Project X

[Arkandel]

I couldn't think of a more dramatic title for the thread at short notice.

Anyway, I'm doing a web-based MU-related project of my own. For now it's in early stages of coding, and there's so much to do from scratch it's going to be a while before I have enough pieces for something to be ran [i]on[/i] it - but it is actually moving. There's a world people can log onto, rooms to walk around, and the next step is elevated privileges and a +job system.

Here's where you come in, maybe. There are two things I'm looking for at this stage.

1. Very much so, someone who's good at making things look pretty. I'm not a web designer and I'm too focused on functionality now, not presentation or UI - but someone has to. If you might be that someone, let me know.

2. Eventually I'll want to run an actual game to showcase these features. Do you have a cool pitch? The only requirements at this stage is that it can't be too niche, it won't be a sex game, and that I'd rather keep the mechanics light - everything else, including theme (original or inspired by a table-top RPG) is up for grabs.

Let me know, thanks.

P.S. Any suggestions for hosting would be welcome. For now I'm running everything on my own Linux box, but that's not a long-term solution. I'd want something that gives me an ssh shell, PHP/MySQL and access to cron.

[ixokai]

On the hosting question I can't recommend Linode more. And I'm not even giving you a referral link.

[Arkandel]

@ixokai said in Project X:

On the hosting question I can't recommend Linode more. And I'm not even giving you a referral link.

If I buy hosting I might as well give one of you losers something to show for it, so you might as well.

(and thanks!)

[skew]

When you say SSH shell, PHP/MySQL... you mean, access directly to those things through the website?

Digital Oceans has been good so far. It's easy, it's cheap (like, $14/mo). I connect via KiTTy, though there is a built in console (SSH) that you can use.

I know some of the various hosts have some sort of interface built into the web portal that allows you to do things like modify LocalSettings.php, transfer files, etc. Digital Oceans does allow you to access a console, but that's about it. So, it is a little more hands on, but I picked it up quick enough.

[Arkandel]

@skew said in Project X:

When you say SSH shell, PHP/MySQL... you mean, access directly to those things through the website?

Well, ideally it'd be an actual linux shell I can log onto. I like hands on.

[ZekeTheG33k]

@Arkandel You can get a free year of hosting from Amazon Web Services. That's what I currently use for my testing bed. I haven't ran into any issues yet with it.

[ixokai]

Linode ranges from $5 and up for it, but for me its killer feature is lish.

Lish allows you to use SSH to get direct console access. There's various times when just ssh isn't good enough: like when doing a dist-upgrade on ubuntu. Or if you screw up the firewall, ahem.

With Lish, I can use either the web client or any random ssh client to access the linode's console. Or issue commands like boot and the like.

[Thenomain]

@ixokai

Digital Oceans also gives you a Linux slice and SSH access. I don't know how its web-services support is, tho.

[skew]

@ixokai Does the web app have anything built in, like file transfer, or the ability to edit common files, like LocalSettings.php? Also, does it allow you to choose a base server image that already has WikiMedia installed on it?

[Arkandel]

@skew Remember if you have SSH access then you can transfer files, or edit them remotely, through any number of clients.

[ixokai]

@Thenomain said in Project X:

@ixokai

Digital Oceans also gives you a Linux slice and SSH access. I don't know how its web-services support is, tho.

I was being specific: ssh console access.

[ixokai]

@skew said in Project X:

@ixokai Does the web app have anything built in, like file transfer, or the ability to edit common files, like LocalSettings.php? Also, does it allow you to choose a base server image that already has WikiMedia installed on it?

You can use any editor you like (if you're not comfortable with linux, probably nano): the web app doesn't have file transfer support directly, but you can use any ssh ftp client.

And yes, there's 'stackscripts' which you can use to deploy your image that configures the server image.

[Thenomain]

@ixokai said in Project X:

@Thenomain said in Project X:

@ixokai

Digital Oceans also gives you a Linux slice and SSH access. I don't know how its web-services support is, tho.

I was being specific: ssh console access.

Let me edit my phrasing, then...

Digital Oceans also gives you a Linux slice and SSH console access. I don't know how its web-services support is, tho.

[skew]

@ixokai @Arkandel There are some services that let you simply open your LocalSettings.php in the browse, without access anything. It's all GUI, as well. This is what I'm getting at. Or trying to get at.

[ixokai]

@Thenomain said in Project X:

Let me edit my phrasing, then...

Digital Oceans also gives you a Linux slice and SSH console access. I don't know how its web-services support is, tho.

Err.... where?

Are we using the word 'console' differently?

[Thenomain]

@ixokai said in Project X:

@Thenomain said in Project X:

Let me edit my phrasing, then...

Digital Oceans also gives you a Linux slice and SSH console access. I don't know how its web-services support is, tho.

Err.... where?

Are we using the word 'console' differently?

I type, in my nice local terminal shell: ssh thenomain@gameaddy.com

I get a password challenge.

I get a shell prompt.

I type something like 'echo $0' and I get something like '-bash'.

If we're using the word differently, I don't know how you expect it to be used.

[ixokai]

@Thenomain said in Project X:

@ixokai said in Project X:

@Thenomain said in Project X:

Let me edit my phrasing, then...

Digital Oceans also gives you a Linux slice and SSH console access. I don't know how its web-services support is, tho.

Err.... where?

Are we using the word 'console' differently?

I type, in my nice local terminal shell: ssh thenomain@gameaddy.com

I get a password challenge.

I get a prompt of a console.

I type something like 'echo $0' and I get something like '-bash'.

If we're using the word differently, I don't know how you expect it to be used.

Yeah, that's not console access. That's just a ssh shell.

Console is tty1, its as if your keyboard and screen are plugged directly in.

When you fuck up your firewall and forget to open port 22, you use console access to fix your screw up.

When you want to do a dist-upgrade, you don't do that over ssh, you do it with console access.

Digital Ocean does give you console access via their website-- go into your droplet, and either upper right hand corner click Console, or under Access do Launch Console. It looks like your shell, but its different: it works even if ssh is not installed, as its direct access to... the console. And all web shells I've ever used have sucked.

What Linode does is have a custom ssh server that runs on their systemt that directly connects to each linode's console terminal. So in an emergency, you connect to that and get into your server's console terminal. Your server will often ALSO have a ssh server on it that you connect to directly.

I don't use lish often, but when I need it, nothing else comes close.

[Arkandel]

@ixokai: What do you get in the way of system access through linode? For instance can you add your own cron jobs? Install packages (doubtful, but I'm hoping they'd have git otherwise). What about your .htaccess or similar access levels?

I.e. how much rope do you get to hang yourself with without buying a corporate level subscription?

[ixokai]

@Arkandel said in Project X:

@ixokai: What do you get in the way of system access through linode? For instance can you add your own cron jobs? Install packages (doubtful, but I'm hoping they'd have git otherwise). What about your .htaccess or similar access levels?

I.e. how much rope do you get to hang yourself with without buying a corporate level subscription?

You get complete root access with all packages.

Its a speedy, optimized linux SSD-based VM that isn't on over-crowded servers that you get complete control over.

[Arkandel]

@ixokai That's actually pretty neat. One more question - how much bandwidth would you say a MU* consumes including running a wiki on it, per month? Trying to figure out the right plan here.