Speedgames, Round XIV and Betas

Speedgame Results

Well done to 4:3 for winning the first ever Capture The Flag Speedgame. Free credits goto the 3 planets within 4:3 that held the most flags at the end of the game - they were 4:3:18, 4:3:15 and 4:3:16.

Round XIV

On to round 14, the following features and additions are currently coded and will be being tested in the betas, some additonal minor changes will be made to the game during the beta in addition to theese.

New features:
-Hard coded exception system – players will be able to apply for an exception from the preferences page rather than having to send an email request. The system will limit interaction to allowed levels.
-It is now possible to hide the coordinates in scans using a simple toggle
-Capture The Flag mode added for special games

Bug fixes:
-Alliance nickname, planet name and ruler name are all now correctly unique
-New planets can now not start with more research than a free planet can get
-Various fixes for going from a main round into havoc
-Various fixes for going from a beta to a main round
-Various bug fixes in round 13 shuffler to prevent early round exile issues
-When someone leaves an alliance time in vacation or time closed will not count towards the 72 hour period that planets must be allianceless for
-When mailing defenders recall mails it now messages the most logical people - e.g. when you mail eta 6 defenders it mails the eta 6 and the eta 5+ defenders
-Missions page now more clearly displays the ETA for various missions
-Ticker speedups and optimisations
-ETA bug fixed - all ships should now return from battles with the correct ETA
-Value is now recalculated for all planets at the end of each tick - this will mean that suicide for the final tick of the game to gian XP and hence score, but not loose value will no longer work.

Minor Improvements:
-Enhancements to multi-hunting tools
-Enhancements to abuse policing tools
-Enhancements to galaxy banner policing tools
-Enhancements to exile tracking
-Enhancements to fleet admin tools
-Fleet scans are now 100% accurate
-Alliances are informed if they have new mail
-HCs are now informed more clearly if they have new applicants
-MoC can now mail the whole galaxy and all MoCs in the cluster
-After the shuffle people will be able to see the coordinates of those in their buddy pack on the preferences screen
-Research restrictions for free planets is now much easier to configure, including the ability to disable the limitations entirely
-Universe rankings screen will show only top 50 galaxies and top 30 alliances; this more accurately reflects the current game and saves some db space
-Covert ops on closed planets are no longer possible
-html output changed on several pages to improve the look of the Opera text-only skin
-Missions page changed so all fleets can be controlled at once
-Galaxy system changes:
+All minister must now agree for a galaxy to exile a planet
+Only upgraded accounts can be GC or ministers
+Score limits for resource donations from galaxy fund will be biased so that free accounts do not bring down the limit to much.
+The resources from self exile will go into the galaxy fund of the galaxy that the planet is exiling from
+Buddy packs can now have either 2 or 3 members
+Galaxy exile cost formula: value/10 of each resource
+Self exile cost formula: (value/10) * (number of planets in biggest galaxy - number of planets in current galaxy + 1) * (number_of_self_exiles_so_far+1) of each resource

Round XIV also needs a name, so we have compiled a short list based on thoose suggestions sent in, so please go and vote on this here

Betas

Private betas are currently in progress and testing is going well. Public betas will have to be a bit later than planned, and will probably be in about a weeks time. This is mainly because we have just got a brand new server that we need to setup and test.
Because we now have 3 servers, all beta testing should now go on during the round, and we'll also be able to run speedgames much more regularly.

The server specs are:
-Dual Xeon 2.66GHz
-2Gb RAM
-36Gb fast hard disk

There will be a further annoucement soon detailing the start of public betas and the round XIV signup and tick start dates.