Change is inevitable..I have put this off for far too long now
From this day forward, Shadows of Sunder is no longer a UO:RP Shard, it is a community for gaming, more specifically, Roleplaying Games. This is a step that should've happened over a month ago, but real life (job searching, which is hopefully coming to an end now), and focus elsewhere on the internet, effectively halted it. There is no excuse for it really, because it was a promise I made and albeit delayed, I intend to keep it, and over the next few days I will start altering the site to accomodate it's new purpose.
Once the change has happened, I will start poking around for what kind of games we should put up here, and hopefully Mith hasn't gone again completely, as I know we have things to do if he is still willing. Lucious aswell.
Well I promised I'd make a new years speech, and albeit a bit late, here it is...
To start this off I'd like to thank those of you who have stuck with us for so long and up till this day. Like I have said so many times before, UO might be old, and SoS might have it's difficult times, but I will never abandon it, as it has become such a vital part of me that it'd just feel wrong to not have this project anymore.
Through 2007, there have been different states SoS has been in. Early on the year it started out alright - It ran, people played, developed etc. However then as time passed by, problems started occuring where the server would be down for weeks at a time, and I pretty much had to bug the crap out of our host to get it back up and running. This was difficult as this was also a period of my final exams.
Unfortunately for myself, I screwed up my final exams, so I was set back to wait through summer holiday so I could start the period again in September.
During the summer holiday I brought the server back to my apartment and ran it there for awhile, while at the same time trying to build some software together with Lucious, which was both for my exams, and also for making money in the future for us, so we had more funds for our various projects. This left some parts of the community tired, as updates were lacking and not much was said on what was going on behind the curtain, and for that I can only apologise and hope you understand that I was extremely busy - And had more coming.
As my new exams period happened, I was again pulled through a ride where I basically couldn't wrap my head around anything SoS related, despite my best efforts, however I tried letting people know by posting about it. I passed my exams in November, 2007 and now have a degree in advanced computer science, as what is called a "Datamatician" (Spiffy sounding ..ain't it?).
Now that I have the general layout of 2007 down, I'd like to take a moment to mention a few people and how they have been important to me throughout the year that have gone, and how I simply couldn't amount to some of the things I have accomplished without them.
Knox:
One of my best real life friends, and for good reason too. It is not lightly or carelessly that I pick those whom I decide to call friend - My coming of age and wisdom have sometimes seemed slow, but now I have many people whom I am familiar with and look to for a good time, humour and ideas. However very few whom I look to for honesty, realiability, loyalty and understanding.
One of those very few, is Knox, and I can not even begin to describe what he has meant to me through 2007. In many cases when I needed it, even without me saying a word to him, he has supported me, made me laugh and most importantly, reminded me thatTrue friendship does exist.
Knox, I wouldn't want to any other close friend then you. While I may now and again poke at you, tell you to shut up or even yell at you, I would never ever want you to change anything you do, say or believe..You are by far the most positive, friendly and considerate man in existance and I have the priviledge and fortune to call you my friend.
We have shared good times in 2007, and I hope more are to come in 2008. It has become tradition for me to visit you, or you to visit me, and if tradition is any mark of age and bonding with someone or something - I have most certainly bonded with you Knox (in a non-gay way of course!).
Knox my friend, Happy new year!
Lucious:
What can I really say about this guy that I haven't said before...Not much. As I once said, he is best described as this: If the true values of the U.S constitution, attitude of Texas, and brain power of "Deep Thought" could be put into one person, that person would be Lucious.
Lucious is a great, honest and inconcievable guy...I say inconcievable because he is such an unlikely creature to exist that I simply sometimes am at a loss as to how he came to be, even though that answer is pretty simple.
You're The best friend I have ever made over the internet, and I feel honored that you call me your friend aswell.
Having said that, you are also the one person who has helped me beyond what I could hope for anyone to do this year. If it weren't for you, I probably wouldn't have graduated as I was under a lot of pressure from many sides - I will never forget that, and you have my eternal gratitude for it. Anything I can ever do for you, and you got it..Granted, this was true even before you helped me.
I consider you a true friend for many reasons, but most of all, it is because you are one of the very very few people, whom I trust completely and that I have found that I can always rely on in times of need. You have stood by me in all projects I have brought to you, even despite that many remain unfinished. I can only attribute true friendship to such a thing...
I want us to finally sit down, like we said we were going to for so long, and talk about the future, our projects and finally sort out, what we want to do, in what order, when and how - And I think you feel the same.
I have many times claimed to be one of the few, who really knows you Lucious, and one of the very few, who understands you and how you work. It is something I have sometimes been reluctant to claim, as now and again, you do something I didn't quite expect. However as time goes by, more and more dots are connected and through the years we've known each other, I'd like to think I have established a well founded familitarity with you and your personality.
You are a great friend, and I simply can't say that enough, and I owe you so much for what you have helped me do with both Shadows of Sunder, and so many other things that I have dealt with. Thank you my friend..I only hope I can somehow repay you for all you have done, or that I somehow already am.
Lucious my friend, Happy new year!
Belenight:
This guy is one of the stranger people I have encountered through my days, and many things could be said about him. One thing is certain though, is that once you get to know him, he is just hysterically funny - I can't count the amount of times where I've fired off random remarks in his direction and he's replied with wit and silliness to a point where I was nearly falling out of my chair laughing!
He definitely has humour, and also his heart in the right place...While a few times we've crossed wires in unfortunate ways, we have worked them out and since then, gotten along much better.
When we invited you to our staff Belenight, it was mainly for you knowledge about the asian culture. Knowledge we needed so we could utilize the items, graphics and maps in UO properly and fit it into our world so it didn't seem like "The Last Samurai".
Since then though, you have learned a lot about our system and you've built some quite impressive things. While the server has been difficult, you have remained faithful and I hope that once things clear up a little more, you will continue your work.
Your presence in the Shadows of Sunder community has been good, as you provide a new angle to a lot of things, and inspiration on things we need inorder to move forward. So far you have also showed yourself as a good guy, and I hope over time you will feel as much part of SoS as the rest of us do, as we definitely have no regrets about inviting you in, in the first place.
To you Belenight, I wish you a Happy New year!
Fidelis:
Dedication and patience, are the two things I have to really say about him. He has been with us through so much that I lost sight of when he even got here in the first place. He's been faithful through the hardest time we've gone through, and gone out of his way to keep people informed as best as he could with what little information he had.
Fidelis I don't know you as well as I would like to, but I do know that you are the most mature guy for your age I have ever encountered, and that kinda creeps me out..Having said that, it also makes me appreciate your presence, because you are a really unique person, with good values and the most dedicated attitude I have found in anyone. I can only appreciate all you've done for SoS and the rest of us, and I hope you will continue to do so for a long time to come.
In 2007, you have been a relieving presence in IRC and been there almost everytime I needed help with something and I can't thank you enough for that.
Lastly I'd like to say, that if I forgot anyone, don't feel bad. There are a lot of you out there that have been good to SoS, the community and me, and even if you aren't mentioned here today, I want to wish you all a Happy new year, and thank you all for the time you have been with us so far!
Also if you're wondering what my little "2006" topic line is about...It's a little funny thing that happened with Denmark's queen this year. During her New Years speech on national T.V, she accidently said "2006 is coming to an end" instead of "2007", much to the amusement of all us "Denmarkians".
In conclusion, Shadows of Sunder will rise anew, new projects will be put to work, new ideas and hopefully, new life to the community. At this time I can't yet make any promises, except that I will try to come up with new directions to take Shadows of Sunder, and I'm looking into getting more people involved in bringing us to new levels of activity. It will take time and effort before things become more apparent, and the more input I have from all of you, the more I have to work with, inorder to make this place into what we all want it to be.
There is a new year upon us, and I suggest and hope we use it well!
Maybe you noticed the "Server Status" says "Online". Well..you're not seeing things, it's ONLINE!
Granted the server is temporarily running on my main machine, but it's running! So go ahead and log in! Now and then it might lag a bit or something, cause I have a habit of doing other things on my machine, but..It's running!
Since it's been awhile since I updated ya'll on what's going on, here is Lucious with a funny hat! Tadaaaa! ...okay that was a lie. However it seems we had a database malfunction.
As you can probably tell this issue has been resolved and the site should now be working again. Our host has also fiddled around with some hardware that wasn't playing nice, and thus there should now be an increased speed on the site's loading time.
On a different note, I am still looking for ways to bring the UO server back online, so fear not! We haven't given up and we probably never will give up either. As it stands, there is a small chance that I will get ahold of a new machine for the server *crosses fingers*, which should get here within the next week or 2. With a bit of luck we should be completely back to normal within a reasonable amount of time.
Also, I finished my education (hurray for me! \o/) and such can now devote more time to this and other projects I have going with Lucious. That is pretty much all for now - Remember to catch us in the IRC channel (#Shadows_Of_Sunder) on the stratics network (irc.stratics.com), where we're always available for a chat etc.
*starts writing christmas cards and new years speech, extra good one cause I missed the last one*.
Unfortunately it's not very good news. Shortly after my main machine had died, it died again..and then again, and now I've given up on it and handed it over to a computer shop and told them to fix it to a point where all I have to do is pick it up, bring it home and plug it in.
Shortly after this, the server ethernet card started acting funny and lost it's drivers. After I tried to fix it. it started not wanting to start up in the sense of the CPU of the server never initializing. So far I can't make it (the CPU) start up and so I now have a non-working server machine aswell. I've spent hours upon hours, even a few nights sleep have been missed in trying to fix it, but no luck unfortunately. Due to the cost of fixing my main machine (which I still don't have back yet so im on my laptop atm.), I can't afford to buy a new CPU for the server, and won't be able to for awhile. Therefor I'm turning to our community for help if you can - Your help is very much appreciated if you can.
Sorry about all this mess, but it's atleast as annoying to me as it is to you I will get this fixed as soon as I possibly can!
I will get this fixed as soon as I possibly can!
