People really want a save feature

Sorry but that's just stupid. By that logic we shouldn't have a way to close PA because you can just restart your computer.

That's not fair, multiplayer does matter as does single player and galactic war. A save option is a necessary feature of any game. As for the pause function, sure pause the game for 10 minutes but not for hours or days or maybe even weeks, that's just plain silly.

I'm sure Uber are more than capable of doing a save feature no matter how difficult, and I'm sure we will see one in the future. In my opinion the save feature needs to be in as soon as possible. As for starcraft 2 I've never played it. It sure looks like you know a lot of people who do play it though, to make a statement like that.

I went full diceroll on a RAID 0 with no backup

I see a lot of negative attitudes surrounding this, people going on that there should be no saving and everyone should play the game or use their PCs as they do. It does not work like that, people play games in their own way, bringing varied playstyles to the table and no one has the right to order others to play their games in a specific manner. Just as easy then for me to say that everyone MUST play singleplayer skirmish for no less than 3 hours, isn't it?

People have lives beyond their PCs, as soon as these naysayers grow up and have a family of their own instead of living on daddy's wallet, they'll quickly realize that it is not as easy as just pausing the game and putting the PC to sleep, people's PCs serve many other purposes than just playing games. Saving is a must due to many other factors too, some people have limited electricity, others has to generate their own electricity, half the world is without internet, many people work odd hours, others are on stand-by jobs. Then you also have soldiers and policemen who simply cannot play any time they want for how long they want. There are so many real-life factors that makes saving very important but, unfortunately there are those who think everyone is living well-off and has it easy, their arrogance and selfishness cannot be more wrong.

My PC, for example, is used for many things. I do not have satellite TV, a home theatre or a stereo. My PC fulfills all these functions simply because it is much more affordable. I play games on it, so does the wife. We work on it, we also watch TV and movies on it, the kids do much of their homework on it and when friends come over it is used as a stereo. I come home from work around nine in the evening and drive off to work again around seven the next morning, this means that I do not have much time for gaming during the week and, it also means that there is absolutely no point in playing PA if I cannot save my games. I get more time over weekends sure but, interruptions due to obligations and responsibilities towards family, friends and career can still be plentiful. As soon as the formula 1 and superugby seasons start, the intervals for playing games over weekends becomes even smaller, and why should I stop watching my (and my family's) favourite sports just to play PA, a save function will solve all that. And no, I cannot just minimize the game to work or watch TV/sport, too much PC resource usage.

So please, let's drop this US foreign policy attitude right here. Everyone has the right to choose how they want to play the game and use their PCs and no one can dictate over what others should do. Saving is extremely important for a great deal of players and they have a multitude of legitimate reasons for it to be bumped in priority, it will also attract a much broader audience that can only be beneficial for Uber as well as initial perceptions over PA itself.

There are people who say they aren't bothered by no saving and, I have absolutely no problem with such opinions but, people carrying on that saving shouldn't be added and that anyone who wants it is dumb or retarded is just inappropriate, and quite frankly the zenith of childish fanboyism. And yes, lack of a save function WILL have a negative impact on reviews, obviously. We are long past the 8bit and 16bit gaming days of old. Saving is not a feature, it is a bog-standard base functionality of a modern computer game. Whether you are against it or not, it should be there.

My fear is that Uber's idea of working on a save feature is "So......anybody know how to save the game mid-battle?" being asked during a meeting. I just don't get the impression that they are certain that it can be done and that it's just difficult and time consuming. My impression is that they don't know if it can be done at all, in which case I wish I hadn't invested my money during the kickstarter. It's like having my new car delivered to me without doors. The brochure never explicitly stated that the car came with doors but it's generally assumed that cars come with doors. It's generally assumed that video games, especially RTS games, can be saved.

That's a good way to put it, but I don't think it's a matter of knowing how, I think it's a matter of time. AFAIK the chrono cam is more advanced than anything else in the game, and probably more advanced than a simple saving feature.

However, if the saving feature is embedded within the chrono cam so you can reload at any time possible, then THAT might be very hard to make.

This is a bit unrelated but oh my god, loading seamlessly from any point in the game via chrono cam and continuing would be an interesting and fun feature.

They know how to do it, afaik in fact it partially exists already. It can recreate units from a replay. What is missing is AI "brain"-data and commands, queues, etc. It's on the level of a "dev-debug-feature".

I wonder if modding can unlock it.

Spoiler

The AI already created a save game feature but it doesn't want to release it because the humans would gain the advantage of being able to take long breaks

If a chrono cam save feature is that hard to do then I would settle for a normal saving feature. I use some mods in my games and I can never get the chrono cam to replay them anyway. So I don't know what would happen if the chrono cam became the save feature. Although of course a chrono cam save would be cool if it worked with mods.

My despair for the save feature is at least partly influenced by the fact that it has never been in the game. There are plenty of things in the game that have been in alpha, beta, gamma and release that were buggy and ultimately fixed. Saving has never been in the game, even if it wasn't working correctly.

I'm also a bit annoyed that other things have come before this. Leaderboards are fun and all but are by no means required in order to play the game. The unit cannon, while crazy rad and awesome, isn't required to play the game. From the comments from others in the forums, I believe I'm not alone in my situation of not being able to play because I can't save. Before anyone gets all literal on me, yes, I can technically play but not for any length of time and never long enough to finish a game.

Sorry for whining. I was really, REALLY excited for this game and put a decent amount of money into the kickstarter and now I feel like the wind has been taken out of my sails.

To me as a 1vs1 player a functional ladder is quite damn important to play as well though. Yes I can play without, but it was important enough to me to make me put in days of programming to setup a custom made ladder system, which obviously never could be as good as Ubers, as waaaay too few people install mods. :/

That said I'd really be happy if we finally got save games and better handling of replay files (I want to download at least some of them...).

I just played around with the existing --load-save --load-time parameters that the server has. From the look of it they are not functional (surprise ). With a bit of hackery I can go around a bug that prevents them from working at all, but even then all I get is an empty game that plays back my economy from the replay.
Might have missed something, but yeah ... what did I expect from some switches in the code into an incomplete codepath that looks like they have not been touched in a while.

Found this on the Steam forum:

[Uber] Garat Oct 21, 2013 @ 9:54am

We're working on save systems, which also includes being able to restart a replay, and a host of other good ways to be able to replay a great game.

Some of these features won't be fully usable until the game releases, as the game does rely on a lot of the server code for these features, but replays, including the ability to reload and launch one to replay it, should be online before final release.


It's from October 21, 2013. Exactly 1 year and 3 months ago today and we still don't have what he's describing.
Here's the whole thread: http://steamcommunity.com/app/233250/discussions/0/810938810788830371/

We've seen this before, obviously its just still being worked on, and there were things of higher priority than a save feature.

Nah we don't want save feature, it is pointless. In multi you never get all people together even if you play with friends, in single i can pause game or just start new one. After few days i usually lose my interest in that single match, rather start fresh.

Save feature, necessary. Why? Cause i do not like leaving my computer on unattended. Simple as that (hibernating & sleeping count as ON btw)

& I hate losing progress on a game im playing with a friend

https://forums.uberent.com/threads/upcoming-work-update.67466/

you can't save games you're playing with a friend broski, you never will be able to

It's going to be awesome when Uber proves your our wrong. Have some faith.

I'd be inclined to agree, it would be awesome if Uber proves me wrong.