Discord
Changelog
Players with PCs who own a building(s) in this PW should read this. All others can ignore it.
In the last major push to address currently slow performance scripts, the player housing system is undergoing a major revision. Using relatively new NWNEE functionality, rather than save each component of an a player-owned building to the database (name, tag, resref, location, price, date, door lock DC, door hardness, etc, etc, etc) the *entire area* itself will be saved to a database. This "behind the scenes" change should help reduce house decorating/updating as a source of lag on the server. Not only that, it will provide some other benefits moving forward (more on that below).
Next week, all current player buildings and content within - including merchants, furniture, and door improvements, will be migrated to this new system. This migration will require some down time, but if all goes well shouldn't take more than a half hour to do and to verify various buildings appear to have migrated successfully. The current migration testing is now successfully bringing over all the main stuff (building fog/music/lighting settings, door improvements, furniture in the building, creatures like tailor models, merchants and their inventory, and so on) and buildings remain as intended after multiple subsequent resets. So I'm hopeful it will go smoothly.
But simply due to the large number of configurable "stuff" for player buildings, this migration has a high probability of breaking [something(s)] with building modification, player merchants in these buildings, and it will break persistent storage in player buildings. That is why I want to create this thread to provide a heads-up, note some changes, and provide a place for people to ask questions before/after the housing changes occur.
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Important Notes for the Migration
1. The player housing migration is currently planned for the late evening (Central time) of Friday, October 22. I'll post here again shortly before with a more specific time I plan to do this, and again after it is complete.
2. This migration will break persistent storage in player buildings. As per the Persistent Storage is Changing thread, however, I advise everyone to get items out of player-owned persistent storage ASAP. Not just because of this impending migration, but also because our current persistent storage system could break at any time if someone loses/unclaims a building (Note this problem will no longer occur when we cutover to the new persistent storage system sometime after this housing migration)
3. The creation of the building address as its unique identifier will be changed. As a result, the keys for existing player-owned buildings need to be updated. This will automatically occur for the owner only the first time he/she either enters their unlocked building, or clicks on their locked outside door.
This will be the same as if the owner chose the option to 'Change Locks' via the building's outer door and it does, unfortunately, invalidate any keys the owner may have given others. So if you've given out a lot of keys, try to get those keys back in the owner PC's possession so they can all be updated via the process described above after the migration has occurred.
4. Animated statues/guardians will no longer be indefinite guardians. Once animated, they will not reappear after a server reset. This is due to the fact that the entire area (and all furniture/creatures within it) are saved to and retrieved from the database, rather than just the individual components within it that are then individually recreated at every reset.
However, during the migration all furniture, including these animated guardians, will have their purchase dates reset. So if you're concerned about this; as long as you login within 8 hours (1 in-game day) after the migration you should be able to return any you have purchased for a full refund at the current rate. I also intend to later reduce the price of animated guardians in the furniture catalog to reflect their one-shot status. So if money is an object to you/your PC, I'd also recommend not purchasing animated guardians until their price gets reduced in the catalog sometime after this migration.
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Important Notes for After the Migration
1. Traps placed in player-owned buildings will *finally* remember who placed them, which will make them more useful for homeowners (or miscreants) who want to place them and be able to walk over/bypass them indefinitely after server resets.
2. An owner setting the persistent lock or unlock status of a door will be integrated with the radial menu Lock/Unlock button now. And now by default, or if relocked by the owner, building doors will auto-relock when opened (but will not auto-close). So doors can still be unlocked by others with the skills/abilities/spells or the building key, but if a door is typically locked, it will always auto-lock *after* being opened. Building doors will not auto-close until the server resets though.
3. Saving the area itself moves the long-desired feature enhancement to purchase building creatures like guards, innkeepers, prostitutes, pets, etc closer to reality as it will be a MUCH simpler process since it's only the creation of these creatures, and not their recreation after every server reset, that need to be figured out. While this has no ETA, keep in mind this is on the roadmap if the change to animated guardians protecting your building concerns you.
In the last major push to address currently slow performance scripts, the player housing system is undergoing a major revision. Using relatively new NWNEE functionality, rather than save each component of an a player-owned building to the database (name, tag, resref, location, price, date, door lock DC, door hardness, etc, etc, etc) the *entire area* itself will be saved to a database. This "behind the scenes" change should help reduce house decorating/updating as a source of lag on the server. Not only that, it will provide some other benefits moving forward (more on that below).
Next week, all current player buildings and content within - including merchants, furniture, and door improvements, will be migrated to this new system. This migration will require some down time, but if all goes well shouldn't take more than a half hour to do and to verify various buildings appear to have migrated successfully. The current migration testing is now successfully bringing over all the main stuff (building fog/music/lighting settings, door improvements, furniture in the building, creatures like tailor models, merchants and their inventory, and so on) and buildings remain as intended after multiple subsequent resets. So I'm hopeful it will go smoothly.
But simply due to the large number of configurable "stuff" for player buildings, this migration has a high probability of breaking [something(s)] with building modification, player merchants in these buildings, and it will break persistent storage in player buildings. That is why I want to create this thread to provide a heads-up, note some changes, and provide a place for people to ask questions before/after the housing changes occur.
----------------------------------------------------
Important Notes for the Migration
1. The player housing migration is currently planned for the late evening (Central time) of Friday, October 22. I'll post here again shortly before with a more specific time I plan to do this, and again after it is complete.
2. This migration will break persistent storage in player buildings. As per the Persistent Storage is Changing thread, however, I advise everyone to get items out of player-owned persistent storage ASAP. Not just because of this impending migration, but also because our current persistent storage system could break at any time if someone loses/unclaims a building (Note this problem will no longer occur when we cutover to the new persistent storage system sometime after this housing migration)
3. The creation of the building address as its unique identifier will be changed. As a result, the keys for existing player-owned buildings need to be updated. This will automatically occur for the owner only the first time he/she either enters their unlocked building, or clicks on their locked outside door.
This will be the same as if the owner chose the option to 'Change Locks' via the building's outer door and it does, unfortunately, invalidate any keys the owner may have given others. So if you've given out a lot of keys, try to get those keys back in the owner PC's possession so they can all be updated via the process described above after the migration has occurred.
4. Animated statues/guardians will no longer be indefinite guardians. Once animated, they will not reappear after a server reset. This is due to the fact that the entire area (and all furniture/creatures within it) are saved to and retrieved from the database, rather than just the individual components within it that are then individually recreated at every reset.
However, during the migration all furniture, including these animated guardians, will have their purchase dates reset. So if you're concerned about this; as long as you login within 8 hours (1 in-game day) after the migration you should be able to return any you have purchased for a full refund at the current rate. I also intend to later reduce the price of animated guardians in the furniture catalog to reflect their one-shot status. So if money is an object to you/your PC, I'd also recommend not purchasing animated guardians until their price gets reduced in the catalog sometime after this migration.
----------------------------------------------------
Important Notes for After the Migration
1. Traps placed in player-owned buildings will *finally* remember who placed them, which will make them more useful for homeowners (or miscreants) who want to place them and be able to walk over/bypass them indefinitely after server resets.
2. An owner setting the persistent lock or unlock status of a door will be integrated with the radial menu Lock/Unlock button now. And now by default, or if relocked by the owner, building doors will auto-relock when opened (but will not auto-close). So doors can still be unlocked by others with the skills/abilities/spells or the building key, but if a door is typically locked, it will always auto-lock *after* being opened. Building doors will not auto-close until the server resets though.
3. Saving the area itself moves the long-desired feature enhancement to purchase building creatures like guards, innkeepers, prostitutes, pets, etc closer to reality as it will be a MUCH simpler process since it's only the creation of these creatures, and not their recreation after every server reset, that need to be figured out. While this has no ETA, keep in mind this is on the roadmap if the change to animated guardians protecting your building concerns you.