Bi-Weekly Update for 5/21/09

[Ramsey]

Bi-Weekly Update for 5/21/09

Update Overview (TOC):

• Harvesters and Generators
• Deeds
• Housing
• Packaged Community Portal (PCP)
• Spawns
• Nova Stability Issues

Body:

Harvesters and Generators

The Harvester and Generator rewrite was installed on the TC a week and a half ago, and there have been virtually no bug reports. Though, a few features are still left undone, we will find them creeping there way in slowly. We encourage everyone to test out the new harvesters and generators to check for bugs! Thus far we have access to only 7 schematics via crafting, as we are awaiting Kyle's upcoming enhancements to the crafting system. Do not despair! There is a bundle of higher level harvester and generator deeds for consumption on the Gungan Traders.

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Deeds

The new code structure for deed objects is finally complete and working exceptionally well. Harvesters, generators, and vehicles have all been converted to the new format. Free resource deeds are undergoing some aesthetic interface changes.

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Housing

The initial stages of house implementation have already started. cRush successfully plugged housing into the new deed system with ease. The seamless integration has already yielded perfect results with house placement, fusing together parts of both deeds and harvesters. Unfortunately, his work will be halted until the object restructure is completed. Housing, being a somewhat different than harvesters and generators in the way they are handled by the client, will require this restructure to avoid yet another rewrite down the road. The object restructure is looking good though, and shouldn't be much longer.

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Packaged Community Portal (PCP)

cRush, Kyle, and Miztah have started discussing the prospects of the project, and have decided to start by designing an interface for manipulation of resources. This first installment will be free of the entire PCP framework, which has yet to be developed. It will be able to standalone, as is our goal for all PCP modules. We are actively looking to recruit talented individuals for the PCP project meeting the any of the following specifications:

• Web Developers
  • Languages: XHTML1.0Strict/CSS2.0, PHP, Javascript/XML(AJAX), and SQL.
  • Applications: Notepad, SVN
• Graphic Designers
  • 3D Modelers and Renderers
  • Photoshop gurus

If you feel like you can contribute to the PCP project, please idle #swgemuwebdev on the SWGEmu official IRC server, or contact cRush or Miztah via forum private message for more information. Thanks.

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Spawns

Uli and Karas have been going through the scripts with all the creatures and spawns and slowly been altering them.

Talus has been re-opened and should not cause any more crash's.
Other things being fixed are things such as "naked" NPC's however most will only get a temp fix where some may get a permanent fix. Hopefully in the near future we can apply a permanent fix to them.

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Nova Stability Issues & Fixes

We realize that TC: Nova has been down a lot more often than usual. The cause for all the recent crashes stem mostly from quad tree issues with Pets. In the next few days we will most likely end up disabling pets on TC and kick them back to ITC until the fatal bugs can be resolved. Thank you for your understanding and putting up with the frustrating periods of downtime.

The following fixes/additions have made it to TC: Nova (or will in the next day or so). Includes some things from the 5/13 update:

Staff
All SWGEmu Official Staff now has a yellow tag next to their name that says [SWGEmu-Staff] resembling that of SOE's CSR's.
@spawn spawn's creatures by species name in the lua. (stfName)
@growuppet command for progressing pet growth.
@imperialmessage and @rebelmessage for faction specific event messages.
@killarea <killplayers(0|1)> <range> - Modified killarea to only kill creatures by default. To kill players, you must type @killarea 1 <range>.
Addition of a Staff only chat channel which staff members are automatically added to upon joining the server or being given permissions.

Character Creation & Deletion
Fixed a character deletion issue when name contains an apostrophe
Re-added missing starting items

World
Fixed public building cell permissions
Various world NPC's have been fine tuned and/or fixed by Karas

Combat
Fixed DoT attack bug
Fixed flamer special ranges
Dots ignore armor. Fire dot calculation changed

Crafting
Removed factory crates being created with practice mode
Updated packet for crafting and resource containers
Fixed assorted crafting implementation bugs
Crafted vehicles work again.
Crafting of harvesters and generators works again.


Missions
A fix for the loading of missions.
Players may only hold two missions at a time now.
All mission objectives are evaluated even if a condition in another mission has been satisfied.

Commands
Object-oriented restructure of skills/commands
Code from objectcontrollermessage.cpp moved to respective class
Code from combatmanager.cpp moved to respective class
Added skeleton classes for all slash commands
Added invalid postures/states for every skill and command
Skills/Commands handle their own error messages for invalid states/postures now
Fixed: powerboost, /imagedesign, /changedance, /changemusic


Structures
Stage 1 of Structure Revamp - Harvesters/Generators
Stage 1 of Deed Revamp - Harvesters/Generators
Implemented crafting of harvesters/generators
Disabled Resource Deeds
Solar generators now harvest solar power and have the correct name.
Fixed various bugs with installations
Vehicle Deeds are now working again


GCW
Fixed rebel npc secondaries so they should regenerate correctly
Fixed faction point overflow
Fixed faction points bug

Guilds
Guild info box now shows Members title for total members
Fixed small guild typos here and there
Guild remove command gives error msg when used and not in a guild
Bug that was disallowing players to do anything after logging out mounted

Creature Handler
Added baby spawns
Added: Store, Call, Tame, Stay, Follow, Attack, Trick, Transfer, Special Attack, Tellpet, Group, Train Mount, Follow Other, Befriend, Enrage, Embolden, Formations
Added pet naming
Added pet growth
Added pet healing
More information now shows in datapad items
Pets now ignore maskscent, conceal, and camp mods
Added a feature manager for server customization. XP scaling and damage modifiers customizable plus more
Fixed multiple client crashes, server crashes, and deadlocks
Pet faction status
Pet death blow.
Babies are no longer aggressive
Pet group command.
Pet patrol
CH XP in combat fixed
Pet following command removes combat state.
Pet can not longer be traded.
Pet uses special attacks only on command
Added mount features to various creature scripts

Debugging
Added pet debug logs
Missionmanager error messages are now more detailed

Miscalleanous
Fixed clothing repair radial
Fixed long vibro axe and vibrolance not appearing on the gungan
Fixed pike names on the gungan and NSEL damage type
Re added Elite stun baton with reduced stats and elite versions of the lva and scythe to encourage testing in the corresponding professions
Added mini-suit
Maskscent chance in combat reduced
Login Server can now tell if the MySQL server connection was lost and returns an informative error to clients. Also cleaned Login validate process
Added broken skill mods
Consumable Heavy Weapons added to DB
Fixed razor knuckles being named wrong so vibro knucklers should appear on the gungan again
Fixed not being able to meditate from standing


Ramsey has also added in the @build command in Revision 1550. When TC: Nova is updated to this build, the server will have the ability of recognizing and displaying the SVN Revision # that the server is running. This should help testers get a better idea of what SVN commits have made it onto the Test Center.

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Developer Perspective ("Round Table")

Originally Posted by cRush

In the last two weeks, harvesters and generators made there way to TC Nova with great success. There were only minor hiccups at first, but I quickly resolved those and now the harvesters have been running steady with out report of failure (excluding a yavin4 and endor which do not have heightmaps yet). I worked hard with the QA team to ensure they were nearly perfect before rolling them out to TC, and the hard work paid off. My thanks to the QA team, especially Lorrianna for her diligence and excellence.

I also finished off the initial implementation of the standardized Quaternion and Vector3 classes. My thanks to those community members who uncovered some nice guides and mathematical representations which helped me identify the two bugs in my class. Most notably, Chaann and Xavia contributed material which helped the most. I updated the Engine, and placed the Quaternion and Vector3 classes in the core while they undergo final testing and tweaking.

I am not focused on a few tasks. PCP is taking some baby steps, as we start preparing for the manipulation of resources. I am also doing some initial work on housing, though limited until the object restructure is complete. Finally, I am starting planning for a new lair/spawner system that will be more efficient, mimic what we remember from pre-cu live, be fully expandable and scriptable, and interface cleanly with Ramsey's exceptional work on missions.

My thanks to the upstanding community we have and their undying support and loyalty. Things are starting to progress quickly!

Originally Posted by Ramsey

I took care of end-of-the-year garbage for school earlier last week. Glad that is out of the way

I am currently working on doing more research on SUI (still a lot of incompletes), the mission manager, and misc documentation. I've had to do a lot of work with standardizing objectives for various mission types, including event timers, and making way for lairs after the object restructure. As for documentation, I'm slowly writing formal docs for the trac wiki on SUI and Missions (scripting & code structure). Should be a bit more helpful than the commented methods.

I read the forums multiple times a day and I am glad to see the amount of people sticking to the project on a regular basis. Your support means a lot to us
offtopic: btw if anyone is interested in some Left 4 Dead, hit me up on irc this weekend. I'll make time to play that with a few people in the swgemu vent

Originally Posted by Kyle

Most of my projects are awaiting some of the upcoming conversions in our objects models, however I have made a lot of progress on the newer, better, Resource Generator. I'm adding quite a bit of customization and expandability for possible future happenings. Also, my wife and I had a baby girl this last week, and I have been a bit preoccupied. She pulled of her first "Hello World". I expect great things from her.

Originally Posted by webbwbb

Hey everyone, we've had a lot of applications and some interviews. Since opening the application process, we have realized that we need a new team. This team, with EORustyFan as the foreman, tests all of the professions based off of Entertainer, Medic, and Scout. We call this team the 'Medoutainer team'. Because we have added this team and have not heard back from many of the combat applicants we will be re-opening the application process.

We have decided on a few applicants. The following people to the team:
Perigwyn - Crafting
Xavia - Crafting
Ashur - World
Namdas - World
Ecaobia - World
Uli - Medoutainer
Thrin - Medoutainer
Tolbat - Ranged Combat

Please congratulate everyone who has joined the team and thank them for all of the hard work they have done. I would also like to thank everyone who has applied so far. It has been a great process. I only wish we needed more people because we have had so many wonderful applicants.

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Closing:

Thank you for your continued support in the testing process. We do know that the recent BiWeeklys recap a lot of information that has already been released during the week - but the idea behind them is to update the community that isn't always in the loop. Major changes are on the horizon when the Object Restructure finally rolls out with a new build of Engine3. During that time the entire team will be extremely busy and we plan on keeping testers up-to-date more often than a BiWeekly during this time (TC Updates forum).

Until next time,

--Team SWGEmu