GalCiv3 Forums
I know for some games when you get an alpha or a beta version of the game with every update you lose a lot of what you have done in the game. Stardock will that be happening with this game as well? I mean will we lose games we start or ships we design with every update or major update? Or will be able to carry that all through to the big release of the game?
If I remember correctly with the beta of Dark Avatar and Twilight of Arnor depending on what they update or change, sometimes saved games were able to continue through the beta release other times they had to be scrapped. Because those are not the final release I would imagine it will be similar therefore allowing someone to save the game and play get into the game to see the workings but if they need to work on how something is saved then you start over.
I also remember the Alpha/Beta tests of GC1 and GC2. Saving games in the early alpha of GC1 was somewhat problematic, because that function was also being tested, and had some work that needed to be done. Saving went more smoothly as the testing cycles progressed. I even remember how happy CariElf had been when she discovered a way of making the saving of games in the GS1 beta happen much, much faster. We were all quite happy with the results of her discovery.
Just remember that the entire game, all of its functions/features is being tested by us one build at a time (after SD did their testing, of course). We are here because we want to help find the coding errors and other errata that detract from a successful game.
I would not make any assumptions about portability of saves across builds during development.
I would think that you should abandon games from previous versions of the beta. Much can change between versions. You shouldn't be testing if the saves work between the different versions of alphas and betas, you should be testing if saves work with the same version of the game. Hopefully the saves work well once the game is released.
Also, if you are playing saves from previous versions, are you really giving the feedback that the devs need?
Tester - "This breaks when I load an old save file from a previous alpha."
Dev - "Gee thanks, but we fixed that like 5 updates ago. Loading saves shouldn't be a problem if the game was made this build."
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Also consider, since the alphas and betas are expected to have game crashing and game breaking bugs, you should not be attached to your saves to begin with. I expect there to be many more problems that render saves unplayable that do not relate to saving itself or updates to the game.
I am less attached saved games as I am what I create in them such as ships and races that's more what I am wondering I figured we may lose saves but will ships we design and races we create be kept?
I'm trying to consider how you might keep data files through versions.
Ship designs are kept in separate files (in GalCiv 2 that is), so they can be pre-loaded whenever you make new games. Ship templates would have the greatest odds of surviving, as they do not depend on functional part to be loaded (functional parts might be removed or restricted to specific civilizations later as the game develops). You might also want to keep screen shots so you could rebuild ships from references should something bad happens.
As for custom civilizations, you might want to keep notes. I don't know enough to determine what you ought to keep between builds.
Its a total re-write ..... assume anything from the past is not going to work now, if it does its a bonus.
Quite apart from anything else, its a 64 bit Version, and I cant see them carrying over 32 bit baggage unless its "mission critical".
In regard to "new stuff", take a rain cheque, its a total re-write therefore the only constant will be ever moving change until the design settles - and the latter is not going to be for months yet. Just assume anything you create as an Alpha/Beta User is going to "melt", and you will not be disappointed by surprises.
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