Hello from a long lost friend

[IStandAloneToo]

I woke up this morning with an urge to communicate with some long lost friends. There is one thing that comes first, however.

I owe everyone in the DoL community, especially the DOL staff, a very large apology. I am quite ashamed of how I left the project over four years ago and it hurts my heart that I behaved in such a way. I am deeply sorry. Luckily, Graveen stepped up and took charge to whom I owe a great deal of admiration and appreciation.

I'm sure that doesn't do any type of justice but I hope you can take it as sincere.

A lot has changed over the years. I now work at a very large software firm on one of their most popular products doing C++ development. It has been a wonderful time. It is definitely a blessing to enjoy going to work each day . I also got married to a gorgeus lady who is just the most fantastic person I have ever met.

Honestly, I'm a bit nervous of the reaction I shall receive. In any case, I have been craving some DAoC and C# development. So, I thought, "Huh, I miss working on DoL. I wonder if there's any bits and pieces left to implement."

Thus, here I am. I'll probably be poking my head around the code base, see what has changed. If anyone knows some large subsystem that is lacking, I would love to hear it.

Glad to be back

- IStandAloneToo

[Ephemeral]

Plenty of stuff still broken, don't worry. ;3

[Tolakram]

My goodness. Welcome back!

[mattress]

I wasn't here, so I have no idea what/if anything that happened, with that...welcome back!

[rdsandersjr]

"Huh, I miss working on DoL. I wonder if there's any bits and pieces left to implement."

If anyone knows some large subsystem that is lacking, I would love to hear it.

I would say probably server side Pathing, but that wouldn't fall under "Bits and Pieces" =) Or you could redo the spell handler code =)

[Darwin]

*!*Ho My God*!*

my old boss, with who i basically learnt C#,
i hope seriously you remember me, from Eden server, big time
i just came back yesterday, exactly as you xD
(oups its my birthday today..i'm getting old btw)
and.. ho.. i'm getting married 1rst June too, with the most perfect woman in the world to me
i'm actually working in Monaco in pure .NET, thanks to dol prolly, so everything changed for me too

DUDE, donno what will happen the next days, but that's fate §
Eden is coming up again, it's planned for the next weeks

You're always the most welcome to me, i'mm really happy to meet you again

-Darwin (Adam)

[Roozzz]

That's a long time ago! Welcome back!

[Dinberg]

ISAT down!

Good to see you again old buddy, how have things been?

[Graveen]

Hey Ryan, nice to see you roaming here
Don't bother with the past. There is a time in life for each thing, and some are simply not in the right place at the right time. There are 2 times when you can reasonnably contribute to a FOSS project : when you are student, and when you have a long time job. Any other time, you have to contribute your own life:mrgreen:

Yes, tons of things still todo. All in all, we quietly go to a better codebase, along side with better tools. DOL is more modular, and if you are interested, there are no support for new siege stuff things: the tent, ladder, and even rams, trebuchets... would need a decent implementation through a dedicated framework.

Evolutions over the last year ? This is not exhaustive, and i certainly forget a tons:
a lot of bugfixes and codes refactoring of course, but also instances support, quests are now read from database, ambient behaviour handling, artefact framework, inventory is now a inventoryxitem table, abitlity to really code your own game in overriding classes & game mechanic (cf Storm-D2 http://www.dolserver.net/storm/d2/ ), all classes support, security fixes, rewritten parts...

You can also notice the website, who survived and growth over migrations, and the tools we are providing to the community, like the model showroom http://www.dolserver.net/models/list.php , the DOL Store http://www.zazzle.com/dolserver , look at the Project tab

Welcome back !

[Argo]

Married to a gorgeous lady...... Whatelse can a man wish for Welcome back to DOL

kind regards
Argo

[Horizon]

Welcome back

[IStandAloneToo]

ISAT down!

Good to see you again old buddy, how have things been?

Haha, good to see you Dinberg. I definitely have missed speaking to you . Things have been really good. Learned a lot about myself over the last few years. One thing I learned is that I'm not a good relational leader, (e.g. the head of DoL). In almost all software firms there are developers and then a dev manager. The dev manager's role is to ensure that his subordinates have everything they need and are working productively. This is not a strong suit of mine. Luckily, there's another role I can play. At work, I am on the path to become the lead architect of our product. My mentor is the current architect (he's been there for 17+ years) and the knowledge I get from him is astounding, encouraging even. That's the role I'm excited to play for our product. I enjoy rewriting large portions of outdated code and creating frameworks for other teams to consume.

I have been looking through the code and it's great to see that much of my 4+ year old code is still around and alive (the pet-brain rewrite, for example). I'm not sure how much I am going to write but I feel good and motivated. I'm hoping that I can provide knowledge services to the community like I used to do . It's also good to see that some of the team changes that I made are still around. Makes me feel like my time here wasn't a complete waste .

Yes, tons of things still todo. All in all, we quietly go to a better codebase, along side with better tools. DOL is more modular, and if you are interested, there are no support for new siege stuff things: the tent, ladder, and even rams, trebuchets... would need a decent implementation through a dedicated framework.

Hi Graveen! You were always one of my favorite people . You have perked my interest with the siege stuff. Is it simply not implemented or does it also need db/packet work too? I haven't peeked at it, hopefully I can get to that today.

My goodness. Welcome back!

Sup Tola

*!*Ho My God*!*
my old boss, with who i basically learnt C#,
i hope seriously you remember me, from Eden server, big time
and.. ho.. i'm getting married 1rst June too, with the most perfect woman in the world to me
i'm actually working in Monaco in pure .NET, thanks to dol prolly, so everything changed for me too

Hi Darwin! Of course I remember you . I will give your offer some thought. Most of my work is going to be in the DoL core. I enjoy creating work that everyone can enjoy and use. But, I may have a little room to script a bit, hehe. I got married last June 4th - wassup. Although, marriage has been the most challenging thing I have ever done. Learning to control rage and learning to constant pray have been the greatest benefits. It has gotten much better over the year and we can at least stand each other right now .

To everyone else, thanks for the welcome back! I wonder if Etaew will say hi... hmmm... Is he still cranky? :ducks:

[Overdriven]

Sup ISAT, long time no see.

[Etaew]

Hi IStandAloneToo, we all drift and return at some point, there's always a place for contributors time permitting.

I am suprised about how long the project has survived, there aren't many that can do that, certainly from the emulator scene.

The DOL framework is flexible, I would like to see a more modular design so we could plug and play a few other games, or use things like DB layers elsewhere.

There are plenty of tasks on the Project Tracker - http://www.dolserver.net/storm/tracker/

Theres also an extensive missing features list: http://www.dolserver.net/viewtopic.php?f=47&t=19226

[Etaew]

Bump, I've also moved this to the Blog forum.