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News archive of July 2020

This page contains the news items which were submitted in July 2020. 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.

30
JUL

Rule changes and clarifications

posted by Xilent on Thursday, July the 30th at 11:45 AM


Hi folks,

With the release of Las Venturas Playground 52 we'd like to update you about some rule changes.

Firstly, using extremely high framerates (>105) is now forbidden. This gives you advantages both in fighting and in regular movement, so please set keep your frame limiters to a hundred at most. This rule is enforced by the server: players who break it will be unable to inflict damage on others, so there is no need to report people for it.

Secondly, fake car entry is now tolerated. We've changed the server to disable the offender's ability to inflict damage on other players for a short period of time, completely negating the benefit of doing this. Similarly, when someone quits during a fight, you will still get the kill attributed to you. Some players still try, often out of habit. Let them, it's pointless.

Finally, when under suspicion of cheating, your account could be restricted to use of SAMPCAC. This gives you a decisive ability to state that your skills are clean, which is much fairer to you than the current situation where it's your word against an administrator's.

We encourage most of the players who often engage in fighting to install SAMPCAC, especially the highly skilled players among you who occasionally get accused of cheating by others. We're confident in the system, with much help from [Ds]PwN3R_B0T, and believe that this is a good solution.

All other tools and modifications that change your game's behaviour, including sprint hook, continue to be banned on Las Venturas Playground.

Regards,
Xilent
29
JUL

LVP 52: SAMPCAC, translation and a new colour picker

posted by Russell on Wednesday, July the 29th at 1:29 PM


Hi all -

Welcome to the LVP 52! This release brings SAMPCAC integration with an associated rule change, a new colour picker, and an ability for Gunther to help you translate things in-game.

First, we've been working on solidifying our support for SAMPCAC, again with much help from PwN3R_B0T. We're now at the point where we're confident in the tool, and encourage you to use it if you're often reported for or suspected of cheating. A rule change for people under suspicion is coming up: more on that in a few days.

Secondly, where you could previously pick one of 49 available colours, there's now 1,296 for you to choose from! Many variants, shades and tints have been made available through a new colour picker, hooked up with "/my color" as well as gang color settings.



Other changes in this release include:


  • FEATURE: Gunther now has the ability to answer to a growing set of player questions.
  • FEATURE: Gunther now has the ability to translate text for you. He speaks 90 languages!
  • FEATURE: An entirely new colour picker has been implemented, with over 1,200 colours to choose from.
  • FEATURE: Support for various SAMPCAC detectors was implemented, again thanks to PwN3R_B0T.
  • FEATURE: We now have the ability to require use of SAMPCAC for specific player accounts.
  • FEATURE: Fighting with >100 FPS will now void the damage you inflict on other players.
  • FEATURE: Administrators now have access to a "/whereis" command, and "!whereis" through Nuwani.
  • FEATURE: Administrators now have access to a new "/scan" command, to check out suspicious players.
  • IMPROVEMENT: Having your vehicle shot at will now trigger our anti-abuse preventions.
  • IMPROVEMENT: The following /my commands moved to JavaScript: armor, color, freeze, health, hide and unfreeze.
  • IMPROVEMENT: Player colour management has moved to JavaScript in its entirety.
  • IMPROVEMENT: The "/weapons" command is now available to all players.
  • IMPROVEMENT: You can now slap once per seven seconds, rather than once per ten seconds.
  • IMPROVEMENT: Gunther will now answer calculation tests when nobody else has, sharing the answer.
  • IMPROVEMENT: The maximum number of connections per IP address is now configurable by Management.
  • FIX: It's no longer possible to spawn trains using the "/v" command. Many thanks to whoever kept trying this.
  • FIX: Owners of the "Large house (1)" interior will now face in the proper direction when entering their house.
  • FIX: Administrators are now subject to teleportation delays when using the regular commands.
  • FIX: Airport pickups error messages will now only show when applicable.
  • FIX: Non-player characters cannot be picked as cruise leaders anymore.
  • FIX: The "/help" command now properly explains how vehicles can be spawned.
  • FIX: SAMPCAC players will now be identified as such through Nuwani.
  • FIX: Various other updates and clarifications have been pushed to the "/help" command.
  • FIX: House vehicles can now be respawned with the "/v respawn" command.
  • FIX: It's no longer possible to jail non-player characters (e.g. bots).
  • FIX: In-game issued unbans will no longer be attributed to this mysterious NaN figure.
  • FIX: The "/showmessage" command has been removed from "/cmds" as it's been removed.
  • FIX: We found the cause of the 30-minute-ban-after-restart bug. It was our fault, sorry.
  • FIX: The "/v save" error message has been clarified to mention you need a parking lot with your house.
  • FIX: 0.17% of shots were wrongly being marked as out-of-range, we made the protection more lenient.
  • MISC: Our JavaScript plugin is now able to transform using the base64 encoding.
  • MISC: Our JavaScript plugin is now able to sign and verify RSA-256 signatures.

This release includes contributions from Russell, [Ds]PwN3R_B0TSpecifer, Freakins and Xilent, and had bugs filed by Finisha and Sophia. Many thanks, folks!

Best,
Russell
22
JUL

LVP 51: 552,960 matches, tuned vehicles and SAMPCAC

posted by Russell on Wednesday, July the 22nd at 1:59 PM


Hi all -

We introduced our customise everything vision in version 45, and today follow up by bringing you 552,960 new fighting games. The new "/match" command allows you to design your own: control weather, time, gravity, lag compensation, weapons, location, pickups, teams and much more to your liking. Please try it out, give us feedback and stay tuned for support for multiple rounds, full gang wars and 1-on-1 fights.

Starting with this release, you have the ability to fully customise your houses' vehicles. You can now pick any car, tune it to your liking and use the "/v save" command to park it in one of your parking lots. Done with a car? Easily delete it using "/v delete".

Other changes included in this release:

  • FEATURE: House vehicles can now be fully customised and tuned in any way you like.
  • FEATURE: House vehicles can now be saved and deleted with "/v save" and "/v delete".
  • FEATURE: Fighting games are now able to create balanced teams, rather than just randomized ones.
  • FEATURE: Team-based fighting games now have the ability to disable team damage.
  • FEATURE: Haystack now supports customisable time, weather and gravity.
  • FEATURE: Sniper Madness and Minigame Madness have been ported over to JavaScript.
  • FEATURE: We're beginning to experiment with SAMPCAC. Many thanks to [Ds]PwN3R_B0T for the help!
  • IMPROVEMENT: Messages that are too long will now be trimmed, rather than disappear completely.
  • IMPROVEMENT: Fake car entry is now allowed, as the server will block your ability to issue damage.
  • IMPROVEMENT: Out-of-range weapon shots will now be blocked by our abuse system.
  • IMPROVEMENT: JavaScript now keeps track of vehicle modifications, and abuse thereof.
  • FIX: TheMightyQ's island has been moved so that his house can be there.
  • FIX: It's no longer possible to teleport to players engaged in a minigame.
  • FIX: Drifting has now been restricted to automobiles and bikes.
  • FIX: Only the driver of a vehicle will get drifting points.
  • FIX: We now properly keep a vehicle's colour and paintjob in sync with reality.
  • FIX: The "/donate" command text has been improved.
  • MISC: Use of SAMPCAC will now be indicated in a player's join message.
  • MISC: Our JavaScript code now has a routine for judging object equality, and collection shuffling.
  • MISC: Various stunting objects have been added, which can be enabled or disabled by Management.

We would like to thank Freakins for their bug reports. This update actually went live last week already, we just forgot to publish the post :) Enjoy!

Thanks,
Russell
15
JUL

Promotions

posted by Joe on Wednesday, July the 15th at 8:27 PM


Hi all -

We've not done promotion announcements for a little while, so hereby a few long overdue updates!

striker has been with us since 2008, spent a massive 3,350 hours on the server and has banned close to a thousand cheaters during that time. He frequently reports issues, gives feedback, is a well respected figure among our crew and defined what it's like to be the Head Administrator. A well deserved promotion to Management, I'd say!

Xanland has been around for almost 14 years, and has worn various hats during that time. From adding various features to the server, supporting the Lego IRC bot, making a ton of proposals left and right and just generally be a steady beacon in our community, he's done it, and has thus become part of the Management.

Sophia hasn't quite been around as long, but has quickly established herself as a helpful, caring administrator liked by most on the server—with the not so surprising exception of some of our favorite rulebreakers! Beyond her in-game participation, she designed the Treasures collectables, provides a lot of feedback, and is getting settled in her new role as an Administrator.

[InC]Reni[CP] is the newest addition to the administration team, after having received temporary rights a record 47 times in the past couple of weeks alone. Continuously demonstrates good judgement, has a keen eye for fair play and adds a gentle touch on conversations, we're confident Reni will do amazing in their new role as an Administrator.

Furthermore, we've granted developer status to Specifer for helping us out with a continuous slew of changes, and granted VIP rights to Eagle_Force_One for his tireless drive to help other people on the server. Thank you so much to both of you!

Thanks,
Joe
03
JUL

LVP 50: Treasures, infinite NOS and lots of fixes

posted by Russell on Friday, July the 3rd at 9:25 PM


Hi all -

I'm pleased to bring you Las Venturas Playground 50. Today's release comes a week late, after we've had severe memory leak issues last weekend. While we were able to fix them by reverting the relevant change, the root cause continues to be unknown.

This release features a new collectable series: Treasures. 50 books have been hidden throughout Red County, Flint County and Whetstone, each of which contains a hint towards a treasure. Finding a treasure will award you around $200,000. Finding all fifty treasures will unlock the gravity key, which allows you to toggle the gravity whilst driving your car!

Also new is a reaction test game, called unscramble the word. Can you guess which weapon "SPCANYRA" describes? Turns out it's challenging to many. Winning a hundred reaction tests now grants you infinite NOS by pressing the fire key, too, and you'll start seeing a drift counter in-game: something we'll talk more about in the next releases.

Finally, there are many small changes, bug fixes, and improvements, and custom objects for three of our most active gangs. If you'd like to help us decide what to work on next, we set up a Feedback Committee, who help us discuss a variety of topics on Discord. Reach out if you're keen to help out!

Other changes in this release include:

  • FEATURE: A new series of collectables has been added: Treasures. Many thanks to Sophia_Naz!
  • FEATURE: The Blackbeard and Jack Sparrow achievements are now available as part of Treasures.
  • FEATURE: A new type of reaction tests: unscramble the word! Welcome to Als Urtvnasa Ludynagrop!
  • FEATURE: Two new walk weapon lag shot zones have been added: "/deathmatch 10" and 11!
  • FEATURE: A new vehicle key has been added to toggle gravity, and can be achieved by finding all 50 treasures.
  • FEATURE: Administrators can now mute guests on IRC through the new "/muteirc" command.
  • FEATURE: Winning a hundred reaction tests will now award infinite NOS for your vehicles!
  • FEATURE: We're going to be testing a new drifting system starting this release.
  • IMPROVEMENT: Muted players can now continue to talk in their gang chats.
  • IMPROVEMENT: The "/show weapons" text will now also tell you about the spawn weapon commands.
  • IMPROVEMENT: We've reimplemented many of the abuse restrictions to make them more accurate.
  • IMPROVEMENT: The "/gang members" dialog will now include indicative colours.
  • IMPROVEMENT: Various vehicle keys cannot be used within Las Venturas, which means within the highways.
  • FIX: You can no longer send private messages to players who are muted.
  • FIX: Only rights will now be inherit when using "/modlogin", while keeping separate user statistics.
  • FIX: Using "/kill" to avoid death will now always, publicly attribute the kill to the one you're fighting.
  • FIX: Using "/q" to avoid death will now publicly attribute the kill as well.
  • FIX: Only administrators are now able to use "/fancy" on other players.
  • FIX: Various cut-off Nuwani messages containing "NaN" now have proper content again.
  • FIX: Vehicles can now be saved in the database again.
  • FIX: An error message will now be shown when trying to delete an in-use alias.
  • FIX: The "/gbank" and "/gwithdraw" commands now show an error when using negative values.
  • FIX: Races can start again without issues, even when one of the participants is minimized.
  • FIX: The "/my" command help will now tell you about availability of spawn weapons.
  • FIX: When Gunther advertises for donations, it now uses the appropriate donation link.
  • FIX: Gang bank transactions must now only involve positive amounts of cash.
  • FIX: It's no longer possible to use "/v respawn" while not in a vehicle.. doh!
  • FIX: Purchasing a collectable hint shouldn't mess up your cash amount anymore.
  • FIX: It's no longer possible for players to be in multiple gangs at once.
  • FIX: The "/whois" and "/zone" commands are now available to administrators by default.
  • MISC: The Games API now supports continuous games, rather than ones you have to sign up for.
  • MISC: Our pseudo-random number generator now supports seeded randomness.
  • MISC: A few actors have been added in honour of PigBenis.
  • MISC: Custom objects have been added for the CP, cB and tHO gangs.

This release includes contributions from Russell, Holsje, Sophia, Xilent, Specifer and Lithirm. We'd also like to thank Freakins and striker for filing issues against our GitHub project page!

Have a great weekend,
Russell