ArmageddonMUD (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} armageddonmud) wrote,@ 2002-01-19 08:25:00 |
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Immortal Day (Sanvean)
Today, a recurrent topic reared its head on the General Discussion Board, one that comes up with regularity every few months: immortal maintenance time, the period between 7 am and 5 pm PST. Asking why this is necessary, why it's scheduled when it is, and so on and so on and so on is something different people have tried to answer at many different times. I thought I'd try to add a little more to the discussion by describing a typical immortal day.
Usually I boot the mud for it in the morning. It involves getting up at 6:45 am on a Saturday, which is usually fairly unpleasant, but since I'm still fairly asleep at that point, I don't usually notice. I send out a system message that we're shutting down, asking people to log out, and then wander into the kitchen to make coffee. Folks are generally good about logging out as requested, although we do get players who keep on stubbornly playing as long as possible at times.
Once I've brought the mud down, I run a script that performs the weekly backup, removes unused accounts, etc. While that's running, I start wading through email to the account, performing a first pass that lets me catch some of the low hanging, easily answered fruit. Once the backup is down, the mud boots on the immortal port.
It's me and the earlybirds at that time. Sometimes Savak, although it's late, late night/wee hours of the morning for him. On organized days, I've got a list of to-dos ready to go; other times I may just keep grimly wading through the account mail, trying to reduce it to manageable proportions.
Throughout the day, I see various people log on and off. The clan immortals get on to make their changes, such as swapping around the Kadian shops, which Naephet faithfully does, or replacing missing npcs, adding to estates, fixing typos, etc. Nessalin gets on and we discuss code fixes and changes -- usually he has a few things he's decided to work on each weekend. Tenebrius will usually make an appearance as well, or the other coders.
One of the main benefits of immortal day are the discussions. Every thing from policy changes to bugs workarounds, progress of the world, RPTs, and so on. It's hard to schedule staff meetings at a time everyone can make it -- in some ways immortal day substitutes for this, as does the lively immortal discussion board.
At times, major changes go in, such as a new zone, or a revamp. This usually requires an Overlord's assistance when linking between zones. Changes in the character generation process, such as recent changes to starting skills, are another example of a major change.
Another thing requiring the attention of a Highlord or Overlord are approving changes. Before things get added to the world, whether it's npcs, items, or rooms, someone doublechecks them, making sure they're typo-free and consistent with our guidelines and theme. Once this sanity-check's been performed, they can be placed into the game.
Most immortals have specific areas they work with -- such as Luirs, the Northlands, or Allanak. This is the time when people skim through the bugs/typos/ideas file, looking for things they can fix. Those files are often the source of code or world changes as well. We try to keep the typos file to under a hundred -- bugs and ideas are substantially larger, partially because some stuff may be left for when someone has enough time/energy to investigate a bug, or because no one has been able to reproduce it. This is one of the reasons why it's good to be as informative as possible when bugging something -- an entry like "the tables are funky here" is frustratingly vague.
Throughout the day, people coding test their changes on the testport. If necessary, we may quickly reboot the immortal mud to go live with a change for everyone to test, but generally the testport is where we try to replicate bugs, test changes, etc. There's two kinds of coding -- 1) direct changes to the main code, which requires recompiling and rebooting, and 2) dmpl programs, which can be added on the fly. Nessalin has set up a way for STs to upload dmpls and test them on the testport, which is a handy change, and keeps people from crashing the game willy nilly, heh.
About 4 pm, we remind people to start finishing up and saving their work, because we want to leave a cushion in case there's a problem with booting. There's usually a final flurry of activity and item approval at this time, and we remember all the things we forgot to do, like updating rumors, changing independent shops, etc.
I don't know how immortal day started -- I remember it from my playing days and being frustrated by having to spend one of my free days somewhere else. But I suspect it will continue. We are trying right now to create an alternative for people on Saturdays, but it won't be ready for a couple of weeks at least. Till then, the players will be forced to perhaps go out into the world. ;)
Today, a recurrent topic reared its head on the General Discussion Board, one that comes up with regularity every few months: immortal maintenance time, the period between 7 am and 5 pm PST. Asking why this is necessary, why it's scheduled when it is, and so on and so on and so on is something different people have tried to answer at many different times. I thought I'd try to add a little more to the discussion by describing a typical immortal day.
Usually I boot the mud for it in the morning. It involves getting up at 6:45 am on a Saturday, which is usually fairly unpleasant, but since I'm still fairly asleep at that point, I don't usually notice. I send out a system message that we're shutting down, asking people to log out, and then wander into the kitchen to make coffee. Folks are generally good about logging out as requested, although we do get players who keep on stubbornly playing as long as possible at times.
Once I've brought the mud down, I run a script that performs the weekly backup, removes unused accounts, etc. While that's running, I start wading through email to the account, performing a first pass that lets me catch some of the low hanging, easily answered fruit. Once the backup is down, the mud boots on the immortal port.
It's me and the earlybirds at that time. Sometimes Savak, although it's late, late night/wee hours of the morning for him. On organized days, I've got a list of to-dos ready to go; other times I may just keep grimly wading through the account mail, trying to reduce it to manageable proportions.
Throughout the day, I see various people log on and off. The clan immortals get on to make their changes, such as swapping around the Kadian shops, which Naephet faithfully does, or replacing missing npcs, adding to estates, fixing typos, etc. Nessalin gets on and we discuss code fixes and changes -- usually he has a few things he's decided to work on each weekend. Tenebrius will usually make an appearance as well, or the other coders.
One of the main benefits of immortal day are the discussions. Every thing from policy changes to bugs workarounds, progress of the world, RPTs, and so on. It's hard to schedule staff meetings at a time everyone can make it -- in some ways immortal day substitutes for this, as does the lively immortal discussion board.
At times, major changes go in, such as a new zone, or a revamp. This usually requires an Overlord's assistance when linking between zones. Changes in the character generation process, such as recent changes to starting skills, are another example of a major change.
Another thing requiring the attention of a Highlord or Overlord are approving changes. Before things get added to the world, whether it's npcs, items, or rooms, someone doublechecks them, making sure they're typo-free and consistent with our guidelines and theme. Once this sanity-check's been performed, they can be placed into the game.
Most immortals have specific areas they work with -- such as Luirs, the Northlands, or Allanak. This is the time when people skim through the bugs/typos/ideas file, looking for things they can fix. Those files are often the source of code or world changes as well. We try to keep the typos file to under a hundred -- bugs and ideas are substantially larger, partially because some stuff may be left for when someone has enough time/energy to investigate a bug, or because no one has been able to reproduce it. This is one of the reasons why it's good to be as informative as possible when bugging something -- an entry like "the tables are funky here" is frustratingly vague.
Throughout the day, people coding test their changes on the testport. If necessary, we may quickly reboot the immortal mud to go live with a change for everyone to test, but generally the testport is where we try to replicate bugs, test changes, etc. There's two kinds of coding -- 1) direct changes to the main code, which requires recompiling and rebooting, and 2) dmpl programs, which can be added on the fly. Nessalin has set up a way for STs to upload dmpls and test them on the testport, which is a handy change, and keeps people from crashing the game willy nilly, heh.
About 4 pm, we remind people to start finishing up and saving their work, because we want to leave a cushion in case there's a problem with booting. There's usually a final flurry of activity and item approval at this time, and we remember all the things we forgot to do, like updating rumors, changing independent shops, etc.
I don't know how immortal day started -- I remember it from my playing days and being frustrated by having to spend one of my free days somewhere else. But I suspect it will continue. We are trying right now to create an alternative for people on Saturdays, but it won't be ready for a couple of weeks at least. Till then, the players will be forced to perhaps go out into the world. ;)
