News Archive

Saturday, March 22, 2003 - Spring Break (Still Paused)

Spring Break is finally here. This means that I should have plenty of time (assuming no travel) to work on the Hideout. It also means that I finally have a good reason to change the front page!

     I have done a few things, most notably:
      - Serious modification of how the universe map is viewed/used. Now that I am moving system information to the database, planet/system information is more mutable than before.
      - Created a so-called On/Off switch for the Hideout. This means that I can shut it down without having to manually delete pages. This system can also detect if parts of the Hideout are not functioning properly and will automatically shut down. One feature of this system lets me keep the Hideout functioning while only allowing select players access. This will be useful when testing of the new Hideout begins. Another feature is a much nicer notification message of the Hideout's status (ie. better than "File Not Found").
      - If anyone cares or hasn't seen it already, I have added a new set of images to the Gallery.

I am currently working on the News & Communications page and plan to move through the list adding to the pages as I go. Once I have added everything to the existing pages, I will create new pages for the brand new features. This process will likely take a couple months.

Once again: Thank you for your understanding and I'm sorry for any inconvenience.

- Alan Laursen (CheesEv)

Tired of waiting for the me to get out of bed and code the Hideout? Well, you can experience all of the excitement of the Hideout with the EVN: Hideout project! I recently gave them a boatload of Hideout information, so they should be done in no time.
Project Leaders: YOMCAT and Kickme.

Tuesday, January 14, 2003 - A Pause...

Many of the projects that I had put off in the past so that I might work on the Hideout have returned. This means that I do not have the time that I did last month and cannot 'keep up' with the demands of administration.

I must sadly announce that I will be shutting down the Hideout until a time when I can properly run it (or it can run itself). I apologise if this messes up any plans, but I feel that this is the best move for a healthy Hideout. The main scripts will be deleted from the site before midnight tonight.

I will leave the forum and wwwboards functioning so information can be spread easily. I'll post my progress as changes and additions are made. Feel free to make suggestions (this is the best time to do so).

Thank you for your understanding and I'm sorry for any inconvenience.

- Alan Laursen (CheesEv)

Monday, December 30, 2002 - It's About Time!

I'm fairly annoyed at myself because I haven't been doing as much as I should have. I have worked through the night and done at least a few things that I had wanted to do. I'm sorry that I didn't do more.

     Modifications include:
      - Pilots who attack and are destroyed should now automatically land. This should put an end to the all too frequent suicide runs.
      - Stonefire Forums, as you probably know, are now operational. The front page has been modified to reflect the change in primary board (The old wwwboard will remain functional in the links list as a backup board).
      - Credit transfers are now possible (Player --> Player & Player --> Gov but no Gov --> Anything).
      - Transfers are much more heavily regulated. Rules: You may only make one transfer to any given player or government in the course of a week (Mon - Sun). Individual transfers may not exceed 40% of your total credits unless the amount is less than 200,000 Cr.
      - A transfer tax has been implemented. The first transfer will be free, followed by a 15% charge (% of transferred amount) for the next few transfers. The price of the fifth transfer and all subsequent transfers will increase with the number of transfers made. I hope that these measures will lead to less abuse of credit transfers.

Some of these new features are untested. If you run into any problems, I would appreciate it if you would report them to me.

- Alan Laursen (CheesEv)

Thursday, December 5, 2002 - Progress Report

I have done a few things in the past few days that have not been announced. So, I decided to put up a list of things that I have done as I complete them. Everything after the first four is new today.

     Modifications thus far include:
      - Player Ranking Legal Status divided into positive and negative (actually lowest legal status, not just negative) fields so pirates can have something to boast about.
      - Mercenary government created. Designed for groups that wouldn't necessarily need their own government. Currently, the only such group is the Bounty Hunter's Guild.
      - A lot of ships were added.
      - I think I may have corrected the error that caused battle reports to not appear in the news (If your battle doesn't show up, please tell me). I have also developed a system to combat the errors in the messaging system that prevented message reception.
      - Credit transfers will not be available until an automated/better regulated system can be put in place.
      - Fleet ships will only be worth 80% of their original price upon resale (when released).
      - Credit Capture modified. If the boardee has a skill of less than five (considered a newbie) the percentage taken from them will be the ratio of their skill to the boarder's skill. Otherwise, the percentage will be based on the ratio of crews sizes on the lead ships (the players' ships). The ceiling percentage that can be taken is 75% and the floor is 10%.

Hmm, maybe I'll actually get something done...

- Alan Laursen (CheesEv)

Sunday, November 3, 2002 - Gallery's Up

After two months of that boring white page, the Image Gallery is up. There aren't many images at this time, but I hope to add images as time goes by. I'm planning on changing the color scheme to something light (I've grown so tired with the dark look) and generally make the pages look less boring.

That's about it for now!

- Alan Laursen (CheesEv)

Monday, October 28, 2002 - Wow, An Update!

I haven't done anything major lately, so I figured that I'd try to do SOMETHING even if it resulted in a late night or two.

     Modifications include:
      - Fleets should be slightly less puny when autoattacking their enemies. Maybe now they'll actually be good for something.
      - Unaccepted missions will now be deleted after a period of three days. This should bring the ratio of mission-types to their desired positions. (Plus, I increased the probability of generating a bulk mission slightly.)
      - Ship added: the D-14 (finally).
      - Fleets and Colony Ships will get a 1 turn grace period after their defeat. This will prevent the humiliating destruction of a fleet multiple times on the same day.
      - The procedure for manual credit transfers has been added to the guide.
      - New Preference: Strategy. The logical next step after the cowardice pref. It seems like the probability of bugs in this feature is high so please tell me of any that you encounter.

Still plenty of things to do, just not this weekend (Early decision app goes out friday so I should be free to program that weekend). I hope that everyone is still enjoying the game. Goodbye for now! (<-- unusual enthusiasm, as indicated by the evil exclaimation point. Sleep...)

- Alan Laursen (CheesEv)

Sunday, October 27, 2002 - News on Front Page Changes

By popular demand, I have actually changed the text that appears on the front page (This block of text is what I am talking about in case you, being the intelligent person that you are, cannot understand this statement due to the large dose of stupidity.)

Just so you don't think that I am totally lazy, I will tell you of the changes to the Hideout that I have made in the past couple of weeks (I have simply not had time to put them into the News). I added some descriptions (written by Beef) of various items, limited the amount of capturable fuel to what can fit in the ship, and generally mucked around with numbers in the combat script.

I apologise for the general slowness of updates that will unfortunately be continuing for a few more weeks. This slowdown is mainly school-related. SATs followed by the end of the first marking period with college apps everpresent in the background.

- Alan Laursen (CheesEv)

Sunday, September 29, 2002 - Pretty Big Update

Not that much new stuff, but I feel like the sum of this update and all of the previous ones deserves an increase in the version. (Hooray v5.1!) I was hoping to put in some really big features that had been waiting on my 'to do' list for the past month, but They were a little to big for one day. Here comes my favorite part...

     Modifications include:
      - In combat, a skill of zero is evaluated as one when the amount of credits stolen in being calculated (for the credit part only, in the fight it is still zero).
      - Pirates will once again get a decrease in legal status for attacking a non-pirate.
      - The date and time when a message was sent is now indicated. (I know that at least I was always wondering how long ago a message was sent)
      - Both the high and low limits of the weapons commodity were lowered. This means that less of an initial investment is required to trade weapons.
      - I hope that some pesky mission problems have been fixed. Sometimes cargo wouldn't be loaded, missions wouldn't end when they were supposed to, etc.
      - Changed "Hideout RPG" to "Hideout Online Game". This game wasn't really designed to be an RPG, role playing is still good, but now the title shouldn't scare away non-RPG players.
      - A limit was placed on the number of missions that can be accepted at one time. The maximum number of missions is five. This was done for two reasons: to keep players from accepting a lot of missions and reducing the amount of available mission, and having more than a certain number of missions accepted overloads a variable and causes errors.
      - Finally, the news system was created! The stories will last for about two days. Battles will be reported to all players through this system. If you have any suggestions for news topics, please tell me. I believe that there is already at least one news item.

That's it from me tonight. Maybe I'll get some more stuff done tomorrow. I'd like to ask everyone to please go through their messages and delete the ones that they don't need. (You could also just copy & paste them into a text file and then delete the messages ;) )

- Alan Laursen (CheesEv)

Tuesday, September 24, 2002 - Home

I'm back from my trip and able to do some more admin stuff. Signed up the people who sent in the form while I was gone and all that.

It looks like the Hideout did pretty well. No major screw-ups, just a few annoying things. I'll see what I can do about them this weekend.

- Alan Laursen (CheesEv)

Tuesday, September 17, 2002 - Travel

I will be travelling for the rest of the week (until late Sunday night) so I will not be able to do much administering beyond reading the message board occasionally. I have gone through the signups, so the people who have been waiting a couple of days should be set. Anyone who signs up in the next few days will probably not recieve a reply for a long time (trip + time needed to make up work that couldn't be done because of the trip)

For me, this will be a test to see if the Hideout can survive for a few days without administration (after all, that's the main reason it was scripted ;) ). I hope everything goes well.

- Alan Laursen (CheesEv)

Sunday, September 15, 2002 - General Update

A standard update that adds some features and changes some numbers. Most are requests.

     Modifications include:
      - The Command console will now count down to when you will be able to take off again.
      - The range of all ships was increased. You'll see the difference when you land after your next turn. (I think it may be by too much, though I doubt that anyone will complain, except for the people who get attacked from accross the galaxy ;) )
      - A blank option has been added to the all pull-down select lists as the default value. This should prevent the all too common: "Damn, I just bought a ship when I wanted to hire an escort."
      - Script generated missions should no longer require travel through enemy territory. This only applies to missions created after this update. There will still be some of the old ones left.
      - You can now Jettison your trade commodities. This means that you can free up the space in systems where the commodities cannot be sold. (No Reimbursement)
      - Beef wrote descriptions for the Gandalf and Glycol systems.

It seems that I'm getting to the end of bugs and other annoying little things like that (I bet there'll still be some big problem this week though, there always is). This means that I'll be able to get to more major changes soon! Major changes make me happy! Yay!

- Alan Laursen (CheesEv)

Saturday, September 14, 2002 - Combat Update, an attempt to make recovery easier

Here are some alterations that should help those who have been the targets of the many pirate attacks of late. I will work to get fleet programing setup. Another update should be coming shortly.

     Modifications include:
      - New players will have 5 attack-free turns to learn how to play and to build up their ship.
      - Players whose ship is destroyed will have 4 turns to pull themselves back up before they can be attacked again.
      - Period of vulnerability that follows the end of a turn shortened from 20 hours to 10 hours.
      - Escorts can only be hired if they are of equal or lower class than the player's ship. This should motivate people to buy bigger and better ships instead of just hiring big escorts. (Class is now described in the Guide.)
      - Amount of credits taken from enemy ship no longer based on crew size. Now based on player skill, this will make it much more profitable for an experienced player to attack another experienced player rather than picking on newbies.
      - Added FAQ section to Guide (this will get more comprehensive as time goes by). Some more changes to guide so it complies with this update.

I hope that this works out for everyone. Some of the changes are untested, please tell me if they don't seem to be doing what they're supposed to be doing.

- Alan Laursen (CheesEv)

Sunday, September 8, 2002 - Another Minor Update

I can't wait to get started on a major update that will include more features. I just hope that I will have enough free time in the near future so it wont take too long.

     Modifications include:
      - Universal and Local scans only return information on players who have played in the last 7 days.
      - I messed around with trade prices a bit, profits SHOULD be decent now. (Remember that the price listing at the top of the Trade console is for 10 tons, not one.)
     (Again, I may have altered it too much, please send me your opinion. If you feel so inclined, send me some info about your run: tons hauled, profit, etc.)
      - Added 10,000 character limit to messages due to recent problems related to very large messages (large messages tend to corrupt data in the player datatables.).
      - Bug where missions required you to land when they shouldn't (Dump Trash missions) fixed. Please continue to report bugs when you come across them.
      - Weapons/Outfits space on Light Freighter increased from 10 to 20.
      - Increased payments for all of the non-Bulk missions (including all currently accepted missions) to try to get people to do them!
      - Added Preferences section to Command console. Later on, I will add the ability to alter the interface, change your password and more of that kind of nifty stuff. For now, you can change your cowardice without having to enter a battle. I suggest that those with reasonably ok guns lower their percentage so they have a chance in a fight (If you begin to run away, you have NO chance of winning).

I have recieved a number of Sign-Ups without proper email addresses (either blank or just the name without a domain). I need an email address for your character (how else will I tell you that your character is setup) or it will not be created. If those who sent in the email-less sign-ups are still interested, please re-submit the sign-up form with a proper email address (yourname@domain.com, '.net' and all others are good too ;) ) included.

- Alan Laursen (CheesEv)

Wednesday, September 4, 2002 - Minor Update

     Modifications include:
      - Daily price of escorts raised to 5% of the ship's cost.
      - Profit margins for trade decreased.
     (Both done to make trading less 'cheap'. Now has more realistic profit. I may have altered it too much, please send me your opinion.)
      - Bug where cargo variable was nuked when you tookoff fixed, I hope. I'm still getting some reports of troubles, so, tell me if anything is funky (the more detail the better :) ) so I can try to fix it.
      - Ship and weapon values decreased upon resale. This is to prevent players from buying and selling ships/outfits to complete tasks only to rebuy their main ship when the turn is over.
      - Fuel pods should now add to your jumps immediately, instead of when you next land.
      - Universal scan now returns the alignment of each player.
      - Color Coding section added to Guide.

- Alan Laursen (CheesEv)

Tuesday, September 3, 2002 - The Hideout Begins

Yay, I changed the passwords and mailed out the last signup replies just a few minutes ago.

The Guide is mostly finished. Unfortunately the introduction, the part that I'd hope would answer all of the "What the heck is this?" questions, is still incomplete. I hope that the rest of the guide will be able to answer those questions though.

Click the login button below to enter the game. The login names and passwords from the reply emails should be used. I suggest that you read at least some of the guide before you leave port.

Enjoy!

- Alan Laursen (CheesEv)

Wednesday, August 28, 2002 - The Hideout Needs You!

It's been a few days since the Hideout sign-up was announced and we haven't had many new recruits nor have we had much traffic (as shown by the Distinct Hits counter below, only 11 different people have seen this page as I am writing).

That's why I would like to ask everyone to consider signing up (even if you're not quite sure what the Hideout is) and to go tell all of your friends, sign 'em up, sign your 8th cousin up, sign your dog, cat, or fish up!

That might be a bit extreme, but we DO need more people. We especially could use some government members.

Anything you can do will be great, Thank You

- Alan Laursen (CheesEv)

Monday, August 26, 2002 - Hideout Finished! (well sorta)

Well, it's been about a year since I first sat down with an iBook and Simpletext (and a Javascript/HTML book ever at my side) and started making grandios statements about a scripted Hideout. Thank you for staying even the slightest bit interested in this very long overdue project. Finally, the Hideout itself is complete, the only things left to do are those wonderfully helpful auxiliary pages that we all hold so dear (except for me, I'm about to go crazy because I've been programming for a year).

The first week or so will be a signup phase. (Form located below.) This will allow me and Beef some time to finish up the rest of the site. Additionally, the pause will allow a fair number of people to join, which I hope will make the game more interesting.

I hope you will enjoy the game.

- Alan Laursen (CheesEv)

Play begins the Tuesday after labor day weekend!

[Hideout]