New Game in Demo Version

[BloodyCanada]

Hi all, downloaded the 64-bit demo today but I seem to have a problem, well, starting the game. Google and the Wiki tell me that there should be a new game option with lots and lots of customisable settings, initially I thought that maybe this was intended to be excluded from the Demo...but I can't find ANY way to experience gameplay in the Demo, which is when I decided to head over here and find out exactly what I have done wrong. There is also nothing in the Campaign section, though from what I read this is intended unless you are a 2nd-tier backer.

I've submitted here rather than bug-reports because it is much more likely that this is a simple User Error than an actual bug.

Thanks for any help!

EDIT: Also, if I double click the blank space in the Campaign Menu, I get a CTD with the "Unexpected Error Has Occurred" text. I was testing if the option was just invisible when I found this.

Info:
Running in a non-default install path, on a different harddrive.
Tried both minimum and maximum UI scaling, incase the option was offscreen
Windows 7 64 bit,
Installer version 0.11.22
Both Fullscreen and Windowed tested
No visible graphical glitches

Screenshots are attached in the spoiler tags:

Main Menu

Menu Screenshot

Factorio-Menu-22.05.PNG (1.56 MiB) Viewed 3645 times

Options Menu

Options Menu Screenshot

Factorio-Options-22.05.PNG (1.64 MiB) Viewed 3645 times

Campaign Menu

Campaign Screenshot

Factorio-Campaign-22.05.PNG (1.43 MiB) Viewed 3645 times

[FishSandwich]

There should be a demo campaign you can play, have you tried reinstalling?

[BloodyCanada]

I tried all the following, with no luck. For all, the campaign is still missing.

An overtop re-install from the original installer, which does uninstall the game first.
Retried an overtop re-installfrom a fresh download.
Deleted the game folder manually and installed from the fresh download.
I noticed my settings were still there so, using Windows Uninstall, removed the game completely and installed from yet another fresh download.
My settings are STILL there, so the installer isn't removing part of the game.
Using unins000.exe, in the Factorio folder, I tried another complete remove/install. My settings were STILL there and no Campaigns.

What is more interesting here is that the game isn't completely removing all it's files when it is uninstalled, which might mean my problem still lies in a dodgy file somewhere but I don't know where these other files might be.

My process:
download Demo, MS Windows (64 bit exe installer)
Run with all default settings, except install location (D:\Games\Factorio)
Launch, and change Graphics Settings.
Uninstall through either the Windows Uninstaller or the unins000.exe file located in the Factorio folder
Reinstall the game
Settings remain

Since my instincts tell me this is probably graphics related, here is some information regarding that. I don't know if the game has any pre-requisites with regards to .net, Java, OpenCl etc so I'm not sure what other information to give. Nothing in that regard is listed in the system requirements.
Radeon 280x, using driver 14.501.1003.0 (probably an update available for this, but I will try that tomorrow and edit in my results)

[daniel34]

AFAIK the game has no pre-requesites (even then, the problem would show when launching), and I think the base game files are kept in the installation directory, so a new install should resolve your problems.
You might find additional files in Application Data (enter %appdata%\Factorio in explorer).

I would recommend you try the zip version of the demo. It only uses the files/folders in its location and only writes to them. That way there are no dodgy files interfering.

[BloodyCanada]

Thanks for the help, running in the isolated zipped version fixed the issue. I'm thinking this might have been to do with the installation path being on a separate drive, I tried the regular demo install on another machine and it worked fine. Even though my issue was fixed, I decided to keep testing and installed the .exe version again, after an uninstall and deletion of the appdata entry, on the default path. It worked just fine.

My hunch is that the gamefiles look for the appdata entry on the same drive they are on, and when it couldn't find them, it gave the errored Campaign List. Can anyone test if this applies to the main game too? If so, I will open this as a bug.

[daniel34]

My copy of Factorio is installed in D:\Games\Factorio and I have had no problems with that.



As you can see in the screenshot the config, mods and saves folder are actually links to %appdata%\Factorio\foldername. If you are using the zip-version the folders are actual folders and the contents lie inside the unzipped folder.