• Please note: In an effort to ensure that all of our users feel welcome on our forums, we’ve updated our forum rules. You can review the updated rules here: http://forums.wolflair.com/showthread.php?t=5528.

    If a fellow Community member is not following the forum rules, please report the post by clicking the Report button (the red yield sign on the left) located on every post. This will notify the moderators directly. If you have any questions about these new rules, please contact support@wolflair.com.

    - The Lone Wolf Development Team

Major Custom Race bug

C

Candice

Member
For several months, I've been using a custom race (created using the race builder, not through the editor tool), and been having no problem. When I opened the portfolio containing the character this evening, though, I got an error and found the character missing a vast majority of the information.

All of the errors involved missing source portals, and I've included them at the end of my post in case there's a clue to the problem there.

Specifically, the following has been removed from the character: Character name, custom race name, ability score modifiers (from race), breath weapon element (not type, just element), race skills (from Skill Training racial), ability scores were reset to default of 10, all mythic tier selections were reset (4 mythic characters in their portfolio, only this character was affected by this), all skills refunded except 1 in Profession (sailor), and the skill chosen from a trait has been cleared.

I've had this portfolio opened multiple times today, and there's been no changes to sources enabled and no updates have been done today. (both Hero Lab and all Pathfinder sources are fully updated)

Source portal '' has been orphaned for pick 'Totals'
Pick 'Totals' has been orphaned due to missing source portal in batch '1'
Source portal '' has been orphaned for pick 'background'
Pick 'background' has been orphaned due to missing source portal in batch '2'
Source portal '' has been orphaned for pick 'Attack'
Pick 'Attack' has been orphaned due to missing source portal in batch '3'
Source portal '' has been orphaned for pick 'Maneuver'
Pick 'Maneuver' has been orphaned due to missing source portal in batch '4'
Source portal '' has been orphaned for pick 'ArmorClass'
Pick 'ArmorClass' has been orphaned due to missing source portal in batch '5'
Source portal '' has been orphaned for pick 'Initiative'
Pick 'Initiative' has been orphaned due to missing source portal in batch '6'
Source portal '' has been orphaned for pick 'Speed'
Pick 'Speed' has been orphaned due to missing source portal in batch '7'
Source portal '' has been orphaned for pick 'AllSkills'
Pick 'AllSkills' has been orphaned due to missing source portal in batch '8'
Source portal '' has been orphaned for pick 'tEncumTbl'
Pick 'tEncumTbl' has been orphaned due to missing source portal in batch '9'
Source portal '' has been orphaned for pick 'Damage'
Pick 'Damage' has been orphaned due to missing source portal in batch '10'
Source portal '' has been orphaned for pick 'AllCraft'
Pick 'AllCraft' has been orphaned due to missing source portal in batch '11'
Source portal '' has been orphaned for pick 'AllKnow'
Pick 'AllKnow' has been orphaned due to missing source portal in batch '12'
Source portal '' has been orphaned for pick 'AllPerform'
Pick 'AllPerform' has been orphaned due to missing source portal in batch '13'
Source portal '' has been orphaned for pick 'AllProf'
Pick 'AllProf' has been orphaned due to missing source portal in batch '14'
Source portal '' has been orphaned for pick 'Psionics'
Pick 'Psionics' has been orphaned due to missing source portal in batch '15'
Source portal '' has been orphaned for pick 'hActionPts'
Pick 'hActionPts' has been orphaned due to missing source portal in batch '16'
Source portal '' has been orphaned for pick 'ArmorDef'
Pick 'ArmorDef' has been orphaned due to missing source portal in batch '17'
Source portal '' has been orphaned for pick 'ArmorDR'
Pick 'ArmorDR' has been orphaned due to missing source portal in batch '18'
Source portal '' has been orphaned for pick 'CritDef'
Pick 'CritDef' has been orphaned due to missing source portal in batch '19'
Source portal '' has been orphaned for pick 'Wounds'
Pick 'Wounds' has been orphaned due to missing source portal in batch '20'
Source portal '' has been orphaned for pick 'PieceArmor'
Pick 'PieceArmor' has been orphaned due to missing source portal in batch '21'
Source portal '' has been orphaned for pick 'ManeuvDef'
Pick 'ManeuvDef' has been orphaned due to missing source portal in batch '22'
Source portal '' has been orphaned for pick 'ManeuvBon'
Pick 'ManeuvBon' has been orphaned due to missing source portal in batch '23'
Source portal '' has been orphaned for pick 'resRacePt'
Pick 'resRacePt' has been orphaned due to missing source portal in batch '24'
Source portal '' has been orphaned for pick 'wUnarmed'
Pick 'wUnarmed' has been orphaned due to missing source portal in batch '25'
 
sounds like a compile problem on a .user file.

Can you open the editor, open the file containing the info, and compile data files?

Get an error?
 
There's no .user file involved, the race was created using the race builder feature (Background tab, race selection), not using the editor.
 
My email address is my user name here, @wolflair.com. Could you send me the saved character, so I can take a look at this, please?
 
Critical information not found in data files: Source 'CB - Jade Dragons & Hungry Ghosts'
Click to expand...

Could you tell me where I could download CB - Jade Dragons & Hungry Ghosts, please? I'll need to set up the same set of user-created content you have in order to test this file.
 
Once I got your custom class file added, plus the community bestiary and mythic playtest, I was able to open the saved character you sent without encountering any error messages.

Did you save the character after encountering the error messages? Do you have a separate copy of the portfolio that was saved before then?
 
That was my fault, I imported it into a new portfolio to send just that character (there's more than a half dozen character files in the portfolio), but it didn't carry over the errors after it was saved. I've sent the full portfolio, hopefully this time it'll be what's needed!
 
Thanks for sending that. I am able to reproduce the error. Now, I just need to figure out why it's happening. This isn't something I've seen before.

Oh, and I'd recommend copying this saved portfolio to create a separate backup. Hero Lab is glitching when reading some elements of this portfolio when it tries to load the character, so when I compare the raw XML of the first one you sent me to the raw XML of this character in the portfolio of all the characters, there's a lot more data in the original multi-character portfolio. That's because all the trouble spots that Hero Lab encountered are skipped, meaning that if you save it after seeing that error message (and that includes the import/export option within Hero Lab), all that data will be lost, because it only saves the parts that it didn't glitch on. So a backup is insurance in case you accidently choose "yes" when closing this portfolio after you open it to look at the error.
 
This was a particularly odd problem. For one specific character in the portfolio ("Miakis"), there was an extremely odd inconsistency in the saved portfolio file, which meant that it was trying to load parts of the character in the wrong way.

This is unusual because there are only four things I can think of that could cause this problem:

1) You (or someone else) unzipped the portfolio and meddled with one of the files inside in a very specific way - I assume you didn't do this, as it would be a bit silly.

2) An extremely subtle and specific bug in Hero Lab that nobody else has ever encountered before - this is unlikely, but it happens occasionally, so it's definitely possible.

3) An extremely unusual temporary hardware failure - something (for example a stray cosmic ray) hitting your computer in just the right way to zero out some memory at just the wrong point, or maybe overheating causing things to behave a little wrongly. This is possible, but unlikely unless you're getting a lot of other symptoms and random crashes.

4) Glitch in the Matrix - have you seen any Agents recently? Or maybe Keanu Reeves dressed in black?


Have you been using this portfolio with the iPad version of Hero Lab? That would make explanation #2 more likely.

If not, did you do anything unusual with the portfolio, or specifically the Miakis character, before the problem occurred? For example, did you export Miakis to another portfolio, or change something in an unusual way, or anything like that?


I've emailed Mathias a fixed version of the portfolio for him to send on to you, so please check the Miakis character - was everything restored properly? Does the rest of the portfolio look ok?

Thanks, and sorry for the inconvenience!
 
I don't have anything with iOS, and the portfolio's never been zipped in any way (I'm the GM for the campaign, those are the different player's characters). Haven't been having any other unusual computer problems either, and the system's case has always been cool, even right behind the processor.

The day the problem first occurred (Wednesday), I'd been working on adding the rest of the book's loot to the loot character, and had been opening it several times, but barely even interacted with "Miakis" aside from checking armor proficiencies.

I did try, more than a month ago, to convert the race builder race to the editor to simplify the character a bit, but couldn't get the stats and abilities right, so I stuck with the race builder. For testing, I did export the portfolio, but the exported version I tested on has long since been deleted.

I haven't gotten the fixed portfolio yet, but I'll update when I do. I should be the one apologizing for the inconvenience, though! I know you all work hard to put out such a wonderful tool, I hate taking up your time on something so isolated, but I was completely puzzled on what could have caused it, and after finding the Arcane/Sage Sorcerer bug last week (which was reproduced and found by others), I wasn't sure if it was from a bug or not.

Edit: Got the email, looked it over, everything's right, right down to the selections in the custom race.
 
Last edited:
I noticed a near identical problem last year from a Friend's portfolio.
He sent it to me to try to recover.

The end result is that his computer had zeroed out a 512 byte block in the middle of the portfolio. This is common on computers with marginal (or soon to fail hard drives) where the system read the block and couldn't read the block from disk so it substituted a 512 block of Hex 0x00 characters.)

The next effect is that he lost a small chunk of options chosen on one character. I stitched the xml file together and chopped out the block of hex zeros.

This was before they switched to zip files for portfolios. But the principle is the same. They error could have happened during the packing procedure. The error would mostly be silent and the only way you as a user know is if you have SMART enabled on your drive and you noticed an increase in error count. This will not always post as a windows error as a pop up or even in event viewer.

Some people also call this bit rot.

I can't know for sure if this is the OP cause, but I can say for sure that option 3 is something that can and HAS happened.
 
risner, I've seen that also, I think the last time was on a USB stick where it just changed a chunk of the file to zeroes when that part of the stick went bad. However, if that happens, typically you can't open the file at all; it just doesn't read as a valid file. So I don't think that's what happened in this case.

Candice, glad the fixed file worked for you! Let us know if it happens again, in case we can track down the cause.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top