Testbed Server
 

It's pretty common for old scripters from Graal to return and be completely lost in the new scripting language. It's also common for people who want to learn how to script to not have the proper resources.

I think we can really boost the scripter pool by providing a 'test' server for scripters to practice their skills and mess around on. It would need to be moderated by trusted scripters who can act professional. That's not my concern though:

- There would be inherit security risks with giving a bunch of scripters rights on a server, but can you think of anyone really abusing GS2? Generally scripters just want a place to script. Not abuse.

- I know this has been discussed before, but what if we actually do it? Do you have suggestions on how it should be run? Each scripter would get their own folder and then perhaps we could have a DBNPC monitor levels so that scripters can have 'private' levels if necessary?


Does anyone have any other suggestions/ideas? If we could expand this out of just scripting it would be great, a 'Developer Testing Server' for even level makers and graphics people to test their work. There would have to be certain rules on this server too in order to protect uploaded content so people can't steal it for their own server, etc.

I think it's time we try to improve the Graal developer pool. What do you guys say?

I did this with Developers Circle, but sadly it didn't garner enough attention to keep it actively used, so the owner took it back.

I agree, this would be a great way for new scripters to learn. Would be best if it was official, so that Stefan could adjust the server to give access to everyone and give them rights automatically. I don't know if he'd be willing to do that, however.

You'd also have problems with people abusing things like destroy(). For example, findWeapon( "Tigairius/WeaponIWorkedHardOn" ).destroy() which would delete that weapon. That would probably have to be fixed, likely by Stefan.

That's kind of what I figured would happen with this server, which is why I'm putting it here to see if it's even worth the time.

Yes, that's also very true, I already figured we'd need to get Stefan involved.

It would be a great idea, if you could get Stefan and Unixmad to agree on Lifetime subscribers being able to access it, too. :p

I agree.

It's pretty obvious that if we wanted this to be a successful idea the GServer would need to be customized. However, if everyone could have access to it then it could be a great way for developers to team up and meet each other. It could only improve the quality of Graal.

When I had the idea I did think of a lot of reasons this wouldn't work.

Abusing it is the biggest one we would have to deal with...

But for now let's just DO IT. We can find trustworthy people to manage it and if somebody abuses their access we remove it.

Let's just do it and get some momentum.

NOW!

Inverness agrees. And you can prevent a simple serverside destroy in a weapon by defining destroy().

But, who would manage the server though?

Global Scripting Team and PWA along with a few other trusted developers.

Sounds good.

great!

so, we are getting a server or is it going to be a player owner server?

We can start small for now though, if we can get a server to start it on we can get this started. It was Houdini's idea to begin with, so he'll be helping manage it and then we'll build from there.

We need to find means of a server though. We'll get it started ASAP instead of sitting around talking about it. At first you'll need to let us know that you want an RC there, then you can have it. Maybe in the future it can be such a large server that everyone can automatically have their own little 'corner' to themselves without even having to ask.

Yeah, but it would be ideal if Stefan could simply disable that on the testbed server, since this is for, after all, new scripters, who may not know this. I didn't know it, either :p

I like this idea. Plus, I get asked a lot of questions, and it would be nice to have a special place to help people directly with their scripts.