Game saving policy when playing short sessions

[kapuhy]

From browsing this forum a bit, I've learned that SHIII saved games tend to get corrupted when saving submerged or within visual range of the enemy. I haven't encounter the problem myself yet (I'm new to this game and still on my first patrol in 1939), but as I don't have more than an hour or two at a time for playing the game, I suspect that sooner or later I'll have to save and exit in presence of the enemies - from what I see, the engagements in this game can last well over an hour in real time.

Just how bad is this save game issue - should I expect every / most games saved with enemies nearby get corrupted, one in five, in ten? If it's very often - how do these among you that can't spare more than an hour/two cope with this (when, for example, a destroyer is hunting you after successful attack and you know you have to exit game in 10 minutes)?

I'm playing stock, patched SHIII, no mods (thought I'd play at least one career in unmodded game before trying mods out).

[Herr-Berbunch]

In the past I have saved submerged, just off Scotland, in the middle of being DC'd and it's been fine, but now I'm getting better in my careers I'm more careful with my saves but still occasionally save within the recommended distance of other vessels. All is ok so far! These closer saves are when the wife is hovering with the rolling pin, taking carefull aim. :yep:

In XP (where I wasn't so careful) I guess that somewhere between one in five and one in 10 would be right (that would be one in 7.5 then), but some people still have problems even when they think the save is a good one!

[Gaz360GT]

Just a thought, If I was to perform a "save" and immediately after perform a "save and exit" and when reloading them load the later one first, if that save failed load the other one created immediately before, would that minimise the risk of losing patrol progress through a corrupt save or would both saves be as corrupt as each other due to them being created at practicaly the same time and under the same game conditions etc??

[Gargamel]

When In doubt, I'd try a save, run the game for a few secs, save a "version2", run it forward again, and save a third one.

Reduce your chance of error i'd guess. Not sure what or how it's getting corrupted, but multiple saves would probably reduce that chance.

Good thing is, worst case scenario, you just start the patrol over. Not like you lose the career.

[frau kaleun]

It depends on what corrupted the save that's corrupt, and I'm not sure anyone has ever nailed down a precise cause - although some modders have taken on the task of trying to unravel the corrupt save issue with a mind towards figuring out how to fix them when they happen.

It's probably still a crap shoot at this point, it's just that enough people have identified situations in which they save and then have problems to indicate there's a trend. Even so, other users report saving in the same or similar circumstances with no problems at all. Who knows?

From what I understand, though, if you make a save that turns out to be corrupted, any saves made after it will also be corrupted. Since all the variables involved have never (AFAIK) been precisely identified, making multiple saves during a patrol - even if they're made close together - is not a bad idea. If the last one turns out to be bad, then you just have to work backwards through the rest of them until you find one that's good.

[Kapt Z]

I've noticed that once I stopped overwriting a save and just created a new one each time my corrupt save problems have practically vanished.

[frau kaleun]

I've noticed that once I stopped overwriting a save and just created a new one each time my corrupt save problems have practically vanished.

Yeah, I've never overwritten a previous save, I just make a new one. It usually ends up being 4-5 per patrol so I don't worry about overdoing it.

I've never had a corrupted save problem, but then I've also been careful about when and where I save.

[desirableroasted]

From browsing this forum a bit, I've learned that SHIII saved games tend to get corrupted when saving submerged or within visual range of the enemy. I haven't encounter the problem myself yet (I'm new to this game and still on my first patrol in 1939), but as I don't have more than an hour or two at a time for playing the game, I suspect that sooner or later I'll have to save and exit in presence of the enemies - from what I see, the engagements in this game can last well over an hour in real time.

Just how bad is this save game issue - should I expect every / most games saved with enemies nearby get corrupted, one in five, in ten? If it's very often - how do these among you that can't spare more than an hour/two cope with this (when, for example, a destroyer is hunting you after successful attack and you know you have to exit game in 10 minutes)?

I'm playing stock, patched SHIII, no mods (thought I'd play at least one career in unmodded game before trying mods out).

My (unscientifically recorded) experience is that the chance of a bad save is 10%-15% if you save underwater in the presence of other ships and about 5% if you save surfaced in the presence of other ships. No idea what triggers it.

My policy is to save whenever a "patrol-changing event" happens -- such as being notified of a convoy, TF, or ship I want to intercept -- or after the decks are cleared after a successful sinking. At least I can always reset to that.

And if you do make a corrupt save, all subsequent saves seem to pick up the corruption... you have to work back to the last clean save.

Good hunting!

EDIT: Capt Z's advice of always making a NEW save, rather than overwriting on old one with the same name, is crystal. Always save with a new name.

[krashkart]

One thing I will definitely recommend is to save while the weather is still good, if possible. If you save during a minor storm, the next time you load it up you might end up with three days of mild storm followed by increasingly bad weather for the next week or so. :dead:

Vice versa; if you save with good weather you might get three more days of sun and low winds, followed by the usual pattern of increasingly not-so-good weather. That's not so bad. :)

[Philipp_Thomsen]

Just do what I do:

If I have to leave the game, I hit ESC, save it, and go ALT+TAB.

Then I use the computer to work or what ever else, go out if I have to, then eventually I come back and finish it, without having to reload saved games.

You can even put the computer/laptop to sleep or hibernate, the game will stay on the memory and will resume normally after you come back for it.

[ralphnader23]

One thing I noticed with me was that bad saves seemed to happen most often on the first 3 patrols. I was getting them a lot on the first three (and having to start a lot of careers over):damn::damn::damn:; then I managed to get to a fourth patrol on one career and have only had one bad save since. So who knows?

[Kapt Z]

One thing I will definitely recommend is to save while the weather is still good, if possible. If you save during a minor storm, the next time you load it up you might end up with three days of mild storm followed by increasingly bad weather for the next week or so. :dead:

Vice versa; if you save with good weather you might get three more days of sun and low winds, followed by the usual pattern of increasingly not-so-good weather. That's not so bad. :)

That has been my experience as well. I think someone here has mentioned that it resets the weather 'clock' so you get stuck with the weather, good or bad, that was present when you saved for a long time.:nope:

I try to avoid saving in storms or heavy rain, but in my present patrol my RL constraints have forced me to and I am stuck in heavy rain, high seas and low vis. :damn: