Xsyon Updates Archive

[Xsyon]

Update July 31:

The server and client have been updated.

This update includes:

A full terrain, character and data wipe. Hopefully this will be the last wipe until our final character wipe. We'll see how things go.

Hack and cheat prevention. This has been the main focus over the past few days as some potential cheats were brought to our attention. We are going to continue testing these hacks this week. Dealing with this is taking up valuable time, but it's better that we deal with this now and not in the future.

Master and corrected ambient sound control.

A server side full world collision map. This will be used for improved creature pathfinding and preventing cheats.

Creatures should now avoid the lake and other situations. Creatures are still being improved.

Continued rendering optimizations.

Fixes including campfires that weren't working and problems with the selection of dead animals.

We're going to keep plugging away today to get another update out as soon as possible.

[Xsyon]

Update August 3:

The server and client have been updated.

This update includes:

Improved player position synchronization. This should be especially noticeable at close range and in combat.

The Social Panel is turned on so you can keep track of Friends and Foes. Additional functions will be available in the next update.

Container and object permissions are available from the right click menu so that you can share objects with the public or with friends.

Trees are affected by gravity and should align better with the ground. This is still being checked an improved.

Continued bug fixes and minor improvements as usual.

[Xsyon]

Update August 4:

The server and client have been updated.

This is a minor update that fixes problems with the new creature world collision and pathfinding system. This is in progress but with this patch we will be spawning creatures at various locations today.

[Xsyon]

Update August 6:

The server and client have been updated.

This is an untested update. I've backed up all data in case we need to roll things back.

We've copied the current database to the test server so that we can continue making adjustments and check them with the exact world players are currently looking at.

We've made some changes to hopefully reduce the lag spikes that are being caused by terraforming and terrain changes that are building up.

We've also made some changes to:

Animation application and transitions.
Player position synchronization.
Terraforming causing spikes and holes.

We will continue to work on reducing lag and fixing problems right now rather than turning on more features.

[Xsyon]

Update August 7:

Things might be a bit quiet for the next 2 or 3 days. We're going to focus on problems that can still cause lag and fixing bugs before turning on anything new.

I will probably restart the server a few times with minor updates that help us pinpoint problems. If I need to run any tests similar to the lag tests we ran last night, I will announce it here.

[Xsyon]

Update August 9:

The server and client have been updated in an effort to reduce or eliminate the current lag. We will test througout the rest of the day and tonight to see if we're at least on the right track.

[Xsyon]

Update August 11:

Our last update seems to have eliminated the main cause of server lag. We're working primarily on other important fixes right now. There will be another public update before the end of the week.

[Xsyon]

Update August 12:

Hello everyone. The server locked up twice within the past few hours. I'm checking the logs now to see what happened. If anyone has any information about what they were doing when they were last crashed or timed out, please email me.

Thanks!

[Xsyon]

Update August 13:

Just a quick update for today. Most of the team just hit the sack in Siberia (2:30 AM) and I'm still waiting for some changes to be delivered and tested. The team will continue tomorrow.

I'm going to take the day to review art that will soon make it into the game, including new sets of female only armor, revised animations and terrain features. I also need to take some time to organize tasks for the next two weeks.

We've been testing our terrain baking process and will turn this on next week. This will reduce loading times when entering the game and crossing sectors.

The next update is focused on performance and bug fixes.

More coming soon...

[Xsyon]

Update August 15:

Another quick update.

We're continuing to fix bugs and test our changes internally. Some changes include:

Changes to animal behavior.

Characters being safe when they log in until they move.

Characters staying in game for 30 seconds when they log out in non safe zones (to avoid players exiting in the middle of combat).

Graphic issues with hiding fixed, such as fires not rendering. This includes hidden character rendered more transparent.

We're going to continue with these changes without a public update for now. The next public update might require a character and data wipe (but not a terrain wipe). This will depend on some changes we're testing right now. We might be able to correct bad data (such as backpack 'black holes' and a mysterious invalid object that someone created) without wiping it.

That's all for today!