Problem Saving Games

[Gandalf Parker]

Campy said:

In the meantime, for those looking for something easier than doing it all manually, here is the batch file I use to keep three backup files:

copy "c:\games\dominions3\savebak\bak2\*.*" "c:\games\dominions3\savebak\bak3\"
copy "c:\games\dominions3\savebak\bak1\*.*" "c:\games\dominions3\savebak\bak2\"
copy "c:\games\dominions3\savedgames\Yomi\*.*" "c:\games\dominions3\savebak\bak1\"

I have this batch file in my Dom3 directory with a quicklink to it. I play in windows and then just have to click on the quicklink to backup to bak1 and simultaneously move the backup to bak2 and bak2 to bak3.

Excellent.
If that batch file is named something like DomSave.bat then you could add
--preexec DomSave.bat
to the icon that runs dom for you. That way it would shell out and run that batch file before each hosting.

Gandalf Parker

[thejeff]

Is there anyway to make it more generic?

Postexec doesn't pass any arguments does it?

I was really hoping for turn number and game name.

That would allow a much more generic and useful script.

[Campy]

Good idea Gandalf. That way you wouldn't have to do anything to keep saves from the last three turns (or more if you wanted to set up more directories and add additional lines to the batch file). Another idea would be to do that to save the last few turns and then set up a separate directory and a quicklink to another batch file to do a special save to that directory that could be used to capture some point of particular interest.

By the way, I run in windowed mode so I can easily use the quicklink. I would also be interested in thejeff's question about accessing turn # and game name. I had thought about inputting those manually, but besides taking longer, the command I used to use for keyboard input for batch files doesn't seem to work under XP. Anyone know how to do keyboard input to a batch file under XP?

[solops]

Campy said:
Kristoffer register me as a vote for a save game feature. Perhaps you could also have an ironman mode for those that don't want it and don't have the willpower to not use it if it is available. However, for newbie's and for trying different strategies at key points, it would make the game much more accessible. I vote for accessibility and fun over hardcore.

In the meantime, for those looking for something easier than doing it all manually, here is the batch file I use to keep three backup files:

copy "c:\games\dominions3\savebak\bak2\*.*" "c:\games\dominions3\savebak\bak3\"
copy "c:\games\dominions3\savebak\bak1\*.*" "c:\games\dominions3\savebak\bak2\"
copy "c:\games\dominions3\savedgames\Yomi\*.*" "c:\games\dominions3\savebak\bak1\"

I have this batch file in my Dom3 directory with a quicklink to it. I play in windows and then just have to click on the quicklink to backup to bak1 and simultaneously move the backup to bak2 and bak2 to bak3. Any of these three can be restored manually by copying the files back to your save file or by creating another batch program to do this for you. You of course will have to change the directory locations to where you have Dom3 saved and this will backup a game called Yomi. Each time I start a new game, I change that line to reflect the name of the new game. So to backup the tutorial, that line would have been:

copy "c:\games\dominions3\savedgames\Tutorial\*.*" "c:\games\dominions3\savebak\bak1\"

Hope some of you find this helpful. Would like to see better methods by others that may have spent more time on this than I did.

I guess I'm gonna have to put out the effort to do something like this. Manually saving every turn or two is a pain. I gave up trying to play without saving often when in 10 hours of play I progressed zero. I can not seem to get more than 5-10 turns without a major screw-up. Most common is not sending the army along with the mages (I swear I did, but after the third time, I guess not), forgetting to load units into commanders, forgetting to cast spells, etc. There is simply too blasted much going on to expect to get everything done correctly every turn. And yeah, I have now lost 5 out of 5 games, but I did not lose because of some silly UI mistake - i.e. the AI kicked my rear. Who wants to play if perfect UI management can determine success?


And even our ham-handed DOS bat files are still a pain. The lack of a renaming save-and-reload is a major drag on this otherwise enjoyable game.

[Gandalf Parker]

Even though I "grew up" in DOS Im afraid that my answers now tend to be Linux.

Game choice could be doing a directory view by access date and select the last one?

There are ways to get the turn number. One way is if you have it set to do scores.html on each turn then the turn number is in there. Another way is to run dom3 with a --verify switch on the game and the .chk files it creates has the turn in it.

I wonder if it would prove useful to have a preexec and post exec display the environmental variables? Or for windows probably have it save them to a txt file for viewing. Maybe Dom3 sets variables that get passed?

[Campy]

Here's another batch file option:

copy "c:\games\dominions3\savebak\turnbak4\*.*" "c:\games\dominions3\savebak\turnbak5\"
copy "c:\games\dominions3\savebak\turnbak3\*.*" "c:\games\dominions3\savebak\turnbak4\"
copy "c:\games\dominions3\savebak\turnbak2\*.*" "c:\games\dominions3\savebak\turnbak3\"
copy "c:\games\dominions3\savebak\turnbak1\*.*" "c:\games\dominions3\savebak\turnbak2\"
copy "c:\games\dominions3\savedgames\Machaka\*.*" "c:\games\dominions3\savebak\turnbak1\"

Based on Gandalf's suggestion, my Dominions 3 desktop shortcut includes the command line switch --preexec D3TrnSav. D3TrnSav is the name of the batch file above and I keep it in my Dominions 3 directory. Then all of the saving is done automatically. All I have to do is edit the last line of D3TrnSav.bat each time I start a new game to reflect the new game name.

The above batch file saves the last 5 turns of the game Machaka into the five turnbak directories in their state just before I pressed end turn. This is all done automatically. If I ever want to restore any of those turns (which I rarely do), I can do so by copying their contents back to the savedgames folder, in this case Machaka.

I also run a batch file from a quicklink that allows me to choose whether I wish to save or restore and then which of three saves I wish to use bak1, bak2 or bak3. I use those folders to save points of special interest. However, this approach requires your system to have choice.exe to input keystrokes (s, r, 1, 2, 3). That is no longer included with Windows XP, but is available if you have access to to the Windows NT 4 Resource Kit. Wish Microsoft would provide better and more available ways to get keyboard input to batch files.

[neofit]

So where are we on this front? Has a proper save/load feature been implemented? I received the game last week, started reading the manual, and then this. I don't even feel like installing the game anymore. There is absolutely no way I am going to learn a game that looks as complex as this one without a safety net, or writing my own savegame feature.

Last time I fiddled with turnarounds for a missing proper savegame feature was in the first Matrixgames' megacampaign for SPWAW. I didn't even consider buying anything else from that team after that. I wouldn't have bought Dom3 if I could have even imagined that a 4x game could come without a proper save-anywhere feature.

So, has it been patched in, or planned maybe?

[Mind Elemental]

I vote for savegame (or backup savegame) functionality, built in, without the need to copy and paste in Windows Explorer.

Because I play SP, and perfectionist I am, nothing annoys me like forgetting one little, but somewhat important, thing (such as rehiring a mercenary band).

[B0rsuk]

Dominions way is the roguelike or multiplayer way: you prepare for whatever bad may happen to you.

[Gandalf Parker]

Pros and Cons.
Game saves might grant a slight increase in game sales. But we would all be inflicted with the players who require game saves. Next we will have the same conversation about cheat codes.

It would be a heck of a patch. If a person isnt able to do their own game save the way the game allows it, then any game save put into the game will tend to fill their machine up. There would have to also be menu options to delete old saves and do other file cleanups. The game already creates quite a few files which are going to be a problem for those people since this is a game which tends to live for YEARS on our machines.