patch and NAM problem

[JoaoBarbosa]

Hello, i hope it's not a repost. I dind't found and i'm sorry if i duplicate. I bought via internet the Rush Hour. I'm trying to install CAM and NAM, but bouth need the upgrade the patch. I download the file and execute. Theory it is everything ok, but... when i try to install CAM and NAM still saying i need to upgrade the patch. I hope someone can hell me. Thank you in advance, JB

[Tarkus]

Did you buy a disc copy of Rush Hour, or did you end up buying a digital copy of SC4 Deluxe (which includes Rush Hour)?  If it's a disc copy, it sounds like you may have picked the wrong SKU for the patch for your particular copy of the game.  Going into the game's installation directory (for disc copies, this is usually C:\Program Files (x86)\Maxis\SimCity 4 or something similar), there should be a subfolder called "Sku_data", which would tell you up front which one of the five SKUs your game is.  Additionally, there's no harm in just trying all five SKU versions of the patch until one works.

If you bought a digital download copy, with the exception of the retail copy from Origin, all of them out there are pre-patched and shouldn't be giving you an issue.  Origin's retail digital copy, however, is unpatched and unpatchable.

-Alex

[JoaoBarbosa]

Hello

i bought in official EA site :-(

[Tarkus]

I'm sorry to hear that.  The fact that Origin--the first-party distributor--is still saddling people with what is actually a defective copy of the game, is completely inexcusable.  

If you're enterprising enough to deal with Origin Customer Support, you may be able to get a refund, even if you're beyond the return period for the game.  I've been detailing this sad state of affairs over on my blog, SimTarkus, for three years now--they actually fixed it at one point, after the media picked up my efforts, but reverted back when no one was looking/holding them accountable.

-Alex

[Alan_Waters]

I bought a digital version of the game on GOG.com. The game is already with the last patch.

[JoaoBarbosa]

Thanks... i will wrote to EA. They must have a solution

[art128]

Thanks... i will wrote to EA. They must have a solution

Yeah, giving your money back. DO NOT accept anything else and certainly not a "free" game as compensation, else you get scammed big time by EA. They sold you a defective game, it's only natural to get your money back.
Once you have your money back, get it on either steam or gog. both are fine, only steam has the steam software with it (game library, shop, instant chat)

But please, for real, do not try to seek a "solution" from EA. They won't give you any. Just follow what the others did and get your money back.

[Wiimeiser]

At this point it appears the EA CEO who took over during the second expansion's development and scrapped it is insisting the patches never existed. There is no other explanation for this level of "evil"; the CEO of EA is outright denying the patches even exist and is only putting them up to save face. What I think might be needed is a good old fashioned coup.

[Tarkus]

While Origin Customer Support agents have been known to issue preposterous denials that there's anything wrong with the Origin retail copy of SC4, or that they have "access" to a properly-patched version, I highly doubt it's due to a decree from one of the company's top executives.  It's likely just good old ignorance and lack of care.

Additionally, EA had the same CEO from 1991 to 2007.  The only thing I'm aware of regarding an EP2 for SimCity 4 is an interview GameSpy did with Will Wright in May 2003 for E3, when he said "probably so, almost definitely" as to there being further expansion packs for SC4 (rough audio archive here--the question is at 20:38).  A year later in May 2004, however, he made his infamous "SimCity kind of worked itself into a corner" comment.  There's no evidence I've seen that it ever got much beyond Wright's initial comment, and even if it did, the idea got scrapped pretty quickly, and before the SC4 modding/custom content world turned into what we know.

-Alex

[JoaoBarbosa]

Many thanks all of you... i will find a solution. Be positive :-)

[mgb204]

At this point it appears the EA CEO who took over during the second expansion's development and scrapped it is insisting the patches never existed. There is no other explanation for this level of "evil"; the CEO of EA is outright denying the patches even exist and is only putting them up to save face. What I think might be needed is a good old fashioned coup.

Where are you getting this information from? My understanding is that EA simply don't care to comment about it, not to mention their support staff only know what a computer tells them. I don't think this is "evil", most likely incompetence made worse by a failure to listen to feedback.

But why should they care? For every person who demands a refund and makes EA take notice of the problem, there has to be thousands of paying customers who don't. So why bother fixing something, if you can still collect all the money? As consumers we should be forcing the change, because the moment everyone asks for a refund over this, things would change very quickly. Same with the last time around, simply having it publicly noted how appalling EA's version was, proved sufficient to embarrass them into fixing the problem. Given the press won't help us out and customers don't care enough to hold them to account, they can literally do whatever they like.

Many thanks all of you... i will find a solution. Be positive :-)

The point is that you won't, because there isn't one. Your only solution is to get another copy from another vendor, EA simply will not fix this. I'd argue you should get a refund out of principle from EA first, but that will cost you a good chunk of your time dealing with EA support first. However, once you get to the point that they realise you are not going away, they will refund you just to save the costs of continuing to talk to you. Wonderful service that, should tell exactly what EA think of their customers.

[Tarkus]

The point is that you won't, because there isn't one. Your only solution is to get another copy from another vendor, EA simply will not fix this. I'd argue you should get a refund out of principle from EA first, but that will cost you a good chunk of your time dealing with EA support first. However, once you get to the point that they realise you are not going away, they will refund you just to save the costs of continuing to talk to you. Wonderful service that, should tell exactly what EA think of their customers.

I would think that if they had to give out a bunch of refunds in a short period of time, that might actually prompt them to do something.  Money talks.

Also, crazy idea . . . I started poking around the official page on simcity.com for SC4.  At the bottom of the page, it does appear there's a link for a "patch".  Having just downloaded it out of curiosity, the file name on it is "UPDATE-SKU1-TO-P2.exe".  The file name on the original EP1 Update 1 patch for SKU1 is "UPDATE_SKU1_TO_P1_B638.exe".  I don't know when it went up (doing "Page Info" shows a date of March 29, 2017), but the file name and the inclusion of "P2" instead of "P1" suggests this could be a different patch.  I'd say it's worth a shot.

Edit: After opening the file out of further curiosity, it asked about patching to "build 272".  1.0.272.0 is actually the version number for patched vanilla (non-Deluxe/non-Rush Hour) copies of the game.  The filename matches that of the SKU1 patch for vanilla here on our EA Support section on SC4D.  EA's selling Deluxe and giving out the patch for vanilla.  That's cute.

-Alex

[mgb204]

This is what's most stupid, clearly they don't really understand the game well enough, which actually is pretty understandable. I mean, you wouldn't expect them to know the ins and outs of all these legacy products they must have. If only they'd provide a means to actually talk to someone or get the necessary information to those who could fix this. That's really most of the battle here. It's so easily fixed, it beggars belief really, In all likelihood this isn't even intentional on EA's part, they just keep forgetting to include the patches. But boy is it really, really hard to find someone who can assist with fixing it to everyone's benefit. Time was I would have been able to contact their PR dept. and get this sorted, just try finding anything but a Twitter feed no one is answering. And simply telling EA support doesn't really get the information to the right people. That's a typical example of how large companies just aren't adaptable enough to handle simple problems. Yet, as you rightly point out, if a sufficient number of refunds pop up on the computer, someone would look into the problem.

[Wiimeiser]

It could very well have been that the developers who deployed the Origin DRM found the vanilla patch, saw it didn't work, then just assumed the game was the latest version. As for the redeeming CD keys and the temporary patched version, maybe that was a different team and they had a row or something, who knows at this point.

[JoaoBarbosa]

Hello, i think was a witchcraft :-)

I decided to try again and... SURPRISE! It's ok for NAM.

The CAM still with a problem, but the NAM is working

Maybe is a question of trying again and again

Thank you all of you for everything :-)


kind regards,
JB