EXCELSIOR DAILY

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+Colibri
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Re: EXCELSIOR DAILY

Post by +Colibri »

Server currently running on backup, so some non-essential functionality isn't working.

Well it seems that our main server has finally died... can't even get back to windows now. At least now there's "tangible" proof that something's wrong with it, not just a couple weird crashes.
I would like to take this opportunity to extend my deep gratitude to the server gods, who have spared me this ordeal while I was on vacation, so that I could have a nice time out and recharge.

We're currently running from the auxiliary server - this one here: viewtopic.php?p=74371#p74371
I've already pre-prepared for the ability of a quick move the shard to this server. However, some things are quite time consuming to configure, and since I'm hoping that we'll be back on the main server in a couple of days, i probably won't be configuring it.

Currently not working:
- voting rewards (you can still vote, but the system won't detect that it's from you, so there's no reward. The vote stone is hidden),
- portal and recent chat on the website,
- plus our cool staff tools, but you probably don't mind about that.

I think that things will probably stabilize mid-week.
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Re: EXCELSIOR DAILY

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Server status update: the techs have identified a faulty power supply. The filesystem was beyond repair so I'm reinstalling the software and resyncing the data, I'll run some tests to see if the server remains stable under load. I think we'll likely be back online tomorrow same time, around midnight shard time.

Daily achievements and voting stone levels will be frozen for a few days, so there won't be any resets or loss of level.
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Re: EXCELSIOR DAILY

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Server status update: after running some stress tests, our main server box is still crashing. The techs are doing a detailed diagnostic on it, but even if they put it back to work today, I don't trust it until some time goes by with extensive stress tests.

So i have ordered another server, and we'll migrate to that one, hopefully tomorrow around this time of day (midnight shard time). This was already the plan back in June, but then the main server stopped crashing.
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Re: EXCELSIOR DAILY

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There was a 2-day delay with getting the server back to Canada. The server was still crashing, so they have given us completely hardware, except for the SSD disks. The hardware is the same model, but hopefully without whatever was bugging the old server.

During this time, I've also rented us another server. If the main server wouldn't be stable, I would migrate us to this tertiary server, which is also located in Canada. But there's a long wait to have it deployed, so in the end there were 2 working servers - and we are now back to the primary one. I will keep the secondary around for a month or two, just in case.

There was a problem with achievements lagging the server. It's fixed now, and [ach works.

The vote stone is also working now.
Despite that it's been 8 days since your vote, if you make a vote before September 4th at 23:59 shard time, the system will consider it as if you had last voted yesterday:
- your vote level will go up, or remain at level 25,
- your voting achievement will increase by a day.
This is valid if your last vote was after August 15th, 2021.
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Re: EXCELSIOR DAILY

Post by +Colibri »

Website issues. For a few days, the wiki has been showing blank pages, and the forum didn't accept new posts.


WIKI: working on it, it's giving me a hard time.
For now, you can use the wayback machine to read archived wiki pages: https://web.archive.org

FORUM: upgraded and operational. The old default style is no longer available/compatible with this version, but as discussed, I have installed the "1982" and "1996" themes (along with a theme named "1978" which is just mad sick design for all those who like to time-travel).

Useful themes for those who want easy-to-read interface:
- "Maxthon" is a lot like our old forum theme (made slight customizations to fit better).
- "Prosilver Dark Edition" for those used of dark interfaces (goes well with uplink soundtrack)

Two interesting screenshots that I took on the way:

When I decided to move our site to an old server, which was decomissioned in 2012 i think, I saw this sight on the frontpage.
2021-09-16 website on old server.png
2021-09-16 website on old server.png (13.6 KiB) Viewed 10944 times

If you aren't using the "1978" forum theme, his is what you're missing:
(also, with the date format set to "Y-m-d H:i")
forumstyle-1978-white.png
forumstyle-1978-white.png (130.66 KiB) Viewed 10944 times
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Re: EXCELSIOR DAILY

Post by +Colibri »

Sick leave. Just FYI, i'm quite ill (not hospital grade, but the kind i've only been ill every 5 years or so). I can still function for short periods of time, so i'm keeping that energy for emergencies. I got antibiotics on monday but there doesnt seem to be any improvement, so this wont go away in a couple of days.

This weekend i plan to take the time and open the winter quests, and the december donation bonus to keep with tradition.
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Re: EXCELSIOR DAILY

Post by +Colibri »

December Auction - just a quick FYI, i'm planning to put something together, but at this moment I don't want to officially announce it. But it's likely that the main part will be on saturday evening around midnight shard time, and the second part on sunday a bit earlier, let's say around 20:00.

The thing is, it's good to prepare the auction items on monday or tuesday, but yesterday I had something come up and then also we had power problems in the house (after hours of searching, found that there was a wet outlet in a basement), today also a few things came up and it's already 2 AM.

But i'll try to set it up, will keep you posted.
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Re: EXCELSIOR DAILY

Post by +Colibri »

Winter events open until this weekend - January 9th.

With the new year's being on the weekend, the events could close mid-week, but they will remain open over the weekend. They will close this Sunday, January 9th, at 23:59 shard time.

Similarly with the donation bonus, it has been extended until that same time.
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Re: EXCELSIOR DAILY

Post by +Colibri »

Rule change - AFK crafting, buying/selling on vendors.

The AFK rules have been changed, new text:
Forbidden: Crafting anything that produce things of value are not allowed train AFK.
Forbidden: Buying items from vendors, selling items to vendors.


This is already on the codex, but we won't be enforcing until the end of the week. The rule is activated on Saturday at 0:00 shard time.

Old text referred just to crafting with Alchemy, but it seems that inscription has been quite profitable and there could be more ways to make money like this. Making money is good, as long as it's not done by a macro running 24/.*

*In this case, we could take a step towards further simplifying this ordeal, I'd just make an API so you can make REST calls to something like shard.uoex.net/api/increase-my-gold?amount=1000
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Re: EXCELSIOR DAILY

Post by +Colibri »

Another quick addition:

Forbidden: Taming animals or shearing sheep

Basically, if there is someone doing something on a macro, it's probably worth doing it (it's profitable), and should therefor not be done AFK. For now this list will be "opt-in", all forbidden things are listed. Eventually I hope that the list can be simplified and inverted, so that doing anything requires you to be at the keyboard, except for a few scenarios - probably only for increasing a skill for the first time.
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Re: EXCELSIOR DAILY

Post by +Colibri »

IDOC and Auction this weekend.

The IDOC event (dropping of inactive houses) will be on Saturday, February 19th, at 23:00 shard time. That's 6pm eastern, 5pm central US time.

There will also be an auction on Sunday, February 20th, at 20:00 shard time. The auction items are planned to be posted by Thursday evening, or by Friday at the latest. This is a regular auction, it will have emphasis on more affordable items.

Btw, Sunday's date is 20.2.2022 which makes it the 2nd day of the Twinary Trifecta: viewtopic.php?t=13819
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Re: EXCELSIOR DAILY

Post by +Colibri »

Addition to special spawners - gorillas can now requested for your house at a price of 1 million gold per. Part of the Special Spawner option, more info here: https://www.uoex.net/codex/services/housing


We plan on a Grand Auction and an IDOC event in the next 2-3 weeks. I think it's probably best if they are on 2 separate weekends, so that we can use the optimum timeslot for events, which seems to be on Saturday around 22:00 shard time (early enough for europeans, just right for people in the US, and early morning for those in Australia).
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Re: EXCELSIOR DAILY

Post by +Colibri »

Donation bonus ongoing - Personal World Teleporter!
The bonus will run until this Sunday, 23:59 shard time.

The special Raffle table is now also available, the raffle drawing is every 36 hours - at the Trinsic bank, next to the entrance to the ED room.

For more info go to www.uoex.net/donations or read the book in the ED room.
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Re: EXCELSIOR DAILY

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Winter quests are now open!

Go to Moonglow bank, the entrance to the area is on the East side.
Official wiki: https://www.uoex.net/w/index.php?title=Winter_Events
Also see this post by Xavian from 2 years ago: viewtopic.php?t=13401

The seasonal quest area will be open until January 8th, late in the evening.
(They should close a few days after new year's, but since January 1st is on a Sunday, it will remain open a few days more than intended)
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Re: EXCELSIOR DAILY

Post by +Colibri »

There's a repeat auction of sorts, going on this week.
More info: viewtopic.php?p=80793#p80793
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