WARNING: TES Online Install Deletes Files

TheMadGamer

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I picked up TES:Online today. Installed it to a folder on my D: drive, in a folder called 'Games' where I install all my games. Next thing I know, every folder in the games folder is gone, except, of course, TES Online files which are installing now.

A quick Google corroborates my situation here. Be careful of how you install this game.

Now, not only do I get to wait around installing TES Online and who knows how long patching will take after I install it. But now I get to do the same thing for all my other games that were wiped out. Hope this is not the beginning of bad MMORPG experience...
 
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Excuse me?!
An installer deletes files (and possibly folders) that it didn't install previously - without a question do you want it to do that?!

Sorry, but that's a classic malware.
 
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Ouch. Reminds me of the infamous hard drive wiping PoR:RoMD bug from 2001.

Yeah... you'd think by now bugs like this wouldn't happen anymore. You know... 30 odd years now of a fairly standardized consumer file system... this is really irritating.

On the flip side, I have a very recent backup and I will at least be able to restore my files instead of having to reinstall them. But still, this is a nasty one. My files were deleted... gone... zapped... no recycle bin... no second chance. Just totally erased.
 
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Excuse me?!
An installer deletes files (and possibly folders) that it didn't install previously - without a question do you want it to do that?!

That's exactly what happened. Unbelievable really.
 
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So you should install into an empty folder? Most installers create their own empty folder for installation. Odd….

Yes, apparently the TESO team couldn't be bothered with such modern conveniences. Perhaps they're trying to let us know what an old skool hardcore gaming experience it will be.
 
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So you should install into an empty folder? Most installers create their own empty folder for installation. Odd….

Here is exactly what I did.

First, I told the installer to install to the following location:

D:\Games\TES Online

I created the TES Online folder in advance of running the installer because I can never be sure if an installer is going to create a sub-folder or not - usually they do but not always.

While the game was installing, I looked to see what was going on and found the installer had created this:

D\Games\TES Online\The Elder Scrolls

However, the installer does not show that it is going to create the folder 'The Elder Scrolls' before you start installing.

So I cancelled the install, deleted the folders and files the installer created to that point, and then re-ran the installer, this time installing to:

D:\Games

I then clicked ok to install, and then looked at what was going on... Once again the installer created:

D:\Games\The Elder Scrolls

This is just fine. However, by that time the installer had deleted every other folder for other games in D:\Games which is, well, quite bad.

Had I just been less OCD and let the game just install to D:\Games\TES Online\The Elder Scrolls as it would have on my first attempt, I would have been fine because the installer would have focused starting at TES Online but no, I could not stand to have the redundant folder I created 'TES Online' hence the wipeout.

Anyway, I'm restoring all my files and I will be back to normal soon. But still, this is terrible and I'm surprised this hasn't created much more press on the net.
 
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What a strange and terrible bug. Should be easy enough to patch by punching whoever wrote the installer script then telling their new replacement to do it right this time. Unless you have volume shadow copy/previous versions enabled for that directory then rolling back might be a pain. If you DO have volume shadow copy/previous versions enabled in Win 7 or 8 then you might just be able to roll back and restore all the deleted directories.

I have a program files and program files (x86) directory on my second drive and that's where I installed it. Didn't delete anything so I'm guessing the bug in the installer script causes it to misbehave with installation directories that don't fit the template? Or maybe it was because the beta had already created a zenimax online directory there for me.

I had installed it to two different locations during the beta - including a "d:\games\ESO\" path and it managed to do it without wiping anything. I wonder if it's just the installer with the retail copies?
 
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I guess the are going ban happy too. This is my favorite part of TESO-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLBHjwCw088

That is hilarious. What great design.

You just really cannot trust any game developer who uses lists instead of an actual inventory GUI to do things competently. I guess its fine for a SP game where the community can fix your crap with mods, but not in an MMO. I'm glad I trusted my instincts and said, "if even indie games can put a civilized inventory into their games, and this game has a list, for an inventory like it is 1987, how can you expect them to have gotten anything right?"
 
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Why would you cancel install? From my experience cancelling install while it is running is never a good idea. Checking install folders while install is running is also a bad idea in my experience. Many installers say: close all programs while install is running. I guess a lot of people inores it, but this warning is there anyway.
 
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Why would you cancel install? From my experience cancelling install while it is running is never a good idea.

In nearly 20 years using Windows I've never had a problem canceling an install. Maybe I've just been lucky.

Checking install folders while install is running is also a bad idea in my experience.

I do this all the time. It's never been an issue for me before.

I've had plenty of problems with the Windows Operating System ever since... what was it... 3.1? But not ever the above two things you warn me about.
 
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Very unfortunate bug, true.

But it's no more a part of the actual game than the uninstall bug from PoR was. PoR was terrible, true, but relating issues from the install software to the quality of the game is a sign of ignorance.
 
Offtopic:
About 20 years ago I worked as a programmer. In my spare time I tried to create my own small programs. I had an idea to make a good archive utility like ZIP. It was a nice challenge. I began to work on it, but very soon I realized that I'm not going to make it. It was not a problem of creating a compression algorithm. It was an interface problem. If you look at the command line of any archiver you'll see dozens of options. I tried to take in my archiver all these options as well. It meant dozens of hours of programming just to get all command line parameters right. I had to control every parameter against all kind of incorrect usage. It was not fun. It was mundain. I broke. I could not force myself to work on an utility where 90% of my time I must spend on terrible thing called "control and correct user input errors". I wanted to make nice archiver, I did not want work on command line interpreter.

It's the same with ESO or any other game. You want to make a nice game. You surely don't want to spend your time trying to make an installer that will be 100% proof from user's errors (ok, not erros, but let's say, unexpected and unpredictable behaviour). I believe that making installer is often done by the external company, but it does not take your pain away I think.
 
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More than likely, the actual game development team has nothing to do with the software used to install the game. Just like they don't have anything to do with marketing or the web site. Well, if they do - it's minimal.

That said, it's not uncommon to have people see things as one big entity. It's kinda like the American way - where the poor grocery boy is blamed for every decision made from the top - and the customer is always right.

Just like people will bitch and moan to the people answering the phone in technical support, even if they have absolutely nothing to do with causing an issue.

People don't impress when it comes to rational and fair behavior. It's easier to lash out than to be reasonable.
 
I could not force myself to work on an utility where 90% of my time I must spend on terrible thing called "control and correct user input errors".

I'm sure many of us here feel your pain. For me, I'd say its around 25% of my time, maybe less but only because I've been doing this stuff for many years now. Dumb UI usage mistakes by me do get missed from time to time tho.
 
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