Oh, I do name my saves kinda like that as well. I usually can load them too but the problem is that once SH 4 CTD's during patrol, next time I want to load a savegame from that career it will CTD - no matter how I call them, no matter what went down on the seas before I saved etc .. and this goes for ALL saves, even ones I made hours before the particular crash. I just hope they will fix all the reasons for CTD's which may be the needed workaround for the savegame woes that quite a bunch of ppl encounter.

I also have a problem with CTD's at the "please wait" message when I load a game.

However, it appears I may have found a workaround. It's been working so far, anyway.

The problem seemed to show up much more consistently this last patrol. I could load the first couple saves alright but any saves after that and I'd get "please wait", then crash, and the "do you want to send an error report to Microsoft?" box.

What I've found that's been working, though, is if I load a save game that DOES work, then when the internal view pops up and I hear "all stop", I go into the menu and tell it to load the latest save. It usually works. The only stipulation is that everytime I want to load a later save, I have to completely exit out of SH4. If I've already loaded one of the problem saves and try to go back through the main menu (exit to main menu and not exit to Windows), and haven't completely restarted the game, when I get to the save I want to use, I hear "torpedo in the water" several times and when I can start playing there are no ships around (if they were there when I saved the game, that is).

So try this and see if it works:
1. Exit completely out of SH4
2. Restart SH4 (it's a pain to rather than just use the menu, I know)
3. In the main menu, "load game" and choose a save that you know works. (I don't know if it can be a different patrol or not. Haven't tried it.)
4. When that saved game comes up, go to the ESC menu and "load game" for the save you want to use (but crashes when you go directly to it from the main menu).

No guarantees, but that method seems to have been working for me so far. Just remember that if you need to load another save, use the "exit to Windows" option and start all over. (Ugh)

Having the same issue, crash on most saves.

No save game issue for me so far but I only did 1 career, first patrol before the kamakazi's got me (I'm a noob). I was playing on easy even. I was manning AA guns the whole time until I got down to about 100 ammo left. Then I switched it over to an AI gunner. I can't remember but I may have reloaded a save game because the next time I switched in to man the AA gun there was 350 ammo in it. It was either the save game resetting the ammo or Bernard had pocketfull's of ammo before I put him in the gunner seat :D

Wait a minute. You don't have to name each save game? I never received the memo on that one. How do you do automatic save names? Do you just hit return or something?

Oh, and I've had no problems with save loads. Obviously have been naming each one. I tend to use short names like "p5a" and "p5aa1" -- I've got a system.

Had a problem with a saved game last night, upon reloading my sub was not moving, "All Stop" for some reason. I ordered "ahead 1/3 and I get "Cannot comply":huh:

Check my crew and they are all sleeping, not the way I left them when I saved this patrol. So there I am moving crew around to get the engines going and out of the sun comes a enemy AC....

Destroyed my scopes, deck gun, flak gun etc:damn:

Why does the crew always say "all stop every time I start, either at dock or outside of dock?

BTW, I really like the new start options in SHIV, at dock or outside:sunny:
I hope they fix the rest of it though....

"...Had a problem with a saved game last night, upon reloading my sub was not moving, "All Stop" for some reason. I ordered "ahead 1/3 and I get "Cannot comply":huh:..."

This is the only real bug I had with game saves (done about 25 of them so far in all different cirmunstances.) If you save within 10 minutes of an IMPENDING crew shift change, the crew's health will get dimished. If it was low before the save, it will get near zero after the restore. I'm careful to save now AFTER a shift change and more than 10 minutes before the next one. Other than setting speed to zero and your course to straight ahead (negating your waypoints) on a restore this is the only bug that affects game play for me.
-Pv-

Thanks for the info, I did not know that, will try it out:up:

Hello all,

This is my first post after being a LONGGGG time lurker of this fantastic board. I've been around since the original silent hunter, and played every one in between, and have to say this is the most unfinished release of the series IMO.

The fan base on this side for mods is absolutely incredible, and I had thought my savegame issues were due to the 10-15 mods I have applied in the last week but my symptoms are identical to what's being posted in this thread.

Here's what I'm experiencing. After playing a good 20-30hours on my first campaign I applied the 1.1 patch and was unable to load my career. I was quite bummed, but knew it had to be done after all the crashes/freezes/glitches of the initial release version. So I was willing to accept a restart.

I'm now about 20 hours into my next campaign and the savegame problems have started. I have discovered that if I can complete a mission, everything is fine. I then save back in the "office" and it loads fine. I can also (and this one makes me :damn:) load a previous save mid-mission as long as the mission I'm loading is from this game session. I can get sunk, shot at, or just accidentially hit the enter key instead of the TC (this one really steams me), and simply reload from 10minutes back. If, however, I exit the game (either on my own terms or due to a crash) I cannot reload the save games. Everything is great until it goes to the Please Wait screen, and then it crashes out with the "we're sorry for the inconvienence" message.:down:


So at this point I have to scrap the game. I've had 2 incredible missions now, 1 where I was able to take on a enemy fleet with Yamato, and another where the weather was horrible and I was able to tear a convoy to shreds. I played yesterday about 4 hours on this particular mission, and had completed my objectives and was heading for home when GREED got the better of me.

I recieved a PAC news update that the one group of islands were about to be raided and to expect a large battle. Since it was somewhat ;) on my way home I decided to stop by since I had just refit off the southern coast of Australia (previously had no ammo). I set my course, made it a day late to the islands, but as a consolation price was able to steal into the harbor for some mayhem. This was the first port that had extremely deep water until you get close to the shore so I was able to come it deep, and stay outside the shallows. I used up about 12 torpedos and destroyed several small/medium sized ships before deciding to leave. I had one ship that was on its last leg and I waited until the patrols loosened a bit. I wanted this ship sunk! I rose out of the water at night and quickly sunk with 4 HE rounds. Someone saw this and started firing on me, when the mother of all slowdowns occurred (never had this happen before). The game audio started stuttering, ALL controls were non-responsive, and even the mouse took about 3 minutes to move a little.

I freaked out. I knew if I couldn't get back to base this whole 4 hour ordeal would be for nothing. I tried everything. Tried to Esc out, widows-keyed to the desktop and shut down other processes to get a bit more ram (literally disconnected from the net and shutdown all antivirus/ip blocker/firewall :shifty:, and still no luck. After 25minutes of cursing and depression at the thought of losing this whole mission, I had to shut it down. With my last shred of sanity I rebooted the computer and loaded up my game. "SH4 has generated errors and needs to be closed. We are sorry for the inconvienence". :down:

I'm done until this is fixed.

I just had this savegame issue pop up as well. I had no problems prior; I could load saves from earlier sessions, saves made underwater, saves made near enemy convoys, etc. A couple of nights ago, I'd just made it into the Sea of Japan when I decided to stop play for the evening, so I made a completely new save. Game time was near midnight, I was surfaced, no ships were near, but the next day I got the CTD during the "Please Wait" message. In addition, I got the same CTD reloading all saves from that career, even with a reboot.

As it was my first patrol after upgrading to a Gato, I just deleted all the saves and started a new career in 1942 with a Gato, but it was quite frustrating.

We're onto something here, like Galanti said...

- Don't save while submerged
- Don't save while close (say within 20km) to other vessels or to ports.
- Try to save under different filenames as much as possible.
- one poster elsewhere suggested saving as close to midnight as possible.
===

my case was similar, many missions (18+) and two careers. The Saved game loading CTD happend when i had loaded a saved game that was saved to an over-written file while submerged, in the middle of mutliple torpedo attacks, there was stuff sinking around me, fish in the water, and i was computing another firing order. That being said, we need to save carefully until this gets worked out. i had to load that patrol from a saved file before the most recent one that kept crashing. it was a huge set back.:damn: and now im saving at a almost rediculous rate to avoid it happening again.

I always use my own file names now and always create a NEW file when saving "career 2_a...Career_2_b" ect ect ect so incase i get jammed up a "last saved" file is pretty close to my most recent saved file. a back up of a back up so to speak? then i clean up all the saved files later.

when you reload the game everything does get reset you can tell, i typically try and save before launching the first solution. You can tell the AI is reset cause initially the ship your firing at may do action "A" (zig zag) in your played game, then you relaod the saved file and that same ship will react in mannor "B" (no zig zag).

Like the guys are saying here i guess the idea is to save when there is 'as little going on around you as possible' to play it safe.

I love this game, first sub sim and im completly hooked. the bugs while annoying are sometimes funny. (the inflatable life raft collsions still crack me up) ;)

hello

First post here and maybe the last if I cannot get the saves to work. :damn:

I'm now in 8th patrol at year 1942 and in Tokyo Bay. I had four different saves in the mission one at the very beginning. None of the saves work which means that I have to start a new career.

Though I wont be starting a new career untill this save game CTD issue gets solved and patched. I have the latest 1.1 patch installed. Its no use if we arent able to continue a saved game...

Here's one captain who is putting SH4 into shelf............ great game but no use playing with so many bugs.

S.S. Vetehinen

I am also getting these ctd's and have lost three or four careers so far.I have tried mot of the suggestions in this thread but with out any luck.I do hpe the devs will fix this.

Hector.

I have something to say regarding this issue...
I'M SO F*CKING TIRED OF THAT F*CKING BUG F*CK! F*CK!
Oh man... I feel better now...
And yes, I had the same situation as most of you guys have described... Pain in the ass... :down:


Couldn't be agree more with you, guys :stare:


I'm thinking of letting my SH4 collect the dust... I feel soooo bad about it :|


I've come to the same solution myself, but it doesn't work each time (worked once twice tho')... That's just unusable...


Oh boy... I think nearly everyone who had this problem thinks "F*CK!" when SH4 crashes after waiting for ages for "Please wait" screen...

I'm getting stress from SH4... And I bought it for enjoyment... :dead:

Is their a fix for this bug? I just ran into it.