[Bug] Some platform rewards refuse to show up as unlocked

[Hoshti]

Summary

Cannot unlock ENT_BOLTCASTER ENT_PHOCORE ENT_XO_HELMET platform reward items.

Confirm the following statements

• I have checked that this issue is relevant to the latest release of NMSE.
• I have searched the issue tracker and found no duplicate.
• I have searched the documentation and found nothing matching this issue.
• This issue contains only one bug report.
• I have read and agree to follow the code of conduct.

Description

Only TGA_SHIP01
and SW_Preorder items stay in the MXML during the time I load the save

ENT_BOLTCASTER
ENT_PHOCORE
ENT_XO_HELMET

Get removed as soon as I start loading my save.

I am launching the game in offline mode and the device has no access to the internet.

Then even before I load into the game I save with the save editor and reload the save immediately, but still nothing new shows up and the Quicksilver vendor.

Oddly enough the platform rewards for TGA_SHIP and SW_Preorder rewards have a high likely hood of being active while online as well, only dissappearing after around 10-15 minutes into the session.

Expected behavior

Expected behaviour is for all 6 items to show up as unlocked at the Quikcsilver vendor under Collect Special Rewards, while the game is started offline and remains offline.

Steps to reproduce

1. Edit save and required MXML file
2. Launch the game without internet connection
3. Load the affected safe file
4. Refresh the savefile during loading in the NMSE app, reapply unlock changes and save before loading into the game
5. Approach Quicksilver vendorA
6. Get Nothing

Environment

OS: Windows 11
Game Version: 7.0.3
Platform: Steam

Acceptance criteria

• The 3 items must become unlockable like the others

Additional information

No additional information available from me, though I can gather whatever might be needed when requested.

[vectorcmdr]

Thanks for reporting the issue!
As discussed on the Discord, something seems to have caused the incorrect ID to fall-through to the Id value at extraction on the new game update. I'll need to check out NMSE.Extractor routing for the rewards table and see what has happened.

[Hoshti]

If you need me to provide any kind of game files do let me know, as I'd be happy to help.

[radialmonster]

Followed up on this by actually running NMSE.Extractor against a current install (Steam buildid 25351301, updated today) to check the extraction step directly rather than guessing.

Traced the current REWARDTABLE.MXML EntitlementTable entries for all three:

RewardId="ENT_BOLTCASTER"  -> Reward="GcRewardSpecificTech"    -> TechId="BOLT_SM"
RewardId="ENT_PHOCORE"     -> Reward="GcRewardSpecificTech"    -> TechId="PHOTONIX_CORE"
RewardId="ENT_XO_HELMET"   -> Reward="GcRewardSpecificSpecial" -> ID="SPEC_XOHELMET"

Running that through the current entitlement-parsing logic in Parsers.cs (ParseRewards), all three resolve correctly - RewardId and ProductId both come out right, matching exactly what's already shipped in Resources/json/Rewards.json. No ID collision in either subtree, and none of these three IDs show up in unlockableplatformrewards.MXML either, so it's not a platform/entitlement table mixup.

So with today's live data, the extraction step itself looks correct for these three - I don't think "wrong ID falling through at extraction" is what's actually happening (at least not anymore, if it ever was). Whatever's stripping them might be somewhere else - save-loading/validation rather than the reward database itself - or possibly already resolved by a hotfix since this was filed. Not confident enough to point at a specific fix, but wanted to share the ruled-out path in case it saves you from re-checking extraction.

(Side note, unrelated to this bug: SteamLocator only checks the primary Steam library - had to junction my secondary library's NMS folder into the primary one to get the extractor to find it at all. Happy to file that separately if useful.)

[Hoshti]

Thank you for looking into the issue with such speed and dedication.

As I've mentioned on one of the previous discord posts. I have tried making both Account hg and the required MXML to read only, before even launching the game offline.

However, that also didn't resolve the issue as the rewards wouldn't show up at the Quicksilver vendor in the Claim Special Rewards option, nor did it appear anywhere else.

Which leads me to believe that there is some kind of save validation going on that is invalidating the 3 rewards no matter what. So the stripping of the file is for the most part cosmetic and there is likely another check that occurs for those particular rewards.

Additionally I could potentially try copying the edited files onto a steam deck and seeing if that would affect anything at all.

Also as I've mentioned I was able to bypass the issue, by using mods, and equipping or learning those items, and then adding the entries to unlockedspecials or seentechnologies categories by their IDs rather than rewardIDs.

EDIT: I tried on the new hotfix version 7.03.1 the issue still occurs.

When I select the save and press reload in the save editor immediately after all the Platform rewards become Locked (Unlocked is unchecked). Then when I reselect the MXML, it only shows that the SW and TGA rewards are unlocked. Everything else remains locked. This happens even if I just Quit to Mode Select and reload the save.

Have you or someone been able to reproduce the issue or is it currently exclusive to me?

[radialmonster]

Thanks again for the offer to help track this down — a couple of things first, before asking you to gather files.

Do you actually hold these entitlements some other way — a specific edition, bundle, promo code, or platform purchase — separate from adding them via the save editor? Or were ENT_BOLTCASTER/ENT_PHOCORE/ENT_XO_HELMET only ever added through NMSE, with no other source backing them?

I ask because of a detail in your report: since you're testing fully offline, the instant strip on those three can't be a live server check — it'd have to be validated locally (e.g. against installed DLC/depot files), while TGA_SHIP01/SW_PREORDER only get stripped after ~10-15 minutes online, which points to a delayed server-side check instead. Two different validation paths, and both look like they're checking for something NMSE writes into the save but doesn't actually grant. If that's what's happening, this may not be a bug in how NMSE reads/writes the save at all — it could be the game correctly detecting the entitlement isn't genuinely present and reverting it, in which case no save edit could force it to stick.

That said, I'd still like to see your files regardless of the answer — even confirming these fields end up empty/unchanged for you would tell us something. If you're up for it:

Where to find them (Steam/PC):
%APPDATA%\HelloGames\NMS\st_<yourSteamID64>\
(paste into File Explorer's address bar)

What to grab:
Zip the whole st_<yourSteamID64> folder (skip any _backup_* folders) — that gets accountdata.hg plus every save slot without needing to guess which one's affected. Usually just a few MB.

How to share:

• Drag-and-drop the .zip into a comment here on GitHub (fine under ~25MB).
• Or a Google Drive / Dropbox link if it's bigger, or you'd rather keep it out of a public comment — a Discord DM works too if you'd prefer.

Just flagging: this is your raw save data (inventory, base locations, discoveries) — nothing credential-related, but no obligation to make it public if you'd rather send it privately.

[vectorcmdr]

Good intentions or not, how about we let me look at it when I have some time - and we stop feeding it into Claude.
I've got my hands full at the moment with personal stuff and have stated several times I will look into it.

[vectorcmdr]

OK, have had some time to look into it a bit.
It seems to boil down to the below issues across the unlock/redeem functions:

1. Classifier gap / fallthrough with BOLT_SM/PHOTONIX_CORE where they fallthrough to "non-tech" unconditionally and don't reach KnownTech.
2. Bad routing for entitlements into UnlockedPlatformRewards as they're separate entitlements now and no longer shared (not sure which patch changed this exactly).
3. Mappings need to change from ENT (intitlement IDs) to resolved IDs (as discussed on the Discord server).

Without this correct routing into each of the associated arrays (and without the correct ID mapping) they're validated and removed by the game.

Will work on the fix when time permits.