- [SHOCKING DISCOVERY] !!! (max 45 saves / reloads) - RIP!!!

[🌴🌤️ Vadim 🌴🌴]

The shocking discovery is that saving and reloading and saving again and repeat for 45 times each will lead to a total savegame corruption and GAME OVER!!!

https://i.imgur.com/WJBKBqI.jpg

It has nothing to do with file mismatch message or new updates and patch releases. This is a serious bug that needs to be fixed asap!!! And there are probably other reasons for corruption as well such as bad quests, missing stuff etc. which indeed were addressed in the Patch Notes e1.0.2. But this is probably one of the top reasons why the game actually gets corrupted for most of us.

Saving to the same file repeatedly or making several separate saves in a row without reloading seems to be safe enough. But this is unavoidable issue with max 45 to 55 lives. There are no other fixes or workarounds that will solve this issue. But even if we do find a manual fix. Developers can probably fix this within 24h anyways! And now developers have noticed this thread which is good.

But I have an additional request from the developers to look into.

BROKEN LOADING:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. First of all while performing this test I've noticed that after about 5-10 saves the game starts slowing down in even entering the Main Menu, not to mention saving and reloading by x5 times. So overall performance in loading time over time needs to be looked into. Why I believe this is important? Well because mainly of the next point!

2. Something is wrong with the way data is being handled over the entire game. While this bug was being "fixed", I went out and performed some tests that I didn't do yet and wanted to know more about. And noticed that a successful flirting with lords + reloading here and there lead to an interesting result. A NEW BUG! Where the first step in a successful relationship lead to a screen of disabled dialog buttons that didn't do anything. And that same screen was even shown when I talked to other lords like if I dated them as well when I didn't. And all buttons were disabled. Even when I reloaded previous saves before all that happened, this bug didn't go away. Like if it traveled back in time. So.. that made me ask questions... What kind of a game is this that can't even be reloaded properly??? The only fix was to exit the game and restart it. I wasn't successful in replicating this bug since there were many combinations to it and I'm now not sure which did it. But I now know what this game is capable of.. And it is not pretty!!! So devs need to rework the entire way the saving and reloading and loading screens work.
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PATCH e1.0.3:
MArdA (TW) - "Having so many save files or trying to load them repetitively may causes problems. We have fixed this issue and this will be pushed ASAP."[forums.taleworlds.com] +
Fixed a critical issue that corrupted save files after a certain number of saves.[www.taleworlds.com]

However the corrupted files are pretty much still corrupted, not much change there...
And yet it has been proven that corrupted saves can be loaded and saved again...
The new "FIX" was probably rushed and has only fixed some of the issue...
Saves remain same size now and yet instead of 45 reloads we can now do about 55.
https://i.imgur.com/4tGB6Sr.jpg
So maybe the next patch will completely resolve this critical issue...

PATCH e1.0.4:
Further stability tweaks for save and load.[www.taleworlds.com]
Well it looks like the experimental patch e1.0.4 seems to work!
Loading the corrupted files and even re-saving and re-loading them seems to work.
I have also tested the performance of loads and saves and not too much change there.
When it comes to loading several times in a row, the games slows down x2 times.

[Barbarossa]

+

[Rhudda]

So a potential workaround would be to "save as" every so often until this is fixed?

[🌴🌤️ Vadim 🌴🌴]

Originally posted by Hagrid Glodson:

So a potential workaround would be to "save as" every so often until this is fixed?

However, saving to the same file repeatedly without reloading it, that is fine and there is no issue there. But eventually people will be forced to reload their game several times... So this is unavoidable issue.

So basically as long as you don't reload the same file multiple times and simply save your game here and there... Then there should be no issue... But saving and reloading and then saving again, even the same file.. Eventually leads to corruption.

[Andbrew]

I am gettign similiar problem, but my save module doesn't look like that whatsoever.

[illyTheKid]

So can you explain how to save properly without corrupting the save file? I didn't really understand. Should you always save to a new file, no auto saves?

Do you think TaleWorlds can fix the broken savefiles or are they corrupted forever?

[🌴🌤️ Vadim 🌴🌴]

Originally posted by illyTheKid:

So can you explain how to save properly without corrupting the save file? I didn't really understand. Should you always save to a new file, no auto saves?

Do you think TaleWorlds can fix the broken savefiles or are they corrupted forever?

Basically, as soon as you reload the game.... the next save action dooms the save file
to receive a tiny bit of corruption. So basically... avoid reloading the game as much as possible. But you can save the game as many times as you want to same or to new file without it causing an issue. But after about 44 reloads of your saves, it's RIP. because after a reload you eventually save the game again. Then maybe close the game go get some sleep then start the game again by reloading it and along the way saving it.. Doing that 45 times = RIP.

My theory is it adds some whitespace or something to the savefile, maybe even where it stores the savegame name or something. But next to that could be stored some vital info about your character... And after 45 whitespaces have been added, they eventually override the important data in the savefile and corrupting it beyond repair.

So there is no proper way of saving... Only proper way of reloading... by doing it as few times as possible...

So you may have like 100 saves.. But you will only be able to reload + save them after reloading about 44 times. Before it's the end of the world. you can reload same file as many times as you want. It will still count as 1 reloading. But after reloading, as soon as you save, that counts as 1 save+reload with 43 times to go before it blows!

SAVE
SAVE
SAVE
(all good)

RELOAD
RELOAD
RELOAD
(all good)

RELOAD
SAVE
(corruption)
RELOAD
SAVE
(corruption)
RELOAD
SAVE
(corruption)
RELOAD
(fatal error)

When the limit is reached it's a GAME OVER!
But whether the SAVING adds corruption or RELOADING before saving, is unclear to me.
That could probably be tested too... But, I probably never gonna close this game, ever again!!! It's gonna be running for a week!! No more reloads or do-overs for me... xDDD
It is if the Corona virus has hit Mount & Blade too, so eventually it stops breathing...
45 days to live if you're lucky, but probably no more than a week or two!!!

[Reuven]

Just encountered this problem, glad to see a discovery that may help the developers resolve this issue.

[GrogMon]

Seems I'm having the same problem. :/

[Grape Fanta]

Oh ♥♥♥♥. Can we get a developer to comment on this?

[runs_with_scissors]

I had over 100 save games because I was worried about this. Still happened to me. Had to go back to like save number 50.

[Tazmo]

Will deleting some of the earlier saves fix this, at least temporarily?

[🌴🌤️ Vadim 🌴🌴]

Originally posted by Tazmo:

Will deleting some of the earlier saves fix this, at least temporarily?

Well the counter or corruption is saved and stored pretty much for good, well at least on the savegame file that won't load. In theory it is possible that there may be a fix for earlier saves that can still load. But it's something only developers can figure out.

So you can load a previous savegame, but once again, it depends on how far you've gotten with it... say it may be savgame #25 out of #100 saves.. But if you already saved and reloaded a bunch of times within those first 25, then you need to go back even earlier to avoid this issue for as long as possible. But you won't be able to avoid it forever. Eventually it will catch up with you!!!

[🌴🌤️ Vadim 🌴🌴]

If you guys wanna know how many saves and reloads you have left on your older save? Ya'll gonna have to go trough the same process I did. Load the older savegame, then do as I did, but you don't need to save to new file every time to run this test. it's simply so you don't lose count. But you can use this tactic:

SAVING TO: TEST
LOAD THE: TEST
SAVING TO: TEST
LOAD THE: TEST
etc.

Until it won't load anymore... and don't forget to count them... Then you'll know how many lives your savegame has left. But it took me about 1min to do this for each saving and loading. So this may take a while...

[Blue]

I can confirm after replicating, after 45 saves and reloads, the game will crash loading the 45th game file. https://i.imgur.com/rKUGknK.png

[🌴🌤️ Vadim 🌴🌴]

Originally posted by Roach:

I can confirm after replicating, after 45 saves and reloads, the game will crash loading the 45th game file. https://i.imgur.com/rKUGknK.png

Awesome!! Like clockwork!!! A ticking bomb, waiting to go off!