KSPs autosave structure is pretty bad

[Bishop149]

So I just encountered a bug that made all the engines on a ship explode for no reason, including the ones NOT firing.

Ok, these things happen occasionally reload and try again.

So I tried load up a previous save . . . . and unfortunately don't check the date closely enough, and turns out was 3 days of play ago. . . which then instantly modified my "persistent" meaning I lost three days of progress.

To say I'm unhappy about this is an understatement.

What's the logic in the very second you load and older save the main persistent file becomes and exact copy of that older save?

At the very least loading a new save should store a temporary back up of the previous persistent file. . . you know so you can undo any bloody mistakes.

But no, load the wrong save and you're permanently screwed.

Is there a mod which periodically backs-up your persistent? Because this would be REALLY useful.

Alarm clock kinda does it, but only when you actually use the mod so if you haven't set any alarms in a while it doesn't really help.

Edited November 11, 2014 by tetryds
Moved and added Suggeston tag.

[Guest]

This comes up every so often, and if you'll google it, you will find that there are lovers and haters on this topic. There have been mods in the past to help manage gamesaves, but I don't know if they work in the current release or not. I use the alt-f5 and the alt-f9 to save and load exclusively. This along with the alt-f4, which shuts the game down immediately, can be used to avoid future problems. Also consider changing the autosave settings in the settings.cfg file to give yourself more time to alt-f4 in the event of a mistake. Regardless, you now know that bad things can happen. With just a little effort on your part, you should be able to set up the behavior of the game and yourself to avoid future catastrophe.

[DaRocketCat]

Yeah alt+f4 as fast as you can if something bad happens.

[SkyRender]

This sort of thing is why Alt+F5 and Alt+F9 were made stock features so you can make multiple quicksaves per file. It's also a good reason not to play on Hard just yet, since quicksaves are kind of insurance against this sort of thing.

[Xaiier]

There is this: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/72212

[Kerbart]

There's an autosave?

[katateochi]

There is this: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/72212

Thanks for mentioning it!

Yeah as Xaiier says, there is Jebretary which I built partly to deal with this problem. It basically enables you to restore ANY previous autosave or quicksave (and you can restore autosaves (persistent) as quicksaves). It also tracks the full history of your craft, so you can revert a craft to any of its previous versions.

It uses the git version control system (something many coders use) so you do need to install that for it to work. (full installation instructions on the Jebretary thread)

With git it is able to store every single quicksave and autosave that is made, that can be 1000's of autosaves, but the way git works means that it stores all that (plus craft history) in less space than 10 manual persistent.sfs copies would take.

It still works in 0.25 and all past versions (Jebretary is standalone, so KSP updates rarely effect it). It's still an active project, although I've been more focused on http://KerbalX.com recently, but I'm still maintaining it and eventually Jerbretary and KerbalX will interact.

Jebretary Thread

[NecroBones]

Yeah, the auto-save to the persistence file occurs every time a vessel is loaded (switching to it, or whatever), and that includes reloading a quicksave.

It's confusing, but if you know this happens, you can plan for it by making named saves, or backing up the saves, or doing the Alt-F4 thing when something bad happens.

I've usually been paranoid enough about it to make a quicksave both before and after every major maneuver. That way, I always have a recent quicksave.

[AengorKerbow]

I didn't know there was a quicksave for the first couple weeks I played. It was frustrating on my first Mun landing, as I didn't really know how to pilot the lander and kept crashing and having to revert to launch.

[Mitchz95]

This is why I quicksave every thirty seconds. Saves a lot of headaches.

[GusTurbo]

I feel like a "revert to last autosave" would be a good feature for easier difficulties, since the autosaves exist and tell you when they're happening.

[AengorKerbow]

The problem with revert to last autosave, is that they seem to occur after any big event. If my lander crashes into the Lunar surface the first thing that happens is an autosave.

[Bilfr3d]

Why not just go into the saves folder, select, Ctrl + C, go to another folder, Ctrl + V. Start playing. Do that before you start your game. Maybe datestamp each save. I could make a batch file to automatically do this to all saves. It's not that hard.

- - - Updated - - -

This should also probably be moved to suggestions and discussions.

[Random Tank]

The issue isn't with how the saves work, it's that not many people know about all the saving techniques (Like Alt+F5 to do a named save; Alt+F9 to load any named save or quicksave or persistant; and Alt+F4 will force the game to load the latest autosave after a restart). I think this sort of thing really needs to be advertised more, splashing it all over the Forum/Reddit/Steam tutorials, and even putting a tip about it in the game, it's too damn useful not to use, and people pay when they don't.

I feel like a "revert to last autosave" would be a good feature for easier difficulties, since the autosaves exist and tell you when they're happening.

Also, this ^.

EDIT: Actually, that's a thing, doesn't loading the Persistant from the Alt+F9 menu load the last autosave? Pretty sure it does...

Edited November 10, 2014 by Random Tank
:P

[Bilfr3d]

Actually, that's a thing, doesn't loading the Persistant from the Alt+F9 menu load the last autosave? Pretty sure it does...

I can confirm that Alt + F9 reloads the last autosave. I started a blank sandbox with no mods, just started launching some ships. after I launched a few, I did Alt + F9. I had not done Alt + F5 at all, but I got reverted to my last craft in orbit around kerbin (when it was originally in orbit around Minmus)

[tetryds]

Moved to Suggestions and Development Discussion.

You can continue to discuss here as it's where it belongs