Saved games on the cloud ?

[DaMaGe007]

Hi all..

Does steam sims 3 store the saved games on the cloud ??

Thanks in advance

DMG

[kikiokyo]

No it does not, the saved files and downloaded content go into your "My Documents" folder, you'll find it under Electronic Arts.

[DaMaGe007]

Thanks for the info...

Thats a shame...I move between computers a bit so I was hoping it would save them to the cloud to save me moving them manually...

I guess they are a bit large for that...

DMG

[WestRaptor]

Doesnt origin save em in cloud i know a lot of the other games do but idk bout sims 3 but i swore it did

[kikiokyo]

Origin does not save them on cloud either (as it uses the same shared folder like Steam) since the saves, towns, and saved sim files may be too big. Though I have noticed that the Origin version may not recognize the downloaded content from the Steam Game Launcher and may require a redownload for the downloaded content from the Sims Store.

[spyrochaete]

Yeah, my Sims 3 folder in My Documents is about 1.75GB. It would take forever to upload saved games to the cloud after every session.

[voji]

Another alternative is: http://www.synctocloud.net/

You can define a custom filter, and sync save game files only.

[Motoki]

I use Gamesave manager personally but I just have it do one neighborhood, whichever I am playing at the moment, and just the main save not the backup one. Even with that it's still a hefty file size to be syncing back and forth on a regular basis so I try to limit it to once a day at most.

I really hope they can streamline the save files a lot the next game because the save files for this game are really ridiculously huge.

[DaMaGe007]

The Average sims save is about 50mb...you don't play all your saves at once.
So the actual syncing data isn't going to be that huge with each play of the game.
Overall there can be alot of saves though...so the decision not to sync them is more due to Valve not wanting to spend the money on cloud space, as opposed to bandwith.

DMG

[Motoki]

Originally Posted by DaMaGe007

The Average sims save is about 50mb...you don't play all your saves at once.
So the actual syncing data isn't going to be that huge with each play of the game.
Overall there can be alot of saves though...so the decision not to sync them is more due to Valve not wanting to spend the money on cloud space, as opposed to bandwith.

DMG

My understanding is that enabling cloud save is up to the publisher. It can even be done with old games. Morrowind is a decade old and Bethesda did enable cloud save for it and Oblivion last summer. It's not something that Valve just turns on, it has to be coded within the game to support it.

In this case, I think file size aside, EA is not going to go out of their way to add extra features that would be a selling point for their games on Steam. If anything, they'll do it on Origin.

[spyrochaete]

Originally Posted by DaMaGe007

The Average sims save is about 50mb...you don't play all your saves at once.

Even still, let's say most people have an upload rate of 100KB/s. That means it would take about 8.5 minutes to upload your game to the cloud. That's pretty nasty.

[DaMaGe007]

I think steam could enable cloud saves for the games if they wanted too...the saves dont sync untill you exit the game..so Im not sure that the game is triggering the sync...

Im guessing it just syncs changed save data for the directory mapped as the save directory for the particular game in question.

I get around 350-400k so I wouldnt mind the wait even if I was getting 100k I wouldnt mind the wait for the convinience the cloud would offer. Although thats download speed...upload speed it much slower...and may take longer...

I think cloud saves should be able to be turned on/off on a per game basis to allow people the ability to choose depending on thier upload/download speed...some people have insanely fast internet..why should they be punished because of other users connection speeds.

I think it will happen in the future as Valve update thier storage abilities...clouds being the in thing and all...

**Edit**
I just checked you can turn cloud sync's on/off on a per game basis...thats good for the slow connection speed users if its enabled in the future.
Another possibility is that Valve may charge a game developer/publisher a once off fee for providing cloud services for a particular game. The game itself shouldnt have to trigger a sync..that would be a silly design decision...but you may find Ea didnt pay valve for the Cloud support or Valve dont want to do it due to storage concerns...can't really think of any other reason....
In fact it might not be a once off fee at all...it might cut into the profits of each and every copy sold through steam.

Another potential issue I have just thought of...
Sims3 doesnt use a Common Save directory. Seperate Windows users have seperate save directories. My windows user saves to My..My documants...my niece's user saves to her my documents directory. But since its my Laptop she would be using my steam account when she comes over. This might confuse the cloud...she would download my saves and I would get her's...causing alot of extra transfers as we switch users. Since my nephew also plays under his user..the problem gets compounded...

This would cause a Problem for the End user potentially...
My saves 500mb
Niece 500mb
nephew 500mb

all of a sudden sims would be using 4.5 gig of my hard drive...(I don't mind that...but some wouldnt like it...)

This may also affect the decision to support the cloud...