Quote:
Originally Posted by ChuckkieB
Forgive me, but I still don't see the difference. As long as the customization of the game (logos, faces, stadiums, etc..) is being saved when using "save" function, then a save of any kind should do the trick, correct? Couldn't I simply "save" a game on day 1, and then when the league advances (a day, a year, etc...), save the game under a differnet name. Wouldn't this accomplish the same thing as "saving as a quickstart" on day 1 and "making a backup?" when advancing the game after that? What am I missing?
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Complicated, eh?
I get confused myself. Let me try again.
When you make a new game, it saves it in a saved game folder. This folder has everything in it (well, almost - some things like ballpark pictures are saved elsewhere), .dat files, logo files, etc. Some of these things never change until you edit them again (like logo files) and some change every day (like players.dat). People have been known to just back up this large saved game folder and be done with it. Problem is, it may be too large to save on some storage media. This is why OOTP gives you the capability of just saving the .dat files with "Make Backup" assuming that you have your logos copied elsewhere.
The idea with a saved quickstart game is that it's like a snapshot of your saved game folder
at a certain time, like day one or day 1,000 of your league. This is why I recommend it for preserving the starting point of your league.
Let's say you saved only by the other methods. You would have your customizations, and you would have
your latest .dat files only. Now say you found out that something was not to your liking and you wanted to start your league over again after making some quick change. No can do; you only have the latest league data.
If, however, you saved your game as a quickstart game on day one, you can load it, make the change, save it again as of day one, then proceed. You still are saving the game as you go along, but that quickstart is available for going back to square one if that's what you want to do.
Example: You set the salary structures too low in the beginning. You want to go back and restart the league with better numbers in place. Call up day one quickstart, change the amounts, save as quickstart again, and begin play as normal.
You are going to find that some changes may require you to go back to a saved template or create a new template altogether. That is when you will need to redo some of your modifications that are not saved with templates.
That's the best that I can do. As I said in my first post, I would experiment a bit with generic leagues to get a feel for what I am talking about here. For example, the Fictional Baseball League quickstart that comes with the game is a great choice for experimentation because it's small and loads/runs/saves faster.