Author Topic: News on next update  (Read 29858 times)

Talad

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News on next update
« on: July 28, 2005, 12:57:19 pm »
[Taken from main web site]

Hi Planeshifters,
we worked hard in the past month to provide an update to the current PS release. The update will be ready in the next few days, and while you?re waiting we?ll give you a little insight into what it contains.

The most interesting feature introduced is a new module for treasure generation. Until today all monsters had scripted loot, so you basically get a named set of items from them, with a random probability for each item to appear. The new system has a more powerful loot generator that can create thousands of different items, each with its own unique bonuses and maluses. The system is not yet complete, more controls on the generation are needed to avoid spawning too powerful items on low level monsters. This means that in the first run, you will get quite powerful items. Those will most probably be removed with a wipe of objects a few weeks after the first, when all controls will be present.

We fine tuned the progression rules, so your characters will evolve in a more consistent way. This change really requires that we proceed with the famous WIPE of characters, so everyone will start from the beginning with the new rules. We are aware that a wipe is not a popular action, but you should consider that PS is still in tech demo stages, so we have to reset characters when the updates requires it. We will restart from the MB->CB migration, so everyone that had an MB character can still migrate it to the new database with the same procedure used last time. More details on this when the update is ready.

A less visible feature, is the new quest system, that has been re-engineered server side, allowing us to define quests better and more easily. Until today, the number of quests was not great, due to the complexity in creating new ones. The new system will speed up the addition of new quests, simplifying the work of our setting team, with the result of more quests in game. Client side nothing changes, so you will interact with NPCs in the same way as today.

There are no level changes in this update.

jorrit

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« Reply #1 on: July 28, 2005, 01:20:00 pm »
A bit of clarification. There will probably be two wipes. The first big wipe will occur at the same time as the update. Everything will be wiped then (characters, items, everything).

In a few weeks (i.e. the traditional PlaneShift \'soon\' :-) there will \'probably\' be another smaller wipe where all items will be removed. This is only needed if the generated items turn out to be too powerful and we need balancing there.

Greetings,
Project Manager of Crystal Space, CEL, CrystalBlend and Crystal Core. Please support Crystal Space with a donation.

CadRipper

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« Reply #2 on: July 28, 2005, 01:27:49 pm »
Regarding the second wipe: do you mean only the items which can be looted from the new system (probably thanks to a flag?), or everyone of them, including those we can get in a \'legit\' way, for instance by buying them or the famous inherited Ring of the past?

I see a little inconsistency compared to the migration step. Now, as you say, it\'s a tech demo stage.

In any case, we\'re surely looking forward to the dreadful database wipe, and even more to the new features!

jorrit

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« Reply #3 on: July 28, 2005, 01:30:26 pm »
Quote
Originally posted by CadRipper
Regarding the second wipe: do you mean only the items which can be looted from the new system (probably thanks to a flag?), or everyone of them, including those we can get in a \'legit\' way, for instance by buying them or the famous inherited Ring of the past?


I think that it will be all items except for the trias you get after migration and the ring of the past. We can\'t otherwise recognize those generated objects.

Greetings,
Project Manager of Crystal Space, CEL, CrystalBlend and Crystal Core. Please support Crystal Space with a donation.

CadRipper

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« Reply #4 on: July 28, 2005, 01:52:52 pm »
Better to increase our Appraise skill as much as possible and sell back everything just before this second wipe, then ;)

*nods* I suppose it makes sense to tweak and run the migration script again for the items only (i.e. not the skills) on the existing characters. If their names haven\'t changed.

Thanks for the information.

Ecolem

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« Reply #5 on: July 28, 2005, 02:23:54 pm »
Awesome, just got the email an hour ago...best news for months :D

I dont care if my chars are going to be wiped, just make us start off with a weapon other then our hands!

Thanks Devs, keep it up

ramlambmoo

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« Reply #6 on: July 28, 2005, 02:39:35 pm »
Heh, after two months of not playing expecting the wipe, I come back this week and start levelling up...
Oh well, regardless, its very good news.  Onwards!
« Last Edit: July 28, 2005, 02:40:08 pm by ramlambmoo »

hook

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« Reply #7 on: July 28, 2005, 04:22:33 pm »
Quote
Originally posted by jorrit
I think that it will be all items except for the trias you get after migration and the ring of the past. We can\'t otherwise recognize those generated objects.

Greetings,


Oh, great, can I actually *get* my trias and the ring this time?!?

Last time, I was left with completely nothing (no points, no trias, no ring, etc.) after a \"successful\" migration from MB. :(
:emerald: The Treecastle *will* stand !!! :emerald:

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DivineLight

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« Reply #8 on: July 28, 2005, 04:22:34 pm »
So finally the curios planeshifters get to know when the wipe is, no more \"Wipe? When?\" threads. :)

Wipe brings with it the joys of update and sorrows of starting from all over. I hope it doesn\'t happen again.

And the re-engineered progression system will ensure that we can level up in fun and have less progression points than before.
Every one will die in pain except those who were less pain for the others, while they were.....

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Nilrem

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« Reply #9 on: July 28, 2005, 04:48:20 pm »
It\'s good to hear that the mighty wipe, is coming.
That way we\'ll see if, after it, things change or remain the same.
I\'ll welcome the chat scrolling bug fix.
The new additions are expected to for further analysis.
Indeed there has been lots of activity in the cvs lately, that\'s good to see.

But now, there\'s a thing that worries me. Lots of people are complaining, having difficulties during the char creation process, some of them even with their accounts to be activated.
After that wipe, a huge amount of new char creations and registrations are submited, I\'d like to know if the process has been rechecked or fixed in some way, because at that point it can be crucial.
Are there any MoonSeekers left?

acraig

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« Reply #10 on: July 28, 2005, 04:53:38 pm »
That is a good point, we will have to do something there to make sure that is corrected. I cannot always be hand-activating accounts.
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Seytra

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Hmmm, already?
« Reply #11 on: July 28, 2005, 05:40:44 pm »
So the wipe will be in a few days, at most weeks. Fine with me, though I fear there will be a lot more powerlevelling and spawn camping than ever before.

Anyway, the most crucial thing is that everything that deals with chars and items is working properly. As has been pointed out, some people have trouble creating chars or activating accounts. While this is something that may cause hassle, there is something else that I see as way more problematic: the char creation itself.
Since there won\'t be another char wipe, everyone will be stuck with what they get after that one. Since I know from personal experience, albeit several months back, that the char creation has several major problems, it must be assured that these are corrected by now.

I\'m specifically referring to
1) the buggy CP calculation: options that are added and then removed did not give back the CP in all cases, which means that you can easily lose a lot of CP.
I have seen recently generated chars that seem to be affected by that: The description had the same events several times in them, leading to the conclusion that, while the event is seemingly removed from the list of selected ones, it is in fact not, and only removed from the clientside visible list. This affects things like \"siblings\" as well as the events and such.

2) the incorrectly computed CP on each page, that can leave you with -11 CP on one page and with +50 CP on another.

3) the paths that basically waste all your CP and give you nothing

Neither of these have been fixed yet AFAIK, which is why I am very surprised to see the wipe come already.

Furthermore, if the item wipe will erase all items, it must also restore the money to whatever one had after the creation, and also the stats, because otherwise people will simply convert all items into money and train it away to store it. This means that the state a char is in right after the creation must be stored so that it can be copied back without requiring another char creation. However, this means that all problems and issues created by the unsuccessfull / buggy char creations will have to be corrected twice.

Seriously, I feel that the big wipe is not justified just yet. In fact, I\'m nearly certain that another big wipe will be required if it is done now, and a lot of GM action will be required to correct for bugs in both char creation as well as ingame.
Well, at least that will give GMs a justification to exist, since enforcement of the naming rules have been removed, which was the worst move in PS yet. The wipe would be a very good point to correct this mistake, and also for all oldbies and GMs who don\'t have suitable names yet. If we fail to wipe this hypocrisy, then we may just as well allow cheating.

Mordaan

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« Reply #12 on: July 28, 2005, 06:17:59 pm »
I hope there will be a healthy supply of rats, especially in the first few weeks.  You know everyone is going to go after them to build up their skills.  Lately the rat population has seemed to thin a bit.  You think there are a lot of people camped around rat spawns now?
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provisionist1

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« Reply #13 on: July 28, 2005, 06:35:59 pm »
The Wipe!

Well, they told us it would happen, gave us ample if not obscure (i.e. \"soon\" ) warning.

Hmmm. Overall, it is a very good event to be happening, but it is honestly a shock it\'s happening now, not after this new client has been tested and made sure that character creation works. I hope it does.

My biggest concern is the mac client development lag (as well as linux for that matter), as it takes a couple weeks to rebuild it for those systems. Is it not possible to release the new client to Daniel Fryer and (sorry, whomever the linux main dev is) a few weeks before the server is updated so they can have it mostly ready by that time? Is there not (or is it not possible to have) a second test server for devs to test new clients on that they could have access to?

Hmm, once again, being a Mac user has caused me to lose out for a while.

On a much lighter note, this really is great news devs, well done, thank you so much for all your hard and excellent work!

Xirius

/me heads over to the mac client thread to bother dfryer and ChaOs
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booiiing

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« Reply #14 on: July 28, 2005, 07:21:13 pm »
first of all, i would like to thank you for the steady development of this great game.

Quote
Originally posted by provisionist1
My biggest concern is the mac client development lag (as well as linux for that matter), as it takes a couple weeks to rebuild it for those systems. Is it not possible to release the new client to Daniel Fryer and (sorry, whomever the linux main dev is) a few weeks before the server is updated so they can have it mostly ready by that time? Is there not (or is it not possible to have) a second test server for devs to test new clients on that they could have access to?

i am new to the game and was hoping that mac/lin/win-development are synced, so noone has to wait.
well, how shall i cure my PS-addiction now?! ;)

of course it is great that the game is open-source and runs on other platforms than m$ at all, but once again, it shows that gaming under linux is still a bit misstreated :(
please don\'t start a flame on this, as it is not ment to be provocating anyone.