Savegame naming conventions

[Sir Shiva]

So then the extension will have to be .CIV ?



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-Shiva
Email: shiva@mailops.com
Web: http://www.crosswinds.net/india/~shiva
ICQ: 17719980

[tniem]

More importantly than saved game file names is a short summary of what has happened the past few turns, especially for PBEM games. These could be as simple as...

tniem of the Americans
Democracy, 1999 AD.
Have 32 cities for x population
At war with Russians and Chinese
At peace with England, NATO, Japan, Israel
Last turn took city of Beijing and Stalingrad
Two turns ago lost Stalingrad
Money x amount
Very close to new tech

[Hugo Rune]

I completely agree with Glak here. That's the way I'd want it.

How about complete statistics? In an explorer-like interface you could pick just to see the files, or to see the files with the Civ used, the in-game turn, any mods used, the date last modified and maybe the current number of points. Then you could sort them by any of these values, so you could get them alphabetically, by date, by mod used and so on.

Oh, and have a look at ngWorldStats that comes with Unreal Torurnament. Great tool...

[tobyr]

The save file names should follow two conventions:

(1) As a stertup option, let ME choose the pathname and the first part of the file name, e.g.:
c:
my\romans\pi

(2) The file names should be named so that they will mostly list alphabetically in chronological order, e.g.:
pi_a4000.sav
pi_a0800.sav
pi_b0001.sav
pi_b0500.sav
pi_b0925.sav etc.

Note that I use 'a' for the first age and 'b' for the second, and all dates produce FOUR DIGITS. (It might be even better to use 'f' for first age and 's' for second age.)

My approach still leaves the first-age dates listing in reverse order, but that seems an inevitable result of the way the game models dates.

- toby


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toby robison
criticalpaths@mindspring.com

[Stuff2]

I would prefer it quite simple.

Player's name and game year. like this:

"Stuffman 1728 AD"

[Gearyman]

Several people already mentioned the folder idea. Have a separate folder for each different game, with a name like 'Smith of the Germans'.

Then, inside that folder, save the actual games. You could then just save it as a_190.sav or b_3500.sav

I like the 'list of statistics' idea by tniem, although what information to list could be debated about until Civ IV arrives.

An idea might be to allow the user to choose whether to have 'statistics' or not, and maybe give a list and allow the user to choose which statistics to keep, since some are more important to one person than another.

[Diodorus Sicilus]

Each game when saved for the first time should generate its own Folder. The same Game title should always generate a save to that same folder, which (ideally) will give you a set of Historical "shots' of the game's progress when you're done - or give up from tedium.
My own personal convention is to designate each game by the name of the Ruler that I am playing and the level, so my saved game folders are labeled things like KingAsterix, DietyFriedrich, PrinceIvor, etc.
I like the idea of a summary, but one that could be included as a part of each game turn: at the end of each turn a Tablet, Newspaper, or similar display (appropriate to the Era) giving the latest events. The previous turn's display would then be available if you save a game before completing the next turn, and the current turn's summary would be available if you saved at the end of the turn. Another feature could be a "string" of the trun summaries generated at the end of the game as a History file: a brief record of how your game went without having to save a couple of hundred game-turns individually...

[HyperElite]

Having a separate save game folder for each specific game sounds good.

As for a naming system for the savegames I think the one used in Civ 1 would satisy me.

[Grier]

Default should be: Leader_Name - Race - Year
and a view of the map and graph as in CTP.

[Glak]

I think having a game name set at the beginning is preferable, because that way it will be unique, otherwise if you play the same name/tribe combo more than once it will interfer with another game. If you want you can just set the game name to your name and tribe.

[Kumiorava]

Firts of all, get those .sav files out of the /game folder.

It would also be very nice if one could specify a deffault save folder in the game options, with maby optional subfolders for each game.

As for the filenames, the deffaults of CivI
and II worked OK. No need to make them any longer. Very long filenames would only make a mess in explorer. And of course, you could always supply your own filenames the way you like them. Maby even make it possible to specify your own deffault format in the options,ie. _. or whatever.

The extra game info in explorer or the load-game dialog idea is a must.

- Kumis

[Steve Clark]

I believe my initial reply was too simplistic. As a software developer, I had to deal with how users save their work and in what extension to apply. In most cases, I just supply the standard Windows dialog box and have the user type in what ever they want, with the proper extension.

The key questions to ask in saving a Civ game are:
What advantage/disadvantage is there in supplying more (or less) information in the saved filename?
When users play multiple games at once, will it necessitate multiple saved game folders or much longer, descriptive filenames in one folder?
Is the primary purpose is to find a particular saved game among many or the most recent one?
Shall the filename convention be totally user-defined or can it be automated with some type of incremental counter?
Should the default name be based on a user-defined parameter (as suggested) or programmed?
What about the extension, can it be registered so that a user can start from the saved file or will this cause loading problems?
And perhaps the primary question: Shall it be designed so that the user can save a game where-ever, whenever and however they like or shall the designers force some restrictions to maintain integrity, reliability and consistency?
[This message has been edited by Steve Clark (edited April 11, 2000).]

[Adm.Naismith]

A "border" suggestion about save file is:

Please, make on the first game screen the default button "Load last saved game" (with the related name or info showed in a small box).
I hate on SMAC to have to wait every time the loading of INTRO, then press "ESC" to stop it, then hit "LOAD", then (thank you is the current underlined file ) hit enter to load the game I'm currently playing.
And I have skipped the screen "Play the game/Install/Uninstall" that I get if I insert the SMAC CD ROM with autorun ON

Please, make some shortcut!


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Adm.Naismith AKA mcostant

[ChrisShaffer]

I suggest that Ironman force you to save the game to the same path/filename for the entire game. Ironman is useless if all it means is a bit of hassle to reload and no autosaves. As currently implemented, I can save gaian-2108.sav, gaian-2109.sav, gaian-2110.sav, etc. I can back up to any point I want. The only difference from a regular game is that, instead of the game automatically creating the backup files, I have to do it myself and it takes a bit longer.

[Sir Shiva]

I just had a good idea..

Each game has its own sub-dir (CIV3\Saves\Gamename\), and the program should know which is the most recent save. Then when you click Open Game, you will receive a list of all the games. Now, the list should have the foll.:-

A little screen shot of the map on the left, which can be enlarged..
Info on the right, like tniem's.
Button to load game (most recent one)
Button to load older save (brings up a list)
User comments..

The saved games themselves therefore can have v. minimalistic names, probably just date and civ..




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-Shiva
Email: shiva@mailops.com
Web: http://www.crosswinds.net/india/~shiva
ICQ: 17719980