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SOLVED Save system reset after GM2 2.3 update - players' progress set back to zero.

otterZ

Member
I have a game in early access on Steam. When I put up the latest update (after upgrading to GMS 2.3) all player progress was set back to zero. I'm saving values as INI files.

Has anyone else had their save system reset?

I've apologised to players playing my game but it is so annoying to have this happen.

Is there any way to reverse / fix this?
 

siread

Member
That's not good. I have 1m+ downloads of Retro Bowl and the idea that save files might get reset is unthinkable. Currently I can't even get it build to Android (in YYC whereas VM is fine) so it's safe to say I'm a little worried. Wishing I hadn't converted to 2.3 right now.
 
D

Deleted member 13992

Guest
if you haven't already compared an old INI save with a new INI save, that would be the first thing to check. put two files side-by-side in notepad and see.
 

otterZ

Member
There are only a few players playing my game, as it is in early access on Steam - and they are very understanding under the circumstances, but it is so frustrating to set back players' progress - the very people that are helping me develop the game and giving me such valuable feedback.

I honestly didn't mess with the INI file saving system, it is as it was before I upgraded to 2.3 and was working just fine. I'd guess it is referencing a new INI file save location? I could roll back to the previous build of my game, but then I'd be going backwards as well as knowing that the next update would produce the same upset.

This makes me really nervous to upgrade to the next GMS build - as if this happens again the players of my game/app will quite rightly get upset.

I really hope Retro Bowl is not affected - maybe you have a different save system in place (hopefully) and this won't happen to you. I just had a simple INI file save system for players' progress.

PS: Just checked out some videos on YouTube on Retro Bowl - what a great game; great work! Plus 1m+ downloads shows people really love this game.
 

otterZ

Member
if you haven't already compared an old INI save with a new INI save, that would be the first thing to check. put two files side-by-side in notepad and see.
Thanks, will check this out tomorrow muki. I will post up the results here.
 

chamaeleon

Member
Is it due to uninstallation of old version removing the data directory for the old version, before installing the new version? If this is the case, maybe your option would be having a custom install script instead of relying on the one generated by GMS (unless you do this already) that lets you be very specific about what to do with various files and directories.
 

otterZ

Member
Thank you chameleon, I will look into this. This is (for me as an intermediate programmer in GML) an advanced procedure that I will have to look into and learn - very interesting, as it would be great to not have this nightmare happen again.
 
Did you test it out yourself before pushing it to live? If the file is being deleted because of an installation of a new version, that seems really bizarre. I'd hazard a guess that it may have to do with the file locations. In which case, you could just push an update (after testing, lol) that searches for the old ini file when it's first booted (how you do this depends on how you were saving it in the old version) and then perhaps copying across the data to the new ini file or something similar to that. Then just make a mark in the new ini file saying that you have found the old one and imported the data and have the game not search for the old ini file if it finds that mark in the new ini file. I doubt the data has been completely lost, but it would be very unfortunate if it were.

I have had to do stuff similar to this a few times as I've been building Spaceslingers and have updated various things within the map editor; finding old files, importing the data and updating it to comply with the new data format. It's not a super hard thing to do, just spend some time experimenting and testing.
 

otterZ

Member
Thank you RefresherTowel, I will as you suggested spend some time experimenting and testing. Admittedly, I did test the build before pushing it to live, but thought the conflict in the INI file location was due to me having an INI file location for my GMS project and also a separate Steam INI file location - although that probably could obviously be wrong and maybe racks up to another learning experience.

I wish I could download your programming knowledge from a flash drive inserted into my neck RefersherTowel, such as on the Matrix . . . which would save loads of hours of trial and error :)

PS: Spaceslingers looks fun! I like the gravitational focus and slingshot physics.
 
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Hahaha, I was as clueless about file stuff as you are now when I started. But simply buckling down with the manual and a lot of experimentation has given me at least a vague idea of what to do in various situations. Though, working with steam is definitely a PITA...there's a lot of difference between the simplicity of just handling local files for a non-steam game versus trying to figure out best practices for handling steam files in various situations.
 

otterZ

Member
Just doing some buckling down with the manual today, learning about file systems & re-tracing everything I did that might have caused this.

One thing I did do was rename my GM project file a slightly different name, as in instead of 'Boot Camp Fitness' I changed it to 'Boot Camp Fitness GM 2.3' when GM asked me to rename the project - maybe this changed the path to the INI file location? I will try re-naming the project back to its original name and see if this fixes it.

UPDATE: Yay! It worked! I just changed the project name to what it was named before the GM 2.3 update and player information is all back to as it was. Thanks everyone for pointing me in the right direction there. Awesome! Just uploading an update patch and I can tell players that everything is restored. Generally I love learning processes, but this one wasn't a fun learning curve for me . . . the horror of wiping out all players' save progress is the stuff of nightmares . . . Thanks again :)
 
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otterZ

Member
That's not good. I have 1m+ downloads of Retro Bowl and the idea that save files might get reset is unthinkable. Currently I can't even get it build to Android (in YYC whereas VM is fine) so it's safe to say I'm a little worried. Wishing I hadn't converted to 2.3 right now.
Hey Siread, just a quick heads up to let you know that it was my fault, as I re-named the project to a slightly different name and that mucked up the file path to the original INI file. Just did a save as and renamed the project as it originally was and now all is as it was - so no need to worry about your game INI file saves or any nightmares of 1M+ messages popping up in a bug report forum thread :)
 

chirpy

Member
@otterZ
Congrats on finding the root cause and I'm glad to hear nothing's lost (theoretically?)! Thanks for sharing this .. I am also one who had renamed the project; just hadn't updated my released projects. Did you fix it simply by renaming the .yyp file back?
 

otterZ

Member
Hi chirpy, yes, just by renaming the project back to its original name it referenced the original INI file. It has to be exactly the same name of your original project before the GM update :)
 
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Tornado

Member
Be carefull when renaming. The project's yyp file also contains the name of the project. At the end of the yyp file you will find this:
Code:
  "resourceVersion": "1.3",
  "name": "MyProject",
  "tags": [],
  "resourceType": "GMProject",
}
So if you rename your yyp file directly in the file system, then you must also edit yyp file and change the value of the property "name" to your new name.
 
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