Xenoberage

If you have a new game running on your server, you can announce it in here.

xgermz
Posts: 8
Joined: Sun Jun 28, 2015 09:34 UTC

Xenoberage

Post by xgermz » Sun Jun 28, 2015 09:51 UTC

(First Post edit to keep users up to date)
ROUND ENDED.

Johnny Bravo Won! well done!

New round started today, updated code to 0.20.

Join today, also this round will be a lot longer, ive added in an "endgame" scenario which you the players control, so you guys decide when this next round ends!!

Why not join today!
http://play.xenoberage.com/

Xenobe Rage 0.20
Changelog

--------------------------------------------------
Previous Post
Its quite disheartening seeing the core game has been put on a bit of a back burner due to ill health and other issues, i've put some effort into attempting to keep the game going in one way or another.

So ive updated the theme, and made some changes, quite a few actually, (e.g. planet facilities, account recovery) it would be better to play the game and explore them.

http://play.xenoberage.com

Xenobes are not active, they will be brought into play at a later date. I dislike the old system where xenobes are just spawned in missing a epic opportunity to let the community create them xD, e.g. if a player dies, spawn an xenobe from the aftermath controlling all the players old planets, based on the strength of that empire ;) ... its an idea anyway)

(Please note, some changes are experimental, and might require reverting to original code if the game becomes too un-balanced. Also if you look in the code you will see ... a lot of code changes and commented out code and confusing things, this is due to me learning the code, and if i don't understand anything or think i could tweak it, ive changed that code, but in some cases ive left the old code in place just commented out. My back-end code changes are work in progress, and always remember, progress requires experimentation xD))

Any questions?

XgermZ - David

Xenoberage 0.19
Last edited by xgermz on Thu Jul 23, 2015 10:14 UTC, edited 1 time in total.

Alberto
Posts: 20
Joined: Tue May 06, 2014 18:58 UTC

Re: Xenoberage

Post by Alberto » Mon Jun 29, 2015 21:15 UTC

No offence, but just curious. Why is it no one is able to get xenobes working ( your game, friorlair, even the mighty dudes game) when starkick traders had them up and running for the past 12years or so.

xgermz
Posts: 8
Joined: Sun Jun 28, 2015 09:34 UTC

Re: Xenoberage

Post by xgermz » Tue Jun 30, 2015 15:09 UTC

I think that ties into what TMD said, people made their own code, and didnt share.

Yes the basics are there, and can easily be implemented and turned on in the game, though there are a couple of bugs/issues lol.

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TheMightyDude
Site Admin
Posts: 311
Joined: Thu Apr 17, 2014 09:15 UTC

Re: Xenoberage

Post by TheMightyDude » Thu Jul 02, 2015 02:12 UTC

Alberto wrote:No offence, but just curious. Why is it no one is able to get xenobes working ( your game, friorlair, even the mighty dudes game) when starkick traders had them up and running for the past 12years or so.
We use to have them running on our games for a while, it was only when we did huge changes to the core code that they broke the AI Code and how they was suppose to work.

I did plan to fix them, but was at the time working on a new AI code as a BNT Plugin, but sadly ill health and issues made me put it all on the back burner for now.
TheMightyDude::Blacknova Development.
Development Blog YouTube Dev Channel Twitter Twitch

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TheMightyDude
Site Admin
Posts: 311
Joined: Thu Apr 17, 2014 09:15 UTC

Re: Xenoberage

Post by TheMightyDude » Thu Jul 02, 2015 02:13 UTC

xgermz wrote:I think that ties into what TMD said, people made their own code, and didnt share.

Yes the basics are there, and can easily be implemented and turned on in the game, though there are a couple of bugs/issues lol.
Yes, its mostly database issues.
TheMightyDude::Blacknova Development.
Development Blog YouTube Dev Channel Twitter Twitch

xgermz
Posts: 8
Joined: Sun Jun 28, 2015 09:34 UTC

Re: Xenoberage

Post by xgermz » Wed Jul 22, 2015 21:00 UTC

ROUND ENDED.

Johnny Bravo Won! well done!

New round started today, updated code to 0.20.

Join today, also this round will be a lot longer, ive added in an "endgame" scenario which you the players control, so you guys decide when this next round ends!!

Why not join today!
http://play.xenoberage.com/

Xenobe Rage 0.20
Changelog

thekabal
Posts: 100
Joined: Sat Apr 19, 2014 22:32 UTC

Re: Xenoberage

Post by thekabal » Sun Aug 02, 2015 21:47 UTC

Alberto wrote:No offence, but just curious. Why is it no one is able to get xenobes working ( your game, friorlair, even the mighty dudes game) when starkick traders had them up and running for the past 12years or so.
Very reasonable question.

So first, consider that many of those other sites are choosing to run in an insecure configuration. Meaning, the old versions of BNT literally won't work on a current/safe/patched version of MySQL, PHP, and Apache. So they are running an older version of either MySQL or PHP that is vulnerable (or both), OR they have added their own custom fixes to get around those issues -- which they have not shared.

But also, when it was in active development, the dev team for BNT was trying to do things "the right way", with secure choices. I've seen some of the code for some of the forks, and in the vast majority of cases, they took shortcuts. Some of those shortcuts were inspired and cool, but others were dangerously insecure.

So the way many others got things working was like juggling with chainsaws. Exciting, and perhaps safe for a period of time (luck), but in the end, someone is going to get hurt.

Further to that point, about 18 months ago, I started down the path of converting BNT to not use ADODB any more. ADODB was (in theory) meant to be a database abstraction layer. It served us well enough for a period of time, but it also has become less supported, less secure, and more dangerous to use. At one point in development, I literally couldn't get BNT working AT ALL due to bugs in ADODB.

That conversion isn't complete, and as a result, it is very challenging to fix database problems without non-trivial effort. Especially when we want to do things the right way (switch to PDO instead).

With dwindling time & developer resources, doing things correctly taking more effort, and other folks choosing to take the code and go their own way without sharing.. Well, its not a great result.

This is one of the reasons that we switched to the AGPLv3 instead of the GPLv2. It prevents exactly that from happening (take, run, don't share) by closing a notorious loophole. That was the intention all along, but the license actually requires it, whereas many years ago it did not.

Alberto
Posts: 20
Joined: Tue May 06, 2014 18:58 UTC

Re: Xenoberage

Post by Alberto » Fri Aug 21, 2015 21:52 UTC

thekabal wrote:
Alberto wrote:No offence, but just curious. Why is it no one is able to get xenobes working ( your game, friorlair, even the mighty dudes game) when starkick traders had them up and running for the past 12years or so.
Very reasonable question.

So first, consider that many of those other sites are choosing to run in an insecure configuration. Meaning, the old versions of BNT literally won't work on a current/safe/patched version of MySQL, PHP, and Apache. So they are running an older version of either MySQL or PHP that is vulnerable (or both), OR they have added their own custom fixes to get around those issues -- which they have not shared.

But also, when it was in active development, the dev team for BNT was trying to do things "the right way", with secure choices. I've seen some of the code for some of the forks, and in the vast majority of cases, they took shortcuts. Some of those shortcuts were inspired and cool, but others were dangerously insecure.

So the way many others got things working was like juggling with chainsaws. Exciting, and perhaps safe for a period of time (luck), but in the end, someone is going to get hurt.

Further to that point, about 18 months ago, I started down the path of converting BNT to not use ADODB any more. ADODB was (in theory) meant to be a database abstraction layer. It served us well enough for a period of time, but it also has become less supported, less secure, and more dangerous to use. At one point in development, I literally couldn't get BNT working AT ALL due to bugs in ADODB.

That conversion isn't complete, and as a result, it is very challenging to fix database problems without non-trivial effort. Especially when we want to do things the right way (switch to PDO instead).

With dwindling time & developer resources, doing things correctly taking more effort, and other folks choosing to take the code and go their own way without sharing.. Well, its not a great result.

This is one of the reasons that we switched to the AGPLv3 instead of the GPLv2. It prevents exactly that from happening (take, run, don't share) by closing a notorious loophole. That was the intention all along, but the license actually requires it, whereas many years ago it did not.
That's a shame about people not sharing their code, hopefully you'll beable to find a balance between site security and getting the xenobes to work in the not to distant future. btw I like the extra features in your xenoberage site and I'm still getting used to it. Next update consider allowing new players to turn off invulnerability so they can start attcking sooner if they choose.

xgermz
Posts: 8
Joined: Sun Jun 28, 2015 09:34 UTC

Re: Xenoberage

Post by xgermz » Sun Aug 23, 2015 20:05 UTC

Alberto wrote:btw I like the extra features in your xenoberage site and I'm still getting used to it. Next update consider allowing new players to turn off invulnerability so they can start attcking sooner if they choose.
Thats an idea, but ive spotted a horrific problem ..... the experienced players are ... pretty hardcore and very good at what they do, and the new players.... they are complete n00bs, so many have been utterly destroyed after the invun time ran out.

But ye, adding in an opt out is within the realms of possibilities.

Anyway, i should say, Im doing my own thing with xenoberage, there will be 2 more changes to come before i start working on the campaigns..... (new method of play to pass the boring time away once you get to big ... muauahahaha, long long way away though, planned for next year). The 2 changes will impact the players Ship, and the Solar systems.

The ship changes are still being worked out, but the solar system changes im pretty sure i know where i want to go with. Yes the changes might upset a few users, but ye, its where im taking the game anyway, these changes will be required before i start working on the campaigns. Next update to be pushed live is expected November/december time. To give me time to work on the code a lot more.

xgermz
Posts: 8
Joined: Sun Jun 28, 2015 09:34 UTC

Re: Xenoberage

Post by xgermz » Sun Aug 23, 2015 20:13 UTC

Teaser

Image

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