Community + Server /thoughts

Todays horoscope said dont make announcements and promises you cant stick to... so lets screw the horoscope.

Next Tuesday the old CF server will shut down.

That means I intend to get a new one this Wednesday. Setting up the hardware and OS will take 24-48h. With other words I can start moving stuff to the new server this weekend. Doing all the settings might take a bit longer. Main priority is to get the basic functions running so players can connect to the new server and have at least the basic MP features aswell as the background security features running next week.

There certainly will be further improvements in the upcoming weeks dealing with statistics and such stuff. Right now this has no top priority.

Huor already released a new launcher version with upgraded compatibility and features (you should meanwhile have this update if you played in the past days/weeks).

Once the new CF server is running I will start taking care of the changes to the webserver.

Everything step by step.

The new CF installer is almost complete and passed a few initial tests already.

I still have to update a few info files and am almost certain that I can compile the final version later this week. However, before publishing it it would be nice if some of you could do a few more test runs to ensure that everything is perfectly working. Any guinea pigs.... ehmmm volunteers?

IF all of that stuff above works we would initially have kept the status quo but in a more future proof environment. From the at point we can talk about future improvements and updates.

Quote from LancelotOnCrack

Are the hook commands included in the basic MP features?

yes

meh... reading through the discussion with huor I noticed that I forgot some stuff on the installer.

I wanted to include the widescreen fix as internal installer function instead of running the external program. I can not find the original sources anymore so that means I have to reverse engineer the tool first.

And I wanted to include an additional fonts check function.

Totally forgot about this stuff.

Looks like the workload just increased and I need to squeeze these tasks somewhere between.

No matter what... it is not a critical function for the installer (just nice to have) so a beta test can be done even if this stuff is not complete yet.

Btw. it would be good if there is at least one tester which previously had problems with the fonts registration.

The new server is online and most of the functions seem to work already.

The CF Launcher will connect you directly with the new hardware.

I hope that the config done so far will work at tomorrows server maintenance.

Further structural changes and improvements will be done in the next few days.

The people which volunteered for testing the new installer got a message with a download link. I managed to finish the missing functions today so in theory everything should work. However, it is best to consider it a beta version until tests are done.

ok looks like everything is running perfectly stable

I made the mistake not to disable the dynamic market and universe update on the old server so I am currently not sure if the updates this morning were correctly working.

Next test for that will be done tomorrow morning.

The char backup probably failed too... will try to check and fix that now.

no

The new server seems to run ok. There were a few problem earlier with the data synchronization but I managed to improve the process today.

The market files update will run much more reliable now.

That that the first phase of the server switches should be finished now.

The 2nd phase will start once the new installer is running without any issues.

The tests this weekend showed a few minor issues which I already fixed and 2 major issues which are currently investigated.

Mostly the compatibility to Windows XP caused issues which required to use an older installer version. The 2nd issue is again font related. I somehow need to reproduce the error in order to find a fix.

Once all issues are fixed I can start taking care of the webserver changes.

The new installer version after many weeks of development and two weeks of testing (which resulted in a good amount of additional changes) finally seems to be ready.

It will create a perfect and clean CF installation and can be used to change settings if needed.

Issues like missing fonts or missings speed indicators are fixed. Compatibility down to windows XP is guaranteed.

Based on feedback a preview function for the settings has been included.

With that task completed I have ordered new hardware for the webserver now. Depending on my available time i might start moving the portal and all that stuff over to the new hardware this weekend. This means that there might be a few downtimes while i move domains and do the reqired settings. With a but luck everything will boot up fine without any troubles. If not... erm dunno yet.

At this point id like to thank the testers and the people that offered their help aswell as the people that supported us with donations.

does not sound like something related to the current webserver update

the only issue it might cause are cheat bans due to market incompatibilities (which I checked this morning and should not happen based on the results I got)