Author Topic: Paragon Chat 0.99i Beta!  (Read 209920 times)

Codewalker

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Paragon Chat 0.99i Beta!
« on: July 08, 2015, 01:03:30 AM »
I'm very pleased to announce the availability of Paragon Chat 0.99i Beta!

Download

Save it to your Issue 24 directory (usually called CohBeta or I24) and run it from there.

Patch Notes

Version 0.99i Beta
  • Global channel membership decoupled from the client's per-character settings (which it tends to lose for no apparent reason) and made account-wide. "Account" in this context means the game account you type on the COH login screen, not your XMPP account.

    IMPORTANT NOTE: As there is no clean way to migrate from per-character to per-account channel membership, this means you will lose all of your global channels when upgrading to 0.99i. The good news is that since it's account wide, you only need to rejoin the channels once, and they will permanently stick now.

    If you switch to characters created before joining a channel, even though you join the channel at login, they may not be in any that character's chat tabs and need to be added. The same thing happened on the live game. Saving and loading chat settings can help here.

  • The chat channel settings used by the game client should be somewhat less likely to randomly disappear now.


Version 0.99h Beta
  • Added code to trick the client into thinking that it's in task force mode so that it doesn't automatically log players out when they are AFK.

  • A nonzero helper status is now sent to prevent the annoying popup window when logging in.

  • Characters are now checkpointed to persistent storage upon zoning, updating their bio, or modifying a costume in the tailor. This helps prevent rollbacks in the event of a program crash.

  • Nonzero inventory sizes are now sent (1 recipe, 1 invention salvage, 10 enhancements) in order to prevent the tabs from being permanently red.

  • Technology Preview:

    • Added fake power Ninja Run.

    • Added fake power Super Jump.

      Known Issue: Paragon Chat does not have a real powers system, but only hardcoded approximations. It currently does not support having more than one active power, so it is not possible to run both Super Jump and Super Speed at the same time. This is planned to be addressed in future updates.

    • Added initial implementation of jumping movement mode to the XMPP protocol, used by the two above power simulations.

      IMPORTANT NOTE: The jumping physics synchronization is only a rough preview. It is likely to appear somewhat glitchy to other players, especially if you release the jump key before reaching maximum jump height. However, it's still an improvement.


Version 0.99g Beta
  • Fast track patch for a critical issue in the HTTPS file download code that was preventing successful updates.


Version 0.99f Beta
  • Fix a minor bug that no one would have ever noticed, but would bother me to leave unfixed.


Version 0.99e Beta
  • The auto-update feature now uses https (TLS encrypted) connections. This is not a security change, as the updates were already signed with strong cryptography, but rather an attempt to prevent some broken transparent proxies from interfering with the auto-updater.

  • Presence subscription handling is now much more robust. This should resolve some of the odd issues with sending global friend invites while people are offline.

  • The ignore list UI now works after zoning. Previously, the ignore functionality itself would continue to work, but the list would appear empty when viewed in the friends window after changing zones.

  • In-game time of day, as well as other time-sensitive events now use the XMPP server time so that they are synchronized even if the local clock is wrong. For this to work on third-party servers, an XMPP server that supports XEP-0202 is required.

  • The filter to change afk to tpg in compound keybinds is now more careful to only change actual commands rather than text in the middle of a word.

  • Winter is coming.


Version 0.99d Beta
  • Text overrides put in place so that the game login screen reads "Local Account". This should maybe hopefully reduce confusion about what exactly this field is for and where the characters are stored. Okay, probably not, but worth a try.

  • Local account names (used to distinguish character lists) are now case-insensitive. If you have previously created multiple accounts differing only by capital letters, they will be merged together.

  • Reverted the change to unlock the crab backpack, disabling it for now. As the VEAT costume does not have a "None" backpack option, if it is unlocked, it cannot be unselected and you are forced to use the crab backpack. Existing costumes with the backpack will continue to work, but it will not be selectable during character creation or at the tailor until a solution can be found.

  • Option added to always show global names above character avatars, in addition to character names. This is off by default and can be enabled in the options menu, under the Miscellaneous section near the bottom of the first tab.

  • Fixed a bug that could result in a handle reference leak in certain circumstances, ultimately resulting in phantom characters persisting after logging off and back on.

  • New command: /afk. Sets yourself as AFK, with an optional message. This is fully integrated with XMPP presence and you will appear as Away to people running an XMPP client. As XMPP presence updates are rather heavyweight, using this in rapid succession is highly discouraged, and there is a rate limiter in place to prevent it from being used too often. If you are looking for something to use in a keybind to show people you are typing, you want:

  • New command: /typing. Causes an AFK-style bubble to appear over your head, with the intent that you are using it as a typing notification. As with /afk, it accepts an optional text message up to 48 characters long. This only appears to people near you and does not affect your AFK status as far as friends in other zones or on XMPP are concerned. It has no rate limit and does not trigger AFK auto-replies.

    Note: If you create a keybind that contains "$$" and "afk" in it, the "afk" will be replaced by "tpg", which is a short alias of /typing. This is to help migrate legacy keybinds imported from saved files.

  • The global friends list now shows the away status of friends, both those using Paragon Chat's /afk command as well as XMPP presence.


Version 0.99c Beta
  • The /mapmenu command has been revamped. Instead of using the full-screen debug menu, a pop-up dialog similar to the trams is now used. Additionally, the zones are broken up into categories to make navigation easier.

    IMPORTANT NOTE! If you find that all of the zones are being grouped under the 'Other' category, you may have a custom zone.cfg file installed that overrides the default zones. To restore the correct behavior if this happens, you will need to delete %APPDATA%\Paragon Chat\Config\zone.cfg

  • If you are making a keybind, you can jump directly to a category page by specifying its name with the command. i.e. /mapmenu Rogue Isles will take you directly to the list of villain zones.

  • As the debug menu is no longer needed, the fake accesslevel has also been removed. This will prevent the occasional odd pop-up messages. It also disables use of the drop-down console, but that console does not offer anything that can't be done from the chat window, it's just an alternate interface.

  • It is now possible to change alignment without having to delete and re-create the character, useful if you accidentally pick the wrong one during character creation.

  • Minor changes to a couple NPCs.


Version 0.99b Beta
  • The trains are one again running on time, at least inside the station. They won't be stuck in a loop and should be synchronized between clients if your computer clock is accurate.

  • Trams, Ferries, Black Helicopters, Vanguard Teleports, and a bunch of other menu-based travel options now work. The destination lists were manually entered based on information from Paragon Wiki, so hopefully they're reasonably accurate.

  • Seamless zoning in Praetoria will now send you to the right spot. It should no longer drop you under the bridge or out of the map completely.

  • Basic functionality of the waypoint system is now working. It does not guide you through doors, but just points directly at whatever you have selected on the map.

  • Door easter eggs revamped and now work differently. Some are easier to find, some are harder to find. There are a number of new ones. Mutually exclusive messages that don't make sense together no longer appear at the same door. Monorail easter eggs removed now that those are working normally, but another entire category fleshed out substantially.


Version 0.99a Beta
  • Doors now animate when entering and exiting. This should also fix many of the issues of getting stuck when exiting certain doors, such as the VIP Tiki Room in Pocket D.


Version 0.99 Beta
  • Power icons will now show up for freshly created characters without requiring them to log out and back in first.

  • Technology Preview:

    • Added simulated Fly power to test protocol extension for alternate movement types.


Version 0.98f Beta
  • Technology Preview:

    • Added simulated Super Speed power to test synchronization of power effects.

    • Known issue: Super Speed is not customizable no matter what the tailor claims. Power customization is not yet implemented in either the tailor or on the power itself.


Version 0.98e Beta
  • Added a fix to prevent the client from resetting the active chat channel to the most recently added global channel when zoning.

  • Leaving a global channel will force it to be cleared out of the saved client settings when logging off, to prevent it from being rejoined at next login. Important note: This is only a temporary workaround. In the future it is planned to migrate channel membership serverside so that it is account-wide and tied to a given XMPP account, to more closely imitate the behavior of global channels in traditional COH.

  • Fixed an issue with the order of rotations being applied incorrectly on incoming messages when pitch is nonzero.

  • Technology Preview:

    • Added simulated Walk and Sprint powers to test alternate movement modes and power tray interaction. Please give these a workout to make sure that the tech works properly.

    • Known issue: The power trays are hardcoded for testing. Changes to their order do not persist across zoning or logging out.


Version 0.98d Beta
  • Fix bug causing a sporadic crash during loading.


Version 0.98c Beta
  • Fix Windows XP compatibility. IMPORTANT NOTE: If you are encountering the issue of failing to locate your COH installation on Windows XP, you may have to manually redownload ParagonChat.exe and overwrite your existing file with it.

  • Eliminate flickering of text on progress bar, and make it easier to read on themes using a dark background color.


Version 0.98b Beta
  • Fix a bug that could cause a crash if a malformed JID was added to your roster by a third party client.

  • Optimization and performance improvements.

  • Change auto-update mechanism to install new Paragon Chat binaries inside its AppData directory, avoiding UAC issues as well as conflicts with third-party updaters.

  • Truncate overly long broadcast/local chat messages instead of exiting on an assertion failure.

  • Fix issue where adding someone to your ignore list while also logged in via a third-party XMPP client could cause the list to not be loaded in future sessions.

  • Improvements to positioning code to prevent other players from sometimes appearing to slide halfway across the map when first zoning in.

  • New slash command /whoall shows a list of all players in the same zone. It also displays diagnostic information indicating if someone is invisible to you, and why.


Version 0.98a Beta
  • Fix an issue that can result in a rare crash of Paragon Chat immediately after login. It could be triggered if users of certain third-party XMPP clients are on your roster (global friends list) and their last action on the account was to go offline using that client while you were also offline.

  • Notify the player via an error message in the chat window if their costume does not pass validation and is causing them to be invisible to other players. This only happens in the case of manual database edits, for things like changing the scale to be too large or small. There is no change to the validation behavior; this is just a notification so you know that it's affecting you.

  • Unlock a few missed costume parts: Wisps Aura, Resistance hair, Praetorian Clockwork pieces, Sport set.

  • Unlock Crab Spider backpacks so they can be used in the tailor.

  • Note: The download link above has not been updated to 0.98a; it is still 0.98. This is partly to test the auto-update mechanism.


Version 0.98 Beta
  • Paragon Chat is now able to check for newer versions of itself on startup. It has 4 settings for this option:

    Never check
    Notify when a new version is available
    Automatically install minor upgrades
    Automatically install all upgrades

    The UI for this is still a work in progress, but it is functional.

  • The Launch button is now the default button and will activate when pressing Enter in the login form.

  • A workaround has been added to attempt to address the issues encountered by users who have Unicode characters in their user profile path.

  • Separating multiple commands with $$ should now work correctly.

  • Basic chat variable expansion has been implemented and several of the more common variables have been added, such as $name, $archetype, $origin, $battlecry, and $target.

  • Keybinds and window layout are now saved to the database and persisted between sessions. Tray contents are not yet implemented.

  • A /roll command for rolling dice has been added. By itself, it will roll a 20-sided die. The results of the die roll are shown to players in local chat range. It takes parameters in several different forms:

    /roll 100
    Roll a 100-sided die
    /roll 3d6
    Roll 3 6-sided dice and add them together
    /roll @global 2x12
    Roll 2 12-sided dice and send the results only to the player @global (not to others in local range)
    /roll 4 8
    Roll 4 8-sided dice
    /roll
    Roll a 20-sided die

    The maximum number of sides of a die that can be used are 100,000. The maximum number of dice that can be rolled at once is 100. Keep in mind that large dice pools have a higher probability of rolling totals in the middle of the possible range, approximating a bell curve distribution. For multi-die rolls, the individual results can be seen by the player who issued the /roll command in the Combat To-hit roll channel.

    As Paragon Chat is a cooperative program it is impossible to guarantee that rolls have not been tampered with, so it should not be used for anything serious that the honor system is not sufficient for.

  • The local chat radius in Pocket D has been reduced to 50 feet.

  • The /getglobalname and /getglobalsilent commands have been added. This should make player notes more or less functional. Be aware that player notes were not designed for non-unique character names and may run into issues with them.

  • An -offline command-line parameter has been added. Running Paragon Chat with this parameter disables all network access requirements and allows you to log in without an Internet connection in order to manage characters, edit costumes, etc.

    When running with -offline, the XMPP login form is disabled. Many functions are not available without an XMPP connection. A connection can still be set up manually once loaded into a zone with the various /xmpp advanced commands if desired (see the Slash Command thread for more information).

  • The progress bar now provides some text feedback about the task in progress.

  • The main window can now be closed while Paragon Chat is still loading.


Version 0.97f Beta
  • New config file "string.cfg" includes missing P-Strings for many NPC names. This allows them to spawn in the map, and you can override the names (locally) by editing this file.

  • Will strongly warn if you try to close Paragon Chat while the City of Heroes client is running. Fixes "Cannot Connect to DBserver" for those who were closing Paragon Chat as soon as the game opened.

Version 0.97e Beta
  • Fixed yet another cause for the invisible player bug, this one having to do with floating point rounding errors causing inconsistent encoding of face scale sliders at certain border numbers.

Version 0.97d Beta
  • Costume parts with a texture and a mask should once again be selectable.

  • Correct product codes are sent to the client to make the tutorial optional.

  • Powersets that were formerly purchasable should once again be selectable during character creation.

  • Version number added to the main Paragon Chat window as it was being cut off of the title bar on Windows 8 and with certain font sizes.

  • The Paragon Chat logo should now be visible on computers running Windows XP.

  • The version of Paragon Chat that someone is running can now be seen in the player information window.

  • Two new easter egg NPCs added. One is obvious. The other is not.

  • Re-instated presence optimization that had been reverted due to invisibility bug.

Version 0.97c Beta
  • Fixed yet another completely different cause for the invisible player bug, this one not related to costumes at all and would also interfere in reception of local chat.

Version 0.97b Beta
  • Revert "The zone that your character is in is now correctly only sent to global friends". It was causing characters to randomly not appear after zoning.

Version 0.97a Beta
  • Fixed the capitalization fix to actually work.

Version 0.97 Beta
  • Fixed another possible cause of the invisibility bug.

  • New command: /mapmenu opens a menu listing all zones defined in zone.cfg for easy travel.

  • Changed the accesslevel reported to the client from 0 to 1. This allows access to the console as well as the /url slash command in order to use the in-game browser. Be advised that the in-game browser is quite old and likely has security holes; use it for trusted sites only.

  • Added many more emotes that were previously badged-locked or part of purchasable packs. These will still show up as locked in the menu, but can be used by typing their name.

  • Fixed super tailors / cosmetic surgeons to allow gender changes.

  • Fixed a great many costume parts to be correctly unlocked both at character creation as well as in the tailor. If you find some are still missing, please report them here.

    Known issue: Choosing a powerset with a custom weapon will cause all costume slots to show up as locked until you visit the tailor. Using the tailor will remove the weapon and unlock the slot. This is a harmless cosmetic issue.

  • The case with which you type your login name is now used to set the preferred capitalization of your global handle. It no longer uses the username as reported by the XMPP server, which for Openfire was all lowercase.

  • The zone that your character is in is now correctly only sent to global friends. It is no longer leaked to global channels in XMPP presence data.

Version 0.965 Beta
  • The version number is now displayed in the title bar.

  • Fixed yet another different cause of the invisible player bug.

  • The Ski Chalet is now visible!

  • Incoming costumes from other players are validated to ensure their scales are in range and they do not contain any FX that are not designed to be applied to a player costume and might crash your client.

  • The 'Store', 'Manage Account', and 'Support' buttons in the in-game browser are no longer completely useless.

« Last Edit: January 25, 2016, 09:01:53 PM by Codewalker »

Arcana

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Re: Paragon Chat 0.95 Beta!
« Reply #1 on: July 08, 2015, 01:47:05 AM »
"You are likely to be eaten by a grue?"

I really should have synced an I24 copy to work before today.  Oh well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sq9oR9x171w

duane

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Re: Paragon Chat 0.95 Beta!
« Reply #2 on: July 08, 2015, 01:51:26 AM »
"You are likely to be eaten by a grue?"

I really should have synced an I24 copy to work before today.  Oh well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sq9oR9x171w

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Codewalker

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Re: Paragon Chat 0.95 Beta!
« Reply #3 on: July 08, 2015, 01:52:05 AM »
Hehe, don't spoil them all yet Arcana. :D

DrakShade

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Re: Paragon Chat 0.95 Beta!
« Reply #4 on: July 08, 2015, 02:31:25 AM »
Where can I download Issue 24 beta?

Shidan

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Re: Paragon Chat 0.95 Beta!
« Reply #5 on: July 08, 2015, 02:41:18 AM »
Where can I download Issue 24 beta?
You can use Tequila for that. It can also download Icon and Paragon Chat.

Arcana

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Re: Paragon Chat 0.95 Beta!
« Reply #6 on: July 08, 2015, 02:43:21 AM »
Hehe, don't spoil them all yet Arcana. :D

I'll do my best.  I guess I'll start looking at seeing how far I can push the PC system in terms of combat.



My guess is probably not all that far yet.

clpowell4278

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Re: Paragon Chat 0.95 Beta!
« Reply #7 on: July 08, 2015, 02:48:10 AM »
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!  I AM GOING CRAZY RIGHT NOW!!!

Noyjitat

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Re: Paragon Chat 0.95 Beta!
« Reply #8 on: July 08, 2015, 03:01:29 AM »
Don't know if it's worth noting.... but I did run into a problem in the costume creator where I have to buy certain capes in order to enter the game world. (or remove them)

It didn't like standard capes or my dvd edition cape I believe. I had the high collar + dvd edition cape but once I change it, the store cart disappeared.

Add a bug reports section for us if you dare!

Timelord Tom

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Re: Paragon Chat 0.95 Beta!
« Reply #9 on: July 08, 2015, 03:08:48 AM »

SeaLily

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Re: Paragon Chat 0.95 Beta!
« Reply #10 on: July 08, 2015, 03:12:11 AM »
Don't know if it's worth noting.... but I did run into a problem in the costume creator where I have to buy certain capes in order to enter the game world. (or remove them)

It didn't like standard capes or my dvd edition cape I believe. I had the high collar + dvd edition cape but once I change it, the store cart disappeared.

Add a bug reports section for us if you dare!

Some stuff is locked away behind weird things they have to work around, they're aware of this issue I believe.  Fixes are coming.
green hair

JadeFalcon

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Re: Paragon Chat 0.95 Beta!
« Reply #11 on: July 08, 2015, 03:21:55 AM »
It doesn't work for me. I saved ParagonChat.exe to my I24 folder, ran it and logged in using the login listed on the account manage page, but after logging in to the client and clicking the Agree button, I see a server address of 127.0.0.2. Selecting that just pops up a Can't connect to DB message after a minute or so.

I'm using the same I24 client I've had installed since 2012. I also have icon 1.71 and that works fine.

Tried several times with the same result. Can anyone tell me what I'm doing wrong?

Leandro

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Re: Paragon Chat 0.95 Beta!
« Reply #12 on: July 08, 2015, 03:22:40 AM »
Firewall settings, JadeFalcon. Make SURE paragonchat.exe is whitelisted in your firewall.

Lycantropus

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Re: Paragon Chat 0.95 Beta!
« Reply #13 on: July 08, 2015, 03:28:33 AM »
Was amazing to get to run around (literally, running LOL) with other people in Paragon once again!!

Thanks so much for the opportunity! It'll be fun getting to know everyone again  ;D

Emotes work! I'm going to have to figure out rules for play using them...

*gets to work on that*

Lyc~

JadeFalcon

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Re: Paragon Chat 0.95 Beta!
« Reply #14 on: July 08, 2015, 03:32:40 AM »
Firewall settings, JadeFalcon. Make SURE paragonchat.exe is whitelisted in your firewall.

Yep, I got the firewall popup the first time I ran Paragon Chat and selected the Unblock option.

I just checked the firewall anyway to make sure and it is listed with a check in the box.

Thanks for trying to help though. :)

Any other ideas?

Leandro

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Re: Paragon Chat 0.95 Beta!
« Reply #15 on: July 08, 2015, 03:36:16 AM »
Try opening the Options and add -localhost in the extra command line parameters textbox. That will cause it to use 127.0.0.1 instead of .2 and might help.

tripthicket

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Re: Paragon Chat 0.95 Beta!
« Reply #16 on: July 08, 2015, 03:37:26 AM »
I put ParagonChat.exe in my Tequila folder, where cityofheroes.exe is located. Having gotten into Icon using Tequila before, I assumed this is where my Issue 24 files are. Now, when I launch Tequila, I don't get the choice of either Icon or Chat. but the following error message:

Manifest download error for http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/37952257/Tequila/titanicon.xml
The remote server returned an error: (429) Bandwidth Error.

The server too busy, or is it a PEBKAC error?

Leandro

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Re: Paragon Chat 0.95 Beta!
« Reply #17 on: July 08, 2015, 03:39:29 AM »
Dropbox died under load. There are instructions for a fix in the Tequila thread, first  post, in red.

healix

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Re: Paragon Chat 0.95 Beta!
« Reply #18 on: July 08, 2015, 03:41:02 AM »
OMG...I couldn't stop crying when I got to Atlas. What an amazing feeling to be back home! There are no words.....I was able to chat with old friends from long ago. THANK you Leandro, Codewalker and all of the people who made this happen!



Listen to the 'mustn'ts'. Listen to the 'don'ts'. Listen to the 'shouldn'ts', the 'impossibles', the 'won'ts'. Listen to the 'you'll never haves', then listen close to me... Anything can happen . Anything can be.

JadeFalcon

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Re: Paragon Chat 0.95 Beta!
« Reply #19 on: July 08, 2015, 04:05:08 AM »
Try opening the Options and add -localhost in the extra command line parameters textbox. That will cause it to use 127.0.0.1 instead of .2 and might help.

Hmm, I can't find any Options to add -localhost in Windows XP Firewall. There's just Add Program, Add Port, Edit and Delete. The Edit option doesn't allow any text to be added.

Based on what you suggested, I also tried adding this to the hosts file:

127.0.0.1 127.0.0.2
127.0.0.2 localhost

But that didn't help either.