save Using both save anywhere and save points

[DoubleX 208]

  As I've seen some people arguing saving anywhere vs save points(or items, same below) and I'm interested in this topic, I want to share some(maybe just plain stupid) ideas about this.

  It seems that some people treat saving anywhere and save points as mutual exclusive while some treat them as complimentary, and I'm one of the latter.

  I don't think I'm good at arguing about this, but I think the view of the latter has some advantages over that of the former if the implementation is good enough-

  1. Allows players to save anywhere while still reminding them the timing to save, removing "having to quit before reaching a save point" and "forgetting to save due to lack of reminders" drawbacks

  2. Allows those disliking or unbearable to save point/saving anywhere only mechanism to use the other or both, making games more friendly to current and more possible audience in this aspect

  3. (Similar to point 2)Allows more playing styles, such as saving every step(of course ridiculously exaggerated) and saving only when absolutely necessary(save points help reminding such timing)

 

  I think complimenting them can be more than simply including them both, though, maybe adding an achievement about this can improve such implementations.

  Roughly speaking, the achievement should be about showing a player using save points only, giving players a way to proof themselves about this.

  The achievement can be useful or useless non-consumable items(disappears whenever the achievement is void) or inside an explicit achievement system(maybe implemented by custom scripts) or others.

  Although I think implementing this achievement needs custom scripts, such scripts shouldn't be too hard nor costly to write for decent scripters(excluding me XD) and I think it's worth writing them

 

 

  A vague idea about how to write such scripts:

  1. Uses a game variable to store the number of confirmed saves(including overwritten ones, so it should be greater than or equal to the number of save files) but excluding those from save points only

  2. Use a game switch to indicate whether the saves are come from save points(set it to true and false before opening and after closing the save menu in save point events respectively)

  3. Voids the achievement if the game variable is greater than 0(this comparison should be done only before the achievement is void and right after saving)

 

 

 

  Another idea is adding a hardcore mode disabling saving anywhere(it's still allowed in normal mode). Players have to select the mode at the start of the game and it can't be changed.

  It's similar to using achievements but achievements only indicates whether a player used saving anywhere feature while hardcore mode prevents them from using it from the very beginning.

  Of course there has to be ways to show which mode the players are selected, otherwise they can't(or at least much harder to) show the others which mode they've selected.

  Setting the save accessibility according to their selected modes can be done by eventing.

  To show which mode players have selected, use an item, event or custom script(e.g.: by changing the party menu) to display their choices.

 

  To sum up, I think implementing both saving anywhere and save points, combined with related achievements or "hardcore modes"(or other ideas) is at least a considerable choice.

Edited March 2, 2014 by DoubleX