Why no Save game Feature

[B0rsuk]

Oh, but it does have Save game feature. It just doesn't have the glorious Save/Reload.

[Wish]

restart game is not a bad idea, really.

[Gandalf Parker]

Wish_For_Blood_Slaves said:
restart game is not a bad idea, really.

I like that. We have an option to restart the turn. Id like an option to restart the game. Im not sure if the game saves all of the settings in a way that would allow that but it would be nice to use the same map, same number of AIs, same starting race for me, etc etc and create a new game from all of it.

[Evil Dave]

I think a save/reload feature would make Dom3 easier to learn. I know I reloaded hand-saved games a lot when I was just starting with Dom2. Even with the interface improvements, I think it's still hard to understand why you lost a battle, or how to do better, w/o trying it a bunch of times.

But OTOH, Dom4 could have a "hardcore" mode that doesn't allow reloading a turn multiple times.

[Cafard]

Personally, while i was bothered too by the lack of conventional 'saves' when i started with Dominions 2, i grew so fond of that lack of feature that i'm actually thinking of it as a feature now.

I admit it is frustrating when you start, and lose stupid battles and have your pretender killed too often. But that quickly taught me to be more careful in battles, and led me on playing far more interesting games where i had to recover from big setbacks. Had the game allowed me to reload, i'm not sure i'd have played though these games, and i might have grown bored of winning too easily.

But then, i'm 'computer-savvy' enough to manually save games when i feel i hold an interesting situation that i want to be able to replay later with a different strategy. And i'm grateful that the game's filesystem is trivial enough to allow that...

[Gandalf Parker]

I dont think Ive ever been able to turn on "iron man" in games that had a no-saves switch. And I dont have the willpower to NOT ruin the game if the game saves are easy. The fact that its possible but too much effort to do unless Im really eager for it is perfect for me.

[tromper]

I've played many many SP games since release and have never once been bothered by the lack of save game feature.

When I play, I *am* my Pretender. If I make a mistake, and I do often, I view that battle time and again, to understand what went bonkers - and improve, hopefully, the next time around. The lack of save game 'feature' adds a sense of permanence and, dare I type it, reality to the game. This isn't a game for little babies or people with an half an hour per week and expecting a quick fix. It was never meant to be, if I'm understanding its history correctly. It's immersive strategy writ large.

If programming time is going to be spent on implementing anything, save games ought to be waaaay down the list.

And hey, I like the 'sack up' jokeyness. So, you know.

Sack it up.

[Archonsod]

To be honest it wouldn't be that difficult or time consuming to add in. You'd simply need to create a new sub directory in the installer, then duplicate the code used to save the turn file, pointing it at the new directory.