running time & bricking the game

[Death Bunny]

is there like a maximum amount of time the game is allowed to run before shutting down and restarting causes the game to become bricked?

loading up some of my old save files work, but several of them don't seem to work (they stop loading just before displaying the heroes as part of the start/splash screen)

[Widget]

If you have altered your game experience via any outside programs/cheats/hacks there's always a risk of bricking your game. Haven't heard of anyone legitimately running the game for so long that they've experienced an issue like this related to run time. There are of course rare issues in the past where certain things have caused game loading issues, but most/all of those have been solved. If you need support from the developer regarding a bricked save file, feel free to join our Discord where you can submit your savefile directly to the Test Team and Developer to have it fixed.

[Darnavir]

I know for certain that the longer the game runs, the more problems can appear and usually resetting solves them (I sometimes saw some "funny stuff" after days without a restart, nothing major so far).

I got the game bricked once (no idea what happened, I did nothing unusual, game just refused to go past loading screen after a reset) and I couldn't even reach the import/export etc. I had to delete cache saves from outside the game and import backup save, everything worked normally afterwards.
I'm not discussing how exactly I did that, there's an official way to hard reset with a bricked cached save file. I used something different that worked, but most likely isn't recommended and I don't want it to be the first thing people see when they search a solution there.

Importing always worked fine for me on the same platform (I know that a steam save was impossible to import into a web version that was newer than that of the steam save in one of my tests, but that's it). I could just import my previous exported/steam save after hard resetting that bricked game and everything works fine so far.

I don't know how the save system works so no idea if any "bad data" can linger through import/hard reset etc. If the problem is in any hack/data altering program, you are most likely on your own - there's no official support for this and no one is likely to dig into it to see what's the problem. Hard resetting might be helpful (if you get rid of cached saves, you should have nothing but the imported save), but keep in mind that any game data alterations can break official fixes, especially these that alter the game themselves to fix the problem.

[Darnavir]

I'm leaving this there because this topic is the only one that appears when searching "bricked" and as of now is what anyone using the search will find when looking for a bricked game solution. I don't know how this interferes with hacked/altered game files (I have reasons to believe this might be relevant for the OP), but this should work for non-altered game.

The official solution of a bricked save in discord FAQ:
IF YOU'RE HAVING ISSUES GETTING STUCK ON THE TITLE LOADING SCREEN
1. Input "ieh2hardreset" in Steam>Library>IEH2>Property>Beta
2. Open the game. Your save will be wiped.
3. Play normally for a minute or so and close the game.
4. Switch to the default version of the game in Steam>Library>IEH2>Property>Beta
5. Open the game.
6. Import the previous save file via [Import File] or [Cloud Load] in Settings tab in game.

[Death Bunny]

Originally posted by Widget:

If you have altered your game experience via any outside programs/cheats/hacks there's always a risk of bricking your game. Haven't heard of anyone legitimately running the game for so long that they've experienced an issue like this related to run time. There are of course rare issues in the past where certain things have caused game loading issues, but most/all of those have been solved. If you need support from the developer regarding a bricked save file, feel free to join our Discord where you can submit your savefile directly to the Test Team and Developer to have it fixed.

while i did do some of that back when i first started, the bricking issue doesn't seem to be related to that, since of the 6 or so exported saves, the last 2 were the ones with bricking issues, and these ones seem to be after i'd left the game running for a week or more, in fact, the current cloud save was the latest after leaving the game running for roughly 10 days... and that cloud save no longer works, hence having to use the hard reset route in order to import a working save file

[Darnavir]

I can imagine some memory corruption after that long leading to problems. If the data in memory are already damaged, the save file can be made broken. I think I sometimes saw problems (including minor graphics glitches, possibly from memory erosion) after 2 or so days.

I got the game running for 10 or so days at least once with no problems and assume that there isn't a specific hard cut-off, but running for long enough will most likely cause problems.

[ShuFlngPu]

Originally posted by Darnavir:

I know for certain that the longer the game runs, the more problems can appear and usually resetting solves them (I sometimes saw some "funny stuff" after days without a restart, nothing major so far).

I got the game bricked once (no idea what happened, I did nothing unusual, game just refused to go past loading screen after a reset) and I couldn't even reach the import/export etc. I had to delete cache saves from outside the game and import backup save, everything worked normally afterwards.
I'm not discussing how exactly I did that, there's an official way to hard reset with a bricked cached save file. I used something different that worked, but most likely isn't recommended and I don't want it to be the first thing people see when they search a solution there.

Importing always worked fine for me on the same platform (I know that a steam save was impossible to import into a web version that was newer than that of the steam save in one of my tests, but that's it). I could just import my previous exported/steam save after hard resetting that bricked game and everything works fine so far.

I don't know how the save system works so no idea if any "bad data" can linger through import/hard reset etc. If the problem is in any hack/data altering program, you are most likely on your own - there's no official support for this and no one is likely to dig into it to see what's the problem. Hard resetting might be helpful (if you get rid of cached saves, you should have nothing but the imported save), but keep in mind that any game data alterations can break official fixes, especially these that alter the game themselves to fix the problem.

I have a save from 2022. I loaded my save off an export save I had in MyDocuments from 4 windows installs ago. Game loaded and ran fine, no issues.
You probably need bios/firmware/windows/GPU updates.

Would you like my known good save? I have it as an export. Would at least tell you if its the game or simply your saves?

[ShuFlngPu]

Originally posted by Darnavir:

I can imagine some memory corruption after that long leading to problems. If the data in memory are already damaged, the save file can be made broken. I think I sometimes saw problems (including minor graphics glitches, possibly from memory erosion) after 2 or so days.

I got the game running for 10 or so days at least once with no problems and assume that there isn't a specific hard cut-off, but running for long enough will most likely cause problems.

VERY unlikely to happen and partially work.
If this is the case, his RAM is dying and will need a replacement. If you can prove faulty RAM, they will RMA it if it isnt too old tho.
If its faulty RAM tho, it wouldnt be a problem solley with this game.

[Darnavir]

I restored a backup save that was at most hours old, maybe read what was written in the 2nd paragraph again. I have my up to date save up and running (along daily backups).

Consumer grade operating systems are generally susceptible to "data rot" in RAM, absolute reliability at the cost of speed is probably not desirable (faster is better if it doesn't break until expected reset).
OS itself tends to have problems after 30+ days uptime (programs fighting for memory space, random additions or removal of data etc). Some things just aren't build to run for months and resets from time to time are expected. This is the memory corruption I'm talking about - software not keeping what it is supposed to keep in memory, not hardware failing (that's another can of worms not related to any piece of sortware).