Feature Request - Game Saving

knoid · Post by **knoid** » 30 Apr 2005, 03:02

Not sure if this is appropriate for the dev forum, but what the heck :D.

Given the current crash-prone state of Spring, a way to save the current game state would be great. I'm not sure how easy or feasible this is at the current time, and I'm sure there are tons of things that take priority over this, but I figured I'd put the request in anyway :D.

I did search the forums, but couldn't turn up any topics suggesting this - if it's been suggested already, please go ahead and delete this thread.

zwzsg · Post by **zwzsg** » 30 Apr 2005, 03:44

And what does F8 exactly do?

knoid · Post by **knoid** » 30 Apr 2005, 03:48

It's not in the readme or the FAQ....therefore it doesn't do anything :p.

Perhaps you could give this thread some usefulness by telling me exactly how one resumes a saved game?

Caydr · Post by **Caydr** » 30 Apr 2005, 04:36

Push F8, game saved. Start spring.exe, select "test save" (or something similar) and voila, your savegame.

knoid · Post by **knoid** » 30 Apr 2005, 05:09

Thank you Caydr.

I guess there's no easy way to relaunch the saved game from the lobby atm then...

jouninkomiko · Post by **jouninkomiko** » 30 Apr 2005, 06:12

... i didn't know you could save. news to me

Post by SJ » 30 Apr 2005, 07:26

Well the save game is only "approximate" at the moment. It mostly saves units (partially) and terrain. If someone would want to work on improving it it would be welcome, but getting in projectiles etc will probably be quite a bit of work.

And I have never tried to restart a multiplayer game from a savegame.

Sean Mirrsen · Post by **Sean Mirrsen** » 30 Apr 2005, 17:31

Well, if the lobby could detect open servers started from the Spring executable itself, and allow connecting to that, then the server would just need to start up, choose the load script, then wait for the rest of the players to join, then press enter, and the game continues.

Archangel of Death · Post by **Archangel of Death** » 30 Apr 2005, 19:48

I wouldn't worry about saving projectiles. I doubt anyone would abuse the fact that they aren't saved (except maybe in skirmish if they are really, really scared of something, once the skirmish AI is in). TA didn't save them either (can you save TA multiplayer games?) and I doubt that seems like something that can be abused in a multiplayer game.

Dragon45 · Post by **Dragon45** » 01 May 2005, 00:38

I can think of plenty of ways to abuse savegames' no weapons saves feature- most of them involving nukes and DGuns.

Caydr · Post by **Caydr** » 01 May 2005, 07:16

This savegame feature may even work for multiplayer, if I'm not mistaken.

One bug I've encountered is that if you save the game with more than [some number I've not had the patience to determine] units built, it will crash on loading... and the number isn't very high. Maybe 200.

Sean Mirrsen · Post by **Sean Mirrsen** » 01 May 2005, 10:20

I managed to load a game with a fully set up enemy base, filled to the brim (~500) with defences.

Archangel of Death · Post by **Archangel of Death** » 01 May 2005, 11:48

D-guns don't last long enough to be an issue. Nukes would, but if someone goes around saving and then "mysteriously crashing" whenever nukes are launched him, I don't think he will be very populer in games for long (and when booting is fixed, he won't be in any games). And abusing it in just skirmish, well, if your going to do that your probably playing a "modded" game anyway...

zwzsg · Post by **zwzsg** » 01 May 2005, 14:07

I was able to load offline a game saved online.

I was able to host an online game that was joined via IP.

See where I'm heading? Woot Spring currently does feature multiplayer savegame!

Dragon45: I see no way saving could be abused, even if the nuke and dgun are not saved. Between the time the dgun order is given and the dgun reach the end of his course how much time last? One second? Two seconds? Nukes can travel a bit longer, but even, they don't even take a minute to travel the whole map.

Explain me how are you going to abuse it. Is something like: "Oh, you are dgunning me, quick let me save, quit and reload and please join my game with where the dgun shot is gone". "Oh no, you just resent another dgun, quick, let me save one tenth of second after I realise that, and then waste five other minutes to quit, rehost, reload,etc..." You'd have to have really good reflex to save the game between the momement the shot is seen and the moment the damage is done. And if your savegame date from a little earlier, well, too bad, stockpiled nukes are saved (I hope). And the other player could still say: "Ok, you want to reload game? Fine let me use MY savegame taken just before just the nuke went from stockpiled to fired". I'm sorry I can't picture me anyone using that sort of trick.

On the other hand, being able to save and load an online game is incredible feature, not available in any other multiplayer game as far as I know (the TA demo recorder does not count, as Spring is its heir).

It's also very handy for a not-yet-perfectly-stable game where a game can last litteraly hours and suddendly crash.

Gabba · Post by **Gabba** » 02 May 2005, 16:53

zwzsg wrote:On the other hand, being able to save and load an online game is incredible feature, not available in any other multiplayer game as far as I know (the TA demo recorder does not count, as Spring is its heir).

Age of Empires has it, and a few other games I don't remember now. But it is a rare feature.

It's also very handy for a not-yet-perfectly-stable game where a game can last litteraly hours and suddendly crash.

Which is why every rts needs one! 'Cause if its not a crash then its someone who has to leave or whose internet connection is freaking out.

Spring RTS Engine

Feature Request - Game Saving

Feature Request - Game Saving