MP Scenario Builders, must read info !

Discussion in 'Scenarios' started by piddlefoot, Jan 5, 2018.

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  1. piddlefoot

    piddlefoot Rear Admiral

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    So a lot of people are creating scenarios, and out in the world we have a lot of in-experienced new server operator and some experienced ones, and a large percentage of those server operators , don't or cant edit yamls very well, as that sort of thing takes time and errors to get up to speed on.

    So those server operators DEPEND on your scenario building skilz !

    In the last few weeks Ive joined a couple of dozen servers, some have the starter planets set up really good for MP and some have them set up really poor.

    MP server owners and operators need to try and set up there starter planets as if they are going to start a game in there themselves 4 weeks from when the game/map is started.

    Far to many servers do not have POI regeneration set up on there starter planets, this is very frustrating to any new players, worse some servers allow players to core a POI and keep it, on a starter planet that's a very unfair practice.
    Those players often leave the game after a week or two and the POI is dead for ever.

    It takes the advantage they themselves had at the start of a game away from other players that want to play on your server.

    No one likes an unfair playfield.

    Over half of the servers Ive visited this last couple of weeks are not running POI regeneration.
    It makes the server look unprofessional.

    Doing a weekly wipe is not the same and is no good for new players 2 days later when all POIs are again destroyed.






    Secondly is the ASTEROID REGENERATION in Orbits.

    This is another thing that over half of the servers Ive visited don't bother to set up correctly, so the asteroids regenerate after a few hours or 24 hours, this again advantages the first 20 or so players in the server and then disadvantages the 300 players that join after the first 20 or so.

    Again , no one likes an unfair playfield or game.



    So this is an alarm bell for me when I join servers now, first thing I do is literally run to the first POI I can find to see if its active or not regenerating, if POI regen is not set to working, I leave the server and wont recommend it to anyone.

    ANY server admin or server owner having problems setting up regen on there server can add me on steam and I can run them through it, or I can edit your server files for you and send them back to you, same for asteroids, or any other things you might be stuck on when setting up the starters.

    It would be a great thing to be able to join ANY trusted server and be capable of getting a fair start, personally I think it should be a requirement of becoming Trusted Server, but since its not, I can help those that are unsure how to do it, and try and get the trusted servers actually trusted.



    SERVER OPERATORS - Ore Node Trick Below.

    To replace the ORE ONLY inside an ore node and NOT change ANY terrain at all on the planet, [ saves underground bases ] there is a file you can delete that will replace the Ore in the node when the planet is next visited.

    Using AKUA as the example on a game save called HWSROCKS.

    So lets say all the ore nodes have been chewed out by players in HVs.
    Theres nothing but asteroids falling.

    Some servers prefer to have ore in nodes so like to replace them.

    This method replaces that ore only.

    Open the games save, and go to the PLAYFIELDS folder find the planet you want to replace ore on, in our example it is AKUA, open the AKUA folder, inside are 4 files and another folder, ignore the folder, ignore the deco.dat, ignore the drones.dat , ignore the ents.dat , and just move the world.dat, only move the WORLD.DAT nothing else, place it in a temp folder for a few minutes while we start the game up.
    Start server and go to Akua so playfield loads in, then shut the game down again.
    Now go back into the Akua folder in the save folder and find the new World.dat file and DELETE ONLY IT, nothing else.
    Now open the Temp folder where you put your original World.dat file and put it back into the Akua save folder.

    Restart the server or playfield and you have all the ore replaced in the nodes and all drones working and all POIs on map again.



    It was brought to my attention by a player / server operator , on Steam forum that this method caused issues with the drone base no longer showing on the map and all the drones going into zombie mode not moving properly, so Ive edited up the page to the workaround I found while testing the problem, turns out once it generates the new world.dat file, if you then swap it back out for your original world.dat file it keeps the ore nodes from when you started it without a world.dat file, in its creation it seems the Ore nodes are replaced but not drone base markers , so swapping it back out after that with your original world.dat file for me in SP has solved the issue and drone base shows up again, the ore nodes are full again and the drones are no longer in zombie mode again, its a bit more work but if its important to you its worth the effort.
     
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    Last edited: Feb 11, 2018
  2. Gobarg

    Gobarg Commander

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    Thanks Piddlefoot.
    We have our own coop server but this is really good to know as Zascosium seems to be as rare as a Cleveland Browns winning season and we often run out pretty early on. :)
     
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  3. Mia

    Mia Commander

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    It's true Piddlefoot . It's very good to let us know about it.
    In my scenario Asteroids and POIs regenerating but I have 0 experience with programming and I have no desire to be responsible for people's server, sorry :)
    I have changed the scenario at the workshop to SP.
    I like building and creating a scenario I see it as creative art, but I do not want a job's order.;)
     
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  4. piddlefoot

    piddlefoot Rear Admiral

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    Cleveland Browns winning a super bowl, hhhmmm, funny.

    About as likely as Oakland winning the super bowl in 2018 !



    Hey guys good job on the scenarios, Ive been slowly trying out the SP ones haven't got to yours yet, hard with the amount of time I put into MP but on rainy days I will get there eventually.

    MP scenarios I have found to be time consuming, in the sense its good to keep them updated current with the devs yaml system, so it gets really time consuming when you don't use a generator, when you do it all manually, which I do so I know every inch of my scenario.

    We expect errors, and people to not know a lot of this stuff, kinda why were posting here to see if we can fix a few, but we also don't hold a grudge, and we appreciate any effort scenario builders or server operators put in, as a player that is.

    So keep up the good work guys !

    Lots of players appreciate it.
     
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  5. Sephrajin

    Sephrajin Rear Admiral

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    I see it like Mia.
    Allthough true what you say, you give us the tools, but some of those tools are the cause for imbalance.

    This said... its not the Scenario creators who need to balacne with everything OUTSIDE of THEIR scenario.
    Its the server owner/admin who needs to adjust the scenario TO THEIR CUSTOM server.
    Because, at the time they implement a scenario from somebody else, they are no longer standarat, and should be responsible for themself... rather than us scenario creators...


    There are many nice features in the yaml files, but it is enough frustrating spending a day on a planet, just to fix an annoying 'continue' bug (after sending once, the log didnt say anything more usefull)...
    Just to see that the day after the release of the planet, an update comes up, making it buggy again.

    Antoher issue that bugs me very much while making scenario....
    I gave iron more 'possible locations' (6-9) than promethium (3-5)...
    Yet, i usualy end up having 6 prom's and 4 irons....

    Further, it seems that the very same values can, according to seed, ALWAYS bring up ranges of 10-15k.
    Also, it seemed (havent worked on my scenario due to frustration of making it for like 2-3 weeks) that it is NOT ore-dependant, or at least not consequently.


    My Suggestion:
    Get a grip on fixing the resource spreading, then we might be able to adjust.
    But if the SAME VALUES give ranges like 15 or 15'000 ore, screw you for pointing to us beeing responsible for balance...

    Dont tell me its random, i define the range of the randomness in the yaml.. if its outside that randomness, its up to you to fix it.

    Once that is done/fixed, i'll consider to continue on the scenario.
    But before, its just ANNOYING/FRUSTRATING to find/bring balance to easy/medium and heavy planets... regardless wether they might be SP or MP....

    And about medics/other stuff.. well.. It can be frustrating you know.. and its not that we get money for it to continue eventhough its frustrating.
    And as of now, the planet creation lacks of features to go into detail as much as i'd like.. while mainwhile beeing laggy lots earlier than wanted.
    But its alpha, so its part of the process.


    My thoughts
     
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  6. piddlefoot

    piddlefoot Rear Admiral

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    Hey I totally agree with you on this, and I didn't intend to give the wrong impression about that so to clear it, yes it absolutely is the responsibility of the server owner not the WorkShop scenario builder, the scenario builders I was referring to in that regard are the server owners, as soon as they take any scenario of workshop and modify it, it becomes there scenario effectively and its those people I am meaning.

    For the workshop MP builder, just setting regeneration for the starter planets is a good idea because a lot of the server owners are new to the game, we always have new servers coming online weekly in Empyrion and this is an attempt to make it easier for them operators and the game more stable on Verified Servers for new players to the game.

    So it looks like you took offense to my post so I apologise if it did, I wasn't blaming scenario builders or you personally for anything , I was just trying to help get Verified Server up to a basic standard.


    So recourse spreading, slightly limited due to the map surface area, which should be changing soon to be much better but until then, there are settings in the yaml file to change the layout of how the Ore is dispersed under ground, you can spread it wide or take it deep and you can set the radius for the Ores spread, so you can make them pretty compact or pretty spread out if you want.

    Im not sure why you keep getting 6 proms and 4 iron ore node sites, I have multiple planets with a lot more than that and very large deposits also and I don't seem to have the issue, but I haven't tested this today so it could be bugged, Im not sure.
    But I will try and make time to test this specific issue tomorrow, its 5pm now so outa time today sorry.

    Anyway, I did not mean to offend you, and all of us that play the scenarios on WorkShop Appreciate your effort mate and every other scenario builders effort also.
     
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  7. zaphodikus

    zaphodikus Captain

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    Is it possible to get more logging out of the game, so that people can read the logs to determine what the generator really did in a much more deterministic way with ores on POI's than flying about and counting ores on 9 or 10 different planets. If the game gives logs, that becomes almost instant, and avoids dispute. As a software QA person, visibility into the application make it much easier to test also.
     
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  8. piddlefoot

    piddlefoot Rear Admiral

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    Ive had to edit up the page so if you guys could re-read it for the new workaround to keep drones functioning would be in your favour.

    Get any issues post in here, Ive only been able to test this on a SP scenario.
     
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  9. TheRogueX

    TheRogueX Lieutenant

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    Does this reset drone stock in the drone base? Or if it's depleted (base no longer sends drones to attack), is there no way to reset that without a wipe?
     
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  10. Iceblade

    Iceblade Ensign

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    Thank You so much for this info Do you think they will code this into the game where you don't have to dig into your files to add and remove just to reset the resource nodes?
     
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  11. Jugger On Valium

    Jugger On Valium Lieutenant

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    For me, I'm now tempted to do away with ore nodes altogether and have meteorites only - does away with all the messing around - POI/asteroid regeneration seems to be being handled nicely by the yaml files now, so it makes for a 'cleaner' and better experience for everyone.
     
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  12. Jugger On Valium

    Jugger On Valium Lieutenant

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    Couple that with orbital asteroid mining being a breeze with a CV kitted with mining lasers and it makes getting in to space a much more attractive option.
     
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  13. piddlefoot

    piddlefoot Rear Admiral

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    Yes eventually its pretty likely but they havent said.
     
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  14. Deathshades

    Deathshades Lieutenant

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    cant u set up EAH Timeable to regen POIs and Nodes and asteroids..i have set where they reset every 3 hours on server we making..does that not work ?
     
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  15. piddlefoot

    piddlefoot Rear Admiral

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    This thread is now very outdated and should not be used as a guide, it was a workaround for a problem we had in that version.
    The game has come to far to rely on this technique any longer.
     
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