Unexplained Sanbox.sbc Corruption

I was playing last night, took a break, and tried to play again. When resuming, I got an error when trying to load my save. I don't recall the exact message but it was generic and stated that I should review the log file. After a restart, several attempts to load the world, etc. I decided to find the log file (attached).

I reviewed the log file and soon found the error on line 832 followed the call stack through line 914. Thankfully, the next line, 915, told me the problem file: sandbox.sbc. I copied the entire save folder (also zipped and attached) to C:\temp\ and gave this file a quick review. It's xml and contains a lot or all of the world's save data; I clearly wasn't going to find and correct the problem manually.

I accepted that my world was simply corrupt and beyond repair. So I tried to load the most recent backup. This one was working perfectly fine. Big relief :). At this point, I was curious and decided to compare the two sandbox.sbc files to see what had actually gone wrong.

I opened powershell and ran these commands:

PS C:\Users\Lodra> $main = Get-Content "C:\Temp\76561198020401553\Star System 2019-09-01 10-05\Sandbox.sbc"

PS C:\Users\Lodra> $backup = Get-Content "C:\Temp\76561198020401553\Star System 2019-09-01 10-05\Backup\2019-09-14 192046\Sandbox.sbc"

PS C:\Users\Lodra> Compare-Object $main $backup

InputObject SideIndicator

----------- -------------

<GpsPosition x="38403.983799274254" y="233497.27068944281" z="5781536.9401589381" /> =>

<GpsPosition x="38403.983799274254" y="233497.27068944281" z="57815;6.9401589381" /> <=

Aha! There's a semicolon in the z coordinate. Not a clue how that got there but it's literally the only difference between the good and corrupt copy of this file. This tells me that I didn't actually play the game at all between the "current" save and most recent backup. If I had done anything else, there would be more differences. Even the timers that are apparently saved in this sandbox.sbc file weren't changed between the good and corrupt copy of sandbox.sbc.

Lastly, I copied that corrupt z-coordinate and searched for it in the corrupt sandbox.sbc file. It's on line 52345. Here's the xml node:

<MyAbstractXmlSerializerOfMyObjectBuilder_Contract xsi:type="MyObjectBuilder_ContractFind">

<Id>989164807433995415</Id>

<IsPlayerMade>false</IsPlayerMade>

<State>Inactive</State>

<Owners />

<RewardMoney>46302</RewardMoney>

<RewardReputation>10</RewardReputation>

<StartingDeposit>0</StartingDeposit>

<FailReputationPrice>4</FailReputationPrice>

<StartFaction>225527690390951947</StartFaction>

<StartStation>886280198451710087</StartStation>

<StartBlock>0</StartBlock>

<Creation>64774240000</Creation>

<TicksToDiscard>1</TicksToDiscard>

<RemainingTimeInS>1391.6047406</RemainingTimeInS>

<GridPosition x="37877.9606228396" y="233698.43228637706" z="5781721.3635010645" />

<GpsPosition x="38403.983799274254" y="233497.27068944281" z="57815;6.9401589381" />

<GridId>0</GridId>

<GpsDistance>12222.758386496092</GpsDistance>

<TriggerRadius>20</TriggerRadius>

<GridFound>false</GridFound>

<KeepGridAtTheEnd>false</KeepGridAtTheEnd>

<MaxGpsOffset>750</MaxGpsOffset>

</MyAbstractXmlSerializerOfMyObjectBuilder_Contract>

So you can get quite a bit of information from this. The bug probably has to do with saving the world data to disk. Somehow, the game placed a semi colon into a coordinate and it didn't belong there. It's possible that the bug is related to the new game content (contracts). Note that the contract is inactive and has no owner... it's made by the game AI. Long story short, I did not do anything strange at all from a gameplay perspective that led to this problem. I didn't even accept or view the contract. I simply saved and exited the world. I did leave the game running but was just viewing the main menu. It seems like this could randomly affect anyone. While I don't see how any could be related to contracts or world saving, here are the mods that I'm currently using:

Better Stone v7.0.3c [Economy Update -special-characters-]

retractable landing gear

Colorful Icons

Ntech Armor Ion Thrust

Smart Turrets 2

Armor Extension (This was installed and used shortly before the problem occurred)

More Armor Block Variants (This was installed and used shortly before the problem occurred)

Window Doors (This was installed but NOT used shortly before the problem occurred)

Good luck tracking down the bug and thanks for creating such a great game! And a big thank for including a save backup feature :)

-Lodra