We'd appreciate it if people could jump on the Test server (put "test:" in front of your login name, like "test:Incarnate" without the quotes) and try out Escort, Border Skirmish, Hive Skirmish, Liquidation and Liberation missions. The Escort missions most of all, as that tests the new Kourier functionality. The rest of them still use Deliverator for the moment (we're migrating functionality piece by piece), but should run with much greater reliability since much of the complex Escort code is no longer in Lisp. It's still worthwhile to check that the older Deliverator stuff is still working, since there's been so much codebase activity in the last couple of months.

Please post any problems you run into in this thread. With any luck, we should be able to release this tonight (Thursday), we're pretty confident that it works ok, but extra testing is always helpful.

There is one rare known case where two players take an Escort mission, and one quits the mission before launching, where there's a problem. Aside from that it should work pretty well.

[EDIT:] The test server uses an "older" version of the game database, which we periodically update. It hasn't been updated for awhile, so users who were not subscribed at the time will not be in it. To those who find they are not in it, thanks for offering to help, but we won't be able to update the test database before we go to release Kourier.

UPDATE: we're now ready for testing.

I took a Convoy mission from Sedina L-2 to Dau D-9. Everything went smoothly up until we got to the destination. The convoy docked, and instead of a reward being handed out it said "You have to actually follow the convoy to get rewarded, jerk!" I didn't lose sight of the convoy once in my entire journey.

Hmm- thanks for the report. That's related to some code we changed tonight- should be an easy fix.

Hive Skirmish (latos)
Mission started at Latos C-2, I jump into the sector plottet, Latos N-14. The bot who is helping me, do not group up with me. Are they supposed to?

I kill all the bots in the sector. No new one jump in, mission not ending. No storms, so that doesn't interfere (I think)

Tried a number of escort missions including runs through sedina and odia , all seemed to work well with persuing npc pirates leaving the station sector on completion .

Teamed up with ferskingen and tried one with the two of us in the group , again , seems fine , both players take the mission and the voy leaves when the second player leaves the station. Messages about both players are being relayed properly.

Tried another from Verasi L15 , recieved the " mission will start when you leave the station message " , but the voy never appeared. docked and launched a couple of times , still nothing , so aborted and tried the other escort mission , same thing .

So, a huge improvement , but still the occaisional bug.

Cheers

Ecka

they actually use the word "jerk"??

Yeah, it's been in for a while :P

I love it. So my old way of just flying to the destination station and waiting for the 'voy to arrive won't work anymore? Those used to be some easy credits. Damn. Hehe. Guess I was a "Jerk."

I died on an Escort mission and I got no mission failed message or anything. (Apparently the bots CAN shoot you as you warp in the test server)

And I think I was penalized credits for failing. That's cool. Grouping worked just fine.

hmmm well ill try it today and give you my ideas but heed this piece of advice dont rush

I've been running about in Grey systems, and all the NPC pirates lurking at the wormholes are inactive until you attack them. I take it they're still on Deliverator? If so, it's not hugely more reliable with the rest of the code in Kourier.

btw, I can't login with one of my characters. I get the "entering universe" message (or whatever it is, after selecting a character), but it just hangs (for over a minute before I cancel and choose a different character). Not sure if that is related to anything useful.

We had a crash while I was sleeping that prevented both Deliverator and Kourier from working properly for several hours. I think we've fixed the bug, so we're back to testing. Thanks for all the feedback so far! :)

Hive mission Summary -

- Enemies engaged me, payouts and XP were given
- Queens sat around on their ass and did not participate in battle
- All Xang XI were killed but battle was still going, not sure if this is normal, last time I played (ages ago) they gave up after awhile and ordered retreat

Escort -
- Convoy launched and grouped after I exited station
- Pirate battle ensued at Sedina B8
- Pirates followed me to border of UIT Space
- Got XP and cash for kills
- Group docked, mission ended without a hitch
* Second mission I entered a sector and some pirates were just sitting around and didn't fight until I attacked but the Voy still behaved properly

Still too many pirates hanging around grey space whether on purpose or by error.

Seems like things are working out pretty well on the test server, look forward to production rollout

Took two missions, one from Latos to Nyrius, the other from Nyrius to Arta.

On the first mission, the "jump to" message began to experience a delay. On the first jump (to Latos h-2) it appeared the moment the first ship in my convoy jumped, but by the time I entered Dau, the message was appearing after all my convoy, and then myself, had jumped through; it's a small thing, but it might indicate some processes stalling or getting behind. Apart from that, both missions worked just fine (I didn't experience the problem in the second mission).

Hmm. The leader of the convoy (who's movements determine the 'jump to' messages) is the first who leaves the station. Typically, they will be the first to jump out of each sector, but that's not guaranteed.

At any rate, thanks for testing, jex!

I had two contiguous escort mission errors two days ago (sorry for not reporting it before) when I tried to take an escort mission in Corvus Hold, Sedina. After having exited the station, as per the mission instructions, the convoy never appeared. I went back in, aborted the mission , and tried it again, with the same results.

However, momerath42 was in the system at the time, aparently working on something, so perhaps I tried to run an escort mission as he was restarting KOURIER.

The rest of the KOURIER-powered content seems to be deliverating along very well. Looking forward to seeing this in production.

if you uit kos and you take a convoy through uit space kill the sf the corp will pay you for it. also i have a hunch that they will also pay you for booming other convoys.

I almost forgot to mention this. When taking an escort mission through a storm the moths took a different storm exit. The escort bots followed the moths till the moths jumped then flew to the correct exit point. None of them caught up to the moths except the WTD's. They all "got bored and wondered off" leaving them totally undefended.

EDIT:
"Hmm. The leader of the convoy (who's movements determine the 'jump to' messages) is the first who leaves the station. Typically, they will be the first to jump out of each sector, but that's not guaranteed." - momerath42

I've found that the atlases are the first to jump out of a sector because they are the fastest of the trade ships for a short while due to their acceleration. However on a longer in sector flight the centaurs pass them because they have a higher top speed. The only solution I see to this is to change to Atlas mkII's and make them always the first to leave the station. This would mostly ensure they are the first to jump but it would string the convoy out a bit. Also there are the ec101 b type's, not sure how they effect the situation.

Ideally, I would think the convoys would either learn how to stay in a single group, or be able to handle the group getting separated, and ensure that an appropriate number of defenders, including players, stays with each group of trade ships.

mmm... now that the convoy forms a group, and all ships broadcast their locations anyhow, do we really even need the "jump to x" messages anymore?