Tuchola Forest Beta2 Feedback, Mon Apr 17th Options

[Lord Lipton]

what does beta1, bet2, beta3 mean?



silver's got an idea....



uh oh...

[ScrapyardBob]

In software development, you move through phases... internal revisions, then alpha testing, then beta testing, and final release.

Alpha versions are typically feature-incomplete, missing large sections but otherwise giving a sense of how the project is going to turn out. Beta versions are supposed to be nearly feature-complete and the focus is more in fixing bugs then adding more features.

[Silver]

sure bob dont pay me no mind....

[ScrapyardBob]

updates for Thursday

1089 bases planted this week
595 destroyed (55%)
513 defused

[ScrapyardBob]

Fun link:
http://www.game-monitor.com/GameServer/8.9.4.76:28960/

[ScrapyardBob]

A few other servers have picked it up as well (most are running as part of a rotation, so you have to check the search a few times per day to find the servers):

http://www.game-monitor.com/search.php?sea...uchola&type=map


VPK_BAS 1.51 (VENTRI 2.1) http://vpkuo.ini.hu 7/28 152.66.236.9 28960

OneXAlliance.com UO FF 2 1/26 64.247.18.148 28960

{BHC} Battleground X |Tuchola Forest| 0/36 207.230.41.30 28965

[Ashes]

Hey {MOB}...

Just wanted to tell you that I find your map, Tuchola Forest, absolutely amazing. The size affords players great latitude in their strategic efforts. Planning can actually happen virtually unencumbered. The tanks, the hills, the snow... it's so much fun. I've been spending way too much time on your server of late, coming in with my teammates and attempting various attack/defense strategies. This map has single-handedly restored my hunger for UO. If you are to share it with others, let me know... I would love to run it on our servers...

Cheers!

[FS] Ashes.

[Stickman]

Hi all.

Bob, I found a spot where my tank got stuck. Bug or feature? You decide. Anyway, it was here:


Here's another view of the spot, to put it into context


And finally, a suggestion. Here is an image of the trench and bunker in the Russian spawn:

After spawning, I often drop into this bunker to pick up rockets and a satchel. Every time I exit the bunker into this trench, it annoys me that before heading west towards R2, I have to run all the way down the trench to the ladder in the foreground of this picture.
When exiting the bunker in this trench, a player either wants to go east into the spawn, north to R3, or west to R2. There are convenient east and north ladders. Moving the west ladder down to the bunker door would make it convenient as well.

A small change, to be sure, but one that would make me happy and give me warm fuzzy feelings.

[ScrapyardBob]

If you are to share it with others, let me know... I would love to run it on our servers...

Feel free. I only asked that other admins not host the map back when it was in alpha testing (it was changing daily). Now that we're in beta testing and the map is stable, I have no qualms about recommending it for hosting on other servers. (I already know of 5 other servers that host it.)

Beta #3 will probably come out middle of next week, mostly decorative additions as game balance is almost spot-on.

[logik]

Beta #3 will probably come out middle of next week, mostly decorative additions as game balance is almost spot-on.

so on a traffic heavy server would you recommend just waiting until final to save some bandwidth?

[ScrapyardBob]

's up to you, I plan on doing roughly weekly beta's until I'm happy with the map. I reckon that's going to take about 6 betas, so there will be a beta4, beta5 and beta6 before final. My estimated final date isn't until Jun 1, so I plan to keep fine tuning it until then.

Beta 2 is very playable, definitely better then beta 1. Beta 3 just finishes out the russian spawn area and adds final amounts of foliage across the map. I may even push beta #3 off another week and see if I can't get even more detail work finished.

[ScrapyardBob]

Stats for Friday:

1328 plants
736 destroyed (55%)
595 defused

Note: We're running a 10 sec respawn, 20 sec plant time (stock is 15 sec).

[ScrapyardBob]

A more thorough examination of the log files (thanks to Druid!), beta #2 stats only (Monday-Friday gameplay on .76):

1170 bases breached, 581 russian bases, 589 german bases

1482 plants, 751 by germans, 731 by russians

816 bases destroyed, 406 russian bases (54% plant success), 410 german bases (56% succ)

Not bad, not bad... pretty darn even.

By my count there were 125 matches spread over 5 days. Which is pretty close to 1 hour per match (a match being 2-3 rounds).

...

Our attempt to fix the snapshotentities error by putting the map in the rotation twice isn't working. The server still restarts after 2000-2500 minutes (30-40 hrs) with the error. Daily restarts are probably going to be the ultimate solution, or else use of a tiny map as a 3 minute intermission after every 8-10 matches.

[ScrapyardBob]

Still working on Beta #3

- The raindrop effect in beta #3 will be doubled for a given config file setting. In the meantime, we're running beta #2 with a value of "8" (out of 10) with no issues.

- More foliage, mostly along the north half of the map and in the farm area.

- Tabling the idea of adding river sounds for now. I can't find a sound that I like and it would eat up a lot of gamestate to add the 20-50 sound nodes to the map.

- Ambient noise during snowy / rainy rounds will be increased slightly.

- I'm considering adding script to make random foliage noises from existing trees and bushes. I think I know how to do it in a way that will be light on gamestate / performance, yet freak people out. Trees cracking and snow falling would also be good sounds. Depends if I can find sounds for those two items.

- Finished most of the map edges so far, still have the backside of the German spawn and the area by R1 to finish.

[Von Pappenhiem]

Great scenario...my only feedback is that the vehicle types don't match the time period. German Pz lll, lV and Stug of the types you have used would not have coexisted with the JagdPanther. The later model Pz lV and Stug lV would be correct, also maybe add a Tiger, Panther or Hetzer. The Russians are closer to the time period except for the BT7 which were mostly destroyed in the beginning of the war. The large T34 you have is a T34 85 and would have been numerous at the time. You may know all this already but just trying to help out a bit. Great work!!!