Tenderfoot Thahd travesty Posted January 9, 2012 Share Posted January 9, 2012 I dislike the way saved games have been handled on recent Spiderweb games, namely, a short list of saved game slots. I vastly prefer the older way (at least on Windows--I don't have any experience with the Mac versions) where I can save as many games as I want wherever I want, with whatever name I want. Does anyone know if there's some technical reason Jeff would do it the current way? Is this a Mac thing that has just migrated over to the Windows side? It actually feels very console-ish to me. Does anyone think there's any chance Jeff would listen to reason (I know I'm right! I just know it!) and have a standard Windows save dialog? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hatchling Cockatrice Lilith Posted January 9, 2012 Share Posted January 9, 2012 I suspect the main reason isn't so much a technical one as a cultural one: nearly every game released nowadays uses save slots if it allows manual saving at all, so it's what players have come to expect, especially younger players. If you do want more saved games than the list of slots allows, you can always back up your save folder. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rotghroth Rhapsody Soul of Wit Posted January 9, 2012 Share Posted January 9, 2012 Since I can't open a save anywhere but in game, I really don't care. I can assure you that the Mac versions of Spiderweb games used to be just like Windows, as far as saving anywhere with any name. Jeff is also following developer guidelines on where to keep the save files (at least on the Mac side.) These guidelines change over time. With Lion (OS X 10.7.x,) the save files are now in a subfolder of a hidden directory (similar to how an unaltered Windows box hides the directory with Programs.) There is also the consideration of cooperating with Steam and other potential vendors (I'm not sure how much of a factor that is.) Using save slots is the convention these days. I'm sure that you could create a pointer/alias/shortcut to the save, but that wouldn't serve much purpose. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tenderfoot Thahd travesty Posted January 9, 2012 Author Share Posted January 9, 2012 That's more or less what I figured. It's just a bit disappointing, as I like to keep large numbers of archived saves with rather verbose and descriptive names so that I can go back later to try things differently. The current system just makes that impractical. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hatchling Cockatrice Alorael at Large Posted January 9, 2012 Share Posted January 9, 2012 Yes. Old saves also used to take up comparatively less disk space, load faster, and have a more friendly OS-standard save/load interface. But technology marches on. —Alorael, who doubts there are required standards for saves that aren't put in a predetermined location by the program. It's Jeff's choice, not Apple's. But it is Apple's choice to hide huge swaths of what used to be accessible directories, and he's not pleased about it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ineffable Wingbolt Erebus the Black Posted January 9, 2012 Share Posted January 9, 2012 Originally Posted By: travesty I dislike the way saved games have been handled on recent Spiderweb games, namely, a short list of saved game slots. I vastly prefer the older way (at least on Windows--I don't have any experience with the Mac versions) where I can save as many games as I want wherever I want, with whatever name I want. Does anyone know if there's some technical reason Jeff would do it the current way? Is this a Mac thing that has just migrated over to the Windows side? It actually feels very console-ish to me. Does anyone think there's any chance Jeff would listen to reason (I know I'm right! I just know it!) and have a standard Windows save dialog? Seconded. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rotghroth Rhapsody Soul of Wit Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 Originally Posted By: travesty That's more or less what I figured. It's just a bit disappointing, as I like to keep large numbers of archived saves with rather verbose and descriptive names so that I can go back later to try things differently. The current system just makes that impractical. The only thing that I can suggest is to run the game in windowed mode and copy a save elsewhere & rename the folder, immediately after saving. Not terribly practical. Detailed and frequent saves are great when you wish to troubleshoot--especially if you want to assist Jeff with beta & 1.0.0 testing. I don't keep more that 2-3 saves while playing these later games. I just keep overwriting. His loss, but I understand why he tries to simplify across the many distribution and OS platforms now available. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rotghroth Rhapsody Soul of Wit Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 Originally Posted By: broken bits under all furniture Yes. Old saves also used to take up comparatively less disk space, load faster, and have a more friendly OS-standard save/load interface. But technology marches on. —Alorael, who doubts there are required standards for saves that aren't put in a predetermined location by the program. It's Jeff's choice, not Apple's. But it is Apple's choice to hide huge swaths of what used to be accessible directories, and he's not pleased about it. Developer guidelines are not required, of course. That's why they're called guidelines. There are guidelines for the default locations of user-chosen save destinations. This is true for both Macs and Windows. Personally, one of the first things that I do for a new non-*nix OS is turn off any file or directory hiding. This will show those pesky .DS_Store (and related) files on a Mac volume, but hidden files are often useful to know about. The new directory hiding in Lion is almost as silly as hiding the Programs in Windows. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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