Net-7 Status - Rebuilding

[Kyp [LDEV]]

6 hours ago, C Del said:

 

I hear that you're frustrated with the extended downtime, which is entirely understandable given the circumstances, but I encourage you (and others) not to lose faith in the project.

 

I think it is difficult to grasp from an external perspective just how much work and difficulty is involved in managing and recovering from what is an IT catastrophe like this. To switch hosting providers, as they are doing, is a massive headache in the best of times - to do so without warning and under substantial stress is the kind of thing that gives CTO/CIOs of small tech companies everywhere PTSD. The fact that, from what I can see, there has has been zero practical loss of data from this breach is a cause for celebration, and it means that the people in charge were paying attention, keeping important best practices, and acted diligently in managing the server(s) and the web of services residing on those servers. Many volunteer projects could easily have been permanently crippled by this event, and the fact that I can log in here and can see my characters on net-7.org shows me that the project is alive and kicking.

 

Now I appeal for patience and grace: Waaaaay back in 2008-2013ish (it's difficult to remember now), I was a minor contributor to this project. At that time, the active volunteer staff was several times what it is today, and even with that extra help, the project had its plenty of struggles and setbacks. Unfortunately, this decade and more later, there are fewer shoulders to bear the burden of server maintenance, development, financial management, logistics, and community management. This diminishment may seem an ominous portent, but, conversely, I believe it highlights the extraordinary commitment of those core members who have kept the watch here while I went about my business, coming back about every year to listen to the December shopping music, fly around Sol, and revisit a part of my childhood to which I'd be 20 years more distant if not for their effort.

 

Forgive me for babbling on, but I mean to say that the good people here have shown us by their actions that they care about preserving this game and keeping it available for others to enjoy, and though that may be difficult for them, I see no indication that they intend to stop now.

 

Finally, a huge Thank You to all of the active staff for keeping the home fires lit for all of us - as long as this community exists, EnB shall not perish from the Earth.

 

 

Appreciate the vote of confidence. Simply put, game is not gone away, nor will stay gone. It'd be nice to have all the skill sets we need at the ready but people move on, and as C Del says, sometimes those skills are hard to come by and the infrastructure behind all this is more complicated than would be expected but it's necessary to protect your data/accounts/game experience.

 

Right now it is as I last said, we're working through some differences with code to bring ourselves up to a current version of Microsoft's visual studio because we were using an older version for development and our code base is not currently compatible/able to be compiled and run. Once we solve those issues we should be able to bring the last stuff up including the dev and sunrise servers.

[larryh00ver]

On 3/26/2023 at 5:03 AM, Trickster said:

Hello everyone, Trickster here. I'm going on a little rant here, about what I feel when it comes to the game, and the community around it... but first, who am I?

I played when it was live, not awfully much, I do have a life IRL, but I loved the way the game was structured... no PVP, all working together against a known foe, space, mining, all the good stuff. And then it ended, too soon, if the amount of players online, playing the game, when the plug was pulled is any indication.

So that's very little about me, what about the devs, and other people, that JUST WOULDN'T WANT TO LET THE GAME GO TO THE GRAVE... that tirelessly work with the code, against the costs trying to keep it up for all of us?

We like playing the game, actually very much so, but when a group tries their hardest to do this, we see often this line "if you like what we do, and like playing the game, pls donate to help us continue giving you this great experience". Then most of us, suddenly goes blind, or thinking, when others donate I will too, or something to that effect.

Or, we see the small devoted fanbase, donating an arm and a leg, and we think, I cannot do those amounts, others seems to think that ONLY a few dollars, will not be enough. But strangely enough, when the game was live, we happily payed the subscription fees. And they were much higher.

 

Donations isn't about a happy FEW giving all they have, it never works like that, but instead plenty of us donating perhaps, 1 or 2 dollars (after fees), and then.... these fine wonderful people, that tirelessly giving their time to this community, wouldn't have any problems keeping the servers up, keeping the security updated (so evil people throwing ransomware cannot get at it), keeping the hardware working and up, for ALL OF US to enjoy, and they would love doing this, because they would see our caring response back to them. So, pls, don't be that person that finally gets it, when the servers have gone quiet, and the caring devs have moved on. Pls help us by donating, even a small amount helps, and we all can have this experience for maybe years to come. I at least hope so.

 

So, to all you devs and others who, behind the scenes pulling your hair, to get it up, and I hope I speak for the whole community, WE ABSOLUTELY LOVE what you do, so pls, take your time, do it right... we will be here when it's up again... I will anyway. 

 

Thx to all for listening, and have an absolutely fantastic day.

i like this alot, i am now "subscribed" to ENB 😛 ~20$ usd a month lol. cheers

[saevel]

On 3/27/2023 at 5:18 PM, Kyp said:

 

 

Appreciate the vote of confidence. Simply put, game is not gone away, nor will stay gone. It'd be nice to have all the skill sets we need at the ready but people move on, and as C Del says, sometimes those skills are hard to come by and the infrastructure behind all this is more complicated than would be expected but it's necessary to protect your data/accounts/game experience.

 

Right now it is as I last said, we're working through some differences with code to bring ourselves up to a current version of Microsoft's visual studio because we were using an older version for development and our code base is not currently compatible/able to be compiled and run. Once we solve those issues we should be able to bring the last stuff up including the dev and sunrise servers.

Wow, so this is all running on Windows servers?  I guess it's IDE is easier to use and all but just ouch.  Well hope all goes well and you guys can overcome the migrating a code base through a major version upgrade.

[Kyp [LDEV]]

2 hours ago, saevel said:

Wow, so this is all running on Windows servers?  I guess it's IDE is easier to use and all but just ouch.  Well hope all goes well and you guys can overcome the migrating a code base through a major version upgrade.

 

No but to be fair, there are plenty of situations where Windows is the right tool for the job, and others where a version of linux, freebsd or something entirely custom is the best approach.

That said we use both Windows and Linux, and a custom solution or two.

[TempestNWK]

long time since i visited the forum, but Oof..

 

Reading the first post, i imagine some sort of default tool allowed for unlocking of the database files?

 

Mad props for you and your crew Kyp, whilst sorting out this nightmare...

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Mieux]

Seeing the good vibes is awesome 😘