in mp there's the problem that saving causes the gaem to spot for a few seconds, and it might cause problems with the physics engine. so, usually in mp the host announces that he's gona save, everyone gets somewhere safely, game saves for a few seconds (up to 30), and everything continues then as normal.
there are also more reasons that speak against autosave, for example that you can not revert to an old save in mp, so when something bad happens right when you autosave, that problem is stuck there.
in singleplayer it's similar, saving causes the game to reload, for example if i activate the headlight of the buggy and save, the headlight turns off again.

you might want to wait until next year, when the devs start pushing out bugfixes and polishing features like crazy.
sry m8

Originally posted by gabgab01:

[...]
there are also more reasons that speak against autosave, for example that you can not revert to an old save in mp, so when something bad happens right when you autosave, that problem is stuck there.[...]

General speaking that is BS! Total BS.
For a mod as well as for the vanilla game.

It takes almost no effort to tell the OS to rename the old file before initiating a save. (mod) and in case things go south you simply go back and rename the old one.

Even if not that is still a better solution than loosing one or more hours of gameplay because some (of the more of plenty) silly bugs has been tripped (like accessing a printer in a state he doesn't like or zooming [FOV error]).
Since I play MP alone #forever_alone ;p it doesn't matter but I have jumbled a AHK (because I lack the skill to tinker with the game itself) together that just does this ... every 5 minutes it displays a local warning overlay (could also be send to chat) ... then (a few seconds later) it opens the menu and clicks on the "save" button.

Though I didn't inlcude a backup yet ... but I easily could.


For the vanilla game ... it is no big deal to add a number or a timestamp (or alike) to each save file.
The functionality of multiple save files (saving and loading) is added in with two dozend lines top.
Autosave even less. Autosave with a warning ahead maybe same size ...

Come on! That would take a skilled programmer only about 15min to half an hour .... is that really too much to ask?

Originally posted by gabgab01:

you might want to wait until next year, when the devs start pushing out bugfixes and polishing features like crazy.

According to their initial schedule (which I called cazy nonsense) the game should have been out for about a year . So .... don't expect me to wait another.

(The state the game is in and the work that still has to be done ... my guess is ~ august next year is a possible candidate for release)

sure, the lack of an autosave funktion is quite annoying, and i agree, they are really taking their time in making this game. but since they overdid themselves (the original plan was just the completion of the rover aspect of this game, which was already done ahead of schedule), and don't forget, it's not the entire bohemia team working on it, it's just a handful of people.

while i do know a tiny bit about programming (especially c++, which is what this game is written in), i tried to make some mods for this game but ultimately failed. if you think that it is easy to add an autosave mod, go ahead, i would like to help you in every way possible.

there's an integrated modding tool including a manual in the game files. you might want to check that out if you want to try it yourself. and if you have any questions regarding documentation of the games source code, there are a few people on the forums who can help you.

if you really manage to make an autosave mod, it would surely be the most popular mod on the workshop :D

Originally posted by gabgab01:

while i do know a tiny bit about programming (especially c++, which is what this game is written in), i tried to make some mods for this game but ultimately failed. if you think that it is easy to add an autosave mod, go ahead, i would like to help you in every way possible.

While I can read C (+derivates) I am not able to write in C.
I however have written something in AHK that is working. ... at least somewhat. It has to read out a pixel color in order to dectect if the menu is up or not and the same procedure again to see if saving has worked (or not). Not implemented yet are the sending of keystrokes to send a warning in chat (I play MP games alone ...deliberately alone) but this are just 4 lines (one to send the warning ahead of time, a pause before save, a pause after saving, and a message that it is over) nor doing backups (which might break on different systems).
I also use an indicator if the backup is active ... on a 2nd screen ... because I need a 3rd party programm to make these overlays ghosts ... which usually is too much work. I do not care about my warning (cause only active for ~5 seconds) ... but the active indicator is permanent and might interfere with my clicks.
Program is also adjusted to my habit to play games in fake fullscreen.

if you can manage to translate this into a C or C++ - script, you would be able to upload it as a mod. since i don't know how to upload a mod which alternates core files, i have no idea how to do it myself, but i could think of it being a serverside mod only, because of the nature of it.

since only the host has to click on the save button, the program/script could be tied to a customizable timer to allow activation for it after a specified amount of time (simple stuff, i know). there's no need to have it for the connecting clients, which is awesome for many people, so you don't have to download workshop content if you join a server with the autosave mod.

so, if you figure out how to add your little program to the game using the workshop (steam - user Relterated might help), i would definitely use it.

or you just make a forum post to a link for your software.
(i use a fake fulscreen software aswell, so depending on the resolution your program is tied to it would probably work for me too. maybe just add a few buttons to type in your resolution or a simple ui if there's no way of uploading it to the workshop?)

This is actually not even an option, because the script runs total independent from the game.
Even if it would be translated to C it only would run as a independent program (that also depends on the AHK framework).
I can compile it to a exe, though that doesn't need AHK to be installed.
It is currently tied to FullHD (since I have to look if a certain pixel is white / gray indicating that the save button is at that place) changing th resolution would also mean I have no clue where this pixel is ... though I could roughly (but good enough) interpolate the button position to click it, it would mean I can't tell if the button cam up in first place.
It works the following way:

1. Checking if the menu is up by finding the white pixel (which might be gray because of anti aliasing) on the save button.
   
2. If it is not send an ESC key keystroke.
   
3. Wait 200ms for the menu to come up
   
4. Start over at 1 (loop in case it didn't work or it was in printer menu or alike)
   
5. If it is up, then click on the button.
   
6. Wait 200ms to be sure menu has gone away.
   
7. Check if menu is still up (click has failed ... for some reasons, not only AHK keystrokes but normal as well tend to fail from time to time ... had a hard time dropping and grabbing cables while sorting them)
   
8. If menu is still up repeat again from 5 (is actually a while loop)

(omittet the overlays)

Everytime I check I know it is a pixel of the word "save", which can be slighly moved in a different resolution. To make this work I need a completly different function which is sadly way slower. (saving now takes ~1 second, the other function is looking for the pixel already 1s)
Not only that this new function look for a color in a area ... which (aside being way slower) would make it less reliable (since any white pixel would trigger it) ... So taht I would have to look for the border (color of the save button) as well. Keep in mind I have to check it several times to make sure menu popped up, which in worst case would mean: 2 seconds to check+ 50ms keystroke +200ms wait + 2 seconds to check (realise that it didn't do a thing) + 50ms keystroke +200ms wait + 2 seconds to check (just got out of printer menu) + 50ms keystroke +200ms wait + 2 seconds to check (didn't worked) + 50ms keystroke +200ms wait + 2 seconds to check (got into menu) + 50ms click + 200ms wait + 2 seconds to check (didn 't work) + 50ms click (+ 200ms wait + 2 seconds to check [finally done])
Which would change the time the program is blocked from a still annoying ~ 1-1.5s to unbearable up to 13.3 s... and 99% play in 1080p anyway ...

I can however change the script that is also sends a chat message ahead of time ... and if provided with the path of the save file ... an backup function ... and then post it here.