Darko Luketic

29. December 20185. January 2019

Everquest 2 is a bad game run by a bad company

Everquest 2 suffers from neglect and greedy RMT (RMT = real money transactions) micro transactions.
And they’re deleting any honest criticism on their “official” forum.
Additional to that they ban everyone on their “official” discord who even remotely dares say anything about their shit game.

Fallen Gate, the only Premium server, where you have to pay to play, a month into an expansion not even half of the items are adjusted.

Now they’re selling lifetime memberships because they know they won’t last another 3 years.
Their player base has declined by over 40% over 2 years. Even the most diehard people I knew quit playing.

Returning players on live face a RMT wall. You have to buy Krono and sell it to established players so you have a chance of playing with them. How absurd is that?
You need 1060 resolve and about 65k potency in order to function in tier 1 heroic zones.
You can harvest rares for a few days, refine those rares and lose about half in the process, craft armor and jewelry out of those rares and then experiment with that armor and jewelry. This will bring you to about 50k potency.

How the fuck are you supposed to hit 65k potency?

You might think, “craft infusers”. But you don’t have the recipe. It’s behind a daily quest with a RNG (= Random Number Generator) chance to loot it, the chance is little. And when you have it, it only saves you little money because fuel costs too and you spend time acquiring those components by running solo zones to break shit down.

So you’re a returning player, you have about 20k plat. Maybe you’re a long term player and have reached 2×12 year rewards, which will net you 700 loyalty tokens which will net you 700/5*500=70k plat. If you spend them all on loyalty 500p chests.
How long does 70k plat last you? Not long.

Infusing for plat starts at 9p / infusion and the cost is exponential. You can easily burn 300k plat on a single gear piece.

But the biggest problem is the exclusive player base. No matter where you play.

On Fallen Gate there is a guild that wants you to go through a 3 week trial period. In 2018. When the lifetime of one expansion is 3 months.
Other guilds are full or super casual.
Some guilds only group internally.

The fun of eq2 was meeting new people.

This is mostly gone.

And there is RMT everywhere. Don’t want to go through the artificial 1 minute wait to rez your mercenary? Pay real cash.
Research spells quicker? Pay real cash.
What your spells aren’t ancient level yet so the groups won’t take you? You can always buy more virtual currency with real cash.

It’s a game for suckers where the bank always wins.

It’s not even a game anymore but a “game of chance”, like roulette. Only in multitudes.

You can easily see the handwriting of this greedy and neglecting company.

The last SOE expansion was Altar of Malice. It was large and rich with an entertaining story. In the middle of that expansion parts of SOE became Daybreak. First thing they did was sell an extra “content pack” 15 dolla.

Next expansion was the worst expansion ever. ToT – Terrors of Thalumbra. This features the handwriting of “Kander” a mentally unstable child in a man’s body, obsessed with some god complex. It was the base groundwork for “celestial” content there is now. Essentially everything was stripped and only RMT and grind remained.

But hey don’t believe me.

When I returned a received help to get started. 5 pieces of gear. Thanks but I’m afraid it was only a drop of water on a immensely hot stone.

I’m now sitting at 1161.5 resolve but 48k potency. I’m not finding any groups. PQs drop merc trash only. On my 5th day I’m already fed up with it. I want to play with people, but this shit company not only deletes my posts on their official forum, but also put the entry levels too high.

15k extra potency is not attainable without some serious real money or time investment. And with time investment I mean 3 months+.

Some Russian guy was looking for a DPS class, which I play. He was spamming for about an hour. I sent a tell, I didn’t even receive a “sorry we’re full” or anything similar to that.

When the game is shit, and the community is shit and the company running it is shit, what’s left?

update: I got a refund on paper, we’ll see if I receive the money. It takes 5-7 days they wrote.

17. December 201826. January 2019

Angular, EventSource, Go and wasted lifetime

If you have ever used EventSource and Angular and have read all the other blog posts and github issues and Stackoverflow posts and nothing worked, then you’ve probably come here and will happily leave knowing you solved your problem.

First of all I use cobra, I know, get to the point. As part of cobra I add the serve command, so I can go run main.go serve

This is the serve.go file

package cmd

import (
	"git.icod.de/dalu/eventsrc/server/handler"
	"github.com/gin-contrib/cors"
	"github.com/gin-gonic/gin"
	"github.com/spf13/cobra"
)

// serveCmd represents the serve command
var serveCmd = &cobra.Command{
	Use:   "serve",
	Short: "",
	Long:  ``,
	RunE: func(cmd *cobra.Command, args []string) error {
		r := gin.Default()
		r.Use(cors.Default())
		h := handler.NewHandler()
		defer h.Close()
		r.GET("/api/v1/events/", h.Stream)
		return r.Run(":8080")
	},
}

func init() {
	rootCmd.AddCommand(serveCmd)
}

package cmd

import (

"git.icod.de/dalu/eventsrc/server/handler"

"github.com/gin-contrib/cors"

"github.com/gin-gonic/gin"

"github.com/spf13/cobra"

)

// serveCmd represents the serve command

var serveCmd = &cobra.Command{

Use: "serve",

Short: "",

Long: ``,

RunE: func(cmd *cobra.Command, args []string) error {

r := gin.Default()

r.Use(cors.Default())

h := handler.NewHandler()

defer h.Close()

r.GET("/api/v1/events/", h.Stream)

return r.Run(":8080")

}

func init() {

rootCmd.AddCommand(serveCmd)

}

I set up the route, cors and run it

The server/handler/handler.go file

package handler

import (
	"fmt"
	"log"
	"time"

	"github.com/gin-contrib/sse"
	"github.com/gin-gonic/gin"
)

type Handler struct {
	t *time.Ticker
}

func NewHandler() *Handler {
	h := new(Handler)
	h.t = time.NewTicker(time.Second * 1)

	return h
}

func (h *Handler) Close() {
	h.t.Stop()
}

func (h *Handler) Stream(cx *gin.Context) {
	i := 0
	w := cx.Writer
	clientGone := w.CloseNotify()

	for {
		select {
		case <-clientGone:
			return
		case t := <-h.t.C:
			type M struct {
				Id     int       `json:"id"`
				Model  string    `json:"model"`
				Action string    `json:"action"`
				Time   time.Time `json:"time"`
			}
			m := new(M)
			m.Model = "profile"
			m.Action = "update"
			m.Id = 1
			m.Time = t

			h := w.Header()
			h.Set("Cache-Control", "no-cache")
			h.Set("Connection", "keep-alive")
			h.Set("Content-Type", "text/event-stream")
			h.Set("X-Accel-Buffering", "no")

			ev := sse.Event{
				Id:    fmt.Sprintf("%d", i),
				Event: "message",
				Data:  m,
			}

			if e := sse.Encode(w, ev); e != nil {
				log.Println(e.Error())
				return
			}
			w.Flush()
			i++
		}
	}
}

package handler

import (

"fmt"

"log"

"time"

"github.com/gin-contrib/sse"

"github.com/gin-gonic/gin"

)

type Handler struct {

t *time.Ticker

}

func NewHandler() *Handler {

h := new(Handler)

h.t = time.NewTicker(time.Second * 1)

return h

}

func (h *Handler) Close() {

h.t.Stop()

}

func (h *Handler) Stream(cx *gin.Context) {

i := 0

w := cx.Writer

clientGone := w.CloseNotify()

for {

select {

case <-clientGone:

return

case t := <-h.t.C:

type M struct {

Id int `json:"id"`

Model string `json:"model"`

Action string `json:"action"`

Time time.Time `json:"time"`

}

m := new(M)

m.Model = "profile"

m.Action = "update"

m.Id = 1

m.Time = t

h := w.Header()

h.Set("Cache-Control", "no-cache")

h.Set("Connection", "keep-alive")

h.Set("Content-Type", "text/event-stream")

h.Set("X-Accel-Buffering", "no")

ev := sse.Event{

Id: fmt.Sprintf("%d", i),

Event: "message",

Data: m,

}

if e := sse.Encode(w, ev); e != nil {

log.Println(e.Error())

return

}

w.Flush()

i++

}

Here is the important part. I wasted the last 6 hours and previous to that 2 days on this issue.
If you’re serving this via nginx, you have to set this header X-Accel-Buffering = no.
If you don’t send this header responses will get buffered by nginx until the timeout it met then flushed to the client.
The above code has a ticker that ticks every second and sends a new “Server Sent Event”.

Why it didn’t work for me was, as you see above Event: "message". I had that set to “darko”.

The Angular service

import {Injectable, NgZone} from '@angular/core';
import {Observable} from 'rxjs';

@Injectable({
  providedIn: 'root'
})
export class NotiService {


  constructor(private zone: NgZone) {
    this.zone =  new NgZone({ enableLongStackTrace: false });
  }

  watch(): Observable<object> {
    return Observable.create((observer) => {
      const eventSource  = new EventSource('/api/v1/events/');

      eventSource.onmessage = (event) => this.zone.run(() => {
        console.log(event);
        observer.next(JSON.parse(event.data));
      });
      eventSource.addEventListener('darko', (event: any) => this.zone.run(() =>{
        console.log('darko event', event);
        observer.next(JSON.parse(event.data));
      }));

      eventSource.onerror = error => this.zone.run(() => {
        if (eventSource.readyState === eventSource.CLOSED) {
          console.log('The stream has been closed by the server.');
          eventSource.close();
          observer.complete();
        } else {
          observer.error(error);
        }
      });
      return () => eventSource.close();
    });
  }
}

import {Injectable, NgZone} from '@angular/core';

import {Observable} from 'rxjs';

@Injectable({

providedIn: 'root'

})

export class NotiService {

constructor(private zone: NgZone) {

this.zone = new NgZone({ enableLongStackTrace: false });

}

watch(): Observable<object> {

return Observable.create((observer) => {

const eventSource = new EventSource('/api/v1/events/');

eventSource.onmessage = (event) => this.zone.run(() => {

console.log(event);

observer.next(JSON.parse(event.data));

});

eventSource.addEventListener('darko', (event: any) => this.zone.run(() =>{

console.log('darko event', event);

observer.next(JSON.parse(event.data));

}));

eventSource.onerror = error => this.zone.run(() => {

if (eventSource.readyState === eventSource.CLOSED) {

console.log('The stream has been closed by the server.');

eventSource.close();

observer.complete();

} else {

observer.error(error);

}

});

return () => eventSource.close();

});

}

eventSource.onmessage expects a message with the Event: "message" content. Since I had it set to “darko”,
the onmessage event never fired. If you for whatever reason need to send an event that is not a message type,
the eventSource.addEventListener is how you listen for that event.
As you might have seen in other blog posts or github issues, zonejs and EventSource aren’t the best of friends.
So you have to wrap it all in zone.run() so you can have real time updates, and not just when you unsubscribe from the Observable.

Finally, the component

import {Component, OnDestroy, OnInit} from '@angular/core';
import {NotiService} from '../noti.service';

@Component({
  selector: 'icod-home',
  templateUrl: './home.component.html',
  styleUrls: ['./home.component.scss']
})
export class HomeComponent implements OnInit, OnDestroy {

  msgSub;
  msgs = [];

  constructor(private notiService: NotiService) {
  }

  ngOnInit() {
  }

  ngOnDestroy(): void {
    if (this.msgSub) {
      this.msgSub.unsubscribe();
    }
  }

  watchEvents() {
    this.msgSub = this.notiService.watch().subscribe( data => {
      console.log(data);
      this.msgs.push(data);
    });
  }

  stopWatching() {
    this.msgSub.unsubscribe();
  }

}

import {Component, OnDestroy, OnInit} from '@angular/core';

import {NotiService} from '../noti.service';

@Component({

selector: 'icod-home',

templateUrl: './home.component.html',

styleUrls: ['./home.component.scss']

})

export class HomeComponent implements OnInit, OnDestroy {

msgSub;

msgs = [];

constructor(private notiService: NotiService) {

}

ngOnInit() {

}

ngOnDestroy(): void {

if (this.msgSub) {

this.msgSub.unsubscribe();

}

watchEvents() {

this.msgSub = this.notiService.watch().subscribe( data => {

console.log(data);

this.msgs.push(data);

});

}

stopWatching() {

this.msgSub.unsubscribe();

}

and the component html

<button (click)="watchEvents()">Watch Events</button>
<button (click)="stopWatching()">Stop Watching</button>

<div *ngFor="let msg of msgs">
  {{msg|json}}
</div>

<button (click)="watchEvents()">Watch Events</button>

<button (click)="stopWatching()">Stop Watching</button>

</div>

Finally, the nginx configuration for the development server. To serve it all.
Here I’m using es.dev.luketic on the local network.

server {
    listen 80;
    listen [::]:80;
    server_name es.dev.luketic;
    root /home/darko/WebProjects/es/src;
    index index.html;

    error_log /var/log/nginx/es.error;

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://localhost:4200;
        proxy_read_timeout 30;
        proxy_connect_timeout 30;
        proxy_redirect off;
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP          $remote_addr;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For    $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto  $scheme;
    }

    location /sockjs-node/ {
        proxy_http_version 1.1;
        proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
        proxy_set_header Connection "upgrade";
        rewrite ^/(.*)$  /$1  break;
        proxy_set_header Host localhost;
        proxy_pass http://localhost:4200/;
    }

    location ~ ^/api/v1/.* {
        proxy_pass http://localhost:8080;
        proxy_read_timeout 30;
        proxy_connect_timeout 30;
        proxy_redirect off;
        proxy_set_header Host               $host;
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP          $remote_addr;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For    $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto  $scheme;
    }
}

server {

listen 80;

listen [::]:80;

server_name es.dev.luketic;

root /home/darko/WebProjects/es/src;

index index.html;

error_log /var/log/nginx/es.error;

location / {

proxy_pass http://localhost:4200;

proxy_read_timeout 30;

proxy_connect_timeout 30;

proxy_redirect off;

proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;

proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;

proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;

}

location /sockjs-node/ {

proxy_http_version 1.1;

proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;

proxy_set_header Connection "upgrade";

rewrite ^/(.*)$ /$1 break;

proxy_set_header Host localhost;

proxy_pass http://localhost:4200/;

}

location ~ ^/api/v1/.* {

proxy_pass http://localhost:8080;

proxy_read_timeout 30;

proxy_connect_timeout 30;

proxy_redirect off;

proxy_set_header Host $host;

proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;

proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;

proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;

}

6. November 2018

Things I wish I knew before using CentOS (7)

This is an ongoing, updated post of things I wish I knew beforehand.
CentOS is a solid base for any server, as it requires minimum maintenance and is very conservative when it comes to updated versions.
This post will be a mess at first, but continue to grow and evolve.

Current systemd for CentOS7
https://copr.fedorainfracloud.org/coprs/jsynacek/systemd-backports-for-centos-7/
or
https://github.com/facebookincubator/rpm-backports

Up to date and legacy PHP versions
https://rpms.remirepo.net/
https://blog.remirepo.net/pages/Config-en

Current LTS or mainline kernel
http://elrepo.org/

More up to date qemu

yum install centos-release-qemu-ev

1	yum install centos-release-qemu-ev

26. October 201826. January 2019

libvirt manual migration

Following scenario:

You have 2 servers. No shared storage.
You would like to move VMs from Server A to Server B.

If you want a clean filesystem there will be downtime.
Downtime will take as long as it needs to copy the image from one server to the other.

Step 1:

Shutdown the instance running on the source server.
e.g.

virsh shutdown domain.name

1	virsh shutdown domain.name

Step 2:

Copy the image, usually located in /var/lib/libvirt/images/ , from source to destination.
e.g.

rsync -avh /var/lib/libvirt/images/* root@destination.server:/var/lib/libvirt/images/

1	rsync -avh /var/lib/libvirt/images/* root@destination.server:/var/lib/libvirt/images/

Step 3:

Dumo the configuration xml of your vm and copy it to the destination server
e.g.

virsh dumpxml domain.name > domain.name.xml

1	virsh dumpxml domain.name > domain.name.xml

scp domain.name.xml root@destination.server:

1	scp domain.name.xml root@destination.server:

This will copy domain.name.xml to the home directory of the destination server, in this case /root/ (implied by the : after the server name)

Step 4:

Import the copied xml domain configuration on the destination server.
The MAC address probably changed, depending on your data center’s setup you’d need to edit the xml file accordingly.
The domain import command is

virsh define domain.name.xml

1	virsh define domain.name.xml

Step 5:
Finish it up.
Change network configuration from inside the guest.
You will need to login via spice console.
It’s best to use the great tool “Virtual Machine Manager” for this job.
Remember to keep your VM’s root password ready.

18. October 2018

Widevine’s “NO FEES” claim is a lie

If you browse over to widevine dot com you’ll see a

No Fees

Widevine supports the use of standards-based royalty-free solutions for encryption, adaptive streaming, transport and player software without licensing fees or required participation in the CWIP training program.

This is now the 3rd time I wrote them, and received no response.

Thanks to piracy we’ve lost over 50% ad revenue. Widevine, a Google/Alphabet company doesn’t care that people steal our work and put in on Youtube, where we have to spend unnecessary time to go through their annoying copyright claim process and deal with the negative fallout, including the reputation hit when you take down a video.
The amount of email spam when you file a copyright complaint is exceeds all limits. It’s not only annoying but also time-consuming. And sometimes people claim they have the right of “fair use” when they take 100% of our content and add it to their video. No it’s not fair use if you take 100% of our content and put it in your video. That is called theft.