Panumbra Newsletter #9 April 29th 1998

No. 9, April 29th, 1998, Wednesday

Dear Panumbra newsletter readers,
In this issue of the newsletter you can read about:
1. Version 2.1 will be released on June 1, 1998
2. Demo update
3. Announcing new Shareplay games!
4. Web site changes

1. Version 2.1
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We are working hard on the new release. We discovered that we are trying to actually implement most of version 3 in version 2.1, and items have proven to be quite complicated... Server programming was taken over by Venkat from Dave, that caused some slow down, as did the server crash on the 15th of April. So we redid our work plan, and it seems that we can finish version 2.1 by June 1st. Version 3 is expected to be done by the end of August.
We are sorry for the delay.

2. Demo update
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As I mentioned previously, our main server crashed on the 15th of April due to hardware problems. We moved the server to our test server. The test server was configured differently, also it had an old version of the code... so after the change we had some old problems recurring we have not seen in a long time. After we recompiled the latest version of the server, the problems mostly went away. As of today, Gateway still has not shipped the parts and they cannot tell when they are going to arrive, so we are having difficulties with the development, because we have one less machine to work on.

We still have one nasty bug in the system which brings the server down from time to time. This is the "lag" bug, which happens when someone fights groups of monsters, and the monster gets into an endless loop, using up all possible system resources, leaving virtually none to players. We could not figure out the problem by far, and decided to redesign the monster AI from scratch in version 2.1, which hopefully will get rid of the problem.

3. New SharePlay games!
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Shareplay(TM) currently has only one game, Panumbra(TM), so we tend to forget that Shareplay(TM) is supposed to be a service, with multiple games. Now we are announcing the launch of the Shareplay(TM) service as a free multiplayer gaming site in June 1998! All of our games are free, can be played by hundreds of players, are social and don’t require anything else but your browser to play!
We are launching two new completely HTML-based games in June:

* Space Merchant(TM) is an HTML based space trading game. You can discover the universe, trade in ports, fight with good and evil players, become involved in politics between the seven races of the universe, or write on the bathroom wall in Murphy’s space tavern... and more.

* A space strategy game (currently unnamed) where you build up your resources and fight over planets with hundreds of other players to ultimately conquer the universe...

Panumbra(TM) will remain the premium game on the site.

As you can see from all the TM’s above, we mean this seriously. The HTML-based games will hopefully drive more traffic to our site, so that we can generate revenues from advertising soon. We had to face the fact that Panumbra is a big project, and our company cannot survive without revenues until Panumbra gets big enough to sell advertising for. Developing HTML based games takes less time, and they are easier to access... besides they are really cool (IMHO). I hope you will agree with me once you try them...

4. Web site changes
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We made some changes to the web site, but there are a lot more changes coming up soon (as you would expect after reading the previous section).

There are two new members of the player’s corner: The Spiff Guild and The Triumvirate. You can read the release note with the differences between version 2.0 and 2.1. I also put a description page which summarizes Panumbra for new players. The Tips and Hints on the download page are meant to give a jump start for newbies (hopefully more understandable since they are written by PALs, not me J).
We are in the progress of updating all player’s guide documents to version 2.1, you can expect them on the web site soon. A new version of the skills, races and templates descriptions are already done, the others are under development. Until the release of the new version, we will have a version of each document for both 2.0 and 2.1.

The Paladins of Panumbra are also planning to have their own corner on the web site soon, which, among others, will include an application form to become a PAL.

In preparation of launching the SharePlay(TM) service, the web site will be redesigned. Www.shareplay.com will become the home page of the SharePlay(TM) site, Panumbra will have its own homepage. Your links will not be broken, but you would have to click on a link to get to the Panumbra site. We will also publish information about the two new games soon. Watch out! We will need beta testers for them in mid June...

These are the news today. Thank you for reading our newsletter!

Regards

Marta Gabnai
and the SharePlay development team