Black Hole Where City Tile Once Stood - Any Ideas?

[dfnva]

Hi all,

My name is Dan and I have a problem with a region which I have been making a CJ about over at Simtropolis.

I saved a city (Deltown) in my region and had a CTD issue which resolved itself, the city came back and the save was successful. However, when I exited to region view, I saw this:



There was a blank space, a black hole, where Deltown once stood. There's nothing to click there, or anything, so I can't rebuild the city tile.

Further investigation found that the Deltown city file still exists in my region folder as well as the correct, uncorrupted, config.bmp file:





I restarted SC4 several times, and still had the same situation.

Does anybody know if I'll be able to reload this city tile, which successfully saved, and if not, whether I can build something new on that missing tile, or will the black hole remain there forever?

Thanks much for the ideas. I appreciate it.

-Dan

[sim-al2]

Now that's distrurbing. Have you tried importingthe city into a same size slot in another region? Just copy the city file in the Regions/Downloads Folder, start SC4 click a same size tile in a new region, click the icon next to the trash can button, and point to the .SC4 file in the downloads section. The city file maybe corrupted, but it's random how it left a hole in the map.
What was your CTD issue? Details would help....

Edit: Why is the file name Deltown, etc?

[dfnva]

Sim Al,

Thanks for that suggestion. I did as you said and when I loaded "Deltown,etc." into the new region, a 'black hole' was created, so there's a corruption with the Deltown file. However, there is now a blank tile to build Deltown anew in the Winchester region now.

Obviously, the Deltown file is corrupted, is there anyway to uncorrupt it?

The CTD occurred during the course of saving (ironically it was the 10th time I saved it during my gameplay yesterday). However, SC4 was able to come back as it was running on the tray at the bottom of my computer, so I clicked on it, and it was back and fine. I took pictures of Deltown and then, upon entering region view, found the black hole.

Its called "Deltown,etc." because the tile encompasses Deltown, some rural areas, and some suburban sprawl from Winchester and Piedmont Heights.

Thanks again for the suggestion.
-Dan

[sim-al2]

ahhh.... now the name makes sense. I don't know if there is a way to "uncorrupt" it,however. I guess that means you'll have to start over,sadly. Just remember to back up frequently!

[SC4BOY]

No there is no way.. unfortunately SC4 does not save a "backup" of your city/region.. that must be your responsibility.. unless you have a backup it is lost.. This does not happen often, but again it is not RARE.. I've had it happen twice in about 8 years.. normally it is caused by a plugin conflict, but at the end of the day, I don't think anyone truly knows what causes it..  so take a lesson from it (as well as others reading this thread) .. KEEP BACK UPS

[CaptCity]

I've also seen it suggested that if there are any backgroud programs running that acquire the system's focus during a save, corruption could result. Just a thought...

[FrankU]

Last week I found a utility that does make these backups for you.
It is designed by HandsOn and is called SC4Watcher.
You will find it on this site:
http://www.eu-contractor.com/organizer/organizer.html#topofpage

I downloaded it, but have not used it yet. It looks great though.