SWGEmu End of Summer Special – 8/22/2010
Table of Contents
- Object Restructure News
- Current State of the OR
- Web Development
- Mantis Bug Tracker Update
- Staff Restructure
- Staff Changes
- Quick Stats
- Staff Round-Tables
- Closing
Greetings and welcome to the SWGEmu End of Summer update. Things have been relatively quiet from the SWGEmu Team since the Object Restructure (OR) began over a year ago, but we are pleased to announce that things are moving forward and will be back in full testing mode soon.
Object Restructure News
For those of you who might be unfamiliar with the term, the OR is a comprehensive standardization of all of the code for SWGEmu. Over the years, many different developers have all worked together to submit code to the project. While this has allowed the Developer team to make great progress in recreating the Pre-CU experience as a whole, it has made submitting and integrating new code difficult. You can think of the old code base as a huge, overstuffed filing cabinet. All of the information is in there somewhere, but everyone who put things into the cabinet used a different filing system. The OR has taken everything out of the filing cabinet, pruned files, reorganized the folders, and attached new legible labels to everything. Ramsey wrote an excellent, more technical description here.
During the OR, in addition to standardizing the code base, a decision was made to switch from MySQL to BerkeleyDB in order to both reduce CPU usage and help us achieve our goal of eliminating crash-based rollbacks. Code standards have now been set, which will significantly reduce the amount of time it will take to commit code changes to the official, public test center (TC: Nova).
Beginning in August, the OR code has been released to TC: Nova during semi-regular intervals (Please see this post: Daily OR Tests for further information about server uptimes). We are very pleased to move this code out of internal testing and onto TC: Nova. Hopefully you are just as excited to test the new, more stable code base.
We know that everyone is getting geared up for the inevitable old TC: Nova code database wipe and we are targeting some time in early September. We do not know the exact date it will be ready, but we will be pushing the OR code to TC: Nova on a permanent basis once a few more key systems are in place. You can track the progress of these changes on the SWGEmu Assembla Timeline.
Please be aware that major fixes and additions to the OR code once on TC: Nova can require database wipes. We may also have to wipe the database to “reset” the test center characters for specific testing purposes. We will do our best to give advance notice if there is one coming, but please be prepared for frequent database wipes.
Current Features of the OR
There are a lot of features already working within the OR code, with a lot more to come. Here is a brief overview of the current state, keeping in mind that some features may not be fully functional yet:
Basic Features:
- Zone
- Basic Creature AI
- User Interface
- Dueling
- Banking
- Bazaar
- Lairs
- Groups
- Chat
- Travel
- Vehicles
- Resources
- Badges
- Teaching
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- HAM
- Planetary Map
- Admin Commands
- Cloning
- Trading
- Experience
- Doctor Buffs
- Blue Frogs
- Trainers
- Armor
- Weapons
- DoT’s
- Food and Drink
- Spices
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Professions:
The following professions are coded into the OR and are ready for testing. Some of the skills are not currently working, but will be soon. As a small reminder, note that entertainers are not working in the OR code yet.
- Artisan
- Brawler
- Medic
- Marksman
- Weaponsmith
- Armorsmith
- Architect
- Tailor
- Teras Kasi Artist
- Fencer
- Swordsman
- Pikeman
- Rifleman
- Pistoleer
- Carbineer
- Doctor
- Combat Medic
- Squad Leader
Buildings:
Here is an overview of the buildings and building-related features currently. In addition to the deeds for structures, there is a variety of furniture available on the Blue Frogs to help test placement. All of the city structures, including garages to repair the Swoop in your Datapad, should be working.
- Housing
- Garages
- Installations / Harvesters
- Height Placement
- No Build Zones
- Factories
- City Gardens
- Player Banks
- Player Shuttleports
- City Hall Distance Restrictions
- Working Elevators in Guild Halls
- Faction Base Placement
Missions:
Both combat and artisan missions are in game. You can locate mission terminals via your overhead maps.
Crafting:
With the addition of harvesters and other installations, factory crates are now working. The list of working schematics is constantly growing, and you can watch the progress on assembla. Vehicles are found in your datapad, and spices are located on the frogs. We will let you know as soon as they can be crafted.
In other exciting news, fishing makes its debut on Nova. If your fishing skills are a little rusty, check out a few of these guides to refresh your memory:
Fish and Fishing Guide:
Pictorial Guide to Fish
- Artisan Crafting
- Armor Crafting
- Weapon Crafting
- Architect Crafting
- Sampling
- Surveying
- Fishing
- Factory Crates
Web Development
Our newest department, headed by Kaiegos, is the Web Development team. Currently, we have SWGEmu information scattered across several different sites and services. Some of these include Mantis, SWGEmu.com, SWGEmu wiki, IRC and the Events page. In the next month or so, we will be attempting to link all of the separate portions of our web presence into a single login system.
The Web Development team is currently testing the latest versions of our software along with some new pieces in a separate test bed environment. All of the SWGEmu services will be brought together under a single registration web page that will create all of your logins automatically. The goal is to consolidate your experience and logins for this project to make it more enjoyable and easier to manage by the Staff.
Mantis Bug Tracker Update
As of this weekend, the Mantis bug tracking site is now working again. One of the side effects of the old system going down was the loss of all the login information. Luckily, the database is intact, so all of the TC: Nova bugs have been closed and archived. Please report only OR bugs from now on.
Since the Web development team is working towards creating a centralized user registration system for one login to all services, please take this opportunity to re-register on the Mantis site with the same account name and password combination that you use on the forums. This will streamline the process, and eliminate any chance of you being locked out of the bug reporting system after the credentials are combined.
If you are still having issues with Mantis, please contact TAfirehawk on the forums or at tafirehawk@swgemu.com.
Staff Restructure
While the Object Restructure was underway, the SWGEmu Staff was also restructured. All of the staff positions were placed into one of two large branches: Test Center Operations and Development. If you would like to take a look at the new staff structure, an overview of the current structure can be found here.
Test Center Operations:
Odwill is the current Test Center Director, supervising this branch of the staff, with Kellina as the Support Manager, supervising the GMs and Moderators, and Max managing the Communications and Event Coordination departments. While Max is taking a short leave of absence, please feel free to contact the acting Communications Manager, El’layn.
Any and all ingame problems can be reported either using support@swgemu.com or joining #swgemusupport on irc. Please direct requests for two accounts from the same IP address to the support@swgemu.com address. If you have password or other account issues, please email community@swgemu.com.
Development:
Oru is the Development director. The Core3 Manager, TheAnswer, supervises both the Core3 Coding and Client Developer teams. TAfirehawk is the Quality Assurance (QA) manager, and Kaigeos manages the new Web Development team.
Any and all issues relating to testing can be directed to quality@swgemu.com or reported on Mantis.
Staff Changes
There have been quite a few staff changes since our last update. Please help us welcome all our new staff members, and join us in wishing our retired members all the best. A full list of current staff members can be found here.
The Support Team has welcomed KarlDeux and Tygaar (known as Ssasha ingame) to the team, both of whom had been helping out in #swgemusupport previously. Serpentkaa, Inyri, Jer, Webbwbb, Tolbat, Vashman and MrBlonde have chosen to step down from their GM positions. Ellyssia and Ilipah, both experienced GMs, have been moved up to the new Tier 2 support level.
Apex_ and IX have both joined the moderation team, while Ekaika, Guano, Kronik and Liceri have retired.
The new Event Coordination team consists of Kreen, Renala and Shotter. Tow’lin has chosen to retire, and El’layn is currently serving as Acting Communications Manager, while Dame has moved from support over to Communications
The new Website Development team consists of Kaigeos, Courtesan and Polonel. Elvaron has joined the developers, and Valkyra has retired from the Client Developer group.
The Quality Assurance Team would like to welcome Jear, Tigerfang (known as Tiger in #swgemusupport) and Tyler Durden to the team. Our new Community Tester Team consists of Jlane, PwnedByRyan, jacoo, and Winn. Tek, Lorrianna, Webbwbb, Vorta, Areonic11, Thrin, Malthol, Smoki, Rovalis, Sirius, Karas, Acau, BigEvil, and Namdas have all retired from the QA Team.
A huge thank you to all our retired members – we hope to see you again soon!
Quick Stats 07/22/10 – 08/22/10
Developer Code Commits: 156
Average Web/Forum Daily Hits: 6,095
Total Page Views: 1,976,551
Total Web/Forum Hits: 170,651
Total Users who used the Website: 35,000
Average TC Daily Logins: 8,291
Total TC Logins: 232,138
Total Users who used the TC: 19,570
Total TC Character Count: 114,247
