So I know you’re supposed to use Save As to maintain a healthy save and save over multiple files but...what’s the best way to go about this? Do you save as and keep creating a bunch of new saves? Or do you rotate between a few different saves? I hope this question makes sense? Lol
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Always "River McIrish" ...and maybe some Bebe Hart. ~innocent expression~
Normally I don´t have much more than the saves I´m using at the moment in the actual Sims 3 "saves" folder, the others are moved to another backup folder.
My studio: http://www.thesims3.com/mypage/WatrDragon/mystudio
Just assume that every edit I make is because of typos.
I label my saves with date MH (stands for the world) 11318 (date) rafeprop1(which stands for Rafeproposes1,if I save in the middle of his proposal because I have to leave or something it will change to 2 at the end. I can get kinda stupid about saving as I lost a bunch of stuff when I first started by not doing save as and having errors and many bad saves.
My masters would be labelled MH11318rafeprop3MAS. All saves go to a desktop folder. I try to keep the folder in the game with only 1or 2 of any of my games. The desktop folder gets culled weekly when I remember, and the masters are copied to the external and am hoping to set up a cloud. Need to do that this weekend!
The Cowboy and the Mermaid
I don't cycle through old names but I do delete them eventually. I also periodically clean out the Saves folder of all lone ".backup" folders.
When my sims travel I make another save adding an abbreviation of where my sims are going (FR, CH, EG, ITF, Uni, etc.). I do that just before my sims travel just in case something goes wrong during the trip. I don't delete that save until my sims are safely back home. Then, while they are traveling I'll use the numbering system above with the new name to keep 4 new saves in the travel world.
For example, my current save is named after the family, the Goodwins. My saves are Goodwin-1, Goodwin-2, etc. If I'm on Goodwin-2 and my sims go to uni then I name the save just before they leave: Goodwin-2-Uni. When my sim arrive at university I start again, Goodwin-2-Uni-1, Goodwin-2-Uni-2, etc. Right before my sims travel home I make a last save, Goodwin-2-Uni-hm. When they safely arrive home I continue with the original scheme, Goodwin-3 would be the next save in this example. Eventually I'll go into the Saves folder and delete all the uni saves.
My system is kind of complicated but I generally keep at least 4 saves. When my sims travel I keep one save in homeworld before traveling until my sims return just in case something goes very wrong during the trip and I need to go back to a pre-travel save. And I always make a save just before returning home in case the traveling glitches and I need to repeat it.
I always 'save as', name the save after my sim and number files. Sometimes I add a word (like 'jodie', indicating Jodie had been born, or china when my sim's in China). I save as every sim night. When I save during the day (because of an important event I don't want to lose or because I had to stop playing in the middle of the sim day) I add a, b, c. As you can see I'm a bit sloppy where is comes to emptying the folder But I keep backups of all of them, untill the generation is played. Then I delete almost all of them, except for like five or so. I like to be able to go back into a save/family from the past if I want to. I hardly ever overwrite.
@JoAnne65 that many saves would make my head explode! Haha
The save game chooser screen has a limit on how many saves it can display. Too many saves in your Saves folder (50+) can cause issues. That's probably the only limitation to be aware of. For that reason I try to keep the number of saves in my Saves folder fairly small (less than 20). I'll move saves I want to keep to another drive in case I want to play that save again someday.
My studio: http://www.thesims3.com/mypage/WatrDragon/mystudio
Just assume that every edit I make is because of typos.
I don't know if there's a maximum. One person who posted with this problem said she had over 50 saves. @Waterdragon above says 30. And you report no issues with 80. It may just depend on your system.
Zumi and the Winchester Brothers
The Watcher's Caretaker - A Limited ISBI