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R38 Offline Data Format Change - Character Preservation Notice

Discussion in 'Announcements' started by Berek, Jan 18, 2017.

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  1. Berek

    Berek Portalarian Emeritus Dev Emeritus

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    Greetings Avatars,

    For Release 38, the Offline Mode save game format is changing to support new and upcoming gameplay features.

    Here’s what you need to do in order to preserve your Offline Mode save games and characters:
    • Patch your game client to Release 38.
    • Load each saved game and then re-save. This will convert your save file into the latest format.
    If you do not convert your saved games during Release 38, your saved games (from releases prior to R38) may not load in releases after Release 38. In other words we cannot guarantee the ability to load pre-R38 saves after R38.

    Our sincere apologies if this change causes any disruption in your gameplay. We always make every attempt to avoid having to make these kinds of requirements of our players when we make changes like this. After very careful consideration, we’ve deemed this change, and the accompanying requirement, as necessary. Please note that this change will not affect the online game or characters in any way.

    As a reminder, Release 38 starts on January 26 and runs through February 22.

    Please let us know if you have any questions on this update!

    Thanks,
    Berek
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jan 18, 2017
  2. craftymethod

    craftymethod Avatar

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    Sounds interesting!
     
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  3. Daxxe Diggler

    Daxxe Diggler Avatar

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    Wait, I'm confused a bit so let me see if I understand this correctly...
    We are supposed to Patch to R38, then load a saved game (created prior to R38) and save it to convert it to the new format.

    But... this is because the saved games prior to R38 "may not load"?

    If they "may not load" initially, how are we supposed to load them to save them to the new format?

    Maybe you are telling us to load them and then save them before logging into the game?

    Berek, please clarify ASAP. Thanks.

    Also, does this mean that the saved game files are no longer going to be editable text files?
     
  4. Spoon

    Spoon Avatar

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    Correct.

    In the future they may not load, as in when R39+ then backwards compability would only be towards R38 saves, but not towards R37 and lower.
    So a R37 save will load in R38 and can be resaved, however a R37 save is not guaranteed to load in R39+, but a R38 save is compatible with R39+.

    This is quite common with softwares when changing the file format.
     
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  5. Barugon

    Barugon Avatar

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    He's saying that they're not going to keep the functionality to load pre-R38 saves after R38 (as in, when R39 is out).
     
  6. DarkStarr

    DarkStarr Executive Producer SOTA Developer

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    That's correct. I edited the OP to be more clear:

    "If you do not convert your saved games during Release 38, your saved games (from releases prior to R38) may not load in releases after Release 38. In other words we cannot guarantee the ability to load pre-R38 saves after R38."
     
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  7. Daxxe Diggler

    Daxxe Diggler Avatar

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    Thank you everyone for the clarification. I will be sure to re-save all of my saved games during R38. :D
     
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  8. Numa

    Numa Avatar

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    Somewhat confused - I just logon and my last avatar status automatically loads. Then I simply log off after I'm done. Is there an extra step that I need to do? How does one save?
     
  9. Lord-Galiwyn

    Lord-Galiwyn Avatar

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    logging out saves the data
     
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  10. disastorm

    disastorm Avatar

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    I wonder if its related to the new thing on the service page: https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/?page_id=55262 Gender change request. ( is this working now or does it need next release ? )

    If this is related to the change, I wonder if we will be seeing stuff like Polymorph/incognito, and I know Darkstarr once mentioned something about a neutral gender.
     
  11. Daxxe Diggler

    Daxxe Diggler Avatar

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    Well, my question was answered, so I'll answer yours.

    This "saving" is for Offline mode only... so let's get that point clear first.

    When you play in Offline mode, there are a couple options to start playing. One is the "RESUME" button that will just load up the last status that was automatically saved by the client when you exited the game. The other option is to "LOAD GAME" at the bottom of the screen that lets you load up a previously saved character state. In order to use this option, you have to have already used the "SAVE GAME" feature from the options menu while playing Offline Mode earlier.

    When you use the SAVE GAME option, a window will popup asking you for a save game name. If you save the game at different stages of progress and name them different names, you will have the ability to go back to a previous version and start at that point. Handy if you want to experiment with crafting stuff and want to make sure your new sword doesn't go poof when you enchant it. :D

    So, if you choose the LOAD GAME option instead of RESUME, it will bring up a window to let you select which saved game you want to load up. There will be some confirmation boxes about saving current game (which lets you do a manual save of the current progress as if you were doing it in-game from the options menu). If you click "Don't Save" it will ask you if you are sure as a precaution against you declining by accident. But once you get to where you choose the saved game file name to load up, you then go back to the RESUME button and it loads the one you selected instead of the current progress auto-save version the client had in memory.

    If you are not saving your game in offline mode, chances are you don't have to worry about this change as it won't apply to you.
     
  12. Paladin Michael

    Paladin Michael Bug Hunter

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    At this point another question:
    In my offline character I have old "broken" items, which can't be deleted. Is this problem solved with/after release 38?
     
  13. Daxxe Diggler

    Daxxe Diggler Avatar

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    Good question. I have a bunch of "unknown item" items in my inventory that have the same problem.
     
  14. Barugon

    Barugon Avatar

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    Did either of you make a bug report?
     
  15. Daxxe Diggler

    Daxxe Diggler Avatar

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    I didn't because in the past, the "unknown" items were just things that were removed from the game, so I sort of knew what the problem was.

    I wasn't sure if they were things that were going to be added back later, so I just put them in the bank and forgot about them.

    Besides, with being in the offline mode and the items being listed as "unknown item"... not sure how it could be investigated anyway.
     
  16. Barugon

    Barugon Avatar

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    If you didn't make a bug report then Portalarium may not even be aware of the issue.
     
  17. Daxxe Diggler

    Daxxe Diggler Avatar

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    As a member of the Bug Brigade and having made enough bug reports myself to have earned a few of the bug hunter rewards... I'm quite aware of that fact, thank you. :D

    In this case though, it was somewhat of a known issue and no way for the Dev team to fix it. I have no idea what those items were named before they changed to "unknown item" and without knowing which item needs fixing, it would be wasting their time investigating it.

    Filing a bug report without enough information to work with can be just as bad not filing one at all. All it can do is waste their time reading it and responding with "Need more Information".

    If I had known that it was a "Meteoric Iron Longsword" in one release and then changed to "unknown item" in the next patch... I would have had something for them to report and check on and would definitely have made a report. But in offline mode, I have thousands of items in my inventory and no way for me to determine what needs to be fixed. Therefore, I just put them in the bank in hopes that one day those items might get added back to the game and have a proper name again... as others have in the past.
     
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  18. Wintermute of CoF

    Wintermute of CoF Avatar

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    In this case the information they need is probably in your save file, because all items will have at least one unique identifier in the underlying data store.

    At work we have several open defects with not enough information to work on, because then when more information does come along it can be added to the existing info and may one day build up into something actionable that way. Port might be handling their JIRAs differently, but Heisenbugs are still bugs IMO.
     
  19. Daxxe Diggler

    Daxxe Diggler Avatar

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    Yea, I'm quite familiar with the save file Winter, and with literally thousands of items on me it would take forever to weed out which ones are the bugged ones. I would have to go through the list and see which items match what is "OK" in my inventory to cross it off the "broken" list to figure it out. That would take considerable hours of time and I would not want to burden the Dev crew with that task for something that isn't very important.


    I already tried searching the file for "unknown" and it didn't find anything, so finding them are not easy.

    I have a feeling that these unknown items are in fact old home deco items that I bought from the housing merchant... that have since been removed and changed to craftable versions only. If this is the case, then there really is no need to figure it out because there is no way to acquire those items anymore.

    I'm not having this issue in Online modes either, so whatever they were that broke have likely already been fixed.
     
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