This is not unlike what I do, actually. I imagine my character having an overactive imagination and being pretty good at thinking through the possible outcomes of an action he takes.
“Hmm, what if I were to go ahead and do (risky/stupid action) what’s the worst that could ha…”
/save
/horible death ensues
/sheeeit
/reset
“…hmm, maybe I shouldn’t do that.”
I will save scum but veey rarely. Only for game breakong bugs, accidental button presses like activating a grenade when i wanted a cig or walking forward one step into a turrets range when i was trying to examine the surroundings, or when the game lags and keeps my death mobile running forward into a river while i was desperately hitting the back button. I will “cheat” in items but usually as part of building myself a custom scenario or if they glitch or should be readily available but are not. I also play freeform stats more often than not, i heavily penalize myself but i like a well rounded character that actually has a life time of experience and plenty of traits and flaws.
This game is highly manipulable for a reason, to suit a lot of different playstyles. Every one should be comfortable playing how they want and no one should be negative about another playstyle
“accidental button presses like activating a grenade when i wanted a cig”
I used to be a savescummer before, but then I got an arrow in the knee.
At some moment I realized I’m just cheating myself. I denied a lot of curious situations and solved problems in a very cheap way. Went to a night raid relentlessly and slammed into a brute with friends - nah, just reload and don’t go there, and so on. No fun at all.
But it’s much more exciting to deal with consequences and live with what I’ve done and take responsibility. So if the character is dead - he’s dead, no reload, time to start a new one and try the best I can.
I play without save-scumming, by treating the game as an interactive way to experience its content. Deciding what to do, while not knowing what’s going on, gives the game a mystery element, and also opens it up for more creative play. Save-scumming would remove the unknown from that mystery, spoiling it just as much as would reading spoilers on the discourse or wiki.
For example, I was scared of FEMA camps, and would always give them a wide berth. Then I took one out one morning. In my ignorance I over-prepared. Had I known what they were like, I could have saved a lot of prep time. But then I would have missed out on the cake walk.
Another time, I saw a singular zed I’d never met before. We hadn’t been properly introduced, you see. Not being sure about the proper etiquette, and wanting to keep both my hide and my title of “survivor”, I naturally tucked tail and ran. Much later on, I came back with what I felt was over-preparedness. Almost immediately, it tore a hole nearly straight through me. I barely got away by flooring the car in reverse while the zed luckily fell out. Caution saved a life that day. A simple spoiler would’ve reduced this interaction to a simple “nope” on first sight, with no under-prepared revisit. The humility check and the narrow escape would be part of an untold story.
I see several elements of the game that suggest that it’s designed to be played this way, at least the first time through. That’s what it’s like for me now, not having won the game. I haven’t seen all the content, and am in no hurry to.
Without the unknown at this point, the game would largely be a spreadsheet simulator, or a character-builder with an unnecessarily interactive backstory generator. But the unknown-focused play-style conditions the player into YASD mode. By the time I finish the game, if ever, the unknown content will be gone. In its place, only the RNG will be left. Just me, an overly complex set of dice, and - hopefully - my imagination. If I’m attuned to looking at the unknowns as positive and entertaining, then a death is a punchline.
Instead if the unknowns are treated as annoying, spoilers are read, outcomes are expected to be predictable, then a death is an unnecessary feature that probably would be best patched out of my spreadsheet simulator. That’s why I don’t take the turret topic to be a total tangent. The desire for more forgiving turrets seems to be an extension of the save-scumming play-style.
It shouldn’t be any surprise to find a game’s developers unenthusiastic about requests to support things outside of the intended play-style. Permadeath is the primary intended way to play a proceduralized megadungeon like cdda. And in an unforgiving, uncaring universe, even. A game like this doesn’t result from somebody trying to make save-scumming possible. The game needs save and reload features to let players split up their gaming sessions, and to protect against crashes or bugs.
Still, save-scumming has been a thing with this kind of game since I can remember: moria, angband, nethack, etc. Even if it’s not a supported feature, it’s possible and there’s no good reason to make it difficult. Playing that way diverges from the intended purpose of the game. It is definitely a fun play-style. But it’s a bit like driving a car always in reverse. If you go to the dealer complaining it won’t go 70 in reverse on the freeway, you shouldn’t be surprised if the customer-is-always-right attitude seems to falter a bit.
Never actually even thought of savescumming before seeing this thread but I’ll give my two cents.
The first and foremost reason of course is that it’s the intended mechanic for the game. The game is also turn-based so I have as long as I want to think about my every move. One of the biggest things I love about games like this, regardless of genre (looking at you Dwarf Fortress), is that the point even isn’t to hit “the end goal”. It’s the full experience of simply trying to survive and learn new ways in everything.
On every single character I have done something new I hadn’t even thought about on the last one. Every time I get better and I know my goals a bit better. And some of the things simply make sense. For example the “turrets in labs insta-kill you”… well, the lab is a sealed place that very much tries its best to tell you “You don’t belong here”. If I want to squeeze in regardless then what else can I expect than countermeasures? Jeez. If I was owner of that lab and it held trade secrets of billions I’d be damn sure to put the countermeasures in the fuckiest places possible.
Also if I really bump into some enemy/issue/etc that I simply can’t stand I know that I can go and edit it myself. It might not be as easy as eating an apple (which, btw, is very easy) but there is really nothing keeping me from doing that.
I have not even touched the end-game (or what I assume is something of the kind) because I always die before that. I focus on some totally random other thing like building a cool car, trying how to make some new electronic system work, build a cool house, find new cool ways to kill my opponents other than simply shoot or stab them etc… The best part is the freedom you have as a player. And even more than that, there are a lot of options you can change in the settings menu to make the game easier or harder - or otherwise more suitable to Your own likes.
I also fully agree on what AssumeCroons said above about being scared of unknown. I really, really do like to keep my characters alive. That’s why I try to be as careful as ever possible when meeting new creatures, zombies or whatever. That’s what makes so much of the suspension and horror. It’s quite incredible actually how much I can feel playing this game even though it’s not this visually or audibly breathtaking experience. It’s more like reading a book where I can make my own choices.
Anyways, hoping everybody has a great coming weekend and lots of fun playing!
And as always, remember: It’s just a game. If you like it: play it. If you don’t like it: play something else.
Blah. Wish I’d savescummed a bit more in my last game. Lost my save to a power-out that hit during the save sequence, leaving it an unrecoverable mess.
Had just gotten into the cyber/mutation mod phase of the game too.