Offline Foundry

steampunky

Is it possible to set up a way to enter the Foundry while offline?

I'd love to be able to tinker with campaign and story design while offline. Both during server downtimes and periods when I don't have internet access, but still have a laptop on hand with NW installed.

If not, that's totally cool. I'd just love to have it if it is an option.

-Rachel-

apocrs1980

Nope, unfortunately that is not possible all info is stored directly on Cryptic's servers.

crok2

Not at this time, but we can hope! :P

hercooles130uscg

This will probably never happen, as having all the information stored on the servers has a dual purpose.

First, As with any MMO, the game is coded to a lot of calculations done server side. The client really does not have the capability to determine combat outcomes and such without a rework of the code. This of course is done to prevent hacking and exploiting mostly.

Second, to go with the first, putting this ability on the client side opens up possible hacks and exploits. Plus, keeping the entire Foundry server side prevents you from going offline, doing some fudging with files and stuff, and forcing Cryptic to have to write in detection tools to catch cleverly re-worked files. Again, if you had an offline Foundry, everything would have to be on the client.

However, I have suggested that some sort of dialogue editor be setup, that uses pure text to transfer dialogue from a text editor, to the foundry dialogue tree, by using script based operators that signify where each paragraph should go. No files are ever uploaded to the server, the client just reads a text files, and based on these operators, knows what dialogue prompt the text should be pasted too.

What I do when I do not have internet is work on flow charts and dialogues as well as map layouts, so that when I do get to get back in the Foundry, I make up time pretty quick.

Here is an excerpt of the stuff I did before I had Foundry access

apocrs1980

hercooles130uscg wrote: »

This will probably never happen, as having all the information stored on the servers has a dual purpose.

First, As with any MMO, the game is coded to a lot of calculations done server side. The client really does not have the capability to determine combat outcomes and such without a rework of the code. This of course is done to prevent hacking and exploiting mostly.

Second, to go with the first, putting this ability on the client side opens up possible hacks and exploits. Plus, keeping the entire Foundry server side prevents you from going offline, doing some fudging with files and stuff, and forcing Cryptic to have to write in detection tools to catch cleverly re-worked files. Again, if you had an offline Foundry, everything would have to be on the client.

However, I have suggested that some sort of dialogue editor be setup, that uses pure text to transfer dialogue from a text editor, to the foundry dialogue tree, by using script based operators that signify where each paragraph should go. No files are ever uploaded to the server, the client just reads a text files, and based on these operators, knows what dialogue prompt the text should be pasted too.

What I do when I do not have internet is work on flow charts and dialogues as well as map layouts, so that when I do get to get back in the Foundry, I make up time pretty quick.

Here is an excerpt of the stuff I did before I had Foundry access

oh and the possibility of viruses oh lordy the children the viruses!

zaphtastic

I'd be in favor of offline building -- at least allow us some export/import functionality. This could allow collaboration, sharing of certain assets / lore, spellchecking, etcetera.

To be fair, the system isn't that much more secure as an online-only setup, either. If one of the text fields isn't validated properly (or if there's a bug in the protocol used to send Foundry requests to the server), it can cause a whole lot of damage even if you're just sending that data over to the server from the client (so an attacker can hack the client or modify the communication directly via a local proxy). Whether a foundry quest is just a file stored on the user's computer that's uploaded to the server (which then does various things with it), or a file stored on the server (and the user can send data to the server which will cause the server to do various things with it) doesn't significantly decrease the attack surface as long as the functionality is the same in both cases.

steampunky

I sort of had the idea that it would function like the City of Heroes Architect method, in which you have the text files saved on the player's hard drive which are basically reference points.

Oh well.

-Rachel-

tedwa

I was wondering the same thing. As I just got kicked out in the middle of my story making.