Creeper 1 Story Mode missing

Altwing · August 22, 2015, 04:55:34 PM

This is for Creeper World 1. I played the Chronom earlier with no problem. (You can see my name on the high score list.) But I went back now to play another game and it says "You must unlock the first leg of Story Mode first!" Which is odd as I unlock it around 3 or 4 years ago. (I was very proud because it was a long, hard slog of a road, so I still have the screen shot that says Supreme Victory/Special Agent/Air.) So I went and looked at the other choices and it appears that while Creeper World itself is still there, everything I've done is missing, as if it's a brand new install.

And no, I haven't installed Windows 10 or done anything different today.

(Note: the maps I've downloaded are still there, such as "Easy Peasy" and some Bakura maps, and the maps I created are still around.)

knucracker · August 22, 2015, 05:04:16 PM

Look in this directory:
c:\Users\YOUR_USER\AppData\Roaming\CreeperWorld\
There should be a gameData.dat file in that directory. What is the size and the date stamp on that file?

Did you do anything odd like change users, log in as another user, fiddle with a different AntiVirus software package, change settings, or anything that could lock or remove files?

Basically that gameData.dat file stores everything related to progress. If it became corrupt, was locked, moved, etc. that would cause you to appear to lose your progress.

Altwing · August 22, 2015, 05:21:59 PM

In that directory are four files:
gameData.dat -- 08/22/2015 10:48 AM DAT File 0 KB
gameState.dat -- 08/22/2015 4:56 PM DAT File 1 KB
keyData.dat --08/19/2013 8:53 PM DAT file 1 KB
workingmap.cwm -- 08/23/2013 7:23 PM CWM File 1 KB

and two folder, custom games, and #airversion, 07/10/2015 File Folder.

I didn't do any of those other things, but I will make sure I didn't accidentally log in as Admin or whatever.
Anyway, if those numbers are right, I've had roughly 2 years of fun; worst comes to worst, I can just start over since the game itself is working fine.

knucracker · August 22, 2015, 07:35:11 PM

Yep, an empty gameData.dat file means all progress is gone. If you have a backup of your system, you can restore from there....

Altwing · August 24, 2015, 12:26:20 AM

It's okay, I'm re-doing it all. I actually forgot that there was a story. Poor Platius, he and Thor didn't last the ravages of time and memory. I've already earned "Lord of the Story" and am working on getting the rest.

Anonymeus · August 25, 2015, 03:38:36 PM

This has happened to me about 3 or 4 times so far. Replaying the story is not such a drag (the random generated missions just a little though) so as to get back chronum and doubledown... The truly annoying thing is that it resets your username to "anonymous" when you submit your score for on a map.

Nobody will believe me, but the new "anonymous" score on the infamous "Bored to Death" (http://knucklecracker.com/creeperworld/mapcomments.php?id=2611) is me (2640 167 min 16 sec)... dang it...

I am not going to play it again...

(No seriously... that _is_ me!)*

*check the ip logs if you like....

Karsten75 · August 25, 2015, 04:35:47 PM

@virgilw: I seem to recall one of these games had an issue with the save file going over a certain size (64k?) and you brought out a specific fix version to resolve that. Do you have an easy way to search the update logs? Maybe some people are still hitting that and haven't updated?

Edit:

http://knucklecracker.com/forums/index.php?topic=13689.msg98723#msg98723

TL;DR. Make sure you run the most recent version of CW1.

Altwing · August 25, 2015, 10:53:11 PM

I hope Virgil sees this, so that he will appreciate the irony of the situation:

this loss of Creeper World 1 directly caused me to purchase Creeper World 3 on Steam. I haven't got very far yet, but I've gotten the first 10 or so Steam Achievements. Though oddly, the Credits are locked?

And yes, Karsten, I do think it is possible that the data wipe occurred because I played too many Chronom maps; it's an odd coincidence that it happened almost exactly 2 years after I purchased the game. But it also might have been the power surge I had that day which caused me to have to reboot.

Either way, Valve now has $14.00 or so of my dollars.

Karsten75 · August 26, 2015, 12:37:45 AM

Congrats on your purchase. The one thing about Steam is I know how much I play a game - and I have >2,000 hours of Creeper World 3 - which is sad in a way, but shows that there is a lot of potential in the game.

Anyway, on CW1, you can compare your version with this one: http://knucklecracker.com/creeperworld/patches.php See if you are current.