BlizzardMU Discussions: S6EP3 vs EX702+ NEW Server Files and More

Quite some many people messaged me in the past few months about future plans and since the summer is gone now it's time to bring this baby back to life.

As most of you already know our (mostly flamers), current developer team Titans Tech is dead and inactive for about an year or more so there won't be any future fixex for the current bugs (premium files are based on closed source so only the developers can fix the hardcoded bugs) even though none of them is critical and we got quite a clean version.

In the past few months I've been trying to decide on choosing a new team of developers, mostly between MuEngine and IGCN. As you should know already, there is no such thing as bugless version and all server files being free or premium, got bugs. Some of them get fixed by time while others will never get fixed simple because this is an emulated version of the official server which by the way, it also has plenty of bugs just like any other mmorpg (wow, lineage, metin, etc).


I had to take into consideration everything starting from the stability, bugs, features, antihack, updates timeframe and support. Both teams got their good and bad parts as it follows:

- a lots of people complaining about MuEngine support while IGCN's support is awsome, but except moments such as license change (while moving on a new dedicated server or hdd failure and getting replaced with a new one), we simply don't need any support. We know how to setup everything and we are not new in hosting mu servers, being online for more than 8 years.

- MuEngine's S6EP3 version is know for being the most stable and bugless version (yes, there are still couple of bugs left but none of them is critical or important) among all premium server files while replicating GMO feeling and features at it's finest. IGCN gets close but it lacks a lot of the GMO feeling and according to some players on a big spanish server seems that it has quite a lot of bugs.

- When it comes to ex702+, IGCN was pretty much the leader although stability is not that great as I discussed with some customers and there is a crash every 3-5 days or so which in my opinion is not that promising but in terms of content they are good even though I've been reading reviews from players that they have quite few bugs and some of them are nasty. MuEngine was pretty much inactive with ex702+ until few months ago BUT since then they added lots of new updates and fixed a ton of things. Their new version is really stable trying to keep their reputation and according to some big mu servers based on non-reset features there are just a few bugs and none of them are critical for this type of server (non-rr) especially since I'm sure that the developer will get all fixed pretty soon. So MuEngine's ex702+ version is actually quite clean and no important bugs.

- IGCN has more developers like 3 or so but it looks like none of them ever played GMO to know everything about a non-rr server while MuEngine owner develops alone (therefore the slow support on his side) but the guy knows his stuff and he has plenty of experience with the GMO feeling especially since he is also conding for the official PH server.

- Updates interval are pretty much simillar except that IGCN claims to fix criticals bugs such as exploits, nasty crashes really fast within few days while MuEngine is quite slow BUT the advantage is that they got no such exploits, crashes and critical errors.

- In terms of antihack, MuEngine its way better as IGCN has a weak server side protection and in the past they had some really critical exploits to, but they got fixed eventually although there might still be some private exploits for their server files while MuEngine has both MuGuard and heartbeat system (server side protection). There is no 100% protection but atleast its way better than IGCN's.

- When it comes to features we just have to decide over some facts. MuEngine has a lot of customisable content and it has some really awsome features and plenty automated events (pvp event, scavenger hunt, hide and seek, race event, lottery, gamble event, scramble words event, kill the gm and more) while IGCN has just one custom event called LastManStanding, a pvp event that was actually copied from MuEngine since they were the first who introduced this and thats pretty much it, no other custom entertaining events. IGCN is known for the ability of customisations mostly for high exp servers although I took a look on their files and its not that impressive as I thought it would be. It is said that IGCN is usually for those people who want to make fast cash out of their mu server and mainly for fast experience servers and BlizzardMu is none of that.

- IGCN costs $500 and $50 per month / (+fees) while MuEngine $400 and $30-$40 per month / (+fees) (Editors, Managers, Launchers, Antihack which gets close to $300-$500 as well) and some extra tweaking for individual clients.

- We are also going to buy a new website with plenty of new features and I am already discussing the new design which will be stunning once it gets implemented as a template into the new website engine. That should cost us an extra $500 - $1000.

- We will also have a separate forum this time with an unique theme and everything should cost around $300-$400


That being said, after talking with the developers of both teams I decided to go for the ultimate package of MuEngine since they are close to the GMO style, have a lot more features and events, less bugs and stability is the best.
The good part is that I have my own agreement so things will be somehow better for us in terms of developing By the way I have already bought the files.

Now the most important thing is the versions that we are going to use with these files. In the previous thread opened by some of our player, everyone was asking for Season 6 Episode 3. I love this version myself and I quite dislike the ex702 new interface and some other aspects. The only thing I like about ex702 is those new features such as pentagram and the new wings, thats all.

Another aspect that I want to discuss is the server/domain name. I am planning to use the same name for all our MU servers instead of separate names since it's easier to handle and more organized at the same way so I want some opinion on the name change here. Currently our main muonline domain names are blizzardmu.com , diablomu.com, eternalmu.com and worldofmuonline.com. I was thinking on using the eternalmu.com domain name from now on since it's quite catchy and represents the eternity of our gaming network and simply have multiple servers as have now (10x , 100x, 1000x, etc) or I am free to some suggestions about new domain names but make sure that the domain name is free and available by checking this website http://www.godaddy.com/. Do not worry, our current domain names will still be kept for few more years and will redirect to the new domain name.

I will need some opinions on these two important things: version and domain name change (diablomu and eternalmu players are welcomed to state their opinion for the name change only, not for the version)


Season6 Episode3 or ex702+ ?

New server/domain name change to eternalmu.com ? Have any other name suggestions ? (all current domains will point to a single one and all our multiple servers 10x, 100x, etc will remain under a single name)

Reply in this thread with your answer and don't forget to give an argument about your choice.


Call all your friends and players that are waiting for us to make a move.


As a side note please be aware that this will take some time and we will have a closed and an open beta somewhere at the end of this month so there is no rush. For now we will stick to the discussions.

 

I want to use a single domain name for all the servers and eternalmu.com seems more appropiate between the ones that we currently own (or as I said, I m opened to suggestions). As for the history, I've mentioned that the blizzardmu.com domain will redirect to the new one anyway and on the redirect page, the changes will be mentioned anyway.

 

[MENTION=21602]Digimortal[/MENTION] Yea, just that I'm not decided on the name yet


PS: It's funny how many copycat 10x non-reset servers are launched these days after BlizzardMu's success. Too bad they fail so hard on the GMO feeling and looks like the admins don't have any idea on what they are doing.


@Gavileitor, most servers are based on fast experience and they use the new version because they fail bad on configurating the older versions that require some more knowledge. I know servers with 0.97d and up to S3 that got tons of players so it's not just about the version but also about the people behind the server. Lots of servers fail with the new version just as much as others fail by using older ones.

 

For the domain name part ... I'm opened to suggestions. New domains can be bought anytime as long as they are available and names are great.
Also, BlizzardMu will redirect to the new domain name and in the future it may be used for a separate mu community. (like extending to extra dedicated servers in the US instead of EU, etc)

EternalMu was registered by me back in 2005 but decided to use a different name and I've parked it for a couple of years and registered it again last year http://prntscr.com/4jmqpz


PS: S6EP3 is not nostalgic. 0.97x - Season 2 versions are ...

 

How about sticking to thread subject. I am more interested into opinions on the questions that I have asked into the first post.
We have two betas after the decision and plenty of time.

 

Arguments for S6 or S7 ?

 

We are not bounded to one version. We can use both S6EP3 or Ex702+ and since when we are talking about "profitable" when it comes to this community? The servers are paid upfront for a couple of years so a longer beta won't be a problem. Since I have some of my personal projects running one and another big one starting pretty soon my idea was to run the beta for a month or so which should be good enough and people would know about the re-opining as well.

I think the domain name that suits us better would be Eternal Mu as we started our very first server (mudomination + the counter strike server) in 2005 so thats actually 10 years of existance (a year later, in 2006, we created a community by introducing new games)

PS: When you want the feeling of something new you start playing new games or test out the waters with those lame 99999x servers which claim to get the latest season but ofc they don't.


PS2: Gavileitor, you're not a real mu lover thats why you won't understand what ajemna was trying to say. I personally would choose the 0.97d version over any new season. The only reason why we havent created such server is the lack of coding when it comes to that which has to be huge in order to add a fine anticheat, add a lot of server configuration options, etc. I know a jamaican server that has 1000+ online using 0.97 but it's runned by 4 guys and two of them are coding gurus when it comes to mu. Ofc they got so many players by being a nationl servers and the lack of good external connection to servers hosted into another country so players are pretty much bounded to play there.