Greeeeeeeetings!

Well tonight we updated the new network system a couple of times. Micro updates via Impulse are totally the way to go. 

Anyway, the proxy server system is working far better than anticipated. But to go any further with improving the networking, we need some changes that GPG is putting into v1.01 which I mentioned in a previous journal.  I don’t have a set day for that but I am hoping this next week. We already have the release candidate for it.

I was able to verify that tonight’s update does fix favor points and favor items as I finally started to be able to buy some better gear though I still prefer swift anklet to almost anything else.  I think more favor items are going to be needed down the line but that’s another story.

One of the things the Impulse team (which, as some know, was assigned the task of developing a new network connectivity system after the…unpleasantness of the game’s launch) wants to do is have the game more aware of when people are using the /serverproxyonly flag. 

Personally, I’m almost inclined to just have all games be proxied. The big fear we had was that it would add too much lag. But we’re not seeing that in practice. A number of people can hopefully attest that it has totally turned things around for them.  But it works best when everyone uses it.  The downside (for Stardock) is that obviously we have to pay for a bunch of bandwidth around the world. 

In my mind though, it’s simple economics. Stardock’s name is on the box. Nobody cares who made what or why there’s a problem. It’s our job to get in there and make good.

Coupons

The Demigod coupons went out today. There’s been some mixed reviews as some people didn’t understand the rationale.  The idea is that between launch and last week, there were a lot of people who just couldn’t play the game.  Those people could have asked for a refund but they didn’t. They stuck it out.  Now that the multiplayer connectivity is largely fixed and people can play (and yes, we know there are some people who still can’t but the # of games being played nearly doubled overnight since the Impulse team’s code was delivered so we know it’s working a lot better) we want to reward those people.

To everyone else, including people still having issues but have decided to stick it out, we are also going to be sending discount coupons to anything on Impulse.  A lot of the coverage has neglected to mention that part.

Weekend off

It’s supposed to be nice this weekend and it’s memorial day. The crew has the weekend off to relax and recover from the past month.  I don’t know how many games of Demigod I’ll have time to get in this weekend but I’ll probably be around.  If you hang out on the chat channel you’ll occasionally see me on there (make sure it’s an op with my handle and not some random person with a similar handle). 

A lot of the progress this week is thanks to a handful of people who have ISPs/routers that we weren’t familiar with. I won’t mention everyone but here’s a few shout outs:  Boxleitner, pugmastaflex, Dopefish, Gank, Hoverdisk, JudeTepes, Lionheart, MrRyan, and many others who gave us lots of helpful data that has made a big difference. 

Have a great weekend!