What happens if you update a game you put mods in / Save data questions

[Ka-papa Lord]

If I added some files to a game folder/added mods, will steam remove those mods/tamper with my manual configurations if I update the game, or will I keep all of them?

What if you uninstall the game and re-install it? Will any mods/added files you put there yourself be there again, or will you be back with a vanilla state of the game? Is there some kind of "keep mods" or "vanillafy" option when updating a game?

Normally when you uninstall and reinstall a game will all save files be always saved locally on your disk?

On a side note let's say I was playing a game and now there is save data uploaded to cloud and saved to my local disk.

If you wanted to transfer new save data that you had from the same game on another platform to the steam game with that old cloud data, can you overwrite the cloud save data with your local save data and vise versa?

[nullable]

Originally posted by Ka-papa Lord:

If I added some files to a game folder/added mods, will steam remove those mods/tamper with my manual configurations if I update the game, or will I keep all of them?

Kinda depends on the specifics of the game.

In my experience, with games that have explicit mod support this isn't an issue. Although sometimes if the mod depends on game behavior that changed in the patch, the mod may need to be updated too.

Originally posted by Ka-papa Lord:

What if you uninstall the game and re-install it? Will any mods/added files you put there yourself be there again, or will you be back with a vanilla state of the game? Is there some kind of "keep mods" or "vanillafy" option when updating a game?

It depends on the game again and anything special you might be doing to manage the mods.

Originally posted by Ka-papa Lord:

Normally when you uninstall and reinstall a game will all save files be always saved locally on your disk?

Most of the games I play the save games are saved outside the game's install folder and most of the time uninstalling a game doesn't clean up those files. But there's always some exceptions and I've seen plenty of stories over the years where this game or that games has save games in the install directory so uninstalling the game will clobber the save files.

Although I don't uninstall/reinstall games all that often either. If I'm concerned about save games I make sure to back them up specifically. If you have concerns about that I'd recommend you you use Game Save Manager regularly. You can really reduce the risk, assumptions, or the need to hunt down varied game save locations...

Originally posted by Ka-papa Lord:

On a side note let's say I was playing a game and now there is save data uploaded to cloud and saved to my local disk.

If you wanted to transfer new save data that you had from the same game on another platform to the steam game with that old cloud data, can you overwrite the cloud save data with your local save data and vise versa?

If the platform is PC and it's the same version of the game it should work a majority of the time. I'd expect there'd be some instances where there's an issue. I don't worry about cloud saves too much though personally.

[Zekiran]

Whenever you uninstall or want to reinstall a game, you should be looking online for "where does this game save my info".

Save that, put it in a zip file and date it, so that it's on your computer and make a note of where it should go otherwise if something goes wrong.

[Ka-papa Lord]

Originally posted by Snakub Plissken:

Originally posted by Ka-papa Lord:

If I added some files to a game folder/added mods, will steam remove those mods/tamper with my manual configurations if I update the game, or will I keep all of them?

Kinda depends on the specifics of the game.

In my experience, with games that have explicit mod support this isn't an issue. Although sometimes if the mod depends on game behavior that changed in the patch, the mod may need to be updated too.

I see, I thought there might have been some option to keep some manual settings. I'm not too worried about saves, I was just wondering. I always keep a backup.

In the case of both epic games and steam, choosing "verify integrity" will reset the game to vanilla settings I assume?

Just in case any updates might mess up the installed mods like things from nexus, it's best to make a backup of just save files and whatever mod files you installed in order? That's all you should worry about if you want the game to work fine again if it does remove mods?

[Ka-papa Lord]

Originally posted by Zekiran:

Whenever you uninstall or want to reinstall a game, you should be looking online for "where does this game save my info".

Save that, put it in a zip file and date it, so that it's on your computer and make a note of where it should go otherwise if something goes wrong.

Thanks, I already do that but I was just wondering if any new save data you manually put into the save location would give me a prompt saying:

"New save data found, overwrite cloud data/overwrite local files with cloud data?"
Is there anything like that which would happen?

[crunchyfrog]

Originally posted by Ka-papa Lord:

Originally posted by Zekiran:

Whenever you uninstall or want to reinstall a game, you should be looking online for "where does this game save my info".

Save that, put it in a zip file and date it, so that it's on your computer and make a note of where it should go otherwise if something goes wrong.

Thanks, I already do that but I was just wondering if any new save data you manually put into the save location would give me a prompt saying:

"New save data found, overwrite cloud data/overwrite local files with cloud data?"
Is there anything like that which would happen?

Nope.

Any more than copying or pastingh any other file on your computer would give such a message.

[Ka-papa Lord]

Originally posted by crunchyfrog:

Originally posted by Ka-papa Lord:

Nope.

Any more than copying or pastingh any other file on your computer would give such a message.

Thanks, I'm not sure what you mean by "nope."
I'm not asking if adding non-save files will give this prompt, but adding my own new local save data will?

[crunchyfrog]

Originally posted by Ka-papa Lord:

Originally posted by crunchyfrog:

Thanks, I'm not sure what you mean by "nope."
I'm not asking if adding non-save files will give this prompt, but adding my own new local save data will?

Nope means a firm "no".

No such message exists neither in Windows or Steam.

[Ka-papa Lord]

Originally posted by crunchyfrog:

Originally posted by Ka-papa Lord:

Nope means a firm "no".

No such message exists neither in Windows or Steam.

I see, so what would happen if you added new save data?

The cloud will always just renew itself with your current save data and it won't ever use the cloud database to overwrite your local save data?

Let's say your local save data had an older save than the cloud save data, it doesn't matter how old your save data is, it would just save anything from local to cloud?

What if you have no save data locally but you had save data on cloud? If it detects no save data locally it will upload cloud data automatically?

[crunchyfrog]

Originally posted by Ka-papa Lord:

Originally posted by crunchyfrog:

I see, so what would happen if you added new save data?

The cloud will always just renew itself with your current save data and it won't ever use the cloud database to overwrite your local save data?

What if you have no save data locally but you had save data on cloud? If it detects no save data locally it will upload cloud data automatically?

I'm not exactly sure what it would do.

Let's say the cloud has just updated to your current save you made in game, and you've closed your game.

If you then get an earlier save you've backed up somewhere else, and then overwrite your current one, it will obviously be fine locally. One will replace the other.

However, when you then start the game up, it may well say there's a discrepancy between your current local one and that on the cloud and ask which you want to use. After that which ever you choose will then be saved to as you play, and at the end of the game the cloud save will be updated again.

That's about as much as I can tell you.

[Ka-papa Lord]

Originally posted by crunchyfrog:

Originally posted by Ka-papa Lord:

I'm not exactly sure what it would do.

Let's say the cloud has just updated to your current save you made in game, and you've closed your game.

If you then get an earlier save you've backed up somewhere else, and then overwrite your current one, it will obviously be fine locally. One will replace the other.

However, when you then start the game up, it may well say there's a discrepancy between your current local one and that on the cloud and ask which you want to use. After that which ever you choose will then be saved to as you play, and at the end of the game the cloud save will be updated again.

That's about as much as I can tell you.

Ah, so it does give a message :)
Thanks, though to be on the safe side if I ever wanted to not have the game update the cloud, I'd turn off cloud saving and download the cloud version before anything else as backup.

[crunchyfrog]

Originally posted by Ka-papa Lord:

Originally posted by crunchyfrog:

Ah, so it does give a message :)
Thanks, though to be on the safe side if I ever wanted to not have the game update the cloud, I'd turn off cloud saving and download the cloud version before anything else as backup.

Yes it gives a message when you boot up the ganme and try, not when you asked if you try messing with the saves manually. not at that point. Just to be clear.

[Ka-papa Lord]

Originally posted by crunchyfrog:

Originally posted by Ka-papa Lord:

Yes it gives a message when you boot up the ganme and try, not when you asked if you try messing with the saves manually. not at that point. Just to be clear.

Sorry that wasn't clear, try what?

When exactly would I get this message vs when I add a save manually? Aren't they the same thing if the game detects a new save file that isn't in order with time?

[crunchyfrog]

Originally posted by Ka-papa Lord:

Originally posted by crunchyfrog:

Sorry that wasn't clear, try what?

When exactly would I get this message vs when I add a save manually? Aren't they the same thing if the game detects a new save file that isn't in order with time?

No, just to be clear when I initially responded to your post you asked about manually removing a save or altering things at a file level (not in game inother words), to which I responded that no messages are going to exists either in Windows.

But if you're in Steam, starting the game up, it will begin to load the game, and pop up with a window saying there's a discrepancy with the cloud save and the local one. That's the difference.

I don't know if you just weren't clear, but I responded according to what I thought you meant.

[Haruspex]

If the mod changes an existing file in the game, and that file is one to be updated, the mod will break.

If not, then the mod still might break as the update can change how the game works in ways the mod doesn't expect.

Otherwise, it's usually fine.

[Ka-papa Lord]

Originally posted by crunchyfrog:

Originally posted by Ka-papa Lord:

No, just to be clear when I initially responded to your post you asked about manually removing a save or altering things at a file level (not in game inother words), to which I responded that no messages are going to exists either in Windows.

But if you're in Steam, starting the game up, it will begin to load the game, and pop up with a window saying there's a discrepancy with the cloud save and the local one. That's the difference.

I don't know if you just weren't clear, but I responded according to what I thought you meant.

Thank you, that's what I meant just like when using epic games, you will get a prompt when it detects an existing game file when playing the game with a cloud save.

I was not referring to Windows, I have no idea what kind of prompt I would get unless I was replacing files with the same name.