Wednesday 25 August 2010

Technical Problems


The new patch this morning was rather large, though it didn't seem to accomplish much. When starting the game after getting the "update completed" all-clear, though, a little window would come up, saying "Update completed. Update is completed. Please, restart game." All one could do was press the "OK" - and after three or four goes, the newer computer did manage to get going. However, the older computer continued to give this message, even after the computer itself had been restarted. I was advised to try "flushing the DNS", which is a "command prompt" line, and easy enough to do, but that didn't help. Neither did further restarts, or switching off the modem for a while - which was a shame, as that meant that MistressDomino, who I'd put in merchant mode on Auzura-5, had to come offline.

I was doing "the high-tech version of thumping the computer case violently", as I termed it in the shoutbox, "ie a System Restore", when gamesage Irene_tas said that it looked as if I would have to do a complete new installation of the game, probably - though someone else said that they had already tried that three times. But as the System Restore was already going, I continued with it...and once my settings had been backdated to yesterday, I tried to start Last Chaos again. As before, the usual launcher came up, and then, when "start" was clicked, vanished. The suspense was terrible, but finally instead of the irritating little error window, the full-size LC window started to load. The log-in background, usually a view of Mondshine apparently, was a bit strange, but MistressDomino was able to log back in, and continue her sales campaign.

MistressDomino had sold her moonstone boxes before her break, as well as her strong medicines, and now she sold her moonstones quickly, so it looks as if I need to revise my prices for that sort of thing. Meanwhile, RedRackham had headed for the fifth floor of Maargadum Jail, and was busy pet-levelling his drake. MistressDomino sold three Runes of Protection 2, and then a hundred skill point boosters.

With all that to keep me busy, there had been no time for my characters to put in their "attendance allowance" half hours - so it was kind of handy that the new Patch Notes reveal that the system had been removed. "
We have removed the system for now but that does not mean it will be gone forever. Let us know if you really miss it!
" Apart from that, some weapon enhancement names have been changed, to make them a bit more relevant, and new characters get some more early quests, and "Last Chaos Newbie" above their heads for the first seven days.

My plan for the afternoon was to get MistressDomina and Kaerella down to the anubis spear men in the Tomb of Theos on Auzura-5 for the "dungeon time" hour of two to three, but alas it wasn't to be. Kaerella crashed, with the usual "send error report?" pop-up, when we were a few yards into the screaming zombies. She logged back in - and crashed again. In all she crashed five times, so, given that there have been other crashes down there in recent weeks, it was time to reinstall the game on the older computer. That took most of the afternoon, so MistressDomina was fighting, just at the start against the screaming zombies, at a bit less than full speed.

The game was downloaded, uninstalled, and installed again, and then patching it to get it back up to date took a further 26 minutes. After which - yes, you've probably guessed it, we were back to the
"Update completed. Update is completed. Please, restart game." message. Numerous attempts to get the game's launcher to actually launch the game failed, and a restart didn't help either, so the next stage was another System Restore to yesterday's checkpoint...which again took ages. And it came with the caveat that various files had had to be renamed - which entirely ruined the Last Chaos files, with probably hundreds of the properly named files just about empty, and the correct stuff, presumably, in files with a "(2)" on the end

MistressDomina's session added exactly 4.00% experience, along with 7 skill points and 1568 pet points, so that was something, but it was annoying to be limited to the single computer.

So, a further uninstallation and reinstalling was then called for, which again took quite a while, as did the patching...but all it got me was the same moronic "
Update completed. Update is completed. Please, restart game.
"

The guild chat channel for Twisted seemed pretty busy, but it was mainly chat between people I'd never met and didn't know, using either real names or nicknames rather than the character names, so it tended to go over my head. I did enquire what sort of time there might be any monster combo type stuff done, but didn't really get anywhere with that approach. Oh well, it's difficult as a newbie to get into the swing of things, but I'll continue to try - maybe some members or other in the guild will try too.

For want of anything better to do, MistressDomina went back to the Tomb of Theos for the usual shorter Wednesday evening session, and just fought the screaming zombies, helping out whenever anyone got chased down the corridor. Ratel did come online, and tried to cheer me up a bit, but he couldn't really work me into the guild chat, and there wasn't enough time left for it to be worth him coming and joining MD.

Still, MistressDomino did manage to add another 3.40%, 7 skill points, and 2972 pet points before the usual early Wednesday evening log-out. There was double pet experience running, so it was a pity that RedRackham wasn't able to take advantage of that later.

All in all, a bit of a frustrating day. Maybe the overnight downtime will be enough to get the older computer's fresh install running...if not, well, I'm running a little short of ideas.

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