Greetings,

It has came to my attention that many of you are experiencing corrupt save games in the offline portion (Prime) of Uru. Since Prime is all that we have left until the expansion packs, some of you are going back and playing through Uru again or just wandering around to see what else you missed. Believe me, I'm there with you.

Now, when I first heard of this I contacted Cyan and haven't received a solid response yet as to whether or not they will provide a fix to this problem. Odds are they probably won't. But, in the mean time I strongly suggest that anyone experiencing this problem should contact Ubi Support via:
" http://support.ubi.com/ - Knowledge base (left), Ask a question."

The primary symptoms and steps involved with this issue are:
1) Your character in Prime had finished the game.
2) You had gone on to play Uru Live.
3) You had at some point while playing Uru Live, played Prime -- for any number of reasons.
4) When Uru Live went down you experienced the "corrupted files" bug and reinstalled Uru.
5) Your character is still in the list.
6) You started and your huts doors and windows were closed -- and you remember having left them open. (If they are normally closed, then you wouldn't notice this.)
7) Your linking book to the cleft is missing. (This is the one most people notice).
8) If you try to redo the cleft quest by refetching and re-returning the Bahro polls, the cleft opens. But Yeesha doesn't play the right sequence when you activate her, so nothing further happens.

Those are the basics of it. Some other oddities are puzzles in certain quests no longer being finished when you remember having finished them before/etc.

Ok, I just went and verified that yes this is a bug -- I've gone through several different peoples vault files, plus replicated the issue with my own copy of Uru.


Since I have several backup copies of Uru over the last few months -- plus copies on seperate computers at home, all using the same player vault (I copied it across them) -- I was able to reference back. Almost ALL of my vault files are exactly the same size (with only one or two fields -- presumably date/time fields differing internally). Now, as of a certain point in time -- I'm not exactly sure when but somewhere around mid-January, my vault file is suddenly almost 3 kilobytes bigger. All versions of the vault file before that 3kb filesize change work. All versions of the vault file after that change do not work. That is they are missing portions of the game and can't complete the cleft quest.

Now, I tried quickly to figure out if there is a basic way to change peoples character names and gender -- but frankly there's a LOT involved. The vault file is a database file of sorts, in a proprietary format to Cyan (or if they're using someone elses format, I'm not familiar with it). It has some very easily identifiable nodes and other pieces of structure within it. But, whole sections are changing inconsistently -- which makes it very difficult to do simply without actually backwards engineering the format (which I am not going to do). Additionally, the files between the male and female avatar have MAJOR differences. In fact there's just no easy way without totally backwards engineering the format that I can find to swap peoples genders/etc. People are welcome to try, but it's not really doable in my opinion without seriously violating your End User License Agreement.

Ok, so here's the deal. I'm going to go ahead and pester Cyan via the Community Managers for another day or two to see if I can talk them into providing a fix for this. I really think they need to, it's a disservice to not provide a fix to this issue -- since it was their Live service that corrupted the game.

On the other hand, if Cyan doesn't get around to this or can't, I will provide two ginirec (generic) player vaults/save games for people to use. One will be male and the other female. But, there is one caveat. I will be providing these with all puzzles finished -- EXCEPT the end-game puzzles, the Bahro Polls, Journey Clothes, and Relto Pages. You will have to get those items on your own. I've decided to do it this way for various personal reasons. I'm sure some of you will be frustrated with it -- but it shouldn't take too long for you to literally run through the game and get all the necessary pages.

I hope that explains things a bit. If anyone else has a corrupted save game due to playing Prime while being in Live -- please chime in with a hello here.


Maztec

---
Have you had your D'LA today?
--*sniff* bye bye KI

Hello Maztec,

And THANK YOU so much Maztec ,

I had exactly the same problem: gone on to play Uru Live, â"corrupted files" bug and reinstalled Uru, linking book to the cleft missing, etc...

When I read your message, I went back and tried all my previous backups copies and not only the last one ("sav" folders), luckily my oldest one worked.

For information:
my "sav" folder dated 12 Dec 2003 works perfectly
my "sav" folder dated 01 Jan 2003 doesn't work, and all the others made in January 2004 and February

Thanks to you Maztec I don't have to go back and start all over again

Johnâ'i URUNIVERS (1) Hood

Good to hear -- I suspect many people could utilize that solution. At least whoever has backups. But I'll still try and see what I can do for those of you who didn't make backups.


Maz

---
Have you had your D'LA today?
--*sniff* bye bye KI

Maz, I finished the game completely on Atrus and Achenar, and had Cleft books in each. Before that I had finished prime completely EXCEPT for returning pillars. (During all of this I did 4 reinstalls, each time saving the 'sav' file.)

When I went back to prime, the pillars were missing, but no cleft and no Cleft Book. Also no Yeesha pages--previously had all. In an effort to get the Cleft Book, I went and got the pillars, then returned them. At the end in the desert there were no title credits and no bahros - and also still no Cleft Book on the shelf. I continued and got the Yeesha pages; Eder Kira and Kemo were complete, but Teledahn and Gahreesen were in 'unworked' condition. I redid Teledahn and used the linking book to get to Gahreesen and get relto page. But starting from the beginning in Gahreesen, I can get no further than the second jump through the wall crack--the one into the gear room. Therefore, I can't run elevator or open doors in lower hall. Yet I was able, through the last journey cloth, to reach the Bahro door for pillars. Jumping ability wasn't the problem - there was an invisible wall there at the gear room, and my avatar just ran in place, and did not fall through the crack.

I tried one previous sav file, and same thing. I don't want to do that now, because end sequence is completed.

Sorry to be so long; I'll just need to know what to do to start with expansion packs. Maybe I don't HAVE to have the Cleft Book or a totally complete Gahreesen.

Your explanations are always so clear.

ipheon

P.S. I think I talked to you online once - my name there was Niobe

Hi maz,
I have the same problem with the corrupted files message. Only thing diffrent I have not tried reinstalling yet and I did not back up my save folder (wish I had now). Please keep us informed as to what you can find out. Thank you

Cavern Name: R'lyimah (all shards)
Mayor of: Tehrokh Jeruth Neighborhood
Member of: Guild of Greeters

For the "corrupted files" message error, you must reinstall the game again, no other way is possible.
BUT before the reinstallation please do a backup of the sav folder.
Then reinstall.
This don't solve the corrupt savegames problem.

~Almlys
I was Al'my on another Live

[This message was edited by almol on Thu February 12 2004 at 10:41 AM.]

I didn't use my main two avatars from Live in my Prime game. The third avatar that I did start from scratch in Live she's got trouble in Prime. the bugs that you describe Maztec. I never played Prime after starting live. Just tried opening it once, got the corrupted files msg. and applied your fix Maztec. The details in my /current folder are as follows

Toria - 446F.. last date 03/02/2004 Live avatar
544F.. last date 08/01/2004 Prime only
636F ..08/01/2004 Prime only
Grace 44722E.... 29/01/2004
5372...22/01/2004 this is the one with the problems and bugs. Created on achenar shard after 20/01/2004
44726...18/01/2004

can't really tell where to look to see if the vault size on that one player is larger. Is it necessary or will u take my word for it
Hope this helps somehow. Sorry to those having troubles.

Pat on back for maztec /clap /cheer /yahoo!

ToriaUru on MSN Messenger
ToriainUru on AOL Instant Messenger

Ok, here's a fix I wrote up for corrupted save games quite a while ago... But, it's still applicable and should work:

quote:

---

<warning, the following contains some non-avoidable minor spoilages.>

What do the save files do?

<sav> / <929AB293>

sav is the save folder, ALL INFORMATION in regards to your game goes there.

the string of numbers is a hash representing your character.

<string of numbers> / <current>

current is the folder all of your data is saved in.

<current> / <files>

the files are and what they do:

<AvatarCustomization_90940234323.sav>

First, the random string of numbers is associated with every file in this directory except vault.dat. This random string is something coded into the vault that the vault then knows it is presumably opening the correct file. This string is just another random hash and does not seem to reflect anything to do with the earlier random hash.

Now, for this file. AvatarCustomization, presumably holds the information about what your Avatar looks like. But, I forgot to restore it once and my Avatar looked just the same -- so I'm not really sure. It's the only file I'm really not sure about...

<BahroCave_#######.sav>

This file saves the status of your BahroCave, what polls be where. Although if your Vault doesn't contain the right information this just reverts to being whatever BahroCave you should be seeing at that time. So updating/modifying it is fairly useless.

<BaronCityOffice_####.sav>

This file contains the state you left the Baron City Office in. I think this is where you go from Teledahn, but I'm not really sure. My experience is it is always in the same state, so changes to this really make no change..

<city_####.sav>

State of the City when you left it. In specific this is the state of all the Balconies you've been to. Restoring it doesn't give you the balconies because those are held in your vault.. So, it's another fairly useless file as far as I can tell.

<Cleft_###.sav>

This saves the state of the Cleft. Meaning if you start a new game, go into the Cleft, quit, restore an old "finished" version over the cleft. All puzzles will be solved, doors will be where you left them, everything. The only thing this does not restore is where the Yeesha Cloths have been touched. Those are stored in your Vault.

<Garden_#####.sav>

Status of the Garden. This is fairly useless since there are no puzzles here so to speak...

<Garrison_####.sav>

Status of the Garrison -- if you run in and get your KI, quit, copy this file over, rename it appropriate, and run back -- you'll find that your Garrison has all puzzles solved. You just have to walk around collecting the Yeesha Cloths for your vault.

<Gira_####.sav>

The status of Gira. Basically it means the plates will be in their closed positions or wherever you left them last. It doesn't solve the firefly puzzle entirely for you. But the baskets will be in place if you had left them there earlier.

<Kadish_#####.sav>

Restores Kadish to its full solved position. No need to go back and do puzzles. Just run through and pick up the Yeesha Clothes.

<Neighborhood_####.sav>

Presumably saves current state of your personal Neighborhood, pretty useless in Prime, stored on the server in Live..

<Personal_####.sav>

Saves last position you left your personal age in. Personally, I'd load up the game, quit, transfer the cleft file over, restart, run through the cleft, get to my personal age, go to each of the books but solve nothing except for getting my KI. Quit, then copy all the ages over so you restore their last solved position. Then you just have to walk through everything if you're feeling a bit impatient. All that's left is to pick up the Yeesha Clothes and solve a few random puzzles. Oh, and this is the state of your Personal Age -- so I assume it's having a large true grown up already. But, your relto pages are yeld in the vault .. so you have to find them all again in the ages in order for them to be activated.

<Teledahn_####.sav>

By now you should have guessed it.. State of your Teledahn. Fairly useful way of getting your elevators started again


<vault.dat>

ALL information, Yeesha Clothes Found, Relto Pages Found, Ages Visited, Miscellaneous Places Visited, Character Clothing, you name it is in here. This is why you have so many problems if you can't load your vault off live -- this file contains EVERYTHING. But, you may want to note it isn't HUGE, although it is much bigger than everything else. I'd say old characters who have been on the site for a long time and gathered a lot of stuff will probably near the 100k+ mark, but it's going to take a LOT of stuff.

Basically the vault is the file that if it gets corrupted you're SOL. Then again it's the only file you really need to backup if you're worrying about file corruption (which you won't have to worry about on Live .. well at least not on your end. And you won't be alone if it happens there, ahk!) You can restore this if it is NOT corrupted. Otherwise you're just out of luck when it comes to this file.


---

So, final words of recommendation? Backup vault.dat regularly if you are having issues with file corruption.

If your vault is corrupted and you have to restart.. But, you reallly don't want to solve all of the puzzles again.

1) Start a new game.
2) Go to the Cleft.
3) Quit.
4) Copy the old Cleft_####.sav file over, change the ###'s to the ones on the CLeft_ file already in the current directory. Current being the directory under <sav>.
5) Restart.
6) Beat the Cleft, get the Yeesha Clothes, go to Relto.
7) Go to each of the ages.
8) Get your KI.
9) Quit.
10) Copy over all of the remaining age files, thus restoring them to their solved states if that is where you left them earlier.
11) Restart.
12) Go get all your Yeesha Clothes.
13) Walla!

---

Hmm, now I'm going to go sticky this thread for good measure.

---
Have you had your D'LA today?
--*sniff* bye bye KI

Thank you for all you efforts to help us with the return from URU-Live.

I have tried the approach you gave in another forum, and I just tried the above approach with the age by age approach.
I still do not get the finished game settings.

Is there the possiblity of coming up with a saved game package that the people that are having problems could download and use?

Thank you.

Hi Maztec!
Your post chronicles my problem to the letter. The first clue I had that my game was corrupted was when I lost the GZ in Nexus. From there, I began to notice other "glitches" just as you describe. I honestly thought I'd finished Prime before going Live until I learned that it WAS possible to survive the balcony jump. At that point, I went back to Prime to do the jump but that was too late ... the Neighborhood page still wouldn't materialize in the Relto linking book in Prime. And, I'm pretty sure, that immediately preceeded the disappearance of the GZ.

I was afraid to reinstall over the Live game so I did a clean install in a new directory and imported the sav files from Live ... no surprise now that it didn't work.

Unfortunately, I never kept more than one backup of the sav files at one time. So I wound up zipping the entire Live directory, deleting the "new" Prime directory, and did yet another clean install ... I just finished replaying Prime yesterday. Voila--the linking picture to the Neighborhood appeared as did the Nexus book.

Question: Should I keep the zipped Live directory for anything? Or should I just trash it and free up the space on the hard drive?

I too had this problem, and did NOT have a save file that wasn't corrupted, so I am playing the game over, assuming I will need a clean save file for the expansion packs ( IS that correct?) My problem now, is that I am in Gahreesen and the KI does not open the doors! Maybe I just am not remembering correctly, but shouldn't it open the doors right away after It is obtained? I don't want to keep going in the age if it's not working properly. . . I tried resetting the age, and it still doesn't open doors, am I just confused or is there a problem, here?

quote:

---

Originally posted by DeeDee.Bee:
I too had this problem, and did NOT have a save file that wasn't corrupted, so I am playing the game over, assuming I will need a clean save file for the expansion packs ( IS that correct?) My problem now, is that I am in Gahreesen and the KI does not open the doors! Maybe I just am not remembering correctly, but shouldn't it open the doors right away after It is obtained? I don't want to keep going in the age if it's not working properly. . . I tried resetting the age, and it still doesn't open doors, am I just confused or is there a problem, here?

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Nevermind. . .I forgot that the doors , of course, do not work until the power is on. . DUH! it's working now. . . . but I have had some falling through the floor problems, that I never had in Prime before. . . I made the jump to the "rock" and went right on through to panic link! Oh well, I hope it will work next time!, If not, I'll post again!

Hello,

I just want to let you know that I decided to start from the beginning. I played and completed the game again - and so I do not need saved games any more.

Thank you.

Sounds like everyone here is doing well Good to hear.

Elkae, nope don't need those files unless you want them.

Oh and I'm not sure -- but yes, I suspect you'll want to have as much finished as psosible in Prime for the expansion pack. Then again, if you wait until you get the expansion pack you have A WHOLLLLEE LOT more to discover Including the content you already have! But that content could be there just ot entertain you between now and then <g>

Maz

---
Have you had your D'LA today?
--*sniff* bye bye KI

Glad to see I'm not alone. Unfortunately I have reinstalled my game twice trying to fix the bug, at the suggestion of UBI. Still have a big hole in the ground, no cleft book and someone keeps shutting the power off in Garhreesen. The KI keeps working, but the doors and elevators are dead.

Created a new player this morning and decided to make fresh start ...... except everytime I try to go to one of the ages I crash to my desk top. It's just like LIVE, full of bugs and I don't mean those cute fireflys.

Just for information - because I think I'm going to start again from scratch. After Live, when everything was finished in prime but returning pillars, I did that. Then they were back at Relto again and I returned them again, got all missing pages, and had rain - but no Cleft book. This morning I opened Uru - and the pillars are all back AGAIN. I give up.

quote:

---

Originally posted by maztec:
Greetings,

It has came to my attention that many of you are experiencing corrupt save games in the offline portion (Prime) of Uru. Since Prime is all that we have left until the expansion packs, some of you are going back and playing through Uru again or just wandering around to see what else you missed. Believe me, I'm there with you.

Now, when I first heard of this I contacted Cyan and haven't received a solid response yet as to whether or not they will provide a fix to this problem. Odds are they probably won't. But, in the mean time I strongly suggest that anyone experiencing this problem should contact Ubi Support via:
" http://support.ubi.com/ - Knowledge base (left), Ask a question."

The primary symptoms and steps involved with this issue are:
1) Your character in Prime had finished the game.
2) You had gone on to play Uru Live.
3) You had at some point while playing Uru Live, played Prime -- for any number of reasons.
4) When Uru Live went down you experienced the "corrupted files" bug and reinstalled Uru.
5) Your character is still in the list.
6) You started and your huts doors and windows were closed -- and you remember having left them open. (If they are normally closed, then you wouldn't notice this.)
7) Your linking book to the cleft is missing. (This is the one most people notice).
8) If you try to redo the cleft quest by refetching and re-returning the Bahro polls, the cleft opens. But Yeesha doesn't play the right sequence when you activate her, so nothing further happens.

Those are the basics of it. Some other oddities are puzzles in certain quests no longer being finished when you remember having finished them before/etc.

---

Maz,

Thanks so much. That is a tremendous help.
This details exactly what my status was after Live ended.

Before I saw this thread, I just re-installed the game and had to do Teledahn, Ghareesen (up to the point of getting the gear room up to speed and all doors powered up), and Kadish over to get the Relto pages.

Still had all the Age books, except for Nexus and Cleft, of course, and had all pages in them and
each had functional Journey cloth pages that linked to the last touched cloth in the original
Prime game I had finished.

So, not knowing a way to do a tech fix, I just played through and re-did End (had to go to each Journey door, retrieve the Bahro poles to Relto, then do it agian to put them back) but am left without the Cleft book, just the "star" hole in Relto.

Did get the "rain" page and the imager visit from Yeesha, but no subsequent "in person" visit.

Thankfully, for some odd reason, Kemo and Gira were as I had left them.

So, after working through the Relto page retrieval parts, the parts of the ages needed to get to them and the End, I can now at least get back to the Cleft via the Star hole jump from Relto.

Think I'll leave well enough alone until the XPs.
Perhaps they will include a fix for the missing Cleft and Nexus books.

Thanks again.

I think everyone would be fine playing through things.. if the Yeesha speech would work. I'll see if I can talk someone into issuing a patch for that part of the save game -- since I'm pretty sure it's our vault being triggered to say we've already finished the yeesha speech so don't play it again.

Maz

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Sometimes, I wonder why I like olives...

Thanks, Maz, for that last post. A patch for that part of the save game -- the Yeesha speech -- would be a great help to us.

I noted, after doing some several experiments that some information related with the end game is saved in the cleft progress age file.

I was able to re-play the end game secuence and the final Yeesha speech deleting only the cleft file. (note that you need to turn on the windmill again)
But this doesn't solve the no-cleft book bug. It only allows you to play the end game all times that you want.

~Almlys
I was Al'my on another Live