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Vlada
06-01-2011, 12:38 PM
STM Server and Scrum

Jun, 2011
The SWGEmu Development Division


STM Server - Jun, 2011



We are trying to test a new system for the engine that might be a great help in the development process. TC: Nova shouldn't be affected by this, since feature wise they are identical.

This version of the engine brought a lot of major changes in the underlying framework that Core3 is built upon. Core3 is not rewritten in any way, it mostly contains changes in Engine3 and some low level things that need to be changed in Core3. However there is no feature game logic change.

We didn't have the capacity to test every part of the code so it is still crashing a lot. That's why we need a lot of testing by you guys in order to get it stable. Everyone is welcome to help.


*Please note that you have to create new characters after every STM server crash because we don't save everything to the database yet.

EDIT:

More info about STM Server


When it is stable enough and the performance is acceptable, we are going to replace Nova by this and discontinue the locking based version which was a huge burden for developers to maintain. For you this will mean no more deadlocks and eventually as we add more features, the whole system will be able to survive crashes with no loss of data.


Please don't report bugs from it yet, it is a few weeks older Nova code so there is no point reporting things as of yet. It will be merged later and there will be one common version.

Scrum


The project management system is under revision. We don't have to remind you that this is a purely voluntary project and all work is being done in our free time. With that in mind it is clear that Scrum was overkill and not ideal for our purposes. I proposed to use something we have at work that is pretty easy and won't put any overhead on developers and might work better for us.


~ The SWGEmu Development Division

JSW321
06-02-2011, 12:25 AM
Thanks for the update.!

bmsortiz
06-02-2011, 02:15 AM
So will this be for testing seperate areas of the game such as creature handler that on nova we have not really done anything with. If not its fine just nice to hear about any new info! :)

Vlada
06-02-2011, 09:51 AM
So will this be for testing seperate areas of the game such as creature handler that on nova we have not really done anything with. If not its fine just nice to hear about any new info! :)

Here more info from Oru, i hope this explains whats going to happen with STM and Nova.


When it is stable enough and the performance is acceptable, we are going to replace Nova by this and discontinue the locking based version which was a huge burden for developers to maintain. For you this will mean no more deadlocks and eventually as we add more features, the whole system will be able to survive crashes with no loss of data.


So basically what you see on Nova you will see on STM, but yes in time even those professions that were always missing from our servers, like CH, BE and DE will be added and tested there.

Oh and another important thing:


Please don't report bugs from it yet, it is a few weeks older Nova code so there is no point reporting things as of yet. It will be merged later and there will be one common version.

P.S. Added this info to the OP.

Dialgo
06-04-2011, 12:26 PM
Awesome, thanks for the info!

Superjebus
06-06-2011, 05:40 PM
Very cool progress here.

I'm about to whinge, so ignore me if you don't want to read it.

Lag, rubberbanding, a significant lack of resources......... I take it this is not intended to be playable yet? I know you said not to report bugs, but I'm getting C++ errors and client crashes.

The latest changes to TC Nova have broken things that were previously working well. The new player intro is cool, but at what cost? No more player housing.

I was one of the more persistant testers for quite a while. I take a small holiday to Liberator to meet some people in this community, fully intending to come back rejuvinated. So I come back, and it's now unplayable again.......

I guess like the other 900 people, I'll be on Liberator, dieing of a broken Emu.

Vlada
06-06-2011, 06:37 PM
Very cool progress here.

I'm about to whinge, so ignore me if you don't want to read it.

Lag, rubberbanding, a significant lack of resources......... I take it this is not intended to be playable yet? I know you said not to report bugs, but I'm getting C++ errors and client crashes.

The latest changes to TC Nova have broken things that were previously working well. The new player intro is cool, but at what cost? No more player housing.

I was one of the more persistant testers for quite a while. I take a small holiday to Liberator to meet some people in this community, fully intending to come back rejuvinated. So I come back, and it's now unplayable again.......

I guess like the other 900 people, I'll be on Liberator, dieing of a broken Emu.

STM will eventually replace Nova, like Oru said, it is currently unstable abnd that is to be exacted, but it still needs a lot of stress testing.

Superjebus
06-06-2011, 06:48 PM
Sorry for the rant. I do appreciate the work you all do for the project.

I should have gone to sleep instead of making that second post. I will try to log in regularly, but at the moment, I'm getting C++ errors from a landspeeder I made.

Appologies to the team, it's been a long night for me (4:50am local time).

Vlada
06-06-2011, 06:52 PM
Sorry for the rant. I do appreciate the work you all do for the project.

I should have gone to sleep instead of making that second post. I will try to log in regularly, but at the moment, I'm getting C++ errors from a landspeeder I made.

Appologies to the team, it's been a long night for me (4:50am local time).

No need to apologize, it can be a bit frustrating when you just want to help but for some reason (those C++ errors for example) you cant. Thank you for trying to hep us test. :)

Dngrzne91
06-10-2011, 02:51 PM
Vlada someone needs to come up with a way to register our names permanently. I'm tired of new players showing up and stealing freakin toon names.

Superjebus
06-10-2011, 06:19 PM
Vlada someone needs to come up with a way to register our names permanently. I'm tired of new players showing up and stealing freakin toon names.

Is there a way you can register toon names to the login so it is reserved for all servers?

Lobreeze
06-10-2011, 06:23 PM
Why are you getting so attached to a name on a test server? It should be a non issue, click generate random name.

SortasD
06-11-2011, 12:31 PM
It's a bit like how mobs and thir loot do not belong to anyone: The quicker bird catches the fish.

wim
06-11-2011, 08:27 PM
I agree with the name stealing. Someone ninja'd my handle between wipes. I've friended them but have yet to see them log. A solution would be cool, but not entirely simple to implement. On one extreme we could import forum usernames to the reserved names list: luke, han, lando... etc. And on the other, just roll it into csr duties. Name enforcement. A middle ground would be nice with a list of forum names auto importing and syncing with your login, allowing the use of that character name and no-one else. But that would be the absolute most coding hastle. ;/

Kezzar
06-11-2011, 09:12 PM
On one extreme we could import forum usernames to the reserved names list: luke, han, lando... etc.

My biggest issue with that, is the initial construction of said list. Who would decide who gets what, and what would happen in a disagreement over any names, and which servers to lock them on to? (Note: biggest issue)


And on the other, just roll it into csr duties. Name enforcement.

Can you say, hassle?


A middle ground would be nice with a list of forum names auto importing and syncing with your login, allowing the use of that character name and no-one else. But that would be the absolute most coding hastle. ;/

Same issues as the first.

wim
06-11-2011, 10:38 PM
I agree, there really is no silver bullet fix for this.

Edmonde
06-12-2011, 07:19 PM
too bad last names couldn't be more of the deciding factor so people could have the same first name...but then that would cause more possibility for errors in tells and tipping...databases don't like to have two primary keys and for some reason the first name is the primary key in the name database...

chaos1a1
06-13-2011, 07:27 AM
STM will eventually replace Nova, like Oru said, it is currently unstable abnd that is to be exacted, but it still needs a lot of stress testing.
I've been poking around the forums and couldn't find the answer to my question.... When will we be able to test STM? And is there anything I or anyone else in the community can do to hurry it along? Thanks.

Vlada
06-13-2011, 08:23 AM
I've been poking around the forums and couldn't find the answer to my question.... When will we be able to test STM? And is there anything I or anyone else in the community can do to hurry it along? Thanks.

Atm focus is on stability testing, I'm guessing we will be back to normal testing and bug reporting after STM replaces Nova, no ETA of course.

If you cant code best thing you can do is just logon STM from time to time, try various things and mess around with anything that works. If you can code, you are welcome to apply for a Dev positions.

chaos1a1
06-13-2011, 03:51 PM
Atm focus is on stability testing, I'm guessing we will be back to normal testing and bug reporting after STM replaces Nova, no ETA of course.

If you cant code best thing you can do is just logon STM from time to time, try various things and mess around with anything that works. If you can code, you are welcome to apply for a Dev positions.

Yeah, I'm definitely NOT a coder, I'm more of the designer and trouble shooter type... lol. So I'll keep logging into STM to play around.

Blackball
06-14-2011, 10:04 AM
Sooo what is this exactly, another OR? OR-2? I left 7 months ago and it seems like you're scrapping most of what you had and starting over again... Not promising. All the developerese is starting to get to me too. Can you please just say in plain English for stupid kids like me what this means for the player base?

Vlada
06-14-2011, 10:12 AM
Sooo what is this exactly, another OR? OR-2? I left 7 months ago and it seems like you're scrapping most of what you had and starting over again... Not promising. All the developerese is starting to get to me too. Can you please just say in plain English for stupid kids like me what this means for the player base?

No, OR code remains the same, pretty much nothing changed there. I think Oru explained it quite well...


This version of the engine brought a lot of major changes in the underlying framework that Core3 is built upon. Core3 is not rewritten in any way, it mostly contains changes in Engine3 and some low level things that need to be changed in Core3. However there is no feature game logic change.

Vlada
06-15-2011, 09:33 AM
Just a minor update...


[11:22] <%Vlada> STM characters are now saved to database?
[11:32] <@Oru> yeah they should be saved

Superjebus
06-17-2011, 07:15 PM
Considering that Nova has been offline for 1 week 5 days 6 hours blah blah blah, and I can log in to the STM server, would I be wrong to asume that Nova has been turned off and replaced with STM?

Vlada
06-17-2011, 07:41 PM
Not yet, we will let you know when that happens.

Morial Tomiras
06-18-2011, 03:01 AM
cool stuff

Edmonde
06-18-2011, 06:12 PM
Thanks again for the hard work guys. For those returning after a few months away I say give it a chance. Whats the worse that happens you play and find something that was here that wasn't months ago. As for how long it takes for the Devs to complete the process...well put this in perspective...it usually takes Developers 3 to 4 years to make a game working full time and overtime while these guys are doing it on their spare time...

Wilowah
06-19-2011, 01:27 PM
Keep up the good work, guys! I really appreciate the fact that you guys are working hard to bring back vanilla SWG! :D

Kefan Vaugn
06-23-2011, 11:02 PM
I logged in to the New Player Tutorial on the STM server, and it seemed pretty nice. I did encounter a few bugs, though.

chaos1a1
06-23-2011, 11:15 PM
I logged in to the New Player Tutorial on the STM server, and it seemed pretty nice. I did encounter a few bugs, though.

yes, as did I... the tutorial is pretty awesome! And will that pesky blue frog/toad still be there?

Vlada
06-23-2011, 11:21 PM
Blue frogs are still necessary. They are there to help with the testing. One they are no longer needed they will be removed.

clay4u
06-26-2011, 11:51 PM
is the STM server currently online? trying to create a character but its stuck at connecting to galaxy

Vlada
06-26-2011, 11:53 PM
If you cant create a character its probably offline.

Bosch
06-29-2011, 07:11 PM
If you cant create a character its probably offline.I seem to have rotten luck with this. I've tried periodically to create a character and every time I try the server seems to be down. Is there any way to find out the online/offline status of the STM server? I don't see any mention of STM in IRC #serverstatus.

Vlada
06-29-2011, 08:20 PM
Yeah, STM status cant be checked, anywhere atm. Just keep trying. :(

nickggg
06-30-2011, 11:26 PM
Same problem with me :/ and i really want to try stuff.

EDIT: i keep getting stuck at connecting to galaxy and i get the pop up of "You cannot create any more characters on this galaxy."

imperialassasin
07-01-2011, 05:56 AM
The two testing servers must still be offline then.

Lolindir
07-29-2011, 06:59 PM
Are non of the test centers up? have tried to log in to the both several times, but never been able to log in.
Want to be able to contribute at lest some thing to the game i love :)

Gamerlana14
07-30-2011, 06:25 AM
Yeah been feeling the same way. I guess they are still working to combine Nova and STM, or atleast that's what I thought I read. Remember though, they do this out of the spare time they have, so considering that they have done some awesome work. Still wish I could test though if it would speed things up :(

Lolindir
07-30-2011, 06:40 AM
I know they are and that just make what they have managed so far, just so more awesome. Funny to see what SOE devs managed to do when they used 100% of there time on the game and what others manage to do as a hobby!

crazyrobinhood
08-05-2011, 04:23 PM
It seems only liberator is online these days.

sypher3289
08-10-2011, 07:53 PM
I was just able to log on to Core3 8| Everyone was LD so it was a ghost town but, you could actually see the things you were shooting at HAHA!

sithlord006
08-10-2011, 09:19 PM
Confirmed. I logged in. Functionality is, ahem, minimal, but then again, even that is a step up from yesterday. /CHEERS.

I couldn't even /logout, but I am ecstatic that the server is up at all. I'm guessing the features will be rolling over fairly rapidly once the server is declared stable. Anyhoo, with Core 3 up, would a dev like to comment on what exactly is being tested so we can help out?

sypher3289
08-10-2011, 10:36 PM
Yeah sithlord, things are blah atm. It's obvious that core3 is populated it just doesn't seem to be updating that in real time. Every time I re-log there are different people in different places, weird oh, and someone dropped a parking garage right in front of the Theed SP, thanks for that haha! I do agree with you though that once things become more stable it will be smooth(er) sailing. I truly admire all the work the devs are putting into this to make it possible. I've been away from SWG for far to long and with the impending shutdown of the P2P servers this is a gift from the gods. I'm done rambling now, will post any major improvements to core3 status that I notice.

sithlord006
08-10-2011, 10:42 PM
I started in Moenia and /quit at the rebel terminals in the cantina. When I logged in later I was roughly in the center of the Naboo planetary map. /Peace didn't seem to work, but I'm trying some surveying and that seems to be functional. I was crafting a survival knife out of the steel I found and hung up on the 'uploading customization data' part. That's my brief journal so far. Interestingly enough, the fact that it is so bare bones is sort of exciting. I feel like I'm part of the development team, despite not really having any programmer credentials.

sypher3289
08-10-2011, 10:49 PM
Haha! I know what you mean! I've noticed the problem with the crafting as well. I get hung up on the "booting crafting station" dialog. It's obviously VERY touch and go at the moment but, it is a test server so that's to be expected. I was able to start crafting a swoop however, when I tried to get the resources from the free crafting crate it started hanging up again. On a side note, and I realize this goes hand in hand with everything not running at 100% right now, the bazaar isn't working :P Haven't had any actual crashes or fierce graphical issues but again time will tell. I'll start keeping a log of all the bugs I do find but that will have to wait till later tonight. Shoot me your email or something if you wanna tackle this together. Now I'm being dragged off to see the new Angel and Airwaves movie. Later SWGEmu!

SinR
08-11-2011, 04:39 PM
Image Design is either Disabled or Broken, can't tell which. /imagedesign brings up nothing when used on myself, not sure if it works on other people (need to get a 2nd character to test). Doesn't work anywhere (ID Tents, Cantinas, in front of Theed SP).


Edit: Yep, Image Design doesn't work on either myself or another player in my group. Once again I don't know if its DISABLED or BROKEN (really wanted to test to see if some of the broken ID options that are on Liberator are fixed on Nova)

Thank you however for fixing the Instrument Certification problems

Vlada
08-11-2011, 06:59 PM
This isnt the place to discuss OR/TC: Nova bugs.

Jay Forerunner
09-27-2011, 03:35 AM
Atm focus is on stability testing, I'm guessing we will be back to normal testing and bug reporting after STM replaces Nova, no ETA of course.

If you cant code best thing you can do is just logon STM from time to time, try various things and mess around with anything that works. If you can code, you are welcome to apply for a Dev positions.

I'm more of Quality Assurance, so to be helpful, when I get my next "free time paycheck" (that is, this weekend), I'll be able to commit to stress-testing and relentlessly bombarding STM with login attempts. I have only a basic knowledge of computer language, not enough to apply for that district, I'm afraid. Considering I've been doing quite a bit of reading through this forum as of late, it may also be possible I can keep the community...Um, for lack of better wording, "in line".

Just trying to help. ;)

ZaiKT
11-08-2011, 07:01 PM
I'm sorry to ask a noobquestion, but i can't seem to find the actual address details for the STM server and i wanna get testing badly. I'm a SWTOR beta tester and we need to get SWG-PreCU up and running asap i miss the game like hell. Anyone tell me and i love you to death.

Also as a sidenote.

I really think the SWGemu suffers from innaccesibility. I mean cruising this forum for 10 minutes i can't find out how to actually get online and help testing. There should be a big green button on the frontpage with all servers adresses please. I know there a whole lot of people outthere who just sees this homepage and gives up thinking "how will they ever make SWG Pre CU when they can't even make an easy way for testers to join". Come on guys you are doing an awesome job, but let's get this thing accesible. Sorry for my spelling.

Vlada
11-08-2011, 07:10 PM
I'm sorry to ask a noobquestion, but i can't seem to find the actual address details for the STM server and i wanna get testing badly. I'm a SWTOR beta tester and we need to get SWG-PreCU up and running asap i miss the game like hell. Anyone tell me and i love you to death.

When you try to create a character you will be able to chose a server. STM is offline most of the time, but if you really want to test something make a toon on TC: Nova and start submitting those bug reports.


P.S. Really old and pretty outdated thread. Closed.