If it don't "SAVE", I don't want it!

[prowler3]

Let me reiterate the need for a stable "Save" function. I have just lost 2 days of work, in SH3+GWX3. The save will not load. I was SURFACED, I was MORE THAN 50 NM from any ship, I was IN THE CONTROL ROOM, I was NOT BEING HUNTED when I saved...but it will not load. The save is in line with dates/times (a usual culprit)...nothing points to why this save won't load...and I'm &%$@!^Y tired of it.

This behavior is completely ridiculous and needs to be sorted out. AFAIC you should be able to "Save" at any time...it's not that hard to do and it is regularly done with other games. I don't care if I'm being DC'd or sneaking up on a convoy...the "save" function needs SERIOUS work or I'm not spending a dime on 5.

I'd rather have a working "save" function than any FPS robbing prettiness we will probably be stuck with.

[THE_MASK]

I second that :yep:

[Gotmilk]

This is not a game. This is simulation. You should never have a shave option. You should sit behind your computer for the next 3 months acting out the entire patrol in real-time. :yeah:

[karamazovnew]

SH4 doesn't have major Save issues. The old rule of not saving near enemy ships still aplies as a ship that has not spotted you will sometimes instantly spot you when you load. I doubt that they'll mess the saving back to the level of SH3.

What I'd like to see is an optional difficulty setting of "no-save". The game would continuously save the situation, similar to an MMO, so it would be impossible to load after you screw something up. And, in case you ALT-F4 or the game freezes, you wouldn't loose anything. :yeah: Each time you'd start the game, you'd choose "Continue" instead of Load. :up:

[W_clear]

I don't like "save",beacause it's not ture.

[Ragtag]

You can't complain on features in a game when its modded to death. Yeah, the save function isn't perfect but i have never had a load savegame issue. When you mod a game you just can't blame anyone else.

[Syxx_Killer]

SH4 doesn't have major Save issues. The old rule of not saving near enemy ships still aplies as a ship that has not spotted you will sometimes instantly spot you when you load. I doubt that they'll mess the saving back to the level of SH3.

What I'd like to see is an optional difficulty setting of "no-save". The game would continuously save the situation, similar to an MMO, so it would be impossible to load after you screw something up. And, in case you ALT-F4 or the game freezes, you wouldn't loose anything. :yeah: Each time you'd start the game, you'd choose "Continue" instead of Load. :up:

I kind of like that idea. I'm guilty of saving before an encounter and if it doesn't go well I reload. I try to stop doing that, but I can't help myself! :oops:

[TDK1044]

I have yet to have a corrupted save in either Silent Hunter 3 or Silent Hunter 4. I have a 'Save' protocol in place in case of such a problem though.

I rotate 3 saved games every 5 to 10 minutes within the game. So I'll save as TDK1 and then five minutes later I'll save as TDK2 and then 5 minutes later as TDK3 before going back to save as TDK1. This way, if I ever got a corrupted save, I would simply load a game five minutes behind the corrupted save. A bit like a system restore point I guess.

I always save at the navigation map station and in 1X TC. Never had a problem. :)

[SteamWake]

Save Early Save often :rock:

[Captain Nemo]

I have yet to have a corrupted save in either Silent Hunter 3 or Silent Hunter 4. I have a 'Save' protocol in place in case of such a problem though.

I rotate 3 saved games every 5 to 10 minutes within the game. So I'll save as TDK1 and then five minutes later I'll save as TDK2 and then 5 minutes later as TDK3 before going back to save as TDK1. This way, if I ever got a corrupted save, I would simply load a game five minutes behind the corrupted save. A bit like a system restore point I guess.

I always save at the navigation map station and in 1X TC. Never had a problem. :)

Like you I never had a problem with saves in SH3 for many years (not played SH4 so can't comment) but in the last month or so I have had two bad saves. Probably my own fault as I saved near a convoy on one and near land on the other but have done this many times before without issues. Your save protocol could be flawed though and might not save you from the corrupt save problem. The way I understand this problem is that if you create a save point without exiting the game and that save is corrupt all subsequent saves are also corrupted. So if TDK1 was corrupt then TDK2 and TDK3 will be also. Of course unless you exit SH3 and reload your saves each time you won't know this problem exists until that time comes. It happened to me, my exit save was corrupt so I went to my backup save in the hope that would load, unfortunately that was corrupt too. To try and avoid this problem I now never overwrite saves and make saves at appropriate times i.e. after a major event and always mark my exit saves with an "x". Not had a corrupt save using this system yet so can't vouch for it's reliability.

I agree that SH5 needs a robust save feature otherwise players just end up frustrated at losing their hard work.

Nemo

[Webster]

i wish they could find a way to save the nearby AI units when you save so its not corrupted but even more important is that when surprised you can save the situation as it is and not have everything AI dissappear when you reload it.

[karamazovnew]

You have no idea how many times I've shadowed a convoy only for it to dissapear on load :wah:. Saving such large data changes can be made easy by compacting them in layers, depending on distance from the sub and saving them at different intervals. Anything on the ship gets saved immediately, like orders or crew intentions ("I'm going to the loo"), anything in 10 miles radius gets saved every minute and so on. Since we get multi-core support changing a few flags for units can't be that system intensive. :up:

[Jimbuna]

i wish they could find a way to save the nearby AI units when you save so its not corrupted but even more important is that when surprised you can save the situation as it is and not have everything AI dissappear when you reload it.

That has always been an insurmountable task.......keeping the AI stable after a save near scripted units.

[Safe-Keeper]

I'd love an "Ironman"/Dead is Dead mode that worked like Uplink or, as was said, MMO's. Reward the player with a generous amount of reputation/renown/whatever if he or she uses it, and off you go.

[Webster]

That has always been an insurmountable task.......keeping the AI stable after a save near scripted units.

maybe they could find a way for it to only save (take a snapshot if you will) only whats within visual range but im guessing the main problem with it is it has more to do with it still having the AI to control it :hmmm:

if they just remorphed it i guess it would no longer be connected to the AI system :damn:

it sure would be nice if they found a way to do it though

[Kromus]

You can't complain on features in a game when its modded to death. Yeah, the save function isn't perfect but i have never had a load savegame issue. When you mod a game you just can't blame anyone else.

Savegame issue has NOTHING to do with modded game.
It was in vanilla game from the start. Personally I didn`t have any problems with saves in SH3 (lucky as hell) but got really pissed off few times in SH4 (mission where I was lucky to find and sink Yamato, then I had to quit because RL issue and when I tried to load CTD came up - last save was more than a week behind so go figure how happy I was...).

So don`t blame modders, they have nothing to do with it, it`s well known stock game problem.

[Jimbuna]

maybe they could find a way for it to only save (take a snapshot if you will) only whats within visual range but im guessing the main problem with it is it has more to do with it still having the AI to control it :hmmm:

if they just remorphed it i guess it would no longer be connected to the AI system :damn:

it sure would be nice if they found a way to do it though

Oh trust me I agree.....it might well be possible though because the game engine is obviously a lot newer than the one used in SH3.

[Raven08]

I don't like "save",beacause it's not ture.


What about the random crash to desktop? Which is common with this series. Just start over? No thanks.

If I do something stupid to sink the boat that's one thing, but memory leaks and dogshlt code, which has plagued the Silent Hunter series since day one, is another matter.

[DarkFish]

What about the random crash to desktop? Which is common with this series. Just start over? No thanks.

If I do something stupid to sink the boat that's one thing, but memory leaks and dogshlt code, which has plagued the Silent Hunter series since day one, is another matter.It's probably more hardware related as I have never had any save problem or seemingly random CTD. Of course they should have coded it a little better so there wouldn't be any problems on any rig, but it's clear the save function works very well on some rigs (like mine).

[Arclight]

No save-game issues or random CTD, ever. :yep:

And yes, modded game most of the time. I won't deny SH3&4 have some issues, but a lot of problems with people's systems get attributed to the game. It's not nearly as bad as some would have you believe. :)

[Overboard]

Never had a problem with any of my saves.. But your right being able to save your game and not have to worry if they will work or not is a good thing :yep:

[maerean_m]

Let me reiterate the need for a stable "Save" function. I have just lost 2 days of work, in SH3+GWX3. The save will not load. I was SURFACED, I was MORE THAN 50 NM from any ship, I was IN THE CONTROL ROOM, I was NOT BEING HUNTED when I saved...but it will not load. The save is in line with dates/times (a usual culprit)...nothing points to why this save won't load...and I'm &%$@!^Y tired of it.
The way the progress is being saved has been COMPLETELY rewritten. None of those bugs will annoy you any more (there will be new bugs, of course :har:)

[Webster]

The way the progress is being saved has been COMPLETELY rewritten. None of those bugs will annoy you any more (there will be new bugs, of course :har:)

i dont mind the new bugs at all, but the old bugs were on to me so i could trick them anymore :O:

were you guys able to let us save the AI stuff around us too when we save or is that still not doable?

[maerean_m]

were you guys able to let us save the AI stuff around us too when we save or is that still not doable?
Can you be more specific, please?

[Kromus]

CTD IS hardware related issue pretty much, personally I`ve had CTDs when I bought game and there were no patches. Since the last patch I`ve never had CTD (I`m using TMO + RSRD + few more mods). I`ve only had CTD (program stopped working) when loading savegame. Same goes with other games, all running fine (I understand a bit how to build a working computer).

Savegame problem IS simply NOT hardware related issue, the only problem is how savegame data are stored (you only load data, nothing else, it doesn`t check anything special, just data) and thats UBI problem because they can`t make working savegames. But they are not frequent just show up in the least expected moment so I can live with it. But they are still there.

Point here is that savegame should be 100% stable - unless you corrupt it yourself (some other games have samegame issues too, for instance Pro Cycling Manager 09 - rocksteady on my machine but savegame issues - it saves game when you quit game, no load just continue game but rarely it just freaks out - backing up saves it my "daily bread", go at PCMdaily.com forums, savegame problems are described nicely there - they even included autobackupsave :D after each ingame week...), so it shouldn`t matter where you are or what you do.

And don`t mix apples and oranges (CTD+savegame issue)

[mookiemookie]

Can you be more specific, please?

I believe an example of what webster is talking about is if you save near a harbor, and then reload your game, ships will "forget" their waypoints and run aground and burn.

[SteamWake]

I believe an example of what webster is talking about is if you save near a harbor, and then reload your game, ships will "forget" their waypoints and run aground and burn.


LOL you dont need a saved game for ships and planes for that matter to run aground :rotfl:

More than once Ive approached a harbor and spotted a plume of smoke.

I fly the external cam over there to see whats up and :o Its the philidalphia experement with ships stuck halfway into buildings and burning.

The aircraft seem to forget at times there is a mountain there and just fly into them :haha:

Just one of those quirky game things.

I have never suffered a corrupted save but then again after hearing all the stories I am quite careful as to the frequency and locations of my saves.

To the OP I have a question.... You played for two days without a save?

[Webster]

Originally Posted by WEBSTER http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/smartdark/viewpost.gif (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?p=1166525#post1166525)
were you guys able to let us save the AI stuff around us too when we save or is that still not doable?

Can you be more specific, please?


ok what i am talking about is when you save a game in sh4 when you have some computer randomly generated AI activity in the area such as a convoy, task force, or airplane, when you reload this saved game (assuming it wasnt a corrupted save, but i heard you guys already addressed that) when you reload the game you are there but everything computer randomly generated AI stuff that was there with you is not there any more.

[DarkFish]

Savegame problem IS simply NOT hardware related issue, the only problem is how savegame data are stored (you only load data, nothing else, it doesn`t check anything special, just data) and thats UBI problem because they can`t make working savegames. But they are not frequent just show up in the least expected moment so I can live with it. But they are still there.then explain why some people keep getting corrupted save files and other people (like me) have never had any, while they're using the same game version / OS etc. If the software is so similar the only thing left that can cause corrupted saves is hardware (or hardware related stuff like drivers)
Still, I agree UBI should make a saving system that works on any computer.

(also, what did you want SH4 to load besides data? Ain't 'data' the way everything is stored on a PC?)

[Kromus]

then explain why some people keep getting corrupted save files and other people (like me) have never had any, while they're using the same game version / OS etc. If the software is so similar the only thing left that can cause corrupted saves is hardware (or hardware related stuff like drivers)
Still, I agree UBI should make a saving system that works on any computer.

(also, what did you want SH4 to load besides data? Ain't 'data' the way everything is stored on a PC?)


If the problem was hardware related ("faulty" SW driver mismatch that communicates with "faulty" HW for example) it would crash before you could saved anything - game would process data that would cause crash so you couldn`t actually save them ( those are "extra data").

Save game stores only (at least should) data you actually encountered before the crash. Those aren`t data that are artificially created (Ubi knows better how this works - just my opinion, maybe there are some data that causes the crash) after you saved something. And thats the problem.

This game must have some strange savegame algorithm system that doesn`t close all "opened strings" before it actually saves RUNNING game = when it tries to load a game those strings are missing and game crashes (like I said it happens rarely but it is there - I`ve had last crash about 2 weeks ago, now I`m playing for fun with SSBN Ohio and saving underwater even when attacking big convoys with 15+ ships and simply no crash yet)... When you try to load a game, there are still few strings that cause a crash because game can`t simply find them. There must be something like this, because when you continue playing for a while after you saved game your game won`t crash, just when you load.

Try to load and save 100 times in 20 different enemy harbors when few destroyers are throwing depth charges or shoot at you at perispope depth... Or just save 200 times per patrol near different ports. If you try this 10K times, I`ll believe that we all have faulty HW :DL (just j/k)

Anyway, if this would be really HW related issue, it would be really interesting (can`t save properly because of "faulty hardware" that otherwise actually runs game at 100% - it even sounds illogical unless we all have corrupted harddrives :D - remember this game needs/should have to load ALL of information/files or "data" before it can actually save it... unless, well... UBI ). Some official statement from UBI would be nice here.

P.S.: I really don`t want to argue here, I`m just 100% sure that it`s not my hardware issue...
Man, more topics like this and I actually start to believe I`ve go total crap at home :)

[Webster]

the corrupted saves debate has been going on like forever and i have my own ideas that since we can eliminate most common threads when it happens, it is as much related to whats going on in the game "combined" with your hardware.

marginal or semi marginal computers memory wise are 3 times more likely to have corrupted saves than those with 2gigs or more ram with a good cpu and a mid to upper level video card.

with my p4 and 1gig ram with a 7600gs video card i got corrupted saves all the time unless there was no AI activity in detectable range and i was surfaced at near stop and not withing 5 miles of land or shallow water. a shallow water save almost always gave me some immediate hull damage when it reloaded.

i upgraded to a quad core Q6600 with 8800gt video card and 2gigs ram and the only corrupted save i ever had since was once when saving in the middle of an ongoing battle inside of a large task force. but a shallow water save or saving while under water will still almost always gives me some immediate hull damage when it reloaded.

i believe the corruption is just running out of memory storage space which causes the lost data corruption.

[Jimbuna]

The way the progress is being saved has been COMPLETELY rewritten. None of those bugs will annoy you any more (there will be new bugs, of course :har:)

LMAO :DL

[Safe-Keeper]

The way the progress is being saved has been COMPLETELY rewritten. None of those bugs will annoy you any more But... but...

(there will be new bugs, of course :har:) Phew. Had me going there.

[pozine]

i don't know how, but this bug never happened to me :D

[andycaccia]

Personally I vote for a standard "save" system. Sh4 wasn't too bad in its saving system. but also the idea of a continuous saving of the progresses is quite interesting..more realistic...but it can be frustrating.
We'll see...

[gutted]

I don't like "save",beacause it's not ture.

say that after your PC crashes 3/4th of the way into your patrol. hours of your life down the tube. i save alot these days, because it's happened to many times.

[Jimbuna]

say that after your PC crashes 3/4th of the way into your patrol. hours of your life down the tube. i save alot these days, because it's happened to many times.

It always pays to save periodically.....simply use the same name and it will overwrite the previous save, meaning a minimum of disc space being taken up.

[gutted]

It always pays to save periodically.....simply use the same name and it will overwrite the previous save, meaning a minimum of disc space being taken up.

Yup, i keep a save called "Current Mission", and periodically save to it. Usually after a battle, so i dont have to redo it if something goes kaput. Lately my PC has been acting up, and freezing randomly with a high pitch whine coming out of the speakers when playing certain games. Thought it was heat, but i checked and the CPU & GPU temps are fine while playing. go figure.