Saving / Save Games

from StarControl Forums

Saving is one of the expected features of any game. I wanted to call out some notable save features from other games, though, because I would like to see those features implemented in SC.

1. Infinite or Rolling Quick Save & Auto Save Pool - Some games (Divinity: Original Sin) allow you to specify how many quick and auto save slots to keep. Others have a fixed amount or an unlimited amount. At a minimum, I would like SC to have at least 5 rotating quick saves and 3 rotating auto saves. (I would actually prefer more, if possible.)

2. Try to minimize the size of save games. Larger saves mean longer saving and loading times.

3. If possible, don't keep a sale history in the saves. (This assumes there will be more of an inventory system in the game than what was in SC2. If you don't plan on it, disregard.) I hate it when RPGs keep track of every single item you've sold to NPCs. This bloats the save file. It also makes purchasing difficult because now the merchants have a bazillion old items.

4. Try to minimize the need for save scumming (save/reload). Don't make quest rewards or dialog elements random. The only time I should be save scumming was because I lost a lander or lost a battle.

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Reply #1 from StarControl Forums Top

I'm not so sure about #2. I mean Civ save game are less than 1MB. But lordy lord that game takes FOREVER to load

Yet a game like The Long Dark loads almost instantaneously with a 100k save file

Realisticfally the size of the save is only one small factor that goes into game load times.

Reply #2 from StarControl Forums Top

Quoting satoru1, reply 1

I'm not so sure about #2. I mean Civ save game are less than 1MB. But lordy lord that game takes FOREVER to load

Yet a game like The Long Dark loads almost instantaneously with a 100k save file

Realisticfally the size of the save is only one small factor that goes into game load times.

It does depend on the game and on the engine, but some games do it right and others don't. Consider Pillars of Eternity (POE)...

PoE saving got slower and slower as you went on. Saving became a chore. The problem was that the game had to save every NPC, every item, every searched chest, etc for EVERY MAP. So... As you explored, the save became huge. Did I ever plan on going back to the starting areas? Nope... But the game kept the save data and would re-copy it to disk. At the end of the game, it was taking me 20 seconds to save! (I shiver at the thought of people playing it on a hard disk.)

Saving needs to be more intelligent, IMO. If you are in a cyclic save system and the data for a zone hasn't changed, don't write it down to a file.

Elemental: Reforged