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I can see the end of the tunnel (and it's been a very wonderful tunnel). In the next month or two I think I will be done in the Wasteland – at least for a while. I might want to go back to it at some point, but my free hard drive space is kinda limited. So I was considering uninstalling all of F3 and the add-ons, but leaving my saved games (of which there are more than 2000) on my computer in case I want to reinstall and play again later.
So my question is, if you keep saved games but uninstall the main game files, is everything likely to work just fine if you reinstall the game later? Is it likely that the game will recognize your saved games as if the game had never been uninstalled?
"…you just keep on trying 'til you run out of cake."
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Maybe. [Image Can Not Be Found]
Surely your 2000 saves aren't still in the save folder? I take all but the most recent out every couple of days (since I tend to save alot). Zip 'em & rename the file with a date (like 10_9FO3saves), and store them outside the game. Some games become bogged down when they must load 100s of saves each playtime.
Back to the question. Assuming the re-installed game goes in the same place as you installed the first time, sure the game will see the saves. You can even re-install to a different place & manually put your saves into the saves folder (like how I play the same game across two computers at two houses).
Problems arise (potentially, not necessarily) when:
1. The original game you played & saved is patched during interim and your old saves won't load. When that happens, players scream bloody murder so it doesn't happen much anymore. The solution is then don't patch.
2. The original game you played & saved was modded. Reinstall does not have identical mods, but the saves expect them. Not so problematic with a couple of missing mods, but 20-30 or more.... You've read uninstall notes for mods, some have finicky steps and/or recommend making clean saves sans mods before continuing.
May be other situations but can't think of any at the mo'. When I have room, I keep the original install (like FO3). If I don't or upgrade computers, I make folders of saves & put 'em on flash drives. Some saves (Arcanum, Morrowind) have been waiting 5+ years for me to continue.
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Thanks Yap. You answered my question, and made me think of those saved game files in a new light. I just checked...I had 2527 saves (573 hrs. play time) prior to installing mods. At that time I copied my last 5 saves and put them in a separate folder from the F3 saves folder. I did the same later when I uninstalled some mods and installed others. I'm now at 2787 saves (and 701 hrs. played).
Until your post it never occurred to me that those thousands of saves might either/both slow load time (it does take a bit of time to load the game now) and make the game run slower (with the mods it's hard to tell, but I do think it does).
It's also true that since I have uninstalled some mods as I finished them my saves often load slowly and then ask me if I want to load a save that depends on info that is no longer present because of the uninstalled mods. Hmmm.
As far as patches, there will be no new ones for F3. It's on to New Vegas for Bethesda, and the 3rd and last official patch, which I installed before starting the game for the first time last year, seems to have taken care of many problems I've read about. Too, there are unofficial patches that fixed more things, and an error correction mod that fixed others. I've installed all of those. I'm as patched as I'm ever gonna get, and so is the game.
By the way, it turns out that my 2787 saves = 5GB. Geez, that's huge. I will take your advice and copy/compress all saves prior to modding and put them in a non-F3 folder. Not only will that free up some space on my already too-full hard drive, but it might make the game run more smoothly. I wish I wasn't maxed out on ram. If I could add more that might help too. If this damned economy ever recovers I'll be seriously looking at a new computer. 4GB of ram just ain't enough these days, and games are getting even hungrier.
Thank you, thank you. [Image Can Not Be Found]
"…you just keep on trying 'til you run out of cake."
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Spike said:
By the way, it turns out that my 2787 saves = 5GB.
If being wrong's a crime I'm serving forever
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xtal said:
Holy dogmeat!
He ain't holy. He died and would not be resurrected. [Image Can Not Be Found]
But 700+ hours and 5GB does seem a bit MUCH, doesn't it. And yet I am neither an obsessive, nor addictive, personality.
"…you just keep on trying 'til you run out of cake."
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Spike said:
By the way, it turns out that my 2787 saves = 5GB.
Thank you, thank you. [Image Can Not Be Found]
I must have been tired last night when I posted this question. Or maybe I'm just an idiot. I was very wrong about the size of my saved games file. I just removed all my pre-modding saves from the F3 file, and they are now compressing. Gonna take almost 2 hours. I left all my post-mod saves where they were. My mistake was that I didn't have 5 GB of saves. The saves that I am compressing totalled 17.4 GB. These will compress down to <1 GB. I hope that this helps speed loading times.
I never thought about all those saves because I've never played a game long enough to accumulate this many. Now I know.
.
"…you just keep on trying 'til you run out of cake."
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My PS3 was getting a bit slow, so I just try to keep 5 saves on the HD, and rotate through them as necessary.
I saw an interesting experiment online once, when a guy and his friends all agreed to play a game (could have been Farcry or something), and only play it once, until their character died. That was it.
It was interesting how everyone viewed their characters in a different light, becoming more attatched to them, and making uber safe choices to try and keep them alive as long as possible.
For some reason, the idea of playing a game once, with only on life and without saves or restarting or anything, terrifies the proverbial poo out of me.
A man goes to knowledge as he goes to war, wide awake, with fear, with respect, and with absolute assurance. – The Teachings of Don Juan
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Jarrod said:
For some reason, the idea of playing a game once, with only on life and without saves or restarting or anything, terrifies the proverbial poo out of me.
Dieing on the penultimate fight in Zangband and losing a 100+ hour played character nearly got me evicted. My [BLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP] shout was loud enough to wake tenants two floors below.
grooowrrrr! [menace menace] rrrrowwwr!
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A hundred hours on one save? Then losing it at the very end? That would be a bad thing.
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Ouch! I haven't heard of Zangband - did you go into it knowing that if you died so late in the game that it would be all over?
A man goes to knowledge as he goes to war, wide awake, with fear, with respect, and with absolute assurance. – The Teachings of Don Juan
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Ayup. Was back in my days playing/playtesting/dev work on roguelikes. Death = character save deletion. Many devs never beat their own games without cheating.
I was so sure I had the win that time, a clean one super cautious, thus the hours, and not cheesing with Stormbringer. One key click was all it took to go splat. Can't recommend such games to adults–rarely play them now myself–but nothing in gaming is more tense. Like XCOM (the original good one) but even tighter on the noose.
Upside, an undeleted by failure save file is ~60k.
grooowrrrr! [menace menace] rrrrowwwr!
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Jarrod said:
I saw an interesting experiment online once, when a guy and his friends all agreed to play a game (could have been Farcry or something), and only play it once, until their character died. That was it.
It was interesting how everyone viewed their characters in a different light, becoming more attatched to them, and making uber safe choices to try and keep them alive as long as possible.
For some reason, the idea of playing a game once, with only on life and without saves or restarting or anything, terrifies the proverbial poo out of me.
An interesting concept, indeed.
Diablo II has a "hardcore" mode on battle.net where one death deletes you character. I never had the guts to try it.
If being wrong's a crime I'm serving forever
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