DID game disappeared

[kurush]

than why can't egosoft find a way to store it locally, and encrypt it to avoid any sort of tampering, like the many signed files that make up this game.

This is where I lolled. All these files are very much open to tampering if you chose so. In truth, I think it should be even possible to tamper with a DID game stored in cloud if somebody can think of a reason to do this.

[Lazerius]

than why can't egosoft find a way to store it locally, and encrypt it to avoid any sort of tampering, like the many signed files that make up this game.

This is where I lolled. All these files are very much open to tampering if you chose so. In truth, I think it should be even possible to tamper with a DID game stored in cloud if somebody can think of a reason to do this.

But what's the point?

It's just an achievement. Of course it CAN be done.....and if hacking an encripted file gets your epeen hard, well than, power to ya.

Just because something CAN be done doesn't mean that anybody cares that you do it. You may get a few uninterested golf claps and a GG. It's a single player game.

[kurush]

But what's the point?

Well, the point is precisely to avoid the experience you just had and to have some fun in process. Surely beats wasting a couple of days setting yourself up for a steam debacle. Of course it is a matter of personal preference.

[Lazerius]

But what's the point?

Well, the point is precisely to avoid the experience you just had and to have some fun in process. Surely beats wasting a couple of days setting yourself up for a steam debacle. Of course it is a matter of personal preference.

If you think what you quoted is what I meant, that you didn't read what you said.

I said what is the point to the Cracking the encription on the file, thus where the rest of my statement made sense.

There is no steam debacle if the file is encripted, but kept on local system. If you really want to crack the encryption just to get a steam achievement, than you have too much time on your hands.

[kurush]

If you think what you quoted is what I meant, that you didn't read what you said.

After reading it second time I tend to agree with you Egosoft implemented too many things to screw people up, broken steam DID and the modified tag that just comes out of nowhere are good examples of this. They could have used simpler and more reliable approaches in both situations, but I guess it is just the way they do things.

[Lazerius]

If you think what you quoted is what I meant, that you didn't read what you said.

After reading it second time I tend to agree with you Egosoft implemented too many things to screw people up, broken steam DID and the modified tag that just comes out of nowhere are good examples of this. They could have used simpler and more reliable approaches in both situations, but I guess it is just the way they do things.

Other than people having antivirus issues/etc with ***modified*** I have no problems with it at all.

While true, if the statistics wouldn't matter without it, I think for some of us, it adds a new element to the game play.

The DID, however, could have been handled sooooo much better. At the same time, I'm sure egosoft implemented it, thinking the steam cloud wouldn't still exist like it does today. It's utter garbage now, just like it was when DID was first officially brought in.

[kurush]

Other than people having antivirus issues/etc with ***modified*** I have no problems with it at all.

I do get this issue occasionally. The fact that ego managed to run into a conflict with a frigging anti-virus indicates that they went way over the top with implementation of this particular feature. I thought that I could get rid of it by disabling validations of signed content, did that, now can run pretty much anything I want in vanilla, but I still get that random ***modified*** flags every other week, meaning that implementation was overcomplicated for some unknown reasons.
Same thing with steam DID - just removing the reload feature from UI would suffice and it wouldn't screw people up as this cloud thingie surely does.

[ravensnowfall]

I have long ago been using a file sync solution for saved game files on my PC. Might be something for you to look into, to ensure that there is a backup being made of these save files automatically, so when disaster strikes, you can restore from at least a recent save.

[Lazerius]

I have long ago been using a file sync solution for saved game files on my PC. Might be something for you to look into, to ensure that there is a backup being made of these save files automatically, so when disaster strikes, you can restore from at least a recent save.

Erm.... Doesn't sound like something that'll work with a DID saved game file

[VincentTH]

I have long ago been using a file sync solution for saved game files on my PC. Might be something for you to look into, to ensure that there is a backup being made of these save files automatically, so when disaster strikes, you can restore from at least a recent save.

Erm.... Doesn't sound like something that'll work with a DID saved game file

Right, when you lose the DID save on the cloud, the local save is NOT the problem....

[kurush]

Right, when you lose the DID save on the cloud, the local save is NOT the problem....

Are there any backup tools for the cloud files? Does ES do something tricky to prevent them from working?

[VincentTH]

Right, when you lose the DID save on the cloud, the local save is NOT the problem....

Are there any backup tools for the cloud files? Does ES do something tricky to prevent them from working?

Since it is in Cloud-9 erh .... Steam Cloud, I have no idea

[Alan Phipps]

I don't think anyone is sure that the cloud data package is always 'being lost' as such. It is just that for some reason it sometimes no longer synchs or matches up with the relevant save on the drive and so both get deleted with no game continue. That is how I understand the failure effect has been portrayed at least - I could well be wrong.

[kurush]

I don't think anyone is sure that the cloud data package is always 'being lost' as such. It is just that for some reason it sometimes no longer synchs or matches up with the relevant save on the drive and so both get deleted with no continue. That is how I understand the failure effect has been portrayed at least - I could well be wrong.

So, if this is correct, to be able to play DID properly, you just need to make a backup of your cloud files and of your local save each time you exit the game?
And it sounds like ES indeed does something to mess things up by comparing local and cloud save copies.

[Alan Phipps]

I don't honestly think the cloud version is a full save at all. I think it is a parametric data package that describes aspects of the save and only allows a continue if a positive match test result is reached. Whatever the result, the package and save are both ultimately deleted anyway, and assuming a continue is given they are replaced at the next shutdown. Again, I could be wrong but that is the impression past 'experts' have given me.

[ravensnowfall]

Ah, said DID file is vetted against a cloud-stored MD5 checksum or something? Hmm.

[Komat]

The local copy of the cloud files is stored in the userdata subdirectory of the directory containing Steam. With the data there is also a file containing information related to state of the synchronization of the local copy with the cloud. Maybe it might be possible to determine what went wrong by keeping backup of both the main save and the DID data after each gameplay until the problem appears.

EDIT: At least that way it works with the games normally using Steam cloud for storage. I did a quick check and I did not found a local copy for X3AP so maybe some other mechanism is used.

EDIT2: It seems to be stored using the mechanism used to store game statistics. The local copy is stored in the <STEAMDIR>\appcache\stats\UserGameStats_<USERID>_<APPID>.bin AFTER the Steam client finishes synchronization during its exit (the "statistics" with DID hash seems to be not present before that).

[kurush]

EDIT2: It seems to be stored using the mechanism used to store game statistics. The local copy is stored in the <STEAMDIR>\appcache\stats\UserGameStats_<USERID>_<APPID>.bin AFTER the Steam client finishes synchronization during its exit (the "statistics" with DID hash seems to be not present before that).

Have anybody tried to make a proper backup of the files there? If so, it just might be worth trying without the god mode

[kurush]

Guess what: I decided to see if I can figure out how to make a backup of those games and initiated this DID start. After this I forgot about this and continued playing my regular game while looking at this DID prompt for each game restore. At some point I touched my power cable in a wrong way and got a hard reboot. And now the DID game is gone. I definitely didn't have it loaded at the time of reboot and I am not even sure I had X3 loaded. Steam client was running with all likelihood. Looks like extremely crappy programming

[tanner1ie]

Guess what: I decided to see if I can figure out how to make a backup of those games and initiated this DID start. After this I forgot about this and continued playing my regular game while looking at this DID prompt for each game restore. At some point I touched my power cable in a wrong way and got a hard reboot. And now the DID game is gone. I definitely didn't have it loaded at the time of reboot and I am not even sure I had X3 loaded. Steam client was running with all likelihood. Looks like extremely crappy programming

So, what? - You've any hardware issue and your DiD save goes bye bye!

I won't be starting one then, i've a seven or eight year old computer which works pretty good, but typically once or twice a night of X my graphics card goes funny, the image will freeze but i can hear the game still running.
I do be able to cycle through on screen targets to dock and save.
(Last night it was fine for a whole eight hour session, yet this afternoon it went funny after an hour - i've a hyperactive fan in it for the last two years and it hasn't blown up yet, so i'm not worried .)

About 2/3rds of the time alt+ctrl+delete opens up the decktop with it showing unnatural colours and i'm able click restart, the other 1/3rd of time i only get a black screen, sometimes with a single flashing cursor other times my monitor turns off because it's receiving no image - these times i do have to unplug the PC at the wall, which sounds like it's definitely kill the save .