Important: Upgrading Saves Between Versions

[Dioxine]

PLEASE ONLY RELEVANT POSTS HERE. QUESTIONS TO BE POSTED ON EITHER FAQ OR BUG REPORTS

UPGRADE: 0.95C to 0.96

X-Piratez v0.96 introduces a new mission to the mod:

Spoiler:

STR_LOC_RET_BASE, a Reticulan base mission.

This will be missing from your game unless you start a new campaign.

The way OpenXCom generates missions is a bit odd. When you launch a campaign, it generates all the possible missions for the whole game. When you save your game, instead of saving missions that have already happened so they don't happen again, OpenXCom saves possible future missions in the save file.

This means that, when upgrading to a new version of a mod with new missions added, you will never see them. This is because they are not listed in your save file from the old version (because they didn't exist when you generated your new game). When reading in the save file with the new version, since the new missions are not listed, the game thinks that they have already happened!

This is an unfortunate design choice that makes changing missions a bad thing for upgrades. If instead missions that already happened where saved, you would never have this problem. Luckily, there is a fix: You can go in your save and add the new missions, so that they can be generated from the next month onwards normally.

In order to do this:
1 - open your game save (any text editor will do)
2 - search for "alienStrategy". This is the section of the game save that keeps all the possible missions.
3 - go down to "possibleMissions"
4 - under each region, you need to add the missing missions. Note: Dioxine also changed the odds of seeing another mission, so you can fix that as well! Below is a list of all the changes: Remove the lines in red, add the lines in green. If one of the lines in red is missing, that means you already saw the mission, so don't add the following green line.

Missions to add:

Spoiler:

alienStrategy:
  possibleMissions:
    - region: STR_NORTH_AMERICA
      missions:
        Nothing changed
    - region: STR_ARCTIC:
      missions:
        STR_MISSION_LOC_RET_BASE: 25
    - region: STR_ANTARCTICA
      missions:
        STR_MISSION_LOC_RET_BASE: 25
    - region: STR_SOUTH_AMERICA
      missions:
        STR_MISSION_LOC_RET_BASE: 60
    - region: STR_EUROPE
      missions:
        STR_MISSION_LOC_RET_BASE: 60
    - region: STR_NORTH_AFRICA
      missions:
        STR_MISSION_LOC_RET_BASE: 60
    - region: STR_SOUTHERN_AFRICA
      missions:
       STR_MISSION_LOC_RET_BASE: 60
       STR_MISSION_RETICULAN_TRADING: 100
       STR_MISSION_RETICULAN_TRADING: 110
    - region: STR_CENTRAL_ASIA
      missions:
        STR_MISSION_LOC_RET_BASE: 60
        STR_MISSION_RETICULAN_TRADING: 60
        STR_MISSION_RETICULAN_TRADING: 70
    - region: STR_SOUTH_EAST_ASIA
      missions:
        STR_MISSION_LOC_RET_BASE: 60
        STR_MISSION_RETICULAN_TRADING: 60
        STR_MISSION_RETICULAN_TRADING: 70
    - region: STR_SIBERIA
      missions:
        STR_MISSION_RETICULAN_TRADING: 50
        STR_MISSION_RETICULAN_TRADING: 70
    - region: STR_AUSTRALASIA
      missions:
        STR_MISSION_LOC_RET_BASE: 60
        STR_MISSION_RETICULAN_TRADING: 50
        STR_MISSION_RETICULAN_TRADING: 70
    - region: STR_PACIFIC
      missions:
        STR_MISSION_LOC_RET_BASE: 60

Although this may sound like something bad happened, it didn't Something great happened: Dioxine added even more awesome stuff for us to play with!

Enjoy!

[Dioxine]

Upgrading 0.96 to 0.97.

- Remove all STR_MISSION_GOVT_PATROL entries from:

Code: [Select]

alienStrategy:
  possibleMissions:

- Rename all STR_FLOATER_??? to STR_GUILD_??? and STR_SNAKEMAN_??? to STR_CHURCH_???. Do NOT touch STR_FLOATER and STR_SNAKEMAN, though, leave them as they are.

One thing though... you should mention that the saves need to be moved into "piratez" subdirectory.

Precisely:
/user/piratez as opposed to /user
ALso, overwriting is generally always discouraged. Backup your saves and config, then purge the whole game directory before installing new version, just to be sure.

@Draco and Meridian (and basically anyone): you are officially entitled by yours truly to add the following changes, which reflect the changes in starting base:

- Add a Spike Launcher and 20 or so Spike Rockets to your storage
- Replace a single STR_GENERAL_STORES at your main base with STR_GENERAL_STORES_ARMORED

[Arthanor]

Upgrading 0.96 to 0.97.
- Rename all STR_FLOATER_??? to STR_GUILD_??? and STR_SNAKEMAN_??? to STR_CHURCH_???. Do NOT touch STR_FLOATER and STR_SNAKEMAN, though, leave them as they are.

Note: In your saves under alienMissions, do not change STR_FLOATER_??? to STR_GUILD_???, nor STR_SNAKEMAN_??? to STR_CHURCH_???

@Dioxine: The alienRaces, as defined in Piratez_Armors.rul, are still STR_FLOATER_??? and STR_SNAKEMAN_???, even though their members are properly STR_GUILD_??? and STR_CHURCH_???.

I changed STR_FLOATER_NONCOM in my save under alienMissions, and the game promptly crashed as soon as I shot down a UFO, because it had no idea what STR_GUILD_NONCOM was.

[Dioxine]

Oh yeah, you're absolutely right, Arthanor. Forgot about that. Don't change these 2 in alienMissions.

[niculinux]

"Service communication" the 0.97 version is affected by the some corpse bugs that  appear instead of the proper ones: should you have any problem, pleaseopen the file

Code: [Select]

Piratez_Armors.rul with any text editor and replace instance of

Code: [Select]

"corpseGeo: STR_FLOATER_CORPSE" wtih 

Code: [Select]

"corpseGeo: STR_GUILD_CORPSE" to fix the floater issue.

Might be also problems which lead to appear the snakemen corpse in the inventory, so to fix also this, in the same file replace and replace

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STR_SNAKEMAN_CORPSE with

Code: [Select]

STR_CHURCH_CORPSE
(source: here and here

[Cristao]

Any important things to note while upgrading from 0.97 to 0.97A?

[Dioxine]

No, not really, there were no changes that could break saves. At most, you may check your bases' logs and soldier loadouts after upgrading.

[Dioxine]

Upgrading saves from 0.97A to 0.97B:


- Remove all STR_MISSION_LOC_RET_BASE and STR_MISSION_RETICULAN_TRADING entries from:

Code: [Select]

alienStrategy:
  possibleMissions:

[Galwail]

Do we need to manually change anything to upgrade from 0.97C to 0.97D?

[Dioxine]

Nope. If you're ultra-paranoid, you may clear all inventory from ships then re-arm the gals again, but I don't think anything will be amiss even if you don't do that.

[Zharkov]

Nope. If you're ultra-paranoid, you may clear all inventory from ships then re-arm the gals again, but I don't think anything will be amiss even if you don't do that.

Actually, I am a bit paranoid and I am facing some problems with gals finding themselves in armors with fewer pouches suddenly. Seems that equipment is still put into non-existing places according to the "equipmentLayout:" and cannot be removed. Clearing all equipment from vessels' inventory only affects the gals assigned to a vessel. As a solution, one can manually delete all  the "equipmentLayout:"s from the .sav. However, the problem can come back at you, when you change a gal's armor to a less pouchy one.

[Meridian]

Actually, I am a bit paranoid and I am facing some problems with gals finding themselves in armors with fewer pouches suddenly. Seems that equipment is still put into non-existing places according to the "equipmentLayout:" and cannot be removed. Clearing all equipment from vessels' inventory only affects the gals assigned to a vessel. As a solution, one can manually delete all  the "equipmentLayout:"s from the .sav.

This doesn't happen for me... the equipment from non-existing slots is put on the ground.
Do you have a save where I could see this?

Also, try pressing "X" (or whatever shortcut you have for de-equiping)... this should remove the "hidden" items, if there are any and put them on the ground.

However, the problem can come back at you, when you change a gal's armor to a less pouchy one.

This definitely doesn't happen. When you change the armor, all equipment is first put on the ground, then armor is changed, fixed weapons assigned and then equipment is put back in place... if possible. What didn't fit stays on the ground.

[Zharkov]

This doesn't happen for me... the equipment from non-existing slots is put on the ground.
Do you have a save where I could see this?

Actually, I am a bit paranoid [...]

so, no.

Also, try pressing "X" (or whatever shortcut you have for de-equiping)... this should remove the "hidden" items, if there are any and put them on the ground.

Tried this, didn't work.

This definitely doesn't happen. When you change the armor, all equipment is first put on the ground, then armor is changed, fixed weapons assigned and then equipment is put back in place... if possible. What didn't fit stays on the ground.

That might be the solution. At least for me, equipping gals with the armor type Eve and then changing back solves the problem.

[Solarius Scorch]

There's a button to unequip everything. If this doesn't work Zharkov, then something's probably wrong with your install.

[Dioxine]

Yeah, this was an issue when inventory slots were changed, and 'x' worked. Now there's no (conceivable) possibility for items to end up in the 'hidden' inv slots because they're not hidden, they're blocked. If you're missing some items, there are many many other reasons this could happen (vide Meridian's last hideout defense)
Also this WON'T work if you don't use the build packaged with the mod (or an upgraded one).