First point of note, this is in the idea phase and not yet ready to be implemented. I installed a dedicated server on my machine and was going to use the multihome feature to test a variety of things, the first of which being my theory on the fake sandstorms. I’ve recently thought it might be better to set up a populated server to run short term (maybe over a 2 week period?) so that multiple people could give feedback and we could collect data points more quickly than if it were just me.
The concept would be something like having people join knowing the primary job is to report in the thread when they experience a sandstorm, say if it’s a regular sandstorm, a fake one, or an invisible one, etc. and upload screencaps. Apart from the reporting, people could play however they normally would. Server log files would be backed up and renamed according to whatever naming scheme is appropriate so that there is a log file for each day of server operation that can be compared to what types of things get reported that day.
The server settings ini file could be changed on a regular basis to experiment with which server settings can influence the frequency of the bug(s) being tested. I’m willing to host the server and be admin, but that would come with the community’s knowledge that I have zero admin experience and don’t know how to properly set up a server, would not be able to anticipate problems or may be too slow to deal with conflicts that could arise. If an experienced admin with an empty or “disposable” server wants to host that would good too, so long as they understood their job was to maintain log files in the event Funcom needed them for troubleshooting purposes.
Once enough data points had been collected that clear patterns emerge, a thread would then be made to the PC Bugs forum to give an official report on our findings.
Looking for opinions, feedback, criticisms, revisions, etc. What do you guys think?