If it don't "SAVE", I don't want it!

[Captain Nemo]

Originally Posted by TDK1044

I have yet to have a corrupted save in either Silent Hunter 3 or Silent Hunter 4. I have a 'Save' protocol in place in case of such a problem though.

I rotate 3 saved games every 5 to 10 minutes within the game. So I'll save as TDK1 and then five minutes later I'll save as TDK2 and then 5 minutes later as TDK3 before going back to save as TDK1. This way, if I ever got a corrupted save, I would simply load a game five minutes behind the corrupted save. A bit like a system restore point I guess.

I always save at the navigation map station and in 1X TC. Never had a problem.

Like you I never had a problem with saves in SH3 for many years (not played SH4 so can't comment) but in the last month or so I have had two bad saves. Probably my own fault as I saved near a convoy on one and near land on the other but have done this many times before without issues. Your save protocol could be flawed though and might not save you from the corrupt save problem. The way I understand this problem is that if you create a save point without exiting the game and that save is corrupt all subsequent saves are also corrupted. So if TDK1 was corrupt then TDK2 and TDK3 will be also. Of course unless you exit SH3 and reload your saves each time you won't know this problem exists until that time comes. It happened to me, my exit save was corrupt so I went to my backup save in the hope that would load, unfortunately that was corrupt too. To try and avoid this problem I now never overwrite saves and make saves at appropriate times i.e. after a major event and always mark my exit saves with an "x". Not had a corrupt save using this system yet so can't vouch for it's reliability.

I agree that SH5 needs a robust save feature otherwise players just end up frustrated at losing their hard work.

Nemo

i wish they could find a way to save the nearby AI units when you save so its not corrupted but even more important is that when surprised you can save the situation as it is and not have everything AI dissappear when you reload it.

[karamazovnew]

You have no idea how many times I've shadowed a convoy only for it to dissapear on load . Saving such large data changes can be made easy by compacting them in layers, depending on distance from the sub and saving them at different intervals. Anything on the ship gets saved immediately, like orders or crew intentions ("I'm going to the loo"), anything in 10 miles radius gets saved every minute and so on. Since we get multi-core support changing a few flags for units can't be that system intensive.

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by WEBSTER

i wish they could find a way to save the nearby AI units when you save so its not corrupted but even more important is that when surprised you can save the situation as it is and not have everything AI dissappear when you reload it.

That has always been an insurmountable task.......keeping the AI stable after a save near scripted units.

[Safe-Keeper]

I'd love an "Ironman"/Dead is Dead mode that worked like Uplink or, as was said, MMO's. Reward the player with a generous amount of reputation/renown/whatever if he or she uses it, and off you go.

Originally Posted by jimbuna

That has always been an insurmountable task.......keeping the AI stable after a save near scripted units.

maybe they could find a way for it to only save (take a snapshot if you will) only whats within visual range but im guessing the main problem with it is it has more to do with it still having the AI to control it

if they just remorphed it i guess it would no longer be connected to the AI system

it sure would be nice if they found a way to do it though

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by WEBSTER

maybe they could find a way for it to only save (take a snapshot if you will) only whats within visual range but im guessing the main problem with it is it has more to do with it still having the AI to control it

if they just remorphed it i guess it would no longer be connected to the AI system

it sure would be nice if they found a way to do it though

Oh trust me I agree.....it might well be possible though because the game engine is obviously a lot newer than the one used in SH3.