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#48 Development: Switch to json format for game saves, configuration etc
We really need to make a switch to encoding all game saves, settinsg with a more "future proof" encoding.
Using a raw stream means settings changes are not backwards compatible and leads to difficult maintanece.
We should switch to a modern encoding format such as json.
Depending on performance, different parts could be kept a raw efficient encoding, such as the main map when doing saves
I also thought about that in the past but always came to the conclusion that it is not worth the effort:
* For the end-user it is only problematic when upgrading to a new Dune Legacy version. But with the current rate of new versions this seldomly happens.
* The campaign also takes only a few hours.
* Usually the changes to the save game format happen when a new member is added to one of the unit or structure classes. But handling the absense of such a field in an old save game might be non-trivial and increase the complexity.
* Save games should be too large as they have to be transfered via network when loading a network savegame. So we might want to have something like .json.gz or protocol buffers.
* As soons as something gameplay related is changed betweend Dune Legacy version, the replay of such a savegame is not possible anymore.
I thought about a much more lightweight solution: If the player tries to load a campaign savegame of an old version he is give the option to restart the mission. This is easily doable as the header contains that information right at the beginning. That way the major pain point I can see (not being able to continue with the campaign) is solved. What do you think?