[done] Save/load game

[Perplesso]

Will MegaGlest implement the possibility to save/load games?

It supports huge maps with many players, then games may last more than an hour. If MG will increase game complexity in the future, games will last ever longer. So, saving games may become a very important feature.

[ultifd]

Maybe, but not for now...Both developers are really busy, and same thing for the GAE team.

[Perplesso]

But this is a weakness for this project: there shouldn't be TWO teams and two projects... there should be ONE project, like at the beginning, where there was ONE Glest. There are two "Glests" now...

[ultifd]

Well, it's just too bad. They just don't have the time to merge, along other things...

[Omega]

But this is a weakness for this project: there shouldn't be TWO teams and two projects... there should be ONE project, like at the beginning, where there was ONE Glest. There are two "Glests" now...

Yes, we know... Or some of us. More information:

Glest forks to join forces?

Note that only the first and last pages really sum up the situation.

[ultifd]

Come on, all of us knows that. For now time is the big issue, as in everyday life too...

[Kiko]

As a newbie to the forums and the Glest game(s), I hope I don't get shot down in flames for blathering on about saved games.

For me the balance as a new user is this: GAE will save my long and complex games (sometimes of many hours), but won't run the Japanese and Ming mods (my number 1 choice of all mods). So, I either play Jap/Ming and dump halfway completed games all the time, or I go back to older mods I don't like as much on GAE just because I can save the games. Although, the games aren't as complex and long running on the other mods – the newer ones have added complexity.

I've posted a couple of questions about making Jap/Ming work on GAE, which would be one good route for me as GAE runs better on my old dual-core Windows machine. The best answer by far would be being able to Save/Load in MegaGlest: increasing game complexity AND no more dumped games.

Can any coders spare a moment to comment on how likely this is to happen in MG please..?

[titi]

We don't have very long games and adding (proper) savegames is not really fun to do. I never had a game of more that 2 hours in my whole life and I already played thousands of them. Even 1 hour games are very rare! Imagine multiplayer games, how to save there?

[John.d.h]

Getting those factions to work on Gae should be pretty hard to do. If you aren't playing online, about the only thing missing would be the particles.

[Kiko]

I never had a game of more that 2 hours in my whole life and I already played thousands of them. Even 1 hour games are very rare! Imagine multiplayer games, how to save there?

Wow – I've had games lasting 3 to 5 hours already on large maps. That's just me against the computer, taking time to set out well functioning groups of defenders, etc., then scouting around with a fast character (eg., Shinobi). Once battles begin they become very complex, rather than the quick 'everything dies now' scenarios I had at the beginning of playing with Glest.

I think for multiplayer games, once you decide to leave then it's game over. Same on the XBox-360 war games, etc. However, for single player games which can become very interesting, a Save/Load function is essential. I guess if the MG coders are all into multiplayer then that won't concern them, but from the point of view of someone who just found Glest it's quite different. It depends upon whether the team want to cater for things most users will expect in a game or just code stuff for themselves. That's always something which comes up in open source projects: in a commercial project the save feature for single-player is a given essential, wouldn't you say..?

[Kiko]

Getting those factions to work on Gae should be pretty hard to do. If you aren't playing online, about the only thing missing would be the particles.

Did you mean shouldn't be hard to do? I'm not sure where to begin with modifying things, as although I have a good amount of coding experience I don't know Glest at all yet. At present I don't even know why it does a CTD, but I'll try looking at particle stuff and removing it to see if I can't crash it even worse...

[titi]

If you have games lasting for 3 or 5 hours something must be wrong with the AI player. Was this GAE or MG? I cannot imagine a MegaGlest AI let you survive so long and on normal maps the ressources are gone after round about 1.5 hrs .

[John.d.h]

Getting those factions to work on Gae should be pretty hard to do. If you aren't playing online, about the only thing missing would be the particles.

Did you mean shouldn't be hard to do? I'm not sure where to begin with modifying things, as although I have a good amount of coding experience I don't know Glest at all yet. At present I don't even know why it does a CTD, but I'll try looking at particle stuff and removing it to see if I can't crash it even worse...

Oops. Yeah that is what I meant.

[Kiko]

If you have games lasting for 3 or 5 hours something must be wrong with the AI player. Was this GAE or MG? I cannot imagine a MegaGlest AI let you survive so long and on normal maps the resources are gone after round about 1.5 hrs.

I think it's probably the way I'm playing, Titi, both on GAE and MG.

At first I got wiped out within perhaps 15 minutes, then I set the CPU to easy and began formulating some strategies. Once I got onto maps like Great Wall using the Japanese faction I started protecting my town well, then spreading carefully while taking over resources. I soon set the CPU to normal, and that works fine and lasts for a few hours if I put a lot of thought into it.

I guess my aim is not to wipe out the opposing CPU player as quickly as possible, and at normal level with just me and the CPU it's a lot of fun. Even when the resources are pretty much gone I find the game can continue for a while depending upon the strategies I've employed. If it's just a quick wipe-out at that stage then I consider my strategies faulty and get stuck in again – which is what a good RTS is about, I'd say. Once I get into 3 CPU players and set the difficulty level much higher I'm sure things will be different!