The testserver is back online with the data we used for the last test. The upcoming patch features mostly performance updates so this time there is no need to focus the testing activities on any particluar feature. The test server will be up until sunday evening. Thanks a lot for helping to make Weewar better.

Any hints on areas of the system that were a bottleneck or hints on ways used to increase performance?

It is not so much about verifying if the speed is perceptibly increased (not likely as test.weewar.com has limited server resources) but more if any of the changes have broken Weewar in other places.

i noticed at the bottom my hq page it says "2 of 150 registered users are playing 2 visitors 0 new users in the last 24h 18 games are running 49 games played"

these are general Weewar stats (as currently available from the ticker page) - This is to unify the footer

of course the stats are rather unimpressive for test.weewar.com

will they brought to the normal server?

yep. with the release next week - and then they will reflect real numbers. It is mostly a presentation change (if you compare to current weewar.com)

along the same lines we have unified the navigation on the home page with the rest of the site (another much requested change). That should save some extra clicking

how do I go about submitting a new map I created?

is there way to have a crack at the map-maker without being pro?

(not to go too far OT)

@Simonz: we are currently not planing to migrate any maps created on Test to the live system. So if you create anything there make sure to at least capture it with in screen shot. IF you are keen to get it live the best way is to share it here in Tangler so people can comment.

@TallyHo: The editor is still very rough around the edges. At the moment editor status comes with all the pro benefits but being pro does not mean that you automatically have access to the editor.

Hope this makes sense

ok, here's the second map i did.  I'll try and get the bigger map soon.

Blitz map

If someone could give me a hint as to what i'm doing wrong when i paste the url in for the image, that'd be great.  until then, there's the link above

I'm not big on theme maps, but I couldn't pass this one up

That's an amusing map - I for one would like to try it out and see how it goes. Could be a lot like a chess game, but much much more ... interactive.

Simonz: Interesting map.  But how come blue's southwestern base in unowned?

I left it unowned to help offset blue's first turn advantage, which on this small of a map would otherwise probably be quite decisive.

Oh, okay.

Is anybody else getting this when trying to access the test server?

/ticker.xhtml @9,105 value="#{frontPageBean.frontPageEvents}": Error reading 'frontPageEvents' on type com.weewar.web.jsfbeans.FrontPageJSFBean

looks like somebody found a bigger bug on test... We'll be looking into it but it might not happen before Monday.

does this mean the planned update for tomorrow night will be pushed back?

Jury is out on that - but I hope not. We can all do with the speed boost

At the moment editor status comes with all the pro benefits but being pro does not mean that you automatically have access to the editor.

So how would I go about getting access to the editor? Who do I need to go and grovel in front of? 
 

Editor is on Test Server. Are you trying to access it from the test server or live one?

hmm.. it seems the question is really "why am I not on the test server"

I remember being told an invite to a game was headed my way, but I never got the email (and unless it was a bug exclusive to test-server related emails then it wasn't a bug - I receive emails from robot@weewar just fine.

I remember sending you an invite to the test server.... twice I think

hmm.. how odd, I honestly haven't seen any email invites

just check, you did send them to mpeskett@hotmail.co.uk ?

I'm sure I did... I'll try again

oops... sorry SK, the test server is down. I'll try next time its up okay?

Since I didn't know what I was doing when I first uploaded the pic, the link to the blitz map has changed.

Just noticed that the blitz map is a chess board. I think the balance you put in for blue is a little severe. What is the income per base?

Too bad you didn't design the map for pro matches. I think the AA would have been better knights. Heh not sure about the bishops though.

meh, I don't have a pro account since i ran out of people to invite, so I'm not going to design any pro maps cause I wouldn't be able to play them  as for the balance issue...well...it would need to be playtested thoroughly to see if having the bases be equal would make things too unfair for the second player.  I was thinking of sticking with the standard 100/base.

Ok, and here is my bigger map.  I call it Strongholds and Chokepoints.  Basically, I never play 4player games anymore because there aren't any maps that I like that I feel are balanced.  I'm afraid I might have stacked things too much against the blue player, but naturally things can be tweaked.  My thought here was to make it so the map was symmetrical (because I found it was too hard for me to even try to balance things on an asymmetrical map) and then give the first and third players a slight disadvantage against the second and fourth players, in the form of putting their starting trooper further away from the middle bases so that while they can still hit a base on their first turn, they don't have a head start on getting to the middle.  I also gave players 3 and 4 the bases in the corner to start out as a balance against the fact that their turns come last.  It's hard to see in the crappy pasted together screenshots I made it from, but the corner bases are already owned by purple and yellow, while blue and red will have to take the time to go grab theirs.  Any comments/suggestions are welcome =)

The time for red and blue to capture their corner base is too long(about 4 turns). It will give purple/yellow a huge advantage in terms credits. I found that capturing a base one turn later is a good balance. So I recommend a couple things, but this will depend on what the base credits would be.

1. Make purple/yellow corner base a gray base. Give only purple/yellow extra trooper. Place the trooper in on the mountain or forest tile.
2. Give red/blue an extra trooper to capture their corner base. Place the trooper in on the mountain or forest tile.
3. Move Red/Blue troopers close to their corner bases. Note: if red/blue player goes for the corner base they should have the capability to capture it on their turn.

ok, good suggestions, I think I'm going to go with option 2.  I'll change it and repost the pic when I get a chance.

or not, i guess the test server is down again now that the update is done on the live server

Hm, wouldn't it be neat to get basic numbers on win frequency for each colour for a map?  That might help shed some light on maps that need rebalancing.

indeed

I like the blitz map a lot and I have a few suggestions for it and also I recommend a change of map name to fit it's designed theme. Something to do with chess. I'm a big fan of chess and small maps. I'm not too thrilled with your 2nd map though. I dislike overly large maps with a lot of wasted space that will never get used. It's a big map with a nice design but if it's for normal play then 1/3 of the map will never get used.

Some suggestions and ideas for the chess map:

Replace the bishops (light infantry) with light artillery.

Have you thought about checkering the map with forests and dessert?

Have pawns be a mix of light and heavy infantry.

Remove the bases where the rooks stand and only have 1 base where the king stands.

Remove the bases where the rooks stand and have 2 bases where the king and queen stands.

Replace the king with an infantry or heavy infantry.

The hexes of the entire back row on both sides replaced with the opposing enemy's bases. So the hexes of row that the blue king and blue queen stands are will be all replaced with red bases and the hexes of the row where the red king and red queen stand on will be replaced with blue bases.

Adding in one more row of hexes directly in the middle of the map and use that row to put a few bases.