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So I was on a re-supplied patrol, gone about 50 days, and I had a crash to desktop. I don't think anything extraordinary was going on, just "RAM Mush" probably, but the emotional toll of losing so much I had put so much attentive effort into just... sucks.

Aside from reminding me to save more often, does anyone have any personal proceedures or mental processes that they go through when they have to recover from a disappointing game crash?:-?

Haven't had that issue yet. However I make it a habit to save after every objective is met, or a major event too place like sinking multiple ships or going a certain distance. And of course I save after every completed patrol.

That's very sound, but I'm not sure whether to try to reproduce what I accomplished and lost, or whether to just try something wholly new.

That's very sound, but I'm not sure whether to try to reproduce what I accomplished and lost, or whether to just try something wholly new.

Sorry to hear Tang is overdue btw. :nope:

Depends how invested you are with your current campaign. Normally I'd recreate it or at least try to depending on what's at stake.

And yea she's taken a heavy ash can barrage in convoy college, I'll fin out this evening of her fate.

I don't tend to save. I'll leave it paused in the background, so I can wander up and start playing any time I want, so why bother saving?

When it does crash, I usually get extremely annoyed and stop playing for a few days. Then I come back, forget what I was doing in my campaign, and start a new one. (I've heard rumors that there's actually a year called "1943" somewhere in there...)

Just wait until you are in the Sibuyan sea in October of the magical year of 1944.

When it crashes, the files are corrupted, there is no going back.
The save game files are very complicated. Over the years a procedure was created to assure safe saves.
1. Create a master save while still in port. ex: fireftr
2. When you save out of port, create a new save file. ex: fireftr1
3. Save often. I save after I set a course to the next patrol zone, after refitting, after a battle, etc.
4. Try to save during the day, in clear weather, nothing within sensor range, away from land, and surfaced. This rule came about early in the game when computers had difficulty handling it. Personally, I never had a problem.

:arrgh!:I normally drink more rum:dead:

Thank you Frftr, I'll follow that faithfully- if I ever get out of here. My last save was too close to a bunch of ships, and I now have a save file called "exit try". Even moving the mouse causes a crash. I'm leaving the scene ahead 1/3, REAL TIME, and God forbid an escort notices me. Just saving every 15 min.

:wah:


...and more rum may be the other answer....

I never had a problem with saves, except that if I saved around enemy, sometimes the enemy wasn't there when I reloaded - Even that wasn't a massive issue until I found out about the weeping angels.........

Then I loaded OM/OMEGU and I found myself with two huge problems - Firstly, it's too good, and secondly it crashes for fun. I took care of the crash issue by installing more RAM and replacing OMEGU with OMPLOT, but if I save with anything in sensor range there's a good chance the save file will be corrupted.

I feel like I'm trapped in an abusive relationship - TMO was always so good to me, and I know it would take me back like I'd never been away, but even when I've just decimated a convoy and the game says "Think you're going back there? - Think again - that file is MINE"...... Even then, I say to myself it didn't mean to, I must have done something to make it happen. Next time I'll be more careful.....

There are times when I feel really tempted to reload my TMO/RSRD career, especially since I saved with a heavy cruiser and three destroyers pootling about at about 2 knots, just over the horizon, but not just yet. Apart from anything else, I'm in a game where I can legitimately sail into Morecambe Bay and shell the living daylights out of Blackpool - The boat will need a good clean afterwards though......

I don't pay any attention to what I'm doing when I save. I've even saved with a torpedo halfway to a target and no problem. All that clear sensors, on the surface, outside of sight of land, smooth seas, while burning incense and facing Mecca stuff is from SH3 and doesn't apply to SH4.

But corrupted saves do happen. I always save just before I enter port and again just after I leave. And I might save after a significant event. But I'm convinced that what you are doing when saving the game has nothing whatever to do with the corrupted saves. They just randomly happen and we make patterns where there are none: basic human psychology.

I don't know - TMO is pretty bulletproof, but the corrupted file issue is too consistent in OM to be just one of those things. Sometimes I get a corrupted save file when there doesn't appear to be anything around, but it happens 100% of the time there's a convoy near.

I save frequently. I'll have probably 15+ saves per patrol.

Contact 1

Contact 1 intercept

Contact 1 firing point

Sunk 1

Contact 2

Contact 2 intercept

and so on.

When I return to base, I make a save outside port, one in port, in addition to the auto saves. Then, I delete everything but the outside port and inside port saves, and create a save, "Begin patrol x"

Then I switch up my save names

1 contact

1 intercept

1 firing point

1 sunk

I figure from Contact 1 to 1 contact I've already overwritten any trace of old saves. Sucks to have to be that OCD about it but it sucks worse to lose an afternoon or evening of progress.

Also, I only use those saves if the games goes awry. If I screw up, tough cookies.