Need to know all about saving the game

[strider3]

I am having problems returning to an earlier point in a flight/game. Recently I extended the OX-4L panels while orbiting Kerbin, to do a bit of battery charging, before continuing with my next burn. I then discovered I could not retract them? There was no option to retract. Anywho...I loaded what was supposed to be the last "quicksave" and it was from very far back in my career even though I had the "quicksaving" message pop up on the game screen at least once during the current flight. I have searched the wiki and these forums for "saving", "saving game", etc. but there are over 500 "hits" on those searches.

Could some kind soul point me to the information that deals with everything about saving KSP and returning to this save (creating saves, returning to a save, etc.). I am somehow not finding this info. I'm not asking for you to go over the entire thing here as I'm sure the info is somewhere and has probably been posted a gazillion times already.

Vic the Newbal

[Plusck]

The "persistent.sfs" file is updated automatically at various times. It is updated in particular whenever you quickload or load a named save, whenever you switch to a craft that is not within your physics bubble, whenever you go back to the KSC, and at certain milestones during flight (like, for instance, as you'll have noticed when you are almost in orbit).

Once it's written you cannot go back unless the "revert" feature is still available (in which case I think the game reverts to a cached version of persistent.sfs, but this is the only situation where this can happen).

So basically, there is no way for you to get back to a later state if you loaded an old save and didn't have any later save.

What I do is duplicate persistent.sfs quite regularly, in addition to making numbered saves every time something significant is about to happen. Duplicating persistent.sfs is just a matter of command-tabbing and then alt-grabbing the file (on Mac - can't remember for windows) and avoids the (very slight) hassle of remembering where you are in your savegame numbering system (note to devs: a better UI for saving/loading would not hurt...). It also avoids making mistakes (like, pressing F5 instead of alt-F5, overwriting a quicksave I wanted to keep, etc.)

So yeah, alt-F5 for making a savegame (or escape from KSC to have exactly the same option), alt-F9 to load it up. And if ever you have a doubt, just pause the game, go into your save folder and duplicate persistent.sfs for added security. Under MacOS, you'll need to rename it if you ever want to load it up since duplicates get a number added after the file extension (Apple caved to the file extension convention in computing, but still refuses to treat file extensions quite normally...).

 

Oh yeah, and the ultra-light solar panels don't retract. The slightly heavier ones have a housing to retract into.

btw, I really don't know if this question has a "definitive" answer anywhere. There are bits and bobs all over the place, that is true. Maybe this thread could become that?

Edited April 17, 2016 by Plusck

[Jetski]

I use Alt+F5 to create named savegames as I play through, "Approaching Mun", "Mun Drop", "Mun safely landed", etc.  This makes it very easy to Alt-F9 and select one of the named saves to revert to a chosen location.  Never needed anything more than this, just remember to keep making saves any time it's tricky.

[strider3]

Thank you both!

Vic the Newbal

Edited April 18, 2016 by strider3

[Nich]

Learn something new every day I always went back to ksa to do named saves

[Plusck]

Just tested when the automatic update to persistent.sfs occurs on ascending to Kerbin orbit: it seems to happen when you pass approximately 72.5-73km altitude, whether or not you are actually in orbit at the time.

[KocLobster]

I definitely recommend this mod, it is great for automatic backups of your game.