Overtkill

I'm betting the timers will get some love as Ulyydian stated. An independent timer would be a good way to handle it. The server could record the current timer on shutdown (for example), and either resume it, or compare the time difference upon restart, then subtract the difference. Shouldn't be too terribly difficult to figure something amicable out. :)   Thanks!   -Overt.

For the sake of simplicity, the consensus on our side of the fence is 100% in agreement with what Magoo and I stated above. The week of the switch, we will forgo the raid change on Tuesday, and continue with the current rotation through Saturday. -Which becomes the day of the next switch/rotation.     From there, we propose to begin the next rotation either the server restart, or 12:00PM, U.S. Eastern time in the event that there isn't a patch. This builds in some time for server/patch issues (being late, bugs), and is a good round number that is easy to remember.   Does this work for everyone?? Or do we have other ideas for consideration??   Thanks Zack for the heads up, and special thanks for the cooperation from BI and VGE for your input.   -Overt.   Note: Post edited to address the time of day for rotation switch.

His idea 3 is my idea 1, and I liked idea one. :)Our raiders have yet to weigh in however. I'll know tonight.   Thanks!   -Overt.

Regarding this change, what approach do we want to take in terms of the Big 3 Raid rotation..?   1. Did we want to extend the week to that Saturday for the rotation to reset then?? 2. Or switch on tuesday, and again on Saturday? 3. Or just keep rotating on tuesdays? 4. Other idea??   My preference for simplicity would be the first option, but we should all weigh in now so we have a plan. :)   Thanks!   -Overt.

It would be nice to see all the factions in game there as well. For example, the Renegade Progen.   Thanks.

Yesterdays around 5:00PM EST was inside one and one's network. I didn't have enough time to complete my own tests before a duce (drunk driver) managed to take out the Internetz for our area by hitting a light pole. (Comcast in municipalities typically follows the power lines)   64.208.27.237        < Some 64.209.105.234      < Where it really started ae-10.bb-c.slr.lxa.us.oneandone.net  < Where PL hit over 34% loss ae-10.gw-distp-a.slr.lxa.oneandone.net ae-1.gw-prtr-r4-1a.slr.lxa.oneandone.net u15438806.onlinehome-server.com   The 6 hops above 64.208.27.237 were all at zero loss. (I'll also post this in the other thread.)   Thanks.   -Overt.

I've messed around in the past with updating textures on planets and importing a few test items, back in my EMU dev days early on. The biggest thing will be to get the game engine to render many items correctly. The challenge is making things appear as they should, using newer tools to create the items, while still placing them into such an old and outdated engine. So Darkk is right on the money that its a bitch without the Westwood internal art tools.   The advantage of using a direct draw surface (.dds) over the use of regular textures, simply put, is mipping. In a nutshell, its the ability of any direct draw game using a .dds file for a texture, to be able to use the lower resolution copies of the textures contained in the .dds file, at greater distances where the detail would be lost anyway. So the point is to reduce the load to the graphics engine to render those lower versions contained in the .dds file itself. Something that is still done in many if not all games today. So its not only a texture, the file should also contain the lower detail versions of the same texture applied to a model to be called by the game engine. Sometimes you see this when approaching objects you encounter in EnB. They appear to change when moving closer to them from a good distance out.   -Overt.

Not sure what the deal is with the restarts, other than the dev's might be out getting some needed fun in the sun. I'd bet the schedule will resume in regards to restarts, at some point.

5:00PM EST on Tuesdays if there isn't a restart, was the agreed time Goo. Or the server reset also switches rotation.   -Overt.

Test Ship Editor needs fixing or something per the updated device images. Try equipping a chim in there to see what I mean. It would also be nice to be able to apply buffs from other devices to add to your totals, and have a combat device setup installed with other activate buffs still applied.   Thanks!   -Overt.

I'll try and post winmeter logs when/if the lag hits me, to add to your data. Anything I can do to help to point to a possible solution. :)   -Overt.   PS. Is there a server restart coming today or ???.... Waiting for today's patch along with many people. I imagine you guys are working on something last minute??

Kyp, I'm not looking for a witch to burn in the least. I am trying to get some love for our game. Whether lag, or lack of drops, what have ya... I would like to see the break down of what your real hosting expenses vs. hardware needs are. I do this sort of thing for a living now as a sysadmin in RL. I may be able to help in some way, or at the very least, shop around for you guys. Gratis of course. :) If so, we can work via e-mail or through PM... Whatever you are most comfortable with.   On the other issues, even a free project ergo Emulators, game mods, what have ya, have to have protocol and rules like a business does, for everyone involved or its not happening. As for the fixes or making changes, something definitely needs to be done in both directions. Your dev's talk about balancing the game, when the fact is the game is being ran waaaay too conservatively. Whether its resources (mining), drops, lack of xp for jobs (this one made more than a few people leave), what have ya... The tactic seems to be "keep them busy and playing through starvation of game resources and items." -And that isn't right. By doing this, you only cause and make issues for your players . You might have a better response by actually providing them with the items they need in game, and instead focus on more content in game in the form of missions, items, resources, etc, instead of starving them for items that should be a lot easier to obtain. Work to address the needs of your player base, and give them a good deal of other shizzle to do without nerf batting (which has been too often) unless it absolutely needs to happen. Granted, I get that you can't give away the farm, but like Bleakend said, no one likes to camp or kill a rare spawn too damn many times with nothing but junk falling out. This should be more of a "What item will I get this time??"   The same for mining and hulks. Someone got it in their head that hulk fields would "wreck the economy" of the game (I wont say here which dev that actually said it), but this too is the wrong approach and an odd thing to say. First, there aren't enough people who play this game regularly enough to actually support a full blown game economy. Second, when have prototype items (even the comps or devices) been all that valuable? Maybe the attitude should be to put some new fields in instead, with a new one put someplace else off the beaten path on occasion. The same could be said for ore fields. There are still many that haven't been put back into the game to begin to approach live levels. Instead, we are often butting heads or finding many tapped out or cherry picked. Someone on your team even suggested that "conflict among players is a good thing, and that they liked it." Totally the wrong attitude for a player vs. environment MMO, and just plain wrong altogether. If things were working as they should (whether drops, etc), the conflict would be a lot less and players might actually be in better spirits about the game.   What I working at -is a different mindset from the dev crew to their player base. Instead of the secretive & ultra conservative approach, perhaps the way to go is a more open, more positive approach to the game, for the players Instead. Your player base should be treated as your greatest asset as well, and keeping them happy (within reason) shouldn't be too terribly hard to achieve.   But I don't know, maybe I'm too late and am just pissing in the wind here. I don't know how seriously you guys think things are or how much you even give a rats ass about any of this. However many are smelling the end of this project into a second sunset. No one up here wants that to happen, but unless changes are made, that's likely where they are headed.   Again, thanks for reading...   -Overt.

45x a few toons is oddly appropriate for the numbers in game lately. These issues need to be fixed along with the over restrictive/conservative rewards in game. item drops, job XP, lag... All of it is contributing to the loss in players. Granted, being summer + recent game releases have also contributed to it some, but the restrictive way you guys have the rewards systems setup is doing nothing but adding to player frustrations, and a lot of really good people have quit the game because of the many problems, policies, and attitudes of the staff here.   And yes, I do appreciate the hard work that you guys are putting into this game. Remember, I was once in PC and XBox games development management in RL. Its your policies, attitudes, and methods (nurf batting seemingly, everything we enjoy, even if its not an exploit) that are going to lead this game to a second sunset. If players aren't being rewarded in game for their efforts, and should be getting from a game (Plagues Bite, CVE -which is now a mission item, and the drop rate totally sucks, add your favorite boss name here, these are just examples), Being part of the largest guild in game, I see it and hear about it ALL the time. People will abandon it to play something that is fair to them (you guys shouldn't be telling your players to go play something else if they don't like something, you should be doing just the opposite). As developers, you guys should be moving in the opposite direction than where this game is headed. The goal should be to keep people interested and happy in the game they love to play. The goal of any games project should be to keep the players that you are serving happy. They are the focus because without the players, there is no game.   Please work toward a more positive outcome before the state of things gets even worse. The numbers online lately being insanely low should be enough to tell the story. None of us here want to see this game fail. But that is the direction things are (still) heading. At this rate, we don't have long to wait for the second sunset of EnB.   Thanks for reading...   -Overt.

Signed... Wholeheartedly!   I've been after this idea for ages. 1&1 hosting is among the worst providers, and among the most expensive. Like was stated earlier, their Assbook page is a bitchfest (same heard from industry channels as well). Maybe look into an actual game hosting company this time around. Seems we might get a nice dedicated Xeon server for what the hosting fees are with 1&1. From my experience, If the server a dedicated, they don't really much care what you do with it. In any case, I'd be happy to help you guys look around for a good host, Or at the very least, 'sniff test' the finalists. Its part of what I do for a living. Send me a PM if interested.   Thanks for reading!   -Overt.

Cool man, thank you for the reply and the insight to where you guys are headed. Good stuff to know. :)   -Overt.

Right, I'm aware of the variables. You are correct that the medium MTU should be 1500 for most folks on the internet side, and large framing should only be used for LAN environments. Personally speaking, I don't suffer from a lot of the issues reported because I am using a team of 2 gigabit Intel Server adapters because of the large amounts of data I have to deal with for my business clients. Not everyone can afford to update their network hardware (router and/or switching appliances), and may even be gaming on older wifi (which they shouldn't be gaming on wifi anyway, but folks will do what they will). Would it be possible for you guys to create a separate optimized setting in the launcher and client for those people? Say smaller packets (that is not the old UDP method settings)? This would help alleviate a ton of issues.   I guess what I am getting at is more of a philosophy in games development; Are you guys coding for the medium and lesser optimized network environments of the "medium" end user? Or are you coding for what you guys feel the modern specs of networking should be? Not everyone has the hardware that supports the spec's I've been reading about. Speaking as someone who has been a games dev in RL, we used to target the average user, with settings written in that would support the average Joe with lesser hardware, with the option to enhance playability for the higher end user as well. But there will always be the medium/average, plus the little guy, so to speak. I'm just trying to see what you guys are thinking and maybe looking for more insight to your process at work in dealing with the recent changes regarding the launcher and proxy.   Thanks for the speedy reply. :)   -Overt.

Question to the Devs:   What is the MTU and Packet size are you guys coding around? (out of curiosity)   Thanks!

Nice map. :)

Me too. I haven't even played the few games by EA I was given.   All this happened in a board room some place, with the suits shaking hands and the yes men applauding. Believe that EA already has an exit strategy for this franchise when they ruin it.

/Signed.

The devs made a change where they use the server to send a magic packet to keep the terminals alive by sending the packet to get the client to respond...   Could this sort of strategy be applied again to prevent the game from hanging during a loading screen?   Thanks,   -Overt.

Greetings, This is an official announcement that Static Guild has decided, by popular guild vote, to withdrawal from the raid rotation agreement effective immediately. In a recent guild meeting, we voted to end our involvement in this or any other raid agreement. We will continue to raid in a manner that is ethical and fair for everyone, as well as follows the rules and guidelines of our guild and the EnB Emulator. Thanks for reading,.. -Overt.   Moderators: Please lock this thread. Thank you.

...and due to the nurfing of jobs, this should not be a problem anymore.

Next in rank for Static: Reverant, then/or Smokey   Thanks for all the support Static! And the preliminary Zack.   -Overt.

I guess me then.   Static Guild Overtkill