Save game directory overflow

[Radiant]

Two players report getting this error ("Save game directory overflow") in Monkeys to the Moon.

Now this is a MAGS game so I didn't have the time to code a saved game GUI, hence it uses AGS's internal GUI for that. So this issue would probably go away if I code my own, since I've never seen it before. Still, perhaps someone can tell me what this error means?

[Mandle]

Did the players check how many save games the game had produced, or the numbers of any save games?

I would guess that either the game is repeatedly saving the game on an infinite loop, thus filling all available slots, or it is trying to assign numbers bigger than AGS can read (I think agsave999 is the limit?), or both?

[cat]

It was me who reported the error and I only made a few save games myself (about 3 or 4 I think).
I only saw one Autosave in the list.

[Radiant]

The autosave is #99. Otherwise it's the standard dialog, so #0, #1, and so forth.

[Mandle]

In my experience, which is not huge of course: the term "overflow error" usually means the game is attempting something a ridiculous amount of times without being able to escape from the loop...And so just crashes the game rather than having it just sit there frozen forever...

Did you change any code in/or touch the structure of the save game function so that it could get stuck in an infinite loop? Did you add any if clauses to the code that could potentially never be resolved, for example?

[Crimson Wizard]

The "Save game directory overflow" error seem to be given only by the built-in savegame dialog, when there is a save number above 90.

This dialog is some very old mechanic, that probably has many limitations. It searches for saves from number 0 to 99 (?), but breaks at save numbers over 90... Frankly I don't get it myself.

My only guess is that it was some safety measure; the workaround is to use save slots over 100 for special saves, like restoration points.

[arj0n]

the term "overflow error" usually means the game is attempting something a ridiculous amount of times without being able to escape from the loop...

Not in this case. Which is a good thing, this issue is easy enough to fix

In short:
until agssave.099.monkey is created, you can manually create new savegames.
after that you cannot do that anymore.
You can still overwrite an existing one of course

Repro steps:

Spoiler

01. no 'Monkeys to the Moon' save game directory exists, or otherwise remove it
02. load game first time,
03. savedir + file agssave.999.monkey is auto-created.
04. select [Start] to play game,
05. select [build], select [Save],
06. type a name (eg. '1') and select [Save],
07. select [Quit & Save],
08. file agssave.099.monkey is now auto-created.
09. select [start] to play game again,
10. select [save].
11. both savefiles 'AutoSave' and '1' are listed now.
12. remove the suggested save game name and name it for ex. '2'.
13. select [save] (it doesn't matter which savefile was selected),
14. "Save game directory overflow" msg is shown.

[close]

EDIT:
or, what CW says (sorry for the 'double post', did saw someone posted before my post (which took some time to change some repro steps), also didn't got a 'warning' notice when posting)

The "Save game directory overflow" error seem to be given only by the built-in savegame dialog, when there is a save number above 90.

[cat]

Arj0n is right: I save&quit the game the day before and on the next day when saving the game crashed.

In my save game dir I have agssave.001.monkey, agssave.002.monkey, agssave.003.monkey, agssave.099.monkey with timestamp from day 1 and agssave.999.monkey with timestamp from day 2 (where I replayed the game from the beginning)

[Radiant]

99 is the game's autosave, which is made when you quit. 999 is the restart point automatically generated by AGS.

[Crimson Wizard]

Changing autosave from 99 to 100+ should fix this crash.

If I remember correctly, the builtin dialog will not let user saves go above 20 (or maybe it was 50), so they should never reach 90.

[Danvzare]

If I remember correctly, the builtin dialog will not let user saves go above 20 (or maybe it was 50), so they should never reach 90.

It's 50, I remember running into that limitation and being highly annoyed I couldn't make it into 99 without some coding wizardry.

It's a good thing I doubt anyone would ever need more than 50 saves, otherwise I would have asked for it to be increased.

[Radiant]

It's a good thing I doubt anyone would ever need more than 50 saves, otherwise I would have asked for it to be increased.

Perhaps surprisingly, a number of players of Heroine's Quest report using 60 - 70 saved games.

[Crimson Wizard]

Perhaps surprisingly, a number of players of Heroine's Quest report using 60 - 70 saved games.

I recall I created hungreds of saves in some full-length AGS games, but since not every one supported that much, I ended up making backup save folders .

[Cassiebsg]

Uhm, I've always assume that AGS supported 999 saved games... (found out only recently that 999 is the restart point)... and now this? Really? Only 50? If it can't handle more, why provide 999 slots?

[Crimson Wizard]

It can handle them all, it cannot fill all of them into built-in save dialog list.
Also, AFAIK, ListBox control has a limit of 200 items.

[edmundito]

I got the same problem while playing another game:

An internal error has occurred. Please note down the following information.
If the problem persists, post the details on the AGS Technical Forum.
(ACI version 3.4.0.12)

Error: Save game directory overflow

I can also confirm that the game has an autosave and it's using the standard save GUI, not a custom one. The autosave is saved in slot is 99.

[Crimson Wizard]

@Edmundito, is that a new game (considering engine version)?
Were game creators using slot 99 before without having this problem, or they started using slot 99 recently for some reason?

As I noted in some post above, simply changing autosave slot to 100 should solve this. But I am wondering if it may be related to some new 3.4.0 bug.

[Radiant]

But I am wondering if it may be related to some new 3.4.0 bug.

Monkeys to the Moon doesn't use 3.4.0 (since it wasn't officially the stable version yet).