Robin Mayne
Web Team Manager
Beigetreten: 15 Okt 2001
Von: BioWare |
 Gepostet: Mittwoch, 04 Dezember 2002 07:13 |
Persistent Worlds - what are they? How do they work? Where can you find them? These questions are all answered in this new Player's Guide to Persistent Worlds by "A Land Far Away" project administrator Major Bill Marcellino.
Robin
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Robin Mayne
BioWare WebGUY 
+++ Mass Effect +++ |
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Lord Vallis
Game Owner
 NWN
NWN: SoU
NWN: HotU
NWN 2
NWN 2: MotB
NWN 2: SoZ
Beigetreten: 19 Jun 2002
Von: The Deeper Dungeons |
Gepostet: Mittwoch, 04 Dezember 2002 07:26 |
We're really scraping the bottom of the NWN Wednesday barrel I see.
V.
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My ol' lady complains that I never listen to her... or something like that. |
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knightmb
Game Owner
 NWN
NWN: SoU
NWN: HotU
NWN 2
NWN 2: MotB
Beigetreten: 19 Jun 2002
Von: Franklin, TN |
Gepostet: Mittwoch, 04 Dezember 2002 07:37 |
I think this is a good topic of discussion, running large PW myself (multi-servers as defined by the guide  ). One thing I would like to encourage players to do, realm feedback on the PW they play in. I slap NPC's all over the place with my e-mail asking for any feedback, comments, or suggestions in my PW. Also, for those that run their own PW, go explore other admins worlds. When you spend your whole life in your realm, you might be missing a good idea in another realm run by someone else. You also get to be think outside of the box and see what others players like/dislike about the PW they interact in.
In an unnamed PW, I was doing a quest that required me to rescue someone. After they were rescued, I went back to town and talk to the person who set up my task. A conversation error had me start the quest over, was kind of frustrating. I encourage PW admins to please play-test the heck out of your world. 
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'Orb of Abrogation PW' 24/7 Since June of 2002
Listed under 'PW Story' in gamespy.
Click Here for Website |
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Robin Mayne
Web Team Manager
Beigetreten: 15 Okt 2001
Von: BioWare |
Gepostet: Mittwoch, 04 Dezember 2002 07:39 |
Good advise, knightmb - thanks!
Robin
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Robin Mayne
BioWare WebGUY
+++ Mass Effect +++ |
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LintphishX
Game Owner
 NWN
NWN: SoU
NWN: HotU
Beigetreten: 14 Okt 2002 |
Gepostet: Mittwoch, 04 Dezember 2002 10:38 |
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This is a very good subject and that was a great guide to read! I've been developing a PW for a while now. It started as a single player campain but I made so many maps and had so many ideas it became much bigger. And I find myself scrapping ideas all the time and trying to work around things. I have to work alone most of the time because my helpers aren't as into it or don't manage time as well as I do. (Sleeping for 3 hours and uber-pots of coffee work well.) This has been the most rewarding experience I've had programing and developing ever. I just hope that future expansions help with the PW developing process. Have an awesome Wednesday all! |
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Architeuthis
Game Owner
 NWN
Beigetreten: 15 Jul 2002 |
Gepostet: Mittwoch, 04 Dezember 2002 11:36 |
I'm with Vallis on this one.
Archi |
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L. A. Long
Game Owner
 NWN
NWN: SoU
NWN 2
Beigetreten: 18 Jul 2002 |
Gepostet: Mittwoch, 04 Dezember 2002 11:51 |
Well all very nice and all. Don't get me wrong I love this game. The toolset is fantastic, it's real fun to play. But the way it was presented, it made it sound like PW's were another great "feature" of NWN. I mean yeah they exist, no thanks to the design though. It would be one thing if it were just by accident, but the fact that NWN has limitations to prevent just a thing, just makes it seem kind of ironic. So I guess BioWare changed their minds and the game is also PW. That's fine by me I love it!
Click Here
So how about doing all those in the PW community a BIG favor? 
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PW Action of an unusual kind - http://www.arturum.com/ |
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ender22
Game Owner
 NWN
NWN: SoU
NWN: HotU
SW: KotOR PC
NWN 2
NWN 2: MotB
NWN 2: SoZ
Mass Effect PC
Beigetreten: 16 Jan 2002 |
Gepostet: Mittwoch, 04 Dezember 2002 11:57 |
Missing question:
12) Why does the PW I play on crash constantly?
Answer: Because Bioware's dedicated linux server is buggy, and despite being sent system info, stack traces, offers of core files, logs, etc., they are unable to achieve an average uptime of more than 2 hours.
13) Isn't this just poor coding on the PWs part?
Answer: No, actually. It happens even with the official modules. It's just a lot more annoying with a PW since people are always on. Nothing like 40 people dropping into chat every 90 minutes to go, "Oh, god, not again. I just lost all my stuff!"
14) Will Bioware ever fix this?!
We can certainly hope so. After producing one of the most ambitious and brilliant games in a decade, will they allow its most promising use to languish in obscurity because of their unstable server? Let's hope not!
15) Why don't you just use windows?
Because lots of colocation environments are homogenous linux farms, and that includes us. Windows is fine as a server when you're hosting some friends on your DSL, but high powered PWs (30+ players) need more, and a lot of the people willing to host the servers can only do so on Linux. This is why almost all major client<->server games, such as Q3, HL:CS, RtCW, etc, all provide linux dedicated servers.
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End Of Infinity -- http://www.endofinfinity.com -- NWN Link database, module ratings, user-submitted stories, polls, and more |
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Mandos
Game Owner
 NWN
NWN: SoU
NWN: HotU
SW: KotOR PC
NWN 2
Beigetreten: 18 Okt 2001 |
Gepostet: Donnerstag, 05 Dezember 2002 12:59 |
We have had DMs quit over their frustration with Linux. The constant segfaults have been a real burden.
BTW if PW folks need some help with nuts'n'bolts stuff, like sharing the servervault, or a mixed windows/linux environment sharing a servervault we have a LOT of experience with this.
We were using Windows File Sharing and SAMBA for linux to remotely mount a drive for a servervault, and have now switched to OpenAFS.
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http://www.alandfaraway.net |
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Arturum2
Game Owner
 NWN
Jade Empire
Beigetreten: 02 Jul 2002 |
Gepostet: Donnerstag, 05 Dezember 2002 09:31 |
As the lead design on Arturum's Bane (PW Action), I've run into a number of issues that could be fixed with little effort from Bioware.
Example:
A simple switch that tells the toolset -- this is a PW, I want all encounters to respawn, at X time...
My lead scripter and I have spent hours working up work arounds for issues that would, should be simple fixes. I'm not blaming Bioware really, they have put out an excellent product, and given us the tools to create with it. For that I'm very grateful, and I DO understand economics. Supporting PW's isn't going to pay the bills in the office, while making expansions will.
The PW creators and scripters out there are a great group of people. We are the front line testers and idea people for the next generation of the game.
Its a two way street in many ways...The Campaign gets people playing the game, learning the rules. The expansions keep people interested. But its the PW's that kill the time between the expansions. We keep the game on the harddrives when space runs out.
I guess what I'm saying is I hope Bioware continues to support and increases support of PW designers and scripters. Last patch was a great thing, I hope we see more of that.
Arturum |
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richterm
Game Owner
 NWN
NWN: SoU
NWN: HotU
Beigetreten: 18 Jun 2002 |
Gepostet: Donnerstag, 05 Dezember 2002 01:01 |
I come from a skewed perspective, I admit, but to me the persistent worlds are going to be what keeps NWN alive for years. Look at popular MUDs and how long some of them have been running...and that's really what many of us are trying to emulate.
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Marc
Owner/Caretaker of The Land of Nordock |
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knightmb
Game Owner
NWN
NWN: SoU
NWN: HotU
NWN 2
NWN 2: MotB
Beigetreten: 19 Jun 2002
Von: Franklin, TN |
Gepostet: Donnerstag, 05 Dezember 2002 03:44 |
Quote: Posted 12/04/02 23:57:30 (GMT) by ender22
15) Why don't you just use windows?
Because lots of colocation environments are homogenous linux farms, and that includes us. Windows is fine as a server when you're hosting some friends on your DSL, but high powered PWs (30+ players) need more, and a lot of the people willing to host the servers can only do so on Linux. This is why almost all major client<->server games, such as Q3, HL:CS, RtCW, etc, all provide linux dedicated servers.
Not to praise Micro$oft any, but the module design also plays a big role in this. A winblows server can handle 30+ players easily if the module is designed with this kind of load in mind.
Also would like to say to PW admins out there. If you use area clean up scripts (clear out monsters, items, merchants, etc), please don't use one placeable per area. That is a server killer right there with hundreds of heartbeats clearing and scanning areas. I've seen too many PW with this. It's great (and needed) idea to clear out areas in your PW, but don't just use one placeable copied over all 100 of your areas. Please use *one* script to scan and clear them all. My opinion, that is what kills a lot of PW servers out there.
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'Orb of Abrogation PW' 24/7 Since June of 2002
Listed under 'PW Story' in gamespy.
Click Here for Website |
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tanis
Game Owner
 NWN
NWN: SoU
NWN: HotU
NWN 2
Beigetreten: 23 Nov 2001
Von: Bergamo, Italy |
Gepostet: Donnerstag, 05 Dezember 2002 05:07 |
Saying that Bioware is scraping the bottom of the barrel is not enough.
If you're publishing an article about PWs, why aren't you also supporting PWs?
If only Bioware would ever add a few functions to read/write to file from within the game, almost all PWs problems would be gone. It's a shame that a lot of people are trying to come up with solution to a problem that is not really a problem itself.
Are Bioware's developers ever going to add new features for PWs?
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cya!
-tanis
One Man Crew Gaming Community
PWDB - Persistent World DataBase for NWN |
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Orleron
Game Owner
NWN
NWN: SoU
NWN: HotU
Beigetreten: 06 Jun 2002
Von: CoPaP |
Gepostet: Freitag, 06 Dezember 2002 05:36 |
Tanis, they do actually plan to add those features in an upcoming patch. When exactly I don't know. But keep your fingers crossed!
Btw, invisible placeables are ok for cleanup so long as they work off of the area OnEnter event and not the heartbeat.
Blackdagger: The World of Avlis
http://avlis.blackdagger.com
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The World of Avlis
Applications and info at:
http://www.avlis.org
Avlis Wiki:
Click Here
Avlis 2 Site:
Click Here |
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tanis
Game Owner
NWN
NWN: SoU
NWN: HotU
NWN 2
Beigetreten: 23 Nov 2001
Von: Bergamo, Italy |
Gepostet: Freitag, 06 Dezember 2002 09:00 |
Orleron: it's been since the first patch that devs at Bioware started talking about a possible upcoming patch addressing persistency. Their actions confirm that they're not going to do anything for a long time.
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cya!
-tanis
One Man Crew Gaming Community
PWDB - Persistent World DataBase for NWN |
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