News archive of December 2015
This page contains the news items which were submitted in December 2015. Clicking on the title of a news message will bring you to a separate page allowing you to comment, share or rate the message. Twitter messages will also be visible here.
26
DEC
Greetings,
Since Las Venturas Playground's incarnation, we've been running SMF, which is free and open-source forum software used to power communities such as ours. It has served our needs well for almost half a million posts! With that in mind, we've made the decision to switch to another free and open-source option, MyBB. Some may look at this as nothing significant, as, ultimately, they both do the same thing -- allow users to post and communicate with others. There are various reasons for our decision, and whilst I could create a novel defining them all, I'll try to keep this short and sweet.
With SMF, some of the functionality we had was made possible using Plugins/Mods, and, with MyBB, almost all of these options are included as standard, such as reCaptcha, used to block spam-bot registrations, and embedding of videos from YouTube, Facebook, Vimeo and so on. Relying on third-party options adds additional security risks, compatibility issues in-case of updates and so on. MyBB has lots of handy tools built-in, such as a Forum Team page, allowing you to quickly and easily identify Forum Moderators and Administrators, a Contact Form and all the other goodies you'd expect to see. We were also seeing issues affecting the usability of the forum as a result of some recent server-software updates.
The migration is now complete. User accounts, posts, private messages, avatars, signatures -- we think that everything has made it over safely, however, as with any maintenance of this nature, there is an element of risk involved, and so, if you across any problems or irregularities, please be sure to let us know!
You should be able to login as normal. MyBB also allows users to login with their Email Address, along with a username, and so if you face any problems logging in, please try with your email address. Alternatively, you may like to request a password reset. If that fails, feel free to contact us.
On behalf of the LVP management, crew and development team,
Granny & MrBondt
Since Las Venturas Playground's incarnation, we've been running SMF, which is free and open-source forum software used to power communities such as ours. It has served our needs well for almost half a million posts! With that in mind, we've made the decision to switch to another free and open-source option, MyBB. Some may look at this as nothing significant, as, ultimately, they both do the same thing -- allow users to post and communicate with others. There are various reasons for our decision, and whilst I could create a novel defining them all, I'll try to keep this short and sweet.
With SMF, some of the functionality we had was made possible using Plugins/Mods, and, with MyBB, almost all of these options are included as standard, such as reCaptcha, used to block spam-bot registrations, and embedding of videos from YouTube, Facebook, Vimeo and so on. Relying on third-party options adds additional security risks, compatibility issues in-case of updates and so on. MyBB has lots of handy tools built-in, such as a Forum Team page, allowing you to quickly and easily identify Forum Moderators and Administrators, a Contact Form and all the other goodies you'd expect to see. We were also seeing issues affecting the usability of the forum as a result of some recent server-software updates.
The migration is now complete. User accounts, posts, private messages, avatars, signatures -- we think that everything has made it over safely, however, as with any maintenance of this nature, there is an element of risk involved, and so, if you across any problems or irregularities, please be sure to let us know!
You should be able to login as normal. MyBB also allows users to login with their Email Address, along with a username, and so if you face any problems logging in, please try with your email address. Alternatively, you may like to request a password reset. If that fails, feel free to contact us.
On behalf of the LVP management, crew and development team,
Granny & MrBondt
25
DEC
Greetings,
The year is coming to a swift conclusion, and we felt it would be the perfect time to reflect on some of the year's events and changes!
Free VIP Membership
First of all, during the festive period, we've decided to make VIP membership free of charge for every player of Las Venturas Playground with an account. This will be automatically applied when logging in, and will remain active until the end of the year, at which point your account will return to a normal registered player. The benefits available to VIPs can be found here. This upgrade only applies to ingame, IRC and Forum rights will not be altered.
Farewell to bans & mutes
Every once in a blue moon, we like to forget about the past, and focus on the future. Our ultimate goal as a game server community is to provide a fun environment for all - a place to meet new faces...a place to kick back and chill. Rules are enforced by means of mutes/bans/kicks when attempts to diffuse hostile situations fail, or during violation of our rules (e.g. cheats). As such, a total of 1010 bans have been lifted from our game mode. All forum warnings and mutes have been lifted.
Gamemode development
A number of new releases have been moved to production this year, ironing out numerous bugs, improving existing features and in some cases, adding new features. Most significantly, we're pleased to announce our brand new Race platform, mustered together using JavaScript, a highly efficient and fault-tolerant platform. One of the flagship features includes the storage of your best personal lap times, as well as the best overall lap time achieved by another player. Previous releases of significance can be found here.
Packet loss
As some players have noticed, occasionally the in-game packet loss meter in the bottom right hand corner will display alarming packet loss readings, typically hovering from 15% - 30%. This can cause issues ranging from ramps failing to create, commands being slow to execute and so on. A significant amount of time, effort and changes have already been committed to resolving this problem. Our developers certainly haven't forgotten, or given up -- it's work in progress!
Back-end Software Updates
We've recently completed a series of upgrades to our database and web server in order to improve performance, and keep with the times of running the latest and greatest software! These changes have led to improvements in page load times, however, as with any maintenance, there is an element of risk, and so, if you notice any abnormalities, please do let us know.
Open Sourced Gamemode
2015 saw LVP's game mode becoming open-source, hosted on Github, which has also become the heart of our development. The project can be found here. Gamemode commits, or "changes", can be found here.
That's all for now, and I think I speak on behalf of the entire LVP Crew when I wish you all a very happy Christmas, and the best of luck in the new year! I'd also like to give a personal thanks to all the crew who've made Las Venturas Playground the community it is today, which extends much further than simply multiplayer experience built around San Andreas. Having only become involved at a crew level this year, I've built some excellent relationships which will hopefully live long and prosper!
On behalf of the LVP management, crew and development team,
Granny
Twitter: https://twitter.com/lvplayground
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lvplayground/
The year is coming to a swift conclusion, and we felt it would be the perfect time to reflect on some of the year's events and changes!
Free VIP Membership
First of all, during the festive period, we've decided to make VIP membership free of charge for every player of Las Venturas Playground with an account. This will be automatically applied when logging in, and will remain active until the end of the year, at which point your account will return to a normal registered player. The benefits available to VIPs can be found here. This upgrade only applies to ingame, IRC and Forum rights will not be altered.
Farewell to bans & mutes
Every once in a blue moon, we like to forget about the past, and focus on the future. Our ultimate goal as a game server community is to provide a fun environment for all - a place to meet new faces...a place to kick back and chill. Rules are enforced by means of mutes/bans/kicks when attempts to diffuse hostile situations fail, or during violation of our rules (e.g. cheats). As such, a total of 1010 bans have been lifted from our game mode. All forum warnings and mutes have been lifted.
Gamemode development
A number of new releases have been moved to production this year, ironing out numerous bugs, improving existing features and in some cases, adding new features. Most significantly, we're pleased to announce our brand new Race platform, mustered together using JavaScript, a highly efficient and fault-tolerant platform. One of the flagship features includes the storage of your best personal lap times, as well as the best overall lap time achieved by another player. Previous releases of significance can be found here.
Packet loss
As some players have noticed, occasionally the in-game packet loss meter in the bottom right hand corner will display alarming packet loss readings, typically hovering from 15% - 30%. This can cause issues ranging from ramps failing to create, commands being slow to execute and so on. A significant amount of time, effort and changes have already been committed to resolving this problem. Our developers certainly haven't forgotten, or given up -- it's work in progress!
Back-end Software Updates
We've recently completed a series of upgrades to our database and web server in order to improve performance, and keep with the times of running the latest and greatest software! These changes have led to improvements in page load times, however, as with any maintenance, there is an element of risk, and so, if you notice any abnormalities, please do let us know.
Open Sourced Gamemode
2015 saw LVP's game mode becoming open-source, hosted on Github, which has also become the heart of our development. The project can be found here. Gamemode commits, or "changes", can be found here.
That's all for now, and I think I speak on behalf of the entire LVP Crew when I wish you all a very happy Christmas, and the best of luck in the new year! I'd also like to give a personal thanks to all the crew who've made Las Venturas Playground the community it is today, which extends much further than simply multiplayer experience built around San Andreas. Having only become involved at a crew level this year, I've built some excellent relationships which will hopefully live long and prosper!
On behalf of the LVP management, crew and development team,
Granny
Twitter: https://twitter.com/lvplayground
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lvplayground/
20
DEC
Just a small note, we are currently performing some server maintenance.
No time to panic, yet.
Edit: Maybe it's time to panic a little bit :+
It's going to take a little bit longer than expected.
Little bit longer than planned, including some weird network issues... But while we were busy we took some time to check double check and improve some additional stuff.
We are now finished, and everything should return shortly, if not up and running already.
No time to panic, yet.
Edit: Maybe it's time to panic a little bit :+
It's going to take a little bit longer than expected.
Little bit longer than planned, including some weird network issues... But while we were busy we took some time to check double check and improve some additional stuff.
We are now finished, and everything should return shortly, if not up and running already.