CMCW save files grow all by itself - no player action...

[IMHO]

I started an NTC 1982 training in the desert campaign. I went to the first mission and saved it before doing anything - got 4.77Mb file. Now if load this save and re-save it again without doing anything - I instantly got 51.8Mb file. Again there were no actions on my side. For the last tests I didn't even change the camera angle - just loaded and re-saved immediately. Anyone seen this?

UPD After some more testing. So the small files are generated when I do game-suggested save after finishing one mission and before loading the next one in the campaign tree. So it seems this save just contains unit status and (probably) previous map that is rather small for the first mission in this NTC campaign that is just selection of the path you want to follow in the campaign. Only big saves seem to be proper saves with the new map. Yet 52 Mb for the initial position of a handful of units and not so big a map of barren desert looks... extravagant

Edited November 16, 2021 by IMHO

[ASL Veteran]

the game calculates the LOS from every action square to every action square and the file probably gets large after it's done that.

[domfluff]

Yup, it needs to build its lookup table, and the more elevation changes a map has (especially elevation change points entered on the map), the more complex that tends to be - that's why sometimes you'll see similarly sized maps with vastly different sizes on disk.

Edited November 16, 2021 by domfluff

[IMHO]

1 hour ago, domfluff said:

Yup, it needs to build its lookup table

Does it still rebuild it each time it loads a save?

Edited November 16, 2021 by IMHO

[domfluff]

I don't believe so, but what you're describing - "saved it before doing anything" and "52 Mb for the initial position of a handful of units and not so big a map of barren desert" sounds an awful lot like that, at least without having access to the files, debug tools, etc.