Problem - the game restarts

I bought Fish Tycoon for my 18 g 2nd gen Itouch and have been really enjoying it. Expect for one big problem. Everyonce in a while (and seemingly at random) my Itouch wipes the game I'm playing and starts me back at the beginning. How frustrating! Any hints or ideas? As far as I can tell it's completely random. I've tried different combos to produce the reset but can never manage it on purpose. Getting very annoyed....:P

There are a few reports of lost game data on both the iPhone and iPod touch, and we are looking into it. We don't have anything definite at this point, however.

Thanks for responding even if there's no immediate fix. I assume if you get it worked out I'll be able to download a patch or some such thing. Great game:)

Yes, we will post an update on the app store when we can get a fix for the problem. We haven't been able to reproduce the issue on our devices here at LDW, unfortunately.

Isn't that always the way:) I'll keep my eyes open for the update!

This has happened to me twice now. Once on the lite version and now just on the full version for Ipod. I am usually way into the game, with many fish in my tanks. Both times, it has happen when I go to the Ipod time to advance it an hour and poof I come back to nothing but the start over story screen.

The full version is much buggier when moving the time up an hour. I tend to go back in time instead of up and lose things.

The game's real-time engine relies on an accurate system clock. If you are adjusting the time on your iPhone or iPod in an attempt to speed up the game, you do run the risk of messing up the game (not to mention messing up other applications). We always advise people to refrain from adjusting their system clocks.

THAT HAPPENED TO ME. I thought I accidently did it. I only needed one more magic fish. it sucked

I have the same problem (also an iPod touch 2nd gen) but it seems that it happens when I have done the 2nd environment upgrade, because it happened twice to me after I've done that upgrade. Never before. Hope this might help?

thanks,

Mans

Oh, by the way, I didn't set the time ahead or something like that!

This has happened to me too....twice!! it is really frustrating!
I am using mine on my iphone 3G and it has been at totally random points in the game (I did things completely differently the second time I started it) My husband also has Fish Tycoon on his iphone 3G yet has had no problems????

I haven't fiddled with the time on it or anything.
I really hope that a patch is availiable soon as I don't want to restart the game for a 3rd time if it is going to happen again (very disheartening!)

Kes

This has happened to me twice. The first time I thought that I may have done something to reset the game, but after it happened the second time I'm sure that I didn't do anything. This used to be my favorite game, but now the thought of starting all over again makes me sad. I am using the iPhone 3G. I didn't mess around with the time settings.

Another problem that I have been having is that sometimes the game doesn't save. When this happens it doesn't reset the entire game, it just goes back to the point I was at previously.

Terra

The only way I have found to prevent this is to backup your phone. It will backup Fish Tycoon data, so that if your game resets, you can recover it with a backup restore.

It happened again after 3 weeks of playing real time (no messing with the time). This is getting real old. Please fix asap.

The only saving grace is that I did a backup last night and did a backup restore and got it all back but a few hours. Thank you so much Mudshark for the helpful hint. It saved me wanting to just junk this app.

Please forgive me for sounding stupid, but I am new to my Iphone and I don't know how to back it up? (usb from phone to desktop??)

I have fiddled with the time, but I have done that since day 1 and I have been playing for at least 6 weeks with no problem. Why does the time changing mess with the your game? I would do it and then not do it, but it worked just fine and then it restarted 3 times in 3 days. I was super bummed. But I have now downloaded plant tycoon to my desk top. It is fun!!

Our games have at their core a real-time engine that uses your device's system clock to determine everything that happens in the game. Many people like to change the clock to speed up the game, but it will usually cause problems for both the game and the computer at some point. The clock in a computer (and iPhones and iPods are computers) is used by every application and important system function, as well, and it's simply not wise to continually adjust the clock simply to make a game go faster.

I have an iPhone 3g and the game just restarted for the 4th time! I have not changed thd time on my phone at all. It has happened every time less than 12 hrs after completing all research for env and food. I've reinstalled twice, at this point I'm ready to give up and ask for a refund. As for iTunes rating, I will happily give this app 5 stars once this bug is fixed.

Wow - you can't reproduce it? I can't get it to STOP happening. I've basically had to stop playing the game on my 1st gen iPhone because it happens every time I play (after 1 to 2 weeks of daily play). I never mess with the time. I just stop playing, do something else, and when i come back, everything i had is gone and the game starts at the tutorial again.

the only reason i keep playing is that my kid likes to look at the fish on my iphone.

if you want to have my MANY crash logs, i'd be happy to send them to you.

it's really a drag to lose all your data. I know it's a game, but it's really un-good.

-p_

Hi all,

Just reporting that the game has also reset twice for me. One time when we had created two magic fish, and another time when we had 4 magic fish. It just seemed totally random. We went back to access the game after being at the main iPhone screen, and instead of being in the tank like usual, we were back at the Menu Screen. Pressing 'Play' resulted in us entering the game back at the beginning with the tutorial messages being displayed.

The iPhone time was not changed at all, and there was plenty of space left on the iPhone. The firmware version is 2.2.

This is a really great game, but this flaw is extremely frustrating. It appears it is causing a number of customers significant grief.

Hopefully there will be a patch released soon.

Kind regards

Update: it just reset again last night.
Was playing the game and got an sms text message. A prompt appeared and I selected to view the text message. Upon returning to fish tycoon it had unfortunately reset.

I am assuming that if the game exits abruptly it doesn't save it's state properly.

I have a little information to add on this. From what I've gathered on the forums and in the FAQ, the belief seems to be that an iTunes (for Windows) bug causes the resets.

However, I'm running Mac OS X 10.5.6 (and iTunes 8.0.2, if that helps anything), and I had what sounds like exactly the same experience: I was playing along happily, then suddenly, the game reset completely, as though I'd pressed the Start Over button. Fish, tanks, ornaments - everything was gone, just as others have described here.

As it happens, I'd been showing a friend the game a few minutes before, and it had been fine. I saw the App Store had updates for a few of my apps - I allowed it to run, and went to check back on my fish, which is when I discovered the game had reset. So it seems the bug is not isolated to iTunes under Windows. I've never changed the time setting on the phone's internal clock, just to throw that out there.

Mine's an iPhone 3G running 2.2.1 - latest available as of this posting, and the version has not changed since I installed Fish Tycoon. I've synched many (MANY) times with my machine since I installed the game - the problem only occurred immediately after I ran updates from the App Store application on the phone itself.

Hope this helps the developers - and of course, I hope there's a patch soon. I love the game, but it sure is disappointing to lose days' worth of work.

From what I've read elsewhere the iPhone/iTouch has some issues with the memory fragmenting. I would have to assume that is part of the issue with this bug.

Please fix this problem.

The iPod Touch is the perfect venue for this game because I can take it with me in a way I would not wish to do with my laptop, but twice now, after upgrading my environment, I've gone into the application to find that my fish are just gone. Not dead, but gone.

I just can't afford to spend time playing if this is going to keep happening, and I definitely can't afford to pay for the full version if this happens on it as well.

Also, I have not changed my system clock in order to make the game speed up.

We submitted the updates to Apple on February 24th, but they are not yet available on the App Store.

That's great news though, thank you! I'll keep an eye out for the update. I'm sorry if I missed a post about the fix, and I can't wait to start playing again

You haven't missed a post. I was waiting to say anything about it here until it was available on the App Store. There is a developer note about it already in the application listings for both the full and lite versions.

The updates should now be available on the iTunes App Store for both Fish Tycoon and Fish Tycoon Lite. The new update is 1.0.2 for both versions.

Just thought I'd post with my info. I played the free version on my Iphone 3G for several days without problems before moving up to the paid version recently. Since then I've had random resets upon re-entering the game (about once per day). I haven't messed with the phone's clock. I simply exited as I normally would and found the game had reset the next time I logged on. Just for reference, I didn't even use the phone between logging off and logging back on the last time. Also, I updated the game to 1.0.2 already so I know it's with the new update.

Hope you guys can resolve this. It's a great game otherwise!

I have the same problem on my iPhone 3G - it happens when I am out of the game using another application, and then return to find my game gone and the startup screen there - and it's always when I am well on in the game, as well. Very frustrating. I do not mess around with the time as I always play at double speed from the start, and it has never happened when I am actually doing anything in the game, only when I am out of it.

I look forward to a patch to correct this ! It seems to be happening more recently - twice in a few days.

Version 1.0.3 is now available for both the full and lite versions of Fish Tycoon. It implements a backup savegame structure, and we are hopeful that it will completely resolve the game reset issues.