About those old storylines...

[Valnika]

I'm wondering if we can still use the old grid as well as the new areas but each over 200 turns apart from the other. Or are there too many logistics and code issues to work out to make it at all possible? This is just a stray thought that hit me yesterday when I logged back into the game. Any ideas?

[catsafae]

I think it would be a logistical nightmare. In my experience with other games, it's hard enough to keep people on track in a single timeline. Also, I'm pretty certain there would be people who insisted they were the same character on both timelines; back in the day there was one character whose player set up as a vampire in one of the original ships and played on multiple Pern games as that same character. Your idea is a cool one, and I'd love to see it happen, but I know people would find ways to abuse it.

[Valnika]

I can see the logistical nightmare in keeping the two games separate and setting up the code on a version of mush that old. Specifically the locks on the two separate timelines to keep the characters in their own area. As far as players setting up the same character, that's impossible on these games. You can't create the same name on a single game and an altered version of it means (in my opinion, little as it's worth) it's another character. Descendant, ancestor, whichever. *shrugs* As for characters on multiple games, that isn't any of my business. If a player wants to rp the same thing over and over with the same character that is his/her business. I don't understand it, but it doesn't bother me.

[Valnika]

As for the vampire... if the staff is open enough for that, it is up to them. Me... I'm all for canon to Pern. I'm not a canon nazi, as I have seen, and even rp'd some plots that really stretched the reality of Pern... but I have learned to appreciate the canon of Anne's world so I tend to keep to it now.

[catsafae]

[Disclaimer: I am not a current admin, but my information comes from speaking with people who are.]

Not just the locks to keep people in place (Which would solve the "Person playing the same character in both timelines" issue), but things like the WHO list. It might frustrate new folks, especially those who don't check out the newbie area and have no idea what's going on, to see a WHO list full of people with whom they cannot interact on any level. Heck, without +fingering people it's hard to tell which timeline characters are from, and people with no knots can potentially be players for the new area or people lurking in the old. Also, while Benden and Ruatha had been removed from the old DB, Harper Hall still existed there. It would be complicated to figure out how to run both Harper Halls at once; things like knots and who gets what space in the two timelines.

Further complicating matters, from what I've gleaned, the current admins do not have access to news and some or all of the global functions. The logistical FUBAR would be compounded by the code needed to keep the two timelines separate. I haven't done global coding for over a decade so things may have changed, but when I did so, wizards needed to own many of the inherit objects to make them work properly. Unless one of the wizards returns, code is frozen in place for now. The current admins can't even get around it by creating another master global room because the function therefore is called from server code, at least it was way back when.

At this point, at the very least, I think the game should concentrate on building up the populations of the new areas. Perhaps once they have a stable contingent the idea could be revisited, but especially with lack of an active wizbit and the the absence of access to the server, just setting up the three areas is going to be a big enough challenge. Another possibility might be to set up a separate game on pern.mccr.org as a legacy area. One way to do that would be to create a clean DB for the new areas and use the current DB or a backup from before the new areas' creation as the legacy game. The biggest issues therewith would be figuring out which game gets port 4201. And, of course, not having access to the server.

[Valnika]

I take your point. Or points as the case may be. And the taking advantage part I am well aware of. I haven't talked to Kyriana in a while, but in cleaning and renaming some of the rooms in Benden (to indicate the actual location of the room) I found what appears to be an insta-bronze in a storage cavern. I'm still trying to figure out how he got past the dragon lock to get all the way back there. I'm starting to get the giggles at the image that is appearing inside my skull of a frustrated bronze (even a small one) crammed into a storage cavern. Hee

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