Belzon

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About Belzon

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  1. 1. If your download fails insantly when starting wurm, it means you have the old graphics.jar on your hard drive. The CDN node that your client is connected to has an old version of graphics.jar and is reporting that the version you have is current and your client does not try to download the file. The MANIFEST is pulled from your old graphics.jar, a CRC is calculated and compared with the one the client expects and fails with the CRC error. 2. If your download fails after downloading the graphics.jar, it means the node you are connecting to has the old graphics.jar, but the one on your harddrive does not exist or is even older (perhaps returning players?). The old graphics.jar is downloaded, the MANIFEST is extracted, the CRC is calculated and does not match the one the client expects, so it fails with the CRC error after the download. 3. If your download succeeds and you can play wurm it means your client is connected to a CDN node that has the latest graphics.jar, and the node is reporting that your client does not have the most recent version and the client then downloads the file. This is the sequence that is supposed to work. Lucky you 4. If your client already has the latest graphics.jar and your PC is connecting to a CDN node that has the latest graphics.jar, then nothing happens, you can play the game without downloading anything. The manual download of the JAR files forces the fourth sequence.
  2. Get a copy of the pack JARs from someone you trust. The CDN appears to be taking a long time propagating the new JAR to its nodes (educated guess) causing some people to get the new version while others get the old version (which results in the CRC error).
  3. Agreed that 64-bit is not a solution. I have a 64-bit JRE installed and experienced the same problem, and then the problem went away without having to upgrade the JRE. I think it might be the CDN not propagating copies of the JAR files quickly enough or not purging their caches. Those clients routed to one set of CDN servers are getting the new graphics JAR and the CRC is passing. Those routed to other CDN servers are getting the old graphics.jar and the CRC is failing. Some clients who were routed to a CDN server with the old JAR then later get load balanced to a server that has the new JAR and suddenly and magically the download works. Also noticed that some people are even having connectivity problems to the CDN servers. So it would not be a surprise if the problem is somehow related to CDN file propagation/caching.
  4. Manifest-Version: 1.0 Ant-Version: Apache Ant 1.8.4 Created-By: 1.8.0_25-b18 (Oracle Corporation) Built-By: Wurm Client Dev Team Specification-Title: Wurm Client Specification-Version: r2525 Specification-Vendor: Code Club AB. Implementation-Title: Wurm Client Implementation-Vendor: Code Club AB. Implementation-Version: r2525 Build-date: 12-05-2015 18:01
  5. Got the same error with a mismatched CRC on the manifest file. CRC is a kind of computed checksum that verifies that the file being checked (the JAR's MANIFEST) has not been tampered with. Either an old MANIFEST (JAR) was being fetched (perhaps it was cached?) or the file was being truncated. I am not sure which, and I'm too lazy to figure it out. Regardless, I deleted my application from the java web start cache using the Java control panel and downloaded a fresh JNLP from http://www.wurmonline.com/client/wurmclient.jnlp and that didnt work. So I deleted the application from the cache again and then I also clicked the Settings...-->Delete Files.. buttons on the General tab of the Java control panel and checked "Installed Applications and Applets" checkbox before hitting OK in the "Delete Files and Applications" dialog. Then I downloaded a new JNLP from the same location as before, and it worked (got through the graphics download). No idea why. I think there's some funny caching going on somewhere either on my PC or what's being reported from the web server where wurm is hosted, but again....too lazy. Good luck!
  6. Discuss Epic plz

    I agree with this and add that there are players that want to pvp only sometimes but still want to exist in the same world but not be harassed constantly by raids. Other times those same players may want to pvp for a few days before returning to their home server deeds and recharging. PVP cannot be an end to itself. Its a mechanic, not content. Similarly, crafting cannot be an end to itself. It too is a mechanic, not content. Mechanics have to support the content. So improving pvp on epic will only go so far in engaging players and thus improving server population. There needs to be a reason for it and that's where content comes in. Without any reason, players will get bored. To stay engaged, players need to feel like they are accomplishing something using the mechanics of the game including pvp. Once that "thing" is accomplished, they should have obvious paths to follow to start working on that next thing to accomplish that is varied enough to not be repetitive. Epic has some of this dynamic (pseudo dynamic?) content in place, but there has been not enough follow through. The epic scenario metagame. HOTA. Even random dropping of powerful mobs like dragons (and to a lesser degree valrei mobs) classify as dynamic content. Its interesting that one might imply that player driven content is the main driver of the wurm pvp servers. I think the server population on the epic servers if reflective of this assertion. Player driven content is great btw. Let's not discount its value in anyway. However, it is not sustainable and depends too much on the brilliance of a few who can generate this kind of content for other players. Once those players leave, the content goes with them. Lets also talk about content for a moment. Content is both material and objective. The latter is more important than the former in nearly all cases. Material content are the things you can see and interact with in the game. Buildings, armor, weapons, tools, animals, even players. Its "things". In Wurm, nearly all the things you see are player driven. This is a design choice for Wurm, and I dont think this is really the flawed part of the game other than the want for a more diverse set of "things" which seems to be happening at a steady, slow pace. Objective content are things that you cannot see but compel players to do things. Quests, community goals, a rare resource to be quested for and fought over, festivals, etc. It is updates to the objective content that keeps people coming back to a persistent world. Updates to the material content changes are icing or used to provide some reward to the objective content. Changes to the objective content are what companies advertise when they release a new version of their game. Very few successful MMOs advertise that they just released a new armor set as a primary purpose of an expansion to their game. Usually they release and advertise based on a major objective content update. A new area with alot of new questing opportunities. A new PVP arena. Usually a major progression in the story arc of the game. Material content may be (and often is) part of the big content release, but its rarely the central focus. Keep a steady pace on graphics/mechanics improvements, but recommend renewing the focus on the objective content. Do not allow the myth of player driven content or pure pvp be central to epic's success. Give it room to grow and flourish, but do not rely on it for long term success. Give people more reasons to use the mechanics, and dont allow the mechanics to replace good objective content.
  7. Discuss Epic plz

    Epic has a great concept. It needs to be finished, which is to say, it should never be finished. Let me explain. The soul of a great persistent world is not its mechanics or feature set. Those are important, but the thing that keeps people new people coming in, holds their attention and keeps them coming back has always *ALWAYS* been compelling content. The epic scenario was a great start, but needs alot of love. Other ideas include regular community events, sign in bonuses, a day of bonus xp/skill gain, etc. Something different every week or so that makes people come back so they do not miss out on something. Right now, people come back and its the same thing they left. There's some pvp going on at so and so's deed. A raid forming up to raid a home server. Some guy is building a deed over there. Grind up some skill. Make a rare. Grind up favor. And on and on. Same thing and those same things are becoming less common. Those activities would be classified under "player driven content". The problem with player driven content is that if players dont generate enough of it, its no longer interesting and people leave causing less content to be generated, which starts a death spiral. Good compelling content has to come from the game as much as it does from the players. The epic scenario system is actually a very, very good idea at creating dynamic content that took a wrong turn somewhere on the implementation back roads. Its a metagame available on the epic cluster that allows players to work toward some higher goals to achieve some large results--what's not to love about that? It solves a basic problem with sandbox games, which is that its impossible to "win" and makes it quite possible to "lose". The metagame at least gives players a multi-week objective that allows them to win something. It really is a great idea. Well guess what? A lot of the people I talk on the epic servers have no idea how it even works. That's problem #1. There is no in-game UI to access the state of the epic scenario besides a very lacking mission interface. Where is the great map showing the moon, where the gods are, all the items they have to get, etc etc? Its on an XML feed. Some smart people have created live maps on custom web sites showing the XML in graphical format, but that is a really bad way to do this. This stuff should be in the game, at the finger tips of every epic player who wants to understand whats going on immediately and how they can help. That's problem #2--crappy support for the epic scenarios in the game itself. The third problem with scenarios is the mission generation. Its bland. Its boring and highly repetitive and grindy. There is a complete lack of obviousness when trying to figure out why a player should do them. Okay, I have to help sacrifice 300 dogs. Never mind the fact that the mission itself makes almost no sense, why *should* I do it? What do I get out of it? How much of that thing do I get? If I get it, what does it matter? Ugh! So my first suggestion is to fix the meta-game and make it more compelling. Make it less repetitive, more obvious, and more relevant. A larger variety of missions would be a good start. A better user interface is critical to its success. Getting rid of the impossible missions is even better. In other words, make the persistent content more interesting, worthwhile, and obvious to learn. My second suggestion is to offer regular community events, whether they be seasonal or based on fictional wurmian holidays. Whatever. This is not just limited to improving epic, and should be taken as advice for improving the PVE servers and chaos, too. Give people a reason to come back and try the game again besides releasing new graphics, items or wall types. In other words, provide more dynamic content and allow it to introduce fresh and interesting features. For example, why not introduce technology research as a way to unlock new features that have been developed? Why just introduce bridges for nothing? Make the community work for it. Make a community event where people have to contribute something, such as labor and material or something else (loot obtained from enemy pvp corpses that contains information used to assist in the research?) that adds "research points" to a bridges tech project. Once the tech project is completed, THEN release bridges. That's just one idea anyways. Another one is to offer another tier of equipment available through crafting materials gained through participation in these short-term events. As for having one server or four. I think closing or resetting any server will likely cause some players to leave. Wurm is a persistent cluster of little worlds and people have invested time and RL money into their plots of land. Its not reasonable to expect them to be happy about resets or server closures. That being said, I like the home servers. I like that they can be raided, but at a penalty. I like that there is a place to go for people who do not want to live right down the road from an enemy strong hold and endure daily raids but may still want to be a part of pvp some of the time. It gives people on elevation a place to go for a breather and recharge. I like that enemies have a combat rating malus making it more difficult for one side to dominate all four maps. I dont think having one big map vice four smaller maps will make any difference in the long run. There is nothing that prevents freedom of travel from affliction to serentiy or desertion. They are one virtual map with a small loading time in between. Combining the epic cluster into a single map will not change why people play or do not play the game, because it will not address the fundamental problem, which is a function of boredom for lack of anything new to do. Its that simple. Best of luck with whatever is changed.
  8. Does this work with ivy bridge 3rd gen Intel processes like the i7-3770k? Not as many execution units as my Nvidia GPU, but it would be nice to actually use them for something. I am using the 1.0.5 client, and I see my GTX 260 listed, but not the Intel CPU device. Anybody get this working?