Characters help

[Mcbain]

Is there a checklist of NPCs to talk to for this achievement? Cannot for the life of me find what I am missing (checked the suggestions in other threads about the old couple in World 2 and the 3 that spawn in World 1). This would be so much less frustrating if there was an indicator where the missing NPC was e.g. World 1 18/19 or similar.

[][P][]

I honestly think this achievement is bugged. I've played the game through 5 or 6 times, & still haven't gotten this achievement. It may have worked when the game was released, but it doesn't now...

[LuckyDog]

+1
I wonder if this is bugged, too, and have made 3 runs - getting 7/8 achievements.
??Anybody have 100% on this one??

[Formidolosus]

Yeah I don't think it's possible either. No one has 100%ed it on astats, and usually that's where all the achievement hunters hang out.
http://astats.astats.nl/astats/Steam_Game_Info.php?Tab=2&AppID=402060
I thought I spoke to everyone every time I completed a section, and nothing.

I poked around in the windows registry to look at the save data and I found a few values for a 'character checksum' that seems to be how it records who you have spoken to. There are 3 different checksums that correspond to the levels with characters you can talk to I think.
If you open the key value it looks something like this:

-af-ag-aa-ai-ab-ah-aj-ak-ac-ad-ae

So if I had to guess I'd say it just gives a value to each character and records if you spoke to them by adding it to this list. So in this example, if I rearrange them I have a complete string from aa to ak, which would suggest I have spoken to everyone on level 1.

But On level 2 I am missing "an", "ao" and "at", so I should replay that and see if I can find people I missed.

On Level 3 I am missing "ao", "ap", and "aq".

So maybe if others also look in the registry they could post what values they are missing and we can do a more thorough investigation.
On windows 7 the keys in question are stored at :

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Darjeeling\Californium

[][P][]

Interesting! Thanks for posting this, Formidolosus. I'll post back when I've researched my registry...

[Mcbain]

Nice detective work Formidolosus. Checking my registry have the following missing....

M1 missing :- string complete to ak
M2 missing :- ao & at (there is also a ba entry not sure if any past that)
M3 missing :- string complete to ax

hope this helps, if wanted I can try and make a list of the NPCs I spoke to. Also wondered if you need to speak to some NPCs more than once as after some scene changes they have different responses?

[Formidolosus]

So it seems "ao" & "at" on level 2 are a common problem.

I must have missed the other 4 that you have. I'll replay those levels and see if it adds to my list.

[Mcbain]

Another thought, are the checksum entries in chronological order (as in the woman outside your flat on M1 is aa etc). If so this could place the missing entries fairly simply. Not sure how to check this though.

[Formidolosus]

OK so I replayed level 3, took it slow and talked to everyone as many times as I could and when I was done it added the 3 I was missing to the registry, ao, ap and aq, adding them to the end of the data.
So I think that confirms that this is where the character list is being tracked. I'll now retry level 2 and see if I can add any of the three I appear to be missing there.

I think the only way you could confirm if they were chronological would be to delete the save data and talk to only a few of the characters every time and see what gets added. But that would be pretty tedious!

EDIT: Tried level 2 again, didn't add anything. It seems like this could be a dev error.

[][P][]

Sorry guys, I completely forgot about this.

I got the exact same thing Mcbain got, "ao" and "at" missing on M2. M1 and M3 appear to be complete.

[Formidolosus]

Thanks for letting us know. Seems like those are the missing ones then. Guess this one's a bust until the dev fixes it.

[LuckyDog]

..."until the dev fixes it" - call me cynical, but Fat Chance on any attention from devs IMO. Seeing that the game was released mid FEB2016 with last update 2 weeks after that, and since then........s-i-l-e-n-c-e............except maybe for the sound of crickets in the background, this product is pushed into the category of ABANDONWARE. Have any of you ever seen a 'dev' reply in a single thread? I couldn't find any.

Gets way up my nose when a dev dumps a broken game on steam, abandons it, and then continues to sell it. This game is catchy, pretty, + more, oh, and broken.

Ditto to the great detective work Formidolosus, Mcbain, & BTW - my M1 M2 M3 results were exactly the same as Mcbain listed with ao at missing from M2

Cheers all &

(EDIT JUL2017 - ToWhomItMayConcern - MY CONCLUSION 1st (followed by details later) - Something is buggy in Californium regarding a checksum issue, and in my case it just needed some 'encouragement' to work properly. Be warned that tinkering with your Windows Registry can break things badly, so don't charge in without the necessary skill set, please. The ao & at entries from the M2 RegKeyValue from Chapter 2 DO NOT EXIST - we aren't missing any NPC's. IMO the issue for 100% Achieve not popping is because the pair of M2 Reg entries are somehow in disagreement from a Californium software problem & thus are generating an incorrect Checksum value. We were focusing so hard on the 'ao' and 'at' values in the M2 KeyEntry, that I didn't consider the invalid Checksum angle until later.

Nauseating details now, if your interested. <THIS IS NOT A RECOMMENDATION but simply what I tested - DO NOT ATTEMPT THIS unless willing to accept consequences> I deleted the six M1-M2-M3 files from my registry and kept the key open on one monitor while repeating MULTIPLE playthroughs of Californium on another monitor. I cataloged each NPC's value(s) by Chapter. Chapter 1(M1) & Chapter3(M3) are functioning properly, and their associated M1, M3 files cause a checksum value to generate & append filename, too. We all know the issue is with Chap2(M2) as pointed out in earlier posts here. For whatever reason, the 'ao' & 'at' values were not used in Chapter 2. I can tell you for an example that repeat conversations with same NPC at different points in Chapter do generate different values (i.e. Miss Riggs in 1st, 2nd, & 3rd talks generates ah,an,aq). I ran through Chapter 2 sooo many times & felt confident that thoroughness was NOT our problem - we've talked to all NPC's. Remember a second ago, when I mentioned the M1 & M3 filenames / checksums bit? I did try inserting ao & at into M2, but it was pointless after I realized that those values don't exist as NPC's in Chap 2. The unexpected happened when I deleted the unused ao & at values that I'd needlessly put in.......... for whatever reason - I believe it forced the software to refresh the Checksum value for M2 & this time it must have gotten it right, because the final Achievement POPPED in-game at that moment. I noted that the M2 filenames had also automatically changed in Registry, as well - regarding the checksum naming on the M2 KeyEntries, as compared to Chap1 & 3. I don't have access to another copy of Californium, so don't know if yours will be the same or different, but here are the final filenames from my Registry for comparison only, so you'll see what I mean. Again, my M2 filename didn't have the 'checksum' bit until I inserted & removed the unused 'ao' & 'at' values, forcing the checksum to recalc (for that matter I laugh and think I could have typed 'Have a nice day' & then deleted it, and it might have worked out the same ) YMMV :
M1_CHARACTERS_checkSum_h1401771454
M1_CHARACTERS_h1443652428
M2_CHARACTERS_checkSum_h2781472317
M2_CHARACTERS_h793040879
M3_CHARACTERS_checkSum_h2206652092
M3_CHARACTERS_h3752664078

[][P][]

@LuckyDog, you're absolutely right. I've never seen the devs respond to anything, which is unfortunate. I really liked the visuals of the game, & the voice acting wasn't bad, either. Oh well, I'll just have to live without 100% this one.

[Formidolosus]

Yeah I agree 100%. It was an interesting first game (on steam at least) from the developer and I would be wanting to see what else they come up with, but if they are unwilling to engage with their own fans on something as basic as an achievement that seems to not be functioning as it should, then it makes one less interested to follow future projects. It's basic marketing really, but people do take notice of things like this. And as lame as achievement hunting may appear to non completionists, I know a lot of people who won't play a game if they know they'll never be able to finish it. So why limit your own market?

[Isis]

I wrote them a mail. You guys should do that, too. The more the better.

[e-mail]

[Charles Schalwin]

Any news?