Oolite Bulletins

I think there should be an auto-save when you dock at a station. Not really worth its own thread but I couldn't see it mentioned anywhere else

Hmm, could do but it doesn't take that much to save manually - mind you I'm as guilty as the next person for not remembering to do it.

It's the golden rule!

TGHC wrote:

It's the golden rule!

LOL yeah that's true, but an auto save function when you dock does sound like a good idea.

If you use a PC and hit alt-tab to change screens, it triggers the energy bomb, makes you duck and jump out of your seat, and you become a fugitive if any galcops are around. Nope auto save is not for me, if it was an option you could select then fine, but me I like the manual save.

@ TGHC

I don't see how that would affect it as you'd have to be airborne to do all that anyway. Do you mean you would then try to dock and then an autosave would be undesirable? So maybe there a prompt when you dock?
I don't know, as you can probably tell from my number of posts I'm not that experienced at this game, but I haven't been in the situation where an autosave in a docking station would be a nuissance.
Maybe there should just be a prompt when you hit "F1/1" to make sure you do in fact want to launch?
I don't know, these are all just suggestions, I'll leave it to the more experienced players to decide.

I do not think an autosave is a good idea, unless of course it was an option that those of us who loathe autosaves of all kinds can simply not install.

There are those (myself not included) who consider the "save at every station" technique to be a terrible form of cheating! The chance of losing three hours of gameplay concentrates the mind somewhat when you're planning to take on 7 pirates!
It's nice to have the choice to "cheat" or not! I think there were some purists amongst the 80s players who refused to save every jump... Any 80s Elites out there prepared to step forward? Though I suspect it wou;d take 20 years to reach Elite on the BBC A anyway!

*cat
(currently dealing with an infestation of *fleas at the moment, thanks to our neighbour's cat. At least trumbles don't bite you in your bed, and we can't go visiting stars in our house like you can in Oolite!)

You sometimes want to save under a new name. Autosave will probably save over your previous savegame.

*cat wrote:

(currently dealing with an infestation of *fleas at the moment, thanks to our neighbour's cat. At least trumbles don't bite you in your bed, and we can't go visiting stars in our house like you can in Oolite!)

You obviously haven't had a major outbreak of Trumbles! At least with *fleas, you *actually have* a bed to be bitten in. With Trumbles, you are lucky if you can maintain hull integrity.

Cute and fluffy Trumble for sale, any takers?

Captain Hesperus

*cat wrote:

There are those (myself not included) who consider the "save at every station" technique to be a terrible form of cheating! The chance of losing three hours of gameplay concentrates the mind somewhat when you're planning to take on 7 pirates!
It's nice to have the choice to "cheat" or not! I think there were some purists amongst the 80s players who refused to save every jump... Any 80s Elites out there prepared to step forward? Though I suspect it wou;d take 20 years to reach Elite on the BBC A anyway!

Think you mean BBC B... What do you mean, "suspect"? Didn't you ever get there?

Most people saved at every station in the original, half the magazine articles at the time said it was the golden rule. Sometimes I like to have games where I start from scratch, and restart if I die, but that's not my usual method.

What I would like to see are the other control options (restart and load, really) enabled when in flight. I can understand not saving in flight, to avoid making things too easy, but the others should be allowed.

It [b]was[/b] a BBC A, though with an extra blitter(?) chip and the RAM upgrade. I've never got beyond Deadly in Elite. Currently only Dangerous on the Oolite; hopefully I'll have the concentration span to "go all the way" this time, though my kill rate is not huge... maybe by star-flea kill rate can be added?!

Ah, the upgrade that turned the A into a B anyway. I'm not sure what the change was other than RAM (it wasn't a blitter), you've got me curious now.

I don't like the idea of an autosave. Like *cat said, it makes you concentrate more if there's the risk of losing all your hard work. I tend to save about once an hour. If you save every time you dock then it's easy to get into the mentality that it doesn't matter if you die. I think you ought to have to buy "save game tokens" at the stations.

Saving in flight isn't really an option. It would have to remember the current state (location, direction, speed, status etc.) of every ship/object in the system.

The Dreamcatcher wrote:

I don't like the idea of an autosave. Like *cat said, it makes you concentrate more if there's the risk of losing all your hard work. I tend to save about once an hour. If you save every time you dock then it's easy to get into the mentality that it doesn't matter if you die. I think you ought to have to buy "save game tokens" at the stations.

Save game tokens for sale wouldn't be good - there's no logical reason for them to be part of the game universe. Elite has always had saving at stations.

Saving in flight isn't really an option. It would have to remember the current state (location, direction, speed, status etc.) of every ship/object in the system.

But there's no reason not to have reload and restart available in flight.