Light vs Dark Server Redux

    Benevolent27

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    I totally forgot to update this thread. We have moved to the new server! We have seen a lot of improvements pre-update on combat, bounding box lag, and other issues since the main thread has more womp womp to it now! The admin team is very happy with the switch so far. :). Let's hope the recent optimizations will further make insane combat possible!
     
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    Just got the game a few days ago, already learned a lot and digging the big faction warfare going on. One question though, are neutrals the balance between light and dark or is there no such thing existing currently?
     
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    No, neutral consists mainly of factions that are uninterested in being light or dark for a variety of reasons. On LvD neutrals have generally fallen into four general styles of play: Peaceful service providers (OOB and Arbor Radix come to mind), Belligerent Service Providers (Any kind of self styled mercenary group who will fight for anyone willing to pay their price), Pirates, and others who may be undecided because they are too new or taking their time in choosing a side.

    Light and Dark as labels were initially just that, without any kind of assignment of characteristics, so what Light and Dark are is defined by the players that choose it. I can tell you generally what Light and Dark were like in the past, but what they are now is constantly changing and diverse within those groups. Neutral is much the same, though while Light and Dark are always at war, neutrals choose their own allies and enemies. This can have advantages and disadvantages since with Light and Dark, there's an expectation of cooperation with your allies in fighting a common foe while neutrals have no such focus or support. Often times "dirty neutrals" without sufficient means to repel attackers may get targeted by both sides for a variety of reasons.
     

    StormWing0

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    hmm tempting to join but have to finish up my basic starter fleet and bases. :)
     

    Benevolent27

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    Due to some pretty horrible lag from a database issue we were having, we are currently running a temporary world with some experimental configs. We will likely update to the RC version soon, which runs a lot more stable with the issue, so this world will not last long. We've been working hard with the dev's to fix the root of these issues and they've been really on the ball about it. The RC version doesn't fix the underlying issue, but it suffers it a lot better. The dev's have already figured out fixes to the problems though and will be rolling them out shortly. :)

    Edit: For those wondering what the issues were, I'll explain. There were thousands of entities that could not spawn into the universe due to a bug where they couldn't find a place to fit in. So, they remain in limbo, and every time the server program would try to spawn them in, it would fail thousands of times before giving up. This would cause 30 seconds of lag or so every minute to two minutes. The fix is to have the code better figure out how to fit these entities into the universe, so they can come alive and stop lagging the server. The dev's are also going to make the server give up sooner if it cannot find a place for these entities, thus vastly reducing any sort of lag that may come of it if it happens again in the future. A few other issues were figured out as a result of this as well, including the "/despawn_all" command giving a "SQL error" response when attempting to remove entities from the database. So they were working on fixing that as well. (As that could have been a temporary fix to the problem, to alleviate the crippling lag it was causing on our server).

    Finally, as a result of these issues, we are now a lot better equipped to help troubleshoot bugs with the dev's in the future. I have put into place automatic scripts that will save logs, do thread dumps, and I have things set up so the dev's can easily analyze our server in real-time in the event of issues like this (and produce bug fixes much faster). Thank you AndyP for all your help and patience, you've been a lifesaver! Also thank you schema for working so diligently on these issues and this game. It really is much appreciated. :)
     
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    Benevolent27

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    New! Player Shops!



    We now have public docking at the Grand Crossroads (located at 20, 20, 20 and accessible via warp gate from Spawn). These are for player run shops ONLY. The currency to purchase things should be bronze, silver, or gold bars!

    Instructions on setting up your storefront:
    1.
    Get a kiosk and set it up. Kiosks can be purchased at the hub for a mere 1 bar. Instructions on how to set up your kiosk are included on the displays. Test it to ensure it works as intended, then stock it.
    2. Build your kiosk ship however you'd like it to look as your store. Make sure it will fit nicely into one of the docking areas. Three sizes will be allowed: 15 wide, 25 wide, and 51 wide. If parking closer to the center courtyard area, it should be no longer than 30 blocks long though. Docks farther down can support longer storefronts. Example ships may be attached to your kiosk, so that other players can know what they are buying. However, do NOT attach a bunch of entities or turrets to your kiosk or it WILL be impounded. We need to keep the entity count in public sectors down to reduce lag and also bugs.
    3. Park your kiosk store at 20, 20, 20, then check back periodically to restock and collect your profits!

    Note: Blue docks are meant for utility ships, red for combat, and red/blue/green docks can be anything.

    And here are a few more pictures of the area! I will continue to work on the courtyard area to make it look nice. :) My priority was first parking.







    If anyone has any questions or comments, feel free to post. And, as always, thank you for playing on LvD!
     
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    Dark player here! Juuuuust got set up a few days ago and having fun so far~! Picked a lovely sector to Home-Base at with a very shiny lightbox.

    Get ready for some grappler ship action!
     

    Ithirahad

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    The mission system looks like it has potential... I like it. I must say, though, the current rewards are a little bit overpowered for the amount of effort needed to finish the Mystery Box and capture point bonus quests. The way it's set up, I feel like people might be discouraged from actually going out and mining or acquiring resources by normal means.
     
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    The mission system looks like it has potential... I like it. I must say, though, the current rewards are a little bit overpowered for the amount of effort needed to finish the Mystery Box and capture point bonus quests. The way it's set up, I feel like people might be discouraged from actually going out and mining or acquiring resources by normal means.
    These rewards were carefully considered due to engine based play conditions and the average player's attitude toward resource acquisition, building and development in preperation for PvP. The rewards are in light of these factors, the bare minimum to get the average Starmade player to do them.
     

    Ithirahad

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    ...Come to think of it, I shouldn't've mentioned Capture Point Bonus, as the whole point is that it's free stuff. :P

    I was mostly thinking of Mystery Box.
     
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    Once the engine becomes less problematic, the economic factors less broken, the overall gameplay smoother and closer to complete with minimal frustration factors, the rewards would likely be dialed down. But right now, in this market, with the current players, it's just enough to get them out of bed and that's it.
     
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    Calhoun

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    Would it be possible to delete my "Abyssal Fleet" faction that I attempted starting today? I kinda screwed up and would like to start over, so there's no point in the faction existing.

    This server is definitely going to take some getting used to if I'm going to play on it. I feel pretty lost.
    You can just remove faction blocks from your stuff and leave the faction.
     

    Winterhome

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    But beware if you're like me and put faction modules on turret segments it means they have to be removed from those as well.
    Aye, I remember when a faction member transferred in from a different hostile faction on one of the servers Thryn used to play on, and while they remembered to reset their newbie mining ship's faction block, they forgot to do it for their turrets and I got spawn camped by one of our own ship's turrets for a few minutes. :P

    Be careful with faction modules. Those things are pretty messy sometimes.

    Side note: I like the way this server's going. I'll probably be getting involved when the game has a major update and my burnout goes away, though the server population is a bit "empty" last I saw. Advertise, yo! You've got a good server concept with a really comprehensive credit/mission system. In the meantime, could some missions be set up to hunt down and kill NPC fleets?
     
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    Aye, I remember when a faction member transferred in from a different hostile faction on one of the servers Thryn used to play on, and while they remembered to reset their newbie mining ship's faction block, they forgot to do it for their turrets and I got spawn camped by one of our own ship's turrets for a few minutes. :P

    Be careful with faction modules. Those things are pretty messy sometimes.

    Side note: I like the way this server's going. I'll probably be getting involved when the game has a major update and my burnout goes away, though the server population is a bit "empty" last I saw. Advertise, yo! You've got a good server concept with a really comprehensive credit/mission system. In the meantime, could some missions be set up to hunt down and kill NPC fleets?
    That's been something I've been looking into. With NPC factions being too problematic to really utilize well as an extant foe to fight I'm thinking of using sector exports as templates for bringing in hostile groups an publishing the coordinates.
     

    Winterhome

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    That's been something I've been looking into. With NPC factions being too problematic to really utilize well as an extant foe to fight I'm thinking of using sector exports as templates for bringing in hostile groups an publishing the coordinates.

    Could also have the server abuse spawn mob commands, perhaps?