Offline only realms

[mirtos]

The LWD team was always upfront that this would not be a file based system. That it was going to be a database system. Very early on in the kickstarter, questions were asked about Dropbox, and those questions were answered right away.

[Vargr]

Personally I have never been happy about the cloud philosophy (in any computer venue).

In the cloud I don't know where the data is stored, I don't control the hardware, I don't know what laws regulate the data (the server might be in USA or Zaire, legal-wise both foreign countries for me) and other people/entities have full control of my data (is it even my data if I don't have full control of it? Possession is nine-tenths of the law as you might know).

Just because I sound paranoid, does not mean I am not right.

Yet, even with these misgivings I feel that the solution provided by RW is one I can live with.

• I need to be online only once for creating a realm.
• I don't need to store any data in the cloud (apart from an empty database and its name (which I can change locally later).
• I can make backups of the realm (database) and store that file wherever I want
• I can later take my backup and load the realm into RW again without involving the cloud (not tested yet)
• I can take the backup and transfer it to another computer (with RW installed) and load the realm (not fully tested yet).

Oddly enough, for exactly these reasons I will be using the cloud. Because I can opt out if I want to or if I go somewhere with no internet connection (which happens often enough).


For those of you who want to be cloud-free I believe you can do so - except for the initial creation of a new realm.


All things considered, I think LWD has found a very attractive solution, cartering to many needs and concerns.

[Mystic Lemur]

Originally Posted by Vargr

• I can take the backup and transfer it to another computer (with RW installed) and load the realm (not fully tested yet).

If you're doing this on a shared computer, don't forget that this replaces the database on the other computer. Make sure the other user has backed up their database before your import yours.

[rob]

Originally Posted by EightBitz

I would like to see not necessarily a realm that can never be synced to the cloud, but an option of which realms to sync, with every realm being optionally sync-able.

Mind you, I say this in ignorance of what's to come with the different tiers of cloud storage, but hypothetically, let's say I'm in a situation where my data won't all fit in my cloud. Then I can manage my space. I can make Realms A, B and C offline only, and keep only Realms X, Y and Z in the cloud. Maybe next week, I'll want Realms A, X and Y offline and realms B, C and Z in the cloud.

It's a slightly different request in that I don't want a realm that can never ever ever by synced to the cloud, but I would like to be able to manage what I keep in the cloud so I can manage my cloud storage without limiting the number of realms I can create and manage.

Does that sound more reasonable?

Moving realms in and out of the cloud is something we've mapped out, but certainly not at the level of frequency you've suggested above. Games will end and go on hiatus. GMs will prep for games that don't start for months. So GMs will need the ability to delay the start of cloud syncing if they want, which is something we already provide. GMs will also want to "archive" a realm, taking it out of the database.

This gets more complicated, since the server maintains lots of important information that is NOT brought down to the client. If we brought it down to the client for archiving by the user, then it becomes available for hacking, and we can't allow that. So we need some way to "archive" a realm out of the database and into cheaper storage, but still be maintained on the server so that it can be retrieved from the archive.

We've thought through various aspects of the problem, but we don't have a concrete solution nailed down yet. That's something we'll be looking to tackle after our biggest priorities are behind us. And it will definitely entail a meaningful amount of work to implement.

[weogarth]

One thing about a local-only realm is that you probably wouldn't get many improvements from LWD.

All those changes and tweaks they do with the structure based on our feedback would never happen.

I think that LWD has done a fine enough job making this for everyone. I also think, in spite of some rather monumental efforts to overcome it, there are still substantial misconceptions in the processes that help drive the product.

I think efforts should be made to not say 'the cloud' when referring to synching with a server for realm activation or updates because the functionality of that is radically different than contacting The Cloud to sync your realm or for your players to connect their clients.