In Spelloria, I have what I feel is a pretty unique saving system in place, and since there's often discussion of how to save locations, I thought I'd share that portion of my scheme with the community at large.

Each player character has a text variable called "home." Throughout the world are several instances of area/start. When a player logs in, the world is searched for an instance of this area type whose name is equal to src.home, and the player is moved there, or failing that, dumped in the general starting area.

When a character is newly created, the default value for home is a tutorial area where the basics of gameplay are taught. Passing through the one-way door out of this area changes home to the area immediately outside the school. From there, characters can strike out and make their own fortunes.

In each town and along major roadways are inns... for a small charge (higher in some places), a character can reserve a room... which does nothing more than set that inn as their home. This is permanent until the player does something to change it, such as reserving a room at another inn, or enters another area that automatically "re-homes" characters. For instance, when a character embarks upon a new continent or (hypothetically) explores a new dimension. More sinisterly, an "inescapable" labyrinth might home characters who blunder inside, so you can't escape merely by logging off.

The advantages of this system include the fact that I have not had to override Read() or Write(), append any additional information to the savefiles, or otherwise manually manipulate any data... and that I allow players and creator a chance to share some of the decision of exactly where they enter the game each time. Players can to some extent "save" the progress they've made on a physical journey or exploration, but they cannot abuse this to log out when they're cornered and log back in a few minutes later, at the same location, to see if the danger has passed.

There are other ways to "save locations" within the game, as well. An item called a Memory Orb can be used to warp to any Memory Stone (a type of monument scattered throughout the world) that you've visited. Memory Stones can be found in or near most major locations... as can home points. Once you have a Memory Orb, you can, from your starting point, reach any general location you've visited, and means allowing, set that as your new starting point.

The thing I'd most like to stress, though, is that I've settled on these two things as a location-saving solution because they fit my game. Since exploration is a big theme in Spelloria, it is important that locations be saveable, but since bravery is also an important theme, it must be done in such a way that it cannot be readily abused. Where's the achievement in being the first to explore the Mountains of the Making when you can hide offline any time danger comes near? If you bolt and run out of the game, the game treats it exactly as if you had bolted and ran, all the way home.