darkSpyro

I've read here on Dark Spyro and on the Activision site that the figures do not constantly save, so to leave them on the portal for a moment after picking up gold or buying upgrades to make sure that they save, but I think I may have a greater issue that mere impatience.

It seems that maybe 25% of the sessions we play (Wii version, wired portal that came with Giants), a figure will fail to save... a LOT.

For instance, we got Thump Back and played him for the first time. Played a couple of levels with him, bought 4 or 5 upgrades and got him leveled up to level 7 over a period of maybe 30 minutes and he was never remove from the portal during this time. THEN we took him off the portal to switch characters in order to open an elemental gate and when we put him back on, less than 1 minute later, he was back to level 1 and had lost every upgrade we had purchased. He had save a LITTLE experience (maybe 25% of the experience bar was full, but still on level 1), so he had saved at least once, but it wasn't a matter of needing to leave him on longer... he was on there for 30 minutes or more and several levels gained.

Then the next day, we played with Thump Back and he had no problem saving.

It's not just Thumpy that does this, so that figure isn't to blame. This has happened with many figures, S1 Stealth Elf, Legendary Stealth Elf, Wham Shell, Legendary Bouncer and others.

I've been trying to see if there is any rhyme or reason to it, and I can't see a pattern (i.e. whether we play single or multiplayer, whether there are light core figures on the portal or magic items, etc). I thought maybe if the portal wasn't putting out enough current when I had 2 light core/giants to power the LEDs and save, but I'm pretty sure that's not it. Then it seemed like maybe it happened when we had a magic item or sidekick on the portal, but I ruled that out as well.

Is there any tip or trick that might help? Such as a way to FORCE a figure save manually, or at least verify that they save before removing them from the portal? I tried changing hats on the character thinking that would initiate a save, but that has not guaranteed that they save, either. It seems that it would have been easy for TFB to add a menu item like the Reset one, but one that would just force an immediate save.

The portal is plugged directly in to our Wii, it's not using an extension or anything in between that could be causing interference and the portal is always in the same place (on the floor in front of our entertainment center).

I'd love any tips. Is it worth calling Activision in case my Portal is flaking out? I don't have another Portal to try, because our only other portals are for the 3DS and we have no friends who play Skylanders.

What makes this even more frustrating is that the characters will save the fact that their money was spent on the upgrades, but the upgrades don't save to the character. So my son will spend time earning money, buy upgrades, switch characters 10 or 20 minutes later and the next time, the figure will have lost the upgrades, but have very little money because it managed to save the changes to their "wallet".

use a wired portal. those never fail to read the figure.

Hmm... Sounds like a portal issue. If I remember correctly, you can use the 3DS portal on consoles - I don't even know how since I don't own it yourself, but I'm sure someone else will.

Quote: X-Treme

use a wired portal. those never fail to read the figure.

They are using the wired portal.

Quote: [url=http://forum.darkspyro.net/spyro/viewposts.php?topic=72194&post=3988360

They are using the wired portal.

Correct. This is a WIRED portal that game with Giants for Wii. Also, it's the "normal" one, not the glow in the dark portal from Wal-Mart.

oops, sorry, i would try blowing off the bottom of the skylanders base? it heps my cousins.

Quote: X-Treme

oops, sorry, i would try blowing off the bottom of the skylanders base? it heps my cousins.

You just gave me flashbacks of playing NES games after school. Had to blow on just about every cartridge to get them to work. Good old days!

thats what i have to do with gba games.......

It sounds like you may have dead spots on your portal. Do you have any other Portal or able to borrow a Portal to rule out your own Portal being faulty?

Failing the above you could always try using your character on different areas of the Portal, collecting some gold, wait three seconds, remove the figure and see does it remember the collected gold. Keep trying this on different parts of the portal to figure out where it is saving and where it is not.

If all else fails you can always contact Activision and they can replace either the figure or the Portal.

Quote: Buzzthebatgirl

It sounds like you may have dead spots on your portal.

That's what I suspect, it would explain the inconsistency, however, I don't really know how the portals are built and I assumed that they didn't have multiple sensors or "zones" that could be good/bad independently.

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Do you have any other Portal or able to borrow a Portal to rule out your own Portal being faulty?

Nope.

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Failing the above you could always try using your character on different areas of the Portal, collecting some gold, wait three seconds, remove the figure and see does it remember the collected gold. Keep trying this on different parts of the portal to figure out where it is saving and where it is not.

That sounds like a lot of work when there is nothing I could do to fix it, so I guess I'll just have to...

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...contact Activision and they can replace either the figure or the Portal.

Hopefully they don't give me a hard time about it.

They wouldn't and shouldn't, especially when they know it happens. Do bear in mind it may take a while for a replacement Portal to be sent out to you.

Thanks. I will call them after I get off of work since I don't know how long the hold time will be.

I like your hat, by the way.

I think it's more likely a software problem in Giants or a problem with the Giants figures than a portal issue.

I just got both S:SA and Giants about a month before Christmas and have been playing them nonstop. I've been using the wireless portal the whole time. In S:SA, I now have 3-starred all 26 levels, all 37 S:SA figures at level 10 with full upgrades, and I have only 5 characters left to max out on heroic challenges. In all that time, I've had absolutely no problems with everything being saved properly to the figures.

In Giants, I'm only halfway through the story, have only a handful of characters who have progressed enough to choose a path, and have only done the speed challenges on the giants. Despite only having put a fraction of the time into Giants that I've put into S:SA, I've already found several instances of data not being saved properly. This is despite playing the same way in the same location in the same time frame on the same system (Wii) with the same portal. The only differences are the game software and the fact that I've been using Giants figures rather than S:SA figures.

I haven't used my S:SA figures in the Giants game or vice versa enough to get any feel for whether it's the software or the figures causing the problems.

I called Activision and he said they will replace the portal if the problem persists, but first to make sure it is "at least 4 feet away" from ALL other electronics, including the Wii console. He said it is okay to use a USB extension cable to facilitate this. So, I'll try that and see if the problem goes away. If not, he said to call back and they will ship me a new portal.

I also asked exactly how long it waits in between figure saves and he told me it will attempt to save every 30 seconds as well as when you come across a cinematic in game or change your hat.

So, changing hats really is the way to "force" a save manually.

Also, to my surprise there was zero hold time once I got through their phone menu system and he was very friendly, so that was nice.