Post by Belouch on Jan 8, 2020 22:15:42 GMT 1
Game Update 9 January 2020
Server/lag/cuts
A lot of work has been conducted in optimizing the server, code and database parameters.
As you may know we had a very serious issue with lag, especially in large fights. After much testing and investigating, the problem was finally solved. This took a lot of our time away from developments but we are finally confident there will not be anymore issue. Here is a few examples of the difference:
We still work on optimizing other aspects of the server/database, so there might still be some hiccups (server not responding for a few minutes) in the near future. We also had some unexpected server hangtime that we suspect to be voluntary. We have added a DDOS protection and a tool to better track their origins. The DDOS protection caused some issues in the beginning (‘Too Many Requests’ white page for those who saw them) but hopefully its triggering threshold is now correct.
Overall we are very happy with the server’s performance. It is night and day compared to the previous one. The average CPU usage is 14% and the RAM usage is very stable at 16%, meaning there is a lot of margin for activity peaks (events) or increased playerbase. We believe this server will be the game’s home for many years to come and that’s why we will keep working on optimizing every aspect of it.
Softcap change
Players complained about the RNG aspect of softcap as they sometimes got no XP from a fight. We changed the system in order to make it less RNG-based.
Here’s how it works now:
Note that numerically and in the long-run, this changes absolutely nothing to how much XP you will get from a specific area after softcap. The modalities of calculus are just different, to avoid an ‘all or nothing’ system with most rounds giving 0XP.
Fight engine tweaks
New portraits
Welcome to the new portraits for Lightfoot, Giant, Dwarr and Nuruk females.
Only Kiith and Mythos female portraits remain.
Big thanks to Danzig for another splendid art!
Terraforming
The terraforming system has also been changed because of issues where some characters would mine the stones and another character would then use them for something else without authorization.
To solve this, we created two new items:
-Excavation stone pile (requires 150 Stoneworking skill, 10 turns and 250 raw stones)
-Log pile (requires 150 Woodworking skill, 10 turns and 250 logs)
That way as soon as you reach 250 logs/stones, you can turn them into an item that cannot be moved or uncrafted.
-You need 6 log piles to turn a forest into a plain tile
-You need 9 stone piles to turn a lvl2 mountain into a lvl1 mountain
-You need 6 stone piles to turn a lvl1 mountain into a plain tile
Christmas Event & Marketing Campaign
The belated Christmas Event is now coming shortly. Holding it with the past lag issues would have been a disaster hence why we postponed it.
Tentative start date, if all goes well, is Sunday 12 January 7pm server time. It will last for 7 days. The location of the event will be around each cap.
In parallel to the event, we will launch a massive marketing campaign to try and get new players: facebook advertisements, official posts in reddits/facebook, temporary boost to recruit rewards (we count on you!), email to inactive characters, etc.
More information on the event will be given in the coming days so stay tuned!
Bugs fixed
-The bug where the newbie tutorial would popup when your session expires is solved. Whenever a session is expired/invalid, the game will send you back to your account page (if an account session is open) or the login page.
-The bug where you could see the map, characters and items on the tile when you are dead is now fixed. Instead you will get a specific ‘Dead’ page which then guides you to your resurrection options.
-Uncrafting items did not increase a character’s turn-count, this is now fixed.
Other changes
-The “You are currently fighting” page has been updated. It now fits the theme of the game and there is no big blinding white screen. It is updated only for the Main Page now, we will also add it for other pages.
-Since encounters have been added in Lava, the Walk on Lava spell duration was increased to 2 hours.
Future priorities
Three major time-consuming projects are now pretty much complete: all the work to make the game more newbie friendly, all the server change/optimization/fixing, and all the anti-cheat.
We can now focus on some more fun stuff:
Server/lag/cuts
A lot of work has been conducted in optimizing the server, code and database parameters.
As you may know we had a very serious issue with lag, especially in large fights. After much testing and investigating, the problem was finally solved. This took a lot of our time away from developments but we are finally confident there will not be anymore issue. Here is a few examples of the difference:
- A 25vsDragon fight would have rounds lasting 50-90 seconds (instead of the normal 20s). After the fix, the rounds were 20s as expected.
- Switching weapon mid-fight would take 10 seconds, now less than 1 second.
- Sending an admin message to all players would timeout after 120 seconds and half the players would not even get the message. It now takes 4 seconds.
- The game should overall feel much snappier.
We still work on optimizing other aspects of the server/database, so there might still be some hiccups (server not responding for a few minutes) in the near future. We also had some unexpected server hangtime that we suspect to be voluntary. We have added a DDOS protection and a tool to better track their origins. The DDOS protection caused some issues in the beginning (‘Too Many Requests’ white page for those who saw them) but hopefully its triggering threshold is now correct.
Overall we are very happy with the server’s performance. It is night and day compared to the previous one. The average CPU usage is 14% and the RAM usage is very stable at 16%, meaning there is a lot of margin for activity peaks (events) or increased playerbase. We believe this server will be the game’s home for many years to come and that’s why we will keep working on optimizing every aspect of it.
Softcap change
Players complained about the RNG aspect of softcap as they sometimes got no XP from a fight. We changed the system in order to make it less RNG-based.
Here’s how it works now:
- If a monster gives 9xp before softcap, the previous code would be 25% chance to get 9xp and 75% chance to get 0xp (overall, it’s dividing the XP by 4 so giving an average of 9/4 = 2.25XP/round
- In this new code, the chances are 75% to give 2XP and 25% to give 3XP.
- If a monster gives 10 pre-softcap (10/4=2.5 after softcap); then the chances would be 50% 2XP and 50% 3XP.
Note that numerically and in the long-run, this changes absolutely nothing to how much XP you will get from a specific area after softcap. The modalities of calculus are just different, to avoid an ‘all or nothing’ system with most rounds giving 0XP.
Fight engine tweaks
- Fight bug: The bug where multiple targets would show when multiple players would jump the same target (ex: dragon) is now fixed.
- Fight bug: The bug where a character would switch target when someone new jumps in a fight is now fixed. Characters will stick to their target no matter who jumps in the fight
- Round initiative: The order of hits in a round is now randomized (it used to be chars with lower IDs swinging first) every round
New portraits
Welcome to the new portraits for Lightfoot, Giant, Dwarr and Nuruk females.
Only Kiith and Mythos female portraits remain.
Big thanks to Danzig for another splendid art!
Terraforming
The terraforming system has also been changed because of issues where some characters would mine the stones and another character would then use them for something else without authorization.
To solve this, we created two new items:
-Excavation stone pile (requires 150 Stoneworking skill, 10 turns and 250 raw stones)
-Log pile (requires 150 Woodworking skill, 10 turns and 250 logs)
That way as soon as you reach 250 logs/stones, you can turn them into an item that cannot be moved or uncrafted.
-You need 6 log piles to turn a forest into a plain tile
-You need 9 stone piles to turn a lvl2 mountain into a lvl1 mountain
-You need 6 stone piles to turn a lvl1 mountain into a plain tile
Christmas Event & Marketing Campaign
The belated Christmas Event is now coming shortly. Holding it with the past lag issues would have been a disaster hence why we postponed it.
Tentative start date, if all goes well, is Sunday 12 January 7pm server time. It will last for 7 days. The location of the event will be around each cap.
In parallel to the event, we will launch a massive marketing campaign to try and get new players: facebook advertisements, official posts in reddits/facebook, temporary boost to recruit rewards (we count on you!), email to inactive characters, etc.
More information on the event will be given in the coming days so stay tuned!
Bugs fixed
-The bug where the newbie tutorial would popup when your session expires is solved. Whenever a session is expired/invalid, the game will send you back to your account page (if an account session is open) or the login page.
-The bug where you could see the map, characters and items on the tile when you are dead is now fixed. Instead you will get a specific ‘Dead’ page which then guides you to your resurrection options.
-Uncrafting items did not increase a character’s turn-count, this is now fixed.
Other changes
-The “You are currently fighting” page has been updated. It now fits the theme of the game and there is no big blinding white screen. It is updated only for the Main Page now, we will also add it for other pages.
-Since encounters have been added in Lava, the Walk on Lava spell duration was increased to 2 hours.
Future priorities
Three major time-consuming projects are now pretty much complete: all the work to make the game more newbie friendly, all the server change/optimization/fixing, and all the anti-cheat.
We can now focus on some more fun stuff:
- Stats and Tribe balancement
- Neutrals: We will look into giving neutrals more options (rez point, events, etc) so that staying out of the two faction system becomes a real possibility
- Gold economic system
