MOVING ON
by Hazed
We're all set to move Fed2 to its new home, after last week's delays. Here's what will happen:
- The Monday reset will be longer than usual, so that Alan can take a final set of backups from the persona file, which contains all the data about players, companies, planets, and so on, to move over to the new server.
- For the rest of Monday and all day on Tuesday, Fed2 will be "consequence free". That means whatever you do will not be saved and taken over to the new server!
- On Wednesday, we will turn the new server live and redirect the ibgames addresses to the new server. The old server will be turned off on Wednesday.
That's all if the fates are willing and Murphy stays in bed and doesn't activate his law...
Why does it take two days to switch to the new server?
Technical reasons mean that we can't just grab the persona file from the old machine and plonk it straight into position on the new one. Instead, Alan has to take the file from the old server and run it through a conversion program to put it into a format where it can be used on the new server. It may take a couple of goes to get this right and test that everything has converted properly, so we are allowing two days.
What does "consequence free" mean?
Since we will have taken the final backup to be moved over to the new server, anything that happens in Fed2 during Monday and Tuesday won't have a lasting effect. If you die dead-dead, you'll miraculously be resurrected on the new server; if you lose all your money, your fortune will reappear when you log onto Fed's new home.
However, the Fed2 rules will still apply during those two days. Anyone who behaves badly will find that the consequences will be carried over... if you break the rules and get your comm unit taken away, or even worse get locked out, we will do the same on the new version too.
Will anything else special happen during those two days?
Yes, as a matter of fact. During that time, some of the death locations in Sol will be turned off. So you can party on the surface of the sun, or go through the doors on Titan.
The exception is the Martian ruins - they will remain hazardous, and if you wander into the dangerous places, fall down a pit, crawl under the altar and so on, you'll still die.
Also, occasional things you can do that sometimes kill you will not be removed. Bungee jumping still has a chance of smearing you on the pavement (or impaling you on a passing ship) and wandering through the wilderness without the necessary comms modification could result in you being eaten by a wild animal. And you will still be able to starve to death!
As an antidote to all these dire warnings... Diesel will be laying on free food and drink in her bar on Mars. What a very nice lady!
Do I have to do anything to log onto the right place when the switcheroo happens?
Well... we hope not. In theory, you shouldn't have to - when we change things over, logging onto the address fed2.ibgames.net will take you to the new server, and pointing your browser at http://www.ibgames.net will find the website on the new server too.
However, sometimes DNS directories don't get updated right away. If you find you are continuing to go to the old server - or if you don't go anywhere because the old server has been turned off - then as a temporary measure you can use the numeric IP address:
- To log onto Fed2, type this in for the host name: 92.63.136.169 - the port number, 30003, remains the same.
- To get to the website, point your brower here: http://92.63.136.169/ - note, there is no 'www'.
There may be a delay before email goes to the right place, too, but it should all get delivered eventually!
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