Steam cloud sync

[jiaco]

So after getting my new disk installed (which was my "data" partition housing My Documents/Music/Pictures/etc...). I transferred over enough to login to windows and my game saves from a backup. The only game files I was worried about were in Borderlands and since that had Steam sync, I was not thinking clearly. As I fired up the game, I saw in my library that steam was syncing, and I thought cool. This is like gmail, I do not have to worry about it.

Well, I had transferred over the backup from a week ago and steam was actually syncing the other way. I replaced my level 34 toon, that we were MPing with, with a level 20 earlier version. Not my idea of what sync should do, but I guess it is logical enough and I can imagine being pissed off if it went the other way and I did not want it to.

So the dead disk went into an external usb enclosure and on/off/on/off for about 40 minutes until finally windows asked to format it. Somehow, through the right click explore function in the disk management window, I was able to navigate to and get my sav file off the dead disk. Wheh.

end of rant.

[yerkyerk]

Aw, a rant with a happy end :)

[yerkyerk]

Well, I also had a bad experience with Steam cloud and Borderlands (2). I was going to a friend's place, where we both started a new character. I didn't copy the savegame, as I assumed Steam cloud would do that for me.

So, when I got home, Steam told me it had data that wasn't the same as on my PC. Naturally, I assumed that this was because I had been playing at my friends house and happily gave Steam permission to download the data from the cloud to my PC. Cloud computing ftw!

But... than I started Borderlands 2, only to see my new character missing. I was kinda confused, but decided to continue with another character, realizing my friend could send me the savefiles from his computer. Than I saw that my other character didn't have the data anymore from my previous session. What happened? Steam Cloud has been out for quite a while, not only didn't it save the progress I made at my friends place, it also didn't record my previous session and overwrote all my data with old information, because I assumed the files didn't synch because I had been playing at my friend's house... Screw cloud computing!

Anyway, it wasn't all too bad. My friend could still mail me the data from my session with him and with the other character I had a lot of luck with loot and already found better loot than I had. So yay!

[JohnNamikaze]

I only had one issue with steam cloud once when I accidentally closed steam before the game file was synched 100%. Luckily, I only lost about two hours of gameplay instead of the whole thing.

[Shoganai]

Steam has usually prompted me when it runs into Sync issues... "do you want to use the Steam version? Or your local copy?"

The problem with that question is that they don't give you ENOUGH information.

For the most part, my local copy is going to be the most up to date (I think) so I always choose it. But in the case of the OP, that would have messed him up.

If Steam is SMART enough to recognize a disparity between saves, it should also be smart enough to tell me WHEN each save was made....

[matthewfarmery]

there are a lot of complaints on the steam forums about this feature, most people seem to download rather then upload when prompted, so losing loads of hours of work, but I have disabled steam cloud, and run manual backups, so I dont have a problem with this

[Mind Dragon]

Technology with a cute name fails to operate properly. Who could have guessed?

stake, silver iodine, buffy -- what to use?

Buffy.

similia similibus curantur !

[Shoganai]

Technology with a cute name fails to operate properly. Who could have guessed?

stake, silver iodine, buffy -- what to use?

Buffy.

similia similibus curantur !

Not to derail the thread... but yes, Buffy every time! ;)

[Mind Dragon]

When Kirk cant kill it with a phaser because it manipulates spacetime so it is never where the beam is fired, you know it's time to get serious.

[LostSoul]

Steam has usually prompted me when it runs into Sync issues... "do you want to use the Steam version? Or your local copy?"

The problem with that question is that they don't give you ENOUGH information.


This. Soooo much this. Steam Cloud has *never* worked the way I've wanted it to. It's great for simple things like game settings and keybindings that you don't have to futz with very often, but even if you get an out-of-date file it's not going to be game-breaking to go back and adjust it. The same cannot said of saved-games. No, then it's terrible.

I haven't run into Steam Cloud issues recently, but I will say this: At least it's moved beyond obnoxiously vague text with the prompt. The last time I seriously used Steam Cloud, I had no idea what either option was that it wanted me to pick from because the button labels AND the wording of the text box itself were utterly directionless. To this day I still can't tell you which file Steam ultimately kept and which was discarded.

[corwiniii]

Get Dropbox (or something like it)
Move save files there
Create symbolic links in the original folder(s)
Do the same on other machines
Never lose the data or worry about syncing

Dropbox also versions copies and is available via the web. It has been invaluable to me with gaming between computers and long-term storage of game save files.