Since we are focusing on turret graphics, you will want to fit yourself an appropriate turret ship, especially heavily fit (6+ turrets) destroyer and battleship class hulls.
We will start in FD-MLJ, at the station - [FD-MLJ VII - Moon 2 - Intaki Bank Depository].
Fit yourself some hulls with turrets and load up the appropriate ammunition.
Undock and warp to the gate to X-BV98
Join fleets - check fleet channels
Jump to X-BV98.
Warp to Poitot gate and wait.
Fleet Z: Jump to Poitot + setup gate camp.
Fleet X: Jump to Poitot + fight at the gate
What else should I know?
Use the command /moveme to be moved to the start system FD-MLJ
2M Skill points will be awarded on Singularity for this mass test
Lol - they changed the date on the launcher and the web page, but not in the first post of this thread.
I thought something was screwy when I saw the mass test announcement, dated for 3 days ago. I had to double check what day it is (now) as I was sure the 21st had already passed (according to the spreadsheet I have that tells me what date it is in EVE - can’t have too many spreadsheets when playing this game) !
It wouldn’t have been the first time CCP post-dated something. Glad they fixed it. Now if they’d just change the timings of these things. They always happen at midnight S.E. Asia (i.e. Thailand) time !
Great, are they gonna make the turret effects uglier like they did the missiles, instead of doing something about the real performance issues in big fights? Such as, you know, fighters and titan deaths causing the server to implode?
Being on the test server is really helpful to work out those things you have an idea to do on the tranq. However it’s not quite clear when, how or why new capsuleers appear on the test server. I was thinking it a glitch from my mac/steam account. But after about 5 months, and posting and a ticket and a bug report, I was concerned that I had been forgotten. As a Steam member I also applied for a proper EVE account. Then it was a nice surprise, my account was on the test server. I’m not sure what happened.
Please, anyone, correct me if I’m wrong about how to get on the test server.
Be Omega (just before a mirror)
Add your account to the sisi part of the launcher.
If rejected try post in the sisi bug forum and try to login again the next week.
Helpful commands to type into any chat window.
/copyskills copies your current skills from tranq to your sisi character, which can be some months older than current.
/moveme get to the main places on the test server. Helpful to have the map window open too.
Hey CCP_Antiquarian, is it possible to get a more detailed explanation of the turret and client/server performance changes? I know a lot of people are frustrated about performance after the UALX fight and I’d love to more broadly understand what aspects you guys are currently tackling and what you’re hoping to accomplish down the road.
We’ve been looking at ways that we can improve our graphics engine to improve client performance. Last release we did some changes to missiles, mostly aimed at stopping the engine from loading/ trying to draw things that wouldn’t actually appear on screen. While digging around in that concept, we realized that we could probably apply some of the level of detail adjustments to turret effects as well.
Example: Quad Light Beam Laser II modules fire four simultaneous beams from a single turret. Zooming out, by the time the camera gets to moderate zoom levels (around when the ship model drops to medium level of detail), you see a line of light from that turret to the target. The engine, however, is still drawing all four beams, just on top of each other.
This pass at turret optimization cuts down on that overdraw. We’ve also simplified some of the functions called during firing and accordingly reduced the amount of frametime needed to draw weapons fire. In a controlled scene (lots of simultaneous turret firing effects) we saw really positive gains in performance and increases in total framerate.
As far as server performance goes, the Audio and Graphics group doesn’t usually have a hand in those changes, but I’m running this week’s test, so I have added some specific steps at the request of another team.
Generally, the release mass tests observe essential game elements to benchmark performance costs. Elements you see in almost every mass test include fleet warps into/off of grid, fleet jumps between systems on a node, and jumps between nodes, and mass fleet combat with active chat. We take telemetry from those actions and investigate ways to improve things. The teams that work on those areas would be better equipped to talk about the work they do there.
is the test server right now down cause of recent issues with the login on TQ?
cause singularity shows no players online at all and it says to my PW and login wrong username/password =x
even tho it works fine on TQ
so, i assume sisi is down?
Considering the big performance problems haven’t been touched in forever, I kind of doubt that. People changing turret mechanics are likely the same people that would be messing with fighter mechanics.
If it is JUST a graphics change, I understand, but it seemed like from the missile changes they actually changed mechanics on how things are calculated and drawn, maybe I’m wrong on that.
Regardless, I don’t think changes like this will have any effect on the problem areas (big fights) since you basically have to have turret effects off anyway to not crash every time a few titans DD.
Darn it! If Antiquarian is going to be there, now I have to try to make it. It’s too rare when the only adult at CCP makes an appearance.
CCP_Antiquarian - Please tell me you are the primary host of the A/T this year. So much more enjoyable with you in the lead host position. When you’re not hosting, I just want the others to shut up and start the fight already.
What’s the attraction of 2 million skill points on the Singularity server? Seem like I couldn’t take advantage of it until the next mass test and only for that session.
PROTIP: You can log into Singularity at any time, not just during mass tests.
If you can’t think of any uses for a free 2M of skillpoints on what is effectively a doomed alternate universe version of your character with cheap access to almost everything imaginable… well, I’m not sure what to tell you.
New players gain access after a mirror from TQ, but I don’t have much control over when that happens.
You CAN log into Sisi anytime, it’s true, and I will love YOU for it. Plus EVERYTHING is on sale! 100ISK! Check out our NEW combat system and test server rules. CAPS LOCK FUN for the whole family. No seriously, as much as TQ PVP can cause adrenaline shakes and corporate paranoia, Singularity provides a great environment for player to test fits, practice timing, explore New Eden, and generate valuable data. Plus you can duel in navy frigates all day, which is super fun.
EVE_NT are running the Alliance Tournament broadcast this year and I will happily serve in whatever capacity they choose. I will say that Apothne and Ithaca Hawk are two of my favorite people, incredibly knowledgeable about EVE and generally great chat.
“Graphical changes to turret firing effects” (quoted from original post)
These changes, like the missile changes, affect only clientside graphics.
