If anybody is interested in helping test the new NP server please let me know.
This code base has never been played at all yet so could be very buggy. We might have a game become corrupted and broken, things might break all the time. I might even have to wipe the database after a few weeks.
If you dont’ mind dealing with bug, I would love your help.
Jay
Feed me, Jay.
I would be up for it Jay. So many years of pleasure from this game, If I can give something back I will.
I’d love to join as well!
I’d be happy to test it out. I’m no programmer, but would be interested to see the new version.
Put me on your list and I’ll see if I can SMASH your code! 
I’m just trying to resolve some issues with sending email, then I’d love you have a look and see if I screwed up anything in the new server.
There are some mechanics changes, but I’m trying to make sure you can make the game exactly the same as it is now but tweaking options on the create game page.
Hey folks, I haven’t started any test games yet, and I might need to delete the database a few times in the next few weeks, but it would be handy if you could try and login and tell me if are getting email from the new server and if your account is transferred across correctly.
The temporary URL is https://neptunespride4.appspot.com/
A few people tried logging in last week and there were heaps of bugs, I’m sure there are a lot more.
I found some, but nothing gamebreaking or anything
I took this for a little test spin - random ramblings.
No problem logging in … but it required a password reset. Note that link is sent with “http://” … ideally should be “https://” which worked.
For grins, I created a new game (#13). In the setup, I think you want to give the option of Experimentation starting at ZERO … maybe for others techs to. If you set no experimentation, it does push Exp to zero … which is possible you may not want to do.
Scanning and Range defaults to same … not sure I like that, since sometimes it’s worthwhile to research Range to get somewhere even if you can’t see it … either an empty star … or hoping to hit a WG of a foe.
When clicking on game from my list, it shows “Tick to Jump Each Turn” as “cgs_turnJumpTicks_5”
I did a Force Start (even though no AI running) just to run through some mechanics. AI never budged and never increased in tech.
Range Tool is confusing as it shows too high of a “Tech Level” … I think you need to do a “minus 3” there.
Typo with production message: “You earnt $204 Credits”
I got Range 2, but when I click on another player, it shows I only have “1” … but it does show as “green”, so it “knows” I have more.
Even though no Experimentation specified, I can still set that as a tech to research - points go to /dev/null
Since I had Terra enabled, when I reached the next level, I got a message that said: “Your scientists have made a breakthrough in the field of Terraforming” … and the next line says “TBD” Building did get cheaper.
Warp Gates work … but there a new timing … not sure I like it versus the previous 3X speed.
When I took out their Core with 10 Economy, the Event Log didn’t say that … but I did get the 100 credits.
If the Defender Wins in a battle, it says they “captured” the star
I stupidly set the game to win by 66% … so there was a lot of carrier pushing to get there … but it did seem to correctly award me the win … plus 100VP. Those don’t seem to show up in my profile, but obviously should be removed if they exist somewhere.
Hey Thanks Hulk, That’s a great list of issues I can start working on.
I’ve come down with a nasty cold so I might not be able to address them until the weekend.
I really appreciate you taking a good look.
Hey @JayKyburz - I was able to log in successfully. As others have indicated, it required a password reset where a new password was emailed to me. The error message I ran into before it emailed me the password said something like, you don’t have an account on this server yet.
I’ve joined the 64 player game there… hopefully we can test it out!
I created a custom game to mess around. Ooh, interesting that we can set the carrier base price.
A few thoughts:
Anyway, I’ll mess around more in the future. Thanks for allowing access to this new version, interesting to see it in action!
The verification mail did not arrive.
I assume the problem is that my address contains a "+"character.
Thanks Razhib, I will try testing some emails with a + character to see if that causes a problem.
Also thanks for the solid list @Macomber. I will see if I can find the time to fix some of these today.
fixed: missing error messages when email was in use or when alias was invalid
fixed: games that are full on the join game page are replaced with new empty games of the same type.
fixed: give the player 2 starting science as default so not so slow at start of game.
fixed: some missing help on the create game page for new entries.
Working on play testing a custom game now! Couple things that came up while creating…
More to come later!
EDIT1: The Diplomacy tab in the UI doesn’t add a red badge to indicate number of pending items any longer. I also don’t think the email functionality is working properly either – I was not notified of a new Diplomacy nor was I notified for game start.
EDIT2: I also didn’t get the option to select a new alias in my custom game or one I joined. It defaults to my true alias.
EDIT3: I joined someone else’s custom game (Neptune's Pride) and it was supposed to be 10 stars each to start, per the game settings, but I only started with 7 lol.
Hey @HOUSEBOAT_THANGS Thanks for looking at the test server for me.
I could go above 30, I don’t remember why it changed. Did you like to set games up with more?
Right now, I do have a hidden property that will escalate fleet costs if you choose to turn it on, but I haven’t implemented it yet. I was thinking that perhaps instead of the price of increasing fleets, I might steal the idea of just having an upkeep per production. I do think it might be interesting to reward players for being efficient with carriers.
I’m aware of the email issues, still on the todo list.
I decided to just have players use their real aliases all the time, except in “extra anon” games where I will roll a random alias for each player.
I will check out the custom game thing, the functions to make stars may need some tweaks.
Thanks again!
Some bugs I found.
When picking strength and weakness of your alien race, you can pick a weakness of a technology that the current ruleset doesn’t allow. eg, having an alien with Superior Weapons but Inferior Terraforming on a map with no Terraforming.
When making a custom map with a password and the password is all numbers, the password fails to work. You can try to join the game and type in the numbers but you keep getting the error that the password is wrong. eg, set a custom game with password 123456 and then you try join it and the password 123456 doesn’t work.
Been playing around on the test server. Here is some feedback I have.
I think it might be nice to have some kind of quantification of how the experimentation technology works in the codex. I think it’s a little difficult to go back and forth and figure out what that quantity is with out a little calculation in the description. I do like how the new experimentation works. I think it will scale well in long games.
I like the new announcement board, I have found some bugs in my browser where when I open the diplomacy tab it automatically closes me out of that tab and I cant read the message their. Also some bugs where it isnt loading the messages in game.
Ship production counter on the player card was up to like 6 digits after the decimal. Not sure we necessarily need that many significant digits.
Had a bug where the game setting was set for players to start with 10 stars and had one player start with 9 stars.
When In the game settings tab reviewing the rules in game under “starting ships per star” if it is above the default 10 ships say at 30 ships the line reads ‘cgs_startShips_30’. Seems this might be a small error.
Thoughts on adding a graph in the intel charts to NP4 that tracks ships produced per tick over time? I think this could be useful to see as a composite of a players manufacturing level, and industry. I feel that it is difficult to understand those two items separately in the intel reports and the outcome of the relationship between them.
Hello @JayKyburz,
I tried a few games against the AI to check, some info:
-After creating a passworded game, I could not delete it right after, giving me this error:
I could delete it after finishing it or quitting.
-I love the fact that when choosing anonymity: extra, the player / empire’s name is chosen for you, this will really help on my custom games with friends since we can always kinda guess who are the players based on the names they choose.
-I’m liking the new changes so far.
-Do you have plans of perhaps one day have two combat algorithms, the standard one and one based on Lanchester’s Square Laws? Here’s a video illustrating what I mean: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpjxWBwLkIE
Thank you for your work, happy new year and a great 2024 for all of us!
