Dev Notes: From the Trenches (Sept 19th 2021)

[Mini Militia Classic Alpha Force]

Dev Notes: From the Trenches (Sept 19th 2021)

This is long overdue, but we hit a rough patch of code and we've been terribly busy nose down in the work.

v.0.4.2 "Quality of Life" app update coming soon... 

Possibly tomorrow... if testing goes well and the older device support is barely tested... S that ought to be a fun nightmare in the making for some. 

KNOWN ISSUES

Chat Bugs - We have a code fix for the chat bugs that will be released soon. Until then, if on...

ANDROID - don't hit nav back to clear a keyboard and it will remain operational. 

APPLE - don't chat when the scoreboard pops and changes scene. 

LOBBY - go to the avatar screen and enter the keyboard as if you are going to change it, but don't. return and come back to the lobby. 

Hopefully after the next release these silly work arounds and cautions won't be needed.

10k Battle Coin Limit - Not really an issue but we're getting emails about this. In the last release there was a spend cap put on Quick Play games (10k). This got a slight mention but I think the release excitement probably drowned out the announcement. The BC (battle coin) Allowance is listed in the lower right corner on the Loadout screen. It will tell you what the game's limit is. We want to know if it makes the game better. Does it work to combat unfairness that might occur from those who have coins and those who don't? We wonder if a limit of 10,000 impacts the game at all. 

No Damage Issue (Either you can't do damage to another player or other players can't do damage to you.) - What is happening? The server has detected an anomaly and triggered an anti-anomaly response. That player basically gets put in a time-out and can no longer affect the game. If you report this issue we need to know: 

Does this problem affect everyone or just you? 

Are you running a mod? Your mod could be triggering the servers to think you are cheating. (Do not report this as a bug if you are cheating, ok?)

Send us a video of this happening and make note of the situation when the bug started happening. Video of the game BEFORE the bug starts is valuable too.

Can you repeat it? 

Does a specific loadout trigger it.

Custom Maps Spawn Points

A feature we added last release broke custom maps and custom spawn points. We're not entirely sure we can fix it quickly either. So hang in there while we figure out where to slip this into the work load. Making Custom maps a thing is NOT on our roadmap, but we like the idea so we will find a way to support it. This is only an issue on Custom online servers. WifiLan play should remain 100% unaffected.

CURRENT STATUS

Chat Bug Hot Fix is Coming - We are starting to put this "hot fix" release together. You might see the in a few days. It's been submitted on Google for internal testing, Apple will follow shortly. We're taking too long with the other fixes so we're gonna put out a "quality of life" update to fix some bugs.

Move item/weapon management to the server - Chad has been working on this for a few weeks now and the task has proved to be more complicated than originally anticipated. Some of the systems are interdependent and to make this one change is requiring the other systems to be updated as well. In the big picture, this is fine. It is all work that needed to be done and was on the roadmap later in Beta. The good news is that getting it done now means some of the Beta phase work will be ready earlier than planned. The bad news is that this will delay finishing the last Alpha task until all the updates get sorted out. It is very likely we will be working on this system for quite some time too. We will roll out the minimum needed to test the feature (the goal is to have as little change to the existing game as possible. Much like when we moved health and damage to the server side.)

Older Devices (ARMEABI) - Hunter had a major win that allowed the code to finally work and start compiling for older machines. Now begins some major testing to make sure it all actually works. We're dropping the Android API level as way support Android 4.0. This is not a well tested use case and we won't have any crash telemetry or analytics even, but it's a start. This gives us close to the actual support we had in 2015 CPU and OS level wise. As long as Google supplies it. We will provide a download link at some point to get the apk directly from us. Some older devices can't get the Google Play store to work anymore. That is a problem we will have to solve eventually.

Now Open: The Mini Militia Classic Mess Hall! - https://discord.gg/98M93UMrhV 

What is The Mess Hall? It is a fun place to hang out, share media, and chat with your MMC friends. We encourage members to share videos of their epic MMC games, organize battles, and use the voice chat during game play. As always, please be familiar with the rules and keep the space fun for all. 

We are splitting the server activities in preparation of the game going to Beta and all the increased traffic that will come with it. We're still a couple months from Beta, but as the time gets closer we are getting busier and won't have time to support setting up another server. That's why we are doing it now. 

Here's a breakdown of the two server set up: 

The Mess Hall - a fan server set up to cover all the needs of MMClassic fans to interact with each other over Discord. There are various chat areas and media sharing spaces, bot games, music, and voice chat. Official announcements from the Appsomniacs server will be fed over to a special channel so you won't miss important information as it gets announced while you hang out there. The Appsomniacs Team will not be monitoring posts in the Mess Hall. So if you have a question, bug report, or want to request a feature, you will need to post that on the Appsomniacs server or send us an email at testing...@appsomniacs.com.

Appsomniacs Official - The MMClassic section of the Appsomniacs server will continue to remain open, we're just going to turn off a few of the chat channels. We are trying to streamline getting information from players so we don't miss listening to your issues and feedback. In addition to the issue reporting, all the channels about maps, skins, game mods, and content creators will remain because we want to see what you are making and get your feedback. The channels that are going to be phased out are: public chat, media, and bragging rights.

WHAT IS NEXT?

Once the Alpha work is completed we will start working on the tasks of Private Beta Phase 0. Players won't see a shift to Beta until all the tasks are complete in phase 0 (see roadmap for specifics).

We are still at least a couple of months away from these steps, but we are getting lots of questions about when the game will be fully released in the Play Store. Here's a reminder about how the game will move through Beta and into a Public release: 

Each phase of Beta is about preparing for these major releases.
1st Step - Pre-registration (END of Beta Phase 0)
The app will be viewable in the Google Play store but not yet available for download. Beta Phase 1 will be spent making the final changes before the pre-registration people will get access to play the game.

2nd Step - Early Access (END of Beta Phase 1)
Those that signed up for pre-registration will get the option to download and play the Public Beta version of the app. The Public Beta phase will add the final features and make the last tweaks based on Beta tester feedback.

3rd Step -  Public Release (END of Public Beta)
This is the last action of the Public Beta phase; the Beta data will be archived and the game will be fully released on all platforms. Congrats, we did it!

LATEST ROADMAP:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1KBRgRIe8z0duhetJY1RHmqu-XL1_HLrX