bug when loading a savgeame

[codewright]

Well, I have a similar problem. I'm using TM1.7, maybe thats the reason.

So I stumbled upon this nice juice convoy, got into position to shoot and saved the game. Happily threw out 6 torpedos, then had to alt-tab when the torps were half there and because I had some crashes with alt-tabbing I saved again. Well then, 4 hits, two misses. Ok, I thought, lets try this once more. Loaded the first game and... um... the convoy was gone! 6 times "Torpedo in the water" although there was no torpedo in the water and a good bit later 6 times "Torpedo missed" without any explosions or anything. Then I loaded the second save with torps under way and there was nothing! No torps, no ships, nothing except my sub.

Funny thing is, the hydrophone contact markers are still on the map, but slowly fade away, because there is nothing there any longer.

Do others have this problem, too? Is it due to the patch or TM? Do you use any mods, propy?

[AVGWarhawk]

I doubt it has anything to do with TM. Often in the SH series saved games get corrupt for some reason. SH3 was always best to save surfaced and with no vessels around you. SH4 is not so bad. I have saved several times with convoys in sight. Loaded my save without issue later on. I suspect it is just best to call this career a wash and start over.

[codewright]

Not exactly what I wanted to read. I remember having a few problems with saves in SHIII as well, but I can't remember disappearing ships or crashes when loading a game. (In addition to the above, the save before this whole convoy thingy crashes the game when being loaded.) Looks like I'll be a bit more careful with saving and loading stuff.

[brandtryan]

I loaded up a savegame and all of the sudden had damage reports from all over, eventually sinking. I started a new career.

[ReallyDedPoet]

Welcome to SUBSIM codewright
2006 eh... :hmm:


RDP

[-Pv-]

I have yet to have a save game which immediately resulted in a game crash or sinking. I play an un-modded game. Perhaps there is something running on the machine which corrupts saves, but not all of them? Timingof the save is critical?
-Pv-

I think I have just experienced my first corrupt saved game .

Maybe it is time to start saving games on a frequent basis during a playing much like backups.

Save 1, play some more then Save 2 play some more then Save 3 and end game. try to reload in reverse order. Obviously if save three loads then I can write over saves 1 & 2. If not then I try save 2 and so on.

[Propy]

There isnt a problem with loading the saves. They load fine, its just that my sub behaves strange after loading a save done some minutes before I am sunk. Could it be that the ships that sunk me have been loaded in the second save but not in the first save, if you get what I mean...

[codewright]

Originally Posted by reallydedpoet

Welcome to SUBSIM codewright
2006 eh... :hmm:


RDP

Haha, thank you
You see, I'm more of the lurker style and don't play SH very regularly. But sometimes, especially after some movies I just need to put some holes into some ships.

Regarding the savegame problem: I found the very same convoi at the place it was like 10 or more hours before in-game time. So it's like I jumped back in time. The hydrophone markers on the map are there (fading) but the convoi need another 10h to reach this place. Fortunately this mostly solved my problem but it still leaves a bad feeling if you know that saving the game does not necessarily save the exact current state, just an approximation. That explains why saving is so quick.

@Propy
I guess we'll have to live with the fact that SH does not dump the complete state of the world in a savegame, but rather enough data to approximate this state. This may work well in 99 out of 100 cases, but can as well give a wrong result. I conclude this from the fact that saving is quick, the savegames are relatively small for such a large world and the problems shown in this thread.

[Propy]

Yes I see what you mean...didnt think about that before. But ofcourse they have to something like that when saving such a big gameworld to keep the size of the savegame down.
But still...what if you have been sneeking on a convoy for long time and you have to quit, and save. Then when you load again the convoy is gone! That would be really...erh...annoying
But as you said; we have to live with it...