Sorting savegames: by date / world

[Balinor]

I would like to suggest having the save list sort-able by either most recent or by file name. Additionally when saving a previously loaded game, the file name box should be filled with the game name that was loaded.

[Lizzy]

I would like to add my support to this novel idea of Sorting Saves by Date.

[_Attila_]

I find it highly annoying that I can't sort saved files on creation date. If you start a game and make multiple saves THEN load some other save like a design setup, then to find what was the last save in the game you were playing becomes a chore. You have to click on every save to find the one with the longest time played.

Please add a sort-on-creation-date button AND remember its last setting.

[ssilk]

I make names like “World42v007-Nameofmap”. “World#” is then the order you created the maps. “v#” is the version of that world. Helps much sorting like this and is in some aspects a bit more clever than just using a date.

[mrvn]

I would like to be able to create folders. So all the saves of one game are in one folder and I don't have to search a list of 10000 save games to find the last time I played with Industrial Revolution for example.

[Leris]

When I return to Factorio and look at my recent save games, I have maybe 2-3 dozens collected during early access, these are sorted by name. Instead, I want the most recent up top. Right now, I have to click every single save game and review the details infos to see map version and infer or guess somehow how old the game is. The date is not even shown there. Another workaround would be to always include a date in the save game name. But as games evolve, the date should change as well, and this would leave many outdated save games of a same game but with older dates around. Am I missing something here?

[Kikkiu]

TL;DR

It would be nice to see the ability to sort game saves by date or time played and to even search one.

What ?

For a lot of years I've always hoped that a feature like this to be implemented, but it didn't come yet. It would be very good to be capable of sorting game saves by time, by time played or to search them. Now, every time I want to play on my vanilla save, I have to scroll all the way through the bottom, and find it. Or if I want to continue building my Factorio computer I have to search that too between tens of saves. Yes, the recently added "continue playing..." feature is good, but I play on different saves (you know, if things go wrong...). With a sorting, or even search feature, I can find everything almost instantly, without putting dots or things before the name.
Here's my saves list:

It's very, VERY messy and it's difficult to find anything. I have to put dots in fron of the names to find them on top.

Why ?

I think this could be a nice feature to have for everyone, even who has not a lot of saves, it's just really easy finding saves by date or time played and/or to search them.


Hope this idea makes sense for everyone!

[Squelch]

I am in full agreement, and even looked into trying to add this functionality via a mod. Unfortunately the core dialogs are out of bounds for modding.

I think of adding this suggestion every time I want to load up a different game to one I was recently playing, but can never remember what the exact name was, but it was a couple of weeks ago... OK let me load up each of the possible candidates to see if it is the one I want...

I had got into the habit of naming saves with a hint to what I was working on at the time, but that strategy doesn't work so well with the default alphanumeric sorting, especially after a break from the game.

The sort columns as suggested in the OP would be very welcome, and going further, the ability to divide individual game series into folders would be the icing on the cake.

[ssilk]

merged with older topic — ssilk

Workaround: I use the date in the filename, like “world56-2020-09-09”. Or just use numbers. Like “world57v001”.

And you can add subdirectories (not from inside Factorio, but that’s also suggested) to clean up. Factorio shows the directories.

[Squelch]

And you can add subdirectories (not from inside Factorio, but that’s also suggested) to clean up. Factorio shows the directories.

Now if only we could enter those subdirectories from Factorio, that would help a great deal. We still have to manipulate them outside of the game which is not something that players need or should be doing.

There are many workarounds I'm sure, but none of them feel seamless. I have even tried an external script to manipulate certain save series prior to loading the game. That got rather messy when a new game, or quick freeplay was initiated, and ended up in the wrong place. Autosave mixing was the other problem.

The very fact that subdirectories are displayed, and denoted by square brackets, makes me feel that there is some unfinished work here. I do hope this is the case, and we also get column sorting too. These kind of additions give the impression of development completion and certainly make the player's lives easier.

[SmEgHeAd89]

Allow the load game list to be sorted by date/time (displaying the save date/time along with the "playtime" in the details window would also be nice).

I'll often save, do some testing before "switching on" a part of a factory, then reload (or quit) and forget which my last save is. Coming back to a game the following weekend, "continue _autosave2" is the continue option and all saved games are displayed in alphabetical order.

I don’t have a great memory and end up clicking though many saves checking their "playtime" value - though this is not 100% reliable as I have saves from older games, or just look until something jogs my memory (e.g. my last save was called "New Oil" - I finished oil last weekend so have been re-using it despite having moved on).

I would have thought that given the choice of one order and no sort, last save date would be the preference. At least this seems to be the most common case I’ve seen in video games.

However this is not a big deal, just a minor inconvenience and I'm still enjoying the game regardless.

Thanks.

[Koub]

[Koub] Merged several threads with the same suggestion.
Additionally, here are some other topics with related subjects :
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=76108 (ingame save game manager)
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=33119 (sort saves by "factory")
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=80796 (sort by creation date)

Other suggestions on save management and ordering were made in this thread :
viewtopic.php?f=66&t=47857 (originally started because it was terribly easy to overwrite a save without noticing it at that time).

[Barthoze]

TL;DR

On the "Load Game/Save Game" GUI, give the option to sort savegame by date.

What ?

Keeping the classic alphabetical sort on the savegame as the default sort is the right thing.
However, using a chronological order on the savegame would be good too, as more often than not, the recently accessed files are the one that will be loaded or saved on the most often, regardless of the name

Save gui.png (1.08 MiB) Viewed 7277 times

Stupid save names are stupid, I know. "Sauvé le" is French for "Saved on :"

This option is so practical that there is already a shortcut for the very latest save, in the main menu, as it is arguably the most frequent use case.

Main menu.png (51.31 KiB) Viewed 7277 times

Why ?

It will be easier to retrieve the latest version of various campaign run, because I juggle from on type of game to the next. I do not think I'm alone in doing that.

[Koub]

[Koub] Merged into older topic with same suggestion.

[Usul]

Hi!

Among the information shown for each save, such as duration played, map version, mods etc, a quite basic thing seen in most games I know is missing: Date and Time of the Save.
-> I have to check the file modification timestamp in the file system outside the game to know when a particular save was saved.

Add for 1.1 please?

Thanks!

[Koub]

[Koub] Merged into older very similar suggestion.
Also, similar suggestion, but with creation time/date : viewtopic.php?f=6&t=80796.

[ssilk]

I changed the subject of this thread.

[Usul]

OK, I did not realize there is more complexity to this.

All I wish for to be added is to display the timestamp of a save underneath "play time".

[tamanous]

I once was wishing for that too and found a simple but yet very practical approach. I hope this works on windows, too, and easens up things for you.

Open your file browser and navigate to your saves folder. Create a sub-folders. They are shown ingame and are sorted alphabetically above the saves in the main save folder.

[ssilk]

To open the save game folder in (preferred way of your OS) is another of those quick and high game value suggestions.