Ok, so Vendetta online were faster than me: http://www.vendetta-online.com/x/pcc. Their system has more features also (like the ability to spawn NPCs). But hey, is it still good if I say that players will be able to create some quests in Golemizer?
Tonight I gave access to GMs to the test server so they can take a look at the "Quest NPCs" I added. These NPCs are quest givers that can be customized to provide 4 types of quests:
- Give item
- Defeat opponent(s)
- Talk (just talking to the NPC)
- Give answer (players will have to type the expected answer)
These are the first 4 types which should be enough to get started and play with the system a bit. Not very complex but it's a start. Players can set the text, prerequisites and rewards of each quests. They can also chain multiple quests on the same NPC.
The point of this system is first to put a bit more sand in the box but also to allow GMs and me to create new content much more rapidly.
Of course, some might remember that I didn't want to put "kill 10 rats" type of quests in Golemizer. Well, ever since the launch of the game, I keep getting requests to add these... Anyway, while it's possible to build "kill 10 rats" quests, the point is to give a tool to put more lore into the world. Currently, the world is a bit faceless. Players like the concept but are having a hard time to "get into the mood". Something's missing. Not really the "kill 10 rats" itself but that old guy that talks funny in that city that wants you to kill 10 rats.
My favorite type of quest is the "Give answer". You can't chose an answer, you have to figure it out. This can be an answer you can find on Google or this might be something that you would have to find in the game.
For example, "I think Dr Mad is up to something. Go in his lab and tell me the name of his evil plan.". The player first must find the lab and then look for "the name" he's been asked. He discover a golem with a special name, go back to the quest giver and type the name of the golem. Simple but again, just knowing the Dr Mad (that could be a player!) is up to something is adding flavor to the world.
A dedicated player could build a full storyline involving his character by using these Quest NPCs. Ok, I'm obviously very excited about this but I know that about only 1% of players will actually use this system (there's this pyramid somewhere that I should look for showing that very little players are of the builder type). At the very least, it's more tools for GMs and me!
More to come later.
Sunday, October 19, 2008
More sand in the box!
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Server problems are over, now what?
Since last sunday, the game is now running on the new dedicated server. Finally! Everything should be much more stable now.
Yesterday's update saw the addition of rules of conduct and new commands for GMs to use (mute and ban). While I wish there will be little reasons to use those, with the crowd that keeps getting bigger, tools are needed to handle problematic situations.
With 4352 accounts created (so it's about 3000 new accounts since launch, about 1000 new accounts per week) and a core of about 100 players playing each day (and about 300 players playing on a regular basis), things can easily get out of hands.
I'm beginning to prepare myself for the next press release that should be around November 14th (2 months after launch). So far, the press release have been the main factor of the boost of recurring players. So my plan is to work on specific systems to be able to produce a new significant press release every 2 months to keep getting regular boosts of visitors. Getting people to know your website is the hard part so I'm planning to use this strategy to put Golemizer on the map. The current plan for the next press release should talk about the new tools to build player dungeons.
I'm also working on expanding the tutorial to make it more interesting as I want to have a better "welcoming" system for the next press release. I probably have lost many players in the first 2 minutes of their experience so I want to make sure they have something specific to do when they first enter the game.
Other than that, Golemizer now appears on the first page of results on Google when searching for "free web mmorpg" and is also almost on the first page when searching for "web mmorpg". The interest of this is that people that found the game from searching on Google are most likely to be recurrent players as they were searching for this in the first place. When you see a press release or an ad, you might click on it just out of curiosity but you weren't looking for it in the first place. Now that I'm almost just under Maidmarian.com I feel I did a good job on SEO.
Monday, September 29, 2008
History repeat
UPDATE: Server back online
Unable to reach server, yadda yadda yadda. Got my host on the problem once again.
I ordered a new dedicated server with theplanet.com and if everything goes right, it should be online this week. I'm hoping to have the game playable on it by sunday, October 5th.
It's really frustrating that I had so little problems with the current host for such a long time and then everything has gone wrong for the last week. Their support delay is excellent but I'd rather not have to contact them in the first place.
UPDATE:
Received this answer to the support ticket I opened with my host:
As you are now aware, the hostnode that you are on (WINVPS16) has been experiencing issues since late last week. We have installed new drives onto that machine and installed Windows and Virtuozzo.
Once we have completed that installation, we will be relocating ALL VPS containers on WINVPS16 to other machines, so we can work on the issues that are affecting this particular hostnode.
No ETA yet...
UPDATE:
We're almost done installing Virtuozzo now. Once we do that, we can then start bringing up individual containers to migrate them to other machines. We'll notify each customer as we restore their services onto different machines.
You know it's a big problem when it's the Vice President of sales that is writing to you...
Friday, September 26, 2008
Yet again, server problems
Contacted host support. It's the whole machine that is down so all websites are unreachable.
Update: Received a confirmation that the problem is on my host side. "We are aware of the problem" was the answer I received.
While waiting, found this host: www.wiredtree.com. Anyone have experience with them? Cause it seems that I might need to switch host, unfortunately...
Update: Server is back online. Still no update from my host so I don't know if it will last...
Monday, September 22, 2008
Server down this morning
I'm unable to access the server this morning as well as the control panel to order a reboot.
Also, support of Solar VPS seems currently unreachable.
This is the whole machine that have a problem. More on it later.
update: Been able to reach support. Now waiting...
update: Everything is back to normal, hopefully for a long time. Still have no idea what happened, waiting for my host to get back to me about it.
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