2 places to save?

A sci-fi RPG game https://www.winterwolves.com/planetstronghold.htm
candesco
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2 places to save?

Post by candesco »

I noticed recently that this game stores it's savegames at 2 places. Saves are stored in a map called planet_stronghold_1.5 under renpy, which is under applicationdata. But i found them also under a map named saves in the map game in the installationfolder. So now i have double saves. Have to say that Roommates also has this behaviour. Loren not, here the saves are just under the renpy map in applicationdata. Same goes for hanako's long live the queen.
Do i have a bug with both PS and RM or is it a feature? If it's intended, then why doesn't loren have this?
I play the games in Windows XP.
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jack1974
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Re: 2 places to save?

Post by jack1974 »

Is a new feature of Ren'Py, so that you can move saves easier around the computers (imagine for some people not really expert with computers, telling them to look in the appdata/roaming/etc was a bit confusing :lol:).
candesco
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Re: 2 places to save?

Post by candesco »

So PS has been updated then? Cause Loren did not have this.
But now i wonder since this is the case; which one is the original place to store data. Or is it equal?
let's say if i remove the map of saves under the applicationdata, then it still works?
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jack1974
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Re: 2 places to save?

Post by jack1974 »

Yes I didn't update Loren yet because I fear of breaking something.
If you remove the appdata it will load the ones from save folder and vice versa. If you have somehow two different saves on same slot, it will pick the most recent one.
candesco
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Re: 2 places to save?

Post by candesco »

Oh, that's not a problem. Normally i'm used to have savegames at one place. Sometimes they also show up at places which you don't expect, as with the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games is the case. Played shadow of chernobyl and the saves were stored in the shared documents. And the saves from need for speed underground 2 are under local settings.
Ok, got it. Well, so far they are exactly the same. And i made backups already, just in case.
candesco
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Re: 2 places to save?

Post by candesco »

Litlle doublepost, but after my last one i tried a few things with the savegames.
Seems like your preferences are stored in the one under the renpy map. When i deleted the save map under renpy in application data and started the game it runned in windowed mode again, while i've changed it into fullscreen.
And when i quit it made an autosave just in that map. So i guess the savegame map in the installationfolder is a backup and the one in applicationdata is the main one.
Also tried afterwards to delete the savegames in the map game in the installationmap. Now the preferences weren't changed when i started the game. However, when i quit the game just make a new savegame map in game in the installationmap and copy the file persistent into it.
This annoys me. I hate redundacy and don't like that software stores 2 times the same data. It means extra clutter. I would like to ask to use either one of the options to store savegames. So either in appdata or in the installationfolder. Not both.
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jack1974
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Re: 2 places to save?

Post by jack1974 »

Is a feature of the framework I use so I am not sure I can change it. Besides, why did you mess with the files :lol: if you didn't touch them, nothing would happen!
Redundacy is good because if somehow you uninstall your game by mistake you still have the appfolder ones, and also makes the saves easier to send.
Anyway, will check if is possible to change the behavior but I don't think.
renke_
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Re: 2 places to save?

Post by renke_ »

not sure for mobile devices but the simplest method to stop ren'py using two directories is to create an empty file called "saves" in one location - fortunately the software just ignores the failure to create a folder called "saves".
candesco
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Re: 2 places to save?

Post by candesco »

jack1974 wrote:Is a feature of the framework I use so I am not sure I can change it. Besides, why did you mess with the files :lol: if you didn't touch them, nothing would happen!
Redundacy is good because if somehow you uninstall your game by mistake you still have the appfolder ones, and also makes the saves easier to send.
Anyway, will check if is possible to change the behavior but I don't think.
Because as i said i hate extra clutter. And this behaviour was already there before i deleted it. Also, earlier on you just said i could delete one of those maps without problems.
No, redundacy is never good. It means in this case it takes extra space, while you could use that for other things. And if it happen to someone to uninstall the game by mistake and losing savefiles, then it's just their loss.You can easily make backups before and in that case you don't have to worry about savegames lost. And otherwise there is recovery software, like GetDataBack or Recuva or you use a live distro like knoppix.
Also, all the games have only one place where they dump their saves. Earlier on this was just in the installation map, but nowadays it is stored into documents. There are some exceptions, like the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. serie and the need for speed serie.
I have now only 2 games which comes with the "genius" idea of storing saves into 2 places and that happen to be planet stronghold and roommates. All the other, whether it is Morrowind or Borderlands or even Loren just have one save location.
It would be nice if that's possible then.

renke_ wrote:not sure for mobile devices but the simplest method to stop ren'py using two directories is to create an empty file called "saves" in one location - fortunately the software just ignores the failure to create a folder called "saves".
I play on the pc. But does it matter which kind of file it is? I mean, you could create all kind of files. But i guess it has to be a save file then? Or could it also be just a txt file?
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anita
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Re: 2 places to save?

Post by anita »

I don't understand the problem. The save files aren't even 100mb together. You ahve games that waste 1Gb on FMV scenes, who cares about 100mb wasted (and probably is more like 10mb).
I'd rather have the saves on two places than one, especially as on my mac I was never able to find that hidden folder. But months ago I had to switch computer (the old mac failed...) and the only games that was able to "save" was roommates exactly because I had teh saves in a easy place to find.
Not everyone is a computer expert! :)
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