tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-73957709105064703162024-02-20T00:38:46.952-05:00TMN & tmnX Staff BlogBlog to inform players of the progress on TMN and tmnX.Marchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16552014081835056884noreply@blogger.comBlogger61125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7395770910506470316.post-64567757173683494032012-08-27T14:03:00.000-04:002012-08-27T14:03:27.107-04:00Reset AnnouncementWe just finished the longest round of TMN
since it’s in my hands, and although the end was more boring than any round
before, the rest of the round seemed alright. When I got home on August 15th,
it took more than “just a few days” to get used to being back in the
Netherlands – spending 4 weeks in Africa really changes you! The next week I
continued implementing feature improvements that were on my list. I am now confident
that TMN can be back after (the semi-announced) 2 weeks, so it is time to make
the actual announcement!<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><b>Here are the important dates: </b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">- TMN will go offline on <u>September 7th
at 18:00</u> TMN time (GMT+2*), 17:00 in the UK (GMT+1*)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">- The new round will start on <u>September
8th at 18:00</u> TMN time (GMT+2*), 17:00 in the UK (GMT+1*)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">- There will be no pre-registration; when
the countdown reaches 00:00 you can create your account<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">- Properties will be dropped on September
10th or 11th (when the economy reaches 400mil and the game houses 25 hitmen+)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">- Property pickup fees will be like last
round; 35mil for a BF, 15mil for a BJ, 5mil for other casinos (these may be
changed later in the round)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">- Minimum and maximum bullet prices will be
like last round, and may be changed during the round as well<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">- A percentage of purchased credits will be
returned on September 22nd or 23rd, more info on that will be provided later on
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><b>Some changes: </b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">- Rankup Requirements; no more scripting to
legend using crimes or GTAs or jail, but OCs, DTMs, Killing, Traveling are also
required!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">- A new kind of scripttest; easier to
complete than (re)captchas, harder to bypass using a script - wait and see! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">- Cheaper credits in the credits store;
roughly 35% more credits for the same amount of money!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">- No more 10% bullets loss in the Artillery
Bunker!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Of course there will be some more changes,
but you’ll have to find these yourself during the round. We hope to see you
then!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Marc<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">*: Note that we are currently in Daylight
Saving Time.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
Marchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16552014081835056884noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7395770910506470316.post-33720917858962408312012-07-02T15:10:00.000-04:002012-07-02T15:10:54.396-04:00Looking back at the round...It's been nearly four months since I last posted a blog post, and although that could be considered a bad thing, I actually believe this game round has been going well! We still have 100'ish players online most of the time, and 200'ish players take the time to login every day! So what's been going on this round? Here's my view on things.<br />
<h4>
Changes from last round</h4>
We made a few changes this round, and I have to say they had a positive influence on the game. Here's a summary of those changes and the effects I noticed:<br />
- Fewer cities decreased the amount of (useless) properties, which worked well. <br />
- Artillery Bunker still lacks documentation but is being used - especially after certain players got banned for duping while holding loads of bullets. <br />
- International Prison with minimum jailimes worked well, and increased traveling.<br />
- Fixed bullet minimum and maximum prices worked well, tuning these allowed us to control the economy somewhat - which is also good.<br />
- Easier killing is mainly noticed by the players, not by me.<br />
- Script tests failed; scripts were tuned to stop or logout whenever one was sent out. <br />
- First-to-post activity in the shoutbox and game forum added some activity, which was nice.<br />
- Adding scums to GMW was fun to watch, and also added some activity. <br />
<h4>
Problems</h4>
Of course this round has seen problems as well, mainly the amount of cheating is a problem. Scripters shared their scripts, some even read the TOS to avoid getting caught, and others just created 50 accounts to rank them all up slowly while avoiding bans. Another related problem is that the auto-logouts became useless to certain scripts, and there was no real way for us to stop it. <br />
<br />
We hope to (partially) tackle these problems next round by a set of changes that will not be published before that round. The main goal of these changes is to make the game more fair and make ranking more of an achievement rather than a logical consequence of scripting. Because most of this also depends on the players, I will once more repeat that creating 50 dupes is stupid and doesn't add any fun for anyone playing TMN. It's a game, and should not be played like that. <br />
<h4>
Long round</h4>
Possibly the best thing about this round, is its length; this round has been going for nearly 4 months, and will continue for at least another month and a half. I believe this knowledge causes players to not end the round by killing all players, but also motivates people to stick around - which is good in general. Players seem positive about it as well, and activity is still alright most of the time. <br />
<br />
The reason for this round to last until at least mid-August, is the fact that I will be out of the country for a month. For TMN this meant that no round could be started between May and July, because there's always work for me during the first period in a round. Going out of the country "near the end" of a round is less of a problem, and was therefore preferred. <br />
<h4>
So, when's the reset? </h4>
I will be away starting July 17th. After my return on August 15th we will decide what happens to the round. Here we have a few possibilities: <br />
1) Throwing TMN offline instantly (not preferred; announced resets are always better); <br />
2) Throwing TMN offline 1-2 weeks later (possibly the best option); <br />
3) Keeping TMN online for another month (if the round is still active); <br />
<br />
After TMN goes offline, I need roughly 2 weeks to prepare the new round. After that I am sure we will have another nice round.<br />
<br />
MarcMarchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16552014081835056884noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7395770910506470316.post-42522980606955498902012-03-09T19:35:00.003-05:002012-03-09T19:46:16.687-05:00TMN LaunchSome players requested additional information regarding the launch, and although it's not so easy to plan ahead at this moment (I'll be away on Saturday and part of Sunday), I'll do my best to update you guys.<br /><br />The full launch date and time time will be <span style="font-weight: bold;">11-03-2012 at 18:00 </span>in the GMT+1 timezone (which is 17:00, 5PM in the UK). Before that (a couple of hours earlier) the pages you currently see will be replaced by the 'regular' pages (including login and registration page) displaying a countdown.<br /><br />There will be no pre-registration, simply because there's too little time for that. From 18:00 on you will be able to register your new account.<br /><br />As for properties: Properties will be dropped when we believe the economy holds enough money, and enough players meet the requirements. We believe having 25 hitmen in a game economy with close to 400mil, the properties will fall in good hands. Before that, System will hold them with reasonable maxbets, but no bullet production.<br /><br />MarcMarchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16552014081835056884noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7395770910506470316.post-62509198878612481782012-02-28T14:22:00.003-05:002012-02-28T14:42:14.158-05:00Back home, TMN offlineLast Saturday morning I arrived back in the Netherlands after a fun (yet busy) trip to Brazil, where myself and 15 others were doing research in the field of IT. The trip involved many visits to research institutes, companies and university departments, as well as some places important to the local culture and history (and beaches are part of that as well, logically).<br /><br />After some rest, I pulled the plug on TMN in the evening, and replaced the game by a static page providing everyone with some information. Because of a slight jetlag (and being tired in general) nothing much was done on Saturday or Sunday.<br /><br />Right now I am preparing a test environment, so we (Devious and myself, for now) can test the updated features, so the next round will have a smooth(er) start (than last round).<br /><br />Some questions that were sent to my inbox have not yet been answered, so I will address those here:<br />* The percentage of credits that will be returned has not yet been decided;<br />* Properties will not be dropped before some players are ranked hitman+ and own more than 10mil;<br />* Property pickup fees will be there at the start of the round, but may be lowered/raised/removed later on, depending on the state of the game economy;<br /><br />MarcMarchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16552014081835056884noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7395770910506470316.post-48830788482143721642012-02-12T13:46:00.004-05:002012-02-29T03:58:39.978-05:00TMN Reset Announcement<span lang="EN-US">Rumors have been around since week 3 of this round, but logically we never took those seriously. Even in early January we didn’t take them seriously, but<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>when the economy dropped from more killings (and more after that), we had to get thinking and planning. As mentioned before; those two activities aren’t easy on me (</span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBTsuIeLpwo9G15jmQ4npQudaF-GDOa6EWhxFy0O9pYqhLejzXKcjeSLlwYrhi9SbJA_zNRZSW2sQawR1WSrSrLq0UjkXbM5ggU_EcBKfSl2lkmgUTNN_9otqThs7pJb8rGSCPvyAf1Xo/s1600/rollyeyes.gif"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 15px; height: 15px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBTsuIeLpwo9G15jmQ4npQudaF-GDOa6EWhxFy0O9pYqhLejzXKcjeSLlwYrhi9SbJA_zNRZSW2sQawR1WSrSrLq0UjkXbM5ggU_EcBKfSl2lkmgUTNN_9otqThs7pJb8rGSCPvyAf1Xo/s320/rollyeyes.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5708322873344423266" border="0" /></a><span lang="EN-US">), and consume most time. My personal planning is not so straightforward either; I have to plan around exams, projects, visits to cool countries and other occasions of extreme workload. For that reason we only had one option for the reset, but as players last year really hated me for announcing the reset early, I decided to wait with the announcement. Now is the time to post it though! </span> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"> So, what’s the date? Here’s a draft of the planning I have in mind: </span></p> <ul style="margin-top:0cm" type="disc"><li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1"><span lang="EN-US">On February 14th I leave the country for a warmer place </span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1"><span lang="EN-US">On <span style="font-weight: bold;">February 25th</span> I return home, and pull the plug on this round of TMN :’(</span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1"><span lang="EN-US">On <span style="text-decoration: line-through; ">Saturday, March 10th</span> <b>Sunday, March 11th</b> we launch the next round, with improvements based on suggestions made (more on that later)</span></li></ul> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"> Below you’ll find a list of accepted suggestions and our own ideas: </span></p> <ul style="margin-top:0cm" type="disc"><li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1"><span lang="EN-US">Fewer cities and networks</span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1"><span lang="EN-US">Artillery Bunkers: keeping some bullets after you die (credits store option)</span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1"><span lang="EN-US">International Prison (possibly with minimum jail-times before someone can break you out)</span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1"><span lang="EN-US">Losing health on numerous occasions (OC, jailbreak, GTA) to limit scripting a little</span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1"><span lang="EN-US">Easier killing of people wearing protection (this seems to have been a bit extreme this round)</span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1"><span lang="EN-US">A TOS update on “duping”; we’ll be more strict</span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1"><span lang="EN-US">A TOS update on “scripting”; manual script tests may return</span></li></ul> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"> Marc</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><u>Due to another meeting on March 10th, the launch had to be postponed by one day, and will be on <b>March 11th</b>. </u></p>Marchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16552014081835056884noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7395770910506470316.post-12509910415965125822011-10-31T18:12:00.005-04:002011-10-31T18:28:58.553-04:00Pre-registration, more updatesLike last year, you will be able to register your account prior to the launch. This time, pre-registration will open on <span style="font-weight: bold;">Tuesday, November 1st</span> somewhere in the afternoon (TMN time, GMT+1). From then on, the communication platform will only be accessible from <a href="http://platform.tmn2010.net/">http://platform.tmn2010.net</a>.<br /><br />And as promised, some more updates:<br />- If you use a mobile device, or a (relatively) low screen resolution, you will now be able to switch to a more mobile-friendly layout.<br />- The TOS has been updated: Doing an OC with another player (1!) on your IP is no longer a problem, and interacting with others on your (mobile 3g?) IP is not a problem as long as amounts are reasonable.<br />- <a href="http://www.tmn2010.net/images/profile_sample_Full.jpg">Profiles</a> are a lot more customizable now, you can choose to show or hide avatar and phone, the amount of kills on your name, <a href="http://www.tmn2010.net/images/profile_sample_kills.jpg">all kills</a> (including name and rank) and other statistics.<br />- Bankrupting a casino now makes you the owner of the casino.<br />- The minimum casino bet has been raised to $1000, to keep casinos at least playable when the owners are away.<br /><br />MarcMarchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16552014081835056884noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7395770910506470316.post-22459518415819502182011-10-10T13:07:00.002-04:002011-10-10T13:15:46.340-04:00TMN Launch Date!Ouch, has it been this long?! Yes, it’s been like half a year since TMN was replaced by a boring communication platform. I am however glad I made the decision to create this with top priority, as it’s a lot better than an empty page!<br /><br />It is time to end the communication platform phase though: as of <span style="font-weight: bold;">November 3rd 2011 18:00</span> (GMT+1 timezone) , the communication platform will be replaced by the good old (yet new) TMN again!<br /><br />The final weeks before the launch will be spent on the new features as well as testing features we didn’t give testers access to (for security reasons). Like last year, pre-registration will be enabled a couple of days before the launch*, allowing you to reserve your name. From then on, the communication platform will no longer be accessible from the main website, but from another link instead*<br /><br />*: Information regarding pre-registration and the new link for the communication platform will be provided later.<br /><br />Marc<br /><br />ps. If you applied for a staff position and were rejected before, please check your e-mail inbox again. We just invited a few more players to help us during the final phase of testing.Marchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16552014081835056884noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7395770910506470316.post-2799533701432923452011-08-30T17:38:00.002-04:002011-08-30T17:44:39.140-04:00Updates and changesStaff applications have been flowing in, and Devious is already working on the selection. Unfortunately university courses have already started for me, so part of my time will be spent on that (and traveling). I've made quite a bit of progress during the last couple of weeks though, so a launch isn't that far off. Keep watching twitter / facebook / TMN / blog for more info!
<br />
<br />In the rest of this blog post I will describe some of the changes made, and some of the features added. Of course a lot more was changed, but to keep it (at least a little) short, here's a summary:
<br />
<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Layout changes</span>
<br />You may have read somewhere that the layout will change a lot since last round, this is correct, but not entirely… Although everything was re-created, the layout appears very similar to what it used to be (check out the screenshots). On a technical level, however, everything changed. The changes made allow for a better experience from any device (cell phones and tablets included), and will also enable us to provide you with a choice of layouts and some additional feedback during the gameplay. Although we will most probably kick off with one or two layouts, we may in the future launch a safe-for-work version, or a version specifically meant for mobile devices.
<br />
<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Page changes</span>
<br />All pages have been re-created, and many pages have also been merged. This allows for quick navigation between the pages, and will also result in a smaller menu. Besides that, instead of the ±110 pages we used to have, we now have roughly 35 doing the exact same thing! To share some details:
<br /><ul><li>Everything a player can own (except for casinos and Bullet Factories) can now be managed from one page. This includes money, credits, bullets, businesses, cars, weapons, explosives and protections. </li><li>Phones and phone plans now break and expire. This way the phone provider owners will earn a little more money. Additionally, you can repair your current phone or extend your current phone plan with a discount. </li><li>Everything network-related can now be found on one page with 4 sub-pages that can be opened on request. It will be easier to find certain options (“network information” and “network manage” were way to generic!). </li><li>An addition to ‘regular’ killing has been made: You can now prepare your kills; select whether or not you wish to reset your shooting timer (with credits), select the amount and type of bullets, select your gun, and when ready, all you have to do is pull the trigger! </li></ul>The feature that will have even more impact on the game, will be the <span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Name Buyback</span> option. This (credits-only) option allows you to keep your old name after getting killed. If you don't care about players knowing who you are, and like your name, this is the option for you! Also the process of registering a new account after your death is a lot faster than before.
<br />
<br />Some more features and changes will be revealed during the beta-test, and I am sure you’ll find some more changes after the launch. I hope to see you then!
<br />
<br />Marc
<br />Marchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16552014081835056884noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7395770910506470316.post-53719874955587363022011-08-24T09:22:00.001-04:002011-08-24T09:27:18.422-04:00We need your help!I’m back from a short vacation and have been hitting the pages hard! Updates and changes have been made to all pages, but I’m still working on a couple of new features and final touches. Altogether we’re getting closer and closer to a launch…
<br />
<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">So, what has been done? </span>
<br />I have been spending a lot of time going over the coding (parts had never been touched since 2005!) to eliminate excess coding, fix known bugs and to optimize pages for a better TMN experience.
<br />
<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">And what’s next? </span>
<br />The next step is to finish the last new features we want to add before the launch, and (also while doing that) get to testing these pages. Although a lot of testing will be done by myself, I definitely need some help from the players: all features must be tried at least once before the launch. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Are you interested in helping me?</span> Please read the instructions at <a href="http://www.tmn2010.net/staffapplication.aspx">this page</a>.
<br />
<br />Marc
<br />Marchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16552014081835056884noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7395770910506470316.post-72652099613250882122011-06-06T14:58:00.003-04:002011-06-06T15:06:23.930-04:00Status updateUniversity is really consuming a lot of my time... It's all about logic and mathematics at the moment, and both aren't the easiest subjects around! At least 4 days a week are reserved for uni, and the "couple of hours" left are spent wisely on relaxing and TMN.<br /><br />Luckily, TMN is taking shape too. Although slower than expected, my print-out with the list of pages that need work is starting to turn orange from marking the jobs that were finished. There's still a lot to do though! Pages already finished (but not thoroughly tested) include crimes, GTA, OC classifieds, messages, profile and notepad, booze cartel, jail, underground stores, OC, DTM and blackjack. That leaves about 30 pages that still need work, and testing.<br /><br />So, when will TMN be back? Many players have e-mailed me asking this question. Sadly, I can't answer it just yet. The first estimate was "the end of May", but at this moment "the end of June" even seems too optimistic. So, July? August? Maybe. I hope so!<br /><br />MarcMarchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16552014081835056884noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7395770910506470316.post-47473499105930781332011-04-19T12:10:00.003-04:002011-04-19T12:21:47.089-04:00TMN offline, communication onlineIt was tempting to write a long long story about the subject, but because of exams and other important work, it was delayed - and can now contain some positive news too!<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Offline</span><br />TMN went offline after some players decided to break it by using an exploit. Sad, but true. After a couple of days -and many supporting e-mails- we decided that TMN will definitely be back, but it will require some more changes than "small tweaks". This would be the time to make the changes we wanted to make a year ago!<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Communication platform</span><br />For the meantime, we decided it would be nice to open up a communication platform for players to communicate with us as well as the other players. This system was created partially during my exams, and partially in the following days, but now it is ready! You can access it from the TMN home page at <a href="http://www.tmn2010.net">http://www.tmn2010.net</a><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Future</span><br />As stated, TMN will definitely be back, but it may take quite some time. I personally think the end of May should be possible, but all that depends on how busy I am at uni, and how fast development goes in general. We will make changes that will stimulate game activity, allow faster game rounds (and ranking), and make playing a more fun experience in general. More information on that can be found on the Game Forum that's currently online.<br /><br />MarcMarchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16552014081835056884noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7395770910506470316.post-54046474652287010802011-01-10T11:02:00.004-05:002011-01-23T12:56:11.147-05:00Killfest, Gambling and ResetOn the game forum as well as the in-game news page you'll find an announcement regarding the killfest, gambling day, and reset. It was quite difficult to schedule it, and I really had only two options; do it in January, or late March. I chose the first option.<br /><br />The game will go <span style="font-weight: bold;">offline on January 21st </span><br />There will be a <span style="font-weight: bold;">killfest on January 22nd</span><br />There will be a <span style="font-weight: bold;">gambling day on January 23rd</span><br />The <span style="font-weight: bold;">next round</span> will start on <span style="font-weight: bold;">January 24th</span> at <span style="font-weight: bold;">19:00 </span>(GMT+1)<br /><br />For more information, read the Game Forum or in-game News Page.<br /><br />Marc<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Update #1: </span></span>Added launch time, which is 19:00.Marchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16552014081835056884noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7395770910506470316.post-27407195858551842792010-12-23T18:44:00.004-05:002010-12-23T18:52:16.061-05:00Christmas and Snowballs!On December 14th we announced our holiday schedule, which included the following items:<br /><span style="font-size:85%;">- Dec. 14 – All I Want for Christmas Poll<br />- Dec. 14-25 – Christmas Gift Giveaway<br />- Dec. 18-19 – Jail Break Parties 2PM, 6PM, Midnight<br />- Dec. 20 – Drug Transportation Unveiling<br />- Dec. 22-25 – Snowball Fights<br />- Christmas Eve (Dec. 24) – Lcuk’s Christmas Riddles<br />- Christmas Day (Dec. 25) – Peace On Earth, 24 hour ceasefire</span><br /><br />The Drugs Transportation Missions launch went quite well, although some players at first didn't realize it's an extra way to rank, and only drugs will be removed from the Drugs & Booze page. Just before the launch the <span style="font-style: italic;">kill records</span> page was renamed to <span style="font-style: italic;">Personal Stats</span>, which includes counters and timers for DTMs, OCs, Crimes, GTA. This page may in the future be used for other statistics as well.<br /><br />At this moment the Snowball Fights are active, and proved to be quite a lot of fun! Using a special page (link is on the game forum) players can throw virtual snowballs at other players, who will receive a notification, and (in most cases) a small gift (some money, a credit, a car). At the same time, the Shoutbox is updated with a similar notification, visible to all other players.<br /><br />In addition to the snowball throws in the shoutbox, we figured it would be nice to disable these messages too. Today (24-12-2010) I made the change; two buttons to toggle visibility of jailbreaks or snowball messages were added. While doing this, I also updated the shoutbox in general, allowing possible new features such as network chat and/or personal messages to players. These possible updates haven't been scheduled for creation yet.<br /><br />Finally, I would like to wish all TMN players (and other readers) a merry Christmas and a great 2011!<br /><br />MarcMarchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16552014081835056884noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7395770910506470316.post-14216863770655165592010-12-06T04:31:00.004-05:002010-12-06T05:20:27.553-05:00Halloween, Thanksgiving, Activity, ShoutboxAnd again it's been way too long since I last wrote something. This time I'll cover the recent activities on TMN, for those who missed it (and those who are just generally interested to see the numbers).<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Halloween</span><br />Alright, it's been over a month, but it was fun anyway. Devious thought it'd be fun to make collecting a prize somewhat more interactive, so we used a pumpkin to click on in order to claim a prize. I had a friend create an animated 'wheel of fortune' kind of thing, which worked quite well (although there was a bug somewhere...). In the end 28% of the participants got "Scared to death by Marc" and lost 2% health, but the remaining 72% received a better prize. Other prizes included were 5 expensive cars (8%), 5 semi-expensive cars (8%), 5 bombed cars (15%), $1,000,000 (10%), some Experience Points (9%), and 20 credits (11%). The remaining players received bullets, and a few were in the race for a network. In total 546 players participated in the Halloween giveaway.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Thanksgiving</span><br />Because Thanksgiving isn't really a weekend, and the day wasn't a very good one for me personally, we spread it over 2 weekends. During the first weekend we did some forum giveaways (first 10 to post, etc), and let players shoot players with the names of former moderators for a GMW reward. Also everyone who did an OC during the weekend was able to collect $1,000,000 from a special page (188 players did this).<br />During the second weekend we set the OC timer to 6 hours instead of 8, and did some more giveaways. Using another special page where players could claim a prize, we gave 356 players a total of <span>19 OCs with Devious and Marc, 290 Arnages 1685 Credits, 14000 Bullets, more than $865,000,000 (exact number is unclear because of less structured giveaways), and 500 lottery tickets</span>.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Activity</span><br />Shortly after the game economy hit 16bil, partially thanks to our giveaways, it happened... SOA and SI emptied their AWPs and shot hundreds of high ranked players. The economy dropped to below 10bil, and we were unsure on what would happen. Some players had no hope and quit, others stayed and are now quietly ranking. To stimulate the economy, we did some giveaways during Sinterklaas (google it, it's a Dutch national holiday), and increased the money you get from OCs and GTAs. We are now trying to think of and implement ways to keep players interested, and make them realize this was only the first half of the game: the second half is almost starting....<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br />Shoutbox</span><br />A new feature was added to the game, even though it isn't finished yet: the shoutbox! There's a preview inside the game forum topic, but you can open the pop-up (looks better and is easier to use than the preview) by clicking a link in the right top of all forum topics. There is also a link on the jail page, because the shoutbox displays all jailbreaks as well! This has been requested ever since we disabled the "jail break messages" a few years ago, and now it's live! Devious lead the first couple of jail break contests, and it's up to the players to continue it now. I will keep improving it, and eventually it will most probably replace the Game Forum topic. <span style="font-weight: bold;"></span><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span></span>Other ideas we have for it include notifications of new messages, kills, OC inviations and status and possibly private chats.<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span>Marc<span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span>Marchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16552014081835056884noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7395770910506470316.post-35226734215598332002010-10-25T06:22:00.003-04:002010-10-25T09:37:02.955-04:00About meAs many players have asked questions about me, I thought I'd dedicate an entire blog post to it. I hope you'll enjoy reading it!<br /><br />My name is Marc, and I'm 22 years old (19-05-1988). I live in the Netherlands, and have a Bachelor's degree in Information and Communication Technology (BICT). I'm currently in university (Radboud University Nijmegen) doing a MSc in Information Science, which will probably take another 2 years. It is fair to say that I got my degree partially thanks to TMN and its creator DragonCurse.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">How it started</span><br />Back in June 2004, DragonCurse asked me if I was interested in testing <span style="font-style: italic;">somehing</span>. I ended up testing and later managing the game we now know as TMN. We grew from 0 players to 2200 players online at the same time within a year, and even though we had our share of corrupt moderators, it was a great time.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Development</span><br />With no knowledge of programming, databases or even webdesign, DragonCurse trusted me with administrator access to the server (this was early 2005). He explained the (very) basics of getting data from a database, and soon I was on the way learning T-SQL. About 2 years later (January 2007, I was in the first year of my ICT study), I started programming in ASP.NET. I e-mailed my first code updates to DC on January 12th 2007 (although I may have updated more before that).<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Misjudging</span><br />Because we were still too young to handle a successful game, TMN kept shrinking... From 2200 players online we shrunk back to less than 500 online, so halfway through 2007 we thought it'd be good to launch a new version of TMN: tmnX. We launched the game in January 2008, but unfortunately we misjudged the TMN players, who really didn't want another game! After 8 months of tmnX we decided to pull the plug and update TMN to a version we could manage: TMN Classic was born. TMN Classic was a 90% recoded version of TMN that performed a lot better and was easier to manage.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">More recent</span><br />In 2010 the game had shrunk to less than 12 players online at times, and since I was in the middle of graduating (February - June 2010), I didn't have much time on my hands. Eventually TMN went offline. Because I personally wasn't done with TMN (and realized the players weren't either), I stepped forward and started working again. The rest can be read in the previous few blog posts.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Future</span><br />We can't predict the future, but we won't expect any luck (like in 2004). For that reason we'll be carefully planning new features, advertising, updates and promotional events such as holiday weekends. From the credit purchases we don't need to worry about server fees, but we do need to make sure the game attracts new players and keeps its current players. We may continue to work with DragonCurse and his new game (TMN4).<br /><br />MarcMarchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16552014081835056884noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7395770910506470316.post-91626622793362053682010-10-11T10:02:00.009-04:002010-10-11T10:35:41.210-04:00Polls, new possible featureOn October 8th a poll system was introduced to the TMN players. This system allows the TMN staff to attach a poll (with unlimited amount of answers) to a topic, so all players can vote (once). As a first test, we asked players how old they are. The result of this poll (after 3 days) is shown on the image below.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5BTgPKEvV2TpvdpXqp_uOKf7v-dE54mSrzCmbnfdej6dB6R4nJjh2DoWaQD9ZA_HVXGZIY3yMJETPW_wRn720WYEwdeCMA45EJoeXB8emHx0MVF1ISW3x4EWgRWgpcJqUQ7XwXSlHqT0/s1600/agePollResult1110.png"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 106px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5BTgPKEvV2TpvdpXqp_uOKf7v-dE54mSrzCmbnfdej6dB6R4nJjh2DoWaQD9ZA_HVXGZIY3yMJETPW_wRn720WYEwdeCMA45EJoeXB8emHx0MVF1ISW3x4EWgRWgpcJqUQ7XwXSlHqT0/s320/agePollResult1110.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5526797074480715090" border="0" /></a>This poll was only the start though! On 11-10-2010 another poll was added to a forum topic. In this topic a new feature is explained, and player opinions are requested through replies and the poll. The idea s the result of a brainstorm session the TMN staff had, and may be a fun addition to the game. I won't explain the feature in this blog post, but it is related to Drugs, and it will function as a middle-type crime that gets more XP than GTAs and Crimes, but less than an OC.<br /><br />MarcMarchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16552014081835056884noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7395770910506470316.post-83753701166990665502010-10-01T14:16:00.003-04:002010-10-01T14:34:04.695-04:00Upgrade 1, 2, 3!<span style="font-weight: bold;">Moving the database</span><br />Yesterday we transfered the database to the VPS, which (long story short) caused a rollback of roughly two hours, and about 4 hours of downtime. Since I was in uni, I couldn't do much to sort it out any faster. When I got TMN back online it lagged a lot, so I was forced to disable jail. We decided to move the files and the domain (tmn2010.net) to the VPS on Friday morning, and hoped that would solve the lag...<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">From hosting package to VPS</span><br />Unfortunately this VPS was not powerful enough, causing even more lag! CPU usage was at 100% constantly, and every single file update by me would cause 5 minutes of even more lag! Even for me it was too slow to handle, so I kept jail closed and ordered another upgrade.<br /><br />This upgrade really seemed a lot better (doubled the memory, and opened up another CPU core), and it was quite responsive at first. Unfortunately this only lasted until (you guessed it) jail was reopened! This was simply too much, so jail was once again disabled, and the 3rd upgrade was ordered. This upgrade will have again double the memory, and another CPU core opened. We're now waiting for it to become active (the hosting provider needs to read his e-mail first ;))<br /><br />MarcMarchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16552014081835056884noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7395770910506470316.post-43128668847856598022010-09-27T05:35:00.005-04:002010-09-27T05:56:28.695-04:00Too busy to write a blog post...Wow, it's been 22 days since I last wrote a blog post, you can guess the reason for that: I've been busy!<br /><br />On the player side things seem to work out nicely, I've seen players from 2005-2006 return, and the online players list is steady at more or less 300 players (max was 421 players). People are reporting possible improvements on a daily basis, and I've already updated over 25% of all pages since September 1st (and over 50% of all pages since I gained control).<br /><br />As for my side of things, I've been seeing a lot of good numbers, I'll list a few:<br />- Direct traffic to TMN has gone up to 81%, where linking websites take roughly 14% of the traffic, and search engines the remaining 5%;<br />- Google Adsense reports that 15 million ads have been displayed on TMN (an average of 555,000 a day!);<br />- Most TMN players are from the UK, USA, Iceland, Netherlands, Norway, Canada, Finland;<br />- We're still consuming roughly 11GB of bandwidth each day;<br />- We have had roughly 6400 unique visitors since September 1st;<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Bullet Factories</span><br />Yesterday was the big day for anyone wanting a Bullet Factory; everyone ranked hitman+ had a fair chance at winning one. Although my alarm didn't go off at 10AM, and I wasn't awake yet at noon, I did manage to complete the entire process before 12:40.<br />The next few hours were very interesting; anyone who held a BF seemed to have a cross-hair on their heads, and most of them died. It was a very interesting day (for anyone who didn't get shot).<br /><br />Two players haven't claimed their BF yet, they have one more day to collect it (or the 8th and 9th winners of the lottery will get it). The 4th winner violated the TOS (just a small violation, but still) so he didn't get his BF.<br /><br />MarcMarchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16552014081835056884noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7395770910506470316.post-54109364619599577152010-09-05T19:19:00.003-04:002010-09-05T19:37:26.788-04:00Properties, Performance, Bandwidth<span style="font-weight: bold;">Properties</span><br />I will start dropping properties on today (September 6th), but this process will take at least a few weeks. That way players will get a chance to rank to Hitman too. I will use a random order, and I will not drop (for instance) London before Amsterdam or New York. Messages regarding the dropping of properties are not answered, as it's unfair to give one player a bigger chance of getting a property than others. Please don't ask me (or any mod) what time the next property will drop, or what property is next.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Bandwidth and performance</span><br />Being Dutch, saving money is in my nature. That's why we are running on a (cheap) hosting package with only 300 megabytes of space, and 6 gigabytes of bandwidth each month. Of course the possibility of reaching the 6GB limit crossed my mind, but I didn't expect it to hit 6GB <span style="font-weight: bold;">each day</span>!<br /><br />At the moment we are consuming betwen 10 and 13GB a day. This results in over 300GB of bandwidth each month. Going with the 'official' prices, this will make the hosting package about 8 times more expensive (still reasonably priced though). A somewhat surprising fact is, that the traffic is not caused by images; it's simply the pages that are loaded (16,353,539 in 5 days)! Although I am trying to improve this, it seems like we'll be upgrading big time soon. I'm thinking a VPS is probably better than the hosting package. The hosting provider offered to discuss it by the end of this month, so we'll have to wait for that...<br /><br />MarcMarchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16552014081835056884noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7395770910506470316.post-51252506640784656952010-08-30T18:56:00.004-04:002010-08-30T19:07:22.703-04:00We're back!We're back! And to understand why I think this day was successful, you'll have to know my targets... Here they are:<br />- I was hoping to hit 150 registered accounts on Friday 27th of August (we did not get that amount until Saturday).<br />- I was hoping to hit 450 registered accounts on the day of the launch (we got roughly 500 accounts).<br />- I was hoping to get 10 credit purchases on the first day (we hit that about 2.5 hours after the launch).<br /><br />Not everything went so great... I forgot to create a phone and plan for the first few hours (while only System has a phone provider), and found a bug creating them too. There were also a few smaller problems, and complaints about the logouts (that occured mostly because I was fixing these issues). A few hours after the launch it started to look like it was going alright.<br /><br />At this moment, there are roughly 200 users online, including 2 mods, 2 forum mods (including DragonCurse, who offered his help too) and one admin (myself). OCs are starting to pop up, the forum is quite active, and more than once a player told me this is what he/she had been waiting for: TMN. TMN is back.<br /><br />Altogether, it seems like this round will be interesting!<br /><br />MarcMarchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16552014081835056884noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7395770910506470316.post-43871808197794988552010-08-24T18:32:00.003-04:002010-08-24T19:17:46.395-04:00TMN LaunchI hope many people have been expecting this post, but unfortunately I've been more busy than expected. Here it is anyway!<br /><br />Next Friday, <span style="font-weight: bold;">August 27th, you can pre-register</span> your TMN account for next round. That way you can reserve your name even if you aren't available at the launch day. This pre-registration opens at <span style="font-weight: bold;">16:00 in the GMT+1 timezone</span> (10:00 AM in EST).<br />The pre-registration process works as shown on screenshots a few blog posts back, but the username + password combination won't log you in just yet.<br /><br />Next Monday, <span style="font-weight: bold;">August 30th, TMN 2010 will launch</span>, and you will be able to use the login information from the e-mail to login to TMN. This will happen at <span style="font-weight: bold;">16:00 in the GMT+1</span> timezone (10:00 AM in EST).<br /><br />I also announced that I picked two moderators already, their names are <span style="font-weight: bold;">Devious</span> and <span style="font-weight: bold;">Mercer</span>. Both have proven to me in the past that they are loyal members who are always willing to help. Devious during her time as a moderator (2007), and Mercer during his time as forum mod (2009). I wish them a lot of fun on TMN, and I hope the players will appreciate my decision!<br /><br />Besides these two mods, the team of testers consisted of the following members: mama1971, PDX, InfernoRain, Stev, Stipe, Kazirem and RBG. I would like to take this opportunity to thank them all for the useful input as well as testing results they have provided me with. At the launch a few forum moderators will be selected from the testers team, I will ask them before I post their names.<br /><br />I look forward to seeing all of you on TMN!<br /><br />MarcMarchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16552014081835056884noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7395770910506470316.post-40032414465468508112010-08-19T06:38:00.003-04:002010-08-19T06:46:37.774-04:00Domains....Unfortunately I will not be using the old domain themafianetwork.net for TMN. This because DC wishes to keep that domain himself, for possible future projects. I am trying to convince him to update the announcement and add a link to tmn2010.net, so players know where to find TMN.<br /><br />I am allowed to use tmnx.net, another domain we've had in the past. This domain is the one I always used when browsing to TMN, as it's nice and short, and easy to type.<br /><br />Marc<br /><br />ps. No status updates at this time, have a look at the twitter page for the latest news.Marchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16552014081835056884noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7395770910506470316.post-81887062066373102282010-08-15T18:22:00.009-04:002010-08-16T14:56:02.726-04:00ScreenshotsSome players on IRC asked if I could upload some screenshots, so I did. The registration process has changed somewhat, and the cities page has had an upgrade as well (although that one isn't finished). Screenshots are below.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcpGzrOrK30fm86jHC60yqVp9QDm9jpBUSKAKKE6tKAR6yRWUPzq0a_zDRyYNJ6uoon4EGefJ1eg8xeCuTa4nNTk85hDgZLcFrofevl3bJ5lQ03wSe1XdyHpd3saqa84lIBmy1XVo3LUc/s1600/registrationProcess.png"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 156px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcpGzrOrK30fm86jHC60yqVp9QDm9jpBUSKAKKE6tKAR6yRWUPzq0a_zDRyYNJ6uoon4EGefJ1eg8xeCuTa4nNTk85hDgZLcFrofevl3bJ5lQ03wSe1XdyHpd3saqa84lIBmy1XVo3LUc/s200/registrationProcess.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5506083092214845202" border="0" /></a><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Update #1: </span><br />This is the new Cities page (old screenshot can be found <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVcl6boj7oMUv0Ml04o8DkPhI5NfdDxZK0i-G4vFQ_RDpKhsDc77GKJVK4Wjh8xBVn8GqArPMnn_k0_w7hZvLsJHyFdFZu6Y1zTkosz7_v7Lee1y8tU1MeXdaGuJPyHqRq-f0TVC_OF0w/s1600/cities.png">here</a>)<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGFDKFSITaC0FfAp0yv6FMEFizsOwNHXoToWlzrU9kNk5ga-DM6lN2Yx-ty2P4U-CXO3P4oDKkMfmgP7kq8vxjeZkCLZaKWetAxbd5mHvT0mlQWJfby64Fixgv-G6WusnAUxHV53Zmaqc/s1600/cities_2.png"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 150px; height: 68px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGFDKFSITaC0FfAp0yv6FMEFizsOwNHXoToWlzrU9kNk5ga-DM6lN2Yx-ty2P4U-CXO3P4oDKkMfmgP7kq8vxjeZkCLZaKWetAxbd5mHvT0mlQWJfby64Fixgv-G6WusnAUxHV53Zmaqc/s320/cities_2.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5506012451358107378" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Update #2:</span><br />Below you'll find a screenshot of the new Bullets Factory page:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9UaGkp2WYTSUvfr9av0eLpDr8VRUd3UOH9yNF5A4v6gyk7eix0hVUwociQj-fECJUw0huTHe1-xEB4BPTjlv87GAY7VMW8KOkqKiBHqTwgWqwkrCTUE4zobKleOFaWKb0NKMxYI23HDE/s1600/newBF.png"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 195px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9UaGkp2WYTSUvfr9av0eLpDr8VRUd3UOH9yNF5A4v6gyk7eix0hVUwociQj-fECJUw0huTHe1-xEB4BPTjlv87GAY7VMW8KOkqKiBHqTwgWqwkrCTUE4zobKleOFaWKb0NKMxYI23HDE/s200/newBF.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5506082253187697858" border="0" /></a>Marchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16552014081835056884noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7395770910506470316.post-67283033040904768302010-08-13T12:51:00.008-04:002010-08-13T13:16:46.561-04:00update, testing, IRC<span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >Update</span><br />- Registration is now fully functional (although disabled for players)<br />- Double Up needs some more work<br />- I think TMN will launch <span style="font-weight: bold;">before september 1st</span><br />- I set up a <a href="http://www.tmn2010.net/pjirc.aspx">page</a> where you can chat to others (including me, at times) using IRC<br />- I was unable to setup paypal at this moment, will have to do that later<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >Testing</span><br />Today I invited 7 (former) players to help me test TMN. As practically all pages have been updated, there's a lot of work to do.<br />I also asked 2 of them how they'd feel about becoming moderator (I will publish the name when they say yes). The others will probably become forum moderator at first (they may be promoted to mod later).<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >IRC</span><br />Rage and Silentbob host an IRC server that can be used for TMN. You can use the <a href="http://www.tmn2010.net/pjirc.aspx">pjirc script</a> I set up, or use your own IRC client (server: irc.g33kd3n.net, channel: #jail) to start chatting.<br /><br />Marc<br /><br />Ps. Keep advertising the TMN website, blog, twitter, facebook group. The more players we get, the more fun it'll be for everyone!Marchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16552014081835056884noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7395770910506470316.post-40289253870392180672010-08-04T16:01:00.004-04:002010-08-04T16:12:50.377-04:00Help needed!<span style="font-weight:bold;">Since details related to weapons, explosives and protections were lost, I request the following: </span><br />If you have screenshots of the inventory page from last round (2009-2010) or the round before (2008-2009) please send those to my e-mail address or upload them and post a link in the comments. <br /><br />Thanks in advance!<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Quick update: </span><br />I opened up a twitter account for TMN, it's called <a href="http://www.twitter.com/TMNOfficial">TMNOfficial</a>. I am not a fan of twitter, and don't personally use it, but for "spreading the word" and providing more updates than large blog posts, I think it's good to have one for TMN. On the right side of the blog you'll see the latest few tweets. <br /><br />In the past few days I fixed about 14 pages and tested most of them too. Two important pages have't been tested yet, as they rely on data requested above (weapon, explosive, protection): Organized Crime and Killing. <br />I'm still having trouble getting registration to work, it seems like there's abug in reCaptcha (it was reported too), but I can't seem to fix it. I'm looking into alternative registration possibilities now. <br /><br />MarcMarchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16552014081835056884noreply@blogger.com18