Codewalker

Yes, you can re-run the export again later to get a newer "version". If you want to keep the old versions to track progress, be sure to rename the file or it will be overwritten.

And if you want to check out the powers while you're waiting, I did update City of Data with the dump from the last I24 beta.

I haven't heard of the entire server getting snapshotted.

There's also the problem with beta characters being easily able to be stuffed with just about anything you want before exporting them. So if a beta exporter is made it'll probably have a different verification key that flags it as a character exported from beta.

Since the future is still uncertain as to what, if anything, we'll be able to use these for, that may or may not make a difference.

True story: The first time I went to Firebase Zulu was before I knew what pstrings were, and when I saw all the soldiers named P72874713 or somesuch, I thought it was their service serial number or something, and they just didn't get names as a symbol of the faceless military machine.

There was also the bug where character names in the team window were being passed through the translator, so you could name your character with a pstring and would show up to people as a really long name in the window. That was fixed quickly because it could cause client crashes, but last I checked it still "translated" the names in the character select screen.

I got annoyed with people who did that as well. The times I dropped hints gathered from those methods I tried very hard not to make it sound like inside info, or anything definite for that matter. May not have always succeeded, but the effort was there.

Some things are easier to get away with doing while at the day job than others.

True Heroes never give up.






True Villains never let go...

Doing it that way made things so much cleaner in the long run. Prior to that it was a lot of guesswork and experimenting, and though things were mostly right, those ever so persistent "unknown" fields just get under your skin...

It's probably even more complicated then that, since the Paragon crew has made extensive changes and upgrades to the engine since it was licensed. Those changes fall under NCSoft's copyright, and unless they signed an exceedingly stupid contract, Cryptic can't use them, or even see what they are.

So really, the engine partially belongs to multiple parties at once.

I thought you worked on City of Data back in the day? (I don't know, I wasn't around then, just have some archived stuff). Or is that a big secret I wasn't supposed to let out?

I'm starting to believe that. Because of his position he had to restrain it (and everyone else).

However now... now they have unwittingly unleashed his true potential.

It may load them on demand, I know some of the menus do that.

In any event, it's something that would probably have to be a secondary feature to be added later. Given everything else going on I'm not sure there would be time for it.

Dang it, now I'm going to have to go trawling through texture files to find out what that is used by...

Though it wouldn't surprise me if somebody thought it would be funny and used it as a bump map or something. I mean, have you ever looked at the ceiling in Arachnos bases?

Or they might see it as competition for their current games, competition that they can likely scare off with a single letter from their lawyers, which only costs them a few hundred dollars to have written.

It's definitely a legally gray area when it comes to discontinued games, and that's the reason that the IP buyout option is the focus.

The exporter tool saves ALL your costumes. The client has the all loaded at once so that it can display the costume selection window.

It doesn't get power customization, unfortunately, because that's kept server-side except when you're editing it. So if you have some color combos that are difficult to re-create you'll probably want to save them.

We do appreciate it, but don't forget Diellan and DeProgrammer, who do most of the work on Mids. I just did the data dumps to feed it since around Freedom. Guy of course created Sentinel and some of the other tools we use.

(and yes, both of the main Mids devs are involved in the project. Not many people are as well versed in the power mechanics)

If you want to save your base, go into it and type /demorecord nameofyoursg

The full base is saved in the demorecord file, including contents of storage bins, so it can be recreated from that. However if we end up having to go with the contingency plan, I imagine bases will be something down the line rather than right at first, so keeping the enhancmenets you really want on-hand is a good idea.

It allows mission designers to make complex scripted events without having to have support from Programming.

It allows power designers to make complex server-side mechanics without having to have support from Programming.

Basically it lets the large number of people in various departments do creative things with the engine without having to go through the small, overworked department, where even small changes to the engine code mean lots of testing due to how risky it is.

And lets them devote their time to other things, like fixing the UI... oh who am I kidding.

I'm not sure that VIP is going to run out. I checked my account management page to see what the status of my prepaid plan was, and all it says is "VIP". No "VIP until", no "Playable until", just "VIP". All the other info is gone.

I think they may have just shut off the billing system entirely and frozen all the accounts in their current state.