Bak

In continuum you don't need to compress things as lvz, you can just put the image (tileset.png, for example) as the levelfile to download. in discretion, lvz isn't in yet, so you need to do each file like that, although you can specify an url for fast http downloads from the web.

There's a key for that, "CTRL + m" right now I think. There might even be a setting somewhere too. for transparency you could overwrite the default tileset setting, then not include a tileset with the map. The default tileset can then be a .png with an alpha channel. For things like slowing down (friction) or speeding up, I think I am going to make a Forces module that will be a generic way to provide this functionality. Probably could even couple it with powerup and such, perhaps safe zones are a specific instance of a region with special properties. Still thinking about it.

If you want to use the existing protocol for weapons (and not have to rewrite the server handling of them), you only have 2 bits to play with, hence 4 levels. I will need to make a Discretion weapon packet at some point I assume.

here's what I currently have in terms of map customizability. Changing most of these is untested, it SHOULD work (give it a try). Also it's not yet sent by the server, which is a simple change. Once people start requesting being able to change it server-side, I'll take the 10 minutes to make the appropriate edits. Please please please try editing these then going to practice offline to check for any bugs in them. conf/Modules/default_oldlvl.conf: ; This is the oldlvl configuration file ; Lines begining with ';' are comments, Lines begining with ';;;' are comments about the catagory/setting immediately below them ;;; the old subspace lvl format [oldlvl] ;;; draw the mouse when we're in safe zones? DrawMouseInSafeZones = 1 ;;; the path to the default tileset, if it's not in the .lvl file DefaultTileset = graphics/defaultTileset.png ;;; The size of the map, in tiles. Dimensions: "(w, h)" MapSize = (1024, 1024) ;;; The number of rows and columns in the tileset image. Dimensions: "(w, h)" TilesetFrames = (19, 10) ;;; an individual tiles width/height, Dimensions: "(w, h)" TileSize = (16, 16) ;;; the blank tile's value, this gets placed in every position in the tile that's not defined in the .lvl file TileBlank = 0 ; define special tiles within the tileset ;;; the border tile BorderTile=19 ;;; the safe zone tile(s) SafeZoneTiles=171 ;;; fly over tiles(s) FlyOverTiles=173,174,175 ;;; fly under tile(s) FlyUnderTiles=176,177,178,179,180,181,182,183,184,185,186,187,188,189,190 ;;; tiles where we should treat black as being transparent TransparentTiles=185,186,187,188,189,190 ;;; The Flag Tile numbers FlagTiles = 170 ;;; The goal tile numbers GoalTiles = 172 ;;; The wormhole tile numbers WormholeTiles = 220 ; The tile #s for the doors ;;; a set of tiles that define door #1 Door1=162,163,164,165 ;;; a set of tiles that define door #2 Door2=166,167,168,169 ;;; door animation time, in milliseconds DoorAnimationTime=300 ;Custom Animations / Graphics for tiles ;;; these are tiles which we should not draw, rather they have a custom image as defined in the settings CustomImage=162,163,164,165,166,167,168,169, 170,172,216,217,218,219,220 Tile170 Name = EnemyFlag Tile172 Name = EnemyGoal Tile216 Name = SmallAsteriod Tile217 Name = BigAsteriod Tile218 Name = SmallAsteriod2 Tile219 Name = SpaceStation Tile220 Name = Wormhole ;sizes SmallAsteriod Size = (1, 1) SmallAsteriod2 Size = (1, 1) BigAsteriod Size = (2, 2) SpaceStation Size = (6, 6) [images] FlagPath = flag FlagFrames = (10, 2) GoalPath = goal GoalFrames = (9, 2) SmallAsteriodPath = over1 SmallAsteriodFrames = (15, 2) SmallAsteriod2Path = over3 SmallAsteriod2Frames = (15, 2) BigAsteriodPath = over2 BigAsteriodFrames = (10, 3) SpaceStationPath = over4 SpaceStationFrames = (5, 2) WormholePath = over5 WormholeFrames = (4, 6) [Animations] EnemyFlag Unique Image = Flag EnemyFlag Frame Offset = 0 EnemyFlag Frame Count = 10 EnemyFlag Animation Milliseconds = 1000 FriendlyFlag Unique Image = Flag FriendlyFlag Frame Offset = 10 FriendlyFlag Frame Count = 10 FriendlyFlag Animation Milliseconds = 1000 EnemyGoal Unique Image = Goal EnemyGoal Frame Offset = 9 EnemyGoal Frame Count = 9 EnemyGoal Animation Milliseconds = 1000 FriendlyGoal Unique Image = Goal FriendlyGoal Frame Offset = 10 FriendlyGoal Frame Count = 9 FriendlyGoal Animation Milliseconds = 1000 SmallAsteriod Unique Image = SmallAsteriod SmallAsteriod Animation Milliseconds = 1500 BigAsteriod Unique Image = BigAsteriod BigAsteriod Animation Milliseconds = 1500 SmallAsteriod2 Unique Image = SmallAsteriod2 SmallAsteriod2 Animation Milliseconds = 1500 SpaceStation Unique Image = SpaceStation SpaceStation Animation Milliseconds = 1000 Wormhole Unique Image = Wormhole Wormhole Animation Milliseconds = 2000

I love the creativity, this is the reason for making Discretion. Although I feel like I get bogged down in the details of implementation a lot, I really hope I can get all these in (and more!).

that's normal, for making sure that the deaths work correctly (bullets can go through dead players but not live ones)

lool

instead of auto, you can put *password after your login password and it should work. For example if your password is apple and the moderator password is orange, set your password to apple*orange and you should be able to login and then have mod automagically. for resetting your administrator password, boot off the windows cd there should be something in the menu about it. In the worst case you can do repair and that will keep all your files but reinstall windows core files so you'll need to do updates again.

maybe just use javascript?

Okay! just uploaded this weekend's update to the update site, you should be able to update through Discretion. I found and fixed the settings bug ya'll were reporting! The bug was related to a fundamental design issue, namely that you can be in the arena while you are downloading, so that you might not yet have the settings. This is an issue when your client tried to make predictions about what other players are doing, since your settings are wrong your predictions will be wrong (or it will report it doesn't have the proper settings as you guys reported). In order to reproduce this you needed two people in the same arena, with the second one downloading. That case escaped my testing since I rarely re-download the files, so it didn't manifest. Also, if you're the first one in the arena there are no (wrong) predictions, so you can get in just fine, as Cerium noticed (however since I was usually afk in the arena any new players who would undoubtedly have to download got screwed). I fixed it by adding a new auditable event that occurs when the server settings have finished downloading (no predictions are made before this, which may be bad, but even Continuum doesn't resend existing weapons to entering players, think of how you can players plow through mines in tw if they were dropped before they entered the arena; I think asss may try to send the state of the bricks in the arena to entering players though, wonder how it handles the timing issues). I also fixed a pretty big memory leak. I broke my rule of creating the "delete" code whenever I used "new", and that's what caused it. I also partially implemented a ?memory command to view memory usage of participating modules. I might get all of them to use it if I feel like it, but if there's no more memory leaks I probably won't bother. There are still bugs with the server, so expect it to be crashy. Please continue to report any client-side bugs you guys spot.

jabs, is there a folder named discretion/zones/Discretion Expermental Warfare/ ? Are there any files in that folder?

hmm still some trouble with the settings, working on it...

Okay, new update fixing a series of bugs that you guys reported (thanks). You'll need to download the newest version manually through sourceforge, as one of the critical bugs was with the auto update system itself. Go to https://sourceforge.net/projects/ss-discretion/ to download the newest version (0.33). Here's the bug fixes: 1. Jab, your settings errors were because the single player settings were incorrect. I reorganized it so that there is now a CustomSettings.conf in zones/SinglePlayer where you should put your custom settings (it's #included at the bottom of Settings.conf), otherwise the automatic updates may overwrite any custom settings in the other files. 2. I updated the settings to not give up connecting so easily. Now there will be 100 connection attempts and 50 reliable retries before it gives up, so enough for virus scanners to check the files (hopefully) without disconnecting because of a timeout. 3. I change the zones download to use a settings-defined directory server. Also changed the setting to be a working directory server (ssdir.playsubspace.com). 4. Added a preliminary interface for the "Options" button from the main menu. Right now all you can do is initiate a Discretion update without having the connect to any servers. Also the site used for that update is settings-defined. 5. I changed/fixed the way updates to Discretion.exe work. This is why you need to download the zip again from sourceforge. Updates to Discretion.exe should automatically restart the front end now so you don't need to do it manually. The "should never get here" message should never appear. 6. I made it so zones with blank description generate only a warning, but it will continue to parse the zonelist.conf file. I wasn't able to reproduce the automatic zone download that Hakaru described though. 7. There's a new experimental zone now ("Discretion Experimental Warfare") for testing the server-side aspects that I'm running off my computer. This is because I don't want to bother freakmonger every time I have issues with Discretion Wars. His server will still be used for stable versions of the server that don't require intricate debugging (as I suspect I need to do since I made rather large additions with the disc_audit module on the server). Everyone play go into Continuum and do "?message freakmonger:Thanks for helping with Discretion by hosting the server!" please! Let me know if there are any further issues.

In my opinion you can't rely on anyone else for anything. If you want something done you have to do it yourself.

This sounds similar to Selection -> Generate Script in CLT, although the output of that is best put in the arena's settings rather than eLVL attributes. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v622/bak2007/clt_ss.png

I wonder why colleges and universities are supporting this bill lool...

Is that without you pressing the zones key? So it happens right when you log in every time or after updates?

Good point. Which directory server is working these days?

Sorry deleted your post for your own good. Zip up everything *but* the profiles.conf file, since it contains things like passwords you likely don't want to share with everyone. On a side note, why can't I remove attachments from people's posts? When I went to edit post it said action failed when I tried to delete the attachment.

I did notice the repeated login attempts on my screen which I blamed on my virus scanner being slow to scan everything causing 10 attempts in a row therefore a disconnect. The settings error is odd though. Could you copy your discretion folder, delete conf/front_end/profiles.conf, zip it up, and email it to me (vamperz at yahoo.com).

Hmm that's very odd. I can't seem to reproduce it with my version. Anyone else have this problem? Also: port is unblocked on the server now, you should be able to play online.

didn't the queen give him a gift when he visited with his wife?

Right now there is no stealth or cloak implemented, so no. For stealth I'll probably not send position update until the player is within a reasonable range (~2000 pixels), so it will turn into a long-range radar disabler (until the stealthed player is on the screen). Will need to think more about weapons while stealthed, although it may be reasonable for players to lose stealth temporarily if they fire weapons while maintaining the spirit of the item. For cloak just don't forward any position packets (like cloak+stealth). Cloak without stealth wouldn't work, unfortunately. Perhaps there could be a radar update packet that provides a fuzzy location for a cloaked player without stealth.

Just finished the main security update for Discretion. The peer-based checking is done. Clients will periodically check each other to see if they're cheating. The last piece of the puzzle that's yet to be done is server-side checks to make sure the "audit stream" sent by clients matches packets the server has gotten/sent. In particular, what's left to be done is: // Ship Changes are Server-initiated // death packets are always received when client says he died // Claimed Position Packets Match Received/Sent Position Packets // C2S Packetloss is acceptable (based on missing position packets) // Set Weapons % packets dropped (based on missing weapons packets, if applicable) // Stale Packets are ignored / don't exist // All Timer Sync Messages are Server initiated (and ping received with reasonable period of request) // C2S Ping is Acceptable (based on times of position packets received) // player entering / leaving / changing freq / changing ship / death / actually occurred and at correct time // auditable state at beginning / end of sequences is the same If you can come up with a way to cheat that's not included in the above list of to-do server checks, and not already taken care of by the peer-based checks, I'd like to know about it. Also if you can crash the client or server please let me know too. The code is quite complicated so I wouldn't be surprised if I missed a bug or two. In either case, your Discretion client should auto-update to the latest version. I have the newest version of the server up, although we're waiting for the audit stream port to be unblocked before you can play in the game online. Practice offline should work, and you may even get a target to aim for Also, some miscellaneous bug fixes particularly with the drawing of the explosion graphics. Let me know of any other bugs you guys can find. Enjoy!