Why no Save game Feature

Gandalf Parker · #1 January 12th, 2007, 03:44 PM

Ouch I didnt mean to do that. Im very sorry. The two buttons are too close to each other. I will try to fix it back as much as I can. Thanks for pointing it out to me.

Gandalf Parker · #2 January 12th, 2007, 03:46 PM

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calmon said:
I've some problems to understand why people discuss about a save/load function in prior of a better single player AI.

Wyehl said:
Improving the AI is a difficult, intricate and open ended goal with no clear finish line. Adding a save feature is a very attainable goal that can be achieved before moving on to larger changes.

Wow thats not true at all. Tweaking the AI code is fairly simple since its already in the game and there is only one code to tweak.

Adding save/restore is a headache. It has to work on all 3 operating systems which do things very diferently. It needs to be safe so it wont accidently hurt the persons machine in some way. It will need to offer some sort of cleanup of old files which is always dangerous. And it probably should recognize the difference between a local game or a server game so that the person doesnt get unreasonable expectations.

Wyehl · #3 January 12th, 2007, 04:59 PM

Quote:

Gandalf Parker said:

Quote:

Quote:
calmon said:
I've some problems to understand why people discuss about a save/load function in prior of a better single player AI.

Wyehl said:
Improving the AI is a difficult, intricate and open ended goal with no clear finish line. Adding a save feature is a very attainable goal that can be achieved before moving on to larger changes.

Wow thats not true at all. Tweaking the AI code is fairly simple since its already in the game and there is only one code to tweak.

Adding save/restore is a headache. It has to work on all 3 operating systems which do things very diferently. It needs to be safe so it wont accidently hurt the persons machine in some way. It will need to offer some sort of cleanup of old files which is always dangerous. And it probably should recognize the difference between a local game or a server game so that the person doesnt get unreasonable expectations.

Lol, what isn't true ? You go on to say that it is very difficult (which is humorous to a programmer but then, that wasn't really the point anyway

. Yet the point was that 'improving an AI' is an open ended process that can be worked on ad infinitum while making a save game system is a very attainable goal.

Gandalf Parker · #4 January 12th, 2007, 05:25 PM

Quote:

Wyehl said:
Lol, what isn't true ? You go on to say that it is very difficult (which is humorous to a programmer but then, that wasn't really the point anyway

. Yet the point was that 'improving an AI' is an open ended process that can be worked on ad infinitum while making a save game system is a very attainable goal.

I didnt say it was difficult, just that its a headache. And yes Im aware of the programming side. Setting up file managment inside a program to work for windows, mac, and linux is not simple and quick. I see enough headaches with this programs file handling already on its installs and game cleanup just between linux and windows.

You are correct that tweaking the AI can be a forever project but the code is already there and is OS generic.

HoneyBadger · #5 January 12th, 2007, 06:35 PM

I wonder if anyone will mod in a downloadable save-game feature already so that this thread will ever end?

I'm getting a headache, ow.

Gandalf Parker · #6 January 12th, 2007, 07:09 PM

I thought it was already done?
Dom2 had many different versions. Batch, script, javascript, vpscript, and perl if I remember right. I think that even Dom1 had some.

Edited:
found a couple of old threads.
old thread
Older Thread

Velusion · #7 January 12th, 2007, 07:29 PM

So let me get this strait:

1) It's really easy to back up files. You could create a simple batch file to do it and it would be easy to whip up a mod that would do it as well.

2) It's too complex for the designers to patch it into the game.

????? That line of reasoning doesn't make much sense.

Archonsod · #8 January 13th, 2007, 09:52 PM

Quote:

Gandalf Parker said:
I didnt say it was difficult, just that its a headache. And yes Im aware of the programming side. Setting up file managment inside a program to work for windows, mac, and linux is not simple and quick. I see enough headaches with this programs file handling already on its installs and game cleanup just between linux and windows.

You are correct that tweaking the AI can be a forever project but the code is already there and is OS generic.

So is the save code. The game already autosaves prior to processing, you're just duplicating that and changing the target directory or filename.
Designing a third party program to manage the saves which works on mac, linux and Windows, now that's hard

Saxon · #9 January 16th, 2007, 06:50 AM

And I say that we do want them spending time on the save game feature!

There is not a consensus on this, but there are some vocal people on either side. That may be all that this thread will establish...

Olive · #10 January 16th, 2007, 07:04 AM

[Vocal people mode on]
There's no use for a save feature. If I really want to test different forms of a tactic or save a game at a point, it just takes a few seconds to backup the game directory in the windows explorer. On Linux it should be even faster with a cp.

Remove bugs and add content to the game instead.

[Vocal people mode off]