For this third cheeky test we will play domination. Again, the main focus will be on hitscan weapons, to see if they fare any better than last week. The test will be splitted in two parts:

• in the first half we'll be using Hellraiser's server
• for the second half we'll test some other server side changes, on my server. Normally I would love to test everything on Hellraiser's server, but these changes were added after distributing the beta.

We'll start the test on the following time:

                Server starts at: 
                       20:00 BST 
------------------------------------- 
Pacific Time 
(GMT-8)                12:00 

Mountain Time 
(GMT-7)                13:00 

Central Time 
(GMT-6)                14:00 

Eastern Time 
(GMT-5)                15:00 
  
UK, Spain, Portugal 
(GMT)                  20:00 

Netherlands, Germany, 
France, Norway, Demark 
(GMT+1)                21:00 

Finland, Romania 
(GMT+2)                22:00 

Sidney 
(GMT+10)        Sunday 06:00

And yes, for this second evening, I will be your cheeky girl. Hopefully for the last time :)
I'll also wait for you guys to join our Skype conversation afterwards. Just add me (alexandru.garofide) in your list of Skype contacts.

Compared with the test we did last week, we're in the opposite position now. Entity interpolation runs OK, while the hit validation doesn't.
And just like the previous weeks, we have a new audio file for you:

This time around, besides Guus and Ed, I was joined by Matt (Moose_Head), who finally got himself a microphone, and Jeff (The_One), the administrator of www.lithfaq.com.

We reached an opposite conclusion than last week: while lerping worked out good (as seen in the video below, the movement of the players is very smooth, despite my 280 ping) while the server hit validation didn't match. As a result, we had 87% of our hit claims labeled as miss. And that was anything but funny.

As you can see, despite the high ping, you can still see the players moving without them being warped all over the place. Hopefully next week we will get the Ok - OK combo, not the fourth one (NOK - NOK).

As every week, the podcast and the test can be further commented on the feedback forum topic.

Again, your next test's cheeky girl,
Herr_Alien

For this week's test I'd like to host the server again. Unlike last week though, we will be playing with the new netcode only.
Now now, don't panic. Entity interpolation was fixed, and the server hit validation was improved. Early tests showed that lerping is smooth:

Matt, with a ping of about 250 managed to frag me quite easily in a one on one match. Although it also says a lot about my shooting skills, it also points out that the new netcode does help. How much does it help? Let's find that out on Saturday.

So, without any delays, this week's beta:
http://avp2fortress.lithfaq.com/arch/beta/1245449603_15762.zip

The detailed schedule is:

                Server starts at: 
                       20:00 BST 
------------------------------------- 
Pacific Time 
(GMT-8)                 12:00 

Mountain Time 
(GMT-7)                 13:00 

Central Time 
(GMT-6)                 14:00 

Eastern Time 
(GMT-5)                 15:00 
  
UK, Spain, Portugal 
(GMT)                   20:00 

Netherlands, Germany, 
France, Norway, Demark 
(GMT+1)                 21:00 

Finland, Romania 
(GMT+2)                 22:00 

Sidney 
(GMT+10)         Sunday 06:00

And yes, for this second evening, I will be your cheeky girl.

Herr_Alien

Saturday evening we had the first "cheeky" test, then we talked for more then two hours on Skype. The following is an edited audio from that discussion:

We had the same people joining in on Skype: Ed (aka Hellraiser), Guus (aka Gps), Matt (aka Moose_Head) and Alien Grand Master

We reached the conclusion that while the hit detection seems to have improved a bit, lerping (entity interpolation) looks really jerky. We also considered mid-week tests, but just for netcode testing. And since 13th of June did not bring a playable new netcode, the bet is still on.

Last week's discussion concluded that some maps are not that well suited for Domination. TO find out exactly which maps are good and which are bad, one of our community members has started a thread war for domination. Pay a visit and vote up your favourite maps, and vote down the ones you didn't like on Domination.

What's up with the song you keep hearing? Well, that's just a weird Easter Egg: the medic has the taunts changed to play segments from "The Cheeky Song" by Cheeky Girls.

Your next test's cheeky girl,
Herr_Alien

For this evening, I want to run the test from my computer. The reason is that the first 1.5 hours we'll play using the old netcode, while during the last 30 minutes of the test we'll take a first run on the new netcode, and swapping servers can be more ... complicated.

Interpolation is actually jerky, but I am curious how hits will be validated with the new netcode.

So, without any delays:
http://avp2fortress.lithfaq.com/arch/beta/1244911454_27866.zip

The detailed schedule is:

                Server starts at: 
                       20:00 BST 
------------------------------------- 
Pacific Time 
(GMT-8)                 12:00 

Mountain Time 
(GMT-7)                 13:00 

Central Time 
(GMT-6)                 14:00 

Eastern Time 
(GMT-5)                 15:00 
  
UK, Spain, Portugal 
(GMT)                   20:00 

Netherlands, Germany, 
France, Norway, Demark 
(GMT+1)                 21:00 

Finland, Romania 
(GMT+2)                 22:00 

Sidney 
(GMT+10)         Sunday 06:00

And yes, for this evening and the next, I will be your cheeky girl.

Herr_Alien

After we had the test session Saturday evening, we once again had a Skype discussion about the mod:

In order of appearance:

• Nazal guy (that would be me)
• Guus (he plays as Gps)
• Ed (that's Hellraiser)

We talked about Domination, and came up with a plan to fix the Benny Hill runs. We also talked about the latest changes (delivering headshots, changing the pulse rifle) and we agreed to have the feature list frozen by the end of the week, so that we could set ourselves a deadline. To help us on that, head to our forums to give your feedback, and to pitch in your feature requests.

If you missed out the gaming session, you can watch the recorded videos here:

Your next test's cheeky girl,
Herr_Alien

For today's test, there are a couple of issues that I would like to investigate:

1. Headshots
   We increased the damage multilier for the head node; hopefully that will increase the frequency of headshots.
2. Improved netting behavior
   If you recall my moaning from our last week's skype discussion, I was unhappy with the netgun sentries; my main issue was that the netgun was set to decloak preds by depleting their energy (EMP effect). That would then leave the pred demoman helpless.
   Well, that was changed: preds will get decloaked while retaining the energy level they had.
3. Pulse rifle changes
   We increased the damage of the pulse rifle bullets, and also reduced the MinPerturb to 0. To ballance things out, we added a bit of recoilto the weapon. How will that feel? Well, I guess we'll find that out tonight.

So, the plan is: meet up at 20:00 BST (see detailed schedule below) on Hellraiser's server for the first hour, then switch to mine.

After the two hours of play, I'd like to have a word with you guys, much like we did last week. This time, I'd like you to talk with you guys on the following topics:

1. Benny Hill like runs on Domination
2. Feedback for the current test

The version for this evening can be downloaded at: http://avp2fortress.lithfaq.com/arch/beta/1244257724_22978.zip.

The detailed schedule is:

                          Server starts at: 
                                  20:00 BST 
------------------------------------------- 
Pacific Time 
(GMT-8)                           12:00 

Mountain Time 
(GMT-7)                           13:00 

Central Time 
(GMT-6)                           14:00 

Eastern Time 
(GMT-5)                           15:00 
  
UK, Spain, Portugal 
(GMT)                             20:00 

Netherlands, Germany, 
France, Norway, Demark 
(GMT+1)                           21:00 

Finland, Romania 
(GMT+2)                           22:00 

Sidney 
(GMT+10)                   Sunday 06:00

And no, the improved netcode is not yet ready. That will make me (on 13th of June) your cheeky girl.

Herr_Alien