Do we have a guide somewhere on how to prepare your game for an update?
I tried to find a post like this, but I couldn’t find a complete workaround. I’m not asking for myself, but wouldn’t it make sense to have a post like this?
For example, what data should be backed up, what should you do with mods, etc.? I also assume there could be changes to the lots, which might cause them to be reset to their original state in the game? Not everyone knows this, and it would be better to save your houses again before the update, just to be on the safe side.
Mods will be disabled automatically. Plots, if they are updated as globally as when their size was changed, will be automatically saved to drafts. But that only happened once. Otherwise, basically you can just not update those residential plots where you play. But I’d still go ahead and do it, even if you lose your builds.
Then again, if anything — save them as templates for yourself, and then even after the update you’ll be able to restore them if you want.
There shouldn’t be anything else that’s particularly important.
The June High School update was my first major update, so I was pretty unsure about what exactly I was supposed to do. For example, I didn’t know that you can set Steam to prevent the game from updating automatically. I also didn’t know which data is stored in which folder etc. I had searched the forum here, but I couldn’t find anything about it. I just thought that maybe someone else is in the same situation right now, and it would be helpful to have a clear overview of what to do.
And what exactly do you mean when you say that the lots are updated and saved as drafts? For example, if I have my current house and I’ve made a lot of changes to it, will the game restore the original version of the lot? If so, wouldn’t all the changes I’ve made be lost?
First time I’m hearing about this. Why would you want to disable automatic updates? And why touch the data folders? I didn’t do anything like that, and the update went smoothly.
As for the plot updates — that was during the transition to version 0.5 or 0.6, I can’t quite remember now, and it’s not that important anyway. Basically, the plot sizes themselves changed to unify them into multiples of 5 meters. Some lots became a bit larger because of this, some a bit smaller. That time the game reset the plot completely, but it automatically saved the player’s previous construction to storage. And if you wanted to, you could put it back on the same plot later. If it didn’t fit entirely — you could sacrifice a couple of walls and then fix everything, but those were rare cases — not many people build a house from edge to edge.
Regarding changes in the current house — that’s exactly what I’m saying: you can skip updating residential plots if you want to keep your changes. But personally, I prefer to completely trust the developers and wipe everything. That’s because I haven’t built much yet, and I don’t mind losing my changes. But if I had built something important, I’d do it this way: save the plot to Canvas now, then update the game, update the plot (yes, with all changes reset), and then just place my saved structure back on top of the updated plot.
Why do it that way? Well, I think not only structures might be updated, but also some hidden properties — like movement routes, some service markers, and so on. And if that’s the case — it’s better if it works the way the developers intended. And placing just the building on top of that will preserve the updated properties.
Of course, I could be wrong — maybe there’s no need to update user plots specifically rather than city plots — but until version 1.0, I consider all my actions in the game “temporary”.
@Carnel I have quite a few houses by now and a lot of Zoi presets saved, and I also have a large collection of CC and many of my own textures, so I simply make a backup of everything. I also start the update download manually because I just prefer to have control over what happens and when.
The High School update went completely smoothly for me, but I’d rather back everything up one time too many than one time too few.