The 8BitMMO Headquarters / Supply Closet

We’ve snuck into REACTOR’s supply closet and set up shop there.  I’m pretty psyched about our new digs:

View from the outside
View from the outside
Inside
Inside
My desk
My desk – the displays on either side are monitoring real-time server status.  The blue monitor turns red if a server is down.  Also: ramen.

We’ve also got a white board, but it is full of secrets. 😉

 

Announcing the new Social Clubs

It was very tough to select a winner, there were many high quality entries.  But after much thought, the winners have been chosen for each server.

On Primary Server, Xerp has won with his entry (shown below).  On Potato Server, Fungdark has won.

Congratulations to the winners, and thanks to everyone who entered.  I’m very proud to see so many excellent entries — you guys are skillful builders!  Based on how good these entries are, I’m now planning to do more building contests in future.

Each server has the new area linked via Root, although due to instancing, you may not see the correct link until after you’ve been outside Root for at least ten minutes.

Primary Servers Social Club by Xerp

Patch Notes 1/8

  • /clearquests – allows you to erase all quests in the quest window.  Useful if you have a glitched quest, although if you do you will have to start over on Draco’s quest line.
  • Copied regions have correct owner
  • Removed Santa hat from shop (unless you already bought one)

Patch Notes 1/7

Primary & Potato updated with these changes:

  • New admin commands to create new areas & copy objects from one region to another — just in time for tomorrow’s livestream!
  • Fixed bug where eating when you’re a zombie caused a doge to fly out of you.  (< This may be the weirdest bug fix sentence I have ever written).  Thanks for the report Sage.
  • A safe can now only be attempted to be opened one time per second.
  • Fixed issue where Wildepad would sometimes instantaneously kill you for fun.  Thanks for the report Alex.
  • Fixed issue where quest tracking objects were cluttering up regions and throwing off the region count.  Thanks for report Jimmy & Reaver.
  • Server list now orders servers consistently
  • I now have real-time stats graphing at my desk.  Will try to take a pic tomorrow, it’s super neat.

Design Root’s Social Club – Win Plat!

 >>> Twitch.tv watch link: go here. <<<

With the addition of instancing, Root needs a place where players can gather together to chat & trade.  I’m going to open this up to the community to allow you to design & create Root’s new Social Club!

Specifications:

  • The social club is a small area, somewhere between 2×2 regions on the small side, to 3×3 regions on the large size.  2×3 regions is also fine. [a region is a collection of 16×16 tiles, as defined by the loc command. Details]
  • You can create it in your pocket universe, in the wilderness, in a town, or wherever you like
  • If your Social Club is selected, I will be copying your blocks, so you will be free to re-use them later for something else.
  • The Social Club should be self-contained – no links or roads to other locations (other than a space for a telepad to link to Root where players will arrive and leave from (you don’t need to purchase the telepad, just leave a space for one)).
  • When copied, the Social Club will appear as a pocket universe with blackness on the edges outside the region boundaries
  • On that note, please design with region boundaries in mind — ie, don’t have a building hanging off the edge of your social club

Winning:

  • There will be two winners – one for Primary, and one for Potato (different social club for each server!)
  • Each winner will receive a Gold/Plat Pack Token that includes 5,500 gold and 39 platinum (equivalent of the $24.99 pack)
  • On Wednesday afternoon, we’ll do a livestream where we check out all the entries, and possibly even announce the winner & install the new social club in Root
  • Contest will run until the start of the livestream on Wednesday afternoon
  • No purchase necessary to enter
  • If an entry has blocks by multiple players, the mayor is the one who will win the prize
  • Enter by posting a comment to this blog post that includes 1) your in-game name, 2) coordinate to teleport to view your entry (get them by typing /loc), 3) Size of your entry (ie, 2×2 regions), 4) Server your entry is on (Primary or Potato)

Tune In to Wednesday’s Livesteam

Wednesday’s Livesteam (where we review the entries) happens at 2PM Pacific.

 

Coming Soon: Net Compression, Instancing, Z-Lock hotkeys

I wanted to give a preview of a few features that I’m planning to have up and running before the week is out:

Net Compression – We’re testing out a method of compressing network traffic that will result in as much as 60% less data required.  This should result in faster region loads.

Instancing – Sometimes Root gets so full, it’s hard to even find the NPCs to talk to.  Instancing will allow each player to explore Root & the tutorial areas by themselves, so they won’t have to deal with fifty other players getting in the way.  One day in the future, I’d like to expand this even further so anyone can create their own instanced dungeons that players can group together to tackle.

Z-Lock Hotkeys – In the next client build, you will be able to cycle Z-axis with ctrl + [ and ctrl + ].  A red background will remind you that you have Z-Axis Lock engaged.

Additional fixes – Fixed issue where you could start typing into the chat bar when you have a rpg dialogue open, and fixed issue where you could get stuck in the void when you had an object next to the void.

Santa Hat Out of Stock – The Santa Hat will be hidden from the shop if you haven’t already bought it.  You can still wear one if you’ve bought one (even after it’s de-listed), so if you wanted one, now’s the time to get it!

Since Net Compression & Instancing are both large changes, we’ll test them out on Potato first for a few days to make sure they’re stable before we update Primary.

EDIT 1/3: These changes (other than Santa Hat, which I forgot to do for now), are now live on the Potato server.  Check them out!

Playing with the UI

ui-tweak

  • Changed a lot of the UI colors / button style
  • Improved menu dropdown — there was an issue where if you moved mouse diagonally past the menu button, the menu would go away.  Fixed
  • Quest reminder window made 90% snazzier
  • Not sure about the green color for the level bar, or the blue color for the quest reminder flash on change, but it’s sure harder to miss now.  😉

Check it out in the new build up now!