Evolution RTS
Evolution RTS Get-Together 1v1 Tournament!
Featured will be existing players from the spring community, such as Ikinz, Anarchid, TheSponge, TheMooseIsLoose and CommonPlayer, as well as some of the newcomers via Steam such as, Qaenthalis, ShirtStain, and KoyoteKamper!
The entire event will be streamed live at http://www.evolutionrts.info/stream
I myself will be casting, and there may be a co-caster helping me out, but that is not nailed in certainty yet.
You can view the matchups on the Challonge Bracket, located here: http://challonge.com/evogginvitational
Come hang out with us and have some fun!
Preload released on steam! Bugs Fixed!
The main server was overwhelmed but handling it rather well. Considering the number of unique visitors, that is amazing. There were a lot of users that reported problems of many different variations. One of the great things about the lobby system in use is that it can be patched and fixed serverside, which then fixes the bug on the user side automagically.
The 2 lobby developers, Ikinz, and Carrepairer have been working themselves practically to death since monday to keep up with fixing bugs and the entire spring community has been helping newbies. Unfortunately the spring community for the most part is pretty small, and the number of users flooding in were far more than any of us (especially me) anticipated.
However, 90% of all of the issues stemmed from not having the content initially and having to download it via the lobby. Game updates are handled via the lobby via a byte comparison system called "Rapid". The awesome thing is that when I release a new version or an update, thanks to rapid, you only have to download what changed. This means updates are anywhere from 500kb to 5mb instead of 300+mb, making updating the game fast and easy.
As I mentioned, must of the issues stemmed from content not being preloaded. As of tonight, that has been rectified. Additionally, the lobby has received a massive update to the user interface.
The preload consists of the latest version of the engine, the latest version of the game, and 10 of the most commonly played maps.
I apologize for all of the trouble that so many of you went through, but rest assured that we have been working tirelessly to fix things. If you tried it before but had issues, I encourage you to give it another go. It's heartbreaking to see so many people get no further than the lobby and never actually into a game.
Please let us know if you have any issues.
Linux users, I am going to try to have the linux builds up by tomorrow night some time.
Q&A Session with ShadowFury333! (7PM PST) Newbie help! Problems discussed!
Please tune in if you can! The channel is http://www.twitch.tv/shadowfury333
Your troubles are being heard! We are working full tilt to sort things out!
It will start in about 15 minutes from the time of this posting.
(2AM GMT) (7PM PST)
Evolution RTS on Steam???
There have been a lot of people having issues with various things (usually single player) and I thought I would address it here.
When you download the game form steam, all you are getting is the lobby. When you join the lobby, if you join one of the multiplayer battles, the lobby downloads the engine, the game, and the current map.
This basically automates the entire process. That said, a lot of people are going directly to the Single player tab and trying to get a game started, and that's reasonable. The lobby should warn you that you don't have any of the needed items. At the moment it doesn't though, so it is necessary to join one of the multiplayer hosts and get the downloads before you can play via the SP tab.
The Evolution RTS (and Spring Engine) community is quite small. Somewhere around 300 people or so. Many of us have been working on the engine or our own little projects for over 5 years. As an example, I have been working on Evo for about 5.5 years now, and working on things for the engine since 2005. We are a great community with good people and we welcome you!
That said, please remember that we work on the games and engine in our spare time. Everyone has gone hugely out of their way to help newbies today, but of course some people won't be patient and will just leave. That's ok, I don't blame them, but understand that this game and engine were created without a budget.
The lobby is confusing, that much is clear. After you understand how to use it it's quite simple, but for a total newbie it is a bit overwhelming, and although I am not one of the lobby developers, I apologize for that. However, there are no less than 4 lobbies that can be used for Spring Engine games. If you are having trouble and would like to try one of the other lobbies, just ask and we will point you to them!
There has been a small issue with some of the spawned multiplayer autohosts posting with the wrong engine version (Version 91 instead of 96). This is actually completely out of my control, but I am doing my best to help get the issue corrected. For now, use the EvoRTSDedicated and Plutonium hosts. They will work just fine.
Thanks for trying out the game. I hope you enjoy it!