Where does CnC3 store its save games?

[drizzt81]

I am curious where CnC3 stores its save games. I run as a non-administrative user and I am currently getting an error when trying to save my game. I'd like to know where the save games are located so that I can adjust permissions as required.

thanks in advance.

 

[k1pp3r]

I'm not positive, but i think C&C stores them in the My docs\my games\(game name) of the user that ran the game.

 

[Sanitarium]

In Vista click your user name in the start menu then open the Saved Games folder.

Or..

C:\Users\USERNAME\Saved Games\Command & Conquer 3 Tiberium Wars

 

[drizzt81]

thanks guys. Apparently, it does not work well together with folder redirection.

Hmm Filemon tells me that CnC3 does something in the install directory. It creates a subtree beneath ``RetailEXE'' that begins with my Domainname and then eventually goes down to something line:

<domainname>\<sharename>\<username>\My Documents\Command & Conquer 3 Tiberium Wars\Profiles\<Current CnC3 Profile Name>\SaveGames

Interestingly, all the creation commands work fine, but it does not save the data in there. It is rather confusing.

 

[shudman]

drizzt81 - did you manage to resolve this, as I have the same issue. Turning of MyDocs redirection does actually fix the issue, but not ideal. I have tried setting a permanent user variable for %userprofile%, but that does help either

 

[Hypernova]

Saved games are stored at My documents while the record of Intel and Movies you unlocked are stored under Doc and Settings/ app data as far as I remember.

 

[drizzt81]

Saved games are stored at My documents while the record of Intel and Movies you unlocked are stored under Doc and Settings/ app data as far as I remember.

Well you are partially correct. Let me reproduce my ``enlightening'' EA Customer Service interaction:

HI,

I cannot save my game. I get an nondescriptive error message. Looking at the output from Filemon, it seems that the game has no problem creating the subtree
e:\Games\CnC3\RetailEXE\1.0\<domainname>\<sharename>\<username>\My Documents\Command & Conquer 3 Tiberium Wars\Profiles\<Current CnC3 Profile Name>\SaveGames
Where Domainname is the name of my domain, sharename is the name of the share to which the group policy redirects ``my documents''. I have full permissions to modify these directories.

Their response:

Hello,

Thank you for contacting Electronic Arts. I’m sorry for the difficulty that you are having with the game.

Unfortunately the game has fixed its save games in my documents folder and unfortunately it cant be redirected.

Should you require further assistance about this or any Electronic Arts games in the future please visit our website and review our extensive Self Help knowledgebase (http://support.ea.com)

Marc C.
EA Tech Support

Let's note a couple of things here:

• I hinted that I am not a complete idiot by explaining to the CS-representative that I know how to use Filemon
• I explained that the output of this tool shows that the save game location does not get ANY access.

The response that I received is -most likely- a cut & paste job from the FAQ. Clearly, Mr. Marc C. is unable to understand that I do not wish to redirect the savegame location, but rather am taking advantage of a Windows Active Directory feature that I would judge to be ``not all that uncommon''.

My solution to this issue was to play as local administrator (via Runas). I am open to hearing if anyone has solved the problem. I wouldn't mind hearing about other tools that I should use as diagnostic. Maybe take a peek with RegMon to see whether the game looks at the registry for folder redirection?

On a related note, I saw an interesting comment over at El Reg talking about ``dumbing down error messages''. I think that troubleshooting this issue would be so much easier for me and EA, if their error message was somewhat descriptive.