Icesus64

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-- the coldest dungeon on the net

*** ICESUS64 BETA TESTING PHASE IS OPEN ***
*** NEW ICESUS64 WIKI IS OPEN ***

ADDRESSING THE NATION
---------------------

The possibility of upgrading icesus to 64bit has been deemed very doable, and
doing so has opened up many, many new opportunities to be added in the game, as well
as solving some existing major problems.

However, this would not come without a sacrifice: We will not be able to fully
support all (read: the oldest) MUD clients in icesus64, and it would mean some players
would have to change their ways, which are deeply rooted in history, muscle memory and
your core being after years and years of playing.

In some transitionings it might be possible to export your existing triggers
and scripts from old client and import to new one, but this is not always the
case. To help with this issue, we will be opening a new WIKI where people
can share all of their existing trigger-lines for EQ monsters, and different
post for each guild, so making the new triggers would be faster. Example of
this would be the following for Earth Priest's spell "earth coffin":

^The earth answers your call and the ground trembles as vast amounts of stone
and earth rise from the ground and form a dome like heap around %1. Accompanied
with thundering rumble the heap collapses inwards with immense force, burying %1
under hundreds of pounds of solid rock. After a short while the stones rumble
again and melt back to the ground where they came from, revealing mangled %1 "

But as we all know, when change happens, people instictively are against it,
because what they have now is familiar and safe, and the things that lie beyond
horizon unknown, can harm us, and at the very least, require some effort of learning
to use the new client, for example, which will be uncomfortable.

But, in order for Icesus to keep moving ONWARDS, it must change.

Or, if the population so chooses, Icesus can remain still. Things will still work,
bugs that were there yesterday, are there tomorrow, and will be fixed eventually.
New additions will be made to 32bit Icesus, just as they have been added before this day.

What would 64 bit Icesus offer that would be worth going through the pain of creating
it and converting existing libraries and code and all that to the new format?

The answer might shock you. Things would be mostly the same. Bugs that were there
yesterday, would be there today, and would be fixed eventually. But, the difference is,
the possibilities would be vastly greater for new content. The game could gain e.g. more
'graphical' content (like what you see here, in REXpaint archive of ANSI art).

Totally new mechanics would be available, which are currently beyond the capabilities of
the game. This might in turn attract more Wizards. Which could mean the fixes of those
pesky, years-old bugs, new mechanics for guilds, new mechanics for monsters and so on.

But none of these things can be considered a promise. There is no way of knowing if this
would indeed spawn us more Wizards. But I would wager the probablity would be much higher.

And lastly, we would like to address those who would wish for Icesus to be Icesus:

We realize you have been here for years, or decades, and you have grown accustomed to
things as they are. For some, Icesus might be the only thing that has not been "killed by
changes" in their lives. We all grow older, lose our friends due to growing apart, or they
gain families and no longer have time for us, and some we lose to the cycle of life.
And Icesus, our steady Icesus, has stayed mostly the same. Has been there for us through the
good times and the bad.

To all of you, we wish to convey our thoughts on this: Not all change is bad.

Some changes are bad. Nothing can be done so that it would fit for everyone. If we stay as we
are now, it would be great to you who wish so, but not for those who wish for change, and vice
versa. Not everybody can be pleased.

Every change will make someone uncomfortable or angry. And for some, the change will ease
their lives, and make them happy.

And the very last thing is: 32-bit Icesus grows closer to death every day due to
technical reasons which have been explained in our forums, here: Icesus forums: 32-bit vs 64-bit.
For example, getting sometimes 'minus exp' from large mobs is directly related to the
end of the world as we know it.

It is strongly recommended for all players to try out 64 during beta testing
stage to get accustomed with e.g. UTF-8, especially if you are using an old MUD client
which will not be fully supported in icesus64 (if you cant see or input scandinavian
characters in 64, this IS the cause). If you are using a MUD client from the age
of dinosaurs, such as ZMUD 4.x, you WILL have problems with scandinavian chars in 64.

So, the primary purpose of beta stage is actually twofold. It is meant for bughunting,
yes, but ALSO to give you time to adapt and overcome any compatibility problems well
in advance, a couple months before major changes come into play.

There are three ways to overcome UTF-8 compatibility problems:

1) Use a modern MUD client which supports UTF-8 straight out of the box, such as MUDLET: MUDLET webpage.
Icesus will be officially supporting MUDLET users in any gameplay related client problems.
The least you can do is at least try things out with MUDLET to see for yourself scandinavian
chars work just fine, its just the client that needs to 'habla UTF-8.'

2) Use an existing plugin created by the community.
As a sterling example of this attitude, Shikan has already created UTF-8 plugin for MUSHCLIENT. You can d/l it from here:
Shikan's UTF-8 plugin for MUSHCLIENT

3) Create your own plugin which will support UTF-8 for the client of your choosing.
Then share it with the community and earn fame, glory and PDF.

But most important of all: Do not plunge into infantilizing despair.

Like the stalwart people of Aegic as you are, stay strong, improvise, adapt and overcome!

TIMELINE OF CHANGES
-------------------

BETA (now) --> 1.0 (July 2019) --> 1.1 (August 2019)

BETA:
The game is currently in BETA testing stage. This means all mortals
are welcome to login, test and learn things out, but any achievements
(exp, eq) made in 64 will not save during beta. The primary purpose
of beta testing stage is to find and fix bugs which we were not able to
find out during alpha testing stage (which has now ended).

In other words, the only achievements you can make during beta, which
will save, are PDF, which come from finding bugs which are _native to 64
only._ It means: If you find a bug in 64, but this same bug happens
also in 32-bit, it does not yield any beta testing PDF. Only bugs native
to 64 will yield PDF rewards under beta testing category.

Also, due to non-saving nature of 64 during beta testing, there will of
course be no reimbursements of any kind in 64 during beta stage. The game
might also be rebooted at a few minutes' notice to quickly fix any newfound
bugs.

1.0:
After satisfactory completion of beta testing stage we will enter
version 1.0 towards end of July 2019. At this point, achievements (exp, eq)
will start saving in 64.
In 1.0 achievements in 32-bit server will STOP saving.

1.1:
We aim for version 1.1 in August 2019. The primary objective of 1.1 is
successful shutdown of 32-bit server. The resources reserved by the server
will be released back to Koodiviidakko (our host).