How to Avoid Crashes

[Grey]

Ingot drops are one of the most common causes of crashes actually.

[Epythic]

Just out of interest, would people be in favour of a tool that automatically backed up saves? Or would it be too near cheating for some people? Not that I could make it, my programming skills are paltry (I'm piss-poor with pointers), but it's an interesting line of enquiry.

For Windows, something like this might be enough:

:: Save the following as: launch-adom.bat
set name=YourChar
copy adom_dat/savedg/%name%.svg adom_dat/savedg/%name%.svg.bak
adom_winbeta4.exe -l %name%

Didn't test it, don't have Windows here.

[sgeos]

The best way to avoid crashes is to not play. =P Not that that is a useful answer. I know it breaks up gameplay, but periodic backups are all I can think of.

[F50]

I have very, very rarely ever had a crash using adom.

This is using both the linux version, and adom-winbeta4 under wine, and adom-winbeta4 under windows.

The only crash I remember getting is when a monster picks up a huge pile of items (or the 'skilled' bug). I don't often have that one either.

[Epythic]

"Very, very rare" is still too much when you have permadeath...

EDIT: I mean, if it makes you loose your char.

[F50]

So? backup your save files at each temple, and whenever you pick up RoDS or WoWi.

[CheatMan]

The best command structure to use for a loader is:

[[MASSIVE SPOILER! SCUMCITY POP. CHEATMAN]]
In a file called cheat.bat
cd adom_dat\savedg
copy *.bkp *.svg
cd ..\..
adom-sage
cd adom_dat\savedg
copy *.svg *.bkp
cd ..\..

[Epythic]

The best command structure to use for a loader is:

[[MASSIVE SPOILER! SCUMCITY POP. CHEATMAN]]
In a file called cheat.bat
cd adom_dat\savedg
copy *.bkp *.svg
cd ..\..
adom-sage
cd adom_dat\savedg
copy *.svg *.bkp
cd ..\..

copy *.bkp *.svg

This works?

Btw, be careful with the word "best". This script wouldn't work for me: I want to keep all savegames, so that I can later jump back to a specific version if I want to test something. I combined this with some kind of loggging/annotation system... You see, theres no "best" thing

[CheatMan]

copy *.bkp *.svg

This works?

In winxp's cmd.exe that works exactly how it should for this purpose.

Btw, be careful with the word "best". This script wouldn't work for me: I want to keep all savegames, so that I can later jump back to a specific version if I want to test something. I combined this with some kind of loggging/annotation system... You see, theres no "best" thing

Yeah, but mine is the rapid-fire version for scumming applications. The fact that it makes a backup of every char on the go also works for non-scummy purposes such as crash-recovery.

See, my batch is kinda like torrents that way. there ARE legitimate uses for that technology, but for the most part, users (me) do other things with it.

[Covenant]

I have very, very rarely ever had a crash using adom.

This is using both the linux version, and adom-winbeta4 under wine, and adom-winbeta4 under windows.

The only crash I remember getting is when a monster picks up a huge pile of items (or the 'skilled' bug). I don't often have that one either.

Then you're fortunate. I'm not exaggerating when I say about... 20% of my long-term ADOM games have crashed (thankfully, in some cases, I had backed up the game soon before it occured). I'm defining long-term as games where I get to Dwarftown. And this rate, as Epythic says, is way too high in a game with perma-death. I don't do any particularly scummy tactics, and I tend to avoid smithing in general, so...

The back-up on start .bat files are a good start, of course, but they're a plaster on a huge sucking chest-wound, in my opinion. And yes, ADOM is free as is often-stated, but that doesn't mean we should politely pretend any flaws don't exist, or else what's the point of beta-testing? Admittedly, I doubt TB is going to swoop in and say 'Okay, I've revamped the save system' (although to be honest, it wouldn't take more than an hour at most), but there's no point ignoring it. (Also, just to make it clear to the people posting such .bat files, I was talking about a front-end that makes copies while the game is running. Basically, an auto-save feature. I'm not sure whether it's feasible).

And I disagree with Cheatman's assertion that most people use things like this for cheating. I mean, surely it's not hard to cheat in ADOM? It's not like death tends to creep up unexpected. Any idiot can copy their save-file before they take on the ACW, for example.

EDIT: To be fair, in that 20% rating I'm including crashes that weren't ADOM's 'fault', such as power cuts, computer freezing, etc. If I left it to purely ADOM crashes, I suppose the number would be nearer 10% or even lower. But a change in the saving protocol would reduce the severity of crashes from any source.