First of all, I'd just like to say I'm a big fan of this game. I was looking for a space-oriented 4X game in the vein of Stellaris, but a friend recommended EL. After completing two games with the original release, I went ahead and bought every expansion. I really like what you have going on here.

Having said that, on my third full game I've run into what can only be described as a game-breaking bug. I was on Turn 18x, and I could no longer save my game. Neither autosave nor saving manually worked. 

Please note that I've had this problem for a couple of weeks now. First thing I did was to look online for solutions. So please don't give me the copy-paste answer of:

"1. Deactivate your anti-virus or add an exception for EndlessLegend.exe
2. Re-install the library .Net Framework 4.5.1. You can find the install application here: /Steam/Steamapps/Common/Endless Legend/_CommonRedist/DotNet/4.5.1"

I've tried all that. I've also deleted the Temporary Files folder in Documents\Endless Legend\Temporary Files, switching from 64-bit to 32-bit, etc., etc. And for a few turns it worked. But I've literally hit a brick wall at this point. I've been on Turn 187 for a couple days now, and nothing I can do will make the game save my progress.

This is very frustrating for me, and not because I cannot continue with my current empire. The game is maybe another 10 or 20 turns from victory, so I'm just pushing forward because it'll my first complete game with the Broken Lords. But I'll be hesitant to begin another EL game going forward because I'll be looking over my shoulder all the time, paranoid that hours of progress will be lost due to the bug.

So please, I know others have raised this issue before, but please, look into this, and offer a solution to this problem. Again, I'm very impressed with the game and would like to support all your future endeavors. But customer support is when consumers really get a chance to pierce the veil and understand who they're paying their hard-earned cash to. I'd really appreciate a helpful response to my post. Thank you.

What happens if you try to manually save the game? Do you get an error message? Can you past it here?

Can you also upload the log files as described here : https://www.games2gether.com/endless-legend/forum/13-tech-support/thread/5393-reporting-an-issue ?

Thank you for your reply.

When I manually save my game, it is instantly apparent if the save is successful or not. A successful save takes a few seconds and you can tell the system is saving data. But an unsuccessful save--which is what I am getting when I save manually--is instant, the system does not appear to register the request, the saving screen closes but when I check there is no save file.

Again, it's a little hard to describe with words, but a successful save takes a few seconds and returns me to the gameplay screen, whereas a failed save is instant and returns me to the save game screen (where you can see your other saves.)

I'm uploading every file I can find that may help you. I don't have "Diagnostics.html" because, like I mentioned, I was deleting the Temporary Files folder trying to troubleshoot the problem. Once again, thank you for your help, I would really like to continue enjoying your games before exploring other options.

Broken Lords.zip

output_log.txt

Registry.xml

The exception is clearly visible in the olg file you've attached:

Exception caught. System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object
at DepartmentOfTheInterior.WriteXml (Amplitude.Xml.XmlWriter writer) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 
at Amplitude.Xml.XmlWriter.WriteElementSerializable[IXmlSerializable] (IXmlSerializable& serializable) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 
at Amplitude.Unity.Game.Empire.WriteXml (Amplitude.Xml.XmlWriter writer) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 
at Empire.WriteXml (Amplitude.Xml.XmlWriter writer) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 
at MajorEmpire.WriteXml (Amplitude.Xml.XmlWriter writer) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 
at Amplitude.Xml.XmlWriter.WriteElementSerializable[IXmlSerializable] (IXmlSerializable& serializable) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 
at Game.WriteXml (Amplitude.Xml.XmlWriter writer) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 
at Amplitude.Xml.XmlWriter.WriteElementSerializable[IXmlSerializable] (IXmlSerializable& serializable) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 
at GameManager.SaveGame (System.IO.Stream stream) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 
at GameManager+<SaveGameAsync>c__Iterator28F.MoveNext () [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 
at DepartmentOfTheInterior.WriteXml (Amplitude.Xml.XmlWriter writer) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 
at Amplitude.Xml.XmlWriter.WriteElementSerializable[IXmlSerializable] (IXmlSerializable& serializable) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 
at Amplitude.Unity.Game.Empire.WriteXml (Amplitude.Xml.XmlWriter writer) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 
at Empire.WriteXml (Amplitude.Xml.XmlWriter writer) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 
at MajorEmpire.WriteXml (Amplitude.Xml.XmlWriter writer) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 
at Amplitude.Xml.XmlWriter.WriteElementSerializable[IXmlSerializable] (IXmlSerializable& serializable) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 
at Game.WriteXml (Amplitude.Xml.XmlWriter writer) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 
at Amplitude.Xml.XmlWriter.WriteElementSerializable[IXmlSerializable] (IXmlSerializable& serializable) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 
at GameManager.SaveGame (System.IO.Stream stream) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 
at GameManager+<SaveGameAsync>c__Iterator28F.MoveNext () [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 

The devs would need to have a look at this.

In the meanwhile, just to make sure, did you try the "standard troubleshooting tips" ?

- Verify game cache from "Steam"

- Uninstall and re-install the game

- Re-install the .NET Framework from D:\Steam\SteamApps\common\Endless Legend\_CommonRedist\DotNet\4.5.1

- Re-install the Visual C++ Redistributable from D:\Steam\SteamApps\common\Endless Legend\_CommonRedist\vcredist\2010 

Hi--I've been busy the past couple of weeks, finally came back to see if this problem's been resolved.

I tried all the troubleshooting tips you provided. Re-installing the  Visual C++ Redistributable seemed to solve the problem--for an instant. I was able to save one more time, but no more, and now I'm still stuck on Turn 187.

At this point I feel like I'm doing play-testing for you guys and should be getting paid.

I hope the devs had a look at the bad code you found and can offer a solution. I don't see what else I can do on my end.

I appreciate your responses and can commend your customer service, at least. Unfortunately, until this bug gets fixed, I don't see myself playing EL in the near future. Which is a crying shame, I really liked this game and bought every expansion. Maybe that was a bad investment on my part. Hopefully, you guys can prove me wrong. Cheers.