I'm terrified but I think it is time to do this....

[Jon Tash]

I have my own solution to this: Make a rule describing when you can and can not quicksave.

Pretty much what I do. I rarely use quicksave/load. If I use it, is because I know a specific mod can crash when I'm doing something that I shouldn't.

If I make a mistake I tend to correct it if possible by my own means but not use quickload. It's really rare that I lose kerbals or something that I really need to keep safe.

[moeggz]

I try not to use quicksaves too often, but I definitely do use them. Ok, I use it a LOT . But like the OP, I am thinking of forcing myself to forego using using it when I start a new career mode, but that may not be a while for me. I just unlocked the last tech tree node, and I still have a bunch of the Kerbol system to explore. Now if that dang docking bug would stop getting in my way , I discovered today that my space station in Kerbin orbit is completely plagued by it.

Ironically, yesterday I had a moment where using the quicksave turned out to nearly cause me disaster. I was landing a robotic lander/rover combo on the surface of Eve, and everything was going fine, until I hit the wrong key and sent the lander tumbling over just before touching down, so I hit F9 and reloaded to just after the chutes fully opened. The problem with this as I discovered, is that already open chutes seem to disappear when you load a quicksave, forcing me to perform a fully powered landing, using the very last fuel in the lander. After I landed I think I had all of 9m/s of deltaV left in it (starting from about 130m/s).

That's funny cause I was just in a very similar situation with my Laythe landing. The irritation of having to go the last 100m or so with full powered landing kind of led to the idea. Thanks for all the response guys! And just for clarification, I don't think quicksaving and loading is bad or anything. I just want to try the game a different way for a bit. There seem to be a few types of KSP players in relation to quicksaving. 1. Never 2. Just for glitches 3. Glitches and simulating aerbraking/precision landing 4. At milestones in missions 5. Every few minutes. I've been all types of player except #1 (excluding the few days I played before knowing about the feature). I think it'd be neat to try the game that way for an update. And I debated whether or not to just go back to 3, but I kinda like the idea of trying a challenge. It'll be interesting to see how I do without it completely, and by that I also mean not being able to revert flights. After this experiment I'll probably try to go back to 3 or 4. It's cool to be part of a community that allows so many different play styles yet is still united and respectful.

[moeggz]

Why quicksave when you can facepalm ;-)

Oh I've done more than my share of that...

... Wait, why aren't I aerobraking. What? Moho doesn't have an atmosphere? Why didn't anyone tell me this?? Oh don't worry Jeb your mission is now reclassified as a flyby.

[Geo793]

Eh, I always found quick saves iffy. I use them, definitely, but sometimes they cause a few glitches them selves. I remember onetime my craft was returning from Kerbolar orbit and rolled down a mountain side, and when I quickloaded to go back to orbit it rewritten my entire career! Ever since then (to what I call "the attack of the time Kraken") I rarely used quick saves.

Edited June 6, 2014 by Geo793

[User Unrelated]

I will generally still use quicksave before important aerobrakes, or landings... It's no fun to miscalculate your aerobrake by a few hundred meters, and go careening back into solar orbit.

That's really it, though. I guess I just haven't become addicted.

[Seret]

Why quicksave when you can facepalm ;-)

Do you play Dwarf Fortress? That lot seem to have a similarly cheerful attitude to failure.

[ximrm]

I only quicksave before things that can go horribly wrong like landings,having the feeling that the game is going to crash etc.

[regex]

Failure is always an option and quicksave/quickload/revert kills the persistence of the game, and removes major elements of risk and reward. I don't bother with it anymore, although I do wish there was a "limited disable revert" so I could revert before launch instead of recovering. Anyway, career mode with quicksaving/loading is hardly challenging once you know your way around the game (it's not really challenging without save/load either...) and adding finances will similarly be non-challenging with save/load/revert.

[zarakon]

I quicksave mostly to undo things like accidentally warping through a planet

[qromodynmc]

I use quicksave just before risky maneouvers,Because I care kerbals so much,I cant risk them.

[Wooks]

I don´t like to quicksave a lot, just after milestones on a mission like reaching a stable orbit, a good transfer or insertion, landings, etc.

On the other hand I quicksave A FREAKING LOT while recording for my videos, is one of the best "editing" tools on the stock game.

[Superfluous J]

I too overuse them, however at least with some reason: I put out a half-hour or so video every other day and only play about 3-6 hours a week. If I didn't use quicksave people would either get really bored watching me launch iteration n+1 of my Eve lander, or I'd have to cut back to a video a week or less. Neither of those options sounds good to me so I reserve the right to fix mission-ending problems with quicksave or any other method. I've edited persistence files. I've used Hyperedit. No regrets.

Well, some regrets. I'd love to do a "No quicksaves. No reverts. No excuses." career and maybe I will in 0.24. At least to try it out.

Have you tried ALT+F5, ALT+F9 yet?

Nope, I'm too lazy to go trying out new features. Maybe I could

You should at least try alt-f9. Alt-F5 does what you're doing already, and allows you to rename the file in-game. However it's clunky and it's possible that renaming in Explorer is easier and clearer. However, Alt-F9 brings up a list of all sfs files and that has GOT to be easier than going back to explorer and renaming your file to quicksave.sfs.

Edited June 6, 2014 by 5thHorseman

[aman608]

i'm in as soon as the .24 update comes out no more quicksaves this sounds dangerous and fun

[moeggz]

i'm in as soon as the .24 update comes out no more quicksaves this sounds dangerous and fun

I think it sounds dangerous and fun too. Sounds like a plan aman608 I'll start at .24 too and if you want when .25 comes out we can compare the total death tally to see how we fared. This is new territory for me, I'm excited .

[Yasmy]

Ha!

I run a script which auto-commits quicksaves and persistence updates to a git repository.

The .sfs file format plays very nice with source code management software:

text files which update in chunks, leaving other parts untouched.

I would highly recommend it to people making movies. Make commits with nice

commit messages so you can easily find your scenes, without having a ton of

backup quicksaves lying around.

I've had too many problems with KSP bugs and mod bugs messing up my game.

Now I can go back in time to any point in the past.

If my mission fails because of my stupidity, I leave it be.

But I have no qualms about reversing arbitrarily far back in time to solve an exploding ship bug.

Edited June 7, 2014 by Yasmy

[Panzerbeard]

I quicksave compulsively, just a habit I've picked up from years of playing games on a less-than-stellar computer prone to crashes. I only reload in the event of bugs or crashes, though. If I screw up then it gives me a fun opportunity to rescue the stranded kerbal, and if I lose a mission entirely then that's a learning experience. I've got plenty of free time, so I'm fine with sinking time into something that can fail and leave me with nothing to show for it, as long as I'm having fun.

Do you play Dwarf Fortress? That lot seem to have a similarly cheerful attitude to failure.

Oh, not at all, we just have different views on what counts as a failure. Death isn't a fail-state so much as a source of amusement, as long as it happens really awesomely

[SpaceSphereOfDeath]

I'm addicted to quicksave, but then I do use BTSM, deadly re-entry, inferno-robotics, better atmosphere, Realistic solar system and KAS, so I typically use quicksaves to undo glitches

[katateochi]

I do some missions without any quicksaves, but on long or heavily modded missions I like to know I've got the safety net under me.

I test my designs very thoroughly, so running out of fuel or not having something I need on a mission is unlikely, but if it does happen then I won't reload (cos rescue missions are fun too). There's still pilot error and if I really mess up I leave it, but I'm also a perfectionist and sometimes I will redo a landing just because I didn't land quite a smoothly as I wanted.

I agree about the point others have made about aero-braking, there is no stock way to calc the right height unless you've done it n times before and I'm sure not going to math it out! So you have to do "simulations".

I also use quicksaves as "training simulations" for practising particularly tricky manoeuvres (like landing on a docking port or learning how to do suicide burn landings.)

[advert]

I do have a tool if your interested (Jebretary, link in sig) that tracks every quicksave and autosave (and changes to craft at each launch) in a git repo and can restore an autosave as a quicksave. So even if you don't qs, there will still be a an autosave you can load with f9. It runs as a web server so you can access it from a mobile device on your network, or just from your browser. (it also tells you things about your craft, ie what mods they use and you can write notes about the versions of craft, quicksaves and autosaves.)

[/advert]

[Pingonaut]

Well you have a good start. The first step to ending an addiction is admitting that you have a problem.

[enki]

I quicksave to prevent having to redo huge bits of work. I avoid replaying the same scenario until I get it right. Its better to let the cards fall how they may. I also design safety features into my craft. Its been a while since I lost a kerbal to mechanical failure or bad piloting.

[The Yellow Dart]

I have thought about stopping use, or limiting it but I haven't done anything yet. I was thinking about putting a post it note on the F9 key that says "Whose fault is it?" so I have to think about if it is a bug or a flaw of the game or if I made a mistake and killed the kerbal with my carelessness. If I were you, I would start making checklists, like actual physical ones. Lots of them. Launch checklists, orbit checklists, Mun checklists, planet checklists, manned checklists, unmanned checklists, lander construction checklists. And backup plans are your friend, like launch escape towers, eject-able cockpits on space planes, Abort action groups, more fuel than you expect to need, etc.

[MR4Y]

Since quicksaves never worked properly for me due to issues with 0.19, I never used it.

[tajampi]

I don't use quicksaves for more than bug fixing, and also, now my game is very prone to crash... So i try to not overload RAM... (I don't know if quicksaves eat RAM, who knows... ) I used them a lot before starting my hardcore career, but now i found more fun to have re-entry failures, wings breaking, staging failures, etc...

It makes me to add Abort systems to manned vehicles, and i have just killed a Kerbal since i started my career... ( The parachute decided to put him at 20Gs... )

Cheers

[Beachernaut]

I quick save A LOT. Before and after nearly every maneuver. OTOH, I very rarely quickload. I will not use quickload in the case that my flight had a catastrophic failure or crash due to my design or flight skills. I use quickload for bugs, glitchs, or the Kraken.