Quite a few bug fixes over the last couple of days:
- One from the old pre-darkisles days, which corrects the echoes staff get when setting accounts and characters.
- Players who lose link before setting attributes will no longer crash the mud when they use score full (or if a character stats them).
- Not so much of a fix, but rather an upgrade that makes sense. Using a channel name without arguments, if you have the channel off will turn it back on again.
I didn’t want to leave my blog on a bad note, so something a little more up lifting: a competition.
Our code base has been known as Draig – a derivitive of Circle, for quite some time. We’re getting to the point though where we are very different from the original Draig, having taken our own path for development. So, our code base needs a new name. Ideas anyone? If you have a suggestion, post it in the comment with your account name. If we select your idea, I’ll award you with 250RPP. Other staff can play too. Each person can suggest up to 5 names.
Have fun.
Back to the real world. Well, it was nice whilst it lasted. Things were going okay, I managed to sort out fiances and even cashed in my Lindens from Second Life whilst the NZ dollar was at an all time low and made more than expected. Enough that I think I will be able to afford a divorce from my ex-.
That is, until things got royally fucked up. Over Winter, due to our crappy house having no insulation and massive inch wide gaps around doors and windows which yielded inside temperatures of less than 5 degrees Celcius.. and with a young baby, I didn’t have much choice but to keep his room warm.. and this coupled with my Mum (currently living with me for health reasons) taking daily 3 hour baths with 2-3 refills meant that our powerbill for Winter was massive. I mean, really MASSIVE. At the moment, I am $1200NZD in arrears, and that’s down a lot from what it was when Winter ended. And whilst the power company was being quite nice about it and letting us pay it off at a rate we could afford ($40 per week), unfortunately I got a letter today from them saying they reassessed things and want payments to now be $99 per week. That’s a $60 increase per week! I called them, and they are completely inflexible on it. I rang Winz (as I am currently on a benefit for being both student and single mum) and they won’t help. And it’s the weekend so I’m out of options till Tuesday (it’s a long weekend too).
I know I’ll sort something out. I have to. It is just… a little too much on top of everything else.
More work on the orb harvesting code. In now actually works on the test server, creating an object. Though the object created has no relevant values, nor is it set with descriptions or anything. But the overall process has been set up. This is a pretty big step in the code and how it’ll work so we are getting closer and closer to having a magic system.
It has been reorganised for both IC and OOC reasons. The IC reasons, for any who have been playing would know.. are due to the shift in the balance of the gods, most importantly Morhiag who had previously handled death has now shifted alliances. The (previously seven but now) six have had to have a reshuffle and for now, Ylessa and Cymur are jointly handling it, resulting in the changes listed in help Death.
OOCly, the changes have been made to promote conflict. To make peole less fearful of taking risks and less fearful of a players OOC reaction to the permanent loss of a character. Death is still pretty harsh, there are a lot of penalties involved, but for those that follow the Six, it need not be permanent.
Additional Note (as this was brought up by a player): Those who follow either Belial or Morhiag would not be covered under this system. Any one with favour less than zero will be handled by staff seperately.
We have a player built outpost now in the North Eastern portion of the forests
It is, as always, a pleasure.
A few code additions over the last couple of days:
Tired.. sleep time. Be good. Promote the game. Vote. Donate if you can. Help out and play with the newbies. That bit is really important, play with them and make them feel welcome.
Just a reminder that the previous post (or really applies to any post here) is my own view on circumstances. How I perceive things went. This might be different from reality and jaded by my own experiences with people.
The guy in question is not a bad person, just someone that wants different things out of life. I miss him. There are regrets.
So I split up with the guy I was seeing a few days ago. Was I heart broken? No. Did it hurt a little? Yes.
He wasn’t the ‘one’. I know that, I think I knew it right from the start. But I gave it a good go (though I am sure that he would argue otherwise). Ultimately we wanted very different things in a partner. And although I don’t want to be alone, I want to be with someone who makes me feel good about myself (and them) and he didn’t.
I wish him the best in finding what he wants but I’m fairly confident it isn’t me. And after how he reacted to the break up I’m even more sure of that as yesterday he took great pains to go through what seemed to be great pains in saying how wrong for him I am, all my negative qualities and what appeared to me an attempt to break up with me, half ignoring the fact that I had already.
Perhaps it was his ego, not happy with the fact that I was the one that stepped up to the plate and did it, finally. And perhaps it made him feel better.
It certainly didn’t make me, particularly when he took the effort to tell me that it is just as well we don’t have kids together because he would ensure he would take them away from me and get full custody. I mean.. what the hell?
I had thought we’d be still good friends but I can’t imagine wanting to spend time with anyone who would do something like that to their respective partner. At least not without very, very good reason. Even with how badly things ended with ex-husband, I would still not keep him away from seeing and having contact with his kids. I actually want him to and am disappointed he doesn’t.
The mind boggles. I think he just wanted to hurt me. I don’t know. Men.
On a side note, if you notice my writing sometimes missing m’s and commas it is because the tops of those two keys are missing from my laptop. *curses at length about Dell* I would not recommend them, ever. Whilst the tech guys they send out are good, their phone support and product is absolutely terrible.
So far, I have had my adapter replaced 5 times over 12 months. Each time it has been a HUGE fight to get it replaced under warranty as they try to convince me this is classed as normal wear and tear. Those things are bloody $90NZD! And no other laptop I have owned has gone through them so quickly. Each time they break (they wear and fray at the jack point) it has taken a good few hour call to Dell arguing and getting referred to manager upon manager to get it replaced. Looking it up online, this is a common and known problem that seems to be happening to a lot of people. The tech guy that came out confirmed this.
My motherboard has been replaced 4 times from overheating. Yes, I always use it on a flat surface (on a tray) and regularly blow air into it to try keep it clear of dust.
My battery has never held a charge for much more than 45 minutes. Apparently also the battery is not covered under the warranty.
In December I rang them asking for a refund and was referred to their complaints (Customer ‘care’) who were concerned and offered me a year extension on the warranty. I explained I needed a reliable computer for uni and having it break suddenly in the middle of an assignment wasn’t acceptable. They convinced me to take the free warranty, assuring me that it would be sorted for me and this wouldn’t happen. And I re-iterated that if it did I would be asking for a refund again, as is my rights under the Consumer Guarantees Act. Unfortunately, all their call centre staff are not from NZ, so saying that doesn’t work so good as they have no knowledge of it.
And now? It is starting to overheat again and it’s already starting to tell me it doesn’t recognise my adapter. *sighs* I really hate having to do stuff like this and it is really hard to spend 2+ hours on the phone when you have a baby. Email doesn’t work because they rarely respond!
</rant>
Thanks to Busta for the latest donation to help out with another few days of advertising. It is very much appreciated. I’ve been using Project Wonderful for our advertising which works on a bidding system and in the end is much cheaper than more traditional ways of advertising which usually costs about $2-3 per CPM. It also allows us to target a specific audience and they service some popular comic websites such as Sinfest.
I finally tracked down a bug with the combat code, an int which should of been a float. Something so small to cause so much grief.
Big welcome to our new newbies, this round of advertising seems to be doing the trick and getting us some fresh blood. Unfortunately good advertising isn’t free, however I have found some that is reasonably priced (approximately $5 per day). So if you are in a position to and want to help us keep it going: Donations. Every little bit helps, and to thank those that can donate, we’ll get out our crayons and colour in your account name.
You can also help by hitting the vote buttons daily on the main page of our website, or writing us a review at RPI Muds.