jtoddcoleman

Hey folks,

We made a round of changes to the matchmaking system in 6.510 and need to put it through the paces. If any of you happen to be available, we're going to turn on matchmaking on TEST today at 4pm i.e. about an hour from now, run a HungerDome match or two and see how it handles the load.

For convenience, here is the link to download the TEST client again: https://crowfall.com/en-US/account/download-client

NOTE: we have had sporadic reports of some players getting a client freeze/hand on the Team Roster page. We're trying to puzzle that out now -- so if it happens to you, try waiting for the match to start and seeing if it resolves -- and either way, please send us your client logs to support and help us track down the issue.

We appreciate the assistance, and if we don't see you in HD, have a great Easter!
...

Hey folks,

I mentioned in our last Q&A that it might make sense to do an off-cycle “bonus” Q&A session this month -- but given the severe weather in Austin this week (with power and/or water being out for more than half of our team) that doesn't really make sense any more. The next one is only a week and a half away (March 2nd), so I’m going to suggest we hold off and cover everything then.

A lot of you have also been asking about getting a Dregs campaign on Live -- we were hoping to do that this week, but that has been delayed, as well. There are a few more issues we need to iron out. The freeze is supposed to be over tomorrow, so hopefully we can get a Dregs campaign running on Test in the next few days and push it to Live quickly once we know those issues are resolved.

Sorry for the delay. The important thing is that the team is safe and things are moving forward again. Thanks for the concern, and we appreciate your patience...

re: the removal of the seasonal debufs in fall and winter

These were removed because they are redundant. We originally put these in long before we had a concept of "the Hunger" spawning in the world. The idea was to make harvesting and gathering more difficult during fall and Winter. The system was a heavy handed stop-gap measure because we didn't have a better way to push that idea. They weren't well explained anywhere (there was nothing in the tutorial, nor tutorial tips that explained them). They had no cosmetic effect. They had no engagement loop for the player. They just were

Hey folks,

We are aware that many of you are waiting for the new version (6.100) to go live with a Dregs campaign; the anticipation and energy is palpable. We are moving fast to accommodate that excitement, making changes as quickly as we can -- apparently too quickly, because this morning's update presented a strange new assortment of bugs and behaviors that we have never seen before.

Please know that we are looking into the issues now, and hope to have them resolved as soon as possible. Thank you for your patience.

Todd

I'm definitely working my way through it. Frankly, some of the requests are not feasible in the time between now and launch, but others seem reasonable and I'm going to see if we can work them in.

Thanks for the feedback.

Todd

The next version of 6.100 (which we are attempting to push to Test today or tomorrow) will give you control (in your preferences/settings panel) to tell your client how many FX sequences you want to see at any time. You'll be able to crank it up to 1,000 or down to 0, if you choose. Try it and please let us know the impact that you see in terms of fps gain/loss with various settings.

Thanks!

Todd

ACE

There are fewer of these larger Keeps on the map, and they offer more buildings/services, so in theory they will be in higher demand and harder to capture and hold.

Yes, it's a way to artificially add latency to your client. We added the slider so that we can test what happens when your net connection goes to hell.

Not sure I understand this last one, please explain? (thread appears to be locked, please send answer via message or support email + ask them to forward it my way. thanks!)

Thanks!

Todd

Thanks for the heads up. It will absolutely be resolved before beta. I just can't fix it instantly.

Todd

I didn't want to add yet another term for people to learn, so instead tried for symmetry: outpost (small and large), fort (small and large), keep (small and large).

Love the idea about blocking different entrances -- great way to add variety to a single combat area. I'll think about the right way to implement that.

Thanks!

Todd

interesting ideas to sidestep the current tech limitation -- will noodle on these. thanks!

Todd

Hey folks,

So I'm trying to distill this thread down to some basic points that I can turn into action plans to address.

From a high level, it sounds like the two biggest concerns for the ex-SB folks are:

1. Character customization is extremely linear, especially compared to SB, and

2. The SB=style siege handshake mechanic would be much preferred over predetermined time windows.

Is this an accurate summary?

Thanks,

Todd

The EU campaign will have siege windows centered on EU prime time, as they always have.

We're asking for players in both regions to try and log in to their servers during their respective siege windows, so we can get more player concurrency and see how the servers hold up.

Todd

Guys,

I hear what you are saying, but we can't just "flip a switch" and change siege schedules on a moments notice -- much less change the underlying system that relies on them.

What we can do, right now, is launch an EU campaign in addition to the NA one. The reason that we didn't plan to do this is because we're trying to stress the server so that we can find and fix issues that only surface under heavy player load.

But I get it. If you guys want a second campaign, we'll prop one.

Here is my only request: since we're not going to concentrate folks down to one location, it would be very helpful if you guys would try to log in during siege windows to increase the load so that we can still get the testing that we need. Server performance testing is critical to us being ready for beta, and I want us to get to beta as soon as possible.

If you'll help us get the numbers during prime time, then we ca...

https://community.crowfall.com/topic/27474-5110-test-patch-notes-for-61220/

Todd

Hey folks,

We are putting a new version up on our TEST environment this morning! This version has 3000+ bug fixes and miscellaneous polish updates since we posted the last version on 5/28 (I know, crazy, right?!) and we would love your help in putting it through the wringer.

As I mentioned in the last ACE Developer Q&A Livestream, now that we have LIVE running again, we will return to our original approach for managing the TEST and LIVE environments: the purpose of our TEST environment is functionality testing; i.e. verifying new features and content, bug fixes and performance improvements in preparation to move a build to LIVE. The purpose of the LIVE environment is to get a feeling for playability.

To that end, once we launch this version on the TEST server, we’re going to set up a few things that make it easier on you (our brave and stalwart testers) to push against the edges of the build and help us find the cracks, including:
...

It does. We'll put up a posting soon.

Todd

Oh, got it. I meant "if you want to play on Dregs right now, then stay on Test."

Todd

Yes. Didn't we already cover that?

Todd

Yes. There will be a wipe before Beta, and there will be a wipe before Launch. There may be other wipes, too, if we make significant changes and we cant find a way to avoid them.

I'll talk to the team about increasing skill training and adding testing mats. Someone mentioned that in game, as well. It's a good idea.

We'll never let it fall that far behind again.

Todd