SWGEmu End of Year Update 2011

[Vlada]

SWGEmu End of Year Update 2011

January 2012
SWGEmu Team

Table of Contents

• Project Update
• Staff Updates
• Quick Stats
• Staff Round-Table
• Closing

SWGEmu End of Year Update 2011

Another year is behind us, was it a good year? A great year? Only time will tell...

We had our ups and downs, our good and bad times, but we pulled through and we continued to march on towards our common goal a fully functional, vanilla, 14.1 Pre-CU Star Wars Galaxies Emulator. There is no going back, no compromises, we know why we are here and we will stay on the course.

SWGEmu Project Updates

Hardware Upgrade/Changes:

• 02/14/2011 - TC: Nova and Liberator Upgrade
• 05/16/2011 - Web and Database Server Upgade
• 07/04/2011 - Network Upgrade
• 01/07/2012 - Website and Database Move

Major Additions/Changes

• For a comprehensive Nova Test Center feature list be sure to read the End of Liberator Milestone and Weekly Developer Updates.
• 11/05/2011 - SWGEmu became an official, globally recognized 501(c) Non-Profit Organization registered in Hungary

Staff Updates

SWGEmu is Recruiting!
As always, SWGEmu is an ever-changing and growing organization where new talent is always being sought out. We especially would like to mention the need for more developers, please see this thread for more information.

The Web Development team is recruiting, please see this thread.

The Quality Assurance team is recruiting, please see this thread.

The Support team is recruiting, please see this thread.

Quick Stats

Developer Code Commits:
Total Commits: 3,527
Total Lines of Code (LoC): 5,603,903

Registration Statistics:
June 2011 - 6611 new users registered
November 2011 - 2449 new users registered
Monthly Average: 4169.83 new users registered

Users online:
Record online users - 1657 (05-11-2011 05:22 PM)

Most viewed thread: Force Progression thread
Most replied thread: Force Progression thread
Most popular forum: Trade Forum

New thread statistics:
March 24, 2011 - 178 started threads
November 19, 2011 - 20 started threads


Staff Round-Table

Oru - Developer

Another rough and challenging year has passed. Aside from trying to keep the project together i have been working along with TheAnswer on engine updates that should make the everyday job of our coders easier and will be the base for scaling core3 over multiple nodes. Currently we are facing performance and some correctness issues but it is a tremendously exciting job to create this system.


Another great thing this year was establishing the SWGEmu Non-Profit organization. Added an extra protection both legality and financial wise so it was well worth every penny.


Stay tuned for all the upcoming updates because End of Liberator Milestone is starting to shape up and you should see some marginal changes over the next year!

Loshult - Developer

I was very happy when I found out about this emulator this summer. For some reason I had completely missed it all these years since I quit playing SWG at the CU. I digged up my old CD's and installed and logged onto Liberator as fast as I could and I was overwhelmed with all memories from the first months I played SWG. However my joy diminished a bit when I found out that the part of the game that I loved so much wasn't entirely implemented (survey, mining and crafting). I started to read about how to setup my own development environment and a few days later I ran around for the first time on my own server while trying to re-add the strarting items.

So these last four months I've tried to use as much of my spare time as possible to help out with bringing the development forward. So far I've done some bugfixing, added a few missing features and done some work with the underlying structure of the server. My focus has mainly been towards player creation, structures and non-combat missions.

Next year I will continue the work with the non-combat missions. I'm hoping to get the factional deliver missions up and running pretty soon, if they are not already. After that I don't know yet but it will be something that gets us closer to EOL.

Sytner - Client Developer

It must have been a couple of years since I last posted an official update so many apologies to those who have messaged me asking for one that it has taken so long. I expect many of our newer members may not even know who I am – so I am Sytner, SWGEmu’s resident tool developer/client reverser. Since so much has happened since my last update I am just going to briefly summarise the state of all of my editors (for the sake of not taking up too much of this thread) and hopefully clear up some misinformation that has been floating around.

General editor progress:

• I have been very busy in real life the past few years, so my progress tends to come in chunks, but this year in particular a great deal of progress has been made in both client research and tools development.
• The majority of my time is spent working on the mesh/animation and terrain elements of the editor, but it now has read/write support for almost every SWG file of any interest.
• Unfortunately I do not have the time to write interfaces for editing all of these files, but currently there are UIs for editing: terrains and their associated files, snapshots (these deal with object placement on the world), shaders, meshes (static and dynamic), animations and datatables.

The terrain and snapshot editor:

• The terrain/snapshot editor (I often refer to this collectively as the world editor) is a mixture of graphical and form based tools which can be used to create entirely new worlds for SWG. A couple of screenshots of this section of the editor: top-down planet editing, creatures.
• The snapshot component is basically done besides a few missing graphical tools. The user can move around objects on the map, snap them to terrain, create various arrays of objects and so on.
• There are too many aspects to the terrain component to discuss it in detail here, but the file format is >95% understood and the main work remaining is just adding more tools to allow the user to edit terrains more easily.
• The world editor can generate high detail top-down images of the whole planet which can be used for new planetary maps.
• Support for space "terrains" too.

The mesh/animations editor:

• The mesh editor allows both static and dynamic (animated) models to be imported into SWG from a variety of popular formats including: 3ds, dae, ase, obj, lwo and smd.
• I managed to completely reverse animations this year, all that remains to be done is come up with a convincing way to generate the new data for them. Here’s a two videos showing bone animation and skinning.
• This screenshot shows a fairly early version of the editor being used to import a new speeder into the game.

Finally two things to clear up since I get asked quite a lot:

• I have every intention of publicly releasing at least the majority of the tools as soon as I feel they’re ready.
• Although I rarely get the time to post official updates like this, I do post numerous pictorial updates on my Photobucket during my periods of activity (admittedly not ideal but it works for now).

Wuzze - Quality Assurance

Hi, I want to thank all the community members who have kept me busy keeping Mantis updated and current. This leads me into what I've been doing this year since joining the SWGEMU team, checking and confirming as many as possible the Mantis bug reports. Also in game worked on the shipwright schematic download, testing Tailor schematics, TKA combat, Armorsmith Schematics, Chef Schematics, Structures, crafting in all aspects, Testing combat. Then in spare time Aceblade had numerous projects he was juggling and would ask for input. I'm new this year to the staff but want to tell the community how impressed I am with all involved and the time and effort they put forward. Thank you all, looking forward to a great new year as we get closer to the goal.

Ilipah - Support Director

This year saw the launch of the Liberator Server and a restructure of the Support Department to more effectively offer support for the Server. In this regard, we expanded the Community Assistant Program to not only allow the Assistants to help the Community but to also offer them a chance to become Community Staff Members. The Assistants, past and present, have truly made an impact on the support we offer and are to be commended for their hard work and dedication to not only the Support Department but to the SWGEmu Project, as a whole.

Are you interested in becoming a Customer Support Representative (CSR), a Forum or IRC Moderator, or an Event Coordinator (EC)? We are currently accepting applications to the Community Assistant Program. As an Assistant, you will work with other Assistants, and with Community Staff, in offering support to the Community. During this time, your performance will be evaluated and you may be offered a Community Staff Position. To submit your application, please use the following link.

I also want to thank the Community for helping us to help you. We all want Pre-CU back but it takes time and there are growing pains involved. As we progress along this path, please remember to thank your friendly CSRs, Moderators and ECs for their hard work and dedication. Be us Community Members or Staff, we are one family, committed to reliving the greatest saga ever told... yours! We will relive it, one step at a time.

TAfirehawk - Site Services Leader

2011 has been an extremely busy year for me here and in RL - where I bought a new house in April. *The year started with the launch of this new forum and registration system. *We followed that up with the fun and challenges with Liberator but all-in-all I believe the "play server" concept is a good one for everybody. *Hopefully we can improve the implementation of the concept soon (tm) in 2012 while we eagerly await the Nova code for Liberator.

I have bounced around different departments this year (not so different from previous years) to help wherever possible throughout the year and I am currently handling "Site Services". *The goal of Site Services is to reduce the server admin workload from Developers so they can focus more on Nova code development.

The last few months have been the most demanding and exciting of 2011 because I am working on the new server layout and new site setup. *As we have stated before, we have a third dedicated server with FDC to upgrade all our web services and to allow one of the old servers to be used for development-only. *The school of hard knocks has taught us a lot of lessons in the server department and I truly believe this brand new setup for all three servers will be a big step forward.

We will have more information coming out soon (tm) on the server/site features but the two main points for everybody to know right now are A) the creation of two distinct areas on swgemu.com, one for Community and one for Developers and B) the physical separation of Liberator and Nova so the "play server" will no longer take time or server stability away from Nova development.

Renala - Event Coordinator Leader

Echoing what Kreen said, not only has it been a great year in general, its been great for the Event Coordination Team. As was already mentioned, we've recently added OMekks to the EC Team as our primary PvP event coordinator. While he has already proven to deliver entertaining PvP events by balancing both sides of the conflict to ensure a good fight, we'll also be working on helping him learn more about rudimentary props to enrich the experience.

Earlier this year Shotter also rejoined the EC team and has been doing more private-type events (Such as the ones Kreen mentioned) for anyone whose requested them. Looking to the new year we hope as more people become their desired combat templates, we'll be able to increase the frequency of these types of events that are tailored specifically for the small group of players participating in them.

Lastly, Chetok has been retired from the Event Coordinator Team due to personal commitments. We were sad to see him go, but wish him the best luck in his future endeavors.

We're hoping 2012 will mark not just another year of progress towards our goal of restoring SWG to Pre-CU, but also a year of entertainment as the EC team continues to provide those that follow us by playing on Nova and Liberator with fun things to do.

Kreen - Event Coordinator

Hey guys! Thanks for another wonderful year and thanks for coming out and partying with us Event Coordinators all the time! Things are starting to pick up again in the EC department with our latest coordinator, oMekks, joining the team, so expect a lot more events coming your way for 2012. For me, this year has been pretty hard personally in my real life, so I apologize for my lack of event for the past few months. But, things are looking up, and with the help and support from friends and family, I'll be able to bring some more cool events this next semester!

While oMek seems to really have a strong area for PvP events, I'll most likely be taking the role of creating more story-driven and immersive PvE, party, roleplaying, and a couple of PvP events. Things like mass group hunting, questing, dungeon-clearing, and of course swoop races! Shotter is back too, so between the two of us, expect some eye-candy scenery and epic events!

Do you want to join the Event Coordinators? See how we work? Get to know us? Join our IRC channel #events and talk with us! (hint: during an event is probably not the best time to ask our favorite color ) One thing that we actually do that few players ask for is private events. Does your roleplaying guild have an epic battle that needs to unfold in someone's storyline? Does your PvP guild want a private fight club arena set up for an evening? Maybe you and some friends would like to go on a hunting trip with special encounters, or perhaps even just hang out in a scenic place? Send us a private message, email kreen@swgwemu.com, or join #events in IRC and let us know if you have a private, personal, public, or massive event that you want to plan, and we'll help make it become a reality!

<3 Kreen

Vlada - Community Relations Leader

Its been an interesting year for Community Relations team, we tried our best to improve our services, understand and service communities needs, keep the community up to date with all the relevant info that was available to us. To insure better communication and understanding of our community needs we created our Community Relations Feedback group. Group was and still is, dedicated to answering questions and receiving any types of feedback that may help us preform and do our jobs. We've also been maintaining SWGEmu Facebook and Twitter pages and we created a page on Google+.

We are not sure if we were always successful but we want you to know that we did do our best with the resources available to us.

A lot of great people were a part of this team and we want to take this opportunity to thank them all (in no particular order):

Leodextrin - Retired Moderator King
Dame - Retired Communications Manager
IX- - Retired IRC & Forums Moderator
KroniK - Retired Forums Moderator
Architect - Retired Forums Moderator
Nedak - Retired Forums Moderator and Community Relations
Akorange - Retired Community Relations
Apex_ - Retired IRC Moderator
Bailey - Retired Forums & IRC Moderator, Community Relations
BigEvil - Community Relations (currently on leave)

We also would like to thank our community for their continuous support. Thank you for being awesome.

Closing

Of course, none of this would be possible without our community. It is very rare to find such a dedicated group of people that has supported us every step of the way, that stuck by us even when we were down. A huge thank you, from each and every member of this Staff, thank you for your support, thank you for your donations, thank you for your patience, thank you for being the heart and soul of SWGEmu. Thank you.




--The SWGEmu Team

[Vlada]

List of NEW items in the Weekly Updates

•Started work on a ConversationEditor user interface which will be used to generate server-side scripts for NPC conversations.
•Server management: editing objects and scripts while the server is running, dashboard for server health, and anything else developers want to code in.
•Added scripting capabilities to the engine.
•Started working on the New Player Tutorial to showcase scripting capabilities.
•Started to rewrite the process of placing a player structure to use a session. The session mechanism will ensure data consistency, as well as providing the ability to rollback the placement process in the event of an error, without losing any of the player's items permanently.
•Updating the system to give server administrators more fine grained control of loot drop rates and drop stats.
•Added initial conversation for Rebel Recruiter (Thanks Valkyra), and modified Tutorial NPC conversations to use conversation scripts generated by ConversationEditor.
•Added the /tip command.
•Added the /nameStructure command, which names the closest structure to you.
•Added the /declareResidence command, which allows the owner of the house to designate the house as their one and only official residence.
•Added the /addPower command, which allows the administrator of the structure to add units of an energy resource to the power reserves.
•Travel fees are now deducted from your cash.
•Dantooine, Dathomir, Endor, Lok, and Talus starports now have travel terminals, ticket collectors, and shuttles.
•Sign names now default to say 's House.
•You now receive mail and a waypoint when new structures are placed.
•Added city limits to NPC cities so that structures can't be placed within.
•Players who enter a structure without permission (bypassing barrier with hacks) will be ejected.
•Players who are in a structure and have permissions revoked are ejected.
•The /transferStructure command should now be correct. (Thanks Glenac for research)
•The /puchaseTicket and buying of travel tickets should now be correct. (Thanks Glenac, Harbinjer, and Iceta for research)
•Working on radial menu implementation for CreatureObject.
•Working on teaching and learning.
•Continuing to work on matchmaking/search for players.
•Working on Creature Spawning for dynamic, random, and static world spawns.
•Added shuttle take off and landings.
•Added the /setSpeed [] command. (Thanks link)
•Added the ability to delete all items from a structure via the radial menu. WARNING: This will permanently delete the objects from the database.
•Added the Find Lost Items command, which can be used on the radial menu of your house.
•Added maintenance deductions.
•Added an admin only option to Structure Terminals that allow a Structure Terminal to be linked in-game to the structure it is within.
•Started automatic maintenance and power deductions. (disabled currently)
•/teleportTarget [ ] [ ] and /teleportTo commands now work correctly in all scenarios.
•/structureStatus command now works properly and refreshes when "Refresh" is clicked.
•/transferStructure command should now work properly.
•/nameStructure command cannot contain more than 128 characters.
•/eject command should no longer leave the player floating within the sign.
•/giveItem objects now should appear in your inventory without relogging.
•/setGodMode command now allows you to set admin level of 0 for player.
•/resendLoginMessageToAll command now works as intended.
•Deeds now place surplus maintenance and power back on to the structure when placed.
•Installations now place surplus power on the deed when being re-deeded.
•A structure cannot be destroyed while it contains items.
•Started on conversation scripts for Theme Park content.
•Started on static spawns for Theme Park content.
•Applied Brakiss’ trainer scripts and LUA files for conversations, appearance and general workability of trainers.
•Set shuttle wait times to 5 minutes between landings, and time the shuttles remain landed to 2 minutes before taking off.
•Players will not be able to use a ticket if outside the starport and if farther than 25 meters from the shuttle.
•Added a message that informs you when the /moveFurniture command failed because the parameters were unexpected. This happens when an object is nearby that starts with the name of one of the 4 directions (up, forward, etc). Use the name of the object you want to use as the first parameter, followed by direction and distance to work around this, so: /moveFurniture
•Added combat variables to LUA command parsing.
•Added in creature locomotion for movement, posture and correct client notifications.
•Added in the loading of draft schematic groups from player clients.
•Initial World Spawner Tool (WST) was imported, used to edit location, type, and other variables for planetary creature spawns.
•Added secondary tools and maps for creature data, states, and spawns.
•Added (and updated) the World Spawner Tool win32 binary.
•Added in skill import from client data.
•Creation data is now imported from client data.
•Moved starting credit allocation to player_creation_manager.lua.
•Creature socket objects are now added via scripts instead of hardcoded in.
•Added in a OS X engine library (Snow Leopard 10.6).
•Added basic atmospheric flight.
•Started serialization of Zone.
•Added in commented auto-admin code for new players.
•Added multiple template support for crafting.
•Added in CMake build files.
•Added in the initial database object process.
•Added and updated a memory protection test.
•Added Shipwright schematics.
•Added Shipwright to blue frogs.
•Added ship component crafting.
•Added SceneObject::containsPendingTask.
•Added cast<> macro.
•Removed all C-style casts, use only cast<> or dynamic_cast<> from now on.
•Engine up-time extended to 12 hours.
•Applied lordkator’s travel patch.
•Added in STM clone memory functions.
•Conversations are handled with observers, screen handlers and sessions.
•Conversation manager keeps track of all conversation observers. Only one observer is created for each conversation template and it is reused for all NPCs using the template.
•Player skill points are set to 250 at character creation.
•Learning and surrendering skills affects the number of used skill points.
•Character builder terminal now has an option to maximize all experience types (easier to test trainers etc.).
•Trainer conversations implemented. You can now learn skills from trainers. It cost credits, experience and skill points to train a skill.
•Added structure decay. Structures decay when the maintenance reaches 0. Current structure decay rate is 4 weeks. Buildings are condemned, all other structures are destroyed when structure condition reaches 0.
•Added preparing for delivery missions.
•Added possibility to spawn delivery mission NPCs.
•Added conversation observers and conversation templates for delivery mission NPCs.
•Condemned buildings throw out all players entering them. The building owner gets an option to uncondemn the structure when entering it with enough credits.
•Added force patch by Valkyra.
•Added Force Power, Force Power Max. It is set when the player learns a skill that has a skillmod with Force Power Max. Force Power does not reset on server reset as it did in Pre-OR. Force Power regens based on scrapbook formula, does not go past max. Force power Max is also deducted if a player surrenders the skill either by skill UI or bluefrog surrender all. Updates force power to player's HAM and CTRL C through packets as usual.
•Added preparation for delivery missions.
•Adding NPC spawn map and functions to find suitable spawn locations.
•Added lair template editor.
•Added lair templates.
•Running ./core3 clean will truncate all current char data and mysql tables.
•Added StopConversation? option in conversation templates for NPCs to end conversations with player.
•Added a method to set StopConversation? option from screen handlers.
•Trainer NPCs end the conversation with player if they cannot teach any skills.
•Deliver mission NPCs end the conversation with player directly when it is complete.
•Added temporary mission NPC spawn points in Kor Vella and Coronet.
•Added a pointer to the conversing NPC in all screen handlers.
•Added view 3D model option for creatures and lair buildings with a slightly updated SWGOSG tool by xunil.
•Added engine lion64 lib.
•Added more lair scripts.
•Added LairSpawnArea? and LairGroup? in templates.
•Added spawn areas with radius -1 => world areas.
•Added some random spawns on corellia.
•Updated the spawn tool, added the ability to add/edit/remove lair groups to regions and add/edit/remove lair templates.
•Deleted all temporary mission NPC spawn points.
•Added a few mission NPC spawn points in Coronet.
•Mission NPC spawn points can now be added in all cities on all planets.
•Made mission NPC spawn map extendable for the future with more planets and cities.
•Mission NPC spawn map is saved to an lua script on each addition of new spawn points.
•Added a check for minimum distance of 5.0 between mission NPC spawn points.
•Added "Dynamic" addition of spawn points through the /createMissionElement [spawntypes] command. It generates a spawn point where the player character is standing of the specified spawntypes. Note: added spawn points are not stored between server reboots yet.
•Added heading direction for mission NPC spawn points.
•AI gives xp again.
•Added CollisionManager::checkLineOfSightInParentCell.
•Added forage loot item templates.

[chayn]

Wow... great stuff... thank you, thank you, thank you...

[Pennywise]

Nice updates. the terrain/snapshot editor makes me drool. That's one thing i'm looking most forward to. I've always been in to map making in every pc game I was able to do it in.

[Newsound]

This year shall be very exciting for SWGemu!! Thank you all very much!

[Lolindir]

Thanks for a great update Vlada

[Redex]

Thank you all for your efforts, can't wait to see what 2012 brings.

[Thultitus]

You all are truly amazing! Many thanks for your dedication. It's nice to see that I'm not "crazy" about how passionate i felt about this game when clearly so many others share that. I just found this a month ago but plan on staying for as long as it is here. I will do my best to support in any way i can.

[Izure]

Thanks guys.

[Qui-larek]

A big thank you from me, ty all.

[Neo1715]

NINTH!

Thanks SWGEmu team for all you do! Any update on cRush?

[Vlada]

Any update on cRush?

Nope, sorry. Recreating cRush is not our current focus, maybe after 1.0 is released.

[argonyxon]

11/05/2011 - SWGEmu became an official, globally recognized 501(c) Non-Profit Organization registered in Hungary

I AM FROM HUNGARY!!!!!!!!4 WOOHOOO

[SinisterCowboy12]

Thanks to all the devs and others involved....apologies for not being around much as RL has had me nailed to the wall....now that my projects are completed or winding down at work, I'll have more time to spend here....thanks again you guys/gals!!!

[ckclyde]

Another great year, lots of progress. Thank you Devs