Install, test, and reset

Install Lab 1, check that First Signal appears and completes, then test reload and replay from separate saves. This guide works with either your authored start project or the supplied completed checkpoint.

The expected results below remain Experimental until observed in game. Keep notes of what actually happens, including failures or cases you cannot run.

Prepare an untouched save

The completion fact, journal state, and active graph state live in the save. Create or identify a manual save made before any version of cqa001 was installed or registered. Keep that save as an immutable baseline and make new save slots for test cases.

A useful label in your test notes is:

cqa001-clean-baseline — manual save created before first cqa001 install

Removing the mod after it has run does not erase state from a save. Setting cqa001_completed back to 0 with an optional console may help diagnose one branch, but it does not clear journal entries, quest checkpoints, scene state, communities, or devices. A fact edit is therefore never a clean-save result, and no console mod is required by this guide.

See Facts, journals, and saves for the state model behind this rule.

Install the completed checkpoint

If you just installed your authored start project, keep that installation and continue with the file and log checks below. Its archive is CQA_Lab01_OneShot_Start.archive; the loose registration file is still CQA_Lab01_OneShot.archive.xl. Use the _Start archive name wherever this guide names the completed archive, including removal.

To test the supplied completed project instead:

1. Exit the game completely.
2. Download and extract the completed Lab 1 checkpoint into a writable projects directory outside the game.
3. Open CQA_Lab01_OneShot.cpmodproj in WolvenKit.
4. Confirm the project contains the three cooked resources under source\archive\mod\cqa\cqa001 and source\resources\CQA_Lab01_OneShot.archive.xl.
5. Use the normal Install action. Do not choose Install as REDmod and do not use hot reload for this acceptance run.
6. Read WolvenKit’s Log panel. Stop if packing reports an error or an expected depot path is missing.

WolvenKit documents normal Install as “pack the project, then copy the generated packed hierarchy into the game directory” in its menu reference.

Verify these installed files exist:

<Cyberpunk 2077>\archive\pc\mod\CQA_Lab01_OneShot.archive
<Cyberpunk 2077>\archive\pc\mod\CQA_Lab01_OneShot.archive.xl

Install only one checkpoint at a time. Before switching, close the game and remove the other checkpoint’s archive so it cannot supply the same depot paths.

Check startup and registration logs

Launch the game and reach the point where a save can be loaded. After each test, preserve the relevant portions of:

<Cyberpunk 2077>\red4ext\logs\red4ext.log
<Cyberpunk 2077>\red4ext\logs\game.log
<Cyberpunk 2077>\red4ext\plugins\ArchiveXL\ArchiveXL.log
<Cyberpunk 2077>\r6\logs\redscript_rCURRENT.log

Check that RED4ext loaded ArchiveXL, redscript compiled without errors, and ArchiveXL did not report a failure resolving CQA_Lab01_OneShot.archive.xl or these depot paths:

mod\cqa\cqa001\phases\cqa001.questphase
mod\cqa\cqa001\journal\cqa001.journal
mod\cqa\cqa001\localization\en-us\onscreens\cqa001.json

Do not require a guessed fixed “success” sentence: log wording can change. Record the relevant actual lines. An ArchiveXL registration without errors is framework evidence, not proof that the graph ran or the journal rendered.

Run the save matrix

Use separate manual save slots for each state. Keep the installed build unchanged.

The player-facing oracle for the first and clean-replay cases is:

First Signal
  -> objective: Wait for the signal.
  -> approximately 10 real-time seconds
  -> objective succeeded
  -> quest succeeded
  -> cqa001 does not activate again on the completed save

“Approximately” allows UI presentation and load scheduling; the authored pause value is ten seconds. Record the measured observation rather than rounding it into a claimed exact runtime duration.

If you cannot create a save during the short active window, record the mid-flow case as pending. Do not convert an unrun case into a pass and do not change the delay merely to make this test easier to run.

Reset safely between runs

There are three different resets:

1. Project-output reset: WolvenKit’s Clean All removes the generated project packed directory. It does not remove installed game files, source resources, or save state.
2. Installation reset: with the game closed, remove only CQA_Lab01_OneShot.archive and CQA_Lab01_OneShot.archive.xl from <Cyberpunk 2077>\archive\pc\mod. Preserve them with the test record first if you need to reproduce a problem. Do not delete the whole mod directory.
3. State reset: load the preserved manual save that predates the first cqa001 installation. Reinstall the intended build before the clean replay.

For a controlled rebuild, close the game, clean project output, install once, then load the untouched baseline. Changing source files, framework versions, installed bytes, and starting saves at the same time makes the result impossible to attribute.

Diagnose by layer

Stop after the first failing boundary. Repacking repeatedly cannot fix a missing framework, and editing the graph cannot clean an old save.

Lab sequence: All labs · Previous: Author First Signal in WolvenKit · Next lab: Lab 2: Signal Race.