New Host (redux)

I have a new host at Interserver. After comparing features I found them to be my best choice. I'm probably going to try to switch over to a central CMS system like Tiki CMS Group. For now though I've got to wait on the DNS servers to update. Once they update, it will take me a few hours to get around to updating the new host with information so it will be pretty bare.

If I am able to utilize the Tiki system I'll be converted over with most of my information in a few days. If not, I will upload my old site and build a secondary CMS later so the data is available while I'm building. Either way I expect to have some downtime lasting about a day or two.

In the meantime, I'm still building up the information held in the Wiki. Feel free to probe around there. It doesn't have any 2nd Edition D&D information at all. Mostly what is there is generic information that can be used for any d20 system. It is directly compatible with D&D 3e and Pathfinder. Most of it is compatible with 5th edition D&D with just a little tweaking.

Confirmation of Host problems

I redirected Traykon back to my Godaddy site a couple days back. Today I checked my access logs on the server and compared them to my site traffic. In the first day it was online, I had 9264 pages accessed from the server, some of them were from bots that won't show up on analytics. The vast majority of the traffic were recorded through my wiki. Statcounter logged 385 viewers on that day and could account for just over 5k page views. Google Analytics only tracks the traffic on my legacy site and ignores the wiki but they listed the total at only 23 users for my legacy site on that day. I last checked GoDaddy's bandwidth usage and they have me using 0.00mb of traffic over that time.

Further, at approximately 9:01 pm EST all traffic from the access log, statcounter, and google analytics suddenly stopped. Siteuptime shows my site was active, but for some reason no traffic was logged to my site after 9pm. I don't know what could be causing these issues except network problems. How the Siteuptime site still shows my website as active when no traffic is being monitored, I don't know. None of this is making sense.

On the bright side, I have been adding content to the wiki. Since I don't know the final architecture of my new host, I have found it best to post to the wiki. Hopefully I'll be able to utilize a CMS system that I can take full advantage of. I hope to soon be able to return to a regular content schedule even if the content must conform to current internet trends of being specific articles instead of batch uploads. What can I say, I'm still a dinosaur trying to evolve.

Down again

This is sad. My host has disabled my site again for excessive traffic. It seems I'm having burst traffic and that's what is freaking them out. My real numbers seem to be 70+\- users a day but with page views being anywhere from 1 to 60. So much for me trying to go with a free host believing my site traffic was down. For some reason, it seems to have been suppressed over this last year. I think GoDaddy was blocking my tracking code.

When I made my backup, I found they had deleted some of my files without explanation. Going back through the emails, it seems they warned me of possible viruses on my site but when I would examine the file there would be nothing. For example, they said one of my php files was holding a virus but it was actually just a simple text file without any script text or anything that can be activated. I'm not sure what was going on with the host.

I am currently looking at both Interserver and Hostinger to be my new site. I've contacted both of them to verify their MYSql and PHP versions. The cost is cheaper for Hostinger to get started but long term Interserver will be cheaper. I'm leaning toward Interserver too because their architecture seems to allow for the one CMS system I've been hoping to use as it is part of their "one click install" package. If I go with them, it looks like I'll be able to reconstitute my entire site package into one host.

After checking Google Analytics, my site traffic did increase over 500% since October 18th, when I transferred my domain to the new host. I'm not sure what to think of that or how to read it. I can't think of any reason my site views would have been suppressed with my old host but it is hard to argue with two different traffic monitors.

For now, I am redirecting my domain back to my GoDaddy site. It will go down on 11/4/2019. I have until then to secure a hosting package on another site. Please bear with me during this time. I've never had such frustration over hosting before.

Back UP!

Website back up! I heard back from them as to why my site was taken down. It seemed I stressed their server with over 500 unique viewers in just a few hours. I hit their hard limit of 60k page views per day and it triggered my site being taken down. This was the reason in their email to me bringing my site back up. They urged me to move to their paid hosting plan to remove this restriction.

I just checked with my statcounter account and it seems they were right. For some reason my web views and site traffic increased dramatically when I moved to the new server. On my first day at the new server, I garnered over 354 new visitors in the span of what looks like 4 hours. Considering I normally would only get about 500 visitors a month before the server change this is quite shocking. I'll be coming through the stat logs as well as checking with google analystics to see if I can see what's driving the extra traffic. If it turns out my traffic is organically that high, I will return to a paid hosting package as soon a possible.

First major obstacle

Traykon.com was redirected sucessfully after a 24 hour nameserver delay. However, shortly after the domain redirected the host has suspended my site for an unknown reason. I am checking their support site and it seems that this hit a lot of accounts about 5 to 10 hours ago. I'm not sure when mine went down yet as I haven't checked the monitor. Right now I'm going on the assumption that this is a system error. I have to email them to see what is going on. I should have a resolution soon. If not, I will redirect Traykon.com here temporarily until I figure out what's happening.

Crude site transfer

I have the main Traykon repository up at https://traykon.000webhostapp.com/ for now. It's crude and needs some work but the data is fairly safe for now. I've also split my WIKI into it's own site hosted at https://traykon.miraheze.org/

I'm not sure who I will redirect my domain name to at this point. I may redirect to the wiki but reformat the legacy site some. I'm leaning toward just pointing toward the normal site at 000webhostapp and linking the wiki better. This is something I'll have to think about and see.

Godaddy No More

Last month I took a good hard look at my godaddy.com website, the main host for Traykon.com. I was behind several versions on a few of my applications. I tried to update my mediawiki extension but quickly discovered that both the MYSql version and the PHP version were far below the minimum requirements. In order to upgrade my Sql for security, I was going to have to either buy a much more expensive package or move to a new host. The same story applied for upgrading PHP for stability.

To give an example, I needed to have at least MYSql version 5.5.8 but the highest godaddy had available was 5.5.6, which I had upgraded to just a few months ago. For PHP, I needed at least version 7.0.13 but the highest Godaddy would allow me to go was 5.6 of which I had long ago upgraded.

To me this was unacceptable. My image database (Coppermine) was supported but I had to remove it to a free service (irony) because of server load a year ago. MediaWiki was no longer supported and I had an version that was not only no longer supported but one that wasn't compatible with mobile viewing. Also a horrendous hit was that Wordpress now required PHP 7.3 for the necessary security upgrades. I was unable to export the Wordpress postings to preserve that information over the last 2+ years. There was nothing I could do to upgrade the application to continue using it either.

Faced with these facts (and a few other things I was unable to do with the website due to outdated architecture) I decided to remove my Traykon.com website from Godaddy.com. This was not an easy decision. I have had that site hosted with them since spring of 2006. Aside from the Traykon site, there were also 3 other websites that piggybacked off of my main host package. I was using only about 6% of my available resources but I was unable to get the full use of the site. Facing reality, I could no longer justify the $150 a year for hosting when the website was not capable of meeting my needs.

So here I am today. I have decided to split my site over a few free hosts for the time being. I am looking at two different host sites to see which one offers the reliability and features I need while remaining affordable. I am keeping my domain registered at Godaddy this year (I have to renew in 2 weeks) but the site itself has to move on.

More information as it comes available.

Future of Traykon

I've taken some time off from gaming and from working on the site.  During this time I've been considering the future of Traykon and my continued use of the site.  There is a certain financial commitment to keeping it online that had to be considered.  There is also the fact that I have not played a game in a long time.  My wife and I discussed it and finally came to a conclusion.

I am going to keep Traykon.com going.  The Traykon Campaign World will continue to be posted, grown, and updated.  I will move away from specific gaming systems and won't be moving to 5th Edition.  For simplicity, my data will stay formatted for the Pathfinder RPG since conversion to 3rd, 3.5e, and 5th edition are all pretty easy.  There are also a lot of other systems out there which can use some of my information directly or with a little conversion. 

By keeping it up I'm also going to take the time to condense my Oblivion Webgroup and dispose of anything that is no longer relevant or desired.  That which I keep will be modified and hosted at Traykon.com in a dedicated sub-directory.  This will take a fairly major restructuring to complete but since I will be working with multiple sites with varied contents I should be able to keep a steady stream of updates going somewhere without getting burnt out. 

I hope to not disappoint anyone but some data will be purged from my Campaign site.  Basic system data will be trimmed or purged completely unless it is necessary for the underpinning of Campaign data.  For instance, the Inquisitor class will be listed because it was the base for the converted Magehunter class.  A more centralized and mobile friendly menu system has been created and will go online as soon as I update the code on all necessary pages.

DB errors should be fixed

After GoDaddy migrated my site to another server a while back, I've been having massive database issues.  Today, I *think* I have fixed the last one so I hope to stop seeing errors.  Also, you may have noticed the Banner Exchange at the top of my page no longer shows.  The site that hosted the exchange is offline.  I've emailed the owner to see if this is temporary (it happened right as GoDaddy migrated my account so they may have been hit with DB issues too).  I haven't heard back from them.  I'm going to assume that they are gone for good so my page will have a different look soon.  Don't worry though, it's just one file that I need to change it it takes effect site-wide. 

Data Loss

I screwed up.  No other way to say it.  In  moving some data between computers I somehow deleted a couple of months worth of updates.  After trying to recover the data and failing, I've given up and had to start over with what was already published.  This really sucks because there were a lot of new things that had no copies.

Divine Sanction

Amongst a list of small updates and changes, I have made some severe changes to the divinity in Traykon.  There is still one major change to be made, but the connection to the gods is more apparent and immediate.  Traykon now has a Sun Lord, a god of the sun, light, and the day.  He is the god worshiped by most of the civilized people in Traykon.  There is also a Night Goddess who rules opposite the Sun Lord.  Their child is the moon goddess who shares the sky with her parents. Feel free to drop in and take a look at the deities and their relationships. 

Dragons of Traykon

That's right, Traykon's Dragons are revealed.  Not quite the dragon's of Pern or the beasts from the Forgotten Realms.  They are creatures worthy of note in and of themselves.  Many of the old stereotypes must go out the window when creating encounters with these foes.

Although he's not Smaug, Jagenash is the Paragon most other dragons follow out of fear.  He is currently the only Paragon with listed stats but I'm debating on adding a biography for him or not.  He's certainly the oldest of living dragons so I am leaning towards telling his story as known by "lesser" races.

I'll say this section is about 85% complete, more than enough to put online.  Stats for the other 3 Paragons will come up soon as I finalize the Paragon template.  The dragon-kin such as the War Dragons of Krond have their history and abilities complete.  I just need time to consider their stats and weigh them against playability.  These sub-species should be tough but shouldn't be too powerful.  The "unique" dragons, Death Dragons and the Twilight Dragon, still have some work to be done.  Capable of giving Jagenash a life or death struggle, they still must come in just under his awesome power. 

Look for more Dragons and their associates soon.

Domain Downtime

Please forgive the downtime.  My auto-renewal didn't work as I planned with the domain name.  I'll be uploading new material soon.

Character Drawbacks

From Adamant Entertainment: I've put their Open Gaming Content for drawbacks online.  I really like their system and will be adding more to it.  I've been using a different system but now I'll switch to this one.

I'm also working on creating a large expansion of the possession ability including new skills, monsters, rules, and even a deity.  I will put some of it online but some will be held back if I deem it worth publishing.  If I'm lucky enough to get a publisher the work will mainly be open gaming content and I'll post the rest online after publication.  After completed, if it's not worth publication I'll put the whole thing online.

Runecrafting

I have updated, clarified, and expanded the rules for Runecrafting.  There was some ambiguity with the system and several "loop holes" in the system that have been taken care of.  Feats compatible with Runecrafting are also specified as well as any changes to feats.  For ease of access, I have included the item cost table for creating magic items and have removed the entries that do not apply to Runeweavers.

After an extended period of time, I have changed the Featured Article.  I can't believe I let it stand for so long.  A new poll is up using the old HTML Gear polling system.  Some complaints with the new poll convinced me to go back to the old system for now until I have time to find a new one.

Updated Races and the Troll player race

Most Races have been updated finally. As a special treat, I have listed the updated Troll found in Traykon. This is a player race of Trolls trying to avoid the ancient curse that corrupted their race in times before memory. Players who choose this race must fight against their ancient nature and try to overcome the prejudices and hatred all other beings have against their kind.

Paladins of the Elder Gods

Two of the oldest deities have seen the benefit the good gods gain from their paladins. The Unnamed One has elevated select followers to great heights of power in the past.  Now he has unleashed the Unholy upon the land to represent his interests.  Aragon, avatar of war and chaos, has forged a holy war machine in the Warmonger to bring war and chaos to new levels.

Traits

I've fixed the trait databases.  I was forced to go with a simpler format.  Apparently I'm not that good at calling specific instances out of a single database.  The basic traits are now showing up and I will add others as I recreate the main database.

Lesser Deities

An array of lesser deities have been added to the main Deities page.  Cleanup work was done between deities and dependent classes.  The Duskbrothers, followers of Kalivasha are now fully converted and up to date (including the name of the city they secretly control).  Special divine entities have been updated.  Minor cleanup and format changes made.

Domains

I have updated all the cleric Domains. There are three domains that are Traykon only and one (ice) that is a modified domain. Two domains that I did not have are now listed as Traykon Domains although they have not been linked to any deities yet. In total, I now have 42 domains listed. If a player wants to play with a sub-domain, I will have to take that on a case by case basis although I'll probably allow it with some background.

Two domains were removed, Shadow and Craft. Some deities were affected and I have removed those domains from their listing. The two new domains have not been added to deity listings yet. Several custom spells for domains ended up having Pathfinder equivalents so those custom spells no longer exist. I foresee no changes to the available domains.