PbNet News from Rm June 2019

June 1st, 2019

A few Launch Day sillinesses:

• Commemorative patches are available in the Chop Shop
• Tokens are commemorative. And purple. And leather.
• Flags are commemorative. Red. Also leather.

June 2nd, 2019

TheQtPie posted the first new Paintball Net Newsletter of the 21st Century today: http://paintballnet.net/2019/06/02/pbnn-issue-36-june-1st-2019/

June 3rd, 2019

Paintball Net Launch Weekend 2019

I hope everyone had a great time over the weekend!

It was a lot of fun seeing everyone again. I had fun splatting and being splatted. And making up odd patches to hand out. And creating rare items. That sort of thing. It was, as I said: Fun. =)

I wanted to thank Theman and poormanjoe (who have, you know, real names) for their help with the Launch Day Weekend. It couldn’t have happened without them!

I updated the game a bit this morning. Because that’s what I do. And again this afternoon. (See?)

A few minor new features in the UI (do a force reload to see them):
* The arrow move option now supports shift+arrow to move the target.
* There’s now a quick visual highlight of where you are at the start of a game.

Thanks again for everyone’s support and enthusiasm!

-David

June 7, 2019

Paintball Net Update

I seem to have spent the week after Launch Day crashing the game. Sorry about that. =)

I noticed some performance issues over the Launch Day weekend, and set about correcting them. After a number of reboots and crashes, I think I got ’em.

Also, over the last day or so, I’ve updated the web page UI to support WASD movement. If you check the Arrows/WASD option (on the Options tab), you can now toggle back and forth between the command edit and WASD using the ESC key. If there’s any call for it, I’ll add an option to specify a command (or alias) to execute when hitting the spacebar (and maybe other keys) while in WASD mode.

My plan for the next week or so is to see if I can get the game *really* playable via mobile. I think the touchpad movement is quite workable already, but I’ll be investigating new ways to target and fire.

Thanks for playing!

-DavidRM

June 12th, 2019

I just uploaded my next (2nd? 3rd?) attempt at a viable mobile version of the game’s web page. Press Ctrl+F5 to force a reload.If you don’t use the new features, they won’t (or shouldn’t) affect you.New options:

• Touch Mode (replaces old Touch Mode option)
• Zoom Out

See the image to check out the new touch mode controls. There is a “target” button, and a set of buttons for quickly changing how the map is centered on you.In short:

• You touch the map to move.
• You press the “target” button, and touch the map at the same time to fire.
• You press the view buttons to see more of the map in a particular direction (or center the map).

Also, there is a new “Zoom Out” option that uses smaller graphics for the terrain and pictures. This should help pack more game display into small phone screens.I’ve been testing this all week, but there still might be issues. Don’t hesitate to let me know.Have fun!

-DavidRM

June 19th, 2019

Paintball Net Update

This week I spent some time on tournaments. Besides fixing a few issues, I added some new features:
* Tournaments can now be either the regular “Teams” game or “Free Gun Teams”.
* Tournaments can now be “random teams”. Players sign up, and the server randomly assigns them to a set number of teams.

I also made a few changes/fixes to the web page UI, though mostly on the fringes.

I have started working on an overhaul of the game’s equipment. This will mostly be a simplification and removal of redundancies. I’ll let you know more when I’ve finished my analysis.

Thanks for playing!

-DavidRM

June 21st, 2019

I just booted in an overhaul of available equipment. Some things disappeared from store shelves. Some of them were redundant, some just not relevant any longer. Many things became less expensive (like gun modifications).

Most of the changes were fiddly. Adjustments to weights and volumes. Price changes. Some fixes.

Some changes were just…well…it turns out there was *no* functional difference between “high-velocity” and “very high-velocity”, for example. Just words in their descriptions. This was because of how velocity *really* affects the speed of moving objects.

Anyway, overall, the game should *feel* about the same. Just a bit simpler.

Still, I will be making adjustments over the next few days based on how everything plays.

Other updates:
* Beginner server no longer allows burst mode. You’ll just shoot one paintball at a time there (saving a lot of money on ammo, I’ll bet).
* Fiddling with bounce %’s based on the ammo’s velocity (faster == less likely to bounce).
* Increased throwing range of grenades.

Thanks for playing!

-DavidRM

PS The “Secret Store” is going to pick up most of the items that were removed from the regular stores. More about the Secret Store next month. =)

June 24th, 2019

Unexploded ordinance is now a thing.

If you drop a mine in a game, and the mine isn’t triggered, it now remains active until you log off.

NOTE: This doesn’t apply to mines dropped in the holding area. Those are cleared at the end of the game.

-DavidRM

June 25th, 2019

Paintball Net Update

If you do a forced reload of the web page (Ctrl+F5), there’s a new option on the Options tab: Command Buttons on Right (Classic Layout)

-DavidRM

On the server side:
* Fix for when getting stuck with “not enough players for flags”.
* Bots can now be set up to 9 (was 5 max before).

I think that’s everything.

Have fun!

-DavidRM