Failed to save game

[[MEW]TechThief]

Hello everyone,

I hope someone can help me, my game is not able to save anymore, I say "anymore" because way back in November 2016 I was able to play the game perfectly and I even completed it, but now I started to get a want to play it again, I downloaded it, it synced my saves, I am able to load, but, I am not able to save, getting the error "Failed to save game", and as far to my knowledge I have basically tried everything in this steam discussion "forum" and nothing worked.

• Uninstalled, and reinstalled
  
• Removed saves, disabled cloud sync, and tried to start a new game, after selecting the "initial game options" it just says "failed to save game" and takes me to the main menu.
  
• I don't use a save "manager" or "tool", even tried to install one and see if I couldn't do like a workaround thing, but no dice.
  
• Verified game cache.
  
• Made sure folder wasn't "read only" and checked security settings on folder, to make sure all users had full access to it.
  
• Disabled firewall, and even disabled anti virus.
  
• Ran game as administrator.
  
• More than 40gb of space on HDD.

On the top of my head this is what I have tried to solve the problem, but with no luck, any extra information or possible solutions would be appreciated.
Also, just an added question, but no one knows where I could possible find like a log, where I could perhaps see what might be causing the saves not to work?

[zadymek]

1. What about mods, using any?
2. You write about the folder not set as read only. What about the savegame file itself? You know, DDDA.sav.

BTW I wonder if your game even tries to save in this exact folder. My save folder contains archived save files, the current save and files numbered 0-7. Did you delete those as well? Maybe you deleted too much? Any new files appeared there ever since you deleted the old save files?

[[MEW]TechThief]

Thank you for the reply,

it seems DDDA.sav is default non-read only, those numbered saves you talk about only appear when I sync my saves to the cloud, and the only other save that appears after I delete everything other than DDDA.sav is DDDA.sav.stmp

[zadymek]

Originally posted by TechThief:

Thank you for the reply,

it seems DDDA.sav is default non-read only, those numbered saves you talk about only appear when I sync my saves to the cloud, and the only other save that appears after I delete everything other than DDDA.sav is DDDA.sav.stmp

Hmm. That's the good start, at least the game saves in the right location.
Now, I abhore the cloud system so, the first thing I ever do is to turn it off in every game, yet I got these files as well. I don't have any temporary files though. Maybe this is the key to your issues...

Now, obviously you possess admin priviledge since you're allowed to delete files. How about renaming stuff? Tried rename the save folder maybe?

[[MEW]TechThief]

Originally posted by zadymek:

Hmm. That's the good start, at least the game saves in the right location.
Now, I abhore the cloud system so, the first thing I ever do is to turn it off in every game, yet I got these files as well. I don't have any temporary files though. Maybe this is the key to your issues...

Now, obviously you possess admin priviledge since you're allowed to delete files. How about renaming stuff? Tried rename the save folder maybe?

Shut down steam, renamed folder, started steam back up, started game up, it re-creates the file, but then the game say something like the following, "unable to find save. Delete corrupted save file and make a new save?" (something like that). It makes a new save, I set the initial game option, it tells me "Failed to save game" and then just takes me to the main menu

[zadymek]

Originally posted by TechThief:

Shut down steam, renamed folder, started steam back up, started game up, it re-creates the file, but then the game say something like the following, "unable to find save. Delete corrupted save file and make a new save?" (something like that). It makes a new save, I set the initial game option, it tells me "Failed to save game" and then just takes me to the main menu

Recreates? It should see you as a freshman and detect NO save files at all. Now I wonder if SteamCloud is on again...

[[MEW]TechThief]

Originally posted by zadymek:

Recreates? It should see you as a freshman and detect NO save files at all. Now I wonder if SteamCloud is on again...

Nope steam cloud is off in steam settings and off the game itself, deleted the file multiple times, it says" Unable to load local save, Unable to access remote saved data( Steam Cloud synchronization is turned off. Create New Game?" then initial settings ,blah, blah, Failed to save game.

[[MEW]TechThief]

bump* No body? am I simply doomed to never play this game again?

[raystevens73]

Originally posted by TechThief:

Thank you for the reply,

it seems DDDA.sav is default non-read only, those numbered saves you talk about only appear when I sync my saves to the cloud, and the only other save that appears after I delete everything other than DDDA.sav is DDDA.sav.stmp

My folder never has the .sav.stmp file unless it is a hidden file(never turn that on).Try deleting the config file along with the save folder. Other than that the only thing i can think of is a registry issue.

[raystevens73]

After a quick check on this the other thing is have you changed the language? Recent update added to this so make sure the updates are on.

[[MEW]TechThief]

Originally posted by raystevens73:

My folder never has the .sav.stmp file unless it is a hidden file(never turn that on).Try deleting the config file along with the save folder. Other than that the only thing i can think of is a registry issue.

Thank you for the reply sir,

Nope, .sav.stmp file is not a hidden file, just checked. Deleted the config file and save folder, but still no luck. Also I have never changed the language on it.

[Killbot]

Sorry to bump an old thread, but I spent all day trouble shooting this, so I have to post what fixed it to save others my pain.

I tried deleting the save folder, I tried deleting the config in appdata, I tried fully reinstalling the game, restarting steam, fiddling with the cloud saves (which I always had off), checking the save folder permissions, and none of it worked. Then I dug in to the registry and deleted every entry that referenced the game, It didn't immediately work after that, but it did after doing it and restarting steam. After that, I even copied back all of my saves and configurations in their entirety.

It was 100% a registry issue. I just wish I could tell you exactly which entries were the problem.

I believe it was most likely HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Valve\Steam\Apps\367500 or the same key under HKEY_USERS, which I found by searching for "dogma", but I'll be honest, I'm not the most masterful with the registry and took a risk messing around with it.

Small update:
The day after doing this, I had it fail to save again. The only thing I attempted to fix it was deleting the registry entries and restarting steam. It didn't work, however, the next day after restarting my PC, it was working again.

I believe the cause of this bug may be alt f4ing too soon after a save. I think the game may take a second or two longer to save than the icon on the screen indicates. I've also got a mod that puts quicksaving on f5 and f9, so that may be contributing. I haven't had any problems since I've started giving the game an extra 2 seconds after the save icon vanishes before alt+f4ing.

[Epitome]

Yesterday I got this error again (for third time). First time, it was long time ago, it somehow repaired by itself (however, I still conducted experiments with save folder). This time I immediately climbed into Windows register to delete all entries with name "Valve", having previously disabled Steam. And it didn't help. It is quite possible that register has some connection with problem, but if only in conjunction with other Steam files.

In register are few references to DDDA specifically, and only in one place. In esported form, it looks like this:
"Installed"=dword:00000001
"Updating"=dword:00000000
"Running"=dword:00000000
"Name"="Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen"
Not too many options to improvise with this error, is it?

What I tried to do separately:
restart Steam account;
disable cloud-based save synchronization;
transfer account into offline mode;
restart Windows;
delete registry entries (HKEY_CURRENT_USER -> Software -> Valve and HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE -> Software -> Valve);
delete user data (C:\Steam\userdata\XXXXXXXX);
delete temporary Steam files (C:\Users\Admin\AppData\Local\Steam);
delete files and folders of Steam itself, except "steamapps", "userdata" folders and Steam.exe, and then reinstall Steam.

But error continued to appear. Interesting facts:
after an error appears on main account, if game is will be launched from another Steam account (family sharing), then error does not occur;
if delete user data (C :\Steam\userdata\XXXXXXXX), you cannot start new game (in-game message that cannot read save data)

What helped me (after these experiments):
1) close Steam
2) delete registry entries (HKEY_CURRENT_USER -> Software -> Valve and HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE -> Software -> Valve)
3) move user folder (C:\Steam\userdata\XXXXXXXX) to desktop
4) run game, wait for its "installation" in Windows register (in fact, game files are not checked, and if mods are installed, nothing will have to be reinstalled)
5) wait for initial automatic setting of display in game and make sure that after that saving is done normally
6) quit game, delete newly created user folder (C :\Steam\userdata\XXXXXXXX), return folder from desktop to its place
7) start game again, make sure that saves work normally

Perhaps some steps are superfluous here, but separately they do not work.

[sonofevil]

YES. FINALLY. THANK YOU!

Originally posted by Epitome:

What helped me (after these experiments):
1) close Steam
2) delete registry entries (HKEY_CURRENT_USER -> Software -> Valve and HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE -> Software -> Valve)
3) move user folder (C:\Steam\userdata\XXXXXXXX) to desktop
4) run game, wait for its "installation" in Windows register (in fact, game files are not checked, and if mods are installed, nothing will have to be reinstalled)
5) wait for initial automatic setting of display in game and make sure that after that saving is done normally
6) quit game, delete newly created user folder (C :\Steam\userdata\XXXXXXXX), return folder from desktop to its place
7) start game again, make sure that saves work normally

Perhaps some steps are superfluous here, but separately they do not work.

[Epitome]

Today I again received this error, went through steps according to my list, and game did not work. While new Users folder was created on Steam, game was saved, as soon as I replaced it with main Users folder (step 6) - it was not saved again.
But, if close Steam, delete Steam\userdata\SteamID\367500\remotecache.vdf file in returned folder, then run game - this file is created again, after which game starts working (saved).

Size of old and new versions of this file differ significantly - old file weighs 200+ KB and contains description of files located in Remote folder, which also includes backups (.sav.bak) created by DDDA Save Manager. New file weighs only 2 KB.

Thus, possible reason is disorder in remotecache.vdf file due to increased number of files in Remote folder as result of Save Manager work, after which save error is remembered in any form inside Steam, which requires reinstalling game (??? otherwise, how to explain that error does not disappear if simply delete entire Users folder).
Need test (without operations with register) - if error occurs, simply close Steam, and delete specified remotecache.vdf file, and then check game.

[zadymek]

Originally posted by Epitome:

Thus, possible reason is disorder in remotecache.vdf file due to increased number of files in Remote folder as result of Save Manager work, after which save error is remembered in any form inside Steam, which requires reinstalling game (??? otherwise, how to explain that error does not disappear if simply delete entire Users folder).
Need test (without operations with register) - if error occurs, simply close Steam, and delete specified remotecache.vdf file, and then check game.

My remote folder contains 320+ files and the game works without issues.
This save manager of yours must be very busy.
...another reason why one shouldn't allow for some crapy app to tamper with the game.