We've hit another major milestone, and have a definitive date for the start of the 2.5 beta, so it's time for another update.
There have been a couple of significant bugs that have been a real thorn in my side, the most notable of which was the propensity of the client to crash after being in-game 9 minutes. Rather than making the 2.5 experience "Raid an entire zone in less than 10 minutes or you get zero exp or loot", we managed to get that one put to bed finally. Big thanks to the EqEmu folks for helping out with that - their expertise in knowing the weirdness of the various clients has been a huge help.
The other major thing that is complete now is a beta version of the 2.5 patcher. For a variety of reasons, I decided to rewrite this - while the functionality is almost identical, it's easier to maintain and extend now. It also performs some magic (seriously, it's almost freaking magical) that allows us to override some of the client's behavior. Right now, we use this only to make sure you see SoD zone names like "Haegra Malath" instead of "Grimling Forest (TM)"*, but there may be other opportunities for us to use this technique in the future.
The new patcher, however, will require .NET framework 2.0. If you have Windows Vista or later, you should already be covered. Earlier than that, there's about a 90% chance you already have it. If not, you can download it using the link at the bottom of the page just so you are 100% ready to go. No one likes waiting for dependencies to download.
Lastly, the interest in the 2.5 beta has been overwhelming according to Woldaff, and we appreciate that. Because we've got account drives coming up and bonus exp weeks, we decided to launch the beta right after the bonus weeks. For folks who will be in the beta, I want to set the expectation that it's going to be rough around the edges - things like strings and messages may be wrong in quite a few places because we've changed clients, so we're going to need time to work that out. What we're hoping to do, though, is at least have it so you can group (and raid) up, get some exp, get some loot, and give us feedback on what works and what doesn't.
That last part is important. If reporting bugs isn't your thing, the beta is not for you. If the occasional crash or lost item isn't your thing, the beta is not for you. While we will try to straighten out as much as we can (and reimburse things if we can), you should expect that there's a chance Bad Things may happen. Please keep this in mind as you decide whether or not you wish to participate. Keep in mind also that the 2.5 server will have a strong dev presence, but we are spread across the live and 2.5 instances, and live needs to take precedence. In other words, please bear with us during beta.
So that's it. Beta starts as soon as exp week #2 ends. We'll be reaching out to our beta testers before that with instructions and guidelines.
-T
* Grimling Forest is property of Sony Online Entertainment, and Shards of Dalaya is only mentioning it as an example. We do not own, nor want to own, Grimling Forest or its inhabitants.
Link to download .NET Framework 2.0 (make sure to run Windows Update after installation to grab any patches!):
32-bit: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=16614
64-bit: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=6523
There have been a couple of significant bugs that have been a real thorn in my side, the most notable of which was the propensity of the client to crash after being in-game 9 minutes. Rather than making the 2.5 experience "Raid an entire zone in less than 10 minutes or you get zero exp or loot", we managed to get that one put to bed finally. Big thanks to the EqEmu folks for helping out with that - their expertise in knowing the weirdness of the various clients has been a huge help.
The other major thing that is complete now is a beta version of the 2.5 patcher. For a variety of reasons, I decided to rewrite this - while the functionality is almost identical, it's easier to maintain and extend now. It also performs some magic (seriously, it's almost freaking magical) that allows us to override some of the client's behavior. Right now, we use this only to make sure you see SoD zone names like "Haegra Malath" instead of "Grimling Forest (TM)"*, but there may be other opportunities for us to use this technique in the future.
The new patcher, however, will require .NET framework 2.0. If you have Windows Vista or later, you should already be covered. Earlier than that, there's about a 90% chance you already have it. If not, you can download it using the link at the bottom of the page just so you are 100% ready to go. No one likes waiting for dependencies to download.
Lastly, the interest in the 2.5 beta has been overwhelming according to Woldaff, and we appreciate that. Because we've got account drives coming up and bonus exp weeks, we decided to launch the beta right after the bonus weeks. For folks who will be in the beta, I want to set the expectation that it's going to be rough around the edges - things like strings and messages may be wrong in quite a few places because we've changed clients, so we're going to need time to work that out. What we're hoping to do, though, is at least have it so you can group (and raid) up, get some exp, get some loot, and give us feedback on what works and what doesn't.
That last part is important. If reporting bugs isn't your thing, the beta is not for you. If the occasional crash or lost item isn't your thing, the beta is not for you. While we will try to straighten out as much as we can (and reimburse things if we can), you should expect that there's a chance Bad Things may happen. Please keep this in mind as you decide whether or not you wish to participate. Keep in mind also that the 2.5 server will have a strong dev presence, but we are spread across the live and 2.5 instances, and live needs to take precedence. In other words, please bear with us during beta.
So that's it. Beta starts as soon as exp week #2 ends. We'll be reaching out to our beta testers before that with instructions and guidelines.
-T
* Grimling Forest is property of Sony Online Entertainment, and Shards of Dalaya is only mentioning it as an example. We do not own, nor want to own, Grimling Forest or its inhabitants.
Link to download .NET Framework 2.0 (make sure to run Windows Update after installation to grab any patches!):
32-bit: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=16614
64-bit: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=6523
