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#1 Re: Main Forum » Free Community Server with New Features » 2015-09-22 14:11:39

Hey everyone,

the "chill timeout" ("How long a house stays purple after you die there or carry tools there and die elsewhere.") should be at 2 hours since the server start. It this not working correctly?

The "force-ignore timeout" ("How long after you steal from a house until you can see the new-life house of that owner after the owner dies and respawns.") is at 24 hours if I'm not mistaken. I could change this to 2 hours. Should I? smile

Passive wrote:

After a bit more tinkering on the free server. I like the idea of the bots as a way of adding money. However the sheer amount of tools/scouts to crack them simply isnt worth the $2k they have to loot. I think if you are thinking of having them in TH they would be to be scaled with more reward for the harder ones.

Yeah, the bot-map values really need some tweaking. However, I've always struggled choosing the right values for the predefined bot maps. For maps added by players it's even harder to decide, since it has to be done automatically. We also have to keep in mind that, once a player has found the solution to a map, the map will always be "easy money" for him, as soon as it spawns. So the rewards shouldn't be too high.

Best regards,
Frosty

#2 Re: Main Forum » Free Community Server with New Features » 2015-05-09 01:00:48

Hey guys,

sorry for the long silence, but work keeps me totally busy in April and May. hmm
So, the next update will take some more time. But it will come, I have not given up! smile

DaVinci243 wrote:

Captcha or something like that is a must.

Yeah, you are right. I will add a small captcha or question to the registration with the next server update.


pagedMov wrote:

Thanks, Frosty, for breathing a little bit of life back into the game.

smile
Thank you for playing!

pagedMov wrote:

Also, why are all the paintings just one dollar?

If nobody buys the paintings their costs slowy decrease to the minimum of $1.

Regards,
Frosty

#3 Re: Main Forum » Free Community Server with New Features » 2015-04-15 16:33:09

Ooops. Killed myself by using the wrong account for scouting... ^^ Ah well, on to the next house. I added the old one to the bot maps so it will be seen again.
Yeah, I removed the wives on some maps. Mainly because most of the time they were not killed after the vault was robbed. And this kept the bot from respawning with a new house.

#4 Re: Main Forum » Mr. Hunnicutt's end... » 2015-04-15 09:40:17

Wow, that's evil... But nice idea anyway. smile

Using a very fast key bind the fastest i managed to get through the place was 18.5 minutes.

So much for every house being solvable without tools. ^^

#5 Re: Main Forum » Free Community Server with New Features » 2015-04-15 09:33:19

You absolutely can post this on FB. Thanks! smile

Ok, thanks! I'll take a look at the bot house selection again.

Best regards,
Frosty

PS.: Haha, that's the way I like it. big_smile
Were you the one that made it to the safe by brutefore, but did not take it?  Cheers for that, but next time you sure can take it! At least then I'll have a reason to make a new house. wink I'll post the solution afterwards.

#6 Re: Main Forum » Free Community Server with New Features » 2015-04-10 11:58:56

Protagonizzle wrote:

Now, how do we get some traffic on this thing? smile))

Very good question! smile

I have been thinking about this for a bit and see the following options:

1. Forum posts
I have posted about the server in the following locations:
TCD forum (current thread): http://thecastledoctrine.net/forums/vie … hp?id=3100
Steam TCD forum: http://steamcommunity.com/app/249570/di … 228375450/
Reddit TCD subreddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/CastleDoctrine/ … _features/

As expected, the TCD forum itself created the most registrations. Steam paid off a little, there were some answers and registrations. Reddit was a underwhelming, only 2 or 3 upvotes and no comments.

Does anyone know about other forums or communities where we could post about the server / the game itself? Currently, my only idea is is trying some of the more frequented subreddits on reddit (like /r/IndieGaming) but I am not sure where such post are allowed or welcomed.

2. Writing to old players
This forum allows sending emails to registered accounts if the account owner enabled it. I thought about simply going through the list of accounts and writing them once (or twice wink ) about the server.

3. Twitter / Facebook / Youtube
I thought about looking for people who reviewed TCD when it was released or made "Lets play" videos and asking them for a little tweet/post/mentioning of the server. This could be a great boost but I do not know if people would be willing to do this.

4. Events
Even though I missed the Steal Real Money event when TCD was released, I think it is a great idea. I'm thinking about doing something like it. But obviously I cannot afford giving out $3000. However, I would be able and willing to spend a little amount of cash on this. Because of the possibility of dual-accounting there would have to be some additional restrictions/rules, so this needs some more thinking.

#7 Re: Main Forum » Forum security hole » 2015-04-10 11:30:36

Thanks for the info, password changed! smile

#8 Re: Main Forum » Free Community Server with New Features » 2015-04-06 11:12:49

Thanks for the info! This should be fixed now.

#9 Re: Main Forum » Free Community Server with New Features » 2015-03-31 14:37:28

Hi everyone,

thanks for all your registrations and activity. I'm happy to say that we have 30 registered accounts and daily activity. smile
Also, a new version (v38) is out. smile

You can download the new version HERE.
As before, all old client versions should still be compatible.

Here is the list of additions and changes.
- Switch Account is now possible in edit mode as long as nothing was changed. Switching from there will not log your current account directly out and instead let it timeout so that you leave your house after 5 idle minutes.
- Added request for sharing the player's previous map on death screens. It will only be asked if the map fullfiled all minimum criteria for bot maps before the player's death. Otherwise the usual death screen will be shown. (Thanks to Protagonizzle for the idea.)
- Added "Undo All", "Redo" and "Redo All" functionallities to edit mode.
- Added ranking system for bot maps based on upvotes and downvotes. Maps with a lot of upvotes will be preferred when bots select a new map after their death. Accordingly, maps with a lot of downvotes will be less likely to be selected.
- The buttons for upvoting and downvoting and the overall score are displayed on the leaving screen of a bot map. Every player (account) has only one vote per map, but can always change his vote later on.

I did not have the time to add or improve the list of predefined bot maps. But it is definitely my next todo.

As always, your feedback and suggestions are welcome! If you encounter any bugs or problems, feel free to write me an email.

Thanks for playing!
Best regards,
Frosty

#10 Re: Main Forum » Free Community Server with New Features » 2015-03-24 04:51:57

Thanks for the feedback! smile

Protagonizzle wrote:

One thing to consider though: If you switch accounts while in your house, your character gets automatically and instantly removed from the house - which in turn puts the house on the house list, so others can enter it. Maybe it would be better to leave that decision to the player and list it only after the regular 5 idle-minutes. But maybe that's not possible due to the client's mechanics, I guess it evacuates you from your house once you quit the game (which is essentially what happens when you switch, from the client's perspective, probably).

Also, if you die, you can not switch to the other account without first clicking Fresh Start. In other words, you can not stay dead with one account and play with the other, should you wish to do so. Quitting the client doesn't solve that either, since it starts with the last account you played with, before quitting.

Good points, I haven't considered that. I'll give it some thought.

Protagonizzle wrote:

Are the credits given to the game-generated character name? Guess they are, since there is no unique, eternal player name. Would be nice could players input an overall moniker for themselves (like "Frosty" or "Protagonizzle"), for that purpose.

Players already have to enter a name when they register a ticket. These names are used. They are not unique, but this should be fine for this purpose.

#11 Re: Main Forum » Free Community Server with New Features » 2015-03-23 22:56:46

Protagonizzle wrote:

Wow, you are a fast coder. Gonna download the client now, thanks!

Didn't do much else the last days beside coding, but I think it was worth it. smile Future developement will be a bit slower, however. ^^

Protagonizzle wrote:

Hey Frosty, the Mac client refuses to start, sent you the error report via email. Cheers.

Thanks for the report. This should be fixed now.

#12 Re: Main Forum » Free Community Server with New Features » 2015-03-23 12:09:49

Hi everyone,

I've had the time to implement some of the promised changes. smile While all old game clients are still compatible with the new server version, an update of the game client is necessary to use the new features. You can download the new modified client (version 37) from HERE. I've also updated the server description on the registration page (see here).

Remember to make a backup of your settings files (email.ini, downloadCode.ini, reflectorURL.ini) before updating your old client to the new version!

Here is a short summary of all changes:
- Added a "Statistics" page that shows over 30 different metrics about your robbery career. More or other metrics are easily possible, suggestions are welcome. There are statistics for your "Current Life" and "Overall" statistics. The overall statistics are collected since 2015-03-23.

- Moved storing/restoring maps to own page.
- Added 2 new slots for storing maps.
- Stored maps and their cost for restoring can now be previewed with the "Show Map" button.

- Instead of automatically adding maps to the list of predefined bot maps, each player is now able do this manually trough the "Share Map with Bots" button.
- The creator of a shared map is credited by name on the "leaving screen" every time someone attempts to rob a bot with this map.
- The creator name of all predefined maps is "<unknown>" for now.
- Currently, a player can only share one map per life! Repeated sharing of maps within the same life will only keep the last shared map!
- There are some minimum requirements to be able to share a map with bots. See the registration page for details.

- Added "Switch Account" functionality to simplify dual account use. The second account can be enabled by adding the files "email2.ini" and "downloadCode2.ini" to the settings directory.

Your feedback and suggestions are welcome! If you encounter any bugs or problems, feel free to write me an email. In the next days I will focus on fixing bugs and adding maps to the list of predefined bot maps.

I'm especially looking forward to your shared maps! It doesn't matter if small or big, easy or hard - any shared map helps, so don't hesitate! smile

Thanks for playing!
Regards,
Frosty

JAAM wrote:

hmm i'm curious if one feature could be a copy and paste of one of those numerical house translations. so a castle draft house could be copy and pasted in without the actual site. And any old log of a house can be imported from a replay.

Directly importing an encoded map is a bit problematic, since I'd have to a do lot of integrity checks to the map (e.g. if it is the right size, if all exterior walls are there, etc.). By only allowing the import of maps build directly with the game client, these checks are not necessary. Also, I'd like to keep all interaction directly in the game, instead of relying on external representations or tools.

#13 Re: Main Forum » Free Community Server with New Features » 2015-03-18 08:15:13

Protagonizzle wrote:

Maybe they could input some moniker when clicking the "Allow as bot map" button, and the exit screen of the houses gives credits? I'm sure some players even would enjoy creating maps just for sharing them.

Great idea! I will do this. For now, I'll just use the name the user registered his account with.

Protagonizzle wrote:

it would be nice if players could register the two accounts in one step and with one email-address.

The current implementation requires a unique email address for each ticket, but I'll take a look.

Protagonizzle wrote:

Would people have a general in-game moniker, these statistics could be ranked and people could compare.

If we have the statistics, a ranking makes sense. But I don't know how hard it would be to implement, yet. Will think about it.

Protagonizzle wrote:

Maybe it would be more user-friendly (and probably easier to implement) if the preview would just link to the imported house on Castle Draft. But of course you'd depend on the ongoing availability of Castle Draft then...

Would definetely be easier. Problem is, I don't know how the castledraft URLs encode the house information or a way to prefill the house map into the "Import field" of castledraft.

JAAM wrote:

Now just curiouse is this server browser capable of interacting with the main server?

While the modified client (v36) is able to connect to the official server (uses same shared secret), please do not do this! The added functionalities won't be available (since they depend on modifications of the server) and I'm not 100% sure how the official server reacts to the modified/added requests.

Thanks for the feedback, keep it coming! smile

Switching accounts is already implemented and works well. I'll have some spare time in the next week and will try to add the remaining features. So stay tuned for version v37. smile

#14 Re: Main Forum » Free Community Server with New Features » 2015-03-16 10:26:02

Hey everyone,

thanks for all your registrations and respones. I'm really having fun so far. smile Special thanks go to Protagonizzle for the detailed feedback and constant activity. smile Currently, we have 14 registered accounts.

Since I'm a little short on time at the moment, I'll just write down a quick list of fixes and developement ideas. If you have comments or own ideas, I'd love to hear them.

Server Changes
==========
- Fixed missing library in Mac OS X client. (Thanks to eppfel!)

- Fixed download of ".ini" files on registration page in Safari browser. (Thanks to Protagonizzle!)

- Added some bot maps. Currently, there are around 30 maps. But I want to add a lot more. However, finding and checking the maps is really time consuming. Any help would be appreciated here. If you would like to add a map, simply send me an email with a link to the map on castledraft.

- Since bot maps are directly taken from castledraft, there can be maps that are unsolvable without tools. One of them was even missing the vault... Several of these maps have been fixed, but there may be more. If you find such a map, send me an email with the name of the current owner and I'll take a look at it.

- Fixed: Bots were able to spawn with a map that another bot was currently using.

- Fixed: Trying to store a map with a family member and a pet in the same spot returned an error.

Developement Plan
============
- Add more bot maps of varying difficulty.
- Add a "Allow/Disallow as bot map" to enable players to decide, if their current map can be used as a bot map after their death.
- Add "Switch Account" button to allow switching between first and second account without relaunching the client.
- Add a "Statistics" page showing statistics about the player's current life and cummulative statistics of all lives. (e.g., sum of robbed money, number of kills, ...)
- Move "Store/Restore Map" buttons to own page and add 2 additional slots for storing/restoring maps. This should allow storing different houses or different building stages of a house.
- Add a "Show Stored Map" button which allows you to preview the stored map before restoring it. Preview should be similar to build mode but no changes to the stored map can be made.

Best regards,
Frosty

#16 Main Forum » Free Community Server with New Features » 2015-03-06 12:05:05

Frosty
Replies: 52

Hi everyone,

I really love this game, but since the number of players has gone down, it just hasn't been the same. I think many of you agree and would love to see some "fresh meat" in the community.

Therefore, I made a small attempt on my own and created a new community server. Registration, client download and server access are completely free, even if you do not own the original game! I hope this allows us to get some new players in the short and a more active community in the long run.

Additionally, I implemented several new features into the game!

Bots will create houses based on a list of predefined houses but cannot rob other houses. Once they were robbed completely, they will immediately respawn with a new house. Currently, there are 10 bot players and a list of 25 predefined houses. (All predefined houses are shamelessly taken from forum posts, so please don't be mad if you find yours. wink) The list of predefined houses will expand itself by copying successful houses of real players. However, these houses will only be spawned as bot houses after a certain time has passed (currently 1 week).

Storing/restoring maps allows you to store your current map on the server and reload the it at a later point, even after you have died. Loading the house will have the same cost as creating it manually, but it is a lot faster. No more building from the ground up after every death!

Tapes of your own robberies of other players' houses can now be watched in the tapes section. Your own robberies are marked with "*" while the usual robbery tapes from your house are marked with "@". This should decrease the need for mapping with external tools and allows you to rewatch your biggest heists.

Also: Sharing Maps with Bots, In-Game Statistics and Dual-Account Support.

Detailed information about the new features, server registration, client configuration and download can be found --> HERE <--.

Currently, all features are optional on the client side. This means you can use the original game client to connect and simply have to replace the according configuration files. If you try out the new client, feel free to post here or send  send me an email (frosty77_(at)_gmx.de) if you run into any bugs or problems.

If there is enough interest, I would love to improve the current and add more new features.
Therefore, feel free to share this post with anyone! smile

Best regards,
Frosty

#17 Re: Main Forum » [NEW GAME] I Wanna Steal Your Wife » 2014-06-19 13:02:40

Wow, this looks really nice. Good work. smile

Couldn't try it yet because I'm on Mac OS. Any chance for a Mac build?
Anyways, I will give it a go on my windows machine on the weekend.

#18 Re: Main Forum » Tips Page » 2014-06-03 12:09:33

I learned something new about mapshots ("+"-key) today: There is a difference between a mapshot in build mode and in robbing mode.

Build mode: All electronics are inactive and all doors are open.
Robbing mode: Electronics are active and all (red) doors are initially closed. To make a mapshot in robbing mode you have to play one of your tapes, it won't work in a self-test.

#21 Re: Main Forum » Ideas to attract new players. » 2014-04-20 02:57:41

The problem with letting people test on the community server is, that there are not enough players to experience the game fully. But I really like the idea of a free trial because IMO it does not violate Jason's rule of having a fixed price but it still attracts new players.

So, how about having regular "free to play" weeks or weekends (e.g. once every 2 month)? I've seen this for other steam games so it should be doable. After the f2p period all accounts that did not purchase the game are wiped others are simply left.

#22 Re: Main Forum » Old house » 2014-04-15 04:02:11

He answered that with the following, but I didn't get it on the first read either. ^^

Most people would check to see if he was still there but by doing so they move the vision allowing the next puppy to see them.

The red and orange lines are one tile above the yellow line. This means that you simply won't see the chihuahua (unless you moved up one more tile, to check if the first chihuahua is still there).

#23 Re: Main Forum » Advanced Sight Change Trap » 2014-03-31 14:49:51

Ahhh... I died several times to that trap and the paradox circuit, wondering how this house is done. Now I get it. smile

#24 Re: Main Forum » Download the latest version » 2014-03-31 12:32:01

Hm, you could try to just remove those two files instead of reinstalling the whole game. Otherwise I have no idea.

#25 Re: Main Forum » Download the latest version » 2014-03-31 12:22:30

Sounds like your settings files got overwritten. You guys could try to delete the "email.ini" and "downloadCode.ini" (make a backup copy before to be safe!). They should be recreated on the next start with your correct data.

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