The planned database maintenance is complete - the extra time, planning and optimizations led to it only taking 5 minutes to execute.
There will likely be more maintenances like this over the next few months as KAG’s infrastructure is improved and expanded to support future growth.
-FliesLikeABrick
The database maintenance I wrote about last week will be beginning shortly (behind schedule). Please re-read the details of that post and spread the word :)
I will post back here when the maintenance is complete.
FliesLikeABrick
This week has been long.
Well, long for me as I had my final exam as well as a lot of work to do. Very glad to have that out of the way.
Tom and Ryan have made fantastic work on a new, more secure, less annoying installer that can be easily rebuilt each build so that no patching is needed after an install.
Ryan has worked on more API code and a lot of in-game sanity checking (more stability, less console output spam, less data loss…) as well as proper quick join functionality and the client/server understanding what maintenance mode means.
Michal and I have worked a lot on the scripting side of stuff. We want to get this as stable as possible before releasing it to you guys so we’re holding it while we make sure the design is solid and re-implement a lot of the existing content as purely scripted content - this makes it easier for us to track down bugs and makes sure that you guys have some solid examples to work off while the documentation for the scripting API is lacking.
We’re also discussing whether a physics reimplementation is a good idea at this point - currently the objects themselves don’t have mass or drag, just velocity caps and radii - which can lead to a lot of weird stuff and makes configuring new objects and emergent behaviours hard. Its a lot of re-work though which eats into other development time.
Michal got a quick video together of him testing rope attachments out. It’s going to be interesting seeing how rope physics sync over the network, but you can also already do excellent things like swing from ropes attached to pulleys above, and (with some quick modding) water ski as a knight shielding down behind a speed-boat! This is a really exciting time, as it’s going to open up all sorts of possibilities - both for modding and for the vanilla game.
Watch it here: can’t embed, sorry http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-AbLEnN1lo
There’s been some talk of these new “menus” and how some people are unhappy about them - we personally think that the pie menus are incredibly obtrusive and break up gameplay a lot, and hate the disconnect between picking something up when there’s only one thing and picking something up when there are many things. This new icon-based interaction system means you’re never pulled out of the action when trying to grab something quickly, or quickly buy bombs.
We know that it’ll be met by some opposition, but as it allows for custom, scripted interaction points on a per-object basis, we don’t think you’ll mind too much :)
Max/Geti
This is a small hotfix build which does the following:
- Adds client/server understanding of a ‘maintenance mode’ for the KAG API
- general error message improvement around certain API calls
- Fixes #606
- join-related API calls in the client and server now use persistent connections; server joins should be noticeably faster
A reminder - please read the previous post regarding Monday’s planned downtime to everything.
-FliesLikeABrick
edit: one more patch being pushed out that does the following:
- fixes a regression from the #606 fix above, this will be addressed more next week
- Server browser favorites now work again
- Quickjoin has been completely revamped. this post explains the logic in the new one. I know I’ll be using the quickjoin all the time now, it prefers favorite servers but has decent logic for selecting others as well.
- Fixed (workaround) sv_goldonly spam in server console in non-gold servers as well as the issue with wood blocks showing up for builders in non-gold servers. A better fix for this will come next week (requires a netcode change so it will come with a build number change)
Hello all,
The aborted maintenance from earlier this week has been rescheduled for Monday, June 25th at 09:00 UTC and should be expected to take up to 3 hours. During this period, the following systems will be down:
This maintenance is primarily to update indexes on a few key tables in our database to aid in future growth without performance concerns.
If you participate in any community sites, please spread awareness of this planned downtime to help reduce impact.
Please direct any questions, comments or concerns to this forum thread.
-FliesLikeABrick
The guys at OnR have done something very interesting with a map in their server, [FR] OnR Server - 24 Slots (click to join, gold only), that really tests how well you understand the details of how movement and jumping work in King Arthur’s Gold.
You can see from the minimap above that this is not your typical gold server - but rather a maze which relies on very precise and calculated moves to get through all of the obstacles. I saw this while scrolling through the server browser and decided to join, and before long 3 of the 4 devs were on there grunting and groaning and trying to get through it all (Geti surely would have joined us but he just went to sleep).
Kudos to the person who took the time to design this map, and we look forward to seeing more of this as we release features over the next month which further enable custom game modes and server configurations/modifications.
(Side note: the new server browser properly deals with custom game modes - so if you have a modification on an existing one, by all means change the game mode in gamemode.cfg and it will show up as a new filterable game mode in the game mode filter list)
If server side scripting goes as planned, it will enable community developers/server admins to take an idea like this and turn it into a thorough game mode - things like having a timer/race aspect (perhaps with the water slowly rising to penalize those who fall behind), writing to custom log files or a custom API to generate logs/statistics, custom endgame scenarios without having to manipulate flag captures, and so on.
Discuss your dreams about the endless possibilities of server modification/scripting at the forums
edit: It sounds like BlueLuigi, MOLE and possibly others have done something similar in the past - so consider this a hat tip to them as well :)
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 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
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
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.
Time-lapse video from my server with a test version of WAR mode.
More time-lapse videos on the official KAG Youtube channel, subscribe now!
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
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
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:
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
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!
Build 420 is on its way out now, with it is a complete overhaul to the server browser and the way servers register themselves with the central list. The server browser looks identical, though in the next release or two it will change in appearance and gain significantly more filtering functionality. These now make use of the King Arthur’s Gold central API, which will be getting a post of its own soon as it becomes more complete and is ready for use by community developers.
For starters, the minimap of any server can be found by going to https ://api.kag2d.com/server/ip/{IPADDRESS}/port/{PORT}/minimap such as https://api.kag2d.com/server/ip/67.23.118.185/port/50314/minimap . The status of a server can be viewed in machine-readable JSON format at a similar URL, such as https://api.kag2d.com/server/ip/67.23.118.185/port/50314/status (note that the exact keys present are still subject to change, consider this a preview). The server list can also be fetched in a machine-readable JSON format at https://api.kag2d.com/servers/current/1/connectable/1 (and append /build/420 to only see servers in build 420. The next post on the API will explain all of the other filters available)
Here is a full changelog for this otherwise small release:
- server browser now uses API and threaded calls
- more colors in server preview minimap in server browser
- many server browser bugs fixed
- made arrows not damage at minimum velocity under water
- made arrows skip higher
- dirt no longer created for infinite support
- fixed dropping mats working always -> allowing inf mats on startup
Here’s what some servers look like currently:
[FR] Nemesis Clan WOOD-WATER Unlimited Lives
U13 USEast 32 slot FullCTF Gold:
Discussion on the forums here
Coming next major release in KAG
We’re working on getting scripting happening per-component for all entities!
This means that complex behaviours can be programmed per-entity, rather than relying on hardcoded components to do it for you. This is good for us as it means we can iterate far more quickly on things like siege engines and such, but also good for modders as it means they can code their own animation logic and AI for NPCs, and make special items ingame. Next build is gonna be excellent.
Just a heads up to modders: Unfortunately, this means breaking compatibility with all existing config files - not invalidating them entirely, but they’ll require conversion. Conversion is as simple as adding “$script =” to the top of all of the component sections, but it needs to be done by hand to avoid mangling your configs. Once the release is out, have a look at the default configs to see how it’s done.
We’re changing the way building works at the level of the tilemap - all constructed blocks will be separate entities, and all dirt etc will remain on the tilemap. This means that blocks can be properly layered on top of each other, and that the support code can be optimised a fair bit as it wont need to flood through the entire map. This will also solve issues with (for example) bits of the map collapsing when they shouldn’t. Because blocks will have their own HP, this opens up the way for per-block resistances to different attacks, so knights will be able to grind down a stone block over time (read: 100 hits or so).
The cooler part of the constructed block changes is that we’ll be able to have multi-tile blocks to construct, like 2x1 column blocks that will break as one piece. This should give more variation to buildings, and allow some more complicated blocks to make their way into the game (such as traps, elevators and so on).
Fire has also started being drafted up in code, and while it’s early days, I’ve been having excellent fun burning down wooden towers with it.
Tom and Ryan are working on the server browser, which is now lightning fast, fully threaded and about 80% easier to work with.
We expect the conversion of map stuff to take a little longer, and there aren’t screenshots to show yet, but there will likely be some dev videos as we make progress. Figured you guys would like an update on what’s getting worked on other than continued balancing tweaks.
Discuss here.
Geti
I’ve been recording some awesome time-lapse videos today (like this one) and in the meantime doing a bunch of critical fixes for the “Water & Wood” release. Here’s the list of today’s patches, I hope you don’t mind the frequent autoupdates:
- camera doesn’t shake for spectator
- zombies difficulty tweaks (generally more difficult when days go by)
- fixed waves showing when no water present
- fixed holding [V] to fly with knight
- added difficulty(int) function for zombies
- if difficulty over 999 zombies spawn in day too
- spectator has zoomed out view by default
- mouse middle button in specator mode zooms in
- FullCTF turns on gold by default
- mats spawn even without tent
- suddendeath water comes down
- increased trees in all mapo gens
- fixed “cant” messages being shown not for player
- added more debug info for client MAP crash
- fixed workshops giving infinite items on tap [E]
MM
Wood and water, direct to the faces of full version players everywhere!
Check out your gamemode configs, there’s quite a bit more to play with there. Changelog should have details.
You can now hide the HUD by “scrolling out” at x2 zoom level, it will not auto-hide as your mouse approaches the edge.
Check out the FullCTF gamemode files included, which have no siege (to prevent camping while we work on new and more balanced siege items), lake maps, no “build time”, a stack of mats for each team on game-start, armouries and archery ranges, fast travel tunnels (which are now team-bound - don’t let the enemy get to your tunnels!) and wood blocks enabled by default.
Server owners - if you want to run FullCTF set sv_gold_only = 1 in dedicated_autoconfig.gm and replace dedicated_autostart.gm with this.
We’ve already talked about everything in this update, so I wont mince words. Have at it!
Changelog:
- new games rules FullCTF
- added generator_ctf_lake.cfg, generator_ctf_twolakes.cfg
- added water (gold servers only - sv_gold_only 1 in config)
- added Aim Mode (zoom out button [MOUSE SCROLL])
- moved HUD hearts to above players head
- materials actually spawn at tent on game start
- added temporary workshop build item spam prevention
- increased min_shieldbash_horiz_vel slightly
- fixed pink pixels on collapsing wood from world.png
- reduced vertical speed limit when slashing to prevent getting stunned because of it.
- made it so that shield-bashing counts as your kill
- shieldbash tweaks from testing
- fixed bridge castle back support bug
- added wood_warmup, stone_warmup, gold_warmup, arrows_warmup, bombs_warmup to team - sets materials at tent on start
- added weapon_clash variable to gamemode.cfg
- synced egg health over net
- getting out of catapult boosts fixed
- fixed cata not destroying wood
- fixed spikes hanging after collapse on client
- removed mat pickup sound if smaller than 10
- shield bash sound plays only at higher velocity than bash
- stomp stun doesn’t happen for team mates
- throwing objects more smooth on network
- added decay to materials, after 30 seconds
- added static material count to CTF
- if workshop has bomb to build and upgrade - tapping [E] will make bomb
- removed cata from FullCTF to prevent base camping while there aren’t boats
- added stone_amount and related vars to team configs for on-start mats
- materials.png tweak for bombs
- added generator_ctf_twolakes.cfg
- arrows skip on water
- fixed materials dropping during break
- fixed picking up invisible other team heart
- fixed splash when throwing out something picked up from water
- fixed some server-side commands possible to launch on client
- edited help texts in workshops
- increased arrow draw time and made sound reflect it
- added show/hide hud tutorial text
Discussion (and full changelog in the first post)
This has been a hell of a week!
The server’s went down (twice, but in quick succession), and a compilation bug halted testing for 5 DAYS. Ryan (FliesLikeABrick) has had his work cut out for him there - He’ll be posting soon about supporting very old versions of linux.
Despite all of that, the last few days have been productive.
First of all, some hard news that’s come up in the last few weeks:
We’re on an external deadline for getting the game complete, and the date falls fairly soon (actual disclosure of the date isn’t legally possible at this point). As such, we’ve done some feature pruning and are knuckling down to get the game finished, to a point where we can stop developing it and just maintain, fix bugs where needed.
What this means for us:
What this means for you:
I’ve written quite a lot in this thread, so if you’re interested in the finer details and our personal reasons, have a read. The whole thread is do-able in 30 minutes or so.
I’ll summarise the important part though: Our TODO as it currently stands is this - Making sure at least everything on the premium poster is covered.
We understand that some people will be disappointed, but that’s the reality of any creative work. Please know that we’re not doing this out of lack of passion, far from it. We just need to get the game finished and don’t have the time for grand schemes any more.
——————————————————————————————————
On to something more cheery: Water and Wood blocks are almost releasable, Should be out early next week or perhaps this weekend if testing goes 100% according to plan (…it never does).
This should help spice up the full version a little. Apologies for the large shot, blame BlueLuigi and his massive HD KAG.
Water: You can swim, drown, skim arrows (and knights), and build bridges over it. Some form of water transport will be coming soon. The water level is saved into the .kag format, which we’re working on making a lot more palatable to server owners. It only works on full version servers.
Wood buildings: These offer a cheaper, weaker alternative to stone blocks, and can be upgraded to stone later on. It’s advised to make your non-vital indoor floors out of wood, and keep anything facing the enemy made out of stone. We’re not adding Wood to the free game because we believe a balance has already been struck there - but in the full game, especially on water maps in bridge-building, wood is an invaluable resource. As such, trees now give a lot more wood per hit.
Shield-bashing: it’s not nearly as crazy as it used to be, but it certainly helps that you can shove people out of doorways with it and it helps make knight combat less about slashing. The variables for it are currently in gamemode.cfg, and will be moving to per-class configs soon.
HUD Changes: Hearts are now above your head on hover, as well as immediately after you get hurt. We know this will seem like a shock at first, but it helps clear the screen of clutter. We’ll be adding a topbar with vital stats etc as an option for those that want it, but we’re moving towards a much cleaner interface (compare order pie menus with the order-lasso). Consider it a Work-In-Progress.
Gathering materials has also changed - you can now carry one stack of materials beyond what fits into your inventory, and furthermore, material stacks now have a sprite indicative of how many materials they contain. We’ve considered making them persist indefinitely on the map, but ultimately this opens the possibility for a lot of lag and server burden. We’ll implement stockpiles soon to allow you to store materials and other items in a more friendly way.
The graphics of the map are a little different as well, which should help with visually understanding the terrain immediately. There’s a bit more work to do there, but its presentable enough. Graphical mods of the map will need re-arranging because of this.
Some modding vars: Note that these aren’t 100% final, so back up your configs and if you tinker, as always, be ready to re-do your work at a later date.
What you can build and how much it costs is now in a class config, check out the CTF builder files.
Full version server owners are urged to try out generator_ctf_lake.cfg as a map once the release is out, potentially with only 30s of build time - the lake coupled with the support requirement means builders need to dive and build pillars for a bridge across, which makes builders a necessary frontline unit and completely rules out early rushing. Personally, I’ve really enjoyed the testing games we’ve had there. We’ve got to work on some counters to turtling over the next week but I’m sure server owners will have a party with the variables in the meantime.
Discussion thread here for all your forum chitchat needs.
The KAG Team
