07:09, 6 August 2008 | 50 Comments | [ Add comment]

It's not summer without a LAN
Well it seems like the British summer has once again been reduced to a two month period (surprise surprise). It's been raining down here for 7 days straight and the five-day forecast points to more rain on every day. Probably for the best that I'm heading off to the UK's biggest LAN tomorrow for a weekend of pure, unadulterated gaming with the occasional rainy visit to the pub.

2,000 gamers bring their own PC's to game it up from 6pm Thursday to 4pm on Monday. Major players in the industry such as Intel, EA, Codemasters and Ubisoft will be setup in the exhibition hall with many competitions and freebie give-aways (last year a friend walked off with a 32" TV, 8800GTX graphics card and £150 in cash!) as well as some of the largest tournaments in Europe taking place where we get to see Europes finest "pro-gamers" fight it out in Counter-Strike: Source, Call of Duty 4, Battlefield 2 and Warcraft 3, among others. Even if you're not a fan of the games it's always an entertaining watch.

Multiplay's "iLAN" has been going on for quite a while now, this being the 34th iLAN to date, and I've come to make quite a few friends at these events (and from my various online gaming forays) who I am looking forward to seeing. On the gaming agenda at this iLAN? Eve Online, World in Conflict, Warcraft 3 (DotA), Day of Defeat: Source, Team Fortress 2, various HL2 mods, Diablo 2 and Enemy Territory: Quake Wars.

At the last iLAN I went to last summer I saw a few folks showing off their Oblivion characters and I'll be sure to snap their ugly mugs with my camera this time around for your viewing pleasure should anyone be playing. Playing Oblivion at a LAN seems a bit anti-social when you're directly connected to 2,000 other gamers, though! Last year's game of choice was Quake Wars and there was nothing more entertaining than shooting a player in the head and hearing screams of rage coming from someone in the huge room with calls of "That Dark0ne is a cheating #@!$%".

Have you ever been to a large LAN? Got any stories to tell? Drop a comment here.

Dark0ne | 20:09, 19 November 2008 | 7 Comments | [ Add comment]

It's milestone time again, and a couple of days back TESNexus (and now FO3Nexus!) reached the 750,000 registered members mark. The last milestone of 500,000 members was reached on January 2nd 2008, the 250,000 member milestone was reached on October 13th 2006 and the 100,000 member milestone was reached on the 30th of March 2006, so registration rates are increasing.

The recent launch of FO3Nexus helped to more than douple the daily registration numbers from 800 new members a day up to 1800 new members registering each and every day and thus speed up the march to this latest milestone. The next one is a biggy, the big one million!

Sadly I missed the actual milestone date because I was busy sorting out all the server move issues, that are now resolved, so it's a nice "trophy" to top off a successful and worthwhile server move. Thanks everybody.

Dark0ne | 06:41, 18 November 2008 | 3 Comments | [ Add comment]

There is an underlying issue with the network infastructure of the two new servers that needs to be resolved. Work will be taking place some time today for approximately two hours. During this time the site may be offline or you might see "IPS Driver" errors and other similar mysql related errors.

Please be patient while I continue to weed out the teething issues of the server move. Thank you!

Edit@16:40GMT: This work has now been completed. No more expected down-time \o/

Dark0ne | 09:43, 15 November 2008 | 0 Comments | [ Add comment]

There is currently an issue with accessing all the file servers as a result of the domain switch yesterday. While a fix has been made that should sort the issue the problem will not actually be resolved until the name servers have updated, and then your ISP's DNS cache has propogated. This can take anywhere from 1 to 72 hours.

I apologise for the inconvenience and recommend you check back regularly, making sure to try the different file servers available. Also please note that some people will be able to access the servers earlier than others; this is due to the dynamics of how the internet infastructure works and there is no "quick fix" to speed things up.

Files smaller than 2MB in size are unaffected by this issue.

Dark0ne | 11:13, 14 November 2008 | 3 Comments | [ Add comment]

Welcome back! If you're reading this message then you're browsing The Elder Scrolls Nexus at its new home on a new server. I pulled both TESNexus, FO3Nexus and the forums down at 14:20 GMT and as of 17:00 GMT the site is back up and operational, an hour earlier than expected. Thank you for your patience while the site was unavailable.

There are still a few issues to iron out in regards to the name servers the domains use that might mean over the next few days you get limbo'd about between the old and new server. If this happens you'll get sent to the "We'll be back soon!" page so that you know that you're looking at the old server and not the new server. These are typical teething issues of any server move and should sort themselves out between 12 and 72 hours.

As the Nexus sites are now on new servers there might be a few glitches and slow-downs. If you see error messages anywhere on the site please report them via the contact form on the site or on the forums; there's a big chance I won't have noticed the error message and reporting it will speed up the fixing process. In regards to site slow-downs this is something that gets fixed over time as I monitor the server loads and gradually tweak the server configuration files to suit the changing environment.

So please remain vigilant to error messages and remain patient if the site becomes unresponsive. The server configuration files are highly specialised to my sites and take time to get right, especially when the server hardware and software has changed.

Lastly let me once again thank the supports of TESNexus and FO3Nexus whose monetary contributions help to keep this site not only running, but fully backed up from disaster.

Dark0ne | 10:12, 11 November 2008 | 4 Comments | [ Add comment]

As a follow up to my last news article on FO3Nexus in which I detail the reasons why the two Nexus sites are performing slowly I have hammered out a deal with my main server provider for a new rack provisioning that should better accommodate both sites while providing me with ample room for expansion in the future.

In order for me to make the transition into this new server rack I will need to bring both sites, as well as the forums, down during the move. This is to insure that the versions of the sites on the new servers are not out-of-date compared to the current sites. All your files and information will be safe during this period.

I have set aside a very liberal 8 hours for this down-time that should provide ample room for unforeseen circumstances to get ironed out, with a 4 hour expected down-time should everything go according to plan. As the sites will be moving server this time may increase depending on your ISP and how quickly their DNS caches update their information for the sites. During the down-time a catch-all redirect will be on all sites to insure everybody is aware of the situation.

As the servers are still being setup at the data centre I cannot give an actual time for the down-time starting, but I want to get this done as soon as possible. Down-time could start anytime over the coming few days, depending on my lecture schedule and when the servers are fully ready for the transfer.

As always all files and databases are backed up on 4 servers in three different data centres on two seperate continents, so I like to think your files are hardware failure/fire/tornado/tidal wave/zombie invasion safe.

Apologies for the inconvenience, but fingers crossed this shall be the last of the issues for the Nexus sites for the foreseeable future.

Dark0ne | 16:33, 29 October 2008 | 69 Comments | [ Add comment]

According to GamesIndustry.biz Bethesda are potentially looking to release a new Elder Scrolls game around 2010. This comes from a chat with Paul Oughton, publishing executive for Bethesda:



Not quite a grand announcement, and I'm sure Bethesda will be quick to clarify the remark. Watch this space.

Dark0ne | 19:49, 27 October 2008 | 10 Comments | [ Add comment]

This is just a quick one for all the users of TESNexus who are going to be buying Fallout 3 that I have just launched Fallout 3 Nexus to the public. The hope is for FO3Nexus to be to Fallout 3 modding what TESNexus is to Oblivion modding.

If you're going to be playing Fallout 3, hope to mod the game or if you're interested, head on over to the site now for a peek at what's to come. Of course the site is rather bare at the moment, what with the game not actually officially released for a few more hours and the lack of an SDK for the game, but give it some time. Oh, and go make yourself known in the Fallout 3 section of the forums too!

PS. Your TESNexus username and password will work on Fallout 3 Nexus without any problems! So don't register a new account for the site!

Dark0ne | 09:29, 16 October 2008 | 13 Comments | [ Add comment]

TESNexus has scheduled down-time starting at 2AM CDT (8PM GMT) on the 17th of October 2008 for four hours, although ideally this down-time should last no longer than an hour. This is so the server memory capacity can be doubled to 8GB...you guys sure like to guzzle up the server's resources!

During this time both TESNexus and The Nexus Forums will be unavailable.

Thank you for your understanding.

Dark0ne | 07:35, 16 October 2008 | 44 Comments | [ Add comment]

Away with the old and in with the new, and this time it's a poll where your votes get a relative look in on something on this site, so get on it!

Firstly, the last poll asked "Are you going to buy Bethesda's upcoming game, Fallout 3?". Here are the results:

Yes, 8092 votes (48%)
No, 2768 votes (16%)
Maybe, 3923 votes (23%)
Only if it comes with a construction set, 2056 votes (12%)
16839 total votes.

Impressive statistics that a potential 84% of TESNexus visitors could be buying Fallout 3.

Now onto the next poll. The latest poll asks "Should the file database rating system be changed to be like the Image Share rating system?". For those not in the loop the Image Share section recently had a rating system overhaul whereby user ratings are much like the kudos system for members. You cannot rate images negatively, only positively. If you don't like an image then you just don't rate it. Instead of rating the file from a set number range, you give the file your endorsement, which gives the file a "+1" to its rating.

Why would such a system be necessary I hear you ask? Well, first of all the 1 - 10 rating system has become more of a 1 or 10 rating system, with the odd 5, 6 and 7 thrown in for good measure. You rate 10 if you like a file, 1 if you don't like a file, and 5, 6 or 7 if you think the file has potential but don't think it's at its best. However, there are also people out there abusing the rating system for their own benefit, or just because they're prats. They'll rate files 5, 6 or 7 and give a constructive post, but deep down they're doing it because they want to see that file lose some rating points.

Similarly with the ability to rate files badly with a necessary comment comes a lot of negative, rude and insulting comments. It's something we're aware of, we've tried to change, and the moderation team try their hardest to weed out and remove (the ban statistics since the rule changes have been...impressive...to say the least). Unfortunately there are still those who want to push their luck and think we won't ban them if they're derogatory towards others.

By removing a tool for negativity and promoting only positive feedback the hope is mod authors will be more content with sharing their files with the public.

There's been a focus in the community recently on authors leaving because they don't feel respected; while I can sympathise with these people it is, unfortunately, a way of the internet. You should see the amount of crap I get through my inbox on a weekly basis from raging kids! After seven years I've learnt to ignore it, or amuse myself with it, but never take it to heart.

As per the current system you will still need to leave a comment with your endorsement, and comments will still be available for constructive feedback.

So please cast your vote in the new site poll and feel free to discuss the issue through the poll thread, or this news thread.

Dark0ne | 15:50, 13 October 2008 | 5 Comments | [ Add comment]

As part of a new project I am currently working on TESNexus as well as the forums might be particularly slow and unresponsive this evening (13th October 2008), and the site login might run into a few issues. Please be patient during this early phase of development and testing and report any problems you encounter on the forums as necessary.

Thank you for your understanding.