I found out I totally messed up with my above explanation after verifying! I wrote it from memory, but I admittedly made some mistakes.
Each save does indeed come in paired files, both the auto save and the ‘forced’ save for each slot. This makes the amount of save files total 4. Slot 1 auto-save would be mf_save.hg and save.hg, with the ‘forced’ save being mf_save2.hg and save2.hg. For Slot 2 the auto-save would be mf_save3.hg and save3.hg, with the ‘forced’ save files being mf_save4.hg and save4.hg. And so on for the other slots. All pre-1.38 save files used storage(x).hg and mf_storage(x).hg respectively.
After messing with it, I found out that replacing files for a newly created slot simply does not work. Apparently the actual slot for the save-game is included in the save files. I tried various ways to try get it to work to no avail. Apparently this method only works for backups made, using the same slot.
However, I did find a solution! There is this neat command line tool that can do the trick. I have to credit Matthew Humphrey for this, see the link below:
Note:
- Make sure to backup your save-game folder first, just in case!
- Use parenthesis for paths containing spaces, or just to make sure.
- This tool can directly work from the save games folder to duplicate a save to a new slot.
- This tool uses the latest save for a slot.
- For pre-1.38, another download is available. Make sure which to use/download!
I will shortly explain the steps:
- Download and extract to preferred location (1.38, latest beta)
- Open Command Prompt with admin rights
- Navigate to the tool location you extracted it to in the Command Prompt.
(Alternatively add the program folder to the System PATH variable.) - Use ‘decrypt’ for the backed-up save files and specify which slot to decrypt from them:
nmssavetool decrypt "<path to backed-up files>" -g <slot> -f "<path to save location>\<filename>.json"
Example:
nmssavetool decrypt "C:\NMS Backups" -g 1 -f "C:\NMS Backups\Decrypted JSON\backup.json"
Result: You now have a decrypted json file for the slot 1 save from your backups at the specified location. - Now ‘encrypt’ the above created json file to the actual game save folder to occupy an empty slot or overwrite an existing slot.
nmssavetool encrypt -g <slot> -f "<path to created json file>\<filename>.json"
Example to write to slot 5:
nmssavetool encrypt -g 5 -f "C:\NMS Backups\Decrypted JSON\backup.json"
Result:
Your save game folder now has your backed up save as slot 5 (mf_save10.hg).
Now when you run NMS, you will have your backed-up file in slot 5. I tested it and it appears to work flawlessly for me. In case the tool does not find your save-games location, you can specify the path right after the ‘encrypt’ part before the further options/parameters and json file location.
Note:
- Make sure to check the documentation at GitHub for other options or further details as it can do quite a bit more than just duplicating saves into another slot.
- Made edits to my initial reply as it was incorrect, flawed, and will not work!
My sincere apologies @johnnycloud, let me know if you tried the above and if it works for you!