either the Save and Exit to Region or Save and Quit options. It's always safer to simply use Save, then exit/quit without saving.

If you ever accidentally switch focus while saving (now that I have two monitors, I might sometimes do this on accident to type something into the ST chat or change a song in Spotify), just do a save again so that it's not going to be corrupted. The worst I've had as a result of this is the city tile image on the region view getting messed up.

[crishy 57]

Things like this is why one should back his/her entire region every now and then.

When one city is not accessible anymore you only need to transfer the same city from the most recent region backup to that tile.

[TrickyMario76543 67]

Good News!

I restored a previous version of the city file and I was able to recover the city! On the cost that I lost some data. The city pop is now at 330k instead of 350k & I have lost a highway exit i built.

[CorinaMarie 29,621]

3 hours ago, TrickyMario76543 said:

Good News!

I restored a previous version of the city file and I was able to recover the city!

Woot!

And so it was after the tile of Greensfield had been abducted by aliens and placed in suspended animation, Mayor Alex Donato initiated a star system raid, defeated the aliens, and returned this fair land to our territory.

^ Excerpt from the Greensfield Daily Herald.

[Mister Giggles 310]

It's sad that a known way to recover the majority of these blanked/vanished city tiles has existed for years and yet this keeps happening...

As long as the city file data exists, the city is likely recoverable. Make a copy of the city's file data. Then, edit the city tile using Terraformer - disable editing protections on the city file and alter a tiny bit of it. Don't accidentally wipe the city tile by selecting the wrong option during the save prompt. Save the city. The region thumbnail will be regenerated and you'll be able to access it.

[HayleyRenaNemeth 465]

I know this is not related to changing the config.bmp file but some may edit it , I always make a back up of my region when I edit the config file. these days I use the save city function rather than using the save and exit to region. 

 

I have had issues with the city thumbnail not showing up on the region view, I've done stuff like hold down the shift key while I am saving and this seems to help. it seems to happen when I would use the save and exit to region option. It would occur less often with using the save function and then choosing exit to region without saving.  I had this issue when I was on Windows 7 and it would happen a lot with the 4 x 4 tile cities since I have moved to  Windows 8.1 , it rarely happens. 

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Couple of things:

You can only edit the config.bmp to add tiles at the bottom or to the right.

The best practice on saves seems to be to use the internal save (CTRL+s) then exit without saving if you are planning to leave the game or city.

[HayleyRenaNemeth 465]

 

On 4/20/2016 at 10:11 AM, A Nonny Moose said:

Couple of things:

You can only edit the config.bmp to add tiles at the bottom or to the right.

The best practice on saves seems to be to use the internal save (CTRL+s) then exit without saving if you are planning to leave the game or city.

well there is a way you could expand to the left and the top , you would just have to move all of the tiles manually. one time I incorporated one region into another region and I named all the tiles of the old region in a numerical sequence. you would just want to move it to the new region. 

when I exit the game I usually always exit from the region view. 

 

[CorinaMarie 29,621]

1 hour ago, AprilAero said:

 

... I named all the tiles of the old region in a numerical sequence. ..

 

Was the naming done as Mayor or via Windoze Explorer (or the equivalent)?

[HayleyRenaNemeth 465]

Just now, CorinaMarie said:

Was the naming done as Mayor or via Windoze Explorer (or the equivalent)?

I did it in Mayor mode, I named the ones that didn't already have names so I would know which ones go where. 

[Compdude787 916]

Yeah, you just use the WhereRUFrom  cheat and then type the new name in. You put it in quotes if the new name is to have a space in it.

[HayleyRenaNemeth 465]

27 minutes ago, Compdude787 said:

Yeah, you just use the WhereRUFrom  cheat and then type the new name in. You put it in quotes if the new name is to have a space in it.

yea but there would be no need to rename cities that already had names. you only need to name cities that don't have names yet as so all the files won't all say new city. you just need to know where they go and then put them where they belong.