Save files are corrupted

[FlorettaV]

I initially thought of cloud save issues to, but that wouldn't seem to line up with the 8 MB limit. And the problem manifesting at that limit seems too coincidental and reproduceable already to be uninvolved.

Let me post this link again, from the TW3 days. Does anything there seem to line up with what you're seeing here? It still feels very similar to me.





There are several things about the game right now that are definitely inconvenient or odd, but obviously done purposefully. (This savegame size cap and keyboard keys being hard-bound are the two that stand out to me.) Again, the only thing I can infer is that the limitations are somehow there to prevent errors from occurring. Not really that far of a stretch to think they might be causing still other errors.

Of course, I think they knew that players would do it. I think TW3 made that clear. But on the same token, that doesn't mean that the engine could be made to allow for it to happen. Since this seems to happening so quickly, though, I think it's more down to a script or inventory glitch.




It's all theory right now. That's the fun of troubleshooting! But yes, I agree that what's happening does seem to be in line with the "bloat" idea. I was speculating earlier about it maybe being a script associated with crafting that would never correctly terminate, so that every save would add another instance of it that would also never terminate.


_______________


Whatever the case, be sure to send the issue into CDPR Support if you have it. A before / after save file would probably help, just to be sure they can try to recreate the issue.

Technical Support — CD PROJEKT RED

Welcome to CD PROJEKT RED Technical Support! Here you will find help regarding our games and services, as well as answers to frequently asked questions.

support.cdprojektred.com

Please, read the appropriate FAQ section to the end, ensuring all suggestions have been followed. If the problems persist, you can use the "Contact Us" link to send in a ticket.

Be sure to include your system (including specs if on PC), a brief description of the issue, and the steps taken to reproduce it (if applicable).

I was about to get some sleep, but my brain had some trouble letting this issue go. It's an interesting one, but I started to realise it might actually be a very impactful one.

This is a big if, but if the system is a copy from the TW3 version and it hasn't received updates concerning the unique identifiers and the biggest number the integers are set to handle are 65k, then this issue might start to impact a lot of players now, and/or in the future.

I'm not sure if you've got a direct line to support or to some magical instance within CDPR. I do know for sure that the developers are swamped. I've been in the situation where software had to be released even if that meant that all the great idea's should be put in a backlog and the outstanding issue's needed the most simple and quick solution to them possible. It's a shitty and emotional situation, but IF this part of the game is from TW3 I as a developer would want to know about this issue.

They either know they've changed the values and upped the caps, or they need to know that people are hitting 65k resources and are reaching the 8MB file limit.

Because simply upping the 8MB limit will only ask for more players to reach the 65k on resources or other instances. It won't fix the issue's.

Cyberpunk drops resources and items by the millions. The Witcher 3 way less so.

 

[Ianto1]

I was about to get some sleep, but my brain had some trouble letting this issue go. It's an interesting one, but I started to realise it might actually be a very impactful one.

This is a big if, but if the system is a copy from the TW3 version and it hasn't received updates concerning the unique identifiers and the biggest number the integers are set to handle are 65k, then this issue might start to impact a lot of players now, and/or in the future.

I'm not sure if you've got a direct line to support or to some magical instance within CDPR. I do know for sure that the developers are swamped. I've been in the situation where software had to be released even if that meant that all the great idea's should be put in a backlog and the outstanding issue's needed the most simple and quick solution to them possible. It's a shitty and emotional situation, but IF this part of the game is from TW3 I as a developer would want to know about this issue.

They either know they've changed the values and upped the caps, or they need to know that people are hitting 65k resources and are reaching the 8MB file limit.

Because simply upping the 8MB limit will only ask for more players to reach the 65k on resources or other instances. It won't fix the issue's.

Cyberpunk drops resources and items by the millions. The Witcher 3 way less so.

The unfortunate truth is that the devs already have their hands full after the stunt Sony pulled by taking their game off the store page (oddly enough, they did not do this for games that were even worse on their day 1 releases such as Mass Effect Andromeda, NMS or Fallout 76). They've basically forced the devs to fix the ps4/ps5 versions of the game before anything else...all so that they can point the finger at CRPD and put all the blame on them instead of their overpriced toasters they call 'next gen consoles'. On top of that, this is probably not something that can be easily fixed and might even be a symptom of an even larger problem.

All I'm saying is just wouldn't get your hopes up right now, the only thing we can do about it is open a ticket, use what we know to slow down save file inflation and wait it out.

So far this thread has speculated that the problem might occur with the crafting system, keeping too many items/components in your inventory, using dupe exploits, using steam's save cloud and having multiple playthroughs. I don't have all the answers but I do know of something that might help with the latter;

SaveSwitcher 2 (Profile Manager)

A small app I initially built for myself and my siblings to backup savegames and interchange different custom savegame-profiles. This enables another person to be able to play the game with a new, per

www.nexusmods.com

Though I have not tested this out personally, this should allow you to easily swap save profiles for each of your playthroughs (or you can just move them manually). I'm gonna give it a try after I beat the game on my first character, hope it helps.

 

[Dantilted]

I'm level 18 in crafting and generally craft a lot of materials and gear, my save file is 6.3MB with hours 78h clocked, changing clothing freezes the game for a sec. Loading the save takes 3-5 seconds but it's on an NVMe drive. Can we drop the size of the save file somehow? I have over 10k common components for example, would upgrading them to uncommon, then to rare, decrease the save size? Drop items maybe?

 

[xaero212]

Just to confirm, because I don't think it's been mentioned officially in this topic - does the issue only occur on Steam version? Or on GOG as well?

 

[moozzman]

I got 2.7 hours into the game and died for the first time. All my auto saves are NOT working. All my save.dat files are around the 1,7xx KB in size and that's all she wrote. At least some of you knew to save your game manually, but I was literally still trying it out when it flaked on me.

PS. I'm on the steam version

 

[Duskguy]

So, testing a few things out.

A- Resources CAN be placed in storage. I did the following test transferring ONLY common item components (1287 of them).
B- Transfers don't matter to the game save size.
C- Number of resources DOES seem to affect game save file size.

Being that I had to start the game from a prologue save after losing 100+ hours, Figured I'd do some testing.

Saved the game = save file = 1.99mb
Stored items = save file = 1.99mb
Slept 3x in a row -> save file = 1.91mb (read that vendors take time to reset sold goods)
Stored items again -> save file = 1.92mb
removed items -> saved file = 1.93mb
Stored items again -> save file = 2.01mb
removed items yet again -> save file = 1.95mb
Did absolutely nothing and saved again -> save file is 1.96mb
Moved 3 feet and saved again -> save file = 1.93mb
Moved 3 feet and saved again -> save file still = 1.93mb
Disassembled a blue weapon -> save file = 1.95mb
Built a green sniper rifle -> save file = 1.94mb
Disassembled a blue t-shirt ->save file = 1.97mb
Built another green sniper rifle -> save file = 1.93mb
Built 13 more green sniper rifles -> save file = 1.92mb
Sold all built snipers -> save file = 1.93mb (they still show up in the drop box)
Slept (snipers still list in drop box) -> save file = 1.96mb
Slept (snipers still listed) -> save file = 1.96mb
Skipped time 47 hours -> save file = 1.94mb

Every save seems to have a different mb total; whether or not items are switching places (without changing the total number of resources).

However, adding or subtracting resources through crafting seems to change the save file size. In particular, the number of components in your inventory rather than crafted items.

While not conclusive, this seems to indicate that resources are counting as items, or at least affecting the game file size.

 

[oylebumbler]

Hiya, I used cheatengine to jack up all components up to 50,000,000, and the save size didn't change. So likely not related to the size of the number, so much as something happening during the actual act of generating more of the # through the crafting. Perhaps, as implied by the mod, tied back to some script not getting terminated that relates to the perk that allows extra components to be extracted or some such?

 

[TheKimDotcom]

I have been following this threat for 2 days. The summary is that if you play this game too much it will eventually break because of the save file size limit. I had my law firm look into the publisher terms and there is no indication that the playtime is limited. Neither the moderator nor the CDPR tech support are taking this issue seriously. I'm herewith putting CDPR on notice (also via email) that if CDPR is not providing a save file patch in the next 48 hours that counsel will be instructed to start work on a class action lawsuit. This should not only provide players with an option for a refund but also to be compensated for the wasted time invested in the game. If you had expenses upgrading your system in anticipation of playing this game you may also seek damages for that. Just Google "CDPR class action lawsuit" in a couple of days for updates. In light of all the frustration CDPR has caused to the gaming community with the premature launch of a broken game this may be the right course of action to prevent future frustration. Game publishers need to learn not to launch unfinished, unplayable or broken games.

 

[Void Eclipse]

I get around 5mb save file after 70 hours of playing with the same character. But anyway, why save file size should be limited at all? Make it 1GiB limit so another theoretical bug won't write endless file to disk.

 

[Cruciver]

I have been following this threat for 2 days. The summary is that if you play this game too much it will eventually break because of the save file size limit. I had my law firm look into the publisher terms and there is no indication that the playtime is limited. Neither the moderator nor the CDPR tech support are taking this issue seriously. I'm herewith putting CDPR on notice (also via email) that if CDPR is not providing a save file patch in the next 48 hours that counsel will be instructed to start work on a class action lawsuit. This should not only provide players with an option for a refund but also to be compensated for the wasted time invested in the game. If you had expenses upgrading your system in anticipation of playing this game you may also seek damages for that. Just Google "CDPR class action lawsuit" in a couple of days for updates. In light of all the frustration CDPR has caused to the gaming community with the premature launch of a broken game this may be the right course of action to prevent future frustration. Game publishers need to learn not to launch unfinished, unplayable or broken games.

Chill Choomba. This isn't an issue that requires fixing today, and likely won't get bumped into a patch until January unless the delay for the PC patch is this fix, threatening a class action lawsuit over this is wasting everyone's time, including your lawyers because it isn't a case you are likely to win because it is unknown if this issue is being looked at.

The entire dev team starts holiday after tomorrow from the sound of things in the wild, they are pushing a patch to PC for tomorrow supposedly, maybe it fixes this maybe it doesn't. You are not obligated a patch for an issue within 2-3 days. The moderator is here spitballing with us about potential causes and fixes, is asking us to report the issue and is unable to actually influence the dev teams workload. Considering the shit Sony pulled in the last 48 hours we are not a priority. Am I sad my crafting build needs to be put on the backburner? Yes. Can I still find an alternative way to play the game, yes.

The game is buggy as all hell, so it makes sense there will be some scripting errors related to properly deleting items from a save file.

Post automatically merged: Dec 19, 2020

I get around 5mb save file after 70 hours of playing with the same character. But anyway, why save file size should be limited at all? Make it 1GiB limit so another theoretical bug won't write endless file to disk.

The reason for limits like this are usually related to the way scripts are added and removed from the save file. Bethesda for instance has a 72mb limit on saved games in Fallout 4, due to the way papyrus scripts function and the long term effects on stability and performance. Often when issues like this occur, it is because one of the scripts goes rogue and doesn't shut off properly, this causes bloat. The most notable example I can think of is a wildly popular mod for Fallout 4 called Tales from the Commonwealth. There is a script that cycles the items for sale in an auction house. Said script fails to stop cycling after the quest completes, this means any time you are playing after that the game keeps loading and unloading those new objects that the auction house has for auction.

Considering the save file does start at 1.99mb it does feel like this limit is arbitrarily small, but I am unsure of the specifics involving their engine, I don't mod this game so haven't started learning the engine, I primarily mod Fallout games and had bumped into users of my mod using the aforementioned mod.

Give the devs a week or so off and see what the ship us in Jan. It could be an easy fix, it could be a huge fix that they need to push a temp patch for, including possibly disabling the crafting perk tree.

 

[Void Eclipse]

Often when issues like this occur, it is because one of the scripts goes rogue and doesn't shut off properly

This a symptom of another problem: bad programming. Hire proficient programmers, use normal programming language for writing game logic, that doesn't allow for undefined behavior, and reduces most of bugs to compilation errors or runtime errors (hard crash, throwing an exception, whatever). The last reason for excuse I'd want to hear is "our code is buggy, so we make limits that corrupt data, when errors accumulate silently". Fix the bugs.
It relates to bethesda (worst programmes) as well.

 

[Cruciver]

This a symptom of another problem: bad programming. Hire proficient programmers, use normal programming language for writing game logic, that doesn't allow for undefined behavior, and reduces most of bugs to compilation errors or runtime errors (hard crash, throwing an exception, whatever). The last reason for excuse I'd want to hear is "our code is buggy, so we make limits that corrupt data, when errors accumulate silently". Fix the bugs.
It relates to bethesda (worst programmes) as well.

Having used the Bethesda Creation Kit extensively, you are not at all wrong about this.

 

[Ziffa]

Anyone tried to turn off cloud save?
If the max save size is hard coded, than there isn't much to do, otherwise it could be related to platform cloud save.
Either case, just a guess.

 

[Tanawat_Phadunkiat]

The real question becomes:

How hard is it to increase or simply remove the 8mb cap from the game's launcher/loader?

Find a couple of lines of code and change it so that the cap is 50mb, 100, or uncapped? I am no coder, but there are posts about changing a single number in a line of HEX to make the game run better on AMD CPUs. I cant see changing the 8mb cap as being insurmountable.

The game is 60+ gigs and we are limited to playing with less than 8mb... the answer cannot be to simply not craft. In any game where there is crafting, gamers grind out crafted goods for resale. CDPR didn't see gamers grinding out goods when there were perks that made it easier to disassemble crap weapons and create better ones for resale or for leveling? The same way that you basically need to punch walls for 8 hours to level athletics to 8 or 9. If grinding out levels in something creates a "damaged" file, that seems like something that should've been tested or warned about before release.

Edit: Miss read the original post, if the coding is clean. It should have minimal impact to other codes, but if the codes are pretty messy, oh boys the fix could make things worse. But I'm pretty sure they can handle it. Only a super armature would mess up this problem further more. Also, a quick fix would be just remove all the deleted items from the save files and I highly doubt that without this bug, any save file could bloat over 8mb even +100 hours.

 

[Cruciver]

Anyone tried to turn off cloud save?
If the max save size is hard coded, than there isn't much to do, otherwise it could be related to platform cloud save.
Either case, just a guess.

I use steam and have cloud saving disabled across my profile. I had the corruption occur approximately 60 hours into my first character which was a techie primary nomad.

 

[AtraydeezQL]

Anyone tried to turn off cloud save?
If the max save size is hard coded, than there isn't much to do, otherwise it could be related to platform cloud save.
Either case, just a guess.

said it earlier, i'll say it again, it's not due to cloud save.

 

[jonusiescu]

Ok, so if I am not crafting/disassembling items, I should be pretty safe or not so much?

I have done almost all "question marks" content on Watson, I am looting a lot of weapons and selling almost all of them (unless I find something better than I am using) and my save.dat file after ~30 hours is 2,4 MB. The only time I have disassembled items where situations when I was carrying too much, but I did this only few times. I am at the beginning of Act 2.

Basically I would like to do all side content, but if this means that I would be forced to start game again, I will focus on story (both main+side) missions. According to the note on CDPR technical support site, the issue is caused (mainly at least) by crafting, but...

 

[HiroTsukamoto]

Finally a reddit post which covers the topic and gets attention:

https://www.reddit.com/r/pcgaming/comments/kft0sy

 

[AtraydeezQL]

Ok, so if I am not crafting/disassembling items, I should be pretty safe or not so much?

I have done almost all "question marks" content on Watson, I am looting a lot of weapons and selling almost all of them (unless I find something better than I am using) and my save.dat file after ~30 hours is 2,4 MB. The only time I have disassembled items where situations when I was carrying too much, but I did this only few times. I am at the beginning of Act 2.

Basically I would like to do all side content, but if this means that I would be forced to start game again, I will focus on story (both main+side) missions. According to the note on CDPR technical support site, the issue is caused (mainly at least) by crafting, but...

I'm not a qualified expert but i think it's safe to say you should be safe. I believe only users who have used heavy crafting have experienced these types of corrupted saves. The more time you spend crafting and disassembling the more you are at risk of having a corrupted save after spending 70-100+ or so hours in the game. Avoid duplication exploits.

 

[KeyranBlake]

The solution is "not play the game".

This company is becoming a meme.