Patch Notes Mar-2006
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March 2006
The official patch patch notes for March 2006 are located at http://www.seedthegame.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1381
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March 23, 2006
NPC /whatsup tasks: Some server crash problems found and fixed. You can again get tasks from some of the NPCs by using /whatsup. See also known issues and the NPC interaction thread.
- Lag spikes: Several fixes for lag issues.
- Graphics load: Improved load of items for faster graphics loading.
- Factories: Improved loading time.
- Sharepoints: Lists are now alphabetized.
- Sharepoints: New graphics.
- Launcher: Disabled auto-closing, so it is possible to see error codes when client closes.
- Widgets with text: Under improvement.
- Client crash around garden: Cleaned up client side object removal to improve stability.
- Ingame bugreport: Fixed a bug that made it impossible to send ingame bug reports.
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Known Issues
- Launcher panel is under re-construction, so button positions are a bit weird. Workaround: None - no effect on gameplay.
- Text widgets are also under re-construction, so several widgets with text might look strange. This includes:
- Chat log: When scroll bar appears, the last part of the chat log becomes invisible.
- Story log: Headers in story description are invisible for some sizes of story log.
- Tooltips: Text is misaligned with box.
Workaround for both: Resize window until text appears.
- Item equip: You will sometimes not see what other people have equipped if you approach them from another zone or location.
- Rings: We are changing the data for rings, so we have had to remove all rings and disable the Make Ring button. It will be possible to make new rings in a patch soon, and you will have to reconstruct your ring. Sorry about the inconvenience.
- NPCs/stories: If you log out and log back in, or if the server crashes, your stories might not be active any more, even though they are shown in your story log. Workaround: You can get the task again by saying /whatsup to an NPC.
- NPCs/stories: When an NPC asks you to do a task, sometimes it does not catch that you say "yes" or "no" to the task. After a while it times out, and ends the story. Workaround: You can get the task and try again by typing /whatsup.
- Moving away from garden: There might still be some crashes when moving away from garden, but it should be better.
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March 21, 2006
Client:
- New graphics: Improved canyon.
- Improved loading on client.
- Stories: No new empty stories should be added when interacting with NPCs; old stories still remain in story log.
- Machines: It is again possible to order and make a new factory machine.
- User settings: Fixed an error that caused save of wrong settings for a specific combination of save/cancel clicks.
Server:
- Several steps taken to reduce server lag.
- Auto-restart by sysop moves processes to a living machine in case a machine crashes.
- Login/logout events are logged, so we can track account use.
- Access points: When using or gaining access points, we make sure there is no overflow/underflow.
NPCs:
- Some NPCs now give tasks to players if you type "/whatsup" - remember to click on the NPC first so it is shown in your closeup cam window (top right). The NPCs with these tasks are: Brandell (LabSpace), Callie (LabSpace), Kartik (RecSpace), Masi (RecSpace). See also the thread on NPC interaction and post comments etc. there.
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Known Issues
- Ingame bugreport: At the moment, it is not possible to send an ingame bug report - you will get an error message, telling you that the character does not exist. This will be fixed in the next patch.
- Server lag: There are still recurring lag spikes, where the server will lag for 2-3 minutes.
- (Edit): It is not possible currently to use two items at the same time, although you can equip them at the same time. This is a transition to an updated item gameplay, where you can equip an item in the right hand or in both hands. Equipping different items in the two hands will not be possible.
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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.
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Known Issues
- Lag: There are still a lot of lag issues, which we are working on tracking. Lag might prevent you from moving, talking, equipping items, etc. Workaround: Wait for a bit and see if the lag goes away. Some lag spikes can be quite large, but most are max a minute or so.
- Skill training: Skill training timestamps are saved incorrectly at the moment, causing weird effects in skill updates. As long as you stay logged in, it works fine, but if you log out and log back in, you might either finish training faster, or not finish at all. Workaround: Don't log out :-)
- Factory administration: Fixing or cancelling factory repair jobs does not always update factory properly. Workaround: None.
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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.
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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.
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Known Issues
Datamanager:
- Waypoints: Waypoints have not been transferred from the old database, so all old waypoints are gone.
- Inspiration drops: Same as for waypoints - they are not transferred from the old database.
- Inspiration drops: There is an error in the new database, making it impossible to get new inspiration drops. This will be fixed very soon, hopefully in a patch later today.
Client:
- Splash screen: The splash screen seems to be stuck when you log in - it isn't, it just stays there until all graphics are loaded. In a later patch, we will hide the gui elements while the graphics are loading.
- Widgets: Some widgets with text act strangely - there is more space around the text in e.g. chat log and speech bubbles.
- Waypoints: New waypoints don't show up in your inventory before you log out and log back in.
- Waypoints: Using a waypoint unfortunately doesn't update your position on the server, so it might lead to lag between server and client. This will be fixed very soon, hopefully in a patch later today. Until then, please don't report any tickets related to strange movement behavior or lag after using a waypoint.
- Character rotates: Sometimes your character will rotate when starting and stopping.
- Character "teleports": When getting near the target cone, your character might "teleport" the last part of the way. This depends on client and server lag, so the more people around you, the more likely this is to happen.
- Admin bits: When you win an admin bit, you might have to log out and log back in to see your admin stash etc.
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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.
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Known Issues
- Known issues about NPCs - don't report tickets on this:
- When you emote to an NPC, and the NPC moves to you, it gets REALLY close. Workaround: None while interacting with the NPC. Wait for the NPC to time out and move on.
- When you click on an NPC, it might teleport quite a long way, sometimes backwards. Workaround: None. Move to where the NPC is. Emoting might make it approach you, if you have it targeted in your closeup cam window.
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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.
Patches for February 2006
