Relocation to new hardware and updating.

Hello everyone!

Relocation.

As you probably already know, we have migrated almost the entire project's infrastructure to new hardware with a new provider.

Why was this necessary? Many of you have run into the problem where the game server, although running and formally showing no signs of failure — and even letting a few players in and play — simply refused to let anyone else connect, everyone who hadn't been among the first to join. This was happening because of TSPU (Technical Means of Countering Threats). All providers in Russia are required to install TSPU, but these "things" almost always negatively affected the game server's traffic, apparently treating it as threatening. The server couldn't establish a connection, reset it, and so on in a loop for everyone who wanted to join, until the connection limits were exhausted.

Every time this happened, we had to stop the game server, generate a new mission, and restart it on a different port — one on which the game server wasn't threatening anyone yet)) I can't know for sure, but I suspect TSPU also played a significant role in the disconnects. Although disconnects do happen even under ideal conditions.

So, to minimize network problems, we decided to move everything to a provider that sees no threat in game servers. We hope this will improve the gaming experience for many of you. At least, we really hope so.

Why are we writing about this so late, you ask?

Because relocation is not the easiest of procedures, especially considering the project no longer looks like a "weekend project." We had to spend some time debugging all the processes and fixing bugs. Installing the necessary software. Besides the move itself, an update was ready that needed to be described in detail — and that's what we'll talk about below.

Private messages.

In anticipation of "squads" (yes, development is already underway), we've added private messages and mailings from the administration. Players will be able to correspond directly on the site, for example, to discuss joining/recruitment into a squad. On top of that, not everyone visits the forum and not everyone is up to date on the latest updates and news, so administration mailings have been added to promptly inform players about this or that event.

Players can create private chats and communicate directly on the site, if that's convenient for them, of course.

Even though the messages are private, discussing or posting extremist materials within the system is prohibited.

Keep in mind that messages are stored in plain text. Third parties have no access to them, but an admin (mostly @undefined) may have access by writing an appropriate script to the DBMS.

PvP reward.

• The reward for shooting down a player (2% of the victim's points and 5% of the profile's profit) is no longer mixed with points and coins from PvE.

• The reward is credited as a separate entry in the profile — the site shows who it was credited for and how much: "Reward for shooting down pilot <nickname> [rank: …]".

• The reward no longer counts toward group points and is not distributed among players in the group.

• The mechanics have been unified with the rewards for destroying targets (PvE) — everything is calculated and displayed the same way.

Rankings and statistics

• Ranking values now match the profile. Previously, win streaks and playtime in the rankings were calculated using a separate formula and diverged from what you saw in your profile. Now the entire ranking (pilots and tankers) is calculated using the same formulas as the profile. As a bonus, the ranking pages now load noticeably faster.

• "Best of the day" fixed — the composition and order of the daily ranking now match the overall one (previously they were calculated from different sources and didn't match).

• Player search in the rankings fixed — the player is now highlighted on the page and row where they actually are; previously the page where the player was located was displayed incorrectly.

• Sortie earnings breakdown: in the session log, when you hover over points or coins, you can now see what the sortie total consists of — base points, group points, bonuses for targets or for PvP.

• Site time fixed. Previously, sortie times, losses, and "last sortie" in the profile were displayed inconsistently. The time zone could drift. Now the time is displayed correctly in your time zone and uniformly across the entire site.

• Fixed a rare loss of sortie earnings: if you shot down an aircraft at the very end of a mission and immediately ended the session, the sortie results could get wiped. That won't be lost anymore.

Fog of war.

The time after which the enemy receives information about changed resources at airfields has been increased to 30 minutes. In other words, you have a time lag of a full 30 minutes.

Takeoff clearance sent to the in-game chat and other little things.

• Service messages in the in-game chat now arrive with a ~5 second delay. Previously, messages (takeoff clearance, low fuel, etc.) appeared before spawn and managed to disappear from the chat while you were still loading — you asked us to fix this. Kicks and bans, as before, take effect instantly.

• Mission end messages are now sent at intervals rather than in a single batch — less risk of them getting lost.

• Fixed statistics log reading — mission events are no longer lost due to the log file being locked by the game server.

• Automatic daily database backups have been set up — your progress is now more reliably protected from failures.