Late Thursday night status update

By Frogboy on May 1, 2009 2:41:58 AM from

We got a really good new build from GPG this evening that has a cure for those people who have experienced in-game disconnects along with some in-game exploits and a few other things (favor points, achievements, etc.). So we spent a lot of time this evening working on that.

Meanwhile, I turned over the Proxy server setup to the enterprise team at Stardock to speed that up (for those of you not familiar with Stardock, we’re 70% an application company, 30% games with very distinct development teams). Basically I turned over the Proxy server work to the Impulse development team since they already have built the infrastructure around Impulse.

The connection servers, which is one of the areas some people (and we have reproduced this) are having a lot of pain with is something we’re still working on (2:30am as I write this) but we’re nearing the end of productive work on this. Basically, it’s a problem of scaling. The classic what works for 500 people falls apart when used by 5000 people at once. But a lot of progress has been made there as well.

Anyway, we’re going to call it a night and come back tomorrow to continue on the integration.

Now, as some people have heard, we are going to release this update as a “beta”. Impulse has an option for users to be able to try out pre-release software on it. Warning though, if Demigod MP is already fine for you, don’t mess with this.

Here’s how you make use of this feature:

We expect to have this up tomorrow. But I’m not making any promises as we don’t want to take a chance of putting something up that leaves people stranded (or having to re-download the whole release game again).

Update: Friday afternoon

We've finished integrating GPG's changed with the Raknet changes with the CVP changes. But we have still not resolved the issue of why it takes so long for 2 people, after being connected, to get into the lobby when there's a heavy load as the database seems to now be able to handle it (we set up a bunch of new servers) but there is still a random several second delay between when it says someone is connected and when it actually even attempts to insert them into the game lobby.

+912 Karma | 81 Replies

rest well, and thanks for the news

Thanks for the update. I'm just starting work now .

When you wake up, it'd be good to understand if you perhaps going to release the favor/achievements fixes as a regular patch, and the proxy/connectivity stuff as a beta patch? Or both as one beta patch?

Cheers!

Yes, thank you very much for the update.

Sounds like a bright future patch....

I can't Wait....

It would be nice to have my favor points I have earned online. Also I played alot of single player and it wiped all my favor and items..

Thanks for working hard!!

It's hard for me to wrap my brain around the idea Stardock is only 30% a game company.

Quoting kerzain,

reply 5

It's hard for me to wrap my brain around the idea Stardock is only 30% a game company.

Luckely they are. That's why they are very dedicated to customer satisfaction

Thanks for the update.

I assume people who update to the beta patch will only be able to play multiplayer with others people who updated to the beta?

Appreciate that you're keeping us up to date on what's going on, Frogboy. I hope these proxies work out really well for those of us who have to rely on GameRanger. Competition is a little thin there--fewer players means fewer matches, meaning the metagame is less complex and competitive and I'll have a lot new tricks to learn once integrating with the core playerbase. Fortunately these forums exist to keep me appraised of the builds and strategies most people are using.

Get some sleep!

does the beta fix the favor?

From what I can tell the update isnt online yet. Simplest option is to just backup your demigod game (under c:\program files\stardock games\demigod, also why cant we choose the install directory ) before updating.

thanks for the update, now get some sleep!

Quoting MoD_Legion,

reply 11

You can, but it will be the base install directory for any game downloaded through Impulse.

Go to preferences
Advanced Settings -> Folders
Select "My Games" and then you c an change the install location. DO NOT use a root drive (e.g. F:\ <- BAD), so F:\Games or whatever is fine

And if you would like to create an Archive, you can right-click on Demigod and select "Archive". It will place those files in the "Archive File Location" that is also under Prefs -> Folders. Then if you want to restore it, you can do so by selecting the "Restore Archive" option under the big Impulse menu.

Anyway, hope that helps someone

Ah sweet, I installed my SoaSE normally (also a direct download), it never prompted for an install dir for Demigod though so I figured it wasnt possible =D.

Quoting platycus,

reply 7

Thanks for the update.

I assume people who update to the beta patch will only be able to play multiplayer with others people who updated to the beta?

In the first journal that mentioned the beta patch Frogboy said that you should be able to play with people without.. but since the beta patch now is going to have a bunch of fixes, not just connection stuff, I'm not so sure.

Hmm, not really sure about this.

Are the proxy servers somehow included in this beta build thats going to be released, or are the new build and the proxy servers seperated??

quoting post

My concern with what you stated, "we're nearing the end of productive work on this". Are you giving up on making this better? Is Stardock unwilling or unable to get a better solution implemented? Or were you referring to only the near-term solutions?

Lol dont freak out Ferazel im sure he meant it about the current project..and he wrote it at 2:00am.

Hmm, I'm going to remain out of the beta til it's official I don't want my game to be broken for Finals Week...hehe

All I hear is blah blah blah

It is still broken and no good fixes coming soon

so, umm.. any hope of us Europe DSL users connecting to games any time soon?

3 am, and you're going to sleep, huh?

I think you mis-understood the directives from God. You're supposed to get 1-2 hours of sleep per *month*, not per *night*.

Get back to work! You're not scheduled to sleep until June 1st!

Har Har

Seriously though, sounds like you guys are burning the midnight oil. Hope you get a chance to relax in the very near future. Multiplayer seems to have gotten much better for me lately (very few issues in general).

Quoting The_Regicide,

reply 21

so, umm.. any hope of us Europe DSL users connecting to games any time soon?

That's tied to the proxies, as is my understanding. So, hopefully soon.

Quoting Ferazel,

reply 17

quoting post
The connection servers, which is one of the areas some people (and we have reproduced this) are having a lot of pain with is something we’re still working on (2:30am as I write this) but we’re nearing the end of productive work on this. Basically, it’s a problem of scaling. The classic what works for 500 people falls apart when used by 5000 people at once. But a lot of progress has been made there as well.

My concern with what you stated, "we're nearing the end of productive work on this". Are you giving up on making this better? Is Stardock unwilling or unable to get a better solution implemented? Or were you referring to only the near-term solutions?

I was referring to how much more we could do at 2am.

Can you please clarify about being able to play with people who aren't using the beta build, when you are?

Also, is GPG working on the alt-tab crashes? (if you alt tab 5 times, you are guaranteed to crash at least once)

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Late Thursday night status update