Master List of Issues Within the PC Version

[Pod]

I'll add that I have cloud sync off as well.

 

[zmcvay]

Pod, was your HDD save just the files in /MyGames/PinballArcade, or the remotecache.vdf and pbaprg.dat files as well?

I didn't back up the latter and had the same problem, my scores/goals kept getting overwritten even when I turned off Cloud Saves. I ended up deleting the last two files, starting Pinball Arcade with Steam in Offline mode, unchecked cloud sync and confirmed the backed up scores were now loading properly and Steam had created a new remotecache.vdf and pbaprg.dat. I then had to change the localtime value in remotecache.vdf as covered by Xanija's guide (Big Thanks Xan, you are a livesaver!). After that I turned back on cloud saves, got a prompt asking if I wanted to overwrite the cloud saves with local data and I seem to be good from here. Lost 2 months of goals and score progress, but a lot better than losing three years worth.


Also, I've had no trouble with Ghostbusters in TPA since release, but since this last update it is now stuttering like crazy, has anyone else had this issue? Ghostbusters in SPA is still running silky smooth.

 

[Pod]

Dunno. I was only looking at the timestamp for the highscores file.
I'll have another look in the morning. Good news that the backup and restore method works though. I had tried it on a second machine and it refused to work but hopefully that was because I did something wrong. Gives me insurance if I accidentally wipe my save trying to get this sorted.

Pod

 

[Pod]

p.dat has been updated. theres also a 736176652E646174.dat that looks like its a mimic of the highscore file and has the corrupted data in it. Farsight mailed me to say they'd identified the issue but that's not clear on if the fix has actually rolled out to our clients.

I wonder if I can delete or c&p in my highscore data to that file to fix it. Will depend on crc checks I guess

 

[rehtroboi40]

p.dat has been updated. theres also a 736176652E646174.dat that looks like its a mimic of the highscore file and has the corrupted data in it. Farsight mailed me to say they'd identified the issue but that's not clear on if the fix has actually rolled out to our clients.

I wonder if I can delete or c&p in my highscore data to that file to fix it. Will depend on crc checks I guess

No, it hasn't. Game save manager doesn't work either so save your trouble on that one.

FarSight really outdid themselves on bugs this time, didn't they?

 

[zmcvay]

Pod, did you have any luck with the restore? You shouldn't need to edit p.dat or anything under /MyGames/Pinball Arcade/, but after you restore your backups to that folder, you *have* to replace and edit remotecache.vdf and pbaprg.dat under Steam/userdata/<Steam ID>/238260. If you didn't back those files up, I was able to make new ones by deleting them and then starting Steam in offline mode after I had restored my old scores. You then have to change the localtime value in remotecache.vdf as described in Xanija's backup guide. If you don't update those two files, then no matter what you replace or edit in /MyGames/Pinball Arcade/, Steam will just overwrite your highscore files with the junk data from the corrupted cloud save again the next time you start TPA.

I can verify it works, I replaced my corrupted highscores with my backups 2 days ago and have had no trouble since. If you're still having trouble, please post what files you have backed up, and what you've done to restore them.

 

[Pod]

I've not tried yet. Xmas with 2 kids is a crazy time.

I've got a full back up of everything from a while back but my highscores.dat is a fair bit more recent

I'll backup every thing again to a new folder and start trying things. I'll report back with my findings.

 

[Pod]

Ok, so I managed to restore them. Hooray! Here's what I did

Changed to offline mode
I had to delete "736176652E646174.dat"
Copy "highscores" and rename it to "736176652E646174.dat"
delete "pbaprg.dat"
load Pinball arcade

That fixed it. I've since changed back to online (Which created a new pbaprg.dat) and have saved a new goal/score to check it wouldn't wipe it on a shut down. reloaded and all is still fine.

I should add I've always had cloud sync unticked which may have made this process simpler. I may even have not needed to goto offline mode.

Pod

 

[Ecktown]

I think I might have reported this already but this bug still remains. When you play Cactus Jack's with more than one player and one player makes it into the local highscores he is asked to enter his initials at the end of his last ball. The problem is that this popup stays after entering the initials making the game unplayable for the remaining players.
This might apply to other (Gottlieb?) tables that ask the player to enter their initials after their last ball instead of at the end of the whole game.

 

[dwarvenpanzer9]

Problem I'm still having is that, aside from the Skill Shot goal on Pistol, the High Score achievement for PP still will not kick over, and I have gotten the #1 spot as well as 5th twice. In addition to this, I finally got the 1mil Lionman shot on Swords of Fury, which was my last Wizard goal...the goal registered in game, and I finished the game. The Table List shows Swords as in my Wizard Goals Complete section, but the Steam achievement for SoF Wizard was not awarded, either.

A) What is causing this, and B) Once whatever the hell is causing it gets fixed, since I already have all 5 W. Goals, will the achievement be auto-credited, because now that the Lionman shot has been made, I can't "re-acquire" the 5th one...

 

[Pinballwiz45b]

Problem I'm still having is that, aside from the Skill Shot goal on Pistol, the High Score achievement for PP still will not kick over, and I have gotten the #1 spot as well as 5th twice. In addition to this, I finally got the 1mil Lionman shot on Swords of Fury, which was my last Wizard goal...the goal registered in game, and I finished the game. The Table List shows Swords as in my Wizard Goals Complete section, but the Steam achievement for SoF Wizard was not awarded, either.

A) What is causing this, and B) Once whatever the hell is causing it gets fixed, since I already have all 5 W. Goals, will the achievement be auto-credited, because now that the Lionman shot has been made, I can't "re-acquire" the 5th one...

Probably the same one that screwed up local saves (aka the Steam Cloud save that borked all save files). I've unlocked achievements that I didn't even earn (but I'll get them all anyway).

DX9 saves are fine; I tested out resetting my progress and it seems as if nothing affects progress on DX9, but it seems like DX11 is the version that's currently borked. Hopefully, with all the issues resolved, everything will be back to normal(-ish).

I also do know that DX11 is not reading off of the save file as it should. Even after resetting, it doesn't create a new save. Instead, it reads off of memory. So that's another thing.

 

[dwarvenpanzer9]

Probably the same one that screwed up local saves (aka the Steam Cloud save that borked all save files). I've unlocked achievements that I didn't even earn (but I'll get them all anyway).

DX9 saves are fine; I tested out resetting my progress and it seems as if nothing affects progress on DX9, but it seems like DX11 is the version that's currently borked. Hopefully, with all the issues resolved, everything will be back to normal(-ish).

I also do know that DX11 is not reading off of the save file as it should. Even after resetting, it doesn't create a new save. Instead, it reads off of memory. So that's another thing.

I somehow didn't play for about a week and a half or so, so I think I somehow missed the Cloud bug spiel I keep reading about. So is there an actual timetable of getting these issues resolved?
Also, in reference to the last line: Is that why despite me playing a bunch of random tables since the last time I played Fireball, every time I start the game it keeps showing FB as my last played?

 

[Pinballwiz45b]

I somehow didn't play for about a week and a half or so, so I think I somehow missed the Cloud bug spiel I keep reading about. So is there an actual timetable of getting these issues resolved?
Also, in reference to the last line: Is that why despite me playing a bunch of random tables since the last time I played Fireball, every time I start the game it keeps showing FB as my last played?

The next release should resolve this.

Exactly. The game doesn't remember what you did in the last session, so it just remembers the last time it truly read from the HighScores or any similar save file.

 

[dwarvenpanzer9]

The next release should resolve this.

Exactly. The game doesn't remember what you did in the last session, so it just remembers the last time it truly read from the HighScores or any similar save file.

Rock on. Thanks for the info. Last thing: I don't recall seeing anything on the one thing I asked about Goals earned in this period of bork in the game. Will they at least pop up once the issues are resolved? I'm not worried about dates on the steam achievement or anything like that, I just wanna make sure they kick over once everything's polished back to normal...otherwise how would we get them to proc if the conditions to do so (ie, finally hitting the last Wiz Goal on SoF) if we can't reproduce initiating the Goal in game.

As always, thank you for your time, PW

 

[Pinballwiz45b]

Rock on. Thanks for the info. Last thing: I don't recall seeing anything on the one thing I asked about Goals earned in this period of bork in the game. Will they at least pop up once the issues are resolved? I'm not worried about dates on the steam achievement or anything like that, I just wanna make sure they kick over once everything's polished back to normal...otherwise how would we get them to proc if the conditions to do so (ie, finally hitting the last Wiz Goal on SoF) if we can't reproduce initiating the Goal in game.

As always, thank you for your time, PW

I haven't been able to pop the achievements because of that Skill Shot bug. Now that Sorcerer is in beta, I'm currently testing to see if they pop legitimately, at least on Pistol Poker.

Once Sorcerer releases, I'll update the list with fixes and potentially new issues to resolve.

 

[rehtroboi40]

The next release should resolve this.

Exactly. The game doesn't remember what you did in the last session, so it just remembers the last time it truly read from the HighScores or any similar save file.

I may have mentioned this-but it also doesn't save controller configurations as well.

Time to backup my save files again, in case Sorcerer's release borks my progress like Pistol Poker did. (Why do Alvin G games in TPA have such a problem with triggering goals, BTW? See also: Garage Band, Al's)

But the last release did give me some unearned achievements at least!

 

[dwarvenpanzer9]

(Why do Alvin G games in TPA have such a problem with triggering goals, BTW? See also: Garage Band, Al's)

Were I a snarkier man, I would say this qualifies as further reason to not bother with any more Al G tables. Problem is, I *am* that snarkier man, and this *does* qualify as reason to not bother with any more Al G tables.

 

[rehtroboi40]

Were I a snarkier man, I would say this qualifies as further reason to not bother with any more Al G tables. Problem is, I *am* that snarkier man, and this *does* qualify as reason to not bother with any more Al G tables.

To be fair, several WMS tables in TPA have had this problem from time to time. F14 immediately comes to mind (250K landing bonus). Others included Fish Tales, Taxi, and SoF. It's just that out of the two Alvin G tables so far, both had problems with improper goal triggering.

 

[Blkthorne]

Were I a snarkier man, I would say this qualifies as further reason to not bother with any more Al G tables. Problem is, I *am* that snarkier man, and this *does* qualify as reason to not bother with any more Al G tables.

There isn't very many Alvin G. & Co. tables and the only big one left is Mystery Castle which is on many people' wish list, including mine.

 

[Pod]

Historically, goals do pop achievements if they didn't to begin with. Highscore achievements however do not.