A Path Beyond APB 3.1.2.0 Changelog

[Pushwall]

  Red Alert: A Path Beyond Update     

[blurb]Medic and Volkov cut down to size, Sergeants more suited for center-mass shots, new building props, two more bot-friendly maps, and Militant Force! What more could you ask for?[/blurb]

General

• Mines and non-main structures are no longer subject to the splash cover system (only relevant for arty/V2/C4/nukes vs mines, and nukes vs non-main structures). Because of this, nuke damage to these objects is reduced again.
• Simplified collisions on dead vehicle and trilight props, should be much harder to get stuck against these.
• Esc help screen remade and updated by A4R91N to include a rundown on all of Delta's base structures.

Infantry

 Saboteurs

• C4 charge time down from 1 to 0.25 seconds. (Not zero because zero means desyncs if you happen to have it equipped and are holding fire on a vehicle when you eject from said vehicle.)
• Clearing charges now have the same charge time as C4, for the same reason as above.
• Tanya C4's "Kiss it bye-bye" is now played globally.

 Repairmen

• Repair Tool now uses handgun character animations, allowing bots to use them properly and giving a slight range increase since they're held further forward. (Less importantly it's also more true to the first-person animation.)

 Medic

• Health up (75 -> 100)
• Auto-heal is reduced (3 -> 2.5)
• Auto-heal now only activates after 1 second of not taking damage. So concentrated fire, burn damage or scuba diving will prevent it from taking hold.
• Medic kit no longer heals infantry armour.
• Medic kit now has a 1.5-second charge time and an 0.5-second cooldown, instead of no charge and a 2-second cooldown; this means you can no longer rapidly swap between the kit and MP5 to fire the kit at up to 4 times faster than its intended refire rate.
• Medic kit no longer has a one-time use insta-heal.
• Added the "Armour Cache" signal flare (weapon slot 3); this causes friendly infantry within 25m to become uncrushable, refills their armour, and upgrades it to take 2/3rds less damage from mundane explosions (excluding AP mine) and become unstrippable. This flare provides its effect for a minute before expiring, and can be disarmed in half the time it would take to disarm a C4, so placing it anywhere near enemy spawn points is not recommended unless you're just using it as an emergency one-off armour refill.

 Shotgunners

• Dragonsbreath afterburn damage up (2.5 -> 4).
• Dragonsbreath afterburn now works against Flamethrowers and Volkovs.
• Fixed armour penetration on TOZ flechette shot which was accidentally 37.5% instead of 50% like the other shotgun rounds. (Volkov's "armour" had the correct setting here but that kinda never comes up... )
• TOZ flechette shot damage to infantry down (80 -> 75), though with the above fix this is only a "nerf" to unarmoured infantry.
• Dragonsbreath armour shredding up (50% -> 75%).
• Slug and flechette armour shredding up (25% -> 100%).

 Thief

• Fixed bug where his stealing script would still play out if he died while inside a stealing zone.

 Volkov

• KovNade splash radius up (7 -> 8 )
• KovNade splash damage down (15 -> 12.5)
• KovShotty damage down (60 -> 50)

 

Vehicles

 Yakovlev Yak-9P

• Kills against Yaks are now recorded properly on the kill feed.

 

Buildings

• Various buildings have been updated with new props from CMDBob's technology centre - computer consoles, mainframes, chairs and shelves. In most buildings this means extra cover, but in some they replace older props so it just ends up being an aesthetic thing.

 Tesla Coil

• Now detects infantry at 120m instead of using the anti-vehicle range (150m).

 

Aesthetics

• The music track "Militant Force" will now play over the endgame scoreboard, overriding the map jukebox.
• Technician's flailing animation now works when running with "handgun" weapons and C4 and flares.
• Technician no longer does his flailing animation when running with large two-handed weapons.
• Repair Tool's screen glows in the dark.
• Makarov uses its old first-person animations again as the Beretta ones introduce some awful clipping.
• Added some new purchase quotes:
  • Sergeant (Carville): "Moving to intercept"
  • Starshina (Topolov): "Za Rossiyu" (For Russia)
  • Captain (Esling): "There is still much to be done"
  • Kapitan (Kukov): "Take the fight to them"
• Missile Silo basement now has a window into the missile tube, with a shutter that closes during launching.

 

Performance

• Airfield's runway lights no longer eat up a huge amount of draw calls.
• Oil pumps use less draw calls and no longer have performance-hungry multimaterials.

 

Bots

• Bots in the "engineer" group actually do their job now. Sort of. Instead of basically just being worthless pistol defense bots, they will head to a friendly MCT and use the Repair Tool on it endlessly, until the building is dead at which point they may move to another one. At a later date I plan to refine this so that they only repair buildings that NEED repairs, but I haven't had time to figure that part out yet.
• Bots in the "engineer" group may now spend their money on Engineers for extra survivability instead of only buying Technicians - not like they're ever going to spend it on vehicles or offensive infantry.
• Small-arms infantry bots will now "ignore" buildings - that is, if these are the only targets in their range, they will shoot them but will move forward at the same time in hopes of finding better targets.
• Allied bots can now buy Medics; however they do not know how to use their medic features intelligently so they just use them as a CQC commando.
• Infantry now treat MCT rooms as their "objective" - they will try to reach these areas if no other targets are getting in their way. Once they do so they will shoot the MCT.
• Infantry preferences are now set on a per-map basis:
  • On small, cramped maps, they will buy more Sergeants, Medics, Flamethrowers and Tanyas, but no Snipers.
  • On open, vehicle-heavy maps they will buy more Captains and Rocket Soldiers, but no Sergeants or Medics.
  • On maps that fall somewhere in between, they get a good mix of everything.

 

Maps

RA_CanyonRiver

• Removed rocks that are completely underwater or hidden in marsh-grass since you really have no way of noticing and avoiding them.

RA_Fissure

• Removed "Militant Force" music track.

RA_LunarParadox

• Auto-healing on superboats down (10 -> 5).
• Chrono dustblowers collide with Service Depots properly.
• SPAM Site no longer announces that it is "under attack" when a spy temporarily destroys it.

RA_Metro

• Bots can now be enabled. Same method as usual. On this map they will buy rangers.
• Base radar markers are present now. (Not that the map was particularly complicated before, but their absence was causing bots to derp out.)
• War Factory spy zone no longer needs the spy to jump to activate.
• Fixed the long silence after "Eaten Alive" music track.

RA_Pipeline

• Fixed some misplaced barrels at the Allied pump.
• Fixed rainbow door.
• Added a collision safety net between the walkway and top of the oil silo so you can't fall down.
• Moved dead Allied turret near shore slightly to reduce stuck issues.
• Shorelines are now lit properly.

RA_RidgeRacer

• Both types of cars are a little slower than before. This leaves them easier to control since high-speed driving doesn't go well with lag in this engine. The Soviet ones are still faster and more slippery than the Allied, but should be less slippery than before - while the Allied ones should do a much better job than before of sticking to the road and being able to take corners at their full speed.
• Time limit for each checkpoint has been raised to 70 seconds to be more in line with the slower pace of the game.

RA_RidgeWar

• Removed external SDs and the defenses near them.
• Added additional AA defense on the far east side of each base to compensate (near Soviet Refinery and Allied Conyard).

RA_ToTheCore

• Out-of-bounds border no longer bleeds into the basement of the Allied Construction Yard

RA_Under

• Naval structures are now snow-capped.
• Deepened water around Allied base.

RA_Wasteland

• Bots can now be enabled.

[Pushwall]

Also just pushed a little minipatch 3.1.2.1 to fix server crashes caused by the armour cache. Whoops.

[Jeod]

2 hours ago, Pushwall said:

Missile Silo basement now has a window into the missile tube, with a shutter that closes during launching.

Wow I mentioned this only a few weeks ago! That was fast. Wonder if it was already in progress...

[Pushwall]

Just now, Jeod said:

Wow I mentioned this only a few weeks ago! That was fast. Wonder if it was already in progress...

Nah, it just didn't take long to do.  

[NodGuy]

Awesome! Thanks for the update. 

[Pushwall]

Minipatch 3.1.2.2 has gone up. This fixes an exploit with the medic flare that I forgot to deal with initially (thankfully nobody got to use it yet) and adds A4R91N's improved textures for the old building props.

[Jeod]

47 minutes ago, Pushwall said:

Nah, it just didn't take long to do.  

Nice addition with the window. Perhaps sometime down the road we'll have a more complex model like the image above. It's just a concept (actually the Titan II ICBM missile silo), but that's generally what I think of when I say having a catwalk to the actual silo would be nice. Probably couldn't be as large as this though, considering the underground area conflicting with other underground parts of a base like the war factory.

[Ice]

Love the new computer units! :D I like how the vacuum tube units blink in various patterns, looks really cool.

Personally I'd like to see a couple more of the tape units, but that's just me. For the missile silo, perhaps the three double-sided plain units across from the screen unit could have tapes on one side?

 

Anyway it looks really good, a million times better than the >10-poly props they've replaced.

The missile silo window is a really nice touch as well. Makes the whole building feel more connected and just looks really cool in general.

[Raap]

I really like where this more-sense AI from @moonsense715 is going. Some more refinement and hopefully progress on client and server stability and these things could be a good addition for any W3D project in every level.

I have two questions about them though, does the AI currently feature hooks to support custom map gameplay objectives? Capturing buildings for example, or holding a certain point until the point is captured? And what about attack lanes, does this new AI have the capacity to use some lanes only with certain units or pick a lane based on a designer-given lane priority rating? For example let's look at Under, say I wanted to tell the AI to only bring infantry units to the beach route with 90% priority, until the falling rocks flag that route as "removed"? Or StormyValley, where the rear mountain route only gets used by faster moving ground vehicles and aircraft at low priority?

I'd love to see support for exactly such options with the AI, if that isn't currently the case.

Later, once (if) W3D ever supports dynamic level maps, I'd like to integrate the concept of attack lanes more closely via naming each attack lane "Route A/B/C/D", with the AI hopefully understanding a similar concept. Added note, such terminology would help a lot with new voice commands, instead of "Enemies coming from the east" we could have radio commands for "Enemies spotted on Route A/B/C/D", a more universal way of communicating map layouts and enemy movements in one swoop... But that's a subject for later, but perhaps @Pushwall can look into reserving 4 radio commands for this purpose should APB adopt this concept officially.

(Edit: So when a team mate says the command, "Enemies spotted on Route C", I would then just open the map to quickly remind myself where Route C is. I also do not expect to ever see a map with more than 4 distinct attack lanes, so no need for reserving more than 4 commands.)

Edited July 3, 2017 by Raap

[Pyrodaimon]

On 2/7/2017 at 9:51 AM, Jeod said:

Nice addition with the window. Perhaps sometime down the road we'll have a more complex model like the image above. It's just a concept (actually the Titan II ICBM missile silo), but that's generally what I think of when I say having a catwalk to the actual silo would be nice. Probably couldn't be as large as this though, considering the underground area conflicting with other underground parts of a base like the war factory.

A more detailed model of the Missile Silo, with bigger interiors and more corridors, was in the works a long time ago (http://www.moddb.com/games/red-alert-a-path-beyond/images/missile-silo-interior), along with a larger, more complex War Factory. But neither model was ultimately finished, I believe.

[NodGuy]

Wow, can't believe those awesome images were uploaded there around 8 years ago. Time sure does fly.

[Raap]

Those models were created after I left BHP. If I am not mistaken, @Synaesthesia worked on them. I do not know if they got any further development beyond that.

I believe that if buildings are ever updated, they'd have to strictly follow their existing exterior shapes and sizes (AKA the footprint size), otherwise you'd be looking at a lot of work to manually update every level to match the new building scale.

Updating APB's buildings is something I gave consideration a year or so ago when first working on HostileWaters, since I did a completely new Naval Yard and an updated Sub Pen back then for the naval building requirements, along with some modified prop buildings for capture logic. It's not a lack of time that deterred me, but rather the player expectations to handle such iconic features with a level of care and strict reference work to abide to.

Edited July 4, 2017 by Raap

[SirJustin90]

Nice changes, hopefully this will be what the medic ultimately needs.

Also Nice to see the Volk nerf, we've been getting away with a bit too much with him lately haha. (Too bad he couldn't have his own lower headshot bonus, since his face is mostly metal and all)

Shotgun changes are good.

And the change with the Yak's, does this mean we get points for them now? (We didn't before right?)

 

And lastly, +1 for more bots on levels, and @Raap Ditto for the bots, love to see them get further development. If only we could fix the scoreboard issues with them, counting as kills and such then maybe we could see them on more maps.

[SirJustin90]

Tried the maps with the new bots, it was great fun. Simply having a tech there means you must run with infantry, gang up with bots or arty/v2 the tech to death... but they'll be back.

Must say though, bots with light tanks are pros. They can snipe a ranger shot for shot.

 

One thing I do note, is they get very mad when I splash them with a V2.... but they'll only run about 25m or so... stare at me... and then run off. Is there anyway to convince them to go that extra 10-50m to get within engagement range and defend instead?

[Raptor29aa]

... further development on bots could lead to paratroopers...

(death at the hands of five bot riflemen is a rough reality)

[moonsense715]

On 2017. 07. 05. at 9:53 PM, Raptor29aa said:

... further development on bots could lead to paratroopers...

(death at the hands of five bot riflemen is a rough reality)

I already have working bot paratroopers, they appeared first time years ago and were implemented properly last year september/october.

You can read more here

Since then I improved the bots a lot to act like real players (spawn where players do, have names and money pool), physically get into vehicles, join transports, fly aircraft, react to radio commands, follow mouse pointed orders etc. I just don't have time to blog about it.

[Raptor29aa]

Wow, I had no idea the AI scripts were that extensive for called in bots. I thought it was a way point based preplaned thing (as in destroy objective ABC and if encounter enemy then logic).

But I was wrong it's more an independent set of rules based on situation not map destination. As in bot encounters or is ordered to situation 1,2,3 then act ABC unless 456 happens then refer to XYZ and once XYZ clears return to 1,2,3.

The first requires map cues while the second does not... nice

[Bayonetta]

Some mighty fine changes there.

[Cain Marder]

wait, I read that the bots can be enabled for the maps that are not friendly, but I have no clue how to do that, yeah, I might've missed that part but couldn't be back here for a while as I had to deal with finals and to get to college so I was a bit busy as of late

[Pushwall]

20 minutes ago, Cain Marder said:

wait, I read that the bots can be enabled for the maps that are not friendly, but I have no clue how to do that, yeah, I might've missed that part but couldn't be back here for a while as I had to deal with finals and to get to college so I was a bit busy as of late

To enable bots on CamosCanyon/Metro/Wasteland while playing in LAN/skirmish mode, press F8 to open the console, and type botcount 30 (or whatever number of bots you want; 30 was the previous default)..

[Cain Marder]

Oh, ok got it, thanks for the help