Absolutely furious right now!!!!!!

[ddiplock]

As the title says, I'm not a happy chappy. Was just coming into Fremantle Harbour after finishing my third patrol, happy after sinking 3 merchies.

Running with time compression a bit quick, no ships nearby.....suddenly have a collision, and try to click the dock button in an attempt at "beating" the game in sinking my sub......seems some how it may of damaged the save game.

My hard drive went nuts and then proceeded to dump me to the desktop after the game crashed out. I tried loading up my save......only for it to sit at the loading screen forever saying "find em, chase em, sink em" or however it goes........but never actually loading!!! Numerous attempts, same results.

Wonderful, that's THAT promising career up the proverbial creek!!!!!! Things were going so well too!!!!

[Daniel Prates]

Ah, time compression-related bugs. They're the worst.

[ddiplock]

I could start off Mid 42 again to try and pick up where I left off.....but all the experience, and my medal and such that I earned from beginning of 42 will be lost, that and I'd be commanding a different boat so the essence of the old career is utterly gone!!! Curses!!!

[Platapus]

Been there, done that, got pissed at the t-shirt.

I feel for you. The TC in the game stynks! I usually play DiD but I will reload for TC related deaths.

Sorry to hear that. It stynks.

[Stealhead]

Easy cure for this save often(once per 24 hours in game) and make more than one save file for a career.I myself am not one of the "no save" ever types don't have that kind of time.Even for those who are you can just treat the saves as a backup file just in case saves you from a lot of frustration.

[torpedobait]

Like Steelhead, I save a few times in a patrol "just in case", generally upon reaching my patrol area, upon making a significant contribution to the war effort, and as I am starting my inbound leg. Here's a tip that might help if you do save even once. I always take a last save when I am about 60nm from port on the inbound course. That way if there is a problem with TC as you near port, you have a safety game to get back to.

[Daniel Prates]

I myself never saw constant saving as a sort of cheat, or easying up the game. But sure enough, it is very chicken of a skipper to keep reloading and trying again because he missed a torpedo or something of a sort.

[Aviv]

I guess that makes me a big coward skipper cause I always save. I often save before an attack so in case it will go wrong I can try again. When I die, I can load the save back. Of course not everytime, if I'm bored of a campaign I will let myself die (eventually).

[HowFar]

I have felt that pain on a number of occasions. As a result I 've come up with a system of saving that may help avert this occurence in the future. I maintain three saves for each boat, one in base and two on the patrol. For example, if my boat is the Balao I will save in base as "Balao" after I have done all my equipment and crew upgrades. Once on patrol I will save as "USS Balao" then again as "USS Balao (SS 285)". Each time I save I select the second file on the list, thus constantly cycling it to the top of the list. If I were to experience a file corruption of any sort I don't have to go too far back in my patrol to pick up where I left off. It's pointless to save too close together so I'll save no less than 12 hours game time apart and sometimes as long as a couple of days, depending on the situation. As I'm approaching base with TC fairly high I have my thumb resting near the "esc" key and as soon as the clock so much as hiccups I hit the "esc" key and save. Then I'll save again after I'm about 10 miles from the base and before docking. This little system of saving works for me and has spared me the anquish of losing a patrol so you may find it useful.

[flatsixes]

I must be a bad man, because there are scenarios that I've played through a dozen times from a saved point. Its not all the time, but I figure that after umpteen hours of cruising around with nothing but a sampan or two to show for my efforts, if I spot a fat task force then I'm gonna play that thing until I've run out of fish, and I don't care how many tries it takes. I know that I'm not playing "realistically" when I indulge myself like this, but then again I frequently take showers over the course of a campaign, too.

[WernherVonTrapp]

I've learned (the hard way) to do the same thing. I always save about 50nm prior to docking at home base. I also save 3 games for all my careers (2 as backups). I save frequently during a patrol for a lot of different reasons. In that respect, I don't worry one bit about whether captains could save a career in real life because, in real life, they couldn't TC either.

[Armistead]

You can still save and play dead is dead, do it all the time. In a serious career I just won't use the save to better an attack, redo, etc.. The game still has a few bugs, CO2, silent running not engaging, etc...you get these, you'll wish you had a save.

Early war is dangerous, once you get radar you should pick up a contact and TC drop automatically.

[Dogfish40]

I save quite a bit as well, but I lost a good career on TC going to Honshu. A DD ran up behind me where the SO probably didn't pick up the sound until the TC came back down to 1 and we had depth charges blowing the ship apart. There was no saving the boat, it wouldn't surface.
I had logged up a few really nice ships and was looking forward to the band playing when we got back in Pearl... I still miss that particular career (boat).
D40

[Platapus]

Originally Posted by Aviv

I guess that makes me a big coward skipper cause I always save. I often save before an attack so in case it will go wrong I can try again. When I die, I can load the save back. Of course not everytime, if I'm bored of a campaign I will let myself die (eventually).

Sounds like you play SH4 as if it were a video game to be played for enjoyment.


Which it is, of course.

[magic452]

If I run into an interesting TF or convoy I'll save before I attack. Sometimes I'll replay the save a few times to try different attacks, etc. But I only continue the patrol from the first attack no matter how it plays out.

I always put my last way point about 40 or so miles away from port just to avoid ddiplock's problem. Also always save once I clear enemy waters.

Magic