Usl

Hello all, while preparing stuff for a possible Android client, I wrote a little widget to keep me notified of current EL time and any special day that might happen. It uses information from Trinitybot (at http://trinity.el-bots.zapto.org/), and was inspired by bluap's similar applet for Gnome (https://launchpad.net/el-time-applet). This is just a first version, I would be grateful if some of you with an Android phone could test it a let me know of any observation/suggestion they might have (by posting in this thread). The plan is to have it in the Android Market in a couple of weeks (that would also be a nice promotional opportunity for EL). If you are reading the Programming forum, I trust you know how to install applications on your phone; the package is available at http://filebin.ca/ecdtq/ELTime.apk (you can directly go there from your phone's browser and install, or download and transfer via USB or Bluetooth to your phone, then install).

How nice! For a while, I felt again the emotions from many years ago, when I was exploring every corner of Draia, and new beautiful scenery opened in front of my eyes with every passage I tried... not to mention, with every death I experienced! Thanks for bringing the good memories back!

A gentle player, sad to hear the bad news. On behalf of all members of >FA<, our condolences to her family and her in-game friends.

No, the Nexus 7 is a tablet; the basic version only has wi-fi connectivity, and the 3G version has cellular connectivity, but only for data. Using it as a phone would be... an interesting experience. I used to have a Galaxy Tab (also 7") before getting the Nexus 7, and the Tab could also be used as a phone. I quickly discovered that it was too large to place calls, and too small when you needed a phone booth to change into your Superman suit. If you need a phone, get a phone. Nexus 4 is an excellent choice, for $299 in the US (unlocked, no contract), but you should be able to get it for much less on contract in a short while. Or, choose any of the cheaper alternatives, maybe with a slightly older version of Android. Around here, they can be had for less than €70, unlocked/no contract. No need to get the bleeding edge of technology, if all you need is a phone...

Donated some amber, almost there now: mostly need flowers for RVM...

I love this elf As to the subject of the poll: I am not going to vote, since I never hunted for a pear in my EL-life, and cannot judge what the most appropriate cooldown is. I am not sure a cooldown would change the basic mechanism: it slows down everyone equally, so assuming there is an optimal order for visiting the maps, and the harvestables inside each map, the winning strategy is always the same. The cooldown would simply occasionally reward those that do not follow the optimal strategy, and just harvest at random. The occasional find maybe can get them interested in the pear hunt, maybe not. Worth a try probably, and easily reverted if it doesn't work. More in general, it would be a better world the one in which the best player at a given game, takes pride in driving more people to play that game, and in creating a more vibrant community, rather than in winning every single match and, in the end, being the only one to play.

Excellent.

Now this is getting really odd. First post: "is there a bug in the rand() routine"? Second post should be by Radu (or maybe Learner), stating "No, I checked the code, there is no bug there". Everything else is irrelevant to the case. Burn's proposal about removing the name from the blue spam makes sense, but it would have been more visible in a separate post.

It would be vastly better if anyone respected the right of even the most clueless player to make suggestions freely (as usual, provided they are not repeat, "search before you post", etc.). This sub-forum is for brainstorming, and good ideas can only emerge if any idea can be stated freely. Suggestions are evaluated by developer(s), and the vast majority (good and bad) are rejected anyway. There is no need of preventive censorship. So, Burn, feel free to post your dissenting opinion, but there is no reason to imply that Maxine is not entitled to post hers. The same goes for everyone else, of course -- just keep in mind the forum rules. Thanks.

What was the objection to the old idea of giving to each player a reward (xp) in proportion to the total amount of damage that the player has caused to monsters, again? The problem would largely cure itself: if you are afk in the instance, and not fighting, you don't get xp. The more damage you deal, the more you contribute to winning the invance, so the higher your reward. As for bagjumpers, this solution would not be worse than the current situation.

I got two EFEs in 110 FEs last night, so clearly miracles do happen. You have all the reasons to be proud of what you have accomplished so far, and there is no reason why we can't hope that you will accomplish more in the future. Good luck with the surgery -- and on the following weeks. And if things don't work out too well... we will all see each other on the other side in a little while; I am told the company there is excellent. We will be thinking of you on Friday.

That's the best possible outcome!

I severely hope that this single item from the things you mention does NOT hold true. Would be quite a blunder and unprofessional. Also admins must never be allowed to retrieve passwords - only to reset them. FYI, moderators can neither access nor retrieve nor reset passwords. Only radu can, and since he is the one writing the server code, it is rather immaterial whether he can see passwords or not - since he controls the code that does the authentication. Computer security is a serious discipline, don't be fooled by DOs and DON'Ts that may induce a false sense of security. The classic paper "Reflections on Trusting Trust" by Ken Thompson (originally published on Communications of the ACM, available at http://cm.bell-labs.com/who/ken/trust.html) might be worth a read. It is much safer to act on the assumption that the developer of the server where you are sending your credentials can at least intercept those credentials. That's why you should never re-use the same password on multiple systems. Having said this, I have no idea whether passwords are stored in plain text, or encrypted with some public key whose private key is jealously guarded by radu, or hashed with only hashes being stored, or encrypted with a random salt in the style of the original UNIX /etc/passwd (still used today in crytp() ), etc. But since the developer of the game (and owner of the server) has physical access to every bit of data pertaining to your character, whether the password is accessible to him or not is immaterial. The only risks that should be mitigated are (1) breach of server security, in which case the data your password is supposed to protect is exposed already, and (2) reuse of the same password on other sites/services, which can be mitigated (removed, really) by using a unique password for the EL server. Of course, the hosting service where the EL server runs also might have access to your bits, as well as your ISP and other intermediary providers, and of course the NSA, the CIA, the FBI, the Iranian Government, the Mossad, the Chinese firm who assembled your router, etc. Security is a matter of deciding who you trust, not of being safe :-) Having said this, I totally agree that storing/transmitting encrypted passwords is a better practice than storing/transmitting plaintext. But you do realize that having a working proxy is indistinguishable from having a men-in-the-middle attack...

You can request a password recovery service (which entails a $5 payment as administration fee) by contacting radu in-game, or Entropy in-forum. Either way, you might have to provide proof that you are the legitimate owner of the character, before the password is reset. This can be obtained from your logs, in some case, or by providing information that only the owner would know (e.g., where you last logged off, or what you had in storage/inventory, or a vague remembrance about the old password, etc.). Given that the Hompf character has pretty good attributes/levels, starting a new character is not an option, I'd say...

Considering your relatively civil behaviour, and the fact that you were late to the party and not among those who started it, I am inclined to set a shorter term for the ban. I have also talked to Burn, and he kindly agreed to accept your apologies. I sincerely hope that it was all an accident, and that you did not intend to gang bully anyone on purpose. Hence, I am unbanning you. Will appreciate if we could have a chat in-game once you are in.

There will be a planned outage at the facility where Rraisa is hosted; she will be down starting now, and for most of Saturday 28th of July. Service is expected to resume around 6pm CET on Saturday, but you know how these things are: better assume it will be back on Monday morning. For your amusement: the planned outage is due to maintenance work needed to repair the same major power switch that went on fire on 16th June 2010 (see previous post). It took almost two years to get all the contracts and authorizations for the repair work sorted... which may explain why this country is going downhill.

The character still exists, and it is not banned, so most probably you are trying a wrong password (remember, user names are not case-sensitive, but passwords are). We cannot do much about it until the 25th of July, though, as TrueMen suggested. So... patience, for now!

There is no way in-game to do a personal rollback, only Radu could do something like that (it usually entails a small fee as administrative charge). You might have to wait till the EL Shop re-opens, on the 25th of July.

You could go for a password recovery. There is a little processing fee involved ($5), which is due to the need for a human admin to check that you really are the owner of the character. Normally this entails providing some details about the char, such as where you logged off last time you were online, or what kind of armour you had in storage, etc. In the best case, your email and IP combination might be enough (that is, if you have not moved or switched ISP in the meantime). I should add that the EL Shop is closed till the 25th of July, so there is no way to recover your password earlier than that. You might want to start a new character and have a memory trip to your newbie days in the meantime

This should be implementable totally client-side, but of course Radu has to approve the feature first (an usual criticism is that too much automation can make macroing easier and cause less active involvement by players, but that's not for me to decide). As a player, it would be a convenient feature to have.

Been there, felt like that! Nice comics, congrats!

Monuments are bots named Monument_1 ... Monument_11. You must find them and trade with them to receive the 1-letter hint. We know that the monuments are in Idaloran, and not in PK, but no further info is available. All the letters, sorted appropriately, will form a hint to where the treasure is hidden. The hint is to a small place, and the treasure is a hyperbag there, so get your skeleton keys ready. The bag itself contains a few simple items. PM me the contents to claim the prize. Everyone can join in the hunt, and you are free to organize teams (but not to use multiple alts in the hunt). The prize will be awarded to the first one to PM me the correct list, any splitting among the team after that (or lack thereof) is a private business of the winner. Contest will start on the 25th day in the month of Nimlos, the year 0031, Age of the Eternals, at sunbreak. Prize: 150000gc, donated by interpolation. P.S.: First 10 minutes will be just plain hunting. Then, we will start having an invasion in Idaloran, low-level mobs at first, then increasing. Good luck!

Wonderful post! I was lucky, had friends in game on day 1, and since then, it has been a great ride... for the last five years and then something!

Could not avoid thinking of EL when watching this trailer... worth watching to the end if you are in for a laugh! :-) http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=dnQ9Vp4fV4I

Mmm, the widget uses the time as set on your phone, but it is totally possible that I do not refresh the timezone - tbh I never tried this :-) Maybe you can remove the widget and re-add it? If that's the root of the problem, removing and readding should fix it. I will keep that case in mind for the next version though.