Bi-Weekly Update 5/15

[Seaseme]

1) Update Overview:
-Community Developments:
a. Snapshot Tool
b. Defense and Accuracy Equation
-Professions!
-Core3 Object Distribution System updated
-Cell Movement on all planets

2) Body:
-Community Developments:
These last two weeks have been outstanding in terms of community involvement/contribution to the project. We have pulled two, out of the many, that stood out the most to us.

a. Snapshot Tool
The snapshot tool was created by Sytner for editing SWG world snapshot files. A world snapshot file contains data for all static objects being placed on a planet. This tool would be extremely useful for servers if they feel the need to modify/create new objects on planets. Do not confuse this with a terrain editor...development on that has been stalled due to the enormous amount of research required to create one. However, if the terrain editor finally see's the light of day (which I'm hoping it will), this tool will be a SWG map makers best friend.
See this thread for more details:
http://www.swgemu.com/forums/showthread.php?t=10840



b. Defense and Accuracy Equation
We are still seeking help on determining the most accurate equations for ingame use. One, submitted and impressively displayed by Benjai is an excellent example of someone stepping up and contributing to the project. The detail that went into the discussion of this topic is far beyond the scope of the biweekly. You can find more about this here: http://www.swgemu.com/forums/showthread.php?t=10910

-Professions!
We are getting to the point where detailed research on each profession is moving higher on the priority list. Every PreCu profession is being documented in the Profession Testing and Balance Forums. We need this information to provide the community with a solid PreCU template that can be used or modified on community run servers.

Each profession now has a Representative (well a few are without a Rep still, please PM TAfirehawk about filling any open position) that has a direct link to the SWGEmu Team. Their purpose is to coordinate testing and gather information on issues and summarize this to the Team. The hope is that the Representative Program will help get the "community voice" to the Team so changes can be made quickly and properly thus making the SWGEmu into the PreCU we all remember and love.

Help us TODAY with this research by focusing all of your profession specific info and bugs here:

Architect       Armorsmith      Artisan           Bio-Engineer
Bounty Hunter   Brawler         Carbineer         Chef
Combat Medic    Commando        Creature Handler  Dancer
Doctor          Droid Engineer  Entertainer       Fencer
Image Designer  Marksman        Medic             Merchant
Musician        Pikeman         Pistoleer         Politician
Ranger          Rifleman        Scout             Smuggler
Swordsman       Squad Leader    Tailor            Teras Kasi Artist
Weaponsmith

-Core3 Object Distribution System updated
Oru has recently merged the engine3/core3 test branches with the main SVN branch, which contains a new distributed object creation/deployment system. Thank him on IRC for his continued hard work to perfect one of the most incredible technologies used in server software today.

-Cell Movement on all planets.
Today TA committed a change that will add Cell Movement to ALL planets. Cell Movement is the ability to move and update other players locations inside buildings and other structures. Since this is done, Kellina and LearningDisease have been adding the assorted dungeons on planets and those should hit TC here before too long.


3) Developer Perspective: ("Round Table")

Originally Posted by Ramsey

Nothing major has happened over at my end, and you can blame the forums / 1and1 for that. As you all know, the forums went down at about 11pm pst last friday, and I ended up spending most of that night and into a big chunk of Saturday dealing with that. I was going around like crazy trying everything you could imagine to get things back to normal. 1and1's (our webhost) db size limit is to blame. They set a ridiculously low db size limit at 100mb, and our forums went to about 170mb before they shutdown access to our mysql server without warning.

1and1 has recently allowed customers to use mysql 5.0 (finally?) and our db was exported from a mysql 4.0 db. Most, if not all, web hosts now only provide mysql 5. Kyle had a spare mysql server available, so thanks to him the forums were saved! The db was able to slide into a mysql 5 server just fine (Yes its a big deal believe it or not. If mysql was managed by msft we'd be ****ed).

So yea...fun weekend. Pushed back a lot of the plans I had so I have nothing interesting. Lesson learned: Unless you are hosting an online flower shop, don't do business with 1and1.

Originally Posted by Bobius

The Blue Frog Jawas are finally live on TC! I appreciate all the feedback I've gotten from the community. I've listened to your suggestions and soon will be adding new features. You will have the ability to unlearn all your skills without having to delete every single box. I also am working with the profession reps to nail down exactly which professions and gear should be added to the Jawas.

I'd like to thank Saromus for getting me a packet capture log of the Blue Frogs from NGE TC. I'll be going through those packets to see about implementing a more traditional blue frog to go along with the Jawas.

Originally Posted by TAfirehawk

TAfirehawk:

It is about time I introduce myself I suppose. I am the "Lead Tester" and "Profession Representative Group Leader"....wow, try and fit that on a business card Please come and browse all the Profession Forums and leave ANY AND ALL info about PreCu as well as bugs/issues/etc about the current TC.

I am a former SWG Carbineer Correspondent from before the CU up to the NGE, so the SWGEmu Team asked me to be in charge of a "Corr Program" here. Of course I said YES and even though I am relatively new to the SWGEmu, my passion for SWG has and always will run very deep.

Coding is not my thing here, but please PM me about any of the open Rep positions....or anything else regarding the Prof Rep Program.

4) Closing:
We have heard complains about a lot of the update stuff not making it to the TC...and with good reason. The TC will rarely have the latest SVN build on it because we will not get into the cycle where things are thrown into the code and not throughly tested. The fact that we get a lot of potentially server breaking commits is a blessing and a curse. On one hand, we are adding to our feature set at an incredibly fast pace, on the other hand it means we are required to test the TC until we are absolutely 100% sure the build is stable. As outlined in the body above, I'd imagine Oru has been running the test branch of core3 on SVN for the past couple of weeks so please bear with us and still attempt to be as active as you can on the test center - even if you aren't having the time of your life. Idling is better than nothing!

** Other devs will be updating this post SHORTLY - Check back soon **


AND-- Everyone welcome Sytner to the dev team!