A Path Beyond APB 3.1.5.0 Changelog

[Pushwall]

  Red Alert: A Path Beyond Update     

[thumb]thumb_apb.h.png[/thumb][blurb]Fixed combat refilling, improved bot behaviour, radio command emoticons and more in this new update![/blurb]

General

• Added emoticons for radio commands, like in Renegade.
• Refilling or buying rifles/techies in infantry combat is no longer possible.
• Fixed the "limit" on items in the B/N/M list, they will now display all players/buildings.
• Screen shake of most explosive weaponry has been reduced about 20-30%.

 

Infantry

 Grenadier

• Splash radius down (8 -> 7m)

 Rifle/Medic

• Rifle/SMG (AK-47, M16, MP5) damage multiplier to light vehicle health/armour down (0.4/0.2 -> 0.36/0.18), a 10% decrease
• Rifle/SMG damage multiplier to heavy vehicle health/armour down (0.3/0.15 -> 0.28/0.14), a 6.67% decrease

 Starshina

• TOZ-194 buckshot damage multiplier to infantry decreased (1 -> 0.9), a 10% decrease

 Captain/Kapitan

• Light machinegun (M60, PKM) damage multiplier to light vehicle health/armour down (0.5/0.5 -> 0.5/0.4), an 11.11% decrease (but not against supply trucks or other unarmoured vehs)
• Light machinegun damage multiplier to heavy vehicle health/armour down (0.45/0.3 -> 0.4/0.3), a 4.75% decrease
• Light machinegun damage multiplier to armoured infantry down (0.875 -> 0.75), a 14.3% decrease

 Flamethrower

• Splash radius up (8 -> 8.5m)
• Splash damage down (35 -> 30)

 Tanya

• Self-healing delay increased (15 -> 20 seconds)

 Volkov

• Adjusted to be a little more "midfield" and less "enemy rooftop camping killwhoring douche":
• AT cannon range back up (85 -> 90m)
• Shotgun damage down (50 -> 45)
• Napalm direct damage down (25 -> 20)
• Napalm splash radius up (8 -> 10m)
• Napalm splash no longer penetrates terrain/building cover.
• Shotgun/napalm no longer gets improved accuracy from crouching.
• Self-healing delay increased (15 -> 20 seconds)
• No longer has infinite armour, the bar is there and it can be depleted.

 

Vehicles

 Tesla Tank

• Physics redone slightly, should no longer be susceptible to randomly flipping over when reversing. (Unfortunately the suspension can now LOOK a little weird at times but you can't have it all. I'll figure out a better solution eventually.)

 Yak

• Decreased acceleration about 10%
• Decreased range (140 -> 130m)

 

Buildings

• In dead buildings, prop monitors display static on screens and "blinklight" mainframes stop blinking.

 Construction Yard/Power Plant

• No longer has to be destroyed for a base destruction victory.

 Radar Dome

• Added Repair Tool props to the shelves.

 Airfield

• Removed physical collision from runway lights as they were making rotation difficult for Yaks.

 Tesla Coil

• Range no longer falls a few centimetres short of its targeting range (which made it possible for a Ranger to draw coil fire without being hurt).
• Splash cover penetration up from 0% to 75%

 Flame Tower / Turret

• Splash cover penetration up from 33%/0% to 75%

Technology Centre

• Fixed the stickiness of the lower edges of the platform for the "mega mainframe".

 

Bots

• Targeting priority for most bots (excluding base defenses, snipers and Tanyas) treats the target's unit cost as a much less important factor, so they will be more likely to target buildings and to finish already-damaged units.
• Targeting and "fear" priorities vs each "type" of unit (infantry, light vehicle/base defense, heavy vehicle, aircraft, building) have been tweaked for greater sensibility. Most importantly, bots in MBTs will no longer attempt to maintain max range against inconsequential rifle infantry that barely hurt them and they can barely hurt in return, and will instead try to charge through them but still return fire if there are no better targets, whereas the lightly-armoured Phase/Tesla bots continue to fear infantry and maintain maximum range against them. Rifle Soldier bots do not "fear" infantry, as they are free and expendable - this also means they can break past poor defensive lines and infiltrate buildings more easily.
• Behaviour of defender/repair bots has been improved; instead of randomly picking a building to repair/defend (even if it's in no danger) and then staying glued to its MCT until it or the bots die, they will now only rush to the aid of buildings that are damaged, and will just idle around if no buildings are damaged.
• Bots' per-map infantry restrictions have been revised once again to exclude more infantry that are unsuitable for certain situations. For example, since Metro is now an infantry-only map in the eyes of bots, bots will never purchase Rocket Soldiers there, and since Camos Canyon's lanes are straight and open enough that bots often find themselves fighting at long range, bots will never purchase Sergeants, Medics or Flamethrowers there.
• Bots don't buy Mammoth Tanks or APCs anymore, since they both have issues - with Mammoths they frequently manage to somehow leave the pathfinding grid, upon which they become "stuck" and only serve as a stationary turret, and with APCs the "infantry join a transport vehicle" logic isn't currently functioning in group rushes, so an APC in a group rush doesn't provide the intended effect of speeding up the group (because the tanks wouldn't have to wait for infantry to catch up at each waypoint) to compensate for being a mediocre combatant. Both may be re-enabled in future if these issues are fixed. Bots will still try to use an APC/Mammoth if they are left unused for too long (like with Rangers).
• Bots can now buy Grenadiers. (However, due to issues targeting around cover, they don't get bought on Metro.)
• Volkov bots now use the AP shotgun against infantry. However, due to the AI 1-weapon limitation, this draws from the same ammo pool as the AT cannon and takes no time to "switch" to.
• Allied Sergeant bots now use the dragonsbreath shot against infantry to balance them with Soviet ones, since being set on fire causes bots to aim sporadically.
• Bots will now react to the radio commands "Follow me" (causes some bots who are near you to follow you) and "Move out" (releases followers who will then do their own thing)
• Group rushes are less "patient" - they won't wait around for participants to join for as long as they used to.
• Bot "wakeup" time after spawning is randomised.
• Player kills versus bots are reported on the killfeed and play the kill sound.

 

Maps

RA_CamosCanyon

• Fixed OT pathfinding which somehow broke again.

RA_Metro

• Bots no longer crash the game.
• Bots no longer get hung up on the War Factory props or the Cargo Truck.
• Moved Soviet north silo slightly south so it's easier to repair.
• Moved the boxes around Soviet north silo to provide more cover to repairmen.

RA_NorthByNorthwest

• Fixed missing spy/thief zones for the Soviet Barracks, War Factory and Refinery.
• Fixed a VIS error in the Tech Centre.

RA_RiverRaid

• Bots can now be enabled. (As usual, load up the map in LAN, press F8 to open the console, and type botcount 30 or some number around that.)

[Pushwall]

In case anyone wonders where Stormy Valley went, we found shortly after pushing the patch that it crashes the server every time it's loaded. We'll put it back when it's resolved.

[xCommanderJackx]

it exist an tec center for both sides COOL

[Einstein]

On 1/20/2018 at 11:01 AM, Pushwall said:

Construction Yard/Power Plant

• No longer has to be destroyed for a base destruction victory.

I'm curious about this change. My guess is because if these are the only two buildings you have left, you're just delaying the inevitable anyway? (anti-stalemate feature)

[moonsense715]

2 hours ago, Einstein said:

I'm curious about this change. My guess is because if these are the only two buildings you have left, you're just delaying the inevitable anyway? (anti-stalemate feature)

I think it also helps to have more games end in base destruction victory, sometimes it's just too many buildings to kill.

[xCommanderJackx]

9 hours ago, moonsense715 said:

I think it also helps to have more games end in base destruction victory, sometimes it's just too many buildings to kill.

yes but I think the powerplant uis an buiilding who iss essencial to the base also it should be destroyed too for a victory the con yard is let me say useless its nice to see without a question but its only for cosmetic not for use

[KevinLancaster]

If the Power Plant had more function other than as a support structure at the moment it would be more necessary to destroy, since in the RTS it was essential for base defense, unit build speed, and as a prerequisite along with the CY for starting a base at all. I also think in some of the games low power caused building damage, which could be an interesting mechanic to add. Maybe tying the CYs and PPs to Engineers and Technicians somehow? You would always need multiple of them in RTSs and while the maps don't have that much space maybe the PP damage could be tied to CY repair rate and more than the radar; in addition the Spy could have the ability to slowly drain power without damage or announcement until it hits zero making his abilities that much more subversive.

The bots seem much better this update.

Edited January 22, 2018 by KevinLancaster

[Pushwall]

17 minutes ago, KevinLancaster said:

 I also think in some of the games low power caused building damage, which could be an interesting mechanic to add.

A few patches ago we added the feature where destroying the power plant (and i think disabling it as a spy?) now causes main buildings to take 10% more damage from all damage sources except repair tools/golden wrench, which is an evolution of the "low power damage" TD/RA mechanic but doesn't force people to constantly repair a base that isn't under attack.

[Pushwall]

3.1.5.1 minipatch, to fix a couple of small issues and to deploy an experiment to encourage naval play.

 

INFANTRY

 Grenadier

• Allied ones are now weaker than Soviet (direct damage 50 -> 45, splash damage 37.5 -> 30)

 

VEHICLES

 Tesla Tank/MRJ/Ranger

• More physics adjustments to prevent them from flipping so easily on slopes.

 Gunboat

• Price down (750 -> 500)
• Cannon range down (110 -> 105m)

 Attack Sub

• Price down (950 -> 550)
• Range down (115 -> 110m)

 Destroyer

• Price down (1500 -> 1000)
• Range down (175 -> 160m)
• Splash damage up (30 -> 37.5)
• Splash cover penetration up (25% -> 33%)
• Removed the "airburst" secondary fire since it barely helped for the role it was supposed to fill.
• Now has access to depth charges as a secondary again, though their range is severely limited compared to the Gunboat's (about 40m vs subs that are barely below surface, and not much further against very deep subs). Due to the Destroyer's speed submerged subs should easily be able to avoid this unless they get cornered. Like the Gunboat they are fired from the missile turret since all attempts at "realistic" depth charge launching never worked out in the past.
• Turret can now be tilted up/down 15 degrees for depth charging purposes.

 Missile Sub

• Price down (1650 -> 950)
• Range down (175 -> 160m)
• Splash damage up (22.5 -> 25)
• Splash cover penetration up (25% -> 33%)
• Removed the "airburst" secondary fire since it barely helped for the role it was supposed to fill.

 

BUILDINGS

 Submarine Pen

• Extended collision underwater so subs don't poke through the piers.

 

BOTS

• Bots assigned to MCT defense now buy appropriate infantry for the job (20% Sergeant, 30% Medic/Flamethrower, 50% Tanya/Volkov) even if the map normally forbids bots from taking these shorter-range infantry to open fields. No more MCT rocket soldiers!
• Bot pathfinding around the upper floor of the War Factory should be less derpy (particularly on Metro)

 

MAPS

RA_GuardDuty

• Bots can now be enabled.

RA_NorthByNorthwest

• Lowered War Factory spawn points, Rangers should not get stuck anymore.

RA_StormyValley

• Fixed server crash on startup.

Also fixed some stuff that was holding up Raap's Hostile Waters work.

[moonsense715]

How did you fix the upper wf bot derping?

[Pushwall]

Pathfind blockers.

In addition to the screenshot Totd posted on discord, the bots had a very bad habit of using the crates to jump down to the ground floor safely instead of using the stairs, which wouldn't be so bad if after doing so they didn't immediately turn around and try to path back into the crates for eternity (they're not even on the pathfind grid so why would they do this). So the edge of the second floor ledge had to be lined in those too.

[Pushwall]

Minipatch 3.1.5.2 just delivers the appropriate client scripts build to match the new server-side one, I forgot to include this before, now the MCT defender bot change will actually work offline and this'll prevent any other issues being caused by scripts discrepancy.

[Raap]

HostileWaters seems to have passed through the bug fixing phase and I'm now doing a final polish pass. One last thing popped up that did require my attention, but otherwise, 3.1.5.x cleared the road for HW to be included in a near-future update.

After this is completed, I will have finally concluded all promised content for APB Delta - despite being over a year overdue on delivering this last part!

Edited January 29, 2018 by Raap

[Pushwall]

Minipatch 3.1.5.3 fixes Guard Duty's Allied ore truck getting stuck on the way out of the WF.

[TK-421]

On 1/28/2018 at 4:44 AM, Pushwall said:

 

 Destroyer

•  
• Now has access to depth charges as a secondary again, though their range is severely limited compared to the Gunboat's (about 40m vs subs that are barely below surface, and not much further against very deep subs). Due to the Destroyer's speed submerged subs should easily be able to avoid this unless they get cornered. Like the Gunboat they are fired from the missile turret since all attempts at "realistic" depth charge launching never worked out in the past.

 

Depth charges weren't just placed on racks some where fired from launchers Y and K-guns are an example so using the missile launcher as a depth charge launcher IS realistic.

[Pushwall]

7 hours ago, TK-421 said:

Depth charges weren't just placed on racks some where fired from launchers Y and K-guns are an example so using the missile launcher as a depth charge launcher IS realistic.

Fair enough then, just felt it didn't pass the bar for realism since they're still not being fired from K-guns.

[Killing_You]

I think anti-sub missiles exist in real life, so it's fine.

[Raap]

6 hours ago, Killing_You said:

I think anti-sub missiles exist in real life, so it's fine.

An anti-sub torpedo launcher mounted on the underside of ships might work out more logically than the barrel-thrower secondary currently used. The only engine problem that would need to either be solved or worked around of is having two weapons divided by a collision mesh functional. Perhaps shifting to this sub-torpedo mode actually shifts your active vehicle to an attached vehicle - giving you blue camera tinting as well? It'd stop all vehicle movement capabilities though I imagine since you effectively aren't controlling your Gunbote/Destroyer anymore.

Food for thought?

Edit: The sub torpedo launcher mode would have a close proximity camera view that never sees above the water surface for the blue tinting/restricted foggy view to logically be usable on it. Could actually be a really cool naval combat mechanic. The anti-sub torpedo's themselves would be relatively slow moving and have relatively short range, and only deal damage to submarines, with a camera angle limit unable to aim above the water surface (so only between straight forward and straight down).

Edited January 30, 2018 by Raap

[Pushwall]

We already tried "press Q to switch to depth charge rack" (for gunboat) and it wasn't well received. Doubt this will be either.

[Killing_You]

Well, for the destroyer, you wouldn't need a torpedo launcher. As I said, anti sub missiles exist.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-submarine_missile

[Bluesummers]

Why not use Hedgehogs? They were THE WAY to kill subs in ww2 and into the coldwar until deep diving became very very common.

[Pushwall]

Okay but they used depth charges in RA. Besides, the renderer has a very hard time processing 30 explosions happening at roughly the same time (which is why the Lunar Paradox rapid-fire explosive weapons have a severely tanked ROF compared to the pre-Gamma LOLmap back when explosions were the bland Renegade ones), the only reason the Destroyer is able to have a weapon that fires 2 shots before reloading and a weapon that fires 1 shot before reloading is because one of those only fires one shot instead of 30 and thus doesn't need a "real" reload, and I've already heard enough complaints about gunboat depth charges OP, destroyers aren't meant to be better or even equal at the job hence having charges with far inferior range.

[Raap]

10 hours ago, Pushwall said:

Okay but they used depth charges in RA. Besides, the renderer has a very hard time processing 30 explosions happening at roughly the same time (which is why the Lunar Paradox rapid-fire explosive weapons have a severely tanked ROF compared to the pre-Gamma LOLmap back when explosions were the bland Renegade ones), the only reason the Destroyer is able to have a weapon that fires 2 shots before reloading and a weapon that fires 1 shot before reloading is because one of those only fires one shot instead of 30 and thus doesn't need a "real" reload, and I've already heard enough complaints about gunboat depth charges OP, destroyers aren't meant to be better or even equal at the job hence having charges with far inferior range.

Siege Cannon "Shrapnel Blast" alternate fire seems to work okay though, despite firing approximately 15 projectiles in one burst.

I'm still biased towards trying a underwater missile launcher, on paper it just sounds like it will solve a lot of problems and potentially be fun to use as well, and "fun" is something that Allied ships lack due to not having a gimmick like submerging.

Regardless, I think barrel-throwing needs to change, this ain't no Donkey Kong. 

[Killing_You]

In any case, it's neat brainstorming in case people start feeling like depth charges underperform.

[Pushwall]

3.1.5.4 is to amend some lingering issues with Lunar Paradox caused by updates to the main game:

• Fixed rifle soldiers missing their limited LAW/RPG.
• Toned down jumpiness of the Pimpin' Ranger, Brain Jammer and Tesla Glober to make them slightly more drivable without flipping over. However the Brain Jammer/Tesla Glober are about 25% slower as a result.
• Fixed Brain Jammer/Tesla Glober exit zones being too low.
• Updated Brain Jammer's custom model with the same flippiness fix that the MRJ/TT have.
• Sniper Soakers now use the snow camo since it's a little more appropriate for the map.
• Updated PT icons for Sniper Soaker and VTOL Yak to the new ones.

And to amend the map's balance a little, since it may come into play on the game night:

• Rifle soldiers no longer have pistols, as they don't really need them and this removal causes the limited LAW/RPG to be displayed on the back, making their existence more obvious.
• Uber Captain's accuracy penalty while walking/jogging is harsher (+3 spread instead of +2)
• Toned down regeneration on bosses (infantry bosses 10 -> 5, tank bosses 30 -> 20)
• Increased damage radius of Anti-Medic and V2 Rocket (25m -> 30m)
• Brain Jammer/Tesla Glober health up (250 -> 300) since making them easy to drive without flipping involved making them slower
• Toned down range of flagship boats (Flying Dutchman 200m -> 180m, Dreadnaut 180m -> 170m)
• Toned down health of flagship boats (999 -> 900)
• Sniper Soaker damage increased (6 -> 6.75)

[OrangeP47]

1 hour ago, Pushwall said:

3.1.5.4 is to amend some lingering issues with Lunar Paradox caused by updates to the main game:

• Fixed rifle soldiers missing their limited LAW/RPG.
• Toned down jumpiness of the Pimpin' Ranger, Brain Jammer and Tesla Glober to make them slightly more drivable without flipping over. However the Brain Jammer/Tesla Glober are about 25% slower as a result.
• Fixed Brain Jammer/Tesla Glober exit zones being too low.
• Updated Brain Jammer's custom model with the same flippiness fix that the MRJ/TT have.
• Sniper Soakers now use the snow camo since it's a little more appropriate for the map.
• Updated PT icons for Sniper Soaker and VTOL Yak to the new ones.

And to amend the map's balance a little, since it may come into play on the game night:

• Rifle soldiers no longer have pistols, as they don't really need them and this removal causes the limited LAW/RPG to be displayed on the back, making their existence more obvious.
• Uber Captain's accuracy penalty while walking/jogging is harsher (+3 spread instead of +2)
• Toned down regeneration on bosses (infantry bosses 10 -> 5, tank bosses 30 -> 20)
• Increased damage radius of Anti-Medic and V2 Rocket (25m -> 30m)
• Brain Jammer/Tesla Glober health up (250 -> 300) since making them easy to drive without flipping involved making them slower
• Toned down range of flagship boats (Flying Dutchman 200m -> 180m, Dreadnaut 180m -> 170m)
• Toned down health of flagship boats (999 -> 900)
• Sniper Soaker damage increased (6 -> 6.75)

I'm getting "installation failed" immediately after "downloading manifests" every time I try and update...

[OrangeP47]

Nevermind, after the 6th or 7th try it went for inexplicable reasons.  I dunno why the launcher hates me.