Game Fails to Launch

Reason 1: Antivirus false positives

Symptoms

  • Game either fails to run at all, or exits after the initial splash / loading screen

  • Possibly your Antivirus software will notify you

  • The BadNorth.exe is missing from the install location

Cause

  • Your Antivirus has flagged BadNorth.exe and added it to Quarantine etc.

Possible Fixes

  • Add an exception to your antivirus, or mark the file as safe

    • Please refer to your specific antivirus software for details.

Notes:

We are working with Discord and Antivirus vendors to ensure that future editions of Bad North do not get flagged by antivirus software.

Version 2: DRM

Symptoms

  • Game either fails to run at all, or exits after the initial splash / loading screen

Cause

  • You do not have Discord or Steam installed (depending on which version you own)

  • [Discord Only] You are playing the Discord version of the game and offline

    • Discord DRM requires an online connections

Possible Fixes

  • Ensure you have the correct launcher installed and are signed into an account that owns the game.

  • [Discord Only] Ensure you are running the game while connected to the internet

Other Causes

If you cannot launch the game and the above reasons do not apply, please contact us so we can investigate further

Game Crashes Immediately on Launch

Symptoms

  • Game crashes immediately on launch

  • Error Log states something like this at the top of the file:
    UnityPlayer.dll caused an Access Violation (0xc0000005)
     in module UnityPlayer.dll at 0023:05a8bb99.

Cause

  • This is an issue with the Unity Engine, which will be fixed in future versions of the Engine (see here for more details). Once Unity has fixed the issue we will work to patch those changes into the game some time after.

Possible Fixes:

  1. If you have Citrix Workspace on you computer, you can uninstall Citrix Workspace and re-install it from command prompt using the following command:

    • CitrixWorkspaceApp.exe ADDLOCAL=ReceiverInside,ICA_Client,AM,SELFSERVICE,DesktopViewer,Flash,Vd3d,WebHelper,BrowserEngine

  2. Some users have reported this begin fixed by disabling virtual display adaptors, eg.

    • Software to allow your iPad to be used as an additional monitor

    • Some remote-working software

  3. If your computer has both a dedicated graphics card and integrated graphics, you can try switching to integrated to fix the problem.

  4. Send us your crash files, so we can investigate further

Game Crashes During the Load Screen

Symptoms

  • Game crashes during the load screen after clicking “New Game”

  • Error Log states something like this at the top of the file:
    d3d11.dll caused an Access Violation (0xc0000005)
     in module d3d11.dll at 0023:6be56ad3

Cause:

  • The default Antialiasing in Bad North can cause issues on some graphics cards

Possible Fixes

  1. From the main menu, got to “Settings” and change Antialiasing from “Supersampled” to “MSAA”

  2. Send us your crash files, so we can investigate further

Any Other Crash

If the game is crashing in some way that is not described in any of these articles, then you might need to send us bug report so we can investigate further.

Symptoms

  • You consistently get a crash at a certain point of play OR

  • You frequently get a crash at a certain point of play

Actions

  1. Firstly, make sure your graphics drivers are up to date and you have the latest version of the Game and of the client (Steam / GOG Galaxy / Discord) that you are using.

  2. Send all of the following, via email, to support@rawfury.com

    • All of your Diagnostic Files

    • Your save games (especially if the crash happens consistently on one save file)

    • A description of what steps are needed to make the crash happen

      • Make this as specific as possible, especially if you can provide exact steps to reproduce the crash every time.

      • If the crash is random, or a one off, let us know roughly what was happening at the time, to the best of your knowledge.

    • Which Store you purchased the game in (Steam / GOG / Discord etc.)

Game Doesn't Display

Symptoms

  • Game launches but only displays as a black or white screen OR
    Game Launches but display seems distorted

  • Audio plays as normal

Possible Fixes

  • Launch the game in config mode

    • Set the game to “Windowed” and a low resolution

    • Try to launch the game from there

    • Attempt to set the settings back to fullscreen if the game launches

  • On Mac you can try switching to OpenGL, but using the command line argument -force-glcore (instructions for using command line arguments here)

  • If your computer has both a dedicated graphics card and integrated graphics, you can try switching to integrated to fix the problem

  • Contact us so we can investigate further

Notes:

we have seen one version of this bug with a GTX980m graphics card that was only fixable by switching to Integrated Graphics.


My Units are Invisible / Commander Portraits are Broken

Symptoms

  • Typically happens very infrequently / randomly on upgrading a commander

  • All your units have lost their bodies (only bows, shields etc. still visible) OR

  • Your commander portraits become corrupted / distorted OR

  • Your commander portraits become white squares

Possible Fixes

  1. Restart the game and load back into your save

  2. If this does not work, please send your save files to us, so we can investigate

Mac OSX : My Units are Partially Invisible

Symptoms

When you start the game (running on Mac)

  • Your soldiers are invisible from the waist down OR

  • Your soldiers seem to have transparent holes in them

Example of this bug

Example of this bug

Status

We are unable to replicate this internally, but seems consistent on certain Mac systems, so we are working with some of our community to fix.

Notes

If you experience this issue on any platform other than Mac then please get in touch with us via the support portal: https://rawfury.atlassian.net/servicedesk/customer/portal/1/group/1/create/18

Islands are Inaccessible / Hidden Behind Clouds

Symptoms

  • A level / island that should be unlocked is inaccessible due to being hidden behind clouds

Cause

  • The island has not generated yet.

Possible Fixes

Notes:

This issue is due to a quirk in the way that our levels generate, that can cause them to keep on failing for quite some time until they find a playable level. We’re looking into finding ways to reduce / mitigate this problem.

Discord: Game Fails to Install

Symptoms

  • When trying to install the game via the Discord App, installation fails

Possible Fixes

  1. Ensure you have the latest version of Discord

  2. Try installing to a different location:

    • We advise installing games in your documents folder in near the root of one of your drives, i.e.

      • Documents\DiscordLibrary\

      • C:\DiscordLibrary\

      • D:\Games\DiscordLibrary\

  3. Quit Discord entirely and restart it as admin

  4. Try marking the install folder as safe in your Antivirus software

  5. Contact Discord Support for more help

Note

We are unable to provide detailed support on issues related to Discord’s App or Storefront - please contact Discord Support for further assistance

Discord: Game Fails to Save

Update 2018-11-07: Discord have pushed a fix that should resolve this issue for people who have non-latin characters in their usernames. Forcing an update of the discord client should resolve the issue (see possible fix #1)

Symptoms

  • After playing the game, returning to the main menu and selecting “Continue” or one of your save slots, the game will fail to load

  • After quitting the game you will have no save slots

  • If you look in your save files location, there will be no files there.

  • Often, this will result in the game not showing you the “Start” button (normally the first screen you see is the Bad North logo with a single start button underneath. If you skip this screen and go straight to the Main Menu, with shields on, something is wrong)

Cause

  • Issues reading and writing in the default Discord install folder

Possible fixes:

  1. Ensure you have the very latest version of the Discord Client (fully restart Discord or your PC)

  2. Try quitting Discord entirely and restart it as admin

  3. Try marking BadNorth.exe as safe in you antivirus software.

  4. Unistall the game and reinstall in a new location.

    • We advise installing games in your documents folder in near the root of one of your drives, i.e.

      • Documents\DiscordLibrary\

      • C:\DiscordLibrary\

      • D:\Games\DiscordLibrary\

  5. Contact Discord Support for more details

Notes

Future patches of the game should notify you when saving fails, reducing the likelihood of significant lost data

We are unable to provide detailed support on issues related to Discord’s App - please contact them for more assistance

Launching the Configuration Tool

Sometimes you might want to start the game in windowed mode, or change the resolution before launching the game. To do that you can open the configuration tool

Bad North Configuration Tool

Bad North Configuration Tool

Steam

From the Bad North page in your Steam Library:

  1. Click Play Game

  2. Select Launch Configuration Tool

  3. Click Play

Discord

From your Discord Library, locate Bad North

  1. Click the dropdown arrow on the Play button

  2. Select Play Config Tool

Note: if there is no dropdown arrow, follow the instructions for Windows, below.

GOG Galaxy

From the Bad North Page in your GOG Galaxy Library

  1. Click More

  2. Go to Other > Launch Configuration Tool

Windows

On any windows platform you can launch the game into config mode directly from the .exe

  1. Locate your game files

  2. Hold down Shift and double-click BadNorth.exe

Mac OSX

On any OSX platform you can launch the game into config mode directly from the .app

  1. Locate your game files

  2. Hold down Option and double-click BadNorth.exe

Using Command Line Arguments

Command line arguments are optional parameters that can be used to modify the behaviour of the game at launch.

Steam

In Steam you can specify command line arguments by

  1. Right click on Bad North in your Steam Library and select Properties

  2. Click Set Launch Options…

  3. Enter the command line argument you need

    • If you need multiple arguments, enter them all in this box, with a space between each

  4. You can now launch the game as normal from the steam client

Discord

Discord does not yet support command line arguments via the app, but you can set up a shortcut to run the game with command line arguments (see below, under “Windows”).

You will need to launch the game via this shortcut, rather than through the discord app to run the game with the argument active.

GOG Galaxy

In GOG Galaxy, you can specify command line arguments by

  1. Right click on Bad North in your GOG Galaxy Library and click Settings

  2. Under Custom Settings check the Add command line arguments

  3. In the box that appears, enter the arguments you need

    • If you need multiple arguments, enter them all in this box, with a space between each

  4. You can now launch the game as normal from the steam client

Windows

If you are not using any of the above clients, you can launch the game with command line arguments by using a shortcut or a command line.

  1. Find your game files

  2. Right click on BadNorth.exe, select Create Shortcut

  3. Right click on the new shortcut file and click Properties

  4. In the Shortcut tab, in the Target box, add your command line arguments after badnorth.exe, after a space, i.e. …\BadNorth.exe NoAutoPause

    • If you need multiple arguments, enter them all after BadNorth.exe in this box, with a space between each

Mac OSX

If you are not using any of the above clients, you can launch the game with command line arguments by using terminal, or by creating a script. See this guide for setting up a script to launch the game with command line arguments.

We recommend attempting to launch the game via terminal to test out command line arguments and then create a script afterwards if that is successful, as the process for creating a “shortcut” on Mac is quite a long process. Open terminal, and type the full path to BadNorth.app and add the parameter(s) afterwards

Diagnostic Files

Depending on what kind of issue you’re having, we might want to request various files from you to help diagnose the problem. These are:

  • Save Files

  • Game Output Logs

  • System Information / DxDiag Reports

  • Crash Reports

  • Mac OSX Only - Program Samples

Save Files

Save files depend on which platform you’re running on, be that Discord, Steam, GOG, etc. and are covered in a separate article - How To Find Game & Save Files

Game Output Logs

Windows

On Windows, game output is located in the AppData folder, which you can get to by

  1. Press the Windows Key and type %appdata% and hit enter

  2. From this location, navigate to

    • …\AppData\LocalLow\Plausible Concept\Bad North

  3. The file output_log.txt is the output log

Note that these logs are reset with each play session - be sure to grab the log immediately after seeing the problem.

Mac OSX

On OSX, the game output is located in the Library.

  1. Open Launcher -> Console

  2. Navigate to /Users/<user_name>/Library/Logs/Unity/Player.log

Note that these logs are shared with all other Unity Games and will be reset with each play session - be sure to grab the log immediately after seeing the problem.

If you have purchased the game via the Mac App Store, or Kartridge, the logs are likely to end up in:

~Library/Containers/com.PlausibleConcept.BadNorthOSX/data/Library/Logs/Unity/Player.log

System Information

Windows (DxDiag)

A DxDiag report is a file that tells us all about the setup of your Windows PC. You can generate one by

  1. Press the Windows Key + R

  2. Type dxdiag and hit enter

  3. In the window that pops up, click the Save All Information button, which will generate a file you can send to us

 
The DxDiag Tool

The DxDiag Tool

 

Mac OSX (System Report)

  1. Click the Apple Logo in the top left of the screen, then Click “About this Mac”

  2. Click “System Report…”

  3. Press Command-S to save the file

Crash Reports

Windows

If the game crashes, it will produce 2 files: a crash dump and an error log. These are in the AppData folder, alongside the output.log You can find these by

  1. Press the Windows Key and type %appdata% and hit enter

  2. From this location, navigate to

    • …\AppData\LocalLow\Plausible Concept\Bad North\Crashes

  3. Each crash has a folder named for the date and time of the crash - inside you will find both the crash.dmp and the error.log files.

[Mac OSX] Program Samples

If the game has frozen (not crashed) we might ask for a Program Sample. While Bad North is running:

  1. Launch the Activity Monitor

  2. Make sure the CPU tab is selected

  3. Select Bad North in the list

  4. Click the cog icon in the top left corner

  5. Select Sample Process (see below)

  6. Once the sample is taken, you can save a file and send it to us

Taking a Program Sample in OSX’s Activity Monitor

Taking a Program Sample in OSX’s Activity Monitor

Still Having Problems?

Feel free to contact us if you are in need of further assistance

Game & Save Files

User Settings Files

User settings files are not saved to the cloud, so are always in AppData (Windows) or Library (Mac). Regardless of which storefront you bought the game from, follow the instructions at the bottom of this page (under Windows or Mac as appropriate).

Steam

Steam Game Files

In Steam you can find your game files by

  1. Right clicking Bad North in your Steam Library, select Properties

  2. Go to the Local Files tab and select Browse Local Files…

Steam Save Files

Save files are stored in the default steam Cloud Storage location, which varies depending on platform:

  • Win: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\userdata\<user_id>\688420\remote

  • Mac: ~/Library/Application Support/Steam/userdata/<user_id>/688420/remote

where <user_id> is your steam user id (as a number)

Discord

Discord Game Files

In Discord you can find your game files by right clicking on the game in your Discord library, and selecting Show in Folder. This will take you to where the game files are kept, which will be a location something like:

…\BadNorth\content\StandaloneWindows

You’ll see BadNorth.exe in here, plus some other stuff.

Discord Save Files

From there, if you navigate up a couple of folders to the …\BadNorth directory, and from there you should be able to go to:

…\BadNorth\storage\<user_id>\content\

Which is where the saves are kept. <user_id> in this case being a long number, unique to you. Typically in this folder there will be file called user, and several files called campaign <something>. If we ask you to send your save files, it’s best to zip up the entire content folder and send that via mail. If there is no content folder, or there is nothing in it, then you don’t have any saves, which might be solvable by checking out this topic.

GOG Galaxy

GOG Galaxy Game Files

In GOG Galaxy, you can find your game files from the Bad North page of your library by:

  1. Click More

  2. Go to Manage Installation > Show Folder

GOG Galaxy Save Files

Save files are stored in the default Galaxy Cloud Storage location, which is in AppData:

...\AppData\Local\GOG.com\Galaxy\Applications\51399757586222569\Storage\Shared\Files

Windows

If you are not using any of the above clients, or you have cloud saves disabled, your save files are likely to be in AppData

…\AppData\LocalLow\Plausible Concept\Bad North\Saves

You can get to the AppData folder by pressing the Windows Key, typing %appdata% and hitting enter.

Mac

If you are not using any of the above clients, or you have cloud saves disabled, your save files are likely to be somewhere in one of the Library folders, though exactly where can vary. The library folders can be found at:

/Users/<user_name>/Library/Application Support/

Inside these you are looking for a sub-directory that looks like:

…/com.PlausibleConcept.BadNorthOSX/Saves/ OR
…/Plausible Concept/Bad North/Saves/

If you have bought the game via the Mac App Store, or Kartridge, then it is possible that the files will end up in the following location:

~Library/Containers/com.PlausibleConcept.BadNorthOSX/data/Library/Application Support/com.PlausibleConcept.BadNorthOSX/Saves/

Android

On Android you can access your save files either by connecting your computer via USB or using the My Files app on your phone. The files might be on your SD Card or on the Phone’s internal storage at:

\Android\data\com.PlausibleConcept.BadNorthFull\files\Saves

If you have connected via USB then you can simply copy the files across to your computer.

If you are using My Files then touch and hold on one of the files until it is selected with a checkmark, then tap on the rest of the files until they are all selected. You can then use the Share option to transfer them. If you are sending them to us for support, then please email to support@badnorth.com with the title “Files for SUP-????” where the question-marks are your support ticket number.

Contact Us

We’ve just launched a new support system, via our publisher Raw Fury, where you can submit bugs and support tickets to us directly. These will get seen by the development team and the QA team, so is your quickest route to getting a response:

If you don’t have a support request, but just want to reach out to the team, then our email address is

You can also join the community at the official Raw Fury Discord Server