tony_glazebrook
01-06-2009, 06:59 AM
All - I've started this thread so that this issue can be more easily kicked around.
How and Why things work now
First, I'll explain how you can save games, and why it is done this way.
As you play any campaign, you can save it at any point. Reloading the campaign, for the same side, will take you to this point. The save overwrites any previous data for the campaign. In other words, what you are doing is updating the current state of action. If you are worried about losing data from crashes or whatever, I'd recommend frequent saves. And remember - the built in replay function always lets you replay the previous turn in full (in read only mode). So you always can at least review what has happened. Plus, you can stop the turn calculation before it finishes if you don't like how things are panning out! The computer does not force the turn to be completed if you want to stop and redo it.
(Note - you can also re-start any campaign from the beginning - which scrubs out all previously saved data fro that campaign).
The saved games are campaign specific of course. A saved Pacific game has nothing to do with any game you might aslso be playing in the Atlantic or Med scenarios.
The concept is different to the normal game slots. This is because of the ability to create your own scenarios. Instead of a set number of pre-canned scenarios, you have the ability to create and save a limitless number of new campaigns (subject only to hard drive space!). Each one stays separate from all others, and in each one, when you save, it is the current state of play that is saved.
If, on top of this, you were able to go back to previous save points in the same campaign, there would be a huge number of files to manage. That was the main reason I went the way I did. Each game file can be upwards of a MB or more in size for each player. So, eg, if you played a campaign through with monthly turns, for say 4 years, and saved every turn, there would potentially be 4 * 12 * 2 (as there are 2 players) * say 1.5 MB of data, ie 144MB of saved game data, just for that campaign.
Feedback
So therefore I'd like to know what deficiencies players see in this (if any) before I do any work on it:
Do you really want to:
a. be able to go back to any previously saved point in a particular campaign, and play from there? OR,
b. be able to play say multiple Pacific 1 campaigns at the same time, say each against a different computer or player opponent?
If no, and no, then the system we have is fine.
In summary, what do you want most?:a, b, a + b, or no change, ie everything's cool as is :cool:
Cheers guys
How and Why things work now
First, I'll explain how you can save games, and why it is done this way.
As you play any campaign, you can save it at any point. Reloading the campaign, for the same side, will take you to this point. The save overwrites any previous data for the campaign. In other words, what you are doing is updating the current state of action. If you are worried about losing data from crashes or whatever, I'd recommend frequent saves. And remember - the built in replay function always lets you replay the previous turn in full (in read only mode). So you always can at least review what has happened. Plus, you can stop the turn calculation before it finishes if you don't like how things are panning out! The computer does not force the turn to be completed if you want to stop and redo it.
(Note - you can also re-start any campaign from the beginning - which scrubs out all previously saved data fro that campaign).
The saved games are campaign specific of course. A saved Pacific game has nothing to do with any game you might aslso be playing in the Atlantic or Med scenarios.
The concept is different to the normal game slots. This is because of the ability to create your own scenarios. Instead of a set number of pre-canned scenarios, you have the ability to create and save a limitless number of new campaigns (subject only to hard drive space!). Each one stays separate from all others, and in each one, when you save, it is the current state of play that is saved.
If, on top of this, you were able to go back to previous save points in the same campaign, there would be a huge number of files to manage. That was the main reason I went the way I did. Each game file can be upwards of a MB or more in size for each player. So, eg, if you played a campaign through with monthly turns, for say 4 years, and saved every turn, there would potentially be 4 * 12 * 2 (as there are 2 players) * say 1.5 MB of data, ie 144MB of saved game data, just for that campaign.
Feedback
So therefore I'd like to know what deficiencies players see in this (if any) before I do any work on it:
Do you really want to:
a. be able to go back to any previously saved point in a particular campaign, and play from there? OR,
b. be able to play say multiple Pacific 1 campaigns at the same time, say each against a different computer or player opponent?
If no, and no, then the system we have is fine.
In summary, what do you want most?:a, b, a + b, or no change, ie everything's cool as is :cool:
Cheers guys