Weird question about autosaves

[StaceyPowers]

I have a weird/silly question about autosaves that I should know the answer to, but don’t. If a game makes an autosave, how long does it keep that autosave? Does it stay until the next autosave writes over it? Or does the game dump it out at some other point of time based on space allocations or some other consideration?

Say I have a game where manual saving is causing freezing. Can I just rely on nothing but autosaving until it is over? Or will I randomly lose my progress?

[Shagger]

It depends on the game. In most games autosaves override each other, but Skyrim, for example, keeps a history of around 5 autosaves before they start to override. In my experience, most games autosave in a regular save slot that could override with a manual save if you wanted to. doing so would place the next autosave into a brand new slot as you don't really want an autosave overriding your manual saves. This can vary, so it's best to know the behaviours of the game your playing. Do you mind if I ask if there is a specific game that's causing you grief prompting you to start this topic?

[Heatman]

How auto saves works is directly related to how each game's auto-save system is designed to work. I think in Star Traders: Frontiers, the auto-save system holds up 4 save slots before it beings to override. Although, I don't usually care about autosaves because I'm very good at making use of manual saves. 

[Justin11]

All the time I've been playing video games, I've always depended on 'autosave option. The reason is that, I don't want to lose my progress in the game. In the past when I was using the manual save option, I lost whole of a season playing PES 2014, because I forgot to auto-save and power went down surprisingly. 

[Clasher]

I think after the Auto save and you are back to play the game again the next auto save over writes the other and the pattern just goes on and on until you complete the game.

There is actually an option to save a particular streak or fight that you really enjoyed I do that a lot for FIFA and I go back sometime to replay it in slow motion especially for a really fascinating goal I scored.

[Kane99]

To my knowledge, most games that have auto saves overwrite the old ones. Usually it occurs after you do something like complete a mission, buys items, etc. 

I always suggest having some manual saves as backups. But I think some games out there save a backup just in case. Or some do. 

[Withywarlock]

As others point out, some games have infinite autosave history, some go as high as 40 or 20, and some only go as far as 5 or just a single save. Otherwise your current autosave(s) last as long as they remain in your game files or cloudsaves.

[Heatman]

14 hours ago, Kane99 said:

To my knowledge, most games that have auto saves overwrite the old ones. Usually it occurs after you do something like complete a mission, buys items, etc. 

I always suggest having some manual saves as backups. But I think some games out there save a backup just in case. Or some do. 

Yeah, that's why I don't care about autosaves much because I don't want to face any sort of challenges with it messing up my gaming progress. 

Using manual saves haven't been any challenge for me, it's quite easy for me. If it's up me, I'd remove autosaves feature in games but I know some gamers love it anyways. 

[killamch89]

Honestly, it's game-dependent as some games allow you the option to make separate autosaves while others just overwrite the previous one. Which game are we talking about @StaceyPowers?

[Kane99]

14 hours ago, Heatman said:

Yeah, that's why I don't care about autosaves much because I don't want to face any sort of challenges with it messing up my gaming progress. 

Using manual saves haven't been any challenge for me, it's quite easy for me. If it's up me, I'd remove autosaves feature in games but I know some gamers love it anyways. 

I've encountered a few glitches because of auto save features. Recently in Sniper Elite 5 I encountered an issue where when I hit a body and died, reloading the autosave, resulted in me still carrying the body. I was not able to put it down. I contacted their support, and they told me I had to restart the mission to fix the issue. I decided to just finish the mission with the glitch, to which I did, but it made it hard to pick up items for some reason. 

Anyway, that's one reason I need to have manual saves included, because when you have a possible messed up file, you want to be able to go back a save and fix the error. 

As long as they don't auto save when you're in the act of doing something, like hiding a body in a crate or something similar. 

[Heatman]

7 hours ago, Kane99 said:

I've encountered a few glitches because of auto save features. Recently in Sniper Elite 5 I encountered an issue where when I hit a body and died, reloading the autosave, resulted in me still carrying the body. I was not able to put it down. I contacted their support, and they told me I had to restart the mission to fix the issue. I decided to just finish the mission with the glitch, to which I did, but it made it hard to pick up items for some reason. 

Anyway, that's one reason I need to have manual saves included, because when you have a possible messed up file, you want to be able to go back a save and fix the error. 

As long as they don't auto save when you're in the act of doing something, like hiding a body in a crate or something similar. 

Now that you have mentioned it, you're not the only person who had that same glitch issue with playing Sniper Elite 5. A guy in one gaming forum where they discuss about video games bugs and glitches mentioned the same thing. According to him, he had to restart the mission and that fixed the problem for him. 

[StaceyPowers]

@Shagger @killamch89 The game in question is The Outer Worlds--although it made me realize I did not know the answer in general. I thought it seemed inconsistent between games, but was not sure if this was so or if I was just getting confused.

[Kane99]

10 hours ago, Heatman said:

Now that you have mentioned it, you're not the only person who had that same glitch issue with playing Sniper Elite 5. A guy in one gaming forum where they discuss about video games bugs and glitches mentioned the same thing. According to him, he had to restart the mission and that fixed the problem for him. 

I may have mentioned if prior myself, but I'm sure it was an ongoing issue. I heard from Rebellion support that the issue was patched, but I got a comment on the YouTube video I put up for it, and they mentioned this happened during co-op as well, where one dude's wife ended up picking up a body to hide it, but it stayed on her. 

But yeah, the only fix is to restart the mission, or go through the mission still holding the body like I did. 😄 

55 minutes ago, StaceyPowers said:

@Shagger @killamch89 The game in question is The Outer Worlds--although it made me realize I did not know the answer in general. I thought it seemed inconsistent between games, but was not sure if this was so or if I was just getting confused.

I remember Outerworlds had a similar save system to the likes of Fallout, or so I thought. It's been a while since I played. But I remember the game having an auto save option and a manual save option. I used the manual save a little bit, but mostly let the autosave take control. I only saved if I felt like I needed to. Maybe to save a portion of the game in case I end up getting stuck. 

 

[StaceyPowers]

On 7/20/2022 at 10:34 AM, Kane99 said:

I used the manual save a little bit, but mostly let the autosave take control.

That's helpful feedback. I'll rely on it as much as I can going forward.

[Kane99]

5 minutes ago, StaceyPowers said:

That's helpful feedback. I'll rely on it as much as I can going forward.

Idk if i'd call it feedback so much. I didn't really need to use the manual save all that much. I only used it when I was worried about dying during certain sections. But most of the time I let my auto save do the work. 

Of course, you're free to use manual saves as much as you need I think. If you're worried that the autosave feature isn't working, or it doesn't save proper, then I'd say switch it to manual saves, just make sure to save often.