Game has become really volatile recently

[gagnedd]

I have played this game successfully for at least a year on my gaming PC with an I5 and an Envidia with 4GB onboard ram. It slowed down after way too much exploration and base building, but I had a good long run without issues. Lately the game started crashing every time upon game save load. I updated my graphics drivers, and it worked once. Then a couple days later, it started crashing on save load again. The only way I could get the game to start was to turn down my graphics settings from medium to low for the first time ever. Even then, the game appears much more sluggish, and I haven't even explored that much or build that much yet. Also, for the past month, the game crashes pretty much every hour, so I have to keep restarting it, and often restarting my PC. I have to save way to often to keep from losing a lot of work in the game. What is happening? Why has the game become so volatile all of a sudden? I guess what I'm asking is "What have you done to one of my favorite games?"

[adrianna_PyramidGames]

Hi, thank you very much for your report, we're glad to assist and find the cause of the issue.

Are you able to determine when it started to happen more or less? Maybe after upgrading the game to the Nuclear Update?

[gagnedd]

It coincided with the PTR version of the Nuclear update, and persisted into the live version. I couldn't even get the game to load a save at some points. First time that I wasn't able to load a save, I updated my Nvidia graphics drivers to current, and it worked once, then stopped working the next time I tried a day later. That time I had to turn the graphics settings down to all Low for the first time ever, and then saves loaded again, but through it all, the game has been crashing for me regularily when I am able to play at all. I seldom get more than a half hour between crashes. It seems to often happen when I attempt to save the game for some reason, but it sometimes just happens at random times too. I love this game so much, so it's very frustrating. My machine should be good enoug with an I5 and and Nvidia with 4GB onboard, (and 8GB Ram besides)

[gagnedd]

Up until the new patch, the game has never been an issue at all on my machine, except slowing down when I explored too much and built too many structures.

[adrianna_PyramidGames]

I have a few points for you to try and I recommend following them in the given order:

1. Enter "regedit" in the Windows search bar. Then, paste the following path \HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\PyramidGames\OccupyMars at the top of the window, leaving the first word which means "computer". Press ENTER and remove the highlighted folder.

2. Remove the folder OccupyMars which can be found here: C:\Users\%username%\AppData\LocalLow\PyramidGames. Important note: If you have any save states that you don't want to lose, please first find them in the following folder: C:\Users\%username%\AppData\LocalLow\PyramidGames\OccupyMars\SaveData, copy them and keep somewhere in a safe place on your computer.

3. Click "verify file integrity" in game's properties on Steam. Here are the instructions if needed.

After all that, you're ready to relaunch the game and see if it will crash again.

[7Games a Day]

Originally posted by adrianna_PyramidGames:

I have a few points for you to try and I recommend following them in the given order:

1. Enter "regedit" in the Windows search bar. Then, paste the following path \HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\PyramidGames\OccupyMars at the top of the window, leaving the first word which means "computer". Press ENTER and remove the highlighted folder.

2. Remove the folder OccupyMars which can be found here: C:\Users\%username%\AppData\LocalLow\PyramidGames. Important note: If you have any save states that you don't want to lose, please first find them in the following folder: C:\Users\%username%\AppData\LocalLow\PyramidGames\OccupyMars\SaveData, copy them and keep somewhere in a safe place on your computer.

3. Click "verify file integrity" in game's properties on Steam. Here are the instructions if needed.

After all that, you're ready to relaunch the game and see if it will crash again.

Bought the game recently and in my opinion this really needs ajustments so that the game goes smoothly. Started three different saves and they all lead to crashes and freeze at some point, my latest save i tried to explore without building just to see if it would crash and when discovering the second site it freezes, so basically we need to stay confined in an area for the most part which takes the fun out of exploration. I have 32GB ram and 6GB vram and only play at 1080p usually not too demanding for a pc

[Pyramid Games]

Originally posted by 7Games a Day:

Bought the game recently and in my opinion this really needs ajustments so that the game goes smoothly. Started three different saves and they all lead to crashes and freeze at some point, my latest save i tried to explore without building just to see if it would crash and when discovering the second site it freezes, so basically we need to stay confined in an area for the most part which takes the fun out of exploration. I have 32GB ram and 6GB vram and only play at 1080p usually not too demanding for a pc

This never happens on our test PCs so it's something related to your specific PC or some other software on your computer or something else that you do. If you have a save files which cause crashes every time then please send them to us: [e-mail] and we will try to find the issue or at least see if this happens on our machines as well.

[Pyramid Games]

Originally posted by gagnedd:

I have played this game successfully for at least a year on my gaming PC with an I5 and an Envidia with 4GB onboard ram[...]

If you really have only 4 GB of RAM then this is not enough for our game.
8GB is minimum but we recommend at least 16GB for comfortable gameplay (i use 32GB).
Actually we improved optimization of many things in the last update, but we also added more buildings like Miners etc, and so with every update the game will need more memory, so even if for some reason it worked for you just on 4GB RAM, it was a coincidence. It's just not enough RAM to fit everything the game has to offer.

[gagnedd]

Originally posted by Pyramid Games:

Originally posted by gagnedd:

I have played this game successfully for at least a year on my gaming PC with an I5 and an Envidia with 4GB onboard ram[...]

If you really have only 4 GB of RAM then this is not enough for our game.
8GB is minimum but we recommend at least 16GB for comfortable gameplay (i use 32GB).
Actually we improved optimization of many things in the last update, but we also added more buildings like Miners etc, and so with every update the game will need more memory, so even if for some reason it worked for you just on 4GB RAM, it was a coincidence. It's just not enough RAM to fit everything the game has to offer.

It was no coincidence. It was a mark of a good game that could attract a large gaming audience. I logged well over 1000 hours in this game, explored way too much territory, built a massive network of large antennas, and built 2 main bases, including a complete replica of the Alpha Base you start in the campaign mode. I did this all without even much slowing of the game until late in my playthrough. It's only now that this game is demanding too much of it's audience. I am as much your target audience as it gets. I'm not a hard-core gamer, which is why I play more relaxed options like this one. I spent more money on this gaming PC a year and a half ago than I spent on my PS5, one of your serious competitors. PS5's cost $650 Canadian, this gaming PC was almost $1000. If you don't want to lose your audience to console gamers and games that are much more "Normal" PC friendly, you need to make and keep this game playable on reasonable PC's like this, because, like I said, this is a huge chunk of your audience that you would be cutting off if not. A PC, even a laptop, that has 16 GB ram with a graphics card with 8GB onboard Ram still costs 3 times as much as a PS5 or XBox X series. Believe me, I know, because I manage a store that sells these things for a living. You're not going to find enough players who spend thousands on a gaming PC to keep this game viable. You really need to seriously consider your target audience.

For now, I'll take a hint. Nothing is making it better, so I'll try running it on Ultra Low graphics settings to see if that helps. If not, with all due respect, you've ruined a game that had so much potential, and had won my heart (hence over 1000 gaming hours) by designing it to be too bloated to run on normal gaming PC's.

You can shrug off my advice if you want, but if I were you guys, I'd consider designing the game better to run better with less PC specs before you push away a massive chunk of your audience. Personally I'd start with taking the advice I have been giving you guys for over a year, and make a "Fixed Size Map". A game that I consider to be one of your biggest competitors, "The Planet Crafters" has always had a fixed map, and that game runs like a dream on my PC, as it should. Anyways, I'll let you know how it goes on ultra low graphics. At this point, you're close to breaking this gamers heart. This game appears like it will soon require too much PC specs to be playable by almost anyone who may actually prefer and want to play this type of game. :(

[7Games a Day]

Originally posted by Pyramid Games:

Originally posted by 7Games a Day:

Bought the game recently and in my opinion this really needs ajustments so that the game goes smoothly. Started three different saves and they all lead to crashes and freeze at some point, my latest save i tried to explore without building just to see if it would crash and when discovering the second site it freezes, so basically we need to stay confined in an area for the most part which takes the fun out of exploration. I have 32GB ram and 6GB vram and only play at 1080p usually not too demanding for a pc

This never happens on our test PCs so it's something related to your specific PC or some other software on your computer or something else that you do. If you have a save files which cause crashes every time then please send them to us: [e-mail] and we will try to find the issue or at least see if this happens on our machines as well.

every save file used was completely erased in my files folder before starting anew which is why i mentioned started three different saves in my previous post but thanx i'll look into my pc task manager for some clues as to why this happens

[gagnedd]

Also, there's this:

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
MINIMUM:
OS: Windows 10
Processor: Intel Core i5-6400 / AMD Ryzen 5 1500X
Memory: 8 GB RAM
Graphics: RX 570 4GB VRAM / GeForce GTX 970 4GB VRAM
DirectX: Version 11
Storage: 15 GB available space
Sound Card: DirectX compatible
Additional Notes: System requirements may change during the development of the game.
(Look familiar? I5, Graphics card with 4GB onboard, 8 GB system ram besides?)

If you intend on leaving PC's like this behind in the dust, you may want to update this. I'll definately have to update my review warning people who don't have much better PC's to shy away, because It's kind of heart-breaking to start a game, get into it, and then find it's leaving your hardward behind in the dust suddenly!

[gagnedd]

Originally posted by gagnedd:

Originally posted by Pyramid Games:

If you really have only 4 GB of RAM then this is not enough for our game.
8GB is minimum but we recommend at least 16GB for comfortable gameplay (i use 32GB).
Actually we improved optimization of many things in the last update, but we also added more buildings like Miners etc, and so with every update the game will need more memory, so even if for some reason it worked for you just on 4GB RAM, it was a coincidence. It's just not enough RAM to fit everything the game has to offer.

It was no coincidence. It was a mark of a good game that could attract a large gaming audience. I logged well over 1000 hours in this game, explored way too much territory, built a massive network of large antennas, and built 2 main bases, including a complete replica of the Alpha Base you start in the campaign mode. I did this all without even much slowing of the game until late in my playthrough. It's only now that this game is demanding too much of it's audience. I am as much your target audience as it gets. I'm not a hard-core gamer, which is why I play more relaxed options like this one. I spent more money on this gaming PC a year and a half ago than I spent on my PS5, one of your serious competitors. PS5's cost $650 Canadian, this gaming PC was almost $1000. If you don't want to lose your audience to console gamers and games that are much more "Normal" PC friendly, you need to make and keep this game playable on reasonable PC's like this, because, like I said, this is a huge chunk of your audience that you would be cutting off if not. A PC, even a laptop, that has 16 GB ram with a graphics card with 8GB onboard Ram still costs 3 times as much as a PS5 or XBox X series. Believe me, I know, because I manage a store that sells these things for a living. You're not going to find enough players who spend thousands on a gaming PC to keep this game viable. You really need to seriously consider your target audience.

For now, I'll take a hint. Nothing is making it better, so I'll try running it on Ultra Low graphics settings to see if that helps. If not, with all due respect, you've ruined a game that had so much potential, and had won my heart (hence over 1000 gaming hours) by designing it to be too bloated to run on normal gaming PC's.

You can shrug off my advice if you want, but if I were you guys, I'd consider designing the game better to run better with less PC specs before you push away a massive chunk of your audience. Personally I'd start with taking the advice I have been giving you guys for over a year, and make a "Fixed Size Map". A game that I consider to be one of your biggest competitors, "The Planet Crafters" has always had a fixed map, and that game runs like a dream on my PC, as it should. Anyways, I'll let you know how it goes on ultra low graphics. At this point, you're close to breaking this gamers heart. This game appears like it will soon require too much PC specs to be playable by almost anyone who may actually prefer and want to play this type of game. :(

{If you really have only 4 GB of RAM then this is not enough for our game.
8GB is minimum but we recommend at least 16GB for comfortable gameplay (i use 32GB).
Actually we improved optimization of many things in the last update, but we also added more buildings like Miners etc, and so with every update the game will need more memory, so even if for some reason it worked for you just on 4GB RAM, it was a coincidence. It's just not enough RAM to fit everything the game has to offer.}

Also, you did understand that I said 4GB on board, as in, in my graphics card alone. My system has 8GB of Ram besides this. Essentially, that's 12GB of Ram that is supporting this game and it's graphics engine. It still doesn't make any sense to me why the underlying Unity engine keeps crashing, taking the game and my Steam with it.

[gagnedd]

Well, I got a long time between crashes when I went to extra low graphics quality, and then lowered the resolution to a 1000 x 800 window, so it definately appears to be resources and the game pushing my PC and Nvidia card too far. I can at least play that way if I want a long play between crashes because I know the game so well, but I really can't read anything on the screen at that level LOL

[SecretAgentDirt]

This is all TL:DR, but OP, it's time for an upgrade.

[gagnedd]

You got another thousand to fifteen hundred dollars laying around? I sure don't. Especially not just for 1 single game out of many my machine plays just fine. I love this game, but it has a big problem as the new content lays out. Soon, only a small % of players will be able to play it at all :(

[gagnedd]

I will say though, for my machine, which meets minimum specs, When I run the game in a 1000 by 800 window (or whatever the dimensions are), the game runs much better much longer, even with medium graphics, which allows me to clearly read words on the screen. For now, I still can play one of my absolute favorite games of all time. I'm scheptical about the future, though. :(