I get it if the terrain save takes too long, but keep in mind there are still things programs do after receiving a kill signal from the OS (Windows). A kill -9 type signal (like you'd get from an end task from Task Manager) is definitely a terminate-now, but alt-f4 is a slightly less insistent version. Note how when you end task something the first time, windows still gives it a few seconds to respond, but if you end task it again while it's still hanging, at that point you get the option to terminate immediately.

Still, it could very well be too much for the game to handle in a "close-before-exiting-fast" routine. I understand the difference is due to the way the game is designed, I'm just saying, this design can results in some circumstances where corpses are lost.

In retrospect it would have been sensible for gravestones to be saved as part of the character, or in their own tiny separate file to avoid having vital and expensive equipment hovering in twenty minute limbo states vulnerable to crashes.

But that's not where we are so unless IG look to improving this it's down to personal backup solutions.

Originally posted by haize:

Same thing happened to me twice, but I had alt-F4'd right after I died both times so I was partly to blame. Still, it seems the game saves your player inventory at a different point than it does grave markers / corpses, so in my experience it's absolutely possible to completely lose your corpse due to some kind of bug.

It's not a bug. It's your lack of understanding how the save system functions. And I don't mean that in any kind of insulting way- Please don't take it that way.

Your player inventory is saved constantly. Your world is only saved every 20 some odd minutes or immediately upon logout. (You know that .5-3+ second freeze up that happens every 20 mins? That's the game saving.)

By Alt+F4ing, You're not giving the game a proper shutdown sequence- It doesn't get to save. So, Any world changes since the last save are voided entirely- Which, unfortunately, includes the addition of your gravestone to the world. Your character, however, having been saved when you died and updated to be empty (since it saves constantly), will still reflect that loss.

Keep that in mind going forward. That said, Console commands exist. Add -console to your launch parameters, load into a world, press F5, type 'devcommands' and you can spawn in whatever items you're missing (although some of the naming conventions are a bit daft, imo. You can google a list.)

For sure, the simple answer is to stop quitting via alt-f4. I think if that were the only thing going on though, the game should have resumed back where that .5-3+ second freeze happened a while ago. I should have started again with my inventory from before. Instead, both times, it saved my empty player inventory immediately, but kept the terrain save from previous instances (no grave or marker). This is how (I at least) ended up with a missing corpse.

I told myself to stop F4'ing after it happened the first time and managed to do it again. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me. It's no doubt my fault I lost my stuff, but it's not as easy as the game going back and restoring my spot from ~20 min earlier. That would have made things much much more tolerable when it had happened to me previously.

The easy fix (to me at least) is that if it really needs to do an insta-save on F4, do it for the corpse too right before you exit. Single player only of course, dedicated servers are unlikely to have these kinds of issues.

Originally posted by haize:

For sure, the simple answer is to stop quitting via alt-f4. I think if that were the only thing going on though, the game should have resumed back where that .5-3+ second freeze happened a while ago. I should have started again with my inventory from before. Instead, both times, it saved my empty player inventory immediately, but kept the terrain save from previous instances (no grave or marker). This is how (I at least) ended up with a missing corpse.

I told myself to stop F4'ing after it happened the first time and managed to do it again. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me. It's no doubt my fault I lost my stuff, but it's not as easy as the game going back and restoring my spot from ~20 min earlier. That would have made things much much more tolerable when it had happened to me previously.

The easy fix (to me at least) is that if it really needs to do an insta-save on F4, do it for the corpse too right before you exit. Single player only of course, dedicated servers are unlikely to have these kinds of issues.

No no. You're not understanding.

Your character file, and your world file are completely separate, and saved independently of one another. You can play on a thousand different worlds if you want with the same character. Or you could play the same world but with a dozen different characters.

Your character save file saves constantly, it's a small file to save and so it can be done without interrupting gameplay at all.

The world file, however, is quite large and takes awhile to save- So it saves once every 20 minutes.

So what happens is, you die, the game creates a gravestone with your items in the world, and your character save file is saved with the now empty inventory; But the gravestone is not part of your Character save data- It's part of the World's save data. So, the gravestone is only saved at that 20 minute mark, Or upon a proper log out. If you Alt+F4, or crash, or anything of the sort prior to the 20 minute mark or a proper log out, all data since that last save is gone- Including the gravestone.

So what you've done twice now is Alt+F4'd after your character has saved, but before your world has saved- And poof, your gravestone goes byebye.



And there is no way to 'insta save' on Alt+F4. First, The save process takes several seconds due to the large save file size. Second, and much more importantly, Alt+F4 is a Windows function; Not a function of the game. Alt+F4 tells Windows 'Close this application now', and the application doesn't get a choice about being closed.

Same thing happened to me twice, but I had alt-F4'd right after I died both times so I was partly to blame. Still, it seems the game saves your player inventory at a different point than it does grave markers / corpses, so in my experience it's absolutely possible to completely lose your corpse due to some kind of bug.

Is there anything nearby it could have spawned inside or trapped beneath?

there is a burial chamber near by, perhaps I should have a look down there? Could it have 'fallen' through?

There's been a few cases like that, yeah - so long as the game didn't crash and possibly roll back the whole save state it's the most likely culprit. If you can raise or lower the ground near the alleged grave site it should follow the changing terrain and become visible.

I don't think it would have fallen into the dungeon corridors though, those are actually located way *above* the main map.

ok thanks! I'll investigate!