Progress gone after power loss

LyteWing

First, I want to say that this is a wonderful game and since I purchased it I have put many hours into it and even convinced some friends to purchase it.....having said that, I do have a sudden issue.

I live on the east coast of South Carolina and we are currently in the throws of Hurricane Florence....the worst has passed for now I think but since we had the great fortune to not have completely lost power I was playing some EverSpace to take my mind off things for a bit.

I was playing and having some great success and as I warped to the last system in Sector 5 before going to Sector 6 (the farthest I have been thus far), the power flickered and my computer rebooted. I was a bit upset because I knew I had most likely lost the progress of my current run (as has happened in the past when something like this would happen), but this time when my computer rebooted and I started the game the continue option was replaced by New Game....ALL of my progress had been wiped, my hours of unlocked perks, ships, blueprints, Glyphs, and subroutines gone in a flash.

Thinking quickly, I went to the savegame folder and saw that there were files there....even a save marked as "CurrentRun" and another that looked like a backup of it. I immediately copied the contents of this directory to a backup location and started some testing.

If I click New Game then it indeed starts a new game as if I have never played before. I immediately crashed my ship to get back to the menu for testing and looked at the Perks and Ship Setup options......all progress gone. I do get the Continue option now, but only for the newly started run. If I copy my backed up save files back to the savegame folder and overwrite what is there I am back to just having a New Game Option.

Noticing that both the CurrentPlayer and Current Run files had backups (two in the case of the Player file) and armed with my backup of those files, I tried deleting the "main" file and renaming the backups but the best result I got was getting to continue my run from somewhere in Sector 5 but when I died and was taken back to the hangar all my unlocked progress was gone and indeed the ship I was using for that run was even locked.

I really hope you can shed some light on this and help me...I just don't have it in me to put in the many hours it would take to reclaim my lost progress at this point in time. I could provide my backed up savegame files if that would be helpful.

Thank you in advance,

Brent

PedalToTheMetal

In fact your problem is irrelevant to Everspace nor to UE4 itself. What you witness is how the write caching in Windows works: instead of performing the writes straight off it puts them onto a volatile memory queue to be performed later on, thus making your software not to wait for the individual writes. The downside is, the file system gets altered and the original contents are wiped in first place so in case of a power outage before those writes are done you usually end up with a file filled with zero bytes.
To prevent the further problems, make sure the buffer flushing is enabled or, if truly up to this, disable the caching itself altogether (may - and, likely, will - cause stutters), or - and the best option - get a UPS or a hard drive with internal backup power supply (the latter can get pretty expensive so better go for the UPS option).
As for your current progress, either try some un-erase software which may or may not locate the original files depending on whether they have already been overwritten, or try the "Previous Versions" feature of the OS itself which sometimes manages to salvage a pretty recent backup - unless it was disabled.

LyteWing

Thanks for the reply, PedalToTheMetal.....

I understand what you are saying but what I can't understand is why the backup files that the game itself made will not load any progress when renamed and why the player saves were effected at all. As I said, I have had this happen before where something interrupts my run and worst case my current run data was lost but the overall player progression I had remained intact (minus anything I would have achieved during the interrupted run).

So it was my understanding from this experience and seeing the save files that the game maintained two save files (the overall progress and the current run) and that the overall progress did not get updated until you were killed in your current run (or presumably had a successful run). Maybe my understanding is wrong, but this is why I can't understand why my overall progress was lost while in the middle of a run rather than just my current run.

PedalToTheMetal

The sad part is, the buffer may sometimes remain unwritten for a pretty long time, it also depends on whether the backup is created by actually copying the source file instead of renaming it - though even if done by renaming, chances are huge the write sequence requested like half an hour ago is still pending (also, like stated - check if you have the flushing enabled, e.g. the checkbox is clear - or many write ops will take as long as your whole system uptime to conclude). Disabling the caching altogether is a pretty bad idea though, especially for an SSD (as should something require two or more consecutive overwrites of the same dataset, the actual overwrite is likely to happen in the volatile memory while your SSD will be written only once). Anyway, try the "Previous versions" trick to see if it helps (the feature is enabled by default).
To prevent the further problems unless getting a UPS nor a server drive I'd advice a redneck approach I call a static backup. That is, make a separate copy of any essential data you have and reboot immediately (while sounding stupid, the reboot is a necessary step as it will force all the pending writes to conclude, hibernation or sleep should go too). Do never modify this backup afterwards unless it becomes totally useless for you, update it followed by a reboot otherwise.
Also, in case of having a possible unpredictable power failure:
- Disable the automatic defragmentation on all drives - should you want it, simply run it either when it is safe enough, or by rigging the drive to a laptop with a USB-SATA bridge.
- Enable the automated buffer flush if not (do not get confused as the checkbox is meant to disable it so should be cleared - at least in Windows 7)
- Keep the "space waste" aka the previous versions tracker active
- Better have a spare disconnected HDD just in case (most motherboards support hot-swaps so having a HDD rack with a free slot for that drive costs you nothing at all )

LyteWing

In other words, the backups the game itself made are essentially meaningless and I can kiss my progress goodbye with no chance of recovery so uninstall the game and maybe come back to it in later years....gotcha.

PedalToTheMetal

....
Again. Like I said. File properties -> "Previous Versions" tab. Should you remove the source file, create an empty one with the exactly same name to have something to click, it will still work that way. For me it was never a miss (though of course I do not use this feature on the SSD apparently). Or, as a weapon of last resort, try unerase as chances are the file overwrite sequence contained the actual file removal so the innards are still somewhere on the drive unless already overwritten by other random data.

LyteWing

Yeah...I tried that...there are no previous versions listed....probably because I too am using an SSD. So yeah.....game over, time to uninstall and maybe come back in a few years. After pouring hours into it over the past weeks I just don't feel like going through it all again knowing how fragile the save files are for this game when even it's own backups are meaningless apparently.

PedalToTheMetal

Trust me, absolutely every game would suffer absolutely the same outcome after an abrupt power failure (oh my, I still recall a waste of a 100+ MB CAD project, which isn't a game and had like 4 automated backups as well as my manual ones - only the most ancient one survived though). That's what GOG has the cloud backup feature for (Steam has something alike IIRC, can't tell as I bought the GOG version, of course), by the way why didn't you try it out first? Also ES uses backups to avoid data corruption should it crash (just like any other software that uses backups) - nothing will save you from the cache not being flushed, and it isn't the game's fault, quit bashing the guys.
Anyway, it all is a perfect sign for you to finally get your system set up properly And that is, what is the reason for holding your saves on the SSD which is not really meant as a dynamic storage? NTFS supports junctions, so you can move anything you need off the SSD as easily as moving a file or folder - just do not forget to link it back (which is a single 'mklink' console command). Also why not assigning one drive as non-cached - and hard-link all the saves and whatever there?
Also never forget there is the Hardcore Mode here where your worst loss due to even a dead harddrive would be a couple of hours max

LyteWing

I just find it frustrating that I have three versions of player data files and two versions of current run files and none of them work save fore one of the current run files (which I would have rather lost instead of my player file). I had hoped that a dev might be able to look at my saved backups and help me correct the corruption but so far, days later, I have had no reply from a dev at all in the dev's own support forums. While I appreciate what you have done to try and help me Pedal, it was my hope that a dev might at least look at my save files and see if there was a simple fix or at least SOMETHING might be recoverable.

To be fair, I loved the game and got several friends to buy it, I just find it upsetting to have lost so much progress when there were so many "backup" files.

PedalToTheMetal

Most likely they won't be able to help you anyway - to try it out try using a program called XVI32 (it is free) or any other hex editor of your choice, chances are the files are simply a pile of zero bytes you can salvage nothing from If it feels too long to regain the original state you can simply find some end-game save file somewhere on the web (or simply ask for one here), though honestly the initial progression in ES is pretty much the most fun part.

ROCKFISH_Andi

Hi, sorry to hear about the problem. We've hab about 20-30 reports like this in the last 2 years. We've been trying to make it more stable by also writing backup files, but as PedalToTheMetal mentioned, when we've taken a look at them it turned out that they were all filled with zeroes.

Could you nevertheless make a zip of your copied save game folder and attach it here, so we can take a look? Other than that, could you please write to support at rockfishgames . com and we will try to send you a savegame back with a lot of credits in the hangar, so you can at lease buy your perk progress back.

Sorry about all this, but it seems to us that there is nothing we can do in a case like this, as it seems to depend on Unreal/Windows, as we're just going the normal Unreal Engine way of loading and saving and are not doing anything out of the ordinary.

LyteWing

Thank you, Andi.....I know there is a very small chance of me getting anything back, but I do appreciate you at least taking the time to look for me. In a game like this it isn't so much the last perks as those can be purchased again as you indicated....it's the lost blueprints, glyphs, and other unlocks that can't be purchased.

Attached you will find my saves....again, thank you for trying!

ROCKFISH_Andi

LyteWing said:

Thank you, Andi.....I know there is a very small chance of me getting anything back, but I do appreciate you at least taking the time to look for me. In a game like this it isn't so much the last perks as those can be purchased again as you indicated....it's the lost blueprints, glyphs, and other unlocks that can't be purchased.

Attached you will find my saves....again, thank you for trying!

I do have very good news for you. Your save file CurrentPlayerSave_Backup2.sav is still intact! All you need to do is remove every file present in C:\Users\{YOUR_USERNAME}\AppData\Local\RSG\Saved\SaveGames and then copy your CurrentPlayerSave_Backup2.sav into the folder and rename it to CurrentPlayerSave.sav - you should then find yourself in the hangar with all your perks and glyphs etc. Please let me know if it works for you!

LyteWing

I do have very good news for you. Your save file CurrentPlayerSave_Backup2.sav is still intact! All you need to do is remove every file present in C:\Users\{YOUR_USERNAME}\AppData\Local\RSG\Saved\SaveGames and then copy your CurrentPlayerSave_Backup2.sav into the folder and rename it to CurrentPlayerSave.sav - you should then find yourself in the hangar with all your perks and glyphs etc. Please let me know if it works for you!


YES!!! It did work!!! Thank you so much!!! The frustrating thing is that I already did this before and it didn't work.....the only difference is that I did not delete all the other files from the directory before renaming the backup (other than the CurrentPlayerSave.sav file that I was replacing of course). Either way, it doesn't matter.....it worked this time and I am SO VERY happy. Thank you for your help...it is much appreciated!!!

ROCKFISH_Andi

Glad I could help!