well basically my save was always being lost, ever time i exited the game, completely, no previous data or collection things or anything. I was looking and couldn't find anything, anyways. recently I have managed to find a fix, so i figured I would post it for anyone else with the same problem.
I reinstalled it, making sure not to tick remove previous save, I know it sounds silly and obvious but I struggled to find it. So yeah... Hope I can help someone being as daft as I was!