i know, it's a cryptic post heading. i talked to Big Agony about posting this info here, and we both agreed that it might not be best to post stuff that may go against the game developer's EULA. so i'll do my best . . .

i've been messing with a *** server for about 6 months now, and now it's officially running 24/7 and stable. it's patched up to 2.3.0 (although the official *** servers are up to 2.3.2). i will eventually update mine to 2.3.2 when all the bugs and kinks are worked out.

but for now, my *** server remains 2.3.0, and runs rock solid, on its own box:

2.2ghz Athlon XP
1g of ram in dual-channel
Cox broadband, 7mbit down/1mbit up (so they say).

it sits in a corner of my closet, with no other purpose than to run this *** server. the server name is AGONY (name has nothing to do with Big Agony). it requires the original *** game, with the *** expansion, patched to 2.3.0 - do not go any higher.

it is not a public server, and never will be. it is invite-only, with a player cap of 50. just in the last week i decided to make it 24/7 and start sending out invites. so far there are only a few players. i've made modifications to the server to increase level-up, experience/faction/drop rewards for mob kills and quest turn-ins. it is meant to be a fun server, so there is no sense in you spending months and months to get to the end-stuff with the best of gear. in the future i will implement npc's that actually sell the uber stuff that normally drops in dungeons and stuff.

if you are interested in trying my *** server, please contact either Big Agony or myself. this is your chance to try *** out without any fees.

could this post be any more ridiculous? i'm sure by now you know what game i'm talking about. . . . .

just an update, the server is patched up to 2.3.3 now. seems to be running smoothly. only one or two players on it in the evenings .. . . a big damn world for just a couple of people. i've added custom venders that sell crazy-high gear for crazy-cheap prices. working on weapon venders still, should have them implemented soon.

stay tuned . . .

i think the official game's 2.4 patch is just around the corner, but the developers for the server core that i use will probably not have it updated to 2.4 immediately. i don't know what the differences between 2.3.3 and 2.4 would be that would throw a wrench in the current server core, but some people are expecting the guys at mangos to have their work cut out for them when the official 2.4 comes.

at any rate, my core is still at 2.3.3 and humming along fine. i kinda screwed up some backup procedures earlier this month, so all account activities between february 7th thru 10th were lost. but i'm going to be more careful not to make that same mistake again. (one player said he legitimately leveled a toon up to 70 over the weekend, only to log in on Monday to find his character GONE. . . yikes!!!).

the udb community is doing a great job working on a new table called eventai that basically provides scripting for every single npc anywhere, everywhere. currently some of the non-critical npc's that you would normally find in the middle of the woods would just stand there without any plan or purpose unless you approached them and aggro'd them. well the community is developing scripting for everything, everywhere, and slowly implementing it into database updates so eventually all the non-critical npc's will be like the original game. the first of these series of updates was applied to the latest database release, this past weekend.

i still have just a few players here and there, mostly a friend of mine in canada, and another friend of mine and his sons (and his sons' friends) who like to log in and fart around. the server will get hard drive upgrades in a few months. faster hard drives on a faster bus - but you probably wouldn't notice any difference at the client-end. it's just another excuse for me to open a computer and tinker around, ha ha.

update - haha, the server now has a jail.

GM's can now send other players to jail. the players be teleported to a detention facility, behind bars, in the middle of one of the major cities depending on which faction you are logged in under. when they log out and log back in, they will still be behind bars. players will not be able to teleport out of the jail. GM's can set duration of jailtime, too. what's funnier is that other players outside the jail can go up to the jail bars and see those players who are jailed. pretty funny.

i seriously doubt this will ever be used, but i saw this patch last week and simply had to try implementing it into the server. would be a mean prank to play on players, huh?

crazy stuff.

another addition to the server, . . . an auctionhouse bot.

basically, there are auctioneers and auction houses throughout the server that are not being used because, well, nobody is using them. now i'm using a bot that randomly adds stuff to all auction houses (regardless of faction), and keeps the auction house active with items varying from 'white' to 'purple' rarity. the money that the bot earns from purchases from the auction house basically disappears.

right now the server setting is such that you can spawn whatever item you wish, so what would the point of this bot be, right? i look at it this way . . . atleast with this bot, you'll probably get to see items for sale that you probably never knew existed in the game.

this is experimental, just like the jail system i mentioned above. but cool stuff to pass the time.

server now supports 2.4.1, and is on-demand. typically one of my closest friends and his sons (and their friends) reserve it every other week for 4 days. other than that, it remains off while i tweak and patch it behind the scenes.

agonyadmin@cox.net to schedule

little bit of news: EventAI is being taken over by the fellows at scriptdev2. it's being renamed ACID, and will be a continuation of the last version of EAI that UDB released. i am not sure how much updating the first release of ACID will be in comparison to its predecessor, but i'm looking forward to this shift in responsibility since i feel EAI (or now ACID) is in the right hands of the scriptdev2 guys. hopefully no new crazy database restructuring that will require me to relearn some stuff. . . . .

a few other changes i'm considering for AGONY is implementing some (or maybe all) of the following changes:

- making all graveyards non-specific to faction - meaning you rez from the nearest graveyard regardless of your faction.

- increasing the amount of consumables you can stack from 20 to 999. this would save space in your bags.

- this is a big change - making the server Single-Player. this script is developed by Cooch, and modifies all 5/10/20/25/40 man raids, bosses, some world mobs, elites, etc . . . to be played solo, yet still present challenges. basically the raids/battlegrounds/encounters/bosses have their damage/health/difficulty/etc divided by the number of people in a party or raid that they were intended on serving. i personally tested Molten Core a ways back, and it was doable but very challenging. non-healing classes would have more difficulty. obviously two or three people going into one of these modified instances would make it easier since it doesn't balance the instance with the party participating. . . . but if there ever comes a script that makes that kind of modification, i would definitely consider it too since that is more ideal.

at any rate, i've listed all of these possibilities - in addition to already-implemented server modifications - in my server guidebook that is in your backpack when you first start the game. stay tuned . . . .

changing stackables to 999 is a possibility, but the database is having trouble accepting this. i would have to go in the structurally and manually change certain items from 20 stackable to 999 since there are some items stackable to only 5 that the database needs to have remain 5. it's a hastle, so i won't pursue this.

graveyards being non-faction specific is implemented. some friends are playing in the server over the weekend, and so far things seem to be okay.

still toying with single-player idea. will probably never materialize, since new members have close to full-reins and can do whatever they want, anyway. but the single-player would make everything actually playable and challenging, . . . unlike right now where players have certain GM commands to "assist" players along to survive pretty much whatever they encounter.

. . . supports 2.4.2 now, by the way. i also reduced some of the rates of XP/Experience, etc . . . was set too high before, in my opinion. now it's:

rate of XP - x4
rate of rest - x2
rate of rep/honor - x8
rate of drops - x4

everything else still has its custom settings as i've always had it set. the other night i started a hunter just to see how it played. an interesting class, . . . having a pet and all. wish i would have made one when i played the official servers. but that's water under the bridge - and my current hunter is now lvl 20

it's been real, and it's been fun, . . . . but not that fun.

the time i spent messing w/ a private WoW server was interesting. neighborhood popularity, friends and their kids playing on it, and occasionally myself just to kick around ideas.

my database source doesn't support what i use for core, and i'm not in the mood to re-learn another core (even though it's close to the same thing). so i'm retiring it. was a cool thing, quite a learning experience, learning about scripting and stuff, compiling, etc.

on to the next project:

i'm going to re-learn teamspeak and ventrillo, and will run another server soon (haven't decided which - i've run both in the past), . . . . but this is in conjunction with the next big project for me, which is that i'm going to run a Left4Dead server when the game comes out, dedicated. there are a bunch i know who are dying for this game to come out, including myself.

let's see how that goes. 32 days and counting. . . . .


. . . . . . echo . . . .