Posted October 11, 2024
It's been a while that I got Control in a giveaway on Epic. But I finally started this game at the end of this summer and finished it with no technical issue at all.
It was great and I wanted to play the DLCs so I decided to buy the Ultimate Edition on GOG and to replay from the beginning.
When I reached the "Old Friends" mission, I went to NSC Energy Converters, started the fight with Hiss-corrupted Remus and I stupidly died at the last moment. After the game reloaded, Remus did never re-spawn at NSC Energy Converters despite the mission was not completed.
It seems to be a recurring issue but sadly, the developers haven't patched it (and probably won't, not everybody is CD Projekt...) and Internet didn't help this time.
Since the issue appeared only after some state in my game, I tried to fix my save. After that, Remus successfully re-spawn for me with the GOG Ultimate Edition (latest version on September 2024). Not sure if the fix is reproducible but I wanted to share it anyway for those who would want a potential solution.
Disclaimer: don't try this unless you're aware of the risks and assume it by your own:
- This could corrupt your game save
- This could corrupt you game
- This could leak the Hiss to our world
- ...
Requirements:
- The mission "Old Friends" should be activated/listed in your missions
- Knowledge where to find your Control save files on PC
- Basic knowledge with hexadecimal editing (I used HxD for example but you can of course use your preferred hex editor)
Procedure:
[Preparation]
- Save your game at somewhere else than the Maintenance, I saved at Central Executive (not sure this really matters)
- Backup your save files!
- By precaution, temporary disable cloud saves with GOG
[Reset Remus status]
- Open the file "savegame-slot-00_maintenance" with a hexadecimal editor
- Find the text "äÚü1þÿãP" (E4 DA FC 31 FE). There should be only one occurrence.
- The byte before should have the value 01 (probably meaning Remus is considered as defeated), set it to 00.
[The tricky part, compute and update the checksum of the data]
- If you use HxD:
> Select bytes from offset 0x0C to the end of file
> Compute the checksum with Analysis > Checksums :
* Available algorithms: Select CRC-32
* Scope: Check "Selected data"
* Click on OK
> The checksum will be displayed in a panel at the bottom of the main window, note it
- If you use other tool than HxD:
> Checksum the bytes from offset 0x0C to the end of the file "savegame-slot-00_maintenance" with your preferred method and note it
- Update bytes from offset 0x08 to 0x0B (4 bytes) with your CRC32 in the reverse order of the bytes (example: if your CRC32 is "3A78D82D", then update with: 0x08=2D, 0x09=D8, 0x0A=78, 0x0B=3A)
- Save the file
[Close your eyes and pray]
- Load and try your save to check if Remus re-spawn
- If it doesn't work, sorry, I cannot help more. Restore your config and your save from backup.
Hope this could be useful to someone.
It was great and I wanted to play the DLCs so I decided to buy the Ultimate Edition on GOG and to replay from the beginning.
When I reached the "Old Friends" mission, I went to NSC Energy Converters, started the fight with Hiss-corrupted Remus and I stupidly died at the last moment. After the game reloaded, Remus did never re-spawn at NSC Energy Converters despite the mission was not completed.
It seems to be a recurring issue but sadly, the developers haven't patched it (and probably won't, not everybody is CD Projekt...) and Internet didn't help this time.
Since the issue appeared only after some state in my game, I tried to fix my save. After that, Remus successfully re-spawn for me with the GOG Ultimate Edition (latest version on September 2024). Not sure if the fix is reproducible but I wanted to share it anyway for those who would want a potential solution.
Disclaimer: don't try this unless you're aware of the risks and assume it by your own:
- This could corrupt your game save
- This could corrupt you game
- This could leak the Hiss to our world
- ...
Requirements:
- The mission "Old Friends" should be activated/listed in your missions
- Knowledge where to find your Control save files on PC
- Basic knowledge with hexadecimal editing (I used HxD for example but you can of course use your preferred hex editor)
Procedure:
[Preparation]
- Save your game at somewhere else than the Maintenance, I saved at Central Executive (not sure this really matters)
- Backup your save files!
- By precaution, temporary disable cloud saves with GOG
[Reset Remus status]
- Open the file "savegame-slot-00_maintenance" with a hexadecimal editor
- Find the text "äÚü1þÿãP" (E4 DA FC 31 FE). There should be only one occurrence.
- The byte before should have the value 01 (probably meaning Remus is considered as defeated), set it to 00.
[The tricky part, compute and update the checksum of the data]
- If you use HxD:
> Select bytes from offset 0x0C to the end of file
> Compute the checksum with Analysis > Checksums :
* Available algorithms: Select CRC-32
* Scope: Check "Selected data"
* Click on OK
> The checksum will be displayed in a panel at the bottom of the main window, note it
- If you use other tool than HxD:
> Checksum the bytes from offset 0x0C to the end of the file "savegame-slot-00_maintenance" with your preferred method and note it
- Update bytes from offset 0x08 to 0x0B (4 bytes) with your CRC32 in the reverse order of the bytes (example: if your CRC32 is "3A78D82D", then update with: 0x08=2D, 0x09=D8, 0x0A=78, 0x0B=3A)
- Save the file
[Close your eyes and pray]
- Load and try your save to check if Remus re-spawn
- If it doesn't work, sorry, I cannot help more. Restore your config and your save from backup.
Hope this could be useful to someone.