A preview of what we are testing internally... (Full Version)

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Erik Rutins -> A preview of what we are testing internally... (3/28/2010 12:30:27 PM)

We hope that after internal testing, we'll be able to make this a public beta by the end of today and if that goes well, an official release shortly thereafter.

Items fixed/added in this patch:

1 - Fixed overall Economy issues. A bug was introduced to order fulfillment that prevented freighters from distributing resources properly, thus tanking the development level of your colonies over time. This has been fixed and tested against multiple customer savegames.
2 - Fixed crash at startup when Windows language settings are Polish or other languages that use commas as decimal separators (http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=2413949)
3 - Fixed crashes when zoom in/out at edge of galaxy (http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=2414140)
4 - Fixed crash that occasionally occurs when opening Expansion Planner screen (http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=2414116)
5 - Fixed crash that sometimes occurs when you sort items in Construction Yards screen by the Maintenance column (http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=2414115)
6 - Fixed crash that occasionally occurs when explore ruins (AndrewL encountered this)
7 - Fixed crashes when game ends. This problem was frequently showing up as repeatable crashes when victory conditions set (http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/fb.asp?m=2415200)
8 - Fixed bug that caused various crashes related to attempt to finish construction of planet destroyer. This bug manifested itself in a variety of unusual crashes, but the underlying cause was any empire attempting to build the planet destroyer (http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/fb.asp?m=2414757)
9 - Fixed crash caused by defeated empires sometimes still being referenced by other empires (AndrewL encountered this)
10 - Fixed bug where could not retrofit to designs generated by "Upgrade" button in Designs screen (http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/fb.asp?m=241623)
11 - Fixed bug where player giving gift to other empires had no effect (http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=2416641)
12 - Fixed crash when press Alt-F4 to exit Distant Worlds - this key combination is now disabled while in the main game
13 - Added quick-save key shortcut: Ctrl-S, saves current game, or prompts for file name if no current save

The bugs in items 7 and 8 were causing most of the mysterious "Distant Worlds has stopped working" crashes that have been reported. Looking forward to not seeing those again...



ASHBERY76 -> RE: A preview of what we are testing internally... (3/28/2010 12:35:24 PM)


quote:

1 - Fixed overall Economy issues. A bug was introduced to order fulfillment that prevented freighters from distributing resources properly, thus tanking the development level of your colonies over time. This has been fixed and tested against multiple customer savegames.

quote:

The bugs in items 7 and 8 were causing most of the mysterious "Distant Worlds has stopped working" crashes that have been reported. Looking forward to not seeing those again...


Thank god.



elmo3 -> RE: A preview of what we are testing internally... (3/28/2010 12:37:23 PM)

Thanks for all the effort being put into the game over the weekend.



EagleMountainDK -> RE: A preview of what we are testing internally... (3/28/2010 12:38:12 PM)

Thanks for the hard work guys! [&o]



Kumppi -> RE: A preview of what we are testing internally... (3/28/2010 12:43:39 PM)

This game is like this |---| close to being THE 4x space strategy game and no doubt will get there given the support. Thank you.



Marcuso -> RE: A preview of what we are testing internally... (3/28/2010 12:44:43 PM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

10 - Fixed bug where could not retrofit to designs generated by "Upgrade" button in Designs screen (http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/fb.asp?m=241623)



Is this the bug that doesn't allow you to retrofit to a design other than the one generated by the "Upgrade" button? Sorry...the wording in this has thrown me off a bit. I have had no problems retrofitting to designs generated by the "Upgrade" button; rather, I've had problems retrofitting to designs OTHER THAN the ones generated by th "Upgrade" button.



Erik Rutins -> RE: A preview of what we are testing internally... (3/28/2010 12:51:26 PM)

Yes, I believe it fixes that, but I still need to test that today to be sure.



Marcuso -> RE: A preview of what we are testing internally... (3/28/2010 12:58:50 PM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

Yes, I believe it fixes that, but I still need to test that today to be sure.


You, sir, are a god among men. [&o]

Thank you guys for your hard work. I will be sure to keep reporting any issues I find.



incbob -> RE: A preview of what we are testing internally... (3/28/2010 1:16:06 PM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: Kumppi
This game is like this |---| close to being THE 4x space strategy game and no doubt will get there given the support. Thank you.


I agree completely. Thanks for the great support.



Shelldrake -> RE: A preview of what we are testing internally... (3/28/2010 1:18:20 PM)

Great news! Thanks for all the hard work (and on a weekend!) on the upcoming patch.



Antonov -> RE: A preview of what we are testing internally... (3/28/2010 1:21:50 PM)

Wow, love that you all are already working on a patch. Thanks for all the hard work.



spec10 -> RE: A preview of what we are testing internally... (3/28/2010 1:27:36 PM)

It's simply outstanding how open you are about the process of things. So many developers make the mistake of not telling their customers what's going on. If more developers would invest as much time into their communities like you do, the world around the software market would look much brighter. :D

Big thanks for all the effort.



ggm -> RE: A preview of what we are testing internally... (3/28/2010 2:02:42 PM)

good to hear the patch is coming out soo fast. meanwhile I'm still waiting for PI to get there act together with HOI3(sigh).

ggm



Gertjan -> RE: A preview of what we are testing internally... (3/28/2010 2:08:57 PM)

Thanks good work. I'm very curious about the impact of the economy fix.



n01487477 -> RE: A preview of what we are testing internally... (3/28/2010 2:18:10 PM)

Any news on the Galactopaedia ... seems to me there are a few of us using both IE8 (and other iterations) and Firefox and there are some probs - mine is a Mime encoding problem ... (yep I've reported mine in the tech section)



Mad Russian -> RE: A preview of what we are testing internally... (3/28/2010 2:18:47 PM)

I have a saved game. When I go back and run the tutorial for the Grandkids it seems to run it in the back ground even though I haven't told it to run. I get things like we found ruins, etc. that pop up while viewing how the view screens work.  That didn't happen before I had saved games.

You might add into the tutorial on the options screen that you get there by hitting "o". I had go look that up in the rules. It wasn't that easy to find and it's the one thing that you need right away.

MR



Erik Rutins -> RE: A preview of what we are testing internally... (3/28/2010 2:26:46 PM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: n01487477
Any news on the Galactopaedia ... seems to me there are a few of us using both IE8 (and other iterations) and Firefox and there are some probs - mine is a Mime encoding problem ... (yep I've reported mine in the tech section)


We don't have a solution yet - we are still investigating to determine the exact cause and how to solve it.



Wade1000 -> RE: A preview of what we are testing internally... (3/28/2010 2:59:05 PM)

I've seen this issue posted a few times. Is it being resolved?

quote:

ORIGINAL:  Evil Tactician

quote:

I haven't seen this at all, I've always seen ships defend themselves when attacked and I agree that is how it should be (and always has been in my experience).  Is there any chance you have a save that shows this?  If not, I will try to duplicate.

On a different, but similar note, I had an incident where I ordered a fleet to move to a certain moon. Relatively close to this moon was a pirate base, and a handful of pirate vessels. My idea was to see how the game would perform when I *don't* group ships in a fleet but instead manually order a group to stage somewhere and then manually order them to attack.
All good and well - they flew to the moon, but once I warped into the system the pirates moved to intercept. Only one out of 5 of my ships bothered breaking off to return fire, the others completely ignored the fact the pirates which were both in range and firing upon a sister vessel.
Any idea what was going on?



quote:

ORIGINAL: Nth Power


quote:

ORIGINAL: Kumppi

I have experienced the same problem. I had 4 ship patrolling a mining station when it was attacked by a pirate ship. Only 1 of my ships engaged while the other 3 continued their patrol. Perhaps something to adjust in future patches?

AI in general seems to be very passive regarding your own ships. If a mining station with no patrols is attacked it seems your own ship don't respond at all. Even those ships that have no mission assigned at that time.

I had a similar problem with fleet was parked at a planet. They were close together, on automation and were not on a mission. One ship was attacked by a space monster and that one ship shot back, but the other ships in the fleet didn't do anything.


quote:

ORIGINAL: Webbco

I had the same a number of times.

http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=2416336 (from 'Distant Worlds - Initial Impression ')



Wade1000 -> RE: A preview of what we are testing internally... (3/28/2010 3:04:57 PM)

Overall... this post of update fixes is encouraging.
Heh. I've been watching to see how events unfold. I think I will purchase the game today.
-----

quote:

8 - Fixed bug that caused various crashes related to attempt to finish construction of planet destroyer. This bug manifested itself in a variety of unusual crashes, but the underlying cause was any empire attempting to build the planet destroyer (http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/fb.asp?m=2414757)

This comment about "planet destroyer" is intriguing.
-Is it just a scary, ship class name or is their a weapon/device that destroys planets?
-Is there a weapon/device that destroys stars?
-Is there a device/method that creates artificial orbital population centers, planets, and stars?

Heh. See my siganture.
http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=2391696 ('Distant Worlds:Updates,Expansions,and Sequels.Tell the company your wish list.')



Erik Rutins -> RE: A preview of what we are testing internally... (3/28/2010 3:12:43 PM)

Wade,

We have a lot of other items still on our "investigate/fix" list (including that one) and a lot of possible improvements on our wish list, but our first priority was the crashes that were reported and the economy issues. Once those are out of the way, we can work on the rest.

Regards,

- Erik



lordxorn -> RE: A preview of what we are testing internally... (3/28/2010 3:12:52 PM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: ggm

good to hear the patch is coming out soo fast. meanwhile I'm still waiting for PI to get there act together with HOI3(sigh).

ggm



I agree, and one of the devs mentioned that the next patch will be the last for HOI3. What a shame, it sounds like he is giving up.

Thank god I have DW to keep me going on the Strategy front. [;)]



Banquet -> RE: A preview of what we are testing internally... (3/28/2010 3:21:35 PM)

Thanks, Erik for this prompt patch. Most appreciated :)



JohnM -> RE: A preview of what we are testing internally... (3/28/2010 3:24:08 PM)

quote:

8 - Fixed bug that caused various crashes related to attempt to finish construction of planet destroyer. This bug manifested itself in a variety of unusual crashes, but the underlying cause was any empire attempting to build the planet destroyer (http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/fb.asp?m=2414757)
This comment about "planet destroyer" is intriguing.
-Is it just a scary, ship class name or is their a weapon/device that destroys planets?
-Is there a weapon/device that destroys stars?
-Is there a device/method that creates artificial orbital population centers, planets, and stars?


It's a Death Star - only destroys planets.



VarekRaith -> RE: A preview of what we are testing internally... (3/28/2010 3:32:38 PM)

You guys/gals at Matrix/Codeforce want some pizza and beer?
[sm=00000436.gif]



Shark7 -> RE: A preview of what we are testing internally... (3/28/2010 3:34:44 PM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: VarekRaith

You guys/gals at Matrix/Codeforce want some pizza and beer?
[sm=00000436.gif]


As quick as they have been releasing hotfix patches, I'm starting to wonder if they even sleep. [X(]



Gertjan -> RE: A preview of what we are testing internally... (3/28/2010 3:36:10 PM)

[:D]



Erik Rutins -> RE: A preview of what we are testing internally... (3/28/2010 3:48:01 PM)

We've been testing the update this morning since about 7:30Am and I think it's looking good enough to release as a public beta earlier rather than later. For those of you with economic issues, please note that this will fix them, but it's not an "instant fix" you need to patch and then let the game run and the economy will sort itself out shortly.

In hindsight, I'm amazed the economic issue got through to release, I think for my part I was experience enough with the economy that I hardly noticed the effects (even though they are huge for many players), but I want to apologize that it got through our testing. The crashes have often been specific enough to a certain situation or system configuration that I'm not surprised we didn't catch them all, but I'm glad for your help submitting save files, which has made it possible to find and fix them quickly. I hope you all enjoy the update, I'll post when it's up as a public beta.



Erik Rutins -> RE: A preview of what we are testing internally... (3/28/2010 3:50:21 PM)

I should add a somewhat embarrassed note that since a lot of the late balance testing was probably done with that economic issue in place, don't be surprised if we make some more economic tweaks down the line. I think you'll find that compared to what you were dealing with, the economy is now a lot easier. If it's too easy for you, don't forget that you can adjust the galaxy setup to make things a bit more challenging for you.



Wade1000 -> RE: A preview of what we are testing internally... (3/28/2010 3:54:11 PM)

Yeah. I was wondering how such economy bugs/errors would pass through beta testing.

In some other games also, it always perplexes me how major bugs/errors pass through beta testing.



Wade1000 -> RE: A preview of what we are testing internally... (3/28/2010 3:56:55 PM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

I should add a somewhat embarrassed note that since a lot of the late balance testing was probably done with that economic issue in place, don't be surprised if we make some more economic tweaks down the line. I think you'll find that compared to what you were dealing with, the economy is now a lot easier. If it's too easy for you, don't forget that you can adjust the galaxy setup to make things a bit more challenging for you.

Uh oh. Now I hope that if the game seems to easy in some areas that players don't start getting disappointed or discouraged before you all can issue balance updates.



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