Due to the nature of our updates, saves are not compatible between different versions of the game. In other words, saves that were made in version 0.31 won’t be compatible
with version 0.32, and so on. We truly apologize for any inconvenience this causes all of you, but it unfortunately can’t be avoided.
This is entirely due to the drastic changes made to major systems within the game after every patch. Older saves conflict with these changes on a fundamental level, as the logic is completely different. There is an enormous amount of interconnected systems and complexity happening behind-the-scenes that make backwards-compatibility impossible right now.
Consider a major change made to progression in the Research Tree, for example. If you have a save game where you researched fishing but fishing is only unlocked much later in the new update, the entire game’s logic would break. This extends to just about any changes made to the game’s underlying logic after you apply an update.
This is why we unfortunately cannot support older saves at this time, as the underlying tech and systems are constantly evolving and being rebalanced. It’s for a good cause, though, as this allows us to keep pushing forward toward final release with greater speed. Having to constantly backtrack to account for backwards-compatibility would cripple production, considering the size of our team.
However, we also don’t want to leave your old saves in the dust if you want to go back and enjoy them. That is why we will always be keeping the previous two versions of the game active for download via Steam. You can find it under the Steam options for the game, called “version_ #”.
In order to switch the branch on steam you need:
- Select the Universim in your library and right click on it.
- In the drop down menu select properties.
- In the opened panel, locate "Betas"
- From a drop down menu, select the appropriate branch (your save file version should be the same as a branch version listed there)
- Once the version is selected, you should see a successful message.
- If for any reason, your version did not change, please verify the integrity of your files by clicking on the "Local Files" tab and selecting "Verify integrity of game files..."
We hope you understand. Please refrain from posting bug reports regarding older saves not loading, as that consumes time for our devs who attempt to reproduce and identify the issue. Please only report current save/load issues, if they arise.
We will always be as transparent as possible and we truly appreciate you being a part of our community. Please join us on Discord to chat about the game and follow us on Twitter for day-to-day updates. Let us know if you have some great ideas to make the game better or improve certain systems. Your feedback is invaluable!
All the best,
The Crytivo Crew