Sorting savegames: by date / world

[Koub]

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

A game needing to fiddle with the file explorer to manage savegame files is, in my opinion, a very bad design indicator.

[tamanous]

A game needing to fiddle with the file explorer to manage savegame files is, in my opinion, a very bad design indicator.

I get the point, and I partially agree, but I like being able to interfere by using my OS, too.

Like when doing backups of a game (even if it were only for settings and saves), I'd like to do it via data browser or backup software of my choice. Of course, that means I have to locate the essential files first. But I can't remember one game that has a "export and backup settings and saves for next use in a few years" function.

[Koub]

A game needing to fiddle with the file explorer to manage savegame files is, in my opinion, a very bad design indicator.

I get the point, and I partially agree, but I like being able to interfere by using my OS, too.

Like when doing backups of a game (even if it were only for settings and saves), I'd like to do it via data browser or backup software of my choice. Of course, that means I have to locate the essential files first. But I can't remember one game that has a "export and backup settings and saves for next use in a few years" function.

I totally agree with you. I don't want to need explorer fiddling for my everyday needs, but I want to be free to access the save files for backup (or transfer to another computer) purpose. In the current state, the second part of my needs is totally fulfilled. The saves are accessible easily and can be backed up freely.

[Ikonos]

I was about to suggest something similar. A toggle for alphabetical/chronological order would be very useful.

When you have several runs with several saves on each, the chronological order is better.
Also, the map editor load menu does not have the "playtime" displayed, so it is harder to find the last one if you do not name it carefully.

Last thing, if the toggle is added, please, make it to remember the last setting.

[Porkchop13]

I'd also like this feature - I tend to try out lots of things, it'd be nice to be able to sort my (too many) saves by date.

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.

On Windows, I created a subfolder - it appears in the Load game browser, but the save in it does not appear.

[Silari]

I'd also like this feature - I tend to try out lots of things, it'd be nice to be able to sort my (too many) saves by date.

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.

On Windows, I created a subfolder - it appears in the Load game browser, but the save in it does not appear.

Did you double click the folder name to actually open the folder? Save won't show until you do. Working perfectly fine on my factorio.

[Porkchop13]

I didn't realize it required a double-click (though it makes sense now that I see it), thanks!

[irbork]

As in title.
I like to keep saves from my old games as a reminder, or as a gateway to old build designs. My Load Game list of files is quite extensive. And with auto save often erasing my last save for resume function, I have to click many files and look for play time and file name to find my last save.
Sorting by date/time when file was modified would solve the issue and should be very easy programming-wise.

[jodokus31]

I use a name schema, which sorts nicely by name

f.e.:
00001_start
00002_next
...
09231_very_late_game

[netmand]

To extend this a little bit; I have the same desire to be able to find various saves for various reasons. It would be nice to be able to sort saved games by certain aspects of the game such as time played, tech progression, map configuration, etc. a sort of advanced find... I digress. Starting with a simple sort by (modified) date would be nice.

[Koub]

[Koub] Merged into older thread with same suggestion.
See also (kind of related) : viewtopic.php?f=6&t=80796

[silvver]

I would like to suggest improving load game screen by adding more informating to the list with saves.

Now it only shows a save game on the left, and the details when you select a save.
The improvment would be showing a list with columns, for example:
Name - save date+time - playtime - version - mods (y/n) - size
Each column would be clickable - so clicking on save date would sort it asceding, clicking again - descending.
Size can mean the save mb size or something else (number of entities?).

This would make managing saves much better, because right now you don't even know the save date and time. So you can't see quickly the last played saves (you can check autosaves but it's not the same, isn't it? Technically the game will highlight the last save but that's not very helpful with multiple saves).
There is no problem when you have a few saves, but the more you have the more inconvinent load game screen becomes - imagine having 30 different saves and wanting to play again after 1 month of vacations when you forget the name of your recent factories.
Or you would be quickly able to check in which save/factory you spend the most time or is the biggest of all.

Even adding only date+time column after the save name would be really helpful.

[Koub]

[Koub] Merged into older thread with similar suggestion.

[mrvn]

Just and update and FYI:

You can create folders in ./saves/ and factorio will show them. You can double click the folder to enter/leave them. Putting each game into a separate folder already makes a ton of difference finding stuff.

[ssilk]

viewtopic.php?p=180123#p180123

What the hell? So the game handles folders just fine and they just didn't add a create folder button???

And related viewtopic.php?f=6&t=26663

[ssilk]

Merging merged topics into other merged topic

This is by far the suggestion with the most initial posts!

Very high need, very high game-play-value, low implementation cost.

[mrvn]

Sorry for the feature creep but I have one more suggestion for this: Autosaves

Why are all autosaves called _autosaveX?

Factorio frequently suggest continuing playing the autosave. Saving the game manually later then has no idea what name to use and you have to find the right world and running number to use for the next save.

Why not call them _autosaveX_<world> or _<world>_X that makes it easier to see what world they came from and so you don't loose your autosaves when playing a different world for a while? I would then also like an option to delete/rename autosaves when changing the name of the manual save. So they don't remain behind forever.

[ssilk]

I'm also sorry mrvn, but there are so many similar threads about that ideas, please search the right ones to post your ideas or create a new.

This thread is about sorting savegames.

[_Attila_]

The fact that this request for sorting options has been ignored since 2013 is rather surprising, given how good the developers are about fixing bugs and adding other far less requested features.

I have also had to resort to using an external browser to find the latest save of a given set of saves and, frankly, I shake my head every time I have to do this.

There is just no excuse for not having implemented this feature ahead of the many dozens of far less useful ones.

[ssilk]

Complains don’t bring us further here. The players seem to found several good ideas to work around this.

And - as mentioned in this thread - this suggestion is strongly coupled with other ideas, like having “worlds” and versioning of worlds, lot having subdirectories. You cannot implement the world versioning AND sorting by date. One would destroy the efforts of the other - think in UX here! It would make no sense to have both in the load-requester.

And I go one step further: In practice, when you have such controversial needs, it’s a good idea for agile software development process to implement it so far, that it is useable. Which is exactly what we see here. and then if it becomes more clear how that is used and how many complains come in, to find the right compromise between all of the options.