Was there ever a need for online save games?

[XLjedi]

I'm just curious if this adds any value at all to anyone.

I can never recall a time in my life when I thought, "BAH! I've gone and installed a game on some foreign machine (yeah right) again... Now if I only had my save games with me, I could conquer the world!"

Heck if it were an issue I'd save the stupid things to my keyring zipdrive, but I just haven't been so inclined to bother... Ever. I mean OK, I get the DRM thing but what's the deal with holding on to my save games?

[SteamWake]

Agree... I am perfectly cabable of managing my own save games.

[fromhell]

:damn::damn::damn: old news

[Highbury]

I tend to play ROF on two computers (I have two homes 1200 miles apart, I am not lugging a PC back and forth and laptops don't cut it for gaming IMO). I think it is excellent to be able to log on in either location and everything is right there. It is actually a wonderful thing.

This can be accomplished without the Ubi OSP platform however. With ROF's announced changes you will be able to play offline, then log in and upload your stats, etc. Still works for my situation. I would like to be able to do that with SHV saves and not have to take them on portable media.

So to answer you, yup, can be very handy :up:

[trenken]

Before I played some games that saved online, including a couple single player only games, I would have said "no", there is no reason for it.

But ive had game saves for games that were offline become corrupt. And I had a hard drive die on me, losing thousands of hours of progress across multiple games, so now im a fan of my save being protected online from Microsofts crappy OS's.

When I found out SH5 was saving online, I was happy about that for more than 1 reason.

[Task Force]

Its a load of bulls*** to make people think... hmm, thats pretty cool, not, will this make me have to stay online... honestly, some of the suff they said like the 100 computer thing is just stupid, honestly, most people only have 1 or 2 if there lucky, computers to play anyway...

and if there servers crash, lots of people will start b****ing and complaining on forums web wide.

"the game says something about looseing connection, what can I do, I need to save my game..."

Im sure it will happen here. some person will regester and start complaining, and probably trolling... I can see it now.:nope:

ROF might not have many server issues. But its not as big as UBI, and not as much server traffic. Ubis servers will might do ok origionaly, but as this stuff starts expanding, and more and more start useing it, UBIs servers will go downhill, till it is downright stupid.

[Highbury]

Ok Task Force, you don't like the DRM, we know. I would rather they did without it too, but the question was just about online saves, not DRM. They are not mutually exclusive.

And ROF has had the servers go down. They probably have a smaller market then SH (arguably) but they have much less in the way of resources (definitely). When they have gone down people have lost anything they were doing, and made alot of noise on the forums. I am not arguing that point with you at all, just so ya know ;)

[Task Force]

I know. But in the end, I posted about the savegames, and how they are stupid, it is stupid to force a customor into somthing. like keeping stuff online, which these save games would.

When I was mentioning the server stuff, I should have mentioned. What happens if the servers "crash" meaning loose ALL your data, your save games...

In outher words, I think this savegame thing is just plain stupid...

When I mentioned ROF haveing less server traffic, I was compairing that to the Complete traffic UBI will have, not just the SH series. I am pretty sure UBI isnt gonna give each game there own server. Eventualy as games are released, the servers will be haveing strain, holding all these save games and monitoring games. which will lead to reliability issues.

[Highbury]

Well considering all the money we give these damn people I am hoping their HD is more reliable then mine! :har:

Seriously though, I see and understand your point fully. I think that is why saves will be on your PC and the server with SHV. With ROF as you finish a mission it uploads the results. I have landed only to find I had lost connection and the preceeding mission had never happened in the game's opinion :shifty:

I was just trying to say that the system, when it is working (which in truth has been about 99.5% of my playing time), has been quite handy for me.

[FIREWALL]

Anybody ever heard of AVSIM ?

I wonder if in the future UBISOFT would become a Juicy target ? :hmmm:

Something to think about.

[Ragtag]

Well, there's a difference in "need" and "practical". It's really not needed. There's loads of alternatives of how one can keep the savegames, USB pens, personal web space online etc. Definatly not needed but probably practical for some. But using online savegames as an argument to shove the OSP down my throat is not acceptable for me :)

[Eightbit]

I don't care if they want to store save games on their servers. Sure that is a fairly decent feature with a couple good uses. BUT I want them local as well and any other on-line features they want to implement MUST be optional and the users choice (without repercussion)

I'm no fan of games phoning home for any reason without my consent. (again given the option) and thats just on a matter of principal.

[Dellwig]

Saving games online is practical (good point Ragtag) for me, because my girlfriend lives in another city.
I often stay there for a couple of days and so I 'migrate' a lot of documents, save games etc. via USB-pen.
So these online save games would support my laziness. :yeah:

But I want to decide when and what I'm uploading. And conntecting these feature to this DRM is not an option for me.

So in general I would say 'Yes' to online save games as an option.

[piri_reis]

Nope, totally unnecessary I think. Even if I want to backup my savegames online, I can do it myself, using a space I create or rent.

Although there are people amongst us that aren't able to deal with their savegames, and keep a backup or do anything useful for their data.. So they need this great service from Ubi. (Hint hint, Lt. something)

[HundertzehnGustav]

never lost a savegame except the times i delete files i do not touch.
never had a corrupted save, never backed one up.:down:

[Letum]

There are programs about that will upload saves from any game to a server. Sh3, Sh3, any game.

If you haven't heard about such things; thats because no one needs/uses them.

[Schroeder]

But ive had game saves for games that were offline become corrupt.

Just out of curiosity, how is storing the save game on a server preventing it from being corrupted? I guess it doesn't get corrupted by the hard drive (otherwise all of your data would be corrupted, not just saves) but by bugs in the game's save function and/or OS. The server can only store what was sent to it and working as an external hard drive (or at least that's what I think). So my guess is, if the save is getting corrupted by your machine then the save on the server will be just as corrupted as the one on your system.
Or do I have a wrong understanding of all of this?:06:

[Letum]

And even if HDDs did corrupt files* then having it on a server won't help.
It's still stored on a HDD, just the server's HDD, not yours.



*if this did happen you would never be able to boot up, let alone load saves.

[JU_88]

I'm just curious if this adds any value at all to anyone.?

Yes if you just reinstalled your OS or upgraded to a different machine and forgot to back up your save files.

-Other than that, none what so ever.

[Mud]

It's like parking my motorcycle in the garage and give the key to a total stranger.
The stranger tells me he keep it save so I won't lose my key and I can get it back anytime, do I trust him ... No Sir.

Mud

[HundertzehnGustav]

but he isnt a stranger! you already bought your Motorcicle from him!
it cost 50 bucks and came with a DVD case!:D

you can trust him, no problem.:hmmm:


:haha::haha:

[Mud]

Nice point you've made there :up:
But every time I give the key doesn't feel I completely own the motorcycle.

Mud

[SubSim Skipper]

I think I can say with a fair amount of reason that, UBI is not doing me any favors by allowing me to save my games online....as a matter of fact I could care less and would just as soon keep them on my PC. I imagine that the files can corrupt just as easily on their drives as they can mine.

[HundertzehnGustav]

Nice point you've made there :up:
But every time I give the key doesn't feel I completely own the motorcycle.

Mud
ah that, my friend, is a feeling i can relate to. i mean, he could just change the lock, or NOT BE THERE when you need to access the garage...

but on the other hand, he would not do that. he would lose you as a customer. And his customers, he cares about!

Right? i mean... he cares, does he not?

:hmmm:
:dead:

[utops]

This kind of "service" is real pain in the eye when is related to sh5
So what i can install game on many computers i like, when probaly my copy of sh5 will be submerged in mod soup... because picture from what i see on screens and clips don`t satysfying me.
Besides i`ve got only one computer and i bet more ppl like me has one gaming unit to use.(Not mention retro freaks here :) )
Ubicorp maybe make games for Richie Riches? If so, then sorry im not target for theirs marketing.

[psykopatsak]

my parents are divorced. so before i bought my own laptop, this could have been VERY handy...

[Brag]

If Ubi offered a choice where you could play offline, then save online if you wanted to, this would be a great benefit! :salute:

After losing the first manuscript of Kingmaker, I save my work online in case of fire, theft or other disaster. But this is voluntary. I don't need to log in or stay online to work.

[The Enigma]

I've never asked for such service and I would never use such service.

I wonna play off line. No more no less.

[tater]

Strikes me this doubles the chance of a save game failure. Maybe triples.

Local save can be corrupted by a bad sector on a HDD, and same can happen on a remote drive. DOuble chance of failure. The game coupld check the 2 saves vs each other, but is the files are different, which does it chose?

Then there are lost packets on the net. A 3d way to corrupt the data.

Since offline is not possible (DL savew to laptop, play on plane), where is the added value, exactly? I'm not seeing it.

[Brag]

So far, they have not shown one single benefit for the user--bound to fail.

:D even if you have one hundred computers

[Richard G]

Your fooling yourselves.

This isn't about adding value to the game, or doing a service for your convenience. It simply makes it impossible to save games without an online account. (its for their convenience, not yours.)

[XLjedi]

Your fooling yourselves.

This isn't about adding value to the game, or doing a service for your convenience. It simply makes it impossible to save games without an online account. (its for their convenience, not yours.)

Who in this thread do you think is being fooled? I don't think anyone yet has said it adds value (as I suspected). Except for maybe the one kid with the divorced parents (before he owned a laptop).

I'll just assume that "yourselves" was a reference to the general (unposted) naive populace who believe everything UbiSoft marketing reps spew forth.