Add a "--continue" startup option and a "Continue" button

For what's not in 'Top Priority Game Design'. Post your ideas, visions, suggestions for the game, rules, modifications, etc.

Moderator: Oberlus

Message
Author
LGM-Doyle
Programmer
Posts: 219
Joined: Mon Feb 29, 2016 8:37 pm

Add a "--continue" startup option and a "Continue" button

#1 Post by LGM-Doyle »

I propose adding a "--continue" command line option and a "Continue" button to the intro menu. I've posted PR 1671 that does this.

To continue means to find the newest single player autosave, load it and continue play. The "--continue" option skips the intro menu the same as the "--quickstart" option.

The "Continue" button on the main menu is enabled by the "Autosave before game exit" option in the Options window under the autosave tab. autosave.last-turn The "Autosave before game exit" option autosaves the game when the player exits the game, including all moves the player has made up to that point. It will not autosave the game if it is crashing.

User avatar
MatGB
Creative Contributor
Posts: 3310
Joined: Fri Jun 28, 2013 11:45 pm

Re: Add a "--continue" startup option and a "Continue" butto

#2 Post by MatGB »

Oh, yes please. File it under another of those features I'd never thought of but really want when suggested.
Mat Bowles

Any code or patches in anything posted here is released under the CC and GPL licences in use for the FO project.

User avatar
biza
Space Squid
Posts: 67
Joined: Wed May 29, 2013 6:48 pm

Re: Add a "--continue" startup option and a "Continue" butto

#3 Post by biza »

wow, thank you!

i really miss that button for more than 2 years :)

http://www.freeorion.org/forum/viewtopi ... =28&t=9468

Cheers!

User avatar
em3
Vacuum Dragon
Posts: 630
Joined: Sun Sep 25, 2011 2:51 pm

Re: Add a "--continue" startup option and a "Continue" butto

#4 Post by em3 »

I think this is a great idea, but shouldn't be limited to autosave. I think it would be counter-intuitive if, after saving manually and restating the game, clicking "continue" took me to the earlier state instead.
https://github.com/mmoderau
[...] for Man has earned his right to hold this planet against all comers, by virtue of occasionally producing someone totally batshit insane. - Randall Munroe, title text to xkcd #556

User avatar
Dilvish
AI Lead and Programmer Emeritus
Posts: 4768
Joined: Sat Sep 22, 2012 6:25 pm

Re: Add a "--continue" startup option and a "Continue" butto

#5 Post by Dilvish »

em3 wrote:I think this is a great idea, but shouldn't be limited to autosave. I think it would be counter-intuitive if, after saving manually and restating the game, clicking "continue" took me to the earlier state instead.
I think the feature is a great idea, and I strongly with at least the main point of em3's comment here-- it should look at the saves in the main save directory as well as in the autosave folder (and perhaps any subfolders of the main save directory). If you chose to save a game in some other location, I don't feel the continue feature necessarily needs to keep track of (or otherwise discover) that.
If I provided any code, scripts or other content here, it's released under GPL 2.0 and CC-BY-SA 3.0

User avatar
Vezzra
Release Manager, Design
Posts: 6095
Joined: Wed Nov 16, 2011 12:56 pm
Location: Sol III

Re: Add a "--continue" startup option and a "Continue" butto

#6 Post by Vezzra »

Thumbs up! :D

LGM-Doyle
Programmer
Posts: 219
Joined: Mon Feb 29, 2016 8:37 pm

Re: Add a "--continue" startup option and a "Continue" butto

#7 Post by LGM-Doyle »

Thanks for all of the positive feedback.

biza, I did not realize that this was a returning feature.

em3, Dilvish, if "Autosave before game exit" is enabled then the newest save will always be the autosave, unless the game crashes, the player clicks exit without saving during the game exit or the player is copying/modifying games outside of the game in the OS. Even if the player starts a save and then hotkey exits, the game makes an autosave recording the exit state.

User avatar
MatGB
Creative Contributor
Posts: 3310
Joined: Fri Jun 28, 2013 11:45 pm

Re: Add a "--continue" startup option and a "Continue" butto

#8 Post by MatGB »

Dilvish wrote:
em3 wrote:I think this is a great idea, but shouldn't be limited to autosave. I think it would be counter-intuitive if, after saving manually and restating the game, clicking "continue" took me to the earlier state instead.
I think the feature is a great idea, and I strongly with at least the main point of em3's comment here-- it should look at the saves in the main save directory as well as in the autosave folder (and perhaps any subfolders of the main save directory). If you chose to save a game in some other location, I don't feel the continue feature necessarily needs to keep track of (or otherwise discover) that.
But if as specced it's only enabled if you have autosave on exit enabled then the most recent autosave will be the most recent save in most circumstances.
Mat Bowles

Any code or patches in anything posted here is released under the CC and GPL licences in use for the FO project.

User avatar
biza
Space Squid
Posts: 67
Joined: Wed May 29, 2013 6:48 pm

Re: Add a "--continue" startup option and a "Continue" butto

#9 Post by biza »

LGM-Doyle wrote:Thanks for all of the positive feedback.
biza, I did not realize that this was a returning feature.
Oh it is not, just that i am missing/waiting for a developer to implement this function for 2 years :)

User avatar
em3
Vacuum Dragon
Posts: 630
Joined: Sun Sep 25, 2011 2:51 pm

Re: Add a "--continue" startup option and a "Continue" butto

#10 Post by em3 »

MatGB wrote: But if as specced it's only enabled if you have autosave on exit enabled then the most recent autosave will be the most recent save in most circumstances.
Yes, well, I get that, but that's the part I don't agree with. As long as we treat this as a first step, and eventually a version that does not depend on at-exit auto saves is implemented, I will cease objecting.

EDIT: Writing longer posts on mobile while tired are a nuisance. Sorry for missing or misspelled words.
https://github.com/mmoderau
[...] for Man has earned his right to hold this planet against all comers, by virtue of occasionally producing someone totally batshit insane. - Randall Munroe, title text to xkcd #556

User avatar
Geoff the Medio
Programming, Design, Admin
Posts: 13587
Joined: Wed Oct 08, 2003 1:33 am
Location: Munich

Re: Add a "--continue" startup option and a "Continue" butto

#11 Post by Geoff the Medio »

LGM-Doyle wrote:The "Autosave before game exit" option autosaves the game when the player exits the game, including all moves the player has made up to that point.
Consider also an option for autosaving every X minutes, regardless of whether they player has ended the turn, to minimize potential loss in the event of crashes.

User avatar
Dilvish
AI Lead and Programmer Emeritus
Posts: 4768
Joined: Sat Sep 22, 2012 6:25 pm

Re: Add a "--continue" startup option and a "Continue" butto

#12 Post by Dilvish »

LGM-Doyle wrote:em3, Dilvish, if "Autosave before game exit" is enabled then...
Ah, I had actually overlooked the part about "Continue" only being enabled if autosave-on-exit was enabled. Like em3, though, that restriction does not make much sense to me -- what is the reasoning for not allowing 'Continue' if autosave-on-exit is not in force? And then there is still the issue when using the commandline --continue option, or would you disable that also?
If I provided any code, scripts or other content here, it's released under GPL 2.0 and CC-BY-SA 3.0

LGM-Doyle
Programmer
Posts: 219
Joined: Mon Feb 29, 2016 8:37 pm

Re: Add a "--continue" startup option and a "Continue" butto

#13 Post by LGM-Doyle »

Geoff the Medio wrote:Consider also an option for autosaving every X minutes
The current autosave feature already saves every turn. If the game crashes the continue will use the last autosave, so the only play lost is from the last autosave until the moment of the crash.
Dilvish wrote:what is the reasoning for not allowing 'Continue' if autosave-on-exit is not in force?
Only the "Continue" button in the IntroMenu is disabled. Since this is a very visible UI change I wanted it to be in the player control. If the player does not want autosaves on exit, then they do not have a "Continue" button.
Dilvish wrote:when using the commandline --continue option, or would you disable that also?
No "--continue" is always enabled. The player typing "--continue" is the indication that they want to try to continue, if there is an autosave available. If not it pops up the load dialog for the player to find an appropriate save.

User avatar
Geoff the Medio
Programming, Design, Admin
Posts: 13587
Joined: Wed Oct 08, 2003 1:33 am
Location: Munich

Re: Add a "--continue" startup option and a "Continue" butto

#14 Post by Geoff the Medio »

If the most recent save is a manual save, why shouldn't the Continue button use that? I'd only disable the button if there is no available save to load automatically.

User avatar
Dilvish
AI Lead and Programmer Emeritus
Posts: 4768
Joined: Sat Sep 22, 2012 6:25 pm

Re: Add a "--continue" startup option and a "Continue" butto

#15 Post by Dilvish »

LGM-Doyle wrote:
Geoff the Medio wrote:Consider also an option for autosaving every X minutes
The current autosave feature already saves every turn. If the game crashes the continue will use the last autosave, so the only play lost is from the last autosave until the moment of the crash.
LGM-Doyle, let me start by emphasizing even if some feature might be identified by Geoff or myself or anyone as a nice-to-have feature (or nice-to-have augmentation to some feature we are already working on), I would not expect you to spend time on something unless you were convinced it was a good use of your time today, in comparison to all the other good uses your time could be put to. That said, your response does not appear to acknowledge any nontrivial value to this feature request, so I'll try to clarify it a bit more. Yes, autosave-at-turn-end means you never lose more than one turn worth of work/progress. Geoff's suggestion is directed towards further reducing that potential scope of lost progress. Here is what comes to mind to me for the variety of situations where autosave-after-X-turns would be particularly appreciated by a player (there are likely others as well); in all of these the subcontext is that it is an involved/advanced game where entering orders probably takes at least several minutes each turn, and a cause of unintended computer reboot could be either a power outage or auto-windows-update: (i) Player is playing late into the night, after spending a several minutes entering their moves they want to think about some more orders before hitting end-turn, but they fall asleep at their desk and then their computer reboots; (ii) Player is taxing their computer with a very large game wherein the turn update process takes many many minutes (but loading a savegame file can still be reasonably quick), they go afk during a turn update and return an hour later to find their computer had rebooted; (iii) a mutliplayer game where some of the players are having to go back and forth afk because of family/kids/other-RL-demands, and if the hosts computer reboots while most of the players are waiting on a straggler, it would be nice if they didn't all have to reenter their orders. I'll acknowledge these are all fairly restricted situations, but probably enough for this feature to at least make our "Someday..." list.
LGM-Doyle wrote:
Dilvish wrote:what is the reasoning for not allowing 'Continue' if autosave-on-exit is not in force?
Only the "Continue" button in the IntroMenu is disabled. Since this is a very visible UI change I wanted it to be in the player control. If the player does not want autosaves on exit, then they do not have a "Continue" button.
I'm afraid I am struggling to make sense of this-- you feel that the player should have to take some other specific action in order to enable the Continue button? Why should that be the case, why not just let the continue button be enabled? How is it more dangerous than, say, the Quickstart button? I agree with Geoff that the Continue button should only be disabled if there is no savegame available for it to use.
If I provided any code, scripts or other content here, it's released under GPL 2.0 and CC-BY-SA 3.0

Post Reply