Xsyon Updates Archive

[Xsyon]

December 21 2011

Hello Xsyon Citizens!

I've answered last week's Questions and Answer session. We are wrapping up changes to the account back end now that it's been transferred over.

As carts are still causing some troubles, we are working on turning off the cart building skill and schemes so that we can at least patch out the many bug fixes and creature improvements we made this past week.

We have some Christmas treats for next week!

[Xsyon]

December 22 2011

Hello Xsyon Citizens!

Our new account system backend is now fully live and functioning. If you have any issues with your account, please contact SUPPORT.

From your account view things should be a little more clear now, however the major changes are in the back end system. We will now be able to send out emails to past players and get things going with player surveys and more important with decaying abandoned totems, something I know many of you have been waiting for!

[Xsyon]

December 24 2011

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

　
I would like to update you all on the current state of the game and what we have planned for the near future. Our current focus is to improve game balance, meaning and interactions between players.

　

Specifically we are going to be working on the following:

Skill and stat revision including balance, caps, decay and death penalties.

Revised xp and levelling.

Resource and material redistribution.

Further crafting revisions.

Faster tool, weapon and armor decay on use.

Improved quest system, including gaining xp from quests.

Trade system using local currencies.

Creature AI and difficulty, including the arrival of undead.

Comfort and weather effects on players.

Building uses.

Further combat improvements.

Totem decay and abandonment.

Allowing tribes to remove their safe zones and gain advantages by doing so.

　

We will also continue to work on the cart system and implement this as soon as we can. This task was far more involved than we thought but the revisions that we've had to make will be useful for other future features.

　

We have other minor additions planned that will be implemented without advanced hype so that players can enjoy a sense of discovery and exploration. I know many of you are waiting for other content and features but we will deal with the above improvements first rather than add things that will entertain only for a short while.


I will be emailing our Guides and Player Test Team for more feedback on game balance and works in progress. If you are interested in participating on either of these teams you are welcome to sign up.

　

We have a patch ready for Monday morning and some fun events planned for next week.

　

I hope you all enjoy the holidays!

[Xsyon]

December 26 2011

　
Hello Xsyon Citizens!

Today's maintenance will run from 7:00 AM - 8:00 AM PST and will include a server and client patch, primarily with bug fixes and optimizations that were done over the past two weeks.

I will post an update after this patch.

[Xsyon]

December 26 2011

Hello Xsyon Citizens!

The main server has been restarted with a patch. This patch primarily implements bug fixes and a skill tracker that will be used for balance and skill decay. I am rushed tonight working on many tasks. Quickly here are some of the improvements in this build:

- Fixed issues with missing and improperly playing animations (mostly for creatures)
- Fixed raccoon mutant foot removal.
- Decay shovel when terraforming
- Fixed bug allowing player to swap head items to any item in pack.
- Basketry schemes can be scavenged
- Players auto gain 1 bin scheme at basketry skill 25.
- Optimized some structures for memory use on the server
- Optimized CPU use on the server to boost performance and handling of players and creatures.
- Tripled limit on number of creatures in the world.
- Fixed issue where skills could not be removed from action bar.
- Mason Heavy Gate model fixed.
- Bugs with hiding and resting fixed.
- Bugs with hiding and combat mode fixed.
- Shadows don't render now when you are properly hidden.
- Bug logging out player sometimes when Y was pressed fixed.
- Loss of focus while moving architecture projects fixed.
- Closing a panel removes any icon being dragged from that panel, to prevent exploits.
- Collision with barrels sometimes going through floors fixed.
- Collision when dropping objects on a roof fixed.
- Improvements for Guides to create special events at Founder's Isle.
- Holiday themed totems.
- Creature Pack AI implemented.
- Many improvements to creature AI.
- Server side improvements to the database.

The cart system has been disabled for this public build, but will be available for testing on the Test Server again soon. I am just waiting on the collision system revisions needed for this that has become a major task.

Enjoy!

[Xsyon]

December 29 2011

Hello Xsyon Citizens!

A quick update for today:

- The Questions of the Week have been answered for those interested.

- A small patch went out with yesterday's maintenance to address a few crash problems from the December 26 patch. If you experience any client crashed please send your client and crash log files from your Xsyon / Logs directory to BUGS.

- Our account back end still has some issues that are being fixed and completed. Fixing these is our main priority right now. If you are experiencing any account issues please contact SUPPORT.

- A few players have mentioned free time that we plan to offer. This feature of the account back end is not yet fully functional. When it is fully functional we will add free time to accounts as stated before.

- New Year is the biggest holiday of the year here in Russia and I am returning to the US in the middle of next week. We may be able to squeeze out a small patch before my flight home but most likely our next public patch will be a bit more than a week from now.

[Xsyon]

December 30 2011

Hello Xsyon Citizens!

A few announcements for today:

- As part of our account system update, we no longer will accept PayPal recurring subscriptions. This was done for several reasons, but primarily because we cannot control PayPal subscriptions in order to add free time to accounts. All players with recurring PayPal subscriptions have been contacted via email. If you have any questions and did not receive an email, please contact SUPPORT.

- Our Creature Tracking Tool is now fully functional and this has helped us visualize what is going on with the creatures in the world. The results have been interesting.

In general creatures are behaving as they should. Creatures are rare in areas with a lot of human activity, but more remote zones are plentiful with creatures. Players have been hunting the larger game animals, so the smaller critters have bred like rabbits. Mutants abound on the edges of the green mist in hard to reach areas.

We've identified a few problems where creatures are getting stuck and will be working to fix these right away. Creatures are also hiding too frequently. We're going to fix these issues and make some adjustments to breeding to provide more larger game. Once we've done this, we will respawn creatures with a new balanced distribution and once again let the breeding take its course.

- The test server is open with carts being tested again. We are also testing collision revisions in general and some further improvements to creature AI.

That's all for today. Happy New Year everyone!

[Xsyon]

January 2 2012

Hello Xsyon Citizens!

Welcome to the New Year! I hope you all enjoyed the holidays.

This will be a quiet week. I start my trip back to the U.S.A. tomorrow afternoon and will be back home late Thursday night PST. We won't have a patch this week as I want to avoid any problems while I'm in transit.

I've answered the Questions of the Week for those interested.

I'm looking forward to the improvements and features we have planned for Xsyon this year!

[Xsyon]

January 6 2012

Hello Xsyon Citizens!

Just a quick update today. I'm back in the US and spent the day catching up with things here and getting set up and backing up all data as I usually do after a long trip. We'll spend the weekend preparing the next patch that should go out next week. That's all at the moment.

[Xsyon]

January 9 2012

Hello Xsyon Citizens!

The good folks at MMOSmackTalk were kind enough to interview me for their Sandbox Podcast this weekend. In this session we discussed the past, present and future of Xsyon. This has already been posted, but here is a link for those interested.

http://thesandbox.mmosmacktalk.com/?p=413

Much thanks to Coolit and Quint and I hope to join them again for more podcasts in the future!

The Questions of the Week have been answered and we're busy working on the next patch. We're still ironing out a few problems with the account system and it's taking me a few days to get back into full swing but things are coming along.