Lazarus Magni wrote...
Look, there are 300+ other servers out there. I think our server has done it’s part in being a guinea pig, and I have done my part in reporting a number of issues.
Well, I think we all can ask that...
if not me, who? If not now, when?
The problem is when the entire community is expecting someone else to do things, nothing gets done. I see a lot of talking, very little action, nor even understanding of what work is actually being done by those doing said work.
If I care enough about an issue, the answer has to be me or no one at all.
No one else can deal with the issue besides you at this point, i cannot, skywing cannot. Unless another PW reports this issue ( and i remember seeing PWs stating that putting in the hosts edit, that they were suddenly tracked ) Either we have other PW's reporting the issue, or we have them reporting it's bogus. I imagine I will have to PM different PW's to figure that out, which probably is another evening which I don't spend developing my own solutions. ( ie if not you, it means me )
Your describing yourself as a guinea pig, or as a beta tester -- come on, you are not a victim here, without the weeks of work being done on your behalf there would be no solution to the gamespy issue, and without a real solution, you are going to face a slow decline as fewer and fewer players exist to begin with. The faster we can get this resolved, with or without your help, the faster we can get NWN1 moving again. Getting actual data to the developer is just good form. I have very little sympathy for the idea of you having no time to support this project, especially knowing how long it takes to set up a working system, to debug and launch it, and pay for it, and then have someone post it does not work, yet is unwilling to work with the developer when he asks for this or that to help figure out where the root cause is.
Getting what skywing is asking for, requires recreating the issue, but that should be something you can plan with your players, you also already know how to do, most players in my experience are very supportive, and should only take an hour or two if this is the actual cause. If you get his review of your crash, you will get valuable information pinpointing exactly what is going on. Ask your players if they are willing to contribute an evening of testing to fix gamespy, and if it's an unrelated issue, probably fix that unrelated issue. ( you would have to discuss with skywing exactly how to do what he is asking, for find a member of your PW willing to help with this )
Note that with or without the hosts edit, the skywing tracker will keep sending messages as long as it knows you have an active PW. ( at least based on my limited understanding, i'm not running a server now so cannot review this in any way ) The hosts edit just makes your server send the tracker messages, I find it hard to beleive that this is the cause, since it's probably happening even after you remove the hosts edit unless your ip changed, and if it is, it means there is a fundamental issue in that we can easily send a message to shut down any PW at our whim which I think is itself an issue. Your conclusion just does not add up, and there are other likely explanations.
Perhaps the hosts file is being messed up with your edits, the 127.0.0.1 loopback address is being messed up, or perhaps you still are using the bioware server to authenticate player cd keys, perhaps you are ****** up the file with word and not using a plain ascii editor, or perhaps it's an issue with your firewall or the nwnx network plugin. Even this seems far fetched, perhaps we can get some input from the other 300+ PW's who can describe whether or not they are able to get this to work.
Until someone steps up to the plate the developer types cannot do anything one way or another. Sorry, but development requires the support of the community, it requires people willing to debug and beta test, to be guinea pigs. It requires for people to say "me" and "now", and this is true not just in games but in real life too.
