Find out everything about the latest period of beta testing v1.42! I stayed monitoring and noticed the whole hacking-scandal. Have fun while reading through this article.
A long waiting Period
As you can read at the end of the article "SNDO Chronicles Part 1" the longest stable version of Seek and Dread Online has been 1.411. The reason for that might be that the newer version 1.42 was released months later. By the way, do you remember the statistic saving in v1.41? According to the readme file this great feature returned back, but what was the real problem for removing it in the next version again? The same problem targeted the website of Seek and Dread. Maybe it was a similar situation like the statistics saving and Kingson turned the server off.
Whatever happened (or more what not happened) the Seek and Dread community stayed waiting for the new version and then a small first beta version v1.43 Beta3 was released, finally. The waiting seemed to hand back the awaited success on Seek and Dread. But there was one big problem: This version was not done at all yet and therefore most of those players who were able to host games preferred v1.411 for their servers.
Map variety
Are you annoyed from those hosters who always choose bunkers or baseinvasion for their games too? I can't see those maps anymore and I really hate them. And I can remember I was not the only one who thought this too. And then those players who always said in irc something like "plz host baseinvasion" continuing loads of spam terms like "plz plz" or "HOST HOST".
On this point I really want to thank Superior and all other irc developers and scripters for their engagement on the #sndo-channel. Your bots and chat-features like the "auto-kicker" are really good work.
KingOfHeart, who else, noticed this lack of good and popular maps too. According to a chat log at 03.09.2006 Kingson claimed in the chat that only this 2 maps were being hosted. "I keep hearing members complain how they're tired of the same maps", said KingOfHeart after Kingson's opinion in the chat. A sentence of Kingson in the same conversation is an evidence for this obviously big problem too. He said: "base and bunkers. aren’t there any other maps played? some time ago complex was very famous".
I don't know how often Kingson really plays his game but I don't think very often, what I can't really understand, and I remember this "complex-time" too but times before there was a "warehouse-type" and I really loved this time. Maybe a good map designer out there could bring this back with a good lts_warehouse2.sdo!
Beta version surplus
Then in the middle time of the summer holidays between July and august a big beta flooding overflow the Seek and Dread community. Most of them were superfluous cause they only stayed 2 days at maximum as stable beta versions. Everyone was excited of the new versions and bug fixes and I was in one of those many many tryout-servers for bug findings.
The following screenshots are made with Seek and Dread Online v1.42b beta 54. If you look at the lobby pics you will notice the big advantage in a filled chat members list!
Everything went good! KingOfHeart and Kingson found several bugs with the weapons and that was it, we thought. But our beta-findings, Phire Trojan took part in it too, were attacked by an unknown hacker. He removed every beta-server from the list and therefore it was impossible for other users to join these servers. God, I hate him and I am not alone with this again! Fortunately he didn't attack the servers directly like lag-tackling. The following screenshots show what he had done to the beta-test.
The success of the beta-test
Obviously the beta-tests were successful and Kingson was ready to release version 1.42! As it came out, many new features came with it like visual additions or principal server systems. The new background pictures for the lobby, hosting and connecting screen are well-made and I want to thank Sonix at this point for his great work in making those bg-pics. Another visual innovation is the more precise health bar, which shows the actual health better than ever. But the most important innovation is the map-send-system, which allows direct map-downloading from the server hosters. Therefore all players are now independence from the Kingson's web server. This system is a great idea and now as I know and use it I ask myself why this has not been invented in former times. Also our ears got some new "food": New sounds and footsteps make the game more appealing.
Ok, we read about the great new features of 1.42, we know every new system Kingson invented for the new release, but why do we never see a 1.42 server on the list? I think the main reason for this is that 1.411 was and is the most stable version of the Seek and Dread history and it will keep this status for the next years too. (Read more about Seek and Dreads future in the article "The end of SND in 07?").
So what do we got from this article? Let me summarize the whole essay in a few sentences: First, Kingson worked hard on his project "Seek and Dread" and released a new version for every simple new addition. This was a good strategy, because with this Kingson kept the community excited. But all this ended with v1.411 which kept months the status as the "new" version (Yes, after a years of being in the Seek and Dread community the definition of the term "new" gets very strange). So remember: 1.411 may be the most stable version ever, but all in all the new version is the securest one.
Seek and Dread Beta Testing
16 years ago · November 24, 2006 · 7:42 pmFind out everything about the latest period of beta testing v1.42! I stayed monitoring and noticed the whole hacking-scandal. Have fun while reading through this article.
A long waiting Period
As you can read at the end of the article "SNDO Chronicles Part 1" the longest stable version of Seek and Dread Online has been 1.411. The reason for that might be that the newer version 1.42 was released months later. By the way, do you remember the statistic saving in v1.41? According to the readme file this great feature returned back, but what was the real problem for removing it in the next version again? The same problem targeted the website of Seek and Dread. Maybe it was a similar situation like the statistics saving and Kingson turned the server off.
Whatever happened (or more what not happened) the Seek and Dread community stayed waiting for the new version and then a small first beta version v1.43 Beta3 was released, finally. The waiting seemed to hand back the awaited success on Seek and Dread. But there was one big problem: This version was not done at all yet and therefore most of those players who were able to host games preferred v1.411 for their servers.
Map variety
Are you annoyed from those hosters who always choose bunkers or baseinvasion for their games too? I can't see those maps anymore and I really hate them. And I can remember I was not the only one who thought this too. And then those players who always said in irc something like "plz host baseinvasion" continuing loads of spam terms like "plz plz" or "HOST HOST".
On this point I really want to thank Superior and all other irc developers and scripters for their engagement on the #sndo-channel. Your bots and chat-features like the "auto-kicker" are really good work.
KingOfHeart, who else, noticed this lack of good and popular maps too. According to a chat log at 03.09.2006 Kingson claimed in the chat that only this 2 maps were being hosted. "I keep hearing members complain how they're tired of the same maps", said KingOfHeart after Kingson's opinion in the chat. A sentence of Kingson in the same conversation is an evidence for this obviously big problem too. He said: "base and bunkers. aren’t there any other maps played? some time ago complex was very famous".
I don't know how often Kingson really plays his game but I don't think very often, what I can't really understand, and I remember this "complex-time" too but times before there was a "warehouse-type" and I really loved this time. Maybe a good map designer out there could bring this back with a good lts_warehouse2.sdo!
Beta version surplus
Then in the middle time of the summer holidays between July and august a big beta flooding overflow the Seek and Dread community. Most of them were superfluous cause they only stayed 2 days at maximum as stable beta versions. Everyone was excited of the new versions and bug fixes and I was in one of those many many tryout-servers for bug findings.
The following screenshots are made with Seek and Dread Online v1.42b beta 54. If you look at the lobby pics you will notice the big advantage in a filled chat members list!
Everything went good! KingOfHeart and Kingson found several bugs with the weapons and that was it, we thought. But our beta-findings, Phire Trojan took part in it too, were attacked by an unknown hacker. He removed every beta-server from the list and therefore it was impossible for other users to join these servers. God, I hate him and I am not alone with this again! Fortunately he didn't attack the servers directly like lag-tackling. The following screenshots show what he had done to the beta-test.
The success of the beta-test
Obviously the beta-tests were successful and Kingson was ready to release version 1.42! As it came out, many new features came with it like visual additions or principal server systems. The new background pictures for the lobby, hosting and connecting screen are well-made and I want to thank Sonix at this point for his great work in making those bg-pics. Another visual innovation is the more precise health bar, which shows the actual health better than ever. But the most important innovation is the map-send-system, which allows direct map-downloading from the server hosters. Therefore all players are now independence from the Kingson's web server. This system is a great idea and now as I know and use it I ask myself why this has not been invented in former times. Also our ears got some new "food": New sounds and footsteps make the game more appealing.
Ok, we read about the great new features of 1.42, we know every new system Kingson invented for the new release, but why do we never see a 1.42 server on the list? I think the main reason for this is that 1.411 was and is the most stable version of the Seek and Dread history and it will keep this status for the next years too. (Read more about Seek and Dreads future in the article "The end of SND in 07?").
So what do we got from this article? Let me summarize the whole essay in a few sentences: First, Kingson worked hard on his project "Seek and Dread" and released a new version for every simple new addition. This was a good strategy, because with this Kingson kept the community excited. But all this ended with v1.411 which kept months the status as the "new" version (Yes, after a years of being in the Seek and Dread community the definition of the term "new" gets very strange). So remember: 1.411 may be the most stable version ever, but all in all the new version is the securest one.