Bi-Weekly Update 6/15/08

[Ramsey]

Before beginning to divulge in this update, please take time to look at the following topics:
http://www.swgemu.com/forums/showthread.php?t=11609
http://www.swgemu.com/forums/showthread.php?t=11484
http://www.swgemu.com/forums/showthread.php?t=11045

1) Update Overview
-Cave Implementations
-Stomach Fillings & Decay rate
-New Administrator Commands
-Image Designer
-Missions
-Test Center Stability Fixes...AND YOU!


2) Body
Cave Implementations:
Kellina (and the Cave Research Forums) have been blazing through cave implentations the past two weeks. I'll give a summary of what caves have been added and the creatures to expect there.

Sennex Cave (Tatooine):
The Sennex Cave scripts to SVN a few days back. The following creatures populate the area: Sennex Hunter, Slave Master, Sennex Lookout, Sennex Slaver, Sennex Guard, Sennex Warder, Cave Beetle, and the Dune Beetle.

Afarathu Cave (Corellia):
Committed on 6/9. Creatures to expect: Afarathu; Ruffian, Assassin, Savage, Zealot, Brute, Bodyguard, and Leader.
Cave Profile

Drall Cave (Corellia):
Committed on 6/9. Creatures to expect: Drall; Patriot Foot Soldier(M/F), Tactical(M/F), Chieftain(M/F), Legionaire(M/F), Conqueror(M/F).
Cave Profile

Lord Nyax Cult (Corellia):
Committed on 6/9. Creatures to expect: Nyax; Fiend, Diciple, Zealot, Minion, Thug, Servant, Visionary, Lord Nyax.
Cave Profile

Rouge Corsec Base:
Committed on 6/9. Creatures to expect: Rouge Corsec; Trooper(M/F), Commander(M/F), Deserter, Traitor, and Mtara Vinram.
Base Profile

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Stomach Fillings:
Small addition by McMahon. Stomach fillings are currently set through the commands @setFoodFilling and @setDrinkFilling .

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New Administrator Commands:
Kellina has added some "fun" and helpful admin commands - which should be of interest to future server operators. If you are going to run a SWGEmu server in the future, and would like to see an administrative feature added to Core3, do NOT hesitate to post about it in the Open Source Discussion forum and talk about it in #opendev. On to the new commands:

@kick <name> - Target the user and type @kick or use the syntax provided. This command is something we've been missing for a long time, and its really one of the staple admin commands.

@killArea <range> - Kill's users within a certain range.

@kickArea <range> - Kick's users within a certain range. Secret server hijack party needs kicking?

@mutePlayer <name> - Mutes the Spatial Chat for the specified player.

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Image Designer:
McMahon has been hard at work with the image designer features. On 6/1, he committed the Image Design screen and performed wiki updates for image design related packets. He is currently doing Customization Variable research pertaining to image design.

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Missions:
With lair's done (and have been for quite some time - see previous Biweeklys), Missions are the next step. Preliminary structure research on Missions packets were completed way back in September of 2006, but after that they were never looked into much detail. The time has come that we are digging through out old notes and bringing them back into the light. I completed research on the mission packets late last night, as well as wrote the implementation & packet classes. All that is left is the MissionManager class (which is going to be the hardest part ). For those of you interested in the progress of missions, just glance at the timeline over the next few weeks. As far as XP goes, I'm pretty sure Ultyma did it like 2 years ago .


(Missions pictured in dummy (test) servers - fully reversed. Note: Mission pictured is not suppose to represent the real mission on live. Core3 implementation in the works, as mentioned above.)

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Test Center Stability Fixes:

Every biweekly, I have always stressed the fact that numbers on the TC really do matter. These last two weeks were no exception. In case you have not noticed, there were a plethora of bug fixes directly related to what we found on the Test Center. Here are just a few; 394, 393, 388, 386, 385, 384.

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3) Developer Perspective: ("Round Table")

Ritter:

I am currently taking the old structures code from rev 162 and updating everything to work with all the changes since then, and also adding in harvesters. Progress is slow right now (I just moved and started a new job so I am still settling in), but expect to see some fun stuff in the coming weeks.

panchjr:

I will be working in Spain for the next couple of weeks and will only have my work laptop with me. I have a copy of the code on it but it is not really up to the job of testing new code.

Once I have despawning of lairs working (currently it crashes the server) I will upload lair code so that people can have a look.

Uli: (Client Developer)

I have been trying to fix some bugs with Kashyyyk hasn't gone too good so far but still working on it, been hanging around TC lately as well you might of seen someone who had been image designed like had the full works on them and even a pink or red twi'lek with horns, yeah that was me :P

http://i64.photobucket.com/albums/h1...i/0f2ecbbf.jpg

Yeah, its a nice way to relax after 2 hours of working on one file :P

Other things i been working on and the rest of the client team will be announced later

Valkyra: (Client Developer)

I am currently working on Kashyyyk related content, such as load screens, POIs, and possibly badges. Also being able to make it so you can shuttle there is being a real big PITA I am confident it will be worked out soon.


Screenshot of Kashyyyk's BRAND NEW load screen (one of the strings, I have 2 there, but only 1 pic on the left so far... I can easily add more, though.) Remember Kashyyyk's load screen was always about new wookiee armor? Well I'm changing that!

http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k9...ash_load_2.jpg


Also here's another tease pic of Kashyyyk's night sky on the plains:

http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k9...ght_plains.jpg

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwyN5KsYmNI

4) Closing

Something that didn't make the body but is very important nonetheless, bobius has made Blue Frog enhancements which include a variety of weapons that are diverse in their stats, paired with Scripting changes which now make it possible to create and modify (stats!) weapons via script.

The Profession team is going strong and is still hard at working in closing the gap of research we have in each individual profession. _PLEASE_ help out with their efforts, its something even a casual PreCU SWG player can do. See their forums: http://swgemu.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=26

-

This update leaves us at a turning point in what is being presented to the community. There will always be code enhancements, core features being revamped, and interesting bugs to fix - but the past month there has been an increase in content related additions. Content is an area which does not require the knowledge of crazy programming languages to contribute to. If you are standing by and waiting for the project to finish, use that "down time" to HELP us reach a more perfect PreCU.

As always,
Enjoy.

-Team SWGEmu

[Ramsey]

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|Q&A Offline answers|
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Originally Posted by Borrie

Has there been any progress on Jedi, or does the profession still remain combat only?

There has been no progress on Jedi from what we know of? There has been the addition of 2 commands regarding the ForcePower.

Originally Posted by Borrie

How many Developers are actively submitting code and fixes at this moment?

8 members and the number increases each time code is submitted.

Originally Posted by Newsound

Will this team be hosting their own servers?

That is still undecided. Many hope so, and there are many rumors about it, we hope so too

Originally Posted by Kateb Ibliss

I know that Benjai sent in a pretty nice looking equation a while back, are you looking at tweaking things up a bit?

Yes, The Dev Team is taking a look at Benjai's equation, Further information about this subject will be released when the time comes.

Originally Posted by zetlaux

What is the current status on the ideas of the dev team surrounding our abilities to model and submit new item models for the individual servers? For those of us who do 3D modeling, what software will we need to be able to work on this kind of content?

As far as the server side goes, this will be fairly easy. We have been able to add models that never existed in the client that we use. However, there are not any tools to manipulate the SOE model formats. There are some tools in the works by people in the community, but if you have any knowledge of this, it would be good to get involved.

Originally Posted by StormZ

Do you guys foresee any problems in the future for implementing any new features, or has all the hard stuff pretty much been completed or is being worked on now?

New features will be easy. Expect to see new and awesome content after the initial release.

Originally Posted by Vrej

Has there been any progress on Creature Handler? If so, who is working on it and how much has been done?

Panchjr has touched on CH and made some progress, but it is not a priority at the moment.

Originally Posted by Vrej

We heard something a while ago about lairs being worked on? How much progress has been made there?

Panchjr has made a good bit of progress on lairs. The lairs work fine, and he is working on the behavior of the creatures attached to the lairs.

Originally Posted by Vrej

Does the DEV team plan on or have any tools to stop people from creating multiple accounts? (I believe Ramsey or another Dev stated they already had measures relating to this)

Much of this will be left up to the individual servers, but this is an issue that is brought up often. At the moment, there is not a solid answer for this.

Originally Posted by Vrej

We heard about structure placement awhile ago. How much work has been done and who is working on it?

Kyle is working on this code. There is a good bit of it done, and after basic crafting is considered stable, Architect will be the first profession worked on.

Originally Posted by Vrej

Is there a % estimate for how much of the schematics have been compiled for use with the server?

This is a question that doesn't really have a direct answer. Since there are only 5-6 finished schematic scripts, that would be like 1%. HOWEVER, about 90% of the data is collected, but there are still some unknowns before cranking out more schematics. After the format is completely solidified, scripts will be pretty easy to finish.

Originally Posted by Vrej

Do you guys need any help at the moment with compiling information or doing remedial coding tasks? We saw a dev asking for information about schematics awhile ago.

Constantly. It is best to hang out in the #openDev channel to help with various things and make yourself available if you want to help. Kyle is always asking for things to be done in the #CraftingTesting room as well.

Originally Posted by Vrej

With all the new features in, what is the plan for the next stress test? Are we going to wait until everything is in and then stress or is there another plan?

There are a few things in the works, but nothing solid at the moment. Stress tests take a good bit of planning to have a good event, and many of us have too much to do with perfecting the systems that we are working on.

Originally Posted by Vrej

If the EMU team decides to run a server, there are the two jedi options available. Since both are technically authentic pre-cu, if you do decide to host a server, how will you choose the jedi option? Will it be a community vote or just whatever was at the patch 13.1?

If, and I stress if, the EMU team runs a server, there is no answer to the above except to add more items to the question. Jedi is a touchy subject and a lot of us don't want it to ruin the game again. So, it could be either of the original unlock systems, or possibly completely new and arbitrary system, but there is no decision on this as of yet.

Will SWGemu go closed source upon Version 1 or will there be the opportunity for many different "children" to grow from SWGemu?

SWGEmu is currently open source, and will remain open source forever.
The stable v1.0 release marks when we will be doing a stable binary release of the server, and removing restrictions on connections.

Is there still work being done on the Engine and connection stability?

Always. Connection stability isn't a problem with the server, the only reason you would "Lose Connection to Server" (as reported by the game) is because the server probably crashed because of a feature that was recently added.

How many players has the server been able to safely hold before crashing or become unstable?

No official benchmarking has been done since the ORB (clustering) code was added. We will be doing more stress tests as the code matures and becomes closer to the v1.0 release.

Will Server owners be able to choose the death system that works in their server? (i.e. running back to your corpse to retrieve your inventory, or cloning with everything intact)

Yes. No promise can be made on weather this can be done in pure script, but it should be possible with modification of the source.

Has anyone attempted to add new races?

It's been done by our very own SWGEmu Client Development Team. See: http://swgemu.com/forums/showthread.php?t=11484

How many characters max can you have on one server?

Thats up to whoever runs the server.

Will a server op be able to modify the number of items you can put in a house?

Yes.

Will a server op be able to chose if we will have the original 50 items in a backpack or the modified 80 items in a backpack?

Yep .

What jedi unlock method will be used? Can this be chosen by a server operator and also if the server op can chose will there be the ability to add things to the unlock method to make it a mystery? For example using the holocron method you will also have to visit 3 specific POI or spend at least 5 minutes next to the crystal in exar keens location.

A server op will be able to choose which unlock system they prefer. It is also possible to make your own completely from scratch.

Will some professions be "modded" by the emu team (like carbineer, pikeman, Squadleader) To get them more on "par" with the rest?

Our goal is to make them as close to what they were pre-cu as POSSIBLE. If a server wants to balance it then it will be their own undertaking.

Any Chance the Emu team will buff some existing weapons to higher AP? (think Flamerthrower, Elite carb, drx carb, Launcher Pistol)

This is more up to the server you choose to play on then it is us. We won't be touching them.

Is there a fix coming up some day for the snappy stopping that they added somewhere pub 12-13? I seem to have read something about it, some time ago.

You can turn this on or off if you use LaunchPad Enhanced (http://www.launchpadenhanced.com)

[Tow'lin]

Second!!

Great update!!

Regards,
Tow'lin Tow

[MrBlonde]

Nice job folks.

[Ramsey]

Devs/Staff : If you want to enter something into the round table, edit the post or pm me in irc.

Uhh.... Third?... I mean fifth...

[Relentless]

yayz

[Axims]

Awesome words guys..

Tis exciting

[Macrona]

win

[Ackito]

Awesome work guys.

[DeCastro]

Great update.

[Kateb Ibliss]

Nice work guys, another great update!

[Jlane]

sexy.

[metalhomicide]

Woo! Loveliness!

[Oxydin]

so much progress in the shot time I've been here, I'm privileged ... thank you