"Caucasus" and "Victors and Vanquished" Campaigns Reset Upon Reinstall

Age of Empires II: DE II - Report a Bug
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Hey HE1NZz,

Great to hear you got your Victors and Vanquished and Caucasus progress back! Steam’s sync logic can be a bit confusing, so here’s a step-by-step that should let you restore your Player.nfp and keep Steam Cloud on without losing it again:

What’s happening under the hood

  • Microsoft/Relic servers store most campaign progress (e.g. Three Kingdoms missions—but, due to an oversight, not Victors and Vanquished).
  • Steam Cloud holds your Player.nfp, recent savegames, hotkeys, options, etc.
  • When you launch AoE II DE with Cloud enabled, Steam compares its “online” copy of Player.nfp to the locally cached one, syncs them, and then overwrites the copy in your Games folder under your user profile.

Where your files live

  1. Online Cloud copy (viewable in your browser after you log in):
    View Steam Cloud for AoE II DE
    You should see Player.nfp with a timestamp.

  2. Offline Cloud folder (Steam’s local cache):

    C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\userdata\<YourSteamID>\813780\remote\Player.nfp

  3. Game profile folder (where AoE II DE actually reads/writes):

    <UserProfile>\Games\Age of Empires 2 DE\<long-number-folder>\profile\Player.nfp

Foolproof restore with Cloud still enabled

  1. Exit AoE II DE.
  2. Disable Steam Cloud for AoE II DE:
    In Steam: right-click the game → Properties → General → uncheck Enable Steam Cloud.
  3. Backup both copies of Player.nfp:
    i) The one in your Game profile folder
    ii) The one in Steam’s offline Cloud folder (…\userdata\…\813780\remote\Player.nfp)
  4. Copy your “good” Player.nfp (with Victors and Vanquished & Caucasus progress) to both locations:
    i) Overwrite <UserProfile>\…\profile\Player.nfp
    ii) Overwrite …\Steam\userdata\…\813780\remote\Player.nfp
  5. Re-enable Steam Cloud in Steam’s Properties for AoE II DE.
  6. Launch the game. Steam will detect the mismatch and prompt you to choose “Cloud” or “Local”—select “Local.”
  7. Enjoy your restored progress, and Steam Cloud will stay in sync going forward.

This forces Steam to upload your edited file as the new cloud copy, so future launches preserve it. Let me know if you run into any more sync conflicts!

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