Reboot Policy

[Salt Merchant]

From a different thread:

None of those are issues for which a reboot should be required.  As others have noted, you can clean up sawdust yourself, and the message boards still need to be manually cleaned by staff, regardless of rebooting.  I'd like to see our policy on reboots/maintenance change such that we don't -need- to reboot ever (we'd even do maintenance out-of-band, without shutting down, ideally), but in the meantime, we'll probably still do a reboot once every couple of weeks, depending on stability and the presence of important code fixes waiting to get in.

-- X

Since, without reboots, the shops would be perpetually depleted of coins, doesn't this effectively make the only sources of coin in the game into (1) new characters and (2) characters with stipends? Is that really a good idea for gameplay?

- crafting becomes virtually useless since every shop is saturated
- independent merchants can't even do the limited trading possible under the current limitations
- players will have to hunt or forage to eat, since they'd run out of coin to buy food (unless everyone joins a clan that will support them)
- water becomes unaffordable
- basically, the whole economy stalls

[Marauder Moe]

Since, without reboots, the shops would be perpetually depleted of coins

Not anymore!

http://www.zalanthas.org/gdb/index.php/topic,30964.0.html

[elvenchipmunk]

Even with this new randomly-bought items thing, there are still some things in game that do not regenerate without a reboot. Some plants, deposits, forageable and just common items etc. require a reboot at this moment to regenerate.

So does this new policy mean that whenever we find one of these things do not regenerate over time, we should typo/bug/idea it?

-Elvenchipmunk

[Salt Merchant]

Since, without reboots, the shops would be perpetually depleted of coins

Not anymore!

http://www.zalanthas.org/gdb/index.php/topic,30964.0.html

*rubs hands together* Eggsellent.

[X-D]

Actually, I believe they asked people to bug/typo the plants/watersources what have you a long time ago if they did not repop/regrow/refill properly...Though, I'm not sure if the staffer who was doing it or asked is even on staff anymore.

[elvenchipmunk]

Sounds like a plan then X-D. I've been reporting them anyways, but everyone else do it as well

-Elvenchipmunk

[Mood]

What about the weather? Playing Zalanthas: Sandstorm Simulator all of the time isn't exactly stimulating.

[Nyr]

What about the weather? Playing Zalanthas: Sandstorm Simulator all of the time isn't exactly stimulating.

This is something that can be easily tweaked.

[Morgenes]

What about the weather? Playing Zalanthas: Sandstorm Simulator all of the time isn't exactly stimulating.

This is something that can be easily tweaked.

We can do runtime changes that can quick-fix things, but it's on our list to investigate the weather trending and make sure things are working ok.

[Maybe42or54]

*drool*

[Zoan]

Not to be derisive, but I really think if Red Storm didn't live in a constant state of sandstorm, more people would live or dwell there. I know I would; I loved the concept.

[Nyr]

Not to be derisive, but I really think if Red Storm didn't live in a constant state of sandstorm, more people would live or dwell there. I know I would; I loved the concept.

...the place is called Red Storm for a reason, though.

[NoteworthyFellow]

Not to be derisive, but I really think if Red Storm didn't live in a constant state of sandstorm, more people would live or dwell there. I know I would; I loved the concept.

...the place is called Red Storm for a reason, though.

I was under the impression it was a tropical rain forest with strange red foliage.  Was I misled?

[Mood]

Not to be derisive, but I really think if Red Storm didn't live in a constant state of sandstorm, more people would live or dwell there. I know I would; I loved the concept.

...the place is called Red Storm for a reason, though.

I was under the impression it was a tropical rain forest with strange red foliage.  Was I misled?

You answers are smothered in silt.

[Agent_137]

Yea but there IS a spice economy there which means some people other than rangers actually go out there and hunt spice at some point. Which means there must be visibility at some point.

[spawnloser]

Having recently played a few Stormers, none of which were rangers, I can tell you that visibility is NOT always at blinding status, which means you can go outside and do things without getting completely screwed.

My problem with the slow sale of items for the economy is more that people will never be able to sell big things to shops because the shops will gain money as they sell things, but they will ALSO be buying from other PCs, constantly bringing the cash available down again.  For someone that plays mostly off-peak with very few people to sell things to, the character could quite potentially be perma-screwed for cash because once per real life day they can sell something.  Or what about newbie crafters?  Newbie crafters make a lot of stuff that is generally useless to the rest of the PCs in the game... however, for some crafters, that's the only way to get better, to craft a bajillion stupid little worthless hunks of wood before they can finally carve something that PCs will buy.

[Salt Merchant]

Having recently played a few Stormers, none of which were rangers, I can tell you that visibility is NOT always at blinding status, which means you can go outside and do things without getting completely screwed.

My problem with the slow sale of items for the economy is more that people will never be able to sell big things to shops because the shops will gain money as they sell things, but they will ALSO be buying from other PCs, constantly bringing the cash available down again.  For someone that plays mostly off-peak with very few people to sell things to, the character could quite potentially be perma-screwed for cash because once per real life day they can sell something.  Or what about newbie crafters?  Newbie crafters make a lot of stuff that is generally useless to the rest of the PCs in the game... however, for some crafters, that's the only way to get better, to craft a bajillion stupid little worthless hunks of wood before they can finally carve something that PCs will buy.

Actually, I suspect that off-peakers would have a better chance of making larger sales to NPCs, since there are fewer characters around trying to sell every time the shop adds a few coins from a virtual sale.

[Barzalene]

I think that the solution is not put every egg in one basket. I think the best answer would be an economic imm who when the right balance of in and out, change and so forth aren't working out they can do a manual shop/plant/ or weather reset.

But I imagine they've already thought of that.

[Elgiva]

Having recently played a few Stormers, none of which were rangers, I can tell you that visibility is NOT always at blinding status, which means you can go outside and do things without getting completely screwed.

My problem with the slow sale of items for the economy is more that people will never be able to sell big things to shops because the shops will gain money as they sell things, but they will ALSO be buying from other PCs, constantly bringing the cash available down again.  For someone that plays mostly off-peak with very few people to sell things to, the character could quite potentially be perma-screwed for cash because once per real life day they can sell something.  Or what about newbie crafters?  Newbie crafters make a lot of stuff that is generally useless to the rest of the PCs in the game... however, for some crafters, that's the only way to get better, to craft a bajillion stupid little worthless hunks of wood before they can finally carve something that PCs will buy.

Actually, I suspect that off-peakers would have a better chance of making larger sales to NPCs, since there are fewer characters around trying to sell every time the shop adds a few coins from a virtual sale.

I think the change of NPC merchant selling enough of his wares virtually to give off-peaker a chance to sell something with higher value is quite low. For costly things it's better to look for PC trader - which might be pain during off-peaks.

[Morgenes]

I think the change of NPC merchant selling enough of his wares virtually to give off-peaker a chance to sell something with higher value is quite low. For costly things it's better to look for PC trader - which might be pain during off-peaks.

Can someone who is an offpeak player trying to sell things this last week care to comment on if they noticed any difference?  Looking at the logs there's plenty of virtual money entering the economy, and lots of things being sold at a pretty solid rate across the world.  This should help both on-peakers and off.

[X-D]

I play both on and off peak and I've found there to be much more money then normal available from NPC's.

I have been wondering though if cost of item has anything to do with it being sold virtually. I sold a high priced item to a merchant that does not normaly have items of such high value, then watched over the next 70 hours or so and not only did the merchants inventory seem to remain the same, that item stayed. Could just be luck of the draw though.

Still, I have been able to sell to merchants who you used to have to be the first one there after a boot to sell anything too.

I still think many merchants have way too low starting cash though...I mean some are under 50 coins starting and that makes little sense, specialy if you are talking about one with a shop, not just walking around the bazaar.

[Lizzie]

For me, "off-peak" is anything -other- than 7PM-1AM, EST. Peak usually shifts between those hours.

I sometimes log in during the EST mornings. I tried selling an item that goes for around 200 sids recently. It goes for that, only on reboot, and only if I'm the first one to get to the shop immediately after reboot. Usually at any other time, I can get either 50-90 sids, or the guy won't have any sids left at all. This time, I actually got 125 sids for it, so that's an improvement.

[musashi]

I basically only play during the off peak times and I have found that this code change makes it easier, not more difficult, to sell things to NPC merchants. I think it also makes it easier for new characters because now they don't have to worry so much about the "rule of 5" when it comes to what merchants are willing to buy.

All in all I feel like the change made more money for everyone, and in a good way.