Alt Saves 💾

This mod allows you to use an alternate save file for your playthrough when enabled.

A word of warning: this mod has been tested as far as I can but mod loaders use wildly different approaches and timings for loading DLLs. Make sure to back up your save games because if this mod loads too late it might start writing to your vanilla save file first.

This mod has been extensively tested with ModEngine2. And somewhat with TechieW's Elden Mod Loader.

How do I back up my save files?

You can find your save files in the folder %appdata%/EldenRing/<steam ID>. Making a copy of that folder should suffice.

Why do I want this?

Maybe you're a user with multiple mods and want to simplify the process of going back to vanilla online for a few. (afaik this currently requires swapping out save files manually or just playing modded with seamless coop). Or maybe you're a mod developer, and you want your overhaul mod to use a different extension so people don't accidentally load save files that are affected by other mods.

Scenarios:

I am a player and have a set of mods that I don't want to touch my vanilla save file.

Place the DLL in your modengine2 folder or any other folder, then load the DLL modengine2 using the following configuration options:

config_eldenring.toml:

# ...
external_dlls = ["eldenring_alt_saves.dll", "some_other_mod.dll"]
# ...

If you've chosen a path outside your modengine2 directory make sure to put in the appropriate path to the DLL.

This will make the DLL assume extension .mod as opposed to .sl2 for your vanilla saves, for seamless coop it will use .mod.co2 instead of .co2.

I am a mod developer and want my mod to use a different save location

Place the DLL in your mod folder, then load the DLL modengine2 using the following configuration options: config_eldenring.toml:

# ...
external_dlls = ["mod\\eldenring_alt_saves.dll", "mod\\some_other_dlls.dll"]
# ...

Now read the configuration section as you'll most likely want to configure the extension used in your position.

Configuration

Sometimes you have multiple sets of mods, or you're developing a mod that should use a different save file by default. Either way you need to tweak the extension(s).

This is achieved by supplying a non-mandatory config file for the altsaves DLL. You'll need to create a config file called altsaves.toml. The contents should look like this:

# Extension you want to use for the save files
extension = ".my-extension-goes-here"

# Extension you want use for the save files while playing with seamless coop enabled.
seamless_extension = ".my-extension-goes-here.co2"

If you are setting up this mod for yourself and you are using the config, make sure to specify an alternative seamless coop extension. Not doing so will make modded seamless and modded non-seamless play-throughs use the same file.

The altsaves.toml can be put in the game directory immediately (recommended approach for users with manually managed sets of mods) or the modengine2 mod folder itself (allows mod developers to determine the save file extensions).

Configuration file priority

The configuration file loading piggybacks off of modengine2 when possible. This means that the priority is determined by the order of mods in modengine2's configuration. However, it is possible to override a mod-supplied altsaves.toml file from the game directory itself. In the case of other mod loaders it will only read from the game directory.

How does it work?

It hooks whatever is responsible for reading from and writing to your save files intercepting the file extension that is used.

Credit

• Churchguard for original (now rewritten) approach to changing the extension
• Sfix for helping me figure out why ME2 didn't catch and rewrite the config file load
• Philiquaz and Shion for sitting through my rants while debugging why the OG impl didn't work for them