05-12-2010, 09:24 AM
Yes. It's time to bring this up, as there have been intermittent rumors about the possibility of one ever since... well, several months.
As some folks may be aware, the topic of it has cropped up a few times in the GM Discussion forum (and of course the public thread a while back). One of the big things that has hindered me in the past was the issues with trying out a dedicated server. For those that had the pleasure of trying that out, the bandwidth and lack of lag was truly awesome! However, the stability of it was horrendous, and it constantly lost connectivity and went into limbo. Of course, that was the downside of it being inexpensive, and I'm not about to try another one with the monthly fee approaching the 100s, especially since we're a relatively small community anyhow.
Anyway, the specifics of a restart have been hashed a bit, and initially we were going to do a full restart, as before. After discussing a bit, and trying to be a bit more accommodating, what I have in mind is to let people keep their characters so long as they can fit around the server lore changes, which I intend to bring up to speed with Blizzard's current lore. We were intending to at least do events in Northrend leading up to current time and then wipe out server-specific permanent changes (such as the Sin'sholai plot, slain NPCs, etc), due to things we've learned.
As stated previously, what I intend to do with characters is to accept them so long as any necessary changes are done. Bear in mind that we will be requiring a resubmission of character profiles, but you should be able to just copy and paste from either the wiki, or the archived character profiles (we'll be opening them back up for folks to easily find their profiles in there). Also note that no new profiles will be accepted at that time, since we'll be having a massive chore of just reviewing previous profiles. We'll also be requiring that any noted alterations to a profile are mentioned in a reply. This should help immensely.
Now, the other thing that I had been contemplating when I was initially trying out a dedicated server was a new core. Specifically, TrinityCore. Back then, when I was testing it out, it seemed pretty nifty, though I wasn't really up to the task. After revisiting it, and looking a bit more into the database organization, I think it would be a nice step up. (Not to mention it supports the latest patch!) It will be a lot of work transferring stuff over to the new format, however.
While on the topic of migration, the characters table will not be migrated. Yes, that means all your characters will be lost. I cannot think of a feasible way to transfer characters, guilds, etc. over. On the plus side, what I'll probably be doing is temporarily instituting a new type of token that people will be able to use, something like a Bronze Token. This token would be used for -strictly- RP items, no grinding gear. I'll probably make a limit on the item level or quality that these can be used for, as people will still be getting their 10 silver tokens in addition to the bronze ones (I'd probably offer something like 20, so people can still have about two sets of RP apparel, in addition to whatever they use their silver tokens for).
The benefits of not migrating the characters table include freeing up a lot of old names of characters that are rotting away, including many of those that quit. To give an idea, there are... well, tons of characters. Thousands. I'll give a more accurate count when I get back home. This also includes guild names! I would highly suggest not to try and steal a name from an active player, however. That will be dealt with accordingly.
Going back to the core, Trinity seems to be a very nice upgrade. Even little things such as NPCs actually emoting and having text bubbles above their heads when having them speak, so you actually know -which- NPC is talking/emoting, is very nice. And, from what I've heard, the scripting is also far superior than what ArcEmu is at the moment. Lastly, it's also allegedly a lot more stable, although I admit the server has already been pretty stable. The slew of new commands will be a challenge to learn, but the customization possibilities seem very nice. The fact that it has a native AH Bot and configurable settings that I've previously had to code in manually (or find a code patch for) is also a huge boon.
As far as when this could happen, it likely wouldn't be for another few months. For one, considering I just started college classes again (in week four currently!), my free time is even less than before, and with someone leaving my department at work, that doesn't help either. The other thing is that though I can run a local test version of the new core, I cannot set it up to allow outside connections, since the login server can only connect to one port (to my knowledge). Therefore, outside connections are not possible, meaning I would be unable to get other GM assistance. Of course, once I get the custom creatures, items, quests, gameobjects, etc. ported over, the big part would be to start respawning our custom areas, which may also change.
That leads me to another reason for a restart - there's a lot of crap spawned in the world, and a lot of changes that were made that I want back to normal. In addition, using a new (better-populated and current) database is also a boon, considering I like having retail-like spawns of most areas, unless it's a customized area (like the Gurubashi arena).
Finally, the OOC zone will probably change as well, since WSG is, quite frankly, very big and confusing if you're not already accustomed to where everything is. We have a map available, but it's still a lot of running. The new zone would -proooobably- be GM Island, considering that will never get retail additions. A few GMs already started work on it about a month or so ago, but I suppose that will have to be restarted with a new core.
So, that's that! No full character-history wipe, partial server lore ret-con, accommodations being made, ideally-better core, and schtuff. Questions and discussion are welcome, but do not turn it into the last restart discussion. We know how that went. I also hope I didn't forget anything in this post.
As some folks may be aware, the topic of it has cropped up a few times in the GM Discussion forum (and of course the public thread a while back). One of the big things that has hindered me in the past was the issues with trying out a dedicated server. For those that had the pleasure of trying that out, the bandwidth and lack of lag was truly awesome! However, the stability of it was horrendous, and it constantly lost connectivity and went into limbo. Of course, that was the downside of it being inexpensive, and I'm not about to try another one with the monthly fee approaching the 100s, especially since we're a relatively small community anyhow.
Anyway, the specifics of a restart have been hashed a bit, and initially we were going to do a full restart, as before. After discussing a bit, and trying to be a bit more accommodating, what I have in mind is to let people keep their characters so long as they can fit around the server lore changes, which I intend to bring up to speed with Blizzard's current lore. We were intending to at least do events in Northrend leading up to current time and then wipe out server-specific permanent changes (such as the Sin'sholai plot, slain NPCs, etc), due to things we've learned.
As stated previously, what I intend to do with characters is to accept them so long as any necessary changes are done. Bear in mind that we will be requiring a resubmission of character profiles, but you should be able to just copy and paste from either the wiki, or the archived character profiles (we'll be opening them back up for folks to easily find their profiles in there). Also note that no new profiles will be accepted at that time, since we'll be having a massive chore of just reviewing previous profiles. We'll also be requiring that any noted alterations to a profile are mentioned in a reply. This should help immensely.
Now, the other thing that I had been contemplating when I was initially trying out a dedicated server was a new core. Specifically, TrinityCore. Back then, when I was testing it out, it seemed pretty nifty, though I wasn't really up to the task. After revisiting it, and looking a bit more into the database organization, I think it would be a nice step up. (Not to mention it supports the latest patch!) It will be a lot of work transferring stuff over to the new format, however.
While on the topic of migration, the characters table will not be migrated. Yes, that means all your characters will be lost. I cannot think of a feasible way to transfer characters, guilds, etc. over. On the plus side, what I'll probably be doing is temporarily instituting a new type of token that people will be able to use, something like a Bronze Token. This token would be used for -strictly- RP items, no grinding gear. I'll probably make a limit on the item level or quality that these can be used for, as people will still be getting their 10 silver tokens in addition to the bronze ones (I'd probably offer something like 20, so people can still have about two sets of RP apparel, in addition to whatever they use their silver tokens for).
The benefits of not migrating the characters table include freeing up a lot of old names of characters that are rotting away, including many of those that quit. To give an idea, there are... well, tons of characters. Thousands. I'll give a more accurate count when I get back home. This also includes guild names! I would highly suggest not to try and steal a name from an active player, however. That will be dealt with accordingly.
Going back to the core, Trinity seems to be a very nice upgrade. Even little things such as NPCs actually emoting and having text bubbles above their heads when having them speak, so you actually know -which- NPC is talking/emoting, is very nice. And, from what I've heard, the scripting is also far superior than what ArcEmu is at the moment. Lastly, it's also allegedly a lot more stable, although I admit the server has already been pretty stable. The slew of new commands will be a challenge to learn, but the customization possibilities seem very nice. The fact that it has a native AH Bot and configurable settings that I've previously had to code in manually (or find a code patch for) is also a huge boon.
As far as when this could happen, it likely wouldn't be for another few months. For one, considering I just started college classes again (in week four currently!), my free time is even less than before, and with someone leaving my department at work, that doesn't help either. The other thing is that though I can run a local test version of the new core, I cannot set it up to allow outside connections, since the login server can only connect to one port (to my knowledge). Therefore, outside connections are not possible, meaning I would be unable to get other GM assistance. Of course, once I get the custom creatures, items, quests, gameobjects, etc. ported over, the big part would be to start respawning our custom areas, which may also change.
That leads me to another reason for a restart - there's a lot of crap spawned in the world, and a lot of changes that were made that I want back to normal. In addition, using a new (better-populated and current) database is also a boon, considering I like having retail-like spawns of most areas, unless it's a customized area (like the Gurubashi arena).
Finally, the OOC zone will probably change as well, since WSG is, quite frankly, very big and confusing if you're not already accustomed to where everything is. We have a map available, but it's still a lot of running. The new zone would -proooobably- be GM Island, considering that will never get retail additions. A few GMs already started work on it about a month or so ago, but I suppose that will have to be restarted with a new core.
So, that's that! No full character-history wipe, partial server lore ret-con, accommodations being made, ideally-better core, and schtuff. Questions and discussion are welcome, but do not turn it into the last restart discussion. We know how that went. I also hope I didn't forget anything in this post.