StarMade 0.94: More stability and lots of fixes

[schema]

Hello and welcome to StarMade,

after testing the pre builds on the new test server, it seems to be running fine (2 days without crash or freeze). Of cause I can't promise 100% percent that this new version won't make any problems, but we did a lot more work to test.

Thanks to anyone testing and sending in reports!

There are still a few bugs that really upset me, but they are getting less and less.

As always please keep your backups when updating!

As for some main features:

Turning speed now depends on ship dimension

The turning speed per axis now depends on the dimensions of the Ship. This means if you build a long stick for example, you will have a good speed to roll, but less speed to look around. Mass does also still play a factor, but much much less than before

Pirate station difficulty

newly spawned pirate stations are now fixed and also get a random difficulty level to be more challenging: Turrets will be more powerful, and or have shields (as well as shields for the station itself)

Quick search and quick switch for inventories

inventories will now have a search bar. All blocks not containing the search term will blend out on the fly. Also you can now put an object in a chest and back when shift-clicking it.

Undocked objects now get velocity of mothership

If you fly in a direction and undock, the undocked object will now continue to fly in that direction. This could be used to build your own torpedo with docked disintegrator filled ships.

Ship search and more navigation filters

In the navigation filler, turrets and/or docked ships can now be filtered for the list. You can also now search for the last ship you have entered, making it a lot easier to find your ship if you die unexpected.

Notice for servers suffering from block chunk corruption

There is now a server config entry called FORCE_DISK_WRITE_COMPLETION, which should help with the problem. It's adviced for servers to turn it on in any case, except for servers that have problems/lags with disk IO operations





And lots more

Explaining every point in detail would take too much time, and most points are relatively self-explanitory. If you have questions, feel free to ask.

- fixed god and invisiblity mode admin command causing docking area ignore mode
- added profiling for sector loading to find source of lag spike
- fixed naming bug when saving blueprints locally
- fixed loading of locally saved blueprints
- turret data now also force written to disk before saving as blueprint
- fixed source of ghost objects (with no collision and no indicator): error when docking target UID does not exist
- possible fix against raw block file corruption (for specific operating systems that have the problem)
- sped up initial loading (check if object has any blocks is done progressively, and not forced). Reduces sector loading lag if there are lots of objects in there
- eliminated frame rate drop from drawing shield hits on large structures
- disabling GUI will now be reset on startup (disabling the GUI was often mistaken for a bug)
- implemented fast invetory switch for storage (hold left shift, changable in key mapping options)
- added server cfg option to make player invulnerable after death for an amount of time (spawn camping protection)
- fixed undocking position snap back (as well as probably a few other glitches, since the network transformation controller reset the position on control change)
- undocked objects now inherit velocity of mothership
- chat can now be done in spawn menu
- added quick search for inventories
- shield is now synchronized from the server at a certain amount of percent (modifiable in server.cfg) changed, as well as always on full/empty
- power is now synchronized from the server at a certain amount of percent (modifiable in server.cfg) changed, as well as always on full/empty
- fixed faction permission for blueprints not working
- overheating core status is now saved and persistent
- server.cfg option to change way to buy blueprints from credits to total blocks of the blueprints
- players can now search for the last ship they entered (last entered value is also saved in player state)
- added background for advanced build mode orientation to make it easier to distinguish
- cockpits now respect the orientation they were placed in (still a little wonky)
- ship turning speed now directly depends on ship dimension (build a stick: great roll, not so good yaw and pitch...) balanced to be a bonus.
- debug mode restricted to admins
- fixed docks of pirate station (fixed for new generated stations)
- added random diffculty to pirate stations to increase turrets size, and add shilds
- docked entities will now be cloaked/jammed if the mothership is cloaked/jammed
- fixed shield hits not showing on bottom faces
- turrets no longer target NPC shops directly (friendly fire could still happen)
- AI will no longer try to target overheating ships (and being reset because of it later in the FSM. Caused inactive AI)
- AI now includes all missile modules in the check of engagement range (missile ship without amc only had 50 range)
- fixed targeting (fire and forget) missile for AI usage

- fixed connection bug (came with new method of reading the stream)
- fixed (older) bug where initial connection tranfer to client wasn't fully completed (structural bug)
- fixed fast inventory switch with existing stacks
- moved option to force write all open files after writing operation to server config (as it was only relevant for some OS)
- implemented base of system to increase amount of different orinatations for corner blocks (in place but not active, as the orientations have to be added individually, and that takes some time to do)

- server cfg option to drop credits on death into space
- turning speed now displayed in build mode stats
- refined new turning speed model
- fixed buying blueprint with blocks option
- server shutdown more gentle to the database (waiting for unfinished buisness of other threads)
- fixed bug where docked objects (turrets) would stop flying with the mothership (looks like lag, but was the object stoping to transfer its position to the turrets after switching to lightweight physics objects when the object is in another sector than the player on the client)
- fixed bug where owners of the ship could only take items if they had enough credits to theoretically buy it
- setting 0 for a price in a personal shop will no longer crash when trying to buy
- fixed a compile error for a shader for some graphics card (game would not load)
- fixed bug that would add a bad physics object on client (and make the client being stuck)
- fixed blueprints loading wrong types of wedge blocks
- fixed game crashing when adjusting sound volume
- sound volume of entities is now updated on the fly
- scaling of tuning speed vs ship dimension is now exposed in server config



As always, please don't panic if something goes wrong. I'll do my best to fix it ASAP. If you have a server that still suffers from lag. Please contact me via email to schema at star-made.org, so I can help, and hopefully fix the issue as soon as possible.

Thanks for playing StarMade,

- schema

 

[robertkor]

AWESOME!

 

[mou]

very nice :D

 

[Karride]

that is one heck of a changelog!

 

[aceface]

Nice job Schema, once again, you\'ve amazed us with your programming skills!

 

[ToyotaSupra]

Kick ass, this is a huge changelog!

I give it to New Year till we get to beta, not even kidding

 

[Captain_Quacer]

When I record I experience major lag. This is nothing new, but I decided to see if any of the fixes repaired the problem, but now when I record and I try to turn I lose total control of the game, I just start moving around uncontrollably. I think this has to do with the most recent update and it may be lag related.



This is really bad because it may delay my Tutorial Video production. If you want to see it for yourself the recording software I am using is Ocam which can be downloaded for free on download.com.



I do love the update, shift clicking and turning mechanics are a great addition.

 

[Kitts]

I find this update very lovely. Thank you Schema - for all your hard work.

 

[Maniox]

Schema, you forgot fixing the AI missile range on turrets, only way you can make missile turrets work with bobby ai is to have an AMC cannon on them, you\'ve gotta fix the range for the turrets too, mentioned it in the comments on the last pre-build too.

 

[z1967]

is the longest changelog I have ever seen... Well done!

 

[Pirate_Ray]

=========================

Undocked objects now get velocity of mothership

============================

Finally, hell yes!! i\'ve been waiting for this... now i can make big ass torpedos with those disintegrators and drop em like hit and run canisters... take down shields of the enemy, drop the canister while going for the enemy, fly over the enemy, hear the satifyin klabOOM of a disintegrator torpedo being stuffed into the enemy behind you :D...



and:

docked entities will now be cloaked/jammed if the mothership is cloaked/jammed

makes it even better.... cloaked bomber FTW. :D



thank you very very much schema.

 

[ShadowHunter12]

Great work, glad to be of help testing on the server running the prebuild.

Speaking of prebuild, could you make an easier way of downloading prebuilds so it works like normal updates but with a separate button with a confirmation message. Also did you get my email with the big exploits I found? I didn\'t see any fixes in the changelog.

 

[TheCoolSideofthePillow]

First update since I\'ve installed the game, noticed that there was some additions to the server.cfg but when I looked in the .cfg after the update to make sure everything was right, it didn\'t actually update. There\'s no new lines, and the date modified is the date I first installed, unlike every other file.

 

[schema]

thank you! a better way will be incorporated in the next version of the updater/launcher

 

[schema]

Hi to prevent overwriting of already set options, the game will do a comparison with the options that are already there when you start the game once. New options will then get filled in, so you just have to start once, and then exit and you should have all the new lines

 

[TheCoolSideofthePillow]

Ah, okay. Thanks :D

 

[fstratzero]

Turning speed is a bit too slow. For instance a ten to twenty block pole has 0.00009 pitch force, but 100+ yaw and roll...

For instance I put a core down and built a 80x80 wall that ended up being able to yaw and roll like crazy but couldn\'t pitch(vertical mouse look) at all. Giant cubes = ugly.

In other words I like the idea but not everybody wants a cube, or a large ship covered in turrets sitting next to their enemy waiting 20 million minutes to turn or for the ai to finish the job...

Maybe scaling the forces back a bit, or having a server.cfg option to adjust this would be a nice way to handle the issue.

 

[ImJeffafa]

Glad the test server had results!

 

[Masochist4Melons]

I agree with what the other guy said. The forces for agility and turning need to be scalled back a bit more or much more. With the shield nerf that happened a while back it was enough to make it so any small ship with a 100k dps amc could destroy any large ship. Turning like your a turtle in molasses just makes any large ship a sitting duck now.



I understand it\'s not time for balancing just yet, or fighting gigantizism, but in the mean time large ships don\'t have to become completely useless.

 

[fstratzero]

There is a possible exploit by rotating the ship around the core to get the desired yaw, pitch, and roll. Will test.