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Old 07-14-2008, 04:15 PM
Ramsey Ramsey is offline
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Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: VA, USA
Posts: 714
Bi-Weekly Update 7/14/08

1) Update Overview: (TOC)
-New CSR / Support System
-Crafting 2.0
-Welcome new Profession Reps!
-TC Status
-Starting Location Changed (Theed)
-Cave Implementation
-Friends list added
-Missions
-Major Core3 Changes
-Image Designer
-Stat Migration
-Client Dev Status
-Small Changes


2) Body:

New CSR / Support System

SWGEmu is implementing a Support site that contains an updated Knowledge Base, bug ticket system and important guides. The new ticketing system and Consulting Support Representatives (CSRs) are implemented to assist developers to address bugs in a more efficient manner and allow developers more time to concentrate on coding rather than address in-game issues.

This site will be kept up to date and should be easier for players to locate important information such as Rules and Policies, set up guides, and questions concerning SWGEmu. Please take a moment to sign up on the site and review the Player Rules and Policies and the contents of the Knowledge Base. Changes, suggestions and updates to the Knowledge Base can be PMed to Serpentkaa via the Forums.

The Player Rules and Policies are now in effect. Players are asked to bring all actions and toons into compliance with Player Rules asap. Starting Monday, players can report immediate infractions of the rules using either the ticketing system or through the IRC channel #swgemusupport. The CSRs, headed by our Team Leader Kellina, will idle on this channel when on-duty and are available to assist with immediate in-game issues.

The CSR Team

Kellina - CSR Team Lead
ekaika
learningdisease
Megatron
Serpentkaa
Tolbat
Vashman

Please begin using this SWGEmu Support site to report all bugs. Over the next few months, we will be "cleaning" up the bugs that are currently posted to the Test Center Forums and moving a compiled list to the SWGEmu TC Bug Compilation Forum. This will require a step by step change over before we are using the SWGEmu Support site exclusively. Players are asked to help with this change over by taking a few extra steps.

If a bug is already posted on the SWGEmu TC Bug Compilation Forum, do not re-submit the bug through this system. Before submitting a bug, take a moment and review bugs that are already submitted on the latest bug thread found in TC Bug Compilation Forum. Players should check the latest bug thread that is identified by the date. The player only submits new bugs to the support site if the bug is not on this thread. The Test Center forums will be locked against new bug posts; however, the CSRs will be updating the latest bug thread on TC Bug Compliation Forum so that players can see what bugs are already reported.

note: CSRs Currently Do not have in-game rights however they will in the future and also a new GM System is being worked on.

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Crafting 2.0

Commits; 439, 440, 441.

The next revision of the crafting system has been committed. While it is still in it's infancy as far as getting all the calculations correct, there are a number of things that have been added. Crafting stations and crafting tools now work as they should. Experimenting requires the proper tool as well as proximity to the proper station. Components are now usable in crafting. While there is NO math for this yet, it is possible to pick up Weaponsmith and craft an entire DLT20 and then kill something with it. Also, there was a bug where people could spam commands and rack up instant xp, which has been addressed. More importantly, I am about 99% sure that I have settled on the final format for the scripts, meaning it is now time for people to get involved in learning the scripting format and making new schematics. I am still working on a schematic tool, that will be released one of these days, but it will be especially helpful for people (cough cough* Profession Reps) to be pro-active in learning the scripts now. This release is not a complete release, from all the testing, it is stable, but it is time to find the bugs.

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Welcome new Profession Reps!
New Profession Representatives Chosen!!!!

Thank you to all that applied as it was quite a challenge picking some of the positions with multiple good candidates.

Artisan: tek
Politician: Baylor

Chef: Sperg
Dancer: kaeilea
Image Designer: Aremathiea
Musician: Accain
Pikeman: Hiddukel
Smuggler: Davickk
Tailor: Zennor

Full List of Reps

Please welcome the new Reps....and EVERYBODY please participate in the Prof Forums

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TC Status:
We know the TC has been a bit behind in terms of how frequently it is updated with revisions. In the next few days, I'll push Oru to update it to the latest svn. This will mean that the changes implemented in the last 40 revisions or so will come to the TC, but you can expect frequent downtime due to bugs that are bound to come up. Keep in mind a DB wipe will be part of the update process.

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Starting Location Changed (Theed):

Commit 424.

It's about time. Kellina has setup the appropriate testing environment in Theed (Bluefrogs, Shuttles, Cloning etc). New characters after the TC update will start in Theed.

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Cave Implementation

Commits; 427, 429, 431.

Caves have been curned out every week by the Cave Implementation group. Not only are the scripts well done by the community & leadership, the bug reporting and collaboration in the Cave Implementation fourm is very impressive. Make sure you drop by their forum sometime and help where you can.

Caves produced in the last two weeks include; Dantooine caves with Crystal Hunters (assorted types), Deathwatch Bunker (disabled until all endor caves are done - still present though), and script modification to increase the level of agressiveness.

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Friends List Added:

Commit 434

The friends list now works and community functions such as; /addfriend, /removefriend, and /findfriend. Please test these features extensively and report any bugs found. Thanks to kyle and Movealong (aka Farmer_John).

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Missions:

I (Ramsey) completed a basic version of the mission manager. I am currently working on the _final_ two components of the manager being; state management (mission progress) and the scripting interface.

Looking ahead: I have come to the sad realization that the restoration of missions will require SWGEmu to launch yet another community project to collect data from missions that were on live pre cu. Mission titles and descriptions are saved on the client and can easily be gathered using an automated tool, the location/coordinates of NPC's and other objects involved must be retrieved by a human.

I do know that the majority of the missions presented to players on live can be replaced by ones developed within the community. So instead of attempting to restore every single mission that was on live, I am planning to commit more resources toward educating people on how to script their own missions, and do it well.

Whats to come in the near future:

Critical Pre-CU missions will be gathered in a mini project I will be starting a few months from now. The effort will eventually shift to restoring less important missions once our primary goals are attained.

I expect to have the mission manager done and out on the TC soon. Simple test missions are planned to test various aspects of the manager, and will eventually bloom into issuing more complex tasks. I do not want to commit to a date for all of this, to make room for whatever may come up. I can say that I am on track so far on the state management portion of the manager as of right now.

Like I mentioned earlier, I am planning on committing more resources towards making it easier for people to jump into scripting missions. I wan to narrate a mission building video and releasing that around the time the content gathering for critical live missions starts. The video will essentially be a developer's commentary and guided tour on the inner workings of missions and how to add them to the game.

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Major Core3 Changes:

Oru will be introducing a new and more powerful scripting language to the project within the new few months. The scripting change is probably going to be one of the biggest changes to the Engine before Core3's v1.0 release. We'll be providing a more detailed update to the scripting system in future BiWeekly's.

Oru has also increased the connection limit in the public Engine3 library to 20 connections.

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Image Designer:

Commit 438.

McMahon has had a busy 2 weeks. All Image Designer functionallity has now been added and is subject to intense testing. Make sure to use our new CSR / Support system to report bugs (like you should for anything else from now on ). Image Designer skills follow patch 14 rules. If you are looking to modify profession rules on your future server, keep in mind we are open source and a rule change is not a hard thing to do.

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Stat Migration:

Commit 438.

The completion of Stat Migration has an interesting story behind it. SWGANH assisted McMahon in the packet work for Stat Migration. It really is nice to see developers from different projects working together to complete a feature. Thanks go to snow from ANH !

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Client Dev Status:

Client Devs been a bit quiet recently but were still working away!

Only thing I can show what I'm doing is this:
http://i64.photobucket.com/albums/h1...i/c04df97e.jpg

Thats a "Kamas" skirt on mandalorian leggings its not much but its something (Thanks to Laam'inui for the skirt textures)

I have been posting several things over the forums such as pictures (first taste/example of dual wielding and also some more vehicles) Hopefully Davin and Valky will post screenshots of some of there work soon, I might be adding the newest vehicle soon (Yoda's Levitator) when I can.

----------------------

Small Changes:

-Waypoints are now working (again). (Cave Crew:Farmer_John)
-Aggro ranges have been updated. 24m when outdoors, 10m when indoors. (Kyle)
-Lair explosion fixed. Lairs are now complete! (panchjr)
-Updated Marksman skills and introduced the ability for admins to spawn fireworks for events (Kellina)
-Bluefrogs can now give you a Mineral Surveying Tool.

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SWGEmu is a non-profit, open source community project.

Last edited by Ramsey; 07-14-2008 at 04:18 PM.