What's the lifetime of a save in ksp?

[Lime]

I wanna complain i think it is annoying to make new saves. All the time because saves break. My record for the longest lasting save is 3 months. And today the NaN virus destroyed my current save. So i find this quite annoying. Whats your record for the longest lasting save?

[RAINCRAFTER]

IDK. What destroys them? It's really annoying when you can't play old versions.

[Lime]

I dont know what destroys them. But something destroys them.

Edit. i know a few things that destroy them NaN Updates Mods. And switching spacecraft.

Edited July 13, 2015 by Lime

[p1t1o]

The 64-bit build currently eats savegames for breakfast...

[Lime]

Who has a save that has lasted for more than 2 years. I need proof.

Edited July 13, 2015 by Lime

[HoloYolo]

If anyone has a save that lasted for more then 2 years they deserve a medal.

[Lime]

If anyone has a save that lasted for more then 2 years they deserve a medal.

Only if they have proof. Edited July 13, 2015 by Lime

[Alshain]

If anyone has a save that lasted for more then 2 years they deserve a medal.

Scott Manley's Interstellar Quest save came close to being that long. It could have gone on longer if he had wanted to, but it was becoming a nuisance for him.

[HoloYolo]

Scott Manley's Interstellar Quest save came close to being that long. It could have gone on longer if he had wanted to, but it was becoming a nuisance for him.

So close...

[eddiew]

Every time you start a new play session, save it and name it with the date. My folder is full of '07-13' and similar. Also if you regularly F5, you can force the game to reload the quicksave from before the kraken pounced.

Admittedly I still get the odd NaN and crash that ruins an hour or two's gameplay, but it's never a critical thing because there's always a save file not too long ago

Also, if you have an unrecoverable vessel that you launched ages ago, edit your save file and tweak its orbital coordinates a tad. Usually stops whatever calculation is panicking, from panicking ^^

[John FX]

Longer than the time between updates. I rarely have a NaN corrupted save but I do make a fresh install for each update.

- - - Updated - - -

Longer than the time between updates. I rarely have a NaN corrupted save but I do make a fresh install for each update.

[Snark]

I keep seeing references to "NaN virus" in this and other threads... what is it? From context I kind of get the idea that it's not an actual virus but a tongue-in-cheek term for a bug which, if triggered, somehow does something to cause corrupted saves that propagate the problem. However, I've never encountered anything like that, and I've put in an awful lot of play time since 0.23.5. What triggers it?

Enquiring minds want to know how to avoid waking the kraken...

[HoloYolo]

I keep seeing references to "NaN virus" in this and other threads... what is it? From context I kind of get the idea that it's not an actual virus but a tongue-in-cheek term for a bug which, if triggered, somehow does something to cause corrupted saves that propagate the problem. However, I've never encountered anything like that, and I've put in an awful lot of play time since 0.23.5. What triggers it?

Enquiring minds want to know how to avoid waking the kraken...

Bugs or mods I think.

[RAINCRAFTER]

My old saves just don't open. It's not like Scott's NaNo virus that ended Interstellar Quest.

[Tw1]

You can make 'em live as long as you're willing to learn a thing or ten about the save format, sacrifice the odd gitched mission, and download a fast text editor to help hammer them into shape.

If anyone has a save that lasted for more then 2 years they deserve a medal.

Only if they have proof.

The save I use for Oceans of Eve is still going. That's coming up to the two year mark if measured by the first post of the thread, though I know I was mucking about with it for a while before that.

Brotoro's saga also still uses the same save, I believe. Really, this is the only way you can develop a fully fleshed out space program, but it takes a lot of wrangling.

Edited July 13, 2015 by Tw1

[Reactordrone]

I started with 23.5 and up until 1.0.0 I always used the same game folder with patcher updates and never had a problem with any saves. 1.0.0 needed a fresh install and I've transferred a few saves over with no problems so my longest saves are just over a year old.

[Srpadget]

I don't think I've EVER "lost" a save in the year-and-a-few-months I've played the game. (Mind you, I play dang near totally stock, and use no mods that muck with parts, physics, or the behavior of craft: KAC, EVE, and nothing else. This may be connected to my not getting clobbered by game-killing bugs.) That said, one of my saves typically lasts 1-2 major updates before I voluntarily start over due to some combination of parts changes that change my existing orbital infrastructure from "reusable" to "unusable" and/or new early-career gameplay which I want to experience.

[Claw]

Also, if it's not already known, you can press ALT+F5 to make named quicksaves. ALT+F9 will allow you to load them.

I keep a huge backlog of quicksaves, and often keep my kraken-bait funny business away from my main save. If I hit a kraken or some other random save eating bug, simply ALT+F4 out of KSP and copy over the previous quicksave. Even if it turns out that one is broke, there's a backlog of others. This also prevents me from only having a save from the beginning of session time (since I save periodically during playtime).

Though that doesn't answer the question of "what's the oldest." I've only been playing about 1.5 years. My oldest was 6 months, but I mostly start new now. This is primarily due to all of the support help and testing I throw at KSP and the forums at large.

Cheers,

~Claw

Edited July 14, 2015 by Claw
fixed

[Drew Kerman]

My save file has been intact since 0.23. I've loaded it in 1.0.2 but haven't played with it in there or fully upgraded to 1.0.4 yet. But I see no reason why it won't work just fine in 1.0.4 with a few tweaks here and there. Obviously this is all mainly due to the fact that what I have in use in the save game (vessels, parts, etc) is also able to be moved up to 1.0.4. I could have a vessel with parts on it that don't work properly in 1.0.4, but that wouldn't kill my save file, I would just have to remove/edit/replace the vessel in question.

Better question - what broke in your save files that forced you to start a new game? I've certainly had troubles with my save file but have been able to fix everything that's cropped up so far.

[AlexinTokyo]

Also, if it's not already known, you can press ALT+F9 to make named quicksaves. ALT+F5 will allow you to load them.

Isn't that the wrong way round?

[Commander Zoom]

My current save goes back over two years, though I've not been playing it continuously for that period. I've coaxed it through multiple versions (starting with .20) with care and judicious editing, including converting it from Sandbox to "Career" and then "Science Sandbox" (when the former mode was first introduced, and then changed to mean the latter with the addition of budgets), before finally calling a version freeze at .24.2 in order to finish up my current mission(s). Such is the way of ambitious space programs and lots of long-term missions.

Once 1.0 finally settles down a bit more, and I manage to finish up with my Jool mission, I'll go ahead and archive this save and start over. I expect to have to learn to play all over again...

[Claw]

Isn't that the wrong way round?

idk what you're talking about.

(Thanks, and fixed.)

~Claw

[Montag]

You can make 'em live as long as you're willing to learn a thing or ten about the save format, sacrifice the odd gitched mission, and download a fast text editor to help hammer them into shape.

What text editor do you use?

[Jart]

What text editor do you use?

A very nice free one Notepad ++ https://notepad-plus-plus.org/

[Sharpy]

*shrug* I just create a new named (numbered) save at the end of a play session or before I make a big decision that may turn out to be a mistake. Nearing 500 hours of gameplay and never had a save corrupted... save for that one reversed fuel pipe.