A new version, with a new factory (and a new naming scheme).
This is the biggest stable release for a long time with almost a month since the last one as there were a lot of changes that could not be partially implemented. The new Amphibious factory is arguably the biggest change and took significant development time. This release is congruent with an engine release so a lot of long standing bugs are fixed. This version also includes a months worth of small fixes and balance adjustments that is normal for a stable, the delay just means there are more of them at once.
Enjoy!
=== New Factory: Amphibious Bots ===
The underwater amphibious bot factory has finally been added. There were always vague plans to flesh out the underwater combat ever since the rudimentary implementation in CA was removed.
This factory should diversify and flesh out the underwater combat in sea as well as acting as another flex factory on mixed sea-land maps. There are a few new unit concepts in this factory so it may even be land viable (similar to hovercraft). Remember, at this point balance is not expected!
Descriptions of the units can be found here: http://zero-k.info/Wiki/factorypage_amph
There is an amphibious teleporter with a short demonstration video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtFXN25NJTs
=== Balance ===
Athena is no longer ploppable. The major motivation is to remove the blind factory RPS and remove the extremely fast landgrab it creates.
Snake (Mainline Submarine) Damage and Health increased ~10%:
* Damage 410 -> 450
* Health 1250 -> 1400
Hunter (torpedo ship):
* Health 1800 -> 1600
Halberd (Hovercraft Assault):
* Range 300 -> 200
* Shoots an energy pulse projectile instead of a missile.
Penetrator:
* Range 1050 -> 1020
Low ROF lasers now penetrate shields if the change is below beam damage/5. Put simply they are significantly worse at shield penetration. This affects Annihilator, Penetrator, Bantha, Stinger (HLT) and Grizzly.
Merl:
* Damage 700 -> 800
Tremor:
* AOE 130 -> 144
Pillager:
* Range 1140-> 1180
Hovercon, differentiated from Mason:
* Speed 2.7 -> 2.8
* HP 900 -> 800
Necro (Shieldbot Constructor):
* Cannot Rez
* HP 660 -> 800
* Cost 130 -> 140
* Shield 900 charge, 12 regen (worse per cost than Thug, equal would be 14)
Newton (Gravity Turret):
* Reduced the occurrence of complete ineffectiveness.
Mobile cloaker and shield are now amphibious. Static cloaker and shield float.
Increased Sumo’s usable range though at long range it has very low damage.
Terraform:
* 18ish% cheaper.
* The construction point of a terraform segment is placed on the segment boundary in the direction towards the constructors that have been told to construct it. The direction updates if the constructors move.
Re-added fall damage and it is now handled more consistently than previously.
* Units are no longer elastic, they lose 70% of their velocity on a ground bounce.
* Fall damage is based on velocity and mass and should be consistent.
* Collisions between units cause no damage because such collisions can happen without flying through the air. This is clear to anyone who has played Hovercrafts.
* Units take a proportion of their health in extra damage if they land outside the map. The damage linearly increases to 100% of their health from 0 up to 800 elmos beyond the map edge. Approximately Hammer range for reference.
=== Chicken ===
Reduced easy chicken difficulty.
=== UI ===
Added optional range display for selected units. Enable through Control -> Settings -> Defence Ranges -> Show selected units ranges.
Space+click on most UI elements now brings up the options window for that element.
Rector (Cloakbot Constructor) and Ultimatum (anti mech walker) automatically cloak when built be default. The initial states setting for personal cloak has been reset to default values.
Reordered factory tab and factory buildlists along more logical lines. The factory tab is grouped by type with easier factories to the left. Factory build lists has categories ordered internally by cost. These are:
Constructor – Everything Else – Artillery – Anti Air – Mine – Unarmed.
=== Unit Renames ===
* Firestorm -> Pheonix (Area Firebomber)
* Necro -> Convict (Shieldbot Constructor)
* Cudgel -> Hermit (Spider Assault)
* Pit Bull -> Gauss (Popup Gauss Turret)
=== Audio ===
Torpedo fire sound effect is now dependant on whether the torpedo was fired above or below the water. Urchin (Torpedo Turret) now has a submerged gun when in floating mode.
Increased volume of ship unit replies.
Added 3 more music tracks by Denny Schneidemesser.
=== Graphics ===
Fixed area cloaker effect. It now fades out towards the top instead of stopping at a hard edge.
New model for Skeeter (missile scout boat).
Dominatrix control line is now stippled.
=== Fixes ===
Fixed artillery chase behaviour on idle and fight command. Arty only automatically gives itself an attack command for land attacking static defences.
* It will stop and attack turrets, prevents walking into turret range.
* It will not gain automatic attack commands on mobile units. Prevents walking into turret range if the enemy unit retreated.
* Affected units are; Hammer, Penetrator, Merl, Wolverine, Pillager and Racketeer.
Fixed small problems with Krow, Dante, Sumo, Recon Commander and Mace turret and firing animations. These were caused by a model optimisation script.
Fixed cloak with shielded commanders. It is again impossible to cloak a commander which is carrying a shield.
Fixed small LLT overshoot exploit made possible by it’s extendible barrel. The barrel extension animation has been removed.
Some prediction calculations now take jumpjet velocity into account.
Fixed queue loss on commander morph. May have fixed queue loss on unit transfer.
=== Engine ===
This release corresponds with an engine release (from 85.0 to 87.0). Here are some fixes that should be visible to players, full changelog is here https://github.com/spring/spring/blob/release/doc/changelog.txt
* Fix Brawler/Blackdawn weapon jam when set to hold fire.
* Fixed excessive unit bouncing while pathing (replaced with high frequency, inconsequential, bouncing).
* Fixed permanent unit speed reduction after a “move at slowest speed in selection” command (Hold Ctrl and give a move comand).
* Aircraft no longer take off and disappear if killed while landed.
* Fixed a rare bug in which antinukes would fail to fire.
* All terrain units no longer give up on move orders while climbing steep cliffs.
* All BeamLasers could shoot through the surface of the water. This has been fixed and we’re lucky noone noticed. Stiletto is now significantly better against ships because previously any beam that did not score a direct hit would explode on the sea floor. Now they explode on the sea surface so can hit via AOE.
* Fixed rare invulnerability that would occur if a jumpjet unit becomes paralysed at the end of it’s flight.
* Units in transport are hittable again.
* Reduced occurrence of jumpjet units becoming stuck on opponents.
* Units under construction within factories are much easier to select.
