saving in FTL

General discussion about the game.
iamdanthemanstan
Posts: 8
Joined: Sat Jun 16, 2012 8:41 am

Re: saving in FTL

Postby iamdanthemanstan » Sat Jun 16, 2012 11:46 am

My last game took over an hour and a half a save and exist is really needed here.
bsones
Posts: 1
Joined: Sat Jun 16, 2012 12:40 pm

Re: saving in FTL

Postby bsones » Sat Jun 16, 2012 12:55 pm

Lack of a save feature is probably my only complaint about the game. Playthroughs are definitely long enough that a save feature is needed. My game last night took two hours, and it ended two sectors short of the end of the sector map, so it could have been even longer. I freakin' love this game, but if I have to be sure that I will have several hours free every time I play it, then it's not a game that I'm going to be playing very often. Which is a shame, because otherwise this game is extremely well-suited for short play sessions. It has good pacing, and encounters resolve quickly, so it's easy to see how you could play whenever you have fifteen minutes free. If you could save.

I can sympathize with not wanting to allow people to use reloads to try to get better outcomes, but it seems like a simple "iron man" style save system would address that. Just set it up so that the game saves on exit. When you start the game up again, you get the option to continue. Selecting this option loads your game where you last left off, and also erases the save slot (that way people can't avoid bad outcomes by shutting down the game without saving; if they do, then they lose all their progress).

Having no save system at all, though, on a game that can take hours to play to completion... I don't think people are going to like that. In fact, it's a big enough deal that I can see it turning people off the game entirely. And that would be a shame, because FTL is a really good game.
Tarnimus
Posts: 6
Joined: Sat Jun 16, 2012 4:26 pm

Re: saving in FTL

Postby Tarnimus » Sat Jun 16, 2012 4:29 pm

I thought I'd contribute to say that I'd definitely appreciate a very limited, very controlled save option. I completely agree that the game is best without the ability to reload, but this is more about the ability to fit the game into a busy day.

As others have said, this is the difference between me being able to play the game very rarely or very regularly. I don't think it would fundamentally change the game - practically, it's no different to leaving the game on pause, except you get to turn your computer off in-between.

Hopefully the engine has been built in a way that doesn't make resuming an in-progress game an absolute nightmare to code. :)
Kumnaa
Posts: 1
Joined: Fri Apr 20, 2012 11:27 am

Re: saving in FTL

Postby Kumnaa » Sat Jun 16, 2012 5:01 pm

+1 a resume feature. I do a lot of out of hours work and have two children so my play time is unpredictable and playing the first 15 minutes of the game over and over again because I keep having to shut down to move onto other things is something I can see wearing thin after a while.
reverend
Posts: 30
Joined: Sat Jun 16, 2012 5:30 pm

Re: saving in FTL

Postby reverend » Sat Jun 16, 2012 5:34 pm

What do you mean, there is no save on exit? I played a couple of hours, always assuming FTL would behave like any other roguelike I've played and save automatically on quitting. The only reason I didn't stop was because it's the weekend. Lucky, because otherwise I'd be very frustrated and angry. ;)
During normal days, I often need to call a break, especially since I'm of the slow, deliberate playing style as well.

Autosave on jump, or at the very least, on quitting is an absolute must-have!
knucklepunch
Posts: 2
Joined: Sat Jun 16, 2012 7:25 pm

Re: saving in FTL

Postby knucklepunch » Sat Jun 16, 2012 7:33 pm

Ilike and hate the no save feature. At times I have a great crew and ship and my son wakes up or its time for work. Often times Id kill for a save feature. A thought....games saved per sector, you buy a save bot in game and each save costs more and more to prevent saving all the time. Love the game otherwise.
reverend
Posts: 30
Joined: Sat Jun 16, 2012 5:30 pm

Re: saving in FTL

Postby reverend » Sat Jun 16, 2012 7:36 pm

knucklepunch wrote:A thought....games saved per sector, you buy a save bot in game and each save costs more and more to prevent saving all the time. Love the game otherwise.


No. Saving and continuing has nothing to do with how you perform in a game. If I have to cut a session short for an unexpected break, or because the game takes longer than I thought, I don't want to be stopped from saving and later resuming just because I'm at the wrong sector. Life doesn't happen according to in-game resources or gameplay.
Autosave on exiting the game, and allow to either resume or start a new one.
Wintersong
Posts: 15
Joined: Tue May 01, 2012 11:38 am

Re: saving in FTL

Postby Wintersong » Sat Jun 16, 2012 8:16 pm

AJTilley wrote:On a side not I should point out:
Save anbd quit can also be abused and this may be the reason they dont wish to include save and quit features...

I tought of that and altough it's a respectable opinion, I consider it a bit silly (and I don't think that's actually the case unless the devs want to prove me wrong ;) ). Why? Well, it's a single player game. As simple as that. It's not like game has the equivalent of Galactic Civilizations' Metaverse (single player game but you can play a Metaverse game that allows no mods, uploading your score to a website against other players').

You are all by yourself playing the game and having fun. Your actions have no real impact on anyone else. Yes, a save on exit file could lead to a few people making backups of the files after finishing a game and restoring it if things go wrong but... why should I care? Someone on the forum already commented on how he had used a cheat program to give himself infinite scraps and health (not judging here, just mentioning), so it's not like you need a save game file to cheat if that is your intention.
Paul
Posts: 71
Joined: Wed May 09, 2012 2:51 pm

Re: saving in FTL

Postby Paul » Sat Jun 16, 2012 8:40 pm

Sadly I haven't played the beta, but from what i have seen and what i've picked up form the alpha, perhaps a good system would be to save at the end of each sector. it's
-easier technically (probably)
-less likely to be farmed
-relatively often
-allows players in imminent need to save to quickly finish sector, without breaking flow.
in the end, though, if people are planning to cheat, they're going to find a way. the only thing about this is if there's any sort of online leaderboards, perhaps for scores to be submitted they have to be done in one go, without saving, to ensure fair play. i don't know....
MrHarold
Posts: 3
Joined: Sat Jun 16, 2012 8:55 pm

Re: saving in FTL

Postby MrHarold » Sat Jun 16, 2012 9:21 pm

I think a one save slot would be great.