Fun. Gaming. Etc.

This hasn't been an issue on the Deathrun server in a while since the fix there seems to consistently work, but the few who have joined the TTT server since I opened it might have noticed that there's been this frequent glitch where models and often items as well from _Undefined's Pointshop would de-equip upon the start of the round proper. I've tried various fixes to no avail, and I refuse to do the whole "comment out line 281" from the terrortown core files since that essentially breaks the game mode (based on the tests I did on my own testing environment). Due to this, I looked into alternatives to the existing pointshop system and very unanimously Kamshak's Pointshop 2 was listed as a result. It carried a rather large price tag, of which I'm not sure $30 USD is worth just the shop alone but with all the addons maybe, but I bought it and spent all of yesterday getting it installed.

The difference in _Undefined's and Kamshak's pointshop systems is in the ease of use and management. _Undefined had a very simple system that required minimal editing and had a large capacity for customization, however implementation proved often clunky as any change required a full server restart and as far as storage is concerned, it only existed locally on the server instead of over the network. Thus each pointshop was technically "unique" to the two servers. Kamshak's system is a bit different; all of the use and management exists while the server is running, so there isn't any need for a full restart if I want to edit any of the items in the shop itself. Plus all of the management happens while the server is running too, and with some MySQL the shop is synced to all of the servers so each player will have the same inventory regardless of what server they're on. Poinshop 2 even has little addons like the slot machine, which is neat, but the downside comes to the fact that it's a bit pricey and harder to fix if something breaks.

All-in-all, I'm rather happy with how the new shop is shaping up. It's a very direct system with not a lot of overhead that makes things more convenient for players. At this point in time I am still unsure of whether or not this fixes the recurring issue on the TTT server, since my partners in crime were either busy or didn't want to, but I have a certain amount of optimism that it will. It appears to be well integrated into the game mode, so right now I'm not too worried about it.

Happy shopping!

- Alaska