I don't understand why saves for all characters appear all in one menu and are not separated by character (i.e. sub menu style). I have two characters that I play (xbox 360). When saving/loading the game for one character, the list of save games includes all the saves I have for both characters. Why are they not separated? It's the simplest thing in the world to implement. Not more than a few lines of code and should be standard in any RPG.

For example, when you turn on the game and go to "load", it should have a list of your characters. Then once you choose your character it should have a list of save games for it. I realize that it shows the character name on saves, but I'm always worried I will save over the wrong file. Is there a method of saving separately that I'm missing? (and please don't tell me to use a separate xbox profile)

Before the apologists come out, please note that this is by no means a game breaker, and I am loving Skyrim. Nonetheless, I can't wrap my head around why something so basic was overlooked.

Yah that's one thing Dragon Age series did right

I see your problem. Oblivion had the same issue. I'm on the PC, so I always made sure to move any characters I weren't using to a different folder to avoid accidents. I agree they could've implemented it in Skyrim. A mod for the PC might do it, doubting it will happen for the consoles.

Every TES game has done this. Just now noticing?

I agree, it's silly Elder Scrolls games don't have that yet. I accidentally deleted a Fallout: New Vegas save with many hours played and just a quest or two from finishing the main quest because I wasn't careful enough.

I always make darn sure I'm overwriting the correct save nowadays, especially in Skyrim.

True but irrelevant.

Every game in every series aspires to improve over the last. This is a simple improvement I would have expected. Plus, the entire menu was overhauled (for better or worse... better imo).

I wonder if this has more to do with the nature of the beast as far as XBOX 360 goes. You have to sign in to xbox live under an account, and game progress is tied to achievements. I have played several different games on the xbox360 and they all have this same issue. Golf games, for example. If i want to create another player in Tiger Woods golf, I have to "sign in" to xbox live under a different account name.

It's like you can only have one save file associated with achievements for a particular game. This amounts to the account name that you are signed in with. You could always create another account name and start a new game under that account. It would be totally seperate. But this adds other problems with regard to DLC, for example. The DLC will only be available under the ac[censored] name which purchased it.

Playing Tiger Woods with my Dad is very cumbersome in this regard. He can't figure out on his own how to load his player if sign outs and sign ins are involved

Idk. It really should be.

Yeah, I agree that there should be separate save profiles for different characters. That's how it is in Mass Effect. You never have to worry about saving over another character you've invested time into.

Once while playing Oblivion I accidentally saved a new level 5 melee Orc over my level 40 Breton Mage. I was so mad.... Guess that's what happens when you play until 4:00am.

1) Create a separate Windows account for each character. Skyrim saves are kept within the user's profile. Invoking Skyrim using a given profile means that the save games are specific to the one character.
2) Use runas.exe (included with windows7/vista) to invoke Skyrim using the account and profile of the the specified account without having to log in as that user.
3) Enjoy

Exactly, AND you can actually NAME your save games!

Take a lesson, Bethesda!

I'm on a 360 and this bugs me as well. However one of you just gave me a great idea. My wife also has a profile on there and she doesn't play this game.

I will use her profile for my alt!

woot!

thanks.

On the PC version you can give your save files a custom name, such as the name of your character, with the console command savegame [name]. Spaces are not allowed, but I find it helps me to name one save for each of my characters and just keep saving to that file occasionally.

I'd love it. Please patch it in..... Since I made two characters with the SAME NAME and I had to transfer one from the HHD on which I was playing to the one I bought upon release. Silly me. Now I will never play one until I finish my second, if THAT ever happens.

I guess they just want people to use the first and only save file.

But come on..who does that?

There's actually a couple ways you can do this, though both are cumbersome.

The harder one is saving under the console.
The easier is to go to MyDocuments>Skyrim>Saves and rename your files. You just have to know ahead of time what is what.

agree with OP.