A small problem...and an upcoming update :D

[Karl G.]

Well, the update is coming soon--hooray! I have a lot to rework on the server-end, but I am clear of my last exam for now Considering all of the problems I have been having with the current server, I am considering renting one for this update.

[Burnt Ferret]

looking forward to it... but question: what's up with the current Thad-server?

[Karl G.]

It just keeps going up and down so much...it's unreliable :/

[Karl G.]

So I've been pounding away at the update all weekend, and it seems that this is going to be bigger than I thought. To integrate the new combat system and spell system, even though they are designed, will involve a complete server overhaul. This is both good and bad: it will let me smooth out the game significantly, but at the same time, it is likely going to take until the end of Thanksgiving break to finish. Well, enough talking--back to it

[Exempt]

Sounds like a plan to me . I'll be waiting... I'm not going to put alot of time into lvling till the character wipe is done.

[Karl G.]

Probably a good idea. Sorry about this :/ I'm going to sit down and do some serious coding in the next few days to try to get this thing out there.

[Exempt]

Cool beans.

[Karl G.]

I'm closing in on a solution! Magic is a really tough thing to nail down, but I have almost finished the underlying code that will let me reintroduce spells that everyone has grown to love so much: Vis Flamma Ventus, poison cloud, attack run, gas form...all of them! Yay!

[Exempt]

Very nice.

[prehistoric]

I just spent like an hour compiling a list of the bugs I encountered, while doing serious testing, and I clicked save instead of send I'm thinking, but I clicked yes or send or whatever, but somehow lost it and it's not posted. booo. well, I'm glad servers up again and It's very impressive on a personal, and professional level to see someone acknowledging anticipation from us, and coding your bum off. well done. I can't wait to dive into the fruits of your glory. Ha ...uh weird.

If I dont find the draft i'm sure I saved, I'll eventually re write it :/

p.s. vis flamma ventus....fook yes. *slobbers*

Word -
pre-dawg

[Joe M.]

so ... ?

[Karl G.]

After coding my bum off since last Friday (I pretty much only slept ate and coded)...

I haven't finished the update. I'll explain why in a second--but what I did was definitely necessary. I have been using a server architecture that, while fine for the simplistic roots on which Evidyon was built (adding a little each update) could not support heavy modification because it lacked consistent structure. Each update added features into the existing form, or filled in and expanded when that structure wasn't adequate; however, the result was that when I tried to integrate a completely new magic system that was designed outside of the structure, there just wasn't anywhere that it would logically attach. The modifications needed to support it ended up being so heavy that something else started to happen as I was working it in: the server began to rewrite itself!

I use that phrasing intentionally--I didn't plan on rewriting the server with this update, just tearing out and replacing the combat and magic code. What I found, however, was that as I found places to link the new magic system, there was an immediate need to reform those places. As those changes were made, they spread to more of the code.

What I've ended up with is a completely new server. It is much more scalable, extensible, modular and it will be *far* easier to integrate new components, such as the upcoming Geosids and item-spells. In fact, it's so much better that I ran into a problem that I've never had before: the main server loop runs so ridiculously fast that, before I slowed it down, the speed caused movement bugs due to the limited precision of the variables (!!!) that store character positions.


So where do we stand? Right now, avatar movement--even for fast characters on slow client connections--is almost rock solid. Jumping around and jittering is nearly unnoticeable. With this foundation, I am about to integrate the new magic system and set up some basic spells for it. I have done away with the idea that you can abstract away or template every aspect of the spells, and have made it much easier to hand-code some of the more interesting behaviors that would not have been possible in the old system. It can currently handle everything from enchantments that change how your items look to projectiles that split after having traveled a certain distance, and VFV to poison clouds.

I have also set up the code to handle character groups and included it in the magic code. The party system is integrated in the magic controller, so not only are parties pretty much ready to go but doors are open for cool stuff like buffing spells that affect your whole nearby party, and damage spells that will only hit enemies.

That said, I'm working on spell visualizations at this point. Since this magic system is so different, I have to retool the part of the game editor that configures them and all of the spells will have to be redone. Come to think of it...this is going to be a whopper of an update.



Anyway, after all that I'd like to offer a glimpse of the future. My plan is to release this next update plus one more (to be determined, ETA start of January), then go bananas with content (items, spells, monsters, world design, etc). At the end of January, Evidyon will be launched on a commercial server and will open for public beta testing.

[Joe M.]

Exciting!

So: the coming update will include what all again?

- new server code
- all-new magic & combat systems
- character wipe
- new class system
- new spells/visualizations
+ standard bug fixes: gui, keys, bazaar, &c.

It doesn't seem that Cagen's been around, so I'll try to find time tonight to recompile a comprehensive bug list for you, Karl. I make no promises though: this here might end up as the busiest week of my semester.

-Joe

P.S. Is anybody else still around?

[Exempt]

I am.

[Joe M.]

Glad you are, Enchantress. We also heard from Prehistoric recently, but that's about it ...

Never mind on that comprehensive bug list. Cagen's thread covers it all in a pretty well-organized manner, so there's no need for a new one.

But, a map of where we're headed would be nice. Here's what I've gleaned from your various posts, Karl.

Update Plan
Goals for the proximate update:

* New server code
* Re-work GUI (re-write?)
* Character movement
* New combat system
* New spell system
* Party system

Goals for future update(s), pre-Content-Rush:

* Spell combos
* Geosids
* Item-Spells
* Consumables
* Wipe and Rebuild races/classes

Goals for Content-Rush

* Map
* Monsters
* NPCs
* Spells
* Items
* Quests

Correct?

[Karl G.]

Glad you're still sticking with us Enchantress

Here are some notes on the update plan:

Update Plan
Goals for the proximate update:

* New server code - Almost finished
* Re-work GUI (re-write?) - Pretty much done
* Character movement - Finished!
* New combat system - Yep. I have designed the system that automatically handles physical combat attacking/blocking
* New spell system - Yes!
* Party system - This one is a "I hope I can get this in". It seems that it could add a lot to gameplay, though, so I am going to try hard to implement it.

Goals for future update(s), pre-Content-Rush:

* Spell combos - Spell combos are essentially implemented with the new spell system--a combo is just a spell-recipe that gives access to a unique, already-designed spell. The only thing I'd have to add is the combo-searcher.
* Geosids
* Item-Spells
* Consumables
* Wipe and Rebuild races/classes

Goals for Content-Rush

* Map
* Monsters
* NPCs - This one is a maybe. The biggest challenge here will be designing them; I could use some ideas about how to make them interactive, but simple
* Spells
* Items
* Quests - Also a maybe. Quests aren't implemented yet, but I'll put them in as soon as I have a better feel for what they need to be able to do. After all, if I just write something without a real plan, I'll end up having to rewrite it...

Correct?[/quote]

[ubern00ber]

Also, Karl, before you release any sort of Beta version, there's plenty of hacks that still exist in the game(like, for example, transing onto any coordinate on the map , althought I haven't tested this one lately... maybe you fixed it) and stat point hacks... You should start implementing server-side checks for anything and everything that is generated on the client. All clicks, spell casts, character-creation stat points(well, you did half of what's needed for this one.. there's still something you missed out) have to be secured before beta.

Good luck with it all Karl.

[Karl G.]

Also, Karl, before you release any sort of Beta version, there's plenty of hacks that still exist in the game(like, for example, transing onto any coordinate on the map , althought I haven't tested this one lately... maybe you fixed it) and stat point hacks... You should start implementing server-side checks for anything and everything that is generated on the client. All clicks, spell casts, character-creation stat points(well, you did half of what's needed for this one.. there's still something you missed out) have to be secured before beta.

Good luck with it all Karl.

Thanks! Now that I have a better idea of what is required of a magic system, I have implemented it in such a way that these checks are really easy to do, and don't require ugly hacks. I expect the next update to be far more secure.

As far as the character creation stat points, what did I miss out on? I thought I had tested that pretty thoroughly.


Also, a quick status report:
I have actually tested the magic system for the first time (with a real spell & spell effects!) It works perfectly!
The spell I implemented was a "group teleport". It won't actually be implemented in the real game right now, but it was straightforward to test. It allows you to take members of your group that are near by with you when you teleport. Might be kinda nifty as a rescue tool, come to think of it.

Anyway, it's my girlfriend's 21st birthday today so I'm taking the rest of the day off

[ubern00ber]

Strength + Agility + Constitution + Intelligence + Wisdom must equal 75.(i think 75, anyway, dunno if you changed that from xeni)

In any case, it might have been fixed in recent updates, as this was something I did maybe a month or 2 ago...

Edit: Wait.. I haven't played this game in too long.. lol is it even strength/agil/con/int/wis or did you change the names of those? I should probably get this game again lol and test things.

[Karl G.]

If you wouldn't mind

[ubern00ber]

I wanna eventually see what your packet structure is like(namely, the packets sent for updating the positions of everyone on screen). The reason for this, mostly, is that I remember back when I played that it would get REALLY laggy if a lot of enemies were on screen(like, far more laggy then it would ever in xenimus with that number of enemies). I worked on XPS for some time and fully discovered EJ's packet system and I must say that his is not bad at all and that the creation of a system sort of similar to his would probably help that lag.

Like, for example, how many bytes does each "actor" on the screen take up in the packet when they are, for example, idling? or attacking, etc.

[ubern00ber]

Oh and just for the record, the way of getting d3dx9_39.dll to work that was in the troubleshooting forum didn't work for me. I fixed it in my own way(downloaded the dll and placed it in the Evidyon folder). Just a heads up incase that's not working for anyone else.

[ubern00ber]

Anyway this is what you missed as far as stats go:


20 + 16 + 19 + 16 + 19 = 90 = 15 points more then I should be allowed to have...

You basically did checks to make sure that every stat is within its range(10-20 for strength, for example) but did not check to make sure that the total number of stat points is 75.

[Karl G.]

I wanna eventually see what your packet structure is like(namely, the packets sent for updating the positions of everyone on screen). The reason for this, mostly, is that I remember back when I played that it would get REALLY laggy if a lot of enemies were on screen(like, far more laggy then it would ever in xenimus with that number of enemies). I worked on XPS for some time and fully discovered EJ's packet system and I must say that his is not bad at all and that the creation of a system sort of similar to his would probably help that lag.

Like, for example, how many bytes does each "actor" on the screen take up in the packet when they are, for example, idling? or attacking, etc.

Do you happen to recall the XPS system? I would be interested in knowing what EJ did.

The system I have implemented is rather straightforward with no real optimizing tricks. At the moment, each update packet is ~24 bytes of data+overhead. Update packets are generated differently depending on how your character is moving. Movement from A to B, for example, generates exactly 2 packets. Continuously changing your direction while running generates one packet every 300 milliseconds.

[Karl G.]

Anyway this is what you missed as far as stats go:


20 + 16 + 19 + 16 + 19 = 90 = 15 points more then I should be allowed to have...

You basically did checks to make sure that every stat is within its range(10-20 for strength, for example) but did not check to make sure that the total number of stat points is 75.

Fixed! I actually had the check for this commented out. Thanks