I’ve known for awhile that it was coming, and here it is. I’m taking a break. Dark Isles is a wonderful place, but right now it’s not the place for me. There’s always some issue, be it IC or OOC, between characters or players, or the choices that characters make. There’s issues with code and creation and crafts and none of them, in and of themselves, are a problem. Not really. We’ve worked around them in marvelous ways for the last few weeks.

But I’m beat and at the point of feeling broken. After dealing with crash after crash and all the issues with getting the MUD restored, items returned, things reset, just to have them wiped again. 4000 rooms to proof read and bug fix and restore and now they’re all back again. Players who can’t get along. Complaint after complaint sent to me via email or IM…

I’m sorry you made the choices you did for your characters. I’m sorry you don’t approve of the people who’ve worked hard to become top dogs in the game. I’m sorry the laws don’t suit your particular fancy for what the game should be. I’m sorry that the crashes caused downtime and loss of play. I’m sorry for a lot of things, but none of them are things that I can do a thing about. When you bring them to me, I try. I try to find ways to work around things for you. I try to find you other avenues, things you might not have considered as viable RP. I try to be creative and soothe ruffled feathers and keep things running smoothly, but frankly, I can’t any more. I spent hours trying to fix issues that I should have been devoting to planning my daughter’s party, and now things are chaos because I didn’t get them done earlier, when I should have.

My own fault? Of course it is. But it’s added more stress to my RL than I need. I can’t even enjoy RP any more, and for those of you who know me well, you know that RP has been one of my sole hobbies for the past few years.

I’m sure in a week or so I’ll be feeling much more like myself. I just need a vacation.

Sorry.

Well, we’ve narrowed down the issue.

Not that it helps when we can’t get into the game. I’m working with Thirdhosting (if they have the patience to help us out one more time) and hopefully we’ll be able to get to the bottom of this very soon.

I’ve had word from Carmine: She’ll be back next week, at least sometimes, though probably not full time until she’s settled in fully.

Code. For players, this means combat, steal code, pick locks, and messages. DO NOT USE MESSAGES!!! This means, yes, do NOT go out and hunt. If a demon tags you… okay. We aren’t asking you to die, but do not deliberately instigate combat.

The MUD is back up, but we aren’t fully certain what brought it down. The staffer at Thirdhosting says it’s a world file, but nothing new was put in before the crashes began, so I think it’s something old. Staff will not be doing much in the way of building or restoring, or anything that requires copyovers.

This is a bad BAD time to have characters deleted or items made. We’ll have to refuse until we see if we can stay up, this time.

Thirdhosting was awesome, but what they did for us clearly didn’t solve the issue.

I’m still trying to get ahold of Carmine. Hopefully we can have things smoothed over quickly.

I’m very, very sorry guys. I’m doing everything I can.

This is the response I got from our MUD hosting. Without even the slightest hassle, they solved our problem. Apparently he had to dig through the code to find it, but we’re up and running. Whee!

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Charles Retay
Staff 2010/08/26 22:41
Greetings,

You rated this response FIVE STARS!

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Well, it occurred to me to try their technical support myself. I’ve never contacted them, and I’m not sure they’ll work with anyone but the owner, but I put in a ticket anyway:

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Hello,

Please contact me and let me know, either way. I am sorry to be pestering you about this, and I wouldn’t if I had any other alternative, but a week or two of potential downtime will be destructive for our game.

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I’ll let you know what, if anything, they have to say on the matter.

Staff have been working hard on a number of things, but it’s all come to a screeching halt.

At least the Feast was a huge success!

When Carmine gets herself settled and has the time / internet access to get into the code, we’ll be back up. I’ve abducted the front page of the website for updates, and I’ll post here too when we have news.

Sorry folks.

Well, it’s been awhile, after my several-a-day blog posting binge, and I figured I’d better update y’all again. Thing is, I’m not really sure where to start.

Serpent Plot

This went off without a hitch, OOCly. ICly there were several big hitches, but some of you really really made an effort to stay IC even at the risk of your characters’ lives and I couldn’t be more pleased with you. There was a lot of SP earned and a lot of IC bragging rights as well, I suspect. I tried out a new event-style and from what I can tell, the players who experienced it appreciated and enjoyed it. I’m more than willing to hear comments and such about it, if there’s more to come, of course!

The snakes are gone, the pit is sealed up… It’s all so nice and neat it makes you wonder if it’s really over, or if we’re all just a little bit…

Other Things:

1. There’s a few plots in the works that are restricted to members of various organizations. However, Marduk has his festival coming up soon. VERY soon. Have you read the forums information? Do your characters have their gifts made or at the very least, planned out? It would suck to be the one caught out unprepared, mmm? I’m looking forward to this. He’s already ruled that I have to sit back and play and not work at all so, wheee!

2. Marduk and I have spent the last four nights solid pouring over information and now the dockmaster’s building is completed, lists of Seahaven’s imports and exports are available, and as soon as my wonderful building duo has the last few items completed, you’ll be able to order rare and exotic things. Some of you are even in professions that will allow export of materials to Tarkas, Balinand, and the Bregh Plains.

3. The Justicar’s offices are all set up and functional and the Justicar’s player has taken them in hand nicely. There’s a forum link to post on, for those of you in need of permits of any kind, or citizenship applications, nobility applications, etc… no excuses now

4. There’s a lot more helpfiles up, and a lot more to come. I can’t list them, because I’ve already forgotten most of them! (Baaad, I know.)

Yada yada, more to come.

The demonic serpents have begun to meander from the western forest and into the city itself. With attacks on citizens and taverns, it seems they’re only going to continue growing bolder until they’re stopped. A few brave men are planning an expedition into the Western Forest to determine the truth of the demons: where they nest and where they’re coming from, and come up with a plan to stop it.

The brave, the reckless, those with combat skills to support the endeavor can sign up with the Rangers or the Watch to accompany Lord Commander Dayne ap Darryl and Lord Captain Kelindel ap Vimes on this foray into the unknown.

Date: TBA (but soon)

Pretty, isn’t it?

Things are about to come to a head with the serpents, but there’s plenty more, plot-wise, in the works.

Muahaha!

But beyond my moment of evil apocalyptic-styled glee, the next few weeks out to prove interesting for all involved.

Gotten so many things done, finally, and I really have to throw out a huge thank you to the staff and builders that’ve been so very willing to help out.