April 5th, 2006 - Live Patch Notes

[Deth]

The following additions, changes and fixes were applied to Chaos and Order on Wednesday, April 5th, 2006:

• Characters and monsters will remain facing the same direction when they die.
• Spell effect level scaling does not under scale, or over-scale - this fixes a problem with frame rate at high skill levels.
• Plot token icon will no longer show up when the player has no plot token (which none do).

[Varangaard]

Spell effect level scaling

Err, the what?

[David Bowman]

The spell effects are composed of particles, geometry, shaders, textures and animations. The number and scale of the particles used rises with the skill of the caster. So, when you are poorly skilled, the particles are few and small, and when you are highly skilled they are many and large. Much of the data for this system (setup individually per spell) was incorrectly entered. And, the client software did not properly utilize that data either. This resulted in a huge number of particles filling the screen during high-level combat involving magic. We've corrected this.

[HratLi]

NEAT! Never noticed that!

-HratLi

[Deth]

The spell effects are composed of particles, geometry, shaders, textures and animations. The number and scale of the particles used rises with the skill of the caster. So, when you are poorly skilled, the particles are few and small, and when you are highly skilled they are many and large. Much of the data for this system (setup individually per spell) was incorrectly entered. And, the client software did not properly utilize that data either. This resulted in a huge number of particles filling the screen during high-level combat involving magic. We've corrected this.

So does this mean diffrent teir of Spells? Or would say Two people casting the same tier of spell one with the min skill get less particals and such then one with max skill for that tier?

[Vlisson]

cool

sounds very interesting!!!

[tjl]

So does this mean diffrent teir of Spells? Or would say Two people casting the same tier of spell one with the min skill get less particals and such then one with max skill for that tier?

from what i have noticed, tier doesn't matter (except that some tiers have totally diff animations)

[Deth]

from what i have noticed, tier doesn't matter (except that some tiers have totally diff animations)

Which is the problem they fixed. I am wondering now if tier will matter more then skill or if skill will matter more then Tier. I.E. Will a T1 Blast be as big as a T5 Blast for my dragon with 1500 primal A total range of effect based souly on skill or will The T1 Blast be small and the T5 Blast will be big with that same 1500 Primal skill or does Each Tier have a min and max range. Like T1 has 1-5 "particle" T2 has 6-10 "Particles" So that one you reach a max skill for a Tier.

[R`aven Sky`Dash]

interesting...nice to see things like spell effects gettin some attention. Can we also hope to see the effects go off consistently and perhaps some touchup/soundeffects added to a few (speakin from the dragonside here) in the nearish future?

[AA0]

Now as soon as the spell effects stop leaving a massive memory build up, they might be usuable again, hehe

[Weston]

[*]Characters and monsters will remain facing the same direction when they die.[*]Spell effect level scaling does not under scale, or over-scale - this fixes a problem with frame rate at high skill levels.[*]Plot token icon will no longer show up when the player has no plot token (which none do).[/LIST]

I like fixes and additions. Especially one like the middle one above. SOOO many people I know keep spell effects turned off due to extreme combat lag and memory clog. But.... I'm having a little trouble with the other two.

My question is: When it's decided to 'fix something that just isn't quite right', how do you devs prioritize what it is that you commit your precious time to???

I'm quite sure that you must have a VERY good reason to make sure that when something dies, it continues to face in the same direction instead of spinning like a dervish into some new orientation. Or is that just a 'cosmetic' thing?

And the Plot Token thing... that was introduced at merger. And we're just getting around to taking it back out now, because??!?

It'd sure be nice if you'd put up a list of potential things you'd like to work on, and let 'we the paying peons' have a go at deciding what we'd like you to work on. A little voting. Power to the People, I say!!

I'm ready for Colored Cargo Wristbands please, and a Cloth Cenotaph (or equivalent), and a Gem Silo that holds 3 types of the same tier please.

I'll think of more later. Good luck on posting your list real soon. ;p

Weston the Wanderer

[Deth]

The reason little things are changed in games like this is because a programmer gets tired of plugging away at a big change, and to keep from starting to make lots of little mistakes, moves on to something small as a break and something different that they can crank out in a hour or two. This way they get away from what they were working on and have a change of pace of saying. Look I fixed or changed this, drop it in. So they get the good feeling of making some kind of progress and do not get discouraged by the big project they are working on that has not seen fruit yet.

[Guaran]

I'm glad to see any bugfixes they can get done.

The particle animation issues were likely discovered when working on client improvements and trying to find areas it can be streamlined, fixed, etc.

The fact that the client is getting some attention is a good thing.

[Smeglor]

Fixes can occur for lots of reasons. For example, in the case of the plot token icon still being present, when customer service received a couple "I still have my plot token, but can't seem to use it to bid" reports (which were then forwarded to me to resolve), it became more efficient for me to take the short time to fix the bug than the time it would take to receive and respond to additional similar reports.

[Weston]

On one hand you berate a cosmetic change, and then ask for colored wristbands?

I wasn't berating it, Kumu. I left out a sentence that would have clarified my question.

"If it IS just a cosmetic change, then I'd like to lobby for my particular cosmetic change."

Doesn't that seem reasonable? I know I'm being a pain in the arse on this one issue, but I've been lobbying for it for awhile. Petty, I know... but I'm paying for the opportunity to be petty, I think.

See my other post below.

Wes

[Weston]

Fixes can occur for lots of reasons. For example, in the case of the plot token icon still being present, when customer service received a couple "I still have my plot token, but can't seem to use it to bid" reports (which were then forwarded to me to resolve), it became more efficient for me to take the short time to fix the bug than the time it would take to receive and respond to additional similar reports.

Understood. I appreciate that approach, and it's nice having it explained that way. I'll interpolate from your comments then, that I've not been persistent enough in filing tickets, complaints, suggestions etc. to get you to deal with MY particular issue. After all, it IS a bug. IF only a cosmetic one.

Weston