Quote:
Originally Posted by ChuckkieB
Question - what is the difference between a simple "save game" and "saving as a quickstart?" I don't see any specific distinctions mentioned in the Game Guide unless I'm missing something.
Let's say I've done just as you said - I've modified and saved my template, I start the game at day 1, I make all desired modifications before I advance another day, then I save the game. If I instead save as a quickstart at this point, is there any difference?
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Here's my take.
Every time you leave the game, it saves all of those .dat files in your saved game folder. Those are the crucial files. When you "save game," you are doing the same thing, a good thing to do if you are worried about the game crashing or the electricity going off before you can end the game and save it that way or before the game does an auto-save (see Game Options). All three methods do the same thing; it's just a matter of timing.
To make matters even more complicated, they introduced a "Make Backup" feature in one of the later patches. This makes a copy of those .dat files in a separate folder in the saved game folder to make it easy for you to back them up. See this for more information:
Making backups of the database / How does the backup feature work?
The difference between all of the above and a saved quickstart game is that all of the other goodies in your game, like your customized logos, are saved in a quickstart game folder along with the .dat files. This is what you want to save to preserve your modifications in case you ever want to start over again.
Realize, however, that the .dat files in the quickstart are from day one if you save it at that time. You can save over the quickstart as you go along with current .dat files, or you can save the .dat files separately with the "Make Backup" procedure and leave the quickstart set for day one if you ever want to start over.