Announcements

This page is an archive of Announcements also known as News.

Announcements are posted on the bulletin board with the same name and they are also available from the news command in game.

Note that most information about the development of the game is in Developer Blogs.

If you have old announcements that are missing from this page, please have someone add them.

Announcements

2020

PK weekend 2020 (Jun 5)

Note #1 posted at Fri Jun  5 Title: "PK weekend 2020"

Hello all!

The PK weekend has started!

You can join in the fun using the commands "pk" and "clan" in Brother David's in AM. But it is advisable to first read the full explanation available on the frog board. :)

Pit.

2019

Upcoming PK Weekend (May 31)

Note #4 posted at Fri May 31 Title: "Upcoming PK Weekend"

Hello all!

The PK weekend has started!

Specifics:
* All PKs will be considered NPK (but still have access to the (Playerkillers) channel)
* Anyone (whether originally PK or not) can go PK for the weekend using the command: "go pk".
* The normal state of affairs will automatically be restored late Sunday night.
* There are no skillcaps, and no special restrictions on what PKs can do.
* As usual, PK deaths will not cost lives, but if accidents happen due to PK combat (for example, a death to an NPC when you wimpy out leading to a lost life), then that is your own responsibility. So please make sure that you do have spare lives.
* As usual, theft from PKs is possible, so it is your responsibility to not carry items that you would be devastated by losing. That being said, we will not tolerate people who grieve or seek to ruin the weekend for other PKs (temporary or not), which includes permanently depriving people of their items.

Have fun!
(Pit edited this message at Fri May 31 22:14:35 2019.) 

Upcoming PK Weekend (May 28)

Note #5 posted at Tue May 28 Title: "Upcoming PK Weekend"

Hello all!

Next weekend, starting sometime late in the (European) evening of 31 May, it is PK weekend again!

Specifics:
* All PKs will be considered NPK (but still have access to the (Playerkillers) channel)
* Anyone (whether originally PK or not) can go PK for the weekend using the command: "go pk".
* The normal state of affairs will automatically be restored late Sunday night.
* There are no skillcaps, and no special restrictions on what PKs can do.
* As usual, PK deaths will not cost lives, but if accidents happen due to PK combat (for example, a death to an NPC when you wimpy out leading to a lost life), then that is your own responsibility. So please make sure that you do have spare lives.
* As usual, theft from PKs is possible, so it is your responsibility to not carry items that you would be devastated by losing. That being said, we will not tolerate people who grieve or seek to ruin the weekend for other PKs (temporary or not), which includes permanently depriving people of their items.

Have fun!

PK weekend early announcement (May 16)

Note #6 posted at Thu May 16 Title: "PK weekend early announcement"

Bing!

On 1 and 2 June, there will be another PK weekend. That is, all players of 2 days and above will be able to become playerkillers for just the weekend. Playerkillers are marked as NPK for the weekend unless they, too, choose to tag as temporary PK. After the weekend, everyone's normal status (PK or not PK) is restored.

More information will follow closer to the day!

Pit.
(Pit edited this message at Thu May 16 22:42:18 2019.)

New guild in play! (Apr 1)

Note #7 posted at Mon Apr  1 Title: "New guild in play!"

Bing!

As we said earlier today (but for some reason many people wouldn't believe us**), a new player-joinable guild has been added.  The guild of Fools, Joculators and Clowns has opened its doors, and will continue to remain open after today. :)

For some disclaimers...  This guild is not meant as a guild for the serious players.  Fools have their own primaries and commands, but we do not particularly care whether they will have abilities on par with other guilds.  Their only unique command is juggle, and that is not likely to change in the near future, or ever.  Please be aware that any complaints about the guild being underpowered will be met with the kind of awkward this-is-not-really-funny laughter that Fools should expect as part of their daily lives.  That being said, we hope it will be an interesting choice for roleplayers. :)

Your friendly creator team.

** the reason might have been related to us hiding the entrance to the room where players could actually join
(Pit edited this message at Mon Apr  1 21:18:26 2019.)

It's Fools' Day! (Mar 31)

Note #7 posted at Sun Mar 31 Title: "It's Fools' Day!"

A new player-joinable guild has been added to the game. Head over to Widdershins Broadway if you feel Foolish enough!

2018

Downtime! (Dec 27)

Note #6 posted at Thu Dec 27 Title: "Downtime!"

I need to do some work on the electrical circuits that feed Atuins servers.
As a result the mud will be down for 2 hours on the 1st January at some point between the hours of 10am and 4pm GMT.
I will give plenty of warning before it is to happen to allow people to save down etc.

J

PK weekend has started! (Jun 1)

Note #5 posted at Fri Jun  1 Title: "PK weekend has started!"

Use the command "go PK" to go PK for the weekend. :)  People who are normally PK also have to do this if they don't want to be temporarily NPK.

Have fnu!

Pit.

Boring GDPR notice (May 24)

Note #4 posted at Thu May 24 Title: "Boring GDPR notice"

It is almost may 25th and GDPR is almost on us - you know, that thing that if you live in europe or deal with european companies has led to so many emails.

It touches even us in a minor way.  We have on file email addresses, names, birthdays and locations - some of the might even be real - and this qualifies as personal data.  As a result we need to make a privacy statement.

The loose organisation that comprises DiscworldMud does not use the information provided voluntarily in your finger information for any other purpose than internal administrative use such as password resets.  The information is not passed on to any third party whatsoever nor is it used to market to you.

You should be aware that any information you provide within your finger information is voluntary and in no way required to access or play the game.  However should you volunteer this information it is visible to any logged in user with the exception of your email address that can be obscured from players by place a colon in front of it.  If you do not want this information to be visibile to logged in users you may remove it at any time using chfn and/or options.

Have fun and play nice

Sojan

PK weekend coming! (May 24)

Note #4 posted at Thu May 24 Title: "PK weekend coming!"

Just like the last two years, there will be a PK event, where everyone is able to go temporarily PK for one weekend (existing PKs can choose whether or not to be PK).  This event will be held at:

    * * *  2-3 June  * * *

This year, there will be no skillcap.  However, skillchecks between two PKs will have a higher randomness than usual.

Another news item will be posted when the weekend arrives, but for those who wish to participate, you might want to start preparing your inventory and skills!

A'tuin's health - Update (Apr 12)

Note #5 posted at Thu Apr 12 Title: "A'tuin's health - Update"

The underlying problem that had been causing us to crash in new and interesting ways in the past few weeks appears to have been resolved.

That said, we continue to encourage you to not drop your inventory on the ground or put it on clouds.

This announcement was brought to you by the Right Honourable Society for the Baiting of Vengeful Code Gods.

Atuin's Illness (Apr 9)

Posted at Mon Apr 9 Title: Atuin's Illness

As you have probably noticed, we've been crashing a lot recently. Unfortunately, the underlying problem has not been easily reproducible and it is possible that we will suffer further crashes.

We strongly recommend that you take particular care not to place important items on the floor or on clouds.

We apologise for any trouble that A'tuin's all-too-frequent spasms have caused, and are continuing to do all we can to find a cure.

2017

PK weekend is over! (Jun 5)

Note #6 posted at Mon Jun  5 Title: "PK weekend is over!"

PK statuses are back to normal. :)

For those who participated: please use "skillcap off" to remove the skillcap. This does not happen automatically!

PK weekend has started! (Jun 2)

Note #5 posted at Fri Jun  2 Title: "PK weekend has started!"

Bing!

From today, until the evening of June 4, there is a PK weekend event.
To go PK for the weekend, "go pk". Even if you are normally a PK, you have to do this to be able to pass PK checks.
Once you have gone PK, a skillcap will be applied that sets you to level 350.  You will be unable to change it until the end of the weekend.

Note that while corpse looting and house looting are impossible, theft is still enabled.  Please vault any possessions that you do not want to lose before marking yourself as a temporary PK.

Enjoy!  And remember: have fun, play fair, and don't get personal!

P.S. If you don't want to be PK for the weekend, you can play as normal. :)
P.S.2. But it's still probably fun to go out and play the PK game with a lesser-used alt. :)
P.S.3. Since we are aware that the sweet spot for two-handed weapons is not quite at level 350, two one-handed "heavy-swords" have been added to the Elm Street weapons shop.  Please note that these weapons will disappear again after the weekend!
(Pit edited this message at Fri Jun  2 21:35:21 2017.)

PK Weekend Coming (May 10)

Note #6 posted at Wed May 10 Title: "PK Weekend Coming"

Bing!

Like last year, there will be a PK weekend in the first weekend of June.  This year, a skillcap of 350 will be imposed on all participants.

What does this entail, do you ask?
* All players can tag as PK and be reset to their normal status when the weekend is over.
* If existing PKs do not tag as PK, then they will not be PK during that weekend.
* Players who have tagged as (temporary) PK will be able to do all the usual PK activities except for inhumation.
* Players who have tagged as (temporary) PK will have all their skill levels capped at 350 until the weekend is over.  This also applies during NPK combat.
* ONLY PK status is affected.  This is NOT a no-save weekend.  Everything you do does still affect your character afterwards!

We hope that you will take advantage of the opportunity to do some fun things that you normally wouldn't, and that the skillcap will help more players feel that they can be effective during the PK event. :)

P.S. This applies to the first weekend of June.  That is NOT now.  If you register as a playerkiller, it is entirely permanent.  This news item only serves so that you can prepare!

2016

A'Tuin's illness (Nov 5)

Note #8 posted at Sat Nov  5 Title: "A'Tuin's illness"

We have had some major server problems this week, which has ultimately resulted in a rollback to early Friday morning (European time).  We hope that these problems are resolved now, although there may still be some problems caused by files getting deleted.

While we cannot restore XP, levels or items gained on Friday, if you have more severe issues, please notify a liaison.  Since there are likely to be quite a few things for liaisons to do, however, we cannot guarantee that they won't be snappish occasionally!

We apologise for the inconvenience.

Slippery Hollow (Oct 30)

Note #5 posted at Sun Oct 30 Title: "Slippery Hollow"

From A Tourist Guide to Lancre:
"The path here becomes more overgrown, although here and there intriguing little footpaths lead to isolated hamlets with romantic names such as Slippery Hollow, a collection of cottages now inevitably connected in the traveller's mind with the legend of the headless horse rider. No-one knows why the horse is headless, or to what the reins are attached, although there is thought to be some connection to organised crime."

Welcome to Slippery Hollow!
For more information please see the Ram blog post.
http://discworld.starturtle.net/lpc/blog/blog.c?action=filter&blog=recent%20developments&id=658

Change to the automation rules (Sep 30)

Note #6 posted at Fri Sep 30 Title: "Change to the automation rules"

Bing!

The automation rules have seen a slight update.  This should make little difference to the average player, except that client-side speedwalking features are now permitted (provided all direction commands are sent in one go).

The new rules, which we recommend everyone to read, are available in "help automation".

Your fluffy liaison domain.

PK Weekend has started! (Jun 3)

Posted at Fri Jun 3 Title: PK Weekend has started!

Bing!

From today, until the evening of June 5, there is a PK weekend event.
To go PK for the weekend, "go pk". Even if you are normally a PK, you have to do this to be able to pass PK checks.

Corpse looting has been disabled for the duration of the weekend, and inhume does not work unless both parties are genuine PKs. Since some of you may be wondering, house looting is also not possible (as it normally isn't).
Even so, we recommend that you vault items you don't want to lose before marking as a temporary PK!

Enjoy! And remember: have fun, play fair, and don't get personal!

P.S. If you don't want to be PK for the weekend, you can play as normal. :)

PK event (May 20)

Note #2 posted at Fri May 20 Title: "PK event"

Following a popular request in the osrics, there will be a PK event in the weekend of 4 June: everyone will be able to tag as a temporary PK for the duration of the weekend.

More details will follow closer to the date, but you have some time to prepare now. :) 

Enjoy! 

P.S. Since some of you will undoubtedly have some questions... 
* NO, this does NOT mean that there will be another PK reset; if you are PK before the weekend, you will be PK after the weekend 
* there will not be a rollback after the weekend; only PK status is affected 
* if you don't want to participate, you don't have to; just don't tag as temporary PK, and the MUD will be just as it usually is for you :) 
* if you are a PK and don't want to participate, you don't have to: your existing status doesn't matter, you will be NPK for the weekend unless you tag as a temporary PK 
* any XP, inventory, lives, achievement progress and other matters lost in the weekend are ENTIRELY YOUR PROBLEM; we recommend vaulting items you don't want to lose before tagging as a temporary PK 
* it will not be possible to inhume NPKs who are temporarily PK, so you are unlikely to lose real lives 
* you also won't be getting PK-only achievements 

spaces and tms (Apr 22)

Note #3 posted at Fri Apr 22 Title: "spaces and tms"

Bing!

If you notice that you're randomly getting spaces before certain lines of text, please check "options colour" and reset those options which have multiple spaces in them (you can just set them to the same colour).

We are also happy to announce that you can now change the colour option for "tm"!  However, it's going to take a while to get all TM messages in the game converted, so please hold off bugreporting messages which ignore your option setting for at least two weeks. :)

PK Reset (Jan 1)

Posted at Fri Jan 1 Title: PK Reset

There has been a one-off PK reset.
Members of PK-oriented guilds (AM Assassins, Hashishim, Ninja, Mano Rossa, and Last Order/Octarine Hedge wizards) have also had their PK status reset, but will be unable to advance their primaries any further without re-applying as a player killer.

2015

Housing Time (Dec 28)

Posted at Mon Dec 28 Title: Housing Time

A discrepancy has become apparent between the year used by the Housing systems and the year used elsewhere in the code.

This will be corrected at the end of January 2016.

This will shorten slightly (from 133 or 66 to 120 or 60) the maximum number of days you may be absent before shops, newspapers, theatres and houses are repossessed.

If you only log in to maintain housing, you should revise your calendars accordingly.

Shop lease duration will also change, but this will not affect leases commenced before the fix is applied.

RIP Sir Terry (Mar 12)

Note #6 posted at Thu Mar 12 Title: "RIP Sir Terry"

Today, we mourn the passing of Sir Terry Pratchett, who died at home surrounded by his loved ones. We also celebrate his life and work, without which this MUD would never have existed.

His family said it best:

  AT LAST, SIR TERRY, WE MUST WALK TOGETHER.
  Terry took Death's arm and followed him through the doors and on to the black desert under the endless night.
  The End.

Go well, Sir Terry. Your time was too brief but your world paddles on.

TPA bugfix (Jan 25)

Note #5 posted at Sun Jan 25 Title: "TPA bugfix"

Bing!

A bug with TPA has been fixed where the shield sometimes lasts a few rounds after it should already have broken.
If you didn't understand that this was a bug, and were relying on it to stay alive, be on your guard!

Pit.

2014

special changes (Oct 26)

Note #4 posted at Sun Oct 26 Title: "special changes"

As the first part of the previously announced changes to combat, various specials have been overhauled.  The damage caps have been changed around a little and, most noticeably, you now have the ability to target specific zones.

This is NOT the same as focus!

Some zones are easier to target than others, and some zones are more damaging than others (stabbing someone in the heart tends to hurt more than in the arms, for instance).  This is done to provide a larger level-progression, allowing players with low levels to already start specialing succesfully.  The compare syntax in the specials allows you to see the difficulties of the various zones, and how much damage targeting them (with a particular special) will do.

Lancre Real estate (Aug 31)

Note #3 posted at Sun Aug 31 Title: "Lancre Real estate"

Ramtops player housing was implemented in a way that prevented acquiring property by tenants of other areas.
However, players have been able to first acquire Ramtops property, and then obtain accommodation elsewhere.

After some consideration, it has been decided that the ability to do this defeats to some extent the purpose of the original restriction, and so a change will soon be implemented.

1) Rented Property (Houses, Club Houses)

Tenants of rented Ramtops properties who have subsequently acquired property elsewhere will soon receive mail warning them that they have 30 days to rectify the situation, else they will be evicted from the property controlled by the Ramtops Real Estate Agency at the end of the then current rental period.

Rectifying the situation requires that they either give up the non Ramtop properties specified in the warning mails, or the Ramtop property identified therein.

2) Leased Property (Shops)

Tenants of leased property will be allowed to retain their leases provided that they do not lease any further properties outside of the Ramtops. Should they do so, they will then be subject to eviction on 30 days notice.
They will receive a mail warning them of this.

In future, lessors will obviously commence their Ramtops lease in possession of nil non-Ramtop leases, and will not be able to lease any other property without triggering eviction.

Note:

In either case, it is not expected that the code will be fooled by the act of swapping one non-Ramtop property for another one during the warning period.

Temp Mud (Jun 26)

Note #3 posted at Thu Jun 26 Title: "Temp Mud"

While the actual mud is down, this temporary mud (a recent copy of the live mud that we all know and love!) will serve as a sort of sandbox until everything can be sorted.  As the note that appears when you login says, nothing will be saved that happens here.  It's all for the pineapples and giggles.

Have fun and don't go (too) crazy in the meantime!

A Little Bug (May 10)

Note #2 posted at Sat May 10 Title: "A Little Bug"

A temporary bug on Saturday, May 10th, may have affected you if you learned skills, causing your xp to be improperly adjusted when you were learning. It has now been fixed.

If you believe you might have been affected by this bug, please contact a liaison asap to resolve the situation fairly. 

Thank you!

Scrolls, Broomsticks and Rituals. (Mar 28)

Note #1 posted at Fri Mar 28 Title: "Scrolls, Broomsticks and Rituals."

In approximately two weeks' time a few changes are going to come into effect.

Firstly, a bug allowing players to carry a lot more scrolls than their skills would otherwise permit will be fixed.  We advise you to scale back on the number of scrolls that you carry before that time.  While exploding scrolls will no longer kill you, there will be other penalties.

Secondly, the guild point cost of broomstick flights is going to be changed from 200 guild points per flight, to 100 guild points.  The number of guild points you can store in your broom at any one time will also be reduced accordingly.

Last, but certainly not least, the guild point cost of several rituals will be reduced where the cost seemed disproportionate to the effect.  This includes divine hand, where the base guild point cost (no passengers, just the performer) will be reduced to 100 guild points.  Each passenger will (as it does now) incur an additional cost of 50 guild points.

2013

Money issues (Mar 24)

Note #3 posted at Sun Mar 24 Title: "Money issues"


Hello,

Recently some people have reported losing money in unexplained ways.  We do not know why this is happening and therefore it is unlikely to be fixed immediately.

Please ensure large amounts of money are safely deposited in a bank.  Vaults are not banks, and money stored in them will not be replaced if lost.  Only carry what you can afford to lose in your inventory/containers/clouds.

If you lose money due to this bug please keep a log and talk to a liaison.  Your information may help us track down the problem.

Please feel free to chat to any Liaison if you want more information or just a friendly chat!

The Liaison Domain

Coming of Age (Dec 6)

Note #4 posted at Thu Dec  6 Title: "Coming of Age"

Just a little note and nod to history.

In December 1991 on an indeterminate day Pinkfish first brought Discworld online.  Although it was to be another 6 months before it actually opened to players Discworld MUD was "born" that December.

So Happy 21st Birthay Discworld!

2012

Upcoming Changes (Oct 12)

Posted at Fri Oct 12 Title: Upcoming Changes

This is an advance notice that on 1st November (a Thursday, appropriately), a couple of low-level things are being tweaked to bring some parts of the game into better balance.

Here's what's changing:
- There are currently different rates of XP given per GP for commands, based largely on the type of command. With the upcoming changes, these rates are being normalized; most commands will get an increase, and some (guild commands) are being decreased, bringing them into balance.
- When grouped, shared XP is changing. Kill and bury XP will be the same as they are now, but command XP won't be shared between groupmates anymore.
- Grouped (shared) TMs will become more frequent, leading to higher TM rates on average.

The changes mostly rebalance how groups work, and the command balancing works with that to reduce some of the friction between players of different guilds and levels of engagement with the game. Many of you won't notice (aside from a little more yellow text while grouping!), but those of you who count your XP and tweak your playing style accordingly will notice, so now it won't be a shock to you if you get more (or less) XP than you would expect. The aim is that you'll get more with higher levels of engagement with the game, and less if you treat it as a background activity.

The main direction of this change is set but there may be minor tweaks to balance anything unforeseen.

The Creatorbase.
(Aristophanes edited this message at Fri Oct 12 21:31:51 2012.) 

ISP update latest (Jul 31)

Note #10 posted at Tue Jul 31 Title: "ISP update latest"

everything is sorted now for the time being and has been stable for a few
days so it is all reverting back until the next set of changes happens
I will notify you well in advance of that however.

J

ISP update #3 (Jul 24)

Note #10 posted at Tue Jul 24 Title: "ISP update #3"

Well the upshot of the situation is that my ISP are a bunch of spineless
idiots [I may be a little stubborn as well but they're still spineless]
and won't get BT to fix the problem without me jumping through a series
of very implausible hoops that will both waste my time and extend the
problem beyond the pale.

As such we will continue with the backup arrangements for the time being
and I am making alternative arrangements for the internet provision.
These will take a few days - I will keep you advised.

J

ISP update #2 (Jul 24)

Posted at Tue Jul 24 Title: ISP update #2

Ok, so there is no fix in sight until someone at BT pulls their finger out
as such I have collapsed all the connectivity onto the disctemp link. That
is to say that discworld.starturtle.net now also points to the same address
as disctemp. There are some issues with this - most notably that the line
is a cable modem and is prone to traffic shaping and getting swamped by
other traffic so as a result there may be the odd funny but as it stands it
will not suffer from the problems the other link is suffering.

Once the main link is fixed we'll swing back.

J

ISP update (Jul 23)

Note #9 posted at Mon Jul 23 Title: "ISP update"

Ok, problems remain ongoing.  Various fault finding efforts are ongoing
but they apparently don't know what the problem is yet and trying to tell
BT how to fix things is an excercise in futility.

In the interim I will be collapsing the disctemp and discworld addresses
onto the same link but this will take time to spread to all the DNS servers
out there and there may be the occasional odd issue.

J

*Sigh* Internet troubles (Jul 23)

Note #8 posted at Mon Jul 23 Title: "*Sigh* Internet troubles"

The internet link is current displaying very very high packet loss.
This is 100% a carrier/ISP issue but as per usual it's taking a long time
to get them to admit it.  Use the disctemp access method or IPv6 for a
gauranteed connection until otherwise advised.

J

Discworld Wiki looking for a new home (Feb 20)

Posted at Mon Feb 20 Title: Discworld Wiki looking for a new home

Just a reminder as it has scrolled off the frog board.

As Drakkos recently posted - the Discworld player wiki found at discworld.imaginaryrealities.com is in need of new hosting.

Anyone wishing to take this on needs to know the following things.

1) if you want to do it contact Drakkos to talk about transferring the data - this isn't something that we administer from here.
2) I can happily setup a starturtle.net address for any host, talk to me about that.
3) it's based on mediawiki which means you need a webserver with PHP and some form of sql database. See http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Installation_requirements for more details.

Also please be aware that whilst it's not directly affiliated with the mud if you take this on you are taking on a responsibility so it's not something to be done just to muck around.

the joy of DSL (Feb 14)

Note #10 posted at Tue Feb 14 Title: "the joy of DSL"

it would seem the DSL line is playing up again.  Whether this is due to
yesterdays power woes or some other issue altogether I do not know and
as per normal it's going to take time to play the song and dance with BT
to even get them to admit there is a problem/look at it.
With any luck it's an exchange issue and will go away but it could be
something that's going to linger.
If it's affecting you please remember that disctemp.starturtle.net and the
IPv6 connection sit on different connections and will remain unaffected.

power (Feb 13)

Note #9 posted at Mon Feb 13 Title: "power"

At 18:05 13/2/2012 the power went out, this seems to have been an area wide problem as there are no RCDs or breakers here that have gone.  Power was restored, according to the alarm panel, at approximately 18:25.
When this happens the UPS will keep us running for a while but if the outage goes on too long it instructs the servers to do an orderly shutdown.
Unfortunately in this case it seems the UPS stopped supplying power before this could happen [which probably means the batteries need replacing - again!].
Also unfortunately this means a disorderly shutdown will have occurred and as a result some save information will undoubtedly have been lost.  Please don't hassle people about this - if it was a save file in RAM it's going to be unrecoverable so there may well not be a lot we can do about it.
There may well be other funnies from corrupted files or similar which we will do our utmost to fix as soon as possible.

J

The reeducation of Mister Game (Jan 21)

Note #10 posted at Sat Jan 21 Title: "The reeducation of Mister Game"

Mister Game (conveniently located in Brother David's house of rest and safety) has been re-educated to allow for strong minded individuals to pit their wits against him in a gruelling endurance battle. All other aspects of the game including achievements and titles remain unchanged.

Sincerely,
The Mr Game Reeducation Committee.

2011

Happy Hogswatch (Dec 25)

Latest News
Posted at Sun Dec 25 Title: Happy Hogswatch

Well it's about that time over most of the globe so from all the creators and Admin past and present at DWMud have a Happy Hogswatch or other non-denominational festival of your choice!

connectivity update (Oct 21)

Note #10 posted at Fri Oct 21 Title: "connectivity update"

the ISP is reporting the fault as all cleared now so should all be back to normal.

J

update on connection (Oct 21)

Note #10 posted at Fri Oct 21 Title: "update on connection"

The problem still seems to be ongoing and I haven't had an all clear from the ISP yet.
Since people are asking I recommend that you take care and at the same time if you want to get yourself into dangerous situations use one of the alternative access means that I previously mentioned.

J

This Morning (Oct 21)

Note #9 posted at Fri Oct 21 Title: "This Morning"

It seems our ISP had a fault overnight that cause our primary internet connection to hang and it wasn't until I noticed earlier that we got it cleared.

All should be happy now and no major problems!  Always remember that in  such circusmtances we have IPv6 as an alternative access method and the disctemp.starturtle.net backup route [although this can be prone to other issues so don't rely on it].

J

maintenance window (Jul 22)

Posted at Fri Jul 22 Title: maintenance window

I have a new switch to install within the network that drives the DW servers.
I'm afraid it won't improve the performance of the system any, just opens up
a few options for me internally from a support perspective. I'm also going
to take the opportunity to perform some other maintenance tasks. As a result
there will be scheduled downtime between 9am and 11am on Sunday 24th.
Hopefully this shouldn't be too disruptive to many people.

As with all scheduled downtime status updates will be found at

http://www.brist.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/dwstatus.html

Hopefully the last update! (May 6)

Posted at Fri May 6 Title: Hopefully the last update!

Right, so BT claim everything is now fixed with the line [Still won't
actually tell me if there was a fault and/or what it was but that's normal
and based on the fact that they're not now threatening to charge me I
suspect they are quietly admitting fault. If I ever managed to badger an
answer out of them I will pass it on.].

I've since done some re-cabling here to undo all the temporary patches I
put in place to satisfy all the troubleshooting requirements which will
have caused a couple of line bounces and then there was an accident with an
unfiltered analogue phone which has been fixed with duct tape!

So, the upshot is that all things being equal it should be back to business
as normal now. But! [and theres always a but] looking
at the line it's _probably_ syncing up a little faster than is good for it
and as such we might see a drop or two whilst it syncs to a range it will
run completely clean in. Currently however, whilst it is counting up
Reed-solomon error hits but not too fast and no unrecoverable errors so
hopefully we're all sorted.

J

fault update (Apr 26)

Posted at Tue Apr 26 Title: fault update

It's going to take a looooong time to get this resolved. BT are demanding
a visit to my premises which, due to the practicalities of life,
I can't be present for until May 6th. As such in the interim I once again
strongly urge people to use IPv6 or the backup connection mentioned in the
last news post if they want a stable connection.

EOL

temporary patches (Apr 25)

Posted at Mon Apr 25 Title: temporary patches

Ok, so as you can probably observe the line instability continues. I'm now
embroiled in arguments with BT and other parties that are going to be
messy.

The stability of the line comes and goes - there are a number of issues to
resolve and depending on your own personal setup you may simply see the
mud freeze for 30 seconds at a time or your connection may drop. Those of
you who'se connections drop probably really need to investigate the
setup of your router as it may be a little too aggressive in cleaning up
connections. That is an aside however as the real solution will come when
the people I'm currently in conversation with accept it's their problem and
sort it!

Since the resolution could be a bit protracted however I have managed
to put together a temporary solution. However a few words of warning up
front. This temporary patch may be a little laggy, it may also be prone to
traffic shaping and all sorts of other nastiness as unlike the discs main
connection it is a consumer, not business, level service ans as such is
not as reliable nor does it have the same low contention ratios.
Additionally the only thing that will work is mud access. The webpages etc
must still be accessed via the old link with the normal address.

So, anyone complaining about lag, slow responses or similar on this
temp solution will be laughed at and ignored. Anyone claiming not to have
read this warning will be laughed at an ignored [please direct people to
this text if you pass on the address]. Also be aware that once I get the
main link up and stable again this method will not remain as a backdoor
for people to use to avoid everyone else on the main link.

Ultimately if you can at all do so then use IPv6 - the started guide are at
http://discworld.imaginary-realities.com/wiki/IPv6
IPv6 is the better solution and is the future, bug the people who write
the mud clients to support it and don't take no for an answer. If they
won't support it then move to another mud client.
We've got decafmud working with ipv6 for you guys as well.

All that said the address for the temporary access is

disctemp.starturtle.net 4242

note the 4242 - it WILL NOT work on port 23, that's another point, laugh
and ignore fault reporting moment.

end of line

update (Apr 23)

Posted at Sat Apr 23 Title: update

well I've done as much as I can do today. looking at the errors etc on the
router things seem to be an awful lot better _but_ we won't know until it
has been running for a while and unfortunately due to the easter bank
holiday my options for getting people to do things are limited until
tuesday.

maintenance on the line. (Apr 23)

Posted at Sat Apr 23 Title: maintenance on the line.

I'm doing the line maintenance stuff - things will be very unstable until then

10 days is up tonight (Apr 22)

Note #10 posted at Fri Apr 22 Title: "10 days is up tonight"

so if the line doesn't sort itself out at that point - and frankly on todays
performance I'm really not that hopeful - I will be conducting maintenance
tests tomorrow to try and resolve the issue whilst explaining to an ISPs
helpdesk that I'm not overly happy about their ability to take a perfectly
stable line and turn it into a completely unstable line.

However, again assuming the line doesn't settle tonight if I have to go
down that path don't bank on a quick fix as there are many layers of
escalation I'm going to have to wade through to get things done and at
every level the people involved will deny responsibility.

With the above in mind then if you can at all start using IPv6 I
strongly recommend you do so.  Anyone can use it with a little effort so
please see the guides at http://discworld.imaginary-realities.com/wiki/IPv6

So if the line doesn't stabilise tonight, expect greater outage tomorrow
whilst I bounce it up and down and all sorts.

J

connectivity update (Apr 17)

Note #10 posted at Sun Apr 17 Title: "connectivity update"

I'll probably jinx it by saying this but ...
IPv4 connectivity has been stable for several days now and the IPv6
connectivity has also now been restored so normality has been resumed

enjoy

it never rains ... (Apr 16)

Note #9 posted at Sat Apr 16 Title: "it never rains ..."

just so people are aware there now seems to be a problem with the routing
at out ipv6 tunnel providors.  fortunately ipv4 seems to be stable now

Hopefully full normal service will be resumed as soon as is possible.

end of line

continuing connection problems (Apr 15)

Note #8 posted at Fri Apr 15 Title: "continuing connection problems"

Ok, as you've noticed the line still continues to drop in bouts.
This is still all related to the move to BTs 21CN an the fact that the router to DSLAM is going through the wonderful process of working out it's best connection speed [that wonderful "up to" in the marketing blurb] this process can take a while.

Now, I realise most of the people out there get this next bit but I've been getting the odd really snarky person demanding I fix this so this is for their benefit

There is nothing I can do to fix this, it'll sort itself out when it sorts itself out.!

Now, We do have access via IPv6 which uses a different internet connection but it does require you get ipv6 working on your machine and also some mudclients do not support it.  For help getting this working try the following links

http://pugio.net/2007/07/howto-enable-ipv6-the-teredo-w.html
http://ipv6int.net/systems/windows_xp-ipv6.html
http://www.sixxs.net

The muds ipv6 address is 2a01:348:19e:2::2 on port 4242 - do not use port 23 as it will not work.
the webpages can be accessed via ipv6 but do not fully support it yet so please no bugreps.  you can access the boards directly by going to

http://[2a01:348:19e:2::2]/lpc/secure/boards.c 

End of line

connection bouncing (Apr 13)

Note #10 posted at Wed Apr 13 Title: "connection bouncing"

Ok - the Migration to 21CN seemed to cause some nasty up and down problems.
some tweaks here and there on the network infrastructure side and I'm hoping
it has stabilised things but there are no gaurantees so please still be
prepared for the odd bumpy ride over the next few days as I still have a
few tricks up my sleeve but I don't want to deploy them unless I have to.

End of line

J

line instability (Apr 13)

Note #10 posted at Wed Apr 13 Title: "line instability"

as a result of the changes that caused the outage there may be a period of instability as the DSL lie has been migrated to BT 21CN and as such it's going through a retraining phase to work out it's new noise margins.

As a result expect some disconnections over the next 24-72 hours whilst it sorts itself out.  Sadly there is little that can fix this save using ipv6.  I shall get some guides up on that as soon as I am able.
 
End of Line

J

Advance Warning (Apr 4)

Note #5 posted at Mon Apr  4 Title: "Advance Warning"

Dear Customer, 

Next week we are moving your broadband service to new equipment within the 
local BT exchange.  Moves may occur at any time on the date of the planned 
move, although typically take place during the early hours of the morning.  
During the move process there will be an interruption of approximately 15 
minutes to your telephone service, after which it will continue to operate 
exactly as before.  Your broadband service will also be interrupted during 
this time and in some cases for a little longer, while tests of the new 
equipment are completed.

The date your service will be moved is 13th April 2011.


---------------------------------------

IPv6 connectivity will continue to operate during this downtime if you want 
to take advantage of the lightly loaded Disc :)

End of line.

--
"I am not a Frog, I am a free Womble."

rollback (Feb 6)

Note #4 posted at Sun Feb  6 Title: "rollback"

Due to some problems earlier, the Disc has rolled back a few hours to around 2AM GMT.
This means you may have lost some experience and progress on your character.
We are sorry for the inconvenience.

Up! (Jan 8)

Note #3 posted at Sat Jan  8 Title: "Up!"

Ok, everything should be fixed now.
There may be a lingering issue if you are attempting to connect via IPv6
but that will be fixed shortly, beyond that it's all back and running properly.

Enjoy.

J

Server inaccessibility (Jan 6)

Note #2 posted at Thu Jan  6 Title: "Server inaccessibility"

After much tweaking of knobs, muttering of arcane incantations in the small hours, and burning of incense (not
to mention judicious application of gold and myrrh), we've reached an impasse. The server is a bit off-piste,
and an avalanche of problems means it needs to be dug out carefully from its sorry, cold drift.

We expect that things will be back to normal by Saturday evening (GMT). We apologise for the inconvenience!

2010

Happy Hogswatch (Dec 24)

Note #1 posted at Fri Dec 24 Title: "Happy Hogswatch"

Ok - we're approaching the time when the clock rolls over the the 25th 
in some parts of the world so a quick note to say Happy Hogswatch to 
one and all from all the creators here at DWmud [including the UPS 
which started beeping this morning in a desparate attempt to get 
attention - it probably wants new batteries for Hogswatch but we'll 
talk about that downtime at a later date :)]

You may or may not be aware that 2011 represents the 20th anniversary 
of when the mud was first conceived and started running [2012 will 
represent the point where it actually opened to the public] and 
although it doesn't happen until next december the mud will officially 
be 20 years old during this coming year.

Speaking as someone who's been here for all but half of one those years 
it has been, and continues to be, an honour and a privilege to be here
and to have known you all [yes, all of you] in some form or other.

Heres to the future.

Jake

downtime in morning (Nov 20)

Note #10 posted at Sat Nov 20 Title: "downtime in morning"

just a reminder that there is scheduled maintenance sunday morning (GMT) and that status will be in the usual place
http://www.brist.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/dwstatus.html

end of line