Come back.... and the problem (Civ4 copy protection)

[Acenoid]

Hello There!

After years of abstinence I played a round of Civ 4 recently after a friend showed me the add on's. After the game I immediately ordered them at amazon. Anyway I had already the original "base game" and was eager to play already.

So I quickly Installed it from the DVD on my vista machine and then a nasty surprise... A popup informs me of "known compatibility issues" after the auto-online-search I am informed that there is no solution. After that, a popup tells me I should put in the disc (yawn.. already done )

"I do not give up so easily" therefore I continued to install the latest patch (1.79), and asked my friend what OS he played civ4 on (XP SP2). After enabling compatibility mode for the application, added admin rights and disabled themes on vista it still won't start up and always reports the compatibility issue and the put the disc in message.

I am sorry to say but the fireaxis FAQ entry on this is a joke - I do not have 2 discs, therefore nothing can be mislabelled, and to make safedisc incompatible with my laptop DVD burning device and/or Vista is a joke....

After an uneventful search I failed to get the game going so far.

This would probably be as far as a "novice" computer user could go. So I was already disappointed that for an actively sold game there is no "official" fix.

But maybe I I missed something?
How do I get the game working with original files?

See you and thanks for all replies!

[TriMiro]

Funny that it doesn't work, isn't it. I am playing the game under Linux and seem to have fewer issues (safedisk and everything else works fine). The issue is with Microsoft not Firaxis.

Sorry for the comment, I had to make it.

Have you considered finding a no-CD crack. That will fix the CD issue. If you have the legal copy of the game and if it doesn't run without the no-CD crack, it is OK to use it (it is not like Firaxis would file a law-suit against you).

Another option is to get the Beyond the Sword expansion. BtS patch 3.19 comes with no protection (legally from Firaxis). You will only be able to play the expansion, but it is better anyway.

[Acenoid]

Hi there!

The computer was restarted today and strangely enough - now it works (with CD check).

Is it normal that it takes ages ingame to open the "encyclopedia" and get details on the tech tree etc?

I don't see that the drive is being accessed so I was wondering.

Maybe just another Vista glitch.

Unfortunately it's not legal in my country to use cracks of any kind even if you own the original. I tried it just once to see if the copy protection is the "root cause" Anyway now its working.

[TriMiro]

Hi there!

The computer was restarted today and strangely enough - now it works (with CD check).

Is it normal that it takes ages ingame to open the "encyclopedia" and get details on the tech tree etc?

I don't see that the drive is being accessed so I was wondering.

Maybe just another Vista glitch.

Unfortunately it's not legal in my country to use cracks of any kind even if you own the original. I tried it just once to see if the copy protection is the "root cause" Anyway now its working.

Civilopedia should load fast.

Even if using any form of a crack is illigal (a stupid law by the way), I think it is Firaxis that needs to complain and they will never do it (as long as you have a legal copy of the game).

I will never play a non-cracked game on my laptop for example, because I don't want to carry the CDs with me when I travel. I can lose them or damage them.

I have friends that use cracks because they want to play 2 games at the same time without swapping CDs (you can do that for turn based strategies, especially in multiplayer).

The latest BtS patch and some of the Warlords patches came with no CD cracks directly from Firaxis. What does the law say about that?

[Acenoid]

Hi!

Thanks for the reply.

Will try defragmenting the disc then first.

The law only explains that the end-user is not allowed to bypass copy protection mechanism. Personally I think it's just annoying, but this discussion is like endless and each side has their own points. Personally I think that serial numbers do a good job. Many patches and changes to the keygenerators would probably annoy any pirate more since they would have to wait and wait

So let's see if this last issue can also be resolved

[rjmatsleepers]

The latest patch for BTS removed the need for a CD. Does this not apply to Warlords and vanilla?

RJM

[fed1943]

No, just for BTS.

Best regards,

[Diadem]

I never managed to get the cd of the vanilla game to work either. Warlords and BtS worked fine though.

With the original cd the game did not work. Not even when using a hack to bypass the copy protection. Strangely enough a downloaded image of the game run from a virtual drive worked (with hack).

A copyprotection that only allows you to run a downloaded version of the game. Somehow that seems wrong.

Anyway where I live this is all legal. And from a moral standpoint it is certainly allowed as well. I paid for the game, after all.

[Robert]

It's not allowed to discuss illegal options, like cracks, here on Apolyton.

[TriMiro]

It's not allowed to discuss illegal options, like cracks, here on Apolyton.

Thanks for the waring, however, I don't think Cracks are always illegal (surely not always immoral).

I guess in situations as above, one can directly contact Firaxis' tech support. I am not sure how that would work though and if they would be able to help.

[Diadem]

It's not allowed to discuss illegal options, like cracks, here on Apolyton.

What about completely legal cracks?

[Acenoid]

just let the matter go. The issue is resolved. After installing BtS there is no more copy protection included and I found a way to legally play my bought civ4

I also fixed the "delay" for popups by lowering the movie quality from high -> Medium.

Is there some FAQ thread where this can be added?