SC4 Files Get Erased When Loading

[swerdna 5]

I just downloaded Origin on a new computer (Windows 10). I have all of my old cities from 2003-2007 saved to the cloud but whenever I copy and paste them into the computer folder, SimCity 4 removes them and won't load my old cities.

I created new regions, copied and pasted the old cities, but as soon as I start to play the game the region is either all water or all land and all of the pasted files are completely gone. Is there any fix to this, or any way to get the old cities to load? I already replaced the entire file folder for SimCity 4 with my old version, no luck. Thanks for the help.

[CorinaMarie 29,577]

Are you copying them into Documents\SimCity 4\Regions ?

They cannot go in the installation folder.

[swerdna 5]

3 hours ago, CorinaMarie said:

Are you copying them into Documents\SimCity 4\Regions ?

They cannot go in the installation folder.

Yes I made sure to put them there. It's really weird, like the game doesn't like them and just gets rid of them. I tried again and for whatever reason only two cities actually copy over. The rest of them are tiles of water or flat land.

[CorinaMarie 29,577]

Do all the city files the game doesn't like wind up in the Documents\SimCity 4\Regions\Downloads folder?

[Prophet42 1,501]

For the old files, what was the version number of SimCity 4 that you used to create and save them. The Origin version of SimCity 4 is not patched and cannot be patched to the latest version.  Maybe the Origin version of SimCity you are using does not recognize the Cities created under another version and therefore deletes them.  This is only a theory.

I would not recommend using the  Origin version of SimCity4.  If possible purchase SimCity 4 from GoG.  This version is fully patched and DRM free.  If you go this route, make sure you install SimCity4 without using the GoG Galaxy game installer.

All I can say is that I use the GoG version of SC4 and have had no issues with it playing cities I created back in 2004.  It doesn't erase my files, doesn't ask me to log in, and doesn't even keep track if I have it installed on more than one computer.

[rsc204 21,806]

If the game is moving your copied files to Downloads, it suggests an ID conflict. This happens typically when you use the Regions that come with the game, but then later try to restore them for use with a new installation of the game. If you have played with the San Fransisco region for example, before you can use this region with a new install, you MUST remove the new San Fransisco region (the untouched one), that is installed with the game. If you don't do this, each city tile from your modified copy will have an identical internal ID, the game will then move the duplicates to the Downloads folder, since it can only read one save file with each ID. Note the ID is part of the internal file structure and can not be modified, it does not matter what the actual files names are. Of course I'm using SF as an example, the same applies to all regions that came with the game.

The only known problem for using save files from one copy of SC4 with another that I've ever come across is when using the latest Mac version of SC4. It has altered the save file data somehow, so once you've saved a city using the 64-bit Mac game, that city can not be used with any other version of SC4. All other versions have always stuck to the same identical save-file structure so there is no reason why you shouldn't be able to move them between installs without problems.

[swerdna 5]

On 6/20/2021 at 10:23 AM, CorinaMarie said:

Do all the city files the game doesn't like wind up in the Documents\SimCity 4\Regions\Downloads folder?

I think so, it' looks like they're there

[swerdna 5]

On 6/20/2021 at 12:24 PM, Prophet42 said:

For the old files, what was the version number of SimCity 4 that you used to create and save them. The Origin version of SimCity 4 is not patched and cannot be patched to the latest version.  Maybe the Origin version of SimCity you are using does not recognize the Cities created under another version and therefore deletes them.  This is only a theory.

I would not recommend using the  Origin version of SimCity4.  If possible purchase SimCity 4 from GoG.  This version is fully patched and DRM free.  If you go this route, make sure you install SimCity4 without using the GoG Galaxy game installer.

All I can say is that I use the GoG version of SC4 and have had no issues with it playing cities I created back in 2004.  It doesn't erase my files, doesn't ask me to log in, and doesn't even keep track if I have it installed on more than one computer.

I can't remember what version of SimCity it was, all I remember is that they were part of the game I played when I bought the CD back in the day. It could be that Origin is just deleting them because it doesn't recognize them. I'll try the GoG version, if it still doesn't work I'll call it fate and say goodbye to the old cities. Thank you for the help.

[CorinaMarie 29,577]

10 hours ago, swerdna said:

I think so, it' looks like they're there

If you can double check they are going in there then it definitely is conflicting city tile IIDs. There's a work around for that.

 

10 hours ago, swerdna said:

I can't remember what version of SimCity it was, all I remember is that they were part of the game I played when I bought the CD back in the day.

This adds credence to the idea it is simply an IID conflict. (That's actually good news.)

 

10 hours ago, swerdna said:

I'll try the GoG version, ...

While the GoG version is the ideal best one, if it's an IID conflict as seems likely, then GoG one will respond the same way by tossing them all into that Downloads sub folder in Regions. Now, if you happen to have the Origin version that is not patched (and which is also unpatchable) then that itself would be a good reason to go with GoG. (If getting the GoG one, be sure to uninstall the Origin first and when installing then new one get the offline version. Using thier GoG Galaxy thinger doesn't work well with SC4.)

If you zip them in to one file, how large are the regions that are being recalcitrant? I'm asking because I could take a look since I'm prolly more familiar with said IID troubles. You could host a zip of all of the problem regions on WeTransfer.com. (Use the free version there.)

[swerdna 5]

On 6/22/2021 at 7:10 AM, CorinaMarie said:

If you can double check they are going in there then it definitely is conflicting city tile IIDs. There's a work around for that.

 

This adds credence to the idea it is simply an IID conflict. (That's actually good news.)

 

While the GoG version is the ideal best one, if it's an IID conflict as seems likely, then GoG one will respond the same way by tossing them all into that Downloads sub folder in Regions. Now, if you happen to have the Origin version that is not patched (and which is also unpatchable) then that itself would be a good reason to go with GoG. (If getting the GoG one, be sure to uninstall the Origin first and when installing then new one get the offline version. Using thier GoG Galaxy thinger doesn't work well with SC4.)

If you zip them in to one file, how large are the regions that are being recalcitrant? I'm asking because I could take a look since I'm prolly more familiar with said IID troubles. You could host a zip of all of the problem regions on WeTransfer.com. (Use the free version there.)

Altogether they are about 14MB, I'll zip them to one file and upload it there, thank you so much for the help!

[CorinaMarie 29,577]

5 hours ago, swerdna said:

Altogether they are about 14MB, I'll zip them to one file and upload it there, thank you so much for the help!

Cool. And I replied to your PM about how to post the linky so I can download the zip. (You can do that part in the PM if you like so it's not available to everyone else.)

[CorinaMarie 29,577]

Got the zip file. I did reply in the PM, but I'll post it here too as this is a different issue than we suspected:

Ok. The initial trouble is the config.bmp file is missing from each of the three regions. That's what tells the game the layout of the city tile sizes so when it then makes a random config.bmp upon loading most of them are the wrong size for the location of what the game came up with. That's why it's tossing them into the Downloads folder rather than being an IID conflict.

Also, in the folders, there seems to be a lot of city tiles missing. Even if not developed, there should be a bunch called New City (#).sc4 where the # is an incremental number.

We can recover these existing city tiles, but it'll be a bit of a jigsaw puzzle for where they need to go. Then without the other New City ones, we won't have the rest of the terrain layout.

Is the zip you sent the truest copy from your backup of the other comp?