[RELz]Cipscis' Automatic Save Manager

» Mon Mar 14, 2011 7:22 pm

Recently, I read a http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?showtopic=952113 in the GECK forum asking how to reset a certain quest because the OP quicksaved by mistake and had no other saves to fall back on. I began to think to myself "it doesn't have to be this way", and decided to make CASM in order to improve autosaves and quicksaves by allowing more than one to be maintained at a time, so that no one needs to worry about over-writing their precious quicksave.

Now that I'm finished, I give you...
Cipscis' Automatic Save Manager - CASM

CASM v1.2.3 by Cipscis @FO3Nexus: http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=3729
CASM v1.2.3 by Cipscis @Planet Fallout: http://planetfallout.gamespy.com/mods/143/CASM

INTRODUCTION:

Cipscis' Automatic Save Manager, or CASM for short, replaces Fallout 3's saving system so that you no longer have to rely on only a single autosave or quicksave to fall back on.

This is achieved by cycling through a certain number of saves, so that older saves are still overridden but there are also always previous saves available if you need to reload a save earlier than your last one.

CASM creates saves in three ways:
- Automatically after a certain length of time
- Automatically after certain events
- Manually with the F4 key

You can quickly load your last CASM save with the F8 key

REQUIREMENTS:
The quicksave, quickload and save cycling features of CASM requires the use of FOSE v0001 or later
- You can download the latest version of FOSE from http://fose.silverlock.org/

It is recommended that you disable autosaves while using CASM, as they can cause difficulties when uninstalling CASM. - Autosaves can be disabled from the Gameplay Settings menu.

FOMM is recommended for installing CASM.
- You can download the latest version of FOMM from http://timeslip.chorrol.com/fomm.html

INSTALL:
To install CASM, simply place CASM.esp in your Data folder and activate it either via the Fallout 3 Launcher or with FOMM.

To use CASM's quicksave, quickload and save cycling features, you will also have to download and install FOSE.

See the Requirements section for details on where to get FOMM and FOSE.

If you're updating from a previous version of CASM, your settings may be reset to their default values so you will have to reset them in CASM's Options Menu.

UNINSTALL:
To uninstall CASM, simply deactivate CASM.esp either in the Fallout 3 Launcher or in FOSE.

After uninstalling CASM, you must load a "hard" save - i.e. not an autosave

If you load an autosave, you will be unable to quicksave or quickload.

OPTIONS:
When you install CASM, the CASM Options Menu will be added to your inventory in the "Aid" section. To open the menu, equip this item while not in combat, then close your Pip-Boy.

The available options are fairly self-explanatory, except perhaps for "Current CASM Profile".

CASM allows you to designate one of three available save profiles to each character. By doing this, you will ensure that saves made by CASM while you are using one character will not over-write saves made by CASM while you are using another character.

VERSION HISTORY:
v1.0
- Initial release
- Requires FOSE v0001

v1.1
- Added Event Saving
- Fixed a bug where regular quicksaving/quickloading would become possible
- The autosave timer now continues in menus

v1.2
- Restructured CASM so that it can be run without FOSE
- Fixed some minor timing balance issues

v1.2.1
- Fixed issues with CG sequence
- Fixed a minor UI bug in the menu system

v1.2.2
- Fixed a bug where autosaves would sometimes occur very quickly if the player is sneaking near hostile actors

v1.2.3
- Fixed a bug where regular quicksaving and quickloading could become possible

PERMISSION:
Please don't upload CASM anywhere without asking my permission.

If you wish to use anything that you find in CASM, feel free to do so without asking my permission.

CREDITS:
Thanks to the FOSE team for FOSE
Thanks to Timeslip for FOMM
Thanks to Bethesda Games Studios for Fallout 3 and for the GECK
CASM was made by Mark Hanna, a.k.a. Cipscis

CONTACT DETAILS:
- You can contact me via PM on the Bethesda Games Studios Forums as Cipscis
- You can contact my via PM on the Nexus Forums as Cipscis
- You can email me at mark@cipscis.com

Enjoy!

Cipscis

» Mon Mar 14, 2011 11:40 pm

Thank you!

» Mon Mar 14, 2011 6:35 pm

Congrats on release Cipscis!

» Mon Mar 14, 2011 2:08 pm

Congrats on release Cipscis!

Congrats indeed! Cool mod! Must have taken some doing.

» Tue Mar 15, 2011 4:32 am

@behippo:
Thanks behippo, couldn't have done it without you and the others behind FOSE! Can't wait for v0002's GetKeyState so I can properly replace the Quicksave and Quickload keys, as well as (hopefully) a "GetNthPerk" type function so I can get rid of that pesky custom Perk CTD!

@Reinhart Menken:
Thanks, I'm glad you like it. I only started working on it yesterday, but I was writing and playtesting it almost non-stop from 6:30 last night to 6:30 this morning, lol. Then, after a bit of a nap, my habit of writing my Readmes in HTML caused me to spend about 5 hours on the Readme as well... As you can probably imagine, I'm pretty stuffed now.

Cipscis

» Mon Mar 14, 2011 9:40 pm

Kudos to you, sir. This looks to be the solution to a lot of headaches everywhere.

» Tue Mar 15, 2011 4:27 am

@Reinhart Menken:
Thanks, I'm glad you like it. I only started working on it yesterday, but I was writing and playtesting it almost non-stop from 6:30 last night to 6:30 this morning, lol. Then, after a bit of a nap, my habit of writing my Readmes in HTML caused me to spend about 5 hours on the Readme as well... As you can probably imagine, I'm pretty stuffed now.

Cipscis

Lol, 12 hours...that's crazy indeed

But being a scriptor I know how that is (I often do non-stop tests and corrections as well, until I exhaust myself, but not quite as long as you managed), as I often script and then fall asleep as well

» Tue Mar 15, 2011 1:25 am

yay! trying it out now

» Mon Mar 14, 2011 2:10 pm

This is a good idea anyway due to the propensity for overwrite corruption to slowly seep into the quick and auto save files.

» Mon Mar 14, 2011 9:14 pm

I just found a little bit of harmless misinformation in the Readme, which I've now fixed in the description in this thread and on the download pages, but will still be present in the Readme until the next release:
Under the "Uninstall" section, saves made from the console are listed as "unsafe" to load after uninstalling CASM. This is incorrect, saves made from the console should be completely safe to load after uninstalling CASM.

@Reinhart Menken:
To be honest I didn't actually notice the time until about 4:30, but I just felt like I was on a roll so I kept going. I have an unfortunate habit of getting so absorbed into what I'm doing when scripting that I often forget to eat, drink and sleep until either someone reminds me or I fall asleep at the keyboard, lol.

@MadCat221:
Yeah, I'm not sure if that is exactly why Quicksaves and autosaves seem to be prone to corruption, but that doesn't change the fact that they are. The fact that CASM uses "Hard" saves should prevent Save corruption, like you said.

Cipscis

» Mon Mar 14, 2011 2:52 pm

would it be possible to include the area name in the name of the save file, similar to how vanilla fallout does it? not a huge deal, something i can definitely live without, but would be nice. and great job! it's working very well for me so far.

» Mon Mar 14, 2011 9:36 pm

Unfortunately, no. The only function that can be used to create "hard" saves via script is FOSE's http://fose.silverlock.org/fose_command_doc.html#con_Save, which can only use static strings. This means that, unless a similar function that can use dynamic strings is created, the name of the Save can't contain information about the actual save file. Keep in mind that you can still create regular saves via the "Save" menu that will use the same naming system as they always have.

Glad to hear it's working well for you though!

Cipscis

EDIT:

Just thought about what you said a little more and remembered that a "regular" save is made when you first exit Vault 101. I had a look in the script and found that the function is called http://geck.gamesas.com/index.php/ForceSave. However, if I were to use http://geck.gamesas.com/index.php/ instead of http://fose.silverlock.org/fose_command_doc.html#con_Save then I would be unable to implement the Quickload functionality, so I don't think I'll be doing that.

Cipscis

» Tue Mar 15, 2011 2:22 am

With fose v2 we should have string variables which will be interchangeable with static strings, so you might be able to implement this request at that time.

» Mon Mar 14, 2011 10:22 pm

Cipscis, wonderfull peice of work! Love it. Everybody should use it, no more self hate and regret for itchy finger.
Definetely going to be one of my most used mods.

» Tue Mar 15, 2011 3:51 am

behippo:
Cool, I'm really glad to hear that! I was hoping, for example, to be able to include the PC's name, but when I tried using &PCName; the name of the save would constantly update to show the name of the current PC, which also meant that it appeared to be empty when loaded from the main menu. This could mean that I can cut down on the number of message I'm using by quite a bit too. Now you've got me looking forward to v2 even more than before!

@Jerom:
I'm glad you like it! I wrote it with my own "itchy quicksave finger" in mind - I abuse the quicksave button horribly and often come to regret it (or at least I used to).

I'm planning on adding optional "event-based" automatic saving to CASM, such as saving after combat and saving before/after levelling up. Does anyone have any requests for a certain type of event-based saving?

Cipscis

EDIT:

Thought I'd mark the occasion:

This is my 2,900th post.

Cipscis

» Mon Mar 14, 2011 7:21 pm

Congrats Cipscis. Great mod. I will be using it from now on. Youve earned some sleep. ZZZZzzzzz

» Mon Mar 14, 2011 3:08 pm

I'm planning on adding optional "event-based" automatic saving to CASM, such as saving after combat and saving before/after levelling up. Does anyone have any requests for a certain type of event-based saving?

before level up and after combat would be nice

maybe after a new quest is accepted and when a quest is completed?

new area discovered? (maybe every other one...)

thanks for this mod, i had binded quicksave to one of my thumb buttons on my mouse for easier use

» Tue Mar 15, 2011 1:04 am

before level up and after combat would be nice

maybe after a new quest is accepted and when a quest is completed?

new area discovered? (maybe every other one...)

thanks for this mod, i had binded quicksave to one of my thumb buttons on my mouse for easier use

All of those are great ideas, especially after a new area is discovered.

» Mon Mar 14, 2011 5:23 pm

There are quite a few events, including discovering locations and completing quests, that can be checked via the http://geck.gamesas.com/index.php/GetPCMiscStat function, so these should be fairly easy to implement. Of those listed on the page, I think that "Quests Completed", "Locations Discovered" and "Bobbleheads Found" would probably be the ones most suitable for event saving.

I could also implement event saving in this way for things like every 100 people killed, or every 5 books read, etc. if anyone thinks it would be a feature that they'd use.

Cipscis

» Mon Mar 14, 2011 6:40 pm

i'm curious as to how the timer works? i've set mine up to save every five minutes, but it seems to sometimes save later than that and sometimes sooner. does interacting with the pipboy and talking to npc's pause the timer? in general it feels like 1 minute saves too often and 5 minutes just barely not often enough. i don't suppose we could get a 3 minutes option could we lol?

» Mon Mar 14, 2011 1:47 pm

I toyed with the idea of running the timer in http://geck.gamesas.com/index.php/MenuMode as well as http://geck.gamesas.com/index.php/GameMode when I was writing CASM, but at the moment it only runs in http://geck.gamesas.com/index.php/GameMode. It's been a while since I played Fallout 3 "properly" though, so my interpretation of the amount of time spent during the various http://geck.gamesas.com/index.php/MenuModes is likely to be fairly "off".

I wasn't anticipating that this would be particularly noticeable, but since you've pointed it out to me I guess I was wrong so I suppose it would make sense to change. I'll change the timer so that it continues counting down during http://geck.gamesas.com/index.php/MenuMode in the next revision, although obviously it will wait until the menu is closed before actually saving.

A three minutes option would be really easy to implement, I'll include it in the next revision.

Cipscis

» Tue Mar 15, 2011 5:19 am

I've just updated CASM to v1.1. Sorry about the delay, but I've been pretty busy lately and I only really get the chance to test stuff in the weekends. I was hoping to get this done last weekend, but didn't quite get there in time.

In v1.1 I've added "Event Saving", so that saves can be made automatically after certain events. Which events cause saves to be created is completely customisable.

I've also fixed a bug where regular quicksaving/quickloading would become possible under certain circumstances, changed the autosave timer so that it continues in menus, and added a couple more options - including a 3 minute autosave timer and the ability to cycle through up to 50 saves.

Enjoy!

Cipscis

EDIT:

Thought I'd mark the occasion:

This is my 3,200th post.

Cipscis

» Mon Mar 14, 2011 4:49 pm

Thank you for this mod, it makes me more "secure" when wandering the wastes

» Mon Mar 14, 2011 7:22 pm

Thank you for this mod, it makes me more "secure" when wandering the wastes

Congratulations Cipscis.

» Mon Mar 14, 2011 10:20 pm

is there any similar mod to this that works w/o FOSE?I cant install fose cause if i update game(from version u get when u install from dvd) i get a lot of errors and such...

[RELz]Cipscis' Automatic Save Manager - CASM