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We Are Getting Medals Back!

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Getting Medals Back

Major Command Risk Getting Medals Back

Marcos, the programmer who does the coding to our Risk games has identified the reason why Medals have not been awarded to winners. A major fix will be implemented during our next update! The best part of this news is that the medals will be awarded retroactively! So no need to go back and replay all those Duck and Cover games. Remember that, Risk players get more medals for a win. The medals can be won by playing the classic Risk games against a single or multiplayer computer opponents. The upcoming update will resolve the long issue of the medals not being attributed to all Risk players.

There are currently 3166 medals ready to be awarded to players, and that number should grow by the time we implement the fix.

2999 of those are Map Explorer Medals
and the remaining 167 are 50 Consecutive Turns Taken Medals

We will also be adding Medals for the new Forgotten Kingdom map. So start playing and get ready to check your Profile page for the new medals!

Remember, though, this fix will take place during our next update. So as usual, there will be a warning posted, as well as a countdown clock, followed by the site going off-line, a lot of complaints about missed turns, and some words of encouragement. Then when we’re back up, we will have Medals! (fingers crossed)

As an added bonus, I asked if we could have the specific name of the Achievement Medal mentioned in the RECON tab when a medal gets awarded. It has always bothered me that a generic message “You have been awarded the  achievement medal” shows up, but you do not know which medal it was. Well, Marcos discovered that this was not the original intention either. That double space before the word “achievement” was meant to be filled by a medal name. Again, for some reason, this was not working. It turns out the table describing the medal and it’s name was blank. So we are filling in the missing fields with the correct information and soon the RECON tab will tell you exactly which medal was just awarded to you.

And for those who are technically minded, the reason for the Medals not working was because -> “The cron job is crashing while trying to allocate more than 256MB of RAM, which is set as the limit on the server.”

For those who aren’t technically minded -> “It was broken, now it’s fixed” 🙂

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Sheriff.

Game Performance Boost Update

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Game Performance Boost

This game performance boost, it will be for a major speed up to Major Command Risk! Our Database is way too large. It takes far too long for the game engine to search for all the relevant information each time a player takes their turn. This slowness in data retrieval is what causes such problems like the “zero-troop” bug, missing troops, maps not loading, and a lot of the other issues that has plagued MC for the last year.

Risk Game Performance Boost

Our plan is to archive all the data that is not needed for immediate access by the game engine. The old game data is still available for the game engine to access whenever needed, but it won’t be part of the main database, thereby reducing the time for the game engine to find the really important information, like information relating to current active games. This archival could reduce the database size by over 50%, and hopefully eliminate the conditions that cause all these errors to occur. So lots of work is approaching to complete the upcoming game performance boost.

Will the Game Performance Boost fix the “zero troop bug”?

Let me be clear. The “zero troop bug” is not actually a bug. It is not a simple line of code that needs to be fixed. It is a result of other issues like the database size. Reducing the database size won’t “fix” the “zero-troop bug”, but it will create a condition where that particular bug is far less likely to occur. Hopefully never again. It will also minimize or eliminate other poor performance issues as well.

This is not the end. It is a major fix moving forward, but it is still only a patch up job. The goal is to create a structure where these issues will simply not exist. We are currently working on two projects. First is to repair the current game site, and second is to create a new, better, updated, and more functional one.

As with every update, there is a chance of fixing one thing, and breaking another. Hopefully, the fallout will be minimal this time. This database contains EVERYTHING ever done by anyone on MC. And we don’t want to mess it up. So be patient, and WISH US LUCK !! 🙂

Sheriff

Reduced Membership Fees

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Enjoy Our Reduced Membership Fees

Play Risk Reduced Membership Fees

As part of our ongoing reconstruction efforts, we have decided to reward our loyal members, as well as entice some new players to join, by changing our membership prices.

Our new membership prices have been reduced by 50%!!

The new prices are as follows:

6 month Silver Strategist membership (previously $10) is now $4.95
6 month Gold Commander membership (previously $20) is now $9.95

Upgrade Membership Play Risk Online

DON’T WORRY!! We haven’t forgotten about you!! If you had purchased a membership within the last 12 months, then we have extended your current membership subscription by 6 months from it’s previous date of expiry!

For example:

  • If your membership expires on Nov 1, 2014,
    it will now expire on May 1, 2015.
  • If your membership expired on June 1, 2014,
    it will now expire on Dec 1, 2014

There is nothing you need to do, these changes should already have taken place. Please check your SETTINGS PAGE to view the changes. If you think something is not correct, please leave a message in the PRIVATE SUPPORT FORUM and we will get it right.

 

Enjoy!
MajorCommand.com

P.S. If you received an email stating that your Subscription has been cancelled, Don’t worry. It’s only your subscription that was cancelled (your auto-payment plan) with our old provider, NOT your membership!

Website Update – August, 2014

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First Monthly Website Update

Major Command Risk Website Update

The first monthly website update for major Command Risk. We would like to give you a bit of insight as to what has been done so far behind the scenes, and what is being planned for the next month. Most of you can see the front-end things like Tournaments and stuff, but this is an update on what you don’t see. Our first month, July, was filled with a lot of administrative tasks pertaining to the website, as well as a long overdue housekeeping of it’s files.

Marcos our developer has a full-time job and has only been able to work for us on weekends. However, starting in mid-September, Marcos will be done with his contractual obligations giving him the ability to focus on Major Command full time. We look forward to that day!

This is by no means a complete list, but rather a general update of behind-the-scenes activity.

July website update

– administrative tasks relating to the transfer of site and domain ownership
– administrative tasks regarding site and server security
– backing up of database and server files
– creating a wiki file of site functionality
– identifying and documenting the mostly undocumented source code
– setting up a virtual environment to implement fixes and features.
– commissioning a new map
– increased vigilance with multi-accounts and fake users

Now that most the boring, yet necessary tasks are done, in August we hope to start seeing some changes, albeit slowly since Marcos still has other commitments until September. Nonetheless, this is a brief outlook at next month’s plan. Subject to change of course! 😉

August – another website update

– additional database maintenance and archival
– resolve 0-troop bug
– resolve ‘processing’ error
– resolve medals not being awarded issue
– continued vigilance with multi-accounts and fake users
– release a new map
– and….?

More to follow as things develop! Now go and start playing your favorite Risk games.
Major Command Risk Sheriff Sheriff.

Future Plans for Major Command Risk

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We Have Future Plans

Many of you have been asking and wondering what the future plans of Major Command Risk will look like. So let me give you a glimpse in to some ideas we have been working on.
Future Plans Major Command Risk

Short term Plan

In the short term we plan to have a few surprises and fun stuff. There will be some special events where the whole community, including grunts, will be invited to participate. There will also be some long awaited additions to the site for everyone to enjoy. And of course, for our Strategists and Commanders, whom we greatly appreciate, we are planning to reward you for your long standing dedication and tolerance of all the ups and downs.

Long Term Plan

In the mid-long term, we plan on embarking on a major overhaul of the entire website. The result should provide seamless gameplay, fast responsiveness, and best of all, a whole bunch of new features that will provide endless amounts of enjoyment. This rewrite will include a whole lot of game testing and include community ideas and suggestions. We will be announcing in the future exactly how you can participate in shaping the game and the features you really want to see incorporated. Stay tuned for more announcements about the development which should start at the end of summer.

Meanwhile watch the DISPATCH for new announcements regarding some of the fun stuff we have planned!

Major Command Risk Sheriff The Sheriff.