Dead is Dead save game gone missing

[VincentTH]

When starting a game, is it ever marked as modified? Try playing a normal game for a day or so and see if that occurs.

1. I did a verify local cache
2. Start a new DiD game. Play for 10 secs till the "A Sunny Place" message shows up. Dock at Altreus HQ.
3. Verified that it is marked as Vanilla, quit (and save).
4. Steam report that the save (at Steam Cloud) was successful.
5. Double check that Continue option shows the DiD game is loadable
6. Quit X3TC.
7. Quit Steam and power off
8. Came back a few hours later, the Continue Option from the loading screen is empty: The DiD save (from Steam Cloud) disappeared. The local save on the disk is still present with correct timestamp.


PS#1: Also if I play from a Steam account which does not have the DLC (v3.1.1), on the same PC, the DiD save works fine.
PS #2, if I play a normal /vanilla/non-DiD game on steam account with DLC, the save works fine. (The local save works fine as stated above, just the Steam Cloud save that was problematic).
PS #3: I have Symantec Enterprise AV, and have excluded the steam path as well as the Libraries/Document/Egosoft/Save path from scanning for viruses.

[niadh]

No my games are not marked modified.
The only "mod" i have ever used was Saetans advanced complex hub and i currently don't have that installed.

I have been playing the non Dead is Dead game for about 3 days now (which is fine by the way and not marked modified) and the DiD saves still don't stay put.
My routine is pretty much the same as Vincents in terms of what I have done and have got similar results.

Where I originally believed the problem was the Steam cloud losing my DiD save details for some weird reason the coincidences Vincent and I have encountered do lean towards the same thing but the interference may be related to the DLC download process.
Why I don't know as it kicked in about 2 weeks after getting the DLC.

Xenon_slayer Can you confirm for us that this was properly tested on all game starts before release?
Oh and thanks for getting involved. I really appreciate it. honestly

[niadh]

Tried again last night. Logged into Steam and got the X3TC start option screen up then saw the DLC downloaded message.
Exited the startup screen and did a verification check. No problems encountered so restarted X3:TC and got a DiD running for about a minute and a half before saving, exiting and checking.

This morning got logged in and started up. Do not remember seeing DLC download message. No DiD save.
Exited game ran verification check. 1 file invalid and reloaded. Restarted game but still no DiD save.

I am going to try a new save tonight. I'll start and save the game before getting the Harmony of Perpetuity message and see how long that lasts for.

[Xenon_Slayer]

Unfortunately, with problems like this, it can be hard to track down. The problem could lie with the Steam client, the game install or DLC.

I'll attempt to reproduce the issue myself while seeing if Steam has any idea.

I'm not sure if Steam has a download log but that would be useful. If the DLC downloads again and again, that doesn't sound right, but still shouldn't stop the DiD savegame showing up.

[niadh]

@Xenon_Slayer.
I have tried reinstalling the game to no effect. and VincentTH has indicated that his non DLC account is running DiD just fine so that would make me lean towards the DLC as part of the cause.
I don't have sufficient access to information to determine whether or not this is the only part of the cause and the logs (/steam/logs/) don't give too much relevant information. There doesn't appear to be a specific download log.

Additionally given that 3 of us who have reported this all have the DLC tends to reinforce that but I cannot say for sure without getting info/data from a wider audience with the DLC.

I did attempt to get this via a poll, asking any forum readers with the DLC to start a DiD and see if the game remained but Nanook killed it off before getting any meaningful results. That may have helped players, Egosoft and Steam in getting to the bottom of this.

When attempting to reproduce this it may not be an immediate effect. I believe I had the DLC for at least a week, probably 2, before I encountered this problem.

Having said that if it would be more helpful to co-ordinate with myself to demonstrate/track this I am happy to help.

I have had indications from Steam that they are investigating already but given that it was 4 days before they first responded to my original post I don't know how seriously they are taking it.

[VincentTH]

@niadh

I think we are on the right track, just be patient. With 20 yrs experience as a software engineer, I understand why XL is a little bit cautious, but at the same time, I know a smoking gun when I see one. The fact that XL acknowleges that the re-download of the DLC is a problem is a very good start in my book.

[niadh]

Admittedly I am not known for my patience. It's not a virtue as far as I am concerned.
I am a Database Analyst (14 years) used to solving problems under time pressure.
I am offering my assistance as it is sometimes easier to monitor a problem from a different point of view than try and generate it yourself. Especially if someone already has the problem and it could be fairly specific
Add into that the fact that the problem didn't occur immediately for me and with no indication as to how many might be impacted by this it makes more sense to use those that have the problem to watch for the events.
Given his previous posts I am glad to see XS on the case.

[Xenon_Slayer]

Well, that didn't take long. Steam ate my DiD game.

Now that I've reproduced it, hopefully that will get things moving towards a solution.

[VincentTH]

Well, that didn't take long. Steam ate my DiD game.

Now that I've reproduced it, hopefully that will get things moving towards a solution.

Hurray! We are in good hands now

@OP: If you are that much impatient, do like I did: Get another X3TC license, then enjoy DiD without the DLC (J/K I did it as a show of support for Egosoft).

[niadh]

VincentTH.
I don't think my missus would be too happy if and when she found out about buying another copy of the same game.
Add to that the fact that I have a 17 month old daughter who breaks, tears, destroys or damages so much around the house I don't have much money left each month.

I was very tempted to buy the Superbox though despite having bought all of the X games to date and am really looking forward to Rebirth.

@Xenon Slayer
That's good to hear. It's always good to know that a problem can be replicated pretty much at will.

[Gswine]

Just tried to continue my 80+ hr game and the save is not there. Only adding to this thread because I do not have the DLC though the problem seems to be exactly the same.

Saved and quit yesterday but as the main menu loaded, before the white 'DID saved successfully' message there was a yellow message.

Didn't have time to read it. It flashed up for a moment and then the usual successful appeared. I have to assume it had something to do with the steam cloud.

I immeadiatly loaded up my DID and it ran no problem. Did it three times, each with the white success but no yellow message, before I quit the game and closed the client.

I expect that my game is unusable at this point but maybe someone here can clarify.

[niadh]

@VincentTH.

This looks like one for you? Is your non-DLC DiD still going??

@GSwine.
Have you tried the obvious?? network connections. local saved, game file Steam connection before you logged off.

Personally I don't recognise the yellow message. The only non white message I ever had was red (once about 2 months ago) to say no Steam connection which was resolved by minimizing X3TC and sorting out the network and Steam connection before going back into X3TC and getting saved successfully message.

[VincentTH]

@VincentTH.

This looks like one for you? Is your non-DLC DiD still going??

@GSwine.
Have you tried the obvious?? network connections. local saved, game file Steam connection before you logged off.

Personally I don't recognise the yellow message. The only non white message I ever had was red (once about 2 months ago) to say no Steam connection which was resolved by minimizing X3TC and sorting out the network and Steam connection before going back into X3TC and getting saved successfully message.

My non-DLC game is still working fine.

@GSwine
What does it say if you do a Verify Local Cache?
(Games View>X3TC>Property>Verify Local Cache)

[Gswine]

First verification reported one file contained errors. A second run has no errors reported.

Tried running the game and no DID save.

@niadh

Everything was normal with network connections and Steam connection. I always run the game with the Steam client active and check the connection before exiting. I know that if necersary the DID save should be left running if client is not avaliable or updating. The campaign and save files are uncorrupted and where they should be.

As to you never seeing a yellow message before I can't comment. If you wish to discount such a thing then contact with Steam support is the only thing I can think of.

I understand that anything vauge or missleading can waste an awful lot of time.

[VincentTH]

First verification reported one file contained errors. A second run has no errors reported.

Tried running the game and no DID save.

@niadh

Everything was normal with network connections and Steam connection. I always run the game with the Steam client active and check the connection before exiting. I know that if necersary the DID save should be left running if client is not avaliable or updating. The campaign and save files are uncorrupted and where they should be.

As to you never seeing a yellow message before I can't comment. If you wish to discount such a thing then contact with Steam support is the only thing I can think of.

I understand that anything vauge or missleading can waste an awful lot of time.

The first verification run confirms that Steam thinks your game setup is not vanilla, and thus invalidate the save. (Verify automatically update Steam to vanilla, so the 2nd run report no errors).
It is probably the same codes that invalidate the save when the DLC is enabled, although for different reasons.

If you have an AntiVirus, you may want to exclude the Steam path and the save path from the scan list.

[niadh]

@VincentTH.

Are you sure that is correct about the non vanilla versions causing steam to eat saves?
I ask because for a while after starting playing DiD i had one mod which caused a modified tag in my games and it never caused any problems. Having said that it was a fake patch (*.dat, *.cat) so whether or not Steam validation would have picked that up and treated it accordingly is something that needs to be experimented with in relation to a mod that changes validated files.

@Gswine
OK I wasn't clear myself. I also meant that I couldn't comment on the yellow message as I had never encountered anything like that before. Either way if you do contact Steam good luck. It took them 5 days to respond to my initial request for support on this issue. Even then it was a load of bollocks trying to fob me off.


@Xenon_slayer
How's it progressing? Any pointrs been found as to the cause of all this?

[VincentTH]

Of course it is pure speculation, as I am not a Steam dev

[niadh]

Good morning all,

Anyone got any progress to report?

[Xenon_Slayer]

Hi all,

Yes, we've made progress investigating where the problem is, but unfortunately, it seems it is on Steams side, so it's a little out of our hands at the moment.

So, it's not caused by the DLC. One thing we can suggest is when saving DiD games, close other programs which could take up bandwidth as that could be part of the issue.

Also, if you find you have been affected by this issue and unable to load a Dead is Dead savegame, feel free to backup the actual savefile. FAQ where to find the savegames. These are usually under the name 'X_DiD_xxxxxxxx.sav'

I can't say if we'll be able to rescue any savegames, but it's worth backing up anyway.

Owen

[niadh]

Thanks Owen

I kind of though it would be a problem on Steams side as the rest of the game is stable.

I won't hold up too much hope for a quick solution from them as I have had very little communication on the issue.

I have backed up my games before but the problem there is if steam has lost details of that save how do we get it back??
It would be nice if Steam had some method of checking that and resyncing where necessary.
It's a pity it doesn't seem to be built in.

PS Nice working day you have. Kind of similar to some of my days when young free and single.