PC Profiles : Fallout: New Vegas

PC Profiles · » Tue May 03, 2011 3:13 am

Is it possible to create a new profile for a second person to play their own game, like in fallout 3.
I cant find how to create a new profile.

» Tue May 03, 2011 2:14 am

Is it possible to create a new profile for a second person to play their own game, like in fallout 3.
I cant find how to create a new profile.

I was just about to make a thread asking this same question, so instead I'll just bump this one - hopefully someone will answer.

I share a computer with my husband and I am DYING to make my own character and play. I know on Fallout 3, being GFWL we each had separate profiles. Obviously not the case with New Vegas.

The only feasible solution I think COULD work (I have not tried it yet) would be to make a second Windows 7 user set up so that the programs/games are installed as on the regular windows admin account, but the documents (including any save files in my games) are blank and thus unique to my windows login?

Will that work or does someone have a simpler solution? Please let me know, because he's at work and I want to PLAY!

» Tue May 03, 2011 4:44 am

I was just about to make a thread asking this same question, so instead I'll just bump this one - hopefully someone will answer.

I share a computer with my husband and I am DYING to make my own character and play. I know on Fallout 3, being GFWL we each had separate profiles. Obviously not the case with New Vegas.

The only feasible solution I think COULD work (I have not tried it yet) would be to make a second Windows 7 user set up so that the programs/games are installed as on the regular windows admin account, but the documents (including any save files in my games) are blank and thus unique to my windows login?

Will that work or does someone have a simpler solution? Please let me know, because he's at work and I want to PLAY!

Bump

Someone please I'm sure there's at least ONE person on here who shares a PC with someone and has figured this out, I really want to play and not wait all day either.

» Tue May 03, 2011 8:06 am

Can this second person not just create their own character and have their own saves? Are you talking in-game profiles? Unless they're gonna be using a vastly different key/button configuration, or like the game slightly brighter or something, I don't see a problem.

» Tue May 03, 2011 1:25 am

If your 'Auto' and 'Quick' saves are isolated per campaign, then you're fine. Just load the correct game when you play. If not (currently at work, so I can't test this), like in FO3 and Oblivion, I do this:

There's a workaround I used for FO3 and Oblivion for this while playing 2 campaigns at once: Before you exit the game, save your campaign to a specific save (no quick or auto save).

i.e.,

Start 'Campaign A'
Auto-Saves Occur
Quick-Saves Occur
Perform 'Hard Save' of 'Campaign A'
Quit

Start 'Campaign B'
Auto-Saves Occur
Quick-Saves Occur
Perform 'Hard Save' of 'Campaign B'
Keep Playing
Auto-Saves Occur
Quick-Saves Occur
Perform 'Hard Save' of 'Campaign B'
Quit

Load 'Hard Save' of 'Campaign A'
Auto-Saves Occur
Quick-Saves Occur
Perform 'Hard Save' of 'Campaign A'
Quit

Here's what you don't do:
Start 'Campaign B'
Auto-Saves Occur
Quick-Saves Occur
Perform 'Hard Save' of 'Campaign B' (line X)
Keep Playing
Auto-Saves Occur
Quick-Saves Occur
Quit

Load 'Hard Save' of 'Campaign A'
Auto-Saves Occur
Quick-Saves Occur
-- HERE, you lost your progress after you last 'Hard Save' in 'Campaign B' (i.e., you're back to 'line X' above)
Quit

Not ideal and takes personal responsibility, but it worked for me just great.

» Mon May 02, 2011 10:44 pm

Not ideal and takes personal responsibility, but it worked for me just great.

Could always just swap out the Saves folder and config files before starting the game, instead?

Put 'em on the desktop or something while you're using yours, then they come on, swap 'em back, he plays on with his/hers. :shrug:

Edit 5 billion: Does this mean Live actually has an advantage over Steam for options like this?

» Tue May 03, 2011 5:48 am

...
Edit 5 billion: Does this mean Live actually has an advantage over Steam for options like this?

Live is advantageous only if you are using multiple Live accounts, but disadvantageous because of the different "save modes" you can be. This article raises some good points/concerns about the online profiles in GFWL: http://www.next-gen.biz/features/should-games-for-windows-live-die?page=0,1

Personally, I'd rather not deal with GFWL.

Online profiles work in much the same way as Xbox Live: you sign up, create a Gamertag and, by being signed in, collect Achievements as you play games. The issue is that, if you start a game while logged in to your account, your saved games are then irrevocably tied to that online profile. If your internet connection is ever unavailable, or if the Games for Windows Live servers aren’t working, then those saves are inaccessible. You cannot play your singleplayer game.

There is an offline mode, but instead of being a solution, it introduces a whole new string of regressive issues. Offline mode acts like a separate version of your account, which means that even when you do enter it, saved games created while online remain inaccessible – they are tied to your online ID. If you’re wise enough to create your saved games in offline mode to begin with, you’ll be unable to use any downloadable content. This means that if you want to continue your Fallout 3 character from offline saves beyond the end of the game and into the Point Lookout DLC, you’ll first have to manually copy the saved games into your online profile’s save folder.

There’s even a third mode with Fallout 3: you can sign out of Games for Windows Live entirely, exiting both online and offline modes. Fallout 3 will tell you that saved games and autosaves are disabled until you log back in at that point, yet you can play and save normally. The catch? Saved games created while in this state are invisible to both online and offline modes. That’s three different modes in which you can save your progress – progress which is invisible in the other modes. Modes that are inherently internet connection dependent.

» Tue May 03, 2011 3:19 am

Live is advantageous only if you are using multiple Live accounts, but disadvantageous because of the different "save modes" you can be. This article raises some good points/concerns about the online profiles in GFWL: http://www.next-gen.biz/features/should-games-for-windows-live-die?page=0,1

I spose. But the saves from a profile are only invisible ingame if you're not signed into the account though. You can navigate to your Fallout folder and shift the save files from the Profile folder to the main folder and they'll show up ingame and you can play as normal without signing into a online/offline profile. Creating offline profiles with the Live client though, tackles that whole issue of having different key and game video/audio configurations to another player using the same computer. Just sign into a different offline Live profile and voila, all the settings are changed to suit the new user.

I have two profiles on Dawn of War II, and that uses Steam, but the profile options are ingame. So what is Steam's take on profiles in comparison to Live? It doesn't have them?

» Mon May 02, 2011 9:01 pm

I spose. But the saves from a profile are only invisible ingame if you're not signed into the account though. You can navigate to your Fallout folder and shift the save files from the Profile folder to the main folder and they'll show up ingame and you can play as normal without signing into a online/offline profile. Creating offline profiles with the Live client though, tackles that whole issue of having different key and game video/audio configurations to another player using the same computer. Just sign into a different offline Live profile and voila, all the settings are changed to suit the new user.

I have two profiles on Dawn of War II, and that uses Steam, but the profile options are ingame. So what is Steam's take on profiles in comparison to Live? It doesn't have them?

Eh, all in all, I feel the mechanics of profiles and saved games should ultimately fall to the developer. Steam, IMHO, should have no play in that. It's most effective as a simple distributer. If you're logged in, you can play the game, as not. It's also nice how it can investigate details of a game, like achievements. I would draw the line there.

» Tue May 03, 2011 12:59 am

You'll have to share the saves folder. One thing you can do to make finding your characters more easily is to open the console type in Save then a name and hit enter. Like:
Save Marauder
Then you have a save named Marauder instead of "Save 0042"

I just remembered that the game doesn't like long names. Too bad. Moran the Marauder was awesome

Edit: Typo

» Tue May 03, 2011 4:15 am

Eh, all in all, I feel the mechanics of profiles and saved games should ultimately fall to the developer. Steam, IMHO, should have no play in that. It's most effective as a simple distributer. If you're logged in, you can play the game, as not. It's also nice how it can investigate details of a game, like achievements. I would draw the line there.

So Steam has no profile options? I agree that the profile options should be in game. Just making a point that players coming over from FO3 and Live are missing a feature because of the switch from Live to Steam. Profile options of Live were obviously a used feature on FO3 as this topic shows.

Cut and pasting Save files and config files is the way to go OP. Change all the settings ingame to suit you, make adjustments, copy and paste the files to different location. Then back in the game change the settings to suit the other user, and copy and paste them to a different location. Swap 'em out when you wanna get your respective games on. Me thinks. I think this is possible, I don't even know if F:NV uses the same/similar file locations as Fallout 3. lol

» Tue May 03, 2011 4:15 am

I think Bioware did it right with Dragon Age where each campaign you create has it's own save directory containing it's own auto and quick saves. Problem solved simply...

» Tue May 03, 2011 6:41 am

Okay problem solved. The method that I had wondered about works. Having a separate windows user enables you to have a failsafe way to have your OWN save game without the complication of handling multiple saves in one save folder and without the risk of accidentally saving over the other person's campaign.

So much easier.