And yet some users here fail to understand the nature of this game and why having saves carrying to new version is crucial for not having the game eventually dying out of tiresome of always having to start from scratch every X amount of updates cause the developer forces the game to not load save files from older game versions when the only thing that those need are to be on the same or higher version. No calls for any other ingame instructions.
We're not talking about a game who's mechanics are being absolutely overhauled to the very inception on how they are made and the world completely redesigned every X amount of updates to justify that. It's the same capturing base logic, same base map, same base characters, same base concepts, same story (or more like lack of), but the only thing that changes is that on update say 0.1 the vanilla playtime's grind might be 2 hours while on version 0.4 the grind might equal 4 literal days. So the fact that the game gets progressively more and more grindy makes it so save files compatibility is a REQUIREMENT.
The base point that a lot of you defenders of Derelict's BS are missing is not that we're asking for a perfectly capable saves carrying compatibility but rather the fact that you're not even given the choice of trying to use an old save file on a newer version at all unless you rely on third party software, just to find out that a simple version number modifier is all it takes for the game to be loaded and unless in a very few cases those never breaking. I have been dealing with this method since I noticed the whole save wipes issue and found that on save edit you could work around that issue. Only ONCE I found it not working and it was between two versions that broke the Wild Nephs spawning because those seemed to have changed or something, and it's still the only case that I can think of of stuff breaking and it was only on that particular aspect that things broke. You could still fuck around with your captured nephs, create hybrids, harvest their resources and sell them, even interact with the new NPCS, just don't think on capturing NEW wild nephs on those. Is a good scenario? No, but Derelict just doesn't even give players that choice at all. And don't come at me with the stupid thing of "he does this because he doesn't wanna troubleshoot faulty saves" when this MF releases a minor hotfix update every half a year at best.
I've played games that had completely revamped to the foundation their core systems like absolutely changing entirely the base map you even start the damn game over and you still could load the save files. With errors everywhere, sure, but you still could! The main difference between any of those and here is that in those starting a new save file was HIGHLY RECOMMENDED, but not a hard requirement. Wanted to fuck around with an old save? Sure! But expect everything to be glitched like hell, tho if you fancy that, have fun! On BotN however, unless you rely on SaveEdit or a similar external tool, starting a new save file is MANDATORY. And again....
- On a grindy AF game that after each update gets grindier.
- On a game that still lacks mod support, probably cause the author knows that the first thing that modders would add would be balls to futas, which he so despises for "reasons".
- On a barely updated every half a year game (wish I was exageating but last public update was about a year and a quarter ago) that after each update barely adds anything substantially new.
- On a project that not only refuses by both it's dev and most of it's fanbase to neither have saves compatibility but neither a system to at least port part of your progress to the new versions. Cause I can understand wanting to force players to deal with the progression BS, sure. But not being able to carry the nephs they already captured or bred? Specially if they're uniquely looking hybrids that only spawn in a very specific way ONCE in a lifetime? And the best you could do is try to recreate them in a new save file surely looking different?
Is not only the issue itself but the refusal to acknowledge by the dev and it's diehard backers what gets most fans pissed. Tho again, not the first time I felt like while this game may had potential, it's way past time to ditch it since it's absurd that you get to have a superior experience today at the very thing BotN offers in modded versions of Skyrim or Palworld than this game by default. So, see you in 2026 or maybe 2027 in the next public update I guess....
