V15 CTD and savegame problems

[Vivoune]

It seems I come across my fair share of CTD. All of this happens on normal difficulty with Iron man mode off (sadly).

CTD on loading a specific savegame

CTD on game exit

it's as if my savegame got corrupted somehow but nothing happened since I successfully loaded that game for the last time that could logically explain it.

What happened between the 'corrupted' save and the last working (i.e loadable) savegame:

-End of the first month report (Sept.) and so the game went 1st of Oct.

-Commissioned more buildings for my second Base (2 radars + 2 hangars)

-Commissioned Personnel for the second Base, it was empty before.

-Commissioned one Chinook and one F-17

It looks like a CTD will occur depending on whether I load from the main menu, from a new game or from another savegame. Loading a game from any previous loaded game seems to crash the whole game most of the time. Sorry if I'm not precise enough, it's a bit of a mess and it's rather tedious to test things out given the fact that it gets back to Desktop every time I try one scenario.

Creating a new game works fine though, and I can both save and load that new game fine just like the savegame prior to ending the first month in game.

I also had to stop trying to play in Iron man mode as the game wouldn't save my game at all, not on events, not even on game exit. All in all Looks like I'm having a lot of issues with the saving/loading system. Hope it helps.

Note: I'd link the working and failing savegames but I get a 404 when trying to upload them.

Edit: New CTD, on a game which is about a month and a half old (in-game time) clicking the personnel tab crashes the whole game everytime.

Edited September 23, 2012 by Vivoune

[chacineiro]

All my savegames that are on october or more(game time) were corrupted, I deleted them all and started a fresh game, and the same thing happened again. Right now its impossible to load a game that is on october or more, you either get the "time stop" bug or a plain CTD, depending on the loading method(main menu or in-game menu).

Just for the sake of testing, I saved a game on September 30, waited without doing nothing until October 1 and saved again, but the bug persists.

Im playing V15.1 btw.

[Vivoune]

Yea it definitely looks like the moment you hit October something goes horribly wrong.

[Bofferbrauer]

can't reload any savegame, neither autosaves nor self-created ones. Well I can, but that damn time stop bug persists on all of them

Playing V15.1

[Giovanni]

can't reload any savegame, neither autosaves nor self-created ones. Well I can, but that damn time stop bug persists on all of them

Playing V15.1

Here's how to make time bug affected games work again.

That October thing is really strange, we'll look at this, thanks for your reports

[Gauddlike]

Does it always crash at exactly the same point in your games, even on different playthroughs?

If I just build a new base and speed through the time without doing anything then I can easily get into October.

I was curious if it could be a ticker problem rather than a date/time one.

[Thann]

I tested to do nothing until october. Saving and loading works fine then. But with my normal game it is the same ...the save on 30 september works and the save on 1. october doesn't work.

[Khall]

Just saying I have this issue too

All my savegames after 01 October doesn't work, but up to 30 September they do

[Vivoune]

Yes it loads fine till the 30 of Sept, and past the 1st of Oct I got either a CTD when I load the game from another new game (to get the time working) or it loads fine from main menu but the time is frozen and even then trying to get in the base's personnel tab also results in a CTD. I think that on that particular save the game were started on V15, I then updated to V15.1. Dunno if that's relevent.

It doesn't really happen on a specific date/time though as I even got to the 11th of October once, then quit the game and had to roll back to a 30 of Sept game to load it then it seems I can play fine until I decide to quit the game and can't load back any October saves. For the record most of the time when I quit the game I get an error that CTD instead of going to the main menu, so that could be it. Is there a crash log somewhere I could upload to the devs? If it's needed that is.

[Thann]

I think that loading from the menu only works because of the time stop. On one of my saves in October I have a terror site and the crash doesn't happen, until I do something that lets time go on (center on site, send troops or press cancel).

Edit: If I dismiss all my soldiers on september 30, then i can save on october 1 and loading works.

Edit: It becomes more and more strange ... on one save I just have to fire my 3 privates (the only guys I hired) to make the savegames work ... on another save, where I lost a unit before, I can fire all my soldiers but the savegames become broken again (the unit lost was not one of the privates)

Edited September 24, 2012 by Thann

[Gauddlike]

Any of the soldiers using researched tech or all basic stuff?

[StellarRat]

Have any of you made to November, i.e. no save and reload for the entire month of October? Does a November save work?

[chacineiro]

Any of the soldiers using researched tech or all basic stuff?

My soldiers and aircraft were all using basic stuff.

[Thann]

On some saves, two of the soldiers use stun batons. On the save, where I have to fire the privates, i didn't even research them.

I think, that there could be more than one CTD reason. I'll do some savegame-analysis from my game to see, when the crashes begin.

Edit1:

First Crash between "Save1 (9.September ingame)" and "Save2(10.September ingame)": I see only two Differences between this two Savegames. I have hired 3 new soldiers (they didn't reach the base yet) and I changed some equipment of the soldiers (no researched items).

Save1->October, only doing research: Savegame in October works

Save1->October, hiring 3 new soldiers (like it happened between Save1 and Save2): Savegame in October works

Save2->October, only doing research: Savegame in October crashes

Save2->October, doing research and fire the 3 hired soldiers: Savegame in October works

I don't see why Save2 crashes with the hired soldiers but Save1 with other hired soldiers doesn't crash

Edit2: On all following saves I just have to dismiss this 3 soldiers that were hired between Save1 and Save2. Then I can save on October 1 and load the game. This works just until Save3 (28.Sept ingame). On the following Save4 (also 28.September) one of these 3 soldiers disappeared from the Personnel and Soldier list, so I cannot dismiss him. He is still in the Chinook and doesn't want to leave it ... or better said, i cannot make him leave without him being in Personnel or Soldier list.

Edit3: Strange. In Save4 there is also 1 soldier ordered ... when this soldier arrives at base, the missing soldier is back ... and the new soldier is the same as the missing soldier ... so I have 2 times the same soldier ... both are assigned to the Chinook, that means now there are 9! soldiers and one Hunter in the Chinook. When I unassigned the soldier, both of them were unassigned ... when I assigned one, both were assigned. When I dismissed one, only one was dismissed. I went to the Chinook to see if the other one was in there, but none of them was in the Chinook. When I tried to go back to Personnel, the game crashed (I think the other one was still assigned to the Chinook when I left Personnel, so perhaps the game crashed because of that).

Edit4: It becomes more and more strange. The double soldier arrived in October and I saved the game. This savegame works. I can load it.

Edited September 24, 2012 by Thann

[Gauddlike]

Maybe the soldiers are at fault?

Possibly one of the specifically named soldiers isn't working properly or a specific portrait is causing an issue?

[StellarRat]

Maybe the soldiers are at fault?

Possibly one of the specifically named soldiers isn't working properly or a specific portrait is causing an issue?

Good thought. You might be on to something. That would explain why getting rid of soldiers fixes the problem occasionally. OR it could simply have something to do with the number of soldiers in the game at any given time.

[Thann]

Thought about that. But I always have to fire all three of them. Unlikely, that I have got 3 with an issue.

I don't think, that I can find out much more with my saves. Has anyone else tried to dismiss his soldiers before saving in October? Did the save work? And did you lose any units in battle? Has anyone not recruited new soldiers and played till October (really played, not just skipped time)?

Edit: Soldier number could also be a factor. But it cannot be the only one. I made a new game, recruited 3 soldiers and skipped time till October. Then the savegame works.

Edited September 24, 2012 by Thann

[StellarRat]

What happens in November??

[Thann]

Tried to get to November (by skipping time) from one of my games. On the way there I lost my main base. The save in October after I lost my base can be loaded. But when I try to load my game in November, then something is different. If I click on load, it freezes and after some time I get a C++ runtime error.

Edit: Just noticed that I started from a game, where I already dismissed the recruits. So I can load all the games in October, no matter if I already lost my main base. Save on October 30 works and save on November 1 freezes. In the game on October 30 I have only left a second base with 2 radars, 1 living quarter, 1 medical center and 1 storeroom. No soldiers, no hangars, no scientists, no technicians, no items in the store room.

Edit2: This time I started from a game with the 3 recruits. In October my base was attacked and I aborted the mission (so all my soldiers were MIA, including the 3 recruits). But when I left the mission end screen, the game crashed.

Edited September 25, 2012 by Thann

[Buzzles]

There's definitely something odd going on regarding saving and/or loading as during a play through this afternoon I've had manual saves which don't work and auto saves that do, the auto being directly after a groundcombat and the manual a few seconds after that.

But also vice-versa, with certain autosaves not working but the manual made a couple of seconds later working fine.

I haven't yet pinned down what's causing it, as it's occurred both them the geoscape is empty and when it's full.

[LKx]

For the records, i have the same problem so i tried a new game where i sold my radars to avoid to be bothered by ufo detections, and fast forwarded through the year without doing NOTHING but the 2 basic researches.

I saved in october, december, jan, apr, jul aug, september again and october again.

When i reloaded (after a new game, to avoid the time freeze), they got loaded correctly, without crashes.

The only odd thing was that all the alien bases on the map disapeared.

I even tried to do a terror mission on october 1980, and it worked.

Edited September 26, 2012 by LKx

[LKx]

Another test: gone to october without misisons, just basic researches, and built hangars and aircrafts.

Saved in october and reloaded just fine (every reload has been done with the trick to avoid time freeze).

Did a terror misison, saved and reloaded, worked.

Did an ufo crash (scout in russia's farmland), saved both before reaching the crashsite and after the missione, both worked fine.

[Thann]

Next test: I started a new game, fired all scientists and all technicians and ordered soldiers until I had 50. Then I skipped time and made some saves. End of October I also built some missile batteries to defend against base attacks. The saves in September and in October worked, the first two saves in November crashed, after that the saves in November and December worked again till end of December. The save on Dec31 at 08:16 worked, the save on Dec31 at 23:12 crashed, save on Jan1 crashed. Didn't do any savegames after that.

[StellarRat]

It sounds to me that the save game file or the loading of the file gets screwed up after the month turns. I think the things you're changing to make the saves work aren't the cause of the problem. I'm sure Giovanni can figure this out by comparing/loading a save game before and after the change of a month. There is probably some data that is new or missing because something was added to the game and that has thrown the whole save/load process out of sync with the current data structure. For now I wouldn't bother trying to diagnose this further as it is highly unlikely you'll be able to come up with anything that works consistently without wrecking your game play.

[Testerstower]

It seems to regarding soldiers. Comparing the savegames binary data gives biggest differences in soldiers section.

Don't know if new "pool" of recruits is done for new month? Or some other handling is not done properly.

I guess there is nothing we can do about it, at least not easily.