Xsyon Updates Archive

[Xsyon]

Update February 27

Hello everyone!

A quick update regarding our tests and lag right now. The main cause of lag is currently terraforming and actions that change the terrain or trees. Primarily, this was terraforming which is why it's been disabled today for testing. Other actions such as chopping down trees and gathering bundles when the terrain changes surfaces can have an effect, and these have not been turned off.

Lag is a lot less than yesterday, but depending on the amount of these actions, it will still occur.

We're working on the code now and will have an update as soon as possible. For now I'm just keeping everyone informed.

Enjoy!

[Xsyon]

Update March 4

Hello Xsyon citizens!

I'd like to recap what's been going on for the past two weeks and give an update on what we're working on and what he have planned for the coming week.

On February 18th we attempted a final year zero wipe. As our dowload server shared a connection and firewall with our game servers, the heavy download traffic reached our bandwidth limit, interfering with game traffic and causing severe lag. This lag exposed various exploits and problems with tribe and totem placement which in turn led to crashes and bad data being saved. On the 19th, we decided to push forward the official launch for two weeks so that we could resolve the problems that surfaced. The major issues were as follows:

Heavy lag due to bandwidth limit:
This was resolved a week ago as we set up two new download servers separate from our game servers.

Tribe and totem exploits:
These were fixed and confirmed throught testing.

Corrupted data saving:
The saving system was revised with additional error checking, double back ups and automatic shut downs in the case of bad data being created. After a few days of server crashes and shut downs, both forced and due to problems in the code, we corrected all issues and since then the saving system has been running smoothly and rollbacks, if needed, are small and without data corruption.

Built up lag due to simultaneous terraforming activity and terrain actions:
After some optimizations we haven't been able to reproduce this lag in the past few days. We are wary that it may happen again, however. We've added some additional checks and measures so that if lag does build up again, we will be able to pinpoint the exact cause much easier in the future.

With all this out of the way, we are nearly ready for the final wipe and real start of Xsyon!

Here's what is currently in motion:

1) We will proceed with a clean slate for the Year Zero start.

The totem survey that we sent out resulted in over 70% of players that placed totems and roughly 90% of players that responded in favor of a clean start. In addition, many totems were not saved properly or were missing from the saved data.


2) The game will start with two game servers: War and Peace.

The main reason for this is to handle our current game population and anticipated growth over the next few months.

Although the lands beyond the green mist were created a long time ago, we spent a lot of time this past year improving the central active Tahoe zone. Our terrain artists are currently revising and improving the outer lands to match the central zone. The first expansion zone should be ready by the end of April. Currently, however, we can't clear the mist so we are limited to the Tahoe starting zone.

This limitation along with the recent addition of homesteads is crowding the starting zone with our current population. This is driving creatures too quickly into the green mist and not allowing enough active wilderness areas for creatures to breed. We have some additional changes to creature AI that will help resolve this issue, but at this point a two server solution is necessary.

Additionally, this solution will help with the land rush and reduce lag when the servers are full.

With an obvious existing split in the community between players who want more of a construction game and players that want to focus on PvP, we decided to use this as an opportunity for War and Peace servers.

- Both servers will allow for PvP.
- Both servers will retain our anti-griefing policies.
- Both servers will start off the same and change over time.
- Both servers will evolve with the player community.
- Players will have the option to create characters on both servers.

The War server will have safe zones removed during the Prelude. The plan is to evolve this server to focus more on tribal warfare and conquest as quickly as possible.

The Peace server will retain its safe zones with tribes having the options to engage in tribal warfare or allow PvP on tribal lands. This server will evolve more for the crafting and building community.

3) The final wipe and land rush will proceed in a controlled manner.

On the day of the final wipe, players will be able to enter the game and form their tribe charters, but not claim any land. This will allow tribes to form their groups and find their locations and then log on.

On the second day, players will be able to claim land, but terraforming will be turned off and combat will not be allowed on the Peace server. This will allow players to claim their lands without entire tribes being online, and once totems are placed, players can log off to reduce stress on the servers.

On the third day, everything will be turned on as normal and game play can begin.

We will do this do reduce potential lag and chaos. The goal of the early entry is for tribes and players to settle in, while the game will officially start with a creature reset on the 15th.

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What's next:

We are currently preparing the War and Peace servers. These are at a new location that should provide us slightly better connectivity to players around the world. This won't result in a huge difference from our current game server, but any improvement is welcome. These should be completely set up by tomorrow.

A new launcher is almost ready but needs to be tested once the game servers are fully prepared.

I'm working on a few fixes and changes that I want done before the final wipe. If we encounter any built up lag in game tonight or this weekend, we will have to take some time to work on it as well.

As of now, I estimate we'll be ready by the middle of this coming week. I will post an update tomorrow to keep everyone informed of our progress.

[Xsyon]

Update March 4

Hello everyone!

Before arguments get out of hand I will make some sure things are clear up front. I see already many misconceptions about the War and Peace servers.

- Both servers will start off the same.
- Both will have PvP with consequences.
- The Peace server is not a PvE server.
- Safe zones will be removed during the prelude on the War server when towns can defend themselves. This is not a Chaos or griefer server, but a server for players that want tribal warfare and conquest. This will happen as soon as possible, possibly within a month or two.
- The differences between servers will be slight. This will not require a lot of additional development, just a matter of settings and switches in the code.
- Both servers will evolve with each player base. The plan is and will always be to evolve with what the player base wants.
- The servers are an option. You can play on both if you like.
- Crafting and social features on both servers will be identical. This is not a Crafting vs PvP split.

- Players that seek a world based on tribal warfare and conflict should choose the War server. That's the direction that server will evolve. Again, it will NOT be a Chaos free for all server. Players that want less danger and future consensual tribal PvP should choose the Peace server. The goal here is one of choices and balance.

- My goal here is to take the need for two servers as an opportunity to accomodate the players that want Xsyon to become a more war and conquest based game. I do believe this is a decent percent of the population.

[Xsyon]

Update March 4

I'd like to say a bit about my vision with Xsyon.

The original design of Xsyon was conceived more than ten years ago. I envisioned a game similar to UO but with with no npc cities and quest givers. Instead players would build cities and dungeons, create quests and play monsters. I was also interested in creating a game that would evolve with the players and with players forming communities within the game that would accomodate different groups and playing styles.

Warfare and conquest was not part of the original design though conflict over claimed resources and player combat was.

The Prelude was planned as a starting point as I knew it was impossible to create the complexity of my original design (many features haven't been mentioned at all) with a small independent team. My plan was to grow the game from this starting point based on the players that I would attract. We've followed this plan all year and will continue to do so.

I do see a separation between those that want a game focused on conquest and those that want a world where allowing for war opens up benefits but is not forced upon them. The difference between world is simply that, where is the game headed? We provide the tools and features, you make the choices and the game evolves as planned.

One last clarification as I need to focus on other things: Consensual warfare would mean tribes choosing to be warring tribes or not. This would be a permanent or difficult to reverse choice, not a switch and would have benefits. Wild areas will remain as open PvP areas on both servers.

As stated below, both servers will start off the same.

[Xsyon]

March 5

Hello everyone!

After sleeping (just a bit) on the two server decision and discussing this with the other programmers, I’ve decided that there will not be a server split.

The reason for the server split was to accommodate the amount of tribes and homesteads and anticipate growth over the next month or two while we prepare more zones. The main issues are crowding of the Tahoe basin and driving creatures away from the starting zones too quickly.

The additional benefits would be a less hectic land rush launch and the opportunity to evolve the game in two slightly different directions to accommodate what I already see as a split community.

The additional overhead would not be in future coding, but more maintenance and management of two servers and two terrain maps. After weighing the benefits and the overhead and brainstorming a bit we will try to implement some quick solutions to solve the current crowd issues and we’ll forge through a hectic launch and first month or so until we open more lands and players can expand to new territories.

To reduce crowding, we will try to implement the following:
- Slightly reduced homestead areas.
- Add ‘clans’. Clans will be 5+ member tribes with a smaller maximum radius.
- Tribes will require 10 members (as originally planned).
- Tribes and clans will not be allowed to overlap, based on their maximum radius.
- Homesteads will not be able to be placed within a tribe’s maximum radius.
- Tribes will check placement using a middle radius distance from homesteads. This will allow tribes to expand, potentially enclosing homesteads in the way. Homesteads will have priority over their zones. Tribes will have to negotiate with the homestead if they want it removed.
- Tribes losing members will revert down a level (from tribe to clan to homestead). Homesteads gaining members will require a disband and reforming to claim more land as a new clan or homestead.

To reduce the problem of animals being killed off and pushed to the mist:
- Creatures will be able to hide / hibernate, essentially being turned off temporarily.
- Breeding rates will be accelerated and allowed during the hiding phase.

Regarding the future of safe zones and conquest as brought about by the discussion of War and Peace servers:

What I imagine is:
- Tribes choosing to become warring on non-warring, not as an on / off switch but as a permanent or difficult to reverse decision, likely based on tribal actions.
- Warring tribes would be able to conquer and raid others, but they will also become susceptible to war. Non warring tribes would keep their area safe, but don’t gain the ability to raid or conquer other tribes.
- Both warring and non-warring tribes could claim resources that would be up for contest by both types of tribes.
- Some expansion zones being open to more conquest without safe zones, while in others tribes would retain the choice to war or not.

As always, Xsyon will evolve with its community to provide balance and choices. What exactly game will become 6-9 months from now will depend on how players drive the world.

This decision was made not because of the arguments and complaints but arose from proposals from the other programmers to resolve the crowding issues without the additional complications of managing two worlds.

[Xsyon]

March 6


Hello everyone!

The game server has been moved to its final location. I don't expect any huge improvements from this but this location boasts better connectivity and we won't encounter any bandwidth limits as we did with our older cluster.

That's all for the moment. I will post another update tonight.

[Xsyon]

March 6

Hello everyone!

We have a lot going on right now so my updates this week will be brief and to the point.

Thursday March 10 at 6:00 AM PST we will wipe the server and allow players in to form their tribe / clan charters. You will not be able to place totems yet, so you can take your time and get your tribe charters ready over the course of the day.

Friday March 11 starting at 9:00 AM PST we will allow players to place totems. Terraforming will be turned off. Once you've placed a totem, please log off to reduce traffic on this day. We may turn off other features as well.

Regardless of what we do, we expect a bit of chaos. When things settle down and totems have been placed, we will turn on terraforming.

We will reset creatures and officially start on the 15th if all goes as planned!

[Xsyon]

March 7

Hello everyone!

A new server and client have been patched out.

We're testing some tribe revisions. Tribes will now have 4 sizes.

Homesteads 1-4 starting members.
Bands 5-9 starting members.
Clans 10-19 starting members.
Tribes 20+ starting members.


This will allow smaller groups to form tribes with a decent claimed area but without crowding the world due to the maximum tribe size.

Each of the tribe types can grow in radius beyond the size of the next type, so their maximum radius anticipates some growth.


Homesteads have a fixed radius.
Bands grow in size up to 15 members.
Clans grow in size up to 25 members.
Tribes grow in size up to 80 members.

If your group drops below the minimum number, it will change to the next size tribe. We will not implement tribe and homestead overlap for now due to potential complicated situations. We'll think about further revisions to the system in the future when we expand the green mist.


Aside from the maximum growth size there is no difference between these tribe types. The member counts were chosen based on current tribe sizes to provide some balance.


We may slightly adjust the numbers after some more tests tomorrow.


In addition, tribes will be able to place totems at starter areas except for Founder's Isle. However, these will still be safe zones without combat or terraforming. The safe zones will be removed after we set starting zones based on tribe locations (tribes will be able to specify if they want a start zone near their tribe or not).

[Xsyon]

March 10 2011

Hello everyone!

The Year Zero final wipe commences, spread out ove the next few days as follows:

Thursday March 10 at 6:00 AM PST we will wipe the server and allow players in to form their tribe / clan charters.

You will not be able to place totems yet, so you can take your time and get your tribe charters ready over the course of the day. Most actions will be turned off. Take your time, today is for forming tribes and scouting locations only.

Friday March 11 starting at 9:00 AM PST we will allow players to place totems.

Most actions will be turned off. Once you've placed a totem, please log off to reduce traffic on this day. Only 1 person is required to log on to place a totem once the tribe character is created and filled.

Once characters are settled in, we will turn on actions and the let the game

[Xsyon]

March 10 2011

A quick announcement and update:

To avoid further confusion with tribes, the system has been slightly revised.

1) Tribe type will be chosen when placing your actual totem.

20 or more will start a tribe.
10-19 will start a clan.
5-9 will start a band.
less than 5 will start a homestead.

2) When creating a Tribe Charter you will have only 1 selection.

This applies to already existing Charters. There is no need to create a new charter if you have one in place.