1. Why have you kept the project a secret?
2. So who is on this project?
3. Has your project shifted goals?
4. What about the code? Do you have to start all over again?
5. We recently heard that it may be required to charge for the game. Is this true?
6. Will we have to download a new client?
7. Will our forum accounts be the same as our game account?
8. Which mapset will be used?
9. Does this mean the project has been open sourced?
10. The other project recently made some controversial changes and announced that it would be a regular occurrence. What take does this project have?
11. How can I help with this project?
1. Why have you kept the project a secret?
The project was kept from the community initially to allow us to piece together our team and to continue working on the game while our community assets and staff members were rebuilt to a point that we could facilitate your needs as a community.
2. So who is on this project?
Please refer to the
updated SBEmu team roster for the most current list of team members. What you will notice is that many of the old team members have rejoined us, including Claymore, Daymar, and RichV.
3. Has your project shifted goals?
No, our goals remain the same as outlined in the original FAQ, found below. We remain dedicated to communicating with the community, the goals outlined in the FAQ and the resurrection of Shadowbane.
4. What about the code? Do you have to start all over again?
No. We have ensured that when we started this project that we had an updated copy of everything in the old SVN. We have not lost any of the code by the forming this project.
5. We recently heard that it may be required to charge for the game. Is this true?
No, it will be free to play. However further down the road we may accept donations to help with server costs, as to be expected. At no point will it cost to have access to our servers and at no point will we be selling any form of power in the game.
6. Will we have to download a new client?
No. However you will need to change some text within a text file to gain access to our servers when it is required. More info on this when it is more pertinent.
7. Will our forum accounts be the same as our game account?
Undetermined at this time. We will update this as soon as soon as possible!
8. Which mapset will be used?
This is also undetermined as of yet. We have the ability to use Dalgoth, Aerynth and Vorringia due to the way we set up the world. We will keep you updated and consult the community as always.
9. Does this mean the project has been open sourced?
No, however there are now two (private) instances of the code.
10. The other project recently made some controversial changes and announced that it would be a regular occurrence. What take does this project have?
As stated in the original SBEmu FAQ (found below), we will return Shadowbane to how it was originally. After Open Beta some changes may be made to ensure the health of the game, but in such a situation the community will be consulted prior to altering the game in any way.
11. How can I help with this project?
As always, we are open to applications for our various internal teams. Again, please see the original FAQ below for more info, however we may have special need for moderator applications.
Original SBEmu FAQ
- What is the Shadowbane Emulator Project?
- How far along are you and when will this project be finished?
- What type of game rules will you be using? Will this emulator use a strange and broken ruleset?
- Is Shadowbane Emulator associated with Ubisoft or Stray Bullet Games?
- Will we have to pay?
- Will we have to download a new client?
- Will our forum accounts be the same as our game account?
- How many servers will there be?
- Is this project open source?
- Will this be the same Shadowbane as we left or will there be changes?
- Who is involved in the project?
- How can I help with this project?
- Will you be modifying the client or will this strictly be server side changes?
- What language, architecture, database will you be using?
- What do you plan to do about lag and sync problems?
- What do you plan to do about exploits, hacking, duping?
- What will be the system requirements for running the game?
- Will you end up nerfing my favorite class and overpowering my least favorite?
- What is SBEmu?
Shadowbane Emulator is simple in it's goals: To reverse engineer and create new server software for the now shutdown Massively Multiplayer PvP Role Playing Game Shadowbane. Definition of a server emulator.
- How far along are you and when will this project be finished?
Since we're recreating the servers from scratch and making it cooperate with the existing client, and we do not have the original server code to go off of, it is difficult to give a time estimate for when this will be done. To see periodic progress reports, check this. A
- What type of game rules will you be using? Will this emulator use a strange and broken ruleset?
We're restoring the emulator to as close to the patch 24.3 ruleset as we can get for Open Beta. That was the patch that was in use when the game was shutdown in July of 2009. The emulator will launch Open Beta fully functional with all of the features it previously had.
- Is SBEmu associated with Ubisoft or Stray Bullet Games?
No. Play to Crush is being created by people who played Shadowbane and don't want to see it die.
- Will we have to pay?
No, it will be free to play.
- Will we have to download a new client?
Not if you have the Shadowbane client up to date from when the game was shut down. If you don't, we hope that this fine community can work together to help each other out in getting a working copy. Once you have the client, all that will be required to play is setting up a game account (not yet available) and changing a few settings in the games ArcaneIP.cfg file to tell the game where our servers are at to connect to.
- Will our forum accounts be the same as our game account?
Undetermined at this time.
- How many servers will there be?
We will start with only one server and expand only as population allows.
- Is this project open source?
Not at this time. The reason for this is we do not want to fracture the community by having hundreds of servers with only a few people on each. As the Shadowbane content is player driven, it requires a good sized player base on a server.
- Will this be the same Shadowbane as we left or will there be changes?
Initially we plan to get the game back the exact same (or as close as we can get) as it was when it closed. After it is up and running, we plan to make regular updates to it.
- Who is involved in the project?
Various Shadowbane players with the skill sets needed to accomplish the task who didn't want to see the game die.
- How can I help with this project?
There are multiple teams associated with the project that you can apply for. The Design Team is in charge of accumulating existing data needed to make the game go. They will also be responsible for coming up with future changes at a later date. The Development Team are the programmers writing the server code and other tools needed to make this work. Once the game is up and running they will be responsible for implementing changes proposed by the Design Team. The Moderator Team is responsible for policing the forums, keeping it a civil and fun place for the community to discuss the emulator. The Web Developers are in charge of creating and maintaining the main website. If you don't feel you have the time or skill set to contribute to any of these teams, you can still help out by spreading the word about this project and actively promoting the community.
- Will you be modifying the client or will this strictly be server side changes?
At this time, all changes will be server side only. The initial plan is to get the game back to the same state it was in when it closed. Additionally, since we do not own the rights to the Shadowbane Client, we are bound by law to not attempt to alter the client in any way with intent to distribute.
- What language, architecture, database will you be using?
The language it is currently being written in is Java. Architecture is a complex question to answer. A simple answer would be that this is a distributed server architecture using job queuing to accomplish tasks. The database is MySQL supported by Memcached for streamlining data reads.
- What do you plan to do about lag and sync problems?
We are running a distributed server architecture (multiple physical servers make up each game server) with load balancing to help alleviate lag and sync issues. Optimizing will be taken into consideration throughout the life of the project.
- What do you plan to do about exploits, hacking, duping?
We plan to have extensive safeguards and logging to both prevent these and catch when they do happen. We realize that not all exploits can be caught and squashed instantly. However, we plan to actively update our servers to keep the game as exploit/dupe free as possible and aggressively catch and punish people who use these.
- What will be the system requirements for running the game?
The exact same requirements as before. If the client ran on your system before, it should run with the emulator.
- Will you end up nerfing my favorite class and overpowering my least favorite?
Absolutely.
