Bi-Weekly Update for 10/27/08

[Ramsey]

1) Update Overview:
-Bug Squashing Progress
-Beach Party Event
-GCW Updates
-Crafting Updates
-XP Testing
-Medic and Doctor Cleanup
-PCP Project Status
-City Commoner NPCs
-New NPCs and Mobs
-Combat Overhaul Progress


2) Body:

Beach Party Event:

On 10/25, we hosted a beach party event with a Q/A and PvP - thanks to all staff who made this possible. Our event coordinators (red forum names - look for em!), csrs. You all did a great job of running this event. A LOT of information was discussed within the official thread for this event, which you can take a look at right here: http://www.swgemu.com/forums/showpos...5&postcount=65

Here are some pics I pulled from the main thread, taken by xavia:




Bug Squashing Progress:

Our continued effort to squash bugs has not faltered over the week, here are a sampling of the bugs we fixed this week:

-Basic, uncompressed, heightmap support added by Oru (coincides with new coordinate system in engine3)
-creatures now have...moods!
-fixed @warpTo GM command
-players can now attack you even if you are on a mount.
-mounts are now attackable
-npc's can now attack vehicles
-vehicle condition now is saved
-vehicles now decay.
-faction NPC's now response to your status within the faction
-npc's now have faction points
-faction points are now gained and lost in combat.
-dice added.
-When /quit or disconnecting, your player will now go LD and despawn in 30 seconds, instead of logging out right away.
-disabled housing until we are ready to support public TC testing of its features
-A script cleanup has been administered, hopefully the scripts directory is now easier to navigate.
-add wound cost to tendwound and tenddamage medic skills (anakis)
-Recruiters now are spawned from the database in all their locations galaxy wide (big thanks to thrin, bobius, smoki, and Jude)
-some MissionManager threading issues resolved (ongoing)

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GCW Status:

(From bobius)

The GCW is coming along nicely, and with the latest release of faction status, it should seem more real. There is no longer a fear of getting ganked at the recruiter or having to worry about a no PVP zone. While I wait for other systems to come to completion, such as missions and player structures, I'm going to put GCW development on a hold, since the next steps directly correspond to those things. I'm going to focus on other aspects of the game to improve on. Expect to see some bug fixes and little details to come your way.

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Crafting Updates:

Now I know there are ALOT of people out there waiting for crafting to be more fully implemented. Since the last update, great strides have been made in crafting as a whole which is shown in the accuracy of the equations which are online for the Composite Chest plate. I am wrapping up some of the last few unimplemented features (Customization, and Factory Schematics) and working on adding more schematics. If you happen to have old pre-cu screenshots of crafting/experimenting/datapad stuff, please send me a PM and post them to http://image.ocdsoft.com. These often times can help speed things along for items we may be missing information for. My updates to the test center should be much more exciting and tangible from here on out.

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XP Testing:

dannuic has headed up implementation of XP facilities. DB storage of XP and correct start XP has been configured on the server. dannuic added an @giveXP command for GM's to test XP before it hits ingame production use.

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Medic/Doctor:
I have been working hard the last couple days to make the Medic/Doctor skills more robust and set them up in a manor where other skills may draw from their methods. This will allow for some bug fixes with Teras Kasi and other professions that use healing skills. The next step will be tweaking Incapacitation and Death to get the bugs out. Also, true cloning will be coming soon.

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PCP:
The PCP Project is starting back up, and is more organized than ever. I will be looking for some actual positions to fill from members who show they can consistently contribute. PHP and OOD skills are absolutely necessary for one of these positions. Also looking for very strong graphic artists with CSS skills as well to help in development of alternate themes.

Stop by #swgemuwebdev on IRC or drop cRush a pm on the forums.

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City Commoner NPCs:

TheAnswer and Kellina has added static city commoners to Theed all through script. If you've been on the TC recently, you'll notice it adds a warmer feel to the game. Some of the commoners will eventually perform more functions depending on who they are, but for now they'll talk amongst themselves . With the NPC count rapidly increasing, core3 isn't breaking a sweat! Thank TheAnswer and Kellina for adding these in and we hope you enjoy the city life.

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New NPCs and Mobs:

Big thanks to kellina and everyone else involved with NPC development! Over the last two weeks, they have pushed a HUGE chunk of galaxy creatures in script and completed skills for the majority of tatooine creature skills. The NPC count on the server has grown exponentially over the last few weeks and it's because of the numerous amounts of people contributing to creature content - thank you guys. NPC's will continue to be fine tuned - You will be seeing them grow into a more mature piece of AI. If you haven't been on the test center in awhile, its time you start at least IDLE it and enjoy NPC life.

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Combat Code Overhaul Status:

The combat code overhaul is carrying on at a steady pace. There have been a few combat issues fixed during the last two weeks but most of the work has been in getting the combat equations as close as we can to the original pre-cu equations and making sure all weapons and skills are working as expected. This has involved a lot of testing from the QA and Profession Representatives and the feeding back of issues to development for fixing.

Currently the DOT system is being re-worked by cRush and panchjr so that DOT stacking and healing will work correctly. Once DOTs are working then we can start looking at introducing Combat Medic poison and disease into combat.

[Ramsey]

3) Developers Perspective ("Round Table"):

Originally Posted by cRush

I have been very busy in real life trying to find a job to generate some revenue, and I'm still looking. I have, however, found some time to make some updates. I completed my Medic optimizations and I am moving on to tweaking Incapacitation and Death as well as finishing off Cloning. Once this is complete, I am debating on what to do next, though Combat Medic is probably the next course of action.

I am also starting the PCP project up again. We have a separate assembla project started and will be getting back into the swing of things soon. I will be looking for members who can contribute consistently and show a strong understanding of Object Oriented Design in PHP.

Originally Posted by Ramsey

Over the weekend, I was in South Jersey (hammonton) at a LAN event (theGXL) for the CS:Source tournament. I went with a few friends and we landed HUGE upsets within the tournament. Overall it was a fun event, and more importantly I met a few SWGEmu community members.

Been busy with some threading issues I ran into with the Mission complete sequence. I was able to fix the majority of my packet issues I was having last week, which is nice. The deliver NPC's now look more in place with the commoners, which is small but REALLY nice to just look at. Refresh the 'SWGEmu Mission Terminal' near the center of theed this week.

Originally Posted by Ritter

Ritter:
After a long absence from the SWGemu team I am currently reinstalling Linux on a spare machine and getting ready to jump back in to development. I am not sure what I will be working on, but there is a good chance I may team up with Kyle and see what I can do to help with crafting. Expect to see me back on the forums and in IRC starting this weekend.

Originally Posted by Farmer_John

After 2 weeks of vacation, i'm back and implemented vehicle condition saving and loading from database. Bobius added the ability to attack vehicles now, so i also a temporary repair-option for vehicles (radial).

Now i want to concentrate looking into the "after work" of the housing stuff: We fixed a problem with strucutre-cells (see through, running through walls) this week, now we are looking into dropping mechanism.

As soon as this has been figured out completely, i start implementing storage, containers, bookcase storage etc etc etc.

This will be another big thing since its needed in conjuction with crafting, housing etc.
It needs to get hand in hand with cell permission, so only structure admins can drop and pickup stuff.

It is a bigger thing and will take its time, but we will get this done like everything else.

In the meantime we still fix bugs, reported by the numerous testers ! TNX.

4) Closing:

A lot of bugs were squashed this week and it's hard to give credit to every single community member that has made these changes possible in the BiWeekly. We try to be as accurate who fixed what in our SVN commits. The trac timeline is an extremely useful tool which I hope you guys are keeping up with: http://trac2.assembla.com/swgemu/timeline .

US Citizens: We have an election. Weather or not you are about politics or the candidates (SWGEmu's political stance = NULL), this week leading up to election day will a bombardment of ideas that will effect the country for the next few years. We hope US citizens here will at least pay attention to what is going on with our government this week, elections aren't often .

Until next time, take care.

-Team SWGEmu

[Ramsey]

Also, everyone, don't forget to try and make our first Open Developer meeting on the 15th at 7PM EST! Join IRC, register a nick, and join #devchat for your chance to spit your questions at the developers directly!

Reserved. Staff, feel free to submit your entries for the round table over IRC or in the draft topic.

[corbaer]

Outstanding work. What a 2 week period this has been. My hats off to you devs and staff. Now I'm off to re-read it.

[Valkyra]

Very nice work done, as usual.

I am excited about the Combat Code overhaul, just one step closer to a fully-functioning Pre-CU.

[Ozas Darkdust]

Awesome, everytime i see a new update I get so excited =P

[CKclyde]

Great job as always

[Warthog]

Congratulations and Thank you for the good work!

[Vengeance]

Great work guys! Makes me giddy as a school girl every time I read an update.

[Seaseme]

Make sure to read the Q&A at http://www.swgemu.com/forums/showpos...5&postcount=65 for information. There's tons of great stuff (If I don't say so myself?). Thanks for the great questions!

[Trekkievger]

Awesome stuff guys!

[Serpentkaa]

Great Update

[Timbab]

Awesome as always =)

[goldcrud]

awesome update its truly amazing how things have been coming together recently. You guys are really close to being done with combat and are getting done with crafting and housing as well. I could easily see a release by the end of the year.

[kaywynnPC]

Man it's funny how,as a Emu addict I log on the forums 3-5 times a day, checking for updates and seeing what little present the devs have for us... yet you still don't quite realize just how much has been done over a 2 weeks period till you read one of these updates through completly. Nothing but pure amazment, and I follow this daily. Keep up the good work guys.