NEStalgia: Day One Recap

ID:93558
 
Mar 28 2010, 7:04 am
Keywords: nestalgia
Wow. Yesterday was pretty crazy. If I hadn't been so busy answering questions and trying to make quick fixes, I would have taken some screenshots. Instead I'll try and relay to you my account of what happened.

We had 30-40 people login in the first 5 minutes. This was the point at which I was nervous, because keep in mind that NEStalgia had never been put through that type of stress test before. Thankfully, apart some lag spikes while people downloaded resources, the server survived the bombardment just fine.

After spending so many months in such a quiet world, seeing the first town absolutely bustling with people running this way and that was pretty darn cool. Adding to the excitement was the fact that it took people all of five minutes to discover PvP.



I think that those who continue to play the game will look back on day 1 as "Bloody Saturday". It quickly became apparent that I needed to make the first town a No-PvP zone to prevent newbies from whining/rage quitting after getting ganked. Just a small oversight on my part that led to some hilarious murdering rampages. A patch posted in the afternoon remedied this issue.

I rolled out the second server at one point to accommodate more players. People who preferred a quieter game gravitated towards it.

There were a handful of bugs discovered here and there, but overall I was elated to see how well everything held up. Having a game this large/complex only spit out a few bugs on day one is a testament to how good the Silk Games testers are.

By the time the grand Balzackian PvP tournament rolled around in the evening, I was wiped out. I went to bed early, but I hear that it was a success. I also hear that the Balzackian bank turned into a battlefield for the better part of the night!



Thanks to everyone who came and played, and especially to those who purchased a subscription. We'll be pushing out bug fix updates frequently as they're reported. Please make all bug reports and suggestions on the Silk Games forum.

For anyone who hasn't played yet, feel free to come join us anytime!

NEStalgia Hub: http://www.byond.com/games/SilkGames/NEStalgia
Main Server: byond://24.205.57.138:1633
Mar 28 2010, 7:18 am
You are already logged in from this computer!
Connection failed.

I restarted my computer and BYOND. Still get this.
Mar 28 2010, 7:22 am
Magicbeast20 wrote:
I restarted my computer and BYOND. Still get this.

That's really bizarre, because even if the system flags you as being on the logged in computer_id list, it double checks your computer_id against everyone else to make sure that it is right.

Perhaps try again a couple times and let me know. I can reboot the server if need be.
Mar 28 2010, 7:43 am
Yes, I'm still getting the message. I've tried logging on with a different account and it still appears. I can join Server 2 fine though.
Mar 28 2010, 7:49 am
Magicbeast20 wrote:
Yes, I'm still getting the message. I've tried logging on with a different account and it still appears. I can join Server 2 fine though.

Strange. Sorry about that. Bear with me for 10-15 minutes because I'm about to push an update onto the server. When it reboots your problem should be solved.
Mar 28 2010, 7:52 am
A thought just occurred to me that perhaps there is a chance someone else has the same computer_id as you? If so I just put in a check for the next version to help prevent that from becoming an issue.
Mar 28 2010, 8:02 am
Alright, thanks. I'll keep an eye out for the update.
Mar 28 2010, 8:10 am
Just rebooted, so let me know if you run into a problem.
Mar 28 2010, 8:20 am
My Saturday was spent drinking and eating pizza with my brothers while watching UFC. I did manage to pop into NEStalgia briefly, and I must say it looks very cool! I didn't think it was possible to customize an 8-bit sprite so much.
Mar 28 2010, 9:58 am
I was looking forward to checking out NEStalgia, but, as is the problem with several hosts, your servers appear to not communicate well with those of us living in Western Asia, regardless of our connection speed. The average round trip ping-pong took over a minute, meaning way too much lag for me to be able to play the game. I suppose it can't be helped (unless you allow people to host their own games, or change your hosting service).

Good luck with your game, anyhow.
Mar 28 2010, 10:10 am
Thanks SuperAntx!

Toadfish: I'm sorry that you have that problem. Did you try both servers? Right now I don't have any plans to allow people to host their own servers. Do you have this issue with the majority of BYOND games?
Mar 28 2010, 10:20 am
I have that problem with certain kinds of hosting services, mainly situated in the USA but not exclusively. The problem appears in about every 1 of 5 games; it's unfortunate NEStalgia is one of them.

I haven't tried both servers. I'll do so later, although I doubt there'll be much of a difference, unless the hosting service is different.
Mar 28 2010, 10:28 am
To be honest, I didn't think I'd end up playing it. But now I'm hooked on it.
Mar 28 2010, 10:34 am
honestly the best RPG on BYOND, IMO.
Mar 28 2010, 11:16 am
To be honest, it is not as impressive as I was expecting at the moment.

On the upside, it has for a BYOND game a general, all round high quality to it.
It is relatively bug free, and polished, and looks good with consistent graphics.

On the downside, it just isn't the sort of game I am really interested in playing.
It is too slow, there is way too much grinding and lack of stuff to do, and combat in general is just spam auto-attack.

Other problems I have seen is balance is not too good at the moment.

As a Wizard, I struggled to do much of anything. By level 5 I had to pretty much kill a few Slimes, then go to the inn and rest. Damage-wise I was doing around 10 damage with Fireball.

As a Cleric. I had more Hp, more defence, could heal myself and at level 2 my normal attacks were doing more damage than my level 5 Wizards spells. (Doing 8-14 damage on average)

Both has the exact same equipmet.

It was much easier to play as a Cleric than as a Wizard, and the advantages of being a Wizard ("high" damage) were useless due to low Mp and being out damaged by other classes.

In short. I disliked the amount of grind requires, the lack of content, how overly simple combat was and the balancing issues bugged me.

I'll give it another try later on, but at the moment, it does not seem like the sort of game I would play for very long.
Mar 28 2010, 11:29 am
PerfectGoku wrote:
To be honest, I didn't think I'd end up playing it. But now I'm hooked on it.

Thanks, I'm glad you ended up enjoying it.


The Magic Man wrote:
To be honest, it is not as impressive as I was expecting at the moment.

Oh please, based upon your comments from the past few weeks you either A.) Weren't expecting anything, or B.) Didn't want to like it. Either way you're full of it.

The Magic Man wrote:
In short. I disliked the amount of grind requires, the lack of content, how overly simple combat was and the balancing issues bugged me.

Each class plays differently, and some classes have an easier time soloing than others. If you only got to level 5, you literally don't know what you're talking about when it comes to any of those issues.

I appreciate honest feedback, and I've been fielding it all weekend... but this isn't honest. Let's not play games.
Mar 28 2010, 11:38 am
Did you really just claim NEStalgia is lacking in content?

I don't know what game you've been playing Magic Man, but I've kept myself busy with the several quests available.
Mar 28 2010, 11:59 am
I find grinding enjoyable when you have certain goals that you want to meet in the game.
Mar 28 2010, 12:37 pm
Isn't that my Priest in the screenshot? When I said "Don't make any sudden movements"

Lol
Mar 28 2010, 12:39 pm
Proteen wrote:
Isn't that my Priest in the screenshot? When I said "Don't make any sudden movements"

Lol

It sure is. And now you know why you lived to tell about it - I was too distracted taking screenshots ;)