We need to rethink Bookcases (and probably containers).

PROBLEM: I'll never have enough space for large amounts of books.

I have a keep lot with space for 700 interior items. At the moment I have used just 73. But most of those are books.

Here you can see that approximately 18 to 20 books can fill a single row on a bookshelf. Since there are 5 rows, that means 100 books might fit on a single shelf. These three shelves alone could hold 300 books!

But in the room just above this one, I've set up enough room for 700 books! That would exceed all the remaining space on my lot.


SOLUTION:

I don't know what the solution is. I think there are many technical problems that exist that I'm unaware of. What I do know is that having a large library of books is a core element of the game that I hope we don't have to give up on.

Developers, please help!

 

@Womby - I know you have a bookstore, any ideas you'd like to add here?

P.S. My keep basement has a max of 7000 internal items. But perhaps I don't want my library to be in the basement? And of course other players will not have this amount of space, ever, so what are they supposed to do?

 

We have a 1000 player book Library in PaxOku, PaxLair, Chesapeake, UO. We put all books in pre-fab bookcases that are simply containers. You have to open the proper bookshelf/container to read a book. We placed the books in order by title (sort of). The number of items were included in the total items count on the property. But they did not cause performance problems since were all in containers... except when loading the lot when we stepped on it.

The UO house size was smaller than an 18x18 building, not max storage. So yes, we will rapidly run out of storage space/capacity in any house as we start building our libraries and other establishments. It may be time to start thinking upon alternatives for items in closed storage, items in open view, etc.

 

Thanks, Winfield.

I think it's good to have limits on storage just because of the hoarding factor, but I think books are a great exception.

 

We have my old suggestion of creating book cases that are actual containers as well. It would optimize load times as well. Like the old assets the devs used where most shelves were covered with book skin, but there were still room for adding individual pieces.
Give those public chest properties but limited to books & papers.

So I add a public container book case, it's prefab with three shelves filled with "books", and two shelves where I can place deco items of my own. Then I double click the prefab part it opens a regular container into which I put a huge collection <512 of books and papers.

 

And if we don't have more space, how will we ever stock our bookshelves with great literary works like this:

The Elvish Karma Sutra (10k)
HOWTO: Make 100k Gold in 1 hour (100k)



Also, I think there should be a new tab added to the inventory list so you can sort on Books. They're very different items.

 

Whatever makes it so I can have as many books as I want.

 

I think this is the best solution.

 

Yes, I would sacrifice the look of a book shelf for the ability to place more books.

Right now the way items are sold through vendors, the bookshelves in a bookstore are mere decorations. All the items available for sale are hidden in the vendor, and that has it's own item limit. I had the thought at one time that vendors could be placed in front of different sets of bookshelves. You review the books in the bookcase, and then buy it from the nearby vendor. However, with the limit on the number of vendors that is not practical either.

I think this needs a good solid design discussion to balance storing, selling, and decorating with books. There is not an easy answer unless the limits get bumped up on everything!

 

I've heard several guild members mention housing limits and the way in which it is easily hit when placing books, so although I believe limits are important I feel the system still needs to be tweaked to take items like books into account.

Personally I plan to collect many books and would be sad if this is an issue when the game goes live.

 

Idea #1
Maybe the item limit value of books could be tweaked down since they are smaller objects. Instead of each book counting as 1 towards the item limit it could count as 1/4, 1/5, or 1/10 of an item. This would allow for more books to be placed.

Idea#2
I'm not too technologically inclined but in my understanding the limit is there to cap the amount of data being pushed from the server to the client and each item is of a certain byte size of data. A number limit like now means that you can fill up with small byte objects (books) quickly but not using up the same amount of bytes as a lot filled with large objects (crafting stations, trees, etc). Behind the scenes the "Item Limit" could be in bytes and not just a physical number of objects placed. Smaller items like books would most likely have a smaller byte number while larger objects would have larger byte number. The lot/house would then have a limit based on the bytes of data that is sent to/from the server instead. This could potentially also allow for more books.

 

I'm just guessing here, but the object's data is probably not stored in the house/basement. Most likely the data in the house/basement is a pointer to the data with a words of correct length for orientation and for location. A one story oak tree has the same data no matter where it is, except for location and orientation. A book has location and orientation for the individual instance but the text would be kept elsewhere. If books with the same text can have different "covers", then there would be a word or byte for that, too. But the cover data could be contained in the structure along with the text.

But all those pointers add up quickly. The idea of containers, chests, bookshelves, etc., would probably help as the container would have a pointer held by the room but the contents of the container would probably not be part of that and would be kept in the instance of the container. (does that make sense? I know what I was trying to say.)

 

@Baron Drocis Fondorlatos Yes, this is a very annoying problem. I have taken to rotating the books 90 degrees so that you see the cover instead of the spine. That way there are fewer books, and the shelves can be filled. That is far from satisfactory however, and a proper solution is sorely needed.
The team at Portalarium are very intelligent and creative, and I have no doubt that if they put their minds to it they can come up with a satisfactory solution.