NOTE: INSTANT ACTION SCENARIOS DO NOT SUPPORT SAVE AND RESTORE
QUICK GAME SAVE (CTRL+SHIFT+G)
This does NOT save the game in a manner that allows it to be restored.
It does a real-time game save of the current game state. It's not saved to disk. It is like a check-point; except that it stays in memory.
It is used for when you are about to do something hairy (or utterly stupid) without compromising a pre-existing saved game or the current game state.
If you want to save this state to disk, you MUST already have a pre-existing game (saved using the method below) for this option to work. If not, RESUME will NOT work and you will be presented with the full save game screen if you try to use that without having a pre-existing saved game.
FULL GAME SAVE (ALT+G)
This does a FULL game save. It allows you to use RESUME as well as RESTORE. It also allows you to have up to 10 saved games per character profile.
SAVED GAME FILE SETS
All the saved game files are in a "set" stored in a .SG? file (e,g. PLAYER0.SG0). The first number (0-9) is the profile slot, and the last number (0-9) is the saved game slot. Depending on profile and saved games slow, the file names look like: PLAYER.LOG, PLAYER.SAV, PLAYER0.SG0, PLAYER0.SGD
HOW IT WORKS
TEST #1 (QUICK SAVE)
Delete (or save them somewhere) all games in the .\save folder
Start the game, select ROAM or ACM, enter your name and craft name, launch
Select COMMAND/SYSTEMS -> QUICK GAME SAVE
Quit to main menu
At the main menu, press RESUME.
You will be taken to the start new game screen because NO previous saved game profile exists.
Quit the game and look in the .\SAVE folder, and you won't see any files there. Which is why there was nothing to resume or restore.
TEST #2 (FULL SAVE)
Delete (or save them somewhere) all games in the .\save folder
Start the game, select ROAM or ACM, enter your name and craft name, launch
Select COMMAND/SYSTEMS -> FULL GAME SAVE
Select a saved game slot, enter a name etc
Press ALT+Q to quit the game entirely to the OS
Look in the .\SAVE folder and you will see a set of 4 files that make up a saved game set depending on the chosen saved game slot (0 - 9).
Start the game, select RESTORE
After the files are loaded/restored, you will be taken back into the game where you left off
Do something or wait a few mins so some changes are written to the game memory
Select COMMAND/SYSTEMS -> QUICK SAVE GAME
Quit to main menu
At the main menu, select RESUME and you will be at that same spot
Press ALT+Q to quit the game entirely to the OS
Restart the game and you will find that RESUME or RESTORE will both work and take you to two DIFFERENT parts of the game as per the saves.
DISTRIBUTING SAVED GAMES:
You only need the .SGD file (e.g. PLAYER0.SGD)
If you are distributing saved games and only have the .SG? file (e.g. PLAYER0.SG0) in a profile set, you will NOT be able to load it because that's not the file that is used to display profiles in the RESTORE screen. You have to rename the file.
e.g. PLAYER0.SG0 will NOT be displayed, and thus can't be loaded. It has to be renamed to PLAYER0.SGD for it to be displayed and thus loaded via the RESTORE screen.
