Not in-game feature request

[a_beorning]

If I understand correctly, save file structure and data is changing from one version to another.

It's a reason why savegames from prevoius release are unusable.

It's good when some of most irritating bugs are fixed.

But it's nevertheless annoying to abandon game and start everything from the scratch.

Is it possible to supply new versions with a simple (maybe even command-line) tool for converting old savegames to new format? At least geoscape saves, not combat?

If not, maybe include a version info in savegame, just to check when load and exclude situation when user guessing "is it a long loading process, or a bug, or I mistakenly selected a save from previous hotfix game?"

[Giovanni]

A tool like the one you're requesting would request a lot of work to be written, as the savefile structure usually changes a lot from a version to another, not to say that it's strongly tied to the data structures used in the game, which would have to be exported manually to the new tool. Lot of work for little benefit.

The version info is already there, but somehow in the last versions we didn't update it. Should care more about this.

[Assoonasitis]

A tool like the one you're requesting would request a lot of work to be written, as the savefile structure usually changes a lot from a version to another, not to say that it's strongly tied to the data structures used in the game, which would have to be exported manually to the new tool. Lot of work for little benefit.

The version info is already there, but somehow in the last versions we didn't update it. Should care more about this.

What is it about the savefile structure that's changing? Is it possible to keep the structure consistent from version to version or is it all the changes and bugfixes that are indirectly causing the file structure changes?

[thothkins]

I just took this to be part of the development process. You'd want to try each major set of changes out on a fresh game.

Would seem to be a lot of wasted effort for dev team to address, if it;s just part of an expected process.

Edited April 7, 2013 by thothkins

[Gauddlike]

Depends on if it continues after release.

If a patch comes out and breaks all of the save files there may be a few tears.

[thothkins]

Oh sure, but not so many sniffles during development though.