Trench Wars server fund is in dire straits; donations requested

[Asteroid]

Is resetting and selling old names even a possibility?

is it possible the answer is Yes, will they for the benefit of the game? no

[Falconeer]

Qan why don't you put the server on
ASSS 1.6.1 / Running on Linux 6.2.9-x86_64-linode160, host: sscj, machine: x86_64
I'm sure SSCJ would host it for alot less then half of what you're paying now, something to consider dunno why you're paying that absurd rate, devastation is no where near that price SSCJ #1 Praise the Legend JoWie

I gotta agree hereqan, bring the cost down, unless there is an extreme benefit to the price you're paying? If it's just that it's a lot of work to transition everything, then perhaps it can be done slowly or in steps... you could turn that paid for 3 years into 13 years if the costs could be lowered. Plus Jowie is a super nice guy and trustworthy, the only issue is that you're centralizing all hosting to one person again I guess? Like if Jowie ever decides to bow out you're back to problem you had when Priitk bowed out etc. But I guess hosting a community run game in the first place will be a juggling act of going and back and forth between what is best/most manageable.

Not sure if Jowie's hosting could actually support 200 people without lag, that's something he needs to confirm, since devastation at max capacity only has 20-30 people.

[Falconeer]

is it possible the answer is Yes, will they for the benefit of the game? no

They could lease old names, if they could release the info on who they sold the name too. By lease I mean if the player ever returns and is verified they returned, the name would go back to the original creator. But this seems like a tall task that would only be possible on a new client, there are too many restrictions with the continuum client and biller probably.

[qan]

Thanks to the person with the additional $20 one-time donation.

Qan why don't you put the server on
ASSS 1.6.1 / Running on Linux 6.2.9-x86_64-linode160, host: sscj, machine: x86_64

We've looked at a move to ASSS many times before, and even came close to switching at one point. Had our bot system ready to at least be able to function on it. The problem is that client-emulator bots like ours are one giant hack designed to work around being unable to function server-side. So we rely on a lot of strange methods. For example, our bots can't just "know" which arena a player is in; it has to literally send ?find like a human player, wait for the response from the server, then capture and parse it, all asynchronously. It's made for a lot of clever coding to overcome these weaknesses. But that means many, many pieces in our systems rely on a particularly formatted response from the server. We could either modify an ASSS server to send the returns like the subgame2 server, or eventually have our bots use ASSS methods rather than these workarounds. But it would mean a lot of stuff breaking, and we'd probably still be fixing bugs related to it years after the switch. Which is why I wish we'd done it many years ago when the dev team momentum was behind it. But I also understand why we didn't: it'd be a real pain in the ass to deal with. (This isn't the only pain point of a switch, either. Keep in mind that we've been running on this codebase for almost a quarter of a century now.)


Regarding selling old unused names, from a technical perspective I guess it's possible. But aside from the ethical issues that come to mind, it seems like there'd be a lot of other things to figure out. Who receives the money -- is it equally shared among SSC zones? In proportion to active player counts? Who holds the funds? How long does a name need to be inactive before it can be sold? What about names that are powered in a zone? (Ops can't just check and would need to contact every zone for every sale.) Do we have a longer reset requirement for "known" names vs "unknown", and how do we determine which names fall into which category? It seems like a lot of pitfalls for what would ultimately not be very much money. It would also require essentially some rebirthed version of Council to agree to it, meaning all zones would need to be on board.

[Turd Ferguson]

Played this too long for free to let it die. Just registered here and made a monthly donation. Cheers all!

[habbo hotel]

This post is pathetic. If you can't afford $175 a month then you shouldn't be running the server. The original post reads like a threat to shut the server down. If you can't foot the bill for trench wars in absence of donations then step-aside, the thread reads like you don't care about supporting the server yourself, at all. Maybe allow a server with freedom of speech if you want our money, just a thought.

[Edify]

Sad news. I got on here because I couldn't remember my password in game, and find this.

[daresound]

Looks like we have the potential here to pool a significant and lasting fund. Who's willing to fund outsourced dev? Or use portions of what you've donated towards the server for this? We can get a quote for service and development, and go in on a bill together.

[Asteroid]

ignore

[Roger Rabbit]

It’s a legit question to ask but what are we really saving here and is it even worth it. This game has been circling the drain for too long as is.

I’m not paying freespirit to play this game. Or for a handful of friends to hang out in spec and turn ‘continuum’ into nothing more than a glorified chat room. Hat tip to the 30-40 people in the entire world who clearly have nothing better do to than spend a weekend doing a meaninglesss event.

the writing is on the wall. There is no new growth for this game. People are aging out. Any additional funding only keeps the power on temporarily.

nostalgia is a motherfucker. I’m a 25year vet myself who still logs on for shits and giggles. I have fond memories of subspace back in its heyday. It wasn’t just a fun mind numbing game but a community and the people I would never meet or even know what they look like would end up becoming people I considered great friends. People who I’ve lost contact with, but I’m cool with that. But perhaps we should just let this flatline and move on. Let it end.

[qan]

Two more recurring donations: $5 and $10! Thank you for your generosity!

That puts us at $140.05 in recurring monthly donations, or 78% of the way to $180/mo.

REFER previously put in a $5 recurring donation but didn't get recognition. Thanks, REFER!

Played this too long for free to let it die. Just registered here and made a monthly donation. Cheers all!

Thank you!

Not sure if Jowie's hosting could actually support 200 people without lag, that's something he needs to confirm, since devastation at max capacity only has 20-30 people.

Load would be a big question. A much more likely solution (or the first pivot while preparing for AS3, were we to do that) would be simply running subgame2 emulated on Linux. But that also hasn't been tested at normal load.

Sad news. I got on here because I couldn't remember my password in game, and find this.

We're actually getting close to being back to stable. I'll update the OP to reflect how close we are to the goal.

Looks like we have the potential here to pool a significant and lasting fund. Who's willing to fund outsourced dev? Or use portions of what you've donated towards the server for this? We can get a quote for service and development, and go in on a bill together.

Could look at doing a GoFundMe or similar, started by someone who's well-known and trusted in the community. $1-2K was previously quoted for network diagnostics, which I think is probably still reasonable. Might go over but could also be on the lower side.

[TheSauce]

Nothing like being pushed out of a game by vets and shitty hosts and staff just to see this thread begging the same people they tried there hardest to get rid of for money and to come back. Donated plenty over the years but walked away and only looked back to laugh at the explosions like a real winner. I hope you 25 people enjoy humping that corpse until the code doesn't work anymore and your pronouns fall off. Se acabo trump lovers. Stop eating our pets alf's

[Duster8]

Just sent $50 and I will double that if we go back to old map and ship settings for a month.

[An UnKnOwN KiLLa]

is it a coincidence that trench wars unable to log in at night for the third night in a row????? daf

[qan]

Just sent $50 and I will double that if we go back to old map and ship settings for a month.

TY!

A "classic" period is an interesting idea. I guess it would just be a matter of determining what is the classic, as we've had so many iterations.

is it a coincidence that trench wars unable to log in at night for the third night in a row????? daf

No, we're experiencing regular server issues and many people have been putting in time to troubleshoot. Haven't found the cause yet, but we've been eliminating possibilities. It's annoying, to be sure. In the meantime, we do at least have a temporary fix that cleans it up, but it has to be done manually.