How do you save as you go?

[JackBush]

As I understand it, I can have only one F5 save at a time. If I F5 a second time, the first is gone, right? Is there another way to save as you go so that you don't have to go right back to the beginning (launch pad, in my case) every time? What happens to the autosaves that I notice happen now and then? Where are they?

Edited October 23, 2015 by JackBush

[Starhawk]

If you press the mod key (Alt in windoze) and F5 you can make named saves. Mod+F9 allows you to load any of these saves.

Happy landings!

ETA: Tha autosave is just how the game saves the current state. If it crashes, the last autosave is what loads when you restart. It's called 'persistent.sfs'.

One more thing - The Complete List of Stock Controls on the Wiki.

Edited October 23, 2015 by Starhawk

[Gilph]

For me, I have Autohotkey installed to automate some things I do for work. A very simple tool to use. I wrote 5 lines so that, every 10 minutes, I copy a persistant.sfs file to a file with a time coded name. It creates a lot of files, but I can go back in 10 min intervals if I made any serious errors, or if KSP goes wonky. Saved me many times. I have just added some lines that will delete all saves older than 5 days, to keep it under control.

[JackBush]

This is great. The ALT-F5 combination will be just the thing. There's so much to learn in this game.

[cantab]

KSP keeps the following files and folders for each save:

persistent.sfs is the main file. This is loaded when you open the save. It is written to when you see the game autosaving, when you quit to main menu, and when you use quickload.

quicksave.sfs is the quicksave file. This is loaded when you quickload by holding down F9, and written to when you quicksave by holding down F5.

Warning: This means that whenever you load a quicksave all progress since making that quicksave is deleted. If that quicksave was three months ago, you just deleted three months of flying work. I advise including your KSP folder in your normal backups - and if you don't have normal backups I suggest setting some up this weekend. I use SpiderOak and have it check for changes every 30 minutes, and I've needed to restore KSP saves from those backups more than once.

other .sfs files are loaded through a menu by pressing Mod+F9. (Mod is Alt on Windows, RShift on Linux, and something else on Mac). They are saved when you do a named quicksave by pressing Mod+F5, or by certain mods.

The Ships folder contains craft files. These are the craft you load and save in the VAB/SPH and launch from the pad/runway.

The Subassemblies folder contains subassemblies. This feature is available under the "advanced mode" in the VAB/SPH, click the arrow above the part list.

Edited October 23, 2015 by cantab

[manaiaK]

This is great. The ALT-F5 combination will be just the thing. There's so much to learn in this game.

You're not wrong, Jack!

[Just Jim]

When I do something big, or hit some sort of landmark in my career game, I physically go into explorer and save the entire saved game folder and back it up into a separate folder. And there have been plenty times I was thankful I did!