Patch Notes Mar-2006
From Seed
Contents |
March 2006
The official patch patch notes for March 2006 are located at http://www.seedthegame.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1381
March 17, 2006
- More debugging for server lag issues.
- Limit of 20 characters on character names.
- Launcher now also starts properly when Seed is placed outside of C directory.
- Fixing repair jobs on machines should now update machine functions properly - might still be minor issues in graphic loading.
- And some more, minor issues.
March 16, 2006
- The repair system has been changed; you don't have to click every time you need to activate the repair functions, you press once to activate a particular function and it will loop until you press the function again.
- The white-out screen which occurs during radlocking should now disappear somewhat faster than it did, because we've started preloading stuff. The login whiteout still takes as long as ever but will probably be improved later.
- There is now an "Are you sure"-style dialog window which appears when you press the "delete" button in the login window.
- We've implemented priority queuing in the client-server communications client-side. This is rather technical but basically it allows us to weigh how important different pieces of information is for the client. This will help us smooth out things a lot.
- Until now, the client has started moving you in your client before the server actually had approved the movement. This doesn't happen anymore, which means that if you are clicking to move and nothing happens, the server is lagging. This will remove the odd error where the server started moving you about autonomously. Our goal with this is to remove the server lag and this is much easier when we have a clear idea exactly when the server starts lagging.
- As usual, there are also other, minor fixes in many places.
March 9, 2006
The patch for March 9 is quite large, so some patch notes will be in separate posts. Please also see Known Issues for things you don't need you to report - this patch contains quite a lot of those :-)
- NPCs: See separate patch note.
- Datamanager:
- The datamanager is now running on an entirely new system, hopefully increasing performance of data load/save, and also making it much easier for us to recover from "hardhat-incidents".
- Client:
- Login: "Unstick" button makes it possible to move characters back to spawn position. Note that buttons in the login screen have been rearranged.
- Splash screen: Shown while loading graphics - when the splash screen disappears, all graphics are loaded.
- Trading: Fixed bug that prevented you from equipping items received from others.
- Window layout: Minor layout fixes in some windows.
- Lazy load of machines etc.: Makes it faster to cross zones etc.
- Conversations causes far fewer client crashes than before.
- Factory admin window and admin stash window now close when you lose a vote.
- Lists: Improvement in speed when loading long lists of text (e.g. in sharepoint).
- Server:
- Lag when talking, emoting etc.: Fixed some major lag issues.
- Transfer objects to admin stash now works.
- Assets:
- Major improvements in canyon (still no screenshots, please!)
We'll probably add more later.
March 9, 2006 (NPCs)
NPCs are added to gameworld today. See also separate thread in the Seed Beta Test subforum (http://www.seedthegame.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=30) about what our story department would like you to test specifically for NPCs.
We will start them manually to begin with, so after a server crash, the NPCs might not be around. As soon as we have tested their basic stability, we will make them part of the automatic startup system.
(Edit) NPCs are located in LabSpace - RinglabB, and in parts of RecSpace to begin with.
- Please note that the NPCs have rather limited functionality at the moment. You can do the following:
- Interrupt them: NPCs will pr. default walk around the tower on a semi-random route. If you click on them, they will stand still so you can interact with them. If you do nothing else, they will continue after 45 seconds.
- Open trades with NPCs, and trade objects with them.
Note that the player-NPC trade window is different than player-player trade: You have to drag what you want from their object frame (the extra panel) to their trade frame. They will show what they want from you by inserting greyed out items in your trade frame. If you give the NPCs a good deal, they will be more favorably inclined to you in a later trade.
- Emote to them. This might change their mood, as displayed in the close-up cam window. Different NPCs have different personalities, so the reactions to various emotes will vary from NPC to NPC.
March 9, 2006 (2nd patch)
This is an addendum to today's patch - we issued a second client patch in the afternoon.
- The second patch created even greater optimisations in the widget system (the share point windows, for instance, are much better now) as well as resolving yet another issue with conversations - these should be getting rather stable now.
- The issue mentioned in "Known issues" with waypoints causing bad synchronization between client and server has been fixed, as well as a package of other, minor stability issues in the widget system.
