Problem Saving Games
 

How do you save games with different names? I.e. I want to save a game at every few turns so that I can re-start it from that point if disaster strikes. This is a standard feature in all of the 80 plus games I own (or have owned), so I am sure it is here somewhere, but I cannot find it. It does not seem to be in the menus.

Re: Problem Saving Games
 

There isn't an in-game system for this. You can copy the game's folder from savedgames subfolder.

There's been some discussion about this feature in here lately. There was also some discussion about this when Dominions II was released. I think there also was some discussion about this when Dom:PPP was released. It's been part of the series for a long time.

Re: Problem Saving Games
 

Dominions does not have the save and reload option featured in most computer games.

If you need a copy of a saved game in progress use Explorer to copy the desired set of game files into a separate folder before continuing your game.

Re: Problem Saving Games
 

As a newcomer to the games I can only say that I am amazed and baffled. What is there to discuss? Its a simple and straightforward feature that is pretty much a standard convenience in PC games. Adding it should be simple and would save a lot of time for players. Players that are not PC literate are pretty much left abandoned.

Re: Problem Saving Games
 

CHEATER !!!


[i]Honestly,
opening up the dominions3/savedgames/*gamename* - folder isn't that hard to do, isn't it? And you should have a ZIP-program (or another packer) installed .. just mark the *nationname*.2h, *nationname*.trn and ftherlnd file and zip them up e.g. into "turn1.zip", and the next turn into "turn2.zip" etc.
That way, you can always decompress any turn you like... . Simply reload the game afterwards.

Why it is this way, one can only speculate. At first, I would guess, the devs don't like anyone cheating around their random events ... furthermore, as Dom3 runs on Mac, Windows and Linux, a OS-independant file selection screen would be needed, which is not that easy to do, unless you use certain libraries, which where AFAIK not used for Dom3 (or 2) anywhere else.

edit: additonal text .. sry, hit the wrong button...

Re: Problem Saving Games
 

I wouldn't say so, in fact just think. Save function like that could help a lot to the newbies, to continue from a given point, because more than likely they are making many mistakes.
Anyways you can backup old savegames, as Endo has mentioned it already, if you want to do that at all costs.

Re: Problem Saving Games
 

The counter argument is that a save function makes it harder for a newbie, because they don't have to learn from their mistakes.

Probably it started without a Save because of the emphasis on multiplayer, where a save is useless.

Personally, I prefer it this way. Unlike most FPS or RPG type games, where getting back to a certain point requires repeating the same process over again (and again), losing a game in dominions due to mistakes just means you can start over again with a different set of challenges, even if you set the game up the same way.
But then I'm a nethack fan too.:)

And you can always copy savegames, if you want the security or just to experiment.
No real need to zip them either, unless you're really short on space. Just copy the file and change the name. Add a turn number or something.

Re: Problem Saving Games
 

The game does have a switch for pre-execute and post-execute before each hosting. You can create a script or batch or desktop shortcut (depending on your system) to automatically copy the game files to another directory before each hosting. That way you have another "game" which will always be your previous turn.

Re: Problem Saving Games
 

I vaguely remember someone made a DomSave tool a few times ago for Dom2, that did exactly that : copy the old file to a backup directory, rename it with turn number, then launch the game.
It should be obvious to adapt it to Dom3 if we find the initial author http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/redface.gif

Re: Problem Saving Games
 

From a user perspective, the way it is handled in Dominions is just plain silly. Dominions 2 was not an "MP only" game and Dominions 3 is even less so. A considerable number of players play singleplayer only or primarily. Thus, not having save game functionality in-game because the game is multiplayer based is a poor choice, since having the ability avaible does not impact multiplayer adversely.

Yes, you can copy files manually by hand if you want to, but that takes considerably longer time than e.g. choosing save, enter filename, hit save button would do, [and given how Dominions 3 ****s up when alt-tabbing, you probably do have to leave the game to make that copy by hand] and as a result it is something you either write your own script to do automatically (requiring code literacy) or, for all practical purposes, don't do at all. Which leaves you in the cold when the game ****s up and corrupts a save file since this on the spot ends your game. It also presents the "irreversible-death" scenario to new players. YES, they learn by irreversible death, as I'm sure some of you will argue, but they learn much more if they after suffering defeat can retrace to an earlier save and retry their approach to see how they could have changed the outcome, than if they just have to say, tough cookies, let me start all over from the very beginning again.

As for the line of player groupthink that goes "the developers don't like people to cheat on random events/battles/whatever by not rolling with the punches"... as any good developer knows, as far as fun goes, the point of a game is for the players to have fun, not the developers (or even worse, the computer), and anybody not wanting to load an older savegame is free to not do so without any lessening of his gaming experience. (Though it is nice when the developers too have fun, even if it is vicious or satirical fun, it should never be the priority)

It is a baffling newbie-unfriendly design choice that is no doubt a legacy of the MP design of the game and which should have been reconsidered a long time ago. Players cannot be assumed to be Nethack-nerds used to that approach or assumed to be happy with an forced ironman-mode.

Re: Problem Saving Games
 

It'll be cool that some of the Net-nerds you're talking about (Huh hello Gandalf, did we call you ? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif) make a simple java or whatever mini-app to manage savefiles... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Re: Problem Saving Games
 

Cheater? A bit of a bizarre response (?). I replay a lot of games, sometime after 100-200 turns, just to see how things might go if I try something different.. I imagine most people do.

As far as making manual copies, sure, I can do that, even if it is a pain. Doing so constantly disrupts the game and interferes with play flow and enjoyment. But I suspect a LARGE number of players or, more importantly, Potential players would read your note on the mechanics and their eyes would glass over. My kids have already complained about the demo and my wife would not attempt to even understand such a process, but she spends a lot of money on games (and other stuff!) and it is silly to turn such folks and their $$$ away. One of the kids is interested in the game but, again, this issue may keep it off of the Christmas wish list, even if she thinks my full version is “totally cool.”

The whole save and load UI feature is really a no brainer, IMO. Put it in and let people play and have fun!

Re: Problem Saving Games
 

Hear Hear!

Re: Problem Saving Games
 

Note that when the developers are working on the game part-time around their real jobs, the developers having fun is a priority.
If they don't, they'll stop developing.

Re: Problem Saving Games
 

I agree that it is a little behind the times, but I think it's a conscious decision to add depth and strategy. In a weird way I think it's fun that an unlucky random event can knock off your unprepared pretender and you're forced to deal with it instead of reloading like the event never happened.

Re: Problem Saving Games
 

I agree.
I think it does change the feel of the game. It's part of the game and shouldn't be changed lightly. While individuals could always ignore it, that being the accepted default would change both the game and the community around it.


The game does many things against the conventional wisdom. This is one of them. It's a niche game. It will always be by nature a niche game. It's also the largest pre-order Shrapnel's ever had. (Which will hopefully translate into the highest sales as well.) It must be doing something right.

Re: Problem Saving Games
 

Sadly, I have no willpower. For example, Rome Total War has a save feature. I quit having fun because I became obsessed with saving & reloading between assassination attempts because I just couldn't bare the idea of losing my high level assassin. If a battle went poorly, I was immediately frustrated and would hit the reload button. For myself, the addition of a handy in-game save feature would be a bad thing.

Maybe a nice compromise would be a command line switch that would allow a user to enable/disable an in-game save feature... then if I could just resist the urge to enable it. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Problem Saving Games
 

You would see pro-permanent death posts on every forum for every MMOG that ever proposed this idea. All of those games have failed. If we couldnt save in our backward sort of way like we do in Dom2-3, I dont think many people, that like playing SP games, would buy it. All I asked for and will continue to ask is that Save could be made an ingame option so that I dont have to go outside the game, and could even play in full screen mode. Flame away.

Re: Problem Saving Games
 

Well mainly saving a game and reload does not make much of a difference due to the scale of choices you make in DOM. Consequences you pay in the current turn are of decitions made several turns ago.
And mainly you don´t loose a game just because you mismove 1 army. but saving last turn in backup could be useful for this cases of mismove or forgetting to give orders you already decided.

and for the save-reload mechanic or cheats like "research all" or "1 million bucks" are pointless and I don´t see why some people cheat. What point is to win a game that way?

If I cas Haruspex searching sites in a province and detects no sites I could reload and search elsewere. AI would not have a chance to this kind of cheating. Reload if a fire destroyed my lab. etc

Re: Problem Saving Games
 

MMOG/TBS :: Apples/Oranges

I'm curious though. How do you usually use the save games? How often do you reload? What circumstances? Just to the last turn or farther back?

I tend to not use saves often in strategy games, even when they allow it, so I really am curious (I'm bad about remembering to save in games that rely on it, too.)

Re: Problem Saving Games
 

Games like Jagged Alliance and Call of Duty would be ridiculously hard without save/loading. But games like Dwarf Fortress and Dominions encourage you to experiment, make mistakes, but then recover from them. Even if your god or prophet dies, you can always call him back or appoint a better prophet. The only true death comes after a long series of mistakes or bad strategies, so you might as well learn and have fun making a comeback. If you are so compulsively perfectionist that you have to reload after a horror kills one of your mages... well, you are a different person than I. Save/loading doesn't make you a very good competetive player either, if that's what you're into.

You do know that you can go back and forth between fullscreen and windowed with ALT+ENTER, right? And if you have a Mac, you can make Applescripts to save individual turns with a hotkey, I think. I don't think you can tell the devs that they screwed up because they didn't make it easy to cheat. I did reload games when was experimenting with tactical battles now and then, and it's really not much of a hassle.

Re: Problem Saving Games
 

Lads, I think that we gotta agree with new newbies. I don't see anything bad with having a save function, since you can backup your games anyways. That way they wouldn't have to do it.
Everyone who says that saving is cheating...well no comment. Now that the game is much better for SP fans also, a save function should've been added if you ask me. [Actually this is weird, I never thought that a save function would be so necessary, but that is probably because I am not a Doms newbie, but I try to "see" this from their perspective, so I can understand that they would like to see a save function in the game..]
Just my 0.02 http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/smile.gif

Re: Problem Saving Games
 

Some people have fun using saving/loading or using cheat codes, some people have not, the only thing that is certain is that having access to those things does not adversely affect the gaming experience of either of the two groups whereas not having access to them certainly hurts one of the two groups.

The whole "I don't see the fun in feature X, so I choose to believe that others would not, despite their protestations to the contrary, have fun in it either, so I argue against it on the basis of it having no point" is reminiscent of the worst of early 1980'ies game programming and has been abandoned by just about everybody: People have different ideas of fun and the only people who are not worth listening to as a developer are those who argue against features that others would find fun but which wouldn't affect the one arguing or worse, those who argue against it on the basis of others "not playing the game as it ought to be played" (there are always a certain amount of such deadwood in any forum of fans for a game but they really aren't worth listening to as a developer once they begin arguing for limiting other players' fun rather than enhancing their own).

If you had fun playing like that, great! The game would be more fun for you than if it lacked a load/save in-progress feature. If you did not have fun playing like that, great! The game wouldn't in any way, shape, or form force you to play like that even with the best load/save feature invented enabled.

And if you'd make a stable save every 5 or 10 rounds or as the fancy took you [or how about automatic autosaves with different nations every fixed N rounds to go even further http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif], just in case the not-particularly-bug-free game engine decided to corrupt a save, such that you could return to a previous save in case of corruption and keep playing on, instead of having to abandon a game in progress, GREAT!

Re: Problem Saving Games
 

Putting it there makes it so much more tempting, besides I'm of the forces them to learn side. Maby I'm wrong and experimenting is the key with easy backed up saves but my instincts say living with your mistakes is the only way to learn not to make them.

Re: Problem Saving Games
 

Failing to support saving/loading is a huge mistake. One of the reasons dominions is so difficult to learn is because you can never revisit a decision and observe how different actions yield different results. Experimentation is discouraged in a game with the knowledge that, if something bad happens, you'd need to replay for 2+ hours to reach that position again. Everyone I've showed Dominions off to has found it incredibly backwards that a game with such a huge learning curve is so unforgiving about mistakes. I know I've wished for the ability to go back a turn and undo a game-destroying minor mistake or fluke (e.g. that newly summoned group of Summer lions got default-placed in the middle of my force and they burned 20 friendly mages to death with their auras on round 2 of combat) way too many times. You're essentially playing the entire game in Ironman mode- and while that's fine for hardcore fans, it's anathema for anyone unfamiliar with the system or less serious about the game.

If this were a democracy I'd place my vote for a real save/load mechanic. Because it's not, I'm just going to urge Johan or Kristoffer, if they're reading this, to DEFINATELY put in a save/load. People will love you for it. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Problem Saving Games
 

OK, the "save game" feature is already there, only it's inconvenient as hell (it's called "save game, rename files manually, reload game").

What good is there in making people sweat over saving their games? The "it's good to learn" argument makes no sense - it's not like not making mistakes in Dom3 games were an important skill in today's society (I'm a teacher, and we deliberately make some things harder for the students - but then there is a good reason for this; with Dom3, we're talking about a GAME, whose only real purpose is to provide ENTERTAINMENT and FUN to the player - and for most people, juggling around with computer files is not particularly entertaining or fun).

In other words, not providing an in-game save function is just silly. I'll even go further: since the game doesn't let you see what the situation was X turns earlier, an automatic "backup files before hosting/sending orders" mechanism would be really useful for those long PBEM games - together with an easy way of loading a previous turn.

Re: Problem Saving Games
 

Eh, I take it back I guess. The thing is, I'm not surprised save/loading isn't supported heavily given that there are links to roguelikes on the devs' website.

Re: Problem Saving Games
 

Actually it does. Playing an SP game is very different in the first 30 mins and after 2 hours. This is not an ordinary TBS game. You always have new options as the time is passing. The save function would good for these newbies, so they could continue from a point, correct their errors, and continue the game from there...after that they could discover the mid/late game content also.
They can learn the game anyways, but it would be much easier with that save function for them, this is for sure.

Re: Problem Saving Games
 

I'm a new Dominions player, and when I met the Kailasa holy units for the first time my army got nearly wiped out. Due to a long-time playing games that allow save anywhere I instantly reached for that button...and found out it wasn't there.

I played the rest of the game and defeated them because of that setback. If the option for a quicksave was there, I probably would not have learned from my setbacks.

So that's one newbie vote for no quicksave http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Problem Saving Games
 

I like the "ironman" style of play myself.

However, I understand the complaints of other new players besides me. I'm sure that a mod will be released in the future for those who want more control over save files.

But if I had a vote, I'd say keep it the way it is.

It's a niche game for a reason... it's different. This is one of the differences. Yes, it's very "old school" and behind the times, some people like that. Don't hate us because we're old. We can't help it.

Re: Problem Saving Games
 

This was so sad to read. If you restore to a save whenever you lose something you didn't want to lose, then you aren't playing the game. This is a game that is not designed to require you to do that. You're supposed to live with what happens, not say, "nope! ya missed me! I'm bending reality and trying again!"

It's sad for me to read that people can play many many games for years and never encounter a well-balanced game that isn't based around the "backsies" save game abuse "feature. Bleh.

PvK

Re: Problem Saving Games
 

I think you're mischaracterizing our motives for wanting a real save/load feature.

To illustrate, put yourself in the shoes of a person who has spent the last two hours fighting to enter land as EA R'leyh. Your morale 8 troops are completely unable to breach PD anywhere on the map, so you need to rely on summons. You've taken and pillaged several smaller provinces, but Maverni his beginning to dominate the land mass and you know that once that happens, you're history. Fortunately, you've just managed to reach lvl 9 alteration and have scraped together (via alchemizing all your gems to astral) enough pearls for one casting of Wish. You need somebody big, bad, and amphibious to Thug their way through the armies of Maverni.
You've heard somewhere on the forums that Doom Horrors are the toughest unit in the game- and toughest sounds pretty good. You wish for "Doom Horror". Next turn: the sum total of all your gems are gone, your pretender is dead, horror marked, and feebleminded. Your nation has no way to heal and it'll take you roughly 100 turns to empower another person up to the level needed for another casting. The game is now over because you did not know that wishing for that particular minion will not work- an unsatisfying way to cap off two hours of gaming by any estimation.

Loading when that kind of thing happens is not "save game abuse", it's a way to avoid having to throw an otherwise entertaining session away because of a fluke, bad decision, or honest mistake.

Re: Problem Saving Games
 

Why does losing a game "throw an otherwise entertaining session away?"

Re: Problem Saving Games
 

It's not losing, it's losing in such an arbitrary manner. If there was a button labeled "Fish" which, if clicked, quit and erased the game files it would be essentially the same thing.

Re: Problem Saving Games
 

What? It's not losing, but it's losing? Fish button? Huh?

Re: Problem Saving Games
 

Not to mention simply forgetting things because of a screaming child, not recognising the itty bitty people characters for what they are or, for that matter, remembering what they are or what they do or, worst of all, playing for 4 hours, have some nutty thing happen that ends the game for you and not being able to re-play it without going back for 4 hours.

I had no idea that not having a save and reload feature (like almost all other games do) was such a critical design component. What a shame. It detracts from my enjoyment and I suspect that, if widely known, would negatively impact potential buyers, helping keep this marvelous game in a niche rather than expanding its base to a much, much wider market.

I think that it is rediculous that a request for a simple and standard UI feature should generate such a voluminous debate about the philosophy of GAME playing.

Look Mr Developer Guys, just please give us a flexible save and reload in the UI and let people choose for themselves how they will enjoy the game.

Re: Problem Saving Games
 

My Opinion: Save functions are incredibly irritating. I am in the crowd that if it doesn't work, and I have a save game, odds are 3:1 that I will load the save and try untill it works. However, I don't think that protestations that it is including a cheat function into the game are really worth anything. I can cheat very easily without a save function. It looks like this:
#selectmonster "xxx"
#pathcost 5
#magicskill 0 10
#magicskill 1 10
etc etc etc

Mods/.map files (if that's what thy're called?) make it very easy to cheat, and, compared to save game function in a more drastic/game altering way. That said, I don't really think this is a priority, but that if we get a save function, there should be limits. Maybe one save file for each game? that would allow reload/try again irritation, but since decisions in Dom are usually delayed, and have an effect only later, it wouldn't allow outrageous try again stuff. OR you could keep the save like 10 turns in the past, which allows more undoing, but the computer might do other things instead, so foreknowledge is limited.

Why is this worth it? To me, games that allow unlimited saves, especially RPGs, are kind of stupid; if it's that easy to win, there is no value in winning. I don't enjoy cheating to win.

That said, games like Oblivion or Neverwinter Nights come with really elaborate consoles that let you do all sorts of fun things. (In Oblivion it was also needed to bypass the ten quadrillion bugs that showed up in the game) Things like leveling a character in NWN to allow play to begin halfway through a module are technically cheating, as is giving yourself just a touch more gold to make that uberspell to kill the archmage at second level. There are also types of cheating that are funny and somewhat interesting to try, but but that don't really help build a sense of the game actually being something. Those sorts of cheats are what make reloads usefull; you can do stupid/funny stuff and not suffer for it.

Regarding the doom horror example; I don't see the problem; it does warn you to be careful what you wish for, and it doesn't say that wishing for Doom Horrors is safe. Are you saying it should list every unit/thing that can be wished for and what happens if you wish for them/it? That takes all the fun out of experimenting with it. Besides which, I really doubt that your example situation is that bad. Marnerni isn't aquatic and computers aren't great at water conquest. Sure you've lost a bunch of gems, your god dies and loses one astral (you'd kill him off and call him back I hope), and Horrors may or may not hunt him down for the rest of his immortal life (If it's a strong Horror Mark, well, there's some debate about whether or not those are balanced) If that was a multiplayer game, well you aren't advocating a reload function in multiplayer are you? That's like saying: play with my mod that makes me superpowerfull or don't play with me at all!

A type of save/load function I would like to see is something that let TC/IP games be shut off by the host then resumed, so that the host computer doesn't need to be on for an eternity.

Re: Problem Saving Games
 

Well, I disagree, no harm in that, is there?

I find it refreshing to play a game that's different, one in which the usual save/load shuffle is no longer an issue.

Like you said, almost all other games have the save and reload feature. Some people don't like that. This game is for those people.

The save and reload fans have enough games already, don't you think?

Re: Problem Saving Games
 

Save and Reload can appease both types. If you're a stickler, then just don't use it. Simple as that. Unless you're saying you don't like it because you'll want to reload? That makes little sense to me actually. And to say "The save and reload fans have enough games already, don't you think?" just sounds a little off to me.

Re: Problem Saving Games
 

Id like one cause when you get into 80,100 provinces empires its easy to forget to do something that gets you pwned.


I was rather baffled y it wasnt there. No one makes you use it. Cause some have a weak willpower not everyone else should be kept from using it.


And save and reload fans?!?!? LoL do poeple make fanclubs for this or something?. No one makes you save and reload. There arent save and reload games those are just options that come with those games.. Games arent designed and sold on the premise of save and reload. You wont see them advertising that feature on the box

Re: Problem Saving Games
 

Games are designed on the premise of not saving and reloading.

It may sound off to you guys, but there are people out there that enjoy games like "Roguelike" where save and reload is not an option... it makes the game more challenging.

Roguelike is linked from this webside, I would assume because the programmers enjoy that game. That game has no save and load feature.

No one makes me save and reload, indeed. No one makes you play a game where you cannot save and reload conveniently, ya?

Re: Problem Saving Games
 

Last time I checked, this is a save and reload game. You just need to specifically save the folder if you choose to save a specific turn. The ability to save your turn and reload of your choosing doesn't make the game any less challenging. (since as many people declared you can a) mod troops very easily and win and b) you can save the folder anyway) As said, the ability to save costs you /nothing/ if you choose not to activate it. However, to suggest that someone should just not play the game because of a lack of save optiono is ridiculous. Dom III isn't at that point of the market yet where it can say "well [censored] the customers". The annoyance of what a save and reload option will cause you should be far less significant than it's appeal to people who desire one.

Re: Problem Saving Games
 

That is pretty much what I'm saying. It's not that I'm 'weak-willed' (a better test of willpower would be like, refraining from personal atacks on the forums for a week or two) it's just that I don't want that option. It's like saying DnD is too easy: play without a cleric. I want to use all the options out there. I don't want this as an option because I don't want to be paying for a game that has features that are (IMHO) spurious and unneeded - that would be a waste of the developers time, my money, and my time. Would you be happy if Dom3 came with a 500$ gold ingot attatched, and you had to pay an extra 500$? even though gold prices are rising and you could maybe offset the extra expence of shipping it all the way to wherever?
When people complained about the lack of difficulty in Heroes of Might and Magic 5, Nival's lead developer suggested playing without saving/reloading. People were furious, saying that it was a demonstration of the grossly capitalistic game industry that tries to make money, not games. Atleast Illwinter isn't like that. However, they aren't conventional. They do some strange things. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/biggrin.gif This concept, along with the idea of allowing certain spells to be banned from cast by mages, has been around for quite a while, and is fairly simple to implement, I think that they probably look upon it as a bad thing.

Re: Problem Saving Games
 

i enjoy and regularlly play rogue likes. But That Rogue like game doesnt involve me remembering my 20 armies placed over 100 provnces and the building of new armies and assembling of those new armies,then orders for them while remembering to set research,spells and everything else for my 80plus mages... Im not wanting to reload to save my army cause the Ai was just better than me that time.. But cause i have a hetic life and forget things from time to time

And thats just stupid. Illwinter is in the market to make money. So your saying poeple would would like saving and reloading just shouldnt buy the game? Instead of you just not using that feature.

That makes perfect sense http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...s/rolleyes.gif

Re: Problem Saving Games
 

Exchanging $500 dollar gold ingots and ignoring a save/reload option are not apt analogies. And Heroes of Might and Magic 5 is a totally different game because it was too easy because the AI was inept. To suggest playing without saving/reloading would've made very little difference.

Re: Problem Saving Games
 

I get what you are saying... I'm just trying to explain why it is not an easy UI feature in this game.

It's a niche game for a reason, right? I would assume this is one of those reasons. The programmers got the exact same complaints with D2, and yet they decided deliberately not to include save/load as a feature.

They want an ironman game. They're not doing it to spite people, that's just the kind of game they wanted to make.

If they wanted a mass market game to get more customers, it would be a 3D RTS with a convenient autosave, ya?

I'm sure there well be a download shortly that will resolve the save issue for you. I would like the option myself in case of a corrupted save file, at least a named save on exiting the game.

Re: Problem Saving Games
 

What (should) make a game difficult other than AI? A game should be sufficiantly hard that losses vs. the AI are common (like maybe 30-40% of the time) but it should allways be close. As for the analogy, it's not the greatest, but it's not too bad, even if it's far fetched: It's an added 'feature', since it is basically decreasing the eventual cost of the game, but it isn't really something that many people will want. The differance (other than the rediculous scope of a 500$ gold ingot) is that MOST people want save games, whereas most people don't want to become envolved in speculating on the prcie of gold.

Re: Problem Saving Games
 

Uh hows it not an easy UI feature? I managed to add saving and reloading to a crappy game with just book knowledge in Visual Basic.. Its not brain surery esp since evidently someone managed to make a 3rd person mod in dom2 do it.


And yes they didnt do it. And im saying i wish they'd add it.It can still be an ironman game. No one is forced to use it.


If illwinter wasnt in this for the money it would be freeware right?


And yes im sure a 3d party mod will fix it. Just would of be handier to allready have it in game

Re: Problem Saving Games
 

I wasn't talking about the difficulty of programming the save/load UI feature at all, that's easy.

It's a weird game, they aren't catering to the mass market despite the fact that it is not freeware.

Maybe they'll let us know why they didn't include the save/load option. Did they ever address this in the D2 forum?

Re: Problem Saving Games
 

I'm very neutral about a save feature, as I've said I prefer to see Kristofer spending time on the game system than on this kind of things, I rarely want to save and if I want to save I can copy/paste files. But I find the anti-save arguements more and more ridiculous.

Nobody (except you perhaps) play dominions because they cannot save and reload. People play dominions because it's the best game in the fantasy TBS genre. Not having a save game option is not a "game feature" but an annoyance for some players... and nothing for most others.