Blog

Hotfix on build 428

A hotfix for build 428 is on its way out, a few small changes:

– Fixed issue with big (40+ player) busy servers running out of object IDs (and kicking everyone/being unjoinable) after a few hours

– Some optimizations related to how object IDs are looked up (in theory lower cpu usage on servers with a lot going on, in reality not much of a difference)

– removed ‘Blob Loaded’ log/console messages

– Fixed wood blocks not showing up in gold CTF and zombie modes

Also, we are in the process of generating updated installers for download on the website.

The new Windows installer no longer contains the OpenCandy advertising stuff – we discussed it and decided that any revenue from that is not worth the damage to the game’s reputation and concern that may arise over the safety of installing KAG.  I will post again when the new installers are complete and available for download/linking

-FliesLikeABrick

Build 428

Build 428 is on its way out with some important (potential) fixes:

– fixed rcon admins/guards crash on certain collapses #267, #469

– fixed unable to join busy server (lots of objects)

– fixed crash on camera shake (sometimes)

– Removed use of in-game browser, links now open in normal external browsers

– pressing enter in the username box at login now submits the form 

– slight changes to how ping timing works in the browser, might yield more correct results

It is possible some of these issues are only partially fixed – the nature of these bugs means that they need to be tested in public for a while before we know they are fixed.

It is also likely that these fixes resolved some other bugs.  If you have submitted any bugs to the bug tracker, please test them (even if you submitted a long time ago but the report is still open) and add a new note to your bug report saying if the issue is still present or not.  

Discuss on the forums here

-FliesLikeABrick

Maintenance Debrief/Lessons Learned

The maintenance referenced in the previous post did not go as planned – it took significantly longer than expected due to load on the database server — KAG has grown quite a bit since this type of work was last done, so my “dry runs” of this work on a test setup did not properly reflect what would happen in production.

This maintenance was cancelled after 1 hour without success and will be reattempted in the near future with the following changes:

– I will  take the forums, homepage, and bugtracker offline for maintenance using a page that will show or link to information explaining what is going on

– The maintenance will be announced repeatedly in the 24-48 hours leading up to it

– I will roll out a KAG update which understands when maintenance is going on based on a signal from the API so that error messages can inform users what is going on instead of timing out

Thanks for your understanding as we work to improve KAG and prepare it for the future 🙂

FliesLikeABrick

Ongoing database maintenance

Some maintenance is being done on the main authentication database – you may be unable to log into the game/site/forums or list/join servers until this work is complete – hopefully in the next hour or so.  This is to resolve a performance issue with the KAG API.

Future work will hopefully be scheduled and announced further ahead of time – my apologies for any inconvenience.

This should be completed by 12:15 UTC.

Minor Build 424

Build 424 is on its way out which has two purposes:

– A number of API calls made from KAG servers to the API were changed such that they do not cause lag spikes on the server in certain situations.  The server should also deal better with the API being unavailable (if it is completely unavailable, people will not be able to join but the players already in the server should be fine)

– There have been a handful of changes/hotfixes since 421 came out, so it is time to bump to the next build number to ensure everyone has the latest and greatest

If you are a server owner and have noticed any new problems with this build (or can state for sure that certain netcode hangs/crashes are no longer present), please head over to the forums and speak your mind in this thread.

FliesLikeABrick

Hotfix on 421

I just pushed a hotfix for build 421, it’s almost entirely behind-the-scenes changes:

– Removed a lot of old master code.  Client and server will no longer connect to master.kag2d.com.  This also potentially fixed some stability issues in the server and the client as well (possibly fixing the server browser crash reported by some Windows users)

– Slight change to browser UI

– Changes to browser help text

– kag://address:port/password now works on Windows

– /path/to/kag join server:port [password] now works on all OSes.  This in combination with kag:// should open potential to a lot of new scripts/tools which use the API to do things as people have started discussing on the forums and IRC

– client login code is 100% new, interface no longer freezes when you click the login button

– servers no longer attempt to upload bots to the API as players present in the server (whoops)

-miscellaneous code cleanup

Also, I created a new subforum for community development discussions/brainstorming and to create a dialogue between community devs themselves and the KAG developers. This is where requests from community developers should make informed requests about things like desired scripting hooks, API calls/data, etc in addition to any of the usual developer-developer technical talk.  So far it’s just me posting a few things, but by all means join in!

As for this hotfix build on 421, you can discuss that in the other thread 

-FliesLikeABrick

New build with completely new server browser interface

A new build (still build number 421 since there are no netcode changes) is on its way out right now —

Shadlington and myself have been working hard over the past 3-4 days to build a new server browser that has some proper filters and search abilities. Here is a quick list of the new features:

• Search instantly for whole player names, partial server names, partial descriptions, partial IP addresses, or partial game mode names
• Filter in/out gold and passworded servers
• Show only selected game modes
• Shadlington build a custom control for selecting how many players are in a server. It is extremely intuitive and allows you to set the minimum and maximum threshold for how many players you want in servers. You can select everything from empty to full, or do things like “half full to almost full”
• The minimaps are now shown centered in the preview window (so you don’t see some meaningless piece of sky), though you can drag them around as always

This is a few days of hard work for the new interface, but on top of months of work developing the new King Arthur’s Gold API which is the backend for the new fast server browser as well as the new authentication code that was rolled out a few months ago.

The API is used by things like this server browser as well as available for use by community developers. Another post should be coming on that in the next week or so as it is more ready for public use.

Much more should be coming in the near future in terms of finding friends and viewing who is in a server before you join it. This information is all already available over the API, in case any site/server owners or developers want to start using this data. Post in this forum thread if you are a developer interested in some API information.

Favorites are still a bit buggy, but we waned to get this new interface out and used rather than waiting longer just to fix something that has been broken for a long time 

Here is the quick overview of how the new browser works

How to use the server browser

Instant Search: If you enter text here it will filter the server list down to those containing this text in one of the following fields: name, description, game mode, IP address. It will also search the names of players on servers shown.  Only entire names are matched.

e.g. entering ‘Shadlington’ will find any servers with ‘Shadlington’ in the name/description or any that Shadlington is playing on.

Players (%) slider: Use this to set the min and max percent full you want servers to be.

e.g. set it to 1% min and 99% max to find servers that are not empty and not full, or set it to 50% to 99% to find servers that are ‘at least half full’.

Gold/Passworded servers: These buttons have three states – No/Yes/Doesn’t Matter.

Map Preview: This shows the current state of the map on the server. Note that it can be dragged.

For more information, go to the KAG Wiki article for Server Browser.

Join the discussion on the forums in here!

-FliesLikeABrick

Hotfix Build 421

This build just addresses the “Mash C to Mine Faster” bug, and archers having a gimped first shot (which were the same bug, it turns out).

Update your clients and servers!