Client Side Data - Preference Folders : Post Server Migration

[Leetlover]

tl;dr; version

You can:

• Copy over all files in the "<accountname>\<CharID>" folder except "IgnoreList.bin" to keep most of your GUI layout and other char related settings (most window positions and settings will still get reset to default, but at least some will be preserved).
• Copy over the entire "<accountname>\<CharID>\Chat" folder to keep your chat windows and (most of) the channel associations.
• Copy over the following files from "<accountname>\<CharID>\Containers" folder to partially keep some of your non-backpack window settings (except their position): "Bank.xml", "Inventory.xml", "ShortcutBar_x.xml" and "SpecialActions.xml". Do not copy any other files. You'll lose custom names, display and sorting settings on all backpacks.
• There is no point in copying the "<accountname>\<CharID>\DockAreas" folders since 99% of the files in it will become ineffective and there's no easy way to separate the few that won't. You'll lose the position of all regular windows, including backpacks.
• The "<accountname>\<CharID>\Browser" folder is not needed/irrelevant in this regard.

If you do the above:

• You will not lose your nanoprogram window settings (and the "internal" settings, such as sorting and display mode of a select few other windows).
• Most of your shortuctbar settings/content will remain intact except for any backpack link you've put on them.
• You will keep your keybindings.

You will not lose anything GMI related since nothing of that is stored on client side.

Thanks!

[Ophiuchus]

Nice and helpful theorypost there, cheers.

Still, I'm hoping to have clarification on apartments and their contents: will our ownership cards still link to an apartment with the contents still inside it, and would it be accessed from the same entrance as before?

I'd like to know before I embark upon the rather time-intensive task that will be to track down and strip every apartment on every character

[Honorbound]

Not sure what made you think something like that would happen. You might as well start to worry about randomly losing your items in your bank or whatever you have equipped on your chars. The only way for that to happen is if there are errors in the migration process itself and the internal links between the various things associated with your char are lost on server side.

The only reason the issues this thread is about will happen is because, for obvious reasons, the internal migration process running on the servers has no way of updating the related client side data stored on your computer to preserve the associations the same way it will update any internal associations in the character database itself with the changed IDs and other relations/links/whatever that connect the various parts of the character dataset together.

[Aiken]

As i've seen a few wondering about this, I asked for clarification.

By Vhab

"Stuff in buildings will get mailed to you.
The only catch is if you had bags with content placed (which was possible at some point but made impossible quite some time ago), the contents of a bag won't be mailed.

GMI data, pretty much all data on the server, etc is considered and transferred one way or another.

There's no harm in collecting stuff from buildings though, as it'll be less of a pain than fetching it from your mailbox probably "

[Liwa]

As i've seen a few wondering about this, I asked for clarification.

By Vhab

"Stuff in buildings will get mailed to you.
The only catch is if you had bags with content placed (which was possible at some point but made impossible quite some time ago), the contents of a bag won't be mailed.

GMI data, pretty much all data on the server, etc is considered and transferred one way or another.

There's no harm in collecting stuff from buildings though, as it'll be less of a pain than fetching it from your mailbox probably "

So you asked Vhab directly? Or, is there a post somewhere in another thread that has more details about how the migration will deal with player items and client-side data?

I was guessing there might be a /claim "stuff" similar to when the Market buildings were turned off ...

Kinnik

[Aiken]

So you asked Vhab directly? Or, is there a post somewhere in another thread that has more details about how the migration will deal with player items and client-side data?

I was guessing there might be a /claim "stuff" similar to when the Market buildings were turned off ...

Kinnik

Yes, I asked Vhab directly.

[MachSchau]

I assume that this will no longer be a problem once the merge hits. But, with the merge and new character IDs, will we no longer have to petition for a name change?

[Ophiuchus]

Thanks for getting the answers Aiken Maybe even catch you round in game post-merge

[mawu]

I had to reinstall AO from scratch this summer and was not looking forward to the task of resorting everything, making new hotbars and all that. Of course it was some work doing that for the 3-4 chars that im playing but it turned out to be a fresh start. My agent and doc benefited alot from removing all the junk that had accumulated over the years. Hotbars are newly layed out, HP bars and ncu window placed new. It feels much better than the incremental changes before. Of course I feel for all who play many chars often or have multiple accounts full of chars even. If you like me play a couple chars only dont despair. It can turn out the best thing that happened to your gui in a long time.

[adeptall]

lol 3 characters. Try having to redo 16 characters. So not looking forward to that...

[Raggy]

I'm still trying to figure out why prefs are not held server-side. My prefs folder is 40mb and that is the culmination of over 4 years worth of char data. 1,872 files, 323 folders.

Based on the estimated current population of AO which is about 1000, that's only (roughly) 40gb of data, in a world where TB storage is the norm.

[Mastablasta]

Server storage is quite a lot more expensive and restricted

[Belph]

Current population =/= every character ever made

[Mastablasta]

Quite expensive if each is just 5 mb

[sannz]

I'm still trying to figure out why prefs are not held server-side. My prefs folder is 40mb and that is the culmination of over 4 years worth of char data. 1,872 files, 323 folders.

Based on the estimated current population of AO which is about 1000, that's only (roughly) 40gb of data, in a world where TB storage is the norm.

Because while TB are "cheap" even when talking about SANs, IO load is not. And server stored prefs would be exactly that. IO load intensive. Don't consider client-side cacheing either. Concealment & perception have shown how far client-stored data can be trusted.

[adeptall]

I'm still trying to figure out why prefs are not held server-side. My prefs folder is 40mb and that is the culmination of over 4 years worth of char data. 1,872 files, 323 folders.

Based on the estimated current population of AO which is about 1000, that's only (roughly) 40gb of data, in a world where TB storage is the norm.

40mb do you even have 1 account full? My prefs folder is 136mb including 1 froob account of banks with minimal stuff (windows tweaking and whatnot that uses prefs space). I know of people with far more then me.

[oegaboega]

8 accounts
428mb
i doubt thats a good idea to keep server side. )

[Taymo]

Prefs are not very large. ~1MB per char should be the maximum, even with a full bank of backpacks. So in sum ~10MB per account with 8 slots should be enough.

Have you ever looked inside the prefs folder? There are only some XMLs and text files.

Everyone claiming their prefs are large, you guys keep the chat logs, those are blowing up your prefs. Delete them and your prefs for a char should drop below 1MB.

[adeptall]

Oh ok. Is there a way to wipe the chat logs without going in to each and every character?

[Taymo]

Oh ok. Is there a way to wipe the chat logs without going in to each and every character?

None I could think of. I'm afraid you will have to delete the history for every char manually. (Just disabling the chatlog function will still keep the logs AFAIK)

As a sidenote: if you are keen on keeping the logs, make a zipped copy of your prefs folder then delete the logs.