Robin

Just a quick update to keep people posted on the current situation. Work was done that should have fixed some issues with the way network traffic was being handled by the server. This was one of the main causes of the stability issues we faced. However, during that two week period other development was carried out that caused major functionality regression and a whole new slew of issues which need to be addressed. We'll need to try and replicate these issues and fix the causes. This won't be a quick thing to do, and unfortunately people are very busy with the run-up to Christmas, so I'll be the only person who can find some time to work on this. I'll post another announcement once we get a better idea of just what we need to do and when the game can be expected to be online again. Thanks, Robin

Restart your computer.

Greetings ninjas, For instructions on how to updater your launcher, please see this thread: http://www.ninonline.org/forum/index.php?/forums/topic/3057-new-180-launcher/#comment-45493 It's been a rough week, but we're happy to announce that we've signed off on the changes for Nin Online version 1.8.0. With this announcement we're also going from Nin Offline to Nin Online and will be restoring access to the game server for all users ASAP. (Yay!) Quite a few of you have noted a lack of communication and visibility whilst we've been working through the issues facing the game, so I'd first of all like to apologise to anyone who was confused about what exactly was happening during release. It was a rocky start, and unfortunately all our effort had to be spent on fixing the issues leaving us very little time to interact with the community (not to mention all our real life responsibilities as well). Fortunately a lot of progress has been made in making sure Nin is as stable as possible. There's still a lot to do, but we're confident the changes made so far will at least allow us to get the game running again so people can continue to play. Engine changes Robin (me) has been working on fixing various issues which were causing stability problems on the server. For those of you who don't know, I'm the guy who made the game engine that Nin Online was built on. I've been around for a while now, so some of you might recognise me from a couple of years back, however I haven't actively worked on the engine itself for a long time. I've been concentrating on bringing myself up to speed on the state of the source code, fixing various small issues that went unnoticed, and stress testing as many isolated parts of the engine as possible to see which areas of the code were causing problems under load. For now all I can say is that I've fixed two of the main areas which were causing the server to crash and more work will be done over the next few weeks to improve the stability even more. Abhi has shown an amazing amount of patience in completely re-writing our entire character saving system. I'm sure plenty of you will remember the issues we had on release day where the website was constantly going down and character data would rollback practically every time you logged off. Abhi recognised these issues and took it upon himself to completely re-think how our various server-side systems interacted. By isolating the game infrastructure from the database we were able to fix the main cause of the character data losses and also stop the website from going down. This is no small feat, and the fact that Abhi took the time to do this whilst also studying for important exams is very commendable. Thanks Abhi! Seth has been working hard on fixing the bugs our community reported during the last few weeks. (Believe me, our team communication was flooded with him completing so many tasks on our tracking board.) He's also been working hard on improving the general code-base with possible stability fixes and memory leak plugs. Seth has also been picking up .NET and has been actively working on developing the new updater, fixing the authentication server, and generally cleaning up our workspace so that it's much easier for other people to get involved. Thanks Seth! Content updates Whilst our programming team has been hard at work getting the engine fit for (re)release, our dedicated team of artists and content developers have been hard at work designing and building an entirely new geographical area within the Nin Online universe! Elk has returned to the team as a pixel artist. He's shown some amazing designs and has quickly integrated himself in to our production pipeline, so I hope all of you will warmly welcome him back to where he belongs. Welcome back, Elk! Rory, Fernando, and Elk have all been working closely together to come up with their artistic vision of what the Sand village will look like in Nin Online. This work is ongoing, and won't be released with 1.8.0, however Rory was kind enough to share some screenshots of some of the surrounding desert areas where you'll soon be finding yourself fighting those pesky Leaf village ninja. I'll leave the rest of the details for our next big content update. Thanks guys! (Warning mobile users - large images)

Unfortunately the old launcher isn't properly updating itself to the new launcher. As such, until we can get a new installer working, I'm releasing a manual patch that will let you run the game properly. Here are the steps outlining how to replace it yourself. Step 1. To do this you'll need to find where your Nin Online installation folder is. By default, this should be C:\Program Files (x86)\Nin Online Step 2. Download the new launcher from here: http://www.ninonline.org/nin_updater.zip Step 3. Extract the zip file and take the new Launcher.exe file. Step 4. Replace the existing Launcher.exe file in your Nin Online installation directory with the new one. Step 5. Make sure you set up the new launcher to run with Administrator Permissions. Step 6. Run Launcher.exe to update your client.

There is currently an issue which is stopping character progress from being saved automatically during play. As this is a time when the server stability is wonky, this can result in your character data being lost when the game server is shut down. To make sure your character is properly saved, please log off and then back on again to force a character save. If you simply log off, you might find your progress being rolled back to a previous save. We'll look in to fixing this as soon as possible.

There will be a giant 'GAME CLIENT DOWNLOAD' button at the top right of the home page and forum index page.

Hey, you took my advice on the chocolate milk thing. Good job.

Whoever fixed this sure is a great web master.

It doesn't really matter how many resources development have access to when you don't have a project owner in place. Without someone there to make calls on design decisions on a day-to-day basis things will run at a crawl. There's a reason projects like Starbound move everyone to the same time zone. When you couple that with the fact that the people with the most experience on the team are working full time jobs and juggling other responsibilities you don't have much common time between America/Europe/Asia where conversations can take place. When a project is in this situation throwing more junior developers in will do nothing but cause more problems as mentoring these people requires even more work than just doing the job yourself. Not having Rory in place to deal with this is definitely a problem, however don't assume that things will progress quickly even with him dedicating more time to the project. Previous projects I've worked on have been in development for an average of 2 years before being released, and that's with me handling all project ownership responsibilities with very little distraction.

We're doing good, just super super busy. Rory's doing his army service whilst juggling side jobs and I'm currently dealing with various family members being in prison and hospital whilst also getting ready to start a new job and move to a new apartment... again. Christmas is always a busy time of year as it is. :^)

Merry Christmas Happy New Year everyone!

I have no idea. I can't say I'm a fan, though. Keep in mind I released Naruto Realm in 2005, when the anime had only been airing for 2 years or so. Back then it was pretty damn good. The universe itself is fantastic and makes for exciting gameplay... the character arcs and writing are really awful, however.

No, he means a spell. It's a generic ORPG engine, not Naruto specific. They will be known as jutsu in the game, though.

... what? That's been in the engine for years. Practically every single screenshot of the game shows the chat bubbles in action.

*sigh* None of the posts in this topic are bullying. None of the recent threads have had bullying in them. There is no bullying going on in the shoutbox right now. This thread was created over historic cases which have recently been dealt with. I am not saying that everyone who calls someone a faggot is going to get instantly banned. I'm talking specifically about gang mentality and brutal, systematic abuse. None of you have any idea exactly what this thread is dealing with because all instances reported were through PMs. None of you who have posted in this thread understand the situations we're discussing, and you're instead latching on to pre-conceived notions and bullshit assumptions. None of you in this thread have been reported for bullying. None of you have had any warnings related to bullying. Stop trying to act the victim on something which doesn't even effect you. I'm locking this thread as there has been absolutely no discussion on the actual topic, rather 3 pages of people arguing semantics over the wording.

I think you're confused on how this works. Your post was hidden by a member of staff because they believed it was inappropriate and breaking the rules set out by Rory and I. If you feel this post was wrongly hidden then please get in touch with a moderator to get it reviewed. If you disagree with the rules we set out, however, I can't really help you.

... what? Your original post broke just about every single rule there is. Regardless of our stance on bullying that post would have been removed. Wrong about what? Bullying has always been against the rules, I'm simply letting people know that we're going to be cracking down on it more. If you want to be treated like an adult and consulted on these matters try and act like you earn it instead of devolving in bullshit internet memes. Have some tact and understand that questions on social interactions are not that black and white.

I've had someone get my personal information and try and coerce me by posting my family's address on here. I've also had similar things happen in previous forums I've administrated. Banning them solved it. Bullying in a place like this will very, very rarely spread out in to real life. If bullying occurs outside of the forum then you're entirely right and there is little I can do about it. On this forum, however, I can. As for your hypothetical situation, we deal with these on a case-by-case basis. Bullying is a problem, but is not widespread. People having an argument like that is not bullying. We're not strict at all. You've seen how I administrate this forum. I treat people like adults and let things go naturally. What I'm discussing in this thread is not something that happens frequently, and is often hidden from everyone else. And let's not forget that most of our work is carried out silently. We hide abusive content, deal with members privately and generally try not to cause drama. Being abusive to people asking questions is certainly a problem, and something which will not be tolerated. In the future please report these events rather than giving in to apathy. By letting this behaviour take place you're contributing to this image.

This forum post was not created because of Zeke's situation. I've been dealing with historic cases of bullying within this community and Zeke was one of the many people who were investigated over it. His reaction to being warned and his crusade against the administration are both completely separate and being handled as their own thing. I created this topic because I've started taking much harsher steps in to quashing any and all bullying on this forum. It's a warning to everyone that this kind of behaviour is not acceptable, no matter who you are. The idea that I'm creating some drama over how people treat me on this forum is simply wrong. I couldn't care less about how people treat me. There are rules in place to protect me against personal attacks, and I have the power to deal with these situations. Other people, however, do not. That's why I'm reminding people that the administration is on their side. They should not feel like they're unwelcome here, no matter who is making them feel that way. As for the moderator situation, we have enough staff to deal with this community. Throwing more people in to the role is not going to do anything to help. What we need, however, is people to realise that it's our job to chase up things which are reported to us. We're not here to read everything posted on the forum. If that was the case we'd just run everyone through a moderation queue.

No, you've repeated the same sentiment before when I was specifically talking about misogynistic and abusive behaviour through the PM system. Your viewpoint is obviously that bullying is something you can ignore. I highly suggest you read through the articles posted and perhaps do some of your own research. Systematic bullying, whilst not very widespread, is still a problem in this community, and ignoring it will do nothing but exacerbate the issue.

And what happens to the person who was bullying you then? Do they get punished for their actions? Do they try and change their attitude? Who knows how many more people that person has been bullying who did the exact same thing. By ignoring bullying you're letting it continue. I've seen the exact same attitude in other communities I've been an administrator on and I'm not going to let it happen here. By reporting the bully to me you're giving me the opportunity to deal with a problem in the community which I might otherwise not know of.

Bullying Bullying is something that everyone has had to deal with at one point or another. It's a disgusting, brutal thing which can absolutely destroy a person. Systematic bullying is a huge problem in real life, and whether this occurs at home, at school or at work it can be just as damaging. In all of its forms bullying is completely unacceptable. Schools and places of work have rules in place to combat bullying, and these are backed up by legislation (at least in the UK). I'm afraid I can't really help with real-life bullying other than offering advice or simply listening to what you have to say. If you need someone to talk to, please get in touch. Sometimes it helps to just have someone understand what you're going through. If you want more information or help then there are some great sites which you can visit, such as bullying.co.uk. Internet Bullying Also known as 'Cyberbullying' or 'Online Bullying' this is a relatively new concept which has been making headlines. The internet offers a completely anonymous playground where people can act however they want. Naturally, this leads to a lot of situations where bullying takes place. Wikipedia - Examples of what constitutes cyberbullying include communications that seek to intimidate, control, manipulate, put down, falsely discredit, or humiliate the recipient. The actions are deliberate, repeated, and hostile behavior intended to harm another. Cyberbullying has been defined by The National Crime Prevention Council: “When the Internet, cell phones or other devices are used to send or post text or images intended to hurt or embarrass another person." When people talk about cyber bullying they generally refer to people you know in real life using internet technology to carry existing bullying through in to a new medium. This isn't always true, however. Bullying in Nin I've seen the effects of bullying first-hand. Hell, if I look back to when I was a teenager I can see myself bullying people both in real life and on the internet. Sometimes the people doing the bullying don't realise what they're doing is genuinely effecting someone, and from a lot of the ex-bullies I've talked to many of them were bullied themselves. This kind of behaviour is simply not acceptable. Nin's (specifically #5, #6 and #12) explicitly state that we will follow standard disciplinary practices if we find any evidence of bullying in this community. Anything you post on this forum, regardless of whether it's through a PM, through a status message or forum post must abide by these rules. This is something which everyone must follow. Your position in the community does not put you above these guidelines. Veteran members especially must make sure they set a good example for people coming in to this community. If we feel that your behaviour is having a negative impact on the image of this community or game then you will have your posting privileges revoked, and in extreme circumstances your account banned. Please, please think very carefully about if what you're saying to someone could be seen as bullying. Your words carry weight, and you must wield them responsibly. You can report bullying through the standard report systems. If you feel like you're being bullied by a member of staff and don't feel comfortable talking to them about it please get someone else involved. Everyone in the team is accountable for their actions, and these actions will be scrutinised by the rest of the team if something like this occurs. Together we can keep this forum going strong. Thanks, Robin

Considering the amount of misinformation being spread at the moment, and the shocking lack of understanding on how communication software like the Nin Online forum works, I felt the need to clarify some things about Nin, the internet and security in general. Database Storage Every single time you use a piece of software like Nin's forum or game you're presented with a wealth of information. This information does not come out of nowhere. It is stored in something called a database. For you to do something on this website and have it pushed out and shown to everyone around the world we store the information and a bunch of metadata in a table. Every time someone loads a webpage information is pulled from this table and presented to the user. Your messages, post count, avatar, name, e-mail address, hashed password, profile information, shoutbox posts etc. are all stored on this server. Some of this information is accessible to people through the front-end, some not. As I host this website on my VPS I have root access to all of this data, regardless of whether our software grants access through the front-end or not. This is not something unique to Nin Online. We use something called Invision Power Board to power our forum. This handles most of the forum functionality for us and this type of software is baseline standard across the entire industry. Everything you as a normal user have access to is only a fraction of the information stored. We keep full logs of every single thing which has ever happened on this website. Deleted posts and threads, locked accounts, hidden content, redundant forum sections... none of these things are ever wiped from the database. They're archived in the database for moderation and logging. Nin's moderation and administration team have limited access to hidden data through the front-end for the sake of moderating content, dealing with abuse reports and keeping everything running smoothly. If you have something you don't want to be read by myself or any of the other community leaders then for God's sake don't store that information in my database. I can't believe I actually have to say this. Every single website ever created stores this exact same information on you. Anything you can access through the internet is stored somewhere in the world on a computer. The internet is not run by magic. Educate yourself to stay safe. Privacy & Security Online I'm honestly worried by some of the situations being discussed, hypothetically or not. People talking about sending their account passwords through the PM system, talking about sending their parents credit card information to their friends... this is insanely dangerous. Please do not share sensitive information about yourself or your parents with anyone, regardless of whether it's online or not. We store things like your password using standard data-storage security. Your password is linked to your account using a checksum hash using account-specific salt. This makes it infeasible for someone to determine your password from the information stored in the database. However, if you send this as free text through a server like the PM system then you're effectively bypassing all of the security we have in place to protect you. If you're sending through the credit card information of your parents to anyone without their permission not only are you absolute scum and a thief, you're opening up your family to financial hardship and identity theft. Don't do something you're going to regret. As you can see from the first section, everything you do on Nin Online can be read like a book, regardless of who has this information. Right now Rory and I are the only ones with root access to the database, but God-forbid we ever do have a security incident where information is stolen by a malicious person then they'll have the exact same information. Please keep this in mind when using all online services. Several high-profile companies have had security incidents like this in recent years, and we make use of the exact same security systems that they do. Keep separate passwords for different sites and never use your e-mail password on any account linked to it. General There are thousands of articles online which will teach you how internet services work and how to stay safe using them. Please, for the sake of yourself and everyone around you, Get Safe Online. If you have a need for true anonymity online then don't use a service like Skype, Facebook or any mainstream internet service. You can remain anonymous online by using a service like Tor and, by extension, Tor Chat. If you have any questions regarding safe use of the internet in general, or how your data is used in Nin then please get in touch via PM. Stay safe, Robin