2020-04-24 Server Crashes, Vehicle Disintegration, Pilot to Planetoid, Refinery

[Haxus]

Vehicle Disintegration
While tracing the server crash problem, a previously unknown problem was uncovered. Vehicles were being fetched to buildings in environments that were too harsh for the vehicles to exist. The vehicles were then destroyed by the environment, causing more vehicles to be fetched and destroyed.

Vehicles no longer suffer hull stress damage when new and at a building site.

Server Crashes
The vehicle disintegration problem helped to find the etherium bug that has been plaguing the servers.

Fixed etherium bug that fatally broke some data if multiple threads simultaneously changed an atom's parent atom to something different.

Pilot to Planetoid
NPC pilot does a poor job of flying to a planetoid. He tends to fall behind it as it orbits, then chases it without ever getting close enough to be in its gravitational zone.

Navigator now leads the destination world when it is part of an asteroid belt.

Land at Airport on Planetoid
NPC pilot will not land at an airport on a planetoid in my system.

Fixed error checking for obstructions at the landing site.

[Haxus]

Later...

Refinery
Refinery was intended to be able to refine antiflux particles on planetoids.

An oversight prevented the system scan from showing antiflux particle quality at planetoids.

• System scan now reports the presence of antiflux particles on planetoids.
  
• Refinery on planetoid can now refine antiflux particles from the "atmosphere".
  
• Refinery on gas giant can now refine borexino precipitate from the atmosphere.
  

[Haxus]

Servers finally appear happy, after weeks of instability.

The etherium change caused a lot more problems and took a lot longer to perfect than expected. I added another week of activation time to all active accounts to make up for the server down time.

It has been a relief to get back to the usual routine of fixing bugs and making minor improvements. I've been watching the server monitor with one eye for weeks. There has not been a crash or lockup for three days now, a record recently.

Prior to the etherium changes the servers had reached a nice level of stability, except for the occasional crash. It was the bug behind that occasional crash that forced the etherium changes. It wasn't exactly something I had planned. It was a lot of work. I would call it a set back. The result was good in many ways, a silver lining.

[Norway174]

Hooray! Does it mean it's time to rejoin again, and give it another go? :D

[resonkinetic]

It's always time to rejoin again.

[Haxus]

PM me your account name or avatar name and I'll activate your account. This message is for everyone.

Thank you Reson, that was very encouraging. I needed that.

[Deantwo]

Refinery
Refinery was intended to be able to refine antiflux particles on planetoids.

An oversight prevented the system scan from showing antiflux particle quality at planetoids.

• System scan now reports the presence of antiflux particles on planetoids.
  
• Refinery on planetoid can now refine antiflux particles from the "atmosphere".
  
• Refinery on gas giant can now refine borexino precipitate from the atmosphere.
  

I had no idea that was the plan. Interesting!

The patent at least require a Tesloid Dissipator as tool, so I assume the the process does too. That means we now have one of the first uses of advanced tools being required to harvest even more advanced resources. I like that a lot, since it means you need a production line to harvest it.

Tiny bit sad that antiflux particles aren't unique to spacecraft harvesting anymore. But warp-drives aren't as special as they once were anyway.

[Xantheose]

Nice. Thanks for theses fixes.

[jakbruce2012]

Very good, I'll be back in from time to time as well. Always glad to see fixes to stability.

[Haxus]

The requirement for a tesloid dissipator is there because it is a requirement to make particle harvester bays.