Tested /layout again for kicks...its still not working correctly. I had many items go invisible way back before they disabled it and Ive waited until it was said to be fixed. I walked into my house, 5 room in Qeynos, and could visably see the chunks of missing items in that room a lone. Note: the missing items are scattered throughout the house, not just particular floors. Not all items are 'oddly' placed either. I kept the layout I had saved and I loaded it. Most of the items reappeared. Not all, I had a few gaps here and there, but most did appear. After checking around the house, I zoned out. I waited for a few seconds and then zoned back in. Once it loaded up, all of the gaps in items had returned. Its not rendering those specific items, they are 'in' the house, but not there. It really sucks because I cant trust using this layout feature at all, so I have not used it on any other house. It was a great idea with a lot of potential, but it just doesn't follow through
Yes the potential is there, and I have confidence that potential will be realised. As with any new code there are bugs. Give them time. When you get used to how they work you can avoid the disappering act of items. You just have to do a lot of workarounds at the minute. Hopefully it will get fixed. The only one I can't seem to workaround is the one item that keeps jumping back to my moving crate.. tis most odd. I have a feeling this went live cos people like me really really wanted it live so that we could work on it, as I would have to copy at least three toons to test to do my current house, and then having tested it I would have to remake all the items I would have made on test to make the house, on live. In a house where I am making 500 items or so I am not prepared to do that. Being live unfixed allows those who want to to try it out and provide feedback, and hoperfully all the issue will then be solved. ... On an entirely different note, would it be possible to have a layout file load directly on entering a house as opposed to always using the default layout template. This would solve the issue I have with items rotating, because they only rotate and dissapear into walls when I first zone in. Once I have loaded a layout file it no longer happens. Thus, could a /house option be added that allows you to use a different layout file to open on zone in? (P.s. I know it's a quick and dirty fix and doesnt really resolve the issue, but it would solve it)
I'll admit it, I was happy when they switched it back on. Now I can continue working on the houses I started a month ago. And I guess I've been lucky, as I've had no trouble at all with this feature. I dunno if this is of any use to anyone, but here's my experience with it so far: 1. I tested it in my main's house. Saved layout, packed everything into a moving crate, then loaded layout without changing anything. It appeared to work correctly then, no items missing. However - the house in question is old, decorated pre-scaling. I have no idea if that means anything. It is also located in Freeport, one of those 5-room apartments. 2. I have also used the layout feature on two brand new projects, and have had no problems at all so far (except for the known bug with the teleporters.) In other words, it appears to be safe-ish to use this feature if you're decorating a house from scratch. But on houses that were decorated before the layout feature were introduced, I'd be careful using it until the remaining bugs are fixed. Devs: Thank you for enabling layouts again, even with the quirks it's an awesome decorating tool.
LivelyHound wrote: So, for my layout, I moved a bunch of items from <---- here to there --->. Does that mean when I zone in, those items aren't ---> there but actually <---- here and jump over as I'm zoning in? does that add to lag in a GH?
I've had no problems making tweaks to individual sections of our guild hall, granted I haven't saved and entire layout and reloaded as that would be asking for trouble. The only minor issue was when I attempted to have some ferrite cupboards and pillars sunk into the floor, this seemed to cause the items not to render because the 'anchor point' was below floor level. Fortunitely (for the design I needed) I could get away with hanging the cupboards and pillars upside down so that the anchor point was above floor level.
Mystfit wrote: Not as far as I can tell. It's only the rotations that it happens with. The anchor co-oords of the item dont get changed by the default. Just the rotations, for some reason the player edited ones get changed by the default. You can see the differences easily by zoning in and doing a save_layout and then compare that to your edited file. The coords remain unchanged but some rotations get fubar'd. Sorry for the slow reply was away visiting folks this wkend.
OK, having a blast with this, spent virtually all weekend making changes to our guild hall. Apart from the 'anchor point below the floor' issue the only other wobble I found was a tapestry of the Steam Lord that (when laid flat) insisted on running west (top) to east (bottom) when I wanted it the other way around, in the end I rotated it by 89.9 degrees instead of 90.0 degrees and it stopped turning itself around.
I would like to request the layout feature be disabled again until it works properly. I used it last night on a house I was decorating. I had one room in which I turned paintings around. I then logged out in entry room of the house for the night. When I logged in tonite, I found myself in limbo above and to the side of the main room and was standing on the carpets that were in my entry room. I had to port to my guildhall in order to get out and when I returned to my house, the carpets that should have been on the floor (the same ones I was standing on when I logged in) were not there and there were also a lot of items 'missing' throughout the house - none of which I made any adjustments to when I was working with the layout feature. My guildmate came over and also saw the blank places where items should have been, so I packed everything up and then loaded the layout again. We both saw everything return. However, we zoned out of the house and back in, all the 'missing' items were gone again. The feature, while a great idea, is flawed. I am to the point where I dont even want to complete this house now and just leave everything in the crate. This is how frustrating this has become. I feel sick that I will have to redo both of the houses I have this problem with, as I cannot see another way to fix the blank spaces. I went against my better judgement and tried the feature again and paid the price for curiosity
Caliphar@Najena wrote: Ugh Caliphar, I'm sorry, that would be so heartbreaking after spending so much time on a place. =(
I'm sorry if I've missed this earlier in the thread, I just kind of browsed through. But! I am thinking of moving my T1 guild hall in Kelethin to a T1 guild hall in North Qeynos. If I save the current layout, will I be able to load the layout once the new guild hall is purchased? As I understand if you move residences the houses must be the same layout which both T1 halls are, I was wondering if anyone knew if this worked for sure before I moved the hall. There was a lot of work put in and I'm afraid of having to do a complete do-over, eep! Many thanks in advance for any insight!
Arienna@Lucan DLere wrote: Don't do it! The layout feature is still borked. Save yourself the heart-ache and wait for a fix. I only tried to manipulate 2 pieces of furniture and bam! My 5-room SQ house is screwed up. I spent hours upon hours (literally days) decorating my place and now all I want to do is cry whenever I zone into my house. I pray that SOE can fix the bugs because this is a deal breaker for me. I will quit the game if it can't be fixed. I can't imagine what it would be like if something goes arwy with a guild hall! If you still want to give the feature a chance, try the Test server. (If it's up and available for copies.) All the best to you.
Caliphar@Najena wrote: Add a big disclaimer, force people to enter their character name to confirm they want to use layout if you want, but don't disable the feature. My advice to anybody, would be to save a layout, trim it down to just a few items you want to use and then tweak and load that. If your saving and loading your entire layout then you are certainly asking for trouble at the moment, I know that layouts *should* be able to cope with that, but they don't. I have over 250 items custom placed at the moment, with only a few issues that were got around by using angles that are not exact multiples of 90 degrees. To turn layouts off would kill my project cold dead.
Nimphe wrote: 1. Copying to test doesn't copy your guildhall. 2. Layouts are disabled on Test Copy, despite several promises from devs that they would turn it on.
Hehe, yeah. Wanted to wait a bit since there's still some fixes to be had with the layout feature. Once it is fixed though, moving would be wonderful! Still am curious if it's possible (assuming of course all layout bugs are gone!).
Your move would be a snap once the tweaks are made to the missing/invisible items And I agree with the disclaimer idea. Let them stay live, but peole need to knooooww I"ve not yet tried doing jsut bits and parts of a layout to see if I could make some tweaks and yet keep the main parts of the hall instanct...
Arienna@Lucan DLere wrote: Yes it is possible, I think the grid is the same, if not I believe Jasdyrs program allows you to set and anchor point or something similar so you can layout your tiems relative to a certain spot. But honestly I believe one T1 GH is the same as another as far as the grid goes.
A disclaimer is a good idea. How about expanding the window where the names of the files pop up, and add it there? Then everyone would see it when they save/load. Forcing people to type in their name every time they use it is a bit over the top though, in my opinion. (Because if you use this feature actively, you will save/load a gazillion times before you're done.) A simple note of warning would go a long way, I think. I feel really bad for those who had their houses ruined because they didn't know this. I would probably have been upset myself if that had happened to me. That said, the feature is not so borked that you can't use it at all. If you use it on a house you start decorating from scratch, it seems to be quite safe. And it is far easier to test this and provide feedback if the layout feature is active on live servers, as most people don't spend all that much time on Test. Keeping it enabled will probably lead to more feedback regarding this.
I am sorry, but I greatly disagree. The feature is borked. There is no 'just a little broken' or 'just in certain circumstances.' It will mess up a house. And the idea of trimming down the layout file just to make changes to specific items only? That's what I did in my second house. I had paintings I wanted to spin around, I trimmed the saved layout file to show only those paintings. I made my adjustments and loaded them - and now I have many missing items. A disclaimer that it is broken to me is silly. If its broken, disable it and fix it.
Bratface wrote: Wonderful, thank you! I imagine it'll be another month or two before I'm ready to move the hall with all the new decorating goodies coming out, but once done I'm crossing my fingers that the kinks will be worked out of the layout feature by then. This idea is really, really wonderful and I just hope things are smoothed out soon so people can use it without fear of the problems I see being reported here. I've seen the layout feature used successfully a few times on my server, but there's just too big of a gamble to use it on a whole hall yet I think.
Arienna@Lucan DLere wrote: I am fairly sure that the halls are the same. If you know someone with one of the other halls you should be able to compate the header of the file.This is what the 1st two lines in the file look like. 3,Version Number 1127343713,fprt_ph_5r02 The red part is used by the load layout function to make sure it is the same type of zone. It is possible that the Kelethin and qeynos halls are the same and still have a different zone name. If this is the case then you would be able to mod the zonename to allow it to load. It is only somewhat broken and most of the problems can be worked around or manually fixed.
