Content Release 2010.5

[Pallas Gaudio]

Need the auctioneers at the outposts.

I've assumed that this was done in response to analysis on EF. A lot of people were saying that less facilities at outposts would force avatars back into PA - making it more lively and improving gameplay. I'm inclined to agree with that - however, I would very much miss auctioneers and storage facilities at outposts if this were to be extended generally.

 

[Rake]

Have robots developed "stealth" technology with this VU ? I was attacked by a robot on Treasure Island it it did not show on the Radar so caught me by surprise.

 

[SuNi]

Auctioneers are really not there. By 2 OP i see Storages , run on Groundfloor in the Building and not upstairs.

2 or 3 Newbs-Quest are buggy. The People must RUN A CIRCLE on the Terminal (Storage and others) for update the Quest.

When little bit more People stand in PA, are the normal PA-TP hard to find for a Newb.
Same with the Quest - Ava`s. I think without Officials is it not a pleasure for a Newb, to find answers or help.

I dont know is it a Bug or a "Feature" - inside the PA Mall at Auc, near Storage or Wall, you can read what People say outside from the Building and see the the green Dot on Radar.

Bug or "dynamic" ? By the Mining Quest Lyst and Oil - i drop 50-60 Bombes and Probes, and found only 1x a III Melchi.

yes, i know - my english sucks - i hope it helps anyway.

 

[Wistrel]

Would that be something you guys would like to see?

Hell yes! It was always a pain that appartments were in far off out of the way places! PA would be great place for a home.

Update looked nice. Got a lovely new screenshot of PA as my wallpaper now. Alas only went there twice and both saw "not enough memory" crashes within a few mins. Mind you the radar was massively sprinkled with yellow! I expect it will calm down soon. (although I kinda hope not too as I like PA being "alive")

Wistrel

 

[Wistrel]

Upgrade video card (it helped me immensely).

Only solution for game crashing when large amount of people within radar is to increase te amount of ran your systm has (I constnatly crashed @ PA due to number of avatars, whereas a socmate with 8GB never crashed)

Unacceptably poor programming, but these are easier solutions than waiting for MA to fix their code. (there is nothing they can possibly say to convince me that 4GB ram is inadequate when I have no lag in other games that have much greater demands.)

Isn't there a 2GB "per process" memory limit in windows (xp at least?). I didn't check memory usage when I got the mem errors/crashes but I doubt it was over 2GB and I have 3GB anyhow (and xp doesn't use a gig).

 

[Pioneer|SDS]

Auctioneers are really not there. By 2 OP i see Storages , run on Groundfloor in the Building and not upstairs.

Auctioneers are not in the Equipment building, but in the Economy building.

The service container functions were split up into three separate buildings, because it is too cluttered to run all tutorial missions for all service functions in one building.

So at ground level, there are three buildings, from left to right Social building (Storage and Event terminal), Equipment building (Trade Terminal, Storage and Repair terminals) and Economy building (Manufacturing machine, Auctioneer and Technician).

We reasoned that the old players still want everything at one place, close to the teleporter, so we placed a full set of terminals in the middle building on the top balcony (televator floor 02), just next to the teleporter. So if you're an old player, go to the top balcony and the middle building; or go to the Equipment building and take the televator to floor 02. In both cases, you have everything there. Then exit the door to the east, and you have the teleporter.

Note that the new participant starts at the teleporter at the end of the pier to the south. The first thing the new participant will see is the Immigration official, with the FPC logo above his head. That guy will give you a lot of missions that direct you to the other people, including the tutorials. We hope that this is clear enough for new participants.

2 or 3 Newbs-Quest are buggy. The People must RUN A CIRCLE on the Terminal (Storage and others) for update the Quest.

Promise, we will fix that.

Bug or "dynamic" ? By the Mining Quest Lyst and Oil - i drop 50-60 Bombes and Probes, and found only 1x a III Melchi.

Definitely dynamic.

The problem is that there are 200+ people running on Port Atlantis strip-mining the area, so it's kind of mined bare.

You can actually mine wherever you want. The mining missions do not really care where you mine. The waypoint is just a helper for the new participant to get somewhere which is not Port Atlantis.

 

[mastermesh]

Would that be something you guys would like to see?

Perhaps, but only if estate owners in other locations get relocated to PA as first priority, in much the same way that booths at Hades got relocated to Corinth when Hades went away...

 

[Xen]

The problem is that there are 200+ people running on Port Atlantis strip-mining the area, so it's kind of mined bare.

Hmmm...

So is this an accurate statement reflecting how the mining system works?

 

[Quint]

The problem is that there are 200+ people running on Port Atlantis strip-mining the area, so it's kind of mined bare.

So mining claims really are in the ground ey... This is gonna cause some serious discussions in the Mining subforum I think

 

[Mariko Ninja]

Would that be something you guys would like to see?

I think that would be a good idea. It would open up the possibility for societies to have their head quarters there. Or beauticians could move there if they wanted.

Perhaps, but only if estate owners in other locations get relocated to PA as first priority, in much the same way that booths at Hades got relocated to Corinth when Hades went away...

No bad idea, they should go on the open market, and be sold via auctions a few at the time.
Anyone who is being relocated should be relocated to an location close to their old location.

 

[PW3CKA]

I missed the marcos comment, but somethign like societies houses > free for top 50 societies and paid for the rest?

Something like this would be deffinetly good, cool, awesome etc..., and dont forget shared storage... People will then kiss your hands

 

[SuNi]

Auctioneers are not in the Equipment building, but in the Economy building.

i mean here not PA , only the OP`s arround PA , but thx for clarify.

Note that the new participant starts at the teleporter at the end of the pier to the south. The first thing the new participant will see is the Immigration official, with the FPC logo above his head. That guy will give you a lot of missions that direct you to the other people, including the tutorials. We hope that this is clear enough for new participants.

hmmm, sry, but i dont think so. I dont have now a good Idea for you, but when i have one, i will tell you.

Definitely dynamic.

Thank you for the quick answer ! Your clarify words in "understandable" english, are a good help for the Newbs !

 

[PW3CKA]

Would that be something you guys would like to see?

Of course yes, but see my comment above > Its already time for this! ( societies houses )

 

[Mariko Ninja]

I missed the marcos comment, but somethign like societies houses > free for top 50 societies and paid for the rest?

Something like this would be deffinetly good, cool, awesome etc..., and dont forget shared storage... People will then kiss your hands

Been thinking about that one, an office block, with estates for society head quarters.
Only society leaders can buy and own one, would be a great locations.

 

[Pioneer|SDS]

i mean here not PA , only the OP`s arround PA , but thx for clarify.

Oh, sorry. I misunderstood you.

Yes, auctioneers were removed from those outposts. We want the cities to be focal points of activity. We thought about it for a long time, and came down to two options that we weighed against each other. And in the end we decided that we wanted a lively city, a focal point of activity, a place where old players meet new players. Now that Mindforce TP is back and there are cars and VTOLs everywhere, the distance from the hunting/mining areas is not that much of a problem.

We think that the benefits were much greater than the drawbacks, so we decided to remove the auctioneers from the outposts around Port Atlantis.

hmmm, sry, but i dont think so. I dont have now a good Idea for you, but when i have one, i will tell you.

Good to hear. If we can improve user-friendliness of the first experience of Planet Calypso, we certainly will.

 

[jenny ferr]

Perhaps, but only if estate owners in other locations get relocated to PA as first priority, in much the same way that booths at Hades got relocated to Corinth when Hades went away...

Hades was destroyed so no more hades booths = relocation to Corinth...

If our other cities get destroyed by some nuke or something then we should be relocated first ofc(owning condo at sakura) but unless our homes get destroyed like Hades we cant be relocated...
As much as I love new PAyay: get to see their work with ok gfx today ) I wouldn't like to get ripped up from my home and my wonderful ocean/mountain view

Yes, auctioneers were removed from those outposts. ...snipped...

We think that the benefits were much greater than the drawbacks, so we decided to remove the auctioneers from the outposts around Port Atlantis.

You thought correct

 

[Kpeters]

Would that be something you guys would like to see?

Definitively just let us know so we can save the money

As an architect myself in real life I can see the New PA working nicely as a social center for pretty much everything those buildings are huge and the city would gain even more life if they were populated.

The idea of having there the auctioneers is also great we shouldnt be able to have them in every outpost out there even if sometimes I wish I had one at every single one it's unrealistic and I like the fact that im forced to go back to a real city to get services like that.

All these things make the cities alive.

And thanks again FPC for an awesome update I'm enjoying it a lot no complains at all!

 

[Pallas Gaudio]

Yes, auctioneers were removed from those outposts. We want the cities to be focal points of activity. We thought about it for a long time, and came down to two options that we weighed against each other. And in the end we decided that we wanted a lively city, a focal point of activity, a place where old players meet new players. Now that Mindforce TP is back and there are cars and VTOLs everywhere, the distance from the hunting/mining areas is not that much of a problem.

We think that the benefits were much greater than the drawbacks, so we decided to remove the auctioneers from the outposts around Port Atlantis.

Right decision.

I haven't investigated, but I hope that storage units (auctioneers not too important) and trade terminals haven't been removed from remote outposts. I don't yet have a vehicle (guess I probably do need to buy one), but I would be happier not to have to wander back to, say, New Switzerland from mining trips in the remote north-east.

 

[aia]

I like the explaination about why there were no auctioneers at the PA outposts. Good to know! Also having all terminals, and preferably auctioneer, close to TP (without having to run in/out of buildings like "old" PA) is good to make a trading place.

Ah, yeas as the one above says: I hope that storage isn't removed. Removing storage makes it hard for sweaters and sweat traders.

My general feeling, beside it looked well, was some general confusion though. With the above point solved, I think 80% of the confusion was due to radar bug:
- Hunting mission along the river: I saw maybe one or two causergatuses there. The radar was generally empty.
- Culling daikiba/exosaur: It was hard to find any valid daikiba/exosaur at the point of the radar. I guess the Old (and upper) daikibas doesn't count.
- I can't tell now what's the sweating place - the new Swamp Camp (building with radio antenna?) had no sweatable mobs around it - radar empty.
- Radar dots came and went. For instance, at the fence probe 4, I had a mysterious orange dot that sometimes went on and sometimes went off. 20 minutes later, I figured that *was* a merker for the probe - it was the first mission probe that did have a orange dot at all.

Ah, and while doing the Caudergatus Puny mission, my radar went crazy: Dots changed color from green to red. I saw NPC colored avatars running across the radar. I even had red mission markers (dot with circle around).

And, at least with my gear, the mining mission was a failure (21 mining bombs without a hit), but the problem with 200 simultaneous miners could have explained it. I still have a problem though with mining getting broken if I drop a bomb before the detector is visible. (If I do drop a bomb before it's visible, the inventory comb count goes down by one, and when the detector gets visible you can see text on it "Press button to initiate search" - ie according to detector that bomb never went off).

A nuisance: It's hard to leave chat windows by pressing "escape" button. Nowdays I have to manually click outside the window. It's a nuicanse if someone is chatting with you while you're doing someting else, like mining, and you have to shift "keyboard focus" between the tool and chat window. Also, dunno if it's my keyboard mapping, but pressing return made mining bombs go off though it wasn't intended. (Annoying if you just chatted and managed to leave window - since the bombs were losses).

Another thing: The young daikibas... it's either radar bug, or the young daikiba spawn is, ???. I'm thinking of those aiming to hunt 10000 of them...

 

[BlueEyes]

Well, it's all nice and pretty now with better access to facilities.

There are a few things I don't like though.

The service centers look like military surplus field barracks. Though the tower ones at the new swamp camp is cool.
Need the auctioneers at the outposts.
Where are the dense, fast respawn spawns of Daik and Bibo? My soc and I churn alot of ped through them spawns so it is in the best interest of MA and FPC for them to be back there. We want or Combibo Hill back!

I would vote against auctioneers in swamp camp. Having no auctioneers in swamp means, you have to go back to PA, which made PA a populair trading place in the past.

 

[BlueEyes]

Isn't there a 2GB "per process" memory limit in windows (xp at least?). I didn't check memory usage when I got the mem errors/crashes but I doubt it was over 2GB and I have 3GB anyhow (and xp doesn't use a gig).

A 32-bit system is, depending on the brand, limited around 3.5GB.

 

[BlueEyes]

Yes, auctioneers were removed from those outposts. We want the cities to be focal points of activity. We thought about it for a long time, and came down to two options that we weighed against each other. And in the end we decided that we wanted a lively city, a focal point of activity, a place where old players meet new players. Now that Mindforce TP is back and there are cars and VTOLs everywhere, the distance from the hunting/mining areas is not that much of a problem.

We think that the benefits were much greater than the drawbacks, so we decided to remove the auctioneers from the outposts around Port Atlantis.

Right on!

 

[wizzszz]

A 32-bit system is, depending on the brand, limited around 3.5GB.

A 32 bit address space is limited to 4GB, because 2^32 = 4,294,967,296

Windows limits this further to ~3GB per 32-bit process, as the upper GB is reserved for addressing system resources (well, the address space of 0xC0000000 and up, actually) - no idea where you took the 3.5GB from, and it sure doesn't depend on the brand, as the OS is the key factor here.

The 2GB "limit" is a limitation of the "GlobalMemoryStatus" system routine (see here), this does not limit the used ram to 2GB tho, it's just a display problem.



Windows XP (and up) is able to emulate and address more than 4GB internally (that's i.e. why the swap file is still there with 4GB ram under 32 bit), but the virtual "flat" memory available per process is not affected by this - and EU is a 32 bit process, this means even on a 64 bit machine with 16GB there is not a single byte advantage over a 32 bit system with 4GB - the process is not able to use (address) the memory exceeding 3GB.


Or, less verbose: If you have 3GB ram or more, you've reached the maximum for EU (or any other 32 bit application) - that EU still complains about it is a bug.

 

[NaomiScott]

Would that be something you guys would like to see?

Hell yes. I wanna beach-front condo with a private jetty please. And a garage to park my vehicles in.

 

[wizzszz]

Would that be something you guys would like to see?

Most definitely - right after you've brought back taming, beacons and face masks.

 

[Immortal]

Most definitely - right after you've brought back taming, beacons and face masks.

MA are responsible for those. As Pioneer stated, having the extra features introduced by FPC in no way shape or form affects the deadlines of features MA are developing.

 

[Menace]

MA are responsible for those. As Pioneer stated, having the extra features introduced by FPC in no way shape or form affects the deadlines of features MA are developing.

Yeah! You tell em' Immortal! Because FPC really IS a separate company from MindArk right?

FFS man.... go hunting or something already...... you must be kissing ass towards a big HoF/ATH or something lately.

Menace

 

[Immortal]

Yeah! You tell em' Immortal! Because FPC really IS a separate company from MindArk right?

FFS man.... go hunting or something already...... you must be kissing ass towards a big HoF/ATH or something lately.

Menace

Would you complain to Mindark if you wanted Neverdie to stop making his planet so boring?

 

[Menace]

Would you complain to Mindark if you wanted Neverdie to stop making his planet so boring?

That statement would make perfect sense of Planet Calypso would have been sold as was the intention outlined in the last financial statement. However, evidently FPC is still running the joint. FPC is just a name. Developed by MindArk to be used as financial security.

A friend of mine has got a Numbered company for his building, and a numbered company for the business inside it. The business inside it has NOTHING to do with the building other than the fact that it rents space from the building. But... guess what.... they are both owned by the same person. And even though on paper one is separate from the other, they are physically the same business. Only difference is... when a tenant in the apartments up-stairs has a plumbing problem and goes down to the storefront below to speak to the owner, the store employee's don't kick them out and tell them the owner answers all his mail!

Menace

 

[WeatherWitch]

Would that be something you guys would like to see?

Hell YES - Stick me down for a penthouse with private vtol pad!