Challenge Mode Disabled?

[tem316]

Have created and tried two Challenge Seasons. Game has not disabled option to be Commissioner or Cannot be fired from start screen. Is this a bug or intentional?

[Matt Arnold]

What type of game were you going to play? New Standard game, offseason start, historical game, etc..?

[tem316]

Originally Posted by Matt Arnold

What type of game were you going to play? New Standard game, offseason start, historical game, etc..?

Standard Game

[takao]

Originally Posted by Matt Arnold

What type of game were you going to play? New Standard game, offseason start, historical game, etc..?

I can confirm this is the case for me as well. Happened on the beta client and I assumed it was intentionally disabled, but it's on the live release, too. It happens both on a New Standard game and also an offseason start. I have only MLB enabled (the default option).

I'm not going to be able to play the game until it's fixed since I won't be able to resist commissioner mode shenanigans so this is a pretty big priority issue for me.

[Matt Arnold]

Originally Posted by takao

I can confirm this is the case for me as well. Happened on the beta client and I assumed it was intentionally disabled, but it's on the live release, too. It happens both on a New Standard game and also an offseason start. I have only MLB enabled (the default option).

I'm not going to be able to play the game until it's fixed since I won't be able to resist commissioner mode shenanigans so this is a pretty big priority issue for me.

I would suggest to make sure your game has the correct data downloaded for your version, and that the local files are updated correctly. If the game detects that the template file it is loading is not in sync with the game file, then it doesn't enable challenge mode.

[takao]

I went ahead and redownloaded the game fresh (deleted files, etc). I'm still getting issues with Challenge Mode not getting enabled.

My installer is the fresh one from the release thread here: https://forums.ootpdevelopments.com/...d.php?t=361279

[takao]

Originally Posted by takao

I went ahead and redownloaded the game fresh (deleted files, etc). I'm still getting issues with Challenge Mode not getting enabled.

My installer is the fresh one from the release thread here: https://forums.ootpdevelopments.com/...d.php?t=361279

I went ahead and deleted *everything* again manually, reinstalled, etc. I've attached a screenshot of what happens after I can select my team; note that I've selected the option to enable Challenge Mode prior to this, yet the "Play in Commissioner Mode" option is available.

[takao]

Looks like this is a bug leftover from the beta: https://forums.ootpdevelopments.com/...d.php?t=361148

I'm unable to start my long-term save with challenge mode disabled, so hopefully this is fixed soon.

[Lukas Berger]

You may need to refresh your data with the data from the new patch. This is always a good idea to do after installing a new build, especially if you're using a custom data folder as for some reason in certain cases the new data may not get copied correctly.

Go to settings > troubleshooting > force reinstall game data. You should be able to play in Challenge Mode after that.

[ftedan0702]

Same. Uninstalled, deleted everything I could find, even searched to make sure no ootp files were left. Reinstalled and no challenge mode. Same as screenshot above.

[takao]

Originally Posted by Lukas Berger

You may need to refresh your data with the data from the new patch. This is always a good idea to do after installing a new build, especially if you're using a custom data folder as for some reason in certain cases the new data may not get copied correctly.

Go to settings > troubleshooting > force reinstall game data. You should be able to play in Challenge Mode after that.

I did this, it did not work.

I uninstalled the full game, nuked the game from my PC entirely (manually searching to see if any game files were leftover), then installed the game again. That did not work, either.

Multiple people have had this issue. If there is something I'm doing incorrectly, I'd love to know so I can fix the issue, but it appears that it's not on the user side.

I'm getting increasingly frustrated because it appears that rather than looking into this problem, the bug is being passed onto users as though it's our fault when we've (at least, I've) done everything asked *and gone above and beyond* to try to fix it.

[LansdowneSt]

Build 39 (Steam) looks like this for me in a Standard MLB 2025 Game.

Can you look at the bottom of the Start Screen for the build number?

I know it seems like he's not acknowledging the bug, but it may be fixed in the version he has so he, as I tried to, can't replicate it hence the additional questions. I know it's frustrating, but it is a sincere attempt to find commonalities or other things in other people's set ups that are different. That's all.

[takao]

Originally Posted by LansdowneSt

Build 39 (Steam) looks like this for me in a Standard MLB 2025 Game.

Can you look at the bottom of the Start Screen for the build number?

I know it seems like he's not acknowledging the bug, but it may be fixed in the version he has so he, as I tried to, can't replicate it hence the additional questions. I know it's frustrating, but it is a sincere attempt to find commonalities or other things in other people's set ups that are different. That's all.

Build 39, from the executable provided in the thread I linked earlier in this thread (AKA, the release launch thread). I also provided a screenshot earlier showing my build number (release 26.1, build 39). I'm not a steam user this year, but I imagine it should be identical to the steam version.

If there's something I'm doing wrong, I'm asking for additional information so I can do something about it. I've also explained the steps that I've taken.

One piece of information that I hadn't provided is that I'm not using the default installation location, I'm using a different drive for this game. That *shouldn't* be impacting the situation unless it's hard-coded to search for templates in the default location, but I imagine there would be other issues if that were the case.

[Lukas Berger]

Originally Posted by takao

I'm getting increasingly frustrated because it appears that rather than looking into this problem, the bug is being passed onto users as though it's our fault when we've (at least, I've) done everything asked *and gone above and beyond* to try to fix it.

It takes more energy for me to reply to you here multiple times than it does for me to update a bug report or talk with one of the devs once. It also takes Matt more effort to reply to you twice than to fix any bug here himself.

So we gain nothing by 'passing this on' to you.

Put simply, we fixed this in the release version. So it should work.

Of course, it's always possible a fix did not take.

But what's much more likely is that data did not update properly on the user's (your) end for multiple reasons, out of your and our control. So we'll give you advice based on the probabilities of what is the most likely source of the issue.

If you cannot get things working correctly even after applying the most likely solutions though, then you simply need to tell us that, and then we will look at things on our end again.

[Lukas Berger]

Originally Posted by takao

One piece of information that I hadn't provided is that I'm not using the default installation location, I'm using a different drive for this game. That *shouldn't* be impacting the situation unless it's hard-coded to search for templates in the default location, but I imagine there would be other issues if that were the case.

Actually this is a pretty important piece of information, as it increases the chances that your data files are not getting properly installed. This is something else we are looking into, but is a pretty complex issue.

This is why it's crucial to run the settings > troubleshooting > force reinstall game data step I suggested above, as that should fix this if that's the source of the problem. Uninstalling and reinstalling will not, for whatever reason.

[LansdowneSt]

Lukas,

My Steam build has Challenge Mode working when selected.

My FastSpring, same build, current 26.1 b39 does NOT.

EDIT: Force reinstallation in Troubleshooting did not resolve, but at least you can isolate it to the Fast Spring build.

[takao]

Originally Posted by Lukas Berger

Actually this is a pretty important piece of information, as it increases the chances that your data files are not getting properly installed. This is something else we are looking into, but is a pretty complex issue.

This is why it's crucial to run the settings > troubleshooting > force reinstall game data step I suggested above, as that should fix this if that's the source of the problem. Uninstalling and reinstalling will not, for whatever reason.

As previously mentioned, I followed your instructions to reinstall the game data via the settings -> troubleshooting menu. It did not fix the issue. Installing the game to a different drive *is* an added variable, but is unlikely to be the issue given that this is the only problem I've faced; none of the normal games i've ran outside of Challenge Mode have had any issues generating players, etc.

I understand that you're understaffed, but repeating the same suggestions that I've already attempted is very frustrating to deal with. I don't mean that to disparage your efforts, but rather to explain why my tone may have gotten increasingly irritated.

[takao]

Originally Posted by LansdowneSt

Lukas,

My Steam build has Challenge Mode working when selected.

My FastSpring, same build, current 26.1 b39 does NOT.

EDIT: Force reinstallation in Troubleshooting did not resolve, but at least you can isolate it to the Fast Spring build.

I wasn't able to test this before since I only had access to the Fast Spring build, but it was what I had suspected to be the case. Thanks for looking into it and providing additional information to Lukas and the rest of the team.

[breigns]

I am getting this issue as well. I did the force re-install as suggested above. On the latest build. I start a standard game and select the challenge mode option, however it does not work.

Non steam version on PC if that's helpful. Maybe an issue between the steam version and non-steam version somehow?

[LansdowneSt]

Yeah, it looks isolated to the Fast Spring version. Hopefully it will be in the next build, esp now that they have some additional info to work with.