Save Backups not working anymore

[Mike ={JcC}=]

So previously when i died i could load several different backups of saves and i would land in different parts of the world, depending on where i saved the game.
Now i suffocated right in front of my raft and since i was full of loot i decided to just reload an older save to not lose all my inventory.
But no matter what save i load, i always end up at the same spot right before i suffocate, and cant do anything else than spawn. Then i respawned on the raft, left the game, and accidentially saved the game before leaving. Now i can load all saves no matter how old they are, and always am on the same sport right after i respawned and saved. The savegames seem to be overwritten with all the same savegame, despite having different timestamps in windows... that doesnt even make sense.
i already deleted (moved out) all the other save files beside of the oldest one and i still load on the exact same spot as i the most recent one.

is there anything i missed here, or am i too stupid to understand this backup system?

Edit: i've tried now several times, and it always just loads the last save i made. There are no backups anymore, even if there are several files.

[Anonymous Helper]

Backup saves only save state of the game world, not state of your character which is saved in separate save and overwritten every time game is saved. As game saves upon death and thus overwrites the only character save there is, you can not load character state that is before your death.

Only way to avoid death penalty is to play peaceful or easy as in those modes you keep your inventory upon death. On normal you lose your inventory on death.

[Mike ={JcC}=]

Thanx for that info.
I don't know what you call it when you have the ability to save the game, and even have backups for those files, and then you have one different file for the inventory that automatically overwrites everytime you die, but i call it a very bad game design. Why would i need a savegame and its backups, when i can't revert to a previous stage of the gameplay?
And since i can't change the "difficulty" from normal to easy in my already existing save, im screwed... Thank god there is a mod who fixes this flawed game design, so i can play the game without wasting hours of grinding...

[Anonymous Helper]

Considering game has a death penalty in the first place, the obvious reason the save system works the way it works is to prevent players from save scumming to avoid the death penalty. Originally game only had one save and backups were added more to prevent lose of ongoing game due to save game corruption or other mishap.

Whether one likes the system is up to each person's personal preferences. I play on easy precisely to avoid having to lose everything on death.

Mods are also an option as you found out. Only problem with them is they tend to break when game is updated and can take a while to be compatible with latest version and some cases they never get updated due to modder maintaining them leaving. This may in some cases permanently break the saves (mostly furniture and similar).

[Mike ={JcC}=]

As a gamer who's playing games since 25 years, i usually dont hit "easy" when i play a new game. I bought the game when it came out on steam, and i don't remember that system beeing like that from the start. I started with "normal" because i didn't know that it would be nearly impossible to progress when you constantly die because of the thirst and hunger bar rushes down like hell and you lose all your stuff after respawn. Imho this system is highly unbalanced, but that might only be me...
Once i'll start over i will play on easy too... but right now im too far into my first playthrough to start from scratch. Too bad we can't switch the setting during a session...

[Anonymous Helper]

There are mods that allow changing game modes.

Originally game had only one save per game world. Backups were introduced with save game system overhaul in Update 10: “The First Chapter”.

[fabio.capela]

Originally posted by Anonymous Helper:

Considering game has a death penalty in the first place, the obvious reason the save system works the way it works is to prevent players from save scumming to avoid the death penalty.

While at the same time creating a very obvious item duplication loophole due to being able to load an old backup of the world while keeping the player's current inventory. You can get a full inventory worth of anything, starting from a single item, in just a few minutes.

Being quite sincere, save scumming would be less detrimental than the current item dup... let's call it feature, as it's not really a glitch.

(BTW, I utterly and completely hate how the game saves after a death, so I just downloaded DNSpy, edited both DeathMenu.Button_YesExit and Player.Kill to remove the forced saving, and restarted my playthrough now without that ridiculous mechanic that was ruining my fun.)

[bigbluetower]

Originally posted by Mike ={JcC}=:

So previously when i died i could load several different backups of saves and i would land in different parts of the world, depending on where i saved the game.
Now i suffocated right in front of my raft and since i was full of loot i decided to just reload an older save to not lose all my inventory.
But no matter what save i load, i always end up at the same spot right before i suffocate, and cant do anything else than spawn. Then i respawned on the raft, left the game, and accidentially saved the game before leaving. Now i can load all saves no matter how old they are, and always am on the same sport right after i respawned and saved. The savegames seem to be overwritten with all the same savegame, despite having different timestamps in windows... that doesnt even make sense.
i already deleted (moved out) all the other save files beside of the oldest one and i still load on the exact same spot as i the most recent one.

is there anything i missed here, or am i too stupid to understand this backup system?

Edit: i've tried now several times, and it always just loads the last save i made. There are no backups anymore, even if there are several files.

Hi !
I have absolutely the same annoying problem here !!!
I played RAFT yesterday for the first time with a friend, and we had 100% the same problem as Mike wrote above !
We manually saved the game healthy with full inventory. We played some more time, and then we decided to go back to that old save state. And our inventory was empty!
We have been totally pissed !
A bug? Okay, let's try it again ...
We started again ... saved frequently ... Wanted to go back ... the Same ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ !
This makes the game a complete waste of time !!!
What do you think a save game is for?
Correct me if I'm wrong, but for me, a save game should bring back the whole state of the game while saving!
We really liked the idea of the game...
But we're not going to play again until this is fixed !
And if we had played less than 2 hours, we even would have requested a refund in that furious mood !
Sorry - this is no rant - but I just have to mention that something is completely going wrong here! I don't know if the devs read and comment here, but I'm really interested in their view on that problem ! Or if they think this is a feature - not a bug !
At least we're not the only ones thinking this is a problem !
Kind regards
Tom

[Anonymous Helper]

Originally posted by bigbluetower:

What do you think a save game is for?
Correct me if I'm wrong, but for me, a save game should bring back the whole state of the game while saving!

It does bring the state that was saved last. The one after your death. As game auto saves upon death and as there is single character save which is overwritten every time save is made, that is only character save available for you to load. Think of it as game having only single save slot per game world (as originally designed btw). That should make it easier to understand.

Backups are there solely for rare cases where most recent world save gets corrupted so you don't have to start over.

As has been already said, you can play on Peaceful or Easy mode to avoid the death penalty. It only applies to Normal mode. Hard mode is basically Ironman Mode for solo players as you can't revive without help of other player in that mode.

There are also mods to change game modes, disable death penalty or make you drop your items upon death.

If you feel the save system or the game modes themselves should be changed or could be improved upon, best way is to send a suggestion directly to the developers using the Google Form liked in one of the pinned topics in Suggestions / Ideas sub forum.

[bigbluetower]

Originally posted by Anonymous Helper:

It does bring the state that was saved last.

That's exactly what I expect and what I want !
But that's not what it does !

I save with full inventory.
And when I reload that save I want THAT STATE of the world, me, my buddy and my inventory".
Just as simple as this.
Get the state back as it was saved ...
Just as a normal save game behaves in any other game !
And I don't want to use any damn mods to just get my save state back !

[Anonymous Helper]

Originally posted by bigbluetower:

Originally posted by Anonymous Helper:

It does bring the state that was saved last.

That's exactly what I expect and what I want !
But that's not what it does !

I save with full inventory.
And when I reload that save I want THAT STATE of the world, me, my buddy and my inventory".
Just as simple as this.
Get the state back as it was saved ...
Just as a normal save game behaves in any other game !
And I don't want to use any damn mods to just get my save state back !

As I said game basically has one save slot (there is only 1 character save). Sole purpose of backups is to avoid losing entire world save to file corruption. Game autosaves upon death overwriting previous save meaning only save available to you if you die is after your death. This is to prevent people from avoiding death penalties implemented with game modes. That is how the save system works and has always worked on Raft (well, IIRC in prototype death meant game over but we're talking about Steam version here). It's not a bug, it is by design.

There is no point in arguing with me about it, I'm merely a moderator for these forums, not a developer and I'm merely trying to explain how saves work in this game, I did not develop the system nor do I have any power to change it.

If you want to provide suggestions and feedback to the developers, use the Raft suggestions and ideas submission form:

https://forms.gle/wy1VwTSSTfFERmJx8

[fabio.capela]

As a workaround, you can put your whole inventory into chests, make a manual save, and jot down the time before going somewhere dangerous. If you get killed, just load that specific backup; since your inventory was empty when you saved back there you will have lost nothing (apart, perhaps, from some food and water) when you sacrifice your inventory to respawn.

[Mike ={JcC}=]

I say it as it is: This system is designed to screw you over. A permanent "death penalty" has no place in a NORMAL mode. The Mode should be labeled more clearly, like "WasteOfTime" or maybe Hardcore. Because especially in the early game, your inventory is the ONLY place to store items. There is nothing else to save, other than your two platform wide raft and your inventory full of loot. You should not lose all your progress just by accident. It is ok, that your inventory is empty when you die. It is not ok to clear your inventory in previous saves also. (i know the system doesnt work like that, but the result is the same) This has nothing to do with a NORMAL mode! Period.

[Symatrix Hill]

I just find a link who may help you out folks from main thread who can be a solution but have i not use it yet because it do not feels right for me :



SnowBee har Raft 7. jan. 2020 kl. 13.17
Understanding Backup Save Games?



-- Answered the main thread :

Xas har Raft 7. jan. 2020 kl. 13.23
The save system is slightly flawed, fragile, when 'reloading' upon death.

If intention to 'turn back time' before death,

~ 'never' reload while already dead, as simply leads to more overwritten save files.
~ 'only' manually 'backup savings' and 'overwriting' can truly turn back time.


If encountered concurrent damage over time bug which some had experienced similar to the goo toxic, dying despite pressing respawn after restarting game.
To recover, simply return to where you last were, (hopefully not badly corrupted)

IF been playing on Steam Cloud save,
Play game, load into world.
Disable Steam Cloud sync. Save manually.
\AppData\LocalLow\Redbeet Interactive\Raft\User\User_XXXXXX\Player\
Move RGD_Users.rgd to your desktop.
Restart Steam and retry game.

B) IF playing from manual saves
\AppData\LocalLow\Redbeet Interactive\Raft\User\User_XXXXXX\Player\
Move RGD_Users.rgd to your desktop.
Restart Steam and retry game.


*You should lose all onhand/backpack inventory but retains your raft/ journal chapter progress,
respawning on your raft with default in your inventory.



-- By the way we have a achievement here as well : Master Survivor!
Survive 365 days and then you know about that as well.

Many game have the opportunity to run back and pick up the inventory after a certain time before it disappear, maybe that is something the developer can look into.

[Symatrix Hill]

Originally posted by Anonymous Helper:

Backup saves only save state of the game world, not state of your character which is saved in separate save and overwritten every time game is saved. As game saves upon death and thus overwrites the only character save there is, you can not load character state that is before your death. :cwd_skull:

Only way to avoid death penalty is to play peaceful or easy as in those modes you keep your inventory upon death. On normal you lose your inventory on death.

I have a question if you have time to help out :

I enter my creative world where a friend join and destroy some important stuff by accident he said so i quit the world and when i did that a message pop up : Do you want to save before exit - i choose "no" and when i load it up i see that the damage was still there even when i choose to not save,

So what do i need to do to load up my game the way it was and why do the save mechanics save when i said "no" ?

My autosave is turned off.

[Anonymous Helper]

Originally posted by Symatrix Hill:

I have a question if you have time to help out :

I enter my creative world where a friend join and destroy some important stuff by accident he said so i quit the world and when i did that a message pop up : Do you want to save before exit - i choose "no" and when i load it up i see that the damage was still there even when i choose to not save,

So what do i need to do to load up my game the way it was and why do the save mechanics save when i said "no" ?

My autosave is turned off.

It does not as far as I can tell. I've exited without saving many times as I often have to check or test something to answer questions or provide advice here in the forums and none of the changes I made were there after reloading.

Maybe game saves when someone exits MP session? I've never played raft in multiplayer so I'm not sure about that.

Edit: No problem exiting without saving after destroying things in creative. The destroyed stuff was back again after reloading.