Run ending bugs in a permadeath game = immense frustration

[Murpharoo]

The Long Dark is easily my all time favourite game. 

I feel traitorous however with my following comments.

The gameplay has steadily worsened over the last 2 years.  The shonky wolf AI and constant bugs that occur after every new update has left me not enjoying the game in the same way. 

Run ending bugs have now driven me further away.  Do I want to devote months of gameplay to a run to have it ended "again" by a bug ?

My 550 day Xbox run is no more due to the "insufficient storage" bug and will no longer save any progress.  550 days !

In a permadeath game such bugs are immensely frustrating. 

Can we allow the "option" for Non Permadeath? It sound like sacrilege to suggest such a notion but as we all play the game for "ourselves" then we only have to justify it to "ourselves".

Having it as an option to return to the last save after death or stick with permadeath would allow for both camps.  Hardcore and casual players.  As well as catering for "bug deaths".

I look forward to the wonder and thrill of exploring a new region but I dread the ever-present new bugs and their run-ending implications.

 

[Leeanda]

My sympathies ,I know how you feel. I lost mine at about 750+ days.  

I however thought it was a console problem but obviously I was wrong!  

I  agree that  we need the option of multi saves same as PC users get. Especially considering some of the issues in game at the moment.

[UpUpAway95]

Agree.  I think there should be a toggle option for the player to decide whether or not they want to play permadeath.  I also think there should be an option to increase settings that affect game difficulty during a run rather than having to start a new run whenever the player feels confident enough to play on a higher difficulty or is getting bored with playing on a certain set of parameters and would just like to toughen things up a bit.

I get that there is a certain tension that is created by the feeling that dying ends the run.  I do play games like Fallout 4 with a personal permadeath commitment (that is, I start a new run voluntarily when I die and and have forfeited many, many elaborate builds in that game in the process).  I get that it is not quite the same... but, I think a good compromise is to allow the player to decide before starting the run whether or not to lock that individual run into permadeath and a set difficulty.  That way, they can make a conscious choice about how lenient or chill or competitive they might want to play their own game.  We buy the game... we should be able to play it our own way.

[Admin]

On 2/26/2022 at 12:45 AM, Murpharoo said:

The Long Dark is easily my all time favourite game. 

I feel traitorous however with my following comments.

The gameplay has steadily worsened over the last 2 years.  The shonky wolf AI and constant bugs that occur after every new update has left me not enjoying the game in the same way. 

Run ending bugs have now driven me further away.  Do I want to devote months of gameplay to a run to have it ended "again" by a bug ?

My 550 day Xbox run is no more due to the "insufficient storage" bug and will no longer save any progress.  550 days !

In a permadeath game such bugs are immensely frustrating. 

Can we allow the "option" for Non Permadeath? It sound like sacrilege to suggest such a notion but as we all play the game for "ourselves" then we only have to justify it to "ourselves".

Having it as an option to return to the last save after death or stick with permadeath would allow for both camps.  Hardcore and casual players.  As well as catering for "bug deaths".

I look forward to the wonder and thrill of exploring a new region but I dread the ever-present new bugs and their run-ending implications.

 

Hi @Murpharoo, thank you for your feedback. We're sorry to hear that you encountered this issue. If you haven't done so already, please reach out to us via the support portal so we can investigate further for you. https://hinterlandgames.zendesk.com/hc/en-us

Sometimes console storage is a concern, but we are also working on improvements to known save issues on PS4 and XBox that will hopefully prevent similar issues in the future. 

Thank you for your patience. 

[Brad73]

I dont suppose anyone has found a solution to this yet? I'm on day 1275 and this issue just started, meaning I am stuck in a groundhog day. Constantly getting "save FAILED" error. Tried factory reset of xbox and everything else I can think of. Just opened ticket with support but beyond frustrating as over a real world year invested into this run. Will update thread with response when I see one.

[SpanishMoss]

Lucky for you, a hotfix is scheduled to release within the next 2-3 weeks. (Also, please be nice to the dev team, Hinterland is a wonderful company, but they tend to push updates slowly. This ensures there will be less bugs than if it was forced out by a deadline.)

[SpanishMoss]

(here's the post about it) The Long Dark on Twitter: "Thank you for your patience as we continue to work on the upcoming Hotfix. We currently estimate the update will be available before the end of the month. Please continue to report all technical issues via our support portal: https://t.co/Y22tJOF07x https://t.co/IMEFsh0ATy" / Twitter (Posted March 7th)

[Murpharoo]

I did everything to try to resolve my "save failed error". I sent my XBox save file to Hinterland (at their request) and they could not help. I even factory reset my whole console and reinstalled all my games to no avail. 

All other games run and save perfectly so I think my console is fine and there are 100's of Gigs of space free.

I am not holding my breath that my "groundhog day" save issue will be resolved with the hotfix but here's hoping.

[Leeanda]

12 minutes ago, Murpharoo said:

I did everything to try to resolve my "save failed error". I sent my XBox save file to Hinterland (at their request) and they could not help. I even factory reset my whole console and reinstalled all my games to no avail. 

All other games run and save perfectly so I think my console is fine and there are 100's of Gigs of space free.

I am not holding my breath that my "groundhog day" save issue will be resolved with the hotfix but here's hoping.

You and me both!  Is yours digital or disc? 

[Brad73]

Thanks for the update Spanish Moss. The timing sucks as I have 2 weeks off before starting my new job. Hmm wonder if I can delay starting my new job by 2 additional weeks to allow me to catch up with my wolves lol. I have the utmost respect and patience with the DEV team here. Only game since Homeworld on PC 20 years ago and Fallout 4 that has kept my interest for more than a hot minute. Big difference between TLD and Fallout is that this is the first tech issue I have ever had with TLD whereas Fallout was usually an issue per day. For anyone else info I also tried a full factory reset of xbox and only reinstalled TLD and it made no difference to the groundhog whatsoever so dont waste your time doing that. 

[Murpharoo]

6 hours ago, Leeanda said:

You and me both!  Is yours digital or disc? 

Digital copy.  I even deleted every save other than the 1 "error" save so that there was nothing on the console other than a fresh reinstall of TLD and the one save from the cloud. 100's of Gigs free space and still the "insufficient  storage" error.

[Leeanda]

43 minutes ago, Murpharoo said:

Digital copy.  I even deleted every save other than the 1 "error" save so that there was nothing on the console other than a fresh reinstall of TLD and the one save from the cloud. 100's of Gigs free space and still the "insufficient  storage" error.

Odd! Mines a disc so it's not that then either!  If HTL couldn't find anything I'm not sure what it is! 

I've heard of Ghosts in the machine just didn't think they were real! 🙂 

Either way it's not good. I just hope it doesn't happen again! 

[Brad73]

Updating with response from tech support which echoes Spanish Moss comment. Per HTL support they are aware of the issue and anticipate releasing an update in the next couple of weeks to resolve. 

[odizzido]

The game is in early access so there will be issues. If you want the best experience you need to wait until it's done and patched up to play. That's what I do really. I also have xenonauts early access. I played it a little to give some bug reports and feedback but I haven't spent a lot of time on it because I want the best experience which means waiting.

[SpanishMoss]

Uh.. the game is not in early access, and hasn't been for a while... the version number is 1.99, the 1.xx indicating it's in full release . Since release it's had 99 updates and hot fixes. If it was in early access, the version would be 0.xx 

[odizzido]

Hinterland can call it whatever they want, but here is the definition of early access on steam

Quote

What is Early Access?

Steam Early Access enables you to sell your game on Steam while it is still being developed, and provide context to customers that a product should be considered "unfinished." Early Access is a place for games that are in a playable alpha or beta state, are worth the current value of the playable build, and that you plan to continue to develop for release.

Releasing a game in Early Access helps set context for prospective customers and provides them with information about your plans and goals before a "final" release.

 

Since the game is being developed and isn't finished it is in early access.

[Murpharoo]

The "Attempt to save game failed.  Check that sufficient storage is available" bug is back. I was able to play for a coupe of weeks after updating to 2.00on my long run and now it won't save my progress again. 

I thought this had been fixed.

I'm wary to start a new run,  plough weeks/ months in to it only to have the same issue again. 

There are so many bugs in the game now 😓

[odizzido]

I would totally recommend putting the game down and returning to it in mid 2023 when hopefully it will be finished and patched up. You will enjoy your experience a lot more if you can be patient.

[Murpharoo]

Any ETA on the xbox (and other platforms) save bug fix ?

My favourite game is now unplayable on my main long run as it won't save any progress ?

Forums are going quiet and interest is waning as each fix seems to take a long time and there are so many bugs currently.  More after each update.

I'm really missing playing my all time favourite game 😪

[Admin]

On 5/24/2022 at 12:45 AM, Murpharoo said:

Any ETA on the xbox (and other platforms) save bug fix ?

My favourite game is now unplayable on my main long run as it won't save any progress ?

Forums are going quiet and interest is waning as each fix seems to take a long time and there are so many bugs currently.  More after each update.

I'm really missing playing my all time favourite game 😪

There was a fix for this issue, but we're hearing a couple continued reports. Can you please confirm whether you filed a report via our Support Portal? Additionally, if you could send us your email via private message, we could investigate further. 

Thank you for your patience. 

[Murpharoo]

6 hours ago, Admin said:

There was a fix for this issue, but we're hearing a couple continued reports. Can you please confirm whether you filed a report via our Support Portal? Additionally, if you could send us your email via private message, we could investigate further. 

Thank you for your patience. 

Yep - sent a report to the Support Portal 👍 

[Murpharoo]

This bug is preventing any play whatsoever on my long 550 day plus run. The game won't save progress.

Other newly started runs save just fine.

Any news on a fix ? I'm itching to get back to The Quiet Apocalypse....