17.52 - Iron man save game cheat

[DonStealth]

This isn't so much a bug as an exploit.

When in Iron man mode and things go south there is still the possibility to load the latest Iron man save game. In effect this allows cheating players (not me ofcourse ) the possibility to load a game if something bad just happened in game.

Loading should no be allowed from Iron man mode IMO. (But it's good to have now while bug testing..

[Gorlom]

Wait so you have to play the ironman mode in one sitting?

When can you save during iron man mode? I thought it was just during geoscape?

[DonStealth]

Nah so that you have to play in one sitting.

Say that you have played a while and you loose your squadron of fighters. What you can do in iron man mode is to click load game while still in the geoscape and you will then load your latest save game from before you lost your squadron. Voila and you have a cheat.

[Gorlom]

Nah so that you have to play in one sitting.

I'm confused. what do you mean? please elaborate. (you started that sentance with a negation then you continued to repeat what I said?)

Say that you have played a while and you loose your squadron of fighters. What you can do in iron man mode is to click load game while still in the geoscape and you will then load your latest save game from before you lost your squadron. Voila and you have a cheat.

How do you propose to solve this without breaking the intended save function or making Goldhawk look like complete douches? Any ideas?

[Giovanni]

There will always be the need for a load game function, even in the iron man mode, otherwise you'll need to finish the game in one long play!

Let's say we made iron man savegames available to be loaded only from the main screen, your "cheat" would still be there, just requiring the user to exit and reopen the game..

Another solution would be to save ironman games every 2-3 minutes of play, but this could cause some performance problems in slower systems.. (the game may hang for a few seconds while saving, and it's not exactly a thing we want to happen every 2-3 minutes)

Do you have any other ideas?

[DonStealth]

Gorlom: Giovanni got my idea. I'll try and convey it better. The idea is allow the player to play at different times with save games and loading. However the player should not be able to replay the time period in iron man mode. As it is now that is possible by loading the game from in game.

For example: Say that you send up a squadron, it takes the squadron 10 ingame minutes to get there. You fight and loose.

The way it is today, if you click load you will go back in time and still have the squadron. That is not the intention of iron man mode.

Giovanni: What I suggest is that loading/saving a game should not be allowed while playing in Iron man mode. All saving should be automated and I suggest it should be done maybe before and after every battle in geoscape, when quitting the game and after player turn, every turn, in ground combat.

Loading should only be allowed from main screen and from normal mode.

I suggest you always save when the game is quit. One alternative could be to consider a load from Iron man mode as a quit and thus saving it first and then loading the same game.

I also assume you are saving the game every now and then while playing?! Perhaps on every ground combat/air combat? How do you save the game now?

[Gauddlike]

Let's say we made iron man savegames available to be loaded only from the main screen, your "cheat" would still be there, just requiring the user to exit and reopen the game..

Not if the game overwrote the recent save when you quit.

Going back to the menu to load your save would just mean you continue from where you left off in that case, after your squadron had been downed to follow on from the example above.

That would probably mean ironman mode would only use one save file and prevent you from saving in multiple slots.

Copying and pasting the save you wanted to use would be the other option to get round that of course.

If you are going to those lengths though then you probably don't really want to be playing the ironman mode as the normal mode would be the same thing without all of the extra hassle.

Personally I think saving less often is more of a discouragement than saving every couple of minutes.

If you know you will be able to reload to just before making the bad decision it is more tempting than having to replay the last week each time.

Since that save you may have built base facilities, re-equipped your squads etc and going back to that point means doing it all again just to avoid a sub optimal dogfight result.

[Gauddlike]

Giovanni: What I suggest is that loading/saving a game should not be allowed while playing in Iron man mode. All saving should be automated and I suggest it should be done maybe before and after every battle in geoscape, when quitting the game and after player turn, every turn, in ground combat.

I would auto save less than that and disallow manual saves.

Certainly not saving every turn of ground combat.

Maybe every 20 minutes real time played, after every ground battle (not before or during), save on exit, and possibly add a few other stages in like saving after every tenth air combat or similar.

[Giovanni]

I also assume you are saving the game every now and then while playing?! Perhaps on every ground combat/air combat? How do you save the game now?

Autosaves for ironman mode are currently done:

1) At the beginning of each week of gameplay in the geoscape

2) At the beginning and end of each ground combat

3) When the user exits game, is it in geoscape or in ground combat (saves exactly the turn you are in, not the beginning of it)

I think this is enough. As Gauddlike correctly points out, even doing backups of the physical savefiles could be a workaround, so the player at this point could simply play the game at "veteran" difficulty instead of "insane", or simply turn off iron man mode in the other difficulty levels.

Playing at ironman mode should be a personal challenge, not a race on who's best at playing this game.

[DonStealth]

I think this is enough. As Gauddlike correctly points out, even doing backups of the physical savefiles could be a workaround, so the player at this point could simply play the game at "veteran" difficulty instead of "insane", or simply turn off iron man mode in the other difficulty levels.

Playing at ironman mode should be a personal challenge, not a race on who's best at playing this game.

True