Subset Games Forum

I'm having a lot of fun with FTL, but I'm curious why an autosave has not been implemented to stop the loss of a game during an unexpected crash or computer overheat.

Many roguelikes have them, it's a bit of a shame really.



Would have never beat IVAN back in the day without it come to think of it.

I'd imagine because the average game is fairly short, and the game is pretty stable, the chance of a power cut / crash / overheat in that time is pretty low, it's not something hugely needed

Perhaps, though losing an hour or so to a crash is still just as aggravating. It isn't a major patch job and shouldn't take significant time away from fixing the game's more vital bugs.

I'd just like to know if it's at all planned to implement at this point, or even being considered.

Average game where you are playing on normal and are paying attention (trying to win, not fail) will take over 2 hours steadilly.
Autosave is a very needed option.

In my humble opinion (BTW, it's my first post here, I apologize for the lack of a proper introduction), an autosave defeats the purpose of a "roguelike" game. You have a bad event/fight, you go back, try again. FTL is one of the most diabolic things that I've ever played, and in some cases, the events truly have no mercy (to the point you actually doubt how much "randomness" is in the game), but I keep coming back for more. I only have victories on Easy so far, Medium is still beating the crap out of me.

You completely misunderstand how autosaves work in roguelikes Ethaniel. It isn't as though if I die I can just pick right back up at save 6 and go the y route instead of the x. The autosave is a one-time use, just like the normal saving mechanic.

When you die your save erases, the only time the autosave is there for you is if the game crashes, the computer crashes, or the program is unexpectedly closed.

surreally wrote:You completely misunderstand how autosaves work in roguelikes Ethaniel. It isn't as though if I die I can just pick right back up at save 6 and go the y route instead of the x. The autosave is a one-time use, just like the normal saving mechanic.

When you die your save erases, the only time the autosave is there for you is if the game crashes, the computer crashes, or the program is unexpectedly closed.

Maybe I used an unfair expression (work with me a bit, my english is kind of rusty), I'm not talking about multiples saves in a traditional way: You said yourself "When you die", not "when you're about to die". Anyone can pause the game when the ship has 2 HP left and close the FTL process in an abnormal way (or just press the reset button in an attack of pure frustration), "simulating" a crash. An autosave must be carefully implemented. If the autosave is based on the beacon you're jumping from (Example: You're at beacon A, and you can jump to beacons B or C, but if I jump to B and things go bad, my autosave is still based on beacon A, so I can kill the process, reload that autosave and jump to C instead), it opens a cheating vector and we don't want that. Now, if the autosave is written when you enter a new beacon it would be kind of "safer", but it will force the player to "replay" that beacon again after reloading (in case if the computer crashes after combat, but before jumping). Another option that could help is to purge the autosave immediately after it's used, just like the "Continue" is purged when your ship explodes and start cursing again.

In short, I still believe it defeats the purpose, but I'm not saying no either. I assume it will require some planning, or it could be exploited.

I understand wt surreally mean, 2 hours is fairly long and I have came across the issue that I have to shut down the game without Save&Exist, which was painful.

I understand the possible exploits with a typical start at current beacon mechanic. My quick solution would be to have the save record the hull values of all ships in the beacon. Therefore trying to cheat a restart when the player is at a disadvantage in a battle would not unfairly give the player a free second go at the space battle. Obviously this isn't a great solution by any means.

Micro situations that would involve weapon lock on time, close calls with both ships low on hull points, and others I'm too tired to think of would still be able to be taken advantage of; I work graveyards and got home at around 6:00 an hour ago.

Though, it would at least make for a rarer opportunity for the player to cheat at a much nicer grace to honest players.


Just sayin'

It's worth some deliberation rite?

There are only 2 possible approaches:
- you can save everything, including random seed so the reloaded game will be exactly the same. The problem is player can scout for difficult fights and pick the easier ones next time.
- you can not save random seeds, so player cannot scout forward, because at every load the fight will be different. This creates another problem: player will keep loading until the God of Random will smile upon him and enemy will be easier.

Game can't win with save and restore in any other way than prevent saving. Which is pretty much what's done in FTL.