Utopia Blog - August 19th

[Bishop]

One more thing that needs urgent fixing is the performance of the new code. Waiting 5+ secs for the kingdom page to load is totally and completely unacceptable. If they go live with loadtimes like this all but the hardcore players will quit.

Finally, you will find that the server is not very fast right now. This is because (a) it is running in debug mode, which slows it down, and (b) we have not yet done any performance analysis or optimization. Given a bit of time it will be ultra fast to use.

^^ not sure if you recieved that mail or not

Chris121: url for the alpha is www.utopia-game.com

[Chris121]

Thanks Bishop.

Ok I can login now no problems, though still didn't get the email (FYI Sean+Brian it would have gone to my hotmail email and didn't go to junk - not that I mind now).

Next question - where is the Alpha forum please? (I believe there is one?).

[Mourhelm]

Alpha forum

It is currently password protected, but people within the alpha should know it (I PMed most of them). Ask around or send me an in-game PM.

There is also an IRC channel on the irc.utonet.org server #alpha.

[Yadda9To5]

^^ not sure if you recieved that mail or not
[cut]

Fair enough, then here's a question for next weeks blog:
Do you expect to be able to reduce loadtimes to 1/20th of what they are now? Because unless you're running a profiler on every page and neglected to put indexes in smart places in the database, I think improving performance will be a though nut to crack (of course there always is the caching route, and we'll get things like in the old code where you have to message a prov to get him updated ;) thinking about it, that would have its charms).

[Luth]

I have also requested to be involved in the Alpha, and have received no response, and cannot login.

[allonons]

Ya take your alpha testing and shove it up your ying yang no longer interested!

[Safri]

hmm. I have requested a testing account (twice now - once before they said they have now invited everyone, and once after) and haven't had an email.

I assume that if I can login to the alpha it'll be from the game portal and a new box will show or something? In which case i still can't test :(

I did the same, and just registered using the email I sent them, and it let me create an account

[Sweetiepie]

S and B, glad you have clarified about the alliances. You treated it lightly, but the FUD was entirely of your own making. We've been so disappointed by OMAC's misreading of the community so far (eg Dylan's 'News that all Utopians will LOVE to hear, fantastic NEW UK!') plus repeated screw ups at age changes and starts, that the overall credibility is very low.
My suggestion - Don't start any FUD by indulging in blue sky thinking out loud :)

[Luth]

safri, i tried that, didn't work.

[DHaran]

Alpha forum

It is currently password protected, but people within the alpha should know it (I PMed most of them). Ask around or send me an in-game PM.

There is also an IRC channel on the irc.utonet.org server #alpha.

How about you stop hiding your forum nick so people can contact you here without wondering if you are online.