Community Bulletin Board of Feedback: Saving-and-Loading

[TechieV]

Hello!

 

I've been playing quite some KSP 2 lately. Very improved after the For Science! update, but one HUGE problem I have is the work on the saving and loading system. These are the absolute biggest issues I have with the game, because I care a lot about how my crafts are organised and saved, and I know I'm not alone. I think some of you readers also have some pet-peeves with the system. If a member of the dev team sees this, please consider some of these features! They would drastically improve my (and others') experience.

 

Everyone has a say in this board!

This post is intended to be a sort of community bulletin board, or living article, where anyone can come in and put forth their ideas or issues. This is because the saving and loading system is a little flawed, so we need the devs to catch this post, so we all need to let them know what we want changed. The way this works is that the community will speak their ideas or problems in the comments, and I will edit them into the post, referencing the people who wrote it. I will put every text inside every section in a spoiler to save space and time reading them. 

 

So here we go: my 2 main problems with the saving and loading system!

 

1. Autosaves

Spoiler

Ah, autosaves. I hate how they are right now. If I work on a craft for some time, an autosave gets generated, which itself isn't a bad thing. The problem is that they're saved as SEPARATE WORKSPACES! So if I work on something for a long time, I find the workspace menu LITTERED with copious amounts of these autosaves! AARGH!

This is my biggest problem with the game (and that's saying something!), so allow me to propose a system that sounds good to me: Only autosave if the player made a manual save of the craft first. Then make autosaves and use them to update your manual save. Done! This would erase the extra autosave workspaces littering the menu (resulting in less required storage, but just a bit), plus give players more flexibility to work for long periods. Also, a lot of times, players just tinker, or experiment with crafts without intent of saving them, so a system depending on the player to make a first manual save can really benefit us.

If this, or something like this, can be implemented, I would be extremely grateful, because this is the biggest problem I have. I know I'm being quite angry for something as simple as the save and loading system, but these little things count! If you're reading this, devs, PLEASE consider this!

 

2. Tutorials and Onboarding on Using Workspaces

Spoiler

This one, I know, is a problem a lot of us faced, coming from KSP 1, where we had to wrap our heads around workspaces and how they're used. In fact, (and this is probably just me) I still can't 100% figure it out! The new workspace system is a little new and slightly confusing. Nate did share how workspaces are meant to be used, in an interview with GrunfWorks, which was completely different from all the theories I had. How was I supposed to know that?!

This issue affects me a little, so here's my solution that would really help me: make a dedicated tutorial on saving and loading, or at least, add Nate's info to an existing tutorial. I watched all the tutorials, but found no mention to Nate's info, which feels quite crucial for me. If I was just starting KSP 2, I would've liked to know what a workspace was, and the correct way to use it, such as that vehicle name information. It would help if they add a tutorial for this, but he did say they have some plans for this, so I have high hopes!

 

Community Member: @Presto200

1. An Idea for a Better Saving System:

Spoiler

Presto200 thought of a better saving-and-loading system. He said that main workspaces in the menu are like "folders", and each one has many other workspaces of the craft inside it. One workspace is the main one, which you can access the usual way, but the others are stored like "versions" of the main workspace. Clicking on a craft will open a menu with information and a dropdown with the other "version" workspaces. The best way I could think of this is Microsoft Word. Word saves many old saved versions of documents so you could access and edit them. I think Presto200's system works similar to this. He made a graphic showing his menu:

I LOVE his idea because it's a clean, elegant solution to my autosaves problem, AND it gives the benefit of going back to your old saves, giving more freedom to design crafts. His original idea was for separate manual saves of the craft for versions, not autosaves, but this system clearly shows that autosaves can also be accomodated for.

 

Community Member: @Spicat

1. Filters in the Saves Menu:

Spoiler

Spicat thought up a plan for the autosave problem. Instead of removing the autosaves, why not add filters to the save menu to hide them from you?  He suggests filters such as: "Show Manual Saves", "Show Autosaves", "Show all", etc. This has the obvious benefit that it cleans the mess but still keeps autosaves of everything. You could just open a filter and find your old autosaves, easy-peasy! I think this is a nice idea! The only problem is that it just hides the problem. Players will not see those autosaves, and the more they play, KSP 2 will take up more and more space, but it shouldn't be a huge amount, so I'm net positive for this idea. I also think old autosaves could be deleted after some amount of playing the game, to combat the issue. Overall, nice idea!

 

Sincerely,

TechieV and the KSP Community

Edited April 28 by TechieV

[Presto200]

36 minutes ago, TechieV said:

1. Autosaves

Ah, autosaves. I hate how they are right now. If I work on a craft for some time, an autosave gets generated, which itself isn't a bad thing. The problem is that they're saved as SEPARATE WORKSPACES! So if I work on something for a long time, I find the workspace menu LITTERED with copious amounts of these autosaves! AARGH!

This is my biggest problem with the game (and that's saying something!), so allow me to propose a system that sounds good to me: Only autosave if the player made a manual save of the craft first. Then make autosaves and use them to update your manual save. Done! This would erase the extra autosave workspaces littering the menu (resulting in less required storage, but just a bit), plus give players more flexibility to work for long periods. Also, a lot of times, players just tinker, or experiment with crafts without intent of saving them, so a system depending on the player to make a first manual save can really benefit us.

If this, or something like this, can be implemented, I would be extremely grateful, because this is the biggest problem I have. I know I'm being quite angry for something as simple as the save and loading system, but these little things count! If you're reading this, devs, PLEASE consider this!

 

 

This is my take on the craft file saving system, I think this would be good because then autosaves can happen often and not take up a bunch of space. The devs have said they know that the current craft file system is not optimal and it will get changes when other (more priority) bugs/features are dealt with.

[Spicat]

Disabling autosave is a really bad idea. If anything there are not enough autosaves. Especially when going from VAB to Launch, you just lose your craft file if you didn't save.

All your clutter problem could be resolved with a simple filter (Only show manual autosave, only show recent autosave and manual autosave, show all...), no need to erase this feature.

Edited April 23 by Spicat

[TechieV]

7 hours ago, Spicat said:

Disabling autosave is a really bad idea. If anything there are not enough autosaves. Especially when going from VAB to Launch, you just lose your craft file if you didn't save.

I‘m not saying that autosaves should be disabled. I‘m saying that they should only happen after the player made a manual save beforehand. 
 

7 hours ago, Spicat said:

All your clutter problem could be resolved with a simple filter (Only show manual autosave, only show recent autosave and manual autosave, show all...), no need to erase this feature.

I mean, that could work! That‘s actually pretty nice! Just one problem for me: the manually saved workspace doesn‘t update per autosave, so the manual save, with the nice description instead of „ Autosave [Time][Date]“, gets outdated. Fast.

 

Other than that, would you like me to add this to the post, inside a section named „Spicat“? I‘m trying to make this like a community bulletin board for saving and loading feedback, so any ideas are helpful! Do I have your consent? Pleeeaasseee?!

[Icegrx]

1. Please don’t remove craft auto saves, or change how they work. They have saved me countless times. 
 

2. Workspaces are a bit wonky, and could be optimized, but as of right now they work fine. 

3. With how long it takes them to release updates, I wouldn’t want them spending any precious time working on any of these things at the moment. Bug fixes and content please. 

 

14 minutes ago, TechieV said:

Just one problem for me: the manually saved workspace doesn‘t update per autosave.

Do not overwrite my manual saves or I will RAGE

[TechieV]

9 hours ago, Presto200 said:

 

 

This is my take on the craft file saving system, I think this would be good because then autosaves can happen often and not take up a bunch of space. The devs have said they know that the current craft file system is not optimal and it will get changes when other (more priority) bugs/features are dealt with.

Nice! It‘s a good idea and very helpful! Can I add this to the post? I‘m trying to make this a community bulletin board, where everyone‘s ideas are in one page. Any ideas are very helpful to this cause! Can I have your consent to add it? Please?

[TechieV]

16 minutes ago, Icegrx said:

1. Please don’t remove craft auto saves, or change how they work. They have saved me countless times. 
 

2. Workspaces are a bit wonky, and could be optimized, but as of right now they work fine. 

 

Do not overwrite my manual saves or I will RAGE

I understand your point. Read the post left by Presto 200. If they allow me, I‘ll add this to the post. Do you like this idea? I think it checks your boxes. What do you think?

[Presto200]

15 minutes ago, TechieV said:

Nice! It‘s a good idea and very helpful! Can I add this to the post? I‘m trying to make this a community bulletin board, where everyone‘s ideas are in one page. Any ideas are very helpful to this cause! Can I have your consent to add it? Please?

absolutely!

[TechieV]

10 minutes ago, Presto200 said:

absolutely!

Yes! Here‘s the plan: I‘ll make a separate section for every account who makes an idea. In it, I‘ll add the idea. This will take some time, but thank you for the consent!

[Spicat]

2 hours ago, TechieV said:

Other than that, would you like me to add this to the post, inside a section named „Spicat“? I‘m trying to make this like a community bulletin board for saving and loading feedback, so any ideas are helpful! Do I have your consent? Pleeeaasseee?!

You can do whatever you want, ideas cannot be copyrighted so you could remix that like you want.

[TechieV]

Okay! Here‘s the plan: I‘ll make a separate section for every account who makes an idea. In it, I‘ll add the idea. This will take some time, but thank you for the consent!

[Icegrx]

4 hours ago, TechieV said:

I understand your point. Read the post left by Presto 200. If they allow me, I‘ll add this to the post. Do you like this idea? I think it checks your boxes. What do you think?

Yeah I like the drop down idea with sub saves being saved under a main workspace.