Question: Online savefiles ?

[darkgod]

The good:
Now that I have instant saves, I can probably have them followed by a network upload to an online server so that even if you loose your local saves, switch computers, play on more than one, .. you could still access your savefiles.
This would work for all modules obviously.

The bad:
Savefiles are big, they would require a good internet connection, saves while playing (like the zones) would be relatively painless as they would happen in the background and not disrupt playing, but save on exit would take longer, as it would upload the main savefile.
Also this would probably not use te4.org to store the actual savefiles, but something like amazon S3 (because the server drive is quite not big). This comes at a cost though so it would probably be only available to "premium" accounts or somesuch.

So, thoughts ?

[edge2054]

I wouldn't personally because I only play on my home PC.

On that note though could Tome be ported to handheld devices? I've seen posts of people playing DF on Iphones and the like. Something like this would probably go over really well with that crowd. Play the game on your home PC when you're at home, play it on your Iphone or Android when you're on the go.

Just a thought.

[darkgod]

Well iPhone is kinda excluded as I loathe apple, their overpriced devices, their lock-in and their awefull objective-c
Android maybe, most of the game is in lua so it would need just the C core to be ported, but that's not in the immediate possibilities. But at least it's possible

[yufra]

I also only play on one computer, so this wouldn't be terribly important for me.

[Gwai]

This might make me start playing from more than one computer, if implemented.

[Elliott]

I play on two computers and JUST got a droid, so I'm a big fan (and would conceivably be an even bigger fan if a Droid version were created one day).

[Feanor.81]

Why bother even when playing on more than one pc? I could just copy save files on a flash drive to port them.
I think that uploading dead and alive character dumps would be just enough.

[Patryn]

I agree with Feanor here. IMHO there is no real need for that - at least not compared to the trouble to set things up (implementing an upstream, organizing webspace/cloud, micropayment procedures, what happens when you cancel your premium account? -> save deleted? Backup offline if you want to take a tome-break and thus cancel the premium?).
Lots of things that have to be clarified - not to mention possible legal issues you may encounter as soon as ppl pay for the service/game... Honestly, if I were you I would avoid opening this pandorian box by all means...

Instead of an other and more usercentered approach can be taken:

-- Make the path where the profiles/savegames are stored choosable.

This will enable 2 possible approaches to manage savegames on multiple machines.

1. Saving on an external device (eg an USB stick). Plug your stick into the machine you want to play on and if the paths are set correctly the savegames will be availible instantly and sync atomatically (without manually copying the files).

2. Setting the path to an internet adress instead of a local one.
e.g: ftp://hoster.com/~user/tome4/
This way people with their own webspace will be able to save their savegames there the same way you proposed but you don't have to worry about the webspace/financing and they have full control over the savegames.

[j-rod]

That latter option is a really good one, actually. Many people have access to their own cloud space, wherever that may be. The USB path would be nice too, both of those alleviate the need of DG shouldering the burden of the online management. I personally play from a few machines and it would be nice to have those options at least available.

[Feanor.81]

I agree too, Patryn's suggestions to handle game profile sharing between pcs probably are the best (and almost effortless) options.

[Fela]

Why are the savefiles so bulky anyway?

I haven't unraveled them completely yet, but when I checked them out, there was a LOT of redundant information in there.
Like lots of details (including description) of items or monsters where an item ID should be enough and only variable field values saved?

[darkgod]

But it would not be enough

Entities are dynamic, I can change any properties on the fly (which is what allows to do well .. everything you see), but then how do I know I need to save that and that property and load the others from an id ? This would slow down development by like 10 times.

Also entities are zone-bound, some just do not exist in all zones (like bosses&their drops) so you just cant refer to an id.

What I'm saying is that this is inherent to the very core idea of the engine, that everything is fully dynamic.
I knew from the start savefiles would be bigger than most RL, and well I do not care much in 2010 because of all the nice things it allows (like module makers not worrying at all about savefiles, they just work)