People who have just one save file...why?

[Kyralessa]

Then Whatever3, Whatever4, Whatever 53, Whatever 108.1, etc.

Where did you get infinite storage space?

Based on what others say here, apparently it's from not using Steam.

I have a 1 TB SSD and a 2 TB conventional drive. The biggest save I see on my machine is 190 MB. 3 TB can hold over 15000 saves, so I think it's probably enough space.

[Shirasik]

Based on what others say here, apparently it's from not using Steam.

The main reason not to use Steam is its mandate to update games to launch them.

I have a 1 TB SSD and a 2 TB conventional drive. The biggest save I see on my machine is 190 MB. 3 TB can hold over 15000 saves, so I think it's probably enough space.

So your rig loads OS and all software from network and all your local storage is RAID0 array which is hooked up as Factorio's save folder.

[Jap2.0]

I have a 1 TB SSD and a 2 TB conventional drive. The biggest save I see on my machine is 190 MB. 3 TB can hold over 15000 saves, so I think it's probably enough space.

So your rig loads OS and all software from network and all your local storage is RAID0 array which is hooked up as Factorio's save folder.

The point is that you can fit a lot of saves on a modern drive.

[eugenekay]

The main reason not to use Steam is its mandate to update games to launch them.

Today, in "Falsehoods users spread about content distribution networks" !

08-22-2025, 13-14-24.png (110.7 KiB) Viewed 801 times

For most games this might be a valid criticism. In addition to the complete lack of DRM, Factorio makes extensive back-versions available directly through Steam if the user desires it.

But I am guessing you knew this already; and were only posting this to get some sort of "dig" at Steam, despite it only being tangentially related to the Question. Why do people just want to complain and be angry over the Internet, instead of having fun? I do not get it. If you take issue with Other Games DRM then you should consider complaining in their Forums about that problem.

[Kyralessa]

I have a 1 TB SSD and a 2 TB conventional drive. The biggest save I see on my machine is 190 MB. 3 TB can hold over 15000 saves, so I think it's probably enough space.

So your rig loads OS and all software from network and all your local storage is RAID0 array which is hooked up as Factorio's save folder.

No, no, I do actually have other stuff on my PC. Between the two drives I only have about 1.9 TB free right now, so really only room for another 9500 saves.

[Tertius]

The main reason not to use Steam is its mandate to update games to launch them.

That's not mandatory, you're able to configure this on a per-game basis. I see this the other way round: One of the main reasons to use Steam is its automatic downloading and updating feature.
In case you didn't realize yet: Steam is one of the good guys in the gaming industry, and has been proving this for quite some time. They're certainly not Santa Claus but a for-profit company, but a company who take their customers seriously.

[Shirasik]

The main reason not to use Steam is its mandate to update games to launch them.

Today, in "Falsehoods users spread about content distribution networks" !

08-22-2025, 13-14-24.png
For most games this might be a valid criticism. In addition to the complete lack of DRM, Factorio makes extensive back-versions available directly through Steam if the user desires it.

But I am guessing you knew this already; and were only posting this to get some sort of "dig" at Steam, despite it only being tangentially related to the Question. Why do people just want to complain and be angry over the Internet, instead of having fun? I do not get it. If you take issue with Other Games DRM then you should consider complaining in their Forums about that problem.

Simple test case. You installed a game. You installed mods from Steam Workshop. Tested them. Everything works good. You got yourself a game setup. Now you need to configure Steam to never update both game and workshop items while allowing to launch game until you reconfigure it back. How do you do that?

E.g. Skyrim. You might know how much effort it needs to solve mod conflicts. Steam can suddenly ruin all that.

As for Factorio's version rolling back option in Steam, it:
1) Wube's doing not Steam's mandatory for games;
2) the list of versions is far from complete;
3) not related to lack of "don't update and let me have fun without updates" option in Steam.

The main reason not to use Steam is its mandate to update games to launch them.

That's not mandatory, you're able to configure this on a per-game basis.

Long story short: hitting the "Launch" button is immediate update required to launch.

Screenshot-32.jpg (19.28 KiB) Viewed 747 times

No, no, I do actually have other stuff on my PC. Between the two drives I only have about 1.9 TB free right now, so really only room for another 9500 saves.

What a lack of space! This can never be enough for ordinary playthrough!

You mentioned your biggest save is 190MB file. My current save almost hit 500MB. And I don't feel like I expanded enough so it will be bigger. That's not like such files are the issue (for steam cloud it is lol) but I simply don't need any sort of savefile history. If I need a backup (which I prefer to have) I simply backing up current bunch of files to another drive.

[eugenekay]

Why do people just want to complain and be angry over the Internet, instead of having fun? I do not get it. If you take issue with Other Games DRM then you should consider complaining in their Forums about that problem.

Simple test case. You installed a game. You installed mods from Steam Workshop. Tested them. Everything works good. You got yourself a game setup. Now you need to configure Steam to never update both game and workshop items while allowing to launch game until you reconfigure it back. How do you do that?

E.g. Skyrim. You might know how much effort it needs to solve mod conflicts. Steam can suddenly ruin all that.

Factorio does not support Steam Workshop. Mods are downloaded in-game directly from the Mod Portal. To make a local backup you need to save the User Data Directory, and archive it alongside the correct version of the installer - which is accessible for Steam users too.

This is the Factorio Forums. You can find the Skyrim Forums on Steam to talk about that game.


Good Luck!

[Shirasik]

Mods are downloaded in-game directly from the Mod Portal. To make a local backup you need to save the User Data Directory, and archive it alongside the correct version of the installer - which is accessible for Steam users too.

This is the Factorio Forums.

Steam suddenly updates Factorio. Some mods needs to be updated. Either you sitting not having fun waiting when mods will get updated (what may not happen) or you manually rolling back to previous version. Or you using DRMfree version from the very beginning never having any autoupdate issues at all. All in all you want to disable autoupdating. FOR FACTORIO.

[eugenekay]

All in all you want to disable autoupdating. FOR FACTORIO.

Yes, Steam is a Content Distribution Network - it automatically updates your Content to match what the Publisher has released. You can choose the Default Stable, use an Experimental, or stay on an Old Stable if you want.

WiFi Menu --> Disconnect has always worked great for preventing Internet automatic Updates, if that is what you really want to do? None of this has anything to do with Save file Strategies.

Good Luck!

[Shirasik]

The main reason not to use Steam is its mandate to update games to launch them.

Today, in "Falsehoods users spread about content distribution networks" !

08-22-2025, 13-14-24.png
For most games this might be a valid criticism. In addition to the complete lack of DRM, Factorio makes extensive back-versions available directly through Steam if the user desires it.

But I am guessing you knew this already; and were only posting this to get some sort of "dig" at Steam, despite it only being tangentially related to the Question. Why do people just want to complain and be angry over the Internet, instead of having fun? I do not get it. If you take issue with Other Games DRM then you should consider complaining in their Forums about that problem.

None of this has anything to do with Save file Strategies.

[Jap2.0]

Now you need to configure Steam to never update both game and workshop items while allowing to launch game until you reconfigure it back. How do you do that?

I'm pretty sure Steam allows you to turn automatic updates off, and I assume it would let you launch a game without updating it while in offline mode. But I haven't tested that.

[mrt144]

I see so many topics here about people whose save file has been corrupted (usually due to their computer's failing memory or a misbehaving mod), so I have to ask:

Why do you only have one save file?

When I start a new game and save it, I save it with my designated name, e.g. Whatever1.

Then next time I save: Whatever2.

Then Whatever3, Whatever4, Whatever 53, Whatever 108.1, etc.

Why doesn't everybody do this? Why do people use one single solitary save file, so that if it gets corrupted, it's game over?

Partially it's experience over time, where I've never revisited a whatever45 when I've been on whatever145, so even with the specter of an unrecoverable point it's like...I don't find being 40 hours deep into something that's now 500 hours deep much if any better than being 0 hours deep. That bad boy is done and it's time to synthesize the lessons learned in that run. Or other way around - I don't find being 6 hours removed much better than being 12 hours removed from the unrecoverable point as it's still an assload of work to get back to that point anyway. So now I have 100 saves which I've only touched once or twice ever and am just using autosaves if/when I exit the game (which I don't do now, because I don't have to do it. It's steamdeck, why close out of a game you're totally gonna play tomorrow evening with a glass of wine and a joint?)

Part of it is that with cloud saving and a terrible internet connection, all the manual saves will eventually try to sync with Steam so if/when I do close out, it's like 10 minutes to push 100 saves to the cloud. And if I do hop on my music computer and play a little, then I have to sync down to that computer.

One other thing is that I'm in IT Support and do manage backups and while I did spend a few months being super fastidious back in 2020 with very particular conventions borrowed from work, I am now past a point of life where I really don't want to bring every article of 'work life baggage' to games I play. I used to love management/admin sims, but now I'm sick of them because it just feels like a different kind of work that I'm paying to 'play', it only took decades to shake me out of it.

[Kyralessa]

Part of it is that with cloud saving and a terrible internet connection, all the manual saves will eventually try to sync with Steam so if/when I do close out, it's like 10 minutes to push 100 saves to the cloud. And if I do hop on my music computer and play a little, then I have to sync down to that computer.

"Because Steam won't let me" seems to be a common theme in this thread. Interesting.

[mrt144]

Part of it is that with cloud saving and a terrible internet connection, all the manual saves will eventually try to sync with Steam so if/when I do close out, it's like 10 minutes to push 100 saves to the cloud. And if I do hop on my music computer and play a little, then I have to sync down to that computer.

"Because Steam won't let me" seems to be a common theme in this thread. Interesting.

Yeah, I think that's going to be an overriding factor on some of the savegame issues. While it is extremely handy for playing between computers to let Steam do it's magic, you give up resolute backups to help if something goes screwy. Steam being so quick to sync without confirmation can really put you in the lurch if a 'good' cloud save gets overwritten with a 'bad' cloud save.

FWIW, I've had way worse Steam Cloud issues with other games that mostly revolve around it NOT gracefully syncing up to the cloud and then there being a headache of a conflict between the cloud and 2 computers and telling Steam to choose the 'correct' one. Sometimes the older one is the one to upload because its still 'good'