saved games

[Rockin Robbins]

Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that corrupted saves don't happen sometimes. They happen with equal frequency with all programs we run on these contraptions.

But a corrupted save has zero correlation with your in-game situation when you save. Wearing a copper bracelet would be as effective as all the mumbo-jumbo people talk about having to do in order to get a good save.That's all leftover garbage from SH3, having nothing to do with SH4.

[Webster]

Originally Posted by Rockin Robbins

Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that corrupted saves don't happen sometimes. They happen with equal frequency with all programs we run on these contraptions.

But a corrupted save has zero correlation with your in-game situation when you save. Wearing a copper bracelet would be as effective as all the mumbo-jumbo people talk about having to do in order to get a good save.That's all leftover garbage from SH3, having nothing to do with SH4.

i think you overlook things sometimes because you have a better system them most and i think thats why you never experienced a lot of the little quirks that can effect saves on limited systems.

i can tell you for a FACT that all the mentioned things to avoid would and did cause corruptions with my older systems, after upgrading my computer i could save in the middle of a hurricane while the battle of coral sea was in full motion and have no issues what so ever.

just because you never experienced these issues doesnt mean they should be dismissed, they arent always imagined or simply missunderstood issues caused by something else.

with a decent system you are correct, nothing matters as far as saving goes but for those with marginal systems with limited memmory they are very sensative to corrupted saves from the things that were listed to avoid.

that said i only know of having issues with sh3 and sh4 using large system memmory volume for compiling game save info so perhaps the sh5 game is immune to these problems but with ubi's track record on fixing old issues with the next release, i doubt it.

[stanger]

Originally Posted by Rockin Robbins

But a corrupted save has zero correlation with your in-game situation when you save. Wearing a copper bracelet would be as effective as all the mumbo-jumbo people talk about having to do in order to get a good save.That's all leftover garbage from SH3, having nothing to do with SH4.

Originally Posted by Webster

perhaps the sh5 game is immune to these problems but with ubi's track record on fixing old issues with the next release, i doubt it.

It has some correlation with players in-game situation. Like in my example of corrupted save - saving couple of meters in front of Brisbane harbor, maybe doing it too quickly after using time compression, maybe not allowing the game to load all the things (ships, terrain ... there was a lot of ships, a lot of disk and memory activity) before saving and quitting to desktop. Im sure it wouldnt happen in open seas, in the middle of nowhere, but could happen if there was large convoy nearby (although it didnt when I was forced once to save in such situaltion).
But it's clear that SH4 doesnt suffer as much as SH3 did, but still, there is something to it, even in SH5, in save game files, you can find a line that says whether the sub is underwater or not, which shows that the dev team were aware of potential possibility of issues with saves and were trying to limit it (or further limit it, as they already made good progress with it in SH4).
In my opinion, its just good habit to avoid in SH4 (and 5th too) doing things that were causing save issues in SH3, as the games backbone is still the same.

(Edit)Then I started to stare at those cats and thought - they can do this forever :P

[Rockin Robbins]

Originally Posted by Webster

i think you overlook things sometimes because you have a better system them most and i think thats why you never experienced a lot of the little quirks that can effect saves on limited systems.

I wish you were right, but actually that's the opposite of the truth.

I started out with a 32 bit motherboard, an Athlon single core 3700+ processor, a barely able to run SH4 nVidia 7600GT graphics card and 2 gig of memory. Never a problem with saves with just about all possible sensible mod combinations.

Then I upgraded the processor to an Opteron 175 dual core, the best that would fit in my socket 939 motherboard and upgraded to an nVidia 7900GS. That still equalled a third-rate system and again I had no problems with saves in any game configuration. I tested extensively at that time to determine the truth of the legends, especially the one about saving when not facing Mecca. I only had game corruption when saving in my underwear.

Finally the electrolytic capacitors in my motherboard popped and I went all-out, with a sub $100 Gigabyte GA-970A-UD3 motherboard, a lower than middle of the road Athlon II X3 455 processor and 4 gig of memory, of which my Windows XP only can see 3.2, and a lower middle class nVidia 250 video card. So I'm still a long ways from a top rate system.

But the point is that I've had three separate and different sytems, plus many, many different configurations of Silent Hunter 4. Then I have done extensive testing specifically for the purpose of testing the truth of the theories on game saves, something nobody else has ever done. As I've said, I have dozens of saves from the combination from hell:just outside of port, submerged, in combat, with torpedoes on the way to but not having struck targets yet, all at the same time and not one failure of a game save file in all those test saves. This is like breaking a mirror on Friday the 13th under a ladder while petting my black cat and spilling salt, not tossing it over my shoulder! I have had, throughout my five years of playing SH4, only two types of corrupted game saves: the ones that were my fault for doing something stupid and completely random, unpredicatable failures which are very infrequent. I recommend using backup saves and not worrying about it.

My conclusion is based on a variety of different computer and game configurations and hundreds of test saves plus my actual playing game saves from 2007 to 2012. If I'm not on solid ground, nobody CAN be.

Edit: Yup, gotta love those cats!

[fireftr18]

And while we're talking about this, I just had my first corrupted save on a fresh save file. It happened to be at night during a storm. RR, it might just be random and I think it is, but it is a strange coincidence.

[WernherVonTrapp]

Originally Posted by Rockin Robbins

But the point is that I've had three separate and different sytems, plus many, many different configurations of Silent Hunter 4. Then I have done extensive testing specifically for the purpose of testing the truth of the theories on game saves, something nobody else has ever done. As I've said, I have dozens of saves from the combination from hell:just outside of port, submerged, in combat, with torpedoes on the way to but not having struck targets yet, all at the same time and not one failure of a game save file in all those test saves. This is like breaking a mirror on Friday the 13th under a ladder while petting my black cat and spilling salt, not tossing it over my shoulder! I have had, throughout my five years of playing SH4, only two types of corrupted game saves: the ones that were my fault for doing something stupid and completely random, unpredicatable failures which are very infrequent. I recommend using backup saves and not worrying about it.

My conclusion is based on a variety of different computer and game configurations and hundreds of test saves plus my actual playing game saves from 2007 to 2012. If I'm not on solid ground, nobody CAN be.

I have to agree here. I haven't had a corrupted save for so long, that I cannot recall the last time it happened. Even when I did experience them (as infrequently as they occurred), I attributed it more to my Virus Scanner auto-updating and installing new signatures while my saves were taking place. Still, I don't know if that was the exact cause but, I've always been able to save near ports, during major battles, etc..

Originally Posted by Rockin Robbins

Edit: Yup, gotta love those cats!

[Webster]

Originally Posted by Rockin Robbins

I only had game corruption when saving in my underwear.

well i saw these corruptions first hand and they were real then they no longer existed after i upgraded so i attributed it to that but who knows.

i can only say that this strange phenominom exists and it happened to me many times as well as strange things like saving in shallow water would give me damage when reloading, something about bouncing off the bottom when in the process of first spawning into the game, so its not project blue book stuff lol.

cant say anything about sh5 as i only tried it a few times before uninstalling it.

never say never, because "some" people do have these strange corruption issues and avoiding "things going on" in the game tends to stop them from happening so i suppose its best to say while you dont believe it happens
there is no harm in being over cautious.

[Hylander_1314]

Darn gremlins! They curse our computers as badly as they cursed the equiptment back then!

[Rockin Robbins]

Maybe it's worse, Hylander! We have so many processes working at once that it's pathetic. Multi-processing can mean multi-conflicts and there is absolutely no way we're ever going to figure them all out. On the Internet, when things are going slow it's very difficult to tell whether the slow-down is your computer, your ISP, some computer in the linkage of dozens of computers between you and the site, the site itself, Java, Javascript, Flash......it just gets crazy.

I had a guy over at RC Groups who took apart his airplane and on a wild whim tried to turn it into something else, a zombie aircraft, as it were. He wasn't paying too much attention and it crashed horribly. He asked whether it was the center of gravity, bad radio or the tinnies.

That started me into an hour of research on tinnies. He wasn't Australian so the predominate definition was out.

I replied that when it hits the fan ALWAYS blame the tinnies. It turned out that in a certain part of Britain, tinnies are beers and WHEW! my advice hit the spot.

So: corrupted game saves happen! The safest thing we can say is that we have no idea what is causing them, just to expect one once in awhile. Make backup saves and test them.

If it all goes to worms, BLAME THE TINNIES!

[Hylander_1314]

Yeah, I got used to turning off all non-essential processes before playing games. Back in the old Win95 and Win98SE days. Man, the stuff you could shut down on those OSes! To run some sims in those days, I used to go in to 98 and turn off so much, that the Properties for My Computer would read 94 to 98% free! Just the basics running.

The older DOS games were cool as they ran in the most basic of system setups and rarely had issues.

I took Vista and set it up to run as basic as possible, and used the tweaks for it from the the Blackviper site.

Also, I use GameBooster3 as it turns off even more junk, and other stuff I don't need, including the internet connection so nothing will update while playing a game.

Now the only time I get a CTD is if I tweak something in an SH4 file that shouldn't be tweaked. But since I do only one change at a time, I can go back and correct my flub and set things right again.

[Zurdo]

After a long Campaing and many files saved, I am having CTDs when I tried to reload again the previous saved patrol. I think I have to reinstall SH4 again but I would like to save the previous campaing saved.

could you please, some of you tell me in which file those files are saved inside SH4 folder?

Thanks a lot for your help

[Webster]

Originally Posted by Zurdo

After a long Campaing and many files saved, I am having CTDs when I tried to reload again the previous saved patrol. I think I have to reinstall SH4 again but I would like to save the previous campaing saved.

could you please, some of you tell me in which file those files are saved inside SH4 folder?

Thanks a lot for your help

its almost always the save thats been corrupted and not the game, try a previous save and if it runs ok then its not the game files.

[Zurdo]

Originally Posted by Webster

its almost always the save thats been corrupted and not the game, try a previous save and if it runs ok then its not the game files.

That,s true, previous saved, two or three files before runs ok, but aniway could you please tell me in which SH4 folder those files are saved? in DATA may be?

Thanks for your help

[Webster]

Originally Posted by Zurdo

That,s true, previous saved, two or three files before runs ok, but aniway could you please tell me in which SH4 folder those files are saved? in DATA may be?

Thanks for your help

open your computers "documents" folder and inside it there is a "sh4" folder thats where your game saves and data is stored. there will be one folder for german saves and one for american. you can also change your reknown numbers and other settings there. its best to do your deleting of saved games from the game itself and it reduces the chances of mistakes and maybe deleting the wrong save

[Zurdo]

Originally Posted by Webster

open your computers "documents" folder and inside it there is a "sh4" folder thats where your game saves and data is stored. there will be one folder for german saves and one for american. you can also change your reknown numbers and other settings there. its best to do your deleting of saved games from the game itself and it reduces the chances of mistakes and maybe deleting the wrong save

Thank you so much Webster for yur kind help. I tryed to delete saved files from SH4, but unsuscesfully, from the menu of "load". From where I can delete files inside SH4 game?

Thanks again for your support