So I have been busy the past month organizing a big event at a big conference, which has probably shaved a year off my life in stress alone. But it's over, went well, and so my thoughts turn back to 3.0!
I was surprised not but a few days ago when a contributor dev proposed something amazing:
It may be possible to ditch the ancient client we have now and fix a number of networking issues at the same time. All this using the 2.0 code base.
Holy cow! Really!??! What this means is that we hopefully would say goodbye to zone disconnects and other stupidity. So long NVidia bug (we would be able to use the Seeds of Destruction client). So long crappy handling of Alt and Ctrl that locks up your keyboard. This is a major reason for doing 3.0.
Well, this process is nearly ready for initial testing believe it or not! We are working through the logistics of spinning up a test server, because this represents a major, major shift in code and we want to make sure it actually works right. So that's underway, I'm hoping that we have an instance in the next few days. The plan right now (be advised this may change!) is to invite a small number of folks with known problems to join this test server and make sure we work out major kinks. Next up would be a broader beta test involving more people. If that all goes well, we would then push it live.
There are still logistical things to be worked out. What about exp on the beta system? Do we have to muck with the Seeds client to get it to behave (we might)? Do ALL people need to switch to that client? We're working on answers to that.
We are dubbing this project 2.5. Nothing beyond the client and network code will be changing. There's also a non-zero probability that this just doesn't work! I am hopeful, but want to be realistic as mandated by Woldaff.
But if this goes well, it buys us some more time to get 3.0 worked out, and might possibly open up minor, incremental changes before 3.0 is done. Don't go looking for horses or 500-slot backpacks or anything - there are zero promises on that front. But we have more options.
I'm really excited about this - we have a couple of busy weeks ahead, and by all means will let folks know when we have something to report.
I was surprised not but a few days ago when a contributor dev proposed something amazing:
It may be possible to ditch the ancient client we have now and fix a number of networking issues at the same time. All this using the 2.0 code base.
Holy cow! Really!??! What this means is that we hopefully would say goodbye to zone disconnects and other stupidity. So long NVidia bug (we would be able to use the Seeds of Destruction client). So long crappy handling of Alt and Ctrl that locks up your keyboard. This is a major reason for doing 3.0.
Well, this process is nearly ready for initial testing believe it or not! We are working through the logistics of spinning up a test server, because this represents a major, major shift in code and we want to make sure it actually works right. So that's underway, I'm hoping that we have an instance in the next few days. The plan right now (be advised this may change!) is to invite a small number of folks with known problems to join this test server and make sure we work out major kinks. Next up would be a broader beta test involving more people. If that all goes well, we would then push it live.
There are still logistical things to be worked out. What about exp on the beta system? Do we have to muck with the Seeds client to get it to behave (we might)? Do ALL people need to switch to that client? We're working on answers to that.
We are dubbing this project 2.5. Nothing beyond the client and network code will be changing. There's also a non-zero probability that this just doesn't work! I am hopeful, but want to be realistic as mandated by Woldaff.
But if this goes well, it buys us some more time to get 3.0 worked out, and might possibly open up minor, incremental changes before 3.0 is done. Don't go looking for horses or 500-slot backpacks or anything - there are zero promises on that front. But we have more options.I'm really excited about this - we have a couple of busy weeks ahead, and by all means will let folks know when we have something to report.
