Shareplay Newsletter
No. 8, November 20, 1998, Friday
Dear SharePlay Newsletter readers,
Our last newsletter has been sent a while ago. We apologize for the delay. We are back, and we will continue to serve our players.
In this issue you can read about:
1. Monarchy added to SharePlay
2. Internet connection is vastly improved with the new T1 line
3. The SharePlay Store has opened
4. Panumbra news: new world areas, quests and fixes
5. Space Merchant update
1. Monarchy added to SharePlay
SharePlay made an agreement with Evernight Design to offer Monarchy exclusively on SharePlay. Monarchy is a web-based empire-building game set in a fantasy world. Monarchy is currently available at http://www.evernight.net. The developers of Monarchy, Dustin Collis and Dan Crowe have joined the SharePlay team, and they will continue enhancing and supporting Monarchy. They are also developing a great new game that should be available for beta in the next few months.
2. Internet connection is vastly improved with the new T1 line
Our T1 line has been connected since mid October, and the connection to our servers have improved a lot. The improvements are felt mostly in Panumbra, where download times are shortened tremendously, and lag almost disappeared. Access to Space Merchant is also a lot faster, but in peak times the server gets overloaded and the speed improvement of the T1 line is not as apparent.
3. The SharePlay Store has opened
The SharePlay website has a new feature: we opened our online Store! You can find CDs, books, game software and magazine subscriptions in the store - just in time to do your Christmas shopping online. We are partnering with Barnes&Noble and CDNow to deliver the online store. Shopping is not only easier, but you can find great prices, too! Check out the store at http://www.shareplay.com/store.
4. Panumbra news
The first official quest for Panumbra has been concluded about 2 weeks ago. Adventurers had to find and kill the secret monster in the special area designed only for the quest. One of the four winners was granted commission to design a new world area. Jesse's Trading Post will open soon.
Brian is planning the next quest, which will open probably in the next two weeks. Another secret monster will have to be found and defeated in another secret area. Prices include special unique items made for the winner, immortality and monster characters. Get yourself ready!
Quests are announced on the webboard. For more up-to-date information please check the webboard frequently.
Brian also opened the Dimension of LAG today. Come slay the LAG Demon in a warped reality where every move is slower!
On the bug fixing front, server stability is still a big problem, mainly because we have not been able to fix bugs for while due to other internal problems. We are planning a new stabilization release around the beginning of December, containing mainly fixes for the server crashes. Some of them will impact game play, including a fix where rare items will be generated less frequently than they are now. The exact content of the fix will be posted on the webboard.
The Player's Corner has been vastly expanded lately, with several new Panumbra sites. Check out http://www.shareplay.com/plcorner.htm.
5. Space Merchant update
Space Merchant went through some rough times in September and early October, when we were hit by numerous performance problems. We have been working on these problems hard, and eliminated lots of performance bottlenecks. As a result, performance improved a lot, but while we were fixing performance, we could not devote time to fix other bugs.
After we installed the T1 line, and we were getting more users, we hit another performance problem. To solve this problem, we will have to rewrite a major piece of the software. This only causes problems at peak times.
Since the installation of the T1, the number of active users has been steadily growing, it is not uncommon to see 70-80 people online at the same time (total in all games).
We are back on regular scheduled updates for Space Merchant. We have planned 3 releases for the upcoming 3 weeks, each fixing current major problems. Please read the webboard for exact details in each release.
If you would like regular updates in what's happening in the Space Merchant Universe, the Interstellar News is a great source - and a lot of fun. Available on the Space Merchant webboard.
This was the SharePlay Newsletter for today. Thank you for reading!
Regards,
Marta Gabnai and the SharePlay development team
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