Crash that wiped part of base

[fijiloki]

I'm pretty sure that this is where I am supposed to post this. Correct me if I am wrong. I am frustrated, but I understand that without bug reports, there will never be a fix.

 

My boyfriend and I were playing on a private game using two different consoles on the same internet connection. We played on a Random Gen.

 

Game Dificulty: Adventurer

Zombies Run: Never Run

Enemy Aggression: Normal

Daylight Length 18 hours

Day 76

 

We had been experiencing several glitches on this game. For starters, neither of us can use health items from our quick bar. This has been going on for the last week or so of playing. We crash typically every 2-3 hours, but that is normal. When we log in, it is common for one of our bikes to be on fire until we get on it. Sometimes, one of us can't get on a bike or turn the light off.

 

We built a base in one of the military encampments. Not the ones that have mines everywhere. The ones with the concrete walls, barb wire on top of the walls, and pickets. We were mining under ground (inside the walls of our base) and we crashed. It seemed like a normal crash, except when we loaded back in, on my tv - I could hear a chainsaw nonstop. When we went back upstairs to our base, one full corner had been reset. It was a small reset, but encompassed our entire "storage area". We lost everything. We had two forges in that area, one was on. We had a chem station that was on. We had two campfires that were off. Maybe 26-30 different boxes for our items.

 

I am really saddened to see that this glitch is still prominent in the 7 Days to Die game. If there is any more information that I can provide, please let me know and I will do my best to answer.

[Clare]

Hi Fijiloki,

 

This is indeed the correct place to post about issues, and I appreciate you taking the time to do so and share your information. I will address each of your issues in turn.

 

Firstly, please confirm what console you are playing on and what version of the game you are playing - this is in the bottom corner of the screen when you load the game and will be either in the format 1.18 or 1.0.18.0 (18 being the most recent version)

 

For the health items, have you cleared the cache of the console since this started happening? If not, please shut down and unplug the console for 5 mins and reboot to see if that changes anything.

Is your quick-bar only effected in one save, or across all saves?

 

For the bike being on fire, when you log out/crash, is one player on the bike at the time?

Are you anywhere near things like campfires or embers in the burnt forest when this occurs?

When dismounting the bike, do you let it come to a complete stop or jump off while moving? (Jumping off while moving is known to cause issues with bike responsiveness)

Did you each make your own bikes, or did one character make both?

Is it just the one minibike catching fire or both?

Does the fire damage the bike or the character in any way or is it only visual?

Did you at any point run over something to cause the bike to catch fire before it started occurring regularly?

 

I am sorry to hear your base was hit by an MD5 error. While a large number of triggers for the bug have already been fixed, has assured that they are not giving up on finding a solution to the remaining triggers.

 

The most common report of these errors occurring lately seem to be centered around crafting stations and large storage areas. Players have noted in some cases that ones that are on are the focal point of the reset. While I understand it is not ideal, players have said spreading stations and storage out has helped.

 

If you are playing on PS4, it is possible to back up your save file to a USB or the cloud so you can restore to an older save. If you are XB1 it is not possible to backup saves to usb and any cloud saves are updated almost instantly. Players have found a way to work around this issue by using the following - https://7daystodie.com/forums/showthread.php?69218-Possible-work-around-and-or-solution-to-md5-crashes(base-wipes-resets) - as this is a player found unofficial workaround I recommend using caution as it involves deleting and resyncing data. However about 95% of players who use it have said it helps them avoid MD5 errors after a crash.

 

There is often a indicator of an incoming crash, often quitting and hard resetting the console can prevent this, but clearing the cache is preferable. These indicators can include - Animals not spawning correctly, Sudden shift in weather patterns and menus flickering or not displaying correctly.

 

Again I am sorry to hear the MD5 error wiped out so much, both myself and the team know how disheartening and frustrating this can be. Hopefully the info given above can be of some use to you.

 

Clare

[fijiloki]

Hi Clare. I am playing on Xbox. Sorry for not saying so sooner. This is the 1.10.18.0 version of the game.

 

As far as I can see, the quick bar is only affected in this one particular save. In fact, many of the glitches that we have experienced has been in this one particular save. The bike being on fire seems to happen randomly anywhere. On a road, in a grass biome, near our base — etc. In fact, we don’t even venture into the burnt forest all that often. Sometimes we do jump off while moving. Sometimes not. I made both bikes. I do not recall having run over anything immediately before this began to occur. It happens to either of them. In every case, only one of us can see it (since we are not split screening).

 

There were a couple other glitches we experienced in the days leading to the MD5. My boyfriend’s console is the one that hosts the game save. I was in that game and was selling a lot of stuff at a trader. When I tried to click on “secret stash” it had taken away all the options for trade. I backed out, talked to him again and it was back. I finished up my business with the trader and went outside. I tried to cut down a tree, and realized that I could not use my axe that was in my quickbar. Upon testing, I could not use ANY item in my quickbar. It would only show my fists. I tried moving items around, using the bumpers, etc. and nothing. I waited for the save symbol and dropped out of the game. Upon rejoining, I lost everything in my quickbar. Instead, blue and purple rating bike parts were in my quickbar. I checked on the bikes and both were still intact. Nothing else in my inventory was missing.

 

Also, in regards to the MD5 crash — our bikes, which were in the affected part of the base, were in the cement floor. I had to quickly dig them out because they were taking damage. This had happened in one other case after a crash, where one of the bikes went underground. I could hear it running and by the time I was able to get it out, the bike was nearly broken.

 

I have heard about that workaround, but with crashes every couple of hours on the console…It’s just hard to keep up on doing that after every crash. Crashes are very frequent. Is there something I can do to reduce the amount of crashes?

 

We have witnessed the menu flickering before, but that is not commonplace. Usually, the crash happens without warning, with none of what you listed being in effect. In one crash the same day as the MD5, all of the items in my inventor duplicated, including our money.

[Clare]

Hi Fijiloki,

 

Thank you for that information. I have heard other players mention bikes being on fire but I will double check with the team if there is a workaround, I would recommend waiting for bikes to come to a complete stop in future. While this might not be the cause of the fire issue, from reports we've received this can cause players toolbelts to be replaced by minibike parts if either via crash or logging out as you expirenced - more common with client rather than host. It has also been known to mess-up interactivity with the bike. If you have not done so already, I recommend both disassembling and reassembling your own bikes so the bike is marked as built by the player riding it. While not 100% confirmed, some players have reported rebuilding their own bike helped with some issues. It may also unstick the fire issue.

 

The issue you mentioned with the Trader was actually reported to us only recently, we confirmed this mixup in the UI where the stash is misplaced and submitted a report to the console team on the issue. For now resetting it by going in and out of the menu seems to be the best bet.

 

While the team has stopped the bikes falling through the world, sometimes they can slip underground. I have not heard of them still running before, not sure if this is part of the hopping off effect or something else. I will need to investigate further.

 

I completely understand that the workaround is not ideal. For the crashes, they seem to be caused by a buildup of various things. Logging out are resetting as soon as you see a trigger is a good way to avoid them however I understand you're not always going to see a trigger. Some players who don't see triggers set timers for themselves to reset. Below is a list of some things that appear to accelerate buildup:

 

- Some items being grouped together that can cause a lag build up. These include large numbers of trees growing together, woodframe windows, toggle lights (10+), torches, candles and large number of spikes. A good way to test an area is to stand a bit away from it and turn in a circle, if you experience lag as you start to look at a base but not at open areas beside it, it can be an indicator you have too many lights in the one area.

 

- Collapsing large buildings / large areas of land all at once

 

- large modifications (builds / mines) appears to have an effect on the time it takes to crash and large amounts of new areas of the map uncovered - Obviously these can not be avoided as they are part of the core gameplay. However as they have been known to be related factors in the past, it's a good idea to keep them in mind so you can look out for crash warning signs or prepare yourself.

 

I hope that information helps, if you think of anything else, please let me know.

Clare

[fijiloki]

Thanks for all the feedback. Last night we experienced another strange glitch. I mentioned previously that my inventory was taken from me and replaced with bike parts after the trader had glitched up. Last night, I hopped off a bike to mine some nitrate powder and the same thing happened to me. Recognizing the glitch, I handed all of my items off to my boyfriend this time before I logged out. I obviously did not lose my items, but I still had a quickbar full of bike parts that were fully repaired and matched the value ratings of one of the bikes. Just wanted to report this too. Any idea why this is happening? I'm not sure what the similarities between the first and second incident are.

[Clare]

Hoping of your bike before it comes to a complete stop has been the most common cause of this in the past. Sometimes even if the bike appears stopped you may hear noise of the engine or in some cases one of the wheels would still be spinning. It may be worth taking the bike fully appart and reassembling then clearing the cache on both the host and client side to be sure incase it is a bit if bugged code sticking - this could cause it to trigger even if the bike was fully stopped.

[fijiloki]

Ok thanks. I will try and see if that helps.

[Clare]

Hopefully that'll help prevent it from occurring while the team continue to look into a solution for this.

 

If you find it is still occurring anyway, please let me know and I will update the team.

[fijiloki]

So after the MD5 error we did try to continue, but the glitches that were mentioned above became so unbearable that we started a new world. Now, we have been experiencing a new game-breaking glitch. My boyfriend is hosting a game on his xbox with nomad setting and zombies run. When he invites me, sometimes it becomes stuck on the "waiting for sever" screen for up to 5 minutes. Sometimes, it will never load and we have to do another invite and wait again. This has been getting progressively worse with more and more frequent freezes. Now, I cannot join at all. It will either never load or it will say that I have been kicked. Sometimes, it does not even register in his game that I have left the game and it will say that I have joined when I have not. At this point, I am extremely frustrated because I feel like we hit one glitch after another to prevent us from playing the game

[fijiloki]

Also, we tried doing the hard resets / unplugging everything etc. Our NATs are open and we get about 40 download and 10 upload speeds. We have a really amazing router to that supports 5G. It seems that the save will not let me join, but he was able to join a server I created. Does this mean the save corrupted over time? Is there any way that we can fix it so that it is still playable

[Clare]

Hi Fijiloki,

 

I am sorry to hear you were still plagued with issues in your last save, it is possible there could have been a knock on effect from glitches making issues more unstable over time.

 

From your message above, it sounds like you are both connected to the exact same router, rather than the same brand router in two different locations correct?

 

From what I have heard, XB1 generally does not like sharing it's connections with other consoles. You could try disconnection both consoles and then letting your boyfriends console connect first, followed by your own.

 

If possible, connecting your boyfriends console via cable if not done already may help. If he is cable and you are wifi, or vice versa, trying switching them around.

 

Alternatively, you could also swap consoles. If your boyfriend logs in on yours, and you on his, can he then host? It may be an indicator then that your console has a more ideal connection. If the result is the same then something else could be at play.

 

If there's anything I missed, or anything you think may be of use for me to know, please do not hesitate to comment as sometimes even the seemingly simple thing can be a factor.

 

Clare

[fijiloki]

Correct. We are on the same network using the same router. Those are some interesting ideas and we can try it out. It was just a strange phenomenon and it sucked having it get worse and worse overtime until it finally just stopped working entirely.

 

I have another question regarding wellness. I’ve noticed in the last couple of months (perhaps since the last update?) that .5 wellness is, well…Not .5 wellness. Sometimes if we eat stew or a vitamin, we will gain a wellness point (YAY!) other times we might have to eat TEN vitamins to get a single point. This has persisted across every game that we have played, even if we have had survivor maxed out, which supposedly provides a wellness bonus.

[Clare]

For wellness its not as straight forward as the descriptions make it seem (I believe this is something the fun pimps plan to revise and modify if they have not done so already)

 

Depending on your current wellness there is a multiplier attached to all wellness gains like eating food.

 

Wellness 0 - 50: x2

Wellness 50 - 150: x1

Wellness 150+: x0.5

 

There is also a diminished returns if you continue to use the same item over and over, if you mix it up with foods and teas it may improve or take a few in game days break between taking vitamins.

[fijiloki]

Wow so the diminished effect would extend to having to take 10? I didn't know that you needed to mix them up or wait several days though, so that is very helpful. Thanks.

 

Btw, any word on whether or not a large update is still planned for sometime this year?

[Clare]

It is quiet possible that could happen, I have also heard of players saying taking food or vitamins etc rapidly does not add to wellness at all, especially if you recently took some, so waiting one way or another appears to be key.

 

I have not heard anything to the contrary of my original announcement, so as far as I am away it is still on course for later this year.