Dead is Dead save game gone missing

niadh · Post by **niadh** » Sun, 24. Jul 11, 14:13

I don't know if this is more likely an issue for Steam rather than Egosoft but i'll mention it here as well as with Steam support.

I have been playing Dead is Dead and have about a weeks game time under way with the treasure hunt and Goner plots completed. Hub, Terran and FF plots are in progress
Having just completed the the Goner plot I saved the game last night at just after 7.30pm, checked that the game was indeed saved and exited.

This morning 24/07/11 I try to continue where i left off to find the Dead is Dead missing. Why???

Post by **Alan Phipps** » Sun, 24. Jul 11, 14:21

At the time you saved at the end of play and today tried to restart, were you on-line with everything working properly on your internet to Steam? To play DiD you need a check-save/load from the on-line Steam server.
http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?p=3419867

niadh · Post by **niadh** » Sun, 24. Jul 11, 14:57

After saving the game I always go back into the continue menu to check that the game is saved as Dead is Dead properly before exiting the game completely. I have fallen into the trap you mention once before.
I also never leave the game running on its own even for 5 minutes in case of crashes, power glitches etc. etc. I always save and exit and check.

Since then my wife was playing facebook games followed by me playing about 30 minutes of TF2 up until i switched off shortly after midnight.

If I have lost this one I am going to be really hacked off cause after numerous (80+) attempts at DiD I finally got into a position where i was doing well.
I had about 30 traders, 3 complexes, and 2 PALC

EliteM3 · Post by **EliteM3** » Sun, 24. Jul 11, 15:22

You can post DXDiag so we can find out what is wrong.

niadh · Post by **niadh** » Sun, 24. Jul 11, 15:32

Larosentinel

What does that have to do with whether or not a Steam linked save game has gone missing???

Post by **Alan Phipps** » Sun, 24. Jul 11, 17:09

OK I see what you said about saving on exit and checking, but was the Steam server available when you tried to restart? In that thread I linked, they had to wait for Steam to come back online before they could play DiD again.

niadh · Post by **niadh** » Sun, 24. Jul 11, 17:41

Sorry misread you myself.
Yes i believe it was as i had been checking out the store and playing TF2 for a while before trying X3TC

Post by **Alan Phipps** » Sun, 24. Jul 11, 19:14

Then I am sorry to have to say that unless you can recover it now, it sounds as though you have lost the DiD game for some unknown reason. I have seen several threads that say that Steam DiD can be very temperamental and so quite frustrating. A lot of players just play simulated DiD under their own self-imposed saving and reloading rules.

niadh · Post by **niadh** » Sun, 24. Jul 11, 19:26

Yeah, I guess I am just a masochist. I have lost count of the number of times I have tried DiD on Steam.
I am just after those final achievements and the sense of self satisfaction from having overcome a very difficult game mode.
The annoying thing is that I still have the save game file on my drive.

niadh · Post by **niadh** » Thu, 28. Jul 11, 10:50

OK now i am pissed.

Started a new dead is dead and played for about 2 to 3 hours before saving and exiting. Got the message at the menu screen saying Dead is Dead saved successfully. Checked the saved was still there and exited. Came back the next day to find it missing from the continue menu.

WTF ??!?!?!?!

Now i am not sure if there is something else going on now on the PC that has been properly running this for the past 8 months but i am pretty sure that the first saved DiD was listing as 10.8Mb in size when i saved it.
I copied that file out in case it was needed later on but it is now reading 11.2Mb which would explain why the DiD wouldn't continue.
The question I now have to ask is what would cause that?
I would consider a virus but why would that only target my X3TC DiD saved game and how would it get past my up to date OS (Win 7 64 bit HP / stupid question really) or antivirus (ESET Smart Security 4.2 with up to date definitions).

I started a new DiD this morning and saved 10 minutes in and succesfully reloaded. It'll be interesting to see what happens now.

niadh · Post by **niadh** » Fri, 29. Jul 11, 10:37

Good morning,

I hope someone from Egosoft can cast some light on this as I am now getting seriously hacked off about this.

I have now started 5 successive Dead-is-Dead games and had them all go missing.
Further to my previous posts I have done a bit of the game (explored Queens Harbour), saved the game and got the message Dead-is-Dead saved successfully and been able to see the game in the Continue Menu option.
I have then exited the game entirely, gone back in and still seen the DiD save.
I have exited the game AND steam then gone back in and still seen the DiD.
I have also rebooted my desktop and still been able to see the DiD when I got back in.

This problem only seems to occur if i leave it 6 hours or more between attempts to continue.
My Antivirus (ESET Smart Security 4.2) does not touch either that save game of any of the X3:TC game files

Why has this suddenly started happening after playing successfully since about 1 month after registering with Steam.

I should also point out that 5 messages with Steam Support have so far gone unanswered since I raised it last Sunday.

softweir · Post by **softweir** » Fri, 29. Jul 11, 21:12

Change your Steam login password - maybe somebody has hacked it and is using your account to play your DiD games just long enough to die. That would lose you your games! (iirc, DiD games are saved on the Steam Cloud?)

niadh · Post by **niadh** » Sat, 30. Jul 11, 01:26

softweir,

I had exactly that thought this morning and started a new game saved it and then changed the Steam password.
I came back this afternoon after work to find the lack of a DiD in the continue menu option.
That number 6 in a row gone missing.
I have started another one this evening and deleted the original save directory in case there was something about it that was upsetting something.
After about 4 hours the DiD was still there.
I'll just have to hope and see if it's there tomorrow morning.

Almost as annoying is the complete lack of any communication from Steam having raised this with support and posted 6 follow ups to the original. No repsonse whatsoever!

niadh · Post by **niadh** » Sat, 30. Jul 11, 01:47

This is where your save games are.
Thanks guys had that figured out already and had even stated so in a previous email.

softweir · Post by **softweir** » Sat, 30. Jul 11, 20:33

This is almost certainly totally irrelevant, but do you leave Steam running while you are out?

Post by **Alan Phipps** » Sat, 30. Jul 11, 20:44

@ softweir: OP said above "I also never leave the game running on its own even for 5 minutes in case of crashes, power glitches etc. etc. I always save and exit and check." or did you mean the Steam client application rather than X3TC?

niadh · Post by **niadh** » Sat, 30. Jul 11, 22:10

Never.
This is happening when i leave the game over night after having saved, checked the save is in the continue menu, shutting down X3TC properly, shutting down steam properly, shutting down the computer properly.
I start up again the next day (or in the case of a shopping trip today 2 hours later) and the continue menu is going straight to the non Dead is Dead saves which work just fine.

I have double checked that the save game exists on my PC (and it does) so I am pretty damned sure the details of the save are being lost from within Steam. Especially as its now happened 9 times in a row.

AlanPhipps mentioned earlier that Steam has been reported to be temperamental (which has happened before but only once in 8 months) and certainly wouldn't explain this situation.

Post by **Alan Phipps** » Sat, 30. Jul 11, 22:23

I'm grasping at straws here but is there any way that your IP address could potentially be changing from log-in to log-in? (eg Are you on a shared or flexi internet account with maybe different users and net connections?) Otherwise could someone be using your account (devious thought - wife sabotaging your DiD game to get more RL time with you)?

PS: It was the Steam DiD mode that was reported to have sometimes appeared temperamental. I was not criticising the Steam gaming service at all.

niadh · Post by **niadh** » Sat, 30. Jul 11, 22:55

Interesting thought Alan.
I am on Virgin cable so that ip address should be static. Having said that I am using a wireless router between the Virgin Modem (actually telewest modem I have had it that long) and my desktop.
What I'll do is lock down the IP address on the router to just this desktop and see if that helps (now done)

I have set Steam Guard to prevent any other computers but this one accessing the Steam account and have disable automatic log in and the missus definitely doesn't know the new password i set three day ago (not unless she has some veritaserum) and even then it doesn't explain how it went missing when we were at ASDA for 2 hours

RE Steam DiD. That's what i meant and why i think it's a Steam problem that goes beyond merely being temperamental given that it is happening repeatedly

niadh · Post by **niadh** » Sat, 30. Jul 11, 22:57

Guys I would like to add my thanks for helping with this. It's been a right pain and I seriously missing my DiD fix.

egosoft.com

egosoft.com