Iron man and potential problems

[Brownbeard]

I would ask more information about some practical implications of this feature. While I am quite positive on the no-turning back-one-save-game play style, it does bring two serious problems with it as well.

1. Autosave - will this game mode have autosave, the main game killer in most scenarios will not be the Ottomans, the Spanish, the French or the Aztec super power empire but crash to desktop, something that is bound to happen quite a number of times between the start and end of game, and losing progress can cause serious loss of willpower to continue a campaign if you have to replay last 30-50 years or so all over again. I have caught a detail in the manual that save is done after each decision, but the hardware-bandwith issues this would bring up make this seem a little exeraggerated, since an average savegame in paradox titles is like 10-20Mb.

2. Save game corruption - the further you go the more likely it is to happen. Will the game make some backup copies to at least return to some previous stage instead of killing the campaign alltogether?

 

[Keinwyn]

Those problems would make me extremely nervous about Ironman. I never saw the need for it in the first place anyway... what's wrong with self restraint?

 

[unmerged(436497)]

Those problems would make me extremely nervous about Ironman. I never saw the need for it in the first place anyway... what's wrong with self restraint?

It's not like they are forcing you to play. Me personally, I can't help myself than to reload for example if I have a war in CK2 and my dumbass leader is randomly assigned to an army and he gets killed or captured (I don't get why you can't ban him from attending your wars) - I hate when you have to micro manage too many (useless) things.

 

[pedroantonio]

I have caught a detail in the manual that save is done after each decision, but the hardware-bandwith issues this would bring up make this seem a little exeraggerated, since an average savegame in paradox titles is like 10-20Mb.

I thought exactly this, there's no way I can upload a file of that size fast enough to make the saving really useful. I was thinking that maybe the game is going to upload some kind of master savegame when you start and then upload only the modifications to that file, not the whole file; or maybe they will have a local cached savegame wich is modified as you play and it's only uploaded when the game is cleanly closed.

 

[Illanair]

I doubt very much that Steam cloud actually uploads savegames on the fly - It is much more likely that it does it at set intervals, or at game close.

 

[Red_warning]

1. I imagine Ironman will have a single save file that is autosave and regular save in one
2. To my knowledge, EUIV uses an updated version of the CKII engine. I have personally never experienced any loss of saves due to corrupted data, and I've got nearly 500 hours played.

 

[grechzoo]

Those problems would make me extremely nervous about Ironman. I never saw the need for it in the first place anyway... what's wrong with self restraint?

this. never needed handcuffs, dont agree with save scumming at all in these types of games. as half the fun is walking down that path no matter how many piles of droppings you happen to step in.

 

[airpirate]

1: Ironman autosaves when you exit the game, after a bunch of other events, and (based on quil18's preview) the game autosaves every month by default. I would also imagine the game would let you save whenever you want, just as long as it overwrites the previous save. Not being able to save shouldn't be a problem.
2: I've never had any problems with save game corruption in CK2 with hundreds of hours played. Then again, I never really had problems with EU3 either, so I might not be the best person to judge. The game does use the steam cloud though, so if you do get a corrupted save you should be able to get it back through steam.

 

[Illanair]

this. never needed handcuffs, dont agree with save scumming at all in these types of games. as half the fun is walking down that path no matter how many piles of droppings you happen to step in.

Then don't use it - It really is that simple. Don't want it - don't use it. It doesn't change the gameplay in any way.

 

[Alyiakal]

I've gotten about half a dozen save game corruptions (clicking the save crashes the game) over my time playing CK2, some in vanilla and some with mods, so it does definitely happen. I've always just fallen back to the last autosave when that happens, so hopefully there will be enough redundancy in the EU4 ironman saves to prevent frustration in that department.

 

[Dutchling]

I just hope AI nations that didn't exist from the start of the game aren't as 'handicapped' as in EU3. I remember there being severe issues with them.

 

[Keinwyn]

Then don't use it - It really is that simple. Don't want it - don't use it. It doesn't change the gameplay in any way.

One has to use it to get achievements.

 

[Dutchling]

One has to use it to get achievements.

Personally, I might just ignore Ironman altogether unless I want to get one of the more difficult achievements (Ottomans owning Constantinople, Muscow, and Rome). By the time you get that one most of the easier ones should be unlocked already. No need to have your regular games played on Ironman if you're not a save-scummer anyway.

 

[jockedahl]

The problem is that if Iron Man autosaves. You can set the autosaving to 6months or a year.

Then just use ctrl+alt+delete and kill process if things didn't go your way.
Won't this just be possible? No way will it save like that.

Then you just go back in to your january autosave.

This might even allow you to do larger feats like setting autosave to each every 5 years. Then do a large project and kill process if things didn't go your way.

 

[Illanair]

One has to use it to get achievements.

Like I just said - it doesn't affect gameplay. :sleep:

 

[MrLebanon]

The problem is that if Iron Man autosaves. You can set the autosaving to 6months or a year.

Then just use ctrl+alt+delete and kill process if things didn't go your way.
Won't this just be possible? No way will it save like that.

Then you just go back in to your january autosave.

This might even allow you to do larger feats like setting autosave to each every 5 years. Then do a large project and kill process if things didn't go your way.

If someone's that determined for a pixely badge to show they achieved something then they can do as they wish.

 

[Illanair]

The problem is that if Iron Man autosaves. You can set the autosaving to 6months or a year.

Then just use ctrl+alt+delete and kill process if things didn't go your way.
Won't this just be possible? No way will it save like that.

Then you just go back in to your january autosave.

This might even allow you to do larger feats like setting autosave to each every 5 years. Then do a large project and kill process if things didn't go your way.

I doubt it is intended to be foolproof - Nothing is unless you're removing savegames entirely from the client machine...

 

[jockedahl]

I doubt it is intended to be foolproof - Nothing is unless you're removing savegames entirely from the client machine...

Don't give them ideas. Or else you will find your Roman Empire only existing in the "clouds"!

 

[Illanair]

Don't give them ideas. Or else you will find your Roman Empire only existing in the "clouds"!

I couldn't care less - I'd welcome full cloud support for all Steam games.

 

[Fawr]

I doubt it is intended to be foolproof - Nothing is unless you're removing savegames entirely from the client machine...

The manual says that Ironman saves are always in the cloud. That also stops people from editing the saved game.

The problem is that if Iron Man autosaves. You can set the autosaving to 6months or a year.

Then just use ctrl+alt+delete and kill process if things didn't go your way.
Won't this just be possible? No way will it save like that.

Then you just go back in to your january autosave.

This might even allow you to do larger feats like setting autosave to each every 5 years. Then do a large project and kill process if things didn't go your way.

The manual says that ironman saves whenever something major happens. I'd assume it would save when someone declares war on you, and other similar cases. Hopefully it has an incremental save, rather than taking a long break while the save game processes and uploads.