Launcher Changes

[Amarie Ancalimon]

An updated launcher was applied to Blight on Thursday May 6th. The following changes were made:

FIX: Improve initial load time of launcher so launcher appears quickly
after clicking shortcut

FIX: Launcher windows is almost off the screen on laptops and other none
standard display resolutions - defaults detect monitor size and position
proper at startup for defaults. Existing installs will need to delete
launcher folder for this to work.

FIX: Clicking No used to display empty screen after having trouble
connecting to login server - now displays login window so you can try
again

FIX: If the time from the server and client don't match up, login will
always fail - assume that the server time came from a proxy or cached
source, display a message, then use the client time and convert to UTC -
client time is More likely to be correct if this error occurs

FIX: When logging in, the cursor doesn't show an hour glass - show
hourglass when logging in.

Please note that you will have to enable patching in order for the new launcher to download.

[Kerech]

Under Windows 7, I am having problems with the new launcher. About half the time I get the following error:

Launcher encountered an error trying to log in.

Click Yes to download the latest version of the launcher in case an update is required, No to continue.

Error Code: server was unable to process the request--> Specified cast is not valid.

Like I said, I get this about half the time since getting the new launcher last week. Now tonight, I am getting it every time and am unable to log in at all

[dorrin]

well, i know it's "no longer supported", but now i can't log in via the website anymore... which thus far i've needed to do because no matter how i try i can't get the launcher to work without bypassing the patching process. i've followed the instructions in the knowledge base several times to no avail.
now what?

[Guaran]

uninstall all Microsoft .Net framework packages, then do windows update, installing the .Net, 1 version at a time (even tho multiples are listed) start with 1.1, then the 1.1 patches. then 2.0 followed by the 2.0 patches. After that launcher should work if the .Net was the issue, which is about the only thing that makes sense if you are patching fully (which means you have the newest launcher already)

[dorrin]

thanks, guaran, that did the trick for the website.. haven't tried the launcher .. also avoiding installing .NET 3.5 .. wondering if that's what the problem was.

[Velea]

A newer version of the launcher was released for testing on Blight earlier today. Please try it out and let us know if you experience any problems, as we hope to roll this to live soon so that players who have been experiencing problems with Win7 and Istaria will be able to return to playing.

FEATURE: New accounts will not see the Blight testing shard until they have created one character.

FEATURE: New Character in the character selection list now has a --- to separate new character from existing characters

CHANGE: Removed buttons to allow character sort order to be changed (part of fix to resolve new character list items getting messed up)

FIX: Prevent custom sorting so that the New Character items always display on top of list.

FIX: If starting the patcher fails for any reason, provide clear information on why and go back to character selection window.

FIX: If new character creation fails (too many characters on account, etc.), recover and display character selection window again.

FIX: If clear cache option is selected, delete the cache folder before starting client.

FIX: If launcher started, but other dependent files have issues, recover and present dialog asking to download proper files.

FIX: If shard is under maintenance, display clean message and then go back to character selection instead of corrupting the display (feature!)

FIX: If window is shutting down, prevent any resizing of windows so that the launcher doesn't crash.

FIX: Detect runaway silentpatcher processes and clean up before trying to start a new silent patcher process (resolves issue where some people have many silentpatcher processes running in memory and prevents login)

[Kerech]

As a followup to my earlier post - I think my problem may have been a flaky wireless connection at the time. Within a couple hours, it cleared up and I have been able to play ever since. The message may have been misleading and it looks like you are addressing that in this change.

I don't see it listed as fixed, and I'm at work so I can't check it out right now, but do characters that have had their names changed still show up in the launcher under the old name?

[Kerech]

Major problem with the new patcher...

Get through all the screens to the character list. Pick my character and click "Play". The "Play" button disappears and nothing else happens... the launcher just sits there with a "Close" button on it which doesn't work. Have to use task manager to kill it.

Does this new launcher depend on something else to run? I'm running Windows XP on my home computer which is where the problem is.

Is there a way to use the old launcher?

*edit* got it working... had to uncheck the "Clear World Cache" button in the patcher options and now it goes on after clicking play

[Velea]

If you have "Clear World Cache" checked, it needs time to actually clear the world cache. Now the process deletes all the files, folder, etc, so depending on how large that folder is, it may take some time.

[awdz]

If clearing the world cache takes time the player does not think to wait for, would a progress bar help?
Just a suggestion that came to mind, no idea how feasible that is.

[walkerglassmire]

A newer version of the launcher was released for testing on Blight earlier today. Please try it out and let us know if you experience any problems, as we hope to roll this to live soon so that players who have been experiencing problems with Win7 and Istaria will be able to return to playing.

I really hope this all works correctly, but, I have to wonder if anything is being done about the issues that cropped up for players using XP when the last Vista/Win 7 fix came out. Primarily the drastic increase in both lag and portaling times that myself, and every other XP user I know have gotten after that fix. It has been mentioned many times in both tickets and on the forums, but have never heard any word on a fix being worked on.

<snip>

CHANGE: Removed buttons to allow character sort order to be changed (part of fix to resolve new character list items getting messed up)

I REALLY hope this is revisited. It makes things much much easier to reorder your characters. Move the one you are playing most often to the top, etc. Would it be possible to simply lock the three New Character options into one block in a specific place (see below), or to move them out of the character list, and onto buttons of their own on that window (ie, on the character page, make 3 buttons on the left side, labeled New Order Char, New Chaos Char, New Blight Char).

FIX: Prevent custom sorting so that the New Character items always display on top of list.

Could these please default to the BOTTOM of the list? I forsee many accidental trips into the new character creation hall from people clicking through the patcher to log in, and forgetting to select their character, being used to the main one being at the top of the list.

<snip>

FIX: If clear cache option is selected, delete the cache folder before starting client.

Does this mean that the cache deamons will STOP eating our cache if we do NOT have this selected? We've run down that part of the portaling problems for XP users is that our world caches are being deleted without us telling the game to delete them.

FIX: If launcher started, but other dependent files have issues, recover and present dialog asking to download proper files.

FIX: If shard is under maintenance, display clean message and then go back to character selection instead of corrupting the display (feature!)

FIX: If window is shutting down, prevent any resizing of windows so that the launcher doesn't crash.

FIX: Detect runaway silentpatcher processes and clean up before trying to start a new silent patcher process (resolves issue where some people have many silentpatcher processes running in memory and prevents login)

All these sound cool.

[Kerech]

If you have "Clear World Cache" checked, it needs time to actually clear the world cache. Now the process deletes all the files, folder, etc, so depending on how large that folder is, it may take some time.

That must have been my problem. When I finally got logged in, I couldn't move or do anything, so I went out and manually deleted the world cache. It took like 4 minutes...

A progress bar or a "Clearing world cache, please wait" message or something would help.

It's strange, I had my clear world cache button checked for weeks now... was it not actually deleting it?

[Dhalin]

I'd like to request a small change:

When you open the launcher, log in, and get to the character select screen, you get this button that says "Patcher Options".

Opening that, you get to choose your patcher options, and if you click OK, it suddenly logs you into the game, with whatever character you had selected (usually "New Character")... could we make it so that clicking "OK" applies the options you selected and takes you back to the character screen instead of logging in with whatever was highlighted?

I find this very confusing and I keep getting "New Character" logins because of this, every time I want to change something (for example, to force a file check, or to clear cache).

[SwordMage]

I'd like to request a small change:

When you open the launcher, log in, and get to the character select screen, you get this button that says "Patcher Options".

Opening that, you get to choose your patcher options, and if you click OK, it suddenly logs you into the game, with whatever character you had selected (usually "New Character")... could we make it so that clicking "OK" applies the options you selected and takes you back to the character screen instead of logging in with whatever was highlighted?

I find this very confusing and I keep getting "New Character" logins because of this, every time I want to change something (for example, to force a file check, or to clear cache).

This has also caught me far too many times. Based on other UI designs I wouldn't assume a button placed where it is would advance away from the current screen.

[Velea]

Another new version updated today to Blight:

FIX: Crash (captured exception) occurs sporadically during log in - core problem was because of a decryption problem, but very hard to track down because of chain of events. See code notes for explanation on fun times. <----- Big Fix - been a long time problem
FIX: If Istaria is not installed, display a prompt asking if they want to visit web site, other wise close. Used to display a half-baked login in dialog with error message on the form.
FIX: If wrong user name or password is entered or account is inactive, display message with information about retrying and/or contacting support.
FIX: If on options screen, clicking next or back takes you to character select window. Used to be a button for play - which causes mis-click and logins to character creation when not really intending.
FIX: Changes to reduce or eliminate flicker when changing between windows.
FIX: Launcher icon is no longer a goofy flag - Istaria Logo
FIX: If EULA has already been loaded when going back to login window, don't reload from server.
FIX: Added the order buttons back in so characters can be sorted
FIX: If sort order is changed and then close clicked, sort order is saved
FIX: Last character is truncated or single character can't login (new issue with last release)

[Kerech]

Thank you for putting the sort order back!!

That was a nice feature

[walkerglassmire]

Yes, thank you thank you thank you.

[Dhalin]

Looks like they also considered my suggestion too. Glad to hear it! Now maybe I won't waste 5+ minutes logging a new character and having to exit and re-enter the game.

[Radamanthas]

I have a question...

With the new launcher, will we still be able to create custom skins for it, like we have with the old one? If so, will skins made for the old launcher work on the new launcher?

[MarshDog]

I know on the Launcher Amon showed how to change the order of alts and servers , My question is this listing sort order stored in a text file or what ?.
I would love to be able to edit it some other way if possible , but would love to copy it over to my other computers, or can i just copy the launcher directory to the other computers and it stick there ?
Andy. I just noticed there is several thousand files in the launcher\logs directory , I take it these are not needed ?