[XBOX] [Multiplayer Crashes] Crashing & Losing progress/buildings

[ReiserB]

The crashing and losing buildings, collected resources has been a frequent problem on our end. I’ve tried to provide information on the last one as best I know, but PLEASE READ the update at the bottom, it may be a solution if I can get enough people to test it out.

 

Game Type: Multiplayer (Split and Online)

Map Type: Navesgane

Seed/Save Name: Too many to list

Disk or Digital: Digital (All Hosts/Client)

DLC: None for any

Character: Vaired – No apparent affect

Difficulty: Varied (Primarily “Adventurer”?)

Run: Default

Aggression: Default (Walk Day, Run Night)

Day length: Default

Drop On Death: Default

Enemy memory: Default (60?)

Enemy Spawning: Default

Block durability: Default

Loot respawn time: Default

Loot abundance: Default

Airdrops: On – Default (Noon Daily)

24 hour cycle: Default

In-game Day: Default

Are you Host or Client: Host

Upload Speeds (while playing the game): Unk

Download Speeds (While playing the game): Unk (200Mb paid for)

NAT type: Open (almost certain)

Wired or Wireless connection: Host wired, client wireless on same router

Internet Service Provider (ISP): Suddenlink (They suck)

Router connected to console: Asus dual band

How many console connected to same router: 2 (One older Xbox1, one less than 2 months old)

Step by Step

Happens frequently – No real knowledge of what triggers the event, appears to be random. Happens split screen or online multiplayer.

 

The Bug

We’ve had SEVERAL crashes that causes the game to revert the map to a previous state. This has happened when my friend would come over and we’d split screen. I convinced him to buy his own digital copy, reading that split screen could be problematic. Both of us playing online on our own systems and the crashes causing loss continued. This last time, there was a significant and noticeable drop in skills that had been progressed on. That had not been noticed before (if it happened, it was a small/unnoticed amount). For instance, my friend was making ~200 quality stone axes. After crash, we restarted (without doing the “unofficial hard reboot” method/trick) and the building we occupied was “reset”, losing gear, and my friend was making ~50 quality stone axes. Huge difference. My son got a copy as well, and the two of us share the same internet connection/router while my friend was playing on his own at his home. Those two are fuming and pretty much refusing to play again.

 

Extras

 

ReiserB – Gamertag of host – Older Xbox1 but current on all updates (500Gb HDD) – Hardline to router

Ballistic788 (I think) – Client – connected remotely with his own router/network, but lives in same city (~8 miles away)

GavD222 – Client – Connected to same router over WiFi

There was at one point a guy connected who said he was in Australia and another Gamertag connected at some point. I have no idea what they were doing at the time or their connection status. I do know that the 3 of us were working in the same area, on a map we just created that day, and were trying to collect resources, build a perimeter, and reinforce the existing building. We were in the southwestern most home in the little town diersville (2 story +Attic, green interior walls?), or whatever it’s called. Wooded/grassy area, northeastern quadrant? I’ve heard some people discussing crashes at heavy CPU usage moments, but at the time, I know that at least us 3 were doing light tasks and discussing planning. No idea how far or intense the other players were or even if they were connected at the time of the crash.

 

Just trying to help brainstorm. The analytics you guys are doing sounds like it might help, but it seems to me like you guys and gals are at the point of needing some major diagnostic data, and I’m reading a lot of players that would love to help with that. Can there not be some type of update to turn on some on-screen logging or diagnostics? I’m willing to deal with some annoying text on screen if I can get it recorded and it gives someone an opportunity to see under the hood while the engine’s running.

 

UPDATE!! POSSIBLE WORK AROUND!

I wrote the above before the weekend started. I convinced my friend to keep jumping on and playing, but to take it from a diagnostic/troubleshooting perspective. He agreed and we played for quite a long time this weekend. We did change things up. He hosted the map, as far as I remember, he left all options default. We were trying to eliminate if it was my network connection, my console, etc. He has a digital copy of the game as well, BUT he installed the game on the portable external hard drive he has plugged into his console. We played quite a bit this weekend and we had several crashes; a couple of which required him to do a hard reboot on his end. The good news: NOT ONE crash caused a data corruption or whatever it was that caused us to have multiple “reversion to day one” type events like I had on my end. No losses to buildings, resources, or stats!!!

 

The crashes were at random times, with no apparent triggers. Day, Night, Heavy or light CPU usage, even the number of torches used didn’t seem to give any clues as to why or when the game was going to crash. I do not know the brand of the external drive, but I believe it’s a 3TB. SO, if you’re having the issue with progress, stats, and buildings being lost to crashing, you might try installing the game on an external drive and see if it works for you too.  We hate the frequency of the crashes, but we are less scared about losing our hard work. The whole thing has me wondering if part of the issue was space on my console. I know I’m over ~86% full on a 500Gb HDD console. Maybe if enough people can test our theory about the external drive protecting our data from crashes, we can 1) help people 2) give an avenue of what the source issue is.

 

-Brandon

 

( Edited to change 500k HDD to 500Gb :-\ )

[Clare]

Hi ReiserB,

 

First of all, thank you so much for taking the time to pass on so much information - I really appreciate you taking the time to do this.

 

There are two issues here, one is the MD5 error which is where the area is reset to it's Day 1 state. The second is the player reset where the loose skill levels - this only occurs for clients, not the host.

 

The team use console kits during development and bug fixing which give us a lot of diagnostic information, so I don't think the team will release a version that will show that information - to be honest I'm not even sure if MS and Sony would allow that. But thank you for your suggestion and willingness to help out!

 

Out of curiousity, does your friend keep a backup save of the game in the cloud at all, or is it entirely maintained on the external drive?

 

One of the theories for the player reset in the past was something causing the game to have trouble calling the save data from the joining player. It's interesting that an external drive may have helped this. I shall pass this information onto the team right away.

 

Clare

[ReiserB]

Hi ReiserB,

 

First of all, thank you so much for taking the time to pass on so much information - I really appreciate you taking the time to do this.

 

There are two issues here, one is the MD5 error which is where the area is reset to it's Day 1 state. The second is the player reset where the loose skill levels - this only occurs for clients, not the host.

 

The team use console kits during development and bug fixing which give us a lot of diagnostic information, so I don't think the team will release a version that will show that information - to be honest I'm not even sure if MS and Sony would allow that. But thank you for your suggestion and willingness to help out!

 

Out of curiousity, does your friend keep a backup save of the game in the cloud at all, or is it entirely maintained on the external drive?

 

One of the theories for the player reset in the past was something causing the game to have trouble calling the save data from the joining player. It's interesting that an external drive may have helped this. I shall pass this information onto the team right away.

 

Clare

 

1. We're glad to help! We love the game and its potential and if we can help add to stability and prevention of lost efforts, then it's self-serving as well. ;-)

 

2. He works a night shift currently, so I'll ask him details about the game saves and even the brand information on the external HDD when I can.

 

3. Also, I'll try to keep playing on my system as a host as well and see if I can get more information. I'm probably going to get a HDD as well soon so I can start that. I'm really starting to wonder if a combination of Internet/Network connection/lag issues and/or the percentage the internal storage has available is contributing. Maybe an addition to your form to include where the game is installed, (Internal/External HDD), Size, and percent full at the time of the crash?

[Clare]

Hi ReiserB,

 

Thank you, I shall keep an eye out for any extra information you send my way. Adding game location is a good idea! I'll add that to the information as it would be interesting to see if there's a difference across players who have their game on a HDD.

 

Clare

[ReiserB]

Update

 

So, the three of us have kept playing. 2 of us on one network connection and host on his own. I host the party game chat to help in case of bandwidth issues. Host has game exclusively on external HDD.

 

We still have hard crashes, about 90 minutes apart depending on workload. Occasionally other people have been somewhere on the map. HOWEVER, not one crash has caused any reset to a prior status.

[Clare]

Hi ReiserB

 

Thank you for coming back to update me. While I know the crashes are still occurring, I am glad to hear that you have not experienced any resets in your current setup.

 

Clare