Patch: Feb 13th, Ace ranks, new server console commands and JSON log info

[lamster]

================================================== ===============
Feb 13th, 2010

Added "Ace" ranks:
Upon reaching level 60, players can click a button under Hangar Deck -> Stats to become an Ace.
When you become an Ace you will start over at level 1 with unlocks and challenges reset.
There are no gameplay advantages to becoming an Ace.
You will receive a new badge and the first 5 Ace ranks will each unlock an extra slot on the plane selection screen.
The max Ace rank is 10.

Ball Balance:
Increased Biplane's ball shot speed (16.5 -> 17.2)
Increased Miranda's ball shot speed (16.8 -> 17)
Decreased Loopy's speed while carrying the ball (79% -> 78%)

Server List:
Server rows now update every time they are selected
Added filter option "Level Appropriate" -- excludes servers that don't allow players in your level range

New Console Commands:
listBans
removeBan (IP or VaporID)
addBan (IP or VaporID) (duration) (time-unit) (reason) -- for banning players that aren't currently on the server
serverWhisper (nickname) (message) -- allows the server to send a message to a single player

New message types and additional information for existing types in JSON-formatted server logs, full list of message types will be posted to the dedicated servers forum

[Pieface]

This is great, we finally have a prestige system now! People have wanted this for a long time, thanks for delivering. As always, keep up the great work!

Edit: Ok, I've become an ace and I have a couple of thoughts at the moment:

- Normal level 60s don't have the "60" number over their stars now. Intentional, or accident? It's not a big deal because being level 60 never really meant anything anyway.

- When you unlock rubberized hull, it immediately is equipped. However, when you unlock turbocharger it doesn't automatically equip. Not sure if this was supposed to happen or not.

- I really like the "Ace Stats" vs "Lifetime Stats" dialogue, it serves great for showing how you've improved!

- Why are challenges reset when you prestige? Seems that if you worked hard to complete a challenge you shouldn't have that taken away from you.

[icarus912]

I like the Ace Ranks idea, and now it gives my friends another excuse to bring up Call of Duty when I mention this game

[CCN]

I was just trying out the map editor in windows 7.

Any time I select anything or type something it doesn't show. (E.g. powerup selector move from bomb to shield). But when saved it does the change (it will show up as a shield powerup).

This is pretty frustrating as it extends to the server editor, when i'm trying to select the maps to put on server it doesn't show the maps as it scrolls.

(the last map on the list just keeps repeating)

Mapx Map X
Map Y > 1 scroll > Map Z
Map Z Map Z

[r87]

Timer in ball = terrible.

[Sarah Palin]

Wow, I just spent a few hours levelling up as Ace.

It was a lot of fun but I don't think I can do it 9 more times haha. I'm done once I get my Ace 1 badge which I suspect will become the new standard badge of a srs player.

Anyone wanna bet when we first see an Ace 2, Ace 5, or Ace 10?

I bet by the end of the year there won't be any Ace 10s. That is the path of the true warrior.

[r87]

Becoming Ace = massive fun, btw. Level 60 was so dull.

[eth]

Thanks a lot, great stuff!

[tyr]

Whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

Oh well, I suppose it's better than "fLb ranks" ...

[Luke]

Originally Posted by Sarah Palin

I bet by the end of the year there won't be any Ace 10s. That is the path of the true warrior.

I bet in a few months (maybe sooner) we'll see first ace 10s. Cool idea, tho!

[gemigemi]

I'd suggest removing experience gained from bots. The sooner the better or we'll soon have players just farming on bot servers, and I'd rather have them farming with other players on real servers.

[phong]

{"port":50003,"message":"hi","time":3385946,"playe r":1,"server":false,"type":"chat"}


Can we get "server":"false"?

[eth]

Originally Posted by gemigemi

I'd suggest removing experience gained from bots. The sooner the better or we'll soon have players just farming on bot servers, and I'd rather have them farming with other players on real servers.

Please please please do this. Im actually kinda excited to see who will get rank 10 first, but the race is gonna be pointless if people just farm it out in botpits.

[Jacques Strap]

When you go back to level one as an ace, do all of your previously unlocked planes become locked again? If I went back to level 1, will I not be able to use my beloved whale until I unlock it again?

[phong]

Originally Posted by Jacques Strap

When you go back to level one as an ace, do all of your previously unlocked planes become locked again? If I went back to level 1, will I not be able to use my beloved whale until I unlock it again?

Yes they get locked.

[tyr]

Yea it's pretty cool but but but ... Whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy "ace" ranks ?
Now everyone is like "i'll be an ace" and I'm lile ""

[Tosconi]

that's an awesome update, but I have one question. Why is the design of Ace ranks so US orientated? I know you guys (Karl and Lam) are from the US, but wouldn't it be more interesting (fair) to make let's say chinese, russian, german, french, british-like looking Ace labels?

[Herodadotus]

Probably not going to do Ace until after apl, then. Looks great, though!

[[Y]]

Oh gawd. I just know that I'm gonna show up to a league game as a lvl 14 Ace rank 2 or 3 or something.

Thanks a bunch for the patch, though.
<3 lam&karl

Originally Posted by eth

Please please please do this. Im actually kinda excited to see who will get rank 10 first, but the race is gonna be pointless if people just farm it out in botpits.

There's a limit on the number of experience gained from bots/turrets/bases per server afaik.

[Loli.ta]

I wonder how the ball vs Sammich match will go assuming everyone went into ACE mode. Only loopies, pew pew pew!

[phong]

Originally Posted by Loli.ta

I wonder how the ball vs Sammich match will go assuming everyone went into ACE mode. Only loopies, pew pew pew!

Isnt that how ball is now? Minus maybe 1 miranda or explodet.

[Herodadotus]

I couldn't stay away! Dammit dammit dammit! Ace is fun, but playing demo loopy is killing me.

[gren00b]

Once you decide to start as an Ace does it take longer to get to level 60 than it does normally? Because if not then people will easily be back to level 60 (even though their Ace ranks would increase quickly) in a couple days.

[ZidaneTribal]

Having all your perks reset encourages playing ffa/TDM for fast exp rather than the more enjoyable TBD. By the time u get all ur perks u dont get to enjoy playing with them as most people would just go for the next 'reborn'

[[Y]]

Yeah I know that I'd give in to the temptation of prestiging every time i reach lvl 60...

I guess we'll see pre-Feb 13 tbd games when everyone is an Ace 10.

[nobodyhome]

Originally Posted by phong

{"port":50003,"message":"hi","time":3385946,"playe r":1,"server":false,"type":"chat"}


Can we get "server":"false"?

Why is that necessary? Firstly that doesn't change any functionality you could be doing; simply have a line in your code that says if (!$server) $server = "false"; . Second of all, that makes no sense whatsoever, why would you want something that's obviously a boolean turned into a string? Thirdly, this unnecessarily increases the file size of the logs (very tiny, but you've been making a lot of requests that increases the size of the logs without adding anything that couldn't have been found out through some other way). This is important for the ladder because I would like to archive the logs for each game so that it can be stored for future use (and in case of emergencies or new features, rerunning the logs through the parser again).

Try to remember that you're not the only one that's using these JSON logs and to not make any requests that don't add anything new. It'd be a hassle if I had to change my interpretation of the server variable from false to "false" just because you requested it to be.

[phong]

Originally Posted by nobodyhome

Why is that necessary? Firstly that doesn't change any functionality you could be doing; simply have a line in your code that says if (!$server) $server = "false"; . Second of all, that makes no sense whatsoever, why would you want something that's obviously a boolean turned into a string? Thirdly, this unnecessarily increases the file size of the logs (very tiny, but you've been making a lot of requests that increases the size of the logs without adding anything that couldn't have been found out through some other way). This is important for the ladder because I would like to archive the logs for each game so that it can be stored for future use (and in case of emergencies or new features, rerunning the logs through the parser again).

Try to remember that you're not the only one that's using these JSON logs and to not make any requests that don't add anything new. It'd be a hassle if I had to change my interpretation of the server variable from false to "false" just because you requested it to be.

Calm down there buddy don't get your panties in a bunch. I just suggested it as it's the only Boolean argument in the entire logs, and either way it won't have an effect on parsing stats for ladder or anything else for that matter (and the message json entry had only been out like 8 hours).

I'm not a programmer by any means, this was just something I did over the weekend for fun.

[chippy]

Brilliant. Loopies everywhere.

[Zero]

Ok so before this update my ping was a steady 55, now its 135 that jumps to 500 then to 999 -_-....you mind telling me wtf happened.

[lamster]

Originally Posted by Zero

Ok so before this update my ping was a steady 55, now its 135 that jumps to 500 then to 999 -_-....you mind telling me wtf happened.

Nothing in the network code changed in this patch. Either your local connection is experiencing temporary latency problems (this could be due to regional issues with your internet provider, someone on your local/shared connection using too much bandwidth, e.g. downloading a torrent, or many other reasons), the server you usually play on is experiencing temporary latency problems to some regions, or you joined a server with a laggier-than-usual connection to you.

[Zero]

but my ping is like that in every server

[Evan20000]

Originally Posted by Zero

Ok so before this update my ping was a steady 55, now its 135 that jumps to 500 then to 999 -_-....you mind telling me wtf happened.

A lot of players are experiencing this. Are you sure there isn't a glitch?

[Ajuk999]

This update is pretty awesome lamster, forget the complainers. -.-

[lamster]

It's always possible we messed something up, but I'm going to need more details to diagnose these issues. What's being described is garden variety packet loss which has a huge variety of potential causes.

If only a few people are experiencing problems I'm tempted to assume their local internet connection is at fault (sometimes large geographic regions can experience issues connecting to the eastern US).

If only people playing on certain servers are experiencing issues I'm tempted to assume the server host is having issues (note: many servers share a single internet connection, e.g. we host Official#1-3, Ball-Bouncy #1-4, New Players, etc from the same connection).

If lots of people are experiencing new connection issues on all servers (e.g. you've tested on New England servers, Ohjeah, Official #1, Proleague, Ladder, Volleyball, etc and they all show the same pattern) then it's fair to assume we screwed something up.

Please list which servers you've experienced the problems on and submit a bug report so I can take a look.

[Evan20000]

Personally, I've noticed it on and off on:
Official 3
The Ladder 3 beta that Nobo was hosting
A few of the TDM servers

This could very well be bad on my end since my router has always been unreliable, but when I heard a significant number of other players mention this ingame, I thought it would be worth bringing up.

[lamster]

I appreciate people bringing the issue to our attention, unfortunately it's often a regional issue with a server host (for example, all the servers we're hosting have some packet loss to the western US, or to most of Europe, or whatever) that will resolve itself automatically (or is beyond our control), and you never know when a few people are just having local connection issues. You can always submit a bug report (F1, reportBug, submit) and I'll take a quick look for anything out of the ordinary.

[Herodadotus]

It's been happening to me on all tdm servers, and both official and non-official 3.

[carstairs]

It's been happening to me all day, but speedtest.net also shows me as getting .27 mbps down, instead of the usual 26 (note the lack of a decimal), so methinks it's on my end.

I'm inclined to blame Verizon. If it weren't late I'd call them. As it is, I wait and will try calling them tomorrow.

[Triped]

Thanks a lot for giving us a way to get more plane slots. I've really been wanting more than 10 lately.

[as red as black]

just hit 30 with prestige...haven't seen anyone else this high at this point....am I winning??!!