Ironman tragedy - and not of the interesting kind

[Misotu]

So I decided that I would play ironman, since what I remember most about traditional XCOM games is the tension. And it was going really well on the whole - but then I fired it up this morning, went to load my game and noticed that it was an autosave game

 

This is definitely not right as I saved and exited normally when I finished playing last. With sinking heart I tried to load the game only to be told that it could not be loaded and was perhaps corrupted. Aaarghhh! Tried again a few times and then tried to kick off a new game and the whole thing crashed, so it was really, really messed up.

 

This is sad. For I had become fond of my people with their carefully selected hair cuts and snazzy colour-coded armour and felt a kinship with them. But, on the upside, it gave me an opportunity to ditch the normal setting and go for ironman classic. Which is not going quite so well but I am not dead yet and at least I get plenty of weapon fragments and an adequate supply of corpses.

 

So I was just wondering whether veteran ironman players have a way to combat this? I don't want to cheat ironman and I know having a back-up means that you might as well just play without ironman set and rely on self-discipline. But it's really sad when your only save is corrupted and unplayable

 

So although I know the only way is probably to play ironman and cross my fingers, I thought I would ask.

 

Is there something that can be done to protect a bit against this without ruining ironman? Or do I just have to man up and get back out there?

[silencer_pl]

You have to man up and get back out there soldier. Though shame on the save, I think it shouldn't happen that often unless the drive is showing it's age. I didn't have corrupted save in any playthroughs.

 

Hey as long as your are only backing up your saves it is not cheating right ? Though it is tempting to ALT-F4 when things go wrong but if you resist the urge well then you can call yourself ironman (or ironwoman in your situation)

[Misotu]

You are right and this is the only time it has happened so hopefully just a blip.

 

I've saddled up and ridden back in. Classic Ironman from now on

[Sorbicol]

There will be one mission where it all goes wrong when playing ironman. Seems to happen every campaign - you go round a corner and walk into a concentrated knot of aliens (usually hard ones too like Berserkers with Cyberdisks) or you you try to flank and uncover a pocket of aliens you weren't expecting.

 

The hardest ones to take is when the game warps a bunch of aliens right into the middle of your squad, thanks to the teleportation bug. It's really hard to take but all you can do really is roll with it hope you pull through.

[NoXTheRoXStaR]

@Misotu

This is definitely not right as I saved and exited normally when I finished playing last. With sinking heart I tried to load the game only to be told that it could not be loaded and was perhaps corrupted. Aaarghhh! Tried again a few times and then tried to kick off a new game and the whole thing crashed, so it was really, really messed up.

Oddly enough I've had several games of late that have done exactly that (Fallout 3/New Vegas, Skyrim, XCOM, etc) So what I decided to do was once I finished the time spent playing a particular games was to make a back up copy of where I left off. This will minimize your anguish and frustration as it can be a complete pain in the ass to painstakingly create your character time and time again. (Especially when you're a level 47 Orc Melee/Wizard in Skyrim.....ugh) It's a safe and intelligent reason to do so if you take 2 things into consideration. 1) Remembering to actually make a backup copy, and 2) Not using it for a means of cheating.

 

-NoX

[silencer_pl]

Doesn't skyrim has saves in cloud? Also same thing should apply to xcom

[Sorbicol]

Doesn't skyrim has saves in cloud? Also same thing should apply to xcom

 

Quite a few games do cloud saves now, mostly via steam. CiV does off the top of my head, as do a few others.

[Hobbes]

There will be one mission where it all goes wrong when playing ironman.

 

I'll add to it and say, there will be several missions where it all can and will go wrong when playing Ironman. One thing I had to learn was when to pull out of a mission to cut my losses. Another is to learn when to take rookies or to take your elite team to the field.

Above all, don't let the losses get to you emotionally and accept them as part of the game. Otherwise you may find yourself doing mistakes over and over.

[Bomb Bloke]

I know I'm a little late, but this is probably worth throwing out there: Windows is likely backing up your saves for you whether you ask it to or not.