inexplicable uninstall

[Pillock]

Jumped back into TLD the other day, on the back of excitement for latest news and forthcoming updates. Was playing yesterday without problems (except for in-game survivaly problems on Timberwolf Mountain, natch), but today I load up Steam and the game is apparently no longer installed!

Has anything happened (update, etc) that might have caused this? I am at a loss, and rather disappointed as I fear I will have lost my saves..

[Excorpion]

Nothing special or related to the files... there was a short update... but your case isnt linked with that...

[Guest Support]

We did an update to include a DirectX installer for those on older systems. We don't actually have anything that would uninstall the game included in our files. We let Steam take care of that for us. I've had a similiar issue when moving games to a new library directory, sometimes Steam doesn't see them. You may want to check with the Steam Client Support forums to see if anyone else is having similiar issues in general (I assume it would not be game specific.) Lastly I would also run scan disk just to be safe. 

[Pillock]

Thanks for the helpful responses. I guess it was to do with the small tech update. Anyhow, I chose to click "install" in Steam, the install program told me it located existing TLD files and that it would download 1.2GB. As it turned out it downloaded much, much less than that and installed the game in 3 or 4 minutes (no way my internet connection could have done 1.2GB so fast, but I wasn't monitoring it as I was expecting it to take 45 minutes or so).

Got into the game, and lo and behold my saves were gone. Still, I started again (random location, as always) and am now thoroughly enjoying a new Desolation Point start - the old TM one is but a distant memory.

I suppose the update broke some file or other or Steam got confused by it somehow - none of my other games were affected and I barely needed to download anything to get up and running again. I'd be interested to know whether it's possible to recover the save games, however, should anything similar happen in future?

[illanthropist]

Your game saves are stored separate to steam files for example:

C:\Users\Neil\AppData\Local\Hinterland\TheLongDark

It's a hidden folder so you'd have to turn on viewing options in windows explorer to be able to see it.

[hauteecolerider]

While exploring the Steam client, I found an option to save my game files. Now whether that would restore any lost saves or not I don't know. But it's worth a try. I did backup my save games last night, then copied them to my iCloud Drive so I have them in two places. Now I've got to remember doing that every so often . . .

In the Steam client, just right-click (or command-click if you're on a Mac) and you'll get a pop-up menu. In that menu you'll select the option to "Backup Game Files . . ." Then you can select the game you want to backup (The Long Dark, natch). Select "Next" at the bottom of that pop-up, and the next screen will show the default location. I changed it to a different location as I don't like saving files to desktop, and had it create a new folder in the directory. Next screen shows the size option - split the files to fit on multiple CD's or DVD's or set a custom size. 

I always feel better having a backup of game files, especially something with the potential to rack up as many hours as TLD. That way if something borks the main save, or it's lost, I can get at least some of it back. Now whether or not it works . . .