I've bought all the non-Nightmare decks except The Old Forest, which came out after my last shipment. Despite owning all those cards, I play entirely on OCTGN (solo). I do this because it takes up less space, removes some of the tedium (shuffling, setting up decks), and eliminates the risk of my girls moving cards around when I'm not actively playing.

The one thing I (and probably most people) wish OCTGN had was a Save feature. This would let us play the game in smaller chunks of time. Without a save feature, we have to play LotR LCG games in a single "sitting", which might be fine for people with lots of free time, or who play very quickly... However, I rarely find an hour or two of guaranteed free time, and as a result, I don't play LotR LCG often; this means I'm pretty slow in terms of needing to (re)read cards, rules, and errata during each game. And because I'm slow, my games take longer, which makes it even harder to find a chunk of time to play... And so I play less and less frequently, to the point where I've now played only one game in the past 6 months. This despite buying all those cards!

If OCTGN had a Save feature, I would definitely play LotR LCG more often. I have subscribed to OCTGN in order to get the ability to save deck filters. So they're getting my $3 or so each month... that on top of all that money for cards. I was hoping that OCTGN would reach its 100% limit and implement the Save feature. However, it is taking FOREVER for them to reach their goal. Either too few people are subscribing, or the goal has been increasing over time, putting us further and further from ever reaching it.

I am to the point now where I am considering unsubscribing from OCTGN until they actually implement a Save feature. It's not that I dislike the software; it's actually very usuable. It's just that because of the lack of a Save feature, I have only used it once in the past 6 months. That's $18 I paid to OCTGN, and hundreds of dollars I've paid for cards (I live in New Zealand, where importing is expensive)... all for one 2 hour game.

Like I said before, I'm sure I'm not the only one in this boat. The fact that the Save feature is listed as the final "to do" item on OCTGN's goals page means that it's likely regarded as the biggest item on people's wish list.

How hard can it be to implement a save feature? Probably not very. Especially for offline games. However, why would OCTGN implement their ultimate feature, if that feature is what is encouraging people to subscribe, in hopes that *their* contribution will somehow be enough to reach the goal? Well, I've been contributing, and OCTGN hasn't reached their goal, and the cards are collecting virtual and physical dust, and the situation is really starting to irritate me.

Wanna know what game I played in the past 6 months? The first scenario in Khazad Dum. That's right, I've only finished one cycle (Mirkwood) in all these years, that's how infrequently I've been playing. Grrrr.....

So here are my questions:

1) If OCTGN is indeed open source, then why hasn't someone implemented a Save feature? Or has someone already done it, but had their edits removed/hidden because it ruins the subscription incentive? Is there an "unofficial" mod/build for OCTGN which adds saving, even if it's just for offline mode?

2) Are there third party programs out there which can save the state of an application such as OCTGN by tracking which parts of memory are in use by it, and then dumping that memory to disk? It would be similar to the "sleep" or "hibernate" mode that our computers use, except it would only save one application at a time. Is there such a thing?

3) If OCTGN's Save feature is doomed to be an eternally dangling carrot, then what is the best alternative program for playing LotR LCG (offline) on a computer? I tried Lackey and Vassal a couple years ago, but preferred the OCTGN interface and stuck with it in hopes of that save feature popping up. Have Lackey and Vassal improved in usuability over the past couple years? Are their LotR LCG plugins reguarly updated? Are there any other virtual card game programs out there that support LotR LCG?

Thanks!

p.s. I love the game, and I love the efforts of the LotR LCG plugin developers. I just with the OCTGN devs would implement save games *before* all the other features. They could making saving subscriber-only. As long as they have it. Right now OCTGN is seriously crippled by its lack of a save game. Maybe not for the kids with gobs of free time (but no money), but definitely for people like me, with jobs and kids, and who are willing to pay for software which makes the most of the little free time we have.

Have you tried just not closing the game? If you're playing solo, I wonder if it'll disconnect and stop working if you leave the game alone for a long time or if you sleep your PC. If it doesn't, then you could just leave the game running until you get back to it.

I'm a programmer and I'd happily try to implement the Save functionality, but I'm a web programmer and I don't understand C#, which is the primary language it's built in. Not to mention the fact that I have about as much time to try to get this implemented as you have to play the game.

It does disconnect after a while. I'll +1 the OP. I *really* wish OCTGN would be able to save, and I might not have subscribed for a year if I realized you couldn't save, and will not likely renew if it still can't save when my subscription ends.

The best alternative is Card Warden, if you have an iPad. Much clunkier to get going with, but it's a nice implementation and I do enjoy being able to play on an iPad. I roughly split my LOTR LCG play time between OCTGN and Card Warden.

I'm hoping that FFG might be developing some kind of system like Card Warden, where you can play the game on a computer or tablet using sets of cards that you subscribe to. It wouldn't implement the game for you, so they don't need to program a zillion different card functions... but like OCTGN or Card Warden it is a platform to be able to play.

FFG should make a digital version of LTR LCG already for crying out loud.

Yeah, one that tracks progress through scenarios. That would be awesome.

Use LackeyCCG. It has save and a ton more stuff, like auto save for crash recovery. OCTGN is terrible app.

Do you have a link to the latest version of the LotR LCG plugin for LackeyCCG? I've been googling, but it's hard to find a recent version.

http://community.fantasyflightgames.com/index.php?/topic/57275-lord-of-the-rings-lcg-for-lackeyccg-play-it-online-with-mates/page-5

I've downloaded the most recent version of LackeyCCG, and updated its LotR LCG files and images.

I'm now trying to use the deck editor, and find it a bit of a challenge. I think the UI is probably great for people who already know it, but it's got a much steeper learning curve than OCTGN. Not a big problem in the long run, but, well, I think this is why I switched from LackeyCCG to OCTGN early on in my learning of LotR LCG. OCGTN is more "for dummies" and when it comes to LotR LCG I'm definitely a dummy!

Anyway, right now I'm willing to give LackeyCCG another go, so I am trying to figure out how to set up some filters for the deck editor. I've posted a question about that in the LackeyCCG topic.

I've recently tried what I mentioned before: just leaving the game running, letting the computer sleep and then coming back to the game. It works now. I do remember disconnects in the past, but if you're playing a game solely on your local machine, it should work just fine. You won't be able to shut down or restart your computer, but in most cases, this should work just fine.

Someone just pointed out that OCTGN has saving now!

To save a game in progress:

1) Right click on the background and select "Save Table State".
2) Click the red "I am the Host!" button.
3) Note (or change) the save path/file.
4) Click OK.

To load a game:

1) Start a game, so that you get to an empty game board.
2) Right click on the background and select "Load Table State"
3) Click the red "I am the Host!" button
4) Edit the save/path to match the exact filename that you saved.
5) Click OK

I have not tested this thoroughly, but so far it seems to work, as long as you manually make sure the filename you are loading is the same one you saved.

There are 2 main annoyances :

1) The default filename when you save is DIFFERENT from the default filename when you load.

For example, when I save, the default filename looks like this:

D:\games\octgn\data\Decks\Lord of the Rings - The Card Game\table-state -20180624122102 .json

However, then I load, the default filename is this:

D:\games\octgn\data\Decks\Lord of the Rings - The Card Game\table-state.json

If I try to load table-state.json when it doesn't exist, I get an error message. Not cool.

It would have been nice if the loading feature at least included a select box, so that you could choose which game to load.

2) We have to click that red "I am the Host!" button each time we save or load. This isn't a huge problem, but it does make the overall save/load experience feel "clunky".

Is there any way to address those 2 problems?

And has anyone verified whether the save/load feature works smoothly with multiplayer, 2-handed local play, etc.?

Do you guys know when the Save feature was added to OCTGN? I am wondering if it is still "fresh paint" or if it's been around enough to warrant my posting a change request for that load/save default file inconsistency.

The issues I posted about saving are really annoying me. Is there a better place for me to post issues about OCGTN (or the LotR LCG plugin)?

BGG, discord, or through octgn’s own costumer service.