Latest Neocron News and Information

Last week I said I would post up what I have planned for the THN in the future, so here is a rough plan. Why a rough plan, well for many reasons. The main reason is trying to keep the THN in step with what the NST is doing to Neocron. Also this list isn't an exact order. If you are expecting timescales, I'm not going to give any exact times.

Items DB - As some of you know, the NST are changing the implants and armour on the Neocron test server, which will mean a massive update to the items DB. A rewrite from scratch is in progress, and a few people have did a little bit of testing. Some of the main changes include moving the whole Items DB to it's own domain and decoupling it completely from the CMS system that runs the THN main site. Also registered users will be able to submit item updates. A more detailed post will be posted soon hopefully with a URL for you to try and visit.

The THN Wiki - One of the main problems with the wiki is having to register to use it when you already have a THN login to the Rares DB and the THN forums.  Also it will get an upgrade to the latest wiki software and also changes to various integrations to the THN and NC.

The THN main website - The CMS software and version is pretty old and it does need replacing, but it isn't an easy job due to the Items DB being part of the CMS. Once the Items DB has been replaced, we can look at moving to a new CMS/Publishing solution. Before then, we do need some articles moving off which belong in the NC wiki, so expect to see requests for help updating articles over the coming months.

Other bits - The Rares DB will get an upgrade along with the forum system. However these are low priority projects.

Got any questions, feel free to ask on our Facebook page or start a thread in the THN forums or the NC forums .

The THN will be offline between 19:00 and 21:00 BST on Wednesday 14th May so the THN website can be moved back to it's normal home server.

For those who are not aware, the normal server used to host the THN suffered a disk failure in the RAID 1 mirror, and the THN has been temporarily hosted on a different VPS. The failed disk has now been replaced.

None of the THN will be accessible during this downtime while the DB's are backed up and data transferred back to the home server. The DNS records will be updated during this time, which should refresh after an hour. However some users may find their DNS records not refreshing sooner and will be advised to flush their DNS.

For upto the minute updates, follow @techhaven on Twitter. 

Update: 14th May 21:05BST - Transfer done! 

After the recent HD failure on our usual THN server, we are back on a new temporary server. More details in another post a little later.

However if you find any issues with the THN please report issues in this NC Forums Thread , the THN Forums , or Facebook page...or tweet us!

Thanks for all the messages of support, help etc and we do apologise for the downtime.

Everyone here at the THN would like to wish all our Neocron runners and member a very Merry Christmas.

And how about this for a Christmas Present?! A Dev update from the Neocron Support Team and it's Double XP!

Have you ever had to click through the whole of your GenRep list to find an open outpost?

Or have you travelled to an outpost, only to find it is locked down so there is no outpost bonus?

Those days are over...

Thanks to the information available from the Neocron API, the Tech Haven Network brings you the Outpost Travel Adviser.  You tell it a little about your runner and the Outpost Travel Adviser will tell you which outposts are open. If you require a specific outpost bonus, it will tell you which outposts are open and giving the bonus you require.

The outpost travel adviser is available for everyone to use on the Stats DB. Any bugs or issues, please report them on the THN Forums.

A few weeks ago, we upgraded our forums, and now thought it was time to tell you about our new THN forums.

Our rather old and highly customised forums have now been upgraded to run on phpBB3. This project was planned to be done back in 2008. For various reasons the project has been delayed so I hope no-one minds this project being 5 years late. ;)

However we would like you to tell us what you think of the new forums, so we wouldn't mind some feedback in this thread.

Finally I would like to thank everyone over at the Phoenix Forums for testing the new code and skin, and also a big thanks to nEo-1664 who did a lot of the hard work in getting the new skin for the forums sorted. 

The Rares DB is now back online.

As the THN authenication has been upgraded, before you can login to the Rares DB, you will need to upgrade your password. You can do this by logging into the THN Forums first . Once this is done you can log back into the rares DB again.

This step only needs to be done once. Any bugs or issues, please report them in the forums.

Update 19:22BST 20/6/2013  - Due to the downtime of the Neocron servers we have decided to bring forward the downtime while it's quiet. Updates at the end of this post.

On Saturday 22nd June to Sunday 23rd June, we are undertaking a major upgrade to the THN. The forums are being migrated to a new more up-to-date forum software. This upgrade will affect access to the Rares DB.

During the upgrades, the THN forums and the Rares DB will not be available. We apologise for the inconvenience caused.

The Item DB, Wiki and Stats DB will be available as normal during this planned downtime.

The work is expected to start at 10:00BST and is expected to last most of the weekend.

Any updates will be posted here in this post, and also on Twitter.

Updates

19:22 - Downtime brought forward, updates happening tonight.
19:37 - THN forums and Rares DB offline. Waiting for backups to complete.
19:58 - Backups done...now for the forum conversion and upgrades.
20:12 - Conversion in progress...
20:22 - Converted. Testing..(Brammers pretending that he's not getting a beer in at this point)
20:27 - Aperture Labs have completed testing. Forums should be back to full working capacity
22:19 - The forums are back online. The Rares DB will remain offline until Friday Evening/Saturday Morning. We are happy with the upgrade work so far, so we would like to relax a little and play some Neocron. ;)

Any problems found with the forums, then please use the following forum.

14:15 22nd June - The rares DB has been upgraded and is now backonline. All upgrade work is now complete.

Today I did a cleanup of the User pages within the THN Neocron Wiki . I have removed any empty pages within the UserTalk namespace or the User namespace. Only pages that had a few edit on them with messages on the lines of “Welcome to the wiki” have been removed, and nothing of value has been lost.

However you may have received an email to say the page has been changed, and when you click to view the page, you get a message saying the page is missing. You can safely ignore this email and my apologies for the emails being sent.

If you want to view the deleted pages, you can by login into the wiki and going to your user page. The link to view or restore deleted pages will be there, and you can choose to restore them if you want.

Thanks goes to wiki user Ashrid for flagging up the emails being sent. Any questions or issues leave a message on my Talk Page.