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Author Topic: Autosave/Game recovery feature  (Read 2980 times)

Tormuse

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Autosave/Game recovery feature
« on: September 20, 2011, 11:40 »

(Someone suggested I request this)  I'd like to request some means of recovering games that are lost due to power failures or other computer difficulties that cause loss of the game for reasons beyond the game's or player's control.

I was recently playing Angel of 100 on Nightmare and a power failure shut my computer off and I seem to have lost the game.  :(  (Or if there's a way to recover it, I don't know about it)  It takes me days to play a single game of that, because I can't play through all 100 levels in one sitting, and I can't save it due to Nightmare difficulty, so that means I have to leave the computer running with the game on for days, hoping that nothing goes wrong with the game or my computer during that time.

I'm thinking perhaps it could autosave the state of the game at the start of each level and delete that autosave when the player dies/wins/quits.  That way, if there's a crash or something, you don't lose all your progress.  The mortem would then state if a crash occurred and what level was recovered.

I understand that this might cause people to abuse the feature for savescumming on Nightmare, so I understand if you don't want to implement this, but if it keeps me from losing my Onyx-modded phaseshift armour that I had in the game I just lost, then I have to try.  :)
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Apostle Chaos Lt. General (0.9.9.7)
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Ander Hammer

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Re: Autosave/Game recovery feature
« Reply #1 on: September 21, 2011, 09:01 »

Why the hell can't you save on Nightmare?
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Game Hunter

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Re: Autosave/Game recovery feature
« Reply #2 on: September 21, 2011, 09:18 »

Why the hell can't you save on Nightmare?
That's...erm...part of the difficulty. (It's also a rather simple way to prevent savescummers from picking up Platinums and Diamonds, though that came after the fact.) I think N! A100 is a rather extreme case, so it can be expected that players leave the game running a few days there, but most players won't take that long with the other challenge modes. To be frank, my own N! A100 back in the day was only four and a half hours long...I don't know why you guys take forever.

In the event of a fatal error, the game automatically saves, but obviously that doesn't work for a sudden shutdown. I wouldn't mind having an autosave feature, so long as it were somehow embedded in doomrl.wad or a similar method such that savescumming isn't a feasible option.
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Tormuse

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Re: Autosave/Game recovery feature
« Reply #3 on: September 21, 2011, 09:25 »

Sure...  I'm not trying to encourage cheating; (I recognize that that's part of the reason you can't save on Nightmare)  How difficult would it be to embed the save in the .WAD file?  Maybe, at the very least, you can give the option of saving once every 25 levels in Ao100 Nightmare?  That way, it makes it a little more manageable.

Incidentally, does this mean my game really is gone?  I've been reluctant to play again in case that helps make it somehow recoverable.

Also, 100th post!  Woo!  :D
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Apostle Chaos Lt. General (0.9.9.7)
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petikkusu

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Re: Autosave/Game recovery feature
« Reply #4 on: September 21, 2011, 09:55 »

I suggested this on the irc too. I lost the berserker armor due to a blackout. As for savescummers, its their loss if they use that method. Even if its hard to do theyd still do it anyway. For the rest of us, itd be a good feature.
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Game Hunter

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Re: Autosave/Game recovery feature
« Reply #5 on: September 23, 2011, 09:19 »

Incidentally, does this mean my game really is gone?  I've been reluctant to play again in case that helps make it somehow recoverable.
The only time DoomRL ever seems to save information is through the player.wad and score.wad files (which have nothing to do with a particular game) and the extension-less "save" file. If you don't have the save file, I really doubt there's any trace of your game left.

This is answered, of course, on the off-chance that you still haven't played at all in this time.
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Tormuse

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Re: Autosave/Game recovery feature
« Reply #6 on: September 23, 2011, 13:49 »

Thanks, Game Hunter.  Yeah, I guess it was overly optimistic of me to think there was a chance of saving it.  I guess I just need to check weather reports before I try Ao100 again.  :)
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Apostle Chaos Lt. General (0.9.9.7)
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