Misery Save Corruption + Travel Thread Thread - MISERY mod for S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat

Hi Guys,

I recently experienced some save corruption and I was able to do some analysis on how to deal with it (as a player).

There are three areas : Pripyat, Jupiter and Zaton.

Moving between these areas can cause a bug of some sort which means in arriving at the new area you either cannot save the game (crashes) or you can save the game but loading these crashes the game. In every case I have tested this bug displays by :

1. Quicksave crashes the game immediatey.
2. Hard saving works as far as "Are you sure you want to overwrite?" but the game does not "flash" like it is supposed to, nor does the save move up the list. If saving a new save game the save will not appear in the list. (It has not saved your game but does not show any kind of dialogue explaining this.)

Having tested numerous save games in different areas I have determined that is it not ARRIVAL that causes the bug, but DEPARTURE of the previous area. Example:

1. Save game. Leave Pripyat.
2. Arrive in Jupiter. Save game.
3. Return to Pripyat. Saving fails.

Reloading the save in Jupiter and travelling to Pripyat again will NEVER (30+ attempts) fix the issue. HOWEVER loading the save in Pripyat then leaving it again, then returning to Pripyat almost always clears this issue.

Therefore it appears that the bug "begins" when you leave any area, that area may then not be able to save correctly when you return to it. It doesn't matter how many times you reload and come back to it, it is the depature from that area that is bugged. You have to reload to before you LEFT the area that is bugged. In many cases this can be hours or days of gameplay and is a critical issue.

Here's how to fix/avoid it.

1. Save before travelling anywhere, save in the base (Laundromat, Skavodsk, Yanov Station).
2. Arrive at your location. Save the game.
3. Return to where you came from. Test saving the game. If it suceeds, your "departure" from that area was "clean" and will work.
4. Load the save at #2 and do whatever you wanted to since you now know that your departure was "clean" and you can return there later without issue.

I have not during testing found a situation where travelling between two of the areas corrupts the third, nor where ARRIVING in an area corrupts the area. It is only the area which you LEAVE which has the chance to be corrupted once you go back to it.

I have the following save games :

Zaton Area Save
Jupiter Area Save
Pripyat Area Save

When I am about to leave an area I save to the appropriate save. When I arrive in the next place I quicksave, then pay to travel back. I then attempt making a Hard Save. If this fails I reload the Area Save (before departure) and leave again. When I can return to where I left from and the save is successful then I know it worked. I load my save from the second area and go about my business. Example :

1. Save in Pripyat. Travel to Zaton.
2. Arrive in Zaton. Save game.
3. Travel to Pripyat. Save game.
4. Load save game from #2, play in Zaton.

Note : You don't have to Travel from Area A > Area B > Area A > Area B > Area A etc to test it forever. Because you are not "really" leaving B, only to test the departure from A, it is not possible for your departure from B to corrupt anything IF you Save, Leave A, arrive in B, Save, leave B, arrive in A, save, then load your save in B. If you travel back this is ANOTHER DEPARTURE which can cause save corruption. Simply load the save you made in Area B.

I hope this helps anyone else experiencing save corruption or travel corruption issues in Misery. I am running 2.1beta. I have experienced these save corruption issues in all areas. This information has been gathered with numerous load/saves to test the exact issues.

Note : Occassionally dropping your items will allow saves to be made in the "corrupt" area. Loading these saves will crash the game.

Just don't ever use Quick save or Auto Save. Disabling the autosave function in option will prevent all but map change auto saves. Delete them as soon as you arrive. Using any quick or auto save to restore your game from is what corrupts your save games. This is well documented, and in fact, there will be a special note about it for next release because so many people do it. Frequently restoring a new save right after creating it will assure you your save is viable before you progress further. Rotate a minimum or 3 saves making CYA saves at key points so if you missed something critical to storyline you don't have to go back as far.

If you have a corrupt save, but are currently playing a good save, and you then manually hard save over the corrupt save, is it still corrupted?

Sorry that sounds like some crazy riddle haha

Saving over any save will replace with same quality as data you are saving into it. You should be safe. Better off in general to delete any you know may be corrupt and then make new save with same or any name you like. Symptoms may not show for a while depending on what's corrupted. If it reloads after you save it is first test. Completing all criteria for a mission and the mission won't complete properlyis a symptom. If you visit a helicopter/play the cut scene and marker for helo doesn't disappear, that kind of weird stuff, probably corrupted save games.

Edited by: jasper34