Avernum 2 "saved game damaged"

[Andins]

Hi all, I'm playing the steam version of Avernum 2 crystal souls on mac, and I'm having some issues with saving/loading. This error started when I tried to enter the Test of Speed.

I can't manually save, I can only quicksave. When I try to manually save, I get an error message that says "Save Error: Couldn't write to file. Try saving in a different slot. Error 1." 

When I try to load a different save that isn't an auto or quicksave, I get this error message:

"Load Error: Couldn't load from file. This saved game is damaged. Error 21."

When I try to load a quicksave, I get this error message:

"Save Error: Couldn't load some data. This saved game is damaged. Error 41."

When I try to save in a much older save slot, I get this error message:

"Save error: Couldn't save some data. Try saving in a different slot. If that doesn't work"

^the rest of this message gets cut off, so I don't know what it says.

 

Playing in one of these "damaged saves" makes every interactable object open up my inventory as if it were a chest. Needless to say the game is unplayable like this, and I'm wondering if I should just uninstall/reinstall and start the entire game over.

 

I would really rather not do this if I don't have to, so I'm curious if anyone has further advice or some insight into this error. Happy to provide any more information if needed.

 

Thanks so much!

[Ess-Eschas]

Hello Andins,

 

Sorry to hear that you’re having problems!

 

It’s not immediately clear what’s happening to your game. That’s not your fault – you’ve been very clear! It’s just that there are a few different things that might be causing what you’re experiencing. With luck, this will just be a straightforward problem with Steam connecting to your saved games correctly. However, I'm afraid there is a small chance it could be something a little more tricky to fix.

 

So, to try and narrow down the options, would you mind answering a couple of quick questions for me?

 

The most helpful thing to know right now would be this. Is the saving problem happening with *all* of your saved games, or only some of them? That is, is the saving problem only affecting the particular save after your party has entered the Test of Speed, or is it affecting everything? Further, can you not load any standard saves at all at any point, or only after loading up a 'problem' saved game? Knowing this will help us figure out whether just the one save is corrupted, or whether the problem is something more general.

 

Here’s one quick way to test this out if you’re unsure. Try looking at a fresh party! Start a new game from the main menu, walk around for a few moments to make sure the application’s loaded everything it should, and then try to quicksave. Does the game bring up an error message in that situation?

 

Secondly, have you had a major update to your Mac’s OS recently? I know updates like this aren’t as transparent these days as they used to be, but I’m asking just in case you spotted anything. Sometimes, system updates can mess with file directories, which is why I’m asking!

 

Finally, have you noticed any problems with other Steam games recently? This will help figure out whether it’s a problem on Steam’s end!

 

Issues like these can be tricky to solve, so I’m afraid I can’t promise I’ll come up with a fix for you. But I’ll see what I can do!