Thread:Neo34/@comment-27051147-20170402044526/@comment-27642721-20170402071859

The friendslist is maintained on the servers and is just a database association between pairs of system ids assigned to each player. Normally the only game interactions with this list are through the invite/accept/delete actions applied to individual friends (there's nothing a game can do to the list as a whole). Each time the Friends window is opened the game requests a FL update from the servers which downloads a subset of each friends' profile data (experience, level, avatar, WL etc). The server glitch that's been in effect this past month was to present complete (rather than partial) profile data for download for those friends who've been active within the last 30 minutes; for large FLs this amount of data was too big for the servers to handle and so no data at all was provided (frozen, non-updated FLs). Once the FL data has been downloaded (partial & full profiles during the glitch), the data is "filtered" into the local Friends_List.xml file where it acts as a cache of data, enabling the Friends window to be instantly populated with friends' data on opening before a refresh can take place. The important thing about the movement of friends' data is that it's always one-way, from server to game device, never the other way around; if the Friends_List.xml is deleted on the device it's just remade when the next refresh from the server tales place. Deleting the xml has no effect on the server maintained FL database. So the total loss of a FL usually means only one thing: it's been wiped on the servers and any xml cache that the game was using to populate the Friends window whilst out of contact with the servers is wiped when the comms is restored for a  refresh. However, with G5/Mytona currently working on whatever problem is affecting the servers, I'm hoping that some "block" has been placed on the server FL refresh so that rather than a timeout/reject, the refresh demand has been set to return "null" instead. Hopefully once they've fix the problem, this block will be removed and everyone's FLs will reappear. They may have done this because they need the servers "live" but our comms traffic is getting in the way of whatever it is they're doing. I can't be certain of any of this though, so the possibility still exists that the FL have actually been wiped. As far as our profile/inventory data is concerned that normally moves in the opposite direction, from game device to server where it's constantly being updated (mostly for visiting purposes by others). The one exception is at game install time when, if the device ids are recognised as having played before (they're uploaded with the profile data), the profile/inventory is offered for download (the restart offer when the game is first booted). So in summary, data movements whilst in normal play are: Profile/inventory:   Game device >>>>>>>>> Server FL data:                Game device <<<<<<<<< Server