How to back up your game

[GaryP]

I have a batch program for all my games that I use to back them up.  This works on any game and it's super easy to set up. I wrote this years ago and I still use it.

If you do something stupid in the game, or something goes horribly wrong, you can always load the last save.

 

 

First there's my batch command file:

 

For /f "tokens=2-4 delims=/ " %%a in ('date /t') do (set mydate=%%c-%%a-%%b)
For /f "tokens=1-3 delims=/:/ " %%a in ('time /t') do (set mytime=%%a-%%b-%%c)
set mytime=%mytime: =% 
rem echo %mydate%_%mytime%

XCopy %1 %2_%mydate%_%mytime% /E/H/I

 

I made a text file and renamed it to BackupSaveFile.bat and I placed the code above into it. Then I copied the bat file to the Roaming folder just outside of the Avorion folder.

 

Next I created a shortcut on my desktop to call this this bat file.

 

Set it up like this:

Target: C:\Users\Gary\AppData\Roaming\BackupSaveFile.bat "C:\Users\Gary\AppData\Roaming\Avorion\*.*" "D:\Avorion\Saved Games\SaveGame"

 

Start in: C:\Users\Gary\AppData\Roaming

 

The target calls BackupSaveFile.bat and passes it 2 parameters; (1) where to find the game files, and (2) where to copy them to.

 

In my case "C:\Users\Gary\AppData\Roaming\Avorion\*.*" is the game location. (Don't forget the quotes).

 

And I have a folder on my D drive, but you can make one anywhere.  I called mine SaveGame, and I placed it in a folder called Avorion on my D drive.

 

You can also make a folder in your My Documents called Avorion Saves, and use that.  Don't forget to change the path in the shortcut.

 

What this does is make a bunch of files appended with time date so you can go back to any point.

 

Example:

SaveGame_2017-06-30_01-46-PM

SaveGame_2017-06-30_09-48-AM

SaveGame_2017-07-01_02-06-PM

 

These are not zipped, so if you need to, you can copy the last save over the current one and all is good.

I can use this for all my games and all I need is a separate shortcut for each game.

 

I hope this helps someone.

[SirJeb]

This is great, thanks!

 

I had to do some slight modifications to make it work with my locale (24h clock and DD.MM.YYYY date format):

 

For /f "tokens=1-3 delims=. " %%a in ('date /t') do (set mydate=%%c-%%b-%%a)
For /f "tokens=1-2 delims=/:/ " %%a in ('time /t') do (set mytime=%%a-%%b)
set mytime=%mytime: =% 
rem echo %mydate%--%mytime%

XCopy %1 %2%mydate%--%mytime% /E/H/I