Personally if there was a way to export just say the database framework to say a .csv file that would be great. assuming of course that items and positions of items are recorded in the db in a method this works for. It would be alot handier if I had that info and could just plug and play with it, instead of spending forever repositioning things just right when I recreate a map. That said I guess I could also just do it myself.....

The ability to export maps and costumes would also be nice for locations and characters you intend to re-use in future missions. I'd go as far as to say that, for the Foundry to be truly useful to players, such a thing is a necessity.

Inability to do so is also why I've stuck primarily with pre-done maps, even in space.

Should a wipe become necessary you will not be able to save any authored content. Additionally, we will most likely not be moving missions from Tribble to Holodeck. So, as mentioned by others, I would definitely suggest keeping copies of your story board lay outs when possible.

Thanks,

Stormshade

I would think, in theory, there might be a way to save stuff locally that would allow the editor to 're-build' the mission, without actually storing real content. In other words, something like a big XML file that had everything you selected/typed.

There are a few reasons why client-side saving isn't implemented yet. Security and exploiting are part of them.

Pish posh! CoX allows people to save locally!

Seriously though, Mission Architect was one of the first big MMO UGC releases, and STO's UGC will be judged against it. The Foundry may have more depth, but little things like that aren't going to help the comparison.

Actually, I'll be fine with a wipe, if we get a text export tool. Not just for dialogue, mind -- a map can be reconstructed pretty simply if we can save a .csv file with "Part name, contact name, x,y.z coordinates" -- we wouldn't need to be able to reimport it. It could just be a guide for what we enter into the new version.

All that said - if it becomes necessary to wipe, please please please please give us warning before you do it, so we can go through and make our own roadmaps of this stuff. I'm going to try and keep up to date on such things for myself, but it might fall by the wayside, and I don't want to lose the mindshare because I went twelve hours without copy/pasting.

To be honest, I don't think we really need client side saving for the whole. But we do need it for sub parts, things like costumes and maps we create.

The NPC costumes shouldn't represent much of an exploit or security risk, as player costumes can already be saved and it deals with a cosmetic issue. As Cryptic adds more options to the costume designer part of the Foundry, it gets that much harder to recreate an NPC so you can use it in one mission and a follow up one. The day the Foundry went down, I was going to start part 2 of my mission, but quit when I realized I'd have to recreate 7 or 8 NPCs. And if I were doing that mission on live, it'd be even worse, as I'd toss in some additional NPCs for flavor that would also need to exist in both.

The same holds true for maps. If I design a system for a mission to take place in, one with lots of asteroids, some moons, space stations, and so on, then return to that system in another mission, it'd be a major pain to have to create the entire map again.

Basically, a way to get costumes and maps from one project to another is close to pretty much a necessity if you want people to be able to do multi-mission story arcs.

Yeah, but that's why I'm suggesting an indirect form of save rather than files the server uses directly. Essentially, just to do what a human could do manually if they had perfect memory.

I plan to "backup" my storyboards as soon as the Foundry comes back online, but you'd give us a heads up if wiping was the case, right?