Topic: Testing Guidelines - PBS Testing - May, 2012

Welcome to the testing of our newest expansion, mainly consisting of the new structure networks system otherwise known as PBS.

The announcement blog post can be found here, here I will try to collect all the details that you will need to know if you decide to help us with the testing. And we'll be very grateful if you do smile

The server will open on Friday, May 11th, at 12:00 CEST, but you can already start preloading the test-client here. It's important that you make this a separate installation! It is not recommended to install this over an existing Perpetuum installation or to try and skip ahead in preloading by using an existing datafile - this test client will only work with the test server!

Things to know and rules to keep

  • This is first and foremost a game mechanics test. If you are turned off by missing icons or ugly placeholder graphics, this is not the place for you.

  • As the blog says, PvP should be always consensual, even on PvP islands. Players disturbing the testing process will be banned from the test server.

  • The test server will be open 24/7, until we deem the current testing session as finished.

  • We will of course deploy updates continuously to the test server as testing progresses.

  • There is no ingame help yet for the new stuff, so if you have a question, please post here in this testing forum section. Do not mix it with live server topics. If you want to discuss something that's only available on the test server (the balance of a new module for example), post it in this testing section.

  • We will try to be on the test server as work allows it, so you can also ask us there.

  • DO NOT repost old bugs, or bugs not related to new changes here (ie. the bugs that are present on the live server too) - those have their place in the normal bugs forum section.

Highlighted things to test

Installer/downloader
This should be considerably faster and less prone to disconnects or stalls.

New terrain engine
The new engine has been shifted from being CPU-heavy to GPU-heavy and also uses shader model 3.0. We're interested in any graphic bugs or glitches, and performance change reports.

Gamma island unlocking

  • The teleports leading to the new gamma islands will be all deactivated at first and it's your task to activate them (deactivated teleport lines are shown in grey on the world map).

  • These teleports have extra service access points, and require 150 Energy storage cells to switch on (drag&drop them into the SAP window from your cargo, just like submitting items in missions).

  • A teleport channel can be activated from either end.

  • Energy storage cells are available to buy on the market only for testing purposes, normally you will have to research and manufacture them!

Terraforming
Only possible on gamma islands. Exceptions include the vicinity of teleports and standing buildings.

"Solo" terraforming: the simpler and more direct method, just needs a terraforming module, wich uses 4 types of charges (raise, lower, smooth, level). Lock a tile & fire away.

"Team" terraforming: you need to draw a terraforming plan first, which can be done from the terraforming window that is available only when outside (from the top right list of windows). There you can create a new project, by setting the center and size of the area you want to terraform. Once this is done you can start editing the project, and paint away with the tools available from the window. Note that this is only a plan and won't affect the terrain in any way at this point. There is also a "free camera" button which switches to a freeflight camera and hides all plants to make it all easier. When you're done you click "finish editing".

Here comes the actual terraforming part. Things you need: a few terraformer beacons, terraformer beacon charger module and terraformer beacon charges for this module. Then you put out the beacons to the area you made the plan for, and start charging them with the beacon charger module. This makes the beacons start terraforming the ground towards your plan, within their effect radius. So if you have a large area and you want to finish fast, you'll need to deploy beacons in a grid pattern and have some buddies charging them. (Terraforming plans can be shared between friends and you can work together on them. But of course this method can also be done solo, it's just slower.) Oh and beacons can be taken back into your cargo and reused again.

Structure networks (PBS)
This and this blogpost should give you a general idea of the whole system, it's recommended to read them if you haven't done so yet.

The whole structure network management interface is only visible (new tab on the world map) if you have the proper corporation roles (CEOs and Deputy CEOs have it by default). You can set this in the usual place (corporation management/member list) - limited access means "read only", and full access means complete editing and management rights.

The structure networks interface is used for both planning and management of your network. The grid represents the exact tiles we have on the terrain too.

This is how a usual building process looks like:

Planning (completely optional, but it really helps with proper placing of the buildings)

  • Create a new plan and select it. Your first building should be normally a terminal.

  • Drag&drop buildings from the right list into the grid, these show up in purple color (=plan)

  • An important thing to consider when placing buildings is their connection radius. This is the largest circle around them, and the center icon of other buildings needs to be within this radius to be able to connect them.

  • Right click the plan on the grid and select "validate". This will check whether the terrain is suitable for the deployment of that particular building. (Alternatively you can also use the last setting of the new terrain slope display to check terrain suitability.)

  • If there is something in the way, the plan will light up in red, as well as the unsuitable tiles. This can either mean plants, other buildings, or a too steep ground. In this case you need to clear the area or terraform it to be flat enough.

  • If validation is ok, the plan will light up in green.

Building

  • Equip a construction module on your robot and get some construction blocks too (the latter is in the ammo category on the market).

  • Acquire the building foundation and put in in your cargo(if you made a plan for it, then the same type as the plan)

  • If you made a plan, you can select that tile in the planner and it will also select the tile on the terrain so you can see where to go. Go to that tile and deploy the building foundation from your cargo.

  • Double-click the deployed foundation to activate/unpack it.

  • Lock the building and activate your construction module on it, continue until it's completely built.

Management/connection

  • A freshly built main terminal only needs to be activated, you can do this by right clicking it in the planner window and selecting "online". That's all, you can now dock in and do all the stuff you want.

  • Other building types will first show up in orange, this means that it's not yet connected to a network with a terminal. This incidentally also means that it can be snatched away by anyone and integrated into their own network.

  • To connect a building to your network, simply left click one building and drag a connection line to the other. If you did it right and the connection is feasible, a connection link will appear, and the orange building will turn white.

  • Now you can right-click on the connected building and online it.

Good to know

  • The reactor can bee kickstarted/feeded by the same energy storage cells that you use to open teleports, and certain commodities that have "energy content" in their info (eg. Vitricyl).

  • If you seem to be unable to create a flat terrain with the leveler charge, try the smoother.

  • You can't terraform if there is a building owned by someone else within 1km. It's possible to terraform near your own buildings though.

Directional geoscanning
The new directional geoscanning charges are available from the market for every mineral. Despite the blog saying so, we didn't replace area-based scanning charges with them, they are still available just in case.

The directional scanner is very simple to use: when you activate it, it will show you a map and a red arrow pointing to the nearest tile holding the mineral specific to the scanner charge. One strategy from here on is to walk a bit perpendicular to the arrow and scan again. Depending on your accuracy, the two arrows' direction should already have a good indication how far the scanned tile is, as they would cross each other somewhere in the distance. Once you get close enough to the tile, a new scan will show you a red cross instead of an arrow, which indicates that you should switch to a tile-based charge.

Mining in the new system
As already mentioned in the dev blog, the "cycles in tiles"-method has been changed to a new system where tiles hold the exact amount of minerals that can be extracted. Numbers should be checked considering equipment and extensions too.

New industry calculations
All of the terminal facilities are using different calculations, as presented in this blog post. We're interested in exploits, imbalances, server errors, etc.

Changes to the network packets on the terrain
Lag-related improvements, especially pay attention to the bug known as "gridline-lag".

4 new EW-related modules

  • ECM and sensor suppressor tunings: they boost your equipped ECM and suppressor at the cost of higher accumulator usage.

  • EnWar upgrades: boosts neutralized and drained energy, also at the cost of higher accumulator usage.

  • Reactor sealings: robots have a new parameter called accumulator stability - it affects how much energy can be drained or neutralized per cycle. The lower this number, the harder it is to drain a robot. Reactor sealings help with this.

Did we break something?
Of course with all the new stuff getting in, sometimes we have to rewrite old systems, and there is the slight possibility that something that has worked flawlessly before is now ridiculously bugged. So while you're around, try to push buttons that are not necessarily tied to the new features too.

Known issues

  • A lot of graphic assests are still missing or using placeholder graphics. Examples include most of the new items' icons or models (if any), a few buildings (the red cube means missing model), and the connection beams between buildings which use existing weapon beams for now.

  • A lot of the item descriptions are also missing.

  • Buildings don't have explosions and don't leave wrecks. (But they should drop loot containers.)

  • Tutorial assignments are not yet updated to work with the new island layout or random mineral fields.

Last update: 2012-05-25 21:38

Re: Testing Guidelines - PBS Testing - May, 2012

A client-only patch has been deployed:

  • Fixed the terminal info crash.

  • The terraforming window has received various upgrades. The ramp tool works now. (Usage: 1st endpoint: click, 2nd endpoint: ctrl+click, press apply button to create the ramp)

  • The network planner will now select the island you're on by default.

  • Fixed a texture format bug that could cause graphic issues on some video cards.

  • Added some missing item/extension names and descriptions.

Re: Testing Guidelines - PBS Testing - May, 2012

The test server decided to go down on its own, so we took the opportunity to put out some server-side fixes:

  • Prismocitae should be harvestable now.

  • Planting noralgis should also work.

  • Building repair nodes will now stop cycling when the repaired building is at full HP.

  • Fixed server error for building foundations in the prototyping facility.

  • Mobile teleports will not list inactive teleports anymore.

Re: Testing Guidelines - PBS Testing - May, 2012

A server-side patch is out:

  • Fixed invisible walls due to differences between the slope display and the actual passability layer.

  • The yellow-striped slope display should be now in sync with the actual building deployment slope.

  • The relation setting of turrets has been changed so they will shoot players with the set relation and below. Previously this was "shoot only below, not the setting". This also means that turrets will shoot at neutral players by default.

Re: Testing Guidelines - PBS Testing - May, 2012

New patch:

  • Separate landmark filters are now available for terminals, teleports, turrets, and other pbs buildings.

  • Faster "devhax" construction and deconstruction charges are now seeded on the market. Don't get used to them though smile

  • A mineral configuration problem caused that a lot of tiles were holding very low amounts of minerals that the directional scanner found, but was invisible for the tile-based scanner due to some rounding bug. Due to this all the fields had to be regenerated, so they are now in completely new locations. But the directional scanner should find them easily now.

  • The map of the directional scanner gets now properly centered around the new scanning location.

  • The network planner will now remember the last used zone and grid position.

  • Terraforming projects are now listed in Agent profile/Documents.

  • The terraforming beacon is now working, you can deploy it, select a terraforming project and use the charger module on it, and pick it up. (See usage above in the guide.) However it seems like it still has some problems following the exact plan, we'll be looking into this tomorrow. Oh and the cycle time is way too fast, only for testing purposes.

Re: Testing Guidelines - PBS Testing - May, 2012

Today's server-side patch:

  • The terraform beacon should now properly follow the plan, and we have also reduced the accumulator usage of the charger module for testing purposes.

  • Account validity has been synced from the live server.

Re: Testing Guidelines - PBS Testing - May, 2012

New patch:

  • Islands have now their factional terrain textures, but this is still work in progress.

  • A new item is available under Field accessories/Deployable structures, called concrete-layer. If you deploy it from your cargo, it will create a small patch of concrete around your robot which will prevent the growth of plants. You can use it to make your base clean and weed-free (winners don't use drugs), or build some paved roads. It won't destroy existing plants. It will decay randomly between a few days or a few weeks. AoE damage also destroys it (in theory, not tested). Only works on gamma islands.

  • Structure networks log will now show who destroyed your building.

  • A warning will appear in the top right statusbar if one of your buildings is under attack. It has a lovely placeholder sound too.

  • Production times should be normal now.

  • The limitation that you can't terraform within 1000m of an enemy building has been removed.

  • Reduced the accumulator usage of the charger module (for real now).

  • Turret icons are not red anymore.

Re: Testing Guidelines - PBS Testing - May, 2012

New patch:

  • New lighting setup.

  • Terraforming project sharing works now.

  • EW turrets are available on the market but they don't work yet.

  • Building HPs have been multiplied again by 4.

  • Fixed the parameters of turrets.

  • Chat channel tabs are sorted alphabetically.

  • All buildings are now displayed in their non-completed holographic version, this is a known issue.

  • Account validity has been synced from the live server.

Re: Testing Guidelines - PBS Testing - May, 2012

We had another client-side update, which fixes the holo-issue mentioned above and actually adds all missing building models except for turrets.

Re: Testing Guidelines - PBS Testing - May, 2012

Few recent client updates:

  • Fix crashbug with PBS logging

  • PBS terminals now have your corporation logo rotating when docked (swaaaag!)

  • PBS buildings are now wearing your corp's color (swaaaaaaag!)

  • PBS terminal background colors are now sanitized

[14:15:15] <Freya Sabbat> ...Dear god, the Devs are as bad as us

Re: Testing Guidelines - PBS Testing - May, 2012

New patch:

  • EW turrets work now, and are available on the market. They do ECM, suppress, demobilize and neutralize at the same time.

  • Colony territory "blobs" are now shown on the map if the visibility is set to public.

  • Added free roaming NPC groups to gamma.

  • Building emergency shielding has a visible effect now.

  • Added help icons with tooltips to the terraforming window.

Re: Testing Guidelines - PBS Testing - May, 2012

New patch (client side only):

  • A variety of crash-fixes.

  • Keyboard shortcuts are now grouped according to function

  • New option for "Auto target lock" - if you don't have a lock, activating a module will attempt to lock your selection first (if this option is enabled)

  • Repair facility efficiency is still shown, even if you don't have broken items

  • Gamma islands are marked with red lines around their names on the map

  • Storage windows can be now shrunk to 2x1

  • Terraforming and planning documents can be shared from your Agent Profile by right clicking

  • Annoying teleport window popup fixed

  • Landmark filters can now filter for "field devices" (terraform beacons, bombs, etc.)

  • Terminals are only visible in the planner if you own them

  • Vanishing modules panel fixed

[14:15:15] <Freya Sabbat> ...Dear god, the Devs are as bad as us