Hello all,
We’ve got quite the release in store for y’all! Of course before we release we’d like to recruit anyone willing to help bang on the new code to help chase out any bugs that might have crept into the works.
To test things out head on over to the beta system: https://beta.online-go.com/ and start playing around with things! Remember, this is a completely separate system so you’ll need to create a new account if you haven’t already, and of course any games you play over there won’t affect your rank or be added to your game history on the “real” site. Feel free to create multiple accounts to test things out as well.
Here is the current changelog for 4.2
##Tournament related changes
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Added two new tournament types, single elimination and double elimination
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Tournament pairing methods are now configurable with options being slaughter, strength, slide, and random pairing. Optionally, the first round may have a different pairing method than the subsequent rounds.
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Tournaments will now automatically start at a time specified by the tournament director, providing the minimum player count has been met (also specified by the tournament director)
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Optionally, tournaments can start when the tournament is full as well
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Players who are not on in the tournament lobby (either on the tournament page or in chat) when a live tournament begins will be automatically dropped from the tournament
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OGS now has automatically created site-wide tournaments and will be scheduling a variety of very regular blitz, live, and correspondence tournaments.
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A new leaderboards page has been added which ranks all tournament players on the server based on their performance.
##Rating & ranking changes -
Your rating and ranking is now tracked separately for blitz, live, correspondence, and overall.
##UI Changes -
All connections to the server will now be running over https. There are many benefits to this in terms of security and connection stability, however one slightly negative side effect is that you may need to update any per-browser settings (such as your move preferences, board themes, etc). If you aren’t already, you can begin using the secure version of the site now at https://online-go.com/ to get your settings all setup before the update to ensure you are not caught unawares
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We have documentation! http://ogs.readme.io/
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The site has been re-skinned a bit. If you have any problems finding anything check out the site documentation.
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A new omni-search box has been added. This can be used to find users, groups, tournaments, various site topics, and hopefully more in the future. This has replaced the generic players search screen.
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You can view a your win/loss statistics vs a particular player by viewing their profile page
##Teaching tools -
Private games and private reviews are now supported. Once created access can be granted to additional users or to entire groups by clicking the icon
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Voice chat has been added (again) for reviews. Viewers will automatically connect into the voice system and can disconnect by clicking the button. Review creators can begin broadcasting clicking the button. Note: this feature is only available on browsers that support WebRTC, which is only Chrome and Firefox for the time being
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Full-screen mode has been improved for presentations / videos
##Chat changes -
The chat subsystem has been replaced; joining channels should be much faster and chat should be more reliable
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Once closed, private messages will no longer come back to haunt other browsers you may use.
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Private message chat history is no longer limited to 50 lines total, and is instead limited to 50 lines per player but will be automatically purged after a few days of not chatting with that user.
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Private chat windows are now movable (open them up, drag around the title)
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You can now see the online status of the person you are chatting with, as well as open their profile and challenge them directly from the chat window
##API Changes -
The real-time API is now stabilized sufficiently and we’re opening it up for anyone wishing to make an alternative game client or otherwise use the system. Documentation is here: http://ogs.readme.io/v4.2/docs/real-time-api Note: While the API is free for light non-commercial use, please contact us if you are planning on using it for commercial purposes so we can work together to form a mutually beneficial agreement. For heavy non-commercial use please contact us so we can ensure the system can adequately handle the load or help figure out an alternative solution.
##Challenge behavior changes -
Users can no longer accept open challenges from other players if they are already playing a game against them. (Multiple direct challenges are still allowed.)
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Users with less than 500 games completed can no longer accept multiple open live games at the same time.
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If you cancel a game after accepting an open challenge you will now need to wait for a couple of minutes before accepting a new open challenge.
##Supporting OGS -
Users can now support OGS using Bitcoin
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Sadly, google is shutting down their google wallet purchase system, so we have to remove this support mechanism. The system will still work for supporters using this mechanism until early Q2 2015, afterwhich it will be shutdown for good. Anyone wishing to continue to support us will have to transition to a different system before then (simply cancel your OGS google wallet subscription on your wallet page then head on over to OGS and select the new support method of your choice :))
Generally speaking, bugs and feedback in this thread, requests in https://ogs.uservoice.com/ and if you’ve got criticisms keep them constructive, useful, and polite please
Thanks everyone!
anoek