chris aka sunshine
Cadet
Joined: May 29, 2001
Posts: 1649
From: Germany
|  Posted: 2003-09-02 16:20
19:57:26 [Admin]Faustus: "anyway....lets get this meeting started"
19:57:24 [PB]sono [Quistis for [Admin]]: "so F how is progess on the core issues"
19:57:35 [Admin]Faustus: "oh wait, let me go get a drink real quick... "
* Room is now moderated...
19:59:08 [Admin]Faustus: "anyway... basically, what I've been working on is a combination of the sync/lag/intelligence issues caused by the new server backend... "
19:59:52 [Admin]Faustus: "basically, there were problems with the US server that needed to get addressed, the main issue was the memory usage... (in addition to the sync/intel issues).."
20:00:37 [Admin]Faustus: "what this boiled down too, was some flaws in the design of the server backend... one flaw, was that only 1 process could lock and update 1 zone.... since we had 27 active zones, this ment we needed 27 processes, each using 40mb of memory... "
20:01:00 [Admin]Faustus: "so memory was one major concern, that is being addressed... "
20:01:32 [Admin]Faustus: "in the new design, 1 process can be updating as many zones as needed... it's no longer 1 zone 1 process, but 1 process many zones now... "
20:02:59 [Admin]Faustus: "chromix, is updating the scripting engine to use lua 5.0...."
20:03:08 [Admin]Faustus: "FYI"
20:03:20 [Admin]Faustus: "anyway, the new design is using an entirely new communications layer... "
20:03:42 [Dev]Gideon: "The Bozone layer."
* [-GTN-]Demorian backs cautiously away from [Dev]Gideon.
20:04:45 [Admin]Faustus: "the new layer uses priority levels now, so ciritical information gets to clients faster, while non-critical data get get queued until bandwidth is available.."
20:05:55 [Admin]Faustus: "additionally, the new layer handles data alot better... meaning, data being sent to multiple clients is kept as 1 single object through the server backend... where before, we might be sending 20 copies of the same thing to 20 different clients through the backend"
20:06:31 [Admin]Faustus: "what this will mean, is alot less lag and the ability to handle alot more clients in the end.."
20:07:18 [Admin]Faustus: "anyway... guess thats it for my rant... who is moderating questions for this chat?"
20:07:38 [Admin]sunshine: "i'll try my best  "
* [Dev]Chromix points at sunshine...
* [*TS*]Axianda *XO* points to sunshine
20:07:48 [Evil]Hussaro {C?}: "*whistles innocently*"
20:07:41 [PB]Varzadium: "can i give a shout out to the back-end and all his packets?"
20:07:57 [Admin]Faustus: "k, whisper your questons to sunshine..."
20:08:45 [Admin]Faustus: "zzzzzzzzzzz"
20:08:53 [Admin]Faustus: "did I get disconnected?"
20:08:53 [Admin]sunshine: "* [Evil]Rocketeer [Montys Royal Jester] whispered "how would you define what critical and non-critical information is within the new communication layer?""
20:08:56 [Admin]sunshine: "here we go.."
* [Evil]Hussaro {C?} pokies faustus awake
20:08:57 [PB]Varzadium: "when is the patch coming out then ? i think everyone is thinking that"
20:09:16 [Admin]Faustus: "non-critical = chat, out of zone updates, etc..."
20:09:33 [Admin]Faustus: "yeah, lets answer the obivous one first.. when is this going to be ready for release... "
20:10:53 [Admin]Faustus: "welp, I'm on TODO item #2 in my short list, after this is wrapped up, we need to finish up mission system code (pretty easy stuff)... then we should be ready... I would expect an update to beta within a week or 2.... then 1 week to finish up mission code at the most."
20:11:31 [Admin]Faustus: "so basically, we're atleast 2 weeks at best, 3 weeks at most... for release of the patch"
20:11:45 [Admin]Faustus: "thats my best guess at this point  "
20:11:58 [Admin]sunshine: "rdy for the next question?"
20:12:08 [Admin]Faustus: "yep, next q"
20:12:16 [Admin]sunshine: "* [BIS]abyss whispered "when are the Dictors standing near Home jumpgates be removed?""
20:13:23 [Dev]Chromix: "After either the homegates got moved away from the planets, or all gadgets (ecm, eccm, dictor etc) get disabled when you enter the safezone"
20:14:10 [Admin]sunshine: "F got disconnected.. "
20:14:14 [Admin]Faustus: "sorry, got dc..."
20:14:59 [Admin]Faustus: "thanks chromix.."
20:15:06 [Admin]sunshine: "* [BIS]abyss whispered "I also meant for that about 1481 if they will be there too " "
20:15:45 [Admin]Faustus: "@abyss ... it's considering an exploit by the ROC.... so if someone is doing it, /report them... and they will get /kicked"
20:16:18 [Admin]sunshine: "i guess abyss was talking about the GateGuard AI"
20:17:00 [Admin]Faustus: "next q"
20:17:19 [Admin]sunshine: "* -TheVirtu [Montys Royal Info Minister] whispered "One question, one suggestion: Question...what happened to the public staff meetings? Suggestion: Change the name of the newbie server to darkspace.net Commander ... newbie just kinda makes it look like the loser server...""
20:18:24 [Admin]Faustus: "@virtu... don't know what happened to them or the private dev meeting, guess someone got happy with the events editor.. "
20:18:41 [Admin]Faustus: "as for the "Newbie" server... I might change that to "Training" or something..."
20:18:53 [Dev]Gideon: "Cadet"
20:18:55 [Admin]sunshine: "maybe even Trial server.."
20:19:05 [Admin]Faustus: "but the name needs to be obvious to new players that's where they go to play.."
20:19:11 [Admin]Faustus: "for the first time.."
20:19:28 [Evil]Hussaro {C?}: "I still like darkspec.netCommnader... kinda fits better with Captain and FleetAdmiral"
20:19:44 [Admin]Faustus: "yeah, but Commander sounds higher than Captain.."
20:19:47 [Admin]sunshine: "* [LXF]James725 whispered "is a badge been given out for the current beta?" "
20:19:58 [Evil]Hussaro {C?}: "true true"
20:20:14 [Dev]Shigernafy: "We will discuss it in more depth and decide some other time (Dev meeting perhaps); lets get on with the questions, shall we.."
20:20:25 [Dev]Shigernafy: "Thanks for the suggestion, though. "
20:20:26 [Admin]Faustus: "@James725 ... yes, when we wrap up beta testing on 1.481, anyone with 2 hours or more in their profile will receive the beta badge... and yes, I'm aware of the time played bug... "
20:20:39 [Admin]Faustus: ":)"
20:20:53 [Admin]Faustus: "I will fix the time played profile issue in the next beta update... "
20:20:59 [Admin]Faustus: "next q"
20:21:00 [Admin]Faustus: "..."
20:21:01 [Admin]sunshine: "* [PB]sono [Quistis for [Admin]] @42533 Sent "are you following some kind of roadmap and what does it look like?""
20:22:05 [Admin]sunshine: "kinda fits with this questions.. "
20:22:07 [Admin]sunshine: "* [=SSC=]Mariano (Peace) whispered "when the patch finally gets out how long will it be till the next patch like balance, new stuff and such. just a rough guess?""
20:22:23 [Admin]Faustus: "@sono ... well my immediate roadmap is to get a new server backend in place so we could actually handle a huge number of players... once thats done and wrapped up, I will go into more of a update mode for the game while I begin working on the ground combat side of darkspace for ds2..."
20:22:57 [PB]Varzadium: "darkspace 2?"
20:23:20 [Admin]Faustus: "basically, I won't move on to ds2 until I've got ALL of the features I have planned implmented... meaning platforms, new server backend, new gadgest/weapons, etc.."
20:24:13 [Admin]Faustus: "@Mariano ... once we get 1.481 out, I think the next patch would be out within 1 month... "
20:24:36 [Admin]sunshine: "* [~Z~]Red Kerensky {IMC} whispered "Is there a way so that we do not have to use the current Communications system, I really dislike having to click on team, or yell, etc. etc. etc. just to chat...""
20:25:26 [Admin]Faustus: "@red... you don't have to anymore... /fleet, /faction are always for your own fleet faction now... "
20:25:44 [Admin]Faustus: "the only command that takes in account your current target, is the /target chat command.."
20:26:02 [Admin]sunshine: "* [~Z~]Red Kerensky {IMC} whispered "edit to question: Meant to say Current Communications system in Beta""
20:26:19 [Admin]Faustus: "that is the current system in beta..."
20:26:34 [Admin]Faustus: "or should be... perhaps I'm brain-farting ... "
20:27:23 [Admin]sunshine: "next q?"
20:27:28 [Admin]Faustus: "next q..."
20:27:33 [Admin]sunshine: "* [=SSC=]Drafell (Recruiting) whispered "what are the plans (if any) to encourage new people to join DS so that we can perform a proper server load test when final beta arrives?""
20:27:34 [Admin]Faustus: "yeah, please, sorry.."
20:28:33 [Admin]Faustus: "@Drafell ... one thing, is the referral system I will be putting into place soon (hopefully)... also, once we down to the last week of testing before release, we will be sending out news to all the gaming sites as well... "
20:28:59 [Admin]Faustus: "in other words, I'll be doing some press releases to build up the player counts once we ready for them.."
20:29:14 [Admin]Faustus: "prolly, will do mass mailings of the current user database as well FYI... "
20:29:17 [Admin]Faustus: "next q..."
20:29:29 [Admin]sunshine: "* [-[A]-]The Pink Panther™ [Montys Royal Adviser] whispered "How come PaleStar is using server memory for the captain server because I rarely even see one person in it?""
20:30:35 [Admin]Faustus: "@Pink ... yeah, we've taken it down before, and people complained... it's not much memory, only 10mb.... so no big deal... keep in mind thats the old code too... the new code, since each server has the entire state of the universe in memory of all other systems (including the ones it's not updating) use alot more memory."
20:30:43 [Admin]sunshine: "several months ago we were running 2 FA servers at full oad.. "
20:31:11 [Admin]Faustus: "next q..."
20:31:34 [Admin]sunshine: "* [PB]sono [Quistis for [Admin]] @42533 Sent "ok.. heres another then: are there any guidelines as of yet how the balance patch will be worked out? i.e. will there be a complete overhaul and under what premises will it be done etc..""
20:32:20 [Admin]sunshine: "com'on ppl, running short on questions "
20:32:22 [Admin]Faustus: "@sono... none as yet, our energies are focused on the current version... "
20:32:59 [Admin]Faustus: "but, we will be using some formal methods for determining balance between the factions... and ships I'm sure."
20:33:05 [Admin]Faustus: "next q.."
20:33:11 [Admin]sunshine: "* [~Z~]CharAznable [~Z~] whispered "b4 the press release will you be updateing the Screen shots section, and if so, will you consider holding a contest for good screen shots sent in by players?""
20:33:51 [Admin]Faustus: "@char.... yes, it will get updated soon... and yes, player submitted screenshots are always wanted.. I think the email is shots@palestar.com"
20:34:41 [Admin]Faustus: "and for maps, maps@palestar.com to submit your maps"
20:35:01 [Admin]Faustus: "next q.."
20:35:03 [Admin]sunshine: "* [=SSC=]Drafell (Recruiting) whispered "any additional star systems planned for 1.481 release. if so how many?""
20:35:17 [Dev]Shigernafy: "I have been planning on running a shot competition for a long time.. I will start it after the patch is out, so the shots are of the latest game code."
20:36:38 [Admin]Faustus: "@Drafell ... yes, in fact thats one reason I'm doing some reworking of the backend... so we can maximize our server backend to allow for many more star systems in the metaverse. I think we have around 10-15 new star systems from the previous contest that will get imported into the new metaverse, the actual number I'm not sure on without doing some work to find out."
20:37:02 [Admin]Faustus: "next q.."
20:37:12 [Admin]sunshine: "* [=SSC=]Drafell (Recruiting) whispered "given the updated server code, what is a maximum number or players that could theoretically be supported in a single zone?""
20:38:03 [Dev]Gideon: "3"
20:38:05 [Dev]Gideon: "j/k"
20:38:37 [Admin]Faustus: "@Drafell ... zones will split dynamically into smaller zones if the number of objects in a zone increase over a limit... so thats a hard one to answer since the backend will make zones smaller if too many players are inside 1 zone.. "
20:39:13 [Admin]Faustus: "but, obivously, we can't split until 1 zone is 1x1 gu... we have to stop at a reasonable level"
20:40:09 [Admin]Faustus: "basically,the code will try to handle any number... it's the clients in the zone that will being lagging out if say there were 1,000 players orbiting earth, that might be a problem for most connections."
20:41:07 [Admin]Faustus: "next q.."
20:41:10 [Admin]sunshine: " * [PB]sono [Quistis for [Admin]] @42533 Sent "oh and the tough one: are zone boundaries completely seamless now?""
20:41:37 [Admin]Faustus: "@sono ... they will be"
20:41:43 [Admin]Faustus: "or else "
20:42:05 [Admin]Faustus: "I'll have to cut off my big toe if they aren't.. "
20:42:13 [Admin]Faustus: "next q.. "
20:42:16 [Admin]sunshine: "ouch "
20:42:16 [Admin]sunshine: "* [LXF]James725 whispered "will the new patch have new ships if so what will be the difference?""
20:43:02 [Admin]Faustus: "@james... any new ships will be 1.482.... and prolly just new configurations if anything."
20:43:12 [Admin]Faustus: "next q"
20:43:24 [Admin]sunshine: "* [=SSC=]Drafell (Recruiting) whispered "what are the plans for upgradeable ship systems?""
20:44:43 [Admin]Faustus: "@Drafell ... basically, each device is going to have an upgrade level... 0 - 100.... these upgrades would be done by another engineering/supply ship... and will take even longer for each upgrade level, i.e. (4 days to upgrade to level 75 for example)... "
20:45:02 [Admin]Faustus: "30 seconds to upgrade from 0 to 1... etc"
20:45:24 [Admin]Faustus: "the upgrade level will directly affect the performance (i.e. damage, velocity, etc) of the specified device.."
20:46:04 [Admin]Faustus: "some ships, will come with some devices already upgraded, for example.. cruisers will come with better shields/armor than a destroyer.."
20:46:11 [Admin]Faustus: "etc..."
20:46:16 [Admin]sunshine: "* [Evil]Rocketeer [Montys Royal Jester] whispered "are the upgradeable systems in 1.481 or 1.482?""
20:46:17 [Admin]Faustus: "next q.."
20:46:28 [Admin]Faustus: "1.482.."
20:46:38 [Admin]Faustus: "they will be part of the balance patch ..."
20:46:40 [Admin]sunshine: "* [-[A]-]The Pink Panther™ [Montys Royal Adviser] whispered "I think another question several people are thinking is will there be "pIRATE Pirates" in the next couple of patches?""
20:46:43 [Admin]Faustus: "next q.."
20:47:08 [Admin]Faustus: "@Panther... I REALLY want AI controlled pirates in the MV... that would be cool"
20:47:33 [Admin]Faustus: "I will try to make sure it happens soon.. "
20:47:37 [Admin]Faustus: "next q.."
20:47:43 [Admin]sunshine: "* [*TS*]Axianda *XO* whispered "are you planning to have some otions counter eachother? so tougher hull means less speed etc etc""
20:48:30 [Admin]Faustus: "@Axianda ... correct, armor already adds mass, which is why UGTO ships are slower than ICC.... upgrade levels will affect the mass of armor for sure."
20:48:44 [Admin]Faustus: "next q.."
20:48:53 [Admin]sunshine: "* [=SSC=]Mariano (Peace) whispered "what about all the suggestions in the suggestion forums. do you read them sometimes and pick some out? can you list some adds to come?""
20:50:11 [Admin]Faustus: "@mariano... yes, I try to read the suggestions forum when I can... about 50% of the things I'm implementing (adding) are from player suggestions, one example is the Womhole Device that will be going onto stations.."
20:50:56 [Admin]Faustus: "for this patch however, things that needed to get done that nobody knew we needed are being implemented.. "
20:51:18 [Admin]Faustus: "we'll be looking hard a player suggestions for updates after this version.."
20:51:20 [Admin]Faustus: "next q.."
20:51:28 [Admin]sunshine: "* [PB]sono [Quistis for [Admin]] whispered "it would be cool if the beta client would render zone boundaries for testing only if thats a 5 minute implementation thing.. maybe you can do it?""
20:51:32 [Admin]Faustus: "a = at"
20:51:46 [Admin]Faustus: "@sono ... yeah, can be done..."
20:51:57 [Admin]Faustus: "next q..."
20:52:04 [Admin]sunshine: "* [-[A]-]Captain Tinkle whispered "can we have sheilds that instead of changing at 1 percent per push can we change it so we push the button once it changed it 10 percent?"""
20:53:14 [Admin]Faustus: "@Tinkle ... actually, it is by 10% increments.."
20:53:23 [Admin]Faustus: "last q... "
20:53:33 [Admin]sunshine: "* [PB]sono [Quistis for [Admin]] whispered "do you consider improving the tactical view so that we can at least distinguish ships from projectiles? a constant display of distances and target names, both toggleable, or an elite-style miniradar were suggested""
20:53:35 [Dev]Chromix: "What he meant is 10% of max capacity, not 10% of current value"
20:53:40 [Dev]Chromix: "But that can be changed I think..."
20:54:16 [Admin]Faustus: "well, it's a bug if it's 10% of current capacity, it shoudl be 10% of max... "
20:54:53 [Admin]Faustus: "@sono.... yes, I would consider some suggestions for improving the tactical view... "
20:55:32 [Admin]Faustus: "anyway, lets wrap this up... so I can get back to work "
20:55:43 [Admin]Faustus: "thanks to everyone for coming... firstly"
20:55:51 [Admin]Faustus: "thanks to the mods and admins for guarding me... "
* [-GTN-]Demorian crushes [-[A]-]AgentStarblazer into the floor with the Supergargantuan Ultradecorated Overlygoldlined blue Sledgehammer of DOOM.
20:56:24 [-GTN-]Demorian: "No hitting Faustus."
* [*TS*]Axianda *XO* wants [-[A]-]AgentStarblazer to know its not funny
20:57:03 [Admin]Trag: "Did you do anything special with the family during the labor day weekend F?"
20:57:05 [Admin]Faustus: "hehe"
20:57:09 [Admin]Faustus: "phone call.."
20:57:17 [Admin]Faustus: "go play now... "
* Room is no longer moderated...
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Christian 'sunshine' Weyand
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