eytanz
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2708
Registered: 02-05-2003
IP: Logged

As I mentioned in another thread, my data was all deleted - but I had previously exported my hold. Unfortunately, while I can import and play my hold, I can no longer edit it.

I appreciate the thinking behind this - it's probably to protect people from opening other people's holds in the editor. But the result is that, if for some reason you need to import your new hold, there's no (obvious?) way to edit it anymore. In the case of my hold, for instance, I can no longer add rooms; and there's a problem in one of the rooms that I can't fix that makes the whole thing unsolvable.

____________________________
I got my avatar back! Yay!

mrimer
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

Rank Points: 5460
Registered: 02-04-2003
IP: Logged

Yes, editing privileges are linked to the hold author. A way to fix this (in the future) is to export the record for the player that made the hold as well.

In fact, I'd probably recommend anyone who's making holds during beta to do that. If their data gets corrupted, they can reinstall/recopy some blank data files and reinstall the player and their personal holds. Then the player will still be able to edit the holds they designed. (If this is not the case, let me know!)

[Edited by mrimer on 06-16-2003 at 11:05 PM]

eytanz
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2708
Registered: 02-05-2003
IP: Logged

I'm sorry, but I really don't like this. Let's say I built a hold and sent it to friends to test. A few weeks later my computer crashes and I lose all information. Normally, my friends could send it back... But now it's lost forever because the character's gone.

Also, maybe even more importantly, it prevents collaboration on holds, it prevents working on holds from multiple computers, and basically introduces a barrier towards lots of fun stuff.

My suggestion is as follows: password protection. When you create a new hold, you are prompted for a hold password. When you import a hold, you are also prompted for the password (ideally in the same import screen so people won't have to go through an additional step) - if you know it, you get edit rights.

That's the simplest, most elegant, and effective solution. If I know the hold's password, I can work on it, otherwise I cannot. As simple as that. Any software-based solution is bound to cause more problem that it's worth.

---

An to the more personal level: Is there any way I can get to edit my current hold? I accept the risk here since I was working on it in the beta, but it would be nice if there was a way (otherwise, I'll have to go manually room-by-room and recreate it, which would be a pain).

Eytan

[Edited by eytanz on 06-16-2003 at 11:17 PM]

____________________________
I got my avatar back! Yay!

ErikH2000
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2810
Registered: 02-04-2003
IP: Logged

eytanz wrote:
I'm sorry, but I really don't like this. Let's say I built a hold and sent it to friends to test. A few weeks later my computer crashes and I lose all information. Normally, my friends could send it back... But now it's lost forever because the character's gone.

Also, maybe even more importantly, it prevents collaboration on holds, it prevents working on holds from multiple computers, and basically introduces a barrier towards lots of fun stuff.

Good points brought up. I'll think about this a little.

An to the more personal level: Is there any way I can get to edit my current hold? I accept the risk here since I was working on it in the beta, but it would be nice if there was a way (otherwise, I'll have to go manually room-by-room and recreate it, which would be a pain).

If I understand you correctly, you've imported your hold successfully, but can't edit it. If you have a player settings export file, you can try importing that. Also, if you can complete your hold by playing it then you'll unlock editing privileges. This would only be possible if you could exit a staircase on each level of your hold.

Please, don't take this as "I told you so", but I think the backup installation idea I wrote about in the "For Aspiring Architects" section of the "Testers please" post would help keep things safer for you. (Doesn't help you now, I know.)

-Erik

____________________________
The Godkiller - Chapter 1 available now on Steam. It's a DROD-like puzzle adventure game.
Decent Apps - open source tools for writing and deploying privacy-focused LLM-based web apps.