A New Year, A New Release!

[Bak]

I'm happy to announce the release of Discretion 0.35! If you auto-update (Options -> Update) it should download the newest version. Additionally, I am going to start releasing a server version as I update it for the new Discretion versions in case anyone wants to run a Discretion-enabled server and doesn't want to go through svn. The server for 0.35 is available through sourceforge. I am going to release a "debug" version of servers which will include debugging, and then, when I have more faith in the server version I'll remove this and have a non-debug release. Currently, there is only a debug version for the server for version 0.35 (If you connect to the server you'll want to make sure that your Discretion Client is up to date (should say 0.35 in the title bar).

 

What's new? I have completed the initial implementation of the server-side anti-cheat. This means that, in theory anyways, getting away with cheating is no longer possible (or more precisely, cheating will be detected within 5 seconds in the presence of other, non-cheating clients). Now I have spent several hours debugging the code, but I'm still not fully confident in the server-side checks, which is why I've only released the debug version of the server for 0.35 so far. Hopefully I will quickly eliminate any bugs people can detect and deterministically reproduce (let me know if you find any). There's also lag and such within the server (lagging and cheating go hand in hand), which seems to work reasonably well, although, again, it hasn't been extensively tested. I usually have high ping fluctuation upon connecting to a server, but after the initial lag out it settles and I can get in.

 

Let me know if you have any problems, and happy new year!

[L.C.]

Thank you Bak! =D Awesome job.

 

EDIT: One concern though. If Discretion cannot be compatible with Continuum or even the old Subspace clients, I suggest that Discretion use its own directory server protocol. (Please.)

 

If need be, I would be happy to host a Discretion directory server.

Edited January 2, 2010 by L.C.

[BDwinsAlt]

I have connect locally. I enter the zone, and it shows up on the ASSS output, but I get terminated by the server.

Server-side audit stream parse error: 'PARSING_STATE_ID_BYTE_MISMATCH'

 

I am using Windows 7 on an HP Pavillion Dv6. I am administrator on the account I am using.

 

EDIT: Nevermind. Discretion updated itself (I like that feature) after a while and now it works. Good work.

Edited January 2, 2010 by BDwinsAlt

[Bak]

If Discretion cannot be compatible with Continuum...

It is compatible in the sense that Discretion and Continuum clients can play on the same server, although the server will need to be modified to allow Discretion clients in. In terms of user authentication, I do agree that the current system is fairly poor and a better one should be developed. I think Brain had some ideas for this. What's wrong with the directory server protocol?

[L.C.]

It is compatible in the sense that Discretion and Continuum clients can play on the same server, although the server will need to be modified to allow Discretion clients in. In terms of user authentication, I do agree that the current system is fairly poor and a better one should be developed. I think Brain had some ideas for this. What's wrong with the directory server protocol?

Ok, so they do work together? If so, then I guess that is great. However one thing that I am wondering about is the difference in physics algorithms between Continuum and Discretion. How do the two coexist in simultaneous gameplay?

 

The reason I brought that up was because I think it would be a very bad mistake to allow Discretion zones to populate current directory servers if they are not compatible with Continuum -- thinking that they would trigger some Continuum error like..

Unknown prompt code %d. Please seek help at the Tech Support Forums found at www.subspacehq.com.

There is a new version of Continuum available with new features and/or bug fixes. You need this new version to play. Download it now?

Failed to connect to server. Check to make sure the server is online (it should appear yellow or green in the zone list) and that you are currently connected to the internet. If problem persists, seek help at the Tech Support Forums found at www.subspacehq.com.

Or something else. Plus that it would also confuse people trying to join zones that are Discretion-only and cause some chaos or whatever.

 

If Continuum and Discretion clients can coexist and play together simultaneously, then I do not sense a problem. If the physics algorithms do not match in Discretion and Continuum, I think this can cause problems for Continuum clients: how will Continuum render a Discretion player? I think Continuum might either crash, or render players with what it knows and show them as laggers around wormholes and such, or something else. For sure, any zone that contains a wormhole that has a reversed gravity field or teleportation function, or more than 8 ships, and other similar core features -- Continuum cannot handle...unless ASSS detected who is using Continuum, Subspace, and Discretion -- and those using Continuum and Subspace could be supplied with false data (ie. If a Discretion player is in ship 9, ASSS would translate that as ship 8 to SS/Cont -- but then you might have conflict of settings, as Continuum stores arena settings in memory).

 

However, if they cannot, then I may suggest the following for consideration:

 

1. Trigger a popup message like

Restricted zone.

The server is not currently accepting new connections.

 

2. Allow Continuum clients to join and spectate, but forbidden to play in a ship

 

My brain hurts. X_x

Edited January 2, 2010 by L.C.

[Bak]

Your right in that the physics will only be the same for the two clients if you make them the same. Currently continuum and discretion work on two different settings formats, although nothing is stopping you from making the two correspond to the same settings. The way I see it though, this isn't that important, as if you only want to use what continuum has to offer, you will use continuum.

 

2. Allow Continuum clients to join and spectate, but forbidden to play in a ship

This is the current plan.

[MikeTheNose]

Your right in that the physics will only be the same for the two clients if you make them the same. Currently continuum and discretion work on two different settings formats, although nothing is stopping you from making the two correspond to the same settings. The way I see it though, this isn't that important, as if you only want to use what continuum has to offer, you will use continuum.

 

2. Allow Continuum clients to join and spectate, but forbidden to play in a ship

This is the current plan.

 

 

 

That was the previous method used to switch from VIE to continuum clients and the server telling the vie client to download continuum to play.

[»CypherJF]

I had intended to put up a discretion server a while ago, but, it was needing a linux-based make file (my flavor has been CentOS); is there one now available by any chance?

[Bak]

There isn't one right now, although I don't think it would be too difficult to make one. All the custom modules are contained in the discretion_asss module, source located in "asss-1.4.3\src\custom\discretion_asss". You'll also want to copy the conf, arenas, and maps directories to have a setup that works. Start with asss-1.4.3 initially and it should work.

[»jabjabjab]

ur server ever gona be up again?

[Bak]

Working on it. freakmonger said he'd try to fix it today.