Game Updates

[Charles]

Jul 25, 2008 2:40:02 GMT -8 sunshine said:

1. We are going to have to have a long talk about how easy it is to die.

Do you want to start a new topic to discuss that?

[Charles]

Sorry for canceling the August 1, 2008 session. The problem is that the database is screwed up and the software is not putting the right data in there. I can change it manually, but I think the software will just mess it up again. The main thing that is messed up is faction ratings. This is undoubtedly related to the dwarves attacking people for no apparent reason. It could also result in other people who should be friendly acting hostile. It could also cause creatures that should be hostile to not be.

I thought it best to just cancel the session and try to get this worked out before next session.

[sunshine]

Good thinking, Charles. Thank you for letting us know. I look forward to strolling down the center of Port Town sometime in the near future.

[Charles]

I'm feeling a little bit down about the game. I love creating new content for the game when I know how to do it and there are a lot of things I can do fairly quickly. I can create new lands, new NPCs and new magic items or spells with ease.

Unfortunately, I'm a lot less enthusiastic about problems like the one we face now which have nothing to do with any of that and involve trying to solve software problems (like the one we have now with the MySQL database) that involve software I barely know anything about and when I finish spending days on the problem, there is no visible progress in the game, it just works again instead of failing.

On top of that, we have just lost a team member. Valen has quit. Part of the issue was the pay arrangements, but another key point was that he and I have different opinions on various aspects of game design.

I wonder if I really should be spending so much time and effort on this. It would be very hard to just drop the project after this much effort and money has gone into it, but it's also very hard to go on. With Valen gone, there's not much of a team left. He and I were the only ones working on it regularly.

One of the things that have kept me going is the enthusiasm of the players. I'm not even sure why you guys like the game so much. I feel so limited in what we can do and it seems like progress is unbearably slow. That's partly because I've created lots of paper and dice role playing games and it's so much easier with those to create a world. It's actually fun whereas trying to get things to work right in the game isn't fun at all.

I'm going to go ahead and try to figure out how to fix the problem with the faction ratings in the MySQL database now. Any input you guys have on whether this game is really moving towards something that people would pay money to play would be appreciated.

[sunshine]

Charles, we have a couple of guild members who are acquainted with MySQl, I think.

I'm going to ask. Maybe they can help a bit.

Don't quit on us just yet.


Done. I left a post for the guild.

[sunshine]

Two of our members have some knowledge of MySQL. I posted your message and left them this site as well as your champion67.yahoo.com address.

I hope they can help.

[invisal]

Why don't you use text-file database instead of MySQL which is something you aren't good at? I have seen a few online game still use text-file as their database such as Ragnarok Online.

[Charles]

Thanks for the input and offers of help, guys. Since I posted my last comment I spent some time working on the problem. The problem is even worse than I thought. When anyone logs in, the server won't shut down normally and data is lost.

I have concluded that I should revert to the previous system and stop using MySQL until I know more about it or have help from someone who is familiar with it.

The old system of .dat files will still work just fine. This is similar to what Invisal suggested. Of course, everyone will have to start a new character, but since that just happened, the only characters that have been created are for brand new players and for Beepe. Beepe, you will be able to use the same solution as last time to get your abilities and spells back. A similar solution will work for others who had lots of abilities and spells. The tree at the temple only responds to priests of the fellowship, but the fruit can heal others as well.

So at this point I think it would be best to switch back to the old system. We did still need to delete everyone's character because of Dreamora's Prophesy. That was a separate issue from the MySQL database, we just did both at the same time. If it weren't necessary, I could actually use the old data file to restore everyone's character exactly the way they were before this whole mess started.

I have been advised by Dreamora that we really should use MySQL because it gives us more options. We were planning to use some of those options in conjunction with Valen's programming skills, but with him off the team, that's no longer immediately needed.

At some point we probably will start using the MySQL database again, but I have a plan to make sure that people don't lose their characters when that happens. We can write a script (or one of you could) that will record all the data about a character in a log file and then another script to set all those same variables to those values for a new character with the same name. This script could do the same thing for every character. That would allow a smoother transition from the old-style database to the MySQL database when the time comes.

Or maybe we'll switch to MySQL at the end of the first age and have a thousand years go by so that it will be part of the story that none of the previous characters could still be alive.

Anyway, there is no pressing reason to keep using MySQL, it is making the game unplayable, and the problems may be part of Dreamora's Prophesy and would be solved automatically when we solve that.

So I'm not going to spend more time on it. On Tuesday, I expect to have a regular session as planned. Everyone will have to create a new account and a new character, but the game will work.

In game terms, the hostility of the dwarves to foreigners, especially gnomes, was building up before this as some of you may have noticed. It was made worse by some strange magic that is believed to be related to Dreamora's Prophesy, but Kraylus worked some magic to counteract this and sent Tronor to speak to Thoreg and Noreg about it.

Assuming this meeting goes well, the dwarves should allow foreigners into Port Town again, but the hostility will not be entirely gone. Noreg is still in charge of the Port Town Militia and he is still somewhat unfriendly to people he considers foreigners, especially gnomes.

Thanks for the offer of help on the MySQL problem. I do still need to solve that problem eventually, but I'm going to solve the main Dreamora's Prophesy problem first and that might also solve the MySQL problem without any further work.

[sunshine]

Thank you for the update, Charles. I am looking forward to today's session.

[Charles]

I put in a lot of work on the underworld, but it's not ready so the one you will see in this session if you die is the old one.

There are some other things you will notice, some of them rather obvious.

Sorry that I didn't add any new player-written scripts. There's been too much going on. I will try to get to that soon and I'm very glad to see that we now have three people writing them.

[thaero]

to Charles:

do not feel descouraged about the time it's take to put this game on.
I feel very enthusiastic for what it can become.
the strong point can be connecting the player to the lore (like Allort is, and the story behind this).

I have knowledge of C programming (this is my job), and C++(low to medium knowledge). I offer my support should you need it (voluntary of course).

[Charles]

Thaero,

Thank you very much for your kind offer. Unfortunately, the software that runs Magic of the Gods is not written in C++. That was probably a mistake. The software is being entirely rewritten in C++ now. We don't need help with that effort, we have some people working on that already. After that is done, you might be able to help us add features using your knowledge of C++.

What you might be able to help with is writing scripts. Many things in the game are controlled by scripts that use the same scripting language as the magic spells.

Right now a script for a cooking skill is much needed.

Valen was also planning to use C++ to write DLL files that could be called via scripts. He was also keen to make these DLL files interact with the MySQL database for storing various kinds of data. As you may know, I've just disabled the MySQL database and reverted to using the old system of .dat files instead. We can still use log files. Or, if I could figure out what was going wrong with the MySQL database, we could do that again.

I appreciate your offer to help. The highest priority would be to help me figure out how to fix the MySQL problem if you have any knowledge of that or the cooking script. Don't start writing a cooking script yet, just let me know if you are willing. I'll need to explain some things first like how the "abilities" feature works and how we will make sure there is a fire close by to cook on.

Charles

[Charles]

I've gotten a lot done lately and will probably have a lot more time than usual to work on the game in the next few weeks.

Version 01.29 fixed the faction ratings problem so the dwarves are letting people enter Port Town without attacking them on sight.

Version 01.29 also has a greatly improved temple of Kraylus.

Version 01.29 had sacred tree that now has certain magical powers that the priests of the Fellowship have discovered.

Those of you who played last session know all that already. Here's what you don't know.

Version 01.30 now has the improved underworld. Now that Valen is gone, the underworld is no longer a well-lit maze of caverns and tunnels strewn with bones with a throne resting on a pile of skulls. The bones and skulls are appropriate for a god of death. He wasn't necessarily evil, in fact Valen really didn't do anything evil. He might have if he'd stayed longer. Now the underworld is much larger and it's dark in there and the place has been overrun with monsters never seen in the world above. Valen's throne on the pile of skulls is still there, but it's empty, perhaps awaiting a new lord of the underworld.

Version 01.30 also has trees that grow and reproduce. You won't notice it unless you pay very careful attention to the trees over a long period of time or perhaps visit a place you haven't been to for a long time. Eventually the trees grow larger and new ones sprout. I wish I could say that's completely automated. It's not, but it is happening. We have also developed some more ecosystem stuff. For example, you might wonder what the wolves on Worfin Island eat. We have figured that out and plan to soon implement a more complex ecosystem where the wolf population will decline if too many are hunted and the population of creatures they eat will increase.

Version 01.30 also fixes some errors that some of you noticed. The small lake at Ogre Vale on Worfin Island is fixed. Thank you Hywalker for pointing that out. Some of the buildings in Port Town didn't quite rest on the ground, but were a few inches above it. Only a gnome would be low enough to the ground to notice. Thank you to the gnome Avan for noticing. That's fixed. Excessive numbers of dead wolf carcasses killed by ogres have been cleaned up. Thanks again to Avan for noticing.

Version 01.30 also has more work on the Temple of Kraylus including fixing a bug and the sacred tree has grown ever taller.

Those are some of the main things that have been done so far. There will probably be a lot more before the session on Friday (August 8, 2008)

[thaero]

Unfortunatelly, my knowledge of databases it's almost zero, as I hadn't been working on this since college when I made a project using some DAO databases (I think it was in VB).

regarding the cooking, I look forward to it. please send me the needed info so I can start.
next week I take a little break from work, so I think I'll have time for extra activities (scripting that is)

[hywalker]

I really wish i could help.

If i understood the tools to fix things like Buildings flaws, glitches
Landmass imperfections and such i would be more than willing to do so or help in anyway i can.