Archive for the ‘Updates’ Category
Monday, June 22nd, 2009
Handful of updates, but a quick note before we get to those.
I’m heading to Origins for a large part of the week (Wednesday through Sunday) and doing preliminary work on the Survivors Quest until and through then. So my normal speed of responding to bug reports and posting updates may slow a little bit.
- The $end in award.php errors should hopefully be less common now. I’ve split it up into a whole range of different files, which should make updating it a bit more seemless.
- Return to Chat properly returns you to chat and the last used chat channel is set to your default when you return. Thanks Olaf and Mag for helping sort this out.
- TZR Chipdesks should now function properly as chipdecks. Thanks for the bug report, starspiritgeno.
- There is now a /whois feature in chat by name or player id. Thanks to Man Mobile for the suggestion.
- I finally put up the About the Devs page. Thanks to Wyrd for reminding me.
- Also thanks to Mag, Shademaster00, and RazielSonOfKain for reporting some typos
Cheers!
Kinak
Tags: Mag, Man Mobile, Olaf, razielsonofkain, Shademaster00, starspiritgeno, Updates, Wyrd
Posted in Updates
Friday, June 19th, 2009
Open chat is in, including both non-gangmembers and chat between gangs. I’ll get to how you use it in a second.
I hate to even go into it, because we do have a good crew here, but there’s basically one rule of chat: don’t make me sort out drama. Any drama I have to sort out comes straight out of development time, which isn’t something I’m going to get involved with lightly or punish lightly if I do have to. In other words, if you know you’re going to start drama or can’t judge, don’t go into open chat.
Sorry about that, but I wanted to get it out there up front.
Here are the shiny new commands:
- /join channel – Joins a given chat channel. Options right now include open, gang (if you’re in a gang), and gang warfare (the chat notifications you get, can’t be posted to).
- /leave channel – Leaves a chat channel. Same options as above. You can also use /leave chat to get out of chat entirely.
- /which or /where – Tells you which channels you’re listening to and posting to.
- /quit or /exit – Leaves chat.
When you’re in multiple chat channels, a dropdown will appear to select which channel you’re speaking to. Also, messages from other players will be say which channel they’re speaking in.
The Leave Chat link at the bottom has been removed to reclaim a bit of space. So remember the /quit, /exit, and /leave chat commands. You just might need them :)
Other updates:
- Avatars now appear in your profile when other players are looking at it and don’t need to be reset when you change gangs.
- Quantum Mechanics and Walk With The Blind now have alternate ways to unlock them. The old ways are still there and probably easier, but the new ways are what intuitively should work.
- Leaving a gang should now always force you out of gang chat, instead of just not letting you post. Thanks Olaf!
- Ghoultouched no longer turns off when you gain a new skill. Great catch, dudeathome!
- Sailors (well, ex-sailors) freed during the Ship of the Damned quest will now show up in your quest log. Good suggestion, RazielSonOfKain!
- Also, a big thank you to Caradal and Jetalynn for catching some typos.
Cheers!
Kinak
Tags: Caradal, Chat, dudeathome, Jetalynn, Olaf, razielsonofkain
Posted in New Features
Thursday, June 18th, 2009
The basic chat commands are in and seem to be working properly.
The ones in so far:
- /tell, /whisper, /t, or /w – Sends a private chat message to the person named. This does require putting underscores (_s) to replace any spaces in their name. So, Dr. Thomas would be “/tell Dr._Thomas I need some Eclipse.”
- /reply or /r – Replies to your most recent tell. Like all such systems, I wouldn’t suggest using it when you’re getting a lot of tells.
- /em, /me, or /emote – Says things like “Kinak does wacky stuff” instead of “Kinak: does wacky stuff.”
- /who – Replaces the “Who’s On” at the bottom of the chat list.
- /time – Advises you on the current system time.
- /? – The command that tells you the commands so you don’t have to look at this list.
Also corrected some bugs today where Metros was sometimes charging people unfairly. Thanks Zeladoni!
Cheers!
Kinak
Tags: Chat, The Kitchen Sink, Wyrd, Zeladoni
Posted in New Features
Wednesday, June 17th, 2009
Did some rescripting for combat.
- The most noticeable change is that evasion now displays the amount of damage you took rather than the amount you avoided, so you don’t have to do math to determine the final damage. Thanks to Mr. Green for the suggestion.
- Special Techniques are now run as they’re actually displayed, so you won’t have weird things like getting poisoned by an enemy that never actually stabbed you. Thanks to Mag for pointing out this one was being a bit weird.
- Dynamite now actually triggers at the end of the round as a totally separate thing rather than being cobbled on as an extra attack.
That’s it!
Cheers!
Kinak
Tags: Combat, Mag, Mr. Green, Techniques
Posted in Updates
Wednesday, June 17th, 2009
I rewrote chat again, it appears to be doing pretty well now. If you have any problems with it, go ahead and send them in. If it stays quiet for a bit, I’ll start sneaking in the general chat features.
Other fixes:
- The requirement for Pugilism has gone down a bit. Thanks for the feedback and analysis, Argeth.
- Loosing connection (due to timeout or rollover) shouldn’t do the cool nesting thing in the chat pane anymore. Thanks for the bug report PaidPiedPiperPal.
- The Vigilante encounters on The Quad should follow the Quad’s plot line now. Thanks, The Kitchen Sink and Man Mobile!
- Despite rumors to the contrary, shining gang jackets are not fortified coffee grounds. Strange but true. Good catch, PaidPiedPiperPal.
And typos reported by Mag, Argeth, Wyrd, Harrakan, Zelandoni, Lord Finisher, and Pyren. Thanks everyone!
Cheers!
Kinak
Posted in Bug Fixes
Monday, June 15th, 2009
After a lot of deep-thinking and soul-searching, we have a temporary answer to the question “I just donated, can I use my presents after resetting?” If you’re asking that question, go ahead and talk to Zack, he may have something for you.
For now, you’ll just receive your coins and puzzle boxes. I’m still not entirely clear on the path going forward, but wanted to get some sort of solution in for people.
So we’re 100% clear: this is just the plan for Beta. The final system that replaces it will have a lot more options, but probably will not include this one.
Thanks to everyone for their input on this. Hopefully this’ll take care of things for the time being.
Cheers!
Kinak
Tags: Beta Reset, Donation Items, Donations, Zack
Posted in New Features
Sunday, June 14th, 2009
So, mostly worked on chat today. Hopefully, the weirdness with it refreshing and losing what you’re typing or focus or both should be gone. Works like a charm for me, at least.
On a related note, you can now see the current time by mousing over “Who’s Here?” to go with the details on when messages came in by mousing over them.
Other Updates:
- Added some pretty cool functionality to contacts, where I can plug in floating conversation bits (like asking Hawk about your friends or the Squatter King’s son) separately and have them show up as needed. In the process, Lo started blabbing about some crazy puzzle box. Thanks to Justin and Thrillhouse for helping me get him back under control.
- The images in the Mall preview now link to their item descriptions. The text still links to the listings. Good suggestion, RazielSonOfKain.
- Log messages for Gang Warfare should be showing up consistently now. Thanks for the bug report, Mag.
- Beancounters should no longer get stealth-demoted everytime somebody leaves a gang. Thanks to PaidPiedPiperPal for helping sort this out and RazielSonOfKain for being the test subject.
- Also thanks to RazielSonOfKain for reminding me that I hadn’t turned off image borders everywhere. Shouldn’t have to worry about them again.
- Thanks to Cristiona for snagging a typo for us.
Cheers!
Kinak
Tags: Chat, Contacts, Cristiona, Justin, Mag, razielsonofkain, thrillhouse, Vholes Piper
Posted in Bug Fixes
Saturday, June 13th, 2009
Whole bunch of updates today. Mostly expanding the Chat interface, but snuck in a few other updates as well.
Chat
- At the bottom of chat it’ll show who’s viewed that chat recently (last five minutes or so). Good suggestion, the Kitchen Sink.
- The Gang Warfare messages showing up in chat have been revamped. I think they’re clearer, but the secret is this: the first name listed is your gangmate.
- The autorefresh should no longer clear out what you’ve been typing. Good catch, Cryptodynamic.
- Your name will now also show up in bold in the chat as it does in the gang log. Thanks for the suggestion, The Kitchen Sink.
- When you mouseover a comment in chat, it’ll display the time posted. Remember that is server time, which is set to GMT. Thanks for the suggestion, Cryptodynamic! Always up for a good excuse to use mouseover text.
Other Stuff
- You can now search in the OmniMall ignoring items in your inventory/equipped by checking the “Listings Only” checkbox right under the search. Thanks for the suggestion, Wyrd!
- The Gang Log now includes people entering the gang, leaving the gang, promotions, and demotions. These are under a new section called ‘Members.’ It’s pretty cool. Good suggestion, The Kitchen Sink.
- Shard will now be encounterable after luring a guard away. Thanks for the bug report, Cryptodynamic!
- The Mall Previews on the front page now have images. It’s kind of shocking how much more interesting that makes them look. Good call, RazielSonOfKain!
- Third Eye Stashes you collect from now on (using Big M’s Maps) will now show up under your completed quests. Good suggestion, Harrakan.
- Also corrected a typo from PaidPiedPiperPal.
Cheers!
Kinak
Tags: Chat, Cryptodynamic, Gang Warfare, Gangs, Harrakan, Mall, razielsonofkain, The Kitchen Sink, Vholes Piper, Wyrd
Posted in New Features, Updates
Saturday, June 13th, 2009
Gang chat is in! It doesn’t really have bells or whistles at the moment, but we’ll burn those bridges when we come to them.
The gang warfare messages will get reworked to fit in a little better with today’s changes (both the Gang Warfare change and this). But for now, they’ll be their old selves.
As a side note, I don’t intend to interfere with gang internal politics, which includes moderating your chat.
Thanks to Mag and Lord Finisher for errors that occurred while chat was rolling out.
Cheers!
Kinak
Tags: Chat, Gangs, Lord Finisher, Mag, New Features
Posted in New Features
Friday, June 12th, 2009
Put in a fairly significant Gang Warfare update today, which I’ll try to explain below. Short version is that defending in Gang Warfare now involves actual fighting and less staring at non-combats.
How It Worked
Once you beat down the previous defenders in an area, you’d gain control through non-combats (which prepare fights for future challengers). Then, after a while, it stops queueing fights and you just get the delicious, delicious benefits.
The Change
Now, when someone is challenging control of your area by defeating your defenders, you need to actually beat them back down instead of just having another non-combat to repair the damage. Assuming you’re successful, you repair the damage just like the old non-combat would.
These new sort of queued fights also can transition over into Control when you take out the old controllers, so you might be able to skip the “gaining control” non-combats entirely.
Why
So defenders in Gang Warfare get to actually fight people rather than hitting a bunch of non-combats. And so that there’s a little more symmetry between attacking and defending. Previously, there was nothing an attacker could do that the defenders couldn’t undo with a non-combat, where now, both sides win or lose in actual PvP.
Other updates for today:
- There were some SQL connection errors which have apparently been resolved by our hosts, but if you run into any more of those, give me a holler. Thanks to Thrillhouse and JTN2002 for reporting these.
- Resolved the PHP errors related to last night’s account preferences rollout. Thanks to Borkman, Lord Finisher, and Hastur the Unspeakable for isolating these.
- Recipes that you cannot complete due to missing components will now have their radio buttons greyed out. Good suggestion, Al and xKiv!
- And also thanks to Jick and Pyren for taking care of some typos for us.
Cheers!
Kinak
Tags: Al, Borkman, Gang Warfare, Hastur the Unspeakable, Jick, JTN2002, Lord Finisher, PvP, Pyren, thrillhouse, Updates, Xkiv
Posted in Updates
