My 100+ hour save is gone! (If I dont get it back then I'll request a refund)

Support and Bug Reports
1

IT’S ALL GONE!!! Everthing is gone. My 100+ save file. I loved this game despite it’s flaws. I have been suportiv towards the developers. But now I don’t feel like comming back to the game. If I dont somehow get my save back you have lost a player and from what I have seen otherpeople also have had there save files lost. I wont come back if I dont get my save back. I am so angry and I am almost crying because of how much time I have put into this game just to get all deleted.

IF I DON’T GET MY SAVE BACK I AM REQUESTING A REFUND!!

EDIT: I got most save data back. So I had the game linked to one drive. I could go into there and find a save file of the game from July… I don’t have all what I use to have but it’s better then starting from scratch.

2

That is no fun at all! I fully understand your anger and you have my sympathies. Just out of interest, what platform are you playing on? I have feared this situation myself, especially in situations where the game becomes unresponsive and then restarts. A while back I lost some progress but no that much. Playing on Xbox I guess my saves go to the sky, but I’m not sure. And I don’t know if that is fail safe either.

3

I play on pc. I have good specs so that should not be the problem

4

Would the save be in the steam cloud?
Barring that, how old is your most recent backup?

5

So the thing is. The game deleted the whole save file folder and replaced it despite it being updated to the stame cloud. And I couln’t back it up it said there was no existing file.

6

Check here: Documents\Avalanche Studios\GenerationZero\Saves\released_default(some numbers here) and see if the saves are there.

7

This is highly unusual… And you’ve got every right to be upset. I’d be pretty pissed off too, I reckon. If none of the solutions posted here work, I’ll see if I can get ahold of someone who can help.

8

I lost it too…

I don’t want to come back to game because it’s to many hours of game left behind. Game is great, but bugs aren’t…

9

important: READ THE EDIT FROM THE POST

10

Always make a back-up from your save game file, and call it something else. If you did that once every twenty hours play, you’d only lose a bit…

Good reminder - I haven’t made a backup recently. PS, GenZ makes a backup copy of the savegame file - I suppose that’s gone too?

11

Yes It was gone aswell

1 Like
12

Good luck is that save default folder is on system drive, usually C:
If you haven’t disabled windows system restore and there is enough space left on drive. You can try and see if there is previous version of files left in that folder or previous version of the folder itself.

C:\Users\%userprofile%\Documents\Avalanche Studios\GenerationZero\Saves

Copy&paste that folder path, %userprofile% will be replaced with your windows user name, and direct to correct folder.
Click properties from that folder and see if previous version are available.

1 Like
13

Or you can launch the game via a batch file and have it automatically make a backup copy (with a timestamp) before it starts the game, every time!

Create a new text file on your desktop, rename it to something like GenZ.bat and paste the following code in the batch file:

@ECHO OFF
SETLOCAL

REM Change the number 012345689 below to match the number in your own Save folder!

SET "game_save_id=012345689"
SET "game_save_base_folder=%USERPROFILE%\Documents\Avalanche Studios\GenerationZero\Saves"

FOR /F "TOKENS=2 DELIMS==" %%A IN ('WMIC OS GET LOCALDATETIME /VALUE') DO SET "dt=%%A"
SET "dt_stamp=%dt:~0,4%-%dt:~4,2%-%dt:~6,2%_%dt:~8,2%-%dt:~10,2%-%dt:~12,2%"

SET "source=%game_save_base_folder%\%game_save_id%"
SET "target=%game_save_base_folder%\%game_save_id%_%dt_stamp%"

ROBOCOPY "%source%" "%target%"
IF NOT %ERRORLEVEL% EQU 1 GOTO CopyFailed

START "" "steam://rungameid/704270"
GOTO End

:CopyFailed
ECHO.
ECHO Skipped starting the game because the save files could not be copied.
ECHO Please check if the given [game_save_base_folder] and [game_save_id] in the batch file are correct. 
ECHO.
PAUSE

:End
ENDLOCAL

Change the number for game_save_id (012345689) to match the name of the sub folder in your Save folder. (Don’t remove the double quote at the end of the line!)

If you want to replace the standard shortcut for the game on your desktop and have a nice icon in stead of the ugly batch file icon:

1 Move the batch file to your save folder.
2 Right click and drag to your desktop and select “Create Shortcut”.
3 Rename the shortcut to your liking.
4 Change the icon via the properties of the shortcut (right click it).

Assuming you have everything installed in the default locations:

If you want the exact same icon that Steam places on your desktop: browse to C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steam\games and select the correct icon.

If you want a slightly different one: browse to C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\GenerationZero, choose GenerationZero_F.exe and select the correct icon.

Just be aware that your free disk space will reduce by 5 MB each time you launch the game through the batch file. :wink:

Have fun! :slight_smile:

Edit: If you really want to be safe you can, of course, also change the target to point to a completely different folder or drive. For example:

SET "target=D:\BackupSaves\GenerationZero\%game_save_id%_%dt_stamp%"

1 Like
14

I just go to the save file, which is 17 numbers long, and rename the savegame.bac. I have six extra saves, three for the game after the Sept update: .bac1a, .bac2a and .bac3a, and three for the new game: .bac1b,2b and 3b. I usually save at the end of the evening. I have had other games where I have lost 1200+ hours and one was 1800+ hours and I started over, frustrating yes but workable.

15

Do batch files still work? Wow! I haven’t used one of those for fifteen years - I used to do it all the time. Good call. I shall save that. Thank you!

1 Like
16

Good stuff, isn’t it? Batch files are far from dead! :smile:

Too much to say about them. Just be careful when working with the date and time. Localisation can really screw you over. The above is the only reliable way (that I know of) to get it right regardless of regional settings. And be aware that not everything “waits” for execution to complete (such as the START command; which in this case is actually a good thing). :slight_smile: