protonscr

Steam cloud broken in FTL

steamclosed reviewedSteam client
ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux#2238 · opened 2013-03-29 by ghost · updated 2019-11-09 · 38 comments · github
?ghost 2013-03-29 github

I wouldn't be posting this here normally, however the developers have said it is managed by steam so they can't fix it. Is there any chance to get this working.

It works on windows but the linux version never does any sync.

http://www.ftlgame.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=9823&sid=8fc72b8f8fd37e4c66c54a0847bdee82&start=10

Ggdrewb-valve maintainer 2013-04-01 github

From discussion here this appears to be something the game developers will need to handle. I'll get in touch with them.

Ggdrewb-valve maintainer 2013-04-01 github

I think we have a resolution and a fix is coming but it has passed out of the Linux team so there won't be any further tracking here.

?ghost 2013-04-22 github

Any news here?

Ggdrewb-valve maintainer 2013-04-22 github

This is still in progress and will require a Steam client update. As mentioned the issue is being handled outside of the Linux team so we won't be getting status updates. Closing since leaving this open is misleading.

Hhickford 2013-12-29 github

I still observe this issue. Emailed game devs asking if they know about it / plan to fix it.

Ddaryltucker 2014-02-14 github

Would love to see syncing working for FTL. Can this issue be re-opened to acknowledge the problem? I'm only posting here because I'm seeing a bug closed that I don't feel has been addressed properly, when I'd normally just 'watch' the issue.

Ggdrewb-valve maintainer 2014-02-14 github

It isn't a Linux issue and the Linux team isn't working on it. I can reopen the issue if you'd like, but it'll never get updated.

Hhickford 2014-02-14 github

FTL dev Matthew Davis says:

Steam controls the cloud sync on their end, we haven't directly implemented it. I've repeatedly contacted them, but I will do so again. Sorry about that.

Ddaryltucker 2014-02-14 github

He's also said the following:

This is why FTL does not list "Cloud Support" on our Steam store page. :( It's not something we ever claimed to have and we just don't have control over. As you can see in the link from above (https://github.com/ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux/issues/2238#issuecomment-15741211) Valve has acknowledged it would require a change on their end with the Steam client.
I've poked them again in the hopes that they do it.


I'll contact Valve about the problem again. I was under the impression it was fixed. Sorry for the ridiculous delay in functionality guys.

It seems that there is a disconnect between the FTL and Steam Devs.

@gdrewb-valve As for the 're-opening', my only input is that I am on Linux and do not see Steam syncing FTL or any of my other recent purchases. I felt as though the issue had been closed prematurely. I'm only interested in seeing syncing work >_<

Pperler 2014-04-12 github

still nothing on this issue even after FTL AE is released?

Aandythomp 2014-04-21 github

This issue doesn't seem like it should be closed at all, given that it is still an unresolved issue. If this issue is not a Linux issue and the Linux team is not working on it, who is responsible for this?

If this is an issue the developer can resolve, there definitely seems to be unclear communication about that. If this is an issue that another team should be responsible for, can we have a link to another issue which is ideally still open, and being updated by said different team?

Whether or not this is linux team related, this affects linux users and we would love to see progress on it.

Ddaryltucker 2014-04-21 github

@Paradopolis Thank you for taking the time to politely and concretely describe your concerns and expectations. I feel the same. :penguin:

Ggdrewb-valve maintainer 2014-05-06 github

I've bumped this with the larger Steam team and they're taking a fresh look at it. Again, as the work is outside of the Linux team there will be spotty or no updates here.

Rreubenf-valve maintainer 2014-05-09 github

I am only able to repro this bug if I manually create a directory named ~/.local/share/fasterthanlight/ as a peer to ~/.local/share/FasterThanLight/ -- if that directory exists then Steam will mistakenly put the files in the lowecase directory due to the way Steam handles case sensitivity by starting with the first and falling back to the second.

I haven't found any way to make steam create the lowercase folder though, so my current theory is there was a bug in an earlier version of Steam that would create that folder, leaving any users that used that version stuck with broken cloud support.

If this bug is happening for you, it would be helpful if you remove the lowercase folder and see if it still happens, and if so, let me know what the repro steps are to make Steam create the lowercase directory to begin with.

Hhickford 2014-05-09 github

Hi Reuben. Thanks for your time. Yes I can confirm there's something odd happening with case sensitivity. Inspected /home/matt/.local/share, there was both a lower case folder fasterthanlight and title case folder FasterThanLight. Deleted both, restarted Steam. Steam immediately created a new lowercase folder (from the cloud?). When I ran the game, it created the title case folder. Deleted the lower case folder as you suggested, and it didn't come back.

HOWEVER, this doesn't seem to have solved the cloud sync problem. Could you clarify, what is the expected behaviour? Should cloud sync work between a Linux and Windows machine, or only between machines of the same OS?

Rreubenf-valve maintainer 2014-05-09 github

Okay, your steps work for me, that should help me fix this up. To answer your question, the expected behavior is that only works between machines of the same OS (for how this game is configured, anyway).

Hhickford 2014-05-09 github

Okay. I personally (and I imagine everyone else) would like FTL to sync between Windows and Linux. Is that possible? Do other games do this? I suppose it depends whether the save game formats are compatible. I tried copying the game files manually from Windows to Linux, and it ran correctly, so it would seem the save files are compatible. Probably worth confirming with the game devs though.

However, if cross platform sync were enabled, what would happen to people with both a Linux and a Window FasterThanLight folder in the cloud? Deleting either would be unacceptable.

Rreubenf-valve maintainer 2014-05-09 github

In order to support cross-platform saves a game must either use the Steamworks APIs (as opposed to what we call AutoCloud where it's just a configuration option telling Steam where to look), or it can do it with AutoCloud if the files are saved in the game's installation directory (which is not recommended for other reasons.)

Aandythomp 2014-05-09 github

@reubenf-valve So if I am to understand this correctly, the game developers have an option to us the Steamworks API to manage their cloud saves but are not at this time? If they were using this feature, we would see shared saves across platforms?

AArandhras 2014-10-04 github

I have the same issue here, even between Linux computers, my desktop and my laptop. I have just installed Steam on the former machine but it won't retrieve the game profile that is currently being in use on the latter.

I hope that this will be sorted out eventually!

Ddaryltucker 2014-10-06 github

I've been putting off playing again until I can have my 'acheivements' (ie: ships) accross all of my machines.

Rreubenf-valve maintainer 2014-10-06 github

I believe syncing between linux machines is fixed if you opt into the current Steam client beta on both machines, though it won't be retroactive (you'll have to first play the game once on the machine that has your save so that the save will get uploaded with the correct path rather than the lowercase path).

GGoutte 2015-02-02 github

Lost all my progress after OS (kubuntu) reinstallation, despite having cloud sync enabled.

Just to mention that this issue is still very much alive, and that someone at valve should look into this, because FTL's unlocks are no cakewalk.

I should've stuck with the non-steam version of FTL. My mistake. :(

JJoshuaMurphynz 2015-02-02 github

Mate no point in bitching. Tell valve how to reproduce it and they'll do
their best to fix it. Valve says they want the best for gamers and I
believe they'll act in good faith to fix stuff to make it the best for
gamers
On 2 Feb 2015 23:57, "Antoine Goutenoir" [email protected] wrote:

Lost all my progress after OS (kubuntu) reinstallation, despite having
cloud sync enabled.

Just to mention that this issue is still very much alive, and that
someone at valve should look into this, because FTL's unlocks are no
cakewalk.

I should've stuck with the non-steam version of FTL. My mistake. :(


Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub
https://github.com/ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux/issues/2238#issuecomment-72438828
.

GGoutte 2015-02-02 github

You're right, I'm a bit pissed ; that's not constructive.

How to reproduce :

  1. Install steam on an ubuntu variant
  2. Install FTL
  3. Play a game
  4. Remove steam and steam files
  5. Install steam again
  6. Install FTL again
  7. ???
  8. Profit !

I did not try with the beta.

Ddaryltucker 2015-02-03 github

@not83 I appreciate where you're comming from with the attitude that one should provide as much information as possible and be polite when filing a bug. However, it is unfortunate that it seems that both the Steam/Valve developers as well as the FTL developers keep blaming the other team for the issue.

This bug will be a year old very soon and it's frustrating to see something like this not resolved. I frequently open FTL to give it a play, only to think about the pain of losing everything and deciding it's not worth the investment.

I think that a word about plans to resolve this, or anyting in general acknowledging it again would be nice.

Thanks

Cchikitulfo 2015-02-15 github

This issue is still unresolved after almost two years...
It definitely should not be closed as linux and mac users still suffer from it.

Steam cloud sync is actually working and doing its job well (when given the right conditions). The problem is the save file directory setup when doing a fresh install of FTL, due to the fact that Linux and OS X file paths' are case sensitive.

It goes like this:

  • Install FTL for the first time on a Linux system. Steam will create the folder
    ~/.local/share/fasterthanlight and sync your achievements there.
  • Run the game, it searches for the savegame directory and does not find it at
    ~/.local/share/FasterThanLight (the existing one is only lowercase). Therefore it creates it and starts a new fresh game with empty stats. Close the game.
  • Steam will sync from and to the lowercase folder, which will not be used by the game and therefore won't ever be updated. The user won't be able to access his previous saved stats and will be very sad.

This is an extremely easy to solve problem, just point the sync folder to the actual game folder ~/.local/share/FasterThanLight instead of the lowercase one in the steam cloud settings, this way it'll work on all operating systems. I can not believe that this issue is unresolved after almost two years despite how easy the solution is (if it is not as easy as I believe it to be, please tell me why, and think about it, because it's just three letters in a filepath...).
From what I can gather, it looks like the problem comes from valve, although it could also be the developers' fault if they are able to choose this path for cloud sync.

Yes, there are a number of workarounds to navigate around this issue, namely:

  1. Manually deleting the lowercase folder makes steam sync to the well capitalized one. Which leads me to think that steam knows the right folder (well capitalized) is there too, and falls back to it (Making this issue even more bizarre).
  2. Deleting one of them and symlinking one to the other (doesn't matter which one points to which).

However, the user shouldn't need to investigate these or even know about them, for it should be solved beforehand.

ZZanQdo 2015-02-25 github

Thanks @chikitulfo for the possible solution, will try it out with a symlink.

Please fix this thing!

MMathSquared 2015-07-01 github

Commenting to note that I recently switched laptops (old one ran Ubuntu, new one runs Debian) and upon installing Steam on my new laptop, my FTL profile synced from Steam Cloud without issue (to ~/.local/share/FasterThanLight). Maybe they finally fixed it, though we'd need more users to confirm that before we deem this issue resolved.

Ddarkwisperer 2015-09-13 github

I have observed this on a fresh install on ubuntu today. Issue is still unresolved.

Ccdusold 2016-04-26 github

Issue still unresolved. Freshly installed on Ubuntu after beating most of the game on Windows.

Rreubenf-valve maintainer 2016-04-30 github

When the issue was closed, it was only fixed "going forward" -- accounts in a broken state remained in a broken state. If anyone still in a broken state is willing to test a fix, send me your steamid and I can fix up the backend for you next week and see if that resolves it (and if so, I'll clean up the rest of the accounts in that state, too.)

This is only if you are still failing to see state persist across installs on the same OS, however -- the game is not configured for cross-platform saves.

Jjck 2016-05-04 github

This issue appears to have been fixed for FTL. However, the same case-sensitivity issues still exist for SpaceChem.

More Info: http://steamcommunity.com/app/92800/discussions/0/604941528468708446/

Dda2x 2018-01-30 github

@reubenf-valve, any chance you could fix this for all users? This is still an issue.

SSoptikHa2 2018-06-29 github

Still an issue. Creating symbolic links between uppercase-lowercase folders didn't help. @chikitulfo's solution doesn't work for me.

Ssk3z 2018-08-13 github

still an issue

MMantasMikal 2019-07-04 github

Any news on this?

Hharry-cpp 2019-11-09 github

Here is an easy fix the devs can implement to fix this once for all, I sent an email to them, hopefully they notice it. The fix is to modify the FTL script in the game folder to do the following:

#!/bin/bash

# fix steam sync
if [ -d "$HOME/.local/share/fasterthanlight" ] && [ ! -d "$HOME/.local/share/FasterThanLight" ]
then
    ln -s "$HOME/.local/share/fasterthanlight" "$HOME/.local/share/FasterThanLight"
fi

# enter the game directory
cd ./data

# run FTL
exec ./FTL "$@"