Lost all my work

[doverosx]

I've been losing many hours of work with cars/engines. Yesterday I lost a whole engine series that I spent most of my Sunday on . I created the engine family and after each revision I would close the game after clicking on "X" to the main menu and then clicked on "quit game", I was checking because I wanted to make sure I didn't lose my work. Of course, I finished my final revision for the day (2nd revision or 3rd revision) and decided to pack it in so I could watch the hockey game and I lost ALL of my engines. Not just the revisions but the entire family.

[Killrob]

As this has never happened to us (otherwise it probably would be fixed already), how do you go about making these revisions and engine families and can you reproduce that highly undesirable behavior?

[Lucdeluc]

As this has never happened to us (otherwise it probably would be fixed already)

Killrob, and dear doverosx... look at bug reporting thread. It happend to me so I checked if I did something wrong. Yes in the name of family and engines you probably used incorrect sign not accepted by windows to be used in file names. As all engines and categories are saved as standalone file -> using sign like slash (ex. "/") makes those file unable to be saved by windows in game folder.

[Killrob]

I thought that was fixed though, it should no longer be allowed to use those characters in naming. Maybe the Standalone version doesn't have that fix yet though.
So, to know which version you are on would help too
Thanks for pointing that out, Lucdeluc.

[doverosx]

I'm a computer engineer/scientist by trade so I can assure you that if I had a rhyme or reason to the revision bug, I'd let you know . I am on the latest Steam version B150409.

I'll keep trying but it isn't in how I'm using the UI, the files are probably there (mind telling me where I can check on the FS?). If I create an engine family with one engine and quit the game, then open the game again and the engine is there....I'm saving it properly. If I then create a new revision (by click on the new variant link), close the game, then reopen it and it's still there...I'm saving it properly.

Steps to reproduce:
1. Create Engine Family
2. Create engine
3. Click "X"
4. Go back to sand box, click ">" to load engines, click on your engine
5. Click "Revise Engine"
6. Click on "New Variant"
7. Change some things
8. Click "X"
9. Click on "Quit Game"
10. Ta-da, load the game and your new engine is gone. Game seems to keep my first engine family just fine.

[07CobaltGirl]

4 files for each car built...

From left to right at the top of the Automation screen are:

****NOTE: These locations are for a Steam Installed version****
Car Platform can be found in C:\Users\<username>\My Documents<or just Documents>\My Games\Automation\Cars\Models
Car Trims can be found in C:\Users\<username>\My Documents<or just Documents>\My Games\Automation\Cars\Trims
Engine Families can be found in C:\Users\<username>\My Documents<or just Documents>\My Games\Automation\Engines\Families
Engine Variants can be found in C:\Users\<username>\My Documents<or just Documents>\My Games\Automation\Engines\Variants

I'm not exactly sure the differences for the StandAlone version of Automation are.

I had a similar issue with the first or second Steam release. Caswal found it was an issue with naming over other files. If you have a save and rename it, it wouldn't show the original, or wouldn't show the revision, even though both files were present in their directories. One of them was getting corrupted somehow (through a combination of user and program error). I thought it was fixed, though?

[doverosx]

It would appear that Steam version saves files into a different location. All of my files pre-steam are there.

I think I'm going to try deleting all of my stuff that actually shows up still, in-game and see what happens.

[07CobaltGirl]

A different location than the one I posted? Those are the steam install locations. The standalone version is a different location.

[Killrob]

We are in the process of weeding out these saving bugs now so much easier when you are able to reproduce them, so thank you for the steps, that helped!
In the meantime a way to not lose your work: make sure you get to a point where the full car or engine stats can be calculated. The game saves only properly upon finishing a full set of calculations. So when you design a car, do the actual cosmetic stuff after testing the car and whenever you want an intermediate save, change any slider up and down. This will have to do as a workaround for now, in the next bigger update these issues will be fixed and saving ought to work the way you'd expect.

[chargie]

Actually I have been seeing this issue since the day I bought the standalone (around March timeframe). No updates help in this. My naming is very simple, just alphanumerical. Somehow I see many old engine/car trims file in my game folder (which I hv deleted), and sometimes caused memory corruption when reading the current car settings. The cars aren't lost, but the trim/engine associate with it will have linkage issue. I have been ctrl-C for some time after seeing this problem, but still persist in the latest version. Hope it can be solved in the future, as it is really pain in ass when I've spent so much time working on the cars, and suddenly, one day, the engine/trim doesnt link and caused memory corruption

[chargie]

Attach with screenshot.

[doverosx]

REPLICATION SUCCESS!!! PM me for my skype and I can share my screen iffff you don't understand what I'm saying.

I call it the "arbitrary" click ">" becuase there isn't any UI or prompt to tell the user to click on the ">" button one more time.

1. Revise an engine
2. Click on New Variant
3. Do your tuning and all that stuff, dyno the engine at the end BUT DO NOT "X" or quit or leave if you want to save this variant
4. Next to "Test Mode", you will want to click on ">" BAM, done, saved...now your original/variants, etc. will not be lost I KNOW right!?!?

Additional Notes, A prompt to say, "Hey brah, this shit ain't gonna' be saved, do you want to save now?" that'll "fix" it. Once I pieced this all together, I figure out that moving to the "trim" section will save it because the engine design is a scoped-in part of the overall workflow of building a car. It makes sense to me and really a prompt will work juuuust fine.

[Killrob]

In case you are using the Steam version: please have a go at the open beta and see if the saving problems you had are resolved

[evoixmrfq400]

Actually I have been seeing this issue since the day I bought the standalone (around March timeframe). No updates help in this. My naming is very simple, just alphanumerical. Somehow I see many old engine/car trims file in my game folder (which I hv deleted), and sometimes caused memory corruption when reading the current car settings. The cars aren't lost, but the trim/engine associate with it will have linkage issue. I have been ctrl-C for some time after seeing this problem, but still persist in the latest version. Hope it can be solved in the future, as it is really pain in ass when I've spent so much time working on the cars, and suddenly, one day, the engine/trim doesnt link and caused memory corruption

it happen to me also