Save vs Save As

[Playalot]

Ok, I THINK I've got most of this figured out.  As soon as you go into your game the game sets up a series of "save" files with the date and time.  These will be, in your EA file folder, from 0 to 4 or 5.

I sort-of understand what you're saying but I've got 0 to 9 save files in that folder... I wish there was an easy way to clear this out as my game is starting to stutter and I had my first crash today. 

[walms]

Thank you very much Joria, I will definitely give this a "go" and let you know what happens. 

[Joria]

I sort-of understand what you're saying but I've got 0 to 9 save files in that folder... I wish there was an easy way to clear this out as my game is starting to stutter and I had my first crash today. 

Make a file folder on your desktop for files "in transit".  Go into your EA folder to the Saves files.  Keep three files with version 0 to two.  Select the rest of the files.  Cut.  Paste them in that new desk top file.  Go into game and check to see if your game is still there.  If it is you can delete those files you put in the temporary, desk top folder. If it isn't you'll need to replace the files you stored in that desktop folder.   It's a pain but it does keep the amount of saves down to a minimum.  The tricky part is when you have more than one game.  More than one family.  Since they aren't named in your EA files you have to go by guess and by golly as to which files belong to which family.  It took me hours but I now have separate, desk top file folders for two families I want to play some day, and my regular family in my EA folder.

[MarianT]

I'm less worried about my saved games now that I've compared my "save" files with those from TS3. My entire saved game file (for 11 different games, I think) is 71 MB. My saved file for my last Domination Dynasty game is 292 MB. My saved file for 2 days in Sunset Valley with Hank and Pauline is 21 MB. My saved file for the rest of their lives (at least 4 weeks) in Oasis Springs is 20 MB.

I don't like the new way that your saved games show up in the documents folder, but I do think the new way of saving is more efficient.

[Indira]

More often than not, I use 'save as' for my games. If i were building houses, I name them "House Building 1" 2,3, etc. when I reach 9,  I simply delete 1-6 and start from 1 again. The saved files don't amount to much at all compared to TS3. (I used to have 1GB-sized files from all my adventuring in World Adventures prior to deleting travel.db). So simply copying the whole saved folder as back-up is enough for me (for now, until a more thorough dissection can be made by some enterprising person).

[Pam]

I'm moving this to the Technical Help board.

[Joria]

Crinrict does a LOT for us Simmers.  Here the files are explained.

http://sims4.crinrict.com/en/2014/09/user-files-explained/ 

I signed up for the blog since the information is invaluable.

[Stormi71]

It shouldn't be that complicated to save a couple of different games! I find the auto save thing just complicates stuff. Last night I went to play, and just about burst into tears, because somehow, as well as the autosave, the game had saved my current save over a different one. I realised this because it has the file name (in my case, one called FOUR GIRLS) and under that it has the surname of the sim household. I went to play my Four girls save and realised it had a different surname, and sure enough, my four girls house has been overwritten somehow. That made me really, really cranky, as that is the save that I've mostly played. I'd spent a lot of hours getting their skills almost maxed, they were around level 7 in their careers, one of them had a child. Now the only save game from them is when I first made them and moved them into an unfurnished house.
I presumed that if you open a certain save, that the game would save over that named file, not another save. I always use load game, too.