AGAINST THE STORM - PATCH 1.0.5R FOR PC GAME PASS

Greetings, PC Game Pass players!

The Patch 1.0.5R was just released for PC Game Pass, featuring a new cloud save verification system.

Important: Please back up the following folders before launching the game:

• %userprofile%\appdata\locallow\Eremite Games
• %userprofile%\AppData\Local\Packages\HoodedHorse.AgainsttheStorm_znaey1dw2bdpr\SystemAppData\xgs

HOW DOES THE NEW CLOUD SAVE VERIFICATION SYSTEM WORK

To understand the new system, it's essential to delve into how the game saves files and how the cloud system works.

Against the Storm doesn’t have a native cloud save functionality. The game stores files locally in the %userprofile%\appdata\locallow\Eremite Games folder across all platforms (Steam, Epic Games Store, GOG, PC Game Pass). The responsibility of storing, syncing, and uploading these files lies with the cloud save systems provided by the respective platforms. Any errors encountered by these systems could potentially result in data loss.

The Xbox App no-code cloud save system redirects the local save files from %userprofile%\appdata\locallow\Eremite Games to its dedicated folder: %userprofile%\AppData\Local\Packages\HoodedHorse.AgainsttheStorm_znaey1dw2bdpr\SystemAppData\xgs

If the Xbox App encounters an error and the redirection doesn’t trigger properly, the game won’t load the latest save files and will create new blank ones instead (and delete previous progress). This can lead to all kinds of different errors, including loading incorrectly stored files after making progress in the game, etc.

In Patch 1.0.5R for PC Game Pass, we included two changes that we hope will prevent such situations:

• The game now creates an additional local folder with copies of save files. This folder is ignored by the Xbox App cloud save system so it can’t be accidentally deleted.
• Upon launch, the game now compares the dates of local save files with those provided by the Xbox App cloud save system. If the Xbox App loaded older save files or its redirection didn’t work and no save files were loaded, the game will load save files from the new local folder instead.

This is a very limited, temporary solution, but hopefully, it will prevent further progress loss until the Xbox App’s no-code cloud save system issue is resolved.

We extensively tested the new system in the dev environment and it passed the Microsoft certification process, but due to the complex nature of the issue and multiple edge cases that happened to players, we don’t exclude the possibility that some of you might encounter unexpected issues. If you need any help, you can contact us via support@eremitegames.freshdesk.com or message us in the ✖⋯pc-game-pass channel on our Discord.

As a precaution, we also recommend continuing to create backups of the two folders:

• %userprofile%\appdata\locallow\Eremite Games
• %userprofile%\AppData\Local\Packages\HoodedHorse.AgainsttheStorm_znaey1dw2bdpr\SystemAppData\xgs

We hope it won’t be necessary, but it’s safer that way.

LOADING CUSTOM SAVE FILES OR BACKUPS (SIMPLIFIED PROCESS)

Due to the introduction of the new local backup folder, you can also load our custom save files in a slightly simplified procedure.

Important: Please only follow the steps below if you want to replace your current save files with the custom save files. If you wish to continue playing on your current save files, please ignore the steps below.

If you lost your save files, you can load one of your own backups or use one of the 30 custom save files that we prepared for you to quickly recreate the lost progress. You can choose and download it from the “Save file” column here:

Important: if you downloaded any of the custom save files before Patch 1.0.5R, please re-download them. We changed the dates in all of the custom save files so that they’re always prioritized over the files that the Xbox App loads.

Then, please follow the steps below to load the custom save files:

1. Launch the game and make sure it’s updated to version 1.0.5R (in the left bottom corner of the main menu).

If it is updated to 1.0.5R, it will create a new “Against the Storm  Auto Backups” folder here: %userprofile%\appdata\locallow\Eremite Games

2. Close the game and open %userprofile%\appdata\locallow\Eremite Games folder.

To access the folder, you can either paste it in the Run window (shortcut: Windows+R) and click OK:

Or you can paste it directly to the folder path:

3. Enter the newly created “Against the Storm  Auto Backups” folder:

4. Enter the ID folder (different for each PC Game Pass player):

5. Inside the ID folder, delete the “DefaultProfile” folder:

6. Extract the downloaded customs save file (e.g. ATS_10.zip) directly into the ID folder:

7. After that, you should have a new “DefaultProfile” folder in the ID folder. You can delete ATS_10.zip if you stored it there.

Important (own backup): If you moved your own backup to the DefaultProfile folder, you also need to modify the Profiles.save file.

Please open it with Notepad and change the first digit in the “lastPickTime” from 1 to 2. Then save the file.

8. Launch the game from Xbox App:

9. Press play to load the custom save file:

10. You should start at the beginning of a new Cycle:

And that’s it!

To test if everything’s working correctly, you can make some progress in the game, then “Save & Quit”, restart the PC, and launch the game again.

We hope that this will prevent you from losing progress if the Xbox App cloud save synchronization encounters any errors.

If you need any help with following the instructions or if you’re stuck on any of the steps, you can contact us via support@eremitegames.freshdesk.com or message us in the ✖⋯pc-game-pass channel on our Discord.

We wish you a great time with the game (hopefully, without any further issues) and a fantastic new year!

Eremite Games & Hooded Horse