The testing performed last week was unable to produce a server crash using a new, blank database. After further considering the benefits vs the drawbacks of starting over with the furniture database, and after all the work I and others have put into trying to resolve this, I've decided to proceed as planned and remove the furniture database at some point in the not-distant future.
To facilitate this, here is the plan:
1. First, I want to mention you can easily pickup all furniture from your home through an option you have when working with the exterior entrance to your building. I will also remove Vault storage limitations for PCs who will end up with more just a couple dozen pieces of furniture that they need to pickup from their houses. That way you can pickup all furniture from your affected PC's building, and put it in storage until the deadline has passed and the database has been deleted. You will need to PM or e-mail me the exact spelling of the PC(s) name you have with a player-owned building who will need this storage exception.
I do want to mention though that there is a 25-page limit to any chest inventory (a NWN limitation). If you put in more than 25 pages of stuff into a storage vault, you're likely going to lose some of it, and I'd recommend not going much above 20 pages, just in case. So it's still possible that if you have hundreds of furniture objects in your building you'll need to carry some on your PC or find non-vault storage for them elsewhere. If it comes to that, use the vault storage for your heavy furniture and keep the light stuff on you or on your pack slave, horse saddlebags, etc.
2. In addition, I will place a Vault container right outside your affected PC's building entrance for the ~1 week or so before the database will be deleted, and then for ~1 week afterward so you can easily move stuff out of and into your house without bogging down your character too much. However, you will need to PM or e-mail me the exact area and location of your building entrance. A screenshot of your building entrance in relation to other buildings around it will help with this.
3. As an "I'm sorry for all the hours of decorating this will cause you", I am also going to remove the fee associated with redesigning the interior of any player house. So if you decide you want a new building since you're going to have to redecorate it entirely, you'll be able to cycle through and look at all the interior options for your building type, then choose a different interior, at no charge, if you find one you like. Note that if you choose a different interior, any interior lock improvements for your property will be lost though...
To try and prevent any furniture database crash from occurring for another 8+ years, there are going to be some changes to how furniture and player housing is handled that everyone should be aware of:
1. First, due to the results of testing and my own concerns about the lag a heavily-decorated areas can cause, player house interiors will have a limit of 325 furniture objects that can be placed in them once the new database is in place
2. In the past, area furniture remained in the database even after a house was repossessed due to late taxes (typically because a players leaves or is inactive for a long period of time). This has caused the database to bloat as some of these buildings have never been claimed again (in literal real-time years), yet the furniture for them remains. So when moving forward if a house is lost due to late taxes, or if claim to it is relinquished, furniture within it will be immediately removed from the database.
Before I set a timeline for getting stuff out of your houses, I'll leave this open for questions anyone might have, or if I need to provide further clarification on the plan leading up to, and after, the removal of the furniture database for player housing.
To facilitate this, here is the plan:
1. First, I want to mention you can easily pickup all furniture from your home through an option you have when working with the exterior entrance to your building. I will also remove Vault storage limitations for PCs who will end up with more just a couple dozen pieces of furniture that they need to pickup from their houses. That way you can pickup all furniture from your affected PC's building, and put it in storage until the deadline has passed and the database has been deleted. You will need to PM or e-mail me the exact spelling of the PC(s) name you have with a player-owned building who will need this storage exception.
I do want to mention though that there is a 25-page limit to any chest inventory (a NWN limitation). If you put in more than 25 pages of stuff into a storage vault, you're likely going to lose some of it, and I'd recommend not going much above 20 pages, just in case. So it's still possible that if you have hundreds of furniture objects in your building you'll need to carry some on your PC or find non-vault storage for them elsewhere. If it comes to that, use the vault storage for your heavy furniture and keep the light stuff on you or on your pack slave, horse saddlebags, etc.
2. In addition, I will place a Vault container right outside your affected PC's building entrance for the ~1 week or so before the database will be deleted, and then for ~1 week afterward so you can easily move stuff out of and into your house without bogging down your character too much. However, you will need to PM or e-mail me the exact area and location of your building entrance. A screenshot of your building entrance in relation to other buildings around it will help with this.
3. As an "I'm sorry for all the hours of decorating this will cause you", I am also going to remove the fee associated with redesigning the interior of any player house. So if you decide you want a new building since you're going to have to redecorate it entirely, you'll be able to cycle through and look at all the interior options for your building type, then choose a different interior, at no charge, if you find one you like. Note that if you choose a different interior, any interior lock improvements for your property will be lost though...
To try and prevent any furniture database crash from occurring for another 8+ years, there are going to be some changes to how furniture and player housing is handled that everyone should be aware of:
1. First, due to the results of testing and my own concerns about the lag a heavily-decorated areas can cause, player house interiors will have a limit of 325 furniture objects that can be placed in them once the new database is in place
2. In the past, area furniture remained in the database even after a house was repossessed due to late taxes (typically because a players leaves or is inactive for a long period of time). This has caused the database to bloat as some of these buildings have never been claimed again (in literal real-time years), yet the furniture for them remains. So when moving forward if a house is lost due to late taxes, or if claim to it is relinquished, furniture within it will be immediately removed from the database.
Before I set a timeline for getting stuff out of your houses, I'll leave this open for questions anyone might have, or if I need to provide further clarification on the plan leading up to, and after, the removal of the furniture database for player housing.