Save games...

[SymbolicFrank]

They are very important to me, as a player. But most game devs see them as something they should obfuscate and hide. And make sure the user cannot tamper with them!

I like to save a lot, and to archive some of them, move them to other computers, and delete all the others. And while that was easy in the past, more and more games only allow you to do it in-game. So, if you want to delete a hundred save games, you have to:

1. click on it
2. click on delete
3. click "yes"
4. scroll the list to the next one

Times a hundred.

Because, if you are able to find the location where they are stored and simply delete them yourself, or restore some archived ones, the game will refuse to load them. You have to delete your profile and start all over again to "fix" that...

And the ones that sync to steam make an even bigger mess of it.

Sometimes, I can fix it by deleting or editing one or more index files...


I want to manage them myself! In an easy way! Is that so hard to get?

 

[Burning Bridges]

For a couple of reasons I cannot play some of the E/A steam autopatched games because they expect me to start over every 4-6 weeks. In older games I liked to backup my savegames and continue later, often years later, and keep intricate notebooks, but now a lot of game want me to do the same shit over and over. For example I couldn't play Subnautica during the last 6 weeks, because every time I had gotten past the cannot-build-shit stage a new patch came out and changed the game world.

But to be honest there has not been a single game where I couldn't find the savegame and backup it. The only case where I quit a game completely over savegames was the first Shadowrun Returns, because opening the save in a text editor I realized that it wasn't actually a game, only an intricate hidden object puzzle.

 

[DraQ]

They are very important to me, as a player. But most game devs see them as something they should obfuscate and hide. And make sure the user cannot tamper with them!

I like to save a lot, and to archive some of them, move them to other computers, and delete all the others. And while that was easy in the past, more and more games only allow you to do it in-game. So, if you want to delete a hundred save games, you have to:

1. click on it
2. click on delete
3. click "yes"
4. scroll the list to the next one

Times a hundred.

Because, if you are able to find the location where they are stored and simply delete them yourself, or restore some archived ones, the game will refuse to load them. You have to delete your profile and start all over again to "fix" that...

And the ones that sync to steam make an even bigger mess of it.

Sometimes, I can fix it by deleting or editing one or more index files...


I want to manage them myself! In an easy way! Is that so hard to get?

Don't play shitty games.

 

[SymbolicFrank]

Don't play shitty recent games.

Fixed.

 

[DraQ]

Don't play shitty recent games.

Fixed.

I don't think I've ever encountered this problem you're describing myself - care to list some titles?

 

[SymbolicFrank]

Don't play shitty recent games.

Fixed.

I don't think I've ever encountered this problem you're describing myself - care to list some titles?

Anything Paradox, for starters?

 

[DraQ]

Last time I checked old, usually DOS era games were far more problematic when it came to save management, because they often had things like fixed save slots, each with its own file that had to be present for game to work, so there could be no way to delete a save or have more of them, all save slots sitting in a single file, or having multiple, sometimes not neatly packaged save files per save.

Later on the devs generally caught up on the concept of saves being something easy for players to manipulate and move around using OS, not just in-game tools.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

Don't play shitty recent games.

Fixed.

I don't think I've ever encountered this problem you're describing myself - care to list some titles?

witcher 1.
i backed up my saves because reasons. years later i wanted to pick up where i left but the game refused to load my saves.

 

[DraQ]

Don't play shitty recent games.

Fixed.

I don't think I've ever encountered this problem you're describing myself - care to list some titles?

witcher 1.
i backed up my saves because reasons. years later i wanted to pick up where i left but the game refused to load my saves.

Interdasting. Could it be because of wildly different versions between those saves? IIRC EE broke compatibility.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

it shouldn't be, i tried to make sure to download the same enhanced edition. but it could be.
anyway, there's plenty of other examples. can't give you names because i spent my last year with only warframe and civ4 but it happens more often than you'd think.

 

[Beastro]

Don't play shitty recent games.

Fixed.

I don't think I've ever encountered this problem you're describing myself - care to list some titles?

Anything Paradox, for starters?

They've always been in the Paradox folder in My Documents, modded saves in their own subfolder.

I haven't played it, but one game that really fucks with saves is Undertale. Heard it makes a saved games folder in a random location on your comp because the dev didn't like people cheating and save game editing.

 

[DraQ]

it shouldn't be, i tried to make sure to download the same enhanced edition. but it could be.
anyway, there's plenty of other examples. can't give you names because i spent my last year with only warframe and civ4 but it happens more often than you'd think.

I know that TW1 save directory absolutely required manual maintenance because it rapidly accumulated gigabytes of non-rolling autosaves, so it would be weird if the game couldn't handle that.

Heard it makes a saved games folder in a random location on your comp because the dev didn't like people cheating and save game editing.