Dev Update - 11.06.2015

[Flip]

From https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=155680

Hi everyone,

The Powerplay update is now out in the wild and it’s great to see large numbers of players backing their chosen powers – although I am a little disappointed that more of you haven’t backed Archon Delaine! It is interesting to see the various strategies and schemes people are employing to support their power or sabotage the opposition.

We encountered some server issues over the weekend although as with any release we ensured that there was sufficient coverage, which was the same as if we’d released in the week. However we do appreciate that any downtime especially as busy times can be frustrating. The most pressing of which were tackled by the team covering the release. Like any major release we’re continuing to address the remaining issues with server and client releases this week. Keep an eye out for the change logs for more information. We’ve also received a mass of useful data which we’ll use to perform balance tweaks with these minor updates. Of course we’re also evaluating feedback and discussion and making changes where needed.

There are some issues still being investigated such as the new res sites not populating as expected, and wear and tear costs. The Powerplay update included some fixes for micro-stuttering and stuttering seen on some people’s machines, however while these fixes have helped in many cases, it still affects others so we are still looking into other causes.

It appears that some people aren’t sure about whether to get involved in Powerplay and while we hope that you do (most of the players active since release have signed up for a power) like many parts of the game it’s up to you. You don’t have to sign up for a power and can continue to operate as an independent pilot, or continue backing specific minor factions (which can also feed back into Powerplay). Powers have area effects for the regions they control, so it can be a benefit to operate in certain areas even if you haven’t backed the powers. Of course the reverse is also true, but in either case there is a shifting geography of states and changes which enhances the map of the galaxy.

As part of development we’re always looking to improve existing systems and one system that has received a behind the scenes update has been the web service for exploration scans. An optimisation has been added to the server to improve the look up times when calculating the value of scans. This optimisation is applied to new data generated with the Powerplay (1.3) release, so selling your data for scans after this time will benefit. Scans before this time don’t benefit though. Naturally we target such changes where they have the greatest impact and currently exploration data is the largest block of data that we store for the game, so this made it the natural target.

Over the past week we’ve shadow banned a number of players for cheating with community goals.

Next week brings E3 and various parts of the team have been working hard to support our announcements and presence at this show. We’re quite excited for what will be shown!

Thanks

Michael

[Wolf]

Cheers Flip

[Hrdina]

From https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=155680

Over the past week we’ve shadow banned a number of players for cheating with community goals.

Funny how Michael just slides that line in toward the end.

[de Carabas]

If they ban people whilst playing in a private group, do you think they would let the group owner know?
Would getting a ban warrant some action from the group admins for Mobius? Should our group policy state something about dealing with cheaters that don't break our non-PVP rules as well? Or shall I go and get another cup of tea and actually do some work?

[Wolf]

If they ban people whilst playing in a private group, do you think they would let the group owner know?
Would getting a ban warrant some action from the group admins for Mobius? Should our group policy state something about dealing with cheaters that don't break our non-PVP rules as well? Or shall I go and get another cup of tea and actually do some work?

If I understood correctly, "shadow ban" only means your actions do not influence the background simulation anymore. You will not necessarily notice that you or another player are shadow banned.
So if you cheat, you only cheat yourself. Our group's policy is about player interaction only.

Edit: This means, we will not necessarily see if someone in the group cheated. But if it becomes obvious, we also are called to report it via the in-game mechanics.

[de Carabas]

So if you cheat, you only cheat yourself. Our group's policy is about player interaction only.

Edit: This means, we will not necessarily see if someone in the group cheated. But if it becomes obvious, we also are called to report it via the in-game mechanics.

Understood.