There is no "player driven" game save precisely for the reason you WANT there to be player-driven saves..... To prevent players from rushing into a deadly encounters with no sense of consequence because they could simply save scum and retry.

Instead of saves, the player should be using the provided game mechanics to deal with (or prevent) super long "death runs", and that is by setting up forward operating bases complete with portal, so if the player dies, while far away from home base, they can simply use the portal to cut out all that running, and be ported back to a close location to collect their gear.

Anytime a player goes out to explore, especially if it is to go far away or across the water to a new island, they should always carry resources for making a portal with them, and already have an available portal set up at/near main base to connect with. As soon as one makes landfall (after crossing the ocean) or reaches that far-away place, they should place the portal, which then connects them to their home base, and eliminates the long run to get back to their graves.

There are already several ways to avoid that. Build a forward base (a bed with a roof and a fire) and set your spawn point. Or build a portal. The ability to save whenever you want removes the necessity base building, portal building, and strategizing. It's a survival game, not a hack and slash RPG.
If you can just go charging into any situation with no preparation and no real fear of death the entire game is broken, or, if not broken, at least an entirely different game. I really hope they don;t add this feature, it would complete ruin the game. Terrible idea,

BTW..."hiking across 5 or 10 minutes of map"? LOL My guess is you just started playing. Just wait till you die a half hour boat ride from your spawn point with no portal or back up resources. LOL I've had instances where it took me two days to retrieve my stuff. To me this is what makes the game special and amazing. You learn how not to make the same mistake twice. Again..not a hack and slash rpg. I hate those and would stop playing if that's what this game became. I think most players would be against this idea to be able to save whenever.

Originally posted by pipo.p:

They could program a player driven save when sleeping in a humble shack built or found close to the big fight. This would mary both worlds, but game's still in EA, and this featue is not really necessary for now.

It's more like a suggestion then, one that was written (and supposedly read) many times, as you guess.

They already have. Build a shack and a bed and a fire (everything needed to sleep), when you go to sleep it sets the bed as your spawn point.

doubt this ever gets implemented due to how it would require a quite significant discrepancy with how world and player data is saved between single player and multiplayer. Considering you can flip flop between single and multiplayer worlds with the same character, you’d be able to duplicate items very easily using this.

It's not that they can't implement that - it's that they didn't because its a terrible game design decision in a game that's based around risk. That is why succeeding in the game feels fun - becuase the element of risk is real. Going far from your base feels risky, and raises the stakes.

From a gameplay standpoint - put an empty portal at your base and when you land your ship build a portal when you get there. That way getting your body is always pretty easy.

Strictly speaking, Devs have enabled saves. Just logout and a save is made. Yes, yes, this is not what OP is looking for but there it is. You just lose the rested bonus when logging back in. You can do this copy& paste manually and i have no doubt that some clever modder will exploit this in the future, if not already.

But, is it worth to lose the meaning of death? No, absolutely not. Without any meaning to death there is no meaning in surviving, and thus no game.

Second biome, the black forest, grants access to teleports. I would suggest you try to get them set up.

I know it is hard at start since everything but deers and birds try to murder you but you need to get over it and start treating every new situation with care. A new blood pressure raising learning exercise :)
Just started a new game and got absolutely destroyed just because i did not simply run away. There would had not been any dishonor in living another day but wanted to see if my shield could parry starred skeleton. Well, now i know and after some hiking returned the favor.

Originally posted by ictoos:

HIking across 5-10 minutes of map to retrieve my kit isn't really a good game mechanic in my estimation. So why didn't the Devs allow for a player driven game saves?

it's an amazing game mechanic because it isn't in many games and teachers you to be prepared for death. i really do not understand the mindset of "put x in this game because it's in that game and it makes my life easier" ... go play that other game?

It's common in survival games.

Originally posted by cookie:

so the game saves and i can do it manually by copying files to go back to but the developer cant build it into the single player game ? weird -
i dont consider it save scumming if i accidentally alt tabbed out of the game during a fight and got killed when i normally would have been fine -trrroll hit me twice before i could do anything - often i accidentally hit the chat menu during fights too which renders your character immobile
i want to play the game as intended and not save scum or use dev codes - the issue with not adding it is that the mechanic is not fun
the other problem is that some fights you just arent ready for ....i died trying to kill the elder too soon - 12 times - not fun - i doubt a developer actually wants people to rage quit
single player is getting a pause button , why not also a save that you can keep ....id be happy if therre were a save after each boss i could go back to

They could build it into the game, most likely trivially, but have made an intentional choice not to do so, at least so far.
Due to the potentially punishing nature you can either learn to play a bit more cautiously and not greatly overextend, continue to charge in without a plan and a backup plan, and suck up the long treks to get your stuff back (assuming you can feasibly get it back at all), or ragequit. And that seems to be by design, because the tools are in place to greatly mitigate the inconvenience of death (other than the xp loss), it's just up to us to make use of them.

And if you're hitting whatever the key for chat is by mistake, can it be remapped to something more out of the way? Genuinely don't know because I've neither had that problem or looked for that keybind in options, but if it's not currently rebindable that would be a good suggestion for them to add.

They could program a player driven save when sleeping in a humble shack built or found close to the big fight. This would mary both worlds, but game's still in EA, and this featue is not really necessary for now.

It's more like a suggestion then, one that was written (and supposedly read) many times, as you guess.

doesnt mesh well with multiplayer

It is just to prevent you from "save-scumming".
Write batch files to back up or restore your save files. You have to exit and reload the game after restoring, but it can save losing a lot of progress.

Originally posted by ictoos:

HIking across 5-10 minutes of map to retrieve my kit isn't really a good game mechanic in my estimation. So why didn't the Devs allow for a player driven game saves?

Use dev commands

Originally posted by ictoos:

So why didn't the Devs allow for a player driven game saves?

"That enemy looks hard. Better save and go try it out... Yup, died. Better reload my save so I don't lose anything at all."

Which eventually turns into hitting the quicksave button before rounding any corners or climbing any hills and thus removing all risk and much of the difficulty from a game ostensibly set in a brutal purgatory.

so the game saves and i can do it manually by copying files to go back to but the developer cant build it into the single player game ? weird -
i dont consider it save scumming if i accidentally alt tabbed out of the game during a fight and got killed when i normally would have been fine -trrroll hit me twice before i could do anything - often i accidentally hit the chat menu during fights too which renders your character immobile
i want to play the game as intended and not save scum or use dev codes - the issue with not adding it is that the mechanic is not fun
the other problem is that some fights you just arent ready for ....i died trying to kill the elder too soon - 12 times - not fun - i doubt a developer actually wants people to rage quit
single player is getting a pause button , why not also a save that you can keep ....id be happy if therre were a save after each boss i could go back to