Topic

Staff Topic

Release Notes: Test period 21 - 24 July

Hello!

Ready for the test? Well, we are ready for you! Let's take a look at a few things to go over as we start!

Quest Revisions:
For many, the plaintive cry from a new player of 'Where can I find a patch?" was oft heard, and not easily answered. Likewise, getting trees to a "level" which you can't really see, until it just shows as complete in your quest list was frustrating for many. We've replaced the quests which were offered after the Soil Appreciation and Better Learning skills were completed to some that make a little more sense in the game today. There are even two that take advantage of collective work in digging. Even if you are already past those levels, you'll get the chance to do those quests and we’d love your feedback.

Butterflies and Chickens Lifespans:
The world can get overpopulated fast with butterflies and chickens hanging around and cluttering up streets. But, the Giants now grant them some sweet relief: once a chicken or butterfly has fulfilled its Glitchy destiny by providing sustenance and wisdom to enough players, it will ascend to a Higher Plane of Being. Salute these noble creatures, for they gave themselves for us to play!

Post Game Server Restart:
So, as many of you recall, last test there was a restart of the game server about 12 hours before we ended the test. We’ve fixed most if not all of the issues you reported. But, we’ve left behind a number of things to collect in many of the streets -- meat, grain, butterfly butter to name a few. Feel free to pick them up and add to your inventory! No need to report it, we know there's a lot there. Also, you may see items hanging above the ground in some spots. The underlying issues is fixed, so no need to report it back to us. You should be able to grab items that are there, so, go right ahead! (We'll evaluate things towards the end of this test to see if this is indeed a dead bug.)

East & West Spice:
There were many reports of problems in these streets. We found the issue (related to spritesheets in these locations) and fixed it. Should be waaaay better. Try it and see!

Lag in General:
There were many more reports of lag in the last test, and after it was all over our front-end client giants went to work with the information supplied by you folks. We think we solved most of the problems that surrounded it, but of course if you still see issues, let us know. For those who were stuck loading the game at 49% and no more, let us know if you still have problems. Before reporting, try to start from a fresh browser session, not one that you have had going for a long time, and try a couple different browsers as well to see if there is a pattern for you. And again, please use the debug Flash client while you are testing the game.

Rolling Restarts:
Ideally you won't notice this other than an occasional "reconnecting" message (or a complete reload) but we're going to be aggressively testing restarting live game servers during this test. The result will be that your connection to the game world will occasionally be passed from one server to another (as your initial server is stopped). This helps us ensure continued operation even in the case of bad hardware, network problems in our datacenters or the need to make critical patches to the lowest levels of our server code while the game is running.

Posted 17 months ago by kevbob Subscriber! | Permalink

Replies

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  • TY, kevbob - does the age thing go for the butterflies and chickens in our yrads, as well? (please say no lol)
    Posted 17 months ago by sgjo Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Wahoo
    Posted 17 months ago by MikiD Subscriber! | Permalink
  • @sgjo- yes, it does.
    Posted 17 months ago by kevbob Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Hooray! 
    Posted 17 months ago by Napoleon Bonaparte Subscriber! | Permalink
  • @sgjo @kevbob if it is in fact number of players and not number of harvests, the number of players harvesting your chickens and butterflies on your property would probably be far less than the number on the street, and thereby they should be safe from death.

    But if it's number of harvests, then that's a sad thing indeed.
    Posted 17 months ago by Neatly Sliced Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Thank you tons for fixing East and West spice! So much nicer spice harvesting now :)
    Also on fixing up the lag. Last test it took me half an hour to load the game when it opened. This time it took less than 2 minutes! I'd cleared my cache and flash cache too, so expected it to take forever. Great work! :D
    Posted 17 months ago by Ebil Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Um...kevbob...you weren't suppose to say "yes" 

    Well...I won't gripe coz it'll definitely keep the yard interesting...sad but interesting :P 
    Posted 17 months ago by sgjo Subscriber! | Permalink
  • @Ebil 2 minutes to load the game?! I'll never take my 8GB of RAM for granted again! Maximum probably 15 seconds for me. Just tried it and it was 4 seconds. 

    That explains a lot for me why people leave the world open on their browser... for me it's easy to leave and return to the world since it's so fast.
    Posted 17 months ago by Neatly Sliced Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Well poo to my animals croaking my yard. Could we have some way to feed them (as w/ pigs) to keep them around? :) But yayaayyayayayyayaya! on the new quests. (And yes that is spelled all crazy. I know:)
    Posted 17 months ago by RM Subscriber! | Permalink
  • @Neatly Sliced, I have 8gb of ram too, but my connection's super slow, I'm lucky to get half a MB. Most days around 400kbs.  But I live in the middle of nowhere, so it's this or nothing so I'll settle for this lol :)
    Posted 17 months ago by Ebil Subscriber! | Permalink
  • The underlying issues is fixed, so need to report it back to us.

    Should this be "no need"? I assume so, but just wanted to make sure. xD You know what they say about assuming...

    We’ve fixed most if not all of the issues you reported
    Does this include things that were missing, like trees and patches? Has that not been done yet? I noticed my tree and patch are still gone and I wasn't sure if I should keep waiting it out or if I should report it somewhere.
    (I'm not mad or anything xD I just want to know if I should report it)

    Thanks kevbob :)

    Edit: Many thanks to the awesome staff working on it! *hugs* You guys rock!
    Posted 17 months ago by Nea Subscriber! | Permalink
  • No big deal on croaking critters... it makes sense that they wouldn't provide us with goodies indefinitely. Just gotta brush off the ol' egg seasoner!
    Posted 17 months ago by Lilith Subscriber! | Permalink
  • @sgjo..that actually helps to complete some of the tougher achievements that take forever!!!Happy about the updates!  I usually never have lag but this last test was a real doozer for me so I'll be happy to check all the areas out!  TY as always, delighted to play and test.
    Posted 17 months ago by AlmostSilver Subscriber! | Permalink
  • The 30 minute (I think) quest to dig loam started as soon as I got it with no option to delay. Ran out of time after I had to restart due to walking left, no option to redo the quest, it just vanished?

    ETA: This quest has re-appeared again after approx 9  hours. Thanks!
    Posted 17 months ago by Teena Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Quests:

    Yay!  I like these much better as quests (the digging and loam).  My sole complaint is that they came too fast and furious - a little spacing in time would be nice (as little as an hour).

    Loam: seems to me that we used to be able to set the timer for the other quests that involved time?  Or maybe I just clicked OK to fast... I'd appreciate being able to set when I want to start this.  Despite it, though, I was able to finish the quest pretty handily. :)

    Digging: I did this with 3 different sets of people, and it seems like sometimes the completion of part of the quest didn't fire.  In other words: They dig, I help, the chat records that there is a bonus awarded for the helping, but they didn't register 1/3 in their log for the quest.  Regardless, we all were able to complete the quest by just digging more big patches, so yay.
    Posted 17 months ago by zeeberk Subscriber! | Permalink
  • kevbob is awesome.
    Posted 17 months ago by emdot Subscriber! | Permalink
  • You're going to kill chickens when I squeeze them too much?! No wonder they don't like being squeezed! *weeps*

    Couldn't you say that they move to a big retirement farm with lots of room for them to play hopscotch and whatever? I can't eat Glitch bread and cheese anymore if they DIE. Damnation.

    At least the BBQ is still humane.
    Posted 17 months ago by Ida Keen Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Loam quest is waaaaay too easy with Soil Appreciation IV! Only took me about 3 minutes by myself in Kajuu.

    @Zeeberk - that sounds like the fun we have with peat bog quests, trying to get the timing right?
    Posted 17 months ago by Spong Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Yay. I also love the stickied threads. Now if we could just be able to delete our posts/threads...
    Posted 17 months ago by Cerulean Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Ida Keen: they don't die... they ascend to a higher plane!

    "The Higher Plane" is, in fact, the name of a large winged-critter retirement farm. Ok? :)

    To others expressing sadness at the idea of losing "over-used" animals from your yards, the limits are set reasonably high, so we don't think it's an occurrence you'll see that often unless you're a seriously compulsive squeezer/milker.
    Posted 17 months ago by hitherto Subscriber! | Permalink
  • @hitherto That is a relief... does the auto-milking machine count towards the number of butterfly milkings? Or is that separate?
    Posted 17 months ago by Neatly Sliced Subscriber! | Permalink
  • @hitherto

    OK. *sniff*

    ohmygod it isn't dramatic is it?  when you squeeze her for the last time does the chicken say "goodbye cruel world" and lurch around the street before she explodes? nevermind. don't tell me.

    it's feathers all over like in True Romance isn't it?

    don't tell me.

    now I have to go squeeze one and find out. damnation.
    Posted 17 months ago by Ida Keen Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I failed to do the collect a certain amount of loam in 30 minutes quest, and it hasn't been offered to me again (and isn't in my quest log)... should it be? Or does failure mean I will never get another chance?

    EDIT: never mind, I just got it again.
    Posted 17 months ago by Shepherdmoon Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Of course im just pleased for the game to be UP, but is there an ETA for the release to the public of this game? It'd be nice not to have the thought that all 'work' will be deleted at some point :D.

    Maybe an Open BETA where bugs are still high priority but game data is preserved.

    ST.
    Posted 17 months ago by Nytician Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Swift, it will be 5 weeks optimistically, maybe more, depending.
    Posted 17 months ago by Shepherdmoon Subscriber! | Permalink
  • OK, for the "Spreading the Love" quest to donate 100 favor points at 5 different shrines... I just put in way more than 100 favor points worth of stuff and it's not counting it (it still shows 0/5 shrines completed). Do those 100 points have to be in a single item, or can you go back and donate multiple times to add up to 100? Or is this a bug?

    EDIT: It seems to be working correctly now.
    Posted 17 months ago by Shepherdmoon Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Do milk collectors count as interactions with butterflies?

    Also, I LOVE the idea of having a quest early on to get players interacting with each other.  Great way to encourage a stronger community and meeting new players!
    Posted 17 months ago by Laurali Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Do you want to know the location of items that can't be picked up?  
    Posted 17 months ago by Mahalla Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Bless the giants for animal lifespans! I hope this does not encourage people to make even more....
    Posted 17 months ago by MaryLiLamb Subscriber! | Permalink
  • thanks kevbob, these updates really help.
    Posted 17 months ago by Cat A. Tonic Subscriber! | Permalink
  • @ hitherto - "unless you're a seriously compulsive squeezer/milker"

    Ooo...you know me so well! lol - it's cool...may even be able to get some of those egg and critter badges that I've been putting off :)
    Posted 17 months ago by sgjo Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Report: I cannot attempt the "Under the wire" quest because I have no more skills to learn.

    (ok, sarcastic report)
    Posted 17 months ago by Another Chris Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I flippin' LOVE the sticky release notes at the top. 5 points to Ravenclaw!
    Posted 17 months ago by Mac Rapalicious Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I messed up.  I read the Under the Wire wrong.  I crammed Zille full until I had an emblem but did not get the Quest.  Then I read it again.  I was supposed to SPEND the favor not just Donate it.  Oh boy, Now I must cram Zille full again.  Off to the Mines...
    Posted 17 months ago by Brib Annie Subscriber! | Permalink
  • @kevbob, hitherto, et al.

    I love the idea of new quests. One issue, though -- the Magic Rock's voice doesn't sound quite the same as in my other interactions with it. I can't put my finger on it exactly, but it sounds like either a different person authored the conversations or they were rushed through when trying to get the quests ready for the current test. The Rock just doesn't sound like his or her playful, snarky, clever self.

    (I wasn't sure whether this was a "bug" or not.)
    Posted 17 months ago by Herp Derp Subscriber! | Permalink
  • do butterfly milkers count toward the ascension to a Higher Plane of Being?

    Also, LOVE the "Hot Topic" box!!! Much appreciated!
    Posted 17 months ago by Jepro Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Did you change the ratio of donations to secondary giants to time shavings?

    With these skills that take over a week to complete, it's pretty difficult to properly speedread, unless you want to log in every 4 hours.

    Although it certainly makes sense that favor with secondary giants doesn't go as far.
    Posted 17 months ago by Biff Beefbat Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Have grave markers been removed? or is this a bug?
    Posted 17 months ago by bored no more Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I'm finding the constant reminders for the loam quest a bit annoying - there isn't an option to "save for later."  You either have to accept it and start the clock or close it and then it keeps popping up.
    Posted 17 months ago by Tradescantia Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Regarding butterflies: Are they supposed to be able to go indoors now? I have seen at least one of my butterflies inside my house.
    Posted 17 months ago by Becky Subscriber! | Permalink
  • The chickens die when their squeezed a bunch - what about overcrowding? They're all bummed out in West Spice because of the overcrowding, but because they're so upset we can't squeeze them to kill a couple of em off. 
    Posted 17 months ago by Vera Strange Subscriber! | Permalink
  • #1 save for later for quests (@Tradescantia)
    Posted 17 months ago by emdot Subscriber! | Permalink
  •  Thanks a ton Kevbob :)

    Can we expect to see the higher plane of being can be applied to over harvested trees too? That will give a chance for people to plant trees in their random travels.
    Posted 17 months ago by gia Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Quest Revisions:
    For many, the plaintive cry from a new player of 'Where can I find a patch?" was oft heard, and not easily answered. Likewise, getting trees to a "level" which you can't really see, until it just shows as complete in your quest list was frustrating for many. We've replaced the quests which were offered after the Soil Appreciation and Better Learning skills were completed to some that make a little more sense in the game today. There are even two that take advantage of collective work in digging. Even if you are already past those levels, you'll get the chance to do those quests and we’d love your feedback.


    As a newer player, I had to complete a Refresh for the Tutorial quest that has a tend the patch piece to it (one of three things to do).  However, when I tended a couple of patches (in the backyard of the new house I had purchased - which was quite enjoyable to EARN enough to get my own place (re: other thread on giving houses to newbs)), it did NOT complete.  The quest later told me it was complete when I went to a location where I had set a destination on the map, and had arrived.   I'm not sure how this reinforces the tutorial since you just read the map in the tutorial you don't really ever set a destination.  If this is no longer supposed to be about tending patches then please update the quest wording.  [Also, there were two random patches at the end of my tutorial, which I wasn't sure what I was supposed to do with...I didn't have any beans to plant, and there were no instructions with those...seemed odd at the time.]

    As far as the tree getting to a certain stage quest...yea, I still have that one, and have no clue when it will be at level 10 since there seems to be no way to figure out what level my trees in my yard (or anywhere else) are at.  After reading this post/thread, I was surprised to still get that quest.  
    Posted 17 months ago by Uniquely Prime Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I found that it took a while to find someone to help with digging in the dirt pile. It was much easier for me to help someone else do something, like mining.
    Posted 17 months ago by Samerina Subscriber! | Permalink
  • "As a newer player, I had to complete a Refresh for the Tutorial quest that has a tend the patch piece to it (one of three things to do)."

    We didn't actually take the patch tending bit out of the tutorial refresher right away. 

    "The quest later told me it was complete..."

    Which probably happened *after* we changed it yesterday. Those getting it after you were on the cusp of it should not see the patch wording. And, there is still the please a tree quest you get later which is the one you are noticing- and was not in the batch of quest changes we made. 

    Thanks for the feedback folks!
    Posted 17 months ago by kevbob Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Since I was just recently invited, this might sound like a stupid, or maybe obvious, question to ask, but when you speak of "open" 21-24, does this mean after the 24th, we are unable to play until the next open? Thanks for your answer!

    ~Brekkana~
    Posted 17 months ago by Brekkana Subscriber! | Permalink
  • What time does this test period end on 7/24?
    Posted 17 months ago by Sean of the Moor Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Brekkana- we close the test on the 24th, Pacific Time zone (California and British Columbia time :)  We will announce our next test after.

    Sean of the Moor- expect around 5, same time zone (subject to the whims of the Giants, naturally)
    Posted 17 months ago by kevbob Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Thanks kevbob. And I'm assuming that's 5PM, PST :D
    Posted 17 months ago by Sean of the Moor Subscriber! | Permalink
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