Architect Archive
Thread: Housing/Item Storage: Just an idea I had, bump if you think its worthwhile
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SkiMask
Wed Sep 21, 2005 2:16 am
#28
This i believe is proabably the best sollution to an on going issue. I myself have a large house, small house, guild hall and 3 factories. however of all taht only my large house is decorated. the others are used only for starge and contain rows of backpacks as the only decoration. seems to me a waste of space on the country side and wish i could put everything in one house. my large house.
many ppl have asked for an increase on storage capacity on all houses but i feel this is not the way to go due to the fact that more storage room meand more items being stored on that server wich can only result in more disk storage space being needed server side and possibly more lag on the server.
This idea however would be a better alternative as it will allow the same amount of storage, but gives the ability to store it all under one roof.
Very good idea and would like to see this on the develpment table.
FaustJG
Wed Sep 21, 2005 4:21 pm
#29
BRILLIANT!
PLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
PLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
RynnnDraggon
Thu Sep 22, 2005 9:26 pm
#30
Ninyania wrote:
So, I was thinking (like that doesn't get me in trouble most of the time!)
I love the style of the Naboo medium house, but lets face it - 200 items just is NOT enough to decorate it properly. Sure, I could go to a Naboo large, but I hate the layout, and realistically, 400 items doesn't do IT justice either. I'm a self-acknowledged pack-rat, to be true.
I need more space. Period, end of statement. Sure, I've got 10 lots, and I could toss down 10 Naboo small round houses to store everything in, but that completely misses the point - I want ONE house, one home, decorated to the hilt. Having 10 houses, just to store loot, isn't my goal.
So, what if the devs did something like this:
Naboo small round - 1 lot - 100 items
Other small houses - 2 lots - 200 items
Mediums -2 lots - 200 items
Larges - 4 lots - 400 items
PA Hall - 4 lots - 400 items
Ok, that's what it is now, more or less - but here's the kicker. Give us an option on the structure management terminal to INCREASE the lot count (up to your maximum remaining available lots) and get an additional 100 items of item storage per lot space allocated to the structure. Sure, increase the maintenance fee appropriately - maybe 15cr/hour per lot space allocated, just as if you had multiple houses dropped on the same spot.
The people could pick the style of house that they like the best, and decorate it to their heart's content. And maybe then people wouldn't have so many storage factories scattered around the countryside - you could consolidate everything you own down to 1 structure if you so choose.
Then, if in the future, SOE wants to give us a gift and up the item limits, all they have to do is increase the "items per lot" instead of touching every house style. The same could be done for POB ships. Heck, I'd gladly burn all 10 lots to have one nicely decorated house and a tricked-out Decimator!!
Thoughts?
I'll Bump it, but this idea has been offered up to the devs way back in launch...I doubt they are going to go for it, since they have already said that to much storage in one house and to many lots will "Lagg" the servers.
Thanks for Reviving the Idea though. 
Message Edited by RynnnDraggon on 09-22-2005 09:28 PM
annasimone
Fri Sep 23, 2005 5:31 am
#31
huh... that was one good idea, emagine noone thought about that before
/bumpy
Mykol Burkel Imperial Spyl
Servent of the Empire
Shakalabah
Mon Sep 26, 2005 12:40 am
#33
Fababulously, absoludicrously GREAT IDEA!
Though let me add my 2 pence worth to it.
This idea has much merit, much indeed. However,I have read a post stating that this idea has already been discussed and has not been "toyed with" due to the server lag that would be generated by too many items beings sent to the client.
I believe that if there was less housing in a town, the end result would be less traffic being sent to the client (the software running on the player's system). The client doesn'treceive an Item count and list from a house unless the client is actually entering a home. To further reduce the total traffic generated (and server processing) between the client and the server, the client should hold a repository or list (a database, if you wish) of all the houses recently visited. This database would cache the items in every house. Houses in the cached database would expire in time as to not pollute the database and overwhelm the client.
House caching system:
Each item in the house would have a globally unique identifier (to uniquely identify the item, which I will refer to as GUID) and an update sequence number (a number that increments anytime an attribute of an object changes... such as its position in the home, condition, enhancements applied, whatever... I will also refer to this as USN). The house itself would have a GUID and an USN. If the contents/attributes of items inthe house change, then the USN of the item itself changes, as well as the house USN. I understand that some elements are so dynamic that they would be void from the house caching system and this information would always be sent to the client (home status as it may be condemned and cannot be entered).
When a playerenters a home, the server and client both validate whether this home has recently been visited (Does the client hold a GUID for this house?). A check is done on the time/date stamp of the client's cached home information to make sure that "recent" means within the last few months... anything older might require a full transfer of the item detailswithin a home. Don't forget that we don't want a tonne of old garbage in the client cache.
Here area few things that make this system a bit challenging to code (though there are never any problems, only solutions...)
Problem 1: Update sequences can happen so frequently that the number on the server might reach its upper limit and start back at 0 again. This is known as a wrap. For example, assume the devs use a 32 bit number (this gives 0 as the smallest number and 4294967295 as the highest number a 32 bit number can reach): Let's say on Monday, Shakalabah (the fierce wookiee from Sunrunner) visits Lady Isajaok Arees' manor, and that the server and client are both synchronized (synchronizations are done when you visit a home) witha House USN of 4294967000. Ifby Tuesday,400 hundred changes occur within Isajaok's home (as she is moving things around, decorating, putting up more trophies from her hunts, etc...), the next time Shakalabah visits Isajaok's home, Shakalabah's known USN will still be 4294967000 and the Server will have an updated house USN for Isajaok's home that would have wrapped over the 4294967295 limit back to a new value of 104. The system should recognize the recent Serverhouse USN wrap and continue to synchronize only the difference (new changes in the home) between the client and server. This resolves Problem 1.
Problem 2: It is also possible that a wrap occurs, but the server's house USN stillappears to be greater than the client's house USN. For example: Shakalabah visits her friend Isajaok.The Server fully sychronizes Shaka's client system with an assumed house USN of 2512 on September 30th, 2004. Then sadly Shaka is infected with a debilitating foot disease and cannot visit her friend for a year. Meanwhile, Isajaok (the busy bee she is) is hard at work, adding all sorts of new funiture, moving items around and thus sharpening her skills as an interior decorator. The server is constantly updating the changesto Isajaok's home and by Sept 25th, 2005 the house USN wraps and increments to 2635.When Shaka returns to good health and finally visits Isajaok, a comparison of the house USNs would suggest that few changes have occured since the last visit. A check on the time/date stamp would clearly show that Shaka's client information on Isajaok's house has clearly exceed it's time to live (how long information should be good for) and should be deleted from the local cache so that a full synchronization can occur. That solves stale information issuesand Problem 2.
So essentially, the process of reducing server lag of tranferring large item based home informationwould work like this:
1.Check existance of house GUID in client local database
- if no GUID is found:
- then we pull all the information from the Server (full Synchronization)
- else, continue processing the cache request
2.Verify and compare House USN and time date stamp on client and server
- if the same, loadhouse items details from the client database (no updating required)
-else, continue processingfor a partial/full synchronization
3.Verify if datain client database is stale (expired)
- if expired, perform a full synchronization
- else, continue processing for partial synchronization
4. Get list of all items on Server and compare them to the client's copy
(comparison includes new items, deleted items anditems with changed attributes. We are looking for new/deleted GUIDS and updated item USNs on the server. From this, we can build a list of things that needs to be sent to the client to synchronize it **this is a compressed list, there's no need to send all the data to compare GUIDS and USNs**)
5. Synchronize client with only the data representing the changes to the house contents as oppose to everything (which I suspect is happening right now 'cause everytime I go into my own home, I have to wait to pull down its contents... bleh)
And thus your IDEA is awesome if implemented with better traffic management logic. (SOE logic... oxymoron anyone?)
As ever,
Shakalabah
So, I was thinking (like that doesn't get me in trouble most of the time!)
I love the style of the Naboo medium house, but lets face it - 200 items just is NOT enough to decorate it properly. Sure, I could go to a Naboo large, but I hate the layout, and realistically, 400 items doesn't do IT justice either. I'm a self-acknowledged pack-rat, to be true.
I need more space. Period, end of statement. Sure, I've got 10 lots, and I could toss down 10 Naboo small round houses to store everything in, but that completely misses the point - I want ONE house, one home, decorated to the hilt. Having 10 houses, just to store loot, isn't my goal.
So, what if the devs did something like this:
Naboo small round - 1 lot - 100 items
Other small houses - 2 lots - 200 items
Mediums -2 lots - 200 items
Larges - 4 lots - 400 items
PA Hall - 4 lots - 400 items
Ok, that's what it is now, more or less - but here's the kicker. Give us an option on the structure management terminal to INCREASE the lot count (up to your maximum remaining available lots) and get an additional 100 items of item storage per lot space allocated to the structure. Sure, increase the maintenance fee appropriately - maybe 15cr/hour per lot space allocated, just as if you had multiple houses dropped on the same spot.
The people could pick the style of house that they like the best, and decorate it to their heart's content. And maybe then people wouldn't have so many storage factories scattered around the countryside - you could consolidate everything you own down to 1 structure if you so choose.
Then, if in the future, SOE wants to give us a gift and up the item limits, all they have to do is increase the "items per lot" instead of touching every house style. The same could be done for POB ships. Heck, I'd gladly burn all 10 lots to have one nicely decorated house and a tricked-out Decimator!!
Thoughts?
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