Since you don't often get a chance to see what goes on behind the scenes, we're bringing you a sneak peek at a major upgrade coming to BYOND. The engine is getting some exciting new capabilities for icons and maps. Just what kind of capabilities? Well, this kind for one:



The biggest source of support for the work that goes into making these upgrades is our BYOND Members. If you haven't become a Member yet, don't forget that you get more from it than a lot of website perks and extra bonuses in some games. You also help make BYOND a better platform. Once again we'd like to thank our existing Members for their continued support.

Some users are currently experiencing problems going "online" in the BYOND Pager and hence connecting to games. If you are among them, or know someone who is, read on.

By default, the pager connects to a machine called "hub.byond.com" to retrieve information about players, find games, and authenticate keys. What has happened here is that, for some users, that machine has become unreachable. This happens from time to time when a nameserver between the ISP and the server receives corrupted information.

This first thing is to try to refresh the information. In our tests, this hasn't been met with much success, but it doesn't hurt to try. In windows:
Start -> Run -> cmd
then: ping hub.byond.com

That should confirm that the hub is unreachable.
type: ipconfig /flushdns
and
then: ping hub.byond.com

(you may want to try this a few times, and/or restart your modem and try the command again.)

if the hub is now reachable, the problem is solved. If not, you'll want to configure your pager to point to an alternate hub, hosted on our web machine:
1) Close all BYOND programs.
2) Open up the pager, byond.exe
3) Go to File -> Preferences -> Advanced
4) In the "Hub Address" box, type: www.byond.com:6001
5) Try to login

Or you can just wait and let the problem resolve itself on its own (nameserver issues self-correct as the correct information makes its way across the interwebz).

In the next version of BYOND, we'll add some stuff to configure these alternate routes by default, so hopefully if/when the problem recurs users won't experience downtime.

Sorry for the inconvenience (even though it wasn't our fault this time :)

BYOND Members have file space that they can use to upload their games, demos, and libraries. But until recently, this was an involved process: The member had to go to their file management page and upload the file, then edit the hub entry to give it a download URL pointing to the file they had uploaded. This worked, but it was not necessarily convenient. Earlier in BYOND's history, though, we used to allow direct uploads of .zip files, which was very convenient. We're now pleased to announce that this feature has been merged into BYOND Member file space, so members can upload their games' .zip package files directly from the hub entry editing page.

If you are a Member, when you go to edit any of your hub entries you will see the new option "BYOND Member File Upload", where you can choose a file. Browse to find the .zip package for your entry, and that's it. You don't need to fill in the download URL since that will be done automatically. Files that are uploaded this way go right into your file space as a hidden file.

That brings up another important change. In the past, hidden files meant only you or those who had file management permission on your site (such as if you were running a guild) could download them. But if a file corresponds to one of your hub entries, anyone who has permission to download the hub entry can download that file. That is, if you set up subscription-only downloads then only subscribers will be able to download. If the entry is downloadable by everyone, then anyone can download that file. You can also make the .zip package downloadable by anyone just by making it Visible or Listed in your file manager. This new way of handling downloads works because if a hidden file is named something like Author.Game.zip (in my case, maybe something like LummoxJR.Incursion.zip), it's easy to look up the hub entry and figure out who's allowed to download it. If the filename is changed to something else, this method will not work.

People who have legacy hub entries, who had uploaded .zip files to our server before that was no longer allowed, will note that they now have those files in their personal file space whether they are Members or not. Non-Members can't upload new files, but legacy files were moved for them as a courtesy so the files wouldn't just disappear. Should any user in that position activate a new membership or renew an old one, they will regain the ability to upload changes to that file.

There's one other thing authors should know. If you have uploaded a file this way and you change the path of your hub entry, the filename will change for you too. Changing a hub path is usually not recommended, but if you need to this will keep things consistent. As I mentioned above, the filename has to correspond with the hub path in order for download permissions to work right.

Another feature we've added, or perhaps more accurately brought back, is the ability to track gameplay for your hub entries. Our new tracking shows the number of times people joined a live session, the number of downloads, and the number of times it was hosted. This feature is open to all authors, not just BYOND Members, so you can keep an eye on how your game is doing.

These are just some of the big things we've been working on lately. As you may have noticed, the BYOND software has been going through some interesting updates as well, with the addition of the new feature to allow secondary HUDs and some improvements in caching behavior that will benefit resource-heavy games. As always, thanks for being part of our great community, and especially we thank our Members for making these ongoing improvements possible.

Lately we've made a few more changes to the hub and how games are found and managed. Some of these changes you might not have noticed yet. Others have been easier to find.

Medals, scores, and comments

First, some changes were made to the medal system. You may have noticed that some games used to display medals and scores but no longer do. We found that some entries were ill-advisedly using the medal system without having first set up a hub password. Because this was wide open to abuse, it was decided that the best thing would be to hide medals and scores on those entries until the authors could make the change to use a password for security.

Along with that, medals now have two new features. When you edit your game's hub entry, you have the option of changing how the list of available medals is arranged--this is strictly for aesthetic purposes. You also can flag a medal as a "spoiler", which means it will be hidden from view except for people who have already earned it. This can be used for special "secret" medals as well as anything that could potentially give away vital plot info that might spoil surprises for new players. These ideas have been on the drawing board for a little while, and we're pleased to be able to bring them to you.

Comments on hub entries have changed too. We found out through trial and error that leaving the system wide open was just opening the door to way too much spam. The solution to that was one that has worked well on a lot of other fronts: game comments are now only available for BYOND Members, and the game's author and helpers.

Recommended games

Recommendations are also a fairly new feature we added recently. If you've visited any games lately you've probably seen that some are saying they're recommended for you. This system is still in fairly early stages and may need refinement down the road, but we're hoping the data will improve as time goes on. As part of this, the list of related games ("Players also like...") has changed a little too.

If you click the "Why?" link on a recommended game, you'll see which games had the most influence on the pick. If you think a game shouldn't be influencing your recommendations, just click the "Don't use this for recommendations" link and it will no longer be a factor. The "Not interested" link also tells the system to avoid recommending that particular game in the future.

New main page for games

Recently we overhauled our front page for finding games. The old page was fine, but while it gave a good sampling of available games it didn't give any information about them. Now several of the games show an expanded listing including their description, and even some screenshots. Recommended games get first priority in the new listing, so you're more likely to find something right off the bat that would actually interest you. Developers take note: Using screenshots will make your game look really good on this page.

Also the games page now features a list of medals, when available, recently earned by BYOND Members for games in that category. This is a great way for Members to get their accomplishments noticed.

Published, unpublished, and available

Another change with hub entries is this new concept of "published" and "unpublished". You may have noticed these, along with this new notion of "available" games, when searching for games. We've been around the block with those terms a few times before, so here's a quick explanation of what they mean:

• Available games are either downloadable, or currently live. In a few places this concept is stretched a little to include any games that were live within the last day or so.
• Published games are generally BYOND favorites (a favorite in one of our banner guilds), or are in at least one Member's top 10 favorite games.
• Unpublished games are everything else.

Our admins have the ability to push a game into the published list if it really belongs there--like I did the other day with Flick's Chinese Checkers. They can also mark a game as unpublished, like for instance if it is a rip, so we can encourage quality original games. Bear in mind it's still possible to find unpublished games, they just don't show up as easily.

One other new thing you'll see on games is related to this. If a game has earned published status but it hasn't yet been evaluated to see if it's original or not, our Members can cast a vote on whether the game is a rip (and if so, of which game) or not. Our admins have the ability to see the results of the voting--but not who voted, since it's anonymous--and can decide to keep a game in the published section or remove it. This voting will only appear on eligible entries, so if you don't see it, it means votes aren't even being considered yet.

BYOND users have been requesting something to deal with rips for a long time, so we're hoping this is one step we can take toward helping everyone with that. It is not feasible for us to police rips, but with a task force of volunteers to look over the voting we're hoping that we can make some headway. This system is only possible because the number of entries eligible for voting is relatively small. I would like to stress, though, that it is experimental. We have no idea what to expect in terms of results.

More changes

Among our latest changes, you can now use files up to 20K in size for your BYOND Member avatar or for hub entry icons, up from the previous limits of 6K and 10K. The same goes for medal images as well.

Avatars also display on hub pages now, when you look at a list of who's logged into a game. It's a nice way of making the page more colorful, and also giving the Members who've supported us a way of expressing themselves better.

We hope to continue adding more features just like these to improve the overall look of the site and the user experience, and to encourage more people to become BYOND Members to help keep everything going.

Where'd that Digest thing go?
The attentive reader might take note of the fact that this update is a wee bit late. After initially going with a release cycle of once a week for the digest, it quickly became apparent that in order to continue writing digests with meaningful content, we'd have to cut down the amount of releases significantly.

And so we've moved to a monthly posting schedule now, which will hopefully mean more user- and editor-written content, more interesting things to read about and similar. I'd like to take a moment, on that note, to again remind everyone that they're more than welcome to write me if they think something is interesting enough to be mentioned in the digest.

If you've found something cool and relevant to BYOND or gaming/game development, toss me a link! Even if that link happens to be a shameless plug to your own hub entry, I'll definitely check it out. To reach me write to community@byond.com .

Catching up
So whats been happening around BYOND since the last digest? Well, a few cool things!

About a week after the last digest, hub entries recieved an overhaul. They're now split into tabs, allowing you an easier overview and more room for upcoming features. While we're generally happy with the current version of that layout, constructive suggestions are always welcome.

Shortly after that, medals and achievements were added! These allow games to track scores for a hub entry and award medals to their players, which can be seen by everyone else. Here is a link to an article explaining how to use the new DM procedures to work with scores and medals. Have you gotten all of the medals in PlunderGnome yet? What are you waiting for, its being hosted 24/7 at the moment!

The new additions don't stop there. We've taken into account some long-term requests, to be able to comment on a game without the hassle of having to be formal and thorough in review-form. The result is the added ability to discuss a game. This happens under the new 'Discuss' tab, that has replaced the 'Reviews' tab. The News post Graffiti for all has more information on the specifics of what that means.

April Fools
Most of us love checking out the various april fools going on the 1st of April around on the internet. But I'd like to hear what cool things you found. Instead of listing the various things I discovered, I'll let everyone comment on what their favorite places did for april fools ;) If you've got links to pages that still have a working copy of it, then by all means post it.

Some of us are also savvey enough to do our own pranks on friends and neighbors; did you do something that went really well? Or did you get pranked bigtime? Tell us about it!

Personally, I'm looking forward to playing Lummox JR's new game!

Taking a look around
So browsing through BYOND Action, I found a thread that talks about Left4Dead on BYOND. Now I know I really enjoy the game by Valve, so I wonder what sort of gameplay Magicbeast20's creation offers! Unfortunately it doesn't seem to be hosted right now, although people are waiting to play!

Maggeh recently posted a submission to BYOND Anime about JoJo's Bizzare Adventure. And if you're into anime, its definitely worth checking out; bizzare certainly fits the series well!

Nadrew has seemingly taken over the BYOND classic, My Life As A Spy (by SkySaw), which means the game might be seeing updates and hosting again!
Here's the blog post where he talks about it.

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Alathon is a community manager at BYOND as well as Moderator on the developer forums. When he isn't busy working on his game or scouring the BYONDosphere for cool things to write about, he spends his time in 'sunny' Copenhagen, Denmark trying to scrounge up a living by being part-time Superman and full-time movie production assistant.

If you've got interesting topics or comments on the Digest, you're always welcome to write him at community@byond.com