[Guide] Backing Up / Migrating City of Heroes

Backing Up / Migrating City of Heroes

This guide assumes that you have enough working knowledge of Windows to be able to Drag/Drop, Open/Close, and Edit files. I will discuss a couple registry related things, but the instructions are pretty straight forward. The purpose of the guide is to give a revised method for backing up &/or migrating your installation of City of Heroes. In the past this was rather problematic because of things like checksum files and read-only properties, but for once the Launcher is on our side! The most important thing to note about this guide is that I do Not have access to an intel Mac, so this will be for Windows/Bootcamp users only.

Step One: Data Gathering

The first thing you need to do is to find out where you have the game installed. You need to find the following folders: City of Heroes & Launcher. By default, I believe that they are both installed to: C:\Program Files\City of Heroes & C:\Program Files\NCSoft\Launcher. The locations should be similar in Vista and Windows 7, but I think they’re in C:\Program Files(x86)\. The following is where I have them installed so that’ll be what I reference here:

D:\Games\NCSoft\Launcher (Houses the Launcher)
D:\Games\NCSoft\City of Heroes (Houses the Live version of the game)
D:\Games\NCSoft\CoHBeta (Houses the Beta version of the game)
D:\Games\NCSoft\CoHTest (Houses the Test version of the game)

Once you know where everything is, then you need to figure out how &/or where you’re going to back them up. If you decide on going the DVD-R option (because CD’s would be ridiculous :-p), then you need to keep in mind that while you may be able to squeeze say the Launcher & City of Heroes onto a single disc and CoHTest onto its own disc, the likelihood of getting CoHBeta to fit onto a single disc is going to be iffy. As it stands right now my Launcher & City of Heroes folders take up about 3.8Gb, CoHTest sits at 4.02Gb, and CoHBeta tops them all at 4.97Gb. Keep in mind that a single layer DVD-R can only hold 4.7Gb of data. This is why I highly suggest backing up to an external hard drive if you don’t already.

Note: For those that use any of the 3rd party addon content like custom maps, icons, Mids, etc; the impact of the related file sizes to your backup are negligible at most. You’re more likely to have more Mb in screenshots, custom costumes/powers, AE content, etc than those.

I almost forgot about the Desktop Icons! I’m not sure what your system looks like, but I have atleast the following three game related icons: NCSoft Launcher, Titan Sentinel, and Mids Hero & Villain Designer. You will want to include these in your backup so that you can simply throw them back on the desktop during the restore.

Step Two: Backing Up

Once you decide on your backup method, then it’s simply a matter of copying the folders mentioned above. In my case, all I have to do is copy the entire contents of the D:\Games\NCSoft folder as it houses all related game content even my addons.

Note: For those who use Mids, by default it saves your character files in My Documents\Hero & Villain Builds so you’ll want to copy that folder as well.

Keep in mind that when it comes time to restore/migrate these files you must retain the original file locations in order for this to work properly. It is possible to change the file locations and still have it work, but it requires a number of corrections to a file we’re going to look at later. This is beyond the scope of this guide so I’m not going to go into that.

Game Settings:

Ever wonder how to keep those pesky graphics settings you finally had all worked out the last time you played? Well here’s the quick way to back those up too! Again, this assumes that you are not going to change the location of your installation during the restore. Windows UAC may ask for your approval (gotta love that built-in ‘protection’ Vista/7 have), but we’re not doing anything bad/harmful so go ahead and tell it yes.

Make sure to follow these instructions to the letter!

1. Hold the Windows Key and press R. This will bring up the Run command;
2. Type regedit and hit enter. This will bring up the registry editor, but we’re not going to be editing just backing up a few keys;
3. Hold the Control Key and press F. This will bring up the Find command within the registry editor;
4. Type Cryptic in the box and hit Find Next. This will go to the key that houses the game’s general settings that it loads on startup;
5. Right Click the cursor on the word Cryptic. This will bring up the list of options you have available for this key;
6. Choose the Export option and it will give you a window that will let you both Name the file that you are exporting as well as choose where to export it too. A good place to export this would be within the NCSoft/Launcher folder that you’re backing up. I would name the file something like Cryptic just to make it easier to remember. The resulting file will read Cryptic.reg. Note: Make sure that the Export Range is set to Selected Branch otherwise you’ll be backing up the Whole registry! The Selected Branch should read something like HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Cryptic and shouldn’t be changed;
7. Close the registry window and you’re all set!

It’s important to note that while you don’t have to follow this step in order for this to work; if you don’t make a copy of these keys, then you’ll end up with the default graphics settings when you get to step four.

Step Three: Restore/Migration

Ok, so at this point you’ve backed up the folders as talked about above, you’ve got your system otherwise the way you want it, and you’re ready to enjoy a simple drag/drop experience. Keeping in mind that you must retain the same file paths that you had before in order for this to go smoothly. Simply goto the location that the files need to be (D:\Games\NCSoft\) and Drag/Drop them from your backup drive to their new home. Next, place your icons onto the desktop. Finally, Right Click the Cryptic.reg file you created and choose the Merge option. Windows will ask if you’re sure that you want to add the information to the existing registry and the UAC may popup as well, but it’s ok to go ahead and tell them both ok.

Step Four: Play!

If you followed all of that to the letter, then all you have to do now is run the launcher shortcut that you copied back to the desktop!

Tech Notes:

The launcher uses a combination of the GamesAddendum.xml file located in the D:\Games\NCSoft\Launcher\Config\Default folder and any settings listed in the registry to create a combined set of game settings updating both locations accordingly.

EDIT: I've found that if you follow the steps as listed, then the launcher retains your settings, but the game loses the UI settings so don't forget those Registry files or you'll have to re-edit them ingame (the first time you re-enter the game).

General Notes:

This process results in a backup that is current as of the moment you copy the files to the backup drive. Any patches that are pushed out between that moment and the moment that you restore them will be triggered to download when you run the launcher post-restore/migration.

I hope this helps people understand the new way to do things and how easy it has become thanks to the launcher!

Originally Posted by PapaSlade Rangle's right....this is fun.