Important note for Impulse users

from GalCiv2 Forums
When installing the TA expansion from Impulse, it chose to add a 'Stardock\TotalGaming\' path to the end of the path at which all of my other GCII stuff was installed.  This had the effect of breaking some of the game's relative paths.  I found that by uninstalling the whole thing and installing it all to the proper folder, my TA install worked much much better.

So for those of you that are having images not showing up and 'string not found' errors:
Try checking that GCII, DA, and TA all have the same root path.
18,458 views 10 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Hmm....maybe that was worth checking out. The people with the "String not found" bug, have they installed their game via SDC or Impulse.

Morten
Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
The String Not Found error most likely has to do with a Vista issue. See here.

The Impulse issue he's speaking about I've referred to in more than a few places on this forum. It generally has to do with Impulse not having the proper PATH and EXE variables for the expansion packs. You can manually fix it by reading my reply #10 here. Follow the same guidelines for Twilight. But supposedly the latest build of Impulse fixes the issue (see Zargon0225's message at the end of that thread).

-HM
Elemental: Reforged
Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Just for the record, I actually tried that fix Hollow Man and it did not resolve my issue. I had to change the base path in Impulse manually (the default was wrong) in order to get it to work.

This pathing problem also prevented TALauncher from running the editors (the buttons were greyed out), caused some game content to not display correctly, and other small issues.
Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Yes, Impulse chooses to not use the exact path you specify in the case of Twilight. Pretty annoying.
Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Impulse is, sadly, always going to add the "Stardock\TotalGaming..." etc. to your path, so when installing, you have to be sure to tell Impulse to point a few levels higher than where you THINK the expansions need to be installed.

So let's say that you have Impulse checked to prompt for install folder. And you point it directly to "C:\Program Files\Stardock\TotalGaming\GalCiv2\Twilight" Then what Impulse will do is install it in:

C:\Program Files\Stardock\TotalGaming\GalCiv2\Twilight\Stardock\TotalGaming\GalCiv2\Twilight

Which is clearly wrong. What you need to do is tell it to install to "C:\Program Files".

From my PoV, since this is an expansion, Impulse shouldn't ask at all where Twilight and DA goes. It should just figure out where GalCiv2 is and install accordingly. But it does, and it isn't clear what the exact location will be, so it screws people up.

This is in addition to the fact that initial installs of Dark Avatar way back don't put the proper keys in the registry.

-HM
Reply #6 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Would probably be helpful to post about this in the Impulse Beta forum so the Impulse devs can address it :)
Reply #7 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Just to be clear:

In my case, I did not select a custom install folder in impulse, but let it use the default it chose, which turned out to be incorrect. There were no registry keys for TA, and DA's were correct and accurate (I double checked them).

Would probably be helpful to post about this in the Impulse Beta forum so the Impulse devs can address it


Look at Restore From Archive Kryo. It would also be nice if the other issues in that post were acknowledged (or even read). I appreciate Hollow Man's quick response and help, but the devs could actually fix the problem instead of helping to work around it.
Reply #8 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Basically, the whole installation process for Impulse is screwed up. If you are downloading the files, and don't choose to have it ask you, it will (theoretically) install the GalCiv2 stuff to where you have specified in Impulse (in Preferences - Folders, then what you have in "My Games" in the "Install Location" pull-down). And THEN it will append \Stardock\TotalGaming\GalCiv2 to the end of that.

Whether Impulse at any time is smart enough to look at registry keys or prior installations to choose a better path is unknown to me at this point. That's just my experience from running the install one or two times by downloading, plus restoring an Impulse archive (where it NEVER asks for the location, even if that box is checked in Impulse).

I have not run nearly enough tests to be sure EXACTLY what the darn thing is doing in every instance. :) All I know is that to be sure the darn thing works, the best thing is to leave the all the defaults, and install ALL GalCiv2 stuff from scratch with Impulse. This will make ensure everything goes in same directory structure (C:\Program Files\Stardock\TotalGaming\GalCiv2, and DarkAvatar and Twilight folders will get created below that) and all registry keys are created.

Which is a pretty bad solution for those of us who have multiple drives and partitions.

-HM
Reply #9 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Impulse is, sadly, always going to add the "Stardock\TotalGaming..." etc. to your path, so when installing, you have to be sure to tell Impulse to point a few levels higher than where you THINK the expansions need to be installed.


Not helpful. I don't want any Stardock or Totalgaming folders on that drive. ;)
Reply #10 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Nothing can be done about that until they tweak Impulse. As near as I can tell, for GalCiv2, it will ALWAYS add that junk to the path.

I have always only changed the root level of game installations, but not all the "wonderful" embedded folders publishers love to tack on, because I don't trust them to realize I may have stripped them away if I ever need to do some sort of update in the future. As evidenced by this whole Impulse fiasco.

But yeah, we should be able to say: "Install GalCiv2 directly into "E:\Games\GalCiv2", and it does it.

-HM