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Development Update 6/23 In FAQ-form, the weekly update! Q.What was going on with the avatars? A. Short answer: our CDN changed some defaults without telling us, and it prevented anyone from seeing new avatars A. Long answer: our servers never serve an avatar to you directly. Instead, we use what is called a CDN (content distribution network), which is basically another company that owns servers around the world for the sole purpose of serving up other people's content. Whenever you see an "s.gaiaonline.com" or "w.cdn.gaiaonline.com", you're actually talking to another company's servers. Normally, this is both good and invisible for the users -- it is less load on our servers, and the CDN servers should be closer and faster to you. The CDN changed some settings that made it ignore the query string, which is that string at the end of the URL that comes after the question mark. We use the query string for versioning... which means that your avatar would be myavatar.jpg?v=123, and after you change it the new version is myavatar.jpg?v=124. Since the CDN started ignoring query strings, it meant that the new versions of avatars weren't being served up to users. We'd send out a web page that referred to myavatar.jpg?v=124... and the browser would ask the CDN for it... and the CDN would instead serve up myavatar.jpg?v=123, saying, "Hey! This is just as good!", totally ignoring the fact that it didn't have all the changes that you just did. So, we (and by we I mean our crackin' IT department, not me) got on the phone with the CDN and got the settings set back to the way they were. Q. Explain Faunzy Flute A. Faunzy is our first experiment with so called "active items" -- items that bring an aspect of game play to items. It's a very simplistic game, but it's easier to try and iron out issues with something simple. The thing that was confusing to users, I think, was that we really didn't explain exactly how it worked, and this was made first by the fact that a) this was our first such object, and b) it was being done before item norm, which made it about twice as difficult as it otherwise would have been. So, the bottom line: you need to equip Faunzy for the first time to get yourself on the notification list. When you equip a particular one for the first time, you get a PM, and then you'll get a PM every 24 hours as long as you continue to equip the item. Now, there were tons of bugs or loopholes that weren't covered. For example: a flute could be used more than once each 24 hours as long as the same person didn't try to use the same flute. So that opened up the possiblity of ten people (or, more likely, mules) rotating ten flutes every day. Well, we closed that hole pretty quickly, and there were others. I think active items are pretty cool, and when item norm ships there are definitely cool things that we can do, but we'll try to have a smoother launch next time. Q. That darn flute will play a dirge on the economy! A. Our staff economist looked at this. You'll note that the sellback values for the first items are extraordinarily low. Some people will luck it out, but it will be a very small percentage... Q. What games are you playing? Just finished up Mass Effect and Ninja Gaiden II. Q. What are the tips to beating Ninja Gaiden II? Unlike the first Ninja Gaiden, which was one of the most extraordinarily hard games ever made, Ninja Gaiden II is almost a cakewalk -- there were only one or two times when I was tempted to throw the controller through the television. The 30-second-guide to beating Ninja Gaiden II: - Scythe ftw - Flying Swallow, Flying Swallow, Flying Swallow Yup, that's pretty much it... but it's a fun diversion nonetheless. Q. Where the heck are our inventory fixes!? A. Yes, I have to apologize for this. QA has been extraordinarily backed up with arenas and some other projects which I cannot name, so they haven't had the time to try and finish up testing on the paged inventory. We will be trying to get this out next week -- we know that it's a huge, huge issue. Q. Are you guys going to do trophies for fishing ever!? A. Oh yah. First step was to put in CAPTCHA to stop the bots. This will a) make the trophies meaningful, and b) also improve the market price for fish, since only humans will be fishing. Second step is for our crack team of mods to tirelessly go through previous months and remove the bots. They're working on it, and we hope to award trophies, but it won't necessarily be soon -- they estimated at least three weeks of work (on top of their other work) before they'd be able to declare winners for the trophies. Q. What's going on with the e-mail limits? A. Yah, we're still discussing this. You'll get warning before we shrink down the mailbox sizes, trust me. 100 or 200 e-mails are the figures being bandied about. Q. What's coming up? A. Tons! - photobucket in profiles is now fixed - ditto with "add friends" in profiles - improving towns so you get failed connections less often - better searching mechanism for the site - tweaks here and there to improve performance - maybe some inventory changes - maybe some arranger fixes - arenas and item norm out in early July - updating the look and feel of the arranger pages

Posted by: Panagrammic Sun Jun 29, 2008 @ 02:36am

Read my journal!

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Ginger Flare
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Commented on: Sun Jun 29, 2008 @ 03:09am


	So you DO have to keep the flute equipped. That's kind of a bummer emo It's not the most versatile of items, oh well. That's what mules are for. :'3 They can be ugly, it doesn't matter. XD I can't wait for the inventory fixes, even though they don't affect me. Though, I hope it won't really change up my normal routine. I suppose we'll see how it goes.

Commented on: Sun Jun 29, 2008 @ 03:44am


	Oh this CDN thing explains why gaia pages take so long to load and I see a s.gaiaonline.com or something.cdn.gaiaonline.com in the corner!!

Blaze-kun
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pantherwisdom
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Commented on: Sun Jun 29, 2008 @ 03:54am


	Ummm.... I still have a question. The flute puts out items that say they are common ingredients for item recipes. Does this mean it's actually a little piece of the MMO?

Commented on: Sun Jun 29, 2008 @ 04:07am


	Yay. Journal post <3 <3 <3 you know what? I was able to see when the avis changed. I would point out to people their avi looked different and they got spooked. They said even they couldn't see the changes they did and it's odd because I was able to. I took a couple screen caps. My friend Cynic. I pointed out he looked like another friend with his new avi and, as you can see, he was surprised I could see the changes when he couldn't. The other screen shot was the change went through my avi while I was pming a friend. I asked the friend if she liked the little plant at my feet and she was wondering if I was trying to trick her. So I took a screen cap of my avi to prove there was a plant. It's not there now. And I noticed people can see their changed avis now.

PinkMeansEvil
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France Hopper
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Commented on: Sun Jun 29, 2008 @ 04:47am


	Heh FAQ style. So inventories are delayed a bit. No problem... yet. 100-200 PMs seems reasonable. Nice to hear it's in the 100s at least. Towns patches, awesome. Is that also going to fix that weird error that pops up when you collect gold? The gold: -3 User not... Better search? Finally. Although it's not too bad right now. Sounds like a lot of inventory/arranger patches are going out. Is it for battle or just because they're needed? Nice to see the new areas go out next monthish. Just started trying them out. But now a few questions: 1) Didn't you say a while back a header change was going out? Did that ever happen? 2) Also, what about that new UI? 3) Those captchas updates? How are they coming along? 4) And will the "remember me" button on the home page ever really "remember me" again? That seems to be broken now sad Whoa. A Captcha with a number. That's new.

Commented on: Sun Jun 29, 2008 @ 05:00am


	SCYTHE FTW INDEED. Yeah, it is a lot easier this go around, although I still swear at it. A LOT. Those assholes with the exploding shurikens...argh. Just argh. Still, nothing has come close to being as frustrating as the fight with Alma from NG1, which is the standard of difficulty I tend to hold game stuff up against now. I'm jammed up at the second fight with Zedonius right now though...those damned fire turtles and their "LOL NUCLEAR DEATH" BS drained me of all my healing items, and it auto-saved once I started the fight so I can't go back to get more. I'll get it eventually, it's just gonna take a lot of attempts and a lot of profanity.

Gamine
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Bria_Teragram
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Commented on: Sun Jun 29, 2008 @ 05:02am


	Good to hear that trophies from previous months are coming... eventually xD I just hope that a few more bugs get worked out of fishing. IE requires constant clearing of the cache to see the background images in Bassken and Gambino. Durem seems to work just fine, however the avatars in Durem are blurry unless you change it to low quality. I hope future bot killing methods will be added to fishing besides Captcha. I've already seen and reported a few bots in the last few days. And considering how fast some of these guys can fish, I expect that it will just take a few people with several accounts to make the boards bot filled again. All they have to do is just sit there and enter the words while the computer does the rest. emo

Commented on: Sun Jun 29, 2008 @ 05:46am


	yaaaay fishing trophieeees xd I feel for the people who have to sift through all that "pond scum" though ;[

Zanam Djinn
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Chocobo Princess
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Commented on: Sun Jun 29, 2008 @ 07:22am


	Yay for CDN fixing! Does this mean that users in the Phillippines can now or soon will see avatars correctly? They are usually on when I am, and I feel so bad for them, seeing an avatar-less Gaia. crying The flute seems fun. I hope the designers weren't too taken aback by all the hubbub; Q&A did its best to parry questions about the item from the limited text we had available and whatever common sense and prior experience of Gaia were lying around. sweatdrop Hooray for all the hard work dredging through the Fishing stuff. Kudos to all who help with that; it seems an enormous undertaking, but a necessary one if the trophies are to be meaningful. I am not a fisher, but I have friends who are, and they are pretty excited about the possibility of humans-only Fishing. blaugh Thanks for making it so! As always, I'm amazed at how much you've got going on. eek Thanks for the journal update and for all the hard work you and your department do for Gaia! heart

Commented on: Sun Jun 29, 2008 @ 07:29am


	Glad to hear that the search is being upgraded. I would love to be able to search posts, (specific to an individual and broad) and be able to choose to have it forum specific. Absolutely adore the flute. Can't wait to see more items like this. Captcha for this post: old zelda ^_^

pirhan
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Cougar_The_Shell_Bullet
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Commented on: Sun Jun 29, 2008 @ 07:34am


	That's definitely some good news. I was beginning to think I'd die of old age before I saw trophies finally released again. Gaia finally gives me something to look forward to. 3nodding Can't wait. whee

Commented on: Sun Jun 29, 2008 @ 10:54am


	Better searching? Does this mean I can see more than the first 11 users when searching for accounts? Update to Arranger? Hopefully we can see some WIP shots from you next journal entry. o: Captcha: danger robinson XD

Kiyoske Dante
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Cleocatra
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Commented on: Sun Jun 29, 2008 @ 11:10am


	I am interested in the arranger fixes.

Commented on: Sun Jun 29, 2008 @ 12:21pm


	Woo, inventory fixes! x]

Emesque
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Q Cumba FX
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Commented on: Sun Jun 29, 2008 @ 02:32pm


	Reading your journal always fills me with happiness :'D

Commented on: Sun Jun 29, 2008 @ 07:23pm


	I'm glad inventory and arranger updates are in the near future. I can't see my 1000+ inventory all at once and can't access my storage box because it really messes up my computer. Huzzah! Question, however. On Firefox 3, the avatar during customization and viewing your inventory becomes very foggy. Anyway to fix that?

PQ and Retrostacja
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Smaddy
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Commented on: Sun Jun 29, 2008 @ 09:12pm


	Good news! I think the Faunzy item is pretty neat, and most of the items that come from it are steadily deflating to an affordable range. Faun legs FTW! I like the fact that there is a sellback amount for the Faunzy items. Have you (or whoever's in charge of whichever project) considered creating sell-back amounts for other items? A great example is the Bullseye Shirt. I would settle for it selling for 1-5g, just to be able to get rid of extras of it. Same thing with the trade-in items, like paper hats, bouquets, and inks. Tattoo's can be re-sold back to the store, so why not other things? Selling those for 1g would also be nice, just to be able to get rid of them somehow. Obviously there should not be a sell-back for one-time or limited items, like MC's, Event Items, etc. (CAPTCHA says, "no tricks". Uh oh! xd )

Commented on: Sun Jun 29, 2008 @ 09:44pm


	[♦] [♥] [♦] ▬ ▬ ▬ ▬ ▬ So wonderful all the updating and fixes going on,I love it <3.I never was around whenever that CDN problem was going on,or it just never affected me.I like the flute,I think it's nifty,however it seems those horns will end up being used for the Battle System when it comes out.Hopefully I can acquire some more flutes and reap the benefits later. I do have a point of interest that needs to be brought up,what seems to be going on with the ad removal for donating? Usually when anyone does that,all ads get removed and replaced with stuff for Gaia,but it hasn't for me and a some other people I have spoken with.I hope that gets resolved soon. I wish I had a PS3 and Xbox 360 to play those games on D: . Yes yes,Item Norm is coming eventually,still just hoping it enables alot of people to put more stuff back in their inventories and for the customizer to work properly.For the record though,we do no need pagination in anything if it's not going to load fast or more items.I am looking forward to the inventory and arranger fixes. Also,hooray for fishing!Good to hear that Captcha will be added and the rest of the "pond scum" will be getting cleaned out. ▬ ▬ ▬ ▬ ▬ [♥] [♦] [♥]

Makoto_Gin
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Pokariii
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Commented on: Mon Jun 30, 2008 @ 12:47am


	man, I had the chance to post first but I had nothing to say xD I'm glad the avatar thing was fixed, I didn't mind that much, I thought it was kind of funny, since one person had 3 different looking avatars in the same thread. xD But, a lot of the time I couldn't see any avatar at all. I'm glad it's fixed now~ captcha : department Angel

Commented on: Mon Jun 30, 2008 @ 12:47am


	Granny-Hugs for ya! You always make things clear for me. I'd like to trade in some paper combovers for a paper boat/pirate hat, or something . . . The flute idea is yet another Gaian "whoa!" By the way, who do I discuss the wrong 'correct' answer on our Driver's Licenses? Hands should be held at 4 and 8 . . . due to airbags.

GrannyD
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Erebus Haze
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Commented on: Mon Jun 30, 2008 @ 12:53am


	Great; item arranger fixes! We will finally be able to store Game Items, like it was suggested here?

Commented on: Mon Jun 30, 2008 @ 03:40am


	All I can say is think you! this really clears some things up! smile

Lord Burandon
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CioccoLatte
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Commented on: Tue Jul 01, 2008 @ 12:43am


	Yey! I can finally see avatars again without changing the DNS server addresses! heart It must be due to this recent CDN setting. Is this going to be a permanent thing?

Commented on: Tue Jul 01, 2008 @ 02:47am


	Hey remember me works again too! I wonder if a patch when out or if it was my browser update that did it. If it was you guys, thanks a million!

France Hopper
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Bunai
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Commented on: Tue Jul 01, 2008 @ 03:51am


	i like Gaia Google thingie gonna be typing random words just to see what comes up rofl

Commented on: Tue Jul 01, 2008 @ 02:36pm


	So thats what the CDN is, I always see that when I go anywhere on here thats flash based. I just never thought about looking it up. I also do like the Captchas, I don't play fish much but when I run into them I usually get a funny one. Captcha: Today Knight

Tonedefff
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Kibrika
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Commented on: Tue Jul 01, 2008 @ 04:13pm


	I was also wandering about the descriptions of items from Faunzys Flute. When will we find out what are they about?

Commented on: Wed Jul 02, 2008 @ 03:29pm


	Whoa I noticed something big on login, all the ADs were gone! They were replaced with Gaia ADs and I didn't even buy an MC. Is this normal now or did I get a woops? Please say normal smile If it is, endless thanks. EDIT: I see that was temporary....

France Hopper
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Necromacide
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Commented on: Wed Jul 02, 2008 @ 09:46pm


	I just thought, wouldn't it be cool to have an offline version of gaia online? So, something like... umm, I don't know... Maybe a program that lets you equip the items you own on gaia, sort of like a tektek program for users to carry with them on their USB stick... So I could mess around my gaia stuff during class, when our teachers have the internet shut off or something... Just an idea smile And I have to agree with whatever that person's name was, who said that it would be nice to just be able to sell those bullseye shirts back to the store. They're really killing me. sad

Commented on: Thu Jul 03, 2008 @ 02:10am


	I just sell those shirts in the mp for like 5 gold. I'll settle for 1 even, just to get rid of them. Also, just saw the item norm announcement... AWESOME! I'll be asleep when I gets rolled out so no worries about downtime. Velasquez Bennett - wow long Captcha.

France Hopper
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MisticalAir
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Commented on: Sat Jul 12, 2008 @ 06:54pm


	cool smile

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