Saved Game Files

[Icshi]

I've noticed that the saved game files for Blades of Avernum are enormous — 1.7 MB.

 

This is quite a change from previous Spiderweb games:

 

Nethergate — 321 k

Avernum — 324 k

Avernum 2 — 484 k

Avernum 3 — 940 k

 

(The Geneforge games, of course, have a totally different engine so I'm not bringing those saved files into this discussion.)

 

Obviously, the size of the saved file has to do with the size of the world in each individual game, and the total possible number of Stuff Done Flags, recording where things were dropped on which space in which town, who's dead and who's not, etc.

 

I'm wondering if the potentially massive size of a BoA scenario (50 by 50 outdoor squares, 200 towns, hundreds of SDFs, etc.) determines the size of the saved game files. So I'm guessing that the saved files generated by most scenarios consist mostly of 0s for the unused towns, SDFs, etc.?

[Eldiran]

I think you're right in guessing that the save file keeps track of data even if it is not used in a scenario (for example, if a scen doesn't do anything to SDF (300,30), the save file still keeps track of it.)

 

That seems to be the most logical reason for such a huge (relative to other Spiderweb saves) file.

[Khoth]

Yes, most of a savefile is not really used. They compress down to about 30k-100k.

[Kennedy]

The ability to design custom items may also play a part in that. Suppose for each of the inventory slots you are carrying a custom item with a unique name. This would probably take a large chunk of file size.

[Icshi]

Yes, I've started compressing my saved game files to save on hard drive space — I still want to keep these files, but not waste the space. They do indeed compress very nicely.

 

That's an interesting thought about custom items, too. That's especially true when you have custom items from other scenarios, so the game would have to store that info in your saved game file.

[Octavo]

This is possibly one reason for unchangeable size outdoors, yes?