better quicksave/quickload handling

[De-M-oN]

at the moment we have this:

If I quicksave and I choose savegame "ABC" and later I save on a new slot with the name XYZ. Now when I use F6 for quicksave I would expect it saves on the new choosen slot XYZ. But it doesnt. It overwrites still ABC.
I know this is the original behaviour of doom. But its shit.

Can it be improved that it updates the quicksave to the new slot without having to restart the whole game? That would be very helpful, more comfortable (by not having to use F2 from now on) and avoids accidents! (I so often have overwritten the older save by this - which I didnt want at all .

Same for quickload please. If I save on a new slot it should not update only the quicksave - it should update while saving to the new slot the quickload as well.

[edward850]

So what you are saying is you don't want ZDoom to use the quicksave slot you expressly set in the first place? This doesn't really work out as that means an unrelated save menu would be changing the slot unnecessarily. Now if you wanted to clear the quicksave slot (and thus be able to pick a new one), that would make more sense.

[NeuralStunner]

I know this is the original behaviour of doom. But its shit.

It's not "shit", you're simply not using the feature for the purpose it was made for. It's not meant to entirely replace manual saving.

The entire purpose of QuickSave is to have a separate file from your standard ("slow") saves. (Being able to pick a slot/name is just a convenience.) Just about every game with a quicksave feature does it this way.

If you're that worried about keeping your old saves, you need to "slow save" more often. Pick some key points so you don't lose large amounts of progress. (Starting a level, getting a key, surviving a tough battle, etc.) But I can tell you right off that this is not going to be globally changed. (You might get a user option if someone wants to do it.)

Now if you wanted to clear the quicksave slot (and thus be able to pick a new one), that would make more sense.

Or this.

[Zhs2]

I think the OP was misunderstood. (Edward got it more concisely with his last line, surely.) I also have the problem of needing to restart (G)ZDoom if I accidentally choose the wrong save because the queued quicksave choice simply cannot be cleared manually; ever have one of those mouse accidents where you click on the thing above what you meant to? And then the quicksave slot is all like, "Unknown class/Level checksum failed/Incorrect number of ACS modules"? Yeah, goodbye (G)ZDoom. That is pretty shit, and it would be really nice if the chosen quicksave actually wasn't selected automatically - even a console command that let you clear or assign a new save name to the current quicksave slot without restarting (G)ZDoom would be fine by me. Concise enough?

[xenoxols]

Well, I never knew you could quicksave in zdoom, but I think it doesn't matter because normal saving is usually pretty fast. (1-3 seconds for me usually)

[Zhs2]

The speed of the saving is not why the feature is named quicksaving - it's quicksaving because you can hit one key (well, then confirm) to save to a specific file instead of having to navigate a menu.

[xenoxols]

Well, I guess that makes sense, although I usually just hit f2 and enter twice and it's saved.

[De-M-oN]

The need to confirm is actually already too much imo.

Quicksave/quickload needs to be a single key press.

Look duke3D

It handles exact the way I suggested.

With Quicksave you choose one of the normal save slots and later you can just press f6 to overwrite last used f2 save slot. If I save on an other slot with f2, quicksave and quickload are immediately updated to use the new slot - and not like doom still the old one.

Also I dont understand your arguments -> Doom uses the same f2 slots - not a seperate quicksave file. So it doesnt make any sense.

[xenoxols]

Oh, I assumed that the quicksaves had their own slot, like in most games I've played.

[Graf Zahl]

It doesn't indeed make any sense how it works in ZDoom. The original game only had its handful of slots and couldn't work around that so it was by necessity that it was implemented the way it was.
I think quicksaving should work similarly to autosaving, i.e. the user specifies a number of quicksave slots with the game cycling through them - no annoying confirmations etc.

But my guess is that if it's changed some die-hard oldschoolers will still complain so it'd have to become an option

[Gez]

I think quicksaving should work similarly to autosaving, i.e. the user specifies a number of quicksave slots with the game cycling through them - no annoying confirmations etc.

I did that once after getting a quicksave destroyed by a crash while saving. (Which I've never been able to get to the precise root of, unfortunately.)

Code: Select all

[Doom.Bindings]
...
f6=special autosave
...

[Xaser]

Chalk me down as someone who would prefer the existing system. I like that quicksaves are tied to a 'permanent' slot rather than existing in their own bucket. If I'm playing Wad X, use quicksaves, then start playing Wad Y later, I don't want Wad Y's quicksave(s) ever mucking about with Wad X's. Never liked that bit about modern quicksave systems, since you have to manage permanent saves yourself and hope you don't forget and lose your stuff.

The one downside as hinted is the inability to change slots without restarting the game. Versioning would be nice too but a bit unwieldy to do with the current 'use a permanent save' system.

[Enjay]

Why not make an option to have Quaksaving use the autosave slots (much as Gez's binding seems to do)? Xaser et al (me included BTW) could leave the old system in place with its dedicated Quaicksave and others could enable the option hit the quicksave button and have an autosave overwritten instead. Would that not do what is required?

[De-M-oN]

I'd like to have an option to disable the confirmation needed for quicksave and quickload. (especially if you record videos its highly appreciated if its decent in the background doable and in a fastest possible way)
I dont understand xaser and enjay. It may be because I'm german, I dont know.

I mean: If I save to another slot while playing - I manually do that. And why you'd like that quicksave stays at the old save game slot, instead of updating to the new slot?
I mean how said: The game doesnt use seperate files for the quicksave - quicksave is just a shortcut key to the F2 process.

I mean: I play the game, save on slot ABC, then I need a new save and use f2 and save on slot 2 XYZ. Now I have to continue using f2 for saving on XYZ, because quicksave would still save on ABC. At the moment I still dont see why someone would want this. Can you maybe explain me more in detail? I dont get it for some reason
Duke3D didnt had confirmation needed to quickload/quicksave and it immediately updated the quicksave and quickload to my new saved f2 slot. I loved duke for that and makes to me the most sense. Descent does it this way as well. Blood does it also as well - just it forgets updating quickload though (but updates it if I load at the new slot)

Graf Zahl: I would be ok with your idea too though, but will it overwrite the levelstart autosaves?

But to be honest, I really like your idea if I think about it. This way the game offers you always some backup saves full automatically. hmmm.. I like the idea.

[Graf Zahl]

Graf Zahl: I would be ok with your idea too though, but will it overwrite the levelstart autosaves?

No, I'd use different filenames for quicksaves and autosaves.