@luthienrising well lucky you. I can reproduce this every time I save and so can the tech helper on Carl's guide. As you know not all bugs effect all games.
You know, I'm not so rude as to go onto post about bugs that I don't have. Are we supposed to think that because you don't have the bug we must all be lying and not have this occurring every time we try to save our games? Why else would you post in a thread about a bug that doesn't concern you.
I can neither save nor save-as without my last played game being saved over by the game I am currently playing. And this is reproducible. Three of the staff on Carl's forum have been able to reproduce this in clean, vanilla games with no cc and no mods what-so-ever.
*edited to have a crack at luth as her post annoyed me so much. Here have a peace bunny
I haven't said you're lying: I've said I can't reproduce. I asked if you could explain how you were saving that made this happen. That's part of how figuring out bugs works. If something works for one person but not for another, the next step is to figure out what else is different that's making it that way. If you'd rather just snipe at me and make false accusations than be helpful, fine. Go for it. Enjoy not being able to save while some other people can. I'm done with attempting to problem solve this for you.
I'm sorry but I wasn't asking for your help. I already have other more technically able people on that job. And if you care to read my first post it explains all the step I took which is why I bothered to post it in the first place. I should have known thought that you would be right on my case the minute I step back into the forums. Nothing changes about the bullying here does it.
And please point out exactly where you asked me for something in your post which was making me out a liar. And the bold part... what a lovely sentiment from someone who used to be so nice to me when they thought I was another EA shill.
Sometimes you get back what you give. You treated me with a level of disdain that was not warranted. If that's how you treat people who are trying to get to the details of what's happening, then I don't want to play with you. And I'm not sure why you would think I ought to treat you politely after the unearned accusations you threw at me. Why should I be all saintly at you if you're accusing me, without evidence, of calling you a liar? Why?
This was my request, indirectly phrased: "I'm not sure how you're using Save to save a game and having it take over another game's slot in the Load Game UI." I did not know you needed direct, obvious phrasing to see it as a request.
Nowhere in my post did I suggest you were lying. Not even slightly. If that's what you're seeing, it's on you. Do you think you were lying? Because I don't. I think you're experience an issue I can't reproduce and I'm not sure how you got to where you're getting. "I'm not sure" means what it says. It's not a way of saying "I think you're lying". It's a way of saying that I don't know something.
FWIW, I think this topic belongs in Bugs and Issues, not Feedback.
EA CREATOR NETWORK MEMBER — Want to be notified of patches, new Broken Mods threads, and urgent Sims 4 news? Follow me at https://www.patreon.com/luthienrising.
Don't worry about it Luth I'm just bypassing the forums now and direct PMing the gurus about this on my twitter which is what I should have done in the first place instead of coming back here.
I'm a girl who likes to play with boys, what can I say...
“Instead of putting players in the role of Luke Skywalker, or Frodo Baggins, I'd rather put them in the role of George Lucas.”Will Wright.
... On top of that, when you use the 'save' option, it saves over whatever game was played most recently.
To clarify, if I had 3 save games, 'game1', 'game2', and 'game3', game1 being played most recently. If I open up game3 and just push 'save', it automatically saves on top of game1. In the end, game1 is overwritten by a newer game3 and I'm left with two game3s, one game2. This has also been a problem for me before this patch. The good thing is because of the new menu, you're able to easily recover the overwritten game, though I wish I didn't have to use this feature so much.
HM. If you don't mind testing, Superkam64 could you try a "Save As" first for each of your saves, like Andiratyme did?
Maybe we need to do that once for each save, to recode them to the new format?
I'll go try that too, now that I have time to play again... brb...
So I went back and tried everything I could think of (repairing game, removing mods, creating fresh Sims 4 folder) and unfortunately they didn't work, as for your suggestion though, it seemed to work sometimes but not all, and it caused a really strange glitch. Basically, using "new save game" in "save as" was still overwriting saves. I caught it in the act once when I clicked away from "new save game" and hovered over the "+":
"hauntedhou2" was not a recent save, I haven't opened it since April. It did the same to two other saves which were also not recent. It seemed to just do it randomly and choose whichever save it overwrites randomly. I'm guessing this is a bug, one that really gives me a headache lol (Granted I think I put back the MCCC mod when the above screenshot was taken)
EDIT: I removed the localthumbcache package file and let the game generate a new one. Now my games seem to save normally, granted I do need to re-write the save name every time I use "save as" but I don't really mind as long as my games aren't saving over each other. I'm not 100% sure that file was the reason, but for now, saving works for me (yay! ^-^)
EDIT: I removed the localthumbcache package file and let the game generate a new one. Now my games seem to save normally, granted I do need to re-write the save name every time I use "save as" but I don't really mind as long as my games aren't saving over each other. I'm not 100% sure that file was the reason, but for now, saving works for me (yay! ^-^)
Thanks! That's good to know. This isn't the kind of glitch I'd have thought of deleting localthumbcache for! That generally comes to mind for gameplay things. (Just paging @rosemow and @SimGuruNick so they'll have seen this too.)
EA CREATOR NETWORK MEMBER — Want to be notified of patches, new Broken Mods threads, and urgent Sims 4 news? Follow me at https://www.patreon.com/luthienrising.
I delete the localthumbcache file before I play my game. Every time! In fact, I do so right after I shut down my gaming session, so I'm good to go the next time. @luthienrising Glad to see you've found a way to work things out. You've always been such a supportive individual. And very helpful, too.
I delete the localthumbcache file before I play my game. Every time! In fact, I do so right after I shut down my gaming session, so I'm good to go the next time. @luthienrising Glad to see you've found a way to work things out. You've always been such a supportive individual. And very helpful, too.
I didn't solve this one, for sure! But fwiw, NZSimmer and I have worked things out between us
EA CREATOR NETWORK MEMBER — Want to be notified of patches, new Broken Mods threads, and urgent Sims 4 news? Follow me at https://www.patreon.com/luthienrising.
I delete the localthumbcache file before I play my game. Every time! In fact, I do so right after I shut down my gaming session, so I'm good to go the next time. @luthienrising Glad to see you've found a way to work things out. You've always been such a supportive individual. And very helpful, too.
I didn't solve this one, for sure! But fwiw, NZSimmer and I have worked things out between us
It's enough to know you were able to 'work' things out with those giving you a very hard time. As a fellow player, I was disappointed in NZSimmer. Attitude is everything.
Right, I've done some more testing on my old laptop. Just save overwrites the original save and keeps the same save number in the saves folder.
I have my named games written down with the saves number in the folder written beside it so I can keep track of which game is which when I look in the saves folder.
Save as, with writing in the game name adds a second save (or third or fourth, however many times you save as) with the right name, but adds another save in the saves folder with a different number.
If you can keep track of the new numbers I guess it works, but at this moment in time I'm finding plain save is simpler if you want to keep on top of what's going on in your saves folder.
Phew!
ARGH! I just spent an hour or so playing, and decided (s-tupidly. How come that word turns to plumb!) to go to main menu, the option to save and go to main menu came up, and I thought perfect, back to saving the way I save in TS3 - it didn't save, so be warned in case someone else tries that - unless it's just my game.
Edited to reword a banned word!
Ok I am still struggling with this and as I have spent so much time getting my worlds just right and sims placed where I want then in the worlds I really don't want to make mistakes and have to start over. I do not have any mods/cc.
Can anyone tell me when we save or save as if the game saves all the worlds and households we have played in that session as a whole? or does the game save the households we have played singularly?
prior to this update I used to save as every time I played each different family in whatever world I was playing in until the list of game saves was long it became even more confusing which is something I am trying to avoid this time especially as I intend playing several different families/storylines however from reading all the testing/information from great players who have offered to test this issue on this thread I am wondering is the following method of save correct?
when I play a new household in whatever world do I save as the first time then just save whenever I play that particular family again and that will update the progress of that initial saved as game?
I always delete the localthumbcache file too.
When I load up the game there is the big button on the top left of the screen which when clicked on starts the game automatically and I assume clicking this takes me into all the worlds and households I played the last time? if not what exactly does clicking this button and going into the game this way mean?
When I click on the load game button this shows all my saved as games in numbered order however I have noticed even if I click on the latest save as game in some saves it appears not to have updated the last game play? so this is terribly confusing to me and I keep wondering what I might have done wrong.
I would like to be able to save a couple of saves in case anything goes wrong and I have to backtrack as well.
Can anyone further advise me on this and let me know if I am doing something incorrectly..
The big button should take you directly into the last game you played. Once there, you have the choice of which household you desire to play. I got into the habit of doing a Save As when I start a new gaming session. From that point on, no matter which household I'm in, I just Save. This new system is confusing. Used to be if I Saved As, I could go back into the Save As and easily delete the older save, so that I only had three from that game save, overall. Room to back track if needed.
What's so odd about this new system is it's pretty much what we've always had. IE, Sims2 and 3 shows pictures of our saved games. I'm not sure why this is so confusing. Perhaps, if they'd started us out with this instead of letting us get used to a 'new' way, just to revert, two years later is the problem. I don't know. I normally think of myself as a fairly intelligent individual, but the logic behind this 'new' system has me quite confounded.
Thank you for that info. like you I don't like to feel confused either especially if I have spent hours getting my hoods/worlds/sims all made to my liking and then lose everything and have to start over which has happened too many times to mention in my simming life-) I think from what you are saying is if I start my game via clicking the big button then all households I already played and have save as files for them I can use the save button any game progress should be fine. If I start a new household I will use the save as once for each new household and use the save afterwards. This is so mind boggling lol
I think because I have enough extra hard drive space on my system I am going to save the whole folder every so often so I can at least start again from a reasonable point rather than a total beginning just until I get the hang of all this (if I ever do-)
It took me awhile to get used to 2 saves coming from 3 but I am not certain I will ever truly understand 4 on this
... On top of that, when you use the 'save' option, it saves over whatever game was played most recently.
To clarify, if I had 3 save games, 'game1', 'game2', and 'game3', game1 being played most recently. If I open up game3 and just push 'save', it automatically saves on top of game1. In the end, game1 is overwritten by a newer game3 and I'm left with two game3s, one game2. This has also been a problem for me before this patch. The good thing is because of the new menu, you're able to easily recover the overwritten game, though I wish I didn't have to use this feature so much.
HM. If you don't mind testing, Superkam64 could you try a "Save As" first for each of your saves, like Andiratyme did?
Maybe we need to do that once for each save, to recode them to the new format?
I'll go try that too, now that I have time to play again... brb...
So I went back and tried everything I could think of (repairing game, removing mods, creating fresh Sims 4 folder) and unfortunately they didn't work, as for your suggestion though, it seemed to work sometimes but not all, and it caused a really strange glitch. Basically, using "new save game" in "save as" was still overwriting saves. I caught it in the act once when I clicked away from "new save game" and hovered over the "+":
"hauntedhou2" was not a recent save, I haven't opened it since April. It did the same to two other saves which were also not recent. It seemed to just do it randomly and choose whichever save it overwrites randomly. I'm guessing this is a bug, one that really gives me a headache lol (Granted I think I put back the MCCC mod when the above screenshot was taken)
EDIT: I removed the localthumbcache package file and let the game generate a new one. Now my games seem to save normally, granted I do need to re-write the save name every time I use "save as" but I don't really mind as long as my games aren't saving over each other. I'm not 100% sure that file was the reason, but for now, saving works for me (yay! ^-^)
I'm glad some version of saving is working for you! I wish we could help more... =(
Ok I am still struggling with this and as I have spent so much time getting my worlds just right and sims placed where I want then in the worlds I really don't want to make mistakes and have to start over. I do not have any mods/cc.
Can anyone tell me when we save or save as if the game saves all the worlds and households we have played in that session as a whole? or does the game save the households we have played singularly?
prior to this update I used to save as every time I played each different family in whatever world I was playing in until the list of game saves was long it became even more confusing which is something I am trying to avoid this time especially as I intend playing several different families/storylines however from reading all the testing/information from great players who have offered to test this issue on this thread I am wondering is the following method of save correct?
when I play a new household in whatever world do I save as the first time then just save whenever I play that particular family again and that will update the progress of that initial saved as game?
I always delete the localthumbcache file too.
When I load up the game there is the big button on the top left of the screen which when clicked on starts the game automatically and I assume clicking this takes me into all the worlds and households I played the last time? if not what exactly does clicking this button and going into the game this way mean?
When I click on the load game button this shows all my saved as games in numbered order however I have noticed even if I click on the latest save as game in some saves it appears not to have updated the last game play? so this is terribly confusing to me and I keep wondering what I might have done wrong.
I would like to be able to save a couple of saves in case anything goes wrong and I have to backtrack as well.
Can anyone further advise me on this and let me know if I am doing something incorrectly...
Hi @SPARKY1922. The big button allows you to quickly load your most recent save (or only one if you don't play multiple), and the Load Save allows you to choose others if you have more than one.
I remember in TS2, if you played a household for a day and then moved to the neighborhood screen, you lost all of your progress for that day. You HAD to save each house before you moved on to the next one. Your major neighborhood save was actually a collection of mini-saves in the form of every home you played within it.
In TS4 here, I know that you can safely jump from one household to another within the same save and as long as the game doesn't crash it will remember everything you visited and changed when you do save. It is one major save, rather than a collection of mini-saves.
If you feel like living dangerously, you can play a day in one household, and jump to the map screen to switch to a new household for a day, and another house after that... and if you save at the end of all of that, it will remember the progress you made in each of those homes.
Just in case of a crash or game freeze though I agree that saving between households is still the smart thing to do
You shouldn't have to Save As and make new files every time you switch households, I usually save over the same save file until a new patch comes out, then as part of my keep-the-files-current check list I update etc, then the next time I play I Save As each of my three saves to a new file number (Slot...02,03,04 became 05,06,07, then 08,09,10... etc), and start save-overwriting those until the next month's patch.
Everyone has different ways of protecting their gameplay, if you want to save daily go ahead, but I might extend it to the full session of gameplay per save, and suggest every once in a while taking your oldest saves out of the saves folder and zipping them up to store somewhere else, that way every so often you clean house and keep your folder small without losing a backup file you might need. I imagine that makes a lot of files
With the previous save style at least I know that the auto-save or "Slot_00000001" could become corrupted. That's why this last patch removed auto-save functionality.
You should be able to delete the lingering "Slot_00000001" files in your saves folder without consequence, and it will no longer make a Slot...01 file for you to worry about.
[Previously, whenever I saw glitchiness I could delete those and the localthumbcache and it usually fixed my problem, but now we just have to keep an eye on the localthumbcache.]
The issue with the new save style seems to be mostly files left in the main sims 4 folder still associated with the old way (like the localthumbcache), glitchiness of a new system that needs smoothing out, and maybe expectations of what each save choice actually does. =/
Thank you for clarifying further. I only started playing Sims 2 last year coming from years of 3 and it took me a while to work things out with that series but now starting to play more 4 as well the save style totally bamboozled me-)
So when you say it is one major save rather than a collection of mini saves does that mean everytime I click save it saves all the hoods and sims in the game a little like 3 saves the whole open world? I was going to play dangerously today the way you outlined however I chickened out for fear of something going wrong-) Instead I have played 3 households and saved them as I left them and not done my usual save as when shutting the game down so I will know tomorrow if that worked out okay ( I am too tired to switch the game back on right now to see if all my progress from today remains -)
Also thanks for the info on the save numbers that can become corrupted I have made a note of those to check periodically and I always delete the localthumbcache after each game session anyway.
@SPARKY1922 go ahead and save however you feel most comfortable, I just didn't want you to be afraid of it!
It's been a while since I played TS3, but yes I believe that it is more like TS3 saves than TS2 saves in that regard. Within one save file set, the game considers Willow Creek, Oasis Springs, Windenburg, and all of the other 2-7 lot neighborhoods you can travel to as one major world save.
Like I said, you're right, it's a good Idea to Save or Save As before switching to a new household, but that is to protect anything you did in case of a freeze or crash later in your day, not because it is a separate save file between them.
You should be able to overwrite the same save several times in one play session, and if you want redundancies for caution, make a New+ save at the beginning of a new day's session and overwrite that one for the day each time you save, rather than make a new one for every house you play.
Take my three main saves for example:
I have four file sets in my saves folder at the moment, my legacy family's save (left), my simself-family's save (right), and the two in the middle: a test save (the twin boys), and a new save that I am fixing up to be my new test/fresh start type save (Pancakes).
When the last one is done I will package up the twins' family, delete the old test save, and port them to either my legacy save as new neighbors, or to the clean test save to play out a vampire challenge with the red twin.
(picture in spoiler)
When I load up my game in a little bit, I'll hop into Sv4-SimsCounty-Gen3, hop into my legacy house, and play for maybe an in-game day, then hit Save (now that I've got it working) to overwrite that Slot...04 file that I know is my legacy save because I dedicatedly experimented with all of my save files until I had them correctly set and labeled again after the style switch over. I had old backup saves in there that I didn't need, so I zipped and moved them out, and when I made the New+ files they took on the numbers of the now open first slots (02, 03, 04, and 05).
Now that they are all new and clearly named, whenever I play them I will be using Save (if stay with the legacy for a while) every time I want to protect my progress, or Save As (when I first swap to, say, the simselves to make sure that it understands which one I want it to recognize as the new 'current') to overwrite my three file sets over and over, until the next patch when I will make fresh New+ copies to keep the files from getting... I don't know, senile?
I'm not even sure what they do if you stick with one save file without making a new copy once in a while.
If anyone can answer that, I'd love to know!
Honestly, if you're not comfortable trying what I suggest, don't worry about it, keep doing what you're doing, it has obviously worked so far for you. Everyone does it differently, some people are more lax, some are stricter. Do what makes you feel better.
If you do want to try a different way at some point, then right-click on your saves folder and zip up a copy first, and store it safely on your desktop or something while you test things out in game. That would give you the freedom to make mistakes and decide what you want without losing anything.
Thanks for that further information so far I have not lost any game progress clicking the big button to get into game then using save as opposed to save as when I play.
I then tested a save as game to find that none off the game progress or lots I had added in the big button game session had saved to a save as game file so from this I conclude that every save as game is like a new game in itself. For example if I save as now I am going to think of it as a saved backup to be used if something happens to my current game. I am sorry if I am not explaining this properly
It is also good to know 4 saves everything like 3 does I can relate to that-)
If I use the save as after a game session rather than just a save when I go back to play next time to I continue playing via the big button or would I have to play the last save as to continue? this bit is a little confusing-)
From the way you describe how you are playing with your games it sounds like you are using save as for each particular story-line you are playing is that correct? I on the other hand at the moment just want all my hoods and community lots all placed so even if I play different households in different worlds all the community lots are the same. That's how I knew I was in a save as game the other day because I suddenly realized various community lots I wanted my household to visit were not there
the following statement you made went right over the top of my head with regards to save game files-)
I had old backup saves in there that I didn't need, so I zipped and moved them out, and when I made the New+ files they took on the numbers of the now open first slots (02, 03, 04, and 05).
2 Now that they are all new and clearly named, whenever I play them I will be using Save (if stay with the legacy for a while) every time I want to protect my progress, or Save As (when I first swap to, say, the simselves to make sure that it understands which one I want it to recognize as the new 'current') to overwrite my three file sets over and over, until the next patch when I will make fresh New+ copies to keep the files from getting... I don't know, senile?"
when you state the following are you thinking that a long game/save file can corrupt over time?
I'm not even sure what they do if you stick with one save file without making a new copy once in a while.
When I refer to "New+" and "Save As" this is what I mean (picture in spoiler):
That first save highlighted in the top and bottom of the picture are still my legacy save (but with the family that I played last night), the file set in my folders labelled Slot_00000004 and all of its backup files with ver# at the end. I did not make a new copy, but saved over the same file.
In the first picture, you see the default choice for "Save As" is to create a new copy of your save with the first (+) box; if I used that it would add a copy of my most recent legacy files as new Slot_00000006 files (the next number open in the folder slots).
That's what I do after the big content patches, and I use the Windows zip program to compress my old save files into a zip folder to keep them small on my storage drive, away from the Sims 4 folder in case my saves folder gets erased or messed up somehow.
But the way I use "Save As" most of the time (when I switch between major world saves) is to click back onto my original save file (04) like in the bottom of the picture and just overwrite it without creating a new file copy (06).
With the new saving style here, it looks like some people were having trouble with the game understanding which save they wanted to overwrite when they switched between more than one, so when I select for example the simselves' save to play my family, the first time I save them I will choose "Save As" and overwrite the simself files, automatically moving them to the front of the list, what the game now considers the 'current' save, so that when I want to hit just "Save" for the rest of the session, it will not overwrite my legacy files by mistake. And the next time I want to play my simselves, I can hit the big Play button to automatically load that one.
*For just "Save" it will remember any name you gave your file, but if you use "New+" or "Save As" it looks like you need to write the name in again for both of those choices now.
Some people play just one world, they have played in their original save since TS4 came out, and comfortably used just "Save" every time.
I seem to remember in TS3 (someone correct me if I'm wrong) the saves could get corrupted if they got too big, or if you played the same one for too long. So when I started playing TS4, with that in mind I made a habit of kind of refreshing it every once in a while the way I explained above.
But other people seem to be playing fine with their original Slot_00000002 save files, so maybe that isn't a problem. I don't know, but doing it this way makes me feel better.
I'm not sure why you wouldn't see the community lots you put down. Did you accidentally start a brand new save, or did you choose an older save where you had not placed them yet? What does your in-game saves window look like?
Apologies for the late reply here. We're able to reproduce "Save As" not auto-filling your save's name, and defaulting to "My Saved Game X". I don't think that's by design, it seems like a bug to me and QA is currently treating it as such. Thanks for the reports everyone
Apologies for the late reply here. We're able to reproduce "Save As" not auto-filling your save's name, and defaulting to "My Saved Game X". I don't think that's by design, it seems like a bug to me and QA is currently treating it as such. Thanks for the reports everyone
First of all I am wondering in the line of saves in the folder how you know which family is what save? I went into my saves folder to have a look and I cannot work out what save is which family-)?
With 3 I used to save as every time and then remove the older saves and keep the last 3 just in case I wanted to go back in game play but that series was a lot lot more orderly than 4 I think-) I am still not comfortable with the 4 system at all so I am saving my saves folders now and my tray folder for the sims and lots I have added to my game hoping that if anything goes wrong and I start a new 4 folder if I add these 2 back I should be able to start playing from a reasonable point of reference again without having to find and re download the sims and lots I have used as the tray folder is equally mind blowing to me.
I think the new game function would be great for starting new themed hoods for example and saved as to go back in time in a game if necessary. Yes I started a save as game by mistake before then realized it wasn't the save I had been playing the day before so no progression shows up-)
Your explanations are great it's me who is still not wrapping my head around some things and it makes me feel like a total jerk-)
I also went into my game to try and take a pic of my games the way you have above but I cannot find them. I cannot even find the current game header I did find played and unplayable households in in game under manage households but cannot take you a pic as my screenshot program is not working in game and my game itself will not take a screenshot either and I am not sure why.
Thank you for all the time you have taken to try and help me with this but if I was you I would put me down to a lost cause now
@SPARKY1922 To take a picture all you should have to do is hit the "C" button on your keyboard, it will show you a green pop-up on the notification wall in the top right if it worked. If you aren't getting that confirmation, you may want to check your settings to see what is enabled.
When it works, you can find your pictures in your Sims 4 folder, the Screenshots are found right under your saves folder:
(I upload my pictures to imgur now, it's been an easy site to use so far.)
As for knowing which save is which, when your game is open go to the Save As window, and mouse over your pictures, they will each tell you at what time they were saved last. With my three, I used that to see what days and times I saved them, and looked for the same information in my saves folder (under Details view).
If the game picture says one world was last saved on the 29th at 6:09pm, then I look for which Slot file also says that time.
In game I add the number of the slot file to my save's name, so that I don't forget which one it is later.
It won't label any save as the "current" game, it's just whichever save is the first one to the right of the plus button.
Whichever save is in that ^^^ spot is considered the current save.
And don't feel bad if some of this seems confusing or overwhelming, it really helps if you're compulsive and freaking adore organizing things... like me... >_>
I'm still having problems with the new save system, although it appears I save differently than most others. I use 'Save As' every time I save to make a separate save (new slot) with a new name that tells me what that save was about (where I am in that save). Every save I make shows on the load menu so I can pick any one at any time if I want to go back and change direction of that game, or simply replay it over if something goes wrong (no rolling back or recovering saves needed for me). Periodically I back up my Sims 4 folder and delete older saves (they can rack up pretty quickly), knowing I'm safe if I delete one by mistake that I may later want or need to put back in my game.
I thought I understood this new system. I open 'Save As' and it comes up with the first thumbnail highlighted which says 'New Save Game' when I hover over it. I type the name I want that save to have in the box at the top (same as before) and I have a new save (with a new slot #).
That's the way it usually works, but not always. Every once in a while, instead of assigning a new slot #, the game uses one that is already being used by a different save game which overwrites the older save game, making it Ver0. When this happens, it doesn't use the new game title typed in the box, or the generic 'My Saved Game XX'. It actually does use the name of the older save game that was overwritten. That's how I notice something's wrong with that save.
I am patched up to date and don't use mods or cc. Having two patches so close together and adding a GP (I have all packs), I have reset my folders, repaired several times, and deleted localthumbnailcache every game play. Nothing has made a difference. Although I have my share of glitches and bugs, in general, the game still works quite well.
I did see something in this thread I haven't done yet. It's been said that re-saving your older saves will make the thumbnails appear. I didn't do that as I didn't really care if they showed or not on the older games I wasn't currently playing. However, @BooV7227 mentioned we might need to do that to recode the older saves to the new format. I'm hoping that may also help this overwrite bug I have. It's worth a try anyway.
Comments
Sometimes you get back what you give. You treated me with a level of disdain that was not warranted. If that's how you treat people who are trying to get to the details of what's happening, then I don't want to play with you. And I'm not sure why you would think I ought to treat you politely after the unearned accusations you threw at me. Why should I be all saintly at you if you're accusing me, without evidence, of calling you a liar? Why?
This was my request, indirectly phrased: "I'm not sure how you're using Save to save a game and having it take over another game's slot in the Load Game UI." I did not know you needed direct, obvious phrasing to see it as a request.
Nowhere in my post did I suggest you were lying. Not even slightly. If that's what you're seeing, it's on you. Do you think you were lying? Because I don't. I think you're experience an issue I can't reproduce and I'm not sure how you got to where you're getting. "I'm not sure" means what it says. It's not a way of saying "I think you're lying". It's a way of saying that I don't know something.
FWIW, I think this topic belongs in Bugs and Issues, not Feedback.
“Instead of putting players in the role of Luke Skywalker, or Frodo Baggins, I'd rather put them in the role of George Lucas.”Will Wright.
So I went back and tried everything I could think of (repairing game, removing mods, creating fresh Sims 4 folder) and unfortunately they didn't work, as for your suggestion though, it seemed to work sometimes but not all, and it caused a really strange glitch. Basically, using "new save game" in "save as" was still overwriting saves. I caught it in the act once when I clicked away from "new save game" and hovered over the "+":
"hauntedhou2" was not a recent save, I haven't opened it since April. It did the same to two other saves which were also not recent. It seemed to just do it randomly and choose whichever save it overwrites randomly. I'm guessing this is a bug, one that really gives me a headache lol (Granted I think I put back the MCCC mod when the above screenshot was taken)
EDIT: I removed the localthumbcache package file and let the game generate a new one. Now my games seem to save normally, granted I do need to re-write the save name every time I use "save as" but I don't really mind as long as my games aren't saving over each other. I'm not 100% sure that file was the reason, but for now, saving works for me (yay! ^-^)
Thanks! That's good to know. This isn't the kind of glitch I'd have thought of deleting localthumbcache for! That generally comes to mind for gameplay things. (Just paging @rosemow and @SimGuruNick so they'll have seen this too.)
http://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/817478/hello-come-and-introduce-yourself
http://tinyurl.com/OneRoomOneWeek
http://tinyurl.com/rosemow
My Showcase thread https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/948861/rosemow-s-rooms-showcase
http://www.getfreeebooks.com/star-trek-original-series-fan-fiction-trilogy/
I didn't solve this one, for sure! But fwiw, NZSimmer and I have worked things out between us
It's enough to know you were able to 'work' things out with those giving you a very hard time. As a fellow player, I was disappointed in NZSimmer. Attitude is everything.
http://www.getfreeebooks.com/star-trek-original-series-fan-fiction-trilogy/
I have my named games written down with the saves number in the folder written beside it so I can keep track of which game is which when I look in the saves folder.
Save as, with writing in the game name adds a second save (or third or fourth, however many times you save as) with the right name, but adds another save in the saves folder with a different number.
If you can keep track of the new numbers I guess it works, but at this moment in time I'm finding plain save is simpler if you want to keep on top of what's going on in your saves folder.
Phew!
Edited to reword a banned word!
Can anyone tell me when we save or save as if the game saves all the worlds and households we have played in that session as a whole? or does the game save the households we have played singularly?
prior to this update I used to save as every time I played each different family in whatever world I was playing in until the list of game saves was long it became even more confusing which is something I am trying to avoid this time especially as I intend playing several different families/storylines however from reading all the testing/information from great players who have offered to test this issue on this thread I am wondering is the following method of save correct?
when I play a new household in whatever world do I save as the first time then just save whenever I play that particular family again and that will update the progress of that initial saved as game?
I always delete the localthumbcache file too.
When I load up the game there is the big button on the top left of the screen which when clicked on starts the game automatically and I assume clicking this takes me into all the worlds and households I played the last time? if not what exactly does clicking this button and going into the game this way mean?
When I click on the load game button this shows all my saved as games in numbered order however I have noticed even if I click on the latest save as game in some saves it appears not to have updated the last game play? so this is terribly confusing to me and I keep wondering what I might have done wrong.
I would like to be able to save a couple of saves in case anything goes wrong and I have to backtrack as well.
Can anyone further advise me on this and let me know if I am doing something incorrectly..
What's so odd about this new system is it's pretty much what we've always had. IE, Sims2 and 3 shows pictures of our saved games. I'm not sure why this is so confusing. Perhaps, if they'd started us out with this instead of letting us get used to a 'new' way, just to revert, two years later is the problem. I don't know. I normally think of myself as a fairly intelligent individual, but the logic behind this 'new' system has me quite confounded.
I don't like to be confused — it troubles me.
http://www.getfreeebooks.com/star-trek-original-series-fan-fiction-trilogy/
Thank you for that info. like you I don't like to feel confused either especially if I have spent hours getting my hoods/worlds/sims all made to my liking and then lose everything and have to start over which has happened too many times to mention in my simming life-) I think from what you are saying is if I start my game via clicking the big button then all households I already played and have save as files for them I can use the save button any game progress should be fine. If I start a new household I will use the save as once for each new household and use the save afterwards. This is so mind boggling lol
I think because I have enough extra hard drive space on my system I am going to save the whole folder every so often so I can at least start again from a reasonable point rather than a total beginning just until I get the hang of all this (if I ever do-)
It took me awhile to get used to 2 saves coming from 3 but I am not certain I will ever truly understand 4 on this
My Mood:
I'm glad some version of saving is working for you! I wish we could help more... =(
Hi @SPARKY1922. The big button allows you to quickly load your most recent save (or only one if you don't play multiple), and the Load Save allows you to choose others if you have more than one.
I remember in TS2, if you played a household for a day and then moved to the neighborhood screen, you lost all of your progress for that day. You HAD to save each house before you moved on to the next one. Your major neighborhood save was actually a collection of mini-saves in the form of every home you played within it.
In TS4 here, I know that you can safely jump from one household to another within the same save and as long as the game doesn't crash it will remember everything you visited and changed when you do save. It is one major save, rather than a collection of mini-saves.
If you feel like living dangerously, you can play a day in one household, and jump to the map screen to switch to a new household for a day, and another house after that... and if you save at the end of all of that, it will remember the progress you made in each of those homes.
Just in case of a crash or game freeze though I agree that saving between households is still the smart thing to do
You shouldn't have to Save As and make new files every time you switch households, I usually save over the same save file until a new patch comes out, then as part of my keep-the-files-current check list I update etc, then the next time I play I Save As each of my three saves to a new file number (Slot...02,03,04 became 05,06,07, then 08,09,10... etc), and start save-overwriting those until the next month's patch.
Everyone has different ways of protecting their gameplay, if you want to save daily go ahead, but I might extend it to the full session of gameplay per save, and suggest every once in a while taking your oldest saves out of the saves folder and zipping them up to store somewhere else, that way every so often you clean house and keep your folder small without losing a backup file you might need. I imagine that makes a lot of files
With the previous save style at least I know that the auto-save or "Slot_00000001" could become corrupted. That's why this last patch removed auto-save functionality.
You should be able to delete the lingering "Slot_00000001" files in your saves folder without consequence, and it will no longer make a Slot...01 file for you to worry about.
[Previously, whenever I saw glitchiness I could delete those and the localthumbcache and it usually fixed my problem, but now we just have to keep an eye on the localthumbcache.]
The issue with the new save style seems to be mostly files left in the main sims 4 folder still associated with the old way (like the localthumbcache), glitchiness of a new system that needs smoothing out, and maybe expectations of what each save choice actually does. =/
Thank you for clarifying further. I only started playing Sims 2 last year coming from years of 3 and it took me a while to work things out with that series but now starting to play more 4 as well the save style totally bamboozled me-)
So when you say it is one major save rather than a collection of mini saves does that mean everytime I click save it saves all the hoods and sims in the game a little like 3 saves the whole open world? I was going to play dangerously today the way you outlined however I chickened out for fear of something going wrong-) Instead I have played 3 households and saved them as I left them and not done my usual save as when shutting the game down so I will know tomorrow if that worked out okay ( I am too tired to switch the game back on right now to see if all my progress from today remains -)
Also thanks for the info on the save numbers that can become corrupted I have made a note of those to check periodically and I always delete the localthumbcache after each game session anyway.
Thanks again
It's been a while since I played TS3, but yes I believe that it is more like TS3 saves than TS2 saves in that regard. Within one save file set, the game considers Willow Creek, Oasis Springs, Windenburg, and all of the other 2-7 lot neighborhoods you can travel to as one major world save.
Like I said, you're right, it's a good Idea to Save or Save As before switching to a new household, but that is to protect anything you did in case of a freeze or crash later in your day, not because it is a separate save file between them.
You should be able to overwrite the same save several times in one play session, and if you want redundancies for caution, make a New+ save at the beginning of a new day's session and overwrite that one for the day each time you save, rather than make a new one for every house you play.
Take my three main saves for example:
I have four file sets in my saves folder at the moment, my legacy family's save (left), my simself-family's save (right), and the two in the middle: a test save (the twin boys), and a new save that I am fixing up to be my new test/fresh start type save (Pancakes).
When the last one is done I will package up the twins' family, delete the old test save, and port them to either my legacy save as new neighbors, or to the clean test save to play out a vampire challenge with the red twin.
(picture in spoiler)
When I load up my game in a little bit, I'll hop into Sv4-SimsCounty-Gen3, hop into my legacy house, and play for maybe an in-game day, then hit Save (now that I've got it working) to overwrite that Slot...04 file that I know is my legacy save because I dedicatedly experimented with all of my save files until I had them correctly set and labeled again after the style switch over. I had old backup saves in there that I didn't need, so I zipped and moved them out, and when I made the New+ files they took on the numbers of the now open first slots (02, 03, 04, and 05).
Now that they are all new and clearly named, whenever I play them I will be using Save (if stay with the legacy for a while) every time I want to protect my progress, or Save As (when I first swap to, say, the simselves to make sure that it understands which one I want it to recognize as the new 'current') to overwrite my three file sets over and over, until the next patch when I will make fresh New+ copies to keep the files from getting... I don't know, senile?
I'm not even sure what they do if you stick with one save file without making a new copy once in a while.
If anyone can answer that, I'd love to know!
Honestly, if you're not comfortable trying what I suggest, don't worry about it, keep doing what you're doing, it has obviously worked so far for you. Everyone does it differently, some people are more lax, some are stricter. Do what makes you feel better.
If you do want to try a different way at some point, then right-click on your saves folder and zip up a copy first, and store it safely on your desktop or something while you test things out in game. That would give you the freedom to make mistakes and decide what you want without losing anything.
Thanks for that further information so far I have not lost any game progress clicking the big button to get into game then using save as opposed to save as when I play.
I then tested a save as game to find that none off the game progress or lots I had added in the big button game session had saved to a save as game file so from this I conclude that every save as game is like a new game in itself. For example if I save as now I am going to think of it as a saved backup to be used if something happens to my current game. I am sorry if I am not explaining this properly
It is also good to know 4 saves everything like 3 does I can relate to that-)
If I use the save as after a game session rather than just a save when I go back to play next time to I continue playing via the big button or would I have to play the last save as to continue? this bit is a little confusing-)
From the way you describe how you are playing with your games it sounds like you are using save as for each particular story-line you are playing is that correct? I on the other hand at the moment just want all my hoods and community lots all placed so even if I play different households in different worlds all the community lots are the same. That's how I knew I was in a save as game the other day because I suddenly realized various community lots I wanted my household to visit were not there
the following statement you made went right over the top of my head with regards to save game files-)
I had old backup saves in there that I didn't need, so I zipped and moved them out, and when I made the New+ files they took on the numbers of the now open first slots (02, 03, 04, and 05).
2 Now that they are all new and clearly named, whenever I play them I will be using Save (if stay with the legacy for a while) every time I want to protect my progress, or Save As (when I first swap to, say, the simselves to make sure that it understands which one I want it to recognize as the new 'current') to overwrite my three file sets over and over, until the next patch when I will make fresh New+ copies to keep the files from getting... I don't know, senile?"
when you state the following are you thinking that a long game/save file can corrupt over time?
I'm not even sure what they do if you stick with one save file without making a new copy once in a while.
It sure is an interesting subject lol
That first save highlighted in the top and bottom of the picture are still my legacy save (but with the family that I played last night), the file set in my folders labelled Slot_00000004 and all of its backup files with ver# at the end. I did not make a new copy, but saved over the same file.
In the first picture, you see the default choice for "Save As" is to create a new copy of your save with the first (+) box; if I used that it would add a copy of my most recent legacy files as new Slot_00000006 files (the next number open in the folder slots).
That's what I do after the big content patches, and I use the Windows zip program to compress my old save files into a zip folder to keep them small on my storage drive, away from the Sims 4 folder in case my saves folder gets erased or messed up somehow.
But the way I use "Save As" most of the time (when I switch between major world saves) is to click back onto my original save file (04) like in the bottom of the picture and just overwrite it without creating a new file copy (06).
With the new saving style here, it looks like some people were having trouble with the game understanding which save they wanted to overwrite when they switched between more than one, so when I select for example the simselves' save to play my family, the first time I save them I will choose "Save As" and overwrite the simself files, automatically moving them to the front of the list, what the game now considers the 'current' save, so that when I want to hit just "Save" for the rest of the session, it will not overwrite my legacy files by mistake. And the next time I want to play my simselves, I can hit the big Play button to automatically load that one.
*For just "Save" it will remember any name you gave your file, but if you use "New+" or "Save As" it looks like you need to write the name in again for both of those choices now.
Some people play just one world, they have played in their original save since TS4 came out, and comfortably used just "Save" every time.
I seem to remember in TS3 (someone correct me if I'm wrong) the saves could get corrupted if they got too big, or if you played the same one for too long. So when I started playing TS4, with that in mind I made a habit of kind of refreshing it every once in a while the way I explained above.
But other people seem to be playing fine with their original Slot_00000002 save files, so maybe that isn't a problem. I don't know, but doing it this way makes me feel better.
I'm not sure why you wouldn't see the community lots you put down. Did you accidentally start a brand new save, or did you choose an older save where you had not placed them yet? What does your in-game saves window look like?
Thank you @SimGuruNick!
(I'm sorry if this thread should have been made in the Bugs forum...)
First of all I am wondering in the line of saves in the folder how you know which family is what save? I went into my saves folder to have a look and I cannot work out what save is which family-)?
With 3 I used to save as every time and then remove the older saves and keep the last 3 just in case I wanted to go back in game play but that series was a lot lot more orderly than 4 I think-) I am still not comfortable with the 4 system at all so I am saving my saves folders now and my tray folder for the sims and lots I have added to my game hoping that if anything goes wrong and I start a new 4 folder if I add these 2 back I should be able to start playing from a reasonable point of reference again without having to find and re download the sims and lots I have used as the tray folder is equally mind blowing to me.
I think the new game function would be great for starting new themed hoods for example and saved as to go back in time in a game if necessary. Yes I started a save as game by mistake before then realized it wasn't the save I had been playing the day before so no progression shows up-)
Your explanations are great it's me who is still not wrapping my head around some things and it makes me feel like a total jerk-)
I also went into my game to try and take a pic of my games the way you have above but I cannot find them. I cannot even find the current game header I did find played and unplayable households in in game under manage households but cannot take you a pic as my screenshot program is not working in game and my game itself will not take a screenshot either and I am not sure why.
Thank you for all the time you have taken to try and help me with this but if I was you I would put me down to a lost cause now
When it works, you can find your pictures in your Sims 4 folder, the Screenshots are found right under your saves folder:
(I upload my pictures to imgur now, it's been an easy site to use so far.)
As for knowing which save is which, when your game is open go to the Save As window, and mouse over your pictures, they will each tell you at what time they were saved last. With my three, I used that to see what days and times I saved them, and looked for the same information in my saves folder (under Details view).
If the game picture says one world was last saved on the 29th at 6:09pm, then I look for which Slot file also says that time.
In game I add the number of the slot file to my save's name, so that I don't forget which one it is later.
It won't label any save as the "current" game, it's just whichever save is the first one to the right of the plus button.
Whichever save is in that ^^^ spot is considered the current save.
And don't feel bad if some of this seems confusing or overwhelming, it really helps if you're compulsive and freaking adore organizing things... like me... >_>
I thought I understood this new system. I open 'Save As' and it comes up with the first thumbnail highlighted which says 'New Save Game' when I hover over it. I type the name I want that save to have in the box at the top (same as before) and I have a new save (with a new slot #).
That's the way it usually works, but not always. Every once in a while, instead of assigning a new slot #, the game uses one that is already being used by a different save game which overwrites the older save game, making it Ver0. When this happens, it doesn't use the new game title typed in the box, or the generic 'My Saved Game XX'. It actually does use the name of the older save game that was overwritten. That's how I notice something's wrong with that save.
I am patched up to date and don't use mods or cc. Having two patches so close together and adding a GP (I have all packs), I have reset my folders, repaired several times, and deleted localthumbnailcache every game play. Nothing has made a difference. Although I have my share of glitches and bugs, in general, the game still works quite well.
I did see something in this thread I haven't done yet. It's been said that re-saving your older saves will make the thumbnails appear. I didn't do that as I didn't really care if they showed or not on the older games I wasn't currently playing. However, @BooV7227 mentioned we might need to do that to recode the older saves to the new format. I'm hoping that may also help this overwrite bug I have. It's worth a try anyway.