"Save before Loading" dialogue must go or save to a new file.
The 'Save Before Loading?' confirmation dialogue has repeatedly been the cause of lost progress.
Please imagine the following scenario: You have just finished 5 hours worth of work on a new ship and it must be tested. You think to yourself "I should make a backup save in case this doesn't go so well", you do it , you feel wise. You launch the ship and it crashes and explodes, not because it was badly designed but because you went a tiny bit too fast, that's ok you knew this might happen. you go to load, you're anxious to get back to building and upset because you watched your five hour ship explode, you aren't thinking about the dialogues, you click 'yes', the game loads and surprise, it SAVED OVER THE BACKUP FILE YOU MADE FOR SAFETY!.
this cannot happen. Either this confirmation dialogue must save to a NEW FILE (not the active one) or it must simply be removed because as it stands it is just too easy to loose progress and because the game is in early development loss of progress is a constant threat anyway, it does not need to be exacerbated by a rogue confirmation dialogue.
ADDITIONALLY, Autosave ALSO saves to the existing game file instead of to a separate auto-save file as it should making it a threat to user created saves also. and this should be fixed ASAP.
Nearly all modern games keep autosaves separate from user created ones and there is a good reason for it.
I hope this helps.
I like this feedback
Agreed. When loading the current save, saving over the current save is literal nonsense.
I can understand it when, i.e., loading different saves, like switching to your survival/creative save, but even then, the confirmation dialog should at least default to "Cancel" (with zero consequence), since both "No" and "Yes" are potentially too dangerous. "Yes", in particular, is a very bad default for that case, as OP highlights.
I wouldn't just remove it, because that would be dangerous too... I.e. loading something else, but forgot to save my recent work here. A classic useful "saved by the confirm dialog" case.
So, i would instead:
- Default it to "Cancel" button (for the quick compulsive Enter guy.). Worst case, you loose a couple seconds of clicks.
- Make a special "Save As" version of the confirm dialog, when and only when the game realize you are trying to reload the very current save. This is where saving is really dangerous. Otherwise the "Aren't you forgetting something?" is pretty convenient, imo...
Anyway, upvoted. I just wanted to share my view on a possible solution.
Agreed. When loading the current save, saving over the current save is literal nonsense.
I can understand it when, i.e., loading different saves, like switching to your survival/creative save, but even then, the confirmation dialog should at least default to "Cancel" (with zero consequence), since both "No" and "Yes" are potentially too dangerous. "Yes", in particular, is a very bad default for that case, as OP highlights.
I wouldn't just remove it, because that would be dangerous too... I.e. loading something else, but forgot to save my recent work here. A classic useful "saved by the confirm dialog" case.
So, i would instead:
- Default it to "Cancel" button (for the quick compulsive Enter guy.). Worst case, you loose a couple seconds of clicks.
- Make a special "Save As" version of the confirm dialog, when and only when the game realize you are trying to reload the very current save. This is where saving is really dangerous. Otherwise the "Aren't you forgetting something?" is pretty convenient, imo...
Anyway, upvoted. I just wanted to share my view on a possible solution.
I think a hybrid approach would be perfect. this is going to be a multi-part solution or it will be an incomplete solution.
saves and autosaves should not be the same thing, they should be kept separate and I like Doc's proposed second part solution, I would add to it , have the confirmation dialogue prior to load point to autosave, though to be perfectly frank, I think we could get along without the dialogue entirely JUST FINE. I understand forgetting to save your work before loading another save but seriously needing to load a save that is not your current game for any reason other than 'something has gone terribly wrong' is not a common occurrence. Perhaps there are players who just spend the majority of their time loading old save files, but it isn't me or anyone else I know and because of this I don't see the need for the dialogue at all.
nothing is worse than a safety measure that can potentially cause a disaster.
I think a hybrid approach would be perfect. this is going to be a multi-part solution or it will be an incomplete solution.
saves and autosaves should not be the same thing, they should be kept separate and I like Doc's proposed second part solution, I would add to it , have the confirmation dialogue prior to load point to autosave, though to be perfectly frank, I think we could get along without the dialogue entirely JUST FINE. I understand forgetting to save your work before loading another save but seriously needing to load a save that is not your current game for any reason other than 'something has gone terribly wrong' is not a common occurrence. Perhaps there are players who just spend the majority of their time loading old save files, but it isn't me or anyone else I know and because of this I don't see the need for the dialogue at all.
nothing is worse than a safety measure that can potentially cause a disaster.
I think the game should not bring up the “save” prompt if it’s been less than a minute since the last save, and not save over the last save. Any time a manual save is done, reset the autosave timer.
But also, (because this seems to be a source of bugs), don’t invoke autosave while moving or below full health, because the game resets acceleration of pistons/rotors/engines when the game loads it has on at least two occasions either caused a grid to go flying(piston launching the grid it’s attached to into the air) or right after a collision or crash, after the vehicle has become immobilized.
I think the game should not bring up the “save” prompt if it’s been less than a minute since the last save, and not save over the last save. Any time a manual save is done, reset the autosave timer.
But also, (because this seems to be a source of bugs), don’t invoke autosave while moving or below full health, because the game resets acceleration of pistons/rotors/engines when the game loads it has on at least two occasions either caused a grid to go flying(piston launching the grid it’s attached to into the air) or right after a collision or crash, after the vehicle has become immobilized.
it's weird that this has 'not enough votes'. I'm not really sure what to make of that.
it's weird that this has 'not enough votes'. I'm not really sure what to make of that.
I suggest a different approach: An "external save" option that leads to a save dialog for picking a location outside the game's normal save and load mechanisms. By all means, use the operating system's load and save dialog. This would also give all the options for sorting and filtering in the OS's file explorer without extra development effort on Keen's part.
Obviously, this would also require an "external load" option to get the game save back.
Finally, why not extend the approach to blueprints? Personally, I like to back those up on a separate partition. Right now, this is possible but cumbersome by switching from the game to the OS's file explorer and manually going to the Steam directory. Make this more convenient please.
I suggest a different approach: An "external save" option that leads to a save dialog for picking a location outside the game's normal save and load mechanisms. By all means, use the operating system's load and save dialog. This would also give all the options for sorting and filtering in the OS's file explorer without extra development effort on Keen's part.
Obviously, this would also require an "external load" option to get the game save back.
Finally, why not extend the approach to blueprints? Personally, I like to back those up on a separate partition. Right now, this is possible but cumbersome by switching from the game to the OS's file explorer and manually going to the Steam directory. Make this more convenient please.
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