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draguneater
Newbie
Joined: 04 Sep 2006
Posts: 7
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 Posted: Sat Jun 12, 2010 8:39 pm
Beta 3.12 Vs. 3.15
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I just got a sweet new laptop and instantly installed CMUD on it. Since I'm old and senile and have little to no interest in learning to code, I rely on generosity of bright young coders for my rather complex configuration (many complex scripts and map schtuff). In short, I couldn't download v3.14 (which works a treat on my desktop)... the only option to download today is v3.16something if memory serves. And, alas, not all of my lovely scriptage and maps no longer work.
Is there some other place that older beta versions are archived where I can download the v3.14? Alternately, if anyone has an archived 3.14 I'd appreciate it attached to an email to me mullima@gmail.com
Thanks in advance!
PS, Zugg... MattLofton suggested that you might be able to send me a copy of your archived 3.14? |
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MattLofton
GURU
Joined: 23 Dec 2000
Posts: 4834
Location: USA
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Posted: Sat Jun 12, 2010 9:44 pm
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No, that wasn't what I suggested at all.
Zugg keeps older versions for himself. They are absolutely the only link he has to older product, which absolutely must be rereleased whenever major unfixable bugs/issues appear that will probably affect his userbase (and therefore his income stream). Things like major OS conflicts (ie, Windows Vista), half-assed upgrades to his development software, computer problems, and the very rare bad-code explosion from Zugg overlooking a piece of a rewrite that's not going to get easily fixed are all good reasons for a rollback, because letting them exist likely means he frustrates his customers enough to jump to a different client.
"I don't wanna" is not a good reason. |
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GeneralStonewall
Magician
Joined: 02 Feb 2004
Posts: 364
Location: USA
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Posted: Sat Jun 12, 2010 10:15 pm
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If you really really really need to download an older version, then I'm sure a site like Softpedia has one.
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Zugg
MASTER
Joined: 25 Sep 2000
Posts: 23379
Location: Colorado, USA
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Posted: Mon Jun 14, 2010 4:48 pm
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Sorry, I responded to this over in the main forum.
Beta versions have hard-coded expiration dates. So even if you find an older version, it will suddenly stop working for you when you hit that date. There is no way around this. It is a very bad practice to use an older beta version that contains bugs that have already been fixed.
The requirement of using beta versions is to participate in beta testing and to keep up with the latest beta versions. If you cannot do this for any reason, then you should stick with the Public versions (currently 2.37). |
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Fizban1216
Apprentice
Joined: 03 Feb 2007
Posts: 170
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Posted: Mon Jun 14, 2010 5:09 pm
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| Zugg wrote: |
| Beta versions have hard-coded expiration dates. |
Curious what the rationale behind this is? The beta versions require a license key just like the official versions, so it's not like without this restriction people would be able to use them indefinitely without paying for them.
| Zugg wrote: |
| The requirement of using beta versions is to participate in beta testing and to keep up with the latest beta versions. |
This as well seems odd. It doesn't harm you in any way for someone to use 3.12 instead of 3.17, now, they might not be able to help solve bugs in the latest version, but as long as they're not posting on the forums about bugs in their old version that have since been fixed I don't see how them using 3.12 is any more detrimental to you than them using 2.37 is. Plus 2.37 really isn't something I'd consider a viable option. 3.19c might be called "beta", but in reality the beta versions have been more stable for me than the "stable" release for over a year. |
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Zugg
MASTER
Joined: 25 Sep 2000
Posts: 23379
Location: Colorado, USA
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Posted: Mon Jun 14, 2010 5:31 pm
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| Quote: |
| Curious what the rationale behind this is? |
Two reasons:
1) I don't want people using old beta versions that have lots of bugs and then asking for support.
2) I'm currently letting everybody use the 3.x beta versions without paying for the normal 3.x upgrade. The 3.x Public Version will enforce the 2-year upgrade policy and will require many people to purchase the upgrade and I don't want those people just using the last 3.x beta version instead of properly paying for the public version.
| Quote: |
| but as long as they're not posting on the forums about bugs in their old version that have since been fixed I don't see how them using 3.12 is any more detrimental to you than them using 2.37 is |
If people really didn't post about problems with older beta versions then this might be true. But people *DO* post about older versions, send me email about problems in older versions, and send crash dumps about older versions.
| Quote: |
| 3.19c might be called "beta", but in reality the beta versions have been more stable for me than the "stable" release for over a year. |
People should not become complacent about beta versions being stable. As 3.18 and 3.19 have shown, beta versions *are* BETA and can break anything at any time.
When you download the beta version, you have to click OK to the Beta License Agreement. That agreement is there for a reason. People should not abuse the open beta testing policy here and think that using the beta versions is just like getting new versions faster than other players for free. Otherwise I just might as well have closed beta testing with a strict registration system.
It's unfortunate that other software companies (mostly MMOs) have abused the term "BETA" and have caused many people to think that beta testing is just late stage stress-testing rather than the bug fixing that it was originally intended to represent. |
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