Saving
Learning paths through this topic
After an update, a chest the player emptied is full again and another looks opened
Adding one new chest to a dungeon can quietly swap which chests count as opened in every existing save. Here is what to store instead so the right chests stay empty, and what to do with saves that were written the old way.
Companions vanish from the party, or too many load in after the limit changed
Saving only the current party loses everyone who stayed behind at camp, and saving a longer party than the game now allows breaks the screen. Here is the list to keep, and how to tidy a party that no longer fits on load without losing anyone.
In a one-life mode players quit the game just before a deadly hit lands
If a hero can only die once, closing the game at the right second turns death into a choice. Here is a way to make a hit count from the moment it can no longer be avoided, so quitting or crashing changes nothing, while a real dodge still saves the hero.
The play time on the save slot is far too long after the laptop slept
A save slot shows how long the hero has played, and players notice when it says forty hours for a weekend. Here is how to count only the time that was really played, ignore menus and sleep, and show it in a form that does not overflow.
A half-solved puzzle room loads with a stuck block and cannot be finished
The player pushes blocks, saves, and the game remembers only some of them, or an update adds a new piece. The room then loads into a state nobody can solve. Here is a rule that restores a puzzle as a whole or not at all.
Quest rewards are paid twice when the player reloads after turning in
The player hands in a quest, gets the reward, and then loads an older save or closes the game at the wrong moment. Now the reward comes again, or the quest is finished and the reward is lost. Here is how to make a payout happen exactly once.
Dying sends the hero to a bed or shrine that was destroyed or is under siege
The player bound their return point to an inn, and later the inn burned down or the town was taken by enemies. Respawning there is a trap. Here is a short list of fallbacks and a way to explain to the player why a different place was chosen.
A found item shows different bonuses after loading or after an update
Random bonuses are fun until the player loads and the dagger they were so proud of has become something else. Here is how to roll the bonuses once, keep them with the item, and still use a seed so the roll can be reproduced.
A stash shared by two heroes loses items or hands out the same item twice
Two characters, two devices or two browser tabs take things from the same chest and save at different times. The last save wins and goods disappear or double. Here is how to merge both changes with the last agreed state, and how to spot the item taken twice.
Shop shelves are full again at once, or stay empty after many days away
Shops that restock only while the player is in town are empty forever, and shops that refill on load make selling out meaningless. Here is how to work out what changed from the days gone by, and what happens to goods the player sold to the shop.
After a skill tree rebuild, old heroes hold unaffordable skills or lost points
A skill gets more expensive, another is removed, a third now needs a new parent. Saves that remember only what was learned end up with broken builds or missing points. Here is a repair that decides what stays, and gives back the rest as free points.
After an update lowered the stack limit, bags load with oversized stacks or lose goods
You decide potions stack to fewer than before. Old saves still hold bigger piles, and a quick fix that trims them throws goods away. Here is how to rebuild the piles so nothing is lost, and what happens to what no longer fits.