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Aug 1, 2009
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I am using Windows Vista Home Basic in Traditional Chinese Version.
My account name is a Chinese character.
I am now having 1.01 version East India Company game (Pirate Bay Expansion mod too).

I played East India Company for more than an hour and saved the game in several slots. When I save a game, I CAN see the saving time in the occupied slot. Then I try to load the game but I found that all slots are empty without saves. I try to go save game again and the previous save games ARE there in the "save game list".

Saves exist in save game list, but not in load game list. "Continue Campaign" also does not work.

I close the game and open it again. All game saves missing in load game list in the main menu. I then start a game and try to save it. ALL the pevious game saves produced in my first play are missing. Of course they are missing in load game list too.
I know that some people in my country are having this problem too.

1. Is that an incapability of the game to detect Asian character directory path?
2. Normally where are these save games in my computer?

Thanks for any attention and help in advance:)!
 
Thanks for your reply, Designer:) Some more words:

1) I still want to know the answer of the question:

Normally where will the saves be on my computer? My Document folder? Or somewhere else?

I find an "East India Company" Folder in the directory below:

C:\Users\[Chinese Character Account Name]\Documents\

There is another folder "Config" inside. But it is an empty folder with nothing. No other files or folders inside. "East India Company" folder holds this empty "Config" folder only and nothing else. Should the saves be here?:confused:


2) I notice ANOTHER problem. In the game we CAN change graphics settings and then click "OK" in the "Effect after restart game" notice box, then click "save" in the option panel to "force" it to use the new settings IMMEDIATELY (as far as I perceive I guess this is forcing it to take effect without restarting game).

But in vista, these changes will REVERT to original (going back to the settings BEFORE you do the "open the game and change settings" action) if you close the game and start it again. That means, the settings are saved and used ONLY in the current game. They are not TRULY saved permanently.
You have to EXECUTE USING ADMINISTRATOR IDENTITY(right click on game icon to choose, not just double click the icon) to go into the game and change settings and save them if you want the settings TRULY saved. Then the settings will be kept in the next games.

This should be a bug or incapability of the game. I suspect ALL other settings may suffer from the same problem. May the Designer take note of this and improve the game. Thanks!
 
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Those folders in my documents should not be empty for me they contain a user specific config file similiar to the one you can find in the EIC/Config and also the savegames are contained here. If you use the piratebay another folder will be created inside the /my documents/East India Company/Pirate Bay/ where its own configs, savegames, screenshots are saved. So yes most certainly all the issues you are having are related to those chinese characters and the game not being able to save files into those folders.
 
cherry_hinz said:
Thanks for your reply, Designer:) Some more words:

1) I still want to know the answer of the question:

Normally where will the saves be on my computer? My Document folder? Or somewhere else?

I find an "East India Company" Folder in the directory below:

C:\Users\[Chinese Character Account Name]\Documents\

There is another folder "Config" inside. But it is an empty folder with nothing. No other files or folders inside. "East India Company" folder holds this empty "Config" folder only and nothing else. Should the saves be here?:confused:


2) I notice ANOTHER problem. In the game we CAN change graphics settings and then click "OK" in the "Effect after restart game" notice box, then click "save" in the option panel to "force" it to use the new settings IMMEDIATELY (as far as I perceive I guess this is forcing it to take effect without restarting game).

But in vista, these changes will REVERT to original (going back to the settings BEFORE you do the "open the game and change settings" action) if you close the game and start it again. That means, the settings are saved and used ONLY in the current game. They are not TRULY saved permanently.
You have to EXECUTE USING ADMINISTRATOR IDENTITY(right click on game icon to choose, not just double click the icon) to go into the game and change settings and save them if you want the settings TRULY saved. Then the settings will be kept in the next games.

This should be a bug or incapability of the game. I suspect ALL other settings may suffer from the same problem. May the Designer take note of this and improve the game. Thanks!
Click to expand...

Ok, so as said there should be a Config-folder with keybinds.txt and options.txt in "East India Company" folder in your Documents.

Are you using a completely different user account when executing with administrator identity (ie. writing username and password when running as admin)? If you are, it could be that the config-files and savegames would then go to the ADMIN account's Documents-folder (this happened to me when testing a similar situation). And maybe that account is something like "admin" with no chinese characters, and that would be why it works.
And maybe the savegames also work when you run the game with admin rights (or admin account)?
If this is the case, it would verify that the problem is indeed with the chinese characters and not an administrative issue. Normally you don't need to run the game as admin of course.
Thanks for your help in advance! We will keep working on this issue. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Juho / Nitro Games
 
Replying Juho:

I have ONLY 1 account in my computer, using a single Chinese character as my account name.

I have just tried to open the game by simply double clicking the icon AND right click and run with Admin right method to test the save function. Both give the same result as depicted by me before:

You try to save game and there will be an occupied save slot in the save game list.
You try to load game and you will see all slots unoccupied.
You try to save game again and you will see the previous occupied save slot again.
You try to load game and you will see all slots unoccupied again.
You go back to main menu to test "Continue Campaign" and you will feel nothing.
You restart the game software and you can find no saves in load game list again and cannot "continue campaign".
You open a new game and try to save and you will see all slots unoccupied.
You finally go to http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/ and report your story for some help and updates.:(

Thanks for attention!
 
Just an idea...as i dont have this game i don't know if this might be the issue though. But as you are running Vista there might be that if you installed the game to the Program Files folder , Vista will not let you save stuff to this folder at all but store things in a Virtual store folder instead.
I dont rememer where this folder is , but the best way around it, is to install the game to another location, eg not in the Program files folder. That has seemed to solve certain save and loading and other problems with other games. I'l not go into the details of why this is so , but it might solve the problem though. IF you have the game in the Program Files folder though....otherwise disregard this post :)
 
anam said:
Just an idea...as i dont have this game i don't know if this might be the issue though. But as you are running Vista there might be that if you installed the game to the Program Files folder , Vista will not let you save stuff to this folder at all but store things in a Virtual store folder instead.
I dont rememer where this folder is , but the best way around it, is to install the game to another location, eg not in the Program files folder. That has seemed to solve certain save and loading and other problems with other games. I'l not go into the details of why this is so , but it might solve the problem though. IF you have the game in the Program Files folder though....otherwise disregard this post :)
Click to expand...

Thanks for your suggestion! But at this moment I would wait for a patch from developer.......I wish the game can stay in the same directory.....anyway, thanks!
 
anam said:
I dont rememer where this folder is...
Click to expand...
Usually somewhere like: "C:\Users\<your account>\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files\", and then from the program files follow the normal directory for the save games. However, EIC seems to put the save games in the "Documents" folder, as opposed to a virtual store.

This is a vista issue though, and you are quite right that it is simply better to have your game installed in a seperate "Games" folder.
cherry_hinz said:
Thanks for your suggestion! But at this moment I would wait for a patch from developer.......I wish the game can stay in the same directory.....anyway, thanks!
Click to expand...
Again though, this is due to Windows Vista and the problems when installing in the "Program Files" folder. It's not something which I think the developers are allowed to change (since it is a Vista issue). All that can be recommended is to install in a seperate "Games" folder (as anam mentioned above) if you wish to keep your saved games in the same directory.
 
Palisadoes said:
Usually somewhere like: "C:\Users\<your account>\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files\", and then from the program files follow the normal directory for the save games. However, EIC seems to put the save games in the "Documents" folder, as opposed to a virtual store.

This is a vista issue though, and you are quite right that it is simply better to have your game installed in a seperate "Games" folder.

Again though, this is due to Windows Vista and the problems when installing in the "Program Files" folder. It's not something which I think the developers are allowed to change (since it is a Vista issue). All that can be recommended is to install in a seperate "Games" folder (as anam mentioned above) if you wish to keep your saved games in the same directory.
Click to expand...

Thanks for this advice.
I now wait for some more news from the Designer or Tech people of the game. If they think that the Asian character problem is not going to be solved in some patch and I should uninstall the game, retart computer and install it again in another folder, I will do so.:)
 
cherry_hinz said:
Thanks for this advice.
I now wait for some more news from the Designer or Tech people of the game. If they think that the Asian character problem is not going to be solved in some patch and I should uninstall the game, retart computer and install it again in another folder, I will do so.:)
Click to expand...

Hi!
The game has a feature that if it cannot install to your Documents, it will use the game installation folder for savegames and config, so the problem just might be the privileges for that folder. I created a test-user with chinese characters and had the same issue, but in my case the game could use the game installation folder (which indeed was in program files).
So, we will be working on this, but in the meanwhile you could adjust the security settings of the installation folder, so you wouldn't need to reinstall.

1. Go to "Computer" and find your installation folder.
2. Right click on the folder and select "Properties" (the last one in the list)
3. select "Security"
4. press the "Advanced"-button
5. There are many user-groups there to edit but you can just select "Everyone" or "Users" and press the "edit.." button.
6. You probably have to press another "edit"-button after this :)
7. Then just use the checkboxes to allow everything to be done to that folder. Then you have to apply the changes and maybe even restart the computer.

Hopefully this will sort it out and you can keep playing!
 
NG-Juho said:
Hi!
The game has a feature that if it cannot install to your Documents, it will use the game installation folder for savegames and config, so the problem just might be the privileges for that folder. I created a test-user with chinese characters and had the same issue, but in my case the game could use the game installation folder (which indeed was in program files).
So, we will be working on this, but in the meanwhile you could adjust the security settings of the installation folder, so you wouldn't need to reinstall.

1. Go to "Computer" and find your installation folder.
2. Right click on the folder and select "Properties" (the last one in the list)
3. select "Security"
4. press the "Advanced"-button
5. There are many user-groups there to edit but you can just select "Everyone" or "Users" and press the "edit.." button.
6. You probably have to press another "edit"-button after this :)
7. Then just use the checkboxes to allow everything to be done to that folder. Then you have to apply the changes and maybe even restart the computer.

Hopefully this will sort it out and you can keep playing!
Click to expand...


Thanks for the tips! I also have some test results to tell you:)
I followed your instructions and apply the total control rights of the folder "C:\Program Files\Paradox Interactive\East India Company" to "[ComputerName]\Users". I tried to open the game both with AND without Admin Identity and do the same "Save and load game test procedures" as described in my posts and replies before. Same thing happens.

BUT this time after I found that the load game list has all unused slots and go back to main menu and tried the "Continue Campaign" button, the game loads. It loads the game with the big "East India Company logo on many coins" background and when it reaches about 80% of the bar, CTD happens. This happens in both cases of with or without Admin identity.

Saving games seems to be failed again. And I don't know why the game can load something when I press "Continue Campaign".

P.S. Now I revert the rights of the folder to the situation before the change. I open the game again, start game, save in a slot, try load and see nothing to load, quit to menu, "Continue Campaign" and I find that the game freezes (still showing the game menu but freezed, music going on) with a typical "Error Message sound". I press CTRL+Esc to go to Desktop and close the game after clicking "OK" in the Runtime Error MessageBox.

I guess that the game has some bugs in loading saves (I see this descibed by another post) and handling Asian characters?
 
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NG-Juho said:
Hi!
The game has a feature that if it cannot install to your Documents, it will use the game installation folder for savegames and config, so the problem just might be the privileges for that folder. I created a test-user with chinese characters and had the same issue, but in my case the game could use the game installation folder (which indeed was in program files).
So, we will be working on this, but in the meanwhile you could adjust the security settings of the installation folder, so you wouldn't need to reinstall.

1. Go to "Computer" and find your installation folder.
2. Right click on the folder and select "Properties" (the last one in the list)
3. select "Security"
4. press the "Advanced"-button
5. There are many user-groups there to edit but you can just select "Everyone" or "Users" and press the "edit.." button.
6. You probably have to press another "edit"-button after this :)
7. Then just use the checkboxes to allow everything to be done to that folder. Then you have to apply the changes and maybe even restart the computer.

Hopefully this will sort it out and you can keep playing!
Click to expand...

I have exactly the same problem and i do not use Chinese characters. So is NOT an incapability of the game to detect Asian character directory path!
These tips don't work for me too.

(i have Windows XP Pro SP2)
 
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Also I have noticed, that in empty loading game menu, last 2 save slots are moved a little down. I mean spacing between drawed first, second and other loading slots are different that last two ones, like they are another group in the loading interface. This thing looks tied to this broken loading logic.
And there was no such problem in the demo on the same computer.
 
Hi all,
this is a problem we are still working on. In the meanwhile you can try some of the following solutions:

1) If you have chinese characters or any other special characters in your Windows username, try to play the game from another profile with just normal a-z letters in the name (I know this is really time-consuming to try)

2) Delete the East India Company folder from your Documents (or My Documents) -folder. It might be corrupted. If there's no options.txt and keybinds.txt in the Config folder under East India Company in your Documents, then you know that the game cannot write the savegames there and you can try number 3.

3) Install the game to somewhere else than Program files (I know this is also time-consuming). It might be that if the game cannot write the settings and savegames to your Documents. Then it tries to write them to the installation folder, but it might be that Windows prevents this.

Sorry for the problems and we will keep on working on them.

Juho
 
there is more to it

As posted elsewhere I also have the same problem....

And a related problem is that I have installed the game initially on my desktop, and then since I was gonna travel to my laptop... I copied over my saved games from one to the other..... and ..... well the game could not find them....

well then I restarted a game, saved many times over and then patch 2 came along... I installed the patch and now those 7 saved games I have in my directory, the program does not see them for some reason
 
Hi,i am new here.İ have a same promlem,i can't load my saved games.
İ use win XP.
But tihis is very very important game problem that must had to be fix first.
Because this problem makes a good game unplayable.
why to play if you can't save or load?
And everybody knows this game takes time to reach some stages in game.

İn my computer i use C: for windows
O: for games
and P: for programs

İ installed this game to O: like evey game.And my computer has only one user its me :)

İ looked at C:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME\Documents\East India Company


in the folder there is a sub-folder named Config.but there is nothing in Config folder.İ think this is the problem.

İ also tried Data execution prevention but nothing changed..
 
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