[Déjà Bru]

Every once in a while, after applying a patch, you get that "World.dat" file is missing" message (first screen print), followed by a sinking feeling. Not to worry, if your league files are still in the usual location. It's happened to me twice in this version cycle and I have seen other people ask about this.

For some reason, after the patch, the program thinks that your league is now located in the data folder where the program itself resides (Program Files (x86) in my case). Notice that when I tried to call up my game, it made a folder with the name of my league but there is nothing in it, hence the error message (second screen print).

To fix this, go to Game Settings in the OOTP Start Screen and click Expert. For Custom Data Path, click Select (third screen print). In the Select New/Data Folder, navigate up and out of the program folder, and all the way over to where your league files are stored (in My Documents, in my case). Click Select when you have located it (fourth screen print).

You get a couple of messages that essentially say the same thing (fifth screen print) except that you do NOT want to move your league files anywhere. You want the game to point to where they have been all along!

Anyway, you close out the game, restart it, and now, fingers crossed, you should be able to call up your league as always, by either clicking Continue Game or Load Game.

Disclaimer: I am not a OOTPD principal, a programmer, or even much of a techno-geek, so if this does not work for you, I will not be able to help you. You will need to contact Tech Support instead.