Alpha Test Game 5

Avacar

Vice Admiral
Game 5 is now on!

Welcome to all our new testers! For new and old, we're mostly here to have fun, but we also want to find bugs and test features. Hopefully you can keep up to date on this thread to know about bugs that are found, fixed, etc.

If you do find something you think is a bug, it is best to not submit orders and post here to check; it may slow the game down, but it really helps when I go in to debug if things are in the potentially bugged state instead of moving on.

When new phases are available, you'll receive an email. Many junk filters will consider it spam, so go look through if you see that the game changed phases and you didn't get a notification.

We're playing on an enormous map this time, so scroll around. Hopefully no one will have trouble going off the map this time, but you guys may find scrolling around and keeping situational awareness a challenge. For now, I have no plans for a mini-map, but this will be a good test to see how necessary that may be in the (far) future.

For this game, we are primarily looking to test the following features:

1. Skill Level
Take a look and you'll see everyone was assigned a random skill level. Aside from Ironduke, everyone should have a set of 3 unique ranks, so you can get a feel for how much it affects things. I'm pretty confident that this is working fine already, but this is the first time we test it, so it may be bugging. It will be hard to determine if things are not working vs. unlucky, but hopefully by the end of the Game we'll have enough field reports to show that statistically those with higher rank did better...

2. Missile Evasion
We've been tackling this a lot in Game 4, which is still on-going, but we still don't have full confidence in the correct behaviour. Keep firing missiles and try to avoid them!

3. Tailing
It seems mostly functional now, but tail whenever you can, even if you don't really need to. We need to make sure it behaves properly. (Tail your own ships if necessary)

4. Turrets
Rear-turrets should be working okay, but I can't remember if we've even tested side turrets. We'll need to test against the broadswords carefully and make sure that the turrets do fire properly. In theory, you can point defence with a turret, but it will pick its own target. You can do so by reserving all its shots. Additionally you should be able to fire all turrets independently of your main gun, but again I cannot recall if we actually tested this yet in the past or not.

If you look carefully, you'll also noticed one unannounced surprise: Asteroids. For now, they are just for show. If I find time, and if the game is running particularly smoothly, I may start experimenting with Line-of-Sight or Collision, so check back here for such an announcement. For now though, you should be able to just fly over them without any impact on gameplay at all. (Consequently, this is the first time I use the indicator icon for them; I find it is a bit dark, so I may have to lighten it up).

For those that haven't played before, if you're the last one to submit an order, go back to the turn selection screen and reload it to force a processing/check for a new turn. This can also be the moment where some of the weirder, one-time error messages can appear that we haven't nailed down yet, so if that does happen, be sure to copy and paste them here for me, 'cause they're near-impossible to recreate. Eventually I'll get the automatic turn refresh feature working, but it is low on my priority list.

I've also tweaked a few behind-the-scenes features, like game visibility (so I can work on creating games without showing them until they're ready) which seems to have worked while I built Game 5. I also redid the permission-level system so that my user wasn't hardcoded and is now flagged as a game admin. If any of you seem to be able to give orders to all ships, let me know, 'cause that means the new system is bugged.

We're close to finishing Phase 5 of testing, and some of the features I've listed above, like the asteroid work, falls into what I'd consider Phase 6 development. We may transition phases mid-game, depending how well the pilot-skill system goes and how long this game takes.

Enjoy Alpha Test Game 5: Battle Royal
 
Not enough cats to kill nearby. Pity. These crates still smell like litterboxes, and fly like them too...

Vandek'la! You have been challenged by Odin! For glory and Valhalla!
 
First little bug: When I issued movement orders, the Orders menu opened up at the place you'd expect, but the view jumped to the top left corner of the screen/map.

Also, a Legendary Ferret? This should be interesting...! ;)
 
First little bug: When I issued movement orders, the Orders menu opened up at the place you'd expect, but the view jumped to the top left corner of the screen/map.
When did it jump? After you submit orders? I'm in Firefox 8 right now, and when I open a orders window, it stays centered on the screen and the map stays centered.. but I haven't tried submitting orders because I don't want to put in orders for someone else. Is it jumping after you hit submit? (If this is the case, I'll just have to guinea pig someone, and then manually undo it). Also, what browser are you in?

Also, a Legendary Ferret? This should be interesting...! ;)

I thought so. I hope it will be slippery like butter.

Also, looking at the intercepted communications panel, now that pilot names aren't correlating directly with users, it is hard to see whom to blame if the game is slowing down and you guys wanted to post/poke someone by forum. So opinion poll: should intercepted communication list the pilot name, the username, or both? (Obviously it will always list the ship name)
 
My vote's for the username. The pilot name is cool and all, but really shouldn't be more than decoration, IMHO.

Eight players...24 fighters...yeah, this is gonna take a while.
 
I may very well start a game 6 with a smaller test group if/when I have a specific testing need worked out. Ideally, for now, i want each game to test a particularly new game feature.
 
Noticing that Porcupine3 and Odin seem to be piloted by the same guy (Magnus Valgardson) in the intercepted communications set. Taking a guess, I'd think Porcupine3's pilot is supposed to be "Louie", but I'm too lazy to go check for myself......
 
Noticing that Porcupine3 and Odin seem to be piloted by the same guy (Magnus Valgardson) in the intercepted communications set. Taking a guess, I'd think Porcupine3's pilot is supposed to be "Louie", but I'm too lazy to go check for myself......
Fixed. I'm surprised there is only 1 error in transcribing all those ships.
 
First little bug: When I issued movement orders, the Orders menu opened up at the place you'd expect, but the view jumped to the top left corner of the screen/map.

Same here. I'm using Chrome. When I clicked orders, the screen moved to the left (not top left) corner at the same height as my fighters.

Movement orders done!.

Cheers,
 
All right, seems to be a Chrome issue then. And it happens before submitting orders - instantly on clicking the "Orders" button. (Using Chrome 14.)

I'm all for usernames for the Intercepted Transmissions!
 
This isn't something I can look into as I'm just an observer... could it be something that's missed since this is the first time we're using a massively big, scrolling board? If so, I'd guess it's related to how the JavaScript handles the windows and such.
 
This isn't something I can look into as I'm just an observer... could it be something that's missed since this is the first time we're using a massively big, scrolling board? If so, I'd guess it's related to how the JavaScript handles the windows and such.
I've mentioned this before: Wedge if you can go onto the WCTOO website and make a user, I can flag it as an admin and you can see the orders buttons. I'd appreciate your help in nailing this css issue! As long as you don't submit the orders, you wouldn't mess with the game.
 
Sorry, I must have missed that (when you're all discussing game rules and those sort of nuances, I go into skim-reading mode). I've made an account.
 
Yep. Definitely for seeing usernames...so we can figure out who's holding up the game.

This may not be a particularly popular suggestion, but I figured I'd throw it out there anyway. Given that we have eight players in this match, and given that the game has gone on now for two full days, and given that we're still on 1MP, I'd suggest the implementation of a time limit to issue orders. Say.........just throwing out a number here......48 hours? Those who don't respond would be subject to some kind of automatic response depending on the phase. Move phase would maintain forward course and speed, combat phase would hold fire, end phase would not evade. There wouldn't be any visual information that would suggest a player missed the deadline, so there wouldn't be an overt way for other players to take advantage of the situation.

Thoughts? Good idea/bad idea?
 
Yep. Definitely for seeing usernames...so we can figure out who's holding up the game.

This may not be a particularly popular suggestion, but I figured I'd throw it out there anyway. Given that we have eight players in this match, and given that the game has gone on now for two full days, and given that we're still on 1MP, I'd suggest the implementation of a time limit to issue orders. Say.........just throwing out a number here......48 hours? Those who don't respond would be subject to some kind of automatic response depending on the phase. Move phase would maintain forward course and speed, combat phase would hold fire, end phase would not evade. There wouldn't be any visual information that would suggest a player missed the deadline, so there wouldn't be an overt way for other players to take advantage of the situation.

Thoughts? Good idea/bad idea?

Turn time limits are on my todo list. There are often features I'm working on without telling you guys. One of the secret missions of Game 5 is actually to finally fix the bugs where the 'recent action' field on pilots isn't updating (but the last login field on users is). Once I get that working, a turn-timer will be possible. Eventually I'd like the turn timer to then let some sort of game-runner to chose to either issue orders for them, reassign the ships, or have them submit empty orders.... but that's way in the future.

For now, i've already emailed the person in question, and if they don't reply by tomorrow, I'll be looking for more volunteers to take over those ships.
 
Sorry, I must have missed that (when you're all discussing game rules and those sort of nuances, I go into skim-reading mode). I've made an account.
You should now be able to see orders buttons and open up command windows. Just be careful not to click the 'report orders to command' button, as you'll actually submit their orders for them... but pushing anything else is fully reversible and safe.
 
Another issue (or maybe the same, dunno. At least more details, I hope) with the windows in the interface - when on the map already and signing in, the login window is displayed about halfway down (so in the center of the page, height-wise) on the left side. The vertical scrollbar is returned to the top position regardless on where it was. Using FF 7.0.1. The position of the window is on the same place as my fighters.
 
Hm. Logged in to process through the CP (no shots yet) and noticed that all my units were already done. Does the game automatically check to see if your units have any valid shots and skip them if not?
 
Another issue (or maybe the same, dunno. At least more details, I hope) with the windows in the interface - when on the map already and signing in, the login window is displayed about halfway down (so in the center of the page, height-wise) on the left side. The vertical scrollbar is returned to the top position regardless on where it was. Using FF 7.0.1. The position of the window is on the same place as my fighters.

I was seeing something similar today. Firefox 7.0.1; I could go to my fighter, push the orders button no sweat. When I select a weapon, however, the board automatically jumps back up to the upper left-hand corner and I have to scroll back over to where my fighters are.

Hm. Logged in to process through the CP (no shots yet) and noticed that all my units were already done. Does the game automatically check to see if your units have any valid shots and skip them if not?

Yeah, it does that. Though for some reason this turn it's asking me if I want to shoot my own guy...
 
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