Not sure if this is old news around here, but I only just found it at SubSim:



I also added this to another thread but then decided it would be nice to kind of spotlight it in its own thread.

Here's the thread where I found it:

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?p=436405&posted=1#post436405

I'll check this tonight to see if maybe my beer and Jim Beam are not to blame for the other night when my career disappeared.

Thanks, Nightcrawler. I'm really hoping that this works because it's alot more reassuring to know that you never really lost your saved game/career. The other work-arounds help you avoid it if it happens again, this one should help you to recover one that appears to be gone.

Your Welcome, I just saw a post concerning this just recently as a matter of fact.

Well, I'm sure this will help somebody who wasn't inebriated like I was. I checked last night and I didn't even have that file in my career folder. Apparently I really screwed the pooch. That's okay, though. I've started backing up my entire SH3 (in My Documents) folder.

I posted this a few times, and for me it works!!

When you want to save, enter your save " convoy' , Hvy cargo" or whatever and then RETURN to the game for a short time and then SAVE a "THRASH SAVE" like XXXX to exit the game.

When you want to return to the game start the game save ABOVE the trash save of XXXX and in ALL OF MY RESTARTS it WORKS!!!

All of my flight sims are gathering dust since I found this game!

CW3SF

CW3SF, I'm using your method along with keeping the SH3 folder backed up. Can't hurt.

I don't know if this is the same problem or not, let me explain. I am into 1940, got moved to Brest. My latest mission is way up to the north west of Scotland; I get up there and do my allotted 24hrs, not much action.

I then get a radio message there is a large convoy close by, to the south. I head off and make contact with it. I am making loads of saves, usually on the surface, usually just after anything important happens, or I sink some old barge, so there are like 10 saves all with different names for this one mission, never mind this career.

I do this because I am new to the game, and if I screw up I want to try again and see if I can do it better. I am so absorbed in this process, I haven't installed any mods yet, so I have a ton of goodies to look forward to!

Anyway, the first time I get in amongst the convoy, I get 4 fish off, sink one or two, miss one, damage another, but the escorts pick me up and blow me away.

I go back to a good save point, and try again, and it is better, I get the 4 fish off, but get out of dodge, reload, and find the convoy again, so I save at this point. There are still 10 or 12 saves for this one mission under my career.

This morning when I come back to it, there is absolutely nothing in the saved career folder, totally blank. I look in my documents, and there are no files with the names I gave them. Is this the same problem, or something else?

It's hard to say what causes the weirdness sometimes, but I'd back up the SH3 folder that resides in the My Documents section. Make it a regular thing after every SH3 session . . . BUT, before backing up be sure to check that you aren't backing up a freshly screwed-up SH3 folder. Make sure everything is there and not the way you recently discovered it.

Also, it wouldn't hurt to cull the saves. When you have gotten along pretty far, go to the saves you know you aren't likely to go back to and delete them. Do this from within the game. Having massive amounts of saves can cause weirdness, too . . . can't remember where I read that but I have been regularly deleting my back-log of saves just in case.

I think if some old pilots and U Boat men could see this post they would be cracking up.