Sigh.

THE SYSTEM IS DOWN

Sadly, the board will be down for an extended period of time. The board crashed sometime Thursday night. Unfortunately due to the age of some of the components of the system it is going to take me a few days to get it back up and running. Fear not, we do have backups from the previous night before the crash, so no data should be lost (I hope), but it may be up to a week until I can get it back up and running.

I just want to take a moment to make everyone aware that the greatest movie ever to be released on DVD is now available for purchase: BBS: The Documentary is now shipping for the ultra low price of $50.00 plug S+H. This shit is old school. Check it out for a good idea of where everything we take for granted came from.

I had the pleasure of perusing this DVD over the weekend. It is quite, quite, quite long, so I didn't get to watch the whole thing yet, but what I saw brought back a flood of memories. The pre-TDH days, the hours spent ceaselessly re-dialing, the $300+ phone bill and the subsequent punishment of being grounded from using the computer. Spending my first paycheck ($200ish) on a 14.4 modem, the endless nights of mud and subsequently failing my first period French class for two straight semesters...

TDH is tentatively back up and running!

The installation of MajorMud 1.11O took a while, but was otherwise uneventful.

This is just a tentative post. Everything seems to be running OK, but there is a bit of lag which I'm looking into. The real test will be to see how it handles over the next day or two, particularly during cleanup.

In the meantime, feel free to check out the release notes. Let me know how the system is faring over the next day or two. If you don't see me active in the game, shoot me an email at mud@tdh.com and let me know what's up.

MUD is in the process of being upgraded. It is tentatively scheduled to go back online on Monday night, February 14th.

This is just a real quick post to let you know what's up. I will give more details soon.

Happy New Year!

To get things started off on the right foot, I plan to upgrade Mud to version 1.11o. My target date for installation and upgrade is Sunday, February 13th.

TDH is currently running Mud 1.11i. For a complete list of updates in 1.11j - 1.11o, please check out the release notes.

If you have any questions or comments regarding the decision to upgrade, please feel free to email me at kowgod@kowgod.com.

Also, please note that upgrading mud does not affect the version of Worldgroup, or the number of incoming lines the board has. Those will hopefully come later...

MUD IS BACK UP!

Our new T1 has been installed and mud is up and running.

So, obviously, MUD is down. Specifically, the T1 connection MUD ran on is down. Our service provider, Norvergence, went bankrupt and abruptly cut off our connection. I promptly signed a new contract with TDS Metrocom for a new T1, but it will be 3-4 weeks before service is connected. In the interim, I am looking at a hosting facility to host mud. I will know more about this option later in the week. I am sorry about the lack of communication. Our T1 carried both data AND phones for my office. When the T1 went down we also lost phone service, which for a business is very bad news. I have had my hands full putting out fires at work. Now that the business end of things seems to be stable, I am looking into taking care of MUD.

COWs / Patrons: Your COW status will be fully restored upon re-connection. Some of you just very recently donated. Do not worry, ALL COWs will have their accounts credited upon re-connection. If you have any questions, just drop me an e-mail.

I received the following e-mail today from a player, and I thought I would share his concerns and my response with everyone:

His E-Mail:
pvp have been off so damn long that the newbies have multiplied to the point where it is difficult to do much of anything without spending too much time waiting to get a line. Tdh has always been a pvp board, it was a pvp board when mud was reset, and I am asking on behalf all those who donated a large sum of money to this board to turn things back to the way they were. Turning off pvp breeds newbs, it is as simple as that.

And while I don't necessarily agree with his cynical view of new players, he does raise valid points, which I'm sure many of you are thinking of as well. So...

...here's my reply:
PvP doesn't work with scripting and it doesn't work on boards with unlimited characters per person allowed.

In regards to scripting, it is too easy to just force a character to hang up. You might say this is a good thing, but if the only reason you are using pvp is to free up a line for one of your other characters, than that violates the spirit of the game, and is cheating, in my mind. PvP should be used to get items, test skills, settle bets or kill characters, not hang them up. I will NOT allow pvp to be used just to hang people up. So, if that's the case, then scripting must be prohibited.

In regards to the unlimited characters per player aspect, if I create a fair range of PvP, say 5 levels, then all you have to do is create a character in every level range to PvP with.

So, for PvP to be viable and fair (and fun), either scripting must go or I must limit the number of accounts per person allowed.

Both of these are unreasonably difficult to do. I can't come up with any way to prevent a person from scripting that can't be bypassed, and I can't come up with any reasonable way of checking and authorizing accounts, at least not on a free board.

I am NOT anti-pvp. My only concern is that PvP has to be fair and fun. Any suggestions?

Now, let's switch gears to the money issue. It is almost 100% guaranteed that Met is not going to sell us an upgrade. They say I have to buy a whole new system outright. This is several thousand dollars and is NEVER going to happen. You could send me a check for a couple thousand and I still wouldn't do it.

This basically leaves me with the option of either refunding the money, keeping it and hacking the current board, or coming up with some other alternative which I haven't thought of yet. Any suggestions?

Do not attempt to telnet to that IP until after the mud goes down, because to maximize uptime I am not going to move the machine until I leave the office, and who knows when that will be :)

Effective Saturday, 1 March 2003, C.O.W. will become... C.O.M? Starting Saturday, a $5 donation will get you CoSysop of the Month for one account! Additional accounts after that are only $2.00 per month! More time as C.O.W. for less money!

MULTI-TELNET PVP IS AGAINST THE RULES!!!

If more than one of your characters, from the same IP address, engages in combat with another player at the same time *OR* if one of your players heals/aids another one of your players who is engaged in PvP combat, it will constitute Multi-telnet PVP, which is against the rules.

By default, megamud will attack anyone who attacks a member of your party. THIS IS MULTI-TELNET PVP! You MUST set megamud NOT TO ENGAGE in multi-telnet PvP. Saying megamud did it is NOT an excuse.

From now on, YOU WILL BE SUSPENDED if you engage in multi-telnet PVP.

And saying that your megamud set the person as an enemy IS NOT an excuse. If you can't learn how to control Megamud, DON'T USE IT.

TDH has looked into the costs involved in adding 32 more incoming lines to the BBS (resulting in 74, up from the current 42). However, it is not cheap. $548.05, to be exact.

Some would like to see the PvP level increased, feeling that this would lead to less afk scripting, and thus more free nodes. Others would like TDH to begin taking donations so that money can be raised to purchase the additional lines. While still others would like to see the rules changed to only allow 2 or 3 characters per person online at one time.

I am taking all of these suggestions, plus others, into consideration. I ask that you, the Mudders, also think about these, and please email Kowgod@Kowgod.com with any comments, questions or further suggestions as to how to fix these problems.