I have done a million things to self impose rules to make the game play to its fullest potential. However, when i try and write down all the little things that add up to achive this objective in the forums, some of the key factors gets lost in the sea of data. Thus, i figure each point deserves a topic of its own. Thus, my topic for the day is Game Saves.

I couldn't stress this point enough. The way you execrise your power of game saves can dramatically add to or take away from your experince.

I'm quickly closing in on the 400 hour of game time mark. It wasn't until the latter 100 hours did i develop a balanced habit while saving the game. Now, before i talk about my habits of saving, i'll point out that I play on master difficulty, with a charactor that is a low health character, only 110 health at level 30. Thus, higher level mobs can easily one shot me with arrows and even the weakest enemies can kill me in 2 or 3 hits.

Thus, this in and of its self makes the game hard. However, I take it even a step further: I only use the games natural check points when traveling (no fast traveling) and in caves, tomes, runes, ect. Therefore, each and every time i dare step foot in one of these places it is a nightmare. Its a kin to playing dark souls. Alas, any and most boss fights usually takes me hours to beat. And if there is no natural check point i've reached then i'll have to start the section all over again from the start.

This is in contrast to how i used to play the first 300 hours of game time when i used to save almost after every fight cause if died i didint want to loot everything all over again. Which is why now i loot only after the level has been cleared.

This type of saving habits will only appeal to those that are not in "rush mode" to complete a quest or the game for that matter. The great thing about saving like this is that it makes your characters life span longer. I can play a full 8 hours striagth in a day and only been through 1 or 2 cave, tome, rune, ect., where as before i could have hit 5 or more. Also, when you combine this type of saving habits with a character class that you don't invest any health into, e.g., DPS, Mage, ect, then you set up for some epic gameplay combat where you have to think, outwit and come up with tatics to survive.

Anyhow, since i play like this i'm wondering how many others practice this sort of thing insofar as saving goes. If not, I'm curious as to why?

Cheers.

My saving habit is seemingly random and can range from saving every 5 minutes to not saving for hours. Why? I have no idea, but I generally feel like my saving isn't taking much from my game experience.

I save every damn chance I get. I've got a level 45 character with some 2500 saves to his name.

And how do you people know how many hours you've put into the game?

I save about every ten minutes. Maybe more it just depends.

I tend to make one save right outside a dungeon. I usually make no other saves inside that dungeon. If I die, I start the dungeon all over again. Other than that, I typically save about ever half hour or so, out in the world. I try not to be too obssessive about saving every two or three minutes. I like the feeling that if I make a wrong move it will cost me. But at the same time I have enough saves that, if the game crashes or something else goes wrong that is beyond my control, I don't feel too frustrated.

http://i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/129/201/save-game-file-twice.jpg?1307003009. Sometimes I save right before I walk through a door, then after the next room loads, I save again. I feel like if I die, at least I won't have to go through two loading screens, but I hardly ever die.

I agree with Tdroid. Except when I enter dungeons, I save after every encounter. Why? Because every encounter is fun till you figure how to beat it and move on. Having to replay stuff actually takes away from the game experience in my case.

I quicksave every 5 steps i take, it's out of hand

I need dovahdoctor

well, as i suggested in my post, game saves and character class go hand in hand. If your playing with a god-like character on easy mode and never die anyway then game saves wont matter a bit. Well, i guess i F'd up this post cause that's a point i really didnt think too hard on. That is, the factor of character strength and death rate.

Many times when i go into a new place i can get owned by the first guy i come across. Thus, if there is an average of 20 mobs plus a boss, saving would be a factor in passing the place without faster. However, if every one of the 20 mobs has the power to kill you and if your not saving the entire time then you have to play a perfect game in that raid. Not to metion dealing with the boss. Depending on the boss type, i've fought and died unitl i beat them for hours and hours and hours and theus having to replay, replay and replay everything to get to him. It makes dieing a pain which is good. Rather than saving at every inch you advance.

Anyhow, by the sounds of it you dont play on master and if you do you likely overpowered you character. Its the only logical reason for you not taking notice of your saving habits. I'm not insulting you by it, some people just like to roll around the world. The why i play is because i dont have a life and i'm a loser so the only thing i can do is make Skyrim play hard as hell

I don't have the self discipline to save like you do, especially playing on Master. Hell, some fights I'll quicksave when I'm half to 3/4 done with the fight. Yeah, I cheese it

The only reason I save so much is to avoid losing to much if the game freezes or crashes.

When I am actually playing the game, I end up just using the three Autosaves. When I need to do something in RL, I will make a hard save.
If I know I will recieve a random weapon upon killing a Boss at the end of a dungeon, I will make a hard save before entering to get the type of weapon that wil fit my character.
I will make a lot of saves the first time I run a character through a Guild questline.
When I start adding a lot of mods, I will get one that makes timed saves, but I do not feel it is an issue in this game yet.

When in dungeons or towns, almost never, since I know I'll eventually go through some door and the game will autosave.

When traveling, as often as possible, because you never know when an ancient dragon will suddenly fall from the sky or when the game will crash, ruining your last hour of gameplay or more.

I save my game progress every five minutes in Skyrim the PC version, sometimes sooner than that!!!

Saving? Early, often, constantly, and in a rotating set of at least a dozen. Utterly paranoid about losing my progress to a corrupted file.


(And I have no attraction to "dead is dead" style play. I've never played hardcoe mode in Diablo or games like that. Heck, I even back up my saves in the "DiD is the default" roguelike games. I'm not going to lose 10-20+ hours of effort on a character due to random chance crits or a super-alpha-strike from an off-screen Ancient Multi-hued Dragon.)

I have a rule of thumb I use for saving in all computer games. If I start saying to myself "as soon as I finish this, I will save", then I stop and save immediately. Because this tells me that I have reached a long enough time that it would bother me if the game crashed or the power suddenly shut off. I developed this habit after too many cases where I told myself I would save soon, and then didn't save soon enough and something bad happened. This creates a lot of saves, but I regularly go back and delete saves, and only keep one save for every 10 character levels. I don't save because I'm worried about making a bad decision, I just hate retracing my steps because something I couldn't control happened.

Well, I meant the saving habit change several times on the same character. I play on expert and I get my butt kicked every now and then, though I mostly manage to survive. I do take notice of my habits, but they change with my mood, patience and of I have something planned within a short periode of time and because of this they are very random. Also it is almost 4am here and I feel like I shouldn't write long descriptions of my saving habits

I save before entering any dungeon and before fighting any "end of quest" bad guy.

You are wrong son. Just because you figure out how to beat one encounter doesn't mean if you encounter that same thing the fight will unfold the same way. Thus, if you try and beat a whole cave without saving you combat skill will have to be at its A game the whole entire time. It means that you'll spend a long time in that same cave, some hours and hours if your like me and your character can get killed by one arrow shot, but its up to each person. Personally i've found that when i slowed things down and played like this the game's combat is so much more involing. Also, loot is more pleasing because in a long play through i only get a handful of stuff since i spend hours earning it. But at the end of the day it "to each his own."

Everyone has their own play style, but the fallacy is, everyone thinks their play style is the best and thus there is no need for change to make it better. Anyway, it ultimaly doesnt matter, it's all up to every person. The reason why i care to share is because there are a lot of good people that have given me ideas on how to make my own game play better, so i feel this is how i give back to the community.

And for those of you that said you are a complusive game saver, if you break that saving addiction, you'll find you'll be set free in a sense to play the game and not get weight down but the gravity of fighting, looting, saving, fighting, looting, saving after each encounter. All in all it breaks the immersion of the game. Give responsible game saving a try and you'll know what i'm talking about.

I've been burned too many times in Oblivion, Fallout 3, and New Vegas by it's incessant crashing at the most inopportune moments for me not to make a hard save every five minutes. Skyrim's a much stabler game than previous titles (for me at least), but that's a habit that's hard to break...not that having too many saves is a bad thing...on pc at least.

I average 120 saves per day. Right now I'm sitting on 8944 saves (not quick saves, individual/new saves).

I started out in single player games in 1982, then after a few years I went really heavy into First Person Shooters - that's where I learned that saving often is important.

you my friend have a OCD for game saves, go seek help. immediatly...run...go...RIGHT NOW!!!

on my normal play characters i start out saving a lot and not really worrying about it. if i haven't saved in awhile i'll throw one in.

on tough battles i will save at strategic points because i do not like replaying a battle, no matter how "different" it might be the next time.

as i begin to level up, i slowly start deleting the in-between saves and will have a level 10 save, then a level 11 and so on. meanwhile, my current level will still be filled with lots of saves. that method has really cleaned up my save files.

on DID saves, i keep around 5-10 saves because i do not trust the game.

Limiting your saves sounds way too stressful for me. I save obsessively. I admire people who don't, you've got more nerve than me.

I save when I remember