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2181. Server Trouble Update

Written on Tuesday 3 December 2002 at 23:48 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

There's some news about the server trouble we're having with our .com server again. As you might have noticed, images are loading again which means the server is back up. However, due to the severe speed problems downloading files will remain disabled until at least tomorrow afternoon/evening. It could even be thursday afternoon before downloading will be re-enabled. The whole problem is that the server was put on a T1 connection (which is 1.544 mbit/sec or about 200kbyte/sec in total, for all connections). In other words, all users of this website and other websites on the same server had to share 200kb/sec, which often resulted in downloading speeds of about 0.2kb/sec per user. In that way, even downloading a small file of 100kb would take 5 minutes to download (where it should be under a minute even on a 56k modem connection!). Due to these unacceptable speeds, downloading will not be enabled again for now as we rather want to keep downloading on hold and make the site load slightly faster than make the whole site slow.

Our thesimszone.com server will be moved again probably tomorrow or thursday afternoon, but then to a 100MBit connection (12.5 MByte/sec in total, about 66 times as much as the current 'speed'). This should solve all the recent problems with speeds and downtime, and everything will be working again properly at normal speeds. Once the server has been moved, downloading will be enabled again, and our (still secret) new (and necessary) feature will be set up as well. We apologise for all this trouble, but hope you also understand that it is out of our control. Just remember we'll be back in two days time!

2182. GameSpot TSO Feature

Written on Sunday 1 December 2002 at 01:28 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

As mentioned before, GameSpot has added their "Behind the Games" feature of The Sims Online. It's a long but interesting read. One thing that's talked about, is the original idea for TSO:

"'Originally, our idea was that you'd set up your house and it would act as a server,' recalls Wright. In essence, you would build your house offline and then open it up for online players to come and visit. 'It was going to be a lot like the matchmaking service on [Blizzard's] Battle.net,' says Wright. In other words, to visit someone else's house you'd actually connect directly to that player's computer. The idea seemed like a good compromise: It would be quick to develop, but it would also give the game online functionality."

The whole article is basically a big interview with Will Wright, designer of SimCity, The Sims and The Sims Online (amongst others). With its 13 pages, it's probably the longest feature about The Sims Online ever written so far. It even tells some things that Will is afraid of in TSO - "people spending too much time playing the game and about the illegal activity that could happen in his world". The development of TSO from the beginning until the play test and the launch of Alphaville is described. That play test was scary to quite a big part of the team, as it would show the consumer's opinion. People not pleased with the play test would base their opinion on that even though the game is still in decelopment. The result could be fewer consumers for the final version. Anyway, you should just read the whoe thing as it's too big to summarise here. A must-read for everybody: "The Endless Hours of The Sims Online". Enjoy the reading!

2183. More server trouble

Written on Saturday 30 November 2002 at 01:00 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

Just like last week, our .com server has been taken down. Because there were serious speed problems at some times of the day for the last week (0.3kb/sec per connection sometimes), the host has decided to move us to a new server again which hopefully will be more reliable. We hope that the new server will be back up before monday, but at this point I cannot guarantee anything. At this point, downloading files has been disabled again until further notice. We hope this will be fixed very soon as well, but unfortunately I do not have control over this. You will be informed in the news here when the server is back online and can be used again - hopefully without problems then. We apologise for the inconvenience, and hope that you understand that we want to bring you a service that's as good as possible. Very slow downloading is unacceptable and and although it means some complete downtime it's better to have it serve at acceptable speeds so you don't have to wait hours to download a few files.

Once the server is back, we will be adding one new and necessary feature to the site. More details will be here soon, so keep checking the news! We should be back completely within a few days.

2184. SimDay: PS2 video

Written on Thursday 28 November 2002 at 23:39 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

Besides the announcement of the announcement of the German site launch, there's a SimCity 4 Fansite Kit (15.5 Mb) to be downloaded. Having said that, there's one final more interesting thing: a QuickTime video of The Sims on PS2. You see the biggest special features of The Sims PS2, like creating your Sims, the 3D neighborhood, the story mode and 2-player challenges. Definately worth a look for those interested in this game (or perhaps even in The Sims 2, as some features might/will be seen in that game as well). You need a QuickTime plugin for it. To check out this 25 seconds video, go to this page. Last week's chat with SimCity 4 Producer Sean Decker about the Region Play feature was also quite a success, and the transcript can be found here. That's all, more next week.

2185. Unleashed on Mac

Written on Thursday 28 November 2002 at 23:04 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

As expected, Aspyr is converting the latest expansion pack of The Sims - Unleashed - to the Mac. The current date is set to December 2002, so it should be coming very soon. You can follow its progress a bit at their project status page. It will be pretty much the same as the PC version. This are the minimum system requirements:

MacOS 8.6, 9, 10.1 or later.

G3 processor at 233 MHz or faster (450 MHz recommended)

192 MB of Memory (additional 128M recommended if running OSX)

2 MB VRAM (8 MB recommended)

Hard drive, with 750 MB of additional free space

Quicktime 4.1.2

More info is at Aspyr.

 

2186. New poll

Written on Thursday 28 November 2002 at 01:04 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

We've had another poll again (number 48 already). To be short about it, here are the results of the question 'What operating system do you use the most?':

Windows XP 58 (55.77%)

Windows 98/98SE 23 (22.12%)

Windows 2000 11 (10.58%)

Windows 95 4 (3.85%)

Other Linux Distribution 4 (3.85%)

Mac-OS (Macintosh) 3 (2.88%)

Mandrake Linux 8.0 Gaming Edition 1 (0.96%)

That makes a total of 104 votes. This week we want to know what screen resolution you play The Sims in. Is this 800x600 or 1024x768 (and do you maybe wish it could be even higher)? Tell us on the right or on this page. Old poll results can be found here.

 

2187. New submission

Written on Wednesday 27 November 2002 at 13:07 by Steve - 0 comments.

I have just added a wonderful new object. Komki's Kannonball Express coffee machine is a wonderful new object for your game. It increases your sims energy very quickly, and also increases their fun rating. If you want to download this great new object click here.

Submissions are always welcome here at The Sims Zone which is why we created the submissions page! Please make sure you check out the submissions page before sending a file in. If you follow all the instructions then your file will be added to The Sims Zone.

2188. TSO Sneak Preview

Written on Tuesday 26 November 2002 at 00:26 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

Coming thursday to GameSpot is a "Behind the Games" feature of The Sims Online. There's already a sneak-preview to be read of it:

"It was September, 2001, only a week after the terrorist attacks on America. While the nation was still recovering, the team behind The Sims Online at Maxis had its own serious issue to overcome: The follow-up to the best-selling computer game of all time was broken--and no one was sure how to fix it. 'Last September, the general sense inside the company was that this game couldn't be made within two years,' said Luc Barthalet, general manager of Maxis. 'The game code was like a big bowl of spaghetti. It was all tangled up, largely because we had kept iterating off the original Sims code that was started seven years ago.'"

Thursday Will Wright will reveal why TSO scares him more than anything he's ever done before. You will also get untold stories and some info behind the play test. The Behind the games will be up 3.30PM Pacific time at GameSpot, something probably worth to check out. For now, there's the Sneak Preview along with a shot of Will Wright and a 1 minute Teaser Video (11.0 Mb High Res, 8.0 Mb Low Res) of the Behind the Games feature.

2189. TNHH 4.0 RC2 Out

Written on Sunday 24 November 2002 at 21:42 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

As reported before, the first Release Candidate of version 4.0 of The Neighborhood Handler was not working properly when trying to install houses or lots. This has now been fixed, amongst a few other (small) things. The "Save Reg Error 1" has been fixed as well, and the "Convert old back-ups" option has been moved to the main screen. To download the fixed version, go to this page. Have fun with it!

2190. Still More Birthday Downloads!

Written on Sunday 24 November 2002 at 05:03 by Jendea - 0 comments.

More TSZ Birthday Gifts - better late than never! :)
I have added three new unleashed house lots, three new heads and a new mesh with two gowns in all skin tones.
You can see them all under my section here: