Does anyone know when save game feature is coming?

[goot66]

Does anyone know when the save game feature is coming so you can save mid mission and return to it later ?

 this will be the single biggest change for DCS and bring in so many new player

sitting for a single mission that can take 2+ hours is not viable for many people 

[SharpeXB]

Indeed the most important feature this game could have. I imagine they’ll sell a lot more DLC campaigns when players don’t have this obstacle to playing through them. 

[Ahdidaas]

Please, please, please, please, please...

[cfrag]

9 hours ago, goot66 said:

Does anyone know when the save game feature is coming so you can save mid mission and return to it later ?

While a limited save game feature (with lots of restrictions) may be possible within the next year, a full save feature as we know it from many games is much further off, if at all possible. One of the reasons for this is that the mission scripting environment currently can't save/resume its state, so any mission that relies on Lua will not be able to save correctly. If ED introduce a save API for Lua, and we then allow a few years for mission designers to build that into their missions, there's a good chance that some 50% of the missions adopt it.

On the other hand, ED could introduce a radical change (say, with DCS 3.0) that allows saving. From what I understand of the mission environment (and that's no inside knowledge at all) I would say that such an environment would break all compatibility with existing missions/campaigns unless they run in an (not saving) "compatibility mode". 

So, saving missions in some form could arrive within the year, with some large caveats. A backwards-compatible, full mission save feature, on the other hand, seems to be years away, if possible at all. 

[SharpeXB]

5 hours ago, cfrag said:

While a limited save game feature (with lots of restrictions) may be possible within the next year, a full save feature as we know it from many games is much further off, if at all possible.

Clearly it’s possible or it wouldn’t have been announced. Yes I think we all understand it will take work to create. The question was when not how. 
It would be useful to have an idea since I find myself almost on hiatus from DCS expecting this.

[cfrag]

44 minutes ago, SharpeXB said:

Clearly it’s possible or it wouldn’t have been announced.

<silently pointing to "MAC"'s 2018 release trailer video, and 2012's announcement of Dynamic Campaigns>

 

Edited July 22, 2024 by cfrag

[SharpeXB]

24 minutes ago, cfrag said:

<silently pointing to "MAC"'s 2018 release trailer video, and 2012's announcement of Dynamic Campaigns>

Ok so we should expect everything ED promises to be false? Where does that leave us?

Every other game has a save feature. It’s not an impossible task. 

[Gunfreak]

1 minute ago, SharpeXB said:

Ok so we should expect everything ED promises to be false? Where does that leave us?

Every other game has a save feature. It’s not an impossible task. 

Many games have, very few flightsims have a save feature.

It's not impossible,  but probably quite complicated, give all the thousands of moving parts that must tracked and saved. 

[SharpeXB]

9 minutes ago, Gunfreak said:

Many games have, very few flightsims have a save feature.

And you wonder why flight sims are such niche games

10 minutes ago, Gunfreak said:

It's not impossible,  but probably quite complicated

Just like everything else…

[Gunfreak]

1 minute ago, SharpeXB said:

And you wonder why flight sims are such niche games

Just like everything else…

Because if you are fighting through a corridor in your standard game or even an rgp. Everything is static. Very litter dynamic differences, bad guys are always more or less the same place.

In a flight simulator you can have hundreds or thousands of units all moving and reacting dynamically.

It's like saying because a tricycle is easy to make, therfore the lunar rover is easy to make.

[SharpeXB]

5 minutes ago, Gunfreak said:

Because if you are fighting through a corridor in your standard game or even an rgp. Everything is static. Very litter dynamic differences, bad guys are always more or less the same place.

In a flight simulator you can have hundreds or thousands of units all moving and reacting dynamically.

It's like saying because a tricycle is easy to make, therfore the lunar rover is easy to make.

Again they already said they’re working on this. So it’s possible. According to your logic everything else computers do must also be too much work or impossible and yet here we are.

[Gunfreak]

12 minutes ago, SharpeXB said:

Again they already said they’re working on this. So it’s possible. According to your logic everything else computers do must also be too much work or impossible and yet here we are.

I literally said, it's not impossible, just quite complicated, and comparing a flight sim with far more moving parts than your average games makes it sound much simpler than it is. If it had been that simple then DCS would have had a save feature long ago? And so would other flight sims.

[SharpeXB]

18 minutes ago, Gunfreak said:

I literally said, it's not impossible, just quite complicated, and comparing a flight sim with far more moving parts than your average games makes it sound much simpler than it is. If it had been that simple then DCS would have had a save feature long ago? And so would other flight sims.

If you ask me it’s really just a big design oversight in these games. Everything else they do is complex and takes time, this is no different. They’ve simply been prioritizing the wrong aspects of the sim. The lack of this feature contributes to flight sims being such a niche. It’s literally chased their customers away. 

[Czar66]

What is the advantage of resuming a 2+h mission the next day opposed to playing 40min to 1h mission fully in one sitting? Wouldn't that throw you off from the mission flow: radio frequencies, weapon settings, fuel management, overall progress, given that DCS doesn't have a game hud (thankfully) like modern games?

There are also ways to pause DCS and make it draw very little power from the GPU while the PC waits for you to get back, today.

1. GPU control panel max fps when the application is on the background. Put it on 30 or less.
2. Pause the Mission.
3. Minimize DCS.

 

[Czar66]

17 minutes ago, SharpeXB said:

If you ask me it’s really just a big design oversight in these games. Everything else they do is complex and takes time, this is no different. They’ve simply been prioritizing the wrong aspects of the sim. The lack of this feature contributes to flight sims being such a niche. It’s literally chased their customers away. 

Civilian flight simulators are more popular than DCS and constantly people are making 5h+ flights around the globe in one session. DCS couldn't have grown faster the last 4 years given how it is. Isn't this nitpicking the wrong parts of the sim?

[Baldrick33]

Just now, Czar66 said:

What is the advantage of resuming a 2+h mission the next day opposed to playing 40min to 1h mission fully in one sitting?

 

Life. Many of us simply don't know how long we will have to dedicate to playing games.

Also though I know some won't like it but a key aspect is the ability to save progress and pick up from the last save if things go horribly wrong. It may not be realistic but neither is being magically reborn to start the mission all over again from scratch.

[Czar66]

4 minutes ago, Baldrick33 said:

Life. Many of us simply don't know how long we will have to dedicate to playing games.

Also though I know some won't like it but a key aspect is the ability to save progress and pick up from the last save if things go horribly wrong. It may not be realistic but neither is being magically reborn to start the mission all over again from scratch.

I'm also struggling for time. DCS is pretty brutal. But I couldn't be bothered to resume a 2+h mission next day, in fact, it would be a turn off.
I'd rather continue having my 40min to 1h missions through Briefing Room for the time being. Once I get shot down I won't restart either. Up to the next, no respawns. Also one of the reasons I don't consume scripted campaings.

There are many different ways to enjoy DCS, we're indeed approaching from complete different view points, and that's pretty cool actually.

Edited July 22, 2024 by Czar66

[SharpeXB]

11 minutes ago, Czar66 said:

What is the advantage of resuming a 2+h mission the next day opposed to playing 40min to 1h mission fully in one sitting?

The answer should be self explanatory. Most people don’t have 2 hours to commit to playing a video game. And leaving your game paused for a week is sorta unworkable Even EDs own data shows people play this game in 20 minute session on average, same as any other game. 

[SharpeXB]

14 minutes ago, Czar66 said:

Civilian flight simulators are more popular than DCS and constantly people are making 5h+ flights around the globe in one session.

This really isn’t about other games but civy sims have workarounds for this. I’m sure very few people do 5 hour flights though.

[Czar66]

25 minutes ago, SharpeXB said:

The answer should be self explanatory. Most people don’t have 2 hours to commit to playing a video game. And leaving your game paused for a week is sorta unworkable Even EDs own data shows people play this game in 20 minute session on average, same as any other game. 

Understood. Agreed. But it is not self explanatory. What a 2+h mission have that a 40min to 1h mission doesn't have?

If you're going for endurance. You keep at it. I don't think playing a videogame for 3h straight is good either way. Lots of young people pull 6h+ straight but that's on them, regardless of time availability.

I just can't seem to pull two flights in one sitting nowadays but I don't miss anything from a 2h 40min mission I used to do. There is nothing special there, unless you're on a co-op online environment within a large operation.

14 minutes ago, SharpeXB said:

This really isn’t about other games but civy sims have workarounds for this. I’m sure very few people do 5 hour flights though.

A lot actually, everyday. A look on Volanta or any other tracking software (it is been a while, I don't remember anything other than Volanta) will show a lot of people making cross oceanic flights and large intercontinental flights concurrently. And that's only the online users.

Sure, a lack of combat action and large fuel tanks makes it possible, but it is very common.

Edited July 22, 2024 by Czar66

[Gunfreak]

54 minutes ago, SharpeXB said:

If you ask me it’s really just a big design oversight in these games. Everything else they do is complex and takes time, this is no different. They’ve simply been prioritizing the wrong aspects of the sim. The lack of this feature contributes to flight sims being such a niche. It’s literally chased their customers away. 

Every single DCS user could write a novel about ED prioritising the wrong thing. I have dozens of posts on this forum doing just that, lack of priory on ww2, lack of priory om ground and ship AI particularly their accuracy (something many others have asked for and after 5+ years ED has indeed started to work on that) lack of fleshed out AI assets and infantry (again something ED might now be working on) I could go on for hours about what i feel ED, should prioritise. 

I would love save game ability, particularly for those long ww2 missions that are in Reflected's campaigns. Especially now that I have a vr headset the runs in batteries.

Except for campaign missions, most play relatively short mission, (sub 1 hour) we see this in the other sims to. If their mission goes past 45 minutes they are less interested.

[BIGNEWY]

Sorry folks, work is in progress and when we are ready we will share more news. 

I know that can be difficult for some as the wait can seem like a long time, but we have limited resources and lots of projects being worked on. As you can see with the last patch we have released a lot of new features and we will continue to release new features during the rest of the year and into next. 

thank you 

[SharpeXB]

23 minutes ago, Czar66 said:

What a 2+h mission have that a 40min to 1h mission doesn't have?

Oh I seee what you’re saying. Yes, it’s possible to have a completely fulfilling mission in about 40 minutes. But the more realistic DLCs have you doing stuff like flying across the channel to France etc. The DLCs seem to want to compete with one another on how long they can make missions

The Persian Freedom campaign for the A-10C is just excellent. But its missions are just kinda too long

[Baldrick33]

2 hours ago, SharpeXB said:

Oh I seee what you’re saying. Yes, it’s possible to have a completely fulfilling mission in about 40 minutes. But the more realistic DLCs have you doing stuff like flying across the channel to France etc. The DLCs seem to want to compete with one another on how long they can make missions

The Persian Freedom campaign for the A-10C is just excellent. But its missions are just kinda too long

Ah, I misunderstood it too. A rather scary 30+ years ago I was playing Formula 1 GP by Microprose. The most challenging level was full length Grand Prix which I did over many evenings as and when I could, I had three young children at the time. Being restricted to short gaming periods with no save option would have prevented that. I think a save option would open up many opportunities for running missions and campaigns that simply don’t work for many lifestyles currently.

[MAXsenna]

Funny to find @SharpeXB on the other side for once.

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