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Build 1013

It’s official, we’ve crossed the 1000 build mark!

This marks more than a thousand days since we started working on KAG, quite a journey! We’re currently looking into things to do to celebrate, but in the meantime we’ve got another bugfix and maintenance patch to get things back in gear.

• Knight Shield Stacking
  This is now a physical thing – you need to actually jump onto the guy shielding you. It looks quite funny, like a frantic scramble to get over a wall. This should fix the people shield-flying over the red barrier as well, as they should not be able to jump on top of each other ;^)
• TDM Spawns
  TDM now works with multiple spawn markers. Players will randomly spawn at either of the possible spawns, for a more diverse TDM experience. We’re looking for some nice maps to add to the pool, drop them in the thread if you want them looked at :^)
• Documentation work
  There’s been more work done documenting the CBlob class at http://doc.kag2d.com/ – the docs there are almost complete, we’ll be covering the sprite class next. It’s a very slow and exhausting job, so hopefully someone is getting some use out of it! Please leave feedback on what you like, what you don’t, and what you’d like to see, we’re kind of shooting in the dark here.
• Community Sourced Fixes
  This build has two community sourced fixes and improvements, one from Verra expanding the timer.as functionality, and one from norill fixing mines “randomly” exploding your demolition shop. Thanks guys!
• Misc Fixes
  I’ve also fixed a few miscellaneous bugs, including the misleading join message, which used to read “ has joined as ” – it now shows the correct “ has joined as ”. Sorry to anyone accused of impersonating as a result of this, I know I have a few times!

Have Fun!

Max/Geti

KAG Offline – Last 1 Hour

Hello KAGers!

King Arthur’s Gold APIs, site, forums and other dev-hosted services have been offline for approximately the last hour due to a large DDoS targeting our ISP.  This DDoS was not targeting KAG but was large enough (tens of gigabits per second) to take our ISP entirely offline.

The network has now recovered and all KAG resources are once again available.  We apologize for the disruption, this is not an incident we have a means to avoid nor is it something that has occurred in the past.

Game on!

-Ryan (FliesLikeABrick)

Discuss

Build 998 – modding fixes & spec cam improvements

This is a maintenance patch, just fixing a few issues.

I couldn’t fix some of the crashes people are experiencing. I need more information that’s why the crash reporter will now provide me with more info on the crashes. So if you get a crash send it and I’ll try to help.

Verra made some nice tweaks to the spectator cam. Shouldn’t cause nausea now :).

This patch fixes a big issue modders were facing. The file matcher in scripts was soft matching wrong files when using mods. These issues should be fixed. To fix it I had to make numerous changes, namely:

– sprites and sounds are not loaded randomly when there’s a couple matches – the best one is picked

– if you want to play random sounds use blob.getSprite().PlayRandomSound(“Pluck”) which will play Pluck01 or Pluck02 or Pluck03

– the file matcher takes the file extension into consideration and searches for the proper extension even if you didn’t provide it

Have fun!
MM

Changes 984-998:

[fixed] soft file-matcher taking similar files from Mods instead of Base

[scripting][modified] sounds and textures aren't loaded randomly with filematcher by default

[scripting][added] Sprite.PlayRandomSound(filename) for loading random sounds

[fixed] crashrpt not attaching logs
[added] last script calls to crashrpt

[fixed] death cam being too sudden and jerky (Verra's updated PlayerCamera.as)

100k Supporters!

Recently we crossed the threshold to 100k supporters of KAG! This is very exciting news for us, quite a milestone to reach!

(via Yagger)
(cue speculation about who’s wearing the dress)

Huge thanks to everyone who has bought the game! We can only continue to make games full time with your support, so it means a lot to have made it this far.

We’re currently looking forward to the future, with MM investigating modding issues to help the community keep the game alive as long as they see fit, and myself looking into a few more gameplay niggles and getting the multiplayer graphical map editor in place. We’re also working out a way to save maps to PNG image files via a script, meaning you’ll be able to save maps into something more interesting and cross-gamemode-usable than a .kag file.

As a heads up: I’m currently overseas on vacation, catching up with family and friends until the 20th of January, so I’ll be much slower than usual to reply to queries. Hopefully MM, Furai and Shadlington can hold down the fort effectively in my absence.

Have fun, and thanks again for your support!
Max/Geti

Call to Arms for Modders

MM is going to be focussing on modding related issues for the next while to help foster community development. For those who’ve been working within the limitations, this is hopefully exciting news.

Please respond with any issues with the system you’ve had here.

Thanks,
Max/Geti

Build 984 – Fixed Disconnects, Old Ban Persistence + doc.kag2d.com is up

This is a fairly minor build, but fixes one major issue – the constant disconnects everyone has been experiencing on servers under load.

There’s also a change allowing guards to see your seclevs with a default setup (no seclevs or example seclevs) so they can tell who the admins are if there are any to get in contact about patterns of abuse. You are of course free to remove this on your server if you so choose.

There’s also a fix for people using the non-steam client getting a “you are banned” message rather than letting them play on servers that allow their specific ban – a symptom from the old ban system that should be fixed now.

doc.kag2d.com – Formal Script Documentation

This is where the documentation for the angelscript bindings will be available via the internet – we decided it’d be always nice to have access to it without a KAG install. Feedback on weather you’d like to see it in your kag folder as well is welcome, we opted for less update and versioning overhead in the meantime.

We’ll be updating the documentation when and where possible, but we’d appreciate feedback on what’s there already – what do you like about them, and what don’t you like. Is there anything about it that specifically bothers you? This is mostly for the modders out there of course, but anyone interested in modding finding them helpful or encouraging is a bonus.

The link, for those too lazy to type or copy-paste.

Have fun,

Max/Geti

Build 980 Hotfix

Hey guys

There was a small mixup with the ban flags (people with any history of griefing found themselves permanently banned, a few users found themselves unbanned and promptly continued attacking the game) so that’s been sorted out.

Sorry for the hassle to people who’s expired bans were causing them grief. I guess it’s potentially penance for griefing others :^)

There’s still an issue with people getting disconnected “randomly” and with some servers crashing, we’ll be looking into this tonight, and if it’s not fixed tonight then resuming after christmas.

If you want to help out with the crashes, please run your server through gdb like so:

$ gdb ./KAGdedi
  run
  (server runs)
  (server crashes)
  bt full
  (post log of the backtrace to us)

That would be a big help, thanks.

Have Fun,

Max/Geti

Build 980 – Admin Functionality and Christmas Hats

Happy Holidays everyone!

While you’re feasting, giving presents to everything with a heartbeat, spending loving time with your family and drinking yourselves into a stupor, be sure to drop into KAG for the usual dosage of carnage, now with one extra festive hat :^)

New build should be out over the next hour, the servers are under a fair bit of load at the moment so deployment is being sluggish. I’ll be watching to make sure it all makes it out before getting to bed.

Guards should have their seclevs back, not 100% sure what was causing the issue but it should be fixed now, so you can get back to slapping mischief makers on the wrists. Sorry about the hassle.

For more permanent offenders, there are now handy “user flags” that you can filter on. So far these include griefer, hacker, abuser and impersonation, and default to filtering recent griefers, abusers and impersonators, and anyone with a history of hacking. Be sure not to get onto these lists – play nice. You’ll find yourself unable to play on many servers if you get flagged, similar to a global ban, but now it’s up to server owners who they want to let in and out.

The relevant config file settings for server owners:

security_banflags [flags] Ex. security_banflags griefer abuser
	Ban flags to observe but be lenient about - once expired these users will be allowed back in.
security_strictflags [flags] Ex. security_strictflags hacker
	Ban flags to observe absolutely, anyone with a history of these will be banned permanently.

Normal rules will apply for reporting griefers/hackers, we require a video of someone clearly voiding the rules to put anything on their record.

We’re sure the absence of a few unfriendly faces on major servers will be a welcome christmas present for many, as depressing as that sounds.

On a more cheery note, there are also a few extra settings in the miscellaneous section of settings, for showing all team names and toggling the minimap on and off. There may be a few bugs with these (mostly with names, we’ll be looking into it again tomorrow) but always good to note it specifically so you can test them out and report bugs in the thread!

There have also been minor changes to builder (no longer “slowed” by nearby enemies) and votekicking (40% rather than 50% to get a conclusive vote, should mean less 7 out of 8 required moments). The gargoyle image file has also been cleaned of scribbles which should help make modded zombie servers more immersive :^)

Have fun!

Geti/Max

Full Changelog

[added] lavalordtdm2 map
[added] security_banflags and security_strictflags to autoconfig, determines what global user flags to ban per server.
                defaults to griefing, abuse and impersonation for banflags (ie flags that expire) and hacking for strictflags (zero tolerance)
[script][added] void CNet::checkPlayerBanflags( const string &in username, const string &in banflags, const string &in strictflags ) for checking ban flags from the API
[added] Christmas Hats
[added] u_shownames is default now (show all team names without needing hover)
[fixed] hover names relying on ismod rather than seclevs
[added] name_mouseover_spectator seclev (on for all default seclevs by default)
[fixed] spawning on team change (thanks Norill)
[modified] 40% votes required for a conclusive votekick
[removed] builder "stunlock" when building with enemies nearby
[fixed] unfortunate greg scribble
[added] show team names option to GUI
[added] show minimap button to settings

Build 977 – Admin Aid, Scoreboard Improvements, Script Docs and More

This patch brings a few nice admin tools, the rough start of a HTML modding documentation and some minor fixes and gameplay tweaks.

• Quick-Banning
  Sick of fishing through menus for that greifer with the name just like one of your friends? For a one-day ban that you can extend later manually, press f3 while hovering your mouse over the greifer, and then hold B and press f3 again to ban them for a day. That’s F3 to freeze players, B-F3 to ban frozen players.
• Seclevs available from scripts
  This is largely a bonus for modders who can now check the specifics of a players security clearance, but also means makes things like votekicking admins no longer possible.
• Seclev related bugs fixed
  A few missing convenience features should be available to anyone with a red name on the server.
• Class Icons in TAB Menu
  A long-missed classic feature, you can now see the class of a player and the class make-up of a team from the TAB/Score menu. Especially useful for complaining about the exact number of useless builders you have on your team.
• Fixed “black hole” keys
  All keys should now be able to be successfully rebound, no longer blocked by unused keys. The unused keys are now visible because they are available for modders to use.
• Doors don’t collapse after they have become stable
  Should help you keep out pesky knights and help in building more “creative” structures. This applies to both doors.
• New Spectator Camera
  Coded by community member Verrazano, the new spectator camera can follow units by clicking on them, scrolls with the keys and does little else, should be a little less confusing to use. Also has help text for those still playing with help popups.
• HTML Documentation
  Available from the Docs folder in your KAG install, the documentation effort is underway, with a large portion of CBlob, some of CMap and a lot of global functionality exposed. We’ll be addressing issues with these soon, adding more documentation and fleshing it out, but we’re keen to have feedback on what’s there already – what you guys would like to see more of, any issues you have with what’s going on, and so on.
• Misc Fixes
  Check the full changelog if you’re curious

There should be another update by Christmas to get some more API functionality in, and perhaps deliver a little bit of holiday cheer to the game :^)

Have fun,

Max/Geti

Full Changelog

[fixed] can't rebind some keys ("black hole" keys on keyboard,
		particularly R, sorry Ej)
[added] clear which keys aren't used any more
[added] class icons to scoreboard
[script][added] CBlob::SetScoreboardVars(texture, frame, framesize)
		and CBlob::UnsetScoreboardVars()
[added] scripts documentation start (see KAG/Docs/index.html)
[modified] doors won't collapse after becoming "stable"
[added] added name/username sections to scoreboard
[fixed] some console messages with () when same username as character name
[script][fixed] CPlayer::isMod() not taking into account red rcon admins
[script][added] seclev functions (check Manual/interface/Objects.txt for list)
[fixed] server browser game mode list having unaccesible items
[fixed] server browser game modes list having empty items
[added] seclev aware votekick
[added] Quick-Ban feature - hold B and tap F3 over a frozen player to
		quickly ban them for 24 hours. This is most useful in combination
		with quick-freeze (f3).
[added] new spectator camera (thanks Verra!)
[fixed] guard head not showing

Plans for this week

Long time no update!

Plan for this week is to fix a few “annoying” bugs (things like not being able to rebind certain keys, missing class icons on the scoreboard, and maybe a few admin niggles), and to make a start on modding documentation.

Modding documentation will cover the exact layout of all the functionality that’s exposed by the scripting interface – we’ll start with the most important classes and get that documentation released asap so that we can have feedback on what works and what doesn’t about the format we’ve chosen, and the level of detail each function is covered in. This should really help modders avoid getting discouraged when they can’t figure out how to do something – having a searchable repository of everything the engine can do will be an important fallback for novice modders and should help improve the overall quality of mods.

Aim is to have those annoying bugs, ban flags, and the first stage of documentation done by Christmas. MM and I should be able to tick at least two of those three, one of them is something we don’t have direct control over, but have been told will be addressed asap.

Have fun,

Max/Geti