....Aaaand up

Hopefully, everything is up and running and it will remain so.

Remember, you need to run Updater even if there is no changelog whatsoever. Client exe needs to be updated.

www.fonline2238.net

Server waking up

We've finally managed to overcome technical problems. Without diving into details, basically - HDD had given up the ghost. We (I mean, lazy French technicians squad) needed to replace it in the middle of Christmas...

But now we're there again, for now only forum + wiki, but FOnline server is going up in a minutes.

And let's hope it won't happen again. Why should it? In the meantime, check the post beneath this one. And vote.

ModDB awards 2009 - Vote for FOnline

Traditionally, year's end is the time for ModDB to start their famous 'Mod of the Year' awards. This includes everything concerning the entertainment software released in the 2009 by non-corporate teams: mods, indie games, home-brewed additions and much, much more. Everyone can vote for their favourite piece of entertaining bytes, and we would like to use this opportunity to call our faithful community to join us over at our moddb profile and vote for FOnline: 2238.

The prizes provided for the best titles in 2009 may prove to be an additional motivation for any development team out there, including Cvet and Rotators. We thank you in advance for your support and wish all of us together to achieve something that we can be proud of.

Awards. Awards never change...

Problems with the new server

Yeah, as you guys could see already, we have some bigger troubles with the server once again. Not the greatest time for this, especially because it's christmas now and time is not available en mass. We hope to get the server running again as soon as possible, but we are very dependent of the support, and the support is a bit... yeah, slow... right now.

That's the status in the moment.

New server, new forum

Our new server IP is 94.23.237.127, port as usual 2238.

We have set up new domain as well, altogether with our new forum - visit http://www.fonline2238.net/forum/

Thanks to everyone for their donations - moving to a new server and starting our new forum would be impossible without those.

New FOnline: 2238 Forums

A small announcement beside all the other stuff: We have been working on a new forum now for some time, and now we are ready to release it. The NMA forum will still be open for a while, but soon locked, when we think it's the right time.

The new forum can be found here.

PS. Comments on blog are from now on disabled.

Update for client, but manually (Updater still bugged)

Since our updater is still buggy and we wait for it to be fixed by the FOnline engine developer, all we can do is to provide you the files which you will have to download and place into your client folder manually. The first mini-update for your client is here (direct link) or here (download page).

Back on old server

We are back on the old server:

IP: 94.103.87.42
Port: 2238

How to get the client working after wipe

Hello!

It's been a quite hectic wipe and we were forced to relocate to our backup host (213.170.70.111:2238). Many people have trouble getting the client to work.

If you follow these instructions it should work:

1. Run updater to grab factionXXX.dat files (with ip 94.103.86.46, port 4040)
2. Delete all cache files except default.cache
3. Download http://www.mediafire.com/?fefoztn1wrj which contains the new exe
4. Insert correct IP:Port into config tool (213.170.70.111:2238 right now)
5. Run the game.
6. Login (with default login and password, does not matter) and wait, then go to register

Last step is important, login first, then register. This is because the 2238 content is downloaded then.

Good luck!

The Wipe is upon us.

The wipe will be happening shortly after this post. A full changelog has been posted over on our NMA subforum.

We thank you for your patience, hopefully you will see just how much work has gone into this series of updates and that will act as some form of explanation for the delay.

Hope you enjoy the changes.

-Solar

Features being added. #2: Its the Economy, Stupid.

One of the areas of greatest change will be the economic system that operates in 2238. Hopefully the days of near infinite wealth flowing in from exploiting Caravan encounters will be over. Here are some of the aspects that will be changing on the update.


The first difference will be in the Caps. The game world will contain only a finite number of Caps and these will cycle around between Players, NPCs and the Banks. This allows us to control things such as Brahmin and Slave trading, Bank Interest and other Caps based methods of making money to ensure there is no run-away wealth generation from these.


The next difference comes in the Traders. They will no long restock with items, they will begin with inventories partially made up of items and partially made of Caps and from then on no further items will be created by them. Overtime these traders will fill up with player created items and we will have an economy truly driven by the players.

In addition to this Traders will have preferences for items that they specialize in, both in terms of how much they are willing to pay for an item and in deciding what kind of things they will keep in their inventory. It is better to sell your high tech items to Traders specializing in these, rather than your local Bartender, for example. This should help ensure that there is a valid market for each type of item and that Traders have appropriate inventories. (no more Doctors full of Mausers and Radios)



The final area that I will talk about today is how Encounters will change. Essentially, there will be no noticable change to the Encounters except weapons gained from there will be in a bad condition, which has been the case before. In addition to this all Encounters will be "paid" for out of an "Encounter Pot" which has a finite value that is refilled periodically. Therefore if it has been particularly busy and some Caravan Encounters have given up lots of resources, if the "Encounter Pot" is so small that it can not afford to fund any more expensive Encounters, only the cheaper type of Encounter will be available, until these can not be paid for in turn, after which only Encounters which have no equipment to be paid for will be avaialble (Encounters vs Animals, generally).

While Crafting/Trading for Crafted items will be the primary way of arming oneself, Encounters will still be a viable way of making money. Although they should never become the get rich quick features of the past months.


Hopefully this has enlightened you all a little on the direction the economy will be heading in post wipe 2238 :)

-Solar

Features being added. #1: New crafting items

Well, despite the apparent lack of updates in recent weeks, we have been working away behind the scenes getting several quite large updates to the game ready. I'm sure some of you may even have heard there's a wipe on the way (!) :P.

In the lead up to this great event we will be talking a little bit about some of the new features at different intervals and I thought I would get the ball rolling by posting up a few details about the new crafting system.


One difference comes in the way that raw materials are gathered, or more specifically the timeouts for this. Instead of each facility having a timeout, there will now be a personal timeout that can be seen in your PIPboy. These are generally longer than the old facility ones and are designed, both to give wealth at an acceptable rate and to allow lots of crafting-free time for players to go out into the world and interact with each other.

The other main difference is the amount of items that are craftable. As will be discussed in a later entry, Crafting will be the primary way for items to enter the game world and so Crafting has expanded to reflect this.

Some of the items will have alternative raw materials added at a later date (drugs, advanced armour etc), but for now we will stick with what we have already

Item List

Hopefully the next subject will focus a little more on the large changes to the game's systems, but allow this post to whet the appetite.

- Solar

The Wiki-Boy 2000

Time for a new and very short blog entry. This time we want to point your eyes to the Wiki-Boy 2000, a wiki about FOnline: 2238. It's still pretty empty right now, but thats the reason why we made this blog post. We would be very happy, if our players would contribute to it, because we (the dev-team) doesn't have very much time free for spending it on the wiki (but this doesn't mean that we don't watch it).

On another note, we want to post some more details about the upcoming game changes soon. Be prepared.

Comic Art Galore

Kick-started by other FOnline: 2238 related comics, one of our passionate players known by his forum nick as Ewgen Kosec decided to put his in-game impressions onto a blank bitmap background in a rather interesting artistic fashion. All we can say is: more, more!

The Orphans' Chronicles

Time to honor some community-work! User Cryofluid is posting every now and then new comics of the The Orphans' Chronicles (one of the ingame player-driven factions) on our sub-forum at NMA. It's pretty cool stuff, you should check it out.

Problems with updated client

Probably most of you have already experienced connectivity problems after the latest client update. The client update was not synchronised properly with the server update due to some technical reasons, which affected your connection to the server in the worst possible fashion - you have probably gotten the "The network reports your client is an incorrect version, please update the client."

Thanks to some of our helpful forum members (gali, He Man, Ca1n) who have kept the executable files from the previous client version, you can revert your executable from:

http://www29.zippyshare.com/v/68455088/file.html From gali
http://rapidshare.com/files/291998867/eXes.rar From He-Man
http://rapidshare.de/files/48508137/FOnline.rar.html From Ca1n

More info about the whole issue on the forum.

We will try to synchronise the updates as soon as possible, so you can keep playing after updating the client using the official updater.

Thank you for your understanding.

Old server back online

The old server is back online:

IP: 94.103.87.42
Port: 2238

By the way, thanks to all who donated some money!

New (temporary) server data

Important news for now, we have a new server address:

IP: 213.170.70.111
Port: 2238

Regretably, we had to move to a temporary server because of hosting issues. We will see for how long we stay on this server. The data has been transfered successfully, no characters are lost and world is also preserved as it was on the other server.

Prepare for lags and maybe often server downtimes. This server is just temporary and doesn't have much power.

Another info: The update tool will not work now. But you can grab the latest version of the faction003.dat here.

New big update

We've got a big update yesterday night and because it is very much, it will be posted here in full too:

FIXES:
- Attacking player that is in 'entering' mode should no longer initiate his combat mode.
- Fixed Hub-stuck-bug (hopefully).
- Many other map fixes and changes.
- Added guards to Frisco tanker.
- Added guards to Gecko Powerplant.
- Added more entry points to Gecko.
- Modoc, Mariposa, Gecko, etc. are bigger now on the borders.

(SMALL) FEATURES:
- It is possible now to buy brahmin caravan cars (Frisco, NCR).
- Brahmin caravans run on water. You can obtain water from water pipes in various towns. Just use empty waterbags on them.
- Disassembling weapons/armors (use your science, similar to how you'd use repair. Bonuses from tools apply.).
- You can now order your slaves, mercenaries to join the town garrison in any town that your faction controls. You can also dictate which laws should be enforced in this town, these laws apply to EVERYONE, even the controlling faction, and the guards won't hesitate to attack even the master. His loyalty lies with the town after joining the guard force.

CHANGES (WIP):
- Dog mercs are a bit stronger again.
- No timeouts for mining spots
- Added 'overweight' limit for gathering resources
- Each resource object acts separately
- Experimental visibility/sneak changes:
a) field of view (press Q to check it), affected by obstacles
b) opponent's sneak skill suffers penalty:
* -90 when directly looking at opponent
* -60 when looking from frontsides
* -30 when opponent is in backside area
* no penalty for 'behind' hexes
c) penalty: 1 point per 200 gram of equipment carried

- Eyeshots are automatically demoted to headshot if target is not in direct line with attacker
- Doubled jet initial effect time.
- Empty hypodermic needles shows after stimpak usage (50% chance).

RECOMMENDATIONS:
- Use updater to get faction002.dat!

VANILLA INHERITED CHANGES:
- Stealing timeout: 30 seconds, lockpick timeout: 2 minutes
- Fixed stealing experience values and dir modifiers
- Demolition expert bonus explosives damage (it's currently not connected to the demolition expert profession though)
- Chance when walking over the mine to avoid explosion: 50% unless you've got light step perk
- Pathfinder perk worldmap speed bonus (25% per level)
- Bonus yielding items such as toolboxes/first aid kits/doctor bags have to be equipped in active slot while using appropriate skill
- Defusing active explosives with traps skill

Remember: The activated FOV (Field of View) is just for testing purpose. It will be tweaked and adjusted and everything else in the next updates. Also we already found some bugs, like chopped trees that turn into caravan cars, etc. We are aware of this too and fix this with the next update(s).

And one important thing too: In case you missed it, we have a PayPal-donation button now on the right side of this blog. If you like FOnline (TLA or 2238), we would be very happy if you could donate some money for keeping the server running.

Amount:


1.00
2.00
3.00
4.00
5.00
10.00
15.00

Currency in:


Australian Dollar
USD
British Pound
Canadian Dollars
Czech Koruna
Danish Kroner
EUR
Hong Kong Dollars
Hungarian Forint
Japanese YEN
New Zealand Dollars
Norwegian Kroner
Polisg Zlotych
Singapore Dollars
Swedish Kronor
Swiss Francs

Powered by Online Quest.

Event: Treasure Hunt

Yeah, next event announcement (and the first one here, in fact). Like the one before (New Reno Fight Night) is this a kind of fun event because we need more variety in our lifes. Thats why we now make a ....

... Treasure Hunt!


What is this?
The Treasure Hunt is a kind of fun event. You are running around, trying to find NPCs, need to talk to them and run to the next, etc... so it's pretty easy in fact.

Where is it?
The event will start in the Hub and reaches over the whole worldmap. You will move from one location to the next, until you reach the final checkpoint. If you reached the final checkpoint, we are waiting there with beer and booze.

WHEN is it?
The event will be probably next saturday. The time is not set yet and also it is possible, that the event might move a bit when it comes to the starting time. It all depends on wether we can clean up the last unsure things or not. :P

What is the prize?
The first prize will be a shiny new... rusty old car. Additionally the wasteland surivival gear that will be not yet listed in detail. Also you get 10,000 caps!
The second prize gets only 10,000 caps and the third prize 5,000 caps.

How does it work?
Like written above, it is pretty simple: The start is in the Hub. From there you need to talk with a npc. He will tell you to what town you need to move next. There you have to find the next npc, talk to him and he tells you your next target, where you have to find the next npc, etc. The first one who enters the final checkpoint wins, then the second one, the third, etc.

Rules.
In fact, there are not much rules. The only thing that is 100% and for sure not allowed, is to use a car or camp npcs and shot other players there.

UPDATE:
Small update on this. I am sorry to say, but we need to move it into the future.
Reasons for this: We've got not enough time in the last few days to finish it. Also some of the GMs will not be available for the next time. It's not clear yet, when the next date for the event will be.

About red question marks

A lot people got problems with red question marks in several maps. This was a bug regarding new graphics, but is fixed now. You just need to use the Update Tool to get the new Faction001.dat - then everything should work again. The final patch needed so much time to do because we actually needed to find out first why it didn't worked before.

The situation is clear now and we know how to avoid this in future.

Also the last changes in total:

FIXES:
- A lot map fixes
- Guard script fixes
- Encounters items deterioration revisited
- Fixed geiger counter text messages
- Tracking roll fix:
--- trackerRoll < trackedRoll + 25: tracked gots message that he's followed
--- trackerRoll + 25 < trackedRoll: tracker looses track
- Ghostfarm production facilities fixed
- When you logout on the worldmap with your followers, they shouldn't disappear anymore.
- Production facilities buffer again (it was entirely different issue, should be fixed now)
- Follower corpses are removed now properly after 10 minutes
- TC reward containers should be openable even if someone deliberately locked them.
- Faction001.dat fixed. Use the update tool to update it.
- weakened timeout can be now ended using doctor skill.

(SMALL) FEATURES:
- Added new graphics
- Changed Broken Hills a bit
- Remove flagging in the specific location where the crime was commited based on time, 60 min+5 min*level currently.
- You can only sneak when not seen by other players. (You can enter sneak mode if seen by your teammates.)
- The primitive tool has now its own inventory image.
- The old shovel has now its own inventory image too.

CHANGES (WIP):
- Travelspeed increased on the worldmap.
- Only "good" drugs (stimpaks, radaways) are allowed to be used on others
- Timeouts aren't dropped when player is revived
- Default respawn time for NPCs which don't have it assigned is 10 minutes.
- Lowered the level of dog mercs.

New Update Tool released

Server has been updated again.

FIXES:
- Fixed breakage count of items in encounters
- A lot map fixes, just like always
- A lot script fixes, just like always²

(SMALL) FEATURES:
- Added a new quest in the north of the wasteland, by RoadWarrior!
- Tracking feature activated

This time you also need to download the new Update Tool. It is needed for easy updating of the client files. You can grab the tool here. Extract the archive into your FOnline client folder and run it.

PS. Update is NOT needed. This tool is for the future updates. And yes, 4040 is correct port.

Client Update #2

The client has been updated. In order to continue with playing, it is needed to download the new patch. Installation is simple as always: Download the file and copy everything into your FOnline Client folder.

The archive includes also the latest patch. So if you are new to FOnline: 2238, you don't need to download the last patch.

A changelog will follow soon.

Client Update #1 + Server wipe

For all who still don't know what happened: The server got a full-wipe this night due to a new database system. First it was just planned to wipe everything except the character accounts but well, most people 'required' a full wipe and this was ok too to us, especially because of a shattered economy from bugs and exploits.

With this update, we are also running with the latest engine version again. In the following a list of the actual changes:

FIXES:
- radiation/replication stat bug
- wandering critters shouldn't go too far away from their home positions
- Bags for mercs re-enabled
- Added fixed status to repair table quest.
- unlimited brahmin followers bug fix

CHANGES (WIP):
- player can now obtain many professions, but total level (sum of all acquired professions) can't be greater than 3.
- new encounter maps
- Traders get more money now
- Boosting Ammo produced by 3
- Players can see when someone is searching their pockets with steal (same check as guards)
- Dynamite and plastic explosives lowered on traders.
- various map updates

The most important of this update: You need to download a new *.dat file and copy this file into your FOnline client folder. You can download the file here. Put the faction001.dat file into your FOnline client folder and that's it. The file is only a few kb small, so it is really not a big deal. It is very important that this file is in your client folder or else you will see missing graphics in some maps.

Forum online

Just a small information: We got a subforum on NMA now. You can register there and give feedback, post ideas or discuss other stuff and so on and so on.

How to check server status?

Here's the web address where you can check the status of the FOnline: 2238, as well as the FOnline: The Life After server:

Server status

Just click on it and that's it. We hope this will be helpful to everyone.

FOnline: 2238 Manual available

It's done: a few minutes ago our manual for FOnline: 2238 has been finished and can be grabbed right away! Also a short Additional Notes file for printing is available. The manual is 63 pages blong (4,19mb) and includes practically everything. It was based mostly on the original Fallout / Fallout 2 manuals and adds all new FOnline informations.

You can grab the files here:
FOnline: 2238 Manual
FOnline: 2238 Additional Notes

How to get music in 2238

You cannot hear any music in the game? Then do the following:

Copy the /music/ folder from your Fallout 2 installation or CD and paste it in your FOnline Client /data/sound/ folder.

That's it. Now you should be able to hear music ingame.

Open Beta Test #3: the first 12 hours

Finally, the OBT3 has begun.

It arouse a massive interest for the game, resulting with numerous players downloading the client last night and trying to log in. This caused noticeable lags and ruined the game for some players who had less luck than the others - dying in random encounters was just one of the issues.

We are currently working on resolving them. The hardware seems to be quite overloaded, causing the abnormal lag peaks. This is due to the fact that some of our features are very complex, yet they have never been tested massively. This is the perfect opportunity to test them together, so that we may investigate any possible problems that could choke our hardware right now.

Thanks for understanding this delicate matter.

Keep testing, the game needs to be brought to the point where everyone can enjoy it.

FOnline: 2238 starts today!

Dear wastelanders! Thank you for gathering today, on IRC, on this Blog... Wherever you are! Today the third open beta test is going to start!

FOnline: 2238 is not the only game you will be able to play - our brethren from all over the world, who were working hard on another game, The Life After, will launch their servers today too. Everything you need for playing the game, as well as any news regarding the client and servers will be published on this blog or the official FOnline Homepage.

We still need some time to bring everything in order before launching the game, please be patient.

We apologize for not releasing the 3rd Developers Video before the launching date, it will be recorded soon. To make it up to you, we decided to post this small comic:



FOnline irc data:
Server: irc.forestnet.org
Channel: #fonline

Our irc data:
Server: irc.forestnet.org
Channel: #2238

FOnline developers looking for voice actor!

As the title says, the FOnline developers are looking for a native English speaking male with a mature, deep, strong voice. The voice will be used for "FOnline: The life After" intro, and if you are really good we would use your talent for our own, "FOnline:2238" intro movie.

Prerequisites:

• Voice similar to Ron Perlman (Fallout 1/2/3/Tactics narrator)
• Soundproof or low-noise room for recording
• Dramatic narration
• Native USA citizens have the advantage over others
  

Everyone interested can post in the comments or mail me at lisac2kATgmailDOTcom, subject "Voice Actor". All other mails will be deleted promptly, be sure to write the subject properly.

Poll #2 finished - what you really want to see in our videos

Time to vote is up! Our 2nd poll results are (you could choose more options):

• What would you like to see in one of our next videos?

1. Combat presentation: 220 (52%)
2. A small quest would be good: 115 (27%)
3. One of the existing factions in game 93: (22%)
4. Some other new feature (Banks, Mercs...): 139 (32%)
5. Gangs 79 (18%)
   

Interesting, 20 votes (4%) expressed negative feelings about videos.

The winner is "Combat presentation" and this is exactly what you are going to see soon. Thank you for your votes and feel free to take part in our next poll about role-playing.

FOnline: 2238 Developers Video #2

We are proud to present our second video about FOnline: 2238. In this video we will show you the new PPC (Professions, Production and Crafting) system that plays an important role in the game.

Poll #1 Results

OK, there are two weeks since our first poll hit this blog and here are the results:

• Did you already know about the next open beta test on 15-Aug-2009?

1. Yes, I knew it. 188 (71%)
2. No, I just heard about it. 63 (23%)
3. Next open testis what..? 13 (4%)
   

We are glad to see you are informed about the FOnline project and would like to thank for your kind comments and suggestions. Nothing better than an active community that doesn't lose its attention span each time some bombastic game news pop up.

Thanks to everyone for voting, feel free to vote in our next poll!

FOnline: 2238 Development Team

FOnline: 2238 Developers Video #1

Here's the first video about FOnline: 2238! Take a short tour through San Francisco with one of the developers and get the first impressions about the game.

Download this video in 640x480

FOnline: 2238 Press Release, 3rd Open Beta Test Announced

Berlin/London/Novopolotsk/Stockholm/Vienna/Warsaw, 08-Jul-2009

The small indie development group, "Rotators", supported by the main developer of FOnline, A. Cvetinskiy "Cvet", are proud to present FOnline: 2238, the new massively multiplayer game, free of charge, based on the famous award-winning CRPG titles Fallout and Fallout2.

Bringing the single player experience into a massively multiplayer game was not an easy task. Merging the existing features with new ones in order to provide as much game experience as possible, the young developers aimed for the recreation of the Fallout world as we knew it back in the late '90s, keeping the emphasis on the alternative, unique universe and its settings. The game will remind you of Fallout 1 & 2 everywhere you go - the places, the people, the common history and the events that shook the world and keep it trembling.

Humanity, or at least what is left of it, has no time for a break. Faced with constant challenges, surviving in the harsh post-apocalyptic, post-nuclear, barren world, struggling for an uncertain tomorrow, the humans, ghouls and mutants are organizing themselves to push it through. To make it. To stay alive. Each group, each place, each organization with its own agenda, with its own ideology, fighting for their place under the scorching Sun. What they believe may be right or wrong... Who are we to judge, while striving for the same old necessity - survival?

The game adds several unique features regarding the players and their interactions, be it with other players, their respective groups or NPCs. First of all, there are groups: factions, gangs - call them whatever you like, which determine the fate of the world. Some of them are more powerful than others, some are cunning and treacherous, some even hideous. But they are there, conflicting with each other, or aligning with the policies of the greater powers - those who have technological advances, political power, are just plain bigger, or any other advantages over them. Choose your way: join your favorite group and spread their agenda throughout the wasteland. Decide for yourself how to handle the resistance - with good will or stubbornness. Respect the authorities or lead a revolution to throw them off the throne - it is your world, you decide.

If you don't feel like belonging to a group and have your own ideology, then you can take one of the numerous paths the wasteland offers. Some of them are: bounty hunting, brahmin trading, crafting, exploring and trading in general. The brand new system of professions allows you to polish up your skills and learn things you will rarely find in books, giving you a certain advantage over other players. Scavenging, gathering resources and useful items will be an inevitable part of your FOnline: 2238 life. Crafting something useful out of the gathered junk or selling it directly to your favorite vendor are just a small part of the great possibilities this game offers you. And of course, you can just take them off someone else, simply by brutally killing him/her or using more exquisite methods, like stealing. The choice is yours - and so are the consequences.

From the technical point of view, the game will bring back the good old 2D isometric perspective, with english being the only supported language. The engine supports several new features like object opacity and the PNG graphics format. The scripting language being used is the AngelCode Scripting Library (or simply AngelScript) created by Andreas Jönsson. The system requirements for the game can be considered minimal for today's mainstream computing:

• MS Windows 2000/XP/Vista
• 56K or better internet connection
• Fallout 2 CD

There are reports the game will run under Linux too (using WINE emulation), but generally we do not support it.

Due to the fact that the game is currently in its early beta stage (remember, the engine development has progressed much further and the engine itself can be considered almost fully functional), it is necessary to test the numerous features and additions. Taking this into account, the decision to organize another open beta test has been made, and the date is August 15th, 2009. We are looking forward to seeing you in the game and hearing your impressions of our creation, so that the next open test can really be a mutual pleasure.

FOnline: 2238 Developers Blog - Finally

After the months of working on the new MMORPG title, that should bring the Fallout world in a massively multiplayer environment closer to you, we have finally started our developers blog.

The reasons are not trivial and pointless, not this time. Keeping track of the progress, being informed about the latest updates, introducing the new features and more - all of that will be published here. We hope that this step will help us override the distances between the developers and the gamers, and that all of us are going to benefit from this blog.

By modders, for gamers.