darkSpyro

I just started up the game and went through the process of putting all my toys on the portal. I then looked through my collection pages. I noticed something strange: The Platinum Treasure Chest item is listed. However, it didn't register my Platinum treasure chest I have from the Battle Grounds Pack (the one that came out with Giants). I double checked too. The Platinum Treasure Chest shows up as "Hidden Treasure" in game still. This bugs me, does anyone have any idea whats going on with this?

Which platform, SoulfulWolf? I was planning a bulk load on 360 later.

It looks like something they didn't fully test. The game expects to read the plat chest as "Special", but the flag was never added to the item. As a result unless they patch it or you hack the game, it won't get counted since to the game it's just a regular Hidden Treasure item.

Quote: jdavplay

Which platform, SoulfulWolf? I was planning a bulk load on 360 later.

Xbox 360 (Dark Edition).

same for wii U dark Edition.

Btw, whats the difference between the regular and the platinum chest??

Quote: Takadox360

Btw, whats the difference between the regular and the platinum chest??

Coloring and what pack they come in (Battlegrounds or Pirate Seas).

Quote: Kung Fu Man

It looks like something they didn't fully test. The game expects to read the plat chest as "Special", but the flag was never added to the item. As a result unless they patch it or you hack the game, it won't get counted since to the game it's just a regular Hidden Treasure item.

Is that even something that can be patched (if the figure is missing the flag rather than this being a problem with the game's code)? Or would any "patch" just have to remove the item entirely?

Tried making that the first item i tossed on my 360 portal, made no difference. Bummer.

Original treasure chest, best treasure chest. Raise your treasure.

Quote: HamsterExAstris

Is that even something that can be patched (if the figure is missing the flag rather than this being a problem with the game's code)? Or would any "patch" just have to remove the item entirely?

Probably the latter, as the item has no Special flag so the game is behaving properly, it just can't tell that you put it on there. Frankly having the game give a list of items in this manner is a terrible idea but I digress.

We have a saying in IT testing....


"Working As Designed".

Move Along.

i called activision and they said no fix for this is available at this time.

It's kind of funny because it means during the tests they never actually tried to register all the stuffs they made so far and see if everything works fine or not. I guess it wouldn't take longer than 1-2 hours, and it's kind of an important feature to people who paid an insane amount of money for these toys. IMO it's a really-really silly mistake, I love the franchise, but sometimes Activision and others working on the game seems to be easy-going about little details. (I don't have the Platinum Treasure Chest nor a nearly complete collection at all, but I have some sort of OCD, and my eye would start twitching If some of the stuff I have wouldn't work in the game properly, so I feel for you guys.)

Well that's lame, I don't mind if it's a glitch. but if there making a NEW platinum treasure chest and shunning the old one I'm going to be kinda sad royal double trouble and platinum chest costed like 40$'s

Quote: Kung Fu Man

Quote: HamsterExAstris

Is that even something that can be patched (if the figure is missing the flag rather than this being a problem with the game's code)? Or would any "patch" just have to remove the item entirely?

Probably the latter, as the item has no Special flag so the game is behaving properly, it just can't tell that you put it on there. Frankly having the game give a list of items in this manner is a terrible idea but I digress.

ACTUALLY it DOES have a "special flag" in the chip which it's not even a special flag what it is is the chip itself actually IS readable as Platnium Chest because if it didn't then it WOULDN'T work for what it's intended to do in battlegrounds because in THAT game it unlocks a TON of content automatically which is awesome so actually it's written in the video games code to think it's a regular chest like in giants think of it this way the lightcore figures on the box says that they don't work with previous games that they are listed in well that's techincally wrong and right because actually you CAN use lightcore characters in previous games as long as they are programed in the game they just wont have there "lightcore" effect which makes them not playable in THAT sense so again it's all about what's in the game code not the figure chip itself and to the person asking what the difference is between the two different chests is that not only does it look different and come in from different packs but it also unlocks stuff in battlegrounds so yes it IS fixable with a patch to bad activavision is anti skylander patches otherwise a TON of glitches and bugs would have been fixed for Spyro's Adventure and Giants

it's like how in spyro's adventure for the 3ds you could already jump WAYYYY before swapforce or the fact that you CAN jump with previous figures in Swapforce and not ONLY new swapforce characters

or the skill and playstyle differences in the 3ds version vs the console version all the chip inside does is unlock characters in games and store a very tiny bit of data for other games to read that's it and as long as the code within the game is programed to read that data then it'll pick it up otherwise if it can read Partual of that data then YES it WILL load that partial data and not the full thing because other wise figures LIKE the plat chest and Lightcore figures wouldn't work AT ALL in the game it would think that it doesn't belong and should be removed but it doesn't do that it still plays with something that it THINKS it is that's all I have to say on that hope it was helpfull

Quote: Haseo

Well that's lame, I don't mind if it's a glitch. but if there making a NEW platinum treasure chest and shunning the old one I'm going to be kinda sad royal double trouble and platinum chest costed like 40$'s

don't forget the MOST IMPORTANT piece of that bundle was NOT royal double trouble nor the chest but the BLUETOOTH PORTAL oh boy that ALONE made the money worth it because of it's usefulness to scan in all the figures into (nearly) any activision skylander app instantly without the use of looking up hunting and imputing every single code for every figure

Quote: lidocain

It's kind of funny because it means during the tests they never actually tried to register all the stuffs they made so far and see if everything works fine or not.

This is unlikely. When a QA test a game, they make sure a game is perfectly 100% completable and unlockable, and they check that multiple times. Maybe they didn't use an actual Platinum Chest and used an object that was supposed to imitate it instead, so it was unlocking for them, but not us?

Quote: newkill

Quote: lidocain

It's kind of funny because it means during the tests they never actually tried to register all the stuffs they made so far and see if everything works fine or not.

This is unlikely. When a QA test a game, they make sure a game is perfectly 100% completable and unlockable, and they check that multiple times. Maybe they didn't use an actual Platinum Chest and used an object that was supposed to imitate it instead, so it was unlocking for them, but not us?

Your statement is unlikely, otherwise we wouldn't be in a situation like the inability to open treasure chests or complete heroics. Someone cut some corners.

The other possibility is that they found this and many other bugs, but they shipped it anyway. It happens. Nothing's perfect.

Quote: GhostRoaster

Quote: newkill

Quote: lidocain

It's kind of funny because it means during the tests they never actually tried to register all the stuffs they made so far and see if everything works fine or not.

This is unlikely. When a QA test a game, they make sure a game is perfectly 100% completable and unlockable, and they check that multiple times. Maybe they didn't use an actual Platinum Chest and used an object that was supposed to imitate it instead, so it was unlocking for them, but not us?

Your statement is unlikely, otherwise we wouldn't be in a situation like the inability to open treasure chests or complete heroics. Someone cut some corners.

The other possibility is that they found this and many other bugs, but they shipped it anyway. It happens. Nothing's perfect.

This.

In development, you test and test and test and test, but some things still slip through the cracks.

Quote: Donatron

Quote: GhostRoaster

Quote: newkill

This is unlikely. When a QA test a game, they make sure a game is perfectly 100% completable and unlockable, and they check that multiple times. Maybe they didn't use an actual Platinum Chest and used an object that was supposed to imitate it instead, so it was unlocking for them, but not us?

Your statement is unlikely, otherwise we wouldn't be in a situation like the inability to open treasure chests or complete heroics. Someone cut some corners.

The other possibility is that they found this and many other bugs, but they shipped it anyway. It happens. Nothing's perfect.

This.

In development, you test and test and test and test, but some things still slip through the cracks.

Yes, like the fact that they could have not used an actual Platinum Sheep to test the unlockability of it in the game for example

@Rubescent #17 No. If you use the regular Hidden Treasure (from Pirate Seas Adventure Pack) in Battlegrounds, it has the exact same effects as the Platinum version.

Quote: newkill

Quote: Donatron

Quote: GhostRoaster

Your statement is unlikely, otherwise we wouldn't be in a situation like the inability to open treasure chests or complete heroics. Someone cut some corners.

The other possibility is that they found this and many other bugs, but they shipped it anyway. It happens. Nothing's perfect.

This.

In development, you test and test and test and test, but some things still slip through the cracks.

Yes, like the fact that they could have not used an actual Platinum Sheep to test the unlockability of it in the game for example

Whenever introducing new code, there's always the potential of breaking something that was previously working. It's possible that they did test this -- multiple times -- and it worked every single time. But for whatever reason, it broke in one of the later builds, and they failed to test it again. Who knows? Or maybe, as mentioned earlier, it was found after one of the later builds, but considered low-priority (relative to the other bugs on the list) and wasn't able to be fixed in time. In game development, deadlines are EXTREMELY strict; even more so for those that have an annual release cycle. But again, who knows?

But the point is, nothing ever comes out perfect, regardless of how much you test. And the bigger, more complex, the software, the greater the chances of bugs. And it's very easy for the end-user to come across something and blame it on incompetence, apathy, laziness, or all of the above. Reasonable criticism shouldn't be on the Development/QA team for the existence of the bug, but rather on the executive who decided it's not worth patching.

The Platinum Hidden Treasure may not be as useful as being used only in Battlegrounds, but I like how the platinum coats the whole figure and pedestal.

Quote: Donatron

Quote: newkill

Quote: Donatron

This.

In development, you test and test and test and test, but some things still slip through the cracks.

Yes, like the fact that they could have not used an actual Platinum Sheep to test the unlockability of it in the game for example

Whenever introducing new code, there's always the potential of breaking something that was previously working. It's possible that they did test this -- multiple times -- and it worked every single time. But for whatever reason, it broke in one of the later builds, and they failed to test it again. Who knows? Or maybe, as mentioned earlier, it was found after one of the later builds, but considered low-priority (relative to the other bugs on the list) and wasn't able to be fixed in time. In game development, deadlines are EXTREMELY strict; even more so for those that have an annual release cycle. But again, who knows?

But the point is, nothing ever comes out perfect, regardless of how much you test. And the bigger, more complex, the software, the greater the chances of bugs. And it's very easy for the end-user to come across something and blame it on incompetence, apathy, laziness, or all of the above. Reasonable criticism shouldn't be on the Development/QA team for the existence of the bug, but rather on the executive who decided it's not worth patching.

Pretty much sums it up My point is simply that people shouldn't immediately jump to the conclusion that the game was poorly tested and try instead to understand why the developpers/testers were not aware of it before the game was released.

It irks me because it shows how it's being handled which is quite poorly. Imagine if it ends up a Skylander at some point. If that stance is an oh well with just an item that is suppose to work in the game already. Pretty scary how that can be handled long run.

Has anyone ever checked the games (both Giants or Swap Force) coding to see if there is anything there that could even be unlocked?
Sort of like how last year a hacker on youtube activated the Giant Kicks long before they came out?
If there is nothing, that would mean they never intended it to work differently then the regular version.
Which would mean even if they added the Special Tag to it, it would be grouped in the same category as Non-Game variants.
So the real mistake they made would be putting it in the Swap Force Inventory List, because even if it had the Special Tag it should not be there.
(this is ignoring the fact that "Platinum" is a official variant name)

They hosed consumers big time saying "this is special" but had no RFID coding to make it so. In my heart of hearts I think someone messed up the encoding of the chip, creating the "bug" we are seeing in Swap Force.

Quote: newkill

My point is simply that people shouldn't immediately jump to the conclusion that the game was poorly tested and try instead to understand why the developpers/testers were not aware of it before the game was released.

I'm not sure if there's any other way to take it. Either they tested with an "in house" item that wasn't part of the mass production run, or as I indicated the testers caught it and they ignored it. In either path, consumers are unhappy. Interestingly I remember this being a big discussion data point in Giants here so unless they don't monitor this web site they HAD to have known the problem. It's a major buzz kill for me as I was looking forward to actually COMPLETING the game's achievements---all of them. This kinda puts a damper on that.

Live will move on, I guess. Keep on keeping on as Snagglescale says.

If someone used a editor program to add a special tag, what would happen?

Editing an existing platinum chest is not possible, due to the data being on a read-only portion of the tag. However, someone could code a new chip with the correct data, but that would require specialized hardware and hacking tools.

I know. i have a swap force ultimate guide and it includes all magic items. platinum treasure is not listed for giants. only dragon fire and scorpion. i mean, sure it works, but i guess it just dosent have a well known profile.
P.S; if you need help wth awnsers on swap force, PM me! i have the "cheat sheet"!

Hopefully with Skylanders 4 they'll actually release updates to fix bugs as they appear after launch.

i dont think its a bug though; what it is probably is a remade VARIANT of hidden treasure, thus being the first official magic item varient in skylanders! thats the only "most logical" explanation i could figure.

Quote: camo master

i dont think its a bug though; what it is probably is a remade VARIANT of hidden treasure, thus being the first official magic item varient in skylanders! thats the only "most logical" explanation i could figure.

Not true. The Golden Dragonfire Cannon would be the first magic item variant.

Quote: SoulfulWolf

Quote: camo master

i dont think its a bug though; what it is probably is a remade VARIANT of hidden treasure, thus being the first official magic item varient in skylanders! thats the only "most logical" explanation i could figure.

Not true. The Golden Dragonfire Cannon would be the first magic item variant.

On PS3 and Wii I was able to load both Cannons. They both show up under magic items. As variants would go I've only had trouble with Ninjini and Scarlet Ninjini on the 3DS. Mine won't recognize the Scarlett variant.

Easy universal fix would be to let us (either by patch, which is doubtful or) in the next game import character updates by web code.

We could confirm that the treasure is indeed platinum by using the first code they give you on the card that came in the starter kit, and that would change it into a platinum chest.


Another fix would be to just decode one of the unique IDs of the item when it hits the portal and check that ID against a white list of known bugged platinum chests. This worked (mostly) for Nintendo with their DSi and 3DS backwards-compatibility, and I could see it put to good use here, given that the unique IDs are somewhat sequential.

(I'd assume B.W. or Pyrofer could confirm this, but) IIRC all the problem has been is that it's just the Giant's variant flag on the toy that isn't set at all...A (non-portal, compatible) RF-ID tool could fix this on any toy too.

well my manuel only covers wii, wii-U, PS3, x-box 360, and thats all. mabye different consle=different result? well, in any case, ill keep my eyes on this topic, just in case...

BTW: golden dragonfire wasent listed either, so...

Sucks that i spent money to complete me and my 4 year old sons collection on the game and it wont register as us owning it.

Hard for me to explain to him when he is asking "why its not showing?"..... And his disappointment when we look at the in game collection and he sees it darkened.

Has anyone contacted Activision about this? Or whoever is in charge or of this kind of thing

They arent going to do anything. They barely "fixed" the wii. L Chopchop never got fixed for giants and this will never get fixed for swapforce. Maybe if they ever reported the original games. I wonder what the next big glitch will be for the 4th

Quote: shadowfox

They arent going to do anything. They barely "fixed" the wii. L Chopchop never got fixed for giants and this will never get fixed for swapforce. Maybe if they ever reported the original games. I wonder what the next big glitch will be for the 4th

Hopefully the 4th drops the wii, this way they could potentially patch any bugs after as the wii had issues with this that the wii u doesnt, however alot of ppl still have a wii so idk if they will drop it just yet.