The Problem:

Save data management is crucial for an immersive gaming experience. Initially, our game had an abundance of in-game elements, from buffs to achievements, that lacked seamless interaction. The existing system had pick-up buffs that disappeared, unachievable achievements, and meaningless stats. Additionally, we faced challenges in retaining this data across levels and runs. Even when I thought the save data was working correctly it wouldn't load right or it would crash loading the next level. I was trying to save the Actor and then spawn it in each level, this is for the buffs specially here. The achievements worked correctly but the progression points did not. I could not get them to save for anything.

The Solution:

To address the issues with save data management, we turned to a more structured approach using custom structs. This transition significantly streamlined data handling and enhanced gameplay continuity. No longer did I have to worry about saving the actor, spawning it, and ensuring it applied the buff back to the player. Now I just saved the important information needed and moved that between realms. No more crashes because of nullptrs, no more buffs disappearing from the player, in the words of the great Todd Howard, "It just works." The issues for the progression points ended up being very simple, but not talked about, I didn't have the variables tagged with the UPROPERTY(), once I added that I no longer had issues with the progression points not saving.

**This img is to display how the new struct looks, it's also a tease at one of the buffs in game.

author: Dewayne Hicks
posted on 30/9/23