Frustrating stupid death due to save system :: Caves of Qud Bug Reports & Troubleshooting

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polq37

20 Jan, 2018 @ 12:09am

Frustrating stupid death due to save system

So, the patch was pushed out tonight. I started up the game to see if my save was compatible (Level 23, probably 30 hours into the game). It was not, so I rolled back to the previous stable and started the game up again. My game loaded up fine. So, of course, I hit quit. I had never pressed the quit button before. I had only ever hit "Save and quit". But, I wasn't actually playing right now and I hadn't moved or done anything, so I didn't want to save. As it turns out, the 'Quit' button doesn't quit to the desktop, it deletes your character. (And yes, there's a warning box, but it starts with the standard disclaimer about progress not getting saved, so I clicked through it without paying attention).

Why does 'Save and Quit' allow you to stop playing for the evening while 'Quit' kills your character and erases 30 hours of work?

'Quit' should never kill the character and delete the save file. That's just bonkers. There should be a carefully labeled suicide function for folks who inexplicably want to kill their characters.

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Showing 1-10 of 10 comments

AlphaBeard [developer] 20 Jan, 2018 @ 12:12am

Sorry about that. :(

It's that way because otherwise a large number of players would otherwise complain that they can take advantage of it to save-scum.

If you select the "disable permadeath" option under debug options it won't delete saves on quit in the future.

There may be a primary.bak in the save folder you can rename primary.sav, depending on how thoroughly it cleaned up the folder.

Last edited by AlphaBeard; 20 Jan, 2018 @ 12:13am

polq37

20 Jan, 2018 @ 12:38am

Thanks for the response. I really do love your game.

The 'quit' button needs a little rethinking though. Maybe rename it 'Suicide'.

AlphaBeard [developer] 20 Jan, 2018 @ 12:46am

For sure, I'm not disagreeing that the verbiage could be more clear, especially now that we're starting to get outside of the 'core roguelike' player base.

This kind of verbiage is modelled after fairly small audience niche games and I agree it's out of place and easily misunderstood in the hands of a wider audience, with a fairly easy fix.

Last edited by AlphaBeard; 20 Jan, 2018 @ 12:47am

berl

20 Jan, 2018 @ 1:35am

Maybe rename "Save and Quit" to "Save and Exit Session", or even just "Save and Exit"? I've personally lost one or two characters myself from confusing the two on accident, but probably because of muscle memory and overlooking the two options.

Also concerning save-scumming, I'm pretty sure someone who exits the game (alt-f4, closes window, etc.) before reaching the death screen/tombstone still manages to save their progress from the last save point before their death.

AlphaBeard [developer] 20 Jan, 2018 @ 8:10pm

I think renaming "Quit" something like "Abandon" or "Abandon Character" or something would be the most clear change.

...and yes, alt+f4 will scum the save, but that's still much different in many player's minds from the game fully supporting it mechanically.

Last edited by AlphaBeard; 20 Jan, 2018 @ 8:11pm

polq37

20 Jan, 2018 @ 9:40pm

I think that would work well.

B0nGD0NGSILVA has Caves of Qud

21 Jan, 2018 @ 11:53pm

You could always make proper quitting require you to type out YES like in DCSS.

inanity

3 Apr @ 1:54am

Are you kidding me? You did this because you're worried people will complain they could easily cheat? Are you hearing yourself? That's a ridiculously stupid decision. If they don't want to cheat, just tell them NOT TO CHEAT! Don't punish your sane players! I can't believe this.