Please Implement Auto-Reclaim on Disconnect (90% success, 10% failure)

[Sibyll]

Technically speaking one of the biggest goals and points from the 1.0 to 2.0 transition was building better faster clients and servers which were lighter with better capacity. Technically speaking such a feature does require some bandwidth/state. The bigger problem is its a fairly significant investment of development time, debug, testing and polish. Which is why I don't think we'll see such an "advanced" feature ;-/

That's the thing. I don't get why it'd be "advanced". I won't say I know all the details of coding or infrastructure, but I'd imagine the data needed to be saved for a crafting synth would be a few lines of values. I mean when I get booted off the server I don't log in with my character completely naked, so I think it's safe to say that the game at least remembers what gear you have equipped. Are you really telling me that remembering all this shit ALL the time is some how trivial bandwidth but remembering a few numbers on a craft will explode the servers?

[Alahra]

Are you really telling me that remembering all this shit ALL the time is some how trivial bandwidth but remembering a few numbers on a craft will explode the servers?

Not explode them no, but slow them down. Remembering that information for *one* character isn't that big of a deal, but for hundreds at a time? Similar issues crop up over inventory expansions (which was a big issue for FFXI over the past several years). It may not seem like much but all that information has to constantly be updated with the server, and every function they add that does so increases server load. They're already concerned about server load for other things from what I understand, so anything that adds to it is going to have to be a major concern for them to address it, I think.

[dspguy]

In a similar thread that was discussing Reclaim and why the server can't just "save the state" of your craft: part of the issue would be volume of data tracked when players only really care about losing a synth due to DC for stuff like:

1. 60 2-star recipes.
2. Maybe primal ex weapons (mog weapons)
3. Some furniture
4. Maybe some 1-star stuff like Thavnarian gear

They could "trigger" the server to save the state of that one craft when you talk to an NPC. It tracks just that one craft. Not every player on the server. I don't think that could be abused.

[MeridaQ]

Either way some kind of system is needed to be added to not lose red scrip and other very pricey crafts. This is the thing that terrifies me the most in game and has made me very hesitant to craft the new stuff. ;-;

[Sibyll]

Not explode them no, but slow them down. Remembering that information for *one* character isn't that big of a deal, but for hundreds at a time? Similar issues crop up over inventory expansions (which was a big issue for FFXI over the past several years). It may not seem like much but all that information has to constantly be updated with the server, and every function they add that does so increases server load. They're already concerned about server load for other things from what I understand, so anything that adds to it is going to have to be a major concern for them to address it, I think.

Then add/improve servers? The number of QoL features this game lacks due to server limitations or limitations of PS3 is astounding. This is the only MMO I've played where I can't /whisper people while in an instance. It's the only MMO I've played that can't handle joining a party while crafting or interacting with an NPC. For a game that has server stability issues and frequently 90ks errors people for no apparent reason, I'd think having some type of safety net to ensure people don't get screwed over by said errors would be a priority.

Edit: Speaking of QoL, only forum I've posted on that requires me to cut/paste half of my post because of a 1000 character limit.

[Alahra]

The number of QoL features this game lacks due to server limitations or limitations of PS3 is astounding.

Neither of those is due to the PS3 unless I've been misinformed. The whispering in dungeons as far as I know was a deliberate design decision. I don't think the party joining is directly related to the PS3 either, I suspect it's just written that way for some bizarre reason (though I could be wrong about that).

I do agree they should do something about it, but they probably aren't likely to pursue the avenue of more server checks, as that would likely further contribute to the destabilization issues we already have.

[Katlyna]

Yeah I suspect the only solution we'll get is a relatively simple client solution... hence my proposal. I know what I'm proposing isn't ideal. But they aren't going to deliver ideal. But we might get a simple client solution like an auto reclaim (if reclaim could have been cast by the user). I think that seems reasonable and at least gives us something rather than nothing.

DEV Make it so!!!

[Sibyll]

snip

I was listing PS3 because whenever anything gets brought up about something not being implemented that's usually the excuse.

That aside, I still do not see why saving Quality/Progress made on a synth along with the current crafting related buffs you have active is any more cumbersome to the servers than all the saving it does for your character every time you change equipment, meld, dye swap, glamour, change zones, trade, purchase/sell items from npc vendors, kill a mob, I could go on and on.

You could make the argument you are trying to make as to why this would overload the servers about literally thousands of other shit in the game already that causes the game to remember what state your character was in. I really think people are just making up excuses for the developers for some inexplicable reason. Have the developers ever actually said this is the reason why they can't do this? If so please link an example of a developer posting about this issue.

It sounds really asinine that the servers can't handle logging less than a dozen numerical values for the status of a craft for every player on the server (an unlikely scenario give most people don't craft let alone simultaneously) when the same server clearly has to already log far more crap for the entire server population on a continual basis.

[Alahra]

Have the developers ever actually said this is the reason why they can't do this? If so please link an example of a developer posting about this issue.

Not about this specific issue, no, but they've mentioned it for others (namely inventory space, sometime within the last few live letters, as I recall--though it might have been an interview with Yoshi). If the concern applies to one concern about server communication, it would apply to others, though not perhaps to the same degree. I'm not making excuses for them so much as trying to suggest why they may not have done this already.

There are also likely technical limitations, as the game seems to reset buffs as a general rule whenever a character is disconnected from the server. Fixing that so that crafts could continue across a disconnect would mean rewriting something that's likely foundational in the code, and rewriting code is always tricky (if you ever played WoW, you might recall Paladins randomly having the ability to summon a black Kodo mount if they specc'd 3/5 in a certain talent that had nothing to do with mounts because of some other, completely unrelated, change).

Games like this are incredibly complicated batches of code and sometimes what seems like a simple solution from one perspective ends up being anything but simple in the long run. (As another example, FFXI essentially cannot go above level 99 because of fundamentals in the code that were set some 15 years ago limiting the value of character level to two digits--increasing the level cap would require a massive undertaking as a result.)

A more likely example solution is some sort of NPC that will hold/duplicate a set of mats for us for a fee for say 30 minutes. Make it have a gil cost or some other limit so it's used mainly for big synths. The NPC could hold the mats in reserve, perhaps establishing some sort of check (not unlike a quest) to see if we've actually made the item we set out to make. If the item is made, the NPC's back up items disappear. If not, up until that 30 minutes is up, we can reclaim the items if they're lost because of a disconnect. The check would also have to watch for failure, too, of course, to prevent abuse.

[Yurihyuga]

there is only one solution and it probably can't even be implemented.

when you disconnect in the middle of a craft when you login you are back on the craft with the same progress and cp basically carry on where you left off.