User_empire_designs.txt suddenly deleted? [MacOS}

[The Wolf with the Dragon]

I have been doing two things the last days that may or may not be the cause of the problem I'm experiencing.
1) I have been doing some "reverting" between 2.7.2 and 2.8.1 more than once to look at a save.
2) While in the current save I have been doing some editing to a custom empire that I had left untouched for some time.

I don't remember exactly when I did the second one listed but it was only a few days ago. Can't remember if I played between that and yesterday.

Yesterday I logged in to find that a lot, but not all, of my custom empires we're gone. I have also ever since I had a weird glitch, which can be seen in the image, where a bugged out empire seems to exist whose portrait changes to always be the same as the one I had selected previously to clicking on it.

I created one new empire after this had happened, as can be seen in the image. After some investigating I noticed I had *eight* different user_empire_designs.txt on my computer. I don't really know how this happened. I know I manually did one backup copy of my files but iCloud seems to have been doing the same.

My theory is that Stellaris had selected one of these eight files to be *the* user_empire_designs.txt. But it still chose to import all the races from the other .txt. But when I decided to start edit this old empire, it switched to another .txt. Because the new empire that I created after I discovered this bug is not in the .txt that it should be, but a different older one.

OR the old user_empire_designs.txt could just have mysteriously disappeared. Because *none* of the eight files I have are up to date. Steam also shows several recent screenshots as "could not be loaded" despite not being located at the same place at all. All except one. And when I, the same day as I discovered this bug, hosted a 2-player multiplayer, the other party did not have access to the Humanoids species pack, despite me owning them, them being clearly marked as available and me not having the same problem. It was *only* the Humanoids species pack that did not work properly.

So yeah, it seems like I have just spontaneously lost my user_empire_designs.txt but also some screenshots that it feels really weird would've disappeared at the same time. And there is nothing in my garbage bin. Any help would be greatly appreciated cause I really don't want my files to be gone!

 

[AndrewT]

Where were those 8 copies of that file? Because there can only be one in any given folder, and the game will only read the one in the Documents/paradox/stellaris/ folder.

What antivirus do you use? We've had recent issues with AVG and Avast in particular stopping the game from accessing that folder properly.

 

[The Wolf with the Dragon]

Where were those 8 copies of that file? Because there can only be one in any given folder, and the game will only read the one in the Documents/paradox/stellaris/ folder.

What antivirus do you use? We've had recent issues with AVG and Avast in particular stopping the game from accessing that folder properly.

I'm really sorry this took such a long time to reply to.

I use a Mac and of the 8 files I have some had ended up on iCloud Drive and on my Account/iCloud Drive (archive)/Documents etc, which I don't really know how that happened.

But you are absolutely right in that it will only read the one in Documents/paradox/stellaris/ folder, because that was the *only* one that had the empire I had created before this bug occurred. I then went into Time Machine to find an older version of that same file and I did, which included all the empires I had created up until that point.

So something must've caused the user_empire_designs.txt to delete a big chunk of itself, up until I certain point. And it might have to do with the fact that I edited this one old empire, because I am quite certain that the empires it didn't delete we're all created before the one I now edited.

The empire in itself was created before the Megacorp-expansion and I changed it from Oligarchic to Corporate as well as giving it the Syncretic Evolution Origin.

I have included two user_empire_designs.txt in thread. One is quite long, as it the old file from before this bug occured. The other one is quite short, and is the file *after* it deleted a chunk of itself.

Steps to reproduce this issue could be to:
• Use the longer .txt as *the* user_empire_designs in Documents/paradox/stellaris/ folder
• Edit Luhubb Corporation by turning it into corporate and giving it the Syncretic Evolution Origin
• Restart the game and see if anything has changed

IF that doesn't work:
• Edit Luhubb Corporation following *all* the changes that were done, according to the longer .txt
• Fiddle around with reverting the game to 2.7.2 and back to 2.8.1. EITHER edit the empire in 2.7.2 and then revert it OR edit the empire, revert to 2.7.2, and then back again to 2.8.1

I do to my knowledge not use any antivirus software that didn't come with my Mac directly

 

[AndrewT]

I don't know how or why editing one empire caused the loss of others in that same file, I'm sorry to say! Nothing makes any sense, even a game bug really.

Can you repro the issue with those steps, are you saying?

 

[The Wolf with the Dragon]

I don't know how or why editing one empire caused the loss of others in that same file, I'm sorry to say! Nothing makes any sense, even a game bug really.

Can you repro the issue with those steps, are you saying?

I haven't tried to reproduce the issue myself, but that is currently my only suggestion for doing so. For the simple fact that I edited an old empire, and the user_empire_designs.txt upon a restart/revert of the game seemingly deleted all empire that had been created after the now edited empire, which was originally created before Megacorp.

I'am a bit hesitant to do so but I could, upon your request, try to reproduce the issue myself.

 

[AndrewT]

Please do - after all this happened on your machine not mine! Obviously keep backups of the files you edit just in case.

 

[The Wolf with the Dragon]

Please do - after all this happened on your machine not mine! Obviously keep backups of the files you edit just in case.

I was sadly unable to recreate the problem. So I currently have no idea what actually caused this issue. Only that it had something to do with the empire I edited since, again, all empires that had been created before this one was preserved. I also lost a couple of screenshots.