A6: Floor items vanished?

[mlahut]

I'm not that far into A6 - doing the Gnass/Dharmon quests - but recently a LOT of floor items have disappeared. Not all of them, but a lot. My stashes in the first town are gone, along with all the "not yours" items. Some areas are missing trash/junk items I remembered seeing there before. I can't enumerate all the places because where stuff has vanished because I only left one stash so far.

 

I'm aware there's a 200 item limit, my stash was no more than 20 or so.

 

Any known issues with the game that could trigger this kind of effect? I'm going to reload from a several-hours-prior save (because I don't know whether future floor-loot items might have been affected) but I wonder whether anyone knows if this vanishing effect could be avoided in the future. 

[Ess-Eschas]

Hello mlahut,

 

Sorry to hear that you've been having problems, and good on you for sticking with the game even so!

 

I haven't heard of behaviour exactly like that which you're experiencing, but it's possible it's related to a similar – and very rare – problem that's been reported before. Unfortunately, if it's the same issue, there is currently no known fix. However, it would still be really useful to know if it's the same problem! And if it's a different issue, it might be possible to come up with a workaround! If you still have an affected save game handy, would you mind checking a few things for me quickly?

 

1. Does the problem extend to items in chests? One easy chest to find is in the guard house on the eastern side of Gnass. There's a chest on the northern side of the structure which should contain a few Not Yours items. Are they still there, or have they disappeared?

 

2. Do clickable items such as wheels still function correctly? This is a little harder to check, I'm afraid. The quickest wheel to check that I can think of right now is in the underground bandits' lair to the southeast of the Castle Food Depot. This is the same area you go to complete the 'Rescue Treviass' quest. There's a wheel at the very northwest of the lair. If you click the wheel, it should open/close the gate. Does this still happen correctly?

 

It would also be useful to know your operating system. Are you running Avernum 6 on a Mac, on Windows or on a tablet?

[mlahut]

1) Yes the problem does extend to chests. Gnass, as a zone, was not affected by my issue, but Nichol's desk in the Castle Food Depot is empty and I'm positive I wouldn't have removed the scissors or pen/ink from it. 

 

2) I actually haven't finished clearing that area (was near the beginning of it when I made the decision to stop playing that save file). But the wheel connecting the Goblin Mine to Castle Food Depot still functions normally. 

 

Playing on Windows 7 using "DX" executable (it's not clear to me how that differs from the non-DX one)

 

[Ess-Eschas]

Alright, it looks like there's a possibility that you're suffering from Spiderweb's chest bug, although what you've said above isn't quite conclusive. For instance, my understanding is that the chest bug affects all areas once it's been activated, but it seems that only some areas are being affected in your game.

 

Just to make absolutely sure, would you mind doing one more little check for me? Go to the upper level of the Castle Food Depot. There's a small barracks on the south wall containing three soldiers (and Sergeant K'Naan). It's the room directly east of the portal pylon. In the southwest corner of this room is a chest. In this chest are some Not Yours items. Since the soldiers never move around, it's impossible to take these items without the crime being seen, and there are more items than it's possible to steal without losing the game. In other words, there's no way that all the items can be removed from the chest – except if you're experiencing a nasty bug.

 

Is this chest empty?

[mlahut]

Yes it's empty.

 

So it looks like all the items in Castle Food Depot are gone, on both levels, and ditto with Portal Fort. 

Castle, Memorial Grounds, and Gnass seem unharmed. 

[Slawbug]

This is a very nasty bug and is likely to affect all containers in areas you haven't yet reached.  Unfortunately, the only option I am aware of is to revert to a save from before you encountered the bug.

[Ess-Eschas]

Sorry that I've been a little slow on this one, but Slarty is right – it's likely that your saved game has been corrupted, causing the problem you've been seeing with the game's items.

 

This is a problem that's been around for quite some time, but it happens so rarely and so unpredictably that, as of yet, no-one has found a way around it, or indeed what specifically causes the problem. Unfortunately, the only real solution at the moment is to reload from an earlier saved game.

 

That being said, I've had some ideas in mind for a while now for some ways in which the problem might be fixed. However, I've not yet had any saved games to work with. Sorry to keep asking things of you, but would you consider sending me a copy of this bugged save? I'd be interested to try out a few things, and see if I can't get it working again. Perhaps the best way to send the file over would be to upload it somewhere (say WeTransfer) and post the link in this thread – or in a Message if you'd prefer.

[mlahut]

I tossed it on my Google Drive. Have fun storming the castle. Let me know if there are permission issues downloading it.