[SOLVED] Sorry, but I quit

[Polarizer]

The save game does not save the game.

Yesterday, for the third time, I reached an autosave point, both at the campsite story and at the burned newspaper clipping, both Ethan story pages, after having discovered several things, like the crank for the train, moving the train car, inspecting the murder scene, as well as other things.

When I came back to the game this morning, THE TRAIN WAS BACK ON THE BRIDGE AGAIN, and the crank was gone. I reentered at the point of my last save, but NOTHING WAS SAVED.

This is now the third time the train has reverted to its initial state after an autosave. Enough!

It's impossible for me to know (since there's no inventory) whether I still have certain items, like the bloody rock, since THERE'S NO INVENTORY, and I'm not going to spend another five minutes on this beautiful but broken game until these issues are addressed and solved.

IF SAVE CAN'T BE TRUSTED, I CAN'T WILL NOT PLAY.

EDIT

See my final comment below. Essentially, I resolved my aggrivation and give the game a second go, knowing now that scene clues are localized and fairly easily completed. I've also completed a review, see the link below.

[nutcrackr]

AFAIK the save only saves completed scenes. So if you find an object (or two) and don't complete the scene, it will be reset when you load the game again. The save system is quite annoying like that.

[TAKO]

There was a patch. The patch-notes also explain how it works:

- checkpoint now also auto-saves every time we read a story page or see the murder (useful as a pseudo-manual location save)

Since they call it "pseudo-manual" location save, i guess they are aware that auto-save is not straight-forward. Guess you have to deal with it. But the game isn't that long anyway ;)

[nutcrackr]

Well that is another issue, which happens because the game prefers to be vague. But a scene would be when you read a story or when you see a complete character cut scene and the world returns to how it was.

[Polarizer]

Originally posted by nutcrackr:

AFAIK the save only saves completed scenes. So if you find an object (or two) and don't complete the scene, it will be reset when you load the game again. The save system is quite annoying like that.

That's not annoying. That's broken. It forces linearality on a game that is clearly intended to be freeform. It's not documented anywhere. I've lost three hours of exploration, finding a little here, a little there, only to find all that effort lost the next morning.

This can't have been the developer's intentions. What they've done is fail to anticipate how people will play the game, a fatal kind of oversight for a game developer. It's a pity. For me, it's the last straw.

[nutcrackr]

Originally posted by Polarizer:

That's not annoying. That's broken. It forces linearality on a game that is clearly intended to be freeform. It's not documented anywhere. I've lost three hours of exploration, finding a little here, a little there, only to find all that effort lost the next morning.

This can't have been the developer's intentions. What they've done is fail to anticipate how people will play the game, a fatal kind of oversight for a game developer. It's a pity. For me, it's the last straw.

I believe the developers intended you to complete each section of the world as you come to them. Given the lack of direction, new players will be at a disadvantage with the system. I also lost some of my progress because I did not finish an early segment.

[Polarizer]

Originally posted by Ilmyr:

There was a patch. The patch-notes also explain how it works:

- checkpoint now also auto-saves every time we read a story page or see the murder (useful as a pseudo-manual location save)

Since they call it "pseudo-manual" location save, i guess they are aware that auto-save is not straight-forward. Guess you have to deal with it. But the game isn't that long anyway ;)

No, I don't have to deal with it. It's broken. And yes, I got the patch, and used it to ensure that my game was properly saved before I shut it down yesterday. A save that doesn't save the complete game state shouldn't be called a save.

Imagine a quest oriented game in which you only saved when you completed a quest, and when you came back, all the incomplete quests had vanished and you had to go chase them down again from the beginning. Would you put up with that? I don't think so. This is the same thing.

[Polarizer]

It's obvious that there's a disconnect here between the developers and the common use of terms like "progress." You are warned that you will loose "unsaved progress" when you quit. Every decent game with saves tells you this, or else prompts you to create a save, or something. They're doing that correctly.

What they don't seem to get, however, is what "progress" is. I get it that they've defined it as "solving a murder" or "reading an Ethan page." However, what they don't tell you is that finding a clue is not "progress." In the common sense meaning of the word, a found clue is progress.

This needs to be fixed. It's far more important than adding manual save, because if they keep the same definition of "progress" then adding manual saves won't change anything. That train will keep going back on the bridge for no reason.

[sebx86]

Yeah this save system is quite annoying (I'd really love to have my character back exactly where I finished playing), but once you complete a scene then you can use it to maunally save the game, kind of.

[B✪✪tsy]

Glad I am reading about this before my purchase, I was almost sold on the graphics alone. I will keep it wishlisted till there is a patch for this.

[Renzokuken]

Same here, I'm trying to request for a refund. See how it goes. Enough crashes with a click and point games. I'd rather use the credits to buy The Lost Crown

[Mark]

The game is a big let down because of the BAD save system. They need to have it save every thirty minutes or a manual save or this game will get poor reviews based on the save game method. Shame. I like the game but I have had enough of going over the same area and doing the same things over and over just because i want to explore or I missed doing one little thing to acitvate a save point.

[Fiach]

Originally posted by McShave07:

I hate to pull the early access card, but that's what it is. It's still a game in the making.

What do you mean by Early Access, afaik this is a full release game, is it not?

[Renzokuken]

Mine is just not abt saving. The moment click on the question mark- supposingly a clue or cutscene will show. However, it keeps crashing and I'm stuck after trying to put clues together (gasoline + grass) - railcar?? <---it's a festival of crashes

[Drowning witch]

Who is supposed to be sorry that you quit? You bought the game already.

[donmiguelangel]

Originally posted by Mage of Silver Night:

Same here, I'm trying to request for a refund. See how it goes. Enough crashes with a click and point games. I'd rather use the credits to buy The Lost Crown

The lost crown. What a great game! And long, not that short buggy game