If the game exe itself can… write and delete save files… and it is fairly common for extensive mods to just… literally replace the game exe… I don’t really see why a custom exe could not just … say, delete any saves you’e introduced back into the save directory manually, other than the last one it has remembered save/exiting with.
I can think of other methods of doing something that would achieve basicslly the same result (an enforced iron man mode) via other methods as well.
… I can think of even more ways to do this by making basically an open source (so that anyone can look at the code and verify it isn’t malicious malware) shell script/utility type thing that runs on linux, and would mod a windows game running on linux via proton, but then the problem is that windows users would not be able to use that mod.
You could probably do the same with windows bash scripts, but i am just more familiar with linux.
Like… by your logic, it is impossible to crack a game such that it runs without DRM.
This is obviously false.
… Or, am I misunderstanding you, and you are just saying the concept of an ironman mode is … just stupid in concept, and no game would ever support this natively?
Because again, that is obviously false, there are many games, of many different genres, that at least support an Ironman mode without any mods at all, and even a few that actually do enforce it all the time, though yes, admittedly, the games that enforce it all the time are usually more niche.
Like uh, HOI4 and Stellaris and No Mans Sky, just off the top of my head, all have built in, vanilla ironman modes. Oh and Xenonauts!
There are many, many games that do not support an ironman mode, even with mods… but have significant chunks of their communities dedicated to self imposing their own rule sets, either to make casual play more fun, or as conditions for a class of competetive speed run.
Nuzlocke rules for Pokemon games is basically an Ironman mode for Pokemon, tons of players will just do that even for casual play, to make the game more challenging.
Every game every with a ‘No Deaths’ rule as part of a speed run ruleset.
If the game exe itself can… write and delete save files… and it is fairly common for extensive mods to just… literally replace the game exe… I don’t really see why a custom exe could not just … say, delete any saves you’e introduced back into the save directory manually, other than the last one it has remembered save/exiting with.
I can think of other methods of doing something that would achieve basicslly the same result (an enforced iron man mode) via other methods as well.
… I can think of even more ways to do this by making basically an open source (so that anyone can look at the code and verify it isn’t malicious malware) shell script/utility type thing that runs on linux, and would mod a windows game running on linux via proton, but then the problem is that windows users would not be able to use that mod.
You could probably do the same with windows bash scripts, but i am just more familiar with linux.
Like… by your logic, it is impossible to crack a game such that it runs without DRM.
This is obviously false.
… Or, am I misunderstanding you, and you are just saying the concept of an ironman mode is … just stupid in concept, and no game would ever support this natively?
Because again, that is obviously false, there are many games, of many different genres, that at least support an Ironman mode without any mods at all, and even a few that actually do enforce it all the time, though yes, admittedly, the games that enforce it all the time are usually more niche.
Like uh, HOI4 and Stellaris and No Mans Sky, just off the top of my head, all have built in, vanilla ironman modes. Oh and Xenonauts!
There are many, many games that do not support an ironman mode, even with mods… but have significant chunks of their communities dedicated to self imposing their own rule sets, either to make casual play more fun, or as conditions for a class of competetive speed run.
Nuzlocke rules for Pokemon games is basically an Ironman mode for Pokemon, tons of players will just do that even for casual play, to make the game more challenging.
Every game every with a ‘No Deaths’ rule as part of a speed run ruleset.