Save to last loaded slot?

[MushroomTeaGirl]

I hope this idea hasn't been proposed yet (I searched but didn't find anything like this and the topic of suggested ideas doesn't mention it either)... it's only a very minor issue.

When you save, you're asked to choose a slot to save to, which is fine just as it is. But I'd like to have an additional option to save to the slot that you loaded from, because if you have multiple saves it can become confusing and you might lose a save if you make a mistake on choosing the slot.
The same could be implemented for loading.

[ace]

+1,I too want this. that way you can save quickly just press the button and play again and also some time will be saved.

[Zukero]

I like this idea.
How about showing three buttons: new save, overwrite last loaded, show all slots.
The last one switching back to the current slot selection display.

Maybe having a setting to choose between this quick saving mode and the current one could be good too.

[Mayweed]

Perhaps we could also add date and time of the savefile to the description on the buons and highlight the latest one?

[MushroomTeaGirl]

Would it satisfy the need identified in the original post to highlight the game save file you are playing from when not simply continuing your play from an auto save made by the game when exiting?

I'd say yes, it would definitely help, although I think directly saving to that slot would be slightly more convenient.

Also, why wouldn't it work with automatically saved games?
I don't know the underlying code but it should work if you can check a few things:
- the last time a save file was loaded (and which one was loaded)
- the last time a new game was started
So if the last action was a new game -> highlight "new save" or something
If the last action was loading save file X -> highlight X

Or am I missing something?

[Zukero]

I don't have the whole code in mind but I think that there is (or will be) no problem finding the "source" save even when using an autosave.

[ace]

but what about when the player want to save to a new slot. this idea needs more thouhts and time to work so that it should lack any existing feature of save button.

[MushroomTeaGirl]

I hope I understand you better this time - sorry for misunderstanding you earlier, I'm not a native speaker.

Code: Select all

 Are you adding that the process would be more desirable if it were selectable as an option to auto save (such as to say "automatically overwrite last loaded game save file, if such file already exists and/or is applicable)?

Yes, this is probably what I meant - highlighting is already helpful, but what I had in mind when I proposed this idea was the concept of "Save" vs. "Save at" known from other software - if you choose to "save" and the program knows the filename, it just saves it there, if it's a new file, you get to choose to create either a new file or overwrite an existing one (which happens with the "save at" too).

As far as "why wouldn't it work with automatically saved games?", I can only say that, if I understand the context of your question, it wouldn't be an issue so much as to work as it is just unnecessary. I feel that it's unnecessary because the game keeps track of your progress without any input needed from the user to create. Therefore, when you manually create a save, a copy of the current player's progress is made. There is no need to highlight an auto save file to choose at the beginning of a play session since this is what the game will continue from if you don't choose to load a different save you created (this probably pertains more to your original post regarding "loading").

I did not mean to highlight some auto save file, but the current game (loaded from such an autosave) has either been saved before to a non-auto save or not, and I meant to highlight the non-auto save file the game was saved to before.

Consider the following example:
Player creates a new game. Plays, closes the game without saving, then continues someday.
Player saves the game -> Since this was a new game, a new slot A is created unless the player chooses to overwrite another slot B, but let's assume a new slot.
The game is continued (not loaded from A)
The game is saved once again -> Slot A should be highlighted since this is the slot the "current" game has been saved to last time
(or in case of the Save/SaveAt-mechanism, it's automatically saved to slot A unless the player chooses the option that allows him to create a new slot/override)

I hope this is clear... it's rather difficult to express exactly what I mean.

[noamik]

Any slot will always be outdated compared to "continue playing" slot.

And among the slots you can easily distinguish any slot by the game parameters displayed. If any I would suggest allowing custom names for save games, to be able to organize them (Like in: "Save before attacking monster X"). But then I would consider this feature far less important than many others.