Observer patch for Nergal now active

[Tsagoth]

As I mentioned in my other post I have now patched Nergal with the new observer code update. You can now view all objects in a sector from wherever you are. If you deploy a mining colony in a new system, you will be able to still view the other planets in the system.

I think it's working correctly, but it would help to have some testing done. So fly around, see what you can see. I'm mostly interested in the edge cases, like if you can still see the planets after your last ship leaves, that sort of thing.

If nothing serious comes up, I'll patch the other servers Friday.

[Jean Arnaud]

I used only probes to test this.

My probes were able to fully scan all planets in a system when they were located at that systems sun. I was able to see harvesting routes, orbitals, and planetary information. I also had the options pop up to attack and to message that player. The attack option seems strange. I ussed an attack order and it told me I was attacking, but nothing appeared to happen. The probe is alive and at the sun. I am not sure if this affected my diplomatic standing.

I have not encountered a planet near me that has a standing group of ships (or a fleet), so I can't determine if I would be able to view their details. However, I did encounter a planet that had a trade ship in orbit around the planet for a player other than the one owning the planet. I was able to view that ships details from the sun.

I happen to have a colony (not an outpost) in a system that someone else now mostly controls. Again, I am able to see all of these same things for this other persons planet in that system, including the option to attack (it does nothing again).

When I moved my probes out of the system, I was still able to see all of this information as if the probe was still there. I have since logged out and the back in, and now it is back to the default, where I cannot see any information on the planets in that system. So it looks like there is some latent information as long as I remain logged in.

[Jean Arnaud]

Ok, I just tested it again, and the residual ability to see the planet's information appears to be just for a minute or two, possibly just during the time it takes for the probe to travel to the next sector (2.4 minutes). Without closing the game, I checked the planet a little after sending the probe one sector away and it was reset so I needed to be in orbit to see details. I think this is what you were hoping for.

[Jean Arnaud]

I found a fleet (one probe) in orbit around the planet's owner, and I could view it's information from the sun. I have still not found any non-fleeted ships idling around a planet, but I assume I could view that as well. All seems to be working.

[Tsagoth]

I also had the options pop up to attack and to message that player. The attack option seems strange. I ussed an attack order and it told me I was attacking, but nothing appeared to happen. The probe is alive and at the sun. I am not sure if this affected my diplomatic standing.

Hmm. Well that's not very good. Presumably that's a bug caused by something I did to fake out the client to make this work. I'll have to talk to Z about this; apparently he doesn't know his client code as well as he thought.

[Jean Arnaud]

Well, I think it's a benign issue. Obviously a ship cannot attack from the sun, nor can my planet attack another. The little reticle icon is there and I can click. I get the popup and it tells me about an act of war, etc. When I choose ok, go ahead and attack, I get the message at the bottom of the screen that I am attaching, but nothing of import happens as far as I can tell, so it's easily ignorable imo.

[Enforc3r]

Congrats! So did you set me on war on purpose and pretend it was a glitch? Your lucky I stick to my word, because I was thinking about coming after you at the start because I noticed you had that corner all to your self hehe. Won't let you win next time :o

Dammit posted in the wrong topic. Thought this was the server you won hehe4

[Jean Arnaud]

Haha, Enforcer. I only set you to war on one occassion, which was when you sent battleships to some of my colonies near IF's territory. The glitch occurred at that time and my probes triggered your ships to attack when I sent one into orbit around one of my outposts where your ships were located. This caused your ships to take over the planet and lef me to believe you had set me to war. Thus, I set you to war for a few days and took back the outpost. In hindsight, I know we talked about this and it was clear that you never set me to war. I then set you back to peace, but that bug is seriously annoying and all of the other occassions our ships were hostile to each other were due to the bug changing diplomatic status. I had this issue with a number of other players as well :(.

I have a bunch of other comments about Belitlli I need to make in that other thread, but I was not aware that we had any sort of peace agreement other than a friendly no-attack relationship. I wasn't quite all to myself down in my edge of the galaxy. Imperial Federation and I were very near each other and fought for territory for a bit, but in the end we formed a solid alliance before he stopped logging in and you conquered him.

I look forward to future games with/against you, though I am not playing any currently.