Zackman
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Posts posted by Zackman
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[quote name='Shaddex' timestamp='1327449978' post='52201']
Im sorry but i have to say something.
Most of you are talking as if we are running `live` and forget we arent even at alpha release yet.
The whole point of having a player base at this stage is so you guys can check everything works.
How can all aspects of the game be tested with everyone at lvl150?
Who is going to check starter sectors, low level missions etc if everyone is 100 plus?
I was on beta for live and we had a fair few wipes before we went live.
I say bring on a wipe.
Lets get all the low end content checked off the list.
Fact is that a wipe WILL happen eventually.
[/quote]
Nope, sorry Shad - i disagree:
1.
The very reason this IS a test-server makes a wipe unessesary. A wipe is something very harsh and should only happen due to technical issues
2.
We all level low alts up, all time - so "missing low level testers" is no avlid arguement
I am still looking forward a final statement so i know how to move on. I will not level the grindmill again without any reason, only because some1 got bored...
[color=#ff0000][b]CAN WE HAVE A FINAL STATEMENT PLEASE?[/b][/color] -
Well today i had no problems at all, so it might have been fixed with the table-love.
Have a look at the search thing tho, its cool! -
KYP:
Another problem to consider is the access to the site for certain search engines, causing huge load.
Google, Bing etc. - they are fine, they will respect the robot.txt and spider in a "resource saving way".
Unfortunatly there are spiders that give a damn about that and cause huge load. Chinese spiders are an example.
Since im running a big website here in my country (1.5 Mil. postings, 120.000+ Members) i know that it might cause a performance hit when search engines spider the site calling every link like search (bad), profiles etc.
I saw in the "Who is online" list, that the "Baidur" search engine from China is opening 30-50 threads similar here.
I like the content being spidered, so i find posting via google quickly, saving resources here, thats why i use Google to search here.
i have added EnB Forums to my search bar.
Here are two files (content).
The first is the HTML part you can add to the site here wherever you want.
As soon as a user visit this content, EnB Forum search can be added to the FireFox searchbar with on click.
Its working like this example:
[url="http://www.google.de/#sclient=psy-ab&hl=de&safe=off&source=hp&q=site:forum.enb-emulator.com+search+function&pbx=1&oq=site:forum.enb-emulator.com+search+function&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&gs_sm=e&gs_upl=185200l187299l0l188030l15l13l0l0l0l0l205l1646l4.8.1l13l0&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.,cf.osb&fp=e96103e41aca622&biw=1910&bih=1006"]SEARCH TEST[/url]
Here is the content - HTML Part:
[CODE]
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<html>
<head>
<title>Search EnB Forums with Google</title>
<link rel="search" type="application/opensearchdescription+xml" title="EnB Forum Search" href="https://forum.enb-emulator.com/firefox-search/enb-search.xml">
</head>
<body>
<h1>Search with Google the EnB forums</h1>
<h2>Add EnB search to your Firefox search bar</h2>
<p>Hi everyone. Thats it already since there is no installation :-)</p>
<p>Click the searchbar (upper right) in your FireFox and select EnB Forums from the list.</p>
<p>Have fun</p>
</body>
</html>
[/CODE]
The XML (store this file at the position you declared in the HTML above)
[CODE]
<OpenSearchDescription xmlns="http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearch/1.1/"
xmlns:moz="http://www.mozilla.org/2006/browser/search/">
<ShortName>EnB Forums</ShortName>
<Description>Search EnB Forums</Description>
<InputEncoding>UTF-8</InputEncoding>
<Image width="16" height="16" type="image/x-icon">https://forum.enb-emulator.com/favicon.ico</Image>
<Url type="text/html" method="GET" template="http://www.google.de/#hl=de&source=hp&q=site%3Aforum.enb-emulator.com+{searchTerms}" />
</OpenSearchDescription>
[/CODE]
Maybe you find it useful/helpful. -
Optimizing the tables CAN help IF a table is marked as crash - o/w there are other problems.
May i ask if you made a table analyse and did it show table errors?
Errors like "table marked as crashed" or "table not cleanly closed"? -
[b]It is a desperate straw and illusion thinking you could breath new life into the emu by wiping the player base![/b]
New life means [b][color=#b22222]NEW CONTENT[/color][/b] - and without new content there is no "new life",
If you consider a wipe you [b]MUST[/b] change the content completey, otherwise players will feel punished to do over everything they already did. That is repeative and the same like just making a new toon.
You know every nav, every mission, every spawn, every boos, every timer, every loot etc etc.
There is absolutely no other reason for wiping then technical issues - which we dont have within the player database.
[b][color=#b22222]It's a mistake to think you raise the playerbase by doing so - the opposit will happen:[/color][/b]
Most players will [b]LEAVE[/b] because they dont like being punished and start over again something they already just did.
You take away their gear, their toons, their archivements, their credits - everything they just did - and it's been done without any valid reason!
It is, what it is:
A punishment and delusional straw to rebreath emu's life. Wiping the playerbase at this point will cause a huge hit to the population.
I see only a handful long time/150 player voting for it so far, which isnt the majority. What does the majority think?
New players find the emu on a daily base, considering chat in "new player". Nobody feels "safe" in an emu where the toons get deleted quickly, just because some elder player feel bored.
[b]Only technical reasons on a test-server can justify a wipe, everything else is unnecessary arbitrariness which will cause a fading trust into the emu, because it could happen all time again![/b]
Breaking the trust with the playerbase is the final nail in every games coffin.
[b]We saw it with EA, we saw it with Sony, we saw it with Perpetual and so on: They all struggled and died losing the communitys trust![/b]
Decimating the population will also decimate donations, the emu will also propably die.
[color=#b22222][b]You are not wiping the player base, you are wiping the emu![/b][/color]
Sure ... maybe 37 player might return and start over. But this emu wasn't started for 37 people....
The server-devs should look into the logs and dont count how many [b]TOONS[/b] are online, count how many connections we have from diff. IP's!
This is the real player number - and its [b]WAY[/b] lower then logged toons cause of alts, mules etc.
So when there are 120 toons online, its maybe 50 real players. If you loose easily the half of these players, you remain developing for 25 players?
Have fun getting your needed Donations per month....
[color=#b22222][b]EMU WILL DIE AT THIS POINT.[/b][/color]
I wont continue doing "serious" things in the emu before there is a [b]CLEAR[/b] statement from the responsible person(s) here in the thread what will happen.
[b]This is exactly the same situation we had once with EA when the game was shutting down and there was NO reason from that point on to continue playing.[/b]
This is a trauma, a Dejavu many will have now and i wont go on till this has been finally sorted!
I want to know if it's worth to continue working on my toons or if its all for the waste-disposal from now on - cause then i stop.
[color=#b22222][b]So i am asking the staff here to post a final statement on this topic please.[/b][/color]
Thank you.
[size=3][i]Sidenote:[/i][/size]
[size=3][i]I worked on another emu and the same happend there - massive changes and player wipe to "eqal things".[/i][/size]
[size=3][i]I saidthe very same there - it will cause the emu's death, but they didnt listen. [/i][/size]
[size=3][i]They once had 1700 players, there are a 1/10 left by now. The emu is dead today and it happend exactly like i said.[/i][/size]
[size=3][i]Dont repeat this mistake here.[/i][/size]
[size=3][i]This emu here is no commercial game and you have to face people want playing - test center, alpha code or not - they want to play.[/i][/size]
[size=3][i]If you delete their "dream", they will move on to games not getting deleted all time.[/i][/size]
[size=3][i]Face it, that's how it works.[/i][/size]
[size=3][i]You can only wipe the player base when its absolutely needed (tecnical issues) for the ongoing developement, else leave it alone![/i][/size]-
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CDEL, raising RAM for MySQL without some proper calculation could worsen the problem tho, depending on the threads you allow for mysql and if its using persistent connections.
This script might help you:
[url="http://mysqltuner.pl/mysqltuner.pl"]http://mysqltuner.pl/mysqltuner.pl[/url]
You need a Pearl Interpreter on the server, which should be installed if this machine is running on linux. -
I was JUST finishing agrippa wapons/ammo missions.
Dont even [color=#FF0000][b]THINK [/b][/color]about touching the player base..dare u....
I WILL(!) level one more time again: When there is a 1.0 version number - not before.
There is no technical reason for a wipe -and honestly i cant follow the "arguement" that we should bear with a wipe because some are bored...
Btw, i know where you all live...
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Confirmed, happens sometimes to me too.
You follow a link here and the PHP Script times out (30 sec). For what reason ever it takes to long to load (SQL?). -
Vit,
use the easy installer from Net-7 website, it takes care about the right version, right files, folders, meaning of life...
/waveHand "This is not the net7.exe you are looking for"....
The file is not in use anymore and its causing instability if you use antique proxy etc.
Now i know why the server is crashing that often lately - you are sending old invalid packets.
Gimme all your stuff for compensation !!
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Confirmed.
Some mobs with hull are showing 0/0 hull and still they need a few K more damage to die - sometimes a lot more damage.
Something is wrong there within the damage calculation.
To me it lookes like that the mob is entering a condition (code wise) where it loops - and damage calculation isnt made this time.
At a point the loop is exited and the kill takes place.
Could it be a debuff/timer condition? -
Any Dev/Server staff informed of the crash even?
is there no notification script sending out a message to the staff (mail, sms, electro shocks) ? -
Kabooom again.
Is the server stability a problem lately? -
Kabooommm....
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I started to work on the mission yesterday.....
I need the Flechette ammo mapped, thats all
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[quote name='TooTall' timestamp='1326884312' post='51741']
yep, it's broke. And the reason they just don't restart it every time it goes down, as I understand it, is they need to look at it in it's broken state, to see what is wrong so it can be fixed.
Punching restart reflexively isn't the answer, much as we would all like to play
[/quote]
Its even WAY more complicated.
A multiplayer game has many many mechanism, they are all threaded which makes it even harder (mutex, locking, deadlocks etc).
So whenever a server goes down, you cant say what was causing the crash.
It was something one player did or (worser) some did in conjunction, where "conjunction" could also be, that one player was looting a mob while another opened another corp.
This requires some locks and even crosslocks (Corpse to loot is goinf to be changed (mem-write), player objects are changed, inventory are changed, cash balance changed, groupobjects etc etc etc).
There are MANY things going on.
A single write, a lock not released, a single variable changed....that all can cause an immediatly server crash.
Threaded mutex coding is one of the worsest bitches....
If you do that without a wrapper, you can count on two fingers when you are "raedy to redo the whole code". EnB source has a wrapper class for that.
So the only chance you got is, to have the server running all time in debug mode on a debugger. This is causing a hug performance hit and the server lags noticeable.
A alternative way for the devs is, to have certain "key log entries". So the server will write logs all time, esp. in "critical" functions.
The dev can check logs after crash and see, what was the last the server was doing.
Unfortunatly this wont help only rarely cuz the crash is a result of more then one single function, its a result of more functions executed the same time.
Each function for itself is clean and works fine - just the combination of diff. tasks similar running is causing the crash - very hard to figure out!
This is why a play-server like this is very very important to the devs, because ONLY(!) player in higher numbers are able to stress the server in the needed way to find such problems.
A single dev or 3-5 devs "testing" the server are simply NEVER EVER able to reproduce such problems.
This is why many games released by the studios have so many bugs still after release, because NOW(!) the big numbers hit and this is the first time, every little tiny bug reveals for the first time...
Beta Testing is helping but not completely solving in advance.
This time, the login server crashed.
This COULD be due to "normal" code problems, but more likely its some1 fiddeling around with it (again) in a way, that isnt supposed to be (aka security)....
HANG 'EM HIGH!!!
Yes, i am (also) a software coder by profession - No, i don't join
I am running a little software house, we are coding individual industrie software for our customers.
I have some time to play at my daytime (GMT+1) "on the other screen", but involving in an emulator is a very time-intensive task.
I was helping another emu-project in the past, so i know what huge task it is - no1 should underestimate it.
Its even not good to have too many coders - like we say: Too many cooks spoil the broth.
The current devs know (hopefully ) very good what they do and the ongoing process of the emu is proving it.
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PS.:
Just a cosmetic thing:
The skills on the Character-Page only schow the main skill-description but the details are missing from the skill.
For instance:
If you hover over RECHARGE SHIELD / Level 6 bit (Terran Trader), you get the description:
[b][font=courier new,courier,monospace]Enables the Area Shield..blablabla[/font][/b]
Missing is the "child-description":
[b][font=courier new,courier,monospace]"Recharges the hull with 5400 points per targets shield-skill"[/font][/b]
[size=3][i](Or whatever the description is, im not in game yet)[/i][/size]
I am using the planner very often when planning my next gear, so i know what a +6% on a skill will do in numbers, so i can decide to rather go with "reactor X" and spare a device-slot for a more worthy device etc etc.
So the numbers/values of skills are kind of important to the planning. -
[quote name='Knix' timestamp='1326810218' post='51645']
Great!
I miss my bonus skill points from the Elfman missions though... Not really necessary, since I can add them manually, but it would be nice to get bonus skill points transfered as well.
[/quote]
I was just going to post:
Thank you Devs, the skillpoints are now shown in the profile - and in this matter the SP-display has been fixed to also display gained bonus skillpoints as well". Great job, webdevs !
Also fixed:
If you follow items in the vault display, the java tab isnt isolated (logical wise) anymore, so you can "chain-click" from there on (to comps, builders etc).
AKA: The logical pathing from the item-DB has been implemented here as well.
Nice! -
[quote name='Zackman' timestamp='1324304774' post='50075']
It would be VERY nice to have a small link within the character planner (net-7.org) like "Fetch/copy my character".
If i click the link, the character planner gets the current levels/skills from my toon and i can start planning from this point.
[/quote]
Its in !!
Thanks, very nice!!
/setTopic "Done"
/closeTopic/
/tip webdev 1000000
/bow -
[quote name='Zackman' timestamp='1326375729' post='51409']
2. Character planner doesnt show option to load the current char into the template, thought i read earlier it should work this way now?
[/quote]
It's in !!
Thanks, that is helpful, i use it multiple times/day. -
I know this will happen if the Session times out or you load certain menue-points in another tab while pressing shift (or ctrl) while clicking.
You need to hit CTRL-F5 -
Addition (sorry):
The previous suggestion could also be the basic to such mechanism:
[url="https://forum.enb-emulator.com/index.php?/topic/6126-account-wide-vaults/"]https://forum.enb-emu...nt-wide-vaults/[/url]
Think about a "virtual toon" not available ingame, but via website.
It could function as a guild-mule, shared inventory, "item bank" etc etc etc.
Players could share this "virtual login" to friends and the website would always show a link to the "inventory bank" where i can pull items from and transfer to my ingame toon.
Great idea...thinking about it..... -
Nice to see this has been added, thank you!
Here is the next one:
[b]"Offline item transfer"[/b]
Main Char: JohnPW
Alt: JohnJE
Alt2: JohnMule
Alt3: YouGetTheIdea
Typical in market:"Can some1 hold ...transfer to alt... yadda yadda"
Now what if the website would offer "Cargo/Vault transfer" between the chars of an account?
1. I drag an item into from the vault of toon 1 into a "temp hold box" (nothing is moved in the DB at this point").
2. I open web-vault of alt 1 on the website
3. i drag the item from the temp-hold to the vault
4. "Are you really sure you want...blablabla"
OK-> internal move routine changing DB record
Webpage has to check:
Free slot on target? "Non storable"= target will be the hold "Storable=target will be the vault"
Is item tradable?
Is item unique and if so, does the transfer-target owns the item alrdy?
Good idea?
Tnx!
EDIT:
1. Can you add the available skillpoint on the Character page?
2. Character planner doesnt show option to load the current char into the template, thought i read earlier it should work this way now? -
[quote name='Shaddex' timestamp='1326367000' post='51399']
Can you not just open 2 browser tabs ?
Seems a lot of work for something that is easy to do
[/quote]
[quote]
For the ones saying "shift click the link for that very reason": There are scripts tied to the frames not allowing this easy solution.
[/quote]
He did it.,...
Well, a new/second instance of the [b]BROWSER[/b] works of course.
A [b]TAB[/b] is not working tho: CSS and tied .JS is missing then (try it yourself). -
[quote name='Shaddex' timestamp='1326362450' post='51396']
[color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]Update:[/font][/color]
[color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]First off, the Webdev team would like to welcome Slayerman Back to the team ![/font][/color]
[color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]Secondly, a small site update ! [/font][/color][list]
[*]Ship view, Cargo and Vault View are now linked to the database, and clicking on them will bring up a new info tab.
[*]New planner has been created from the ground up. All skills etc are now taken from the database.
[/list]
[font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif][color=#282828]We are still having issues with the Ship mounts on the ship view page displaying the incorrect amount. We have not forgotten about this and are working with the Database team for a fix.[/color][/font]
[font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif][color=#282828]Enjoy ![/color][/font]
[/quote]
Very nice update!
These both points were exactly, what i brought up in "the other thread" - so its really great to see it working now!
Ok...here is a new one, cause you are so fast and you shouldnt get bored :
Very often, you switch from the "Character Skill view" to the vault and to the database.
It would be AWESOME, if every screen would offer the option "Open in a new window".
For the ones saying "shift click the link for that very reason": There are scripts tied to the frames not allowing this easy solution.
If you could offer "open in new window" (Java window tho, no menue, fixed size etc..so its looking like a "child-window") we could work in a great way looking at char-skills, inventory and item DB the same time.
If the planner would be handled the same, the thing would be perfect !
in Suggestions
Posted · Edited by Zackman
[quote]
A wipe is guaranteed before release, and will be done in Alpha & Beta as needed by Tienbau and the primary programming staff
[/quote]
Thats all i wanted to know - thank you for clarifying.
A wipe before alpha out of purely arbitrary because some dont know what to do ingame would have broken my trust in the emu completely.
We all [b]knew and know[/b] that a wipe at alpha-stage/beta-stage is needed.
But know that all postings here made so far were talking about a wipe[b] before[/b] alpha and the meaningsless aggro-potential of such action.
[b]You want to hear thoughts:[/b]
1. Alpha wipe with backup. Backup restoring after Alpha test - until beta hits.
[size=3][i] (Rethinking needed if Alpha results in needed essential database changes rendering the old data useless)[/i][/size]
2. Beta is a "real wipe"
Beta means "We think its done, lets see if there are still bugs" - so its a "release candiate".
With that in mind i wouldn't restore any backup anymore. Every participant of the beta and every toon created from then on should "go live".
[b]Thats what we know, thats what everyone was expecting, thats what everyone accepted joining here.[/b]
[b][color=#b22222]ATTITUDE:[/color][/b]
[quote]
because I can tell you right now, that's not going to influence the decision in even the most minute way if the staff feels that its necessary to find something. All it amounts to is a tantrum, and I think our playerbase is a little more mature than that, though.. I guess I could be wrong.
[/quote]
This is not the first time i read one of your postings with a certain attitude. It's this "slightly arrogant attitude from high above" that sticks out sometimes the way you [b]put[/b] things.
I am also aware of being sensitive to the written word and the "sound of it" - sometimes oversensitive and i might be wrong.
I hope that it is [b]not[/b] your intention to sound like that, so let me rephrase the sentence how it is [b]reading[/b] to me:
"We dont fu.. care what u think, we do what we think is needed and if you little unmature crybabies got problems with it....can i have your stuff?"
Sound very rude - although that was the drastical version of it. I admit, a bit too drastical but you get the idea.
You can do smarter, "pull people into your boat" - what you do is to create two opposite camps (do you say it this way?)
Of course you know already what needs to be done - it's just about [b]how[/b] to communicate such things.
[color=#b22222][b]GUILDS:[/b][/color]
[quote]
The only option when we need it is to wipe the data, e.g. guilds now that we believe the guild bugs are corrected, most of the data in the guild tables is corrupted in some way or other in that it has invalid values or links to the wrong guilds names, and things like that. There's no way in this instance we can tell the bugs are fixed other than to wipe it and have you all try to recreate your guilds to see what happens
[/quote]
This is something everyone can understand the way you put it.
[b]What i would do:[/b]
Have a SQL innerjoin query selecting the guildID, guildName and join on usertable, row Toon Name and email address.
You got now: Guildname, userID, email, Toonname.
Send out a mail and inform the player that a "guild-recreation process" (dont use the word delete or wipe) has to take place on 15th of February and all player should login to rejoin their guild again.
To avoid guilds being "taken over", prepare a "pre-creation-statement" which will pre-create the active guilds (active within last 3 month and >= 6 members) and set the current admirals as admirals again.
Do this only with admirals that logged in within the last 12 weeks.
Guilds that had no admiral-login the last 12 weeks can be recreated ingame "on the fly". The toon creating the guild becomes the new leader.
This fact should be clearified in the mail.
Also (call it service) have a report on the current guild table which will show what toon has what rank in guild.
Have the web-devs getting the online-guild function working quickly and have the "old guild rank/member report" online at Net-7.
This way the rejoining members can be set back to their archived ranks and you avoid big stress with that. Otherwise Blacklung & Co. would have many tickets regarding "what was my rank, can u prove it".
[color=#b22222][b]MAIL:[/b][/color]
Since many people change their mailaddresses but forget to update here, have the notification message also bulk-send to every forum account as PN.
Many player might forget to update their profiles here but still log into the forums.
At this point everyone gets an email and a PN via forums.
Who ever will complain later -not being aware/pre-warned of the issue- can't complain because it is your very personal obligation to keep your forum account and personal data up to date.
Also it is your very personal obligation to take care about your guildies ingame when you are a guild leader.
Someone not logging for a quarter year clearly don't care and therefor this re-creation process might even help many guilds suffering from an anbandoned leadership.