[BigWalleye]

I have been playing NYGM exclusively for more than a year now. I like the gameplay, and now with vanjast’s wonderful 1920x1080 mod, I can play it widescreen at full rez on my rig. So I am hardly an advocate for GWX.

But I am interested in getting the story straight, because this forum is the place where a lot of noobs come to get their orientation to SH3. So I think it’s important that what those folks see here is as accurate as we, the community, can make it. Nothing turns someone off a game faster than recurring, unfixable problems. If you think that none of this applies to you, for whatever reason, just ignore the rest of this post.

Every time a poll is taken, a majority of respondents, usually over 60%, say they play SH3 with GWX. Many of these players are sophisticated users who have been around subsims for many years. It strains credibility to suggest that they are putting up with corrupted saves that CTD on loading. These players are neither lazy nor stupid. If they experienced such problems due to GWX, there would be widespread notice on this forum, There would threads describing work-arounds or fixes. Failing that, there would be a general exodus from GWX. That hasn’t happened.

Stock SH3 (and SH4 and SH5, too) has had well-established savegame issues going back at least to the release of SH3 1.4. Check the SubSim forums and you will see that this is true. There are well-known and well-publicized workarounds to avoid what seems to be inherent problems in the savegame and reload routines. These workarounds (the “rules” for when and how to save) seem to be useful, whether you are playing GWX, NYGM, LSH, or stock SH3. A lot of people follow those “rules” and get along just fine with whatever supermod they favor, without annoying corrupt saves. You may have experience that says that your particular environment is immune to those problems. If so, do whatever works for you.

I became very familiar with the corrupt-saves issue a couple of years ago, when I started experiencing CTDs with saves while playing (heavily modded) GWX. Eventually, they became so common that the game was not playable. So I switched to NYGM and a different mod load. There was no savegame problem for a while, but eventually, it started happening again.

That was when I decided that I had to do something about the problem or abandon the game. Fortunately, I had the time to devote to it. I spent full time, five and six days a week, for the better part of two months exploring what worked and what didn’t. A lot of what I learned can be found here: http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=205755. I found that neither GWX or NYGM was, by itself, responsible. Some additional mods, and some combinations of mods can cause the problem, though. GWX, only because there are more compatible mods for it, may be more susceptible than the others. Because mods that are compatible with GWX are not necessarily compatible with each other!

The old stand-by rules - no submerged saves, no saves near land, no saves near rendered unit, no saves during combat – are generally worth abiding by. I have broken all of them at times and gotten away with it, but it’s safer to live within them if you can.

Software hygiene is very important. You should not save using the same name as an existing save. Always delete the old save first. Then reuse the old name if you wish. Otherwise, a corrupt save is likely.

You should not activate or deactivate mods when you have saved in mid-patrol. This includes changes which restore the same mod list, in the same exact order. You should not, for example, deactivate all your mods, then reactivate them all in the same order. If you do, the chances are good the save will CTD on reloading.

You should not activate or deactivate mods unless you have rolled back SH3 Commander. This will corrupt, not just your saved game, but your whole install.

Whenever you start experiencing corrupt saves, the best and fastest solution is to uninstall EVERYTHING – SH3, mods, saved games. Then use a good registry cleaner. Then re-install from the ground up.

All of this was learned painfully, shared with others, and represents the collective experience of a lot of people and a lot of time spent playing and working with SH3. It seems to work well for the majority of players, and it is certainly a good starting point if you are having trouble. If you are not having trouble, but are just starting out and want to avoid trouble, it’s a good way to avoid problems.

This information is supplied, gratis, to help new players enjoy the game, and to help those who are having problems by sharing the experience of others. But if you are sure that this information doesn’t apply to you and your installation, then you have no reason to pay the slightest bit of attention to any of it. You may be right. YMMV.