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

Alexei Svitkine

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.

Alexei Svitkine

@lafayette 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:

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.

Interesting, does that mean that any map that doesn't show up doesn't have a valid map.yml file? Is there a way for map authors to verify if their file is valid?

How often does map server poll the github repos?

Black_Elk

Do you guys think we might be able to add a YML generating/translating step to the built-in Map Creator Tools?

Seems like something that should go under Step 3 of the Tool.

I'm a big code dunce so I didn't even know what yml was hehe, like xml and many things this is stuff I only really know about from playing tripleA and trying to make maps with the utilities.

I don't know if anyone has tinkered with it in a while but there are 2 things that would be helpful for the Map Creator Tools QOL...

First, having the default in the file navigator point to the "Downloaded Maps" folder rather than the main bin directory like the old days. This is minor, but since most of the Tools need you to point to the Tile folders or a baseline in the downloaded maps, I think this would make a little easier for the new user to figure out what's going on there in the step by step.

Second a way to access the UI notes while within the Map Creator Tools, since right now they'll display before the tool/step is launched but are hard to access afterwards while actually using the tool. While trying to learn which things needed to be right/left or ctl/shift clicked etc I had to have 2 instances of tripleA up just to make sure I could keep those Tool notes open. The Placement picker and Polygon grabber especially have a lot of UI notes there for how to properly select/save out the stuff in that step, and sometimes it's easy to blank an entry like with a rogue right click.

Anyhow just a quick thought. I think pushing out a 2.6-2.9 in kinda rapid succession to get to a 3.0 would cool. Just cause it feels like a lot has been added here, and cosmetically 2.6 has a vibe like it's been upgraded a fair bit. Pretty noticeable, like moreso than going from 1.9 to 2.5, I think, cause some of the stuff like the map zoom and toolbar type UI stuff are things the players will see immediately.

Panther

Talking about the "map-server":

@Alexei-Svitkine
@LaFayette

In order to be able to download maps with a pre-release I needed to do this:

Hit “Engine Preferences”
Select “Testing”
Find “Lobby URI Override” and set it (from "Other" = prod.triplea-game.org) to “Latest Stable”
Hit "Save"

Is that the desired behaviour?

Or should the pre-release be able to download maps from prod.triplea-game.org (what resulted in an error message at the time of testing)?

Also I noticed that I cannot switch back the setting to "Other" ...

TheDog

@Alexei-Svitkine
Done some testing on this
https://github.com/triplea-game/triplea/releases/tag/2.6.14415

Fix another cause of "Could not find step name" (2.6 bug). (#11780)
https://github.com/triplea-game/triplea/issues/11617

It almost fixing the above issue as the number of times this occurs has been dramatically reduced, sometimes it does not happen in my AI v AI test games.

This is just a heads up, as there are other issues with canNotTarget it might be worth looking at these other issues as it might solve these outstanding issues.

Meantime I will try and find the reasons for the outstanding occurrences.

Alexei Svitkine

@thedog thanks! When it happens, could you post the save right before the combat phase when it happened?

TheDog

@alexei-svitkine
Here is a save set, but annoyingly its not 100% reproducible, its random, it occurs in Italy's Combat phase.
Save of USSR just before Italy's turn, if you need it?
1941-T7-autosaveAfterUSSRNonCombatMove.tsvg

Save of Italy just before the combat phase, where randomly the error occurs
1941-T7-autosaveAfterItalyCombatMove.tsvg

I think it might be the Flag (infrastructure non combat) in Moscow, but I cannot be sure.

If you need the map, hopefully this version v120 works
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Q5XcTxMNdUZVAjjTWbz4mw0gL-Bjlw6r/view?usp=sharing

My testing is now on v121 and the saves come from that.

TheDog

@alexei-svitkine
Just noticed I have given the Flag

<option name="tuv" value="10"/>

This might confuse things. I use infrastructure tuv to guide the AI to make it important like Oil-Field and Lend-Lease-Depot

FYI, I also tested
https://github.com/triplea-game/triplea/issues/10647
it still errors occasionally, but Forest & Mountain (again infrastructure) dont have tuv

Alexei Svitkine

@thedog I can't load those saves with 120. Got a link to 121?

TheDog

@alexei-svitkine
Ah yes, a SZ got added, try this one v121
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dWCWMTy6L9zBItGXw3RHEoOxUMbdVaVf/view?usp=sharing

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

Although I didn't re-implement the above, I just landed https://github.com/triplea-game/triplea/pull/11818, which makes it so that if you get an error about your purchase, it won't clear your selections. So it's actually a pretty reasonable experience - if you select something incorrect, you will get a message box with the details when trying to end the purchase phase, which will tell you what's wrong, and then the purchase screen will be shown again with your previous selections which you can correct.

I think this should be a good improvement (and the UI stuff can still be done later if someone is interested to pursue it).

TheDog

@alexei-svitkine
Tried it and it does reduce the frustration!

If people want to download it and try it
https://github.com/triplea-game/triplea/releases/tag/2.6.14441

Cernel

@Alexei-Svitkine It seems you are working a lot on pushing this release, which is great.

Do you have an idea in months from now of when 2.6 shall be released?

Myrd

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

@Alexei-Svitkine It seems you are working a lot on pushing this release, which is great.

Do you have an idea in months from now of when 2.6 shall be released?

Well, my hope would be in the next couple of months, but it also depends on other team members. I think there's some map download and lobby server related stuff that I think @LaFayette would need to resolve, since I'm not really familiar with any of the server-side infra.

And I think @redrum wanted to look at fixing play-by-forum functionality.

On my side, I've just been focusing on fixing client / gameplay bugs - particularly, ones that are regressions from 2.5. I have a few more I plan to look at and of course, if new stuff is discovered, I can look at those too.

Cernel

@myrd Thanks for letting us have some hope. This 2.6 was quite the development purgatory.

ebbe

@alexei-svitkine

Yessss! that is a great improvement!!!
thanks for your contribution, I really appreciate!

as maxBuiltPerPlayer is a nice ballancing tool,
and by taking away the "having to order all over again in the
purchasing phase" it can be used without frustrations!

Cernel

About fixing PbF.

Is @redrum or @Myrd (Are @Myrd and @Alexei-Svitkine the same user?) going to fix PbEM too?

Unless I'm missing something, I believe that PbEM is broken since a long time, specifically the "Post Turn Summary" button is broken: I understand that users are reduced to get themselves a game-save at that point and upload and send it via E-Mail manually.

Or is this the same culprit as the PbF issue, so both are going to be fixed if any one of them is?

This is what you (or at least I) get when trying to use the "Post Turn Summary" button:
https://github.com/triplea-game/triplea/issues/11445

Here it is a video of back then when this button used to work:
https://youtu.be/c9cfHsoWQoI?t=870

The problem is that now it does not: if you click that button, you get the error reported where I linked.

(A disclaimer: I've never played PbEM, just tested it.)