Hello!

I'm currently working on a persistent save system for Ravage (and other) missions, since long-time playing on a vanilla save system doesn't ever go well, at least for me. There are many instances, in which it's impossible to continue playing, e.g. actions such as searching for loot or sleeping stop working, lag increases gradually until it gets really noticable (possibly due to a lot of unnecessary data being kept and processed) etc. Also, some of the mod functionalities behave oddly, for example: vehicles with dead bandits start to spawn and their bodies disappear, when you enter the vehicle.

Also, let's not forget about the fact, that ArmA updates make older save files incompatible.

So, instead of complaining, I've decided to fix this by creating my own load / save system. Well, it is my own, but it's based on the same principle as Antistasi persistent save system, i.e. by storing data in profileNamespace, so I have to give them credit and thank them for this clever solution :) System from Antistasi doesn't seem like it's prepared to be added to a custom mission, so I've started creating a new one from a scratch.

Now, how does it work?

- Technically: each ArmA 3 profile has a file called "<ProfileName>.vars.Arma3Profile". It is possible to store your own data in this file from any mission, and then load it by using profileNamespace. By storing only really important data, it is possible to start the mission again, load a persistent save and play without all the garbage present in default ArmA saves, which should prevent any problems I've described above. I think that default saving system isn't prepared for a long (or in this case - infinite) missions.

- Practically: player uses the radio to do the work (Juliet for saving, Alpha through India for loading slots). Oldest loading slot is overwritten automatically when saving, but I'm trying to keep things extensible enough to allow other save systems, such as using actions or anything a mission maker can think of. I'm also trying to not make it dependent on Ravage, so missions outside of this mod can use it as well.

Currently, I'm storing data listed below:
- Player (loadout, position, damages, stamina, identity, rating, units under his command - each unit also has the same details stored).
- Vehicles - only those, which player marks with a special action. Cargo, damages, fuel an position are stored.
- Custom units - it's possible to add units other than player to be stored by adding them to a specific array. Units under their command are stored as well.
- Containers - as in case of vehicles, cargo, damages and position are stored.
- Environment data - day, time and weather are stored.

I'm sure there's a lot more that can be stored, but for now it seems that most important parts are done and work pretty well, at least in my tests.

Unfortunately, I got stuck when it came to storing Ravage data. Ravage has functions to GET some information (such as days passed, hunger, thirst etc.), but it's impossible to SET them (at least I haven't found a solution to this problem). Restoring Ravage-specific data would be a very important part of this system, so here's a question to @Haleks - do you think it would be possible to add setters to your mod?

I will share the code of the saving system in the near future, I just need to do some cleaning and write a quick documentation :)

-- Edit 1 --

Here's the link: https://gitlab.com/sukhoi191_a3/arma-3-persistent-save-system

-- Edit 2 --

Nevermind about that problem regarding setting values. After quick look at Ravage functions, it turns out all I have to do is to call for example:

player setVariable ["hunger", 50];