Saves prior to latest patch (1.06) are now borked

I can't load my last save at all

When I try to load I just get an Elemental crashing error... "Elemental: War of Magic has stopped working"

Unfortunately, I'm having the same problem as the OP...  my save will load, but I can't move units and I can't end turns.  Guess that means I'm starting over

Oh well, just gotta start over.

I had a awesome one going but so what, new updates are a good thing, even if I have to start over (:

Sothron: I saw that one player with a similar issue could resave in 1.06, leave the game, then reload to get that turn button working again. Hope this helps! 

We're looking into this.  If you find yourself with a stuck turn, quick workaround may be to save the game (under a new name) and then load that save. It appears to resolve the stuck issue.

Couldn't load the last auto-save, but I could load the manual saves. Uploaded affected game save and debug.err in 7z format here just in case it could be any use to the devs. Also happens to have the negative Gildar bug in the save, but that is unrelated to the crash given manual saves with the bug still load fine.

Thanks for the heads up Varlen. I think I'm just starting a new game, test the patch from the beginning. Thanks again to the dev team (plus... whoever ) for all the hard work.

Thank you for the quick response devs and gang. I can confirm all you need to do is load your old save and then resave with a new name and it works fine.

overall word is that some saves are borked and others are working ok.  My take - the game is going to be in flux for a bit with changes and patches (all for the better) - just expect that if you update, you saves might not work - so don't get into any multi-day games unless you are willing to hold off on the next patch.  Not an awesome suggestion, but one that will FOR SURE enable you to keep playing your games if you don't want to lose them.  Otherwise, you take you chances and can lose your data. 

And if that fixes it 100% of the time, the great stuff!

We were trying to do some fancy footwork to keep 1.05 saves working, but due to it...well...not working, we're going to release a hotfix that will simply disable old versions. Sorry for the hassle, guys.

I'm just thrilled there is a new patch, I can forgive some save compatibility issues!!!  

Expect any patch for just about any game to mess up previous savegames. This has been the case with... almost anything.

I think I'll get the update after I finish the campaign, I don't want to restart it (again)

Good idea - the campaign isn't incredibly long, so you aren't missing much.  FINISH IT!!!

I just got the hotfix, and now my previous 1.06 (yes, that's a 6) saves also say they're incompatible.

Jesus, I can't even change settings like the sliders, or quit the game. The mouse/click will not react to the buttons.

BTW, it really bugs me that our settings are reset after each patch.

EDIT: Nope, I can't even enter the game.The mouse does not react to any buttons.

I am using hardware mouse, and disabled fullscreen mode if that helps.

Sorry gang, there wasn't a way to resolve this properly. We've had to slam on the reset button and all prior save games will be invalidated with the 1.06 hotfix.

If you're having a stuck turn issue and don't want to upgrade yet, a possible workaround is to re-save your game, then load it. I can't say you won't hit something else later on, but it's an option for this particular case.

Filthgrinder, what resolution are you running the game at?

Does it respond better at a different resolution?

If it will not let you enter the game, you can try editing your prefs.ini file in notepad.  This file can be found in /Documents/My Games/Elemental/

There is a part near the top for resolution:

[Video]
DisplayWidth=1024
DisplayHeight=768

Try adjusting this to your screen's resolution.  Perhaps with it resetting your prefs, it defaulted to a lower resolution.

Also, in future updates, we will no longer be clearing out the settings.

Hey CodeCritter, just FYI. Sems the latest patch fixed my issues.

Scratch my previous joyous post. Now my previous saves are invalid because it simply won't load them. Wow. I didn't see a warning before I updated that it would invalidate my previous saves. It wasn't until I came back to this thread that I saw it has been disabled. I can't believe this game has been released and you as a customer have ZERO faith that anything you save will actually still be playable a day later. Should we gamers just give this game a month off to see if it is patched correctly before we sink hours and hours into gameplay?

Very disappointed by this. I wouldn't have gotten the update if I knew it would invalidate my prior saves.

Or you can calm down and realize that they stayed up until 2 AM trying to get old saves working normally and couldn't.

Calm down? Did I use profanity or act in a childish manner? I've seen you fall on the sword several times defending Stardock. Sometimes criticism is more than deserved.

New patch, new games. I never get "surprises" in that way.

Your tone was more than enough to warrant the response, and it was very much acting in a childish manner. This is not a case where criticism is deserved.