Updater not working?!

[ttube]

Just purchased AI Wars (v4.021) + expansions (from Impulse). Upon starting the game today, I noticed that a update was available (beta). Clicked to download. Updater then opened and I clicked NEXT. Got error message: "Error reading C/Program Files/Indie Games/AIWars/Runtime Data/Updatelist.txt." The updater then exits. Running Vista 32. Any guidance appreciated.

[x4000]

I'm looking into it, sorry about the confusion here.  Bear in mind that this prevents you from getting beta updates only -- impulse directly delivers all the official ones.  But, I'm updating my impulse copy of AI War right now to see if I can duplicate it.  From the message you posted, if that's the exact error message, it looks like it has "Runtime Data" with a space instead of "RuntimeData," which would do it.  Why it would do that, though, I'm not sure.

[ttube]

Sorry but I typed it real fast. The exact error message was C:/Program Files/Indie Games/AIwars/RuntimeData/updater/updatelist.txt  ( I think I got it right this time?!)

Thanks.

[x4000]

Okay -- thanks.  And to be clear, you did hit Download All Updates, not Run Manually or whatever, correct?

[ttube]

Yes. I hit the top selection (download and install). AIWars closes and the updater opens. I click next and the error message comes up. By the way, when I hit "download and install" it seems to download (it goes from 0% to 100%). Hope this clarifies my situation.

[x4000]

Okay, I can duplicate the issue.  It turns out that impulse isn't setting the permissions of C:\Program Files (x86)\Indie Games\AI War (and all subfolders) to be writeable for your local user account.  This means that the save files and game settings, etc, are being stored in a really wrong place as well as the updater not being able to function (and the settings importer not working, too).

I've emailed Stardock about this, and hopefully it will be an easy fix, I think it was just an oversight on my part not mentioning that detail to them.   In the meantime, if you want a workaround you can manually grant yourself read/write access to that file path (the Indie Games\AI War folder) and all subfolders.  You may then need to search your computer with the windows find feature to find your settings.dat file and save files (I have NO idea where it is putting them when it can't write to that folder, honestly -- would be curious to know, but I have too many copies of AI War installed on my PC to be able to tell very clearly), but then things should be working as expected.

Sorry about the confusion there, that's definitely an odd one!

[Magus]

Wouldn't changing permissions on that directory run counter to the default permissions for a normal user on either Windows Vista or Windows 7?

[ttube]

Thanks for your help. I think I will wait for Impulse to rectify the situation if in fact they do   As I am minimally computer savvy, I think that would be the safest move on my part rather than go hunting for files. I was somewhat hesitant to download a beta anyway. But, if I understood you, Impulse will make available any stable update so I'll wait for that. Thanks again.

[x4000]

Wouldn't changing permissions on that directory run counter to the default permissions for a normal user on either Windows Vista or Windows 7?

Yes, but that's not exactly unusual for a program to do that.  On Steam, for instance, the entire steam folder is writeable by default.  On a game-by-game basis, Impulse does the same already, we just forgot to tell them to start doing it for the newer versions of AI War.  So it's nothing too unusual, really.

[x4000]

Thanks for your help. I think I will wait for Impulse to rectify the situation if in fact they do   As I am minimally computer savvy, I think that would be the safest move on my part rather than go hunting for files. I was somewhat hesitant to download a beta anyway. But, if I understood you, Impulse will make available any stable update so I'll wait for that. Thanks again.

My pleasure.  And, yes, Impulse always delivers all the stable updates anyhow, so all you'd miss out on would be the beta updates anyway.  No worries!

[orzelek]

As a general rule - please create separate directory for your games and install them there.

With impulse you can direct it to install your games to directory of your choice also. For steam you need to install steam itself to that directory and it will install it's games there too.

This needs a bit more clicking from you when you install to change directory probably (and need to use that nasty scary custom install button sometimes) but makes you free from so many Windows strange behaviors that it can be worth it.

This is not so easy to do once you have many things installed - but will be good if you have clean install or doing upgrade etc.

[Magus]

To answer your earlier question about where the game is saving things when it doesn't have write permissions on the Program Files sub-directory:  on Windows 7 32-bit the saved games are ending up in:

C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files\Indie Games\AI War\RuntimeData\Save\<filename>

Looks like the file system redirection is doing it's thing.

[x4000]

Wow, that VirtualStore thing is new to me.  Thanks letting me know about it!  That's really funky, and not at all what I'd want.  Bleh.  The concept of separating program files from program data only makes sense in cases where there is a large divide between the definition of the two.  For a lot of games, that's not the case.

[ttube]

Thanks Magus.

I found the 4023.zip file in the directory that you gave.

Now what do I do? Anyone?

[ttube]

Just thought I would let everyone know that I opened Impulse and there was a small update for AIWars. After installing it, I then started AIWars and proceeded to update. Guess what? It updated. I now have v4024.

Thanks for all your help. Life is good again! javascript:void(0);