Friday with Means - May 8th, 2009

[Means]

This was an "interesting" week. "Interesting" is going to have to be the word of choice as anything else would possibly being sensored by my own moderators.

The issue:

When AO was in development way back in 1998 (date and license number determined by a small piece of paper found at a previous employee's home office.)...the decision was made to go with C-Tree to store our in game resources...that Database you all happily rip every time we release an update to see the new candy. Metaing was kind enough to point out at the end of last week that this version of C-Tree had a size limit of 2 Gigs. Size limit really meaning "put more in it and it will do very, very bad things." Our current resource database is currenly hovering at about 1.9 Gigs.

My options were to never add new graphical resources to AO...or Panic. I chose to Panic.

In 1998 2 Gigs was "Forever!" amounts of space...today this is obviously no longer the case. C-Tree has performed well for us over the last 9 years or so...so we have never had any reason to contact them about anything. I was pleased to find out that the company still existed (a good start!) and that they had more recent versions of the format that supported a larger capacity (large files...they tell me.) and better yet that the conversion process was straight-forward and reasonably painless. The fact that new pricing of C-tree now indicated that the new cost would be $5 per player was surprising.

When I recovered enough to stand I was happy to find that the C-Tree european manager was more than willing to be flexible with pricing to allow us to continue to use their excellent product. I do owe him a T-Shirt and a tour of the FC Oslo offices when he is in town....thank you Franco.

Thank-you Macrosun for working to reverse engineer the "lost" client build code to accomodate this update to the client RDB. Not fun..we know..and we all appreciate it. A /facepalm emote inspired by this event will be coming to the AO client in the near future.

This has resulted in *gasp* delays this week. We had been hoping to have the first views of instanced Pande, balancing, a new apartment and other 18.1 updates on TestLive this week but unfortunately this will now be coming next week instead.

The good news is that it seems to be all in viable shape and I am looking forward to seeing it on Test next week. It is likely I will need to "borrow" some guilds from the live dimensions to test it fully...any volunteer guilds would be appreciated. *hint hint*

Have a great weekend!

[Saregon1]

First

[Vhab]

"2 gigabytes should be more than everyone should ever need"

[Gastastic]

3rd!

Would the new C-tree apply to the old engine, the new one, or both? If it can be applied before the engine update, then I'd love to see modifiable ranges for various items (weapons, especially, whose creation and modification could reflect some combination of the maker's skill, components, and plain luck in terms of results... though this could apply to armors and even tools as well).

[Technogen]

Means :P Clarify that the C-tree is from 1988 not AO.

[tk421-]

Hmm, at least you found out before the "all hell breaks loose and leets starts raining from the sky" mark.

[ArienSky]

This is what I like with FWM, information on what is going on and historical anecdotes, along with letting us know the apartments soon are up for trial

I will transfer another bil to Test Live, hoping that is enough for the apartment?

Kind Regards
Ariensky

[Alternity]

Originally Posted by Means It is likely I will need to "borrow" some guilds from the live dimensions to test it fully...any volunteer guilds would be appreciated. *hint hint*

Spartans signs up to test

[Kaylinne]

Originally Posted by Means It is likely I will need to "borrow" some guilds from the live dimensions to test it fully...any volunteer guilds would be appreciated. *hint hint*

Sounds interesting. What kind of size should those orgs be?

[Ittledoc]

facepalm emote inspired by this event will be coming to the AO client in the near future

ROFL!!! w00t more emotes!!!

Nice a techno-geek FWM report.. me likey.. now (I know 3rd party software isn't a top topic of FC) do you know if the "process" of access the DB will remain the same? IE ripping it with enthusiasm the same way a new one comes out? (~cough~) back pack checkers and clicksaver? or will those have to be re-engineered?

[zartosht]

Originally Posted by Means In 1988 2 Gigs was "Forever!" amounts of space...today this is obviously no longer the case.

More visionaries:

“I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.” – Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943

[Firestorm518]

Originally Posted by Means This was an "interesting" week. "Interesting" is going to have to be the word of choice as anything else would possibly being sensored by my own moderators. The issue: When AO was in development way back in 1998 (date and license number determined by a small piece of paper found at a previous employee's home office.)...the decision was made to go with C-Tree to store our in game resources...that Database you all happily rip every time we release an update to see the new candy. Metaing was kind enough to point out at the end of last week that this version of C-Tree had a size limit of 2 Gigs. Size limit really meaning "put more in it and it will do very, very bad things." Our current resource database is currenly hovering at about 1.9 Gigs. My options were to never add new graphical resources to AO...or Panic. I chose to Panic. In 1988 2 Gigs was "Forever!" amounts of space...today this is obviously no longer the case. C-Tree has performed well for us over the last 9 years or so...so we have never had any reason to contact them about anything. I was pleased to find out that the company still existed (a good start!) and that they had more recent versions of the format that supported a larger capacity (large files...they tell me.) and better yet that the conversion process was straight-forward and reasonably painless. The fact that new pricing of C-tree now indicated that the new cost would be $5 per player was surprising. When I recovered enough to stand I was happy to find that the C-Tree european manager was more than willing to be flexible withn pricing to allow us to continue to use their excellent product. I do owe him a T-Shirt and a tour of the FC Oslo offices when he is in town....thank you Franco. Thank-you Macrosun for working to reverse engineer the "lost" client build code to accomodate this update to the client RDB. Not fun..we know..and we all appreciate it. A /facepalm emote inspired by this event will be coming to the AO client in the near future. This has resulted in *gasp* delays this week. We had been hoping to have the first views of instanced Pande, balancing, a new apartment and other 18.1 updates on TestLive this week but unfortunately this will now be coming next week instead. The good news is that it seems to be all in viable shape and I am looking forward to seeing it on Test next week. It is likely I will need to "borrow" some guilds from the live dimensions to test it fully...any volunteer guilds would be appreciated. *hint hint* Have a great weekend!

I dont know about the rest of the coven but i am never on test live. For this patch to see what could be coming to my enforcer and my potential second 220 (ranged adv) i will be down for this.

[Means]

Originally Posted by Ittledoc ROFL!!! w00t more emotes!!! Nice a techno-geek FWM report.. me likey.. now (I know 3rd party software isn't a top topic of FC) do you know if the "process" of access the DB will remain the same? IE ripping it with enthusiasm the same way a new one comes out? (~cough~) back pack checkers and clicksaver? or will those have to be re-engineered?

No idea...but we have no intention of making it difficult with encryption or any other nonsense.

[Graftmage]

Originally Posted by Means No idea...but we have no intention of making it difficult with encryption or any other nonsense.

Make your own DB extracting tool and make it public

[Perfekt]

Means - Would you mind clarifying if the fixes you propose for the professions? That is to say, are they going to be "as-complete-as-possible" balance fixes or just pvp or pvm fixes? Are these planned to be in the form of an item(s) or are you considering actual mechanics/perk changing?

I don't expect you to spill the beans on your changes here. I just would like to know the extent of which you plan to make changes.

If you've already answered this somewhere, then my mistake.

Thanks.

[Labret]

The union would like to sign up to help if you need us.

[Rktim]

This is kinda funny tbh, because i remember laying in my bed last week, staring at the roof going "AO will need a new modern DB soon because the one we use is to limiting.. I better send a PM to means pointing out that it should be top priority, the current one must be like... 2001... afew years of production... like 10 years old... if not more.."

xD

Guess i was spot on then

Well means look at it this way, at least you have now done the top thing in my propriety list for "things that must happen to AO except for graphics engine" list xD

Am i correct to assume that this new version of c-tree will allow you to set up new rules for equipment, like instantly flagging all items of a specific type to do or not do something (then i have some GREAT ideas..) and also to add new rules and effects etc etc on items?

[vadagget]

$5 per player per...?

Was that a one-time fee, or license paid annually or something?

[Carlmalone]

Still patiently awaiting for Means to provide some details on instanced cities

I would love to know what the size of the plots will be, if you still have to pay to purchase a lot, and if any other limitations beyond no player market will exist.

Also, this doesn't mean subscription prices will be adjusted will it?

[Katrae]

Power Overwhelming would love to help you, just give us a shout