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.
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