I'm sure some of you are aware of or have experienced losing items and experience levels when switching from offline gameplay to online multiplayer.
A little background info:
Minecraft on console has three types of save data.
The first is the Save Cache and it is used to store player data such as character inventory and experience levels for offline gameplay.
The second is the gamesave and it is used to store all changes you make to the world.
Examples:
placing/removing blocks
placing items in chests
animal locations
Also, the gamesave file stores your personal inventory and experience level during online play, so this information is stored in both file types!
Whenever you disconnect from the internet or sign out of PSN/XBox Live during online play, all of your personal inventory and experience levels are saved to the Save Cache file as a backup, but this does not work in reverse.
If you launch Minecraft from the PS3 XMB menu or Xbox 360 Dashboard while Offline any personal inventory items and experience you obtain WILL NOT carry over when you sign back in.
If you launch Minecraft while Online and get signed out for any reason all of your personal inventory items and experience you obtained WILL carry over to the Save Cache.
How to avoid losing data:
1: After playing offline, deposit all items into a chest and spend your levels you earned while offline on an enchantment and place the item(s) in a chest 2: Never withdraw items from a chest and save the game while offline, they will not be there when you log in.
The third is the Options save file but I'm not sure exactly which options are saved here or elsewhere.
I do know the sound and graphic settings do not match when switching between offline and online. Leading me to believe they are also stored in the Save Cache file.
This way of storing data can also be exploited in order to duplicate your entire inventory, but I'm not allowed to go into detail on how to do that.
Thanks for posting that. I was wondering if it was just me. It is odd though that player 2 was in the same place and had the correct items when I went online. I am guessing this is because it doesn't truly let their user sign in?
I believe the Save Cache is only for personal inventory and stats. The game probably saves split-screen players inventory and stats the same way it stores friends who join online, in the game save. I'm not sure on this as I haven't researched that aspect and do not own a second controller to fully test it. I did do some testing with items and wondered tho if I added a second controller where would the data go and could it be duplicated/lost as the host players' could.
An easy test would be:
1: Launch Minecraft while signed out of PSN(Do Not sign-in when prompted)
2: Start a new world and connect a second controller. Press circle if prompted to sign in.
3: On both controllers dig/mine exactly one block(dirt/tree/sand/etc)
4: Save and Exit
5: Choose "Play Game" option and when prompted, sign-in
6a: Choose the world and connect the controller again, DO NOT sign in.
6b: Choose the world and connect the controller again, DO sign in.
7: Check your inventories
Player 1 should not have what they collected, Player 2 (lol i have no idea, let me know how it goes?)
Hmm... I need to do some testing on this. My family doesn't play online so we don't normally log into PSN, but occasionally we click OK / X. But that might explain some of the inventory changes I've seen.
Seems people are still experiencing this issue so I thought I'd post an update.
4JSteve has confirmed a fix for this issue with the next patch.
I can also confirm second player and online friends inventories are NOT stored in the Save Cache, Nor are they stored on the players system. All inventories are stored in the Host's Game Save. EXCEPT for the host's while the host is offline. This means that any player who joins a server may leave at any time without fear of loosing items as long as the host saves the game before closing the server.
example:
I join a game where the host has auto save off(not the best idea) and mine diamonds.
I leave immediately after I mine them
Three hours after I leave, the host saves the game and goes offline.
My items are there in his/her save file even though i wasn't there when he/she saved.
If you are split-screening and do not want to put your items in a chest, give them to your split-screen partner and save. when you go online, have them give it back to you.
A little background info:
Minecraft on console has three types of save data.
The first is the Save Cache and it is used to store player data such as character inventory and experience levels for offline gameplay.
The second is the gamesave and it is used to store all changes you make to the world.
Examples:
placing/removing blocks
placing items in chests
animal locations
Also, the gamesave file stores your personal inventory and experience level during online play, so this information is stored in both file types!
Whenever you disconnect from the internet or sign out of PSN/XBox Live during online play, all of your personal inventory and experience levels are saved to the Save Cache file as a backup, but this does not work in reverse.
If you launch Minecraft from the PS3 XMB menu or Xbox 360 Dashboard while Offline any personal inventory items and experience you obtain WILL NOT carry over when you sign back in.
If you launch Minecraft while Online and get signed out for any reason all of your personal inventory items and experience you obtained WILL carry over to the Save Cache.
How to avoid losing data:
1: After playing offline, deposit all items into a chest and spend your levels you earned while offline on an enchantment and place the item(s) in a chest
2: Never withdraw items from a chest and save the game while offline, they will not be there when you log in.
The third is the Options save file but I'm not sure exactly which options are saved here or elsewhere.
I do know the sound and graphic settings do not match when switching between offline and online. Leading me to believe they are also stored in the Save Cache file.
This way of storing data can also be exploited in order to duplicate your entire inventory, but I'm not allowed to go into detail on how to do that.
An easy test would be:
1: Launch Minecraft while signed out of PSN(Do Not sign-in when prompted)
2: Start a new world and connect a second controller. Press circle if prompted to sign in.
3: On both controllers dig/mine exactly one block(dirt/tree/sand/etc)
4: Save and Exit
5: Choose "Play Game" option and when prompted, sign-in
6a: Choose the world and connect the controller again, DO NOT sign in.
6b: Choose the world and connect the controller again, DO sign in.
7: Check your inventories
Player 1 should not have what they collected, Player 2 (lol i have no idea, let me know how it goes?)
4JSteve has confirmed a fix for this issue with the next patch.
I can also confirm second player and online friends inventories are NOT stored in the Save Cache, Nor are they stored on the players system. All inventories are stored in the Host's Game Save. EXCEPT for the host's while the host is offline. This means that any player who joins a server may leave at any time without fear of loosing items as long as the host saves the game before closing the server.
example:
I join a game where the host has auto save off(not the best idea) and mine diamonds.
I leave immediately after I mine them
Three hours after I leave, the host saves the game and goes offline.
My items are there in his/her save file even though i wasn't there when he/she saved.
If you are split-screening and do not want to put your items in a chest, give them to your split-screen partner and save. when you go online, have them give it back to you.