PintOfMilk wrote:

Have we got a response from the ST - I've noticed that they are very quiet.

thisandagain wrote:

Hi folks,
As many of you have noticed we have added some limits to the Cloud Variables system that previously did not exist. We have added a 128 character limit and we are now restricting cloud variables to be numbers only (no hexadecimal, E-notation, etc). These new limits were put into place to prevent abuse of the cloud variables system that was causing it to be unreasonable to maintain, scale, moderate, and support financially. In addition, these new limits help reduce the possibility of projects like “Chat Rooms” (which are incredibly difficult for the ST to keep safe). We recognize that these new limits may impact some projects, but hope the community will be empathetic in understanding that as a non-profit Scratch needs to make sure that the services we provide are sustainable. Thanks for understanding and sorry it took a few days for us to clarify the situation.

dude341 wrote:

This marks the end of advanced Scratch . At least until someone makes another community.

_nix wrote:

I mean, cloud variables are hardly the only advanced thing in Scratch. I don't think it's fair to say this marks the end of advanced Scratch. Though I agree that this does somewhat discourage using cloud variables for many interesting previous usages.

CatIsFluffy wrote:

In Scratch 3.0 there may be a way to use user-created extensions, which could add support for better cloud variables!

griffpatch wrote:

Oh bother . So no more high score tables, achievements, and definitely no scratcharia as I can't store the level . What a shame.

Since cloud cars could no longer be used for high score tables or storing achievements, do you think there will be score in new scratch 3 blocks for implementing this kind of functionality in a more scalable controllable way? For example, achievements want to be recorded per user, but not accessable by other scratchers, so this is like a local cloud variable or list for that scratcher? Couldn't be used for chat rooms, and could be set to only save very periodically as it only needs to persist between sessions not in real time.

The high score table is more tricky, but perhaps an extension for high score tables that is limited in functionality just to record the username and a number for score. It might even present itself in a common way across all scratch projects?

Just a few ideas too try to handle the huge disappointment in the loss of a highly appreciated feature of scratch.

Not sure what could be done about the saving levels like scratcharia… In that game the level was saved once a minute to a cloud var to persist it between games… Guess there's nothing that could be done there

Kilonap wrote:

griffpatch wrote:

Oh bother . So no more high score tables, achievements, and definitely no scratcharia as I can't store the level . What a shame.

Since cloud cars could no longer be used for high score tables or storing achievements, do you think there will be score in new scratch 3 blocks for implementing this kind of functionality in a more scalable controllable way? For example, achievements want to be recorded per user, but not accessable by other scratchers, so this is like a local cloud variable or list for that scratcher? Couldn't be used for chat rooms, and could be set to only save very periodically as it only needs to persist between sessions not in real time.

The high score table is more tricky, but perhaps an extension for high score tables that is limited in functionality just to record the username and a number for score. It might even present itself in a common way across all scratch projects?

Just a few ideas too try to handle the huge disappointment in the loss of a highly appreciated feature of scratch.

Not sure what could be done about the saving levels like scratcharia… In that game the level was saved once a minute to a cloud var to persist it between games… Guess there's nothing that could be done there

Does that mean you’re unsharing your multiplayer games?

jacobsmash1 wrote:

Kilonap wrote:

griffpatch wrote:

Oh bother . So no more high score tables, achievements, and definitely no scratcharia as I can't store the level . What a shame.

Since cloud cars could no longer be used for high score tables or storing achievements, do you think there will be score in new scratch 3 blocks for implementing this kind of functionality in a more scalable controllable way? For example, achievements want to be recorded per user, but not accessable by other scratchers, so this is like a local cloud variable or list for that scratcher? Couldn't be used for chat rooms, and could be set to only save very periodically as it only needs to persist between sessions not in real time.

The high score table is more tricky, but perhaps an extension for high score tables that is limited in functionality just to record the username and a number for score. It might even present itself in a common way across all scratch projects?

Just a few ideas too try to handle the huge disappointment in the loss of a highly appreciated feature of scratch.

Not sure what could be done about the saving levels like scratcharia… In that game the level was saved once a minute to a cloud var to persist it between games… Guess there's nothing that could be done there

Does that mean you’re unsharing your multiplayer games?

No, he isn't unsharing them, even though they are broken.

Kilonap wrote:

jacobsmash1 wrote:

Kilonap wrote:

griffpatch wrote:

Oh bother . So no more high score tables, achievements, and definitely no scratcharia as I can't store the level . What a shame.

Since cloud cars could no longer be used for high score tables or storing achievements, do you think there will be score in new scratch 3 blocks for implementing this kind of functionality in a more scalable controllable way? For example, achievements want to be recorded per user, but not accessable by other scratchers, so this is like a local cloud variable or list for that scratcher? Couldn't be used for chat rooms, and could be set to only save very periodically as it only needs to persist between sessions not in real time.

The high score table is more tricky, but perhaps an extension for high score tables that is limited in functionality just to record the username and a number for score. It might even present itself in a common way across all scratch projects?

Just a few ideas too try to handle the huge disappointment in the loss of a highly appreciated feature of scratch.

Not sure what could be done about the saving levels like scratcharia… In that game the level was saved once a minute to a cloud var to persist it between games… Guess there's nothing that could be done there

Does that mean you’re unsharing your multiplayer games?

No, he isn't unsharing them, even though they are broken.

What about scratchers who play the broken games and don’t know about the limit?

Kilonap wrote:

jacobsmash1 wrote:

Kilonap wrote:

griffpatch wrote:

Oh bother . So no more high score tables, achievements, and definitely no scratcharia as I can't store the level . What a shame.

Since cloud cars could no longer be used for high score tables or storing achievements, do you think there will be score in new scratch 3 blocks for implementing this kind of functionality in a more scalable controllable way? For example, achievements want to be recorded per user, but not accessable by other scratchers, so this is like a local cloud variable or list for that scratcher? Couldn't be used for chat rooms, and could be set to only save very periodically as it only needs to persist between sessions not in real time.

The high score table is more tricky, but perhaps an extension for high score tables that is limited in functionality just to record the username and a number for score. It might even present itself in a common way across all scratch projects?

Just a few ideas too try to handle the huge disappointment in the loss of a highly appreciated feature of scratch.

Not sure what could be done about the saving levels like scratcharia… In that game the level was saved once a minute to a cloud var to persist it between games… Guess there's nothing that could be done there

Does that mean you’re unsharing your multiplayer games?

No, he isn't unsharing them, even though they are broken.

What about scratchers who play the broken games and don’t know about the limit?

TheLogFather wrote:

Well, I've had a go at updating my multiplayer demo project to account for the new 128-char limit.

https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/205282370/

I had to make a number of changes to fit a reasonable amount of buffered player updates into a cloudvar, along with the username (though that's still only encoded with 2-digits per letter, so could be improved a bit, esp. since I didn't bother with case here).

The player cloudvar also now only contains a buffer of ~3/4 of a second of the player data stream, which is somewhat less than it used to be in previous versions (was nearer 2secs), and I suspect it could do with being a bit longer in case of occasional cloud/'net latency issues.

But I've noticed various players moving around and talking to each other just now, so I think it's maybe working ok…
(Though maybe Safari's use of ‘app-nap’ causes some issues if you leave the project running, but Safari is not in foreground?)

TheLogFather wrote:

[offtopic]
Oh…! Since when have forum posts not allowed Scratch itself as an image host??
– So much for including a pic of the project… :/
[/offtopic]

asivi replied:
…

[ image with URL http://cdn2.scratch.mit.edu/get_image/project/205282370_480x360.png ]