[Suggestion] Make the Loading Screen a Useful Screenshot/List of the Save

[tomchk]

Since loading takes so long, I think Egosoft should see if they can pull some basic data from the save before loading it completely, and show that to the user.
Examples:
1) List of properties and what they are doing at time of save
2) Screenshot of map in area of player
3) Statistics

Other ideas? I think they should start with something "easier" to implement, so maybe a screenshot first. It would be great to be able to "THINK" usefully while waiting.

[CBJ]

Sorry, but this is not a practical suggestion at all. All of the information you mention can only be worked out as a result of loading the savegame and building the game universe; it can't just be "pulled" from the savegame ready-formed. Even if we were to generate and store additional information before saving, the effect would be to make the savegame bigger and take longer to load. And of all the items you mentioned, a screenshot most certainly wouldn't be "easier"!

[tomchk]

Sorry, but this is not a practical suggestion at all. All of the information you mention can only be worked out as a result of loading the savegame and building the game universe; it can't just be "pulled" from the savegame ready-formed. Even if we were to generate and store additional information before saving, the effect would be to make the savegame bigger and take longer to load. And of all the items you mentioned, a screenshot most certainly wouldn't be "easier"!

Hmm, I was thinking along the lines of, upon saving, storing a screenshot in a straight image file alongside the save file (not inside it, but perhaps with the same filename and different extension, of course), then displaying that screenshot while loading, if it exists. Would that not be fairly simple? I just see something similar in many games, so I thought it might not be so bad. I haven't written code for image processing anytime recently, to be fair.

[CBJ]

That could work, but we've tried to avoid having multiple files for a savegame, partly because it makes life more difficult for people who want to manually move savegames around (e.g. when modding). Note that zipping files together doesn't help here; it just makes it slower and more difficult to access the files and load header information from them.

[tomchk]

That could work, but we've tried to avoid having multiple files for a savegame, partly because it makes life more difficult for people who want to manually move savegames around (e.g. when modding). Note that zipping files together doesn't help here; it just makes it slower and more difficult to access the files and load header information from them.

Yeah, I hear you. There are always annoying trade-offs! Perhaps an image is too much when we have no idea how many people would actually like it (although I think a screenshot somehow taken of player properties would be widely appreciated). I believe you currently show credits, location/title, and time before loading. Is there an "easier" way to save more information to the same part of a save file (I'm assuming it's a header but haven't looked, sorry) that you could display while loading, and that could help players start thinking of what they want to do next? If that is practical, I know I could provide more ideas. Thanks for listening!

[tomchk]

Examples for Header Info (I think only those that have negligible impact on save and load times should be used, if any):
a) Number of idle ships and/or number of ships in combat
b) Station budgets vs. needed budgets, if any
c) Simple breakdown of fleet: # of XL, L, M, etc.

[Alan Phipps]

If an in-game screenshot that the player could choose to make at the time of a deliberate save (ie not a quicksave or autosave but for a chosen slot save) and that could be made available for display while loading that save somehow, then it would up to the player to choose what memory-jogging information would be shown in the screen. Just a thought.

[tomchk]

If an in-game screenshot that the player could choose to make at the time of a deliberate save (ie not a quicksave or autosave but for a chosen slot save) and that could be made available for display while loading that save somehow, then it would up to the player to choose what memory-jogging information would be shown in the screen. Just a thought.

I like this idea but think it would need to be very easy for the player (and ideally for the developers). I do think some kind of information would be really nice, though, unless they are adding an eject function or making loading a good bit faster in the near-ish future.

[tomchk]

Example d) Just whatever part of the logs you can fit in a header. Logs can be so helpful!