saving in FTL

General discussion about the game.
Lestibournes
Posts: 67
Joined: Wed Jun 06, 2012 7:02 pm

Re: saving in FTL

Postby Lestibournes » Mon Jun 18, 2012 5:15 am

VladePsyker wrote:
Lestibournes wrote:I want to be able to pause my game and get back to it on another date.

why ?

I'm trying to show people that there is no real difference between the pause mechanic that is already implemented in the game and "save on exit", except that "save on exit" enables what everyone else has already mentioned - the ability to walk away without losing progress when you run out of time, real life calls you away, your laptop runs out of power, or whatever other real-world scenarios might afflict people who don't have hours of uninterrupted play every day.

I haven't had the privilege of playing FTL yet as I missed the OnLive demo and don't have beta access (Humble Indie Bundle 5 gift code to whoever gives me a beta key!), but from playing other arcade games I can say that if I'm having a good run it could be extremely frustrating to have to lose all my progress and start over.
VladePsyker
Posts: 100
Joined: Sat Jun 16, 2012 2:18 pm

Re: saving in FTL

Postby VladePsyker » Mon Jun 18, 2012 5:40 am

Lestibournes wrote:
VladePsyker wrote:
Lestibournes wrote:I want to be able to pause my game and get back to it on another date.

why ?

I'm trying to show people that there is no real difference between the pause mechanic that is already implemented in the game and "save on exit", except that "save on exit" enables what everyone else has already mentioned - the ability to walk away without losing progress when you run out of time, real life calls you away, your laptop runs out of power, or whatever other real-world scenarios might afflict people who don't have hours of uninterrupted play every day.

I haven't had the privilege of playing FTL yet as I missed the OnLive demo and don't have beta access (Humble Indie Bundle 5 gift code to whoever gives me a beta key!), but from playing other arcade games I can say that if I'm having a good run it could be extremely frustrating to have to lose all my progress and start over.


You die so often in FTL losing you progress is no big deal , because you never make "that" much progress ;)
Lestibournes
Posts: 67
Joined: Wed Jun 06, 2012 7:02 pm

Re: saving in FTL

Postby Lestibournes » Mon Jun 18, 2012 6:27 am

VladePsyker wrote:You die so often in FTL losing you progress is no big deal , because you never make "that" much progress ;)


And what about when continuing the game after defeating the final boss? From what I read here that seems to be a feature they are planning to include, but it seems kind of pointless to continue exploring and upgrading my ship with no concrete goal if I lose everything the moment I'm forced away from the game.

And I'm still not convinced that I'll be satisfied if a great run gets cut short before I reach the final boss.
VladePsyker
Posts: 100
Joined: Sat Jun 16, 2012 2:18 pm

Re: saving in FTL

Postby VladePsyker » Mon Jun 18, 2012 6:56 am

Lestibournes wrote:
VladePsyker wrote:You die so often in FTL losing you progress is no big deal , because you never make "that" much progress ;)


And what about when continuing the game after defeating the final boss? From what I read here that seems to be a feature they are planning to include, but it seems kind of pointless to continue exploring and upgrading my ship with no concrete goal if I lose everything the moment I'm forced away from the game.

And I'm still not convinced that I'll be satisfied if a great run gets cut short before I reach the final boss.


So your commenting on an unconfirmed feature that's not in a game your not playing yet as a reason to add a save feature ?

Honestly play it first then ask, you might find you actually don't want/need it.

At the end of the day adding "ANYTHING" no matter how small is time consuming for developers I'd hate to miss out on a couple of new ships/missions/weapons etc etc to end up with a save feature that adds nothing to the game play experence
Last edited by VladePsyker on Mon Jun 18, 2012 7:05 am, edited 1 time in total.
Tarnimus
Posts: 6
Joined: Sat Jun 16, 2012 4:26 pm

Re: saving in FTL

Postby Tarnimus » Mon Jun 18, 2012 7:03 am

VladePsyker wrote:
Lestibournes wrote:I want to be able to pause my game and get back to it on another date.

why ? why not just start again at a later date ?


That's such a bizarrely irrational statement I'm going to assume that you're deliberately being obtuse.

By your reasoning there, why would you ever bother progressing past the first sector? You may as well play the first sector, then start again. Hell, why bother leaving the hangar? It's far better to set up your ship, name your crew, then start again at a later date!

In fact, I'd say that the optimum way to play FTL is to load the game, get to the menu screen, then quit and load the game again at a later date. That's absolutely the most rewarding experience.
Gorlom
Posts: 519
Joined: Thu Apr 26, 2012 2:06 am

Re: saving in FTL

Postby Gorlom » Mon Jun 18, 2012 7:14 am

Tarnimus wrote:That's such a bizarrely irrational statement I'm going to assume that you're deliberately being obtuse.

By your reasoning there, why would you ever bother progressing past the first sector? You may as well play the first sector, then start again. Hell, why bother leaving the hangar? It's far better to set up your ship, name your crew, then start again at a later date!

In fact, I'd say that the optimum way to play FTL is to load the game, get to the menu screen, then quit and load the game again at a later date. That's absolutely the most rewarding experience.

I'm going to respond to this post by quoting this post thusly:
That's such a bizarrely irrational statement I'm going to assume that you're deliberately being obtuse.


Edit: darn it. Obtuse didn't mean what I hoped it meant :p Still it's a very bizarre and irrational statement.
VladePsyker
Posts: 100
Joined: Sat Jun 16, 2012 2:18 pm

Re: saving in FTL

Postby VladePsyker » Mon Jun 18, 2012 7:23 am

Tarnimus wrote:
VladePsyker wrote:
Lestibournes wrote:I want to be able to pause my game and get back to it on another date.

why ? why not just start again at a later date ?


That's such a bizarrely irrational statement I'm going to assume that you're deliberately being obtuse.

By your reasoning there, why would you ever bother progressing past the first sector? You may as well play the first sector, then start again. Hell, why bother leaving the hangar? It's far better to set up your ship, name your crew, then start again at a later date!

In fact, I'd say that the optimum way to play FTL is to load the game, get to the menu screen, then quit and load the game again at a later date. That's absolutely the most rewarding experience.


And from your comments I can only assume your being facetious

What is wrong with leaving a game if you don't have the time to finish it ? Is your progress so precious that it must be carefully preserved ? Hardly, win or lose your game will be gone either way.

Plenty of great games had no save feature you either finished , died or left they were your options and it didn't deter people from playing and enjoying those games.

Honestly this obsession with being able to save your progress, is simply a feature games have come to include by default to allow for longer games that can't be finished within a couple of hours or less. People of course get used to a save game and then think no game should be without saves when for short games it adds little or no benefit to the experience.

Some of the most fun games ever made had no saves, and guess what they're still fun today still without saves.

Hope the devs stand by their decision and don't include save games to make FTL one of those games that stands out in everyone's mind for years to come.
Maze1125
Posts: 144
Joined: Sun May 20, 2012 12:09 pm

Re: saving in FTL

Postby Maze1125 » Mon Jun 18, 2012 7:58 am

VladePsyker wrote:Hope the devs stand by their decision and don't include save games to make FTL one of those games that stands out in everyone's mind for years to come.


So, let me get this straight, you want the game to stand out in people minds, not because of the great game-play, but because of a controversial "retro" saving decision?
VladePsyker
Posts: 100
Joined: Sat Jun 16, 2012 2:18 pm

Re: saving in FTL

Postby VladePsyker » Mon Jun 18, 2012 8:00 am

Maze1125 wrote:
VladePsyker wrote:Hope the devs stand by their decision and don't include save games to make FTL one of those games that stands out in everyone's mind for years to come.


So, let me get this straight, you want the game to stand out in people minds, not because of the great game-play, but because of a controversial "retro" saving decision?


its never one thing that makes a great game stand out its a collection of things when combined makes a memorable game
reverend
Posts: 30
Joined: Sat Jun 16, 2012 5:30 pm

Re: saving in FTL

Postby reverend » Mon Jun 18, 2012 11:45 am

Well 'no save' makes this stand out in my mind as a game I won't be playing much. The reason I play roguelikes ist that I can fire them up for 5 minutes, do a couple of turns then exit and do something productive. Since it takes me about 10-20 minutes to play through one sector in this game I won't be playing it. If I had longer timeslots available, I wouldn't be playing a roguelike - those timeslots are saved for games that I can't break down into short chunks.

Just yesterday I had to abandon a perfectly good run because another issue came up and I had to quit. Kinda makes me not want to start again, since it simply isn't what I signed up and pledged for...

Also, I'm still waiting for a single reason against saving. So far I've read "you don't need it" - hell yes I do, obviously. And "it allows cheating" - so does having the gamestate in RAM, not to mention it's a singleplayer game. Guess I just don't see why people (ok, you) are so determined to keep quite a lot of other people from enjoying the game.