Game saves on the site¶

A player of the game attaches a save file to the page of their game, and the site reads it and matches the players in the file to the seats in the game by itself. An attached save gives the nations that were actually played and the figures for the charts; the players the site didn't recognize, you confirm yourself in the “Who is this?” block.

On this page: Steps, Where to find the file, Rules and exceptions, The “Who is this?” block, Fixing a match, What can go wrong

Participants¶

Player of the game — someone who has a seat in the game: the only one who can upload a save and match players.
Signed-in visitor without a seat in the game — sees the attached save but can't change it.
Guest — a visitor who hasn't signed in: doesn't see the game page, and the site offers to sign in with Discord.
Site — reads the file, compares it with the game, attaches the save and suggests a match.

The game page opens from Games on the site; for its general description, see Game page.

Steps¶

sequenceDiagram
    participant G as Player
    participant S as Site
    G->>S: picks a .Civ5Save file
    Note over S: “Reading the save…”
    S-->>G: attaches the save and shows the “Attached save” card
    alt the site didn't recognize one of the players
        S-->>G: shows the “Who is this?” block
        G->>S: confirms or picks another seat
    end
    S-->>G: shows the match strip

Open the game page. The game must be “In progress” or “Finished”, and you must have a seat in it. While there's no save, the game header and the empty “No save attached yet” block have an “Attach save” button. Once a save is attached, the banner under the header gets an “Upload a later save” button.
Pick the file. All of these buttons open the .Civ5Save file picker. Under the button is the hint “Civilization V · Brave New World save file (.Civ5Save), up to 15 MB”.
Wait for it to be read. The page shows “Reading the save…” and the hint “This usually takes a second or two.”, and scrolls to this block by itself.
Check the card. An accepted save lands as an “Attached save” card right away, with no separate confirmation. If there are players without a match, the page scrolls to the “Who is this?” block.

On the server the CivBot site works with, you can also send a save to the game thread in Discord, without opening the site. See Save in the game thread.

Where to find the file¶

Autosaves of multiplayer games are in the Civilization V folder on your computer. The “Where is the save?” hint, with the path for your system and a “Copy” button, is described in the section about finding a save on the Save inspector page. It sits under the button in the empty block, under a file refusal and in the banner.

Rules and exceptions¶

Only players of the game can upload a save¶

The upload and fix buttons are visible only to those who have a seat in the game. A visitor without a seat sees an empty block with the text “You are not one of the players of this game, so you cannot attach it.” and the advice “Ask any player of the game, or wait for them to attach it”. In the match strip, such a visitor sees a lock with the text “Only players of this game can change a match”. A moderator without a seat in the game also only views. The site doesn't accept saves for a closed game or a scrapped game.

The file must be a .Civ5Save up to 15 MB¶

The page rejects a larger file before sending it: “This file is over 15 MB” and “Choose a .Civ5Save up to 15 MB.” A file the site couldn't read, as well as an empty file or one that didn't reach the site within 30 s, gets the refusal “We could not read this file” and “Choose a .Civ5Save up to 15 MB.”

A save is attached right away¶

There's no separate “Confirm save” button. If the players in the file look like the players of the game, the save is attached and shown on the page right away. If not, the site refuses: “This save was not attached” and “The players of this file don't look like the players of this game, so it was not attached.” Uploading the same file again gives the same refusal.

A file looks like the game if one of these conditions holds:

the players in the file fit the nations of the game's players (at least four fifths of the seats with a known nation, and at least three seats);
the file has a Steam account linked to a player of this game;
nobody in the game has a nation yet;
at least one nation in the file fits a seat in the game.

The site remembers the latest attached save¶

You can't choose between several saves: the card shows the latest attached one. If there was more than one upload, the card says “2 uploads, showing the latest”. A new save keeps earlier decisions only for the players it names again; you'll have to decide the rest anew. The site doesn't attach the same file a second time if it's already attached to this game: “Already uploaded”.

No more than 10 uploads in 24 hours¶

One player can upload no more than 10 files to one game in 24 hours. The site rejects the eleventh: “You have uploaded 10 saves to this game in the last 24 hours” and “The next upload is possible at 18:40.” — the time is in your time zone. Every file that reached the check counts toward the limit, including one rejected as “doesn't look like the game”. A file that is too large, empty or of the wrong type doesn't count.

A save of a game in progress shows the nations and the turn¶

A save of a game that is “In progress” is attached and matched the same way. The page shows the save's turn, the nations being played now and the “Who is this?” block. Science, culture, production and the result from the file open once the game is finished, as the line “Charts wait” says. See Charts and player comparison.

The “Who is this?” block¶

The site matches every player in the save to a seat in the game. It takes into account a Steam account linked earlier, the nations dealt to the seat in the draft and the nation picked on it, the nations from the player's draft in the save, and name similarity. Players with a Steam account linked earlier are matched by the site itself (“3 of 5 were recognised automatically.”); for players where there's no doubt from the nation pick or an exact name, the site confirms on behalf of whoever uploaded the save; the rest it puts into a block with a heading like “2 players in the save are new to us. Who are they?”.

For each player in the save, the block shows their name and nation, the word “is” and the seat tags. Under the name there may be “our guess · …” with the reasons, for example “name matches Orion”. You pick one:

a seat in the game — the seat tag;
“not in this game” — the player in the save didn't play this game;
“someone else played this seat” — for a finished game, it opens the search “Who played this seat? Type a name” with the list “Players of this server” and the item “Someone not on the server (unknown)”. A search result carries the tag “substitute, applies when the game closes”.

You can give one seat to only one player in the save. The “Confirm” button (or “Confirm both” or “Confirm all 3”) is disabled until everyone is decided.

The site remembers a choice of a seat or a server player by Steam account, so in later games that player is recognized automatically, as the hint “Confirm these 2 once and we remember them for every future game.” says. “Not in this game” and “Someone not on the server (unknown)” create no link. While the game is going, the window doesn't offer the server's players, only “Someone not on the server (unknown)”; you can name a substitute from the list of the server's players after the game is finished.

Match strip¶

When nobody is left to confirm, a strip appears under the file with the heading “All 5 players matched” or “3 of 5 players matched”. The second line says how many players were recognized automatically, and who confirmed the rest and when, for example “Vega confirmed by Kai on 2 November 2026”. If a player in the save is matched to a server player instead of the seat's owner, the strip says “Orion's seat: substitute Vega, proposed by Kai” and “applies when the game closes, with ratings recalculated”: when the game is closed, the rating is calculated for whoever actually played. On the right, a player of the game gets the “Wrong player? Fix it” button, and other visitors get the lock “Only players of this game can change a match”.

Fixing a match¶

If the site or you made a mistake, you can fix the match:

Press “Wrong player? Fix it”. The button changes to “Choose the player to fix”, and every player in the save becomes a button. You can change your mind by pressing again or with Escape. The “Fix a player” button in the banner starts the same thing.
Pick the player. A block “Who played England in this save?” appears with the line “Right now it is Orion, recognised automatically.” or “Right now it is Orion, confirmed by Kai.”
Pick another seat. The current seat is marked “Orion · now” and is disabled; there is also “not in this game”. The hint reminds you: “Pick someone else only if that is wrong: the account moves to the player you choose.” If the chosen seat is held by another player in the save, under the choice it says “Vega goes back to “Who is this?””.
Confirm. The “Change to Vega” button (or “Mark as not in this game”) applies the change, and “Keep Orion” closes the block with no changes. The change takes effect once the site has answered, and the block closes.

You can fix a match while the save has no unrecognized players and the game isn't closed or scrapped.

The “Attached save” card¶

The card shows who attached the save and when (“Attached by Kai · 2 November 2026”; a file that was just uploaded is labeled “Uploaded by Kai · just now”), the save's turn, the players' nations and the match strip. While there are unrecognized players, “Uploaded” stands instead of “Attached”. The game header has a state mark: “Save attached · turn 165”, and with unrecognized players, “Save uploaded · 2 players to confirm”. The card shows the result recorded in the file once the game's figures open. For the buttons on the page, see Game page; for finishing the game, Finishing a game on the site; the same result can be recorded in Discord with the /game finish command, see Finishing a game.

What can go wrong¶

“We could not read this file”. The file isn't a save, is empty, is damaged or didn't reach the site within 30 s. Pick another file with the “Choose another file” button. Only a file that reached the site but couldn't be read counts toward the upload limit; an empty file or one that didn't arrive doesn't count.
“This file is over 15 MB”. Choose a .Civ5Save up to 15 MB.
“This save was not attached”. The players in the file don't look like the players of the game: it's probably a save of another game. Find the right file; the “Where is the save?” hint will help.
“Already uploaded”. This save is already attached to this game.
“You have uploaded 10 saves to this game in the last 24 hours”. Wait until the time the site gives.
“Too many saves are being read right now”. The site is busy. Press “Try again” in a minute.
“Something went wrong” and “The save was not read. Please try again.” Press “Try again”.
“Saves can't be attached right now”. Try later.
“This game can't take a save right now.” The game is scrapped or no longer accepts saves.
“This game is closed, so it can't be changed from the site.” The game is already closed, and you can't attach or fix a save.
“Only players of this game can do this.” You don't have a seat in this game. Ask a player of the game.
“Someone already took this seat — reload the page.” Someone has already changed the match; reload the page and try again.
“This player is already linked to someone else in game #248; fix it there.” The Steam account of the player in the save already belongs to another player. Fix the match in that game.

This page was translated with AI and checked against the bot's terms.