May 25 update
May 25 2011
Hello Xsyon Citizens!
The server and client have been updated with a patch.
– Tree data saved in a new database system on the server only.
– All trees have been restored.This is a major update to the server which is why we focused on patching out only these changes with this build. Our old system required a ‘world update’ to run while the server is offline to update tree data daily and required patching out ‘baking’ permanent changes to tree data and patching them out through the launcher.
The new system manages trees entirely on the server and will allow us to spawn, plant and grow trees without an offline world update. This is a major step towards implementing agriculture. The next step will include the gathering of seeds, primarily from cones found near trees, and planting them to sprout new trees. Trees will also sprout every Spring near existing trees.
I don’t have more information to announce regarding the upcoming agriculture system as we are still working out the details. When we are ready, we will have the test server available to show these changes in progress and will solicit feedback from the community.
Our next major changes will involve the combat revisions. I’m personally waiting to see what our combat programmer and animator have worked out so far and expect to see the first (and biggest) step, using mouse controlled directional swings tomorrow. I will keep everyone posted as I would like players to join us in checking out combat changes on the test server as soon as possible.
Enjoy!
May 23 update
May 23 2011
Hello Xsyon Citizens!
We are on track for an update this Wednesday. This update will include our new tree and plant data system which will allow us to start implementing tree planting and agriculture. With this update all trees will be respawned.
We are currently making some changes to the website and our back end systems.
– Reorganizing the Developer Zone and FAQ list. This is explained here:
http://www.xsyon.com/forum/showthrea…and-FAQ-How-to…– Questions will be answered weekly. At the end of each month we will check through the FAQ and revise answers if necessary. As Xsyon will be continously evolving, some details are bound to change.
– The Developer Zone will soon include direct Requests for Feedback. These requests will focus on new features such as combat revisions. GuideRaguel will be running the request threads and is the main person to go to with your suggestions and balance issues.
– We’ve added a Suggestion tracker for player suggestions. I will announce when this is ready for public use.
– We are cleaning out the Bug Tracker and copying issues to a new private system used by the development team. The Bug Tracker will be checked daily and updated with fixed or resolved issues once a week.
– We are adding the ability to purchase pre-paid time through the accounts page. This can be done with a credit or paypal accounts with or without credit cards and will allow players to purchase game time without a recurring subscription.
Most of this will be wrapped up this week.
We are also close to showing some of our combat revisions to the public on the test server. We need to sort out and recreate some animations and this should be ready for feedback by the end of the week.
That’s all for now!
May 22 update
May 22 2011 7:30 AM UTC
Hello Xsyon Citizens!
The server suddenly started locking up today which caused us to have to reboot the server with small rollbacks. I apologize for this but this is unexpected as the server has been running fine since the last corrected server update on May 18. After examining the server logs, the problem seems to be with some specific creature actions, so we’ve copied to the data that was locking up to the test server and have restored creatures on the main server to their intial spawn state.
The intitial creature spawn state sets creatures closer to the starting zones. They will breed and spread out as usual.
I will post a longer update tomorrow regarding changes we are doing to the website and what we have in store for this week’s update. Right now I need to assist the other programmers in tracking and fixing the cause of the server lock ups today.
May 18 update
May 18 2011 11:40 PM UTC
Hello Xsyon Citizens!
The server has been updated with a quick patch as some recent changes were causing the server to lock up. We will be monitoring closely as usual to make sure this issue is now fixed.
Enjoy!
May 18 2011 4:20 AM UTC
Hello Xsyon Citizens!
The server and client have been updated with a patch. This patch includes:
Update:
-Crafting revisions.
Crafted quality and duration are based on:
Materials used.
Player craft skill and associated stats.
Tools used.
Forager and Scrapper tools add to duration.
Trapper and Pioneer tools add to quality.
Luck.-Crafted object decay. Tools, armor and weapons decay with use and will break.
-Duration updated for existing crafted items.
-Combat armor targeting issues fixed. The protection effect of armor should be more prominent now.
-Continued AI revisions
-Server optimization and minor bug fixes.In Progress:
-Crafted object additional properties and bonuses.
-Revised tree data storage system to prepare for tree planting and farming.
This will be accompanied by a full tree reset when it is patched out.-Tool tip improvements.
-Crafted object repair.
-Crafted object and building dismantling.
-Full combat system revision.
-Server cluster set up.The first two items listed are currently being checked on the test server. The tree data storage revision was a major task which took up the bulk of our time over the past two weeks and it just requires some final testing. As this is nearly done and I expect we will do some further adjustments to use decay after receiving feedback, we may have another patch ready in a few days rather than wait for next week. The rest of the items are in progress or next up on our list.
I just arrived home from my 2 week tour around Russia so we will make quicker progress now. This trip was a great success to meet new team members and get things organized. Everyone is excited for the future!
May 11 update
May 11 2011
Hello Xsyon Citizens!
A quick update today to keep you all informed:
There will not be a client patch today as my schedule is too hectic travelling and meeting with new and old team members. I will be back in the US next Tuesday. I will patch out a test build as soon as I can so that the public can connect to our test server while we continue balancing decay.
In order of priority we are currently working on:
-Decay and crafting changes – not much left to finish here, so this will be ready for next week’s update.
-Tree data saving. When this is done we will restore all trees.
-Combat revisions. We’ve started implementing a new system. This will take some time, but we will allow players to check our changes in progress on the test server.My updates will be brief until I return home as I have much to work on. Enjoy!
May 9 update
May 9 2011
Hello everyone!
There is currently a critical terraforming bug on the server at the moment and we need everyone to stop terraforming for now.
Thanks. (The issue with terraforming has been fixed).
May 8 update
May 8 2011
Hello Xsyon Citizens!
A quick note for today:
We will update the server to correct the current terrain problems with our next scheduled maintenance (Monday 2:00 AM PST). The problem was caused by rounding off terrain heights to reduce memory usage. It’s been corrected while keeping our optimizations.
That’s all for now!
May 7 update
May 7 2011
A quick update today to answer some questions and concerns:
1. The shifted terrain players have noticed is due to terraformed terrain heights being rounded off to reduce memory usage. One of our programmers will focus on correcting this immediately and may contact some of the players that have reported problems. We will fix problems on the test server first and may ask some of you to join us to make sure your tribal lands are correct before we patch changes to the public server.
2. Some architecture parts have been deliberately resized to form a more consistent and interchangeable kit of parts. There are many new parts that will be added soon. One particular wall (the wide limestone wall) may be rescaled soon, but only if we write a script to replace all current walls with two wall segments.
3. Quality levels do have an effect, as they are transferred from the material to a crafted object. Quality tools affect the quality of armor and weapons, which will play an important part in the revised combat system we will start working on this week.
4. Some players have reported quality of items not stacking correctly. What you are seeing is an effect of the tool tip information being cached. If you merge a stack of objects it currently takes about a 30 seconds to refresh the information so that you see the correct quality value of the merged stack. This will be fixed for the next update to avoid further confusion.
I think that answers the primary concerns for now. I’ll get back to work!
May 6 update
May 6 2011
Hello Xsyon citizens!
Please make sure to install using the latest installer. This install should remove your old data files and do reinstall the new compressed versions. The download servers, game server and client have all been updated.
This update includes:
Updated Installer
The installer is prepared for future updates to automatically remove files that need to be updated if necessary. This will allow you to update easilly to new installers without doing a full reinstall.
Updated Patcher
The patcher uses compressed files and the total download has been reduced to less than 50% of the original size.
The patcher allows you to connect to the main server or the test server, using a test client, when available. We will post when the test server is open for public tests. This will help us check out and balance some of the upcoming changes with combat and agriculture before patching the changes to the main server.
-Issues causing potential time outs or disconnects have been fixed.
-The patch order for removing, adding and modifying files has been rearranged to reduce total patching time.
-The patcher now displays download speed.
-The patcher should now display progress better through all steps of the patching process.Game Update
This is primarily a creature update with additional data and systems prepared for the near future.
-Creatures age, grow and breed.
-Creatures hide when threatened and hibernate depending on the season.
-Creature AI and pathfinding has been further improved.
-All current animals are in game.
-Item Tooltips are back on. Tooltips have been optimized to use client side caching.
-Problems with creatures or players getting out of bounds causing the server to crash have been fixed.
-Collision detection has been revised for speed.
-Minor bugs with some armor parts and recipes have been fixed.In Progress:
-Crafted object decay.
-Crafted object additional properties and bonuses.
-Crafted object repair.
-Crafted object and building dismantling.
-Revised tree data storage system to prepare for tree planting and farming.
-Starting the full combat system revision. This will be made available on the test server as soon as possible.Enjoy!
May 6 2011 5:00 AM UTC
This update may take a while as we are setting up the download servers. I will post as soon as it’s ready.
May 6 2011
The servers will be down at 4:00 AM UTC for a patch. I will post a link to the new installer at this time. The new installer will require a full reinstall and download as we’ve switched to compressed files. The download is less than half of the original download now.
I will post a full update once the patch is up!
May 5 update
May 5 2011
Hello Xsyon citizens!
The launcher finally looks ready for the public. The launcher programmer ran additional tests while I was travelling and discovered a few more problems that could potentially cause disconnects while patching. These have been fixed and tested now.
I’ve prepared a current build and the test team will be checking it for critical issues today while the current files are uploading to the patch servers. We will test for the next 6-8 hours and if there are no critical issues the new installer will be made available.
I will announce this at least one hour before we do the update. This update will take place of the next scheduled daily maintenance.
As stated before, Wednesday will be our regular day for updates. If we have critical updates such as the current update, however, updates will be patched as soon as they are ready.
May 4 update
May 4 2011
Hello Xsyon citizens!
A quick update: I’m in Moscow now meeting with Nikolay, one of our new programmers. We’re going over our strategy to implement combat revisions over the month of May.
The improved launcher will allow for us to patch out test builds and all players will be welcome to check out our working builds in progress and provide feedback while we fine tune the system.
We are still testing and making some changes to our current build before we patch out the improved launcher and next update. As soon as we’re comfortable that this update is ready for the public I will post here again. It’s close, but there are a few minor issues that we are resolving with the launcher still timing out too easy in some cases. I’ll get back to work now!
April 29 updates
April 29 2011
Hello Xsyon citizens!
The launcher and a the next client and server update are ready, however we’re going to continue testing throughout the weekend and hold off on patching this out until I’ve arrived in Moscow. I leave early Monday morning and I don’t want any last minute emergencies with this build to happen as I’m preparing for this trip or while I’m in the air.
Wednesday will be our regular day for patches unless we have additional critical patches that need to be made.
I will work with Dezgard tomorrow on a system for keeping the launcher window up to date with critical information and hopefully we will have that ready before my departure.
April 29 2011
Hello everyone!
First of all we are in the final testing phase of our launcher improvements. I will post later today to announce the next update. The new launcher will require a full download, however the download is now less than half of what it previously was.
The following is a response to another thread but I am copying this here to keep all of you informed.
I apologize for the rough launch. We do our best to resolve issues as they arise and I’m proud of what we’ve accomplished in the past 6 weeks. A lot of gameplay improvements had to be placed on hold as we worked through bigger problems with lag, slow frame rate, loading times, crashes and exploits. I realize that these fixes and optimizations don’t give you players the satisfaction that new and improved features will, but they were critical issues that needed to be dealt with so that we can move forward.
Regarding game features: some were temporarily disabled to help us focus on fixing problems, some are being completely revised thanks to our new programmers and some will be replaced or modified to accommodate our plans to add farming, expansions and conflict into the game. That is the nature of the Prelude and Xsyon in general. We will do better to adjust the feature list to the current state of the game, what is changing and what is evolving.
One thing that I want to make clear about the Prelude is that this is a period for evolving the game. Things will constantly change. Our goal is to provide the right tools and systems so that players can make things happen. The Prelude is intended as a process between players and developers. With the coming launcher update, players will be able to join us on the test server to check out our changes in progress.
In this past month we’ve doubled the size of the team, but we are still very small. Our new members are just settling into their roles and there is intentional overlap between development and community management. Many changes to the website systems, communication plans and the structure of the team are in progress. At the same time, I have had to focus on our improved launcher, getting the new programmers acquainted with the code and preparing to spend the next few weeks in Russia where I will be meeting the new developers and setting up shop in the near future.
Danathur and Dezgard were chosen for their experience and vision. I am confident they will do well in providing much needed interaction with the community.
Let us know what is bothering you in a constructive manner and we can respond better to what is critical for both the game and the community. We all want the same thing here, so I appreciate all of your feedback and assistance in letting things happen and making things happen! Let’s all make Xsyon a great game and community!
April 27 updates
April 27 2011
I would like to add that once the updated launcher / patcher is ready we will patch out our current build. This build focuses on improved creature AI including creature breeding, hibernating and hiding. The patch will be accompanied by a large spawn of creatures which will then multiply. In addition as we are revising the stored tree data in preparation for tree planting and agriculture, we may respawn all trees.
April 27 2011
A quick update today to let you know what we are working on.
Currently we are wrapping up improvements to the launcher and patching system. We are testing this heavily as we are trying to eliminate all problems that players have experienced with patching files in the past. The improved system uses file compression that reduces the total download by half. The new launcher will allow players to select from the main build or a test build, which will enable us to let players jump in on the test server and check out features in progress before they are patched out to the main server.
We need to finish this new launcher before moving forward as our next patch will include a lot of data in anticipation of features that we will be adding over the next month. As soon as it’s ready it will be made available for download.
Danathur and Dezgard will become increasingly involved here on the forums so that I can concentrate on managing our expanded team and working on the code. In particular, Danathur will be soliciting feedback and posting in regards to upcoming features and the overall direction of Xsyon. I will continue to post general updates at least weekly as time permits.
Enjoy!
New Developer Added
Notorious Games has added another developer to their stables, read his welcome post here. In it he talks about the great “PVP vs PVE” debate and a little bit about farming and the future of Xsyon.
April 23 updates
quoted from Xsyon updates thread
April 23 2011
Hello everyone!
I haven’t posted much on these forums for a while as I’ve been extremely busy behind the scenes. A lot is going so it’s about time to catch everyone up.
First of all I’d like to introduce two new members of the development team, ‘Dezgard’ and ‘Danathur’. You have probably already seen them either on the forums, in IRC, or in game.
Dezgard runs our new test team and Danathur joins us a game designer and programmer. Both will be interacting with the community to solicit feedback on current, planned and desired features and game balance.
I’m also glad to introduce two new programmers, ‘Sergant’ and ‘Alexx’, who have joined the team this past month. They both have jumped in head first, quickly getting acquainted with code and optimizing the server and the client. Now that they are settled in Sergant will be focusing on creatures, combat and client optimizations, while Alexx will prepare our server clusterfor future expansion.
We’ve also added a few terrain artists to the team and we have new areas to the east and northwest which are almost ready to be cleared of the green mist.
Our Guides will continue to run events in game to provide some daily excitement and activity.
I will be in Russia for the first half of May, meeting the new team members and making preparations for the future!
—————————————————————————–
Here are our development plans from now through mid summer.Overall plan:
We are going to evolve Xsyon to include farming, contested expansion totems and revamped combat. The goal is to provide more daily activities to tend to and something to fight over. While we progress towards this goal we will wrap up many things that are almost ready and continue to balance and improve current features based on feedback.
Immediate goals:
We are currently finishing up a revised patcher that uses compressed files and we are preparing the server for a tree planting and agriculture system. Once these are ready, we will be able to patch out smaller features and improvements on a more regular basis.
Our new creature growth and breeding system is complete and being tested along with further improvements to creature AI.
As we progress towards our overall goal we will wrap up many things that have been sitting almost finished for a while. This includes:
– Object decay and tool tips turned back on.
– All wild creatures in game.
– Animal growth and breeding.
– Female only armor sets.
– Full themed architecture sets, including floors, roofs and stairs for multiple story construction.
– Functioning gates.
– Cooking system.
– Quest system improvements
– Death penalties added.
– Town improvements, including currency, town friends and foes, and binding to friendly totems.
– Crafting improvements including material bonuses, repair and dismantling.
– Fire building improvements including fire fueling and tending.
– Undead creatures.
– Improved guide commands for running special events.All of these will be introduced while we work towards adding agriculture, expansion totems and a completely revamped combat system.
Over the past six weeks we’ve been dealing with one emergency after another and have made vast improvements to the server to handleour player base and optimized the client to improve frame rates.
I know our efforts don’t make much of a public impact, but they were necessary and will prepare us for the future.
Once we finish the launcher improvements we are ready to roll out regular updates focused on improved and new features.
I thank you all for your patience with the rough launch. I’ve been taking in all of your suggestions from emails and from forum reports gathered and sent to me. Please feel free to approach Dezgard and Danathur with your suggestions and general feedback.
Enjoy!
April 16 updates
quoted from Xsyon updates thread
April 16 2011 2:30 AM PST
Hello everyone! The server is up with an update. This should fix the server crashes that we had the past few days. We’ll be monitoring closely as usual for problems. Hopefully this build is now stable and we can move on to more interesting tasks.
With this update, we’ve turned the new animal AI back on and reverted all other server optimizations.
April 15 updates
quoted from Xsyon updates thread
April 15 2011 9:45 PM PST
Hello everyone! The good news is that I’ve pinpointed the exact problem causing the server crashes with the current build. The problem originates when a player disconnects in the middle of crossing zones. We will figure out exactly why this is a problem and fix it as soon as possible. At the moment I’m waiting on the other programmers.
We’ll work on this all night, as usual.
April 15 2011 2:30 PM PST
The main server is back up. If you would like to help us continue to test on the test server, please do so. Both servers will be accessible.
We reverted to the old animal AI on the main server and added some error checking. We will continue to focus on the source of these recent crashes.
Thank you very much to all that have been helping us on the test server!
April 15 2011 12:20 PM PST
The main server will be turned off at 1:00 PM PST temporarily so that we can focus on the test server build. The main server may be down for a few hours, but all players will be able to log on the test server. we really need to try to crash the test server build so that we can resolve the crashes that have happened on the main server.
Thank you all for your help and patience while we track down the crashes!
April 15 2011 9:30 AM PST
Hello everyone,
I’ve patched out a build that allows all players to connect to the test server. Please join us on the test server if you like.
The database on the test server is a copy of the main database from 2 days ago. What we are primarily testing is players logging on and off repeatedly, in particular players that log in twice from the same computer. We are also testing players logging in while others are crossing zones. So the main things we need players to test are:
– Log in and out, fully or just to the character screen.
– Cross zone boundaries repeatedly.We have not yet been able to reproduce a server crash on the test server. We are currently running a debug build that will help us gather more detailed information. Your help testing this is greatly appreciated!
Thanks!
April 14 updates
quoted from the Xsyon updates thread
April 14 2011 8:00 PM PST
Hello everyone,
Those of you playing today know that we are experiencing frequent server crashes today with this build. We didn’t have this problem on the test server so we are working as hard as possible to find out exactly what is causing this.
We’re focused entirely on this issue right now. If the crashes continue over the next few hours, we may rollback to the previous build to see if the crashes are due to something that’s changed on the server.
April 14 2011
Hello everyone!
We’ve finally patched out the latest server and client update. Eliminating the zone crossing lag required big changes that we needed to test thoroughly this past week. This is a major build on the server side and we will be able to patch out more frequent small updates over the next two weeks.
Our new programmers have helped make many optimizations and server improvements, so this build prepares us for changes ahead. I’m really looking forward to the coming months as we start to evolve Xsyon!
In this update:
– New creature AI system with an improved creature behavior system.
– Zone crossing lag eliminated.
– Zone loading times reduced.
– Packets compressed and optimized for reduced bandwidth usage and overal better performance.
– Timing out of crashed players improved to avoid the ‘already timed out’ messages.
– Bug causing some players to scavenge unusual items such as felled trees fixed.
– Many small bugs fixed.In progress:
– All creatures will be in game soon. We have a few minor behavior variable adjustments to make and test.
– Finalizing a decay system for crafted items.
– Faster tree growth and surface generation system. This will include scrap pile generation.
– Server and client memory use optimization.
– Revised patcher with improved compression for smaller downloads.These are things we expect to patch out with then next week or two. We are formulating a plan right now for the next 6 weeks and I will post the details as soon as everything has been discussed with the team.
Enjoy!