Load/Save as text

[FluffyDog]

If you could save/load files into text, you could create scenarios to load with external programs, that would be useful for leagues for some games that take a bit of time to set up.

[Flint1b]

There are plans for changing the buildfile/save/log format to JSON. There are some issues with that though, the current format helps obscuring necessary parts of the game, like hidden units or the opponents passwords. Either way, do not expect the JSON format before at least 3.6, probably even later.

[FluffyDog]

Thx, I understand there are many reasons for the current format, what I suggest is an alternative (mostly for the pre-game that do not involve hidden stuff on the games I know at least) not replacing

[marktb1961]

Slightly at a tangent, is there any chance that the plans for the buildfile/save/log format (especially the log file) will result in smaller file sizes ?

By the way, the recent performance improvement on save files was incredible by the way. For the large save files that I am generating in my current development (1Mb+), save times went from several seconds to barely any difference when compared to minuscule save files.

[Flint1b]

There is a "text export light" function already, when editing a module you can add a thing called "Text Saver" to a map, it's a button in the toolbar that allows to export board state to a plain text file.

[Flint1b]

Slightly at a tangent, is there any chance that the plans for the buildfile/save/log format (especially the log file) will result in smaller file sizes ?

Possibly, but hard to tell right now. On modern computers and with modern networks file size shouldn't be an issue, what's more important is the performance.