Like I said, the data workout for the new game is entirely different even though you don't see too much changes in game except for a better worked out user interface.

Why is that... Simply put because the new engine requires a different approach an many things, and thus a different file format for savegames was needed. Some parts can easily be transferred and others cannot be.

• The character database is the same as in the original game. Really, for Dyrt I just translated my BlitzMax code to C#. For Apollo (in which the never version of Star Story will be written) I rewrote the code in C++ entirely from scratch. This because of C++ memory management, lack of garbage collector and stuff like that. This new approach was simpler and can (hopefully) fix memory leaks more easily should they appear(now even with leaks it's not expected loads of data will be lost, especially not given the way Star Story is set up), however the C++ system was set up to be completely compatible with the old systems, meaning all character statistics, experience, levels, inventory, yes even the powerups and abilities should be easily transferrable. The notable exception is the character Briggs who is only part of the group during the Yaqirpa mission at the beginning of the game, but he wasn't meant to built out anyway, and the original game already blocked every possibility to do so (and so will the new version), so why worry?

• The the progress through the game itself, especially to how maps should adept to if you already did them or not, that a different story. As I wanted to prevent swap files (on which the original game heavily relies) for two reasons. Modern harddrives will go kaputt too soon if you rely on swap files too much, as they are no longer magnetic (not as fast as memory sticks, but still), and Windows always did a poor job deleting swap files, which could easily lead to bugs if you loaded older savegames or even started an entirely new game. However, this means that progress through maps can unfortunately not be transferred at all in any way, so that means the game will after the transfer start at the starting point of the Yaqirpa and that the entire story lines goes on from there. Of course if you worked Wendicka and Crystal up to level 100, then they will both start the game at level 100.

• I need to work out a few things that could either be easy or impossible (I need to restudy my old code to find out), like the points you need to gather to gain a new ability/spell. The spells you have will remain there, with all their powerups... It's just the new spells and stuff that require some study to find out what I can do.

• The uptunings to weapons are part of the same database as the base stats so don't you worry about them. The same goes for upgrading Crystal's ARMs.

• Although the Mac version of the game will (at least for now) be discontinued when the new version is released, the savegame data is the same as for the Windows counterpart, so if you copy those savegames onto a device Windows can real, the transfer tool should see no difference.

So technically the setup will be easy... That is... if everything goes the way I planned it. You gotta tell the tool where your old savegames are located. The tool will try to automatically detect where the new savegames should be. You select a savegame from the old directory, you click the transfer button and the transfer tool will create a new savegame file with the data the new game needs. And above you can see a bit of a model I've in mind....

This is still no promise the transfer tool will be there, as I may still suffer some unrecoverable setbacks here, so the only promise I can me is... I'll do my best.