Does Installing a New game retain Badges?

[Vince 49]

If the answer to the title question is 'Yes', wonderful.  If not,  it looks like I, and others who are running Rugged Sentinel (1.37) and bought their game from GOG, are stuck at Rugged Sentinel forever.  GOG has patches from 1.33 to 1.37 and 1.47 (Vigilant Flame) to 1.48 (Steadfast Ranger), but no patches from 1.37 forward.  I wrote to Hinterland Support, but haven't heard back yet.  I do understand they are quite busy with the new update right now.  I did hear back from GOG support and their answer was a polite tough luck, you can always install Galaxy.  If they don't have a patch to download for 1.37 forward, would they have such a patch implemented in Galaxy?

The issue, of course, is the badges.  Although I didn't keep track, it must have taken me more than 200 hours of game play to earn the Fire Master badge.  Who would want to do that again?

Even at Rugged Sentinel, The Long Dark is a wonderful game, although I really would like to play the latest.

[ajb1978]

Your badge progression is tracked in a file housed at C:\Users\(your user name)\AppData\Local\Hinterland\TheLongDark\user001

I'm not sure if that file would be preserved on a reinstall or not, but if you make a copy of that file prior to reinstalling, you can manually paste it back into that location, thus preserving your feat progression.

[Vince 49]

Thanks @ajb1978, I found that file on my system and saved it.  I'll wait a day or so to see if I can get an official answer to my original question.  If not, I'll try installing a new game and using that file--after I finish my current game.  I've got a promising Interloper game going right now.  If I don't die, I might be at it a while. 

[Vince 49]

Hi Hawk,

Yes, I am aware of that.  The issue, as I said in my OP is, if I do a full install, do I loose my badges?  That's what I'm trying to find out.  Hopefully, someone from Hinterland will answer in the next day or so.  For the patches, I definitely don't.  Unfortunately, as you can see, GOG has no patch for 1.37 forward.

[Vince 49]

Hi Hawk,

As I mentioned in my OP, I did contact GOG support.  They could not help me unless I wanted to use Galaxy, which I do not.  Thank you for the other information.

[Vince 49]

I received a response from Hinterland today related to my request for support on how to update without loosing badges and saved games.

They said: "Updating The Long Dark to Steadfast Ranger (v 1.48) will not effect your badges or save files...".  Although several have posted on this thread that they thought this was the case, it's good to see it officially confirmed by the publishers.