Bi-Weekly Update for 1/30/2009

[PhantomLeader]

1) Update Overview (TOC):

• Crafting Progress *Exciting News!*
• Test Centre Database Wipe
• Squad Leader Progress
• Combat Medic Progress
• Camps and Scout Progress
• Vendors and Bazaars
• New Daily Updates
• Test Centre Service Interruption
• Launchpad Enhanced Changes
• Major Bug Fixes

2) Body:

Crafting Progress *Exciting News!*

In almost every BiWeekly update in recorded history, we have told you in some way shape or form about the "leaps and bounds" or "monumental progress" in the field of crafting.
Today is different, however, because today we have quantitative results to display just how hard Kyle has worked over the past six months.
On Monday 26th, Kyle and his team of schematic wizards pushed to TC:Nova a massive batch of craft-able goods. Including the reinstatement of vehicles, new clothes, weapons and armour, the whole of the Artisan profession has been completed for testing. Further, the Novice Tailor skill box and the full trees of Scout and Ranger goods are now on line.
It has taken huge dedication and skill to get to this point. Kyle envisaged a system which is flexible, intelligent and self-reliable, and now it is a reality. Toasts to him and all those (who are too numerous to name) who have assisted him.
Next on the list of schematics are Chef, Armoursmith, Tailor and Architect, all of which should fit in with the other non-crafting changes in their respective areas (for example housing + architect crafting).
Let's get excited, shall we!?
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Test Centre Database Wipe

TC:Nova has been fully wiped after this weekend's scheduled down time. For anyone wondering why their characters have mysteriously disappeared, it is due to this.
We trust everyone has had a nice time walking around.
Also proven in this week's database wipe is that it is indeed not funny to steal the name of a developer. Well done, elfeven123, we trust you had a nice "trip".
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Squad Leader Progress

Squad Leader.....
The black sheep of the professions. Is it a scout profession? Is it a Marksman profession? Is it actually useful?
What ever the answers to the above, we love Squad Leader, and Anakis, Link and Ekaika have been working in the past weeks to recreate this ambiguous beast.
All squad leader commands are currently fully operational (except for Volley Fire and Steady Aim) and are currently on Test Centre for testing. Volley Fire was causing crashes on Core3, and was hence disabled for fixing.
Please help us out by testing and reporting all bugs from Squad Leader, so we can all cheer with delight as Squad Leader is completed!
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Combat Medic Progress

MrTopas has continued Anakis' and Valkyra's work on Combat Medic, to form a well functioning prototype of CM. MrTopas this week implemented the dot map: a tool which allows poison and disease damage over time (DoT) events to be recorded and tracked by the server.
Also working is mind heal and ranged stim packs, pretty much encompassing the healer role of a Combat Medic.
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Camps and Scout Progress

Camps have been a huge hint on Test Centre in January, with MrTopas fixing a multitude of the bugs which arose from their original submission.
The following camps are currently online:

• High Quality Camp
• Multi person Camp
• Improved Camp
• Basic Camp
• Field Base Camp
• High Tech Field Base Camp

Crafting is also currently online for Scout and Ranger, traps have been improved to further imitate Pre-CU, and camouflage and concealment are both coming along well.
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Vendors and Bazaars

Vendors and Bazaars, a feature which we first heard about back in early 2007, is also getting a revisit this winter. Nincb will be looking at the current bugs and the future expansion of Vendors and Bazaars so they are finally able to be ticket off the list as working as intended. With housing, crafting and Sun Crusher all approaching, this is an exciting and necessary accessory to have at hand. Vendors and Bazaars are central to a Galactic Economy, arguably the most important part of what Pre-CU was.
Also on Nincb's winter plate is packet research into Player cities, citizenship and politics. After research, work may begin. Watch for progress in the coming months.
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New Daily Updates

Most people when they think of SWGEmu Updates think "BiWeekly Updates". However, SWGEmu is delighted to expand our update scheme with the addition of new Daily Updates. These updates outline what has been added, fixed or removed from the Test Centre for any given day.

If there are no changes for any given day, there won't be an update, but with the momentum that's carrying on right now that is not the norm.

View the Forum Here: http://www.swgemu.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=124

Enjoy! Happy Salivating!
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Test Centre Service Interruption

We're happy to announce that after reinstalling the TC:Nova's Operating System, we are now back in action. As mentioned in the Database wipe piece above, this involved a full database wipe and software rebuild.
Some will also infer that since the Test Centre downtime, there has been a noticeable increase of bugs and crashes. Please rest assured that these two events are not connected. The recent increase in bugs is simply a result of the recent features which have been added. Crafting, combat, scout, squad leader; they are all areas which have changed in the last two weeks. New code means new problems, which means more fixes.
All we can ask for is your patience. It's all part of the process. Fight on!
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Launchpad Enhanced Changes

Do you use the Launchpad Enhanced? You should, and you now have even more reason to!
The LPE was updated this month so as the updates/notes pane is now cleaner, easier to read, and has superior functionality. cRush's PHP and Kellina's update expertise are now together forever in the new and improved LPE.
Also notable about the LPE is the fact that the Test Centre is now known as the "Nova Test Centre" not the preceding "Core3 Test Centre". If you are having trouble with the LPE allowing you to play, make sure you have selected "Nova Test Centre" in the top selection box; Core3 Test Centre is no longer a valid name.
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Major Bug Fixes

• Players will no longer appear to face NE to other players when actually facing NW. (Anakis)
• The @adminList command now works properly. (PhantomLeader)
• Fixed an issue allowing camp sites to be placed within structures. (Thoop/Anakis)
• Fixed the Reslicing of previously sliced weapons after character logging out (cRush)
• Fixed the Armour equip/unequip and encumbrance error(cRush)
• Players should no longer be floating in the air after loading. (Anakis)
  

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3) Developer Perspective ("Round Table"):

Originally Posted by MrTopas

In the past couple weeks I worked on the scout and the combat medic profession. I added the first camp kits and was helping in the scout crafting. The rest of the camp kits and scout crafting is finished and will be added soon.
I also added cm stim packs and the dot map. The dot map contains the most parts of the poison and disease abilities of combat medics, the medics/doctors dot healing ability.

In the next couple of weeks i will finish the combat medic and doctor profession.

Originally Posted by Link

Hey all,
In the past couple weeks I worked on a few things like:
- Squad Leader skills
- Ranger's /areatrack (not committed yet)
- adding some things to the Message of the Day (not committed yet)
- adding some internal features to the server
- squashing some bugs
- adding "drop all skills" to the blue frog (not committed yet) (Kellina helped with this )
I think that is about it.

In terms of what I will be working on in the future, I really don't know yet. It depends what I feel like working on when the time comes

Originally Posted by Ekaika

From the former Squad Leader Profession Rep:

I'd just like to thank Link and Anakis for their dedication to Squad Leader. It's never easy recreating something from scratch, especially something as poorly documented and rarely played as this profession. But with the collaboration of several key community members and the ease at which these two guys work, SL is almost a fully functional reality.

Can't tell you how exciting it is to lead a group of 30 players into PvP using sysgroup, rally, formup, and even the dreaded RETREAT!

Cheers to you guys, thanks.

Originally Posted by Anakis

In the last couple weeks I have been busy adding new stuff as well as crushing bugs under my gargantuan boot. I added the Squad Leader retreat skill, as well as a couple new functions that allow us to find coordinates near existing objects (players, structures, etc). This will allow us to do cool things like spawn ambushes around a player or lairs can use it when spawning new creatures around itself. It could also be used when spawning the "old man" in front of you. :P

I also implemented burst run HAM cost and efficiency, and what I hope are proper crawl speeds. For bugs, I have fixed some stuff that got slightly broken (meditate and powerboost), and I have also (hopefully) fixed the annoying bug where you are floating in the air when you log in! Keep your stick on the ice (or feet on the ground :P) and please report any bugs you find at the support site.

Originally Posted by Ramsey

I've been busy with school work & preparing for midterm crap for awhile. But anyway, on to swg stuff. Here are some things I've spent my time on:
-Better integrated with creature events
-Cleaned up kill tracking
-Fixed a TON of db bugs
-worked on sample scripts to demo various actionnpc actions & basic mission roles
-started detailed documentation
-optimization & more bug fixing
-did more research on JTL packets in the packet dummys, check trac soon for updated docs

I'd like to add that I am proud of the SWGEmu Community Service team for keeping the community updated on the status of the project inbetween BiWeekly's - to the point where we are running an MMO industry grade test. Please keep signing onto the Test Center and submitting bug reports as often as you can - it really helps.

Originally Posted by Kyle

Not a whole lot different stuff to add this time around. I'm still super busy with school and work, and still working on crafting which got a huge boost to the functional aspect over the last few weeks. Test it, try it, bug report it. A big thanks to all the testers! You guys rock.

Originally Posted by Nincb123

As you read above, I am currently working on Bazaar optimization (boring, I know) and vendors. As also said above, pretty soon I am going to obtain the rest of the packets (especially on things like player cities, where we don't have many) and decode/document them....that way the implementation of those features will happen faster. Some things I want to add in addition to Kyle's comments above...Bug reporting is extremely important at this stage. If you find a bug, test it to see if it reoccurs. Want another adventure? Try setting up a local development server. Then, find where the problem is, fix it, and return it to us if you can!

For the first time in a while, I spent some time on the test center this afternoon. What I saw was amazing, and truly inspiring. I was wondering whether or not I would log on to find fights between players and the like, but what I saw was awesome.

For the few hours I was on during the peak of a Friday afternoon, there were no people getting booted from the server for breaking the rules. Instead, I witnessed a welcoming community that is dedicated to finding and testing bugs in Core 3. You guys are an integral part of the development equation and I really applaud your efforts so far. Please keep up the good work, continue to find and report bugs to our support system, continue to follow the rules and policies we set into place, and please do have fun.


One down, 11 left to go in 2009.

4) Closing:

Every day of every week of every month, we hear of, read about and are told of so many ideas and suggestions it would be impossible to fit them into an encyclopaedia. There are the good ones and the bad ones, and no matter which category yours fits into, we appreciate each one more than could ever be known.

There are ideas about game play, ideas about changes, ideas about how we can run this project better. All have their merit, and all have their place. There is something that must be remembered though; an idea is normally intended to lead to change, and while an online game and any community changes naturally and frequently, sometimes patience is required to just let things play out.

Ideas such as the one featured here (http://www.swgemu.com/forums/showthread.php?p=299668) are genuinely good ideas. However, the time lost in such a system is time lost forever. It is the nature of TC: Nova that it will crash, it will die, and it will be fixed. We are currently making an effort to update the community daily with the fixes and additions to the Test Centre. It is impractical and unnecessary to post after each crash, as great as the sentiment and idea is. Without a process of trial, a series of challenge and a round of debate, few raw ideas are without their flaws. Code needs testing; ideas need challenging.

Open Source is not just a coding practise or a style of development; it’s a mentality and a way of thinking. When you open the source of something like this you also have to open your mind to the different ideas and possibilities which any given contributor may bring.

Here's to more ideas, and here's to more debate to refine and challenge them.

Have a lovely weekend.

--Team SWGEmu

[xavia]

Awesome, thanks for the update!

[Rook]

Heh, I was just wondering that we were due one soon.

Thanks again to all involved.

*Tips hat*

[melikStarsider]

Thanks guys!

Combat Medic is getting close I cant wait, great work everyone!

[Wshift]

Great news, thanks for all your work guys

[mcmuffin92]

Awsome Job:-)

[Ekaika]

Obviously the best update ever *cough* squad leader =)

[MattW]

You guys are awesome. You all should get some sort of medal or award for this one day. At the very least you all should get free ipods
Anyway, keep up the amazing work. Can't wait til the Scout is in perfect shapeng work. Can't wait til the Scout is in perfect shape

[Valkyra]

I am really impressed with what mrtopas has done for scout/ranger and combat medic. But nice work everyone.

[Brute]

all excellent news, a big continued thanks to the entire emu team for all their hard work.

[Chayn]

Major... Major sweetness...

[Jer]

Incredible. You guys pwn :>

[dotav]

Boss.

[AZIronman]

i just ejaculated.

[KroniK]

Awesome job as always. Keep up the good work.