DataManagement is a Bitch

I wish this rewrite was done already. Whenever I give myself a multiday project when I dont get to actually test code for days or weeks really kills me. Its not very fun and there arent any results to go on. Hopefully I can have this stuff out of the way by the end of the coming weekend.

I am dying to play, thinking about all the political intrigue, wars, a real life or death struggle to survive makes the game so appealing to me. A real try at seeing what it would be like if you were to head off into combat or make changes in a large thriving world. The intensity of going from a period of peace to complete annihilation as your tribe or nation leader summons you to go into battle. Whether it be for defense or conquest makes no difference, it will all be quite fun.

The core keeps seeming like it will take longer and longer. I only really have 2 or 3 good weekends left before school. Even those seem kind of pitiful but i'll take what I get. Hopefully the core will be done by the end of October at the latest. Once the core is done it will be a big transition to filling out a lot of the major content. Room types, combat, Humanoids, Item creation. Then the game will really kind of transition over into what DynamicMUD was during my original attempt when I was messing around with Python.

If you have questions or ideas feel free to talk to me about them. Hearing interest from people is really what makes me want to keep working on this project. Anyway I need some sleep as always, hopefully ill have some good news this weekend.

-Toraux

Restructuring DataSystem

I am currently restructuring the data storage system. This will hopefully be more robust and less prone to stupid errors and make the data more easily changed when the game isnt in operation.

As for testing ive had some people ask me when he next test is... most likely I will plan at least one more chance before I go back to school, probably some weekend in mid to late August. This test would be geared mainly to stress testing the newly rewritten and enhanced code and be less of a test of new features.

In other news I realized today that Java 1.5 contains functionality to track time in nano seconds. Hopefully this will make my testing code much more accurate!

Anyway gotta sleep, work tomorrow.
-Toraux

Slow and Steady wins the Race

I got a bit done today. The theme now seems to be slow and steady wins the race. Every time I tried to code and I rushed it things sucked down the line. I am now refactoring a lot of my stuff and even possibly rewriting the data storage framework to make things more efficient and robust. New features have been few and far between, but once this core engine is done things should start pouring out.

I installed my new CD-RW drive this morning, definately recommend Lite-On drives, well labeled, cheap, good companion software, and an easy install. Also cleaned up the inside and organized the wires etc too.

After that I upgrade to Java 1.5 and tried out this generics thing. I have to say it makes my code a lot cleaner in a lot of places. On the otherhand the over complication of java isnt exactly a great thing either, but at least it works. My next few objectives over the weekend are mainly refactoring and cleaning up core things. Making things well rounded and good for future use is of the utmost importance. Hopefully the core will be done by the end of August or September, but at my current rate of development that might be too high of an aim. Guess we'll need to wait and see. Anyway, going to sleep now and hopefully get up early tomorrow and hit a lot of stuff, I lose next weekend for a bit of a vacation so I need to try and keep up the pace now.

Later,
-Toraux

Goings On

My newer scheduling system seems to be working out ok. Im making slow and steady progress. I have plans for the next few weeks to finish up some minor improvements and then overhaul some of the base systems a bit.

At work I decided to take it upon myself to write a program to do AM Studies for me.... basicly we go to the FCC website enter in some Coordinates and a radius and it tells us which radio stations are in that area and we print it to a pdf. On Tuesday I spent about 5 hours doing 120 sites. Why do this lame stuff by hand? :P I should have a program written to download the websites and print directly to pdf without any human interaction within a week. Already today I learned about Java Generics, a relatively new feature that will make my code a lot tighter after the overhaul... basicly like the C++ template feature. Anyway going to do some other stuff now bbl :P

-Toraux

Time

I really wish I had more time each day. So much work to be done and no time to do it in. Today I converted my entire source repository over to subversion. After a bit of an issue with getting my code to actually execute properly I was able to get some other stuff done too. I have a plan now to schedule my time more wisely each week so hopefulyl I can at least make a little progress each week. I am still considering setting dynamic up on top mud sites to try and get more traffic, but that might depend on how long it takes to get this website up as well. I am hoping that maybe by January of next year I will be ready to take on a few staff members. I will hopefully have the website staff ready by then as well as someone to start work on the marketing part of dynamic and a writer to work on help files and documentation. I might even be ready to start building the story staff then, guess we'll find out. Anyway I think im done ranting and stuff, just a reminder I might make my development plans available on the google calendar linked in the upper right of this page. Oh yeah and tell your friends to check this page out!

-Toraux

Test Results

Basicly only a couple people showed up for the test today, guess I didnt actively tell enough people, not many seem to read this stuff regularly or take note :P From now on maybe ill see if I can set up a signup sheet of some sort so I know who might actually show up for future tests.

I have decided to drop automating tag in favor of finishing up this core stuff faster so I can move on to bigger and better things like the final gameplay that im aiming for to begin with. Hopefully this week ill be able to get myself coding more easily.

I am still considering Top Mud Sites as a method of promoting the game but I need more input from people. Get to the actual blog: http://dynamicmud.blogspot.com and post a comment if you think you would or wouldnt vote on top mud sites if I got dynamic listed.

C-ya around.
-Toraux

Happy 4th

Hope all my American readers had a happy 4th, and I hope anyone else had a good weekend as well. Ive been back since Sunday night but still havent really gotten myself to code anything yet, and it looks like tonight will be the same. I am planning to rewrite the paging system to be easier to use on the development end and save myself a whole lot of time writing future paging commands.

I believe I will be running a test on Sunday July 9th at 3pm Eastern Standard Time. It will be the same drill as last time so make sure you sign up for the mailing list and the tester group. (The links for these are at the top right, you will need to create a google account. If you are reading this from the mailing list please click the link to get to the blog so you can click the appropriate link) More details will be available in the tester group.

Thanks all, see you Sunday.
-Toraux