Switching smartphone: how to keep my score?

[pierremiranda]

Hi,

If I am going to install StarTrader (Elite) on a new smartphone, is there any way I can keep my profile and scores, or do I lose everything?

Thanks for your help!

[HateSolstice]

The magic SD card should be the answer.

[Cory Trese]

if that is possible oh my good lord i would be happy. i'm going to test all manner of SD card swaps.

At this time the only way to backup a ST RPG game is to use Titanium backup or another backup application (with root)

[HateSolstice]

Oh, I thought everything was saved onto the SD card already.

Admittedly, I'm brand new to this smart phone thing. The one I have now is my first one. I was too much of a cheapskate to get one before.

[pierremiranda]

Jun 21, 2011 21:21:53 GMT -5 Cory Trese said:

if that is possible oh my good lord i would be happy. i'm going to test all manner of SD card swaps.

At this time the only way to backup a ST RPG game is to use Titanium backup or another backup application (with root)

I see, thanks! And what exactly should be backed up? Can't I simply save a specific folder or file, and the overwrite it on the new phone after installation?
As you can see, I'm not familiar with file management on my smartphone, I'm afraid...

[noesis]

pierremiranda, it's not quite as simple as saving a specific folder or file and overwriting it on the new phone, unless you have a rooted phone to save from, and also root your new phone to save to, by using an app like Titanium Backup - which only works on rooted phones (for the backup part)

The rooting of the phone part (i.e. getting root privileges) is something you should search for on the web to read about - and needs to be done before you can use the above app to back stuff up.

Star Traders data is stored in the phones 'protected or hidden' memory that can not be accessed by file managers on a non-rooted phone. You can backup up the actual game without a rooted phone but not it's data or the score - bummer I agree but that's the way it is and I know Corey has looked into doing it on another thread but it's apparently impossible to do

[Cory Trese]

I am still looking for a solution. Part of the problem is permissions -- it would be a simple thing if the application already had "write to SD card."

I am working on this! I promise.

[slayernz]

I'm 100% ... no 150% certain (within a 55% margin of error) that nobody would think changing the permissions to support "Writing to an SD card" is an excessive abuse of product functionality. What you COULD do is have an option in the ... well "options" menu:
( ) Save game data to the SD card <-- Unchecked by default

So although you've added a new permission to the game, by default, no functionality has changed. Users would then have to change the setting themselves if they want to be able to save to SD.

[HateSolstice]

@cory - Are you saying that it would upset people, or is there code you'd have to rewrite entirely to allow it to do that? I can guarantee you that no one on here would be upset with that change. Hell, I wish more apps did that. For example, those Kairosoft sim games don't have it, and the community for those games have been begging for the feature since Game Dev Story came out on the iPhone(not to mention the lack of a changelog).

If it's a matter of rewriting the game's code, how much would have to be redone? I'm afraid I'm not very knowledgeable about that stuff.

[sgtcookie]

Hypothetically, a secondary database could be installed on said SD card, and then that secondary database is backed up, say, every time the player quits the game? Then in the options menu, there could be a "restore from backup" option that takes the information from the backup database and installs it onto the actual game?

Just a thought.

[slayernz]

Once the change in permissions to support writing to SD is enabled, I'm sure there are a lot of potential ways to back up to SD, or even just store all game play data directly on the SD.

Cory, I think that (a), you should definitely take the step to have permission to "write to SD", and (b), you should also put this permission into CK right now, before the game comes out of beta.

[captain nemo]

Jun 26, 2011 17:37:29 GMT -5 slayernz said:

Once the change in permissions to support writing to SD is enabled, I'm sure there are a lot of potential ways to back up to SD, or even just store all game play data directly on the SD.

Cory, I think that (a), you should definitely take the step to have permission to "write to SD", and (b), you should also put this permission into CK right now, before the game comes out of beta.

I'm in total agreement with this !!!
with Write to SD you could even copy that to your computer an change / upgrade your phone. Copy it back to the SD card from your computer and do a restore game from SD card on your phone.

I'd like to see this come to ST but it must be added to CK now since it's still in beta.

Just my .02 for what ever it's worth..

[HateSolstice]

All that fancy stuff slayer said, I agree with.

[Cory Trese]

I am saying that I am afraid to add an SD Card Permission. I am afraid people would say

"You are trying to steal my data, I hate you."

I would have no problem using a tutorial like this one (http://www.xinotes.org/notes/note/1269/) to copy the database formats to the SD card.

I even coded up a simple encryptiong (http://www.androidsnippets.com/encryptdecrypt-strings) so that the format would stay "secret"

But all of that requires the SD permission (or another trick, called SharedUserID.)

I did not put SharedUserID into ST RPG, but I did put it into CK RPG

[HateSolstice]

Well, you could always explain WHY it's suddenly being added. Besides, my data is completely worthless. =P

Actually, you could just run a poll, and then update the STRPG descriptions on the market to direct people to the poll. I know, that's more work than it needs to be. But I personally think it'd be worth it.