Datastore help needed

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How would I go about saving a plot of land with a datastore?

Basically, I’m making a farm game, it’s similar to a popular game called Hayday. You have your own plot of land where you can place stuff. That would be the first step. The second step is how would I save what has been placed down?

Help is appreciated.

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To achieve this, you’ll mainly be using Roblox’s DataStore system, which is designed to save and load player data asynchronously.

Step 1: Define What Needs to be Saved

For a farm game, you will likely need to save various types of information:

  • Positions and types of placed items (crops, buildings, decorations, etc.)
  • State of these items (growth stage of crops, production timers on buildings, etc.)
  • Player progress (level, currency, resources, etc.)

Step 2: Structuring Your Data

When saving data, especially complex data like a plot of land with multiple objects, it’s crucial to define a clear and efficient data structure. Typically, this could be a table in Lua, where each key-value pair represents an object on the land and its attributes.

Here’s an example structure:

local farmData = {
    -- Each item placed on the farm is represented as a table within the array
    items = {
        {id = "corn", position = {x = 100, y = 0, z = 50}, growthStage = 3},
        {id = "chickenCoop", position = {x = 150, y = 0, z = 75}, productionTimer = 1200},
        -- more items...
    },
    -- Additional player data
    level = 5,
    currency = 1000
}

Step 3: Using Roblox DataStores

To save and load this data using Roblox’s DataStores, you’ll need to:

  1. Set Up DataStore Access:
    You first need access to the DataStore service in your Roblox game.
local DataStoreService = game:GetService("DataStoreService")
local FarmDataStore = DataStoreService:GetDataStore("FarmData")
  1. Saving Data:
    Use the SetAsync method to save data. This is typically triggered by game events (e.g., player logs off, or after a specific in-game action like updating the farm layout).
local function saveFarmData(player)
    local playerKey = "Farm_" .. player.UserId
    local success, errorMessage = pcall(function()
        FarmDataStore:SetAsync(playerKey, farmData)
    end)
    if not success then
        warn("Failed to save data for " .. player.Name .. ": " .. errorMessage)
    end
end
  1. Loading Data:
    When a player joins, you retrieve their data using the GetAsync method.
local function loadFarmData(player)
    local playerKey = "Farm_" .. player.UserId
    local success, data = pcall(function()
        return FarmDataStore:GetAsync(playerKey)
    end)
    if success and data then
        return data
    else
        warn("Failed to load data for " .. player.Name)
        return nil  -- or return default data
    end
end
  1. Handling New Players:
    If no data exists for a player (e.g., a new player), you should initialize their farm with default settings.

Step 4: Update Data Continuously

Given that players can make frequent changes to their farms, it’s practical to make a method that periodically saves their progress or triggers a save when they perform specific actions. This prevents data loss and keeps the game state current but must be balanced to avoid excessive DataStore requests, which are limited by Roblox’s API quotas.

important extraszzzzz

  • Data Limits: Roblox DataStores have size limits per entry. Ensure your saved data structure doesn’t exceed these limits.
  • Concurrency Not sure if this is relevant, however I feel like it could.
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