Yuvi

Just a Quick Thank you

I knows it been quite some time since there has been much activity.

But i really want to just say Thank you over the last years! Thank you to everyone who supports me here, but also thank you to everyone who just plays on the server. It really means alot to me to see Demons Souls continue to be such a game that bring light (and maybe some darkness) to everyone lives as it did mine a very long time ago.

While the server is mostly in a "maintain" mode for right now. There have been some talks of trying to bring additional features by "modding" the original game. With that sad it would bring a split to the server which could also be bad for it. Regardless of what it turns of to be, this server will always be here to stay.

And again really thank you so much everyone for supporting me and The Archstones.

What's going on with The Archstones?

Hey all!

As you all might of known a little game called Demon's Souls Remake came out not too long ago on PS5, which caused quite the buzz to go around to those who don't know of the original souls game. Because of this, we saw some huge jump in active players on even the PS3 and RPCS3 versions of the game, this jump lasted for a good 3 months or so, which saw the servers hit almost 200 player peaks combined. As I speak today, we are still hitting over 30-40 users online actively (depending on the version), which might not be impressive for some, it is to me still. The Archstone's started years ago, with little than 10 people on at a time, to see the community grow and still have more users playing is amazing. The Archstone's will only continue to get bigger I hope, the PS3 version holds a place in my heart and that's why ill always have the servers up and running for anyone to enjoy this amazing game.

If you don't know there are some fun to look at stats over on The Archstone's website (https://thearchstones.com/playerstats.html) one of those being Total Deaths on The Archstone's. Since The Archstone's has been a server, we are about to hit over 1 million deaths on the server. 1078 days have passed (at the time of writing) since the server was first brought online, which works out to around 909 deaths a day! Can you believe that? incredible to think about really. Either way, it is nice to know we're about to break 1 million deaths as that means so much was done on this server, with so many people have great adventures, or well just having lots of PVP sessions lol. 

So what's going on in the background, truthfully not a whole bunch right now. Real-life events have really caught up to me this year so far and I've been swamped and stressed to high levels. But one thing that keeps me happy is just the gratefulness you all have to support me and The Archstone's. There is still some planned development work I need to do for the server, and some semi-leaderboard features I'm working on. Please stay tuned for that. 

Thanks again for your continued support!

Quick Thanks before the Remake

Since the remake is very close now, I want to say thanks to everyone who has supported me and the server during the past years. Today, I've started to see a lot more leaks and streams of the remake, which really put it into perspective that all the hard work and effort I put into the server was to ensure people could experience this wonderful game. The remake will once again bring on a whole new meaning to that. By allowing those who never played the game to experience its joys and suffering it can bring. Though it will not always be the same, as there have been countless souls games since the original, so most people know what to expect. Regardless though of how you enjoy the game, or what version you play, ill still say my thanks to all those who supported me, It truly been an honor to be granted this opportunity to see so many hundreds of people play the game consistently over the last couple of years. We have over 19,800 Unique PSN accounts that have played on The Archstones, and that alone is amazing! So thanks to all of you for joining me during the past couple of years, PS3 Demon's Souls will only become more popular as time goes on now. Just know the PS3 Nexus will always still be alive and waiting for fresh souls to dive in and play.

Thanks

-Yuvi

Ps. won't play the remake for a couple of years I'm sure, so enjoy  it all in my honor

Discord Role

Real Quick!
Added a custom discord role that will show your support for the server, in the Demon's Souls Discord now.

Be sure to link your discord account to your patreon account then you should get automatic access.

Thanks again to all my supporters.

Kinda Behind the Scene's stuff

For my Patrons, 

I do not normally post much, but I do want to start making it more of a habit to create some behind the scene's work I'm doing a lot of time.

Currently, there are a couple of big initiatives I'm working on,

1. Python 3 Conversion

2. PostgreSQL Conversion

When the initial emulator was built over 2+ years ago, it was built using Python 2.7. At that time Python 2.7 was still a supported Python version and was created to help transition coders to use python 3, while still coding like its python 2. However, two years later we are about to hit the end of support for python 2.7. This means the code base needs to be updated to run on the latest Python 3. This means the server will be more efficient, and secure. Normally converting to Python 3 is not too complicated, but it takes some time. Eventually, I will have this rolled out to my dev server for testing, then push it to the live server once it been fully validated.

Then we got database stuff. Currently, I am using SQLite to store all of the database entries for Players, Messages, Bloodstains, and more. Due to the expansion of the server and now adding RPCS3 server to the mix. It now becomes viable and more reasonable to covert over to using PostgreSQL. While they are both very similar to the way they work. The biggest difference is SQLite is file-based, and PostgresSQL is server-based. Doing this is going to grant me lots of benefits, Security, Management, Insights, and flexibility. One of the biggest needs now is to merge the worlds properly. Currently, the PS3 and RPCS3 have shared worlds for messages & bloodstains, but there is a delay in this. By moving to PostgreSQL I'm going to make the two server realtime shared worlds. Which is a big win in my books for keeping the feel of an alive world.

I have some more exciting things in the works after this, but for now, I need to get maintenance out of the way :D 

Thank you again to all you for your support of me.

Cross Region RPCS3!

This is mostly a copy and pastes from my discord announcement! But I want to really send my thanks to all my Patrons. With the support from you all I am able to focus more of my time on improving The Archstones. You guys really are umbasa for supporting me. I'm grateful

Thank you

 - Yuvi

-Update from Discord -

- Cross-Region for RPCS3 User, Feel free to use any version with any language, Everyone is on a Unified Server 

- Support for the Taiwan/Chinese version has also been added! (be aware your isp/geolocation might cause an issue with connection) 

- Updated Website to reflect the new Cross Region that shows all Online Users in one location. (https://rpcs3.thearchstones.com/onlineusers.html Expect this list to get long )

 - Server Capacity has been upgraded to account for the new users!  

One thing I want to note, Cross Region is currently in testing. Please let me know if you experience any issues or errors. 

It was extensively tested with multiple online sessions/invade, etc.  Here are some fun screenshots of a session 

Yuvi (me) - Using Chinese Version 

GrimKriegor - Using Europe Version 

Damien - Using North American Version 

Eiroth (invader) - Using Europe Version  

So as you can see all three regions working in one session! Umbasa!  I want to again thank you to all our new and old users for supporting me! This is one of those goals I've been trying to accomplish since day 1 of The Archstones!   Its always been a pleasure to see fans of the game returning and even seeing brand new players getting on and playing, for which I envy that experience.  

RPCS3 X The Archstones!

The great team at RPCS3 has achieved what we once thought was impossible! They have created an Emulated PSN Network. There is much to be done with it, and its in a very early testing phase. But The Archstones is proud to be apart of the project to be one of the first games to have full online support for RPCS3 users. Collaborating with them on this was a great accomplishment. Archstones has created a new dedicated server just for RPCS3 users. All of the Archstones features are working as expected. Go check out the https://thearchstones.com to see the current online RPCS3 Users.

There was a lot of work that went into this project from the RPCS3, I want to say this means a lot not just to Demon's Souls community but also to me as a preservationist. It's really an amazing feeling to know we have a replacement for ps3 psn network if it were to ever be dropped. One day I would love to go into depth onto what it took to accomplish this.

I'm proud to say The Archstones is here to stay indefinitely! 

Both players of PS3 and RPCS3 have a home to experience one of the greatest and genre-defining games to ever be released!

Thank you for support me, I appreciate ever single one of you

Demon's Souls Remake! But?!

Demon's Souls Remake is happening!

This is very exciting and amazing, even for me I'm very thrilled to have this happening.

But apart of me cannot help but feel a little sad. Just because the community we have is amazing, and I hope we can continue to always have that. Demon's Souls was a big part of my teens. I had to trade in so many games just to get this game when it came out. I remember watching the review on gamespot.com, after watching I was really thinking, like "This game is truly something and I must play it". After rushing to the nearest GameStop that even had the game (such limited stock at launch). Playing the game I felt the same way as in that review. I felt so much pain after losing all my soul's permanent, there was much bad-mouthing, but there was also much rejoice when I defeated a boss. Even digging into the whole world tendency system as I had to do all these tasks just so I could get the Makoto Katana. 

Demon's Souls invented the Soul-Like term after all, and to me, it has a special place in my heart. That is why I started this project long ago, I had to become involved to bring everyone back together in a world that I love. Seeing all the players on to play this amazing game always brings joy to me, and I'm thankful for every single person who has joined us on this adventure.

You can after all see there have been over 580,000 deaths on The Archstone's at this time, That is truly umbasa!

So I wanna finish this post up by stating a couple of things, With the announcement, we will surely see a spike in players and that's going to be amazing for everyone to feel and play the original how it was back in 2009. Though once the PS5 version releases id suspect the servers to be less than 10 people on for awhile. But I believe after some time people will start to come back and play both versions of the game again. After all, this version will always have charm and just pure nostalgia for us who originally played the game long ago.  With all the said, The Archstone's will not be going anywhere if I can help it. I vow to keep the ps3 version up and running for as long as I physically can. I treasure this server & game as much as you do. 

I again want to say thanks to every single person who has joined me, There is so much more to happen on The Archstone's. 

Thanks

-Yuvi

Character Stats?

Hey all!

Are you all interested in see your own Individual character stats on the website?

Previous I implemented a small search so you could view how many times your character has died. Would you like to see that return, and more fleshed out, or is the overall server statistics good?

So many Improvements!

For those who might not be involved in the Demons Souls discord (which I highly encourage you too be).

There have been a huge wealth of upgrades recently to the server. New features and fun stats to look at.

You can see a lot of these changes on Thearchstones.com

Thank you all again for supporting me!

A Quick Thank you

I just wanna say thank to everyone who has supported me and the server over the last couple years now. Its been amazing seeing you all jump on and play this beloved game still!.

There will always be more to come, And as always Ill be here so you all can keep adventuring on and getting more umbasa.