Save games organised in distinct character profiles

[Radwulf]

One problem that I've found in many rpgs is that they seem to be designed for multiple playthroughs yet only have a single pool of savegames making organisation a pain.  Could we have a profile system for convenient management of our various characters?

[Lephys]

You should totally put that in this thread. ^_^

[Hassat Hunter]

I like it...

 

But KOTOR2 has the same, and I still to this day have people who go 'KOTOR2 ate my saves once I made a new character!' :/

[Pshaw]

You're completely right about this. I hate it when I need to have a wall of save files from tons of different characters all on the same loading/save screen.

[Radwulf]

@Hassat Hunter

 

You could have an icon with portraits and names on the side for easy and intuitive character management.

 

@Lephys

 

Done!

Edited June 28, 2013 by Radwulf

[Jarmo]

Yea! This definitely. And also yea! for intuitive management of character saves.

[Sheikh]

Use save files named "johnnyboy x" where x is a sequential number that corresponds to progress. I dont see a problem, unless you are working on multiple characters at the same time.

[LadyCrimson]

Use save files named "johnnyboy x" where x is a sequential number that corresponds to progress. I dont see a problem, unless you are working on multiple characters at the same time.

That's assuming the game allows you to name the save files vs. generic "save0001" type format. Not that I see any reason why P.E. wouldn't allow you to name saves, I'm just saying.

 

At any rate ... I'm the type who does often ends up working on multiple chrs, along with not liking to perm-delete chrs, or maybe wanting to re-load an old specific save to check/test out something specific at that point in the game without having to play over to that point, or whatever, so my vote goes towards the OP's suggestion, as well. It's just more....organized.

[Ffordesoon]

Oh, God, yes. Absolutely. I'm flashing back to Alpha Protocol's weird overwrite-y save list thing and cringing. Let me create as many saves as I want and put them in as many profiles as I want and name the saves whatever I want and blah. So many RPGs get that wrong, and of the minor things an RPG can get wrong, that's one of the most annoying. Because it's the first place you go when you load the game up, you know?

 

The solution to the problem Hassat mentioned is pretty simple, actually. Just have a screen in between the title screen and the Load Game screen where you pick which character's saves you want to load. Yeah, it's an extra click, but I'd argue that making the save system crystal-clear to the end user is worth that extra click.

 

And hey, maybe they could put a system in there where you can tell it to "auto-login" to a certain set of save files, similar to the way profiles on an Xbox 360 or PS3 work. Like, you could designate a "favorite" character and have the save browser skip straight to that character's saves. If you want it to do that for another character, go back to the character screen and move the "favorite" thingy to another character's set of saves.

 

Or not. That's maybe overthinking it a little. But the list of save profiles, at least, is crucial.

[Ffordesoon]

EDIT: Same post again. Hit the Post button twice. Sorry. Admins may delete this post if they like.

Edited June 28, 2013 by Ffordesoon

[Iron_JG]

Absolutely yes to the OP. Distinct profiles save a lot of hassle, and they are a MAJOR comfort as you try to juggle multiple characters. This can't be hard to implement, every game should have it.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

I don't think improving organization is ever a bad thing, so if it easy to do I'm in.

 

Currently playing NWN2 and BGT, and I think that this would make me more comfortable to have multiple saves for the same character.

[Lephys]

I'd like to cite The Last of Us, here, as an example of "Why in the hell would you do that?!".

 

Apparently, once you make your first save (save slot 1, or whatever, out of I think infinite, so long as your PS3 hard drive has space), it just automatically uses that one as an autosave, without telling you. And it autosaves CONSTANTLY! I mean, I think it literally tries to autosave every second it can. It's crazy.

 

Now, I understand there are games (especially console games) in which you only get one save slot per playthrough, and that one will essentially save over itself as your only save option. But, this is different. You get independent saves, but they didn't even take the time to make a SEPARATE auto-save slot.

 

RIDIKKULUS! *waves wand*

[Sensuki]

Out of all the save systems I've encountered I'm not sure which I like best.

 

The Witcher 2 never saved over savegame files, but that meant that your save folder was multiple GBs in size after not too long.

 

The Infinity Engine savegame system was fine but the autosave replacing the last autosave did sometimes make you backtrack to a custom save.

 

Saves based on Character profile or playthrough are fine as well, as long as the structure of the saving system isn't any different to the previous methods but the savegames are organized in separate folders and require an extra menu to access in game (opening the character playthrough a la Mass Effect). Modders/cheaters will want to be able to access save game information so hopefully profile based saves don't make it any more difficult for a Shadowkeeper or something to access/edit the files.

[Lephys]

I can't recall which game(s), but I KNOW I've seen a multi-auto-save system, by default, somewhere.

 

It had the typical checkpoint-style auto-save system, but it had 3 different autosaves it cycled through. That way, if something glitched up, or you needed to go back a bit, but you had auto-saved very recently, you still have a little leeway with the 2 previous ones. I thought that was pretty convenient.

 

Personally, I think a single, separate auto-save file is fine, plus however many manual saves you want to make. And I definitely don't see why all that can't be separated between your main characters/playthroughs.

[Sensuki]

The Witcher 2 had one. Only problem is the save files were huge and the game saved often. My savegame folder after 2 plays was 20GB.