Can't place items in hallways

[mistyjedi]

I'm on Roquefort Castle trying to get my two stars and all of a sudden i'm unable to place items in the corridors. I've had a look at some other similar threads and have looked around for any items which may be blocking the route between rooms and exits and can't find anything.

I've also been looking for any objects which are highlighted red, but again, without luck.

I've watched my staff and patients and they all seem to be getting around fine - nothing in their way. But they're moaning that they're cold/hungry/thirsty in parts of the hospital which i'm currently unable to do anything about.

This is becoming dire. I'm very close to my two stars, so that's not a problem. But I will need to expand before I can get my three stars. I'm so close to completing this game - I neeeeed to fix this :(

[Skyross]

This is a stopper to get 3-stars for me... Please fix it...

[shaneturner12]

Have you checked for any room shape/size issues (or items in rooms)?

[KickAir8P]

This is one of the reasons why the inability to make sequential back-up saves sets my teeth on edge! At absolute worst mistyjedi should be able to load a save s/he made before the problem started happening and work from there -- s/he'd loose a chunk of progress, but nowhere near as bad as if s/he had to restart the level. But we're not allowed to use this standard and time-honored practice why exactly?

[Marlock]

Have you ever looked at the savegame folder structure for TPH?

The location of the save folder varies depending on you being Win, Mac or Linux:
https://support.sega.co.uk/hc/en-us/articles/360000315538-Save-Location

In there, the user profile is one file and each map is an independent file. For each of these there are 10 backup versions stored too...

So you can (manually) just copy/rename an older version of a certain map's savefile replacing the file for the current version.

And due to that structure that can be done for a single map without even regressing your overall carreer/achievements or the progrress on other maps.

It is not built in the game's interface, but is reasonably easy for recovering from bugs like this.


edit: just take note that the game saves quite frequently (AFAIK every month by default, plus every time you save-quit a map), so 10 backups can quickly all be riddled with the same issue if you didn't pause.

[KickAir8P]

Originally posted by Marlock:

. . . It is not built in the game's interface, but is reasonably easy for recovering from bugs like this.

edit: just take note that the game saves quite frequently (AFAIK every month by default, plus every time you save-quit a map), so 10 backups can quickly all be riddled with the same issue if you didn't pause.

For certain definitions of "reasonably easy", but appreciate the info. And you can turn off autosaves in the Game Settings menu, also change how many backups (up to 20). But this doesn't explain why we're being forced through this work-around (for those of us who know about it, if it's in any of the documentation I haven't found it) instead of letting us do it normally through the GUI.

[Marlock]

My guess is that it isn't part of the game's GUI because the game is not meant to be played in a save-restore-try-that-last-bit-again playstyle... so the backup restoration is there if you enconter bugs but not exposed for normal gameflow.

Unfortunately the game does have a few bugs requiring save restoration (this being by far the most common one judging by their steam community) so IMHO in light of that it might make sense to change this and enable some half/hidden GUI option to make restoring old saves easier...

The current "feature" is sort of documented, yes... at least to the extent that their own support website does explain the folder locations and IIRC there is some entry for restoring old saves too... also their support people are the ones that explained how to do this, so it isn't "out there for everyone" but the info is available from official sources in limited form.

[Artem88]

same problem here. as i read about this issue ages ago i thought it would be fixed already.

ok, i found the problem. there was a closed gap between 2 rooms. doesnt cause a problem, until theres stuff coming from above. janitor cant reach it though. so check for hygiene and find the problem.

[King_Jofffrey]

There's an invalid item somewhere in your hospital, like two arcade machines slightly too close to each other or a drinks machine blocking a corridor or something. The item will have a red outline.

[Marlock]

Originally posted by Restart_your_fkin_game!:

same problem here. as i read about this issue ages ago i thought it would be fixed already.

ok, i found the problem. there was a closed gap between 2 rooms. doesnt cause a problem, until theres stuff coming from above. janitor cant reach it though. so check for hygiene and find the problem.

That's the "surrounded item" issue... I had that once too, fortunately easy to spot and solve once you know you should be on the lookout for that kind of problem.

Best way to avoid the issue is to always fill these small gaps with one room or another, taking advantage of the fact that rooms can be irregularly shaped.

That way even auto-spawned items like dirt from earthquakes can't fall in surrounded corridor areas.



edit: now I'm wondering what would happen if I found monobeasts under some corridor item while paused and then proceeded to build a room around them leaving them surrounded in a corridor square and unpaused!

Probably opens a virtual gateway to a parallel unidimentional 8-bit hospital?

[Marlock]

Originally posted by king_joffrey:

There's an invalid item somewhere in your hospital, like two arcade machines slightly too close to each other or a drinks machine blocking a corridor or something. The item will have a red outline.

That is the red item issue, aparently the more common one judging by the forums.

Just remember to also be on the lookout for items (including dirt, in surrounded corridor areas too (see my last post here).

[mistyjedi]

After a few days away from TPH, I reloaded , rechecked, and happened to notice one of my janitors couldn't get past my confetti canon to clear up an ice blob in the Clown Clinic! I had totally forgotten about a recent avalanche and didn't realise this would even stop the ability to put things in corridors...

[Marlock]

Good news about the item placement bug!!!

Originally posted by jo.koehler:

Update v1.14 + 1.15 BETA The Superbug Initiative, creating + sharing Music playlists + more!

[...]

Change log

• ...
  
• Added an adviser message to prompt the user if they have an invalid item somewhere in the hospital. There will also be an icon above the item. This bug is one of our most reported issues now, while we are trying to find and fix all of the cases of it occurring we have added this fail safe to help players find the item causing the issue.

[...]