how to reload PBEM saves without cheating

[vondrack]

Dunno if this is news just for me... anyway:

Going through past savegames, putting together some progress tables for Legoland, I have - by chance - discovered a way of loading an arbitrary number of saved PBEM games in a single Civ3PtW 1.14f session without ever seeing the smallest bit of the previous team's map... I admit this workaround may be useful under certain conditions only, but I assume that many people like to examine past saves, trying to figure out what exactly has been happening... and if you are like me, you just hate to completely relaunch before loading a different save.

So, here is what I have found to always work for me:

1) launch Civ3PtW 1.14f

2) load a savegame using Load Game in the Main Menu
3) look at whatever you wish, do whatever you wish
4) when finished, hit ESC
5) select "Yes, immediately..."
6) select "Save & Exit"
7) hit ESC (not sure, but that's probably the trick)
8) goto 2

It seems that if you actually save the game in Step 7 (instead of dismissing the save dialogue by hitting ESC), everything will be ok, too (not 100% sure about that though). But the abovementioned procedure worked for me throughout several sessions, loading many dozens of savegames (all of them for viewing, never saving them again).

Thought I should share this information.

[Beta]

vondrack - thank-you. Yes this would be useful - and considerably less painful. I will give it a try.

[BigFurryMonster]

Huh? I always do that.

What other method did you use?

[Darekill]

That's the way i do it too.
You don't need to escape the save. You can save then you are back in the mainmenu and can load the game anew. You have to give the password then just like the first time. You won't see anything you shouldn't see.

[Dis]

yes I just hit the X key instead of the O to cancel the save. Takes you back to the main menu.

[vondrack]

Originally posted by BigFurryMonster
Huh? I always do that.

What other method did you use?

If you use Ctrl-L directly from the "running" game, loading another save without going to the Main Menu first, you will get into troubles - used to be a big problem for me when I needed to load loads () of saves, one after another, watching the progress of something or looking for something.

Briefly put, the only safe way to load PBEM saves without messing up and without seeing anything one is not supposed to is to use Load Game from the Main Menu screen.

[HarryH]

I have not tried on a MP game but in SP you can use Ctrl-Shift-Q to quit the current game and go back to the main screen.