saving a game in console mode

I'm in the process of making a text RPG/adventure game. It will be very tedious to have to start over once you die. That's why I'd like to supply the option to save the game. It's made up of structs mainly, that's the info that would need to be saved. How would I go about saving this info and loading it in the future?

well the simplest way i would say is this,

define a format for the file such as

File Type Specifier such as SAVE?
File Size Specifier // type int
PLYR // a four byte id tag for the data to follow
Data Size // size of the data to follow
Name Length // you could put a size here or let a null end it instead
PlayerName
Player Data // such as Hp,MP, strength, ect...
INVN // Inventory Marker?
Inventory Size
a continuous group of inventory structs follows

and write to the file to fit those blue prints then read it out the same way! so a plain text converted read of the file would look like this(not like opening it in notepad! note pad would show the numbers as jibberish characters)

Code:

---


SAVE    // 4 character file id
60        // 4 byte file size
PLYR    // 4 character Block id
15      // 4 byte int holding player data block size
3        // 4 byte int holding name size
Bob    // variable size string holding player name
40      // 4 byte int holding HP
30      // 4 byte int holding MP
INVN  // 4 character block id
10      // 4 byte int holding  Inventory block size
5        // 4 byte int holding item name size
Sword // variable size item name

ect...ect...

---

I think he means the functions to save and load save files. I would use sscanf to input the file. It is the easiest and most flexable function to use.

Code:

---

void readstr(FILE *f,char *string)                       
{
  do                                               
  {
  fgets(string, 255, f); // Gets A String Of 255 Chars Max From f (File)
  } while ((string[0] == '/') || (string[0] == '\n'));// Until End Of Line Is Reached
 return;                                               
}
............................................

char oneline[255];
  readstr(filein,oneline); // Reads In The Next Line Of Text
  sscanf(oneline, "%f %f %f", &rx, &ry, &rz); // Searches For 3 Floating Point Numbers, Store In rx,ry & rz

---

This will scan one line from a binary formated(not ASCII text!) file and assign it to the respective variables. I copied this code from a model loading function in OpenGL, but it does the job. I'm afraid I don't know much about output, though. Hope this helps you!

could you perhaps be a little more specific, i've never done anything like it before, im not sure what everything does or anything.

me or crossbow?


if me then

>could you perhaps be a little more specific,

about what exactly? how this would work out in code ect?

>i've never done anything like it before, im not sure what everything does or anything.

don't worry, took me a while to get it too.

Heres the code in a nutshell

player.h

Code:

---

//if definitions

/* Im gonna use a class just because I don't know the layout of a struct just switch it out. */

class player
{
public:
plaer ();
~player ();

protected:
int life;
char name[10];
int age;
}

#endif

---

main01.cpp

Code:

---

#include <iostream.h>
#include <fstream.h>
#include "player.h"

void save ();

player p;

int main()
{
char pick;

cout<<"1. Play"<<endl;
cout<<"2. Save"<<endl;

switch(pick)
{
case '1':
//play
break;
case '2':
save();
break;
}

return 0;
}

void save()
{

ofstream save;
save.open("player.xxx"); //change the xxx to intial of game thingy
save<<p.life;
save<<'\n';
save<<p.age;
save<<'\n';
save<<p.name;
save<<'\n'
save<<"--------";
save.close();
}

---

isn't it it if save that way, it will be a text file?

yes this will be in a text file [human readable] format.

Why not overload the input and output operators for the class? That would be much cleaner.