Why is there no save as you go option in freelancer? Or several other modes for that matter. Does anyone know if they’re working on getting one.
No saves in Freelancer, escalations, and contracts are a conscious design decision by IOI.
It’s doubtful any will be implemented.
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No way, I thought that from some of the text but I didn’t think they’d consciously get rid of a pretty basic accessibility feature? Why’d they do that?
Because they tried to make Freelancer a “roguelike” mode, and since those don’t have saves, IOI decided they’d just go with the flow and not have one either, and be unoriginal and annoying, rather than fixing a glaring flaw. I’m sure someone will also try to explain it by using the word “balance” in some way. 
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Fr it feels a bit disrespectful Lolol hopefully they fix that and put no save on hardcore mode!
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There are also no restart option in Freelancer, and both it and saves are absent for a reason.
It’s to incentives the players to improvises and lives with the mistakes they will inevitably do. (because without it, let us be honest we would all hit restart or reload as soon as anything went slightly pear shaped).
It also incentives more quick thinking and active playstyle. If you see an opportunity in Freelancer, you will take it. No “I will save it on the side to go back if there is nothing better”, and no “this is a long setup, but I can save along the way to have a continuous guiding line”.
Players will also balance between being quick enough that a failure is not too costly, and careful enough that they are not reckless.
This balancing act is the core of Freelancer gameplay.
It’s for the same reason that Silent Assassin is not available as a rating.
And I must say, it worked.
Opinions asides, that was IOI intent.
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If you have enough time for that or that makes it better for you that’s fine and why it’d be great for hardcore mode. But I work full time and go to school part time, I don’t have hours a week to play the tedious way. Making it manual or optional fixes it for everyone.
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I know, at best I can do 5-6 missions in a play session. Usually broken is three sessions per campaigns of first and second syndicates, third syndicate, and fourth syndicate. And sometimes a full campaign at once on a week-end.
They are each 5-10 minutes long, 15 on showdown.
I wouldn’t say no to autosaves in them, I was just answering why IOI went this way.
(And I only say autosaves for my opinion because I don’t use manual saves at all, but I wouldn’t mind if they appear for others.)
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I definitely think a manual button would be best, thanks for explaining their logic tho! Judgy and pretentious as it is Lolol
It should at least save when you exit the game and then you can get back where you stopped, like in the Dark Souls games for example, no save to choose and pick from, just the one save where you exited. This option would be disabled if you are in combat though.
I still say that it should let you quit and restart so long as you haven’t killed the target(s) or completed any objectives, like Elusive Targets. That way, if you haven’t accomplished anything yet, and suddenly you have to stop playing because real life gets in the way, you can at least stop there without going through the whole disconnect procedure.
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Or just worry about how YOU play the game and don’t use it if you don’t want to. That really sounds like a cure all for everyone but the gatekeepy types that can only enjoy the game if others can’t like that one guy was talking about. Guys like that give me the ick hardstyle.
Save your breath, I’ve spent many an hour tilting at that particular windmill. They making that argument and you’ll get “balance” thrown your way faster than you can say who the hell cares.
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I like that there isn’t a save option in freelancer. It forces you to play smart and not rush through it and as well face the consequences of your mistakes.
Saving would only ruin the mode imo.
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The essence of Freelancer is the randomization. That’s all. Random maps, random objectives, random targets. Everything else is just dressing. Adding a save function would not ruin Freelancer at all, because the very thing that drives it, the thing that keeps it fresh isn’t in trying to do it in one shot or playing in new ways; that’s incidental. After a year and a half of the mode, everyone who plays it regularly has adjusted their playstyle, and the disconnect method allows you to restart anyway, it’s just inconvenient in its time consumption. The only thing that could ruin Freelancer is the loss of the randomization.
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You must not have watched the developer interview then.
They quite poignantly stated what they were going for is a “sweaty palms” experience - which not letting you save achieves since getting killed costs you your stuff and possibly the campaign, if it’s alerted.
But, allow me to play devil’s advocate for a second: They could preserve their desire if the game would delete your save when you die, but that requires significantly more work than disabling saving. Not to mention the litany of people who would quite likely whine even louder when they discovered the game would do that to their save.
What they were “going for” is irrelevant. Setting aside what they said it was for - which doesn’t matter what they say it was about, it was really about just not having to do more work on the mode to add that in, which is fine, but don’t try to justify it as being something else, I hate it when entertainment companies of any medium do that - ignoring that for the moment, my point was, as stated above, that the essence of what makes Freelancer what it is, is the randomization. It doesn’t matter what IOI’s intent was when they set out to make it; what they actually achieved was a mode who, when boiled down to its basic state, works because of the random factor.
I mean, if you want to tell their game designer that, I doubt it’ll be received very well, but you do you.
That’s overly reductive.
The random factor gives it replayability.
The consequences of death give it tension.
The consequence of death is always there, no matter what mode you’re playing. Whether you can restart from a save or not doesn’t change that; nobody enjoys having to restart from a save. It’s essentially an admission of defeat. Also, since the disconnect restart option is still there, it’s an irrelevant point anyway.
Fixed it for you.
Yes that’s broadly true, but let’s put it into context:
No Saving/Deleted save: You lose your stuff, possibly the campaign and the time you spent in the map.
With Saving: You lose only the time you spent so far, you reload and continue.
I can’t tell if you’re being deliberately disingenuous or you genuinely couldn’t identify this stark difference for yourself.