We're testing an update. Any time you get 'protocol version does not match server', it's because we broke compatibility with the released client. It'll be available again as soon as we fix a couple things and release a minor client update.

The test server is up with the latest code. At least one major issue that caused the traders to stop before their destination, has been fixed. Some other issues with kills not being registered and the npc escorts getting ahead of the convoy are known, and will hopefully be fixed later tonight. I've also done some profiling and optimization, so it will be useful to know if anyone still encounters delays between events and the related messages.

Thanks to all those who have participated in testing so far!

there are no escort missions available in sedina L2, D14, nor in Latos TPG station.

bummer

I don't know what happened this time, because when I woke up, zarniwoop was down completely. It's back up now, and I'll be monitoring it closely for the next few hours. It may be extra slow for the next hour, though, while I do some profiling.

i did an escort mission in sedina. it said 'ok lets go' or something like that.
nothing else. i was confused. i went to b8. there were a bunch of moths going to the hole. after they warped, it said 'warp to latos o-12'. no other messages at all.

then i died. it said 'too bad ananzi'. no other messages.

i aborted that. then i tried hive hunt.

it sent me to latos o2. to 'clear out the hive'. 300c per kill or something like that. i killed a few bots, no messages. there was a leviathan so i figured i better not try to 'clear out the sector'.

i did approach the leviathan, it shot at me at first, but from the other side (top?) it did not shoot at me.

--

i aborted that mission. i did another 'hive hunt' mission at sedina. it sent me to latos j3. i killed all the reds there, then i killed the friendly. the friendly fought back but still. no messages at all, about kills made, mission status, 'dont kill a friendly', etc.

Thanks for trying again, ananzi. I'm not sure what's going on at this point. I swear this stuff was working flawlessly for the interns and me on monday. We were working on our development server, which is faster, but I've also made some significant optimizations since I started seeing performance problems on tuesday. I'm going to turn the Hive off for today, so I can better determine what is bogging things down.

no problem. just lemme have a look at the source code, i can probably figure it out.

I've optimized the critical code, and I believe I've fixed all the bugs that the optimization work created, including the cause of ananzi's escort trouble.

I'm keeping things simple for now, with the escort mission available only in XangXi stations, and no Hive. I really think we're nearing the end of the Escort-mission bugs. If a few more people can pop by the test server, and nothing big turns up, I hope we'll be able to release it tomorrow night.

The system has been running cool, and the only bug I've found today is fixed, but I could definitely use some more reports. Beyond whether it works for you, your impressions of the changes and what simple things might be done to improve it will help tremendously.

escort sed l2 to pelatus o15/

big 'pause' as connies materialize. order of 1-2 seconds. not sure how they fit thru the docking bay...

shot at connie, got warning

no pirates/bots at all

in odia, hit ion storm. moth/centaur/atlas ships stood around wandering and doing nothing until connies warped in. then they all went for the exit point. connies stumbled thru rocks. as they stumbled, they exploded several of the convoy ships, moths, atlas, etc. one connie was down to about 30 percent health. then again, maybe the convoy ships just blew up on the rocks, it was hard to tell what was damaging them more, getting whacked by the connie or the rocks.

at the end of the field, one connie got really really stuck. i shot it. it shot me and i died. no messages other than 'too bad ananzi'. nothing about mission status etc.

rebirthed at sedina L2. bought another ship, caught up to convoy in Odia . found moth straggler, assume got stuck in roid field. it warped though, to follow the connies.

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in bractus, there were bots in the roid field ion storm.
got 2 messages 'so and so obliterated NIL'

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at bractus wormhole to pelatus, saw one connie jump . assumed other was still stuck in roids, went back to check. couldnt find it. saw no message of any kind indicating its status or status of any othe convoy ships.

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eventually made it to pelatus O15. some voy ships were there. not all. strike force attacked me because im hated ineubis. whatever. i jumped back to wh.

then got a bunch of messages like this "so and so got bored and wandered off"

then 'NIL is having issues'

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by the time i got back to pelatus o15 station about a minute later, no convoy was left. just sf and me. one of them killed me, and i killed an aerna seeker by exploding when i died, which somehow gave me +100 something (was written too fast to read, and was not in any log)

i got two 'good work ananzi' messages after that.

after i re-birthed back at sedina L2, all missions were avilable so i guess the escort mission 'ended'.

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clicked on 'escort to dau g2'. it said 'station error: dont know that item '.

i undocked. saw 2 connies, a couple teradons, misc. small ships wadnering around, a few explosions ( i guess from collissions )... watched them leave.

redocked, was able to get escort to odia h6 mission. launched. saw connies, tridents, teradons, etc, appear. collectively they dwarf the station.

shot trident in butt once. SF fom station killed me. no message about 'too bad ananzi' this time. no mesages about mission status etc.

----

again, get messages 'warp to xyz'.

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performance problem while 20 ships warping at same time right in my face.

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get to odia h6. no problems. framerate very good even with 15 ships on screen at once, including 2 connies, several teradons + tridents + station, on a very modest computer. (192MB RAM, 64MB VRAM, something like that).

==

i watch the voy approach station. it tells me to 'warp to Odia K1'. I do. theres nothing there.

===

i get bored after a minute or two. back to odai H6. convoy all gone, except ther are 3 xang xi vultures. one is just sitting there ramming the station repeatedly.

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i blow the xang xi vulture up, because im bored. i am now temporary KOS with tunguska, owners of h6 .

i hit 'm' to see what that did to mission. it says 'missions only available in station'
i check 'mission logs', it says 'good work ananzi'. next to the last 2 escort missions it says 'completed'

---

i get no money or anything. i dont know what happened.

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I started a mission from Sedina L-2 to Edras B-11. Everything was fine, lots of ships in-sector but hardly any lag or FPS drops :)

The 2 Constellations bumped around on an asteroid a little and we set off, warping to Sedina O-6.

We slowly made our way to the wormhole and went to Odia B-13. I noted the Constellations seemed to be going slower than the rest of the group.

We encountered an ion storm in Odia D-12, with no bots in it so it was no problem. However, as I was waiting for the convoy to group up, several of them started attacking me with no provocation, and seeing as I wasn't expecting this, I died.

My home station was Sedina L-2, so I didn't have to go too far, but to my dismay when I arrived at Odia D-12 the convoy had dissapeared.

I checked my mission log and saw that I was supposed to warp to Odia O-7, so I went to the storm exit point and went there.

Upon my arrival, however, there were no NPCs! None! I double-checked my mission log to make sure they hadn't warped to Bractus, but there was nothing.

After a few minutes of searching I gave up and aborted the mission.

_________________________________________________________________________________________

I took a second mission from Sedina L-2 to Dau G-2. Everything ran fine, but there were a couple things I noticed.

1. When we were in a storm in Azek, the convoy didn't go to the storm exit, but instead acted like there was no storm and warped out 3000m away from the asteroids.

2. When we were at Dau G-2 when the Capships warped out, it displayed "go to Dau O-6" in the mission log. I assume that's because it's what was displayed when they warped to oblivion.

3. The reward. I am aware that I didn't actually kill any bots trying to attack them or anything, but still, 113 credits and half a standing point for a 3-system mission?

I think I've had more fun reading this thread than any other so far.

Mooooooooooooooooooooooom....

Your convoys make the menus blank on the production server when they undock :(

They do what!? I haven't touched the production escort mission in months. Please help us understand what you're talking about.

As far as the new escort missions go: I'm still having performance issues on the test server when the universe is filled with convoys. Regardless of that, player testing would be very helpful. If you want to help, log onto the test server (directions in my second post in this thread) and see if there is an escort mission available at the closest station. If not, try to get my attention in channel 100. If I'm not around (asleep), you might still be able to find the mission at a XangXi station, but it's most helpful when I'm monitoring things from the beginning.

I think monkeyman's implying that you have no life and read every singe one of genius posts religiously. Also, you are clearly in love with his creative way of getting people to put their dead clamshell ibooks into paper bags before shooting themselves for owning something that could become this ugly.

(relevant link)

Thanks genka! You always have a way with words!

P.S. - I'd love to see that lovely picture of that bear again. Really.

on Test server; Sedina L2, has no escort mission, no hive hunt missions.

Sorry about that- it crashed while I was asleep. It's up right now, but I'm doing stress testing, so I may need to restart fairly frequently.

Update:

We have a new test server in place. It's *much* faster (An Athlon X2 3800 w/ 2g of ram donated by whitesanjuro). It's fast enough that we can assume that anything that is too slow on the new box (ooloncoluphid) under the heaviest test-server conditions (~15 players) will be too slow for our production cluster with typical player counts (let alone the kind we hope for in the future).

So... all the relatively easy optimizations have been done, and, after fixing all the bugs the optimization work caused or brought to light, I'm reasonably confident in the reliability of the code. As for it performing well enough to put into production this week... I *need* your help. I can't simulate a realistic load nearly as well as a dozen players.

Just a few reports tonight would be great, since I'm going to bed soon and won't be able to do anything about whatever problems come up. All 3 Hives, pirates, border-skirmish, and escort missions from everywhere are turned on. Tomorrow, assuming nothing big turns up tonight, I'll start a new thread and recruit on channel 100 for the big stress-test.

Thanks for all the help, my friends:)
~Michael

A few things I noticed about convoy missions:

-After you undock, it creates a group and leaves the group several times.

-The convoy (consisting of 1 or 2 Moth heavies and no capships) warped out from the starting station within 3000m of large objects.

And a couple things about hive skirmish:

-The Leviathan has no ring of asteroids around it.

-The Xang Xi NPCs completely ignored the Leviathan.

-I got no light/heavy weapons XP for killing bots. I did get a substantial amount of cash, however.