How exactly do saves get corrupted?

[Kelefane]

I'm just curious how saved games get corrupted when playing PoP and just Warband in general. Is there a way to prevent it from happening outside of making backups? Something you can or avoid doing?

I'm guessing jacking around with Morgh's tools can corrupt a save too because that happened to me earlier, LOL.

 

[sher]

I never had such problem. I just use all save slots except one (to start a new game it must be unused), no special actions I can think of.

 

[clock4orange]

I'm just curious how saved games get corrupted when playing PoP and just Warband in general. Is there a way to prevent it from happening outside of making backups? Something you can or avoid doing?

I'm guessing jacking around with Morgh's tools can corrupt a save too because that happened to me earlier, LOL.

if you use Morgh's, you need to start new game...
saves could be corrupted if you have game and save stored on the same HDD, what is default I belive - mind, that one HDD got ussually couple partitions (C, D etc)

 

[saxondragon]

I can venture a guess, with the caveat that this is unsubstantiated.

The games runs on a heartbeat, meaning that as you are moving and not paused, there is a great deal happening behind the scenes.  Lots of routines being checked, battles being fought and resolved, AI spotting other units, decision trees being referenced, and everything that can be checked is being referenced to determine if it the interval trigger is tripped.  If you happen to "Save" when a process behind the scenes is partially completed, this may cause a corruption.

Now, should the processes be resolved before the save is initiated?  Yes. I think generally they do.  However, with larger more involved games (late game play), this has a possibility in Warband not to always work as desired.

Generally it is advised to save the game when you are in an Inn, as all background processes have stopped at that point. 

While I am guessing about the processes, and I am sure a coder who is much more knowledgeable about such things will jump in to correct me, I am very confident (based upon community feedback) that saving while in an Inn is a great way to avoid corrupted saves.

 

[Kelefane]

I can venture a guess, with the caveat that this is unsubstantiated.

The games runs on a heartbeat, meaning that as you are moving and not paused, there is a great deal happening behind the scenes.  Lots of routines being checked, battles being fought and resolved, AI spotting other units, decision trees being referenced, and everything that can be checked is being referenced to determine if it the interval trigger is tripped.  If you happen to "Save" when a process behind the scenes is partially completed, this may cause a corruption.

Now, should the processes be resolved before the save is initiated?  Yes. I think generally they do.  However, with larger more involved games (late game play), this has a possibility in Warband not to always work as desired.

Generally it is advised to save the game when you are in an Inn, as all background processes have stopped at that point. 

While I am guessing about the processes, and I am sure a coder who is much more knowledgeable about such things will jump in to correct me, I am very confident (based upon community feedback) that saving while in an Inn is a great way to avoid corrupted saves.

This is excellent information! Thanks.