View Issue Details
| ID | Project | Category | View Status | Date Submitted | Last Update |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0004764 | Dwarf Fortress | Technical -- Saving/Loading | public | 2011-07-17 09:30 | 2011-07-18 19:04 |
| Reporter | Zanziik | Assigned To | |||
| Priority | normal | Severity | major | Reproducibility | always |
| Status | resolved | Resolution | no change required | ||
| Platform | Windows | OS | 7 Home Premium | OS Version | 64 bit |
| Product Version | 0.31.25 | ||||
| Summary | 0004764: Manual save not working | ||||
| Description | First noticed the issue when playing DF 31.25 via the Lazy Newb Pack v. 9.1, but have reproduced on a clean download of vanilla DF 31.25. Ran a fortress for nearly three years via LNP, with seasonal auto-saves, initial save, compress save, and auto-backup enabled. I have noticed that when I save in the normal manner (via ESC key,) DF will behave like it is saving normally, and exit to the menu after some time, but if I press Continue Playing to load a save, there is no save data being saved. The seasonal auto-saves work as intended, but the manual save via the menu is not writing any save data. This is somewhat frustrating, as I am required to play until an auto-save takes place whenever I want to stop playing. Curious, I opened windows explorer and went into the DF>data>save folder. All of the auto-saves are there, with the titles region1, region1-win-250, etc., and there is also a "current" folder like there always is when a current save is available. However, the "current" save folder has no data contained therein, even though the "date modified" column shows the proper time when I attempted to manually save. After asking the LNP people, and after finding a similar bug on here that could not be recreated, I decided I probably ought to report my issue too, as Logical2u suggested after I monitored that bug report. Before reporting, I wanted to make sure I could reproduce the bug, so I took several steps: 1). Created a new world on DF 31.25 via LNP 9.1 with the same save settings as I reported above, to see if it was simply this generated world that was the issue. I still have the bug reported above. 2). Created a new world on DF 31.25 via LNP 9.1 with initial save, auto-save, compress save, and backup save all turn OFF, to see if perhaps it's an issue with one of these save features. I still have the bug reported above. 3). Created a new world on DF 31.25 WITHOUT LNP 9.1 in a vanilla folder I've had kicking around on my computer since the release. Save settings were Autosave seasonal, initial save, compress save, auto backup ON. I still have the bug reported above. 4). Created a final new world on DF 31.25 WITHOUT LNP 9.1 in the same vanilla folder mentioned in 3. Save settings were all turned off. No autosave, no initial save, no compression, no backup. I still have the bug reported above. | ||||
| Steps To Reproduce | Enter a game of DF, save, try to continue and find that you can't. | ||||
| Tags | No tags attached. | ||||
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http://dffd.wimbli.com/file.php?id=4684 Uploaded my entire DF 31.25 vanilla folder. Related to: http://www.bay12games.com/dwarves/mantisbt/view.php?id=4246 (not sure how to add an actual relationship to that issue, if anyone who knows how to do that could please do it, I'd appreciate it.) |
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First of all, the Current folder is supposed to be empty. Secondly, when you save, in true roguelike fashion, the game only allows you one save per world in the save folder. Since you're using auto-backups, if you load, say, the Region1-Win-250 save folder, and then hit save and exit from the menu while playing that game, the new save will be named Region1-Win-250 as well - and the old save will be gone. Does this explain your behaviour? |
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To clarify, the "Current" folder contains region files which have been modified during your current play session, and when you Save your game, those files are copied back into your Region folder and then deleted - that way, if the game happens to crash (or you Ctrl+Alt+Del and use "End Process" on DF), your saved game won't get corrupted (as it would have been in earlier versions). |
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Logical2u, Didn't know the current folder is supposed to be empty, I thought DF kept a current save on top of all the other saves you had. Noted. Regardless, I am still not experiencing proper save mechanics. My three year fortress, the one that tipped me off to this issue, has the most recently saved folder as region1-win-251-sum--aut-253. According to the process you just outlined, this ought to be where my manual save overwrites, but when I open the file in DF, the date is 1st Limestone 253 (which is when the last seasonal auto-save occurred, autumn 253) and there are 74 dwarves in my fortress... But when I manually saved this game I had received one more migrant wave and had 81 dwarves. So the time between the auto-save and my manual save is lost. |
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You should never actually load the backup saves - the only one you should ever load is the one without any season/year suffixes, which in this case would be "region1". Whichever game you load is, by definition, the one that gets saved - when the game makes a seasonal/yearly backup, it saves it with the -season-year suffix but keeps using the original as you continue playing. Seasonal/yearly backups are only intended to be used as insurance against game crashes and data corruption. |
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Odd. I don't know if it's because of all the messing around with saves that I've done now, or what, but my region1 file is a file from way back when I had only 16 dwarves. I was under the impression that the other files, like the one I mentioned (region1-win-251-sum--aut-253) was not a backup but a seasonal autosave. I'm sure this isn't a DF bug now that I know a bit more about the mechanics of it, and I feel a bit disappointed in myself for not knowing all this after having played DF for several years now, so as far as I'm concerned Logical2u you can mark this as resolved. I'm not sure why my saving isn't working how I expected it to be, but it's probably my own fault and not a bug. Thank you both for the help and patience. |
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AUTOSAVE and AUTOBACKUP are two different options, and they're both described in d_init.txt as follows: "Use these to control the automatic saving behavior in the dwarf fortress mode of game. AUTOSAVE can be set to NONE, SEASONAL or YEARLY. This updates your save at these intervals, so that some of your progress will be saved in case of system instability. You can set AUTOBACKUP to YES if you want the updated save to be copied to another folder so that you'll have several copies of your world at different times." Both AUTOSAVE and AUTOBACKUP are disabled by default, so you had to have enabled them yourself at some point (unless the Lazy Newb Pack enables them by default, in which case you should be complaining to LucasUP for enabling options that users don't understand). |
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I enabled them myself, it's my fault for misunderstanding the way in which they work. Thank you for clarifying. |
| Date Modified | Username | Field | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2011-07-17 09:30 | Zanziik | New Issue | |
| 2011-07-17 09:32 | Zanziik | Tag Attached: 31.25 | |
| 2011-07-17 09:32 | Zanziik | Tag Attached: saving | |
| 2011-07-17 09:40 | Zanziik | Note Added: 0018268 | |
| 2011-07-17 09:50 | Zanziik | Note Edited: 0018268 | |
| 2011-07-17 10:12 | Logical2u | Note Added: 0018270 | |
| 2011-07-17 10:12 | Logical2u | Note Edited: 0018270 | |
| 2011-07-17 10:13 | Logical2u | Note Edited: 0018270 | |
| 2011-07-17 10:57 | Quietust | Note Added: 0018272 | |
| 2011-07-17 11:19 | Zanziik | Note Added: 0018273 | |
| 2011-07-17 11:49 | Quietust | Note Added: 0018274 | |
| 2011-07-17 11:54 | Quietust | Note Edited: 0018274 | |
| 2011-07-17 11:55 | Quietust | Note Edited: 0018274 | |
| 2011-07-17 11:56 | Zanziik | Note Added: 0018275 | |
| 2011-07-17 11:57 | Zanziik | Note Edited: 0018275 | |
| 2011-07-17 12:39 | Quietust | Note Added: 0018277 | |
| 2011-07-17 12:40 | Quietust | Note Edited: 0018277 | |
| 2011-07-17 12:43 | Quietust | Note Edited: 0018277 | |
| 2011-07-17 13:33 | Zanziik | Note Added: 0018278 | |
| 2011-07-17 13:33 | Zanziik | Tag Detached: saving | |
| 2011-07-17 13:33 | Zanziik | Tag Detached: 31.25 | |
| 2011-07-18 19:04 |
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Status | new => resolved |
| 2011-07-18 19:04 |
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Resolution | open => no change required |
| 2011-07-18 19:04 |
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Assigned To | => user11 |
