I don't understand "quicksave".

[strider3]

As I'm flying around, KSP is making lots of "quicksaves". But when I press "alt+F9" and load "quicksave"...I am not loading the last quicksave? I am loading something from many, many moons ago instead of the very last quicksave...why is that? It's annoying as heck because I just warped past my transfer burn to Duna node. "No problem" he says..."I'll just load the last quicksave". Instead of being at the last point I saw the "quicksave" text pop up on the screen, I'm back to some long forgotten mission.

GRRRrrr .

What am I doing wrong? (I say that because I am usually the culprit ;-))

[Plusck]

9 minutes ago, Victor3 said:

As I'm flying around, KSP is making lots of "quicksaves". But when I press "alt+F9" and load "quicksave"...I am not loading the last quicksave? I am loading something from many, many moons ago instead of the very last quicksave...why is that? It's annoying as heck because I just warped past my transfer burn to Duna node. "No problem" he says..."I'll just load the last quicksave". Instead of being at the last point I saw the "quicksave" text pop up on the screen, I'm back to some long forgotten mission.

GRRRrrr .

What am I doing wrong? (I say that because I am usually the culprit ;-))

It's not really named properly.

F5: make quicksave. F9: load last F5 quicksave

Alt-F5: make a named save. Alt-F9: load a named save.

In any event, there is virtually no difference between a "quicksave", an alt-F5 "quicksave", and the actual persistent.sfs file.

So if ever you get into difficulties, pause the game, return to the finder/windows desktop/whatever and duplicate persistent.sfs. It's the savegame from last time you started to control the craft or it was autosaved (which happens at odd but predictable times). As long as it ends with .sfs, you can load it using alt-F9.

As for the "what are you doing wrong": I'd guess that the file called "quicksave" is somehow not in the right place or correctly named. Maybe you should go into the saves folder and clean out or rename the various save files (but not persistent.sfs) that you have in there. Then the next F5 quicksave should be the only one called "quicksave.sfs" in there

[Superfluous J]

You are mistaking auto-save (which happens automatically every few minutes) with quick-save (which you do with f5). Quick-load restores the latter.

[eddiew]

As 5th says, I think. You didn't mention F5 which suggests you never quicksaved.

[strider3]

Jeez, I'm dense. How do I load the last "auto-save" then? Can I delete the "quicksave.sfs" I have, safely (will it be re-created)? I do believe that Plusck is right and I have, somehow, screwed the pooch on my quicksave.sfs.

addiew> no, I never quicksaved and I apparently have no idea about saving. I do create named saves at important points (unfortunately not THIS time LOL).

As always, thanks for helping the mentally deficient.

Edited October 5, 2016 by strider3

[Plusck]

aha - yes as @5thHorseman and @eddiew said, you might actually be talking about autosave.

However, going back to your saves folder there is a "Backup" subfolder in there. This appears to be where the autosaves go. So if you copy one of them to the main saves folder, and rename it something that ends with .sfs, you can reload it from alt-F9. It might not want to give direct control and send you back to KSC, but as long as you're not in a deadly situation (i.e. flying in the atmosphere) you should be able to return to your craft via the tracking station.

And even if you were flying or whatever, it might be possible to recover control directly if you put yourself in the same position then load the save via alt-F9. I don't know exactly how the game decides whether a save can be loaded up directly in situ, but it seems that being in the same physical situation when you load up the save (same SOI, etc.) makes it work. Being in a different situation sends you back to KSC when you try to load such a save.

[DD_bwest]

im not even sure how someone could mess up a quicksave file.   were you sure it was quicksaving?   you could try to make named quick saves and try loading thise to see if its saving right.

 

the only time ive had quicksave stop working is when the game sorta  corrupts itself and wont even let you go back to the space center.  with the only option to close the game.  

[strider3]

1 minute ago, DD_bwest said:

im not even sure how someone could mess up a quicksave file.   were you sure it was quicksaving?   you could try to make named quick saves and try loading thise to see if its saving right.

 

the only time ive had quicksave stop working is when the game sorta  corrupts itself and wont even let you go back to the space center.  with the only option to close the game.  

What I "may" have done is make a named save...and called it "quicksave" instead of giving it a unique name. A mind is a terrible thing to waste. AFAICT "auto-saves" are working...it's getting to it, and loading it, that is somehow avoiding me.

[DD_bwest]

auto save saves your persistence file,  ive never tried to make a named save named quicksave so idno wat would happen.. 

i find it best to make named saves with a name of the mission im on. helps keep them from getting mixed up

alt f9 should bring up the load menu.

 

now just asking just in case, as 5th mentioned.  when you say it quicksaved, was that you hitting f5 and then it saving?  or was it the game just popping up that it saved?

 

[Superfluous J]

Auto-saves are not backups. They're a save of the current game state to the file named persistent.sfs. This is your game file. An auto-save is exactly the same thing as what happens when you exit the game. The game does this so if you have a crash, or alt-f4, or whatever, the work you did from the last scene change is at least partially saved.

Quick-saves are single backups of a specific point in time. You hit F5 right before a burn, or right before you time warp in case you over shoot, or right after doing something difficult so you won't have to do it again if you screw up in the future. They save to the file named quicksave.sfs and overwrite each other, just as the persistent saves do.

Named quicksaves are made with alt-f5. You can name a save anything you want.

F9 loads "quicksave.sfs". Loading the game up from scratch loads the persistent.sfs. Alt-F9 allows you to pick any *.sfs file to load.

That's all

[strider3]

19 hours ago, DD_bwest said:

auto save saves your persistence file,  ive never tried to make a named save named quicksave so idno wat would happen.. 

i find it best to make named saves with a name of the mission im on. helps keep them from getting mixed up

alt f9 should bring up the load menu.

 

now just asking just in case, as 5th mentioned.  when you say it quicksaved, was that you hitting f5 and then it saving?  or was it the game just popping up that it saved?

 

It was the game popping up that it had saved.

19 hours ago, 5thHorseman said:

Auto-saves are not backups. They're a save of the current game state to the file named persistent.sfs. This is your game file. An auto-save is exactly the same thing as what happens when you exit the game. The game does this so if you have a crash, or alt-f4, or whatever, the work you did from the last scene change is at least partially saved.

Quick-saves are single backups of a specific point in time. You hit F5 right before a burn, or right before you time warp in case you over shoot, or right after doing something difficult so you won't have to do it again if you screw up in the future. They save to the file named quicksave.sfs and overwrite each other, just as the persistent saves do.

Named quicksaves are made with alt-f5. You can name a save anything you want.

F9 loads "quicksave.sfs". Loading the game up from scratch loads the persistent.sfs. Alt-F9 allows you to pick any *.sfs file to load.

That's all

So, if I understand, after overshooting my maneuver node I should have hit "Alt-F9" and loaded the "persistent.sfs"...that would have been my last auto-save, hopefully before overshooting the node. The REAL answer is that I need to use the F5 more frequently, it seems.

Thanks!

[DD_bwest]

4 minutes ago, Victor3 said:

It was the game popping up that it had saved.

ya thats just auto save and not quicksave so it was the game saving the persistent file. 

[Superfluous J]

7 minutes ago, Victor3 said:

It was the game popping up that it had saved.

So, if I understand, after overshooting my maneuver node I should have hit "Alt-F9" and loaded the "persistent.sfs"...that would have been my last auto-save, hopefully before overshooting the node. The REAL answer is that I need to use the F5 more frequently, it seems.

Thanks!

I'm not 100% sure that the bolded would work, but it might. I *have* successfully hit alt-f4 at that point to close KSP entirely, and then reload it

But yes, you should bet hitting F5 as often as possible, and alt-f5 sometimes too for major milestones. It's not uncommon for me to hit F5 several times each time I come down to land.

[Plusck]

20 hours ago, DD_bwest said:

auto save saves your persistence file,  ...

 

20 hours ago, 5thHorseman said:

Auto-saves are not backups. They're a save of the current game state to the file named persistent.sfs. ..

Yes, sorry I messed up some of the info in that earlier post.

The "Backups" subfolder seems to contain something else - most likely the persistent.sfs at the time of launch so that you can revert to it without corruption issues.

In any event, it saved me from immense frustration the other day because I spent some time testing stuff and missed a hugely important maneuvre node for another ship, without having saved the game for hours beforehand. Copying across and loading up a backup save took me back a couple of hours, which was perfect.

[DD_bwest]

50 minutes ago, 5thHorseman said:

I'm not 100% sure that the bolded would work, but it might. I *have* successfully hit alt-f4 at that point to close KSP entirely, and then reload it

But yes, you should bet hitting F5 as often as possible, and alt-f5 sometimes too for major milestones. It's not uncommon for me to hit F5 several times each time I come down to land.

ah im glad im not the only one lol 

[Superfluous J]

6 minutes ago, Plusck said:

The "Backups" subfolder seems to contain something else - most likely the persistent.sfs at the time of launch so that you can revert to it without corruption issues.

Actually I think that just saves your last 5 saves. I actually forgot that was a thing. I think it was put in place to more easily troubleshoot 1.2pre issues.

[Plusck]

1 minute ago, 5thHorseman said:

Actually I think that just saves your last 5 saves. I actually forgot that was a thing. I think it was put in place to more easily troubleshoot 1.2pre issues.

This is in 1.1.3 - and I haven't really looked at what they are. However, my last quicksave was dated 1 day earlier, the last alt-F5 was six hours earlier, and the "backup" saves included one that was about two hours earlier. So I was happy. :up:

[strider3]

You are all AWESOME! Thank you for helping me figure that out.

Vic the Newbal

[FullMetalMachinist]

Quote

To help with the testing process Brian (Arsonide) created a system that will create rotating auto saves. This was done because testers often submit save files from just after a bug has occurred, and getting a save from just before it happened was more a matter of luck than anything else, especially so if the bug does not have a documented reproduction process. This system will also be available to the general public once we are out of testing. It may also help players if something really bad happens to their saves, like a rogue add-on eating all of their vessels.

@Plusck @5thHorseman the backups were put in to help with debugging during the development of 1.1, and was kept in the release because why not? 

From the March 15th devnotes

 

[magnemoe]

On 7.10.2016 at 6:56 PM, FullMetalMachinist said:

@Plusck @5thHorseman the backups were put in to help with debugging during the development of 1.1, and was kept in the release because why not? 

From the March 15th devnotes

 

Having an archive of saves is very nice if you get an corrupted save, game crashes during saving or you simply want to roll back a bit because something has gone wrong but you did not see it before you saved

[Clipperride]

Alt-f5 is your friend (unless you're in a hard core mood and think it's "cheating").  I use the following methods to avoid finding myself in impossible situations;

When in a stable orbit and I'm certain that I have enough fuel to either get home or dock with a resupply ship, I do a named quicksave and call it "Orbit".  When attempting a landing I do a save called "descent" around 20,000m up (for, say, the Mun or Minmus) Finally a "landed" save for when I'm safely on the ground.

One more thing I've gotten into the habit of doing is making a named save before I exit the game.  As it's usually a good idea to have pen and paper handy when playing KSP, I write the numbers 1-6 repeated across the bottom of a page and cross out the one I've just used for my exit save - so I'm constantly reusing quicksave1 to quicksave6.  A brief note above means, if needed, I can return to any of the last 6 sessions and carry on from there. 

When I first played KSP, I made a few ill judged saves and found, no matter how many time I retried, I had saved the game at a point where failure was a certainty!  I now have plenty of protection from a corrupt file without an ever expanding number of saves cluttering up.  Just wish I was half as well organised in the real world!?!

[Guest]

dont hold alt+f9 to load a quick save because that will load an autosave. to load quicksaves just hold f9