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CAW - How Many Saved Versions (of your world) Is Good?

So just this morning I'm adding *just a few* more lots to my world, when my CAW decides to take a ROYAL dump. Without warning, I lost my ENTIRE WORLD. I tried opening up some of the backups, but even *that* didn't work. (and i was **this close** (holding up first finger and thumb) to having my world be finished)


So I come here to ask: HOW MANY SAVED VERSIONS IS A GOOD BET?


I've since then restarted my CAW, and have started ANOTHER world (this is my third time trying to create this particular world). This time though, I gave it *2* different names - saving them both and giving each its own number.
Origin ID -- MsPrissySim

My Twitch Channel

YouTube

Comments

  • ThomsonJamieThomsonJamie Posts: 392 New Member
    edited August 2012
    I usually rely on backups, and only make a "save as" when I do something major - like finishing a section or sculpting a mountain. It really depends how much hard drive space you have. I'm on a laptop so I'm limited. :oops:
  • MsPrissy88MsPrissy88 Posts: 3,122 Member
    edited August 2012
    I usually rely on backups, and only make a "save as" when I do something major - like finishing a section or sculpting a mountain. It really depends how much hard drive space you have. I'm on a laptop so I'm limited. :oops:


    Hi. I, too, am on a laptop. I always try to save whenever I do anything - no matter how small. But sometimes even doing *small* things can cause my CAW to crash. Which is why I posted the question. Backups are fine, but if *they* don't work ....
    Origin ID -- MsPrissySim

    My Twitch Channel

    YouTube
  • Sneakfeline0Sneakfeline0 Posts: 1,235 Member
    edited August 2012
    I think you are brave to even try running CAW on a laptop, it's such a resource-intensive thing, it takes more memory & resources to run it than the game.

    As I am on a desktop, I only do a save as when I change the name, and rarely need to save even after hours of CAWing.

    Good luck!
  • Rflong7Rflong7 Posts: 36,586 Member
    edited August 2012
    Hi, :)

    I make a new Save name at different stages- just in case I change my mind on the direction it's going... Or I have this fear of loosing it all. :shock:

    Longview_Sculpting.world
    Longview_Painting.world
    Longview_Roads.world
    Longview_Lots.world
    Longview_LotsII.world
    Longview_TestA.world
    Longview_Trees.world
    Longview_TestB.world
    Longview_Final.world
    Longview_FinalB.world
    LongviewII_Pop.world
    LongviewII_FinalPop.world

    might just be a few names I used as I made Longview. :blush: ~LOL
  • LeeMortisLeeMortis Posts: 557 Member
    edited August 2012
    I make a new save each day, saving them with the date first (YYMMDD), so that they are automatically sorted from newest to oldest, and then the name of the town. So a save from today's work would look like this:

    120830_MyTown

    This way I could never lose more than a day's worth of work. Some days I even add a letters after the date, if I do some things I'm not so sure I want to keep.

    But, this method requires a lot of HD space (I think I have about 100 saves on my town... after clearing out a bunch as well), so it all comes down to how much space you have, and are willing to reserve for backup copies.

    I guess the general rule is - you can never have TOO many saves.
  • DocsprockDocsprock Posts: 3,869 Member
    edited August 2012
    I checked my hard drive not long ago, and found there was over 60 Gb of CAW stuff.

    Something to watch out for.;)
  • alexspoom13alexspoom13 Posts: 7,439 Member
    edited August 2012
    Docsprock wrote:
    I checked my hard drive not long ago, and found there was over 60 Gb of CAW stuff.

    Something to watch out for.;)

    I'm quite wary of this myself, having never deleted any of my CAW backups. Ever. My CAW folder's currently 30GB. :?
  • MsPrissy88MsPrissy88 Posts: 3,122 Member
    edited August 2012
    alexspoom13 & Docsprock - Never have checked to see how much of my hard drive is just CAW stuff. hmmm .... I might have to do that. Thanks.

    LeeMortis _ I like your idea of using the dates in your names. It gives me an idea to do that for mine, right now. That way I wouldn't lose any current work. Thanks! :thumbup:

    Rflong - Wow ... I NEVER thought of saving it *that* way. I had a thought of making a new name when I was ready to test. I see that is/was one of the ways you had listed for *your* world. (i may just do that, too. :thumbup: ) {{*also, I had tried to do that CFF Explorer thing (from the link in the forums), but since my laptop is not exactly "high-end", it wouldn't work for me. oh, I got the explorer to open, but when it asked me if I had wanted to overwrite it - i said yes - it couldn't do it. so that solution is out.}}

    Sneakfeline0 - Trust me, there are times when I *wish* I had a desktop. At least for just creating worlds. Since this is the *3rd* time I am trying to create my current world, I am taking things REAL SLOW; saving even the tiniest change.
    *********************************

    My heartfelt gratitude and thanks to all of you.
    Origin ID -- MsPrissySim

    My Twitch Channel

    YouTube
  • GLachailleGLachaille Posts: 172 Member
    edited August 2012
    Well - I still have 5 zipped archive folders from Port La Forks that each have 10 saves in them. I think that is overkill -- but I had CAW issues that would corrupt files, so having so many back-ups made it easy to go back to an earlier version.

    For my current worlds,
      when terraforming, I usually don't save at all -- but I rename the heightmap for each tweak in case I want to roll back.
      When doing round one of painting -- the same as above since I use layers and PNG files to get the first sweep done.
      For fine painting -- this is where I save and save often, using the file name to identify what area I was working. Again - I keep the final.
      Roads, lots, trees, details... I rely on the back-up saves that CAW makes. Every 10 back up saves created, I zip down into an archive. If I get to two archives with no caw issues, I will usually start dumping the oldest when I make a new one.

    All that said -- I have saves from way back on one of my worlds simply because I am not really sure I like where its going and having that old version that I can just start over from makes me feel a hell of a lot better.

    Okay, enough rambling-- I am late to work.
  • thetideschangingthetideschanging Posts: 250 New Member
    edited August 2012
    I only make a new save copy when I am doing something major as well. I run CAW on a laptop as well, and it actually does a surprisingly good job with CAW. I rarely have problems. I also back up the newest copy of my world onto dropbox so in case anything happens to my laptop my world is safe in its little cloud :)
  • MsPrissy88MsPrissy88 Posts: 3,122 Member
    edited September 2012
    @GLachaille - Hmm .... zipping save files .... now THAT is really good. I can do that and then keep them on an external drive for safe-keeping. Thanks for the tip!


    @thetideschanging - So you've never had your CAW crash on you? (even tho you also use it on a laptop? wow ... you're lucky) But I'm still thinking that maybe it's because of all the stuff I do have on it. (other than my sims games, i mean)

    **************************

    Again, many thanks to you all for your tips and suggestions. :D
    Origin ID -- MsPrissySim

    My Twitch Channel

    YouTube
  • tjstreaktjstreak Posts: 808 Member
    edited September 2012
    With computers, the general rule is that you save whenever you reach a point that you could not tolerate losing your work. This is true for CAW, a term paper, a novel, a musical mash up or anything else you are working on. Most people are willing to lose an hour's worth of work. A day's worth of work is much harder to take.

    Personally, I save a lot. I just start going through the alphabet: Rain City A, Rain City B, and so on. When I reach the end of the alphabet, I start over again. I might go through the entire alphabet in one sitting. CAW is such a twitchy program, I just don't trust it.

    At the end of your session, it probably is a good idea to do a final save on another destination. That might be an external hard drive, a flash drive, a CD -- anyplace but on your main computer. Personally, I have backups all over the place.

    By the way, the cloud is a good place to back up. All of these sites where we upload worlds for others to download (eg Mediafire) -- also make good backup locations.

    To be quite honest, I started uploading most of my creations to Mediafire, not for the benefit of others, but so I would have an independent location for storing my work. If there is a fire or other catastrophe at my home, many hours of work are sitting safely in the cloud. I set up a blog and had links to those files, just in case someone else might find them useful. But the reason for doing it was for me.

    I just hope the government doesn't do to Mediafire what they did to MegaUpload. The real pirates in the computing world are the corporate fascists who prevented people from having access to their own work.
  • thetideschangingthetideschanging Posts: 250 New Member
    edited September 2012
    MsPrissy88 wrote:
    @thetideschanging - So you've never had your CAW crash on you? (even tho you also use it on a laptop? wow ... you're lucky) But I'm still thinking that maybe it's because of all the stuff I do have on it. (other than my sims games, i mean)
    I wouldn't say never. The crashes are just very few and far between. I don't have a whole lot going on on my laptop though other than what I frequently use.
  • DudsnzDudsnz Posts: 191 Member
    edited September 2012
    I just keep on counting up numbers at the end of my save game file, then at some time when I achieve a successful world export and check it in game I will go back and delete any saves that doesn't end in a 0 or 5 (normally keeping the most recent 5 too).

    Most of the errors/crashes I get are related to terrain painting - so I save before doing any and then soon after I have done a section of it.
  • MaerahnMaerahn Posts: 13 New Member
    edited September 2012
    Having been a victim of the very same thing at least twice in the past (it's alright, I've fully recovered from the trauma now... almost... ) I've been using the following system ever since; it's possibly a little OCD, but hey, it's a small price to pay for holding onto precious hard graft:

    I have 3 copies of my world: {Name}.world (the Master version), {Name}Copy.world (the work-in-progress version} and {Name}CopySpare.world (a last-ditch backup if the first 2 go pear-shaped.)

    When I open up CAW, I work in the {Name}Copy.world file. I do a little work - about as much as I could bear to start over again if I lost it, and then save it. If that save is successful, I then immediately do a Save As and select the Master version ({Name}.world.)I only ever use the Master version for saving to in that fashion - never to actively work in. IF I'm feeling really insecure I also do a Save As to the {Name}CopySpare.world as well. Then I Immediately CLOSE THE CURRENT WORLD DOWN and re-open the {Name}Copy.world file again to continue working.

    Yes, it's time-consuming and probably neurotic to the nth degree. But I can honestly say, with hand on heart, I have no longer even had the program crash on me since adopting this method (I am of course touching wood and crossing fingers as I even type these words.)So yeah, if that's makes me a basket case, sue me ;)
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