Galactic Civilizations 3 Will Not Start

from Stardock Forums

Fresh install of the game, I click on play on the stardock app, and NOTHING happens, no crash report, no screen. It just does not start the game itself.  I have searched using "Game will not start, Game does not start,"  NOTHING comes up that even matches this issue. I am a long time stardock user and gamer.  I cannot remember the last time the game ran.

Ok what I have tried, starting from the exe under the game directory, I get the admin permissions window, the  it opens the stardock game app.  windows 10 build 1903 x64.  Have also tried disabling the real-time scanning from windows anti-virus.  No change.

Anyone have any ideas??

Nichog

155,404 views 20 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Some basic questions-

Should we assume that with a "fresh install" that the game was previously working on your system?

Is it a steam license?

At start are you even getting the stardock preloader?

Reply #2 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Game has not been installed on this build before, so yes it is a fresh installation. No, purchased the game originally via stardock, have CD's for collector's edition. Yes the preloader appears, after some digging found out game is NOT creating the saved game directory.  there is a exe,  Stardock CrashLog64(32bit). Stops all processes.  Again, the game is not creating a folder under my documents\my games\.  I will try manually creating the directory to see if it goes any further, without the directory no logs will be saved or created

Nichog

So far no joy with manually adding dirctories

 

Star Control: Origins
Reply #3 from Stardock.net Forums Top

Did you install from Steam or CD?

Reply #4 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Steam. multiple times, may have to drag out my cd's. Nothing I have tried up to now has worked.  How do you get support now a days with this game?

Reply #5 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Is your computer, or operating system 32 bit.

Reply #6 from Stardock Forums Top

64 bit windows 10 pro.  motherboard is a ROG B-350-F Gaming, 16 gig ddr4 3000 memory, R9-380X video card with 4 gig of ddr5 vram, Samsung 870evo SSD games are on a WD Black 7200rpm SATA 6 drive.

All with updated drivers.

Reply #7 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting nichog, reply 2

Game has not been installed on this build before, so yes it is a fresh installation. No, purchased the game originally via stardock, have CD's for collector's edition. Yes the preloader appears, after some digging found out game is NOT creating the saved game directory.  there is a exe,  Stardock CrashLog64(32bit). Stops all processes.  Again, the game is not creating a folder under my documents\my games\.  I will try manually creating the directory to see if it goes any further, without the directory no logs will be saved or created

Nichog

So far no joy with manually adding dirctories

 

 

I'm assuming that you can create a directory "my documents\My Games\GalCiv3", but that's not helping and the game still doesn't install correctly. 

If you have the Crusade expansion, you'll need a new directory - "my documents\My Games\GC3Crusade" - GC3 moved all the work items there since that expansion, if you have it.

The directory structure under either of those is beefy, and weighs in around 10MB, and that's without saved games.

Hope this helps

Reply #8 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Um,had a thought.  The game will need to be able to write to the "...\My Games\G*" location- if it can't, that's the base cause of your issue.  Not sure why that might be though.

Reply #9 from Stardock Forums Top

I am able to manually create any folder in that directory. There should be NO reason for it NOT to be able to do that.  I have not been able to find any permissions that can cause it. As well as the other 50 or so games installed do not have any issues accessing that directory structure. Did not create the GC3Crusade directory, will try that

Reply #10 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Goto the base games Directory, locate StardockLauncher.exe, rename it NoLauncher.exe, locate GC3.exe and rename to StardockLauncher.exe. Start the game and see what happens.

If it fails to load, goto Documents\My Games\GC3Crusade find the debug.err file post it to dropbox or onedrive and post the link here.

Reply #11 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Is there an error message when the game wont start.

Reply #12 from Stardock.net Forums Top

Carrying on from this thread. When you say you can launch Sins of a Solar Empire, does the launcher come up first or do you launch it directly from the exe? My current thinking is the launcher might be the issue.

Follow Horemvore's advice below and report back :)

Quoting Horemvore, reply 10

Goto the base games Directory, locate StardockLauncher.exe, rename it NoLauncher.exe, locate GC3.exe and rename to StardockLauncher.exe. Start the game and see what happens.

If it fails to load, goto Documents\My Games\GC3Crusade find the debug.err file post it to dropbox or onedrive and post the link here.

Reply #13 from Stardock Forums Top

I have tried it both ways, if I use the launcher it reappears and the game does not start, using the GC3 exe, just causes the launcher to appear.  There is NO Log files being created, nor did that directory exist until yesterday when I manually created it. As far as the DirectX is concerned you can only have it verify the files are there, it no longer does a REINSTALLATION.

Will try those steps sometime today and let you know

Reply #14 from Stardock Forums Top

Well that worked, now can someone please inform me as to why this is happening?

Thanks all for your suggestions

Nichog

Reply #15 from Stardock.net Forums Top

Quoting nichog, reply 14

Well that worked, now can someone please inform me as to why this is happening?

Thanks all for your suggestions

Nichog

What worked exactly?

Reply #16 from Stardock Forums Top

renaming the stardock launcher to Nolauncher, then renaming the DC3.exe to the StardockLauncher.exe.  Game has not had and issue since.

Reply #17 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Glad ya got it working :)

Reply #18 from Stardock Forums Top

So much for that, something happened in the directory, when I clicked on the shortcut I have on my desktop to start the game, bang-o same as before, when I went in to the directory there was another StardockLauncher.exe dated earlier than the GC3.exe that was there before.  I have uninstalled the game again, will see if the trick still works on reinstall

Reply #19 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

You do not need to reinstall the game after every patch, just go throught the renaming process again. Reinstalling like you do is just degrading your hardware components faster :)

Reply #20 from Stardock Forums Top

My question is Why does this happen at all?