Save in Combat

[Silveressa]

This seems a huge issue for quite a few people, so I am happy to take a look at implementing this.

Tickbox at game start, non-editable afterwards. Unticked by default, with a suitable description of why it is a bad idea to select it. Game quits once a save is made in the battlescape, to discourage "save-hunting."

Would this satisfy those users who have time issues?

I'd definitely support this kind of save (or any kind really) since the days where I could spend 4-6 hours at the PC at a stretch are long behind me. (some days I'm lucky to have 30-40 minutes at once to play without real life intruding)

There's somewhat of a balance between saves lowering difficulty and real life making them a necessity since redoing 3/4's of a mission due to running out of time just plain sucks. (one of the main reasons why I mostly quit playing mmorpg's, you just can't up and leave for a while after 30-40 minutes without making your friends mad in game)

[ufogio]

Personally I prefer to have shorter missions without the ability to save in combat.
The are a few maps (the canyon, wellington) which take longer to finish, but the most of the maps are short.

[shevegen]

I am actually fine with no-save during combat but I hope there are other ways to speed up combat.
For example, disable animation of your units, or dont care if crouched units move slower than non-crouched units (in their animations). Also maybe some hotkey combo tricks like space to select alien and "x" key to fire in best available mode or something etc..

[Skor]

I cant believe it, you did create this fantastic game, and then you didnt implement saving in combat?!?!? Youre spoiling the whole game for most of the fans of the original UFO-Serie!!!
It would take away some of the atmosphere??? ARE YOU NUTS??     If some1 feels like that, he just shouldnt use it!!

OMG such a great game, and its crap because someones fearing about the atmosphere if you could save in combat, i JUST DONT GET THIS!!
This game could be a goldmine, but NOOOO, we want atmosphere.... ATMOSPHERE! Unbelievable... Im out of here, keep your game for the "Kind-of-iron-man-folks" and be happy with it...

Im going back to "Jagged Alliance2" or slt.

*shaking his head while leaving, sigh*

[Kildor]

Good bye, lolser :-D

[Captain Bipto]

Hey guys I really think you need to implement an ingame save feature in this awesome game!  The reason? I don't have one, i got like 10!!! Here are the most important and urgent reasons.
1.) I cannot figure out how to hit the retry button on the tactical menu.
2.) Meteorites, lightning, cosmic rays, eco terrorists and even russian space stations strike the power station near my house ALL the time and my UPS is dead  .
3.) My kid won't play the game w/o a save feature...course I don't really care about that...more time for me!
4.) Sometimes Noah rolls by my pad ranting about a coming great deluge, please please please implement a save feature so that I can save in the middle of a battle instead of spending a few minutes just replaying the map.

[Silveressa]

LOL! Ya get plenty of points for originality at least 

[knightsubzero]

i would add my vote for a save feature, mainly for time issues, sometimes those missions take either a long time, or alot of tries....sometimes i play for awhile, and i have this theory in my head, ok ill play until something happens, then my base gets raided (new version), or i accidently hit the 12hr time boost, while my dropship is on the way.....opps cant save....i have to either play (really need sleep), or have to go from my last save which was 2 hrs ago.

if people dont want to save they dont have to, i know some people will use it to save\load, save\load, but that would be their problem.

implement this feature.

[Captain Bipto]

Seriously I would add my vote for an autosave feature that occurred in player controlled intervals while playing on the GEOSCAPE (I.e. every 5 minutes, every minute, every game month, every game week etc).  Definitely should autosave right before entering a mission just because sometimes I get excited and forget to save. I LOVE the fact there is no save feature on the battle maps, does a great job of keep the terror alive...

[Doctor J]

This seems a huge issue for quite a few people, so I am happy to take a look at implementing this.

Huzzah, Nemchenk!

I would like to offer what i perceive as a compromise position: autosave at the end of every turn, but no player-initiated saves.  This would materially help those with brownouts or persuasive spouses [you only lose a few minutes of 'work'], but not be of significant benefit to those who want to make sure their shot flies true...

[Captain Bipto]

Come on people stop dragging your families and/or forces of nature into this discussion, unless you want to keep the laughter alive. Sure I have not beaten the game yet but no map has taken me longer than half an hour so far of continuous play.

[Silveressa]

Try looking after kids Captain. When you're a parent (or baby sitter) of two 2-1/2 year olds, having 30 minutes of uninterrupted computer time will be quite a rare luxury.

Or try being someone with a job that requires them to be "on call" nearly 24/7, such as emergency room doctors, firemen, etc... With that kind of work you get the call and you drop what you;re doing and run out the door. Which makes a save in battle feature a necessity for thorough enjoyment of the game.

Also thanks Nemchenk for looking into this. an auto save after every turn sounds like just what those of us with priorities that come before video games need.

[blondandy]

I am not sure that the save-in-battlescape feature would be welcome in the standard release. Anyone is welcome to modify the game and release a patch for the code, or an updated installer.

[Silveressa]

I am not sure that the save-in-battlescape feature would be welcome in the standard release. Anyone is welcome to modify the game and release a patch for the code, or an updated installer.

That's just the thing so many people seem to be missing the point of. Those of us that need a save in battle feature are ones who are just to busy with real life to sit and play through an entire map in one sitting. (some of the maps later on in game can take 45-60 minutes or longer on harder difficulties)

Now if we're too busy to play though a battle map in one sitting, where are we supposed to find the time to learn how to code an auto-save feature into the game, let alone actually code it?

[ponkan]

i would add my vote for a save feature, mainly for time issues, sometimes those missions take either a long time, or alot of tries....sometimes i play for awhile, and i have this theory in my head, ok ill play until something happens, then my base gets raided (new version), or i accidently hit the 12hr time boost, while my dropship is on the way.....opps cant save....i have to either play (really need sleep), or have to go from my last save which was 2 hrs ago.

if people dont want to save they dont have to, i know some people will use it to save\load, save\load, but that would be their problem.

implement this feature.

knightsubzero, the game quick-saves just before you go into battle. So the dropship arrives, you choose Fight, then immediately abort the mission. Load the quicksave with F2, your ship's back on top of the site (has to be told to engage though, for some reason it reverts to idle). F2 still works in the SVN version even if they no longer have the "Continue" button when choosing single player at the starting menu.