Moderators on Forums

On the forums, there have been several instances of spamming (assuming to be from bots). Therefore, I have given some moderation powers to those who are helping me with the project. If you have a topic that is ever removed unintentionally, please let me know and we'll try and work it out.

My Email Temporarily Out of Service

For everyone who has been trying to reach me via email, please use my other email for the time being. My DriftSoft email will not work since I am modifying that domain name.

dbrown30@gmail.com

Added Links

DBSource (Dragonball Source) is yet another fan-made project that has really inspired me. The people who create such terrific mods for existing games is really amazing.

The Linux Ubuntu link has been moved down to the technical list and InfraRecorder has been added on that list as well. InfraRecorder is open source software that basically allows you to easily burn images and data onto CDs and DVDs.

Month Goal

Great news, I have finished (and passed) both of my summer courses! Progress on the project will be recorded here.

Primary Goal
Because my fall semester starts back in approximately one month, I want to work my hardest right now to make up for further delays down the road. The primary goal I want to complete in a month's time is to have a dedicated server up and running with a small test server and website running from it.

I'll keep you posted!

RadUltima.com's New Owner

As of today, my old website RadUltima.com is no longer my responsibility, as I have given it to Michael Petruccelli (known as Guard of the Dead on Tibia). From whatever he chooses to do with it, is in his hands now and I wish him the best of luck.

Summer Classes Almost Done

On Monday the 14th I should be done with all of my final exams for summer classes. I know there is only a month between this point and my fall classes, but much time will be spent on the Lucent Stones project.

That being said, it is my primary goal after classes to have a basic functioning test server that will be hosted on a dedicated server, so it will constantly be up. Once that has been accomplished, I am confident that many bugs and errors will be found from the inside on a regular basis, which will be the start of a real "community."

Also, by the end of July should be the time when new software is released and we can really start working on the server and client. Anyone who is interested in helping, please feel free to post on the discussion board.

New Author

Since I am helping David with the game, I have become an author of this blog to help with the game news and updates. Hope to see you all later!

CipSoft's Move on Cheaters

Probably one of the strongest reasons I chose to quit the MMORPG Tibia was because of all of the cheaters. Recently, CipSoft, the company who produced Tibia, has made an update that detects whenever a client has been modified apparently.



To see the reaction from the top cheating application's website and forums was a treat.



Although they are working on countermeasures to get around this, I am sure a few hundred more accounts will be caught in their act of cheating. If CipSoft keeps implementing code that detects changes or even third party programs running in the background, perhaps the war on cheaters will finally shift in the right direction.

Server and Remote Access Software

Today I have been learning how to setup a server and how to manage it. The two main installations I would like to talk about now are RealVNC and XAMPP.

XAMPP is software that comes with virtually everything you need to setup a server. Apache, PHP, MySQL, FTP setup, etc. is included with the setup. This is ideal if you want to host a website from your home or the like.

RealVNC will allow you to access a server or computer remotely from any network. So if you have someone hosting your sever for you, you'll be able to easily access it without having to get in your car and drive there just to click a button!

If you are ever interested in checking these out, I've added the links to their sites in a new Free Technical Software section of links. And as before, these are completely free.

Lucent Stones Position Openings

Sometime in the near future, access to some of the tools we use to work on the project may become available for individual purchase. If anyone is interested in giving extra hands, I'll be glad to have you on the team. There also may be a position as a board administrator as well. If you are interested, please see this thread.

Lucent Stones Progress Report

In the past, I have almost always only shown this kind of information with only those who work close with the project. However, there's virtually no risk with some of these reports, so I'll post these here whenever there is no harm to the information I provide.

Time
There are a few obstacles that prevent this project from really moving forward at this moment, and mainly it's all because of my daily classes, work, and responsibilities. It will not be until around July 18th before I am able to dedicate a sufficient amount of time to the project.

In other news, the heart of the software package that I will be using should become available around the end of July. However, let me just say that I have been waiting on this since the beginning of the year and it has been moved further and further back because of necessary delays. That being said, I am almost expecting there to be yet another delay in this software, but we'll just see what happens. Needless to say, there is enough to keep us busy until that time arrives anyway.

Website Clean
One of the things that I have been working on this weekend is to start clean with the websites. Purchasing domain names only cost around $10.00 a year, but once you have so many, the number can really put a dent in your wallet. Therefore, I have decided to cancel radultima.com, lucentstones.net, lucentstones.org, driftsoft.net, and driftsoft.org. For radultima.com, the changes will take place sometime in the near future.

From the two websites (game and company), we'll be working on the game first to get it ready to play as soon as possible. That being said, I'm going to wipe the webserver clean and start from there. RadUltima.com and the forum with it will most likely be removed completely unless a solution can be found (and one is being searched for currently).

In order to work on the Lucent Stones website and board without causing any problems, I have decided to use this blog and InvisionFree Board as a place to work. I imagine that using a board to speak with members while modifying it at the same time will not work out so well!

Game Forum
It is in my plans to purchase a license from InvisionPower to use their board system. By modifying the board to anyway we like, I am confident that we could alter it to work just as we would like. For example, it would be nice to send a message to a player in-game by using the board. Likewise, it would also be nice to have moderators and gamemasters share powers automatically between the game and board.

Test Server Information
As of right now, there is no telling when we will have a test server for the project. Originally, it will be possible to create and manage accounts from inside the game client, but I would like that to change onto a website sometime. At any rate, it will be at least after the 18th of the month before we have a test server.

That is all for now. I'll keep you posted when events take place.

Pandora Radio

Under the software links to the right, I have added yet another link that I forgot to add yesterday. Pandora is basically a free online radio where you start off by typing in a song name, name of an artist, or band. It may not immediately play what you first said, but it will find songs that sound like it.

Once a song plays, you can choose to say "Like it" or "Don't like it." Basically, Pandora will refine the songs that you like and don't like and will eventually play things that you always like. When you say "Don't like it" or "Skip" it will skip to the next song, but you can only do this so many times before it tells you to take it easy.

Also, there are no audio advertisements or commercials. The only ads are those that are on the website. Those ads actually really blend into the website: something I have not really seen done like that before.

All in all, if you like listening to the radio, or would like to hear all the songs for free, then Pandora is the way to go.

Links Reconfigured

There are now two separate categories for the links on the right menu. The one on top has links on various websites about fan-made projects that really inspire me. To see what a few fans can do with limited to no resources other than a computer is truly amazing. It's because of people like them why I know I'm capable of success myself.

Here's an explanation of the links. I hope you find them as interesting as I do. If you ever wonder about any of them, you can find some interesting videos on YouTube.

Chrono Resurrection
A remake of the Chrono Trigger game for the Super Nintendo game console.

Earth's Special Forces
This is a Half-Life modification (mod) replicating the environment of Akira Toriyama's DragonBall Z, who actually happens to also be the character designer of Chrono Trigger.

Metroid Online
This is a mod of Halo, replicating the Metroid Prime game for the GameCube game console. Although not a remake, but is actually an interesting game where you can battle against your friends in this first-person shooter.

The lower category contains links to very great software. I've personally used all of them, and they are all terrific. Here's the information about them:

AVG
If you know what you are doing on the computer, you may never come across a virus or other computer threat. However, mistakes and accidents can happen, so never be ashamed to use protection! AVG is a nice Anti-Virus application that comes out with frequent updates against online threats. Also, it has the capability of scanning your computer. The link on the right goes to the free version, but if you also want additional, mainly Internet Security, features, there is also a professional version as well.

Firefox
A great great web browser. If you use Internet Explorer, I would recommend the switch.

GIMP
If you are familiar with Adobe Photoshop then this would be like the free version of that. It takes some time to get used to, but has virtually the same capabilities as Photoshop does in my opinion.

Linux Ubuntu
In the event that you have a computer, but not an operating system, this is a very nice one in my opinion. There are a couple of different versions of Ubuntu that you can download and burn to a CD. It's not as easy as just downloading a file and slapping it on a CD though, you'll have to actually burn the "image" on the CD, but their website is very helpful in explaining the process. If you ever want to just try it out though, you can actually now install it inside of Windows, so you don't have to worry about messing up your system. If you install it that way, you can also uninstall it just as easily, like any normal program application.

OpenOffice
In a nutshell, this is pretty much like a free version of Microsoft Office (before their version 2007). I have come across some minor difficulty with fonts and using a database, but it's a very solid and free way of having a complete office suite! It comes with these applications

• Writer - like Word
• Base - like Access
• Calc - like Excell
• Draw - basically a application to make images, drawings, flow charts, and logos.
• Impress - like PowerPoint
• Math - It's like a huge powerful calculator and can solve problems using complicated formulas.

Skype
This is perhaps the most impressive application I have ever seen on the internet. Basically, this is an internet phone service. It's free to download on your computer; all you need to use it is speakers+mic or a headset. Actually, you don't even need that if you just wanted to chat with people on it with a keyboard. After registering a free Skype account, you can call other Skype accounts for free - absolutely no charge at all.

There are also these phones (not free, obviously) that you can get and plug into your router. These phones have Skype installed on them and so you can use it just as a normal phone and can call people with Skype for free.

It is even possible to call real landlines and cell/mobile phones using Skype. Note that this does cost money, but it is extremely cheap. Right now, for example, I quit my cell phone plan - which was costing me about $35.00 a month - and now only use Skype for about $5.00 a month. Not only is it only $5.00 a month though, but it's unlimited calling, anywhere in the United States. To make things even better though, you can also call anyone in Canada for free.

And whenever you actually do have to call to other countries, it will cost you less than a couple cents a minute. When I bought my phone that plugs into the router, it actually came with about $20.00 of SkypeOut (making calls out). Having relatives in Europe, I've made plenty of phone calls and have tons of time left to talk!

Last but not least, it's possible for other people to call you (part of the $5.00 deal). It comes with voicemail, call forwarding, and some other nice features. All in all, I strongly recommend everyone quit their current phone services and go get Skype!

Thunderbird
This is a very simple application that allows you to check your email using an application. It's like Outlook, but "cleaner" as I would like to say.

Trillian
If you have friends on more than one instant messenger then you know how frustrating it is to login to many different IM applications to talk with everyone. To solve this problem, simply use Trillian. You basically setup each account in this one application and it serves as your only-needed instant messager application! There are a few minor capabilities that they have disabled though, like video-chat, etc. but can be purchased for a one-time only fee.

Alrighty, that's it for now. Hope you enjoy checking into those programs and sites. If you know of any similar material that I have explained here, please feel free to contact me about it.

VLC Media Player
One thing that has really annoyed me is that whenever you first attempt to play a DVD on your computer, it is possible to get a "Missing Codec" error and in order to fix the problem, you must pay for one. Well, with this media player, it will detect almost every type of media file and will play with not many problems. It's not that 'pretty' but does it serves its purpose wonderfully.

Discussion Board and Links

Yes, two posts on the first day. Mainly doing this post to test the blog's abilities out more and also to inform you that I created a discussion board real quick, since my current one on RadUltima.com will no longer be used to store Lucent Stones information. There is also a forum there specifically for this blog, in case you would like to talk to me or others about anything relating to this. Guests (meaning you will not have to register) will also be able to post on that forum.

Also, there are some nifty websites I am inspired by that I added to the lower-right corner of the page. Check them out sometime if you like.

Created a Blog!

Hello World!

Because of classes, work, and my own endeavors, I have decided to stop spending time on my website, RadUltima.com, which was used mainly as a guild/clan website for the online role playing game, Tibia.

Time is a very scarce resource right now. Maintaining a website, needless to say, can take up a lot of time which is why I have chosen to start a blog. This is really my first time doing this sort of thing, so I don't know what to expect or if it will even work in the long run, but it's worth a try anyway.

Because my company and project websites are in development, I'll give updates about the project on my blog here, since nothing too spectacular has been stated yet that would warrant anyway on it's own website anyway.

Speaking of the Lucent Stones project, let me also just note here that nothing is currently going on there, except for a few ideas that I would like to get started on as soon as the basic structure of the game is created. Actually, it will be no sooner than the 17th of July until I will really be able to concentrate on the project, due to summer classes taking up so much of my free time.

P.S. Happy Independence Day!