Remember that we're not just talking about singleplayer here. The one that causes the lag spike is the world save, not the player save. What happens when there are multiple people in a server and you assign world save to an interaction with a bed? Any player can can lag the world at any time. Though I suppose they could tie it to the host only.

That's why I suggested a predictable time of day, like morning. If it needs to be more than once a day, then maybe add a sunset event, or a midday event.

(Being slightly humorous here) And if it absolutely must be random, give us a distinct crash of thunder 3-5 seconds in advance and a message that says "Odin's eye has seen you" after the save. At least I can brace for the lag without immersion being broken too badly because godly interference would be appropriate to the game.

Originally posted by PlayerNumber03:

Is this you guys' first time playing a video game with auto save? Every game in existence saves your progress, be it manually through your actions, or automatically.

"What is the purpose of auto save?"

To save your progress.

PlayerNumber1 and PlayerNumber2 were far better at this internet thing imo.

Originally posted by Macdallan:

Originally posted by John:

I wish there was an option to disable it at least, it's freakin' annoying.

And the first time you crash and lose all progress you'll wonder why it's not always on.

Then it is my fault, give us a save function, not an auto save, i hate it, i always turn that crap off as it always screws you over no matter how you look at it. Every game i play saves with every action you do, you notice nothing. This is the only game i have ever played which has this weird 3 second lag spikes. A lagspike which doesn't concern enemies, it would be better if the game pauses, but no. The bigger your save file, the longer it becomes. And before you say i'm some scrub with a 10 year old hard drive, it's a new SSD.

How bout this...

Any time you sleep or claim a bed, or select a bed... you save game.

But how bout in addition to this we be allowed to check/uncheck a box in preferences/settings "disable auto save"? Giving each and every person the choice to either continue as it is or take responsibility for their own game saves (by sleeping/selecting/claiming a bed)

How could that not solve this problem?

The best solution to this is to make you completely unaware that the game is saving.

What happens in every game is that the game state is serialized (all the variables are stored from memory to a separate memory space) then the second copy is written to disk - these contribute to the lag, especially if the disk write isn't asynchronous so it can be done without interrupting anything.

What should happen is a duplicate copy of the game state variables be stored in a separate memory space in real time - its easy... and then that copy is 'paused' and written to the disk. But, that's an extra bunch of code and the standard "Pause, copy, write, resume" is built into the engine and so it can be implemented very easily and this is what you see with most games like this.

Standard game save techniques:
1. During loading or zone transitions - console games do this one the most. "Oh, you got in an elevator! SAVE. Have to slowly crawl through a spot! SAVE. Cutscene time! SAVE!
2. Manually - using a bed to sleep, selecting a save option, quicksave, etc.
3. Automatically - these are timers or event based (30 min or before/after boss fight, level complete, etc.)

I agree that 30 seconds is exactly the right amount of time for me to go back to what I was doing and then be weirdly surprised by the lag spike. I never realized that 30 seconds was such a long time in this game, but apparently it is, especially if you're in a hurry to get things done before sunset. The day length makes a person feel like they have to keep moving all the time.

I wish they would put it right after the Good Morning message or something that is in-game predictable like that.

Originally posted by Lord Squeak:

on the same topic, I find 30 seconds to be perfectly long enough for me to forget a save is coming. And so when it does come, it's like "oh lagg,,,oh right save".

Exactly. The warning is an annoying waste of time, 30 seconds, am I suppose to stop doing things for 30 seconds, get out a timer so I remember the exact moment it's going to happen?

The autosave stagger is something you get used to once you play enough, you realize if you just hold that thought while it jerks a little and don't spam attacks or panic it won't affect you even fighting or jumping. In other words the autosave itself is way less annoying than the warning, because the warning is useless. I argued against it before they even added it, but nobody listened apparently.

https://steamcommunity.com/app/892970/discussions/2/3123786356702250882/

Originally posted by Zep Tepi:

I wish they would put it right after the Good Morning message or something that is in-game predictable like that.

Exactly do the save without an extra warning a moment after the "Day XX" message, that happens every day even if you don't sleep the night away. People would get used to the timing on it, without the need for an additional message.

It's good to have. Better than potentially losing progress, but inopportune is right.
Warning or not, you just keep on doing what you're doing anyway so it happens during dangerous jumps, when you just finally got some structure aligned and want to press construct etc..

When I first started playing this game, the idea that I had to endure a 3-10 second freeze in frame rates every 20 minutes or so to accommodate an auto save feature didn't seem like an issue at all.

Now approaching the 1000 hour mark, I hate it. HATE IT. I find It disruptive, and always annoying.

I would much rather have claiming a bed and sleeping be the mechanism in which the game progress is saved...and instead of "world save in 30" I would like a pleasant reminder...

"You haven't slept in "x" days" Letting me know that my progress is in need of saving.

Originally posted by Macdallan:

Originally posted by PlayerNumber03:

Is this you guys' first time playing a video game with auto save? Every game in existence saves your progress, be it manually through your actions, or automatically.

"What is the purpose of auto save?"

To save your progress.

I know, right? Pretty obvious to most of us.

Without a periodic save any crashes would result in a complete loss of all progress from the time you log in or last saved until the time the crash happens.

It's a good thing, and once the game's fully complete I'm sure the auto save won't result in the lag-fest we sometimes get right now.

Originally posted by Lord Squeak:

on the same topic, I find 30 seconds to be perfectly long enough for me to forget a save is coming. And so when it does come, it's like "oh lagg,,,oh right save".

They added the head's up because players were being surprised by it, 30 seconds is plenty of time to be ready for it. Not sure how you're forgetting within 30 seconds but that's a you problem. Sorry. If you think forgetting the game tells you a save is coming in 30 second is a big issue consider no auto saves and forgetting to manually save for an hour or so. All that progress would be lost, and that would also be a you problem. The issue of forgetting the save is coming is clearly the better of the two.

Originally posted by John:

I wish there was an option to disable it at least, it's freakin' annoying.

And the first time you crash and lose all progress you'll wonder why it's not always on.

depending on how much data the game have to handle the lag wil always be here, simple games can get away with it simple because they don't have stuff to save and are simple and crap, like linear games etc, this lag is present on almost any games that handle terrain changes, including terraria don't starve minecraft etc.... but sure as time goes pass, the lag get less and less as they optmize more, the more data the game have to save the more it takes time, the sims take alot of time to save,

I wish there was an option to disable it at least, it's freakin' annoying.

Every time it says world saved…. I go yup, I did it again!

Originally posted by Lord Squeak:

on the same topic, I find 30 seconds to be perfectly long enough for me to forget a save is coming. And so when it does come, it's like "oh lagg,,,oh right save".

I doubt it was intended, but I agree. If you're doing something, which you probably are, then 30 seconds is just about the right amount of time to get back into what you were doing and forget the 30 second warning. Has happened to me many times.

Is this you guys' first time playing a video game with auto save? Every game in existence saves your progress, be it manually through your actions, or automatically.

"What is the purpose of auto save?"

To save your progress.

Originally posted by PlayerNumber03:

Is this you guys' first time playing a video game with auto save? Every game in existence saves your progress, be it manually through your actions, or automatically.

"What is the purpose of auto save?"

To save your progress.

I know, right? Pretty obvious to most of us.

Without a periodic save any crashes would result in a complete loss of all progress from the time you log in or last saved until the time the crash happens.

It's a good thing, and once the game's fully complete I'm sure the auto save won't result in the lag-fest we sometimes get right now.

Originally posted by Lord Squeak:

on the same topic, I find 30 seconds to be perfectly long enough for me to forget a save is coming. And so when it does come, it's like "oh lagg,,,oh right save".

They added the head's up because players were being surprised by it, 30 seconds is plenty of time to be ready for it. Not sure how you're forgetting within 30 seconds but that's a you problem. Sorry. If you think forgetting the game tells you a save is coming in 30 second is a big issue consider no auto saves and forgetting to manually save for an hour or so. All that progress would be lost, and that would also be a you problem. The issue of forgetting the save is coming is clearly the better of the two.

Originally posted by John:

I wish there was an option to disable it at least, it's freakin' annoying.

And the first time you crash and lose all progress you'll wonder why it's not always on.

Originally posted by PlayerNumber03:

Is this you guys' first time playing a video game with auto save? Every game in existence saves your progress, be it manually through your actions, or automatically.

"What is the purpose of auto save?"

To save your progress.

Some people just like to complain.

on the same topic, I find 30 seconds to be perfectly long enough for me to forget a save is coming. And so when it does come, it's like "oh lagg,,,oh right save".