[minimod][1.0] SoM's PDA Save (Updated: September 21, 2025)

[stainedofmind]

SoM's PDA Save Version 1.0
--------------------------
Download: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Q6QYgl ... sp=sharing

Been playing more wads lately without a method of respawning after death, but
have been wanting a happy medium between restarting the entire map on death and
being able to save whenever the heck I wanted. Inspired by the many similar
minimods out there, such as Cutmanmike's Campfire, and sarge945's Simple Saving,
and a little bit of scalliano's PDA from Realm667, I give you my take on limited
saving!

As you may have guessed from the name, you save by... *GASP!* Using a PDA! They
sit in your inventory, ready for use whenever you wish. You have the option of
starting each new map with a minimum number, or none at all. You can earn more
PDAs by killing enemys and finding secrets. The code for this was stol-Err...
"Borrowed" from the Campfire mod. Felt like a pretty good balance to me, and I'm
a bit tired of the current method I usually use, as seen in my other mods such
as "Collector's Instinct" and "GunBonsai XP Bonuses".

"Okay," you ask, as I would expect you to, "so you can use a PDA to save, so
what? I can just pull up the Save Menu whenever I want and
POO-POO-TOO-YOO-I-HAZ-SAVE!" ... Well, yes, but... How the code works is, when
you use the PDA, an Event Handler starts a small countdown. Any saves that are
created within this countdown are considered "legal" saves. If you try to save
at any other time, upon loading said save, the Handler will see the lack of a
countdown, meaning you didn't use the PDA, making it an "illegal" save, and will
perform an intentional VM Abort to block the save from being loaded. These saves
are effectively corrupted, as even removing the mod will cause an error.

By default, there is a 5 tic grace period (configurable) at map start that
allows for autosaves to work from map changes. Also by default, the PDA when
used will create an autosave, but you can also configure it to open the Save
Menu, or do nothing at all other then start the countdown.

I said earlier that "illegal" saves are effectively corrupted, however, if for
whatever reason you still wish to load an "illegal" save, you can use the
console and enter the command "som_pdasv_failsafe true", then reload the save.
This will work once, then you'll have to reenter the command. Primarily, I have
included this in the event of an unforseen bug cropping up, so you don't have
ot wait for me to fix it.

Changelog
---------
Version 1.0:
-Initial release

Usage and Configuration
-----------------------
Be sure and configure your Activate, Next, and Previous Item keys! Configurable
options are as follows:

Saving Mode: What happens when you use the PDA. Can be set to either "Autosave",
"Save Menu" (pops up the standard screen), or "Manual" (does nothing on it's own
other then start the countdown). "Manual" exists if you wanted to implement some
other form of saving that isn't the other two, Quicksave for example. If you use
"Manual" mode, I would advise increasing the "Save Buffer Time" value. Defaults
to "Autosave".

Save Buffer Time (tics): How much time (in game tics) to allow for "legal" saves
after the PDA is used. Defaults to 5, just in case.

Map Start Buffer Time (tics): How much time (again in game tics) at map start to
allow "legal" saving, primarily for start of the map autosaves. Defaults to 5,
again, just in case.

Kills Mode: Determines how often you get fresh PDAs from kills, based on map
percentage. Values are "disabled", "50%" (one extra per map), "33%" (2 extra per
map), and "25%" (3 extra per map). Lifted these values stright from Campfire.
Defaults to "33%", as it is in Campfire.

Secrets Mode: Same as "Kills Mode", but for secret hunting. Defaults to
"Disabled", like Campfire.

Minimum Number at Map Start: At map start, you'll be given this amount if you
have less then the value, or none if set to zero. Defaults to zero, cause
Campfire, yo.

Maximum Number of PDAs: As you might guess, this sets the most PDAs you can
carry at once. Has a hard limit of "999", cause that's what it's set to in the
actor code. Defaults to 5, because... Bet you thought I was going to say
"Campfire" again, eh? Welp, for once, I based this value on "Simple Saves".

As stated in the description, you can force an "illegal" save to load by
entering the command "som_pdasv_failsafe true" into the console, then reloading
the save.

Todo
----
Implement more features from both Campfire and Simple Saves.

Issues and Notes
----------------
Remeber, VM Abort is intentional... Except if its not.

Compatibility
-------------
Not really designed for multiplayer in mind.

License
-------
You are free to use the code for whatever you like, for any reason.
Credit is appreciated, but not needed.
Code for awarding more PDAs from Kills and Secrets adapted from Cutmanmike's
Campfire mod, cause I wanted to use a different formula from my usual KSI
awarding system.

Screenshots
---------------
Maybe later.

Optional Downloads:
-------------------------
Failsafe Menu Toggle Patch: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qdgFRO ... sp=sharing

Adds an options menu toggle for the Failsafe Cvar, so you don't have to type in the console command.

[Someone64]

I've been playing with this for a good while now and it's replaced Campfire and Simple Saves for me. I haven't had any issues so far besides the default save buffer for map start autosaving being too short by default.

EDIT: I forgot I wanted to mention this thread for fun. I don't have any issues with how you implemented this but I just think the discourse around it is amusing viewtopic.php?t=32981

[stainedofmind]

I've been playing with this for a good while now and it's replaced Campfire and Simple Saves for me. I haven't had any issues so far besides the default save buffer for map start autosaving being too short by default.

EDIT: I forgot I wanted to mention this thread for fun. I don't have any issues with how you implemented this but I just think the discourse around it is amusing viewtopic.php?t=32981

Glad you're enjoying the mod! I've been wanting to give it a good test run myself. Honestly thought the autosave buffer time would have been fine, but hey, that's why the option is there! I've read that thread before actually! I initially thought about NOT having a failsafe option, but I was concerned about bugs creating false positives, and really, it is a pain to work around, so I'm happy.

Probably going to revisit this mod soon and create a new mode of granting saves that spawns items on the maps themselves. I personally don't like the idea of knowing I'll get X saves guaranteed per map, or whatever. I'd rather stumble across them dynamically and be pleased.

[Someone64]

Could there be a way of creating the equivalent of a save and quit button? I tend to only be able to hop in and out of playing GZDoom so I have to quit the game often. The problem is, I don't wanna go through the process of remembering the bypass every time I want to save and quit and I just give myself the save item before quitting, which is kinda cheating because it does create a repeatedly loadable save in the process. Would it be possible to adapt the system to have saves that can only be loaded once (so it saves, VM aborts on purpose, then allows you to load the save once but next time it's loaded it will cause VM abort)? I haven't looked at the code so I'm not quite so sure how this mod does it but I have a feeling the only way to pull this off would be if you could forcibly replace the previous save (so after loading it makes a new bad save without the timer over the old one) which I don't think autosaves can do without setting the autosave limit to 1...

[stainedofmind]

Could there be a way of creating the equivalent of a save and quit button? I tend to only be able to hop in and out of playing GZDoom so I have to quit the game often. The problem is, I don't wanna go through the process of remembering the bypass every time I want to save and quit and I just give myself the save item before quitting, which is kinda cheating because it does create a repeatedly loadable save in the process. Would it be possible to adapt the system to have saves that can only be loaded once (so it saves, VM aborts on purpose, then allows you to load the save once but next time it's loaded it will cause VM abort)? I haven't looked at the code so I'm not quite so sure how this mod does it but I have a feeling the only way to pull this off would be if you could forcibly replace the previous save (so after loading it makes a new bad save without the timer over the old one) which I don't think autosaves can do without setting the autosave limit to 1...

Can't really mess around with saves like that, but I threw together a quick patch for the mod options menu to add a "Failsafe" toggle, so you can quickly toggle the override to load a save instead of giving yourself a new PDA. You can get it here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qdgFRO ... sp=sharing Load after PDA Save, and it'll add the toggle to the bottom of the PDA Save Options menu.