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Just to let you guys know...
I really wanted to have the escort missions player-testable before going to bed tonight (this morning), but alas, there are still some bugs that make it less than fun to play with. But just in case you feel like it, there should be some available around the test-server 'verse. Don't bother reporting bugs yet though- I won't even guarantee that you'll find any missions or that the server won't crash. :)
I really wanted to have the escort missions player-testable before going to bed tonight (this morning), but alas, there are still some bugs that make it less than fun to play with. But just in case you feel like it, there should be some available around the test-server 'verse. Don't bother reporting bugs yet though- I won't even guarantee that you'll find any missions or that the server won't crash. :)
ROCK-SOLID! Awesome M!
Where can you find them?
Person:
Don't bother reporting bugs yet though- I won't even guarantee that you'll find any missions or that the server won't crash
- momerath42
Don't bother reporting bugs yet though- I won't even guarantee that you'll find any missions or that the server won't crash
- momerath42
So, after a long night, I think the escort mission is functional enough to have fun with, if not bug-free :) Thanks to all those who helped me test!
And, as a small bonus, you'll also find a pirate mission in corvus stations. It is *almost-entirely-untested*, there is no reward, no possible way to fail, and I'm not sure whether it will trigger success if you destroy the whole convoy or when they get to their destination.
Anyway, I look forward to waking up this afternoon to a thread full of reports, impressions and suggestions on the escort mission. Don't bother reporting bugs with the pirate mission, yet- it's really just a sloppy little hack right now.
For the sake of anyone late to the party, you can test the new group escort mission on the test server by putting "test:" before your username when you log into the game (without the quotes of course). The test server's database is not current! If it doesn't let you in, it's either because it thinks your account expired, or that your account is newer than that copy.
And, as a small bonus, you'll also find a pirate mission in corvus stations. It is *almost-entirely-untested*, there is no reward, no possible way to fail, and I'm not sure whether it will trigger success if you destroy the whole convoy or when they get to their destination.
Anyway, I look forward to waking up this afternoon to a thread full of reports, impressions and suggestions on the escort mission. Don't bother reporting bugs with the pirate mission, yet- it's really just a sloppy little hack right now.
For the sake of anyone late to the party, you can test the new group escort mission on the test server by putting "test:" before your username when you log into the game (without the quotes of course). The test server's database is not current! If it doesn't let you in, it's either because it thinks your account expired, or that your account is newer than that copy.
wtf? My missions screen is b0rked...
I've got about 30 missions named "Procurement" that say "We have information that there may be crates of [cargo] floating around somewhere between [sector] and [sector]." Unfortunately, the description text is longer than fits in the display area of the current client, so I have text overflowing on top of other text, and outside the box, and generally all over the place. Here's a screenie:
http://roguelazer.com/vimages/quick/oddmissions.jpg
These look like Pirate missions. They also look like they might have been designed with Client NG in mind...
I've got about 30 missions named "Procurement" that say "We have information that there may be crates of [cargo] floating around somewhere between [sector] and [sector]." Unfortunately, the description text is longer than fits in the display area of the current client, so I have text overflowing on top of other text, and outside the box, and generally all over the place. Here's a screenie:
http://roguelazer.com/vimages/quick/oddmissions.jpg
These look like Pirate missions. They also look like they might have been designed with Client NG in mind...
Same thing happened with me.
Also, I tried taking an escort mission - and the convoy never left the station (even after ten minutes...)
I've only tried it once, though. I'll try again.
Also, I tried taking an escort mission - and the convoy never left the station (even after ten minutes...)
I've only tried it once, though. I'll try again.
Suggestion: Use the countdown timer from Trade Guild missions (the one that appears on the Mission tab button) to display time left until the convoy launches
It would also be a good idea to add in some mission computer info. (Where the convoy is, where it is going, abort mission, request the convoy to halt, etc.)
hehe, yea the short description text of the pirate mission is too long. I called it procurement because I thought it was game-ish to have a "pirate" mission visible to anyone who can dock with Corvus (wouldn't they want to keep it on the DL?)
Also, all current escort missions cause a pirate mission to be created in all corvus stations. We'll be limiting the pirate missions to the routes that they could actually reach in time, obviously, but, as I said, the pirate mission is merely a late-night first-draft.
As for the Escort mission, a GUI timer will be used when we get it hooked up to Deliverator. We also intend there to be an always-accessible mission menu, but that will come a little later. At the moment, you should get a mission message every 15 seconds until the mission starts, and every time the convoy warps. I don't know why a convoy wouldn't have left the station after you took the mission; that never happened to me. It also doesn't ever take more than 1.5 minutes after a player takes the mission. You should receive a mission message saying "convoy is underway" when they launch.
Anyone having a different experience- please give me more details! What sector was the station in? What was your char name? Approximately what time was it? Without more details, all I have to go on is a vague notion that something is broken which was working for me (and will likely work for me when I test it without knowing more about how the bug was encountered).
Also, all current escort missions cause a pirate mission to be created in all corvus stations. We'll be limiting the pirate missions to the routes that they could actually reach in time, obviously, but, as I said, the pirate mission is merely a late-night first-draft.
As for the Escort mission, a GUI timer will be used when we get it hooked up to Deliverator. We also intend there to be an always-accessible mission menu, but that will come a little later. At the moment, you should get a mission message every 15 seconds until the mission starts, and every time the convoy warps. I don't know why a convoy wouldn't have left the station after you took the mission; that never happened to me. It also doesn't ever take more than 1.5 minutes after a player takes the mission. You should receive a mission message saying "convoy is underway" when they launch.
Anyone having a different experience- please give me more details! What sector was the station in? What was your char name? Approximately what time was it? Without more details, all I have to go on is a vague notion that something is broken which was working for me (and will likely work for me when I test it without knowing more about how the bug was encountered).
Seeing as we already have Trade Guild Procurement missions, maybe the pirate missions should be "acquisition" to avoid confusion.
Char name: Kteln
I was in Bractus D-9. The mission "accept/decline" screen says that the convoy will depart in 10 minutes.... I'm back trying it again... It looks like the same thing is happening.
<Edit> Yup. Same conclusion. No message ever appears on the mission computer... no convoy ever leaves. Bractus D-9. I'm headed elsewhere to test.
I was in Bractus D-9. The mission "accept/decline" screen says that the convoy will depart in 10 minutes.... I'm back trying it again... It looks like the same thing is happening.
<Edit> Yup. Same conclusion. No message ever appears on the mission computer... no convoy ever leaves. Bractus D-9. I'm headed elsewhere to test.
OK, it's borked right now. Don't worry about testing until I fix things. I'll post here.
update:
Heh, the buffer in emacs containing my read-eval-print loop for Deliverator had gotten so big it ran out of memory, and Xenologer (our logging tool) didn't handle that safely, so basically everything that was supposed to happen upon an event was being cut off at the first call to Xenologer. It appears to be working as it was last night, now, though I didn't restart anything. I probably will as soon as my current escort mission is over. So, after that, player-testing will once again be helpful:)
update:
Heh, the buffer in emacs containing my read-eval-print loop for Deliverator had gotten so big it ran out of memory, and Xenologer (our logging tool) didn't handle that safely, so basically everything that was supposed to happen upon an event was being cut off at the first call to Xenologer. It appears to be working as it was last night, now, though I didn't restart anything. I probably will as soon as my current escort mission is over. So, after that, player-testing will once again be helpful:)
I tried logging on to the test server this morning, and... no new missions of any kind. Plus no bots in Sedina.
Sorry Leber, I forgot to leave the escort mission generator running when I went to bed. It appears I left things in a broken state anyway, though. Hopefully when I go to bed tonight (sometime tommorow morning, more likely), at least the escort mission will be working properly. As for bots in Sedina, I completely rewrote Deliverator over the last month, and I haven't migrated the Hive code to the new system yet (shouldn't take more than a day or two).
The good news is, with the new system, we have an embedded language for defining objectives, (the smallest component of a group mission), and another embedded language built on top of that for defining missions. Getting the Hive to do something new is as easy as defining a new mission for them. To give you a sense of it, the new escort mission is about 25 lines. Of course, right now I'm not debugging the 25 lines, but the two languages underneath it (which are mostly built on top of Andy's LISA replacement). Once done, it means being able to define missions that can be written in an hour, and understood at a glance.
I imagine that most players see us struggling with an escort mission for over a week and think content is always going to take this kind of time. I guess that's why I felt compelled to write such a detailed response. I just want those who are losing hope to know that visible progress is coming sooner than Soon. And that, having built these tools we'll be able to create, and more importantly, maintain, far more content than we ever could if each mission were 220 lines (the length of the single-player proto-escort mission I had written for the old system). And that generation of missions was still much more abstract than those written in Lua, since they had to be capable of moving themselves between sector-processes, and involved all sorts of contortions to write a group mission.
The good news is, with the new system, we have an embedded language for defining objectives, (the smallest component of a group mission), and another embedded language built on top of that for defining missions. Getting the Hive to do something new is as easy as defining a new mission for them. To give you a sense of it, the new escort mission is about 25 lines. Of course, right now I'm not debugging the 25 lines, but the two languages underneath it (which are mostly built on top of Andy's LISA replacement). Once done, it means being able to define missions that can be written in an hour, and understood at a glance.
I imagine that most players see us struggling with an escort mission for over a week and think content is always going to take this kind of time. I guess that's why I felt compelled to write such a detailed response. I just want those who are losing hope to know that visible progress is coming sooner than Soon. And that, having built these tools we'll be able to create, and more importantly, maintain, far more content than we ever could if each mission were 220 lines (the length of the single-player proto-escort mission I had written for the old system). And that generation of missions was still much more abstract than those written in Lua, since they had to be capable of moving themselves between sector-processes, and involved all sorts of contortions to write a group mission.
very.
very.
very.
very.
VERY.
VERY.
VERY.
friggin cool momerath.
very.
very.
very.
VERY.
VERY.
VERY.
friggin cool momerath.
I think my brain just exploded.
Clean-up in aisle 12!
Sunday - 0800 CST No escort missions available in Bractus C5 or D9, Odia M14, Dau L10 or SolII I13.
RelayeR, give momerath a chance to wake up :P
... or go to bed, as the case was two nights ago ;)
... or go to bed, as the case was two nights ago ;)