Unofficial FAQ

Contents:
  1. Misc FAQ
  2. Forum FAQ
  3. Chat FAQ
  4. Multi FAQ
  5. NUB accounts FAQ
  6. Admin FAQ
  7. Jonathan/CB FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions including Frequently Requested Changes

Please note that this is not the official game FAQ. Information provided here was entered by regular community members and may not be accurate. For the Official FAQ, please go here: http://www.carnageblender.com/faq/

Misc FAQ

What is Battle Allocation (BA)?
See Battle Allocation
Why did I just get banned for 10 minutes?
You repeatedly requested fights before your previous one finished. If you were using a browser like IE, it's entirely possible that you never saw the warning message because you were spamming the fight refresh so quickly that it never loaded the page. Using mozilla or a recent netscape build prevents this. Other browsers may as well. This is completely separate from the longer ban you will get from missing a bot check.

Forum FAQ

What are the formatting options for forum posts?
You may post in plain text or HTML.
How do I post in HTML?
Select the 'HTML' format option instead of plain text, and do what comes naturally. The use of proper HTML keeps replies to forum posts from being broken. If you don't know proper html, there are many places where you can learn it. You may wish to consider this site: [1]

Guidelines for forum posting:

  • Padding posts to bypass the spellchecker will result in a fine. Use the <nospellcheck> and </nospellcheck> tags in HTML instead.
  • Only post things that would be acceptable in chat. Admins read forums, too. (See Chat FAQ below)
  • Try to stay on topic within threads.
  • Avoid thread titles in CAPS, sTiCkY cApS, full of ****, or other eye-catching/annoying punctuation, subject to fines.
  • Adding opinions/commentary to others' FS/WTB threads is also a fineable offense.(No longer possible to reply to FS/WTB)
  • No commercial or "please click this to give me referral credits" links, please.
  • Please be sure to read the policy of each directory of the forums before posting.

Chat FAQ

What is acceptable chat behavior?

Language:

  • First and foremost keep your language PG. If you are unsure about what is PG, check here [2]
  • Censoring Un-PG language from your own chat with **** or &%#*& is not acceptable.
  • Under no circumstances may you traffic in warez, cracking, or anything else that is illegal in the CB chat/forums. This includes private chat.
  • Don't spam the chat window. Try to keep your thoughts to as few lines as possible. Writing gibberish just because you are bored is also considered spam.
  • English is the gold standard of chat, if you are asked to speak English by an OP you should do so.
  • L33T speak is frowned upon in chat.
  • Kindly remember CB includes both young people and people who speak English as a second language. Keep your communication as clear and concise as possible for the benefit of everyone.
  • Do not intentionally provoke others, as this is seen as trolling. Trolling can be basically defined as inciteful or inflammatory chat with the intent to provoke another user.

Buying/selling/forging:

  • Keep it to a minimum, take it to PM quickly, don't disrupt ongoing conversation, don't spam, and don't be annoying. Use your head.
  • Looking for forge work or looking for a forger belongs in the Services forum, not in chat.
  • Other advertisements are OK as long as you follow normal guidelines: keep it on as few lines as possible, and don't repeat yourself when you don't get a response immediately. After the initial message, you should take bargaining to PM; I suggest starting with "PM me if ..."

Enforcement:

  • ChatOPs are trusted with maintaining community standards. If you are asked to end an offensive or endlessly annoying conversation, do so. The latter may include topics including politics and religion. Excessive rudeness or namecalling, even within the bounds of the PG rule, will not be tolerated.
  • If an OP chooses to /kick you out of chat remember that a kick is a warning. It's best not to argue a kick, just learn from it and move on. Arguing may get you /kill.
  • "Well, chat was dead anyhow," is not an excuse for breaking any chat rules.
  • Repeat offenders will be referred to Admins for discipline beyond /kick & /kill.
  • Kicks last 30 seconds, Kills last an hour, and having a ! in your name bans you from chat.
What special commands are available?
Type "/help", without the quotes, to get the most up-to-date list.
Can I turn off chat to make the game faster?
Turning off chat does not make the game faster. The chat applet is a one-time download of 11kB (3 seconds to download with a 33kbps modem). It may appear slowly due to the overhead of starting the java runtime environment, particularly on older computers, but again, this only occurs once per session. A better question would be, "Is there a way to speed up the first page load after I login?" And the answer is definitely, by loading www.carnageblender.com/main.tcl instead of simply /. This avoids loading and rendering the main page twice. Finally, yes, you can turn off Chat if you've read all this and you still want it off. (Perhaps you are firewalled so Chat does nothing for you besides waste your time dragging the chat frame out of your way.) Have at it in Settings.
Is the chat server an ircd?
No. It is an NFC Chat daemon [3] (on port 7777, for the curious). This lets us make chat much more secure than it could be with IRC, as well as features like persistent ignore and chatmail that would be impossible with a service like IRC whose protocol hasn't changed substantially since the early 90's.
Chat crashes my browser. Can you fix it?
No. This is a bug in your browser and/or JVM. This is not due to a bug in the Chat Blender applet. It seems that IE with the MS VM is particularly crash-prone; see the first question for how to get the latest VM.
The chat doesn't work, at all.
If you see an error message like SocketException, you are probably firewalled, in which case you need to talk to your admin. Other errors like ConnectException, UnknownHostException, NoRouteToHostException, etc. indicate a similar problem on your end. (I am told that "parental controls" offered by some ISPs can also cause this behavior.) If you see nothing at all, your browser doesn't know how to run java applets. Install Java [4]. If that doesn't work, use a modern browser.
Can you add this new feature?
Probably not. But hey, the source is linked right above this. You can make your own client that does anything you want. Hey, if it really is a rockin' idea, it might find its way back into the official client. :)

Multi FAQ

What is it to be a ' multi?'

  • A multi is anyone who creates more than one account on carnageblender. This is forbidden.

What happens if I am a multi?

  • In most cases, your first account will be reset, others will be banned. If the case is bad enough you will be permanently banned from CB. If you create one by mistake please contact an admin as soon as possible, let them know about the issue and they will clear it up while handing out a lighter punishment.

May I share my CB account with my friend?

  • No, if your friend wants to play he has to make his own account.

May I create two (or more) accounts in CB?

  • No, create a new character if you want to start over.

I use the same IP as my roommate, will people suspect me of being a multi?

  • If you two act like a multi, you'll risk getting suspected of being a multi. If you don't, then there's nothing to worry. One of the quickest ways of getting suspected as a multi is to share items and cash. So try to avoid that.
  • One sided transfers, of any kind, are forbidden between accounts that share the same IP. While transfers of equal 'worth' are allowed, it's nearly impossible to prove payments made outside CB (for example USD payments), which just lead to the suspicion of being a multi. It's best to avoid any transfers if at all possible.

How can I sell my weapon to my roommate?

  • Use the auction system with 1CB$ starting bid, no 'buy now' option and an auction duration over 24 hours.

How do you prove that someone is a multi?

  • We won't tell, just don't do it!

NUB accounts FAQ

Changelog on old users getting a fresh start with a new NUB account: [5]

Regarding transferring characters to NUB accounts: [6]

New User Bonus (NUB) is a bonus to money and experience gained from fighting which is given to new user accounts lasting 180 days (about six months) from the date of creation.

Carnage Blender players can only ever access one account. However, an existing player may apply for a new NUB account.

To get started creating your new NUB account:

  • Create your new account with a different email address.
  • Post in forums in Public Record the names of your old and new accounts.
  • Transfer your money, weapons, and armor from your old account to your new account.
  • If you change the name of your old account before you abandon it, the name will be available to your new account. The same applies to your email address.
  • You may ask an administrator for assistance in transferring your old name and email address to your new account.

What you will lose:

  • Being able to login to your old account.
  • Your old user ID number, account creation date, and realms (ie. Shire, Rivendell, Lorien, and Gondor).
  • Transferring your old characters to your new account is not allowed. However, you may transfer your old characters to another player, that does not hold NUB status, and get them to transfer the old characters back to you after your six months NUB bonus period has expired.
  • Characters transferred to your new account will not receive the NUB bonus.
  • Supportership. You will need to repurchase supportership for your new account.

What you will gain:

  • Six months boost to money and experience from your fights.
  • Money, weapons, and armors from your old account.
  • A new user ID number, account creation date, and Shire realm.

Notes:

  • Getting another player to transfer a high level character to your new account to bump you into the Gondor realm.
  • Battle Allocation (BA) regeneration is based on your highest level active character, gaining more rewards for less BA spent. New characters rewards are based on its current level, not your highest level active character. Therefore your new character will lose BA, as the BA regeneration rate will go down without any added bonuses to rewards; unless you retire or transfer your high-leveled character. [7]

Admin FAQ

What do admins do?

  • Solve problems that are otherwise unsolvable, e.g., you wish to reactivate a long-retired character.
  • Discipline people.

May I be an admin?

  • No, you may not.

When and how should I contact an admin?

  • Ask in chat or post to General if you have a question about the game. Many non-admins are very knowledgeable about almost everything.
  • If you feel someone has wronged you to the point that you need to tell someone else, if you think you may have found a multi, or if you need to clarify a rule, then you post to the Public Record section of the forum. The first admin to see it will take action. Please do not PM or chatmail admins individually; you will only be told to post to PR.
  • First contact a sub-admin and allow them to pass the issue up the ranks if it is required.

Who Are the admins?

Full admins (alphabetically):

  • {CB1}Slayer333
  • bartjan
  • dudemus
  • G_Beee
  • Jonathan
  • Nightstrike
  • Shade
  • Tal_Destra
  • Verifex

Sub-admins:

  • edyit
  • Lamuness
  • Natasha'
  • novice
  • Titan

ChatOPs (Supervise chat)

  • There are a few dozen or so chat admins.

Jonathan/CB FAQ

How did you come up with the idea for CB?
It seems to me that the real reason people play MMORPG games like Everquest is to make friends and chat. The game just gives them something to do while chatting. So the original idea from which CB sprung was a (really really low-budget) chat-centric MMORPG. The strategy came later.
How did you write CB?
The game code is written in TCL (with user management and other functions from the OpenACS [8] toolkit), and runs under the AOLServer web server, which despite the name is quite a good piece of software. The data is stored in a PostgreSQL database. The chat applet is written in Java.
How long did it take?
Over a year of spare time to get to the point where it was complete enough to go live. The changelog discussion forum has a record of what's happened since.
What hardware does CB run on?
CB has run on several machines:
  • Early development: Sparcstation 10, dual 50MHz processors, 128MB of memory, RH Linux 6.2. (This was a $15,000 machine circa 1993.) Still lives in Jonathan's basement, mostly retired.
  • First production machine, circa October 2001: Duron 800, 512 MB RAM, Mandrake Linux 8.0. 2 IDE drives; one for the OS and database, one for the database transaction log. Built by Ellis. Pretty much everything but the motherboard + cpu was cannibalized for the next one...
  • Second production machine, April 2002: dual 1GHz P3, 1 GB of memory (later upgraded to 1.5 GB), Mandrake Linux 8.0 with many packages semi-manually upgraded to 8.2. Motley collection of IDE drives to spread the disk load around. Built by Jonathan. Still lives in his basement as the "dev box."
  • Third production machine began life in May 2004 with dual 2.4 GHz P4 Xeon, 2.25 GB ecc memory, Mandrake Linux 10.0 official, and 2x15krpm SCSI disks. Built by Dell because their price for the base system was less than I could get just a motherboard + cpu for (yes, even AMD); non-base components added by Jonathan to avoid ridiculous Dell prices. Added 1GB of ram and a 3rd disk in Dec 2004; maxed out to 4 GB ram in May 2005.
  • The current architecture is the same as the above, but with 8 GB memory and 6 SCSI disks.

If you're interested in writing a game of your own, here are some thoughts: (updated Aug 2005):

  • Use an app framework that handles user management, discussion boards, etc. out of the box. That leaves you free to spend your time writing something original.
  • Here is an old but still good introduction to web/database programming no matter what app framework you use: [9]
  • The two toolkits I would recommend looking at are Spyce [10], in Python, and OpenACS [11], in TCL. Python is a more modern and powerful language, but for the majority of web applications, TCL will be adequate. OpenACS gives you much more out-of-the-box; the learning curve is correspondingly (much) steeper. To my mind, current versions of OpenACS (5.x) suffer from second-system syndrome [12], but depending on your requirements it may be worth a look anyway because of the sheer amount of code that's there (and debugged) already. (CB is based on the 3.2.5 version, but nobody really does new development in that anymore. I wouldn't.)
  • All the php app frameworks suck. In fact, PHP sucks in general. [13] Don't waste your time.
  • I also wouldn't suggest any of the j2ee stuff unless you're getting well paid; life's too short to code web pages in java.
  • It's worth pointing out that it's easy to find hosting capable of running Spyce on a $10/m plan (or less) with apache and postgresql -- pghoster.com, for instance -- or mysql which I personally wouldn't touch with a 10 foot pole. OpenACS requires aolserver, which isn't standard on most hosting plans so you're looking at plans that give you a "virtual server" with root access. These plans start around $15/m.
  • If you want to run openacs on unix/linux the standard docs are fine. If you're developing on windows though it's a bit more complicated. Install instructions for postgresql on win32 are here: [14]. A native port will be out soon; in the meantime, you have to use cygwin. An aolserver installer for win32 is here: [15]
  • That's about it. Any questions about software mentioned here are best addressed on their respective web sites, rather than the CB forums.
    last edited by SuPeR SaIYaN GoJuAN at Sep 18 2017 - Edit Unofficial FAQ

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