Xsyon Updates Archive

[Xsyon]

Update December 26

Hello everyone!

The server and client have been updated with a new patch!

This patch includes:

- Tribe / Town info that can be set and viewed at the Tribe Totem.

- Tribe rank system. Players will be set to default ranks. Your tribe leader (or another player who is set with rank creation permissions) will need to set custom ranks and permissions for these ranks.

- Loading revised to prevent problems with players getting stuck during slow loading of entities.

- Terrain revised with flipped mesh edges. This will create a smoother appearance and more even symmetrical terraforming.

- Terraforming is now possible across zone boundaries.

- Terraforming creating water dams has been revised to reduce or block the residual effects of dam creation.

- Other character / creature names are visible only when highlighted or selected.

- Minor bugs with objects fixed.

From now until launch we are going to finalize and turn on the quest system and focus on improving systems already in the game, including crafting, construction, tribes and combat.

[Xsyon]

Update December 31

Hello everyone and Happy New Year's Eve!

My big announcement for today is a set final launch date for the Prelude, Tuesday March 1st 2011.

We realize that players are anxious to get started on their real characters and tribes so we will stick to this date.

We will do the final character and world wipe the week of Feburary 14th and Guides will be available to help the current in game tribes to secure and start building at their already established locations.

From now until the launch date we will be focused on improving and refining systems already in game: Construction, Crafting, Tribes and Combat and introducing the Quest system. The World Update and Terrain Baking features will be tested on the public server starting this coming week.

In addition I will review our growing suggestion list to see what minor adjustments can be made to the interface or other features based on your desires and recommendations.

Animal taming will be the final feature we try get in game before the official launch date. If it's not ready by then it will be introduced shortly after.

I've revised the Feature list slightly based on changes that have been made over the past year in the design of the game and to remove a few things that will be featured later as the game evolves.

Features that have been revised:

- Dyeing has been replaced by colored found materials for now.
- Discarded objects build lists to respawn scrap piles rather than save the actual discarded items.
- Quartermaster and tribe roles have been replaced by a custom rank system.
- Auctions replaced by a direct trade totem feature.
- The quest system will be simplified with additional quest types added later.
- Individual storage will be used in place of a bank account totem.

Features that have been improved or added:

- Custom rank system.
- Town information panel.
- Towns as starting locations (if so desired).
- Construction system consisting of parts.
- Bonuses for wearing tribal colors.
- Creation of single player tribes.

Features that have been removed:

- Law, Chaos and Karma. We tested tracking these but the system didn't work out well enough to have the desired effect. This will be revisited later. Good, Evil and Luck are being tracked and remain in game.
- Combat special moves. These will be introduced when we revise the system. Adrenaline may be incorporated for special moves and boosts of power in combat. Our plan is to examine Mount and Blade and other combat oriented games and redesign the system. This will happen during the Prelude.
- Mailboxes. These will be added later.

Features that might be in for launch or shortly after:

- Animal taming and riding.
- Comfort effects of armor and building / fire use.
- Message boards and honor lists.

It's been a tough year for us with a huge letdown by our original programmers. It's taken a big effort from myself and the new programmers to finally stabilize the server, the launcher and the client enough to where we can focus on wrapping up the current features and creating the game you are all looking for.

I look forward to 2011 and hope you'll all enjoy Xsyon as it improves and evolves!

[Xsyon]

Update January 5

The server and client have been updated. In this update:

- New and improved memory management system for objects and animations.
- Major memory leak causes by fires fixed.
- Crash caused by destroying campfires fixed.
- Terraforming limits readjusted.
- Crash moving construction objects across a zone border fixed.
- Problems with death teleporting fixed.
- Light from campfires corrected.
- Other minor bug fixes and optimizations.

This wraps up a lot of crash fixes and optimizations that we worked on last week and were testing this week. Our next updates will be concentrated on adjusting and adding features and content.

Enjoy!

[Xsyon]

Update January 11

A quick update today. The download server was taken town for about 2 minutes for a quick patch. If you experienced a disconnection at around 11:15 AM PST this is why.

We're working on a lot of things right now and I expect to patch out an update to the client and server within the next few days.

That's all for now!

[Xsyon]

Update January 17

Hello everyone!

I'm not feeling too well these past few days, but we're forging ahead. We've been doing a lot of in house testing so I've decided not to patch out a public update until we have a few more changes ready (the quest system, which requires database changes, and rock / boulder removal which needs to be done before we run our final terrain 'baking' tests).

That's all for now. I just want everyone to know if things seem a bit more silent than usual it's because we're very focused on getting things wrapped up!

[Xsyon]

Update January 22

Hello everyone!

Just a quick update for today as I know many of you are waiting for some news.

I'm currently uploading what I hope will be the final terrain for the Prelude. I will patch out an update with many small changes tomorrow night. This won't include the quest system just yet, but we've made a lot of small improvements and need to test our current build publicly. So, basically whatever is ready tomorrow night will be patched out to the main server.

Also, as a heads up, I am considering a wipe of the world this coming week. It might help us spot errors in the final terrain and to make sure that we've fixed issues that were occassionaly creating bad items in the database (for example bundles or stacks with improper item counts). I will see how testing goes over the next few days and then decide if we need to do this wipe or not.

That's all for today. I'll post a lot more with tomorrow's update.

[Xsyon]

Update January 23

The servers are up with a server and client patch. The main reason for this update is so that we can test the improved stability of the client and to ensure that our new system of saving data and logs on the server is working correctly.

The main features we are working on: the Quest system and the World Update are not quite ready yet. Other minor improvements that we've been working on, however, are part of this update.

In this update:

Features and Revisions

Actions
- Characters can sit and sleep for faster regeneration. The default KeyBinds are V and B. These can be set in the Keybind options panel.

Construction and Terraforming
- Small boulders can be selected and destroyed in tribe territories.
- Terraforming limits and dam forming has been revised.
- Buildings can be dismantled. Dismantling a building currently reverts to a construction ghost with no materials. This will be improved to allow salvaging of materials used in the original construction.
- Building sites can be accessed and used by any tribe members with the correct permissions.
- Buildings left abandoned in non tribe territories can be accessed and removed by any players.

Inventory
- Cloth icons display material and color. We are further revising the material icons to be more distinct for each material.
- Sorting stacks new items across all equipped containers.
- Both right and left click activate panel switches in the command bar.

Art
- The final terrain has been uploaded.
- Creature animations have been revised.
- Some human animations have been revised and improved.

Server
- The backup system has been revised to reduce lag spikes while data is backed up.
- The server loggind system has been revised to provide us with more detailed information.

Fixes

- Crashes caused by Alt-Tabbing between Xsyon and other programs fixed.
- Collision improved to prevent climbing up stone posts and other sloped objects.
- Construction sites allow stacking only of same material and color objects.
- Trade window properly displays icon names, colors and materials.
- A bug allowing players to view other players' packs through the trade windows has been fixed.
- Containers are set so that only one player can use a container at a time.
- Problems with several armor and building meshes have been corrected.
- Terraforming while moving has been blocked.
- Pouches containing objects can be picked up if you have a free pouch slot.
- The server and client have been improved to prevent bad items from being created and to prevent crashing in case bad items are accidentally spawned.
- Problems with death and teleporting fixed.
- Stacking of containers inside each other blocked. (This happened occasionally on slopes or when crafting objects in the same spot).
- A bug allowing some buildings to be created without the proper tools in place has been fixed.

[Xsyon]

Update January 26

A server and client patch is up. This patch includes:

Features and Revisions

- Server start up and saving has been further optimized.
- The emote panel is separate from the chat panel and can be oriented horizontally or vertically.
- The interface now creates a save file for each resolution.
- Cloth material icons are more distinct.
- Chalk can be found in limestone areas.
- Players should be able to complete others architecture project if they possess the same scheme.

Fixes

- Corrupted equipped items removed.
- Access of abandoned and other player's buildings now show the correct construction scheme.

The main reason for this update was to fix construction projects as this was causing some problems creating bad data and crashes.

[Xsyon]

Update January 28

A quick server and client patch is up. This patch includes:

Features and Revisions

- Stat gain and decay system. This is a gradual gain and decay based on what skills you use. The system is designed to adjust your stats over time and has limits to prevent advantages from grinding.

- A new crash log system has been implemented. If your client crashes, please send me the crash log files from your Xsyon/Logs directory. This will help us a lot to pinpoint remaining crashes which seem to affect some players and are typically memory or graphic issues.

Fixes

- Problems with some inventory moves, especially with packs, containers and weapons, have been corrected.
- Grass icons have been fixed.

I have also uploaded an Italian translation of the game manual.

http://www.xsyon.com/install/Manuale_di_Xsyon.pdf

Much thanks to Luca Blue!

That's all for today. The main reason for this update is to implement our new crash logging system and some server monitoring code. More coming soon!

[Xsyon]

Update January 29

A quick server and client patch is up. This is just a patch to deal with problems with containers being stuck open and to add to the new crash tracking system. Please continue to send or post your crash logs. These are very useful.

Thanks!