Saving housing designs, is it possible?

[Gula]

Spaghetti code, 1.0, server limitations, console limitations, not enough time, please understand.

Base responses aside, what would be the possibility of a feature that allows you to save a design? If I want to change apartment locations/FCs, that design is gone. However, when you relocate, the FC room stays as is.

I would like to request this as a feature, but I'd like to hear theories on how it could work.

[Vahlnir]

I think this would be a good idea. In the mean time, what I do when I want to save the layout of a house's floor or a hotbar is I take a picture or 2 with my phone. lol

[Vidu]

I think this would be a good idea. In the mean time, what I do when I want to save the layout of a house's floor or a hotbar is I take a picture or 2 with my phone. lol

...why with your phone? Why not take a screenshot...?

Agreed, good idea - sounds like it might be complicated, though...

[Vahlnir]

...why with your phone? Why not take a screenshot...?

Agreed, good idea - sounds like it might be complicated, though...

Largely because I don't play on PC regularly. And it's easier to just bring a pic up on my phone than having to tab out on my PS4 or even on my PC when I do play there.

[Jojoya]

This is just speculation about how it might work based on what we already know about housing in general.

Since housing interiors are instanced, there must be some code in place that remembers item and layout data so everything can be loaded in the correct positions when we enter. The information code seems to be tied to the location number of the house/apartment and not our characters. It is why other players can enter our houses and apartments when we're not online and see our interiors as we have designed them.

Why don't FC private chambers get affected when a FC house is relocated? I'd guess because the rooms are assigned a location address that is tied to the FC and not the plot location of the FC house.

How then to save layouts for houses and apartments? Add a NPC that players can visit. It would copy layout data from the player's house plot or apartment to a temporary virtual space location then assign a code key to that copy. Give the key an expiration date so the NPC's database doesn't become bogged down with a huge number of layouts. The key could be saved under the player's Estate Settings similar to how our Cactpot ticket numbers get saved on our Gold Saucer menu so the player doesn't write down or remember the wrong key number. Once the player has relocated, they apply the key to restore their layout in their new house.

To prevent players from exploiting the system, only the layout data is tied to the key. For the key to work in the new location, all required furnishings would need to be in the housing unit's storage (which would automatically happen during a house relocation and the player could manually achieve if getting a new apartment). Once the expiration date is reached, the temporary layout copy is erased from the NPC and the key removed from Estate Settings (again similar to how Cactpot tickets work).

Could this work for players who are transferring worlds and getting a new house right after transfer? Maybe? Depends on whether SE could make the layout NPC database work cross world/data center. I'd say doubtful at this point in time.

Could this be used to share layout designs with other players? That depends on how housing items are treated in the code when loading the instanced data. If each housing item is assigned a unique item ID to make sure it's being placed in its specific location when the instance is loaded, it wouldn't work because the items acquired by the second player would lack the unique ID. if the code simply looks for housing item X with dye 14 applied, then possibly yes. In that case, the owner of a key could give it to another player with a detailed list of furnishings (including dyes) needed. The second player would still need to obtain everything, put it into storage dyed correctly then apply the key before it expires.