Please, can we get a fix for old Replays?

[RameyNoodles]

If you try to play a replay from a previous version of the game, it won't work. It'll finish after about 5 seconds of playtime. This REALLY sucks because I have some awesome games recorded in replay format, and now they're useless because I can't downgrade the version of the game, and the replays are broken, and they break EVERY SINGLE PATCH! This really needs a solution. At this point, there's almost no point to having a replay system if every patch breaks it. If there was a way to upgrade my old replays to the newest version, that would be fantastic!

I've created a survey to get an idea of what the community wants: https://surveyhero.com/c/92987e2b

[RoofKorea=BestKorea]

i dont think its really possible to do this. no game i know of has done it. you'd have to have a seperate install of the game for each version. thems the breaks, broden

[RameyNoodles]

Originally posted by ThunderclesTheBrass:

i dont think its really possible to do this. no game i know of has done it. you'd have to have a seperate install of the game for each version. thems the breaks, broden

I believe it is, but the only way we can be sure is for a developer to respond. They know the code, so they can tell us how it is. Also, please take the survey I made.

[ReactedDesert]

I agree

[-Dare Devil/x/]

-I don't think anyone "wants" old recordings to break when a new update comes out so I'm not really sure what the point of turning the issue into a survey is for.

-Anyway; this has been a long outstanding problem with the age of empires IP and how the system works. I haven't seen any official acknowledgement about this issue.

-Maybe one day we'll get a better solution than build-specific replays.

[RameyNoodles]

Originally posted by -Dare Devil/x/:

-I don't think anyone "wants" old recordings to break when a new update comes out so I'm not really sure what the point of turning the issue into a survey is for.

-Anyway; this has been a long outstanding problem with the age of empires IP and how the system works. I haven't seen any official acknowledgement about this issue.

-Maybe one day we'll get a better solution than build-specific replays.

The survey is to get an idea if anyone cares or not. This is the Definitive Edition, and a completely reworked replay system would be amazing, but simply allowing us to upgrade old replays would be a great improvement. And we won't get it if we don't ask.

[RameyNoodles]

So, I've only received 4 responses to the survey, but here's the results so far:

Question 1: Is the replay recording system currently a good alternative to video recording even though it breaks old replays on every update?

Results: 75% = No | 25% = Yes

Question 2: How much do you feel that the replay system needs to be able to play replays from previous versions? ( on a scale of 1 - 5 stars )

Results: 100% = 5 stars

Question 3: Have you lost the ability to watch some of your favorite matches due to an incompatibility between the current version of the game and the version of the replay?

Results: 100% = Yes

[A Little Bit of Home]

have they fixed this yet? I would really like to watch some of my old replays. Is there a way to disable the updates?

[Jin Hayabusa]

i tried replay old saves today first time, disappointed. yes we need compatibility with old patches

[RameyNoodles]

Originally posted by A Little Bit of Home:

have they fixed this yet? I would really like to watch some of my old replays. Is there a way to disable the updates?

No, it's not been fixed. Not sure if there is a way to disable updates, other than just never updating the game. But then you wouldn't be able to play online.

[RameyNoodles]

So, I've received more responses to the survey, and here's an update on the results:

Total responses: 11

Question 1: Is the replay recording system currently a good alternative to video recording even though it breaks old replays on every update?

Results:
63.64% = No
36.36% = Yes

Question 2: How much do you feel that the replay system needs to be able to play replays from previous versions? ( on a scale of 1 - 5 stars )

Results:
90.91% = 5 stars
9.09% = 4 stars

Question 3: Have you lost the ability to watch some of your favorite matches due to an incompatibility between the current version of the game and the version of the replay?

Results:
100% = Yes

[TheDiaper]

First you need to know what a rec is

[RabbitRidge]

Exactly, it's not a "recording" but a replay of the game based on the inputs from the participates at the time (update version) which you can peer into for details. Can you image the database required to preserve such over time? If you want a recording, capture it with your software.

As for the Survey, it's a holiday week for the US and normally 20K plus are playing the game...11 responses should have an impact?

[RameyNoodles]

Originally posted by Vipers Dynasty:

First you need to know what a rec is

I know what a recording is, in the traditional sense and for this game in particular.

Originally posted by RabbitRidge:

Exactly, it's not a "recording" but a replay of the game based on the inputs from the participates at the time (update version) which you can peer into for details. Can you image the database required to preserve such over time? If you want a recording, capture it with your software.

As for the Survey, it's a holiday week for the US and normally 20K plus are playing the game...11 responses should have an impact?

This request has been up for a while now. I know it's a niche thing, and being on the steam game forums makes it even more "niche", but seeing as it's had 11 responses (17 views, only 11 responded) and over 90% so far rate the need for replays to continue through all revisions as very high (5 stars), then I'd say most people would really appreciate such a feature.

The database of changes actually wouldn't be that big I think. Software tools like Git can be used for this kind of stuff. Actually, I'm thinking about trying to put the game in a git repository, and every time there's an update I'll commit it. Then I can always checkout (go back) to a particular update for a certain replay. Actually, I don't really see a reason that they couldn't take an approach like this and allow us to access any version of the game we want for replays, and if they use a file diff approach, the time to change the files could be very minimal.

[TheDiaper]

Originally posted by MicrosoftSean:

The database of changes actually wouldn't be that big I think. Software tools like Git can be used for this kind of stuff. Actually, I'm thinking about trying to put the game in a git repository, and every time there's an update I'll commit it. Then I can always checkout (go back) to a particular update for a certain replay. Actually, I don't really see a reason that they couldn't take an approach like this and allow us to access any version of the game we want for replays, and if they use a file diff approach, the time to change the files could be very minimal.

This can be done already

[RameyNoodles]

Originally posted by Vipers Dynasty:

Originally posted by MicrosoftSean:

The database of changes actually wouldn't be that big I think. Software tools like Git can be used for this kind of stuff. Actually, I'm thinking about trying to put the game in a git repository, and every time there's an update I'll commit it. Then I can always checkout (go back) to a particular update for a certain replay. Actually, I don't really see a reason that they couldn't take an approach like this and allow us to access any version of the game we want for replays, and if they use a file diff approach, the time to change the files could be very minimal.

This can be done already

If you are talking about my git idea, in theory it can, but I haven't actually tried it yet to see how well it would work. The problem is that every user has to install git, learn how to use it, and set it up for their game. Even if they do that, they likely already have recordings that they still won't be able to play because they created their repo after they made the recording, therefore they will never have the version of the game they need for those recordings, only for the ones going forward.

If the devs do something like this, they have access to the source code, and they likely have it stored in a git repository (or an equivalent) already, so they can provide builds of every single revision of the game.