Numerous problems importing a campaign into FG2

[longarms]

Okay, everything started off fine until I got some error and all the characters in my campaign dissappeared from FG2 (I didn't write down the name of the error). I loaded FG1 and found that all the character info is still present there.

I tried to uninstall FG2 thinking that a fresh install would reimport the good data from FG1. However, the characters are still gone (other data is present).

To further make it a fresh install, I tried deleting folders from the application data folder after uninstall to make FG2 think it was totally starting over and hopefully import the way it did the first time. This didn't work either. I just don't understand why uninstalling and deleting FG2 isn't like starting over from scratch. THere must be a hidden file(s) somewhere that I haven't found.

Bottom line is I can't use FG2 for my campaign until the missing characters are correctly imported from FG1 and do not mysteriously go away. Is there a reliable method of making this happening? I am getting frustrated uninstalling and reinstalling FG2 only to see that the characters are still missing.

Now that I have vented about this problem, I will acknowledge that it was a very good idea to let FG1 and FG2 to install in parallel. Whatever bug caused the characters imported into FG2 to go away doesn't make me too worried for the moment because all that campaign data is safely tucked away unmolested in the FG1 folder structure.

[Griogre]

Longarms I would just copy the campaign folder from FG1 into FG2. That should solve it (assuming they are both default d20 or changed to default). If you have Vista you may be getting messed up by admin rights.

[longarms]

Wow, that was easy. Thanks!

I'll try to keep a better eye on what the error message was when all the characters went away, if that happens again...

[longarms]

Okay, after opening and closing FG2 several times suddenly I got this error:

"error on line 5: error reading end tag"

FG2 continued loading and all the characters were missing again. I can reimport from FG1, but how do I fix this once and for all???


EDIT: Problem is now reproducable. I replace the campaign folder in FG2 with the campaign folder from FG1. Load up FG2 fine and FG2 shows all the characters. Then I close FG2 without touching anything. Then, upon reopening FG2 I get the error before reentering FG2. At that time, in FG2 the characters are all gone.

I can replace the campaign folder again and again and its always the second time afterwards (not the first) that I get the above error.

[Goblin-King]

The error message generally implies that the xml document is invalid. The most likely explanation I can come up with right now is that the conversion of a character name with spaces or special characters in it is failing.

If this is happening, your FG1 db.xml has something like:
<node name="Character w'Spaces">

And this gets turned (in a worst case scenario) to:
<Character w'Spaces>

That is not valid XML, unfortunately.

You could simply edit these out from the db.xml you get after saving it with FG2 for the first time, or e-mail it to [email protected] so we could have a look at it for you.

[longarms]

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1" ?>
- <root version="1.05">
- <node name="charsheet">
<node name="" />
- <node name="Ana">



I pasted the first five lines of the db.xml file from the FG1 directory. Are you saying that I need to delete the fourth line? I am up for trying this myself, if I have a program on my computer capable of editing XML files. I am not sure if I do?

EDIT - I just sent you the db.xml file from my FG1 directory.

[Stuart]

Any basic text editor will do Mike, I use a more sophisticated xml editor as it has lots of features that I really rely heavily on BUT, for basic stuff I have used Notepad once or twice.

Are we moving to FGII this weekend ?

[longarms]

Just wanted to say that I already received an email back from support, which I really appreciate. I'll try loading the file tonight to see if I stop getting the characters deleted and update this thread.

EDIT: Problem appears to be gone when using edited db.xml file. Thank you!

Stuart - thanks for the tip about notepad. BTW - our next game is the following weekend, unfortunately I have to go to a silly legal training thing this weekend. I fully expect that our game the following weekend will be using FG2, but I have to make sure I have this character deletion issue resolved. I'll send you guys an email.

[longarms]

I had the "error reading endline tag" again... and once again all my players characters are gone. Can I email the db.xml file to support again and have them fix it? That worked last time.

[longarms]

Would someone please respond to either this thread or the email I sent to support?

I have a game THIS saturday and my players characters are deleted! How do I get them back before the game? Why did this happen?!?

[Foen]

Sorry I can't help here longarms, nor will my small amount of advice be any consolation after the event, but I always create a backup of my campaign db.xml after every session so that I have a recent copy to revert to.

Once again, apologies for giving advice which is somewhat academic at this point.

Stuart

[Griogre]

It would appear you xml file is corrupt. From the error message, its seems as if a closing tag of something is missing or damaged.

You might try opening the db.xml file for that campaign in your brower to see what error message you get and where it thinks there is an error. If you do get an error and line number, you could open up the db.xml in an editor and check around the line to see what is wrong.

[longarms]

I did as you suggested... I opened the file using my browser. My browser displays everything without any errors... so what else am I supposed to do again?

By the way, I no longer get an error when I load the FG server. I only got the error once. However, the characters are of course all gone. In contrast, my maps and all my other campaign stuff are still showing.

Am I a victim of a bad sector on my hard drive or something? I don't think so, because if I was I would have lost my maps, my NPCs, etc, not just my PCs. Its not like that stuff is stored on different sectors on the hard drive. Or is FG just buggy as all hell? While I appreciate the help of my esteemed FG vets, I am still waiting for CUSTOMER SUPPORT for the program my players and I payed good $$$ for... my game is saturday, come on guys.

[Ged]

No data of characters was in the db.xml. It wasn't emtpy or broken, however, so I don't know what had happened to the campaign.

Another (maybe optional) way to handle backupping during play is in the plans. Backups would go to multiple files instead of the standard two.

[Oberoten]

That is a pretty good thing. It has been to say the least a sore point with the program. The unreliable saving and backup of campaigns.