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-College roomate introduced me to Graal in mid-late '99 just before version 1.28
-Found that you could make a level and npcs (I was a computer science student)
-Made my own head (head242 is still available!) after my own handsome face
-Summer 2000, started up a gserver, Argos, in the old college dorm
-got like a few dozen accounts on that 1.28 gserver ... even with only 8 ppl on at a time
-Sabin comes online and wants to work on a bigger playerworld, an official one, Sanstrata was the name we decided on
-Word gets to Stefan that I was running a gserver and he asks me to please shut it down, and I did. He said that there would be an option for players to have their own servers in the future, but not to use the 1.28 server (took about 3-4 years but it happened!)
-After much level making by Sabin, and much npc scripting/quest creating/making the original storyline for Sanstrata by myself, the fruit of almost a year's worth of work gets officially online
-We hire some staff for gfx events gp levels other nat's ... till there's like 30 staff ... that was mistake one
-Server starts getting hacked, like it's the unofficial test ground for every trainer and hex editor on the planet
-Staff went corrupt and not much progress was made on the server due to staff arguments
-Levels get deleted, hundreds of hours of work gone, some people are just jerks, and have no idea how much emotional pain they put through the creators of this virtual world
-we make New Sanstrata, new overworld map, with the help of a talented level maker ... who later on deleted all the levels ... again
-Quite a few changes in ownership .. i leave for a few weeks
-Sans gets shut down b/c some girl could not handle the pressure of the arguing amongst staff
-I come back to graal a year or so later and buy a spot, Realms
-Realms of Destiny comes in and not I can't log into Realms b/c of the name config error
-I choose to rename the server to Argos
-I try argos as a gravity (mario) style server ... would have needed a new tileset and no one wanted to make the new tiles
-I try a huge overworld map. real life did not allow time, no return on the investment. if Graal would pay me to make an awesome pw, I would gladly do that as a job, knowing to aviod the patterns of failure I learned from Sanstrata
-Try a smaller map, try hiring one or two people at a time.
The don't stop asking for more rights, they just wont stop bugging me ... server gets hijacked a couple of different times by some a-holes over a couple of months b/c I am a nice guy. levels deleted, they disable my account that i pay for which is the same as stealing money from my pocket.
Lousy criminals.
-I get my rights back, fire their butts, ban and block the traitors.
-Recents months ...
Had enough of being burned, I wont take an ounce of crap from anyone anymore.
Decided to help with Sanstrata again, under the new management (Don) but he needs a break from the year or so that he has been 'working' on sans but gotten not very far.
-Having fun making npc's again!
LESSONS:
-You dont need more than 10 staff on any graal pw
-if you own and pay $ for a pw, NEVER give anyone rights that would jeapordize your control over the pw
-ALWAYS have a backup of every level and npc on yur hard drive
-If someone keeps on giving you a hard time or starts to argue ... don't feed the trolls. Because they are no more than a wretch under a bridge that is evil and wants to make you miserable. Block them, ban them, report them, get rid of them any way you can.
and ...
-Do what makes you happy! |