having trouble with SH4, game crashes when loading saves.

[MK2]

I had this problem and it went away as mysteriously as it showed up. I simply started a new career and it did not happen again.

[creativeballance]

Had this happen to me....
Unfortunately right AFTER I sank 2 Fleet Carriers and a armored cruiser..... (on 100K + for this patrol.)



Tried loading earlier save to find the task force, but every time I save around this group, I get a corrupted save file.

[fireftr18]

Welcome aboard creativeballance.
We need you to check the keel, make sure it's straight.

Your problem is a known bug. I bet you overwrote your saves. The save files in sh4 are actually a bit complicated and there is a lot of information that is saved. Continual overwrites will cause the files to become corrupted.
Save each time in its own file. What I do is make a master save with my name while in the office. Then subsequent saves are my name then a number. For instance, "fireftr","fireftr1","fireftr2", etc. That works successfully for me. To keep from making an unmanageble list, I delete save files regularly. Every time in port, I start over.
The standard recommendation for saves:
The best time to save is while in port, it has the least information to save.
When not in port, try to save during the day, clear weather, nothing in sensor range, and on the surface.
I will tell you, once I started saving new each time, I didn't have any trouble no matter what the conditions were.

[BigWalleye]

Originally Posted by fireftr18

I will tell you, once I started saving new each time, I didn't have any trouble no matter what the conditions were.

I will second that, but I'd add one more caveat: Only change the mod load when your game has been saved in port. This is an autosave, of course. You don't have to save again. But add or remove mods only when your career is saved in port. And that includes removing and replacing the exact same list of mods, even in the same sequence. Do it only when saved in port.

One consequence of this second rule is that you can not have two active patrols with different mod lists. For example, you shouldn't start a patrol using RFB, save during the partrol, and then change to TMO and start another patrol. If you do, when you change back to the RFB mod and restart that patrol, you may see unpredictable and undesirable behavior. The best way to avoid this is to make copies of the clean, unmodded game folder and use one copy for each set of mods you want to use. Then you can go from one to the other with no problems. Copying the game folder is easy, because SH4 makes no registry entries. You just use Copy and Paste in the file Explorer.

Following those two rules, no overwriting files and mod changes only in port, has eliminated corrupted saves for me. As in absolutely zero occurrences. YMMV, but I have saved at night in the middle of a convoy while submerged and under depth charge attack by multiple destroyers ("Honey, dinner's ready!") and restarted later with no problems.