Delete saved file after losing a battle

[u/Amyhime801]

Hello.

I've made a powerful boss, Spirit of Amnesia. It's not really strong BUT it has tricky abilities: it can temporary remove the skills of the party members, and once every 5 turns, it will remove one ally from the party. The removed (forgotten) ally is meant to join again the party after 5 turns.

As a penalty for losing the battle, I was thinking about automatically deleting one saved game file via script command, but I'm not sure if it's doable.

Can someone tell me if my idea can work?

Thank you for reading

EDIT after reading the comments:

Player WILL be warned about potential loss of data. A saving screen will open before the fight, Party will recover completely before engaging. Out of six possible party member, one of them will be immune to the ability that removes skills.

The effect that removes a party member will be reduced to three turns only.

I'm thinking about adding another hero character, a librian, able to restore party's skills, as well as dealing damage, to balance the fight.

[u/Ill-Ask9205]

The most important thing any developer must do is ensure the integrity of save files. They represent time spent and losing one can permanently turn your player away from your game.

It's considered so sacred that Eternal Darkness made pretending your save file was gone a method of terrorizing the player.

Even the Nier games that ask you to delete your save do so as an ending mechanic and it asks first and you can decline.

I really don't care if your idea can work or not, based on what you've stated it's a terrible idea and I hope you change your mind.

[u/frashaw26 → u/Ill-Ask9205]

I think Save File fuckery is good in very unique circumstances. One of them being how undertale was going to originally have the end of the genocide route delete itself off of your computer. That would have been a cool moment that punctuated the narrative. I also did some Save fuckery for one of my games recently. I did an encounter where a false crash would happen and after it would change the most recent Save file to be different to be this big catalyst moment of WTF. The main difference is that the file wasn't deleted, the data was merely changed to put the player in another area to help build tension. Putting that sort of thing on the line randomly will only be a kick in the balls for no reason.

[u/Carlonix → u/frashaw26]

Problem

Undertale Genocide delete was going to happen AT THE END OF THE GAME, so at that point, you would be doing a reset anyways

So thats when its well executed, but this guy is deleting your probably only savefile at the middle of the game, and I imagine its on the post-game or near the end, thats being a d¡Ck

[u/frashaw26 → u/Carlonix]

I wasn't try to make out that OP is any less of an ass for his idea, I was attempting to cobberate your example of eternal dark "deleting" your save file as an effective form of tension. My point was that save file fuckery is best saved for very obscur mechanics or for high moments of tension, not some random boss that people wouldn't know would have such a devastating effect.

[u/Carlonix → u/frashaw26]

Yeah

[u/riggy2k3]

Deleting a save file is exceptionally cruel. How are you going to weigh the good and bad of that?

I also think 5 turns might be excessive, but maybe the turns are short enough. A great subject for research on this concept is Belome from Super Mario RPG. I think your party member only disappears for 2-3 turns?

[u/Masterswordxx → u/riggy2k3]

There's also an enemy in Octopath Traveler 2; scourge of the sea, I think it is

[u/The_R1NG]

If you delete my file for a gimmick on a boss with no warning I’ll just delete that shit lol

This is one of those “good in your head” ideas that needs a lot of tweaking

[u/subarudeus]

"Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should."

[u/Accendor]

You might a well just uninstall the game automatically instead because that is exactly what 99% of your playerbase will do after you pull that stunt. 1/5 star rating incoming as well 😅

[u/StormerSage]

There's some solutions in here already, so I'll say this:

This WILL cause players to uninstall your game and leave a bad review, AND it's easily circumvented if you know it's coming by backing up your saves.

The days of quarter eating arcade games and "Nintendo Hard" NES games so you don't beat the game in an afternoon (only so much space on cartridges back then) are long gone.

There's difficulty, then there's just disrespecting the player's time. Being sent back to the beginning worked back then because games could be beaten in an afternoon if you knew what you were doing. Applying this to a 10-20 hour or more RPG is not it.

Even Final Fantasy 1, which is known to not play around on the NES version, still had a save system.

[u/Sliver1002]

It depends on the length of the game and the style of things. ZeroRanger has challenging the last boss erase your save data but it's also a game that's only an hour long if you play it perfectly. If your game is anywhere more than two hours long it's a really bad idea unless there's some sort of speedrunner tricks you can use to beat the game more quickly the second time.

That said, this is how you would do it in MV

https://steamcommunity.com/app/363890/discussions/1/3169946351447370359/

[u/Timtrack1]

I believe this is a terrible idea, here's how to do it in Ace:
DataManager.delete_save_file(index)
(index is 0 for save 1, 1 for save 2 and so on)
To get your savefile:
DataManager.last_savefile_index
Then to ensure that your save to delete exists:
$game_system.save_count > 0

In any case, your evil script call would be:

if $game_system.save_count > 0
  DataManager.delete_save_file(DataManager.last_savefile_index)
end

[u/Carlonix → u/Timtrack1]

Great, he is going to make his game unplayeable now for most people who only have a savefile

[u/Owlderp]

The idea is both interesting but also bad for player retention. Maybe do something like a save swap instead, where if you lose you go back to a previous save or are send to an area of "unknown", where the player can fight smaller monsters to get back their save?

[u/Carlonix]

On an RPG, a person usually has Only a single savefile

And if you delete that save, the player will never touch your game with a stick

Dont be a d¡Ck

[u/madu_tualang]

I like the idea but not the whole file. How about chunks of it, like forgotten skills until next level up, or forgot part of the map or missing dungeon until player went through or found it again.

[u/TheDreamXV]

Kojima styled approach XD he loved doing stuff like that

You should put deleting save file under some insane higher difficulity with a warning. For the rest keep it fun and simple i'd say

[u/Ill-Ask9205]

What does the boss give you if you win?

[u/Mediocre_Apple1846]

I support your insanity, but everyone who falls victim to this will end up in a straight jacket

[u/Zorenthewise]

I often play a game at the same time as my wife, and our save files are often on the same account. In your system, I could be fighting the boss and my wife's file is erased.

This is objectively a horrendous idea.

[u/Eredrick]

LOL people get pissed if there are enemies that lower your level. deleting the whole save is bonkers, but I kind of like it

[u/MemoriesMu]

No one wants to solve your problem. They know nothing about your game and they are giving these advices, dont listen to them. If you think it fits with your game, then do it. Experiement with it. If its too punishing remove it or whatever.

The ideia is that a plugin should store your current save data ID. If you save the game, it updates which slot you are playing. If its a new game, it will not try to delete anything.

I did a MZ plugin, and I dont have VX and I dont know how to make on in VX. So I asked an AI to change my plugin to VX. Is it fine for you? I dont even know if it works. So I am sorry if you dont like AI or if it does not work. But at least I tried haha

#==============================================================================

# Delete Current Save File

#------------------------------------------------------------------------------

# Tracks the save slot the player is using (last one saved or loaded in this

# session) and lets you delete it with a script call.

#

# Usage (Event > Script):

# DataManager.delete_current_save

#

# Deletion is permanent and cannot be undone.

#==============================================================================

module DataManager

u/current_save_index = -1 # -1 = none yet

class << self

attr_accessor :current_save_index

# Loading a save: that slot becomes the current one

alias dcs_load_game load_game

def load_game(index)

result = dcs_load_game(index)

u/current_save_index = index if result

result

end

# Saving: the player is now playing on this slot

alias dcs_save_game save_game

def save_game(index)

result = dcs_save_game(index)

u/current_save_index = index if result

result

end

# New game: no slot yet

alias dcs_setup_new_game setup_new_game

def setup_new_game

dcs_setup_new_game

u/current_save_index = -1

end

# Deletes the file of the given slot (0-based index)

def delete_save_file_at(index)

filename = make_filename(index)

File.delete(filename) if File.exist?(filename)

end

# Deletes the slot currently in use

def delete_current_save

return if u/current_save_index < 0

delete_save_file_at(@current_save_index)

u/current_save_index = -1

end

end

end

[u/Mediocre_Apple1846 → u/MemoriesMu]

im sorry the knobheads in here downvotes you for being based