5-4-2009 | Forum site moving hosts

The forum will be offline for between 24 and 36
hours. This is due to us moving hosts. Hopefully
we'll be back online before 36 hours
though!
Regards DM Team

29-2-2008 | New IP address

For anyone who didnt notice ;)

http://www.wakizashi.com/viewtopic.php?t=12108
3T is now hosted in a new datacenter. Please update
your shortcuts.

25-1-2008 | 3T DM Team recuitment

We're looking for a few good people to join the
team. Please check out this thread for details
on applying.
http://www.wakizashi.com/viewtopic.php?t=11860
DM Team

6-10-2007 | Cleanup Complete

I have now carried out the cleanup, both deleting characters not used since 01/04/07 from the vault and also from the database, plus removing quite a lot of unauthorised multiple accounts.

It is also likely Dacarlo will be back at the data centre doing more maintenance in the next few days, so expect some more downtime in the near future.

Apologies for any inconvenience caused,

Orion.

29-9-2007 | Cleanup Imminent!!

The Cleanup will be carried out sometime this weekend, hopefully later on today.

If you have not yet done so (and you really all should have by now) it is imperative that you log on all characters you wish to keep ASAP.

I will be removing any characters, records and accounts which have not been used in the last 6 weeks. I will also be removing from the database any unauthorised multiple accounts above the limit of 2.

Thanks,

Orion.

29-8-2007 | Servervault and Database Cleanup

At the end of September/beginning of October, we are going to carry out a server cleanup. This involves deleting all character files which are unused in the last 6 months (so, anything not used since February or earlier) and deleting their relavent database entries. To prevent your characters from being cleaned up, please fully and successfully log them onto either server, save the character then log off. If you are unable to do this for some reason then email me and I can have the files backed up (they will be already) and log them into the database manually. If you have any characters you do not want to keep, now would be a good time to delete them manually by using your scry tool. This will make the cleanup that bit more efficient and is actually slightly more thorough. Also, if you have more than 2 accounts please email me to let me know which 2 you would like to keep. If you have special circumstances for having more than 2, that also can be arranged by contacting me by email. If you do not then any accounts over the limit will be deleted, leaving the 2 most recently used. Orion.

29-7-2007 | 3T Wiki - Restoration Help Appeal

The old 3T Wiki located at Mordaga.com has recently been plagued by bots. Due to the combination of this and the fact Mordaga is not currently playing 3T, we are moving the Wiki to another address. However for technical reasons the old wiki needs to be manually copy+pasted from old to new. This is a large and time consuming job for any one person, but if many players each do a few pages to help, the new Wiki should quickly become the same useful source of information as the old one.

Please offer an hour or two of your time to help restore this very useful tool back to the community - it isn~t difficult, just time consuming. For more information on how to help, check the appropriate thread in the General forum.

Thanks.

21-7-2007 | Server Swap

For technical reasons I have swapped the servers around. Server A is now on IP address 217.158.246.63 while B is on 217.158.246.33. Depending on the results this may be permanent or temporary.

Orion.

21-7-2007 | Server Cleanup Complete

The Server cleanup of the vault and database has been carried out. Hopefully server performance is now improved. If you have any problems, or for more details, please check the forums.

Orion.

14-7-2007 | Servervault and Database Cleanup.

Partially because of the technical problems we had lately, and partially because it is long overdue, we are going to carry out a server cleanup.

This involves deleting all character files which are unused in 2007 and deleting their relavent database entries.

To prevent your characters from being cleaned up, please fully and successfully log them onto either server, save the character then log off. If you are unable to do this for some reason then email me and I can have the files backed up (shey will be already) and log them into the database manually.

If you have any characters you do not want to keep, now would be a good time to delete them manually, using your scry tool, as it will make the cleanup that bit more efficient and is actually slightly more thorough.

The cleanup is likely to take place within the next few weeks so do not delay.

Orion.

17-6-2007 | SHifter Relevels

Apologies if I have jumped the gun by 1 day, but the free Shifter relevels have now been removed. If you have not relevelled your shifter/s yet and have a need to do so then please contact a DM in game.

15-6-2007 | News Update

A few things are going on at the moment in the 3T community.

Firstly we have new forums which are proving more popular then the old snitz ones. Many thanks to Dacarlo for his effort in upgrading - follow the Forums link on the left side of the main page to find the new forums.

Secondly, I may be rather hard to get hold of over the next few weeks. Firstly because I am working away from home for another 2 weeks so will only get online at weekeneds, if at all. Also I am as yet unable to log onto the new forums so I can't post to them yet. Hopefully this will son be remedied. If anyone needs to get hold of me they can email me at the usual address but please don't expect a reply until the next weekend at the earliest.

Also module releases are still being released by Dirion at fairly regular intervals. The latest module release offered shifters a relevelling option but if you are yet to use it you had better do so ASAP - the option will be removed shortly, possibly as soon as 18/06/07 (in 3 days which was the advertised date upon release).

Other than that, I think it is pretty much business as usual! Have fun!

Orion.

12-6-2007 | NEW 3T FORUMS

Hi Everyone,
PLEASE READ THIS CAREFULLY.
WHEN VISITING THE NEW FORUM YOUR PASSWORD WILL NOT
WORK. YOU *MUST* CHOOSE THE LOGIN OPTION THEN
CHOOSE "I FORGOT MY PASSWORD". THIS WILL ONLY
WORK IF YOU HAVE A CORRECT EMAIL ADDRES ON YOUR
FORUM ACCOUNT. IF YOU DO NOT THEN YOU CAN CONTACT
ME DIRECT.
urbanhacker@gmail.com The new forums are up and tested insofar as I can
test them alone. We now have 10Gig of space
instead of 200Mb, a PhPBB with all kinds of
interesting and new features. Please be aware that
around 12 hours of posts have been lost since I'm
not migrating the database twice! :P
Once accounts are sorted I will sort out the moderators once more.
Enjoy!
Dacarlo

8-6-2007 | Forum Work

I will be taking the forums offline for maintenance
this afternoon from 3pm onwards. When its done
it'll be done.
There is likely to be a repeat of this later tonight
Dac

10-5-2007 | 3T Handover and Donations Appeal

As part of the 3T handover from Dave to myself, I have taken stock of the financial situation. The short story is that while the connection fees are up to date (thanks to Dave) 3Ts funds are running very low, so we are looking for donations to fund the next year's subscription fees.

Any surplus money raised will naturally be reinvested back into the community or saved for next years subscriptions.

For more information, please check the News Forum.

Orion.

5-5-2007 | News Update

Well there isn't a whole lot to tell this month, but there are a few things I would like to say.

Dave is still in the process of completing his handover, and to ann intents and purposes I am now the 3T owner and host. I wish Dave all the best in whatever he does from here onwards and hope he will call in occasionally to see how we are all getting on.

Dirion is nearly finished on a new release - 711g - which should be ready very soon.

I think that's about it - mostly things are just going along as usual. On a small sidenote, the server has kept busy still regularly exceeding 70 or even 80 players online, so there is no fear that 3T is not still going strong.

Enjoy!

Orion.

26-3-2007 | An Important Announcement - Changes At The Top

After quite a long period of having very little spare time, and with several important and fairly scary life-changing things coming up (new proper job, first house, mortgage, etc), I've had to come to a decision that I didn't want to make. I am stepping down as owner and admin for The Three Towns, and leaving the team.

Its not fair on the team or any of the players to continue on with no spare time to spend on 3T, and its not fair on myself to keep trying to make more time by cutting out other things I want or need to do. As with all things, there comes a time when your circumstances change and you have to move on from some things you may not want to.

But fear not - 3T will live on! Orion is taking over from me as owner and server admin. I have every confidence that 3T will continue to succeed, expand and prosper under his guidance.

Please bear with us while things get changed over between myself and Orion. There are many things that need to be done, and it may take a little while to get them all sorted out (emails, website details, donation/affiliate links, etc). Hopefully we'll be able to do this quickly and smoothly, but please bear with us in case something takes longer than expected.

Over the last four and a bit years that I have been running 3T, I've had an incredible time. I've seen things go from a small module running on my home PC with only 24 player slots to a huge, detailed and immersive world, dedicated servers running from a professional data centre and a massive increase in players. Its been a really enjoyable, rewarding, exciting and almost unbelievable time, and I am incredibly proud of what we have accomplished, and the many thousands of hours of fun and enjoyment people have found on 3T. I'm sad to be leaving, but I know that 3T will continue on without me, and provide many many more hours of enjoyment!

I want to thank you all - team members, players, everyone involved in guilds, taken part in events, contributed ideas or content, anyone who has donated to 3T- everyone. Without you all, 3T would not be what it is today.

I may well drop in from time to time, so I'm not saying goodbye - just farewell for now. Have fun everyone, and take it easy.

DM Dave

16-3-2007 | New Developer for NWN2

Please welcome Boieru to the 3T Team.

He has been given the post of Developer specifically for the new NWN2 module. Please take it easy on him when it comes to the NWN module/server because that's not his job. He is working on NWN2 only.

Orion.

3-3-2007 | DM Xan

And then there were 3. Please welcome DM Xan to the
fold of newb DMs here on 3T. I look forward
to the undead lord of the guardians making his mark
on the server.

16-2-2007 | Character Problems

Sometime during the night of 14th February (GMT) the database became disconnected resulting in various problems with the servers. The main one being that some characters were treated as 'New' and thus set to level 4.

The good news is that so far our backups have been able to fully restore all characters, so if you are affected by this problem please post in the appropriate thread in the General forum and an Admin will address it at the next opportunity.

Please note the backups may be from a few hours before the problems started, so some data may be lost. Unfortunately we will not replace any lost gold, items or XP, and can only apologise for the inconvenience.

Orion.

8-2-2007 | DM Falor

As some of you already noted on the forums
Falor now joins the ranks of the DM team in
a similar vein as Taroc. Please say hit to
him and remember he's a n00b DM so dont beat
him up too much ;)
Regards DM Dacarlo

5-2-2007 | DM Taroc

I'd like you all to give a warm welcome to our
newest team member. He'll be poking his head around
the door shortly and getting used to the tools
and systems of 3Ts DM chair. Please bare with him as he gets used to this role if he answers your
queries when asking for a DM online. More news
on further new DMs to follow.
DM Dacarlo

20-1-2007 | Kal - Departs DM Team

Kal has officially stepped down as a DM on 3T.
Its been my pleasure to have him as a DM here
and I'm sad to see him go. He's still playing
here and I'm sure he'll answer questions from
n00bs the way he always did before he was a DM.
With this news in mind I'm taking a look at
the current team before making any decision on
taking on anyone else. If you get the chance
in game please slap him on the back and buy him
a beer. DM Dacarlo

8-1-2007 | Version 710b - Server Rules Swap

As of version 710b we have swapped the server A/B rules around. Please be understanding towards other players during this transition which will last at least a few days for the majority of players to become aware of.

For the reasons behind this change and further information, please check the forums.

Orion.

3-1-2007 | The Development Team is Recruiting!

With the departure of Cyberglum, the 3T Dev team is looking for at least one (possibly two) developers to work on the new NWN2 module.

For more information check the News and NWN2 forums.

Orion.

1-1-2007 | Departure of Cyberglum

Due to other commitments and being unable to run NWN2 anytime in the near future, Cyberglum has stepped down from the Development team.

I would like to personally thank him for his hard work over the last 18 Months, putting up with my constant pestering over development ideas, and most of all for redoing the smith items multiple times without complaint!

For those who aren't sure or have not been around that long here is a (non-definiteve) list of 3T content he is credited with:

Errand for Uncle Sid
- The Balance Accords (sigs coded by Orion based on Glums non persistent system)
- Bleeding Heart Barbarian Recipie for Karanga
- Charm for Gorakki
- Ca'dish Areas and concept + most of quest , rest of quest with Orion Mesa + Broodmother
- Pureblood areas and stormpeaks Terrible Twins with Orion
- Attempt for Peace (Asabiats) with Orion Pureblood fight Pitwith Orion
- Smith Weapons and Armor
- Numerous random loot items


The above list only begins to illustrate his contribution to the server. Other contributions include constant discussion of ideas, covering DM duties and of course being a fun guy to party up with.

We do hope to see him return at some point for NWN2.

Thanks 'Glum, for everything,

Orion.

25-12-2006 | Seasons Greetings

I would just like to wish all our players best wishes for the festive season and good luck in the new year. [CR] In news, a new update will be released very shortly featuring the long awaited completion of the balance finale quest but also the addition of a further quest and various fixes and alterations, hope you enjoy it :- Dirion

15-12-2006 | Stormkin Clan/Guild

For the timebeing, we ask all Stormkin activity on the server to cease. In particular recruiting and any activity which presents the Stormkins as a guild.

There are numerous reasons for this which for the timebeing we will not openly discuss, and are yet to reach a definitive decision upon. In the meantime please abide by our wishes and refrain from forcing this issue in any way.

Orion.

29-11-2006 | General News

Well, NWN2 is now well and truly released. Some are pleased with the new game, some aren't. The best sign is that Obsidian are still working hard on releasing patches and improving the game. For those who don't like the UI the Vault has many custom mods many of which apparently give dramatic improvements. Try searching the vault and see what you can find!

The Dev Team are still working towards a NWN2 version of 3T but progress is slow - partially because some team members cannot efficiently run the NWN2 Toolset and partially because those who can are firstly trying to learn about playing the game before attempting to develop for it!

The DM team are still trying to squeeze events out for the many players who have carried on playing the NWN server, and we are maintaining a support of at least one Developer (currently Dirion) to continue work on the NWN module. So NWN3T is far from stagnant!

I think that's about it...

Orion.

22-10-2006 | Module Updates and 3T Meetup.

The last week sees another major update to the module - mainly thanks to Dirion who has worked very hard bringing the NWN module towards an excellent climax. Four of them in fact - Nice work Dirion!

Beyond that another update has seen a few bugs fixed and a few AI updates to make creatures that bit smarter.

I shall be away for a month or so from this weekend, however this has prompted the arrangement of a meeting for any 3T players interested. The meeting will be in Exeter on Saturday 38th October - that's next weekend! Several team members will be there including Dirion and myself - Check the General forum for more details if you are interested in coming.

Orion.

7-10-2006 | The Wanderer Returns

I'd like to take this oppertunity to welcome
DM Zaspath back to the fold. He's kinda oldschool
so some of you might not remember him. He used
to run the DM team so he knows the job.
Please take the time to say hi and welcome him back.

5-10-2006 | Neverwinter Nights 2 Toolset Released.

Well finally the 3T Dev team have our hands on the NWN2 Toolset, and can finally begin to get definite ideas about what place 3T will have once NWN2 itself is released. Things look promising and one thing is for sure - if 3T comes back for NWN2 then it will be unlike any version of 3T you have ever seen before!

Back on the NWN front, there is excellent progress towards another major update which sees several special high level quests and new epic content. Specifics will be posted on the Release Notes forum once the update is ready.

Orion.

22-9-2006 | NWN2 is Nigh

Due to the impending release of NWN2, It has been decided that there will be no more 'tweaks' , 'balancing' or minor bug fixes for the moment This is in order to concentrate efforts on effectivelly finishing the module by adding the endgame encounters and to ensure all existing Quests have some form of ending and can reach a 'completed' status. Dirion

9-8-2006 | "The Collective" Interview

The Collective (http://www.nwcollective.org/) is a NWN site built mainly for server admins, module builders and scripters, featuring forums for general discussion, links to important news on NWN and NWN2 and a nifty "server gnome" feature that tracks the active status and player counts of member servers. The Three Towns has been registered with The Collective for some time now, and we have been asked, and agreed to participate in an interview.

The interview has been completed and posted on the Collective site (currently on the front page, but can also be found in the interviews section of the Collective forums), so I'll invite you all to swing over there and take a quick read-through. There’s a whole load of general info about 3T, combined with some stuff about the staff, servers, plans for the future and shameless plugs!

DM Dave
3T Admin

6-8-2006 | News Update No 36

Well, it seems that regular news updates are really not my strong point...

Unfortunately, this month my time has been almost entirely taken up with work (6 or more usually 7 days a week in work, partly doing normal stuff and partly working on a renovation project), so my time for Three Towns things has been curtailed severely. With the extra work soon to be completed, this should change and I should have more free time to spend on 3T Admin things - apologies to anyone who has been kept waiting for a response or action from me due to this lack of time.

The other impact of all this time in work is that I have very little news to tell you! I can tell you that the DM and Dev teams have been working away as usual, but no specific news to report at the moment. I can also tell you that an undisclosed number of team members have signed up for the closed Beta test of the NWN2 toolset - hopefully at least one of us will be successful and get some advanced insight into the new features of the toolset that will be a great help when the game is finally released. More news on that as it comes (or as we are allowed to tell you, as if accepted to the Beta test, participants must sign a non-disclosure agreement, so we may be limited in what we are allowed to tell you).

As I said, very little specific news, so that’s it for this time. Hopefully things will improve on the spare time front and I'll be able to bring you some more exciting news soon.

DM Dave
3T Admin

6-7-2006 | Website Problems

The issue has been resolved and the website is now fully accessible again.

For future reference, if you are unable to connect to the 3T website via the www.threetowns.org.uk address, its always worth trying to connect directly to the www.trustinginthefuture.com/3towns address, just in case the problem is with the redirect.

DM Dave
3T Admin

6-7-2006 | Website Problems

We are currently experiencing some website problems, namely that the forwarding from www.threetowns.org.uk to the actual site has broken. We are working on this and hope to have it resolved shortly, but if you hear anyone saying they are unable to access the site, please inform them they can navigate directly here by using the www.trustinginthefuture.com/3towns address instead.

DM Dave
3T Admin

4-7-2006 | News Update No 35

Firstly, apologies for such a long time with no news updates - its been an odd month for me, as I've got my exam results, graduated, returned to my old bar job, started learning C++ in preparation for applying for a 'proper' job (games programmer :P) and suddenly discovered that despite no longer being a student, I still have very little spare time!

However, despite no news updates things have been going on here on Three Towns. We've had a new update for 3T from the Dev team with some great new content, including the new Forge, new creatures, new items, some AI updates and much more. For all the details, check out the Release Notes section of the forums.

For anyone who hasn't checked it out yet, a 3T Wiki has been set up at http://mordaga.com/3twiki/ - already there’s loads of information available there with new pages and articles appearing every day. Many thanks to everyone who has contributed to the Wiki already - if you haven't added anything I'd urge you to give it a go - check out the quick tutorials on adding pages then find a page that hasn’t been completed and see what you can do.

There have also been some developments with NWN2 - Obsidian revealing that (initially) clients may have to download the module to play online. This has since been clarified slightly, with Obsidian saying that clients will need to have the walkmesh for areas downloaded. The walkmesh is data about the shape of the terrain in outside areas, basically indicating where the characters can walk. Details have not been revealed yet as to how the clients will get this information, although there are several possibilities currently being talked about amongst the community. Perhaps clients will have to download the entire modules walkmesh before they can log on at all, in a similar way to servers using Haks at the moment. Its also possible that the walkmeshes will be downloaded automatically when the client initially connects to the server, either all at once or on an area by area basis. Hopefully Obsidian will be able to work out a way to get this information to the client in as fast, simple and unobtrusive way as possible.

The final bit of news I have at the moment is that there may be an interview appearing shortly on a site called "The Collective" about Three Towns. Its a relatively small site, mostly PW admins, developers and DM's but they do interviews and reviews of different modules (again, mainly PW's) and recently contacted me to do a feature interview. If it gets sorted out and added to the site I'll let you all know. In the mean time, if you want to take a look at the site, you can find it at www.nwcollective.org.

That’s it for this time.

DM Dave
3T Admin

4-6-2006 | News Update No 34

As you can see from the title of this update, I've decided to stop trying to kid everyone that I'm actually doing these updates once a week. It was a good idea, but I don’t think I've managed more than two or possibly three updates in consecutive weeks yet! I'll still aim to do one a week, but at least now if I miss a week I cant get shouted at for it!

It’s been a relatively quiet time since the last update - especially for me (recovering from exams and getting to grips with not being a student any more). The Development Team are still hard at work, sorting out bugs, dreaming up new content and doing all the things they do to improve and expand The Three Towns.

Likewise, its business at usual for the DM Team. We've had events of all sizes, from the mini, improvised spur of the moment events, to the large, pre-planned server-wide events, so something for everyone.

While discussion on features and content for Neverwinter Nights 2 continues, we are also still working on continued new content for the current version of Three Towns, and we hope to have some exciting new additions worked out soon. Trust me on this - you are gonna like it!

In other NWN news, we recently heard that Atari have instructed Bioware to halt further support and work on NWN - that means no more official patches and no more premium modules. I don’t know if this news has been officially confirmed (or denied) yet, but if it is true, its defiantly mixed news, especially for developers. The bad news is that if there are no more patches, any remaining bugs or problems in the game will not be resolved, and we will have to work with (or around) them. The good news is that developers can really start doing weird and wacky things that previously were dangerous to attempt as on several occasions developer written systems have been broken by changes in a new Bioware patch. It also means more attention is going to be diverted to NWN2, which we all have high hopes for.

Well, that’s it for now. Have fun, play nice(ish!) and we'll see you all in-game.

DM Dave
3T Admin

19-5-2006 | Weekly Update No 33

Well, that’s it. My exams are over, and with them, the past 18 years of my life in education. I am no longer a student! Now I am just unemployed!

Anyway, on to more relevant matters. What’s been going on here on 3T for the past few weeks? Let’s start with the DM Team.

The DM Team have been very busy. Not that long ago we took on several new members of the team - they have now settled in fully and we have a fully staffed DM Team. Many events have been run, both small, unplanned events prompted by players actions or an opportunity that came up, and much larger planned events, publicised in advance and in some cases requiring several DM's to handle everything that’s going on. These events have been great successes, bringing variation, excitement and extra challenges to the 3T world. Many more events are planned, so if you haven’t been able to take part in anything yet, don’t worry! Keep an eye out on the forums and in game to hear when events will be run.

The Dev team have also been busy, working on updates, new content and fixing bugs. A new update was released recently that included, amongst other improvements and additions, preparation for a new Forge to be added to the module. This is a magical forge that allows players, with the correct components, to modify the power of their weapons! Only certain weapons are forgeable, and the magical gems that are used to add new properties to these weapons are not common and have to be discovered. New areas and quests are under development to support the forging, and we hope to have the entire system and supporting material up and running soon.

Other news from the Dev team: Head Developer Orion, after around two years of dedicated work on 3T has decided to take a break. Working on The Three Towns is both hard work and very time consuming and Orion wants to take a break in order to spend more time with his family, to try out new things and generally recharge (we suspect also to gather new ideas for 3T!). We wish him the best in whatever he does. In his absence, Wocidej will take over the role of Development Team leader.

With news, new screenshots, videos and more being released about Neverwinter Nights 2, the excitement and anticipation for Three Towns 2 is slowly but surely building. There is a limited amount of work and planning we are able to do before the release of NWN2, but check out the NWN2 & 3T2 section of the forums for current discussion and add your opinion about the future of 3T!

That’s it for now. I say this at the end of most news updates, but hopefully I should now be able to do these more regularly, so see you next week!

DM Dave.

9-5-2006 | Weekly Update No 32

Appologies at the complete lack of news updates for so long - my finals are in full swing (three down, five to go) so my time is almost completely taken up with revision. My last exam is on the 16th May, so following that I will have a lot more free time and will be able to do a monster news update covering everything that has happened recently, as well as releasing news updates a little more regularly.

I thought, however, I should let everyone know that we are still alive and still here! Watch this space for a full update on the past months activies, comming soon!

DM Dave.

17-4-2006 | Weekly Update No 31

Greetings!

I had hoped, now that all my lectures and practicals are finished, that I would have enough time to sort out weekly updates actually once a week, but evidently not. That’s the thing about revision - no matter how much you do, there’s always more you can (and probably should) do.

The new members of the DM team have been settling in nicely, getting to grips with their new-found powers and abilities. We've had many events run over the last two weeks, some small, some pretty big, and there should shortly be a regular event timetable set up. This will mean that as well as random events taking place whenever a DM has some time and a good idea, there should be events planned more in advance, possibly with sign-up sheets (or similar) so players know when events will take place and can plan to be there if they want to join in.

The Dev team have also been working hard, with several new features in the works along with numerous bug fixes and improvements.

Some big news recently was the announcement of a (semi) official release date for Neverwinter Nights 2. I say semi-official because it seems to have come via the NWN2 forums, and hasn’t appeared on the NWN2 website. The date specified is September '06, which is a little further off than we initially thought it would be, but still isn’t too long to wait. This is both good news (in that it gives us more time to plan things out for 3T2 over the summer when people will likely have a little more spare time) and not so good news (because we have longer to wait!), but either way, its still news!

That’s about it for this week. I'll try to get next weeks update done sometime next week, although as my exams start on the 25th April, its possible that I may not be able to do so.

DM Dave.

2-4-2006 | Weekly Update No 30

OK, so 'weekly' updates aren’t exactly the right name for these at the moment. Apologies for that - hopefully now that my lectures and practicals are all out of the way (just revision and exams to go now!) I'll be able to keep up with adding news updates a little closer to one a week!

There are two major items of news at the moment. Firstly, as you may have noticed, the recent DM Trials have ended and we have five new members of the DM Team. These new DM's have already started to get their teeth into things, running several events and getting to grips with how Three Towns works from a DM view point and all the cool stuff they can do! Do keep an eye out for them online and say "hi", but please bear in mind that if you are asking questions they may not yet know all the answers.

Secondly, the Dev team have been working very hard and have just released a new update for the module. Containing many different improvements and new additions, this update (amongst other things) removes the old, broken "Peace and Justice" quest, replacing it with a new fully complete quest titled "Tomb of the Warrior King". There are several area and creature improvements and a whole load of bug fixes! For all the details on this new release, check out the Release Notes forum.

In other news, with the release of NWN2 coming closer every day, planning continues for 'Three Towns 2'. Obsidian recently announced that pretty much everything other than areas can be imported into NWN2 from a NWN module, which means the development time for 3T2 has been reduced fairly dramatically, which is great news. We are currently trying to finalise an overall plan for which parts of 3T will be transferred to 3T2 and what new things we want to add. I think it’s safe to say that NWN2 has us all pretty excited!

That’s it for this week. I'll catch you all again next time (hopefully next week!).

DM Dave.

29-3-2006 | New DM Team Members

Well, after a few weeks of hard work and furious event-running, the trials are over and a final decision has been made.

Please welcome to the DM Team:

DM Dakota
DM Killian
DM Marius
DM Seraphim
DM Tyke
You should start seeing them online over the next few days, but bear in mind they have a steep learning curve to climb and take it easy on them!

Note these are new DMs not Developers or Admin - they come under DM Team, led by Dacarlo. The DM Team are there to run events, help players online if they have problems, and to assist Developers by investigating bugs/exploits when players report them in game.

The DM Team.

28-2-2006 | Weekly Update No 29

Firstly, apologies for the lack of news updates for the past couple of weeks. Life is beginning to get extremely hectic for me, though that’s not a very good excuse!

As noted below, the DM team currently have openings for some new staff members. If you are interested in applying for a position on the DM team, then check out the post at the top of the News forum, but be quick - trial events for new DM's are being scheduled as we speak!

The Dev team have also been busy, working on new content and fixes. We've had several new releases since the last news update, with more in the works to come soon. A big thanks go out for all their hard work, making sure not only do things run smoothly, but that there is always something new to do in The Three Towns.

On a personal note, due to University finals coming up soon, my time is temporarily becoming limited. I've explained the effect this may have in a post in the general forum - please check it out before trying to contact me!

That’s it for this week. See you again next week, and in the mean time, have fun!

DM Dave.

21-2-2006 | DM's Wanted

The three towns DM TEAM is hiring!
I've positions available for 3 new DM's (NOT Dev's)
and I'll be holding trials shortly over the next few weeks.
If you're interested in applying please check out the thread below on our forums.
http://www.trustinginthefuture.com/3towns/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=5840

Regards DM Dacarlo

6-2-2006 | DM Daves New News Language.

Rumour has it that our much admired and respected DM Dave has such a following that he has begun to create a new language especially for use in news updates.

It includes the special words "commings", "responces", "piblicity" and "arrises" amongst others - all intended of course to encourage readers to reread news items, thus resulting in more effective brainwashing of his victims.

Source: Unknown. At least... unless the source is announced automatically when posting news. I can't remember offhand... hmm...

6-2-2006 | Weekly Update No 28

This week has been a fairly light week in terms of news. The dev team continue to work on the module, investigating and fixing bugs, developing new content and so on - the DM team continue to monitor the online commings and goings - and the Team as a whole continues to discuss new ideas for Neverwinter Nights 2.

There have been some good responces to the piblicity we released last week, with some interest shown on the Bioware forums and Neverwinter Connections. We'll continue to add publicity as the opportunity arrises.

If any members of the Three Towns community have any 3T related news they would like added to one of these weekly updates, then simply e-mail me (D.S.Clegg@sms.ed.ac.uk) and let me know what news you have!

DM Dave

1-2-2006 | Weekly Update No 27

This week, I have mostly been eating... cheese toasties!

(Sorry - old TV quote!)

With both servers running significantly better now that we have found and sorted out the major causes of recent crashes, this week has been a bit of a publicity week. We've added community news updates to Neverwinter Vault (http://nwvault.ign.com/), and posts on the community news forums (Ye Olde Tavern forum) on the main Bioware NWN site (http://nwn.bioware.com/) and Neverwinter Connections - PW Annoucements forum (http://www.neverwinterconnections.com/). We have also told bioware about our recent expansion, and are awaiting a reply on if they will concider doing a profile/feature/thingy on Three Towns for a Bioware Wednesday news letter. Thanks go out to all those who have already found these releases and posted great replies and reviews!

Its possible that as a result of this, we may have some new players comming to check us out - try to be nice! If you have some free time, answering their questions and/or showing them around for a while would be great too!

We've also had a bit of a website update - sorting out the donate, server details and server status pages, as they were definatly out of date. We have some additional bits to add to the website, like a real-time display of the status of the servers, showing how many players are logged on (and possibly who...), plus additional Amazon Links.

For those that dont know, Three Towns is part of the Amazon Affiliates program, where we can earn money by people buying things from Amazon. If anyone uses our link (located on the left side of the website) to get to the Amazon site, and buys anything, then Amazon give us around 5% of the price of the item as a reward. It doesnt cost the buyer anything, so its a good one to tell your friends about! The existing link takes you to Amazon.co.uk - the UK Amazon site. We have Amazon.com (US site), Amazon.de (German site) and Amazon.fr (French site) links to go up too, so more people will be able to use them.

Thats about it for this week. Catch you again next time!

DM Dave.

23-1-2006 | Weekly Update No 26

Maybe I should change the name of these updates from "Weekly Update.." to "Yey, some free time Update.." :P

So, whats been going on? Well, we've been working hard on server stability, and managed to track down and fix a problem that was causing server crashes. Hopefully this will significantly increase server stability and dramatically reduce the number of crashes. There are a couple of other ideas we have for improving stability and performance, so things are looking good in terms of getting Three Towns running well and fully reliably.

The Dev Team have also been working on general updates and bug fixes, and a new release went live a short time ago fixing a number of bugs, including the recent Guild problems. Guilds should now work properly, with reputation tracking fully functional. If any problems are found, please report them on the bug forum so they can be addressed.

Planning and brainstorming for 3T2 (working title - a version of 3T for NWN2) has now begun in the Team. As soon as we have a better idea of the overall framework we are going for, more details will be released in the NWN2 discussion section of our forums for comments, ideas and input from the Three Towns community.

This week, we broke the record for the highest number of players on 3T at any point. Before we had two servers, the maximum player count was 55 players - this has now been extended to 110 player slots. This week, we reached 89 players online at once!

Well, thats it for this week. I'll try to do next weeks update during next week!

DM Dave

21-1-2006 | Server Vault Cleanup

Due to complications we postponed the servervault cleanup we had planned to have when setting up the dual servers. It is not cancelled however, and we will be carrying the cleanup out sometime in the next few days.

To ensure your characters are safe, log each one you wish to keep onto 3T (either server) and make sure it saves by using the Scry tool, resting, or both if you feel safer. Any characters not modified (saved) since 01/09/05 (October 05) will be deleted from the vault along with their database records.

Players can assist and speed things up slightly by manually deleting any characters you know you arent going to want. This is also more precise and will remove some database entries we will be unable to remove manually.

Please could all players try to keep their vaults as lean as possible, by making a habit of deleting all characters you no longer want to use as it can only improve server performance. We are aware there were some issues with deletion after installing the second server, but these have all been resolved to our knowledge. If you do experience any problems which nobody online is able to explain for you then please post it on the bug forums.

Orion.

11-1-2006 | Weekly Update No 25

Well, its been far too long since I did a news update - appologies for that. The festive period was, well, hectic to say the least.

So, whats happened recently? Well, the two server system is now well and truly in place, with a single shared vault and database allowing players to play on either server with the same characters. There have been a number of teething problems (as always), including virus attacks, connection failiures, file corruption and other such lovely things, but we are now getting on top of these problems. Both servers are now protected fully with hardcore anti-virus software and firewalls, the connections are working properly and we are shortly to introduce a new filesharing system that will eliminate any remaining problems.

The end result is we now have a capacity of over 100 players, double what we had before, allowing more people to play 3T and avoiding the evening and weekend nightmare that was trying to log on to a full server. Although the process of getting to this point has been, at times, frustrating, tiring, upsetting, annoying and more, the end result is worth it.

While Orion and Cyberglum have been away from 3T, the rest of the Dev team have been working hard on the module and a new update is in the works, addressing a number of bugs in the world.

The DM team have also been busy, running events and supprised for the players. With two servers, it is now much easier to run both small and large scale events while still allowing other players who are not involved to continue to play. Watch out for more events to come!

So, whats to come? Well, as well as continuing to work on both the servers and the world, inproving performance, squashing bugs and adding new and exciting content, running events and more, we are beginning to look forward to the release of NWN2 and the development of a Three Towns module for the new game.

For more news and discussion on all of this, check out the forums!

DM Dave

30-12-2005 | Dev Holidays

After a couple of hard months, two members of the Development team have decided to take a holiday from 3T. They have both worked very hard recently, and definatly deserve time away for other things!

Orion and Cyberglum will be away from 3T for a while, effective immediatly. E-mails sent to them will either recieve no reply, or will be forwarded to other members of the team - please try to send any correspondance to myself instead. They may be around online from time to time, but will be players, not DM's, and as such will not be able to respond to player requests.

We wish them a very nice holiday, and thank them for all the very hard work they have done. We look forward to seeing them when they return!

In the mean time, other members of the Dev team will continue to work on the module, but with a reduced team, it may take a little longer for bugs to be addressed and new content to be released. Please be patient!

DM Dave

17-12-2005 | CHRISTMAS CONTEST

Information about the 3T Christmas competition is available on the forum at the link below.
http://www.trustinginthefuture.com/3towns/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=4905
DM Dacarlo

10-12-2005 | Server Status

Server B is now fixed and back online!!

The first time you access B, you will need to first log onto A and portal at the shrine. Attempting to log directly onto B when you were last on A will simply boot you back to A. If A is full or down, then waiting for it to come back up is the best option. If it doesnt seem to be coming up after 5 minutes or so, then you can try B. This also applies the other way if you were last playing B.

Stick to that and logins should be faster for you, and less likely to stress the servers with frequent logging in and out. So, better for everyone really. :)

Orion.

7-12-2005 | Server Status

You may have noticed that Server B is offline. Thats because, unfortunately, it caught a virus and was unable to boot Windows. Dacarlo will be taking a trip to the data centre tonight to fix it so while annoying, we are confident it isnt anything he cannot fix.

This has given us chance to test server A to its limits, and we also have some engine improvements ready for release once it is fixed, which we hope will increase the performance of both servers, especially Server B which relies on remote database access which is where most improvements were made.

Orion.

4-12-2005 | Weekly Update No 24

After an eventful week and a very interesting weekend, I'm very pleased to report that 3T is now officially running as a two server world!

It took about 5 and a half hours to install the machines in the data centre, and required some minor fixing this morning, but both servers are up and running, giving us a total player limit of 120 players! All your logging in problems are gone!

I'd write more, but I'm feeling quite delicate at the moment. After the installation, we all went to the pub and, well, got quite drunk...

Have a fun week, and I'll catch you all next weekend.

DM Dave

29-11-2005 | New Servers to be Installed December 3rd.

We can now reveal, with a good degree of certainty, that 3T will become 2 new high spec servers on December 3rd.

Server A (the original new server) is currently in Dave's possession and will be taken down to London this Friday when he and I travel down. Server B (The other new server) is currently in Dacarlo's possession and he and I shall be working to have that ready to go online (as far as possible) this coming weekend along with Server A.

For more details on how, when and why, check the forums.

Orion.

28-11-2005 | Weekly Update No 23

Theres not a lot of new news at the moment, as most of the news has been updated directly, but its the weekend, so I should do a news update regardless!

The server problems are detailed below, so I'll not go into all of that again. However, on the subject of server problems, I would like to say a massive "thank you" to all the players who lept to the aid of 3T and donated (in total) just over £500! This money will be put towards repairs/replacements for the old server, and connection fees for 3T. Many thanks!

While we have been running with a reduced player limit, there has been little opportunity for major DM events, but the DM team have still managed to squeeze in the odd mini-event. Likewise, the Dev team have been spending quite a lot of time working on the two-server systems we will need when both servers are online, but have still managed to continue work on other things. You should see various fixes and improvements, plus new content being added soon!

Thats all for this week. Next weekend we will be in London installing the new machine (yey!), and we'll be releasing additional news regarding that as it happens between now and then.

DM Dave.

23-11-2005 | Server Progress

We have continued our efforts to find a suitable solution to the problems caused by the demise of the 3T server machine. A plan is now in the works that should (if all goes well) result in two machines being ready to install in the data centre on the 3rd of December. One machine will be the new server we have been planning to install on that date for some time. The other machine... well, we're not releasing any details at the moment, in case some part of the plan falls through.

Hopefully we should know more by the end of the week, and be able to release more details. Until then, you'll just have to wait and see...

:D

DM Dave

20-11-2005 | Server Progress.

While there has been no progress fixing the 3T server, we have managed to transfer across the 3T servervault and database to Dacarlo's machine, and it will continue to run 3T (albeit at a lower than usual player limit) until we can get the true server back online.

The server appears on gamespy now under PW Action as usual. If you have trouble finding it you should be able to direct connect to 'urbanhacker.homeftp.net:5121' in order to play.

In the meantime, we will continue to work on the server and keep the forums updated on progress, with any major updates also posted here on the news page.

Orion.

19-11-2005 | 3T Server Problems 3.

Unfortunately the problem is not as simple as we had hoped - there seems to be a problem with the Bios.

It is unlikely 3T will be back online in anything resembing its usual capacity within the next 24 hours. It may take days or even weeks, we just cannot be sure at this moment. We are considering possible hosting on other machines and locations until the server is fixed but are yet to find a good solution.

The installation date for the 3rd of December still stands - and we will do everything we can to have 2 good servers running from Global Switch on that date.

Orion.

19-11-2005 | Server Problems 2.

The server machine has been un-installed from the data centre, as it was not possible to resolve the problem on-site. Dacarlo took the machine back to his home and worked on the problem - and has managed to fix it! We are attempting to gain access to the data centre tomorrow afternoon to re-install the machine, at which point everything will be back to normal.

For tonight, Dacarlo has set up the 3T server on his home connection. You can direct connect to it at "82.43.89.107:5121". However, be aware that this is a standard residential cable connection, and so if many players play at once you will experience lag.

We hope to have the entire problem resolved and the server completely operational and in the data centre by tomorrow mid-afternoon. Further news as it develops!

DM Dave

18-11-2005 | 3T Server Problems

We are currently experiencing some problems with the server hardware. Earlier today, the server crashed during a routine reboot. It stopped accepting remote access requests, so we contacted the Data Centre where it is hosted to have them perform a hard-reboot (power off/on).

When the reboot was performed, the server stopped responding alltogether. Currently it will not boot, and seems not to be recieving power. The Data Centre have done all they can (checked their end), but arent allowed to do anything to the machine itself.

We are aranging access for DM Dacarlo, our systems guru, to get into the centre and check out the machine to see if he can sort it out. It could be something as simple as a blown fuse or bad power cable, but until he gets there we wont know. This will happen later tonight.

In the unlikely event that something more serious has gone wrong, Dacarlo will remove the machine from the data centre for additional testing and repair, and we will reinstall it as soon as we can.

We are working as fast as we can to find and fix the problem and get 3T back up and running. However, until we can do so, 3T will be offline.

I will keep you up to date with any further developments. Major developments will be announced here, on the news page, and minor developments, and answers to your questions will be posted in the "3T Server offline" topic in the general forums.

DM Dave.

14-11-2005 | Weekly Update No 22

This week, as last week, the update is mainly devoted to news about the second server.

The date for the installation weekend seems to be firmly set now (3rd/4th December, with the installation itself on the 3rd). There are still a few details to sort out, but that date is now extremely unlikely to change. Depending on how long the installation is likely to take, and what time on the Saturday we can get access to the Data Centre, we may well be aranging a "come meet the team" event, where those members of the team who are present will be sat in a named pub at a set time, and players are welcome to come along (and buy us beer... :P ). More news on that when we arange it...

There has been a lot of work done on dual-server systems by the Dev team this week, meaning that when the second server goes online, there will be an number of systems in place to enhance the dual-server system and make it easier to use. These systems are currently undergoing final work, and the details will be released in the release notes shortly.

We've also begun open discussions and brainstorming on ideas for NWN2 3T. If you have any ideas about what you think we should do for a 3T module for NWN2, or want to check out other peoples ideas, then check out the new NWN2 3T section of the forums. At the moment we are simply collecting any ideas anyone has - feel free to contribute anything you can think of!

Thats about it for this week. By this time next week, I should have final details regarding the second server installation weekend and associated events. Until then, be good!

DM Dave.

7-11-2005 | Weekly Update No 21

Two weeks in a row... wow!

This week, the update will be both fairly short, and mainly regarding the second Three Towns server (hmm, if we have two servers, does that make us "The Six Towns?).

A provisional date has been set for the installation of the new machine into the Global Switch data centre in London. We are currently aiming for the weekend of the 3rd/4th December, although that date is subject to change depending on various factors that are not yet confirmed.

Please see the sticky topic regarding the 3T connection and second server progress in the General Forum for all the information on this, plus regular updates as they happen.

Its late, and I have University classes early tomorrow, so thats all for this week.

DM Dave.

31-10-2005 | Weekly Update No 20.

Well, you get one on time, then miss a week. I guess thats just how it goes!

So, this week... The Development team have a new update ready, and as I write this it should be online shortly (by the time you read it, it will be!). Amongst various bug fixes, spell updates and so on, it contains the first part of our changes to the shifter class. For all the details, check out the Release Notes section of the forums.

We are also getting closer to our second server being up and running. We have been working on setting up shared database and server vault access with the new machine in preperation for it being installed in the Global Switch data centre in London. Hopefully we should be ready to install it shortly - more news on this as it develops.

Excitement is also starting to build regarding Neverwinter Nights 2, with several previews in game magazines and on the web. Ideas are starting to fly around about the development of 3T for NWN2, although the actual release date is a way off yet (and as far as I know hasnt been officially set). I expect you will see some topics starting in the forums over the next couple of months discussing ideas and plans regarding NWN2.

Thats all from me this week.

DM Dave.

18-10-2005 | Weekly Update No 19

Well, a news update thats almost on time... sweet.

Not a lot to report this week. The DM's are still DM'ing and the Dev's are still Dev'ing, but nothing major has happened in the last week for either team really.

As you may have noticed, we how have an Amazon link here on the 3T website (if you havent noticed, its that white box with stuff about Amazon in the top right corner of the page...). This is an Affiliates Link to Amazon, which means that if you go to Amazon through this link and then buy something from Amazon, then Amazon will pay us between 4% and 10% of the cost of your item. It doesnt cost you anything, and can make us a bit of money to help support the running costs of the server. We arent asking anyone to buy anything they dont already want - just if you are planning to buy something from Amazon anyway, or find what you were looking for on Amazon, if you could use our little link here to get there, then we would appreciate it!

Thats it for this week.

DM Dave.

10-10-2005 | Weekly Update No 18

*cough* Weekly updates? Well, almost by-weekly news updates have to be better than no updates at all, right?

So, whats been going on in the last two weeks? Well, the DM Team have been running various events, watching over player-organised and run events (nice one to those players who have taken the time and effort to organise RP and events themselves) and getting to grips with a few new features the Dev team have been adding to 3T for them.

Speaking of the Dev team (see what I did with the introducing a new paragraph near the end of the previous one?), they have been busy too, continuing to beaver away eagerly at the module, working on bug fixes, new content and ideas in the works. They have also been checking out and starting work on systems to support the soon-to-come second server...

Speaking of the second server (see, I did it again!), there have been a number of developments on that front. For those who dont know, 3T currently runs on a single server, but much of the time the server is full, making it very hard for players to log on. We managed to raise enough money for a second server, which has now arrived. We are currently in the process of kitting it out properly so it can be installed in a Datacentre, and developing the systems we need to share a single server vault and database across both servers (so your characters can be played on either machine). We dont have a firm timetable yet, but we are hoping to have everything ready for the second server to go live in around a month (although it could be sooner or later than that). As news develops on that, we'll let you all know!

Well, thats about it for now. Catch you again, same place next week (probably :P)

DM Dave

25-9-2005 | Weekly Update No 17

Ok so it has been 2 week since the last weekly update, it just goes to show how busy the 3T Team is lately. ;)

On the Devlopment side of things 704d has been released which mainly comprised a large list of bug fixes. 704e will contain further item updates including improved high level loot drops, big improvements in glove selection for monks and another small improvement to the main weapon types. Players may wish to have their inventories repurged after this release to update all their items, or contact a DM in game. Alabama Harold has made a great start to his time on the Dev Team, adding his imaginitive talents to the rest of the teams plot ideas, together we are all hoping for big improvements in this area in the next few releases.

The DM team have also been working hard with the usual flow of events ranging from Dragondiner's usual Arena event, to Radu's somewhat less organised (but just as much fun) PvP mission events to Kraackers challenging action events and finally (but by no means least) Dirions regular RP based campaign events. Whatever your taste in events, chances are there have been events to suit you! Hopefully this will continue, so keep up the good work DM Team!

While Dave himself has been conspicuously absent since his return from holidays he has been lurking quietly, and we have been informed that a second server has been ordered and should arrive any day now. There is lots to do once it arrives; deciding where to locate both servers, exactly how to split players between the two, technical aspects such as actually setting up shared database support will also require a little research and no doubt some tinkering on our part.

So, lots of things going on n the world of 3T these days. Keep an eye on the forums for the news as it happens!

Orion

12-9-2005 | Weekly Update No 17

A few minor tid bits this week. The Dev team have finally finished their recruiting drive and we've taken on Alabama Harold. The team wishes him all the best and hope he brings some great ideas with him. Meanwhile a point release of the mod 704c has been released and includes some updates to merchants certain guilds may wish to check it out. With Dave on holiday we're just beavering away at our various projects. He still hasnt sent us a postcard :) DM Dacarlo

29-8-2005 | Weekly Update No 16

Welcome to another news update, with me, DM Dave! *queue fancy into music...*

On this weeks edition: New update ready to hit the server!, and continued DM activities online!

*intro music fades out*

Sorry - I'm in an odd mood today. :)

The new update for Three Towns is now ready to go live. After weeks of work from the Development Team, version 704a has been completed, and preparations are underway to upload to the server. This update contains some major changes, including altered weapon features, a host of new items, a brand new settlement, several new quests and more! Once the update is live on the server, check out the Release Notes section of the forum for a complete breakdown of whats new. Many thanks go out to the Dev team for all their hard work on this update!

Players should be aware that when they first log into 704a some changes will take effect on their character. Please check out the post in the General Forum for more info, and be careful to follow any on-screen instructions you may recieve when logging in.

The DM team have also been busy this week, with a couple of events run, and buisness as usual in terms of helping out players with problems. If you have a problem in-game and wish to contact a DM, simply activate your Scry Glass, and select the "Request DM Assistance" option from the menu.

Thats about it for this week.

DM Dave.

24-8-2005 | The Development Team Is Recruiting!

With Dacarlo moving over to take charge of the DM Team, we have an opening for a new Developer on 3T. Please check the News forum for more details.

Orion.

20-8-2005 | Weekly Update No 15

Its been a fairly quiet week.

The Dev team are still busy working away at the next update - its been in the works for quite a while, but it promises to be definatly worth the wait!

The DM Team have been working hard too, running events and setting up regular tournaments, which have proven to be great fun for all involved.

There are many discussions currently underway on the forums, which is always good. There arent many games where the players get to dicuss and have a say in how the world develops!

The progress on a second server continues. A deal has very nearly been finalised (the earlier deal mentioned in a previous news update fell through, due to high prices of delivery from the US, but a different supplier here in the UK has been found). More news on this as soon as it happens.

Thats it for now. Stay tuned for further updates!

DM Dave.

14-8-2005 | Weekly Update No 14

Oops - missed last weeks update... sorry.

After much discussion, testing, feedback (and far too much complex maths for me), the Dev team have worked out some changes to the weapons on 3T. These changes aim to balance out some of the differences between the different weapon types, making a characters weapon choice more one of "what would I like this character to use", rather than "what weapon is the best". Mathematically, scimitars have been superior damage dealing weapons (in most circumstances) for a long time now, and we are aiming to balance things up a bit. For more details on the horribly complex maths involved in all of this, check out the forums.

This has delayed the release of the latest update for the moment, however, but we hope things will be ready soon. When it is ready, this will be a major update - be sure to read the release notes carefully, and take note of anything added to your journal to explain any changes made.

On the DM side of things, due to real-life comittments, and often being away with work, DM Riandor, the DM Team leader has stepped down from the DM team. We are very sorry to see him go - he has been a long serving and very valuable member of the DM team.

DM Dacarlo has agreed to take over the role of DM Team leader. It will take a little while for him to settle into this role, but once he has done so, I'll ask him to make a post in the forums regarding any new guidelines for players looking for significant DM assistance. For the majority of DM activities, very little will change, but some re-organisation may take place. We'll let you all know how (or if) this will effect you as players.

Thats about it for this week.

DM Dave.

1-8-2005 | Weekly Update No 12

A fairly short update this week:

Development of the next update is nearing completion - it promises to be a good one! So watch out for that comming soon.

On the DM side, a number of events have been run recently, and we hope to continue running events quite regularly, bringing that extra element of variation and fun to 3T.

We are now in the closing stages of sorting out a second server, which is getting very exciting. I am also in the process of looking for a sponsorship deal to secure a new connection for 3T that will allow us to run both servers together. More news on both of these developments as it happens!

Thats it for the moment - stay tuned for any further news!

DM Dave.

25-7-2005 | Weekly Update No 11

The past few weeks have been extremely busy for me, with lots of shifts at work, plus a week visiting my parents (which is always fun...).

On the (more important) 3T front, there have been several things going on. We have three new members of the DM Team - dragondiner, Kraacker and Barthus are joining us, and will be online in the very near future. A big welcome to them - if you see them online then do say Hi!

We've also announced the official restructuring of the 3T team into a two team system, the DM Team and Development Team. This should help players have their questions and problems solved quickly, and will help us to take new ideas and turn them into new content faster. For more information on this, check the news forum.

Watch out for a new update comming soon with some brand new content in it. I dont want to spoil the supprise, but it involves a group of NPC's that have been in the module for some time but never really had much of a place of their own, a history, or much involvement other than being there to kill! Comming soon!

Thats about it for this week. Catch you all, same place, same time (ish!), next week.

DM Dave.

18-7-2005 | Weekly Update No 10

Things have remained very busy for the team this week, especially Dave it seems who has barely had chance to come online at all!!

However, I am back from a really un-fun 18 day work trip and am just getting back into the swing of things, starting by reformatting my PC due to some nasty issues with performance which nobody could track down. So currently we are without a test server but it should be back online soon.

That's just as well really, because on the development side Cyberglum has been doing some excellent work on some new content which will be included in the next release. So look out for that!

On the server side, DM Dirion has arranged a campaign party, for whom he will run regular events which take them step-by-step through the module with a big emphasis on plot. If you wish to take part then check the details in the forums, but be aware that it has been very popular and spaces are limited so you may have to wait for the current campaign to end and a new one to begin.

Well thats about it for this week. Happy hunting!!

Orion.

4-7-2005 | Weekly Update No. 9

Well, as you may be able to tell by the fact I missed last weeks update, things have been a little hectic recently. I've been working 6 days a week at work (the pub in Edinburgh Station, so we've been getting all the protesters comming through), plus looking after a flatmate with appendicitus...

On the Three Towns front, not a huge amount has happened. Orion is away with work and due to being very busy, I've not managed to get the new DM appointments sorted out yet (appologies to the applicants who are still waiting for that).

Hopefully things will calm down a little soon, and then there'll be more to tell you all about!

DM Dave.

18-6-2005 | Weekly Update No. 7

This week we've started running the DM Trial Events. They've gone very well so far, with players and DM's alike enjoying them. We should have all the trials done by the end of next week, and be making a decision on some new DM's to join the team. Stay tuned for that news when it comes!

On a more personal note, some of you may know that I've recently had exams at Uni (end of 3rd year, count for 50% of my final degree), and this week I've got the results back... Generally good news, with an average of 64%, which may go up a little as they moderate all the final marks. This is a good base for next year (final year), heading towards a 2:1 or possibly a 1st if I do well. Yey!

Thats about it for this week. As usual, we have new updates in the works, but nothing major to announce on that front at the moment. Keep watching both here and the Test Server forum for details on patches and updates.

DM Dave.

15-6-2005 | New Bioware Patch

3T has now updated to the new 1.66 bioware patch for NWN. All players will need to update as well in order to play.

WARNING! The auto-updater will most likely try to download a 4.4mb patch from infogames first. This patch will not work, but the updater will detect this and try again. It may try several times to download this patch - just let it continue, and eventually it will try a different site, and get the correct 19.7mb patch and install it with no problems.

Dont give up - just let it run until it works.

The 3T Team.

12-6-2005 | Weekly Update No. 6

Six weeks? My, how time flies...

This week has been fairly quiet. We have an announcement about our sister server - the World of Meros (see the news announcement below, or the news forum).

The new DM's are settling in nicely, although due to a full server and the difficulties of logging on, the DM coverage may still be a little thin, at least until the next bioware patch comes out. Once that happens, DM's will be able to log in even when the server is full, which will be a major bonus!

The current DM applicants should be starting their trials this week. We've had some timing problems which has delayed this, but we should get it under way shortly.

There is also a new update in the works, which (amongst other things) re-introduces the random encounters system that has been missing from 3T for quite some time. For anyone who doesnt remember this system, its our way of representing distance between areas. Instead of going down the route of some servers, and having several empty, useless areas between locations that are some distance appart, we had a system that has a chance of an encounter between these areas. If your journey between the areas is uneventful, it passes immediatly, but theres a chance you may encounter enemies during your journey. This system was updated a while back, but had some major problems we were unable to solve. Now, thanks to the efforts of the Development team, we have a new system ready to go live. Check the test server forum for the current details before the update goes live.

Thats it for this week.

DM Dave.

12-6-2005 | The World of Meros

As some people may know (and many people may not), Three Towns has a sister server. A while back, a couple of players from 3T decided to try their hand at creating a Persitent World of their own. They worked long and hard, and are nearing completion of the "World of Meros". During the creation of their world, we worked with them on a couple of systems, giving them some pointers and tips to ease the huge task of creating a persistent world from scratch. We've kept in close contact with them, and have agreed to keep a close relationship between the two servers. You'll find a link to their website appearing on ours shortly, and we'll be announcing any major news updates they have.

So, here is a major news update!

The World of Meros is having a beta-launch, starting on the 22nd June. They will be opening up the world, with limited player slots, for people to come, take a look around and check things out. For more information on the beta or the World of Meros in general, check out their website at:

http://www.infinitechlabs.com/meros/

We wish them all the best with their launch, and will let people know of any developments that arrise.

The Three Towns Team

7-6-2005 | Weekly Update No.5

Oops - bit late this week...

Not a huge amount to report this week really. Our new DM's continue to settle in well and learn all the wierd bits of the DM Client. The Development team continue to work on fixes and updates - they've just released an update including 2 brand new quests and one completely re-vamped quest, with more to come in the near future.

The current DM applicants are preparing to run their Trial Events, so keep an eye out for that.

Not a lot else really, so that'll do for this week.

DM Dave.

29-5-2005 | Weekly Update No 4

Wow, 4 weeks already? I'm sure I must be doing more than one of these a week...

OK, this week, I have been mostly eating... Strawberry Blancmange! (Sorry, old joke most people wont get.)

This week, we are pleased to welcome four new members of staff to the DM Team! Radu, Kal-El, Dirion and Oby are recieving their DM training as we speak, and you may see them online, helping out players, running events and so on. We will be taking on an additional 3 or 4 new DM's in a couple of weeks, which will give us a nice, big DM Team, allowing near constant DM coverage online.

We've also had a couple of new updates from the Development Team, as they continue their daily wrestling with bugs and issues, their quest for improved and additional content, and their persuit of the ultimate aim - well, more fun...

Thats all for this time. I'll see you next week, only on the 3T News Update!

DM Dave

and appologies - I was in a slightly odd mood when I wrote this...

27-5-2005 | New DM Team Members

We are pleased to announce that we have four new members of the DM Team. Dirion Scrab, Kal-El Manypints, Radu Elm and Obyvatel are joining the DM Team, and will be trained up over the next week. If you see them online, do say "Hi" to them!

If you have a question or a problem for a DM, and one of the new DM's responds, then please bear with them. They may not know the answer to your questions and may have to get back to you, or pass the matter on. Please be patient while they get to grips with DM'ing on Three Towns.

We are planning to add an additional three or four DM's in a couple of weeks, and the selection process for that is under way. We will shortly be having a number of trial events, run by DM applicants. Watch out for these, as they are always good fun!

The DM Team

21-5-2005 | Weekly Update No. 3

Whats been going on this week?

DM Applications are now in and the deadline reached. Those people who applied will be getting details from me (probably later today) regarding the selection process. Its likely that players may see trial DM's online shortly - please be nice to them! I hope to have final selections completed as soon as possible, but it will take a little while to sort through the applicants and make decisions.

The Design Team are also recuiting. Anyone interested in joining the Design Team (they'll be looking at plot, new area set ideas, feature ideas and so on) should e-mail Riandor at 3townsdesign@gmail.com. Please see the post in the General Forum for the information on what to incude in your e-mail.

As for what I've been up to this week: I have a new summer job, working as a supervisor in a Bar here in Edinburgh. Working three days a week, so it wont take up too much 3T time, and the money is always nice!

If anyone has any (3T related) news they would like released in one of these weekly updates, then just drop me an e-mail at D.S.Clegg@sms.ed.ac.uk and I'll drop it into the next update.

Thats all for this week!

DM Dave.

15-5-2005 | Racial Abuse

Racial abuse of ANY kind will not be tolerated on Three Towns.

Last night, a player decided it would be a good idea to start shouting racial abuse. This player has now been BANNED from 3T. There is no excuse, no reason and no justification for any racial abuse, ever. It will not be tolerated here on 3T.

The 3T Team.

14-5-2005 | Weekly Update No. 2

Well, its been a fun week.

We have a new Developer on the team! Cyberglum was successful in his application, and will be thrown directly into the deep end of bug fixes, dodgy bioware code and hair-pulling frustration when things just dont work! We are sure he'll cope well...

For me, exams culminated this week, with 4 exams over 5 days (which was nice...). It was a week filled with no sleep, lots of revision and far too many early mornings. At least its now over, and I can start working on the important things, like 3T, rather than degrees.

Orion has returned from his work trip to the US. He described it as "drink, drink, work, drink, food, drink... Oh, and a trip to Yellowstone park. Where we drank". Sounds like a good trip to me!

We are currently taking applications for both DM and Design posts. See the forums for more info on that.

Online, the temporary truce between Exile, the Guardian Guild and the Church of Donblas was shattered with spectacular fights breaking out all across the lands. Once again, we are back to a full state of war. Non-affiliated travelers should be wary when approaching Fer, the Church or the Exile caves.

Thats about it for this week.

DM Dave

14-5-2005 | New Developer

We have a new Developer joining the team! After a very tough selection process, we have appointed Cyberglum to the Development team, and will be getting started in his new role in the next couple of days.

You may see him online as a DM, but please bear in mind he is being thrown in at the deep end, and may not be able to help players with problems requiring DM assistance.

The 3T Team

9-5-2005 | Weekly Update No. 1

OK, first one! Its not really been a week - more like a couple of days since I announced these updates, so theres not a lot to put in this one.

The staff are still very busy with RL stuff, like work and exams, but we are starting to see some light at the end of the tunnel - a little way off, but definatly there!

Speaking of exams, I'm at 5 down, 4 to go, with one of those 4 in about two hours... The other three are all clustered at the end of the week. This means that come Saturday, I'll officially be finished exams! Yey! I'm likely to be doing very little over the weekend other than sleeping, but after that I'll start on 3T stuff, get the ball rolling a bit again.

DM Applications have been comming in - just a reminder that if you, or anyone you know, is interested in a DM post, you need to get your application e-mail in to me (D.S.Clegg@sms.ed.ac.uk) by the 20th May. Applications recieved after that will most likely not be concidered. If you want a go at being a DM, drop me an application!

Thats all for this week. Next update will be during the weekend: Expect end of exams joy, plus possibly a report on Orions Trip to the US...

DM Dave.

6-5-2005 | Weekly News Updates

The 3T news page has been fairly under-used recently. In an effort to change that, and to keep players and fans updated, I'll be adding a weekly news summary to this page, usually over the weekend.

The summary will cover activities of the team, current developments, hot topics of discussion on the forums and any other news items that arise during the week. Special announcements will be made seperately, but the weekly news summary should help to keep everyone updated on whats going on.

If anyone has any item they would like added to the news summary, they should e-mail me (DM Dave) at D.S.Clegg@sms.ed.ac.uk. News items could be updates on hot topics on the forums, guild news, information on events players are planning to run, news on new developments for NWN, or NWN2, or anything else you would like to share with the other players. I'll reserve right of veto on any item that is not suitable or relevant, but I'll try to include everything I can.

DM Dave.

6-5-2005 | The DM Team are recruiting!

With the departure of a couple of members of the team recently, and the team restructure, that saw two of our DM's moved to the new Design Team, we now have several openings on the DM team.

Applications for DM positions are now being accepted. If you would like to apply, or would like more information, then please see the News Forum, or e-mail DM Dave at D.S.Clegg@sms.ed.ac.uk. Applications must be recieved by the 20th May.

The news forum, and the main website news page will be updated with any further relevant information. If you have any questions or queries, please feel free to e-mail Dave at the above address.

The DM Team.

5-5-2005 | Departure of DM Zaspath

After an extremely long time as a prominent member of the Three Towns Team, and due to various Real Life commitments, DM Zaspath has decided to take his leave of the Team.

We are all very sorry to see him go. He has been a valued member of the team for a very long time.

We wish him the very best for the future, in all he does. He will be sorely missed.

The 3T Team

27-4-2005 | No news is good news!

During this very busy time of year for many people, work on Three Towns tends to take a bit of a back seat. However, do not fear! Many things are in the works, big plans are ahead and things will start happening again shortly!

Watch this space!

The 3T Team

15-4-2005 | Old Character Clearout

We have performed a cleanout of old characters - that is characters not modified this year.

If you find a character you wanted to keep is missing from your vault, then please contact DM Dave (D.S.Clegg@sms.ed.ac.uk) to have it replaced. Removed characters will be kept for a maximum of one month.

The 3T Team.

27-3-2005 | The Development Team is Recruiting!!

With the departure of Nadriel from the Development team, we now have a position for a content Developer on 3T.

The position would involve working on most aspects of the module, including new areas, creatures, quests, coding systems, merchants and items. Fixing bugs is a neverending (and sometimes frustrating) job and a time consuming but important part of being a 3T Developer.

If you might be interested, check out the news forum for more details.


Orion.

26-3-2005 | Problems with being Booted?

Recently several players have had problems with being booted automatically from 3T when attempting to log in. We believe we have now found the source of this problem, and we can fix it.

The issue was to do with the 3T security checking system, that attempts to match CD keys and IP addresses to saved entries before allowing people to play. The players effected by the booting problem usually have either dynamic IP addresses, or play from more than one location, with different CD keys.

If you, or one of your friends, has had a problem with logging into 3T and being booted, please contact either DM Dave, or DM Orion (contact details are on the Staff page) and we can get it sorted out for you. Appologies for the inconvenience suffered.

For more information, either contact DM Dave or DM Orion, or check the Forums (http://www.trustinginthefuture.com/3towns/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=1872).

The 3T Team.

23-3-2005 | Nadriel

Due to real life commitments, Nadriel has come to the conclusion that he longer has the time to commit himself to developing 3T. For this reason he has come to the difficult decision to step down as a Developer, at least for the timebeing. We wish him all the best for the future, The DM Team.

8-3-2005 | Character Vault Cleanout Postponed

Due to a combination of extreme lack of free time on my part, and a huge number of old characters needing to be removed, I've decided to postpone the vault cleanout.

The main problem is that characters have to be deleted from both the vault and the database, and at the moment there is no way to order the database entries in terms of when a character was last used. This would mean that every character that needed to be removed would have to be searched for individually. As at first glance there are over 8000 characters in the vault, about 3500 of which are old enough to be removed, doing this manually (finding and removing 3500 characters from the database) is likely to take several days...

The next 3T update, however, adds a "last logged in" field to each character in the database, meaning they can be sorted by how long ago they were used. This means that once sufficient time has passed, I will be able to search the vault for old characters, remove them, then order the database and remove the matching characters all at once, turning a several-day job into a 20 minute job at most.

So, 1 month from the release of the next 3T update (702b), I will perform the vault cleanout. I'll remind people again close to the time as well.

DM Dave.

6-3-2005 | Team Meeting

After a highly productive 3T Team Meeting at the end of Feb, a number of things have been sorted out and decided upon, one of the most important of which is a new structure for the Three Towns Team.

The Team will now consist of three sub-teams:
The DM Team, who deal with things that go on online, events, player questions and problems, and so on.
The Design Team, who look at the plot, NPC's, quests areas and so on, with the aim of bringing the module into a coheasive world, and comming up with ideas and plans for future content.
The Dev Team, who take care of the nuts and bolts of the world - fixing bugs, implimenting areas and creatures and so on.

More details about the new structure can be found on the News Forum. Additional news from the Team Meeting will be released once it has final aproval from the members of the team who could not make the meeting. Watch out for more anouncements in the News Forum!

The 3T Team.

11-2-2005 | Character Vault Cleanout

As there are well over 6000 characters saved on the 3T server, its about time for a bit of spring cleaning.

At the end of the month, any character that has not been used for a month will be removed from the vault and database. If anyone has old characters they want to keep, they should log them into the server and rest - this will re-save the character file.

See the post in the General Forum for more info on this.

The 3T Team.

2-2-2005 | Work Goes On!

The past month or so have been relatively quiet on the Three Towns front. While work still goes on - bug updates, new content development, etc, forum discussions remain lively and players continue to play. I guess you could say its work as usual!

However, all sorts of things are currently under discussion - alterations to the classes, changes in the guild systems, new content in both epics and non-epics, a new server and much much more. We have a staff meeting at the end of Febuary to discuss some of these issues in more depth - if you have any comments or suggestions, then please do make them known either on the forums, or via e-mail.

In the mean time, sit back, enjoy 3T and watch this space for upcomming news!

The 3T Team.

21-1-2005 | Dedicated Voicechat server.

Three Towns now has its own dedicated Ventrilo voicechat server for use by any players who wish to make use of it.
To use it, simply download Ventrilo from http://www.ventrilo.com/download.php. The Ventrilo server uses the same IP address as the NWN server - 217.158.246.33. At present there are no passwords set on any part of it other than the DM channel, it is fairly simple to set up and access.
Check the forums for more details.

2-1-2005 | Happy New Year!

Hope you all had a smashing new year. With the server at an almost constant 50/50 3T is as popular as ever. As the DM team return from their holidays we hope to get a number of events rolling and the developers are also buried in new content, systems and items. It's an exciting time to be in 3T. The rules section has had an overhaul with clarifications and siplifications of the rules. Please take a moment to look over these. Any questions please feel free to ask. The 3T Team

22-12-2004 | Happy Christmas!

As the festive season is well and truly upon us, and christmas just around the corner, we here at The Three Towns would like to wish everyone - our players, fellow team members, visitors, etc - a very happy christmas!

We have much planned for the new year. Asside from the usual bug fixes, we have new content, enhancements, ideas and more! 3T has its 2 year anniversary of moving to the UK on the 10th of January, which will be fun. We have a new 12 month contract on our connection comming up, guarenteeing 3T will continue to have fast internet access, and we even have plans for a second server! Lots to look forward to!

So, have a happy, safe christmas, and a great new year!

The 3T Team

13-12-2004 | NWN Update to v1.65

Following its release, the Three Towns has been updated to NWN version 1.65. In order to play 3T, you will need to update your own version.

The 3T Team

19-11-2004 | Updates, Bug Fixes and More!

Since the release of Three Towns v7, we have seen a huge increase in the number of players online, resulting in Three Towns being completely full much of the time. Even with an expanded player limit (now up to 50 players can play at once) we still cant fit everyone online! This is a remarkable achievement, and we thank all of our players for their loyalty and dedication to the Three Towns.

Over the last couple of weeks, we have been working hard on a number of bug fixes and corrections for version 7. Its been hard work, but we feel we are now getting on top of the current crop of bugs. Our attention soon may be turning more towards other updates - enhancements, tweaks and additional content. Watch this space!

As we approach both the festive period, and the second anniversary of Three Towns moving to the UK, its a very exciting time. We have so much planned, so many new things to add or enhance - its a great time to be involved with The Three Towns!

The 3T Team.

19-10-2004 | Three Towns Version 7 Goes Live!

Version 7 of the Three Towns is now live, online. After a weekend of gradually introducing players via a password system, the server is now un-passworded and open to the public.

The Team are very happy to see so many people playing, and enjoying this new version of the Three Towns, and the world is proving to be very populour. Much of the time the server is running at, or near, capacity, which can make it difficult for players to manage to log on. We are looking at possible options for helping with this, including the possibility of a lobby room where players can join to wait for a slot to become available with an automatic queue setup.

However, in the mean time, please dont be discouraged if you cant get onto the Three Towns. Slots do open up fairly often, so its just a case of a little patience.

See you all online!

The 3T Team

15-10-2004 | New Staff Positions Available

The Three Towns Team are looking for one or two new Developers to join the team. If you are interested in a highly enjoyable and rewarding job with The Three Towns, then this is your chance!

For all of the details, please log into the forums, and check out the topic in the News Forum.

The 3T Team

13-10-2004 | Version 7 Release Date!

Well, finally the time has come. We can now reveal the official version 7 release date.

Here is the plan:
- Friday 15th Oct: Everyone who wants to come say goodbye to their beloved characters can pile onto the server. We will likely be setting up some mass PvP or other such fun and destructive events.
- Saturday 16th Oct: 3T v6 goes offline. We then work as fast as we can to update the server, the background systems and the module. Once that is done, v7 will go online. We do not know how long this will take - hopefully v7 will be up on Saturday night, but it may take longer.
- Monday 18th Oct: 3T v7 will be up by Monday night at the latest. The fun commences. During this week we will be running multiple DM events and the like.

So, as you can see, the launch of version 7 is only days away. We are all very excited, and we look forward to seeing you all on a new, updated 3T very soon.

The 3T Team

3-10-2004 | Version 7 release date

A lot of people have been asking what the story is on a release date for version 7. We thought we would let you all know the answer we have given to those that have asked:

Soon!

Sorry we cant be more specific than that at the moment, but there are still a few things left to finish off, and some final testing left to do. Hopefully we are looking at a mid-October release, but until we are sure, we dont want to give out a date and then not be able to make it.

So, as soon as we have a definate date, we will let everyone know. We are planning a news item, here on the 3T website, a large forum post, a notice on the v6 server, e-mails sent out to all registered forum members and, if we can manage it, news items posted on NWVault, the bioware forums and anywhere else we can get one!

The 3T Team

26-9-2004 | Why has there not been any new update?

Well as you may have heard we are working on a big new version, nicknamed v7. The work primarly means a change in the underlying database that 3T uses which means a lot of work. So we are trying to get it done, get it tested and do a large amount of "fixes" that the game world has needed for quite some time.

To see more check out our "in testing" page and prepare for a shock :)

Scytale

15-9-2004 | DM Harlequin

DM Harlequin, Andy, has been absent from 3T for some time now, due to personal reasons. He has decided that as he currently does not have the time to spend on 3T, it would be in the best interests of all for him to step down from the team.

We wish him all the best for the future, and hope to see him around soon.

The DM Team

7-9-2004 | Forum update

I have done some minor changes to our forums (one of the joy of having it in a programming language I understand). I have added "active members" at the bottom so you can see who is online. Also the post count now correct, so you can start earning those stars. Finally a little icon in the topics themselves will show you which posts are new.

I hope this gets rid of some of the initial annoyances.

Scytale

7-9-2004 | v7 continues

The work for v7 continues with the latest patches going out onto the test server. At the moment it looks like the vast amount of work for the existing areas is almost complete, with testing and bug fixing happening.

We are still working on a new loot script and extensive work going into the new areas on the other side of Harata (the 25+ areas).

Taking the break between versions has been exceedingly rewarding and a few major changes to the 3T engine could not of been possible without it. A big thank you to all our players in the patience that they have.

The DM Team

25-8-2004 | NWN2 is announced

Well news is just out and the web site is up. The company responsible for the Star Wars game is also doing NWN2. Check out the web site: NWN 2

Scytale

5-8-2004 | New CPU and memory

As some might remember we have been running on a 1800 AMD ever since the catastrophy of installing the machine into the data center. So we are back up to standard again. Well this afternoon I finally found some free time to do the server upgrades.

This afternoon we installed the new CPU which is now an AMD 3000+ and another 512Mb ram. So essentially we doubled the speed and memory of the box.

Have fun all,

Scytale

5-8-2004 | Gem list is back

The FAQ once more contains the Gem list. Thank Obvytal who put it up there :)

DM Team

2-8-2004 | Test server 700d

Well things have been quite on the news here but lots has been happening behind the scenes. One the down side some of the team have been pretty busy. Dave has had exams and Scytale has a dissertation to write. In all this they still manage to keep those versions coming out.

This weekend saw another beta release for v7, 700d. If you choose the "in testing" option on the left you can see just how much is being done.

The new v7 not only has a lot of new areas for the final 25-30 but also a number of the old areas have been given a face lift. Mainly due to the fact that they were a little too hastily done in the first place.

A few big changes under the hood has brought in some things players might not notice, like NWNX but also some fun stuff. Guilds have been overhauled and look like the are decently working. Plus merchants now all use appraise, charisma and persuade, as well as intimidate starting to play a role.

If exploration was not enough for you, the number of quests has jumped from around 15 to around 40. Taverns see a large role as the place to start your adventuring. Plus beautiful little things like persistant mail just adding to the game

All in all pretty exciting and we cannot wait to see how it all turns out.

The DM Team

12-7-2004 | Web site is working once more

The web site is now finally working properly. Just remember to allow cookies and the log in process should be nice and smooth. Once the DM team are settled in we will look to move over.

In the meantime, feel free to register and look around.

The DM Team

11-7-2004 | New web site

Well the new web site is up but there are still some issues with the forums. Please do not bother registering or posting as we will be moving the database over shortly. This will mean the loss of all forums/member information

DM Team

9-6-2004 | Personalized Items Auction

There will be an auction held for personalized items - unique appearance, name and description will be permitted for the top five bidders. Check the news forum for more details, or contact Orion in game or on msn.
Orion

2-6-2004 | No news is good news

Well Dave and Scytale are currently deep in the middle of their exams, so everything has go a little quiet for the moment. We are wishing the best of luck and hoping for some big things to happen afterwards

DM Team

3-5-2004 | Three Towns version 7

After about a year and a half of constant development and additions to 3T, its getting a little long in the tooth - bugs start to creep in, old code and new code dont quite match up all the time and some older areas and systems are in need of some attention.

We have therefore decided to announce the development of The Three Towns version 7. Version 7 will include many changes and improvements - in essence, we are stipping down the module, re-writing any of the base code that needs it, then re-building everything back on-top, making improvments and additions as we go. Whist not actually being a complete re-write of 3T, thats the easiest way of describing what we are going to do.

This will be a lot of work, and will take quite some time. To help us concentrate on v7, we are stopping all updates to the current online version of 3T (v6xx) appart from occasional bug fixes for major problems. 3T v6xx will remain online until v7 is complete and fully tested. When v7 is ready (we hope sometime mid-summer to early autumn) the server will come down, v6xx will be removed, a full vault and database wipe will be done, and v7 will be set up and brought online.

As the opportunity to change/improve/add to 3T to this extent doesnt happen often (well, its never happened before, and we hope it wont be needed again), we are inviting players to give us their ideas and suggestions for 3T v7. Something you would like to see in the new version? Something you think would be better if it was changed? Let us know! You can either visit the forums (see the link at the top left of the page) and post your suggestions there, or you can e-mail us directly at "thethreetowns@hotmail.com". All suggestions will be concidered!

We have a lot of work ahead of us. We hope we can count on the support of the players in this endevour.

The 3T Team

20-4-2004 | Back from Easter holidays

We are back from Easter holidays and there is a load of work to be done. We have a long bug list that we will be doing our best to work through to work. Also plans to expand quests and epic areas will keep us busy.

DM Team

2-4-2004 | Web site problems

We have sadly had a problem with our web site server. The database was lost and as such we lost about 2 months information.

This meant we lost both the Quest competition and the FAQ. These are both now back online.

I would appeal to anyone that downloaded pages from the FAQ to PLEASE send them to us! Only that way can we put them back into the system.

DM Team

24-3-2004 | We are back!

The server installed, back up and we are praying that it holds stable. The new IP address can be found under ::server status::

DM Team

18-3-2004 | Server Update

We have encountered non-stop problems in moving the server into its new home. For the latest updates as to the state of the server, please see the New forum, see Forums above.

Rest assured we will be back up as soon as we have the problems fixed

DM Team

11-1-2004 | Developer position

We would like to welcome Nadriel to the DM team. Nadriel joins Dave and Scytale on the development side. He will be helping to clear some of the mountain of work that is planned for the server. This is part of the work all going to be done for bringing HotU to the server.

The DM Team

11-1-2004 | New version 609a

New version has a whole of new features: