What is the Problem With Saving?

The save system in this game can definitely use some work.

Quick Save would be really nice, it's not THAT much extra effort to go to the menu and save, but still.. traditionally, on a PC title where you have the entire keyboard at your disposal, it's more convenient to just allow the player to press a Function Key to save without having to drop to the menus.

I am far more annoyed by the 'no saving during story mission' thing.. that is just silly. There is no reason to make me rely on checkpoint saves just because it's a main story mission. As it is, some of the story missions can be fairly long (which I like) but the save system makes it so that I can't start these missions if I know I have to leave for work in an hour because then I feel rushed to complete it.

I should be able to play up until I am out of time, save, and resume where I left off later. The current save system is an all around inconvenience that should be looked into.

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@PretzleMe wrote:

It's possible quicksave was left out by accident, but I'm not sure especially given how far they go to limit our ability to save at different times.

And due to those limitations, I have to ask, what's the big deal with saving that game developers feel the need to limit our ability to do it?

I can understand not letting us save during combat, but outside of that, why not?

There was a part in the vault where I am playing at a higher difficulty (no new game plus because I refuse to do that right now) and I meet the destroyer for the first time at this level.  Every time I died, I had to fight a bunch of other remnant and it wasn't that they were too hard to deal with as much as it was tedious.

Isn't dying in a game punishment enough even if I get to start right back where I died?  It's not like I am okay with dying.  I am trying to win.

It's like game developers think that if they don't make death suck I am going to want to die in the game or something.

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you can save just not during a main mission. i don't understand the need to save during the mission its pointless to start something then just up and quit. if there is a choice and you wish to see everything and reload the game you can still do it with auto save just make sure you go back far enough. i noticed that the game likes to auto save 4 times in 30 seconds and it confused me at first when i tried to reload and make a different choice then i noticed that i needed to go back more.

I miss QuickSave really a lot. And also I would like to save everywhere, because it happen to me sometimes that I got a PC crash ....I had the autosave, but they don't really fit always.

What I wish for saving: I want to NAME the savegames myself!!! Right now I often don't know whitch savegame I am looking for because they all look ... similar somehow.

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@Rappeldrache wrote:

I miss QuickSave really a lot. And also I would like to save everywhere, because it happen to me sometimes that I got a PC crash ....I had the autosave, but they don't really fit always.

What I wish for saving: I want to NAME the savegames myself!!! Right now I often don't know whitch savegame I am looking for because they all look ... similar somehow.

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Agreed on the naming!  I mean it's got the time stamp on it, but it's too easy to forget why that specific timestamp was significant.

@DarthLlama

"...I am far more annoyed by the 'no saving during story mission' thing.. that is just silly. There is no reason to make me rely on checkpoint saves just because it's a main story mission..."

Exactly!  I mean I agree with the quick save thing too but it doesn't make sense to me at all that I can't just save where/when I want long as I am not in combat.

Other games have started doing this and it seems fine.  I still don't want to die in the game.

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@@iKillOrDieTryN

"...you can save just not during a main mission. i don't understand the need to save during the mission its pointless to start something then just up and quit..."

Perhaps I am dying at a tough enemy that you have to defeat before the next checkpoint and I'm tired of fighting the trash enemies before it.

I could have started a mission but need to leave as it is taking longer than I thought but I don't want to start at the beginning especially due to some cut scenes I can't skip.

There are plenty of reasons that me being unable to save during a main mission was inconvenient and I'm sure others have been there as well, but here's the thing.

It doesn't bother me that some people like yourself do not see the point in being able to save during a main mission because if they gave us the ability to do it, all you would have to do is not use that feature while the rest of us did.  Everyone wins.

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@Rappeldrache

"...What I wish for saving: I want to NAME the savegames myself!!!..."

You have posted the greatest comment ever.  Thank you.

All jokes aside, this feature would be wonderful.  You also mentioned another reason why saving at anytime is great for a PC user, crashing or in my case, I was playing today and the power went out suddenly.  That's right, the power of my entire neighborhood decided it needed a 2 hour nap while I was getting my Andromeda on.  Inconvenient!!

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@Pixeldance

"....Agreed on the naming!  I mean it's got the time stamp on it, but it's too easy to forget why that specific timestamp was significant..."

So very true.  I've been saving before key points and now I have a lot of saves.  I have to try to guess by looking at the pictures.  Several times I loaded a save and said, "Nope.  Not it." several times before finding the save I was looking for, lol.

i figured it was a mechanical issue, saving during missions caused some critical issues to pop up, or something along those lines. as for the autosaves... it seems to save when you have a conversation, fast travel, when an area is finished loading, activating some of the consoles laying about, the research or equipping terminals for instance. 

@PretzleMe yea i get it. it wont hurt me either way. i just don't want the developers to waste time on unnecessary updates and focus on the real issues in the game. every time they make changes like the price of items they could be adding something more important or more useful.

plus if you start a mission and its too tough for you there is always the option to lower the difficulty. sure if you want to beat the game and get those achievements for playing on insane you could always do another run through and just make notes so you don't run into the same issues in the future.

also most players know what mass effect is like from the other 3 games. those players know they will end up playing something over n over again in the future so even if you end up having to completely start over its not like its going to bug you that much. as you would be doing it again during another play through anyways.

new players will end up learning how this game works at some point and most of them play on an easier difficulty anyways because its new and they would need to learn how to play. not many people are like me and would jump in head first on the highest settings and hope for the best.

so while i am not protesting against the idea i am not supporting it either. its all just my opinion.

@CasperTheLich

I can see your point, but it would surprise me if it were that. 

@iKillOrDieTryN

Me not being able to beat something in a few tries doesn't mean I need to lower the difficulty, want to, or should have to.  Me not being able to beat it before I have to go do something else or before my PC crashes or the power goes out is also not an indicator that I should have to lower my difficulty setting nor does it mean I want to start from the beginning either.

But like you said, these are just our opinions.  I would want this aspect changed and I do think it is a reasonable change that many many people would take advantage of which is why I think it is work implementing as soon as they can.

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@iKillOrDieTryN wrote:

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@PretzleMe wrote:

It's possible quicksave was left out by accident, but I'm not sure especially given how far they go to limit our ability to save at different times.

And due to those limitations, I have to ask, what's the big deal with saving that game developers feel the need to limit our ability to do it?

I can understand not letting us save during combat, but outside of that, why not?

There was a part in the vault where I am playing at a higher difficulty (no new game plus because I refuse to do that right now) and I meet the destroyer for the first time at this level.  Every time I died, I had to fight a bunch of other remnant and it wasn't that they were too hard to deal with as much as it was tedious.

Isn't dying in a game punishment enough even if I get to start right back where I died?  It's not like I am okay with dying.  I am trying to win.

It's like game developers think that if they don't make death suck I am going to want to die in the game or something.

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you can save just not during a main mission. i don't understand the need to save during the mission its pointless to start something then just up and quit. if there is a choice and you wish to see everything and reload the game you can still do it with auto save just make sure you go back far enough. i noticed that the game likes to auto save 4 times in 30 seconds and it confused me at first when i tried to reload and make a different choice then i noticed that i needed to go back more.

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I guess you never had visitors show up 5 mins after you start something then - or a kid get a booboo that immediately needs mummy attention, or the phone ring, or your dog decide it wants attention or...

Loads of reasons why people need to stop in the middle of a game.

Loads more reasons why people may want to be able to save it themselves.

I'm more curious how one save can corrupt dozens of others.

See my "come on game" thread.

I need to get a working save editor for this game for ridiculous moments like this o_O