Chainmail Updates: [updated]

[Chaz]

Read this tonight. Looks like we can expect more... just be patient.

Peace

CHAINMAIL Development - Important Information

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I have decided to move the CHAINMAIL development effort "in-house" to Adamaitis.NET (www.adamaitis.net); as the development for CHAINMAIL runs on average 8-10 hours/day it is very costly. This "in-house" development will keep activity on the project and provide it a refinement it has been lacking.

Eventually a webpage for CHAINMAIL will be posted @ www.adamaitis.net . The CHAINMAIL project will not be dropped, it will just run hot/cold depending upon the cash reserve available at Adamaitis.NET for our time to dedicate to its continued development.

As of current, the brand-new CHAINMAIL engine has been more-or-less completed (sans the new subrace system and extras such as that), replacing the old-way of processing stuff in the world, and it will go through its many performance passes, as we have time to groom-through the source... This will be the first time that the code will be optimized to rid of 'old' stuff, duplication, sloppy-coding, redundancy, etc. since Seviss was first released. The idea is to develop CHAINMAIL as if it was an Adamaitis.NET product, rather than a side-project, which is how it has been previously developed.

The hope here is two-fold:

1. That support and visibility of Adamaitis.NET products will grow, which will help freely available projects, such as CHAINMAIL (we are not a wealthy company).

2. A final CHAINMAIL product that will be refined in all respects and the best PVW available. Furthermore, by performing in-house development, external tools may be developed in .NET/C# specifically for CHAINMAIL & the NWN game, and bundled into the download.

Will there be future beta releases? - Possibly, once important milestones are reached and the build is deemed stable (The NWVault's CHAINMAIL Beta 3 download webpage would be updated in this case). However, there will definitely be a final public release (Some aspects of this final release of CHAINMAIL will be decided upon its completion).

Whether or not you agree with this decision, it will ultimately make the final release a more polished and useable product. The CHAINMAIL project is huge and will require time/money and effort to complete.

Once the CHAINMAIL webpage is posted at www.adamaitis.net I will post its link.

Thanks,
--k

And this...

Name: kadamait
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Date: 12/24/04 13:16
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The next CHAINMAIL beta posted will not have its source included and will be playable only with the default Bioware database. This will not affect the playability of the module at all; however, you will not be able to open and modify the module through the Aurora toolset.

For the remaining beta posts of CHAINMAIL, until its final release, the source code will be stripped from the module prior to posting. This is for a few reasons; first and foremost is to keep the story development turned off and somewhat obscured; secondly, I am using a customized compiler for CHAINMAIL's source code and without it the module would not run correctly (as compiled with Bioware's Aurora toolset's compiler).

Therefore, keep your Beta 3 source if you want to continue to play around with it. If you just want to download the next CHAINMAIL beta and just play it, using the Bioware external databases, then download the next-upcoming beta build and have at it.

If you want to play around with the PVW's source then you should download the Seviss Isles R4b release for now; or get the now-dated Beta3 source from a friend (I believe, watching the download counter, that those of you who wanted the beta's source, now have it).

thanks,
--k

 

[Greylock]

Saw that yesterday. Hope he doesn't run afoul of the EULA. Lotsa question marks there, even though his intent seems sincere.

 

[Morrus]

That's old news, Chaz. The "no more Chainmail" update came after those two announcements were posted.

Here's the original post - if you scroll down, you'll see the later "no more Chainmail" announcement:

http://games.exetel.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=413

 

[Chaz]

Sorry... I was dead tired when I posted that. Here is the part that I meant to post that seems to say a possibility for updating the MOD might be possible. Sorry for the confusion.

Peace

kadamait: CHAINMAIL Developer 10th January 2005, 06:20 PM

CHAINMAIL is now being used by myself to soley teach others logic syntax and coding style within my company during its, CHAINMAIL's, continued development (nwscript is nice and simple so people can concentrate on syntax and style). CHAINMAIL will exist with a pre-compiled engine produced by a custom compiler (this compiler is yet another internal learning tool). Otherwise, all of the scripts used by the module will be included; the module will continue to be compatible too under Bioware's toolset... This will allow everyone to do what they want with CHAINMAIL, tweaking, modifying, etc. just that the core engine's source won't be available. To change options in the CHAINMAIL engine, a freely available tool will be released, i.e. to change from NWN database system (aka ~dBase V ) to MySQL, etc... At least, that is the current-future plan with CHAINMAIL.

 

[Chaz]

Update:

Name: dguntner
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Grumbar, I wrote the database wrapper script for it, so yes it's MySQL ready as long as you have NWNX2/APS installed in your system where you're running the module. Do a "search all scripts" function and look for "MySQL" (*with* the quotes), that should turn up the variable that you have to set to tell the wrapper to use the APS calls to the MySQL database. The wrapper I wrote will create the tables used on the fly the first time the module accesses those tables.


OUTLANDER2222, we're already up to BETA 7 in internal testing. I don't know at what point Karl will choose to release the next beta. Hopefully he'll post something here soon to let everyone know what's up.


Chazman11, yes, it's still being worked on. But Karl has a lot of other things going that take up much of his time. So he works on it when he can. I do a lot of beta testing for him and send him fixes that I can fix and problems that I can't. As I said to OUTLANDER2222, though, I don't know what Karl's time table is for public release of the next Beta.

--Dave

Peace

 

[Chaz]

Latest updated info...

Name: kadamait
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I am working on getting Beta 8 together for a post sometime soon... Beta 8 will consist of the main CHAINMAIL module along with a module named CHAINMAIL_OPTIONS. The options module allows one to change parameters used in chainmail, through a shared database file (this supports MySQL too), without the need to re-compile the entire chainmail module.

Most-all of the work since the current beta to beta 8 has been bugfixing and updates + performance. Expect a major overhaul in the source code; some features have been completely reworked.

As I am really busy and only have time for a few things I want to apologize for not answering any questions posted here... I am spending what little time I have on getting this next beta together and out for all.

thanks,
--k

Peace

 

[Wayfarer]

I must say, this world is incredibly vast and detailed. I did a bunch of exploring while the spawning was down and didn't reach anywhere near the number of places I was reading about in the SevissPlayersHandbook.doc I found somewhere. Then too I never did get back to a favourite area [Tyrz] by foot, after having the portal binding wiped at some point. This area isn't even listed and I know there are many not documented.

The point to this is that it would be a real shame to lose it due to lack of players
I'm hoping more will come out an play soon....

 

[Chaz]

I must say, this world is incredibly vast and detailed. ....

The point to this is that it would be a real shame to lose it due to lack of players
I'm hoping more will come out an play soon....

I think its picked up some. Ive continued to play this whole time, and just the other day I saw 3 others on while I was playing. I think it would be even more popular if we had a DM on more often when players are on. But if not, then surely when the newer update is fianly released it will see more action.

Ive been playtesting an updated version on another server a little bit. Its very hard to get started since i havent met many that will help you out(as I try to do on enworld server). But the world seems very stable so far as I can tell.

Peace

 

[Greylock]

I still plan on returning soon. Maybe a short run in the next day or so to refresh myself. Then I'll be unable to play for a couple of weeks. When that is up, I'll have nuthin' BUT time to play for a month or so.

 

[dpdx]

I was just on today, and it looked as if the spawning had returned. I did my usual attempt at the ant colony, and ran into a few issues:

• First, I had gotten my commander's commission with the Royal Guard, and hired myself a battlemage and a crossbowman. Once I got into the hole, they wouldn't follow me, they wouldn't equip a weapon, and they wouldn't fight unless they were being attacked directly, and even at that, they used their fists.
• Not seeing them as any help with the problems, I dismissed them and went back to getting as far as I could on my own. I made it to the first Winged Royal, and had him Badly Wounded before another joined in and my tank bit it. When I arrived in Limbo, I was joined by the two Guardsmen, even though I'd dismissed them.
• Hiring them back again in Limbo, I went through the Portal back to Shoreline and dropped them off (dismissed them again) when I arrived. When I returned to the ant hole, there they were, but the ants seemed to not have spawned (my apologies if I ruined the spawn routine).
• Finally, is there a path to change alignment from Chaotic to Lawful? A quest, perhaps?

I have to say, though, that the world rocks. Plenty of stuff that can kill you, and the treasure is sufficient. In fact, I lucked out in a couple of dungeons, and should now be able to recompense Roland Darkmoor's characters, who are practically the only reason my guy is L8 now...