Crossfire - Upcoming changes, upcoming content

We already have a bunch of similar threads but since they are outdated a bit and also full of comments which might not apply any longer I think we start a fresh one.

With switching the servers we are now in an environment that causes a bit less pressure related to the finances and the time getting stuff done.

The chances getting stuff done and maintained has become more realistic now.

That means we can focus more on the other problems which need to get fixed and the way how we can improve the mod and everything around it.

Generally we can not and should not discuss all aspects on this thread as this would lead into pure chaos.

Instead every topic should be dealt with in separate threads where we can discuss the details and work on the issues.

Right now I think it is important to write down the path we have to go and the tasks that need to be done to steer Crossfire into a better direction.

Months ago I announced the Blackstar update which I later on decided to pause due to a certain amount of demotivation aswell as stuff related to the meanwhile solved problem of keeping the server running.

I think at this point the Blackstar update needs to be put back on track but its focus has to shift a bit.

In my eyes we have to break it down into smaller chunks and at the same time also add stuff that originally was not planned.

• I think moving the server was an important step that allows us to do further steps now.
• The new installer also is a very important step into that direction as it allows players create perfectly clean installations and most importantly an easy to use installation. In the past years many players failed to get the mod installed correctly and either gave up or ran into problems which got them banned. This issue is no more.
• We have the Roleplay topic that we somehow need to deal with. I made a suggestion there and depending on the feedback we can try to work out something that encourages players to be part of the roleplay and also help clans at the same time.
• We also started to discuss the Battleship issues and how we might be able to rebalance them. Here I also made a suggestion rebalance and reshape the purposes of battleships in CF. This of course is no final solution, no final balancing and maybe much more can be done to take care of this topic. Generally I think this is a tricky topic since of course you want battleships to be powerful. On the other side we also do not want some jerks to use their overpowered battleship to bully new players.
  We really have to go into detail here and do it right.
• There are technical issues to deal with. Especially since we moved servers (but partly also before) it became obvious that some part of the server software is causing problems. I moved the data about 3 weeks ago and since that we have about 100 server restarts. That are ~80 restarts too many. Most of them are not even related to random crashes but due to some issues with the clanbase plugin (as far I can tell). I cant really say what the cause is but the server software has problems to restart when loading this plugin. It sometimes restarts the server 5-6 times within 10mins (also during daily maintennance) before the plugin all of a sudden decides to work. Maybe I did something wrong when moving the server, maybe the issue is related to the new OS on the new server. Maybe the problem goes deeper than that. We also have the issue that this plugin sometimes writes the setup for clan bases into the wrong config files. This was recently critized as the workaround to this problem unfortunately resets progress of clans on their bases by a few hours (when this bug happens) with the result of lost resources. I clearly understand that this is not a nice experience for clans which really want to build their base. Seeing progress being reset is not good for the motivation of the clan members.
• The Blackstar will include new content (which partly already exists). While the story content of course is nice to have, it will not help that much with the MP aspect of the game. Of course it might bring new players to the server but I think we need more ways to keep players active. One idea I already shared was to have an extension of the dynamic universe to allow larger invading fleets and unique rewards from fighting these invaders.
• I also think we need more credit sinks similar to the cloaking device to keep players interested. Suggestions are welcome.
• Like mentioned in the RP thread I think clans should be able to increase their territory if they can afford it. This certainly gives clans a much more important purpose. It might be possible to connect this with RP and also unique rewards. It might be the carrot clans and players in general need to be active and remain active.
• Some parts of the mod also need to be refreshed. Lets face it, the mod grew to what it is over a time period of more than a decade. While some old stuff still has its charm there is other stuff that needs some updates. For blackstar I wanted to redesign the coalition stations and already started to build them from the scratch. This is still work in progress but I think this is something that could be updated even before the main blackstar release. Such detail work/rework can be patched on the fly via launcher.
• Something similar certainly can be done for ships and other areas of the game. Kuze mentioned that he still has some cool ship models which would fit as a modern replacement. Here we need to check what can be done... where improvements can be done and how to proceed with that.
  Maybe we manage to improve a few details here and there... or we even go further and give CF a big overhaul. We will have to see what is possible and how to get all the work done.
• There is a good amount of bug reports recently on the ticketsystem and that is very good this way. We should really see if we can get as many problems sorted out this way and the ticketsystem allows us to track issues much better than we can do on a forum thread. Not everything will get instantly fixed... but nothing on the ticketsystem gets forgotten. Use it, provide detailed information if you can.
• Launcher content update. For a very long time the content displayed on the launcher had outdated info... sometimes did not work or provided not enough useful information. Id like to change that somehow. With somehow I mean I dont know yet but generally I would like to give it an update so players have easier access to important information. Maybe even display info about the dynamic universe or recent RP stuff. If possible even displaying upcoming events. At this point I dont know what is possible and what it would look like.
• ...

If you have stuff to be added to this list, ideas, comments, etc. you can use this thread. This list most certainly is not complete.

Details will be discussed in separete topics in order to keep a halfway structured workflow.

People willing to help with topics can contact me via a PM (conversation).

I would just like with the CF2.0 development create a dev group to discuss the technical aspects and coordinate stuff.

I would have to take a look at that other mods then.

It is not just about their mass... but also about inertia settings and the power of engines.

such changes would have to be carefully tested because lots of stuff could break... especially in singleplayer missions and cut scenes.

Ive spent half the weekend doing updates to the website software. Mostly performance improvements, fixes, some layout changes, but also some new features.

For this topic most important should be that the discord sync got replaced with a much more reliable version and probably you already have noticed that newly added server events are now announced automatically at discord. This will help to spread the word and hopefully gets more ppl joining these events.

Additionally i tested the demo of a shop plugin which potentially can b used to organze clan system payments. It is not 100% what we need but with a few creative settings still might be usefull. Dunno yet.

Tomorrow changes to the dynamic market system will go live.

These changes mainly include rebalances required for future events/roleplay.

Also a minor bug was fixes which should improve the server stability.

There is some background work done on the server to improve plugin stability (I identified two plugins which have lead to unwanted behavior and Huor already seems to have a potential solution... this requires a bit more time and more testing).

The latest report about conflicts between Dynamic Universe and the Tour de Universe are also being addressed and we have a theoretical solution which I intend to test maybe this weekend, maybe next week (I dont want to false test results due to overlapping tests).

Last update worth to mention is that we have a shop system now which atm still is not configured yet but will hopefully be a good way to handle Clan systems and system rent. It is intended to use the new shop system starting January 2021.

Huor has updated 2 plugins and I have started to distribute them today via launcher updates.

In general this should improve the server stability.

Additionally a test has started to see if we can unlock cpu core settings and keep this setting without negative side effects.

We will have to observe the server behavior in the next few days to see if everything works as intended.

In the meantime I have started to work on some improvements of the launcher content. None of this stuff is live yet since I don't want to interrupt the functionality while I work on it but the main goal is to refresh outdated functions and include new functions to share news about the mod aswell as (if possible) display recent ingame events.

I think we should include clan stuff into the shop... depending on how i can set it up. Ive been working on it for some days now and I am not really satisfied with it but I think with a few modifications a useful environment can be created.

But.... I actually wanted to mention that I have released an update today.

Huor provided logs with some issues that need to be fixed, yesterday.

I got half of that errors (the most critical ones) fixed today and the files were updated just a few mins ago.

The other stuff is harder to fix and will take me a bit longer to figure out a solution. Fortunately that stuff wont have a noticeable impact on the players.

I certainly need a few days to investigate and find solutions. There probably will be another patch later this month.

Just wanted to mention that I deployed another 2 patches this weekend. One on Friday... one today.

Both fix various issues on Client and Server and should improve stability.

I hope to be able to provide another patch in 1-2 weeks dealing with the hopefully last remaining script error. It should be a bit harder to find a solution for the issue. Its not a critical error, just something with minimal impact on server performance which I finally would like to get rid of. Its not really a bug but a side effect of a workaround to a bug that already existed in vanilla FL. We carry this issue around for years meanwhile.

Since the server was a bit nuts since xmas (an issue that was fixed last week) I did not release the final patch for December. I simply did not want to cause more issues while there already were problems (that would have made identifying errors harder).

That means that I am going to test that specific patch in January after I did some stability tests. -> 1-2 weeks.

In the meantime further work on reported issues on the ticketsystem will be done. Ive already started to clean up a bit and will go through every open ticket in the next few weeks to see what can b done there. Maybe some issues were already resolved... maybe others can be resolved now... others might end on the to-do list for the next batch of patches and content updates.

One big topic that remained unresolved was how to deal with clan systems and system rent.

It took me quiet some time to set something up that in theory would help us to keep track of payments and therefore keep the status of clan systems updated.

Base of this is going to be a shop system. I wanted to get this unlocked end of December already but struggled to find a configuration that made sense for our purposes.

Well, with delay I have put something together that in theory would fit.

It is not public yet since I want to get some feedback first.

Access would be through the tools section on our website. It would NOT replace the donate function since of course donation of any kind are still welcome. Such donations woud be used to cover server costs if there is a difference between system rent and monthly costs or it would be used to cover costs for the production of new content (e.g. license fees).

1.jpg

This is the current overview of the Clan systems based on the current server configuration. Most certainly this is a wrong representation since certain clans are not active anymore or dont pay rent anymore. Doesn't matter... it is the current state and we have to start somewhere. We will see how it works out and will modify it based on needs. You might notice that the price is displaying 0 EUR. That is normal since the actual costs will be calculated by the months rented later on.

2.jpg

On the next screen you can see some basic info about the clan system and the available "Addons". Addons are the months that still need to be paid for. Once a month has been paid I would clear that addon from the list. This way we can keep track of the payment status.

3.jpg

If you want to rent a system you can select what month you want to pay for. The first unpaid month is selected by default and can not be unselected. In this case the payment for January 2021 is selected by default. You can do these payments for every month individually or you can select multiple months.

At this point I want to mention that I absolutely do not care if the clan leader pays the rent, a clan member takes care of that or if you have a clan internal agreement that every member pays one month. It simply does not matter who is paying for the system. It could even be a generous donor from outside the clan.

4.jpg

After the selection is added to the cart the checkout happens similar to the online shop system you already know. Payment method currently is set to paypal only.

The paypal fees by default would be added ontop of th 10€... but I have set it to be included in the 10€ instead (I cover these costs).

The 10 EUR is 50% of what the system used to cost.

Currently there are 10 clans listed and if all of them would be active and paying rent a montly rent of 6€ would be enough. But... we are not at the point of having 10 active clans at the moment. Maybe we get to that point again if we keep working on the mod and server.

The checkout will ask you for name and adress. I dont care if you use your real data here or any fantasy stuff you can come up with. Its not a product we have to ship so it really does not matter.

You get order confirmation via mail and as pdf here on the portal. You can track your orders at any time.

Since I would approve the purchased addons people (e.g. your clan members) can keep track of what payments have been done and what is still missing.

Cutting costs to 50% or less in future might incite players to get more involved in clan stuff and have positive influence on server population.

In the past 2 weeks i got some donations without clear purpose info. If these were meant to be for clan systems i would need a short info. I can add it to the new shop system then.

Feedback?

2. That would require an additional plugin but i have no idea how well it works with the current config. I could request another demo but testing monthly recurrent payments are hard to test in a 7 days demo period.

3. No

4. also, no. There is no time based check for that. But you would actually just be one click away from seeing the list of available "addons" which indicate how much behind a payment is.

I've released an experimental server side patch today. Its a band aid on top of a band aid trying to fix a bug of vanilla FL that so far never was fixed.

The experimental nature might mean that there are side effects such as issues docking nomad gates, jumpholes, warp gates, etc.

Also NPC behavior might be affected.

I keep the patch up and running till end of the week and need feedback if stuff starts acting strange.

It might even take 1-2 days until I clearly can tell if the original bug still exists.