Larian Studios Forums Divine Divinity (English) Technical Problems Using Old Saves?

Hello,
I recently purchased the Divine Divinity Anthology and began playing the original Divine Divinity. However, I would like to pick up where I left off playing with my old character but I'm not sure if this is possible. I was able to find and copy the saves from previous Divine Divinity game into the new save folder. I can start the game fine and it takes me to my last save but whenever I attempt to save the game again it crashes to desktop. Has anyone else experienced or tried this? Is using your old saves even a possibility? Thanks in advance for your help!

There is a known compatibility issue with the original disk saves in the download / anthology version of the game. The game can crash trying to load, or re-saving, or saving can be disabled after the game loads.

One person who lost their game disk was able to get up to the Blessing Ceremony, late in the game (using the configuration file edit to skip the intro video, which eliminates the need for the play disk except for a couple cutscenes). They got the download version to continue, but their save crashed the game trying to load. Since I didn't have any trouble loading my disk saves from the original release (started in the unpatched version) in the download versions of the game, I was able to play around with their save and found that (at least in that case) the problem was in the inventory files. With my complete inventory files in the save at the blessing ceremony, the save could load properly in the download version of the game and they could continue with the same character (and despite being a mage and my character a warrior, the equipment at that point was not terribly different).
Unfortunately, swapping inventory files between saves at a different spot in the game would be likely to cause problems with missing quest items and keys, etc, due to differences between the order things were done in the two games.


Welcome to the forum.

Ah and here I was all excited that I actually was able to find my old saves too! I've tried several different methods of saving but it results in a crash every time. Oh well. Maybe an actual fix will come along some day. Thanks for the response Raze.

Hello,

I actually have the same problem. Are there any news on this compatibility issue?
I still have the old installation, but I cannot find my old disc. And the old installation does not recognize the CD from the anthology. Is there any workaround for getting the old installation to work with the new disc? I would really like to continue with my old savegames because I was almost at the end of the game.

The only solution I can think of now is to play the game without saving, and hoping that I will finish in a few hours without ever dying.

There are a couple workarounds for this problem. You can use some of the files from the anthology version install folder to create a replacement Play CD for the disk version, or (as mentioned above) replace the inventory files before performing the Blessing Ceremony.


If you burn the bik files from the anthology/download version of the game (in the '..\Divine Divinity\static' folder) to a CD/DVD-R/RW labelled 'LARIAN_DIV3' (in the '..\disc3\static' folder), you will have a new Play CD for the disk version. A virtual CD program should work, as well (didn't try). I'm not sure if the DVD version of the game changed the name of the disk or the path to the bik files.


At least in a couple cases it was the inventory files which caused the compatibility problem; replacing them with ones from my save (244KB, started in the original, unpatched disk release) allowed them to be loaded and re-saved in the download version.

Included in my inventory files are my equipment, charms, gold, restoration potions, some spare equipment kept for skill bonuses, statuettes, teleporter stones, Finnigan's magic lockpicks and the portable bed.

Load your save just before the Blessing Ceremony, drop any potions, etc you wish to keep (anything without random stats) on the ground, save the game under a new name, extract the gonginventory.zip file into that save folder, overwriting the files there, then reload that save, pick up whatever you dropped, and hit the gong. There aren't many quest items in the wastelands, so if you make sure to drop the ancient pyramids and empty any non-equipment stuff you want to keep out of chests, there shouldn't be a problem replacing the inventory files then, either (except obviously with the Sword of the Gods, etc).


BTW, if you switch to the anthology version for your next game, there is a music fix that hasn't gotten an official patch yet (not needed for the original disk version).


Welcome to the forum.

Thank you very much for your answer.

I still did not get the old version to run using a virtual image. Maybe this has to do with it not being the original CD version, but some version from a game magazine.

I guess I have to use the second approach. Unfortunately, I was already further advanced in the game than the blessing ceremony, it was really very close to the end. I guess I have to repeat this part of the game after all. Good thing I keep my old savegames (almost 5GB), so there should be one from just before the blessing ceremony.

If you rename the div.exe file and download the CD version no-CD hack (or install the CD version patch), that should get the game looking for the CD version Play CD, so the virtual CD should work. If the game was from a cover disk, it would presumably be looking for the DVD (which apparently used a different name or path to the files).


As long as you don't mind loosing the stats on the Sword of the Gods or the unique axe in the starting section of the wastelands, it should be fine using my inventory files in a later save. There are no quest items to worry about in the wastelands, or anything like that.

Well, actually your equipment is a lot better than mine. So it feels a bit like cheating to use it.

But the trick with the CD version patch worked. I simply opened the patch.exe with 7zip and copied the div.exe into the game folder. Now it recognizes the virtual image that I created earlier.

Thanks a lot for the help.

But now I have to decide if I finish the game with my items or with your items. It is going to be a lot harder with my equipment, but it will feel less like cheating .