Lost my most promising character to save file issue

[chandergovind]

Hi everyone. First post here, just made my account. Have been playing Angband for 2 years now. Mostly on v4.0.5 for as long as I can remember.

Last weekend, downloaded v4.1.3 and compiled locally (I am on linux) and did not install. This is the crucial point. Have been playing a Dunadan Warrior (who was doing very well by the way, I found the Trident of Ulmo for the first time ever and was doing serious damage) for the last couple of days. In this period, if I recall correctly, I saved and even shut my computer down in between 2 sessions.

Today, when I run v4.1.3 I get "Savefile is corrupted -- incorrect file header" and it quits. Looking at `~/.angband/Angband/save`, I see a single file which upon examination turns out to be a Half-Troll Warrior (first ever attempt at HT too) that I had just started on v4.0.5.

Now, there are 2 possible causes:
1. Yesterday, before booting up v4.1.3 I opened my default angband v4.0.5 out of habit and quit it back. But most certainly this was before yesterday's Angband session.
2. My system went down due to power failure (happens quite frequently here). As I have lost characters to this before, I make sure to save frequently. On v4.0.5, I have faced times when power went down as I was playing, and upon restarting Angband I am back at the levels Stairs or at the last location I saved (usually after obtaining some ego equipment).

So my questions are:
1. If I did not install angband and ran it as `./src/angband`, where is the savefile stored? Is it in `~/.angband/Angband` or elsewhere? Cursory search did not reveal any other `.angband` directory anywhere.
2. Is it possible that the 2 Angband versions conflicted leading to the clobbering of the savefile?
3. Is it the case that abrupt quits can cause this damage? I don't think that this likely as I have dealt with this many many times with v4.0.5.

PS. Bonus, proof of existence. The only trace of this game and character left is in this screenshot below (attached) that I took day before yesterday. I took this to report a bug here, look at that door's placement.

[Pete Mack]

Sometimes when you open angband after playing a different version, it shows you the save files from the older version. Just navigate to the correct directory and open the right file.

[Sky]

Fear not my penguin friend - your file is safe and well. As my colleague said, all you have to do is run 4.0.5, and when it asks to open the save file, manually navigate it to the 4.0.5 save file.

Im afraid you'll have to do this every time you switch versions; also, 4.0.5 and 4.1.3 saves are not compatible.


You might have noticed some bizarre changes in 4.1.3
If you do not fancy these, try 4.1.2 which is more of a "classic angband".

[chandergovind]

Sometimes when you open angband after playing a different version, it shows you the save files from the older version. Just navigate to the correct directory and open the right file.

You were right about the wrong folder. Unfortunately looking into the right folder reveals that save file to be empty. Still I'll do a proper search before giving up.

[chandergovind]

Fear not my penguin friend - your file is safe and well. As my colleague said, all you have to do is run 4.0.5, and when it asks to open the save file, manually navigate it to the 4.0.5 save file.

Im afraid you'll have to do this every time you switch versions; also, 4.0.5 and 4.1.3 saves are not compatible.


You might have noticed some bizarre changes in 4.1.3
If you do not fancy these, try 4.1.2 which is more of a "classic angband".

Most likely the character is gone, but you get used to this sort of thing playing roguelikes I suppose. :-)

4.0.5 file is Ok, the 4.13 savefile is empty for still unclear reasons.

Ya, I was following the discussions in the forum about 4.1.3 and wanted to try the new ID system (and the simplified trap/search). Lost my last char on 4.0.5 so wanted to upgrade. Liking the new system so far. I'll just properly install it and get away from the corner cases.

[Gwarl]

If you're complining yourself, there's a line somewhere in config.h which specifies something like USE_PRIVATE_PATHS. That line determines whether savefiles end up in ./lib/save, ~./angband/Angband/save, or somewhere else.

By default it's in ~./angband so multiple versions of the same variant can become confused.