OK I have some rather sad news regarding this scenario, 8.0 doesnt like MASSIVE amounts of planets because the way the game loads the game at the start has changed. The game now, after its de-serialised as normal, when you start a game, generates every single planet and moon and space playfield there and then, where as it used to only load that file and build that planet on the fly when you first visited it. So the effect of generating 127 planets, 138 moons and 20 odd Instanced planets on the map at the start of the game results in a 9 minute wait while every single planet is literally created and saved. The big advantage of the new system is, in game, when you arrive at a new planet, load time is 1/10th what it was because it doesnt have to generate the planet, it just loads the one already made at the start of the game. So it is a better load sequence, and we will see that advantage alot more when the Galaxy generator comes and the game gets optimised for both as one system. So the limit now is around 20, and 20 odd planets takes around 1.5 to 2 minutes to generate, which is about as long as Im willing to wait for a game to load. So the Lost City of Sol is effectively dead until the Galaxy Generator is sorted out and working. A little good news. Im creating a new scenario using all of the POIs from the SOL scenario and roughly 70 new ones, but it will be SINGLE PLAYER only version at first and depending on how many ask will depend if I do a MP version. Its 20 odd planets, all custom planets of coarse bar a couple of moons. The new scenario has a totally different story, where you start on the outer rim of our solar system and have to flush out the Zirax invaders from Earth, which has been invaded and over-run. The Zirax posses technology capable of terraforming planets not in the goldy locks zone and have terraformed several local rouge planets and dragged them into Earths solar system. Stay tuned , a new thread will be started for the new scenario.
Excellent. Seems the bad news are not the end of the world. At least there is and should be, a point at which the game sis designed that way that it can handle big number of planets and moons. It is the general idea, right? As for the good news, for me a new scenario is always welcome. It will refresh our interest for the game and will set a practice playground for you, regarding the new features of A8. Can't wait to play it.
It's effectively dead because it takes 9 minutes for first load? Or because 8 can't handle that many planets, period? 9 minutes I could live with as a one time loading hurdle
I have a question in that regards a bit as well when you say loading. That is just the original launch of the server? Or every time someone connects? I would be willing to wait for a 9 min first time generation load because the benefits down stream are so great. --izz
From testing my custom scenario on a private dedicated server ran by my brother, and on starting single player games of the same scenario in testing, here is what I've found: For a custom scenario with around 500 playfields and 100 custom prefabs, on a powerful gaming PC but without using a SSD: For singleplayer: Initial load time: about 5 minutes. Resume save load time: About 1 minute. You will get the initial load time duration after a game update as game updates clear your playfield cache. For multiplayer when connecting to a off-site private server: Initial client connection time: 5-10 minutes. Subsequent client connection time: Around 3-5 minutes or so. You will get the initial load time duration after a game update as game updates clear your playfield cache. Personally, I think it's worth it. I don't mind having a once-a-connection initial load time on connecting to a server if it means I have 100 planets and 500 playfields to explore. However, it is up to server owners to say in their server info that there is a long connection time so people who do not want to deal with long load times won't have to. The takeaway is that it can work just fine in single player as you'll only get the super long load time when you first begin a new game, and when you first resume a save game after a game update. For servers, everyone will have a long loading time the first time they connect to that server or after a game update, but will still have a moderately long load time on every connect.
Yeah, I never tried this scenario but would like to using alpha 8 if possible and agree that a one time loading wait even up to 9 minutes is OK, especially since subsequent playfield loading is faster. And I do have all my games and OS on an SSD so for those of us with fast drives, probaby it won't even be that long. Is there an existing 'port' to version 8 to try? I've been itching to try some good scenarios since I've played a lot of solo default version and am ready for some more story and variety.
All of my systems have SSD's in them, no server will run a scenario that takes 5 to 10 minutes to load, and on top of that every client has to wait 3 to 5 minutes to connect, 99% of players disconnect after a couple of minutes thinking the game has hung. I havent been working on this old scenario, Ive been using its assets to build a new scenario, obviously much smaller unfortunately. As its SP only scenario with a much stronger story it probably wont be ready until 9.0, Ive had to literally modify around 100 POIs to suit the new story, changing LCD screens etc. In the new scenario your not so much looking for the Lost city, though the lost city is still a part of the new story, its no longer the main story but just a story you discover on the way. The new scenario is about taking back Earth from the Zirax invaders, and at the moment Im doing extensive work on the space playfields so they will be exciting. Its very hard to fully script a sandbox game and then keep it sandbox so the game never ends technically, so its taking some time to get the story in order so it works, there are only 2 starter planets in the new scenario and 2 starter orbits, you start as a prisoner of the Zirax Emoire and it goes from there. Im sorry I cant bring back The Lost City scenario, even on SSD it takes to logn to load, now consider all those that dont have SSD's trying to connect, and the latency that also brings to the server, its just not worth the effort on 8. BUT ! There will come a point where Galaxies come in, at which stage the load times will be greatly optimised and much much faster, at that stage, it will be possible to bring this scenario back, with even more planet, like THOUSANDS of planets, so personally I think its worth waiting for that. I first built that scenario effectively just to show server owners whats possible with Empyrion, but it became something in itself and became very popular so I tried to keep it up dating all the time but 8 really threw some curve ball at us that wasnt practical to try and get around. I thank all of those that used and supported the scenario, its a real pleasure knowing Ive made others happy at no cost to anyone, well it is for me anyway. Im hoping we get the ability to create sound files and create a trigger for said sound files ingame, what that coudl do for story telling in scenarios is literally give you a talking suit. Something Ive been pushing really hard for so we can really immerse you into the story of the scenario, I hope its a 9.0 feature !
