Forum permanently shut down on 13.07.2018.

  • Worst decision after the mana patch. Mods already told us that it's impossible for them to see and copy 10k's of posts, even if it's on till 2030, it's on the community - aaand GF shuts down now in two days now?


    This "Hurr, let us save some 100 MB on the servers" will lead to questions where the 3 Cyclops Stones in Dragonfang are (I just DID that search) and to folks F5'ing as hell.

    "Game improvement" will shoot back, again, grats.


    (By the way - the three stones are on the spots 9.5/32 20.7/30 25/19.5 - one is named "Kodun", one "Balen", the third is is under "Zurhidon" (one of the doubled in Dragonfang) trackable via World Search.)

    Edited 2 times, last by Two Bee ().

  • Think it's possible that that's the future home of the new server for Steam?

    If Steam attracks NewBees and they won't find quest infos of broken quests and bugs anymore on google (because the old forum with worth of 9 years of player's intel shut down), I don't think they'll leave great responses on Steam...

    All we can do is help Newbies on here with our memory.

    Either GF has NO CLUE WHATSOEVER about this game or they don't care completely/wanna get rid of it.


    If anyoneone can give me a third option, appreciated.

  • Honestly? I think this is GF's whole plan for Steam:


    1. New forums w/o "pollution"

    2. Shut down old forums so new steam players can't see the negativity that was prevalant there.

    3. Provide a server to install a new instance of RoM for steam by removing old forums server.


    What we can do to help? is to respond to newbie questions as well as we can going forward.


    ...and make use of the internet archive when necessary :)

  • ...and make use of the internet archive when necessary :)

    Which sadly cannot archive the forum.


    But I agree on the helping newbies part ;)

    The ships hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don’t.


    Douglas Adams in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

  • 1. New forums w/o "pollution"

    2. Shut down old forums so new steam players can't see the negativity that was prevalant there.

    3. Provide a server to install a new instance of RoM for steam by removing old forums server.

    The changes were made because of technical reasons (that are mostly beyond my grasp).

    With the short notice it was impossible to migrate three whole forums and merge them together.


    With all the flame threads we also loose many guides and workarounds to some obscure bugs from 2013 and the likes

    It was not the intention of GF to purge it's history before the Steam release. Indeed, we are not the only forum to get a rushed update.


    What we can do to help? is to respond to newbie questions as well as we can going forward.

    This is pretty much what we rely on, yes.


  • It was not the intention of GF to purge it's history before the Steam release

    That's what you are told to tell us. We see and comprend it, thank you.


    Kicking nine years of enthusiastic work of 100s of players daily down the drain RAPIDLY AS HELL feels different. Thank you for the official statement and no offence to you whatsoever though. :-)

  • That's what you are told to tell us. We see and comprend it, thank you.

    I guess thats not "what you are told to tell us" but actually "what you are told" - I'm pretty sure all the voluntary people working here don't know much more about GFs plans that we do.

    The ships hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don’t.


    Douglas Adams in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

  • Don't be ridiculous. Your flame wars won't stop, just because the board looks different. And we still intervene whenever we see the need of doing so. Just like in the past.


    Negative feedback? Keep it going! :) We still want to encourage you to share your feedback be it positive or negative, it doesn't matter.


    This forum merge would have happened sooner or later anyway. It's just that we've got a severe cut on the time we've got left to save these data.


    We've done everything in our free time volunteer power to copy as much as we could. If you feel the need to copy over some flame war threads, be my guest. They wouldn't last long though.

  • That's what you are told to tell us. We see and comprend it, thank you.

    I guess thats not "what you are told to tell us" but actually "what you are told" - I'm pretty sure all the voluntary people working here don't know much more about GFs plans that we do.


    I could have guessed as well, but prefered to leave it open, since I can't know. So one told "This is true" is as well told to comunicate it as one told "This is false, but tell that anyway". ;-)



    Because the board looks different? I actually like the look. Also I love the notifacations, likes for comments and the WAY better quote system I just used, tee hee. xD


    Negative feedback won't be shared on here but on Steam where GF has no influence or censor methods, that I can tell you. The rapid deliberate destruction of 9 years of 100s and 100s of hours of player's work will do their own on undecided players. Way to grow a tree with sulphuric acid because it's a little cheaper than liquid fertilizer.


    There's NOTHING I#d say against ANY forum merge you mentioned! Again not the topic. Merge fine, done in a disastrous way! There's been folks with 10ks of comments, some might been weeks to get a "forum title", all erased, then also said the thousands hours of community work that's gone now ASAP like it seems. Virtual book burnings for the win. -.-*


    I see your "we've done everything in our free time volunteer power" and believe it; I'm sorry if I gave the impression that I, IN ANY WAY, would want to touch the forum's team, that was not, and in not in the slightest, my intention. Ever. My pure distgust and disbelieve points at the [fill in loaded adjective of unintelligent doings] GF workers letting THIS pass.


    No reply needed by the way, I have read enough of you, Sarkas, to know that you know I'm right. ;-) (I'll keep it secret, no worries *shh*)

  • Merge fine, done in a disastrous way!

    I agree with that 110%. Very luckily we've had some nice players and even teamlers who were able to pull the most of it or maybe even all of it before the plug was pulled.


    Usually the boards were supposed to last a bit longer, but $things happen. There's those people being the higher ups saying if we deactivate all boards $dis_time, RoM board won't be an exception. We just were super ultra mega unlucky being one of the last boards getting merged.

  • but $things happen.

    And I agree with that one 110%!


    people being the higher ups saying if we deactivate all boards $dis_time, RoM board won't be an exception.

    With higher ups like that GF doesn't need no competing games, yo. Tsk.


    Very luckily we've had some nice players and even teamlers who were able to pull the most of it or maybe even all of it before the plug was pulled.

    Those folks deserve a forum title...

    ...IF WE STILL HAD ANY!!!


    (no rage, just a Fairly OddParents meme ^^)

  • I believe part of the reason regarding the speedy shutdown was because of General Data Protection Regulation. The old forum software was not compliant with the regulation at all (not counting the data, the actual forum software version). Keeping it up and open, even in archive state, puts the entire company at risk of fines and lawsuits.


    The reason why all the data wasn't just "merged" automatically is because some of the data was not GDPR compliant, and wading through that data one post by one post manually trying to find any sort of compliance issues was not feasible.


    Keep note that Runes of Magic is not special by any means in this regard. Several other games (at least half a dozen I believe) had the same thing. A speedy new forum and speedy shutdown of the old forum because of GDPR.

  • I believe part of the reason regarding the speedy shutdown was because of General Data Protection Regulation. The old forum software was not compliant with the regulation at all (not counting the data, the actual forum software version). Keeping it up and open, even in archive state, puts the entire company at risk of fines and lawsuits.

    Can you explain what you mean by that? GDPR is about the company's usage of personal user information, they're only allowed to collect and save data (and/or sell) what identifies the user of websites in person what is allowed by the user themself.

    There's nothing new about users sharing their personal information publically in, say, forum posts, is it? GF used and uses a data protection announcement and official, otherwise this forum wouldn't exist - nor any other run by GF.


    Do you by any chance mean the new EU Copyright Directive, especially the controversial articles 11 and 13 that forbids any usage of intellectual property? That one is still open to vote on in the EU and would mean that GF could be sued for ANY link, usage of a picture, short quotes from third parties - or "by hand" posted stuff on this forum from the old forum if it contains anything from third parties. That's so far surely not of GF's practice, since they didn't install filters for, say, youtube-links of ini or sw content now tell you forum officials to discourage user effords to copy old forum data and paste it on here.

    It would NOT be the user pasting it that would have to pay after a successful lawsuit, it would be GF allowing it.

    If that goes through by the way, this forum will be down in a minute, let's hope. ^^

  • Trying to elaborate a bit further on Aqua's post:


    GDPR: wbb3 can't be made compliant. (old forum software version). And because GF seems to be no exception here to many other companies around the world, of course final GDPR compliance was rushed instead of properly doing it over a long time. Surprise. :whistling: I'm not sure which data exactly in the forum would not be GDPR compliant - on the surface, a forum is a forum. I suppose it's more to do with proper deletion of users and data attached to it should someone request the deletion of his account or a complete excerpt of the data. Also, since wbb3 is EOL for years, nobody ever even looked into it. You don't optimize stuff to run on an i486 anymore, too ...


    Import of data: The importer is widely known to be a hot mess, which was already live experienced when other forums went through this process. When you even start importing multiple forums into one (in our case, 3) it goes from hot mess to gigantic clusterf..k . Thus, clean slate forum. Not ideal, but understandable. Woltlab Suite Forum (Wbb5) is already different to wbb4, but since wbb4.0 is already EOL and wbb 4.1 only has one more year of support ahead, the logical choice was to go to version 5 rightaway.


    Shutdown of old forums: RoM got the short end of the stick from IT by simply not getting an exception or prolongation as the old forums were planned to be shutdown, just that others had their 6-8 weeks [instead of 3 weeks] with 3 days advance notice simply by virtue of having their upgrade done a little bit earlier.



    We saved as much as we could in the last days since this came as a surprise to teamlers and users alike by pretty much DDoSing the forum server with webcrawlers for the remaining days.

    ( I think at some point I managed getting the IP of my dedicated server blocked entirely since I wasnt able to download even a single byte anymore :D - I maybe, just maybe, but not really ( :D ) had the crawler settings a bit too aggressive ... and so did others, a look at Who's online revealed 15+ Crawlers doing work on the forums at the same time on Thursday evening ...


    Evaluation of the downloads will still take some time (I for one have to check multiple versions as I certainly can't release a forum dump that was made with my logged in user as opposed to a guest user just viewing the forums ) ... but Grimthar and I are pretty certain that we got far more than 90% of the visible forums. If you discount just the DE "Archiv > Alt - Archiv" and "Archiv > Trash-Bin" sections which have made up ~105.000 Threads out of 175k+ TOTAL .... yeah, im pretty sure, we got it. But, stuff takes time.



    [This user speaks English on a near native level.]

    [This user speaks German on a native level.]

    [This user can curse in a variety of languages.]


    In the beginning the Universe was created.

    This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.



    Trust me, I'm an engineer.....with epic skill and epic gear

    Edited once, last by SaitoHajime: GRAMMAHR :) ().

  • That's what you are told to tell us. We see and comprend it, thank you.

    I guess thats not "what you are told to tell us" but actually "what you are told" - I'm pretty sure all the voluntary people working here don't know much more about GFs plans that we do. <- this is more or less true -Heron


    I could have guessed as well, but prefered to leave it open, since I can't know. So one told "This is true" is as well told to comunicate it as one told "This is false, but tell that anyway". ;-)

    Am I reading the green text correctly, you think the teamlers allow GF employees to deliberately park lies in our mouths? I for one would refuse. Whether we the team are misled deliberately I can't know, but I suspect this is also not the case. There's enough use of 'info cannot be shared at this time' to prevent need for intentional misdirection of teamlers by GF.

  • I guess thats not "what you are told to tell us" but actually "what you are told" - I'm pretty sure all the voluntary people working here don't know much more about GFs plans that we do. <- this is more or less true -Heron


    So one told "This is true" is as well told to comunicate it as one told "This is false, but tell that anyway". ;-)

    Am I reading the green text correctly, you think the teamlers allow GF employees to deliberately park lies in our mouths?

    "you think" <- my pardon? I said "since I can't know", therefore I won't think anything about none-of-my-knowledges! *lol* So now, you did not read it as I intended it to be. :-)

    It is an open possibility, that one there would actually try this destructive-against-the-company failure, it wouldn't be the first one. But if you by all means want to know my deliberately left out personal opinion (see "prefered to leave it open"), then no, I do not think that anything company-related that by all means doesn't need to be comunicated to the community or the game team generally will be told to you folks. That's though is my personal speculation and thoughts. *shrugs*

    About that - in my eyes - unprobable case that it were true, the possible "grey lie" implication of "if we knew about that we would not be allowed to tell you" (so this clause seems to exist?) comes to mind, what fires people's thoughts.

    THAT exactly is why I tried to keep my words as nonpartisan and neutral as I could, not to trigger any "THEY LIE!" nor "THEY TELL TRUTH!" stuff. My try failed impressively, my pardon. *lol*



    I for one would refuse.

    If I remember the Franz Beckenbauer meme correctly: "Amazing. I love you." xD

    I can't know, but I suspect this is also not the case. There's enough use of 'info cannot be shared at this time' to prevent need for intentional misdirection of teamlers by GF.

    Aye, me neither, in-in-(xn)ternals not knowing what the other hand does is another topic we gonna lay down for now.


    Anyway, sorry for spreading a wild fire trying to blow a spark out. ^^

  • I'm not sure which data exactly in the forum would not be GDPR compliant

    Neither me! How could openly available and openly shared by the one who shared it data NOT BE GDPR compliant, what manages the COMPANY INTERN DATA USAGE?!

    That's none of the law's business at all in any way, if it is: Anyone please tell why it COULD and the law's exact paragraph. This law does not do that in my understanding AT ALL.



    When you even start importing multiple forums into one (in our case, 3) it goes from hot mess to gigantic clusterf..k . Thus, clean slate forum. Not ideal, but understandable

    Not understandable for me, Version 3 could have been transferred to 4 virtually with pass and 5 after then. Clustereff here or there, the very knowleged FREE WORKING! folks on here would have gone though a huge working process (imagine my shock, they NEVER do ELSE! (/end sarcasm), but no problem (for the publisher).

    As one said already - no idea about the game (personal take) "high ups" decided, so it must be done. *rolls eyes*

    Shutdown of old forums: RoM got the short end of the stick from IT by simply not getting an exception or prolongation as the old forums were planned to be shutdown, just that others had their 6-8 weeks [instead of 3 weeks] with 3 days advance notice simply by virtue of having their upgrade done a little bit earlier.

    Yeah, equal everything without personal needs regarded. Politically it contradicts "by virtue", so getting negatives from anyone possible, but whatever. ^^

    We saved as much as we could in the last days since this came as a surprise to teamlers and users alike by pretty much DDoSing the forum server with webcrawlers for the remaining days.

    ( I think at some point I managed getting the IP of my dedicated server blocked entirely since I wasnt able to download even a single byte anymore :D - I maybe, just maybe, but not really ( :D ) had the crawler settings a bit too aggressive ... and so did others, a look at Who's online revealed 15+ Crawlers doing work on the forums at the same time on Thursday evening ...


    Evaluation of the downloads will still take some time (I for one have to check multiple versions as I certainly can't release a forum dump that was made with my logged in user as opposed to a guest user just viewing the forums ) ... but Grimthar and I are pretty certain that we got far more than 90% of the visible forums. If you discount just the DE "Archiv > Alt - Archiv" and "Archiv > Trash-Bin" sections which have made up ~105.000 Threads out of 175k+ TOTAL .... yeah, im pretty sure, we got it. But, stuff takes time.

    And finally - I LOVE YOU FOLKS! I can't even. God-mode firefighters in the Library of Alexandria. <3<3<3<3<3

  • When you even start importing multiple forums into one (in our case, 3) it goes from hot mess to gigantic clusterf..k . Thus, clean slate forum. Not ideal, but understandable

    Not understandable for me, Version 3 could have been transferred to 4 virtually with pass and 5 after then. Clustereff here or there, the very knowleged FREE WORKING! folks on here would have gone though a huge working process (imagine my shock, they NEVER do ELSE! (/end sarcasm), but no problem (for the publisher).

    As one said already - no idea about the game (personal take) "high ups" decided, so it must be done. *rolls eyes*

    Of note - the new norm is to have one forum for one game. Not one forums for each major region of one game (at least there wasn't a forum for DE, a separate forum for EN, a separate forum for US, etc, like there were for a couple of games). This is one way that Gameforge is going to save resources and time. Before this switchover I would estimate that there were at least 500 forum softwares running on a several servers. Now, there's like 100 or maybe less running on a couple. Saves time, saves money, saves the environment.


    With the switchover of one forum for one game one cannot import multiple forums from older versions into one with any certainty of accuracy. It just isn't possible. There would be hundreds of thousands of thread/user/post ID clashes. Not only that there were hundreds of thousands of users that never logged in.


    It was time for a clean slate. I don't agree with the rush of the switchover but it was necessary. GF couldn't keep the old forums up any longer due to the forum software and the law (we were already in violation when GDPR became law and we were still on the old forums...there was at least a 2 week overlap).


    What's done is done. The old forums are gone. This is what we're left with.