WILL I LOSE EVERYTHING IF I UNINSTALL AND REINSTALL?

[Chess_Forever]

This simulator has turned into a serious hobby. I have spent a silly amount in the marketplace -- but I wonder if I've now lost it all.

Why? Suddenly, the game is crashing to desk top even when I try to start it in "safe" mode after completely re-starting the computer. It starts to load -- says it is "checking for updates" -- and then goes on a BIT more with the loading process, and then disappears, and the Steam button switches back to "Play" as if I hadn't tried to start the game!

This has happened before, but if I then try again in Safe Mode, after re-starting the computer, it has always come back and worked. But NOT now, suddenly.

I have NOT used any mods not acquired via the in-game marketplace.

I have a powerful computer kept up-to-date.

If this problem doesn't resolve itself, I have no idea what to do -- other than to uninstall and try to reinstall the whole program.

But if I do that -- will all the purchases I've made in the marketplace -- again, a silly amount -- simply vanish?

If anybody REALLY knows, I'd appreciate a comment.

It's strange how important this game has become to me as a source of entertainment. It's terrific -- when it starts. I've got nearly 1,000 hours into this -- and suddenly, I can't start it.

I'm hoping against hope that MAYBE trying to start it very late at night might have caught the underlying server at a bad time, during maintenance or something. But I don't really think that's likely. But it's the only hope I've got right now.

EDIT: see the happy ending (at least for now) below in my subsequent post.

[Schmegg]

Originally posted by CHESSFOREVER:

But if I do that -- will all the purchases I've made in the marketplace -- again, a silly amount -- simply vanish?

All your purchases are associated with the Microsoft account you used when you purchased them. So the worst that would happen is that you'll need to re-download it all. Just make sure you use the same account when you re-install it.

[Chess_Forever]

Thank you for your answer, Schmegg.

Weirdly, my one slight hope seems to have borne fruit. After waiting several minutes, I tried again -- and it started on "safe" mode THIS time, even though it had failed to do that twice, earlier.

I have to suspect that there are some times when the server that does the " update checking" and the like cannot be reached effectively enough for some reason, at least by me. But the gremlin has, for now, gone away!

Programs have become so complex that sometimes they begin to feel supernatural in their responses. Beyond the power of this poor mortal, at least, to truly understand.

[Schmegg]

Originally posted by CHESSFOREVER:

Thank you for your answer, Schmegg.

No problem mate. Glad you didn't have to reinstall though. Hopefully it'll behave itself a bit better from now on. Not long until the next Sim Update. With a bit of luck there will be some more improvements when it drops too.

Originally posted by CHESSFOREVER:

Programs have become so complex that sometimes they begin to feel supernatural in their responses.

Haha - very true. I think they even seem that way to their developers at times. XD

[Twelvefield]

If (when) you re-install, your Marketplace purchases are kept on record with your Microsoft profile. Anything you had outside of the Marketplace you will have to hunt down and restore yourself. Your configurations and controller settings are also kept on file and will, or at least should, repopulate themselves automagically.

As for the servers, they do go down or are uncommunicative from time to time. You could have other causes for your issue, but servers might just as well be what's at the root of it. Late Tuesday in the Pacific time zone seems to be the worst. Asobo is getting ready to roll out a major update, so no doubt they are tinkering.

[Manwith Noname]

Originally posted by Twelvefield:

Your configurations and controller settings are also kept on file and will, or at least should, repopulate themselves automagically.

This is dependent on Steam cloud being enabled, which it probably is for most people but probably worth highlighting.