Tips for working with savegames

Working with large savegames can be problematic, as they can contain dozens of mods you've not used before and potentially thousands of assets you've not subscribed to.

This guide contains a few tips for dealing with that.

Check LSM settings

If you've set LSM to skip prefabs, you might want to turn that off while testing the save.

Using shared Steam account

This is by far the easiest way to test saves, but you need a spare gaming rig to do it.

• Set up a new Steam account on the other computer
• Family Share with your main account
• Install C:SL on the new account (free, due to family share)
• You now have a clean C:SL to test on 🎉

This way you can subscribe the save, subscribe to all its used assets and mods, enable all of them and not worry about your existing mods and assets getting in the way. Afterwards, you can just "Unsubscribe All" from the second account to clear it back to vanilla ready for next session of savegame testing.

For info on how to subscribe the save and it's assets/mods, see the "Using your own Steam account" section below.

Assuming the computer can handle it, you should be able to load the save without too much pain.

For huge saves, with loads of assets/mods, you might need to increase page file depending on how much RAM the computer has.

Using your own Steam account

If you only have one computer, well, things are more difficult. :(

Create a "RESTORE" save game

Start a new game, and save it with name "RESTORE" (or similar).

This save keeps a record of all enabled mods and assets you had at the time it was created. That means you can use it to get them back later.

Note: If you have a bunch of disabled assets/mods, the Mods Listing or Assets and Mods Configuration mods might be of use.

At a later date, if you add more mods assets you can open the "RESTORE" and just save it again - it will update with all the additional mods/assets you have at that time.

Nuke your subscriptions

Unsubscribe all your subscriptions:

• Go to Steam Workshop
• In right sidebar, hover over Your Files drop-down and choose Subscribed Items
• Click the Unsubscribe From All button

Your game is now vanilla.

Subscribe the savegame

When users share their savegame with us, they will provide a URL to that save game.

To subscribe you can do one of the following:

• Web Browser: (Recommended) Just go to the URL and click Subscribe
  • This requires your browser to be logged in to Steam, obviously
• Steam Overlay: Launch C:SL, then from main menu:
  • Press Shift + Tab to display Steam Overlay
  • Click the "Workshop" link near the top
  • It opens as a web page and you can enter the URL at the top

Install auto-mod enabler

• Subscribe Auto-Enable Mods mod.
• Enable it.

Subscribe and enable its assets

• Go in to Content Manager > Savegames
• Find the savegame and click Subscribe All
• Wait for like 5 years or something

Note that if there's a huge number of assets, it's unlikely they'll all get subscribed in one go (there seems to be something like 2.5k limit to how many it will do at once) - so you'll likely need several attempts to get all the assets downloaded.

Disable useless mods

The mod auto enabler should automatically enable any mods that get subscribed in the previous step.

From a testing perspective, some will not be required (disable them to reduce load time):

• Aesthetic / eye candy mods
• Radio stations / sound effects

You should also ask the player what mods they had enabled. The issue here is that their savegame tracks all mods that were subscribed, not the mods that were enabled. They might have a bunch of disabled mods that would conflict with their enabled mods.

Loading Screen Mod

• Subscribe Loading Screen Mod
• Enable it
• Set its options:
  • Disable Load enabled assets
  • Enable Load used assets
  • Optional: Enable Save assets report

This helps minimise the number of assets that get processed when loading the save.

Page file

It is strongly recommended to have manually defined page file with following settings:

• Minimum size: 1 x RAM
• Maximum size: 2 x RAM

Sometimes you will need even bigger page file for the largest saves.

Endure save game testing

Load the save game and see what happens. If it fails, you'll have to wade through your log file (I suggest creating a shortcut link to the file so you can easily open it from your desktop).

There's no easy way to deal with the issues that crop up, you just have to keep trying different things until it works.

Reverting back

Just repeat the entire process only this time with your own "RESTORE" savegame.

Attaching debugger

If you have coding skills, you can attach a debug session to the live game and set breakpoints, etc., to see exactly what's going on under the hood. For more info see: Attaching Debugger to Cities Skylines.

Credits

Thanks to everyone who contributed ideas for this guide:

• krzychu124
• ntoff
• 1Tomber

And also HUGE thanks to the supplementary mods that help us test savegames on our main accounts!