2.6 Release Getting Close - Need Volunteers to Help Beta Test 2.6

Alexei Svitkine

If you were working on improvements to a map, would you like other people to tell you "no, there's no reason to release a new version" or would you rather the improvements make it into the hands of players?
(That's why I started looking at the state of 2.6 recently - as I'd like to get the stuff I've worked for in the hands of players.)

In terms of what's in 2.6, I can't speak to all the other changes, but here are some of the big ticket items I've contributed:

The unit status bar so when you mouse over a territory, you can quickly see what units are there (very useful on crowded maps)
Much faster AI. Makes a huge difference on some maps, like Domination 1914. Just try 2.5 and 2.6 side by side with Hard AI and see how they progress.
Much faster battle calc - for example, e.g. on some maps like 270BC it would take tens of seconds to just bring it up before.
Lots of fixes for random errors and crashes that currently exist in in 2.5.
Major improvements to memory use.

The other reason for releasing it is that it would provide a new "stable" checkpoint, so that any new work can be compared to that, instead of bundled with lots of other unreleased changes as it is the case in 2.6 right now. By sitting on a lot of unreleased changes, it increases risk for the project as without full vetting via a release, bugs can creep in that may be very hard (i.e. taking a lot of time) to resolve later.

RogerCooper

@alexei-svitkine said in 2.6 Release Getting Close - Need Volunteers to Help Beta Test 2.6:

@rogercooper said in 2.6 Release Getting Close - Need Volunteers to Help Beta Test 2.6:

@alexei-svitkine New mods are not appearing. I updated TripleA this morning.

Do you mind giving an example of something that's missing from 2.6?

Here is a list of recent mods, none of which I can download. I posted most of these myself but not all.

Election_Usa Public
HTML 0 0 0 0 Updated yesterday
World_War_II_Halifax Public
HTML 0 0 0 0 Updated last week
pacific_1942 Public
HTML 0 0 0 0 Updated last week
uhd_world_war_ii_global Public
HTML 0 0 0 0 Updated 2 weeks ago
CCLXXbc Public
HTML 0 0 0 0 Updated 2 weeks ago
NSP_v4 Public
HTML 0 0 0 0 Updated 3 weeks ago
wwiinazithreat Public
HTML 0 0 0 0 Updated last month
churchills_1939 Public
HTML 0 0 0 0 Updated on Jun 8
The_World_at_War Public
HTML 0 0 0 0 Updated on May 31
world_war_ii_v6_1941 Public
HTML 0 1 0 0 Updated on May 27

There is also mod that I can download called "Test Map" that causes an error if it is downloaded. It should be fixed or removed.

Panther

@alexei-svitkine said in 2.6 Release Getting Close - Need Volunteers to Help Beta Test 2.6:

If you were working on improvements to a map, would you like other people to tell you "no, there's no reason to release a new version" or would you rather the improvements make it into the hands of players?

Second alternative for sure. That is why I was asking for information about the improvements!
I explained before that I at an unspecific point failed to keep track, as there were so many merges - cryptic at least to me.

LaFayette

@wc_sumpton said in 2.6 Release Getting Close - Need Volunteers to Help Beta Test 2.6:

Adding such features, when requested by map makers, would allow that release to be tested. Not adding anything, means there is no reason to test future releases. Thus no "push" for that release.

Respectfully it may be a more complex picture regarding testing. The issue with code is that the complexity of updates grows combinatorically. Think of code as a puzzle where the puzzle pieces are super complex shapes and can connect to 30 some other pieces. Moving one piece around means you need to take care of the 30 other pieces that it connected to, and in turn each of the 30 pieces that those connect to. A good code base will try to minimize the puzzle piece connections. TripleA is not that.

Hence, there is a concept of "regression" testing, where very easily the existing puzzle pieces might have been disturbed and no longer working. This is in part what makes it so difficult to update code compared to the ease of creating new code. A great example is where we discovered that the bots were broken in 2.6 very far after the fact. Absolutely no new features there, an existing thing being broken, and we did not know about it until we tried to do a production launch.

In sum, there are many kinds of testing, "feature" or "user" testing I think is what is being thought of here. "Regression" testing is the biggest burden for TripleA and is a giant task that repeats when there are updates. Overall, regression testing properly takes several days; feature testing can take a dozen minutes to accomplish. The 'feature' testing is useful, what we really needed help with here was regression testing. The bot compatibility issue was harder to find of course because it required players to connect to a 2.6 lobby, and nobody really did that (it was a miss).

LaFayette

To keep this thread on track, the big 2.6 blocker is the network compatibility issue that makes bots unplayable. The issues with maps not working are generally known problems that can be fixed. Those fixes are inconsequential until we get that network compatibility problem figured out.

Alexei Svitkine

@lafayette said in 2.6 Release Getting Close - Need Volunteers to Help Beta Test 2.6:

To keep this thread on track, the big 2.6 blocker is the network compatibility issue that makes bots unplayable. The issues with maps not working are generally known problems that can be fixed. Those fixes are inconsequential until we get that network compatibility problem figured out.

If you're talking about the bot issue, then I believe it should be fixed now. See: https://github.com/triplea-game/triplea/issues/11751

wc_sumpton

@alexei-svitkine

First off, thank you for all the work you've done. Refactoring, given the current state of TripleA, is not an easy task. @LaFayette is correct, testing such changes can be time consuming. And @Panther is also correct stating that there seems to be very little reason for the community to migrate to a new release. And you, also, have a right to see all your efforts enjoyed by the community.

TripleA has be in "Feature Lock" mode since prior to 2.5 release. As of now I know of 4 different maps being developed. And just recently @ebbe here asked about something, which if done would help with his project. Providing such functionality would require him to continue using and testing a pre-release version. isAI() is already a method. Creating a condition that checks this has been requested many times.

All I'm saying is 2.6 needs testing. Give map makers something to test, and then the community will follow. Staying "Feature Locked" for almost 2 years doesn't help the community grow.

Cheers...

Alexei Svitkine

@rogercooper said in 2.6 Release Getting Close - Need Volunteers to Help Beta Test 2.6:

@alexei-svitkine said in 2.6 Release Getting Close - Need Volunteers to Help Beta Test 2.6:

@rogercooper said in 2.6 Release Getting Close - Need Volunteers to Help Beta Test 2.6:

@alexei-svitkine New mods are not appearing. I updated TripleA this morning.

Do you mind giving an example of something that's missing from 2.6?

Here is a list of recent mods, none of which I can download. I posted most of these myself but not all.

Election_Usa Public
HTML 0 0 0 0 Updated yesterday
World_War_II_Halifax Public
HTML 0 0 0 0 Updated last week
pacific_1942 Public
HTML 0 0 0 0 Updated last week
uhd_world_war_ii_global Public
HTML 0 0 0 0 Updated 2 weeks ago
CCLXXbc Public
HTML 0 0 0 0 Updated 2 weeks ago
NSP_v4 Public
HTML 0 0 0 0 Updated 3 weeks ago
wwiinazithreat Public
HTML 0 0 0 0 Updated last month
churchills_1939 Public
HTML 0 0 0 0 Updated on Jun 8
The_World_at_War Public
HTML 0 0 0 0 Updated on May 31
world_war_ii_v6_1941 Public
HTML 0 1 0 0 Updated on May 27

There is also mod that I can download called "Test Map" that causes an error if it is downloaded. It should be fixed or removed.

I tried looking for these with 2.5 and also didn't see them. Are you sure they're posted correctly?
If they can be downloaded with 2.5, can you give me the category and map name in the download list one of these shows up as and I can investigate?

Alexei Svitkine

However, looks like downloads are just broken on 2.6 right now due to a server issue? I'll file a bug on github.

TheDog

If we want to entice players to migrate from 2.5 to 2.6 there is a one feature request that affects about 1/4 of the maps in the map downloads so about 50 of the 200+ maps.

It would make the purchasing of these units less frustrating as getting it wrong cancels all your purchases.

It is this

maxbuiltperplayer has ≤ on the purchase panel for each unit
the aaGun doesn't have a maxBuilt rule and hence no limit is displayed in the label
current unit count has been appended to the end of the Production tooltip (which makes the info easy to scan). It has been suggested this info can be useful to plan production count 2
infantry was maxed out using the max button.
production capacity is displayed on the panel at the bottom left 5/8 = 5 units currently purchased out of the 8 maximum production/placed allowed (if applicable)

See here;
https://forums.triplea-game.org/topic/2752/maxbuiltperplayer-error-resets-purchase-ui-was-how-to-limit-the-number-of-units-purchased/11

https://github.com/triplea-game/triplea/issues/9231

Alexei Svitkine

@thedog said in 2.6 Release Getting Close - Need Volunteers to Help Beta Test 2.6:

If we want to entice players to migrate from 2.5 to 2.6 there is a one feature request that affects about 1/4 of the maps in the map downloads so about 50 of the 200+ maps.

It would make the purchasing of these units less frustrating as getting it wrong cancels all your purchases.

It is this

maxbuiltperplayer has ≤ on the purchase panel for each unit

the aaGun doesn't have a maxBuilt rule and hence no limit is displayed in the label

current unit count has been appended to the end of the Production tooltip (which makes the info easy to scan). It has been suggested this info can be useful to plan production count 2

infantry was maxed out using the max button.

production capacity is displayed on the panel at the bottom left 5/8 = 5 units currently purchased out of the 8 maximum production/placed allowed (if applicable)

See here;
https://forums.triplea-game.org/topic/2752/maxbuiltperplayer-error-resets-purchase-ui-was-how-to-limit-the-number-of-units-purchased/11

https://github.com/triplea-game/triplea/issues/9231

Thanks for the reminder about this. It's super frustrating because the author of that prototype actually coded a bunch of that functionality and had it working, but never actually shared the code I believe and them disappeared. So we have to redo it from scratch.

wc_sumpton

@alexei-svitkine

All I could Find

Don't know how much this will help.

Cheers...

RogerCooper

If they can be downloaded with 2.5, can you give me the category and map name in the download list one of these shows up as and I can investigate?
I don't even 2.5 installed and the mods I have uploaded are being done in 2.6 style.

Before downloads failed entirely, all mods were listed without categorization.

Black_Elk

I've been playing 2.6 for a couple months now and from the SP perspective it seems like a pretty good upgrade.

To me the biggest selling point is the map zoom, AI/calc speed which seems pretty significant, and status bar (for that last current owner might also be nice in the list, in case the tile is contested for maps that use a battle round limit, or where multinational forces are in the same tile stuff like that, pretty much everything else is listed right there in the status for the quick glance). I've yet to encounter an error that crashed me out in 2.6 SP and I like how the folders are organized. It still seems more to me like 3.0 almost. So maybe if we want people to check it out we just skip ahead into the 3 territory? I mean what's in a name right haha.

But I agree with others that PBF would be key. Seems like promo-ing it before that and the bots and the git mod thing is resolved would be kinda premature, cause I think a lot of players are hoping for that out of a stable right?

redrum

@panther said in 2.6 Release Getting Close - Need Volunteers to Help Beta Test 2.6:

As the new "stable" still will not allow for PBF with current NodeBB-versions I would really need some good arguments.

Are you saying the latest pre-release no longer works for PBF?

Panther

@redrum said in 2.6 Release Getting Close - Need Volunteers to Help Beta Test 2.6:

@panther said in 2.6 Release Getting Close - Need Volunteers to Help Beta Test 2.6:

As the new "stable" still will not allow for PBF with current NodeBB-versions I would really need some good arguments.

Are you saying the latest pre-release no longer works for PBF?

You might have noticed it, as you are playing at A&A .org. Pre-releases used to work for a while - but there are issues - maybe related to current NodeBB versions of the forum software - that need to be fixed. Current pre-releases do not work, indeed.

An unexpected error occurred!
IllegalStateException: Error, bad server response: HTTP/1.1 500 Internal Server Error; JSON: {“path”:“/forums/api/v2/users/2494/tokens”,“error”:“Blob is not defined”,“bodyClass”:“page-forums page-forums-api page-forums-v2 page-status-500 theme-persona user-guest”}

https://github.com/triplea-game/triplea/issues/11739

Alexei Svitkine

@RogerCooper

I filed https://github.com/triplea-game/triplea/issues/11768 for the missing downloads for new maps. It seems maybe there's some manual step required now to update the database when new maps are added? @LaFayette would know more.

(It seems I had a custom URL set for my own pre-release, I had a custom URL set for "Lobby URI override" in prefs which is why I couldn't open the downloads screen at all - switching that to the stable URL fixed that, so I assume just user error on my side...)

redrum

@panther Ok, thanks for letting me know. I'll take a look and see if I can fix it. This time I think I'll just put out a release with just the PBF fixes on top of 2.5 as I should have last time.

Panther

@redrum

That sounds very, very good, Ron. Thanks a lot!

LaFayette

@alexei-svitkine said in 2.6 Release Getting Close - Need Volunteers to Help Beta Test 2.6:

It seems maybe there's some manual step required now to update the database when new maps are added?

There are no manual steps. The new 'maps server' will poll the entirety of the github maps organization for all repositories and it maintains the database entries for what it finds. Adding a new repository into the maps organization with a valid map.yml file is the only requirement for a map repository to be picked up. This eliminates the triplea_maps.yaml file entirely.