Test #21 PLAYTEST MOTHERFUCKERS - Saturday 11th August 20:00 BST / 3pm EDT / 12pm PDT

IT IS TIME. Shit looks stable, shit looks good, WE ARE READY FOR THIS SHIT.

Server will be up ahead of time, and we'll do a last minute bugtest before the playtest, just in case. In this test, we will be PLAYING Empires. Anyone dicking about "testing" shit, i.e. exploiting or pissing about with a single bug (Paradox.) will be permanently removed from the testing team and banned from future tests. We are not having this shit again like last time.

Hopefully, new Mvalley and Money will be ready, but I make no guarantees. I would rebalance script shit but given that people whined on VIPER before they were finished, I'm pretty much stuck at RC4 with no idea where to go from here, because I have no idea where balance is right now. Particles should be fixed up by the test. 1% chance I get round to sorting out new official maps, but probably not. Who knows.

That's it I guess. If it's successful, I'd like people playing it every night for the next week to be 100% fucking sure we can send these depots to Valve. Then, hopefully, that's a wrap.

 

YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAH!

Here's to hoping that script balance can get worked out before final release. I'll definitely be there.

 

Since development won't be finalized and the game will be left incomplete. In the final version, scripts should be left as text files so server operators may tweak and create their own script sets to suit the needs of players or to compensate for a change in community play style.

 

They are text files, they always were, that was never discussed as being changed at any point ever. We did want to include script manifest so the server can redo their script sets, but too much engine shit gets in the way of reloading the scripts, so we're left with the limited options we have now. So sadly, whilst changes can be done, they will be limited, albeit no more limited than they are now.

But realistically, servers shouldn't start using custom sets that are totally different when we only have 2 servers. I'm sorry but that shit just isn't cool. If we had 10-12 populated servers so people have a choice, sure, but otherwise, that's just not the way to go about it. I'll be doing post-release hotfixes to the scripts to address any balance issues as best I can with the limited options available.

I also don't really know what you mean by "game will be left incomplete".

Also, CANDLES I FUCKING LOVE YOU. The game closes properly, it was pretty much exactly what you said. We had checked the gameinfo.txt before, and noticed it hadn't been changed at all since before the release, so we ignored it. But then I compared the gameinfo.txt to the released version, and realised that it, and the steam.inf must have been manually changed before sending the depots to steam, which is why the change never appeared in SVN. Once Jephir did his change to fix hl2.exe sometimes not exiting (albeit it does seem to lag on quitting now), and we changed the gameinfo.txt and steam.inf, the game closes properly. Candles, you are a fucking hero.

 

I'm guessing RC4 are the current scripts?

If so, the biggest problem is that chemistry is the only viable research path for both teams.
Research path goes like this: Chemistry>Absorbant>Coolant>UGL>HE/UML
And that's it. I haven't seen anyone deviate from this path in months.

The biggest problem with this is that Brenodis end game weapon, rails, are completely uselss since everyone has absorbant 100% of the time and NF heavies will outclass them.
Reflective is pretty much paper armor.

A quick fix might be to just move HE and UML to different trees.

 

Aye madam, I'll try to be there, but I won't promise anything.
Also... Money? Meh. I at least hope it has prebuilt refs this time..

 

Viper removed the rc scripts quite awhile ago, this sounds like stock steampires scripts

 

Oh okay, yeah I haven't played enough with the RC scripts to comment on those. Carry on.

 

Also, since there's no reliable way on the client side to tell what has been changed this makes research a bit of a gamble with constantly changing scripts...
In that case the script manifest/custom dir stuff would be useful - since it has been reverted for the last playtest: Was that just to resolve the preset-problem, and is it gonna be put back in ?

 

The Empires code was written with the idea in mind that all script values would be loaded at game startup. Changing the code to allow it to be updated on an ad-hoc basis is a lot of work and would probably introduce loads of bugs. I doubt anyone will ever have the time or mental strength to pull this off.

 

hope everything works

 

particles are hopefully fixed. I dunno how much effort I can expend on fixing them but if you guys find anything super duper bad I'll look into fixing it. (extreme FPS drop is the main thing, memorise any points in time where your fps is really low and what was happening at the time so I can adjust those particles.)

For the record getting hit with 10 nuke missiles at once and getting FPS lag is normal and there's really not much I can do beyond what I already have (a fair bit of close up optimisation is in place already)

Also feedback on the new missile effects would be appreciated.

 

I'm not asking to change this on-the-fly (per map), just to have a way for the client to actually tell what scripts the server uses - and i wasn't sure if the reverted separate-scripts-directory feature had other problems than just proper file flags in the gcf.

Maybe just something simple like seeing if scripts are 'vanilla' or 'modified'.
At best a console command to dump the script values (assuming they're sent to the client on connect ?) or showing hashsums of the script files... something that would be easy to implement, if at all.

 

Ducky...Beerdude said the scripts are loaded at game startup.

 

Ok, so you loaded the game with scriptset X (let's say it's a game setting for which you need to restart) so now you can only join servers with script set X. Dunno if that would be desirable, but perhaps that is a lot less work. May be of interest if Empires were to become unsupported

 

I get the feeling that if Empires were to become unsupported, than people wouldn't have to worry about different servers running different scripts.

Edit: FUCK, I might not actually be able to make it 3:

 

Do the engine specific things (like that weight-dependent speed up and speed specific cooling) now actually work in the rc4 srcipts?

Also: I still don't like the idea of compo being script-of-all-trades (ie with regen-capabilities, etc.). If for instance that speedup for the gas-turbine engine is actually working and you get compo with 10/plate weight, you'll have a pretty darn fast vehichle, with a ton of (relative sturdy) plates on it and regen. I know that it was weakend compared to rc3 but you'll still have a self-sustainable blitz-tank/apc.

I predict compo/gasturbine/HEMG (since it's really strong in the rc4-environment) as the future standard research path for this release, which would again undiversify the "natural" research decision making (which to widen up I believe was your intention).

Still I could be severly wrong with this prediction since ppl seldomly amass in the EPIC-server for a variety of reasons (ping/lag problems, distaste or outright reluctance for the scripts) and therefore my experience with the scripts is rather limited.

 

No: I just connected to a server with scriptset X, and now I want to know what the server has changed on scriptset X.

 

Oh, that's not too hard I think, perhaps a load of work to send it all over

 

How did it go?