I think the saving system in MC should be pimped out.
First of all, you should be allowed 12 offline saves, which all retain the last thing you saw before you saved it, for easier browsing. These 12 screenshots should simply be organized into a 4 wide, 3 high grid and you just click one to play it.
Second of all should be the ability to "FTP Sync". Simply put, you can specify a map file on a server that you own, along with the password and username for the FTP. It gets put, as usual, into the 4x3 grid of Game Saves, but when you go to Load it, it downloads it from that FTP, then when you save, uploads to the FTP. In other words, if you have a web host, you can have your levels online without any hacky file moving.
Third, there should be no "delete" button. Instead, the image and map should be moved into the graveyard, which retains the last 12 saves in compressed format. If the graveyard is full, the oldest one should be deleted permanently. In essence, it acts as an Archive AND a Trash Can.
Lastly, and most importantly, when inputting information into the FTP Sync, if you don't specify a password it simply downloads the file to play. This would let people more "professionally" share levels, by loading them in-game.
The benefits to these 4 points are: More Saves is obviously necessary, Deleting needs to be slightly less immediate, Pictures are worth a thousand words, and Sharing/Syncing online needs to be made more professional and not so hacky.
Not sure if FTP... then again I was always terrible at client-server communications.
I do like the rest of this idea, though. Notch hosting the save server is kind of problematic, since there are a LOT of saves, but being able to host your own is interesting. I would want the "no password" thing to be optional, though, or linked to my Minecraft username/account.
In all honesty, you would not need >2-3 worlds, unless ofcourse you would like to play player created maps, such as skyland. Either way all it takes is a few renames and you technically have an unlimited mount of (to your HDD's limit) worlds.
It would be somewhat hard to keep up with what worlds are which though. One thing that would be far superior to the slot system is utilizing a single .dat containing the world data which is referred to by a name.
If you didn't want people to view it, simply name the file something insane. That in itself is a password, as it won't show up on a Google search or whatever.
Who would guess "secret/watno/fab1lol19992.sav", know what I mean?
About the whole Screeny thing, you could potentially be prompted for a message (which could be the title, or something more Key) upon Saving, which is pasted into the screenshot. In a sense, you could be naming your map, describing it, or describing it's function (exploration map? Hacking? etc..)
Finally, renaming files is tedious and unprofessional. This way is much more satisfactory.
I just noticed your "FTP" bit. What's the point of it? If you own the server, I doubt you would need a GUI within minecraft to rip world maps off of it and put them in your saves folder. If you do, I don't think you should be running a server.
I find it saves a lot of clicks. You put in your FTP details, and it stores it as that slot info. Any time you load it up, it downloads the latest version automatically, and when saving, uploads it. That's two clicks total.
Right now, you have to minimize MC, open your FTP, open the Saves folder, locate your file in the FTP browser of your choice, drag it over, open MC, LOAD. Then SAVE, minimize MC, and drag the new save back into FTP, then close the 3 new windows you have open for that operation.
That's, like, a dozen operations, none of which are particularly easy. That's not including the obvious- Inputting your details that one time.
So you still have to do all of the steps I highlighted. It's a damn pain and is unprofessional for those wanting to sync, when you just want to open your world, play, and close it. Especially on other peoples computers, when the steps now include downloading your FTP browser and all of that fun stuff when all you want to do is download and upload one file.
Excuse me, but that's not unprofessional, you're just being lazy. I don't mean to bash your idea, it's just its simple enough as is, and, quite honestly, you could probably easily create a script to copy the world every 5 minutes and put it on an HTTP server so you can just go to the link, download, done. Oh wait, you still have to open the saves folder. Damn, too much work.
The problem with that "automatic" idea is, first of all, how can you make MC save? It only saves when you exit, AFAIK. Second of all, you still have to minimize. Any time you have to minimize for a game feature (sync'd worlds), it's unprofessional. Most importantly, automatically saving and updating every now and then as a hacky attempt at syncing worlds would have extreme lag issues as maps are huge. Having it triggered in-game upon loading/saving would minimize said issues.
Whoever said you had to minimize? Maps are actually extremely small. A well explored world is <50mb, and that can be saved in <3 seconds on a bad processor. It also auto-saves when it brings up the ingame menu (also brought up when the applet loses focus) Please tell me how it is a "hacky" attempt. You're not playing live from what I understand, so you would not even need a constant sync, which, by the way, isn't what your initially proposed feature would create.
PS: Please get off this "unprofessional crap" you're playing a java applet.
I would like a saving system that merges maps. I run a server, and sometimes I just want to play on it, without access to the internet. Perhaps additions and subtractions in entirely different chunks get incorporated or something like that.
I actually have a VERY interesting idea because of your post, Mooc. When Beds are incorporated, spawn points could be very far away from each other, but on the same world. Your entire save becomes one file with multiple regions. One spawn could be a thousand km away from another, but still sort of close.
Just an interesting thought. In thoery, right now, you could spawn a million times on the same giant map and never know, because of the sheer size.
FTP options for saves would be interesting. For all the haters that say "you could just use an FTP client" or "why would you want to save your files on the internet" or whatever: you don't have to use the functionality. Some of us would.
HOWEVER:
FTP is a singularly bad way of handling Minecraft saves. My main world is currently something like 96mb. The size isn't a problem for most FTP servers, but moving all 30000 files would be annoying. Now if Notch was using a single large archive with zlib as an interface...
No one, that's the point. You want to be able to have a few empty worlds so you know you can start a new one at any time. Also with custom loading, a lot of them will be used up by loading online maps that others have shared. Offline and FTP maps are all in the same grid.
First of all, you should be allowed 12 offline saves, which all retain the last thing you saw before you saved it, for easier browsing. These 12 screenshots should simply be organized into a 4 wide, 3 high grid and you just click one to play it.
Second of all should be the ability to "FTP Sync". Simply put, you can specify a map file on a server that you own, along with the password and username for the FTP. It gets put, as usual, into the 4x3 grid of Game Saves, but when you go to Load it, it downloads it from that FTP, then when you save, uploads to the FTP. In other words, if you have a web host, you can have your levels online without any hacky file moving.
Third, there should be no "delete" button. Instead, the image and map should be moved into the graveyard, which retains the last 12 saves in compressed format. If the graveyard is full, the oldest one should be deleted permanently. In essence, it acts as an Archive AND a Trash Can.
Lastly, and most importantly, when inputting information into the FTP Sync, if you don't specify a password it simply downloads the file to play. This would let people more "professionally" share levels, by loading them in-game.
The benefits to these 4 points are: More Saves is obviously necessary, Deleting needs to be slightly less immediate, Pictures are worth a thousand words, and Sharing/Syncing online needs to be made more professional and not so hacky.
Dan.
Edit: A few typo's.
One for hacking and playing around
The other for actual survival
I do like the rest of this idea, though. Notch hosting the save server is kind of problematic, since there are a LOT of saves, but being able to host your own is interesting. I would want the "no password" thing to be optional, though, or linked to my Minecraft username/account.
It would be somewhat hard to keep up with what worlds are which though. One thing that would be far superior to the slot system is utilizing a single .dat containing the world data which is referred to by a name.
Clicky clicky for free minecraft
[simg]http://i.min.us/ilcpc.png[/simg]
Who would guess "secret/watno/fab1lol19992.sav", know what I mean?
About the whole Screeny thing, you could potentially be prompted for a message (which could be the title, or something more Key) upon Saving, which is pasted into the screenshot. In a sense, you could be naming your map, describing it, or describing it's function (exploration map? Hacking? etc..)
Finally, renaming files is tedious and unprofessional. This way is much more satisfactory.
Clicky clicky for free minecraft
[simg]http://i.min.us/ilcpc.png[/simg]
I find it saves a lot of clicks. You put in your FTP details, and it stores it as that slot info. Any time you load it up, it downloads the latest version automatically, and when saving, uploads it. That's two clicks total.
Right now, you have to minimize MC, open your FTP, open the Saves folder, locate your file in the FTP browser of your choice, drag it over, open MC, LOAD. Then SAVE, minimize MC, and drag the new save back into FTP, then close the 3 new windows you have open for that operation.
That's, like, a dozen operations, none of which are particularly easy. That's not including the obvious- Inputting your details that one time.
2. have FTP browser system trayed.
3. OH GOD I HAVE TO DRAG SOMETHING
Are you telling me that's "not particularly easy"?
Clicky clicky for free minecraft
[simg]http://i.min.us/ilcpc.png[/simg]
Clicky clicky for free minecraft
[simg]http://i.min.us/ilcpc.png[/simg]
PS: Please get off this "unprofessional crap" you're playing a java applet.
Clicky clicky for free minecraft
[simg]http://i.min.us/ilcpc.png[/simg]
http://www.minecraftforum.net/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=40225#p678624
I actually have a VERY interesting idea because of your post, Mooc. When Beds are incorporated, spawn points could be very far away from each other, but on the same world. Your entire save becomes one file with multiple regions. One spawn could be a thousand km away from another, but still sort of close.
Just an interesting thought. In thoery, right now, you could spawn a million times on the same giant map and never know, because of the sheer size.
HOWEVER:
FTP is a singularly bad way of handling Minecraft saves. My main world is currently something like 96mb. The size isn't a problem for most FTP servers, but moving all 30000 files would be annoying. Now if Notch was using a single large archive with zlib as an interface...