Picking up the plastic plates, confetti, and champagne glasses off the floor gave me some time to reflect on our launch yesterday.
Some of you may have noticed that the site went down for about 20 minutes yesterday, a few hours after the launch. I myself noticed that the site was becoming very slow to respond to requests, and the servers stopped appearing on the list. Finally I checked the web logs and found tons of requests coming from WordPress.
After doing a bit of research, I found that there is a known flaw in WordPress which allows an attacker to launch DDoS attacks against any site. So now I just reject any request that has “WordPress” in the agent header. I started the server up — smooth sailing from there. A big thank-you goes out to Aaron for holding the fort and answering all the questions that appeared on the blog while I was figuring that out.
The game received mixed reviews. Some people showed great enthusiasm for the progress to date. Others … did not. However, a good number of people in the room stepped forward to … kindly remind these folks of the game’s alpha status.
People reported bugs and issues, and described differences in the physics, so a BIG THANK YOU to all of you who helped.
A few complaints stood out among the rest, so these have been addressed since yesterday:
I’m continuing my big physics refactoring, in order to address the jitter concerns further. I will publish these changes when they’re ready, and collect your feedback (is it better/worse, etc).
After that, I will be restructuring the site a little bit. The screen that currently shows the list of servers will also be used to join (or create) a room in the server you select. Then the game page will load and the list of rooms will be gone. There will be a button to return you to the server/room select screen, so you can join a new room.
With the list of rooms gone, there’s space for a list of players connected to the room. With this in place, I will start adding admin functionality. For starters, an admin will be able to appoint other admins, and make adjustments to the room’s settings (goal limits, time limits). Over time, admins will also be able to control the room by locking the teams, and assigning players to teams themselves. Admins will also be able to mute, kick, or ban players.
In the meantime, Aaron is hunting down more servers for us to use. He got one for us in Sydney, Australia, and is currently looking for others. I’ll get them running as they become available.
A number of you have sent fantastic long letters detailing your vision for what HaxArena could be. I’m sorry I haven’t been responding to every one personally, but rest assured that I am reading each one entirely, your ideas are being heard, and your kind remarks are very much appreciated. Keep it up!
I am thrilled with how the launch went yesterday. Watching people who are actually talented at Haxball playing each other in HaxArena was a real treat for me. We collected a lot of great feedback in the survey (please fill it out if you haven’t already!), and by talking to people in the rooms. Drop by once in a while and check out the improvements; I’ll be making them steadily over time.
csj and the HaxArena Team
When is this gonna have custom map support and when will we see another update?
We are trying to push out updates at least once a week, usually on the weekends. We have the custom map loader mostly working but need to do a couple things before we install it. May be another few weeks before it’s in.
I still need an acess code 🙁 How can I get an acess code?
I don’t know how to delete my comment, but I got an acess code via e-mail. I didn’t see it, because I get spam mails everyday (20-50/day), so I can’t read it. But now I see 🙂
Bremykt er smør med en andel rapsolje i. ikke sikkert det kom tydelig frem men sånn er det og beriket med d vitamin for oss nordboere. perfekt å steke i . Selv om stekt mat ikke er så sundt uansett da!
I get some passive income from a niche site I created but it’s not nearly as satisfying as when i truly work for my money. And I know it could go away at any time as trends change.
Bug report: When i try to play haxarena with SRWare Iron (an browser like google chrome), i join a room and i dont see the screen, i just see the background, but when i play with Opera i see the screen.
Good luck with this proyect!
how do i play i dont know how
?
?
Linking/creating account with Facebook would be awesome for later!
Keep up the good work and answering! Thank you.
Already on the agenda 🙂
Thanks so much for writing this – hilarious enough to ease the trauma of reading about caesarean-by-fang. I started reading the books to see what all the fuss was about, and I genuinely liked the first one (sort of, sexual politics aside), but by the time I got to the fountain of blood, I just… couldn’t finish without help, so I came here. (Heard about your summaries from Fandom Wank.)
How ball bounces and sticks to walls needs to be fixed. Especially when pushing it to wall, not kicking from distance. Right now doublekick lift is impossible, singlekick lift is weak. Horizontal straight double kicks are much harder to do and non straight horizontal doublekicks are weird.
Basically what I want to say is you need to fix the walls. 1×1 and 2×2 the game is about tricks, 3×3 and 4×4 it is not so much about tricks, but any pro knows 90% of 3×3 4×4 Haxball is played in stadium corners (which is pretty close to walls).
It would be much easier to explain with a video showing diffrences, but it would take maybe half a day to make 🙁
If you find it hard to pinpoint what is exatcly wrong with the wall email me I can try to explain with images and .gif maybe.
I’ve made some physics changes to the engine today:
– Slowed down the ball more as it rolls over grass
– Made it stick to players better
Please try it again and see if it’s better.
I think using a food processor is legal over here.No need to let it sit for more than 1 hour to enjoy the kale salad and feel free to substitute sweet vidalia onion for red and adjust the quantites and ingredients to suit – there are no rules other than to create something you enjoy. Enjoy!
Jag sÃ¥g listan pÃ¥ bilar som spelarna valt för i Ã¥r, alla tog ena fetingen efter den andra förutom Steffe och Mattia, de valde A3….jag förväntade mig nÃ¥got helt annat frÃ¥n de yngsta i a-laget men skönt att de inte flyger alltför högt i skyn
It seems you guys are working hard on improving the game, looking forward to hearing more news!
dude you guys are killing it. keep up the good work, big things are in store for this game
HELLO AM BRAZIL’S GOING TO BE LAUNCHED THE DAY HaxArena MUCH HOPE THIS GAME.
Jag har ett problem med att jag vill ändra epost adress. men det går inte för jag får aldrig något mail fram skickat till den ansdersen.
BALCO was busted because a former coach of an athlete got hold of "The Clear" so that it could be broken down and studied. Other than that it would probably have not been found.
Listen to me, dont put that shit of energy, is bullshit, just do betther the menu and that things, salu2
No papu intergalactico, lo que importa es la jugabilidad, no el menu.
P.D: Veri gud inglish mai frend
Keep up the good work and keep us posted with any news around the game!
It’s a real plaeruse to find someone who can think like that
– Dear Cynthia ~ Your little princess was PERFECT for her entire session! Oh, what a joy to play with her for hours! Enjoy every moment of her sweet newborn days! ♥ ♥
oOo Barbie your new blog is so high tech, me likey! I wouldn’t bother with two blocks if I had a gym downstairs either, this is why I can’t belong to a gym b/c I always find myself saying ‘I’ll go tomorrow’. Are you ever going to try Insanity again? I remember when you made that video of you and Jason doing it this summer, and I scared me into thinking I would NEVER do it lol.