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[legacy-wowrp]

WoD Models Confirmed (mostly)

Hey guys, Smith here.

  I've been working recently to get the upgraded WoD character models working on 3.3.5a and I figured I'd release them.

Much respect to PhantomX, Rangorn, Shodoman and Konattchi from the Modcraft forums for their advice and resources.

[legacy-wowrp]

Launch Information

Ladies and Gentlemen I believe it is the time that everyone has been waiting for. I can, at the making of this post, confirm that Legacy will be Launching on Saturday, November 29, 2014 (time being withheld for the moment until we can confirm maximum availability from staff).

For some of you this is all the information you're looking for! For others, you're probably interested in the details!

  Details Leading up to the Launch Decision: Ah, were to begin. The last 72 hours have been very hectic around Legacy HQ. In fact, I think some staff members slept in their cubical's a few nights. At present I am putting our "Launch Ready" status at roughly 75% ready with many of the major tasks being completed and the remaining smaller tasks and bug fixes being left on the table. Even as I type this new patches are being re-worked and uploaded to correct some conflicts. As Smith has posted in Development Blog, we've had some last minute additions of WoD models. They were originally something we were not interested in having available but the opportunity presented itself so we took it. I'll comment later on in this post regarding the use of WoD models and what consequences it may bring for Legacy. For now, lets keep focused on launch.

  As mentioned above, I feel that we are easily at the 75% launch ready state. There are still some outstanding world edits that need correcting, including the previously mentioned Silvermoon. In fact, the actual edits are stable and complete and the biggest issue has to deal with texture and some water issues; the latter of which shouldn't be a problem since we all know that stinky elves don't ever bathe. We've decided to not lock the region as it is on our priority list for our first tier release and updates; again, something I will touch more on later in this post. Some systems are also seeing their first light of the day and we expect them to have wobbly legs like a newborn deer.

  Like any release, we expect that there will be bugs and errors that we have been unable to find. If WoD's release is any indication it is that even highly paid teams of professionals can drop the ball from time to time. We have a solid staff of both seasoned veterans and eager rookies so I feel that, overall, we should do just fine (though I am sure if it goes complete wrong will someone will quote me on that).

  What to expect in the next 24 and 48 hours: Things are going to be moving quick, that's for sure. We still have some things to complete and more checks to do but that is all fairly standard and routine for any launch. At the moment we're withholding the release time until we can confirm that we'll have enough staff on hand. From an information perspective we have a lot of things that will be pushed out, including:

Launch Storyline Information

Donations

Connection Guide

Early release of patches (so there isn't a mad rush all at once)

Infrastructure changes as we transition from server development to live server support

Tome of Legacy

Tier 1 Release Evaluation and Development

Website Launch

Obviously, like the actual launch time, I don't have exact dates or times for everything other than "before launch" - It's a fairly extensive list, but it's all stuff we're working on getting done and released ASAP. Our website, for example, underwent some extensive testing this afternoon (screen shot in the spoiler) and a few layout bugs were identified which are in the process of being corrected.

  Screen shot of part of the website, taken earlier this afternoon:

  Reminder that this will be a Tiered Launch: So what exactly does that mean? It means that we will be launching with many systems and features disabled with plans to slowly enable them in stages so they can be tested and evaluated.For the first week, for example, players will not have to worry about choosing to play as a Heroic or Commoner since their paths will be largely disabled until the first Tier update. The APT catalog will also be sparse with the focus being on the basic essentials for players to use while Role Playing. Of course, this also gives you, the community, to offer feedback on what APTs you'd like to see introduced as content patches and updates. We fully expect that some aspects of role playing, such as the larger economy, will be slow due to this release style but all servers start out this way.

  Rather than focusing on what we're missing lets focus on what the players will have: A server to RP on. I know this may be a disappointment for some of those that want to jump right in as a blacksmith or adventurer or mercenary, but in the larger scope of the server the Tiered Launch will be more stable and more productive as a whole.

  Decision to use WoD: This was obviously not a lightly made decision as we've had a "No-WoD content" policy for some time now. However, after testing the waters and seeing what other, larger, servers are doing and from our own first hand experience we felt that we're in a good position to explore there use. We're not talking about a large scale import of skins, models, mechanics and world edits; Legacy will not become a WoD server. But, there are some select models that enhance role playing; since, after all, Legacy IS a Role Playing server.

  In Closing: I'd like to end this post, as I often do, by taking the opportunity to recognize the entire staff for their contributions to this project. From Models to Skins, Database work to scripts, World edits and GoBs, everyone has a job to do and everyone has had a rough time during development. I owe you all, each and everyone one of you, a heartfelt "Thank You" for all the work you've done. Development is a tough road, and the vast majority of servers close and die before getting to far along themselves. Without you, none of this would be possible. I don't have nearly enough time to name every single one of you but rest assured, your effort is appreciated by both myself and the community.

[legacy-wowrp]

Development Diary 3.0: Tiered Launch Update

Ladies and Gentlemen of the Legacy Community.

  I am sure that, by now, there are many questions regarding Legacy and it's upcoming Launch. I am also sure that my unusual quietness on the forums been, well, unusual! It has been for a good reason, though, as we get close and closer to launch there is inevitably more and more work to do; and also more and more tough decisions to make. In order to accomplish both it has require that many of us cut out distractions in order to focus on the tasks at hand.

  Now, I am also sure that everyone wants to know "Will Legacy launch on time" and to that the answer is: Yes... and No. Legacy is still scheduled to launch on November 29/30, in fact, we'll have a more concrete date and time available in the next few days (and yes, we're going to have the patches available before hand so there isn't a mad rush to download them on launch day).

So what exactly does a YES/NO answer mean? I'll break it down for you! After a fair bit of consultation we've decided that the best launch for Legacy will be a tiered launch. While we had wanted to launch everything at once the reality of the situation is that with so many different parts of development working together we want to tier their launch so that we can be sure that everything is working properly. As I have said many times, this is going to the basis for many good things to come for the community so making sure they are working properly and effectively is highly important. We want to ensure that as more depth is added that everything is playing nicely together! Because of that, Legacy's launch will take a four tiered approach:

  Tier 1: Launch (November 29/30):

The World:

World Edits Complete

Excluding Azuremyst and Bloodmyst

Excluding Silvermoon

Decorating Complete

Limited Carpus and Hidden Zones

Character Creation:

All race and class combos Complete

Excluding Forest Trolls

Systems:

Death System Complete

Experience and Skill Point system Complete

Universal Progress Tool Complete

Item Requests Complete

Passive Coin System Complete

APTs:

Basic APTs available via Vendors

Mobs & NPCs

Standardized Attack, Damage and Health

Excluding special abilties

  Tier 2 Update (scheduled for December 6)

The World:

Silvermoon world edits Complete

Additional Carpus and Hidden locations

Systems:

Heroic Paths Ranks 1 & 2 available

Commoner Professions Ranks 1 & 2 available

Adventure System available

Gathering and Crafting System available

Mobs & NPCs

Loot Tables Standardized

APTs:

Additional APTs & vendors added

  Tier 3 Update (scheduled for December 13)

The World:

Azuremyst and Bloodmyst world edits Complete

Systems:

Heroic Paths Ranks 3 through 6 available

Commoner Professions Ranks 3 through 6 available

Mobs & NPCs

Special Abilities Updated

APTs:

Additional APTs

  Tier 4 Update (scheduled for December 20)

The World:

Final Edits (and bugs) complete

Systems:

Heroic Paths Ranks 7 & 8 available

Commoner Professions Ranks 7 & 8 available

Mobs & NPCs

World Bosses populated

  "But I wont be able to become a powerful Hero or corner the blacksmithing market on day 1!" - Don't worry, that wasn't going to happen anyway! The XP and SP system were created with various soft caps in order to prevent different avenues and aspects of grinding. Don't worry, though, since the XP/SP system will be available on day 1 all players will accumulate everything they need to advance in their specific ranks and once the ranks are available they'll be able to. In fact, based our projections the ranks will largely be introduced before players get to them so that they wont be behind a content curve.

  Tough Decision: The decision to make this tiered launch was difficult to make but we feel it's our best option. We want to make sure that everything is working together properly and that there are no errors or major bugs that will affect the community. By slowly introducing the systems in a tiered launch, as the players are ready for them, we can ensure that each new update goes smoothly.

  Other things: 

Donations:

It's been a difficult road to get these done internally because of the controversy and stigma associated with it. Donations fund the server, but we don't believe in p2w RP so there is a fair bit of ideology conflicting with each other. However:

They will be rolled out before launch.

They will be retroactive to those who have donated to support Legacy already

Tome Of Legacy:

Every time we address an issue or subject it requires more re-writing! I'm going to scale things down a bit since it's a novel.

Will be published this week, prior to launch

Ban Appeals:

As mentioned here, they have been ongoing over the weekend. I didn't get a chance to notify everyone who had an outstanding appeal on Sunday as per my original plans because server development tasks took priority. Unbannings don't mean anything if there isn't a server! I'll try to get them out again this evening but the work load is pretty deep.

[legacy-wowrp]

Pre-Launch Update #1

Ladies and Gentlemen, after a bit of a lull leading up to Halloween we're kicking things into overdrive starting this evening so you can expect more updates and information to start flowing out of the development caves!

Donations:

The Donation System will be launching this week. In the next few days you may see some changes around the forums as we work to implement the system. One of the most noticeable changes will be all the community members who currently have the "Legacy Supporter" badge which will be changed to an "Epic Supporter" badge. It may seem trivial but it will make sense:

Classic Supporter: Anyone who donated during Prologue

Epic Supporter: Anyone who donated during Legacy's Sandboxes (was "Legacy Supporter"

Legacy Supporter: Anyone who donates from once the current donations open this week

Legendary Supporter: Someone who has ALL THREE of the above.

  I'm not going to go into the details now since they will be released when the donation system goes live but everyone who has donated already, Classic or Epic, will be getting something extra. 

  Launch Server:

This week will see us move to our new server ahead of Legacy's Launch. I don't have an exact time or date of the transition but you can be assured it will be happening some time this week. When it does you may expect some periods of downtime here and there. As always, we'll be counting on Facebook to keep the community up to date if and when the forums are ever off line.

  Development Progress:

Like many things, the best laid plans never survive first contact with the enemy (in this case, the enemy being real life!). We're not on schedule based on the Development Calendar I posted a while back, but we're also not that far behind since we baked in a bunch of extra time for just such an occasion! At the moment we're still shooting for an end of November Launch of Legacy. The deadline hasn't changed so we're putting our heads down and pressing on! Jessica is nearly finished the Heroic Paths and Roz, Nevermore and Miles are finishing up the Adventure System. I should have the Commoner Professions done before the weekend. Mokrim's work on Donations will be going live this week.

  Lots of other work is being done as the Stats team is working to streamline PvE and standardize Mob and NPC values and abilities as well as dabbling with a bit of fight scripting for some new world bosses. Development work will really pick up and progress once the host server is up and running (see above).

  Alpha Access:

More information on this will be released soon. Just wanted to leave it here to give people something to talk about!

[legacy-wowrp]

Too much information to be listed here, come see on the main forum page, if you can!

[legacy-wowrp]

Discussion Topic

To get some interaction going between all our followers, here's a few questions!

What was your best RP memory on Warcraft?

The worst?

And the most influential?

[legacy-wowrp]

Development Diary 3.0

Welcome to the Weekly Development Update for October 13-17!

  As you are all probably aware we released our target Launch Date for Legacy along side our Development Schedule. There is LOTS of useful information in there about what we have planned and how we're going to tackle getting it done. Many of us are eager to make this final push get things finished and launch Legacy. It certainly has been a long time coming, something we're all aware of.

  Heroic Paths:

Heroic Characters will progress through the Stat Progression system faster than Commoners and will be some of the only characters able to adventure in the most dangerous of locations. Along with Stat Progression, Heroic players will gain access to a section of Unique Visuals and Abilities that no other class has access to. At various levels they will also gain access to Custom Items (both rare and epic) to customize their character. APTs, Mounts, Titles, and even Companions round out some of the things you'll find in the Heroic Paths.

Commoner Professions:

Commoners will progress through the Stat Progression System slower than Heroic Players but their main focus is the economy and building. Commoners will be able to pick from a number of professions which will allow them access to specialized menus to create everything from APTs to entire buildings. Whether you want to be a bartender or actually own a tavern, Commoners are there to see that dream through!

Adventure System:

The adventure system is the meat and potatoes of the Heroic Character's world; it will give all those aspiring heros a chance to test the sharpness of their blades, the strength of their shields and the power of their spells. Through randomly spawned locations, including but not limited to Camps, Tunnels & Dungeons, will test themselves by overcoming their enemies and carrying off the spoils of victory.

Crafting and APTs:

What the Adventuring system is to Heroics is what the Crafting & APT system will be to commoners. Depending on the Profession a character picks they will gain access to a crafting system unique to that profession. Nearly anything can be crafted, from belts, swords, shields and helmets to tents, cabins and buildings. Working together, however, will be the key to success as the most advanced crafting items will require all of the professions to complete.

  Now, obviously that doesn't give out a lot of details about what a player can expect but the truth of the matter is that we've got our initial concepts signed off on and ready to go but we still have to fill those concepts with substance; to figure out at what level a Blacksmith can make a Rare Sword or a Carpenter can construct a small house, etc, etc. Rest assured, though, in the upcoming weeks as that development work is completed we'll work on getting the information out to the community.

  Development this week

So, what are up to this week? Well, we're working on all the stuff outlined in our Development Schedule! The Senior Staff are putting together their concepts for the story lines that we're going to be supporting at Legacy's Launch. Those concepts are shaping up nicely and the teams are slowly starting to form to give the concepts substance by picking their zones, what NPCs or Mobs to use, what kind of support they need to set up for themselves in terms of event schedules, time tables, various outcomes and whatnot.

  The last bit of work will be taking place over the next few days on the Heroic Paths as we try to figure out the different things that Heroic players will have access to, such as mounts, titles, custom items, and Class Specific Perks. Work is going slower than I would normally like, but we're bouncing back from the outage last week on top of the forum changes and everything else that is going on. I'm confident that we'll back back to full speed ahead in no time!

  Also on the schedule for the Senior Staff is the finalized concept work for Commoner Professions and the Adventure System, as mentioned above. We'll also be looking at migrating the forums to a third party host so that we're not stressing out Pendragon's personal system any longer (big thanks to him for allowing us to hang out there while we get things sorted out).

  The Stats & Development Team started working on their Second Assignment, which I missed adding to the Development Schedule! That basically involves an attempt to standardizes and tier off NPC and Mob power so there are not as many inconsistencies.

  Got a question? Maybe I missed something (which is likely, there is a lot on the go right now!), then feel free to ask in the Development Feedback Thread. I'll do my best to answer anything that I can, as well the rest of the Staff. Be patient though, I'm working them all pretty hard at the moment!

  PS: Another one that's 24 hours early... you realize that means I can be late next week, right?

[legacy-wowrp]

Development Diary 3.0

And now, onto what everyone is waiting for!

  Legacy Launch Date Legacy's Launch has been a long time coming for both the Staff and Community. We've all shared are ups and downs through this entire process but we're getting close to completion. We've debated our launch date fairly extensively over the last few weeks as we've tried to ramp up development and push through. One of our major obstacles is, of course, the release of Warlords of Draenor in the middle of November. That release will, of course, bring a lot of players back to retail as most expansions do. Coupled with the hype and instant 90's we predict a fairly high return rate as people want to experience the new content, models and zones.   With that, we've decided to strategically place our launch date after the release of Warlords of Draenor but before the anticipated increase in "free time" players will normally have in the mid to late December. To be more exact, our target release date is the weekend of November 29th and 30th (and yes, that's 2014 for those that feel compelled to say "of what year?")   Development & Launch Schedule Oh, but wait, there's more! Not only are we releasing the Legacy Launch Date but we're also releasing Legacy's Remaining Development and Launch Schedule. As you can see in the graphics below, which encompass the time between today (Monday, October 13, 2014) and Launch (the weekend of November 29/30, 2014) that we have a bit of work left to do.   On the schedule are the last four major systems, including Heroic Paths, Commoner Professions, The Adventure System, and The Crafting & APT System. While that isn't exactly everything, those are the major ones. This Schedule, as you can see, is also colour coded!

Blue: Senior Staff Tasks

Orange: General Development Tasks

Purple: Public Releases/Information Dates

Red: Deadlines or Important Dates

Teal: Development Server Tasks

Green: Coding/Programing Tasks

  October's Development Schedule

    November's Development Schedule

  Now, obviously this schedule is subject to change; and is, in fact, likely to evolve as time goes on. We've already had to adjust things twice since putting it together last week (Oct 8, 2014). Our biggest worry is the constant shuffling and moving of development benchmarks and deadlines if any are missed. "No plan ever survives first contact with the enemy" and we're certainly no stranger to having things happen to set us behind schedule.

  Weekly Updates: Evolved! Of course, with all this information being made public it is also going to change the way that we present weekly updates as well. The content of the Weekly Updates will be evolving to touch, specifically, on what advances have been made on development.

  Since the Development Schedule has been made public this allows us to offer more pointed releases on what exactly we're working on. For example, looking at the schedule one can see that the final discussion for both the Commoner Professions and the Adventure System finish up on October 21st. With a weekly update scheduled to be released on October 22nd we can touch base on what progress has been made on those two systems as well as offer an up to date recount on it's progress.

  Wait, you're making this all public knowledge? Yes. It was a big decision to do so but one we will hope will have a drastically positive outcome on both Development and the Community. This is probably the most detailed information regarding development that has ever been released in either Legacy or Prologue's History. With the recent outages and delays we have felt that it is important to show the community that we're actively working on this project and that we're getting close to launch. Me coming in here and telling you that things are progressing along is one thing, but now that you have access to our detailed schedule you will be able to see first hand how development works.

  However, this is a double edged sword. As I've pointed out, Development is a fluid process that ebbs and flows constantly. Some tasks advance quickly and others advance slowly. Despite our best efforts we will likely see some missed deadlines and delays throughout the upcoming weeks leading up to Launch. We are doing our best to remain on task and to complete those tasks in a timely manor, but like everything, life has a way of throwing us curve balls. Development is no different.

  PS: 24 hours early! That's how I roll!

[legacy-wowrp]

Insight on the forum outage: 

As you've probably noticed the forums have been off line for a bit. A week, almost exactly, actually. It's been our longest downtime since the Great Crash of May 2013. Below you'll find some additional insights about what happened behind the scenes.

Sept 28:

Themistocles contacted us to let us know that he was changing Internet Service Providers and there would be an outage period on Wednesday, October 1 while the switch was taking place. As you may remember, Themistocles has been gracious enough to allow us to use his home server during development. We passed that information onto the community and posted it out on facebook. However, the 1st came and went without any outage.

  Oct 3:

The above mentioned ISP change never happened on the 1st and was re-scheduled for the 3rd. True to the forum of most ISPs they arrived nearly three hours later than service call time and our forums went off line, as expected, to facilitate the cross over.

  Oct 4-6:

Themi's ISP switch had a much bigger and more dramatic effect than we anticipated as it also resulted in having to reconfigure some software and replace some hardware. Due to prior commitments over the weekend these changes took additional time to complete. We tried to bring the forums online at various points over the weekend only to have them crash, suffer from extreme lag, or time out their connections.

  Oct 7-9:

With all the changes, replacements and upgrades completed we still had a number of lag, connection and stability issues that persisted. We deemed that we were not able to fix these issues and thus implemented our backup plan to migrate to a new host. After a fair bit of discussion it was decided to host the forums, temporarily, on Pendragon's machine as an interim solution to get us back online.

  Oct 9-10:

After a complete transfer of the forums and some stress testing to ensure that they were stable we were ready to relaunch the forums. All that was needed was to reroute the Legacy domain to the new location and we'd be ready to go. This took a little bit longer than anticipated due to some miss-communications but was completed and the forums are now up and running. Hence you being here and reading this!

  Future:

This extended outage has brought about some changes regarding the future of Legacy and the stability of it's host. At the moment Pendragon has got us back up and running by hosting the forums himself. However, we know that this isn't a viable long term solution. Thus, in the upcoming days and week we'll be making a more orderly and controlled transfer to a dedicated host at which time the development server will be brought back online in preparation for our remaining development plans and eventual launch.

  Weekly Updates? You promised them firefighter!

Obviously I've missed the weekly updates for this week and last week due to the outage. I will try to get some information out this weekend but rest assured, next week's release will make up for it.

  Launch:

The big question that has been on everyone's mind is when will Legacy Launch. The downtime gave the Senior Staff a chance to reflect on both our progress and remaining tasks. As of such we've set our deadlines and launch date. At the moment it's still privy to the senior staff but over the upcoming weekend we are going to outline our plans and deadliness to both the Development Staff and Game Masters.

  Legacy's Launch date, along with a tenative launch schedule, will be made public on Wednesday, October 15, 2014.

[legacy-wowrp]

Update: We've got the forums switched over to the interim host for the moment but we're still worried about speed and connectivity once it goes back online. At the moment we're waiting for the domain to be rerouted to the new IP, which is why the forums currently show as missing/not found.

[legacy-wowrp]

Burning the midnight oil last night at Legacy HQ. At last check in the Forum and it's associated files/data bases have been moved to an interim server ahead of our planned migration to what we're calling our "Launch Host." Pendragon has been working to make sure there was no data loss and that the interim host has sufficient safe guards to prevent the crashes and issues we've been experiencing over the last few days. Our first priority is to get the forums back up and stable followed by a move to our Launch Host, then to double down on development since we still have our launch deadlines to meet!

[legacy-wowrp]

Re: Forum Downtime

We had to re-schedule the downtime from Wednesday to Friday, and it continues on for maintenance. We should be back up soon enough!

[legacy-wowrp]

In a still continuing effort to improve, what sort of tags do you think would work the best for showcasing the server to the WoW roleplaying community?

[legacy-wowrp]

Development Diary 9/24

  Welcome to the Weekly Development Update, programmer edition by yours truly!

The DBC Editor:

  Legacy's DBC Editor is easily the subject of envy when it comes to the Warcraft editing world. It is an incredibly powerful tool, equipped with intelligent searching tools and editing. Previously, to say, create a new race, our developers would have to go through the entire file until they find the row with the filename, then find all similar rows, and then copy all 100+ of them one by one and rename each path one by one, and also copy every single other variable in each column.   Now, we are able to extract all lines with a path starting with something or ending with something or containing something, copy all of them, place them into the latest ids, with the exact same data as the previous rows, all with one button. With another button, we are able to select all of these rows and intelligently replace pieces of words and replace them correctly. Now, a 12 hour task takes roundabout 12 seconds. Another example - we have had consistent game crashes every time we exit. The problem has been uncovered, with thanks to Varen, as a problem with misplaced identifiers - they are incorrectly placed. To the common editor, such a task could take hours. With this editor, we are able to sort all rows by id by just clicking the ID column, and then outputting. Hours of modifications become two seconds.  

The MPQ Extractor / DBC Importer:

  This is no program, but a powerful script. Years ago, when the Warcraft private server scene was younger, around the time Cataclysm entered the alpha, ambitious editors began extracting models from the expansion and placing them into the patches, allowing them to be world edited in. Alas, it was in vain for world building, because every single model needed to be inserted into a DBC file and also made into an object. Dedicated server administrations tried getting their teams to sort through the model viewers and list the paths one by one, but it was in vain.   A programmer long ago, DarkSpyro003, realizing the potential here, created a script that extracted those files and inserted them, and after writing the script, within seconds was able to create a DBC file with every single Cataclysm model path and an SQL file with every single Cataclysm object, and released it to MMOwned, or in modern times OwnedCore: the GOBJECT9000 patch. Our patch, I like to call the GOBJECT900000 patch. We have created a modern version of his script, and, should we desire it, we have the ability to import every single Mists of Pandaria and every single Warlords of Draenor object into Patch 3.3.5a. We have turned all our imported models and custom models, with this script, into objects in the game, which the builders have done an amazing job adapting to and beautifying the world in ways you couldn't believe. Within moments, we can import any model or any list of models and turn them into objects.

  We have many longterm projects we have in plan, that will not only revolutionize Legacy, but all World of Warcraft editor and emulator technology.

  The Game Master Toolbox 

Game Masters are the moderation wing of Legacy, but are also the guardians of the game world. While the developers develop, the leads lead, the storytellers tell stories and the players play, the Game Masters are also responsible for sorting problems that may arise ingame. Too sadly, many problems they encounter force them to run to the programmer, as they are unable to solve them themselves. This object is bugged, the supervisor deleted it from the database but we must restart! We want new creatures, please add them to the database and schedule a restart!

  Restarts. Annoying things, mostly because the whole point for a restart is to enact a new build, not to reset one little thing, which is an unfortunate TrinityCore limitation. We have a category of commands that revolutionized the way TrinityCore handles creatures and game objects to the point where the idea of a restart is not needed. Not even for the the sake of new items, or new creatures, only for new patches and expansions, barring unexpected bugs that may inevitably unveil during initial release.

  Soft Restart:

The soft restart category of commands will allow us to "reset" parts, or all the game world and recache without disconnecting players. The server normally takes no more than 4 seconds to come back up, but with this method you would barely notice a thing. You won't lag for four seconds, but things will change over the course of various .1 seconds. All npcs around you, in the rare event where a mass creature reload is require, will vanish and repop where they were doing what they were doing in a span of a few instants. A message you sent may delay for half a second before appearing if you sent it while the communication channel is rebooting, and so on.

  This will allow us to perform what is in modern times known as live maintenance. We will only require offline maintenance during new patches, and that maintenance basically constitutes a restart, the whole purpose of which is to actually throw you out of the game so you can download the new patch. In most circumstances, you wouldn't even need that; our launcher has the power to predownload the patch and keep it in hibernation until we schedule the patch for release. And better yet, you are unable to log in without the modern patch! Your World of Warcraft will inform you of the need to update. In short, the aim of this system was to smooth out roleplaying for us all and to make sure your experience will not be interrupted outside of new content releases.

  This was only a taste of the technology we now have and, indeed, have planned.

  The Storyteller Toolbox 

I hear this grievance too frequently. Copy me this creature and give it a new model and new name, I require it to place in this area! I need an npc to possess and act as the player guide, I guess I'll have to roll a character. I need to create a boss, wait do I seriously just stack this buff and that buff and call "Minor Demon" the big bad boss?

  Creature Management:

The innovation of soft restarts has paved the way for other commands to abuse it. Storytellers can now copy any creature they like, and from that point on, a set of commands that are normally only available to the administration is opened for them to use on the npc they have cloned. They can insert this new entry into memory and into the game world live without the need for a restart, and also to change every single field. Level range, which script it uses, what are its resistances, its type, its name, its subname. What are its unit flags, is it invulnerable? What is its health modifier, ten times, half? What is its unit class? What are its npcflags, can you right click it and use the creature as a mailbox?!

  In the grand scheme of things we have planned to revolutionize the power of Storytellers, this is a drop in the bucket. Months ago, I previewed the system I called LOCE - Live Object, Creature and Event AI - to Baelmun and displayed its commands and capabilities, and he may well still be in shock! But more on that later, it is not even certain it will make it to launch, as once I became Head Programmer I had more important tasks to attend to. But this is a taste of some of the things I really wanted to share with you guys for a while now! I can't go revealing all our new tricks in one post, now can I? Where's the fun in that?

  You can bet Legacy is coming!

[legacy-wowrp]

Hi there followers, you get an actual mod post this time as well! Lucky!

As it's pretty plain to see, this is mostly just a regurgitation of the blogs already viewable on the forums proper. But chances are, this could be much better than it is already.

So, I put the question to you, what other kinds of things would you like to see here, and how can we improve or better showcase the potential of the server?

Guild teasers?

Better tags?

Discussion topics?

Something else?

[legacy-wowrp]

Development Blog 9/20

    The Warchief's heel has been pressed down onto the Forsaken in the aftermath of the tragedy at the Wrathgate, with the Forsaken left with very little trust between themselves and their allies in the Horde. The Kor'kron have been dispatched to watch over the Forsaken and their potentially devious machinations in many of their settlements, ensuring that their undead allies remain just that -- allies.

    At the border of Tirisfal Glades, the Forsaken have fortified their holdings at the Bulwark, looking onward to the Plaguelands..

    The shadow of death has begun to loom over the northern half of the continent as the Forsaken, in spite of the scrutiny and hardships, have begun to veritably flex their muscles. They have emboldened themselves with the re-invigoration of Lordaeron and it's original, albeit slightly decaying inhabitants. The Banshee Queen sees a prosperous future for her people, and will do everything in her power to ensure the continued survival of the Forsaken.

[legacy-wowrp]

Programming and Systems Blog 9/3

(Warning: contains trigger words like "system" and "minigame")

Been sometime since I've been in here... hmm. Well, things are going smoothly here at the HQ and I felt it was time to address a few concerns I've seen popping up here and there. We're in a bit of a down spin and a regular comment I see is "why are we wasting time on all these "systems"". Oh, and from here on out I'd like to replace "systems" with the word "monkey". So whenever I say monkey, you know I'm talking about a "system". SO lets say I say "We're working on a new monkey" you'll know that what I really mean is, we're working on a new you-know-what. I'm not going to say the word anymore but now you know that the code word monkey really means s****m.

Full post HERE. Too many images to properly post.

Also: Systems listed in this post are already mildly outdated and most likely have been reworked.