Before we start, I would like to warn those with a lower threshold of patience that this post is close to 1000 words in length. The PWO Staff highly recommended you still read through this Announcement at least once; however, if you would prefer to read a much shorter, bullet-point summary, click here.
Over the past couple of weeks the PWO Staff have been working their hardest to improve the methods used by our game to register accounts, reset passwords of existing accounts, tie the accounts into all the PWO services and allow the passwords to be changed through a single form which will affect all the services at once. And as you have all made it clear, each has had its share of successes and failures, prompting us to rework on them continually until we get them to a working level. This update chronicles the latest changes in this area.
One of the key problems with the reset method at present is that players who don't have verified email addresses are basically locked out of the Playerdex completely with little in the way to help you get back in. Naturally, since you need to login to the Playerdex to set a new password, this means those users have been effectively locked out of their accounts ever since PWO returned earlier in the month. The staff have been debating several methods to resolve this issue; and we've decided that the simplest solution is the best one.
Starting today, any account that was marked as not having a verified email address has now been verified automatically by our system, so you will now be able to access the Playerdex fully even if you do not have a valid email registered to your account (though we highly recommend you set a valid one if you don't). In addition, the verification checks have for now been completely disabled, so even those who may still have an unverified email will no longer be locked out. We have made this decision on the basis that Lee's new password reset form currently forces all users to verify their email addresses anyway in order to get their password emailed to them; thus users who received their passwords are already verified and there is no need to ask again. This means that if you have got your password, you should from today have full access to the Playerdex.
Speaking of which, it seems quite a few of you now have used the new Playerdex page to set a brand new password for your account to whatever YOU want it to be - and it seems it's working pretty well for most of you. Though there were a few glitches at the start, the new page seems to now be successfully making sure users have the same password set on the Playerdex, Forum and Game; and that the user has free choice of what the password will be. Since this means the need for individual password reset forms for each service has basically been eradicated; so starting today, PWO is retiring the use of password reset forms and commands for the individual services; and only supporting the single, unified Password Change form.
What does this mean, exactly? Well, for one thing, it means that the long-standing /password command to reset your password in-game is now being retired; and will cease to function from this point forward. You will also be told to go to the Playerdex if you click "Forgot Password?" on the Forum. From now on, if you want to change your Forum, in-game or Playerdex password, you set all three at once by using the Password Change option on the Playerdex. We believes this makes for a simpler and more unified system.
Talking about the Playerdex,later this week Lee plans to makeimprovements to error reporting live on the Playerdex.Once finished - which we hope will be by tomorrow - whenever anyone gets a System Error doing anything on the Playerdex, a number for the error will appear in the URL. When reporting your problem on the Tracker, please include this number in your post, as it will allow us to track down the problem much more easily.
EDIT:
Finally, I've been PM'd by a number of you with regards to what Lee's staff rank currently is within the PWO network; and even seen posts and Status Updates inferring that various Staff Members were responsible for promoting him. I feel I should clear this up a little. Officially, Lee - or reborn or Bluerise, whatever you want to call him - is still considered a GM. His current promotion to Admin rank is to allow him to help us set up the new Forum and continue developing the Theme for it; as well as Player Management duties - and recently, Lee has also decided to task himself with improving our current Playerdex while we wait to hear from Vetle regarding progress of the brand new Playerdex he is supposed to be working on.
As it is, Lee's promotion to Admin was only meant to be temporary. However, numerous Staff members have recently voiced their opinion that he deserves to hold a higher rank in the PWO hierarchy on a permanent basis - either Admin or DEV; and personally I have seen enough from him myself to agree a permanent promotion may be in order. We are both therefore hoping to bring this up for discussion with the rest of the PWO Staff soon in order to decide for definite what rank Lee should now hold within PWO. If you still find this confusing, don't worry. You're not alone.
[anchor=tldr]Now for the TL;DR Summary:[/anchor]
Until next time!
Over the past couple of weeks the PWO Staff have been working their hardest to improve the methods used by our game to register accounts, reset passwords of existing accounts, tie the accounts into all the PWO services and allow the passwords to be changed through a single form which will affect all the services at once. And as you have all made it clear, each has had its share of successes and failures, prompting us to rework on them continually until we get them to a working level. This update chronicles the latest changes in this area.
One of the key problems with the reset method at present is that players who don't have verified email addresses are basically locked out of the Playerdex completely with little in the way to help you get back in. Naturally, since you need to login to the Playerdex to set a new password, this means those users have been effectively locked out of their accounts ever since PWO returned earlier in the month. The staff have been debating several methods to resolve this issue; and we've decided that the simplest solution is the best one.
Starting today, any account that was marked as not having a verified email address has now been verified automatically by our system, so you will now be able to access the Playerdex fully even if you do not have a valid email registered to your account (though we highly recommend you set a valid one if you don't). In addition, the verification checks have for now been completely disabled, so even those who may still have an unverified email will no longer be locked out. We have made this decision on the basis that Lee's new password reset form currently forces all users to verify their email addresses anyway in order to get their password emailed to them; thus users who received their passwords are already verified and there is no need to ask again. This means that if you have got your password, you should from today have full access to the Playerdex.
Speaking of which, it seems quite a few of you now have used the new Playerdex page to set a brand new password for your account to whatever YOU want it to be - and it seems it's working pretty well for most of you. Though there were a few glitches at the start, the new page seems to now be successfully making sure users have the same password set on the Playerdex, Forum and Game; and that the user has free choice of what the password will be. Since this means the need for individual password reset forms for each service has basically been eradicated; so starting today, PWO is retiring the use of password reset forms and commands for the individual services; and only supporting the single, unified Password Change form.
What does this mean, exactly? Well, for one thing, it means that the long-standing /password command to reset your password in-game is now being retired; and will cease to function from this point forward. You will also be told to go to the Playerdex if you click "Forgot Password?" on the Forum. From now on, if you want to change your Forum, in-game or Playerdex password, you set all three at once by using the Password Change option on the Playerdex. We believes this makes for a simpler and more unified system.
Talking about the Playerdex,
EDIT:
Finally, I've been PM'd by a number of you with regards to what Lee's staff rank currently is within the PWO network; and even seen posts and Status Updates inferring that various Staff Members were responsible for promoting him. I feel I should clear this up a little. Officially, Lee - or reborn or Bluerise, whatever you want to call him - is still considered a GM. His current promotion to Admin rank is to allow him to help us set up the new Forum and continue developing the Theme for it; as well as Player Management duties - and recently, Lee has also decided to task himself with improving our current Playerdex while we wait to hear from Vetle regarding progress of the brand new Playerdex he is supposed to be working on.
As it is, Lee's promotion to Admin was only meant to be temporary. However, numerous Staff members have recently voiced their opinion that he deserves to hold a higher rank in the PWO hierarchy on a permanent basis - either Admin or DEV; and personally I have seen enough from him myself to agree a permanent promotion may be in order. We are both therefore hoping to bring this up for discussion with the rest of the PWO Staff soon in order to decide for definite what rank Lee should now hold within PWO. If you still find this confusing, don't worry. You're not alone.
[anchor=tldr]Now for the TL;DR Summary:[/anchor]
- All users who were marked as not having a verified email address are now verified;
- Email verification on the Playerdex has been disabled;
- The in-game /password command has been retired;
- You should now change your password for all PWO Services within the Playerdex;
- Better error tracking on the Playerdex
coming soonis now live;
- Lee's Staff Rank is confusing;
- This post has more characters total than the Declaration of Independence (or it sure feels that way);
- In the time it took you to read all this, I stole all your candy. Kekeh!
Until next time!