Cannot load saved games

[skuld1]

Hello,

 

I played the game for a few hours last night, creating several saved games along the way.

 

When I launched the game tonight, the 'Continue' and 'Load Game' buttons are greyed out and unselectable; I can't load any of my savegames!

 

I can see all of the SAVEGAME files on my hard drive so they are definitely there.

 

I've tried launching steam as an administrator, running the game executable directly as an administrator... that did not fix the issue.

 

Any ideas? Thanks!

[skuld1]

I wound up trying the drastic measure of delete local content and redownloading the whole game through Steam (luckily I have a fast connection).

 

Once the game re-installed I was able to load the saved games.

[Derek M]

Hi Skuld, 

 

Can you see the saves if you run the game through the .exe? Can you see them if you turn off Could Saves?

 

Thanks!

[mbpoblet]

Can't load my saves either; the files are in %homepath%\Saved Games\Pillars of Eternity (bunch of .savegame ZIPs), and there's an apparently outdated (it was last modified earlier than my last save games) loadedSave.zip in %localappdata%\Temp\Obsidian Entertainment\Pillars of Eternity, but output_log.txt says, among other things, "Error loading save game cache!", and the load and continue buttons are greyed out.

 

Wasteland 2 (which I believe runs on the same engine?) appears to have had a similar problem due to a corrupted "save game table of contents", which could be fixed by deleting the TOC.txt file in the save game folder and letting the game rebuild it, but Pillars of Eternity doesn't seem to have an equivalent file, at least in this location.

 

The first time it happened, disabling Steam cloud sync appeared to fix the issue, but obviously I can't disable it again once it's already been disabled (and since this problem seems to be somewhat random for some users - not for me, I tried all combinations of not skipping the intro, loading without Steam, and running as an administrator, all without success -, it probably was a placebo fix anyway).

 

This whole predicament obviously renders the game even more unplayable than the baffling, inexcusable and inexplicable lack of companion AI / tactics.

 

Please patch this yesterday. The game should simply not have been released knowing it had this kind of bugs.

[LordCrash]

Sometimes it helps to let Steam check the game files instead of being forced to redownload the whole game.

 

Right click on the game in your Steam library, choose settings, go to the "local files" tab and choose "check local files for failures" (don't know the exact wordings of the English version, but it should be something like that).

[mbpoblet]

OK, seems like it might be due to some sort of savegame corruption... deleting all save games from %homepath%\Saved Games\Pillars of Eternity except for the autosave and the latest one seemed to work (although probably identifying which one was causing the problem through trial and error and deleting that one would probably also have worked), at least for now (yay, uncertainty!).

 

Obviously keep a backup copy of your savegames if you try this, just in case.

 

Still a terribly nasty bug, though, particularly without knowing what causes the corruption in the first place (I could try to identify which savegame/s cause the problem, try to replicate it, and attempt to find a pattern, but frankly I can't be bothered, and it should be the darned developers' job anyway), so better save often (and don't even consider trial of iron, unless you're certifiably insane or you don't plan on closing the game and have a very good UPS) and be ready for the possibility that the corrupted save/s might be your last one/s.

 

Who plays to relax, anyway..? Getting stressed and anxious over the possibility of losing your savegames and having to tediously replay from whatever point the game decides is what gaming is all about, isn't it?

[jvsol459]

I had the same issue.  It definitely seems like it's caused by one of the save files in the directory, not sure if one is corrupt or what.  I made a backup of the files, turned off steam cloud sync, removed all of my save game files from the local directory, and copied just the last save game file from a manual save back into the directory.  Now continue/load are working...

[mbpoblet]

Possible solution / workaround by aeloisio in a related thread (in my case it seems to be working, at least for now, although it has apparently failed to work for at one other affected player):

 

I have found a working savegame fix the will load savegames and create new working non corrupt savegames

This has been tested and working on 3 different machines with 5 different save files myself and have had 2 other friends fix their savegames with this method.

First delete the folder C:\Users\username\AppData\LocalLow\Obsidian Entertainment

Then delete the folder C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Temp\Obsidian Entertainment

If you have any saves in C:\Users\username\Documents\My Games\Pillars of Eternity 

Copy them to C:\Users\username\Saved Games\Pillars of Eternity

Run the game as admin and load the most recent save

Move your char and save a new save.  

Without exiting the game reload that new save.

Save again in the same save.

Exit the game.

That should work and create new files in LocalLow and Local\Temp

Though its probably unnecessary before i exit i save then i load my save and resave the same save every time before i exit the game now.  I have my 60+ hour save now to 85 hours without an issue on multiple machines.

Please dont ask questions or expect me to explain this again if it works great if it doesnt or you cant figure it out good luck.

Edited March 31, 2015 by mbpoblet

[Svenne]

that does ont wor, now the game cant find my latest saves....

[cava1712]

 

Possible solution / workaround by aeloisio in a related thread (in my case it seems to be working, at least for now, although it has apparently failed to work for at one other affected player):

 

I have found a working savegame fix the will load savegames and create new working non corrupt savegames

This has been tested and working on 3 different machines with 5 different save files myself and have had 2 other friends fix their savegames with this method.

First delete the folder C:\Users\username\AppData\LocalLow\Obsidian Entertainment

Then delete the folder C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Temp\Obsidian Entertainment

If you have any saves in C:\Users\username\Documents\My Games\Pillars of Eternity 

Copy them to C:\Users\username\Saved Games\Pillars of Eternity

Run the game as admin and load the most recent save

Move your char and save a new save.  

Without exiting the game reload that new save.

Save again in the same save.

Exit the game.

That should work and create new files in LocalLow and Local\Temp

Though its probably unnecessary before i exit i save then i load my save and resave the same save every time before i exit the game now.  I have my 60+ hour save now to 85 hours without an issue on multiple machines.

Please dont ask questions or expect me to explain this again if it works great if it doesnt or you cant figure it out good luck.

 

 

You are a real hero sir! Worked like a charm.