Awesome APB 3.2.0.0 Changelog

[Pushwall]

  Red Alert: A Path Beyond Update     

When the idea of tweaking rooftop access routes came to mind, I figured I might as well get a hell of a lot more map/building-related stuff done too so that it doesn't have to be done later and make you guys redownload all the maps even more times. So apologies for the long wait, but it should be worth it!

[blurb]When the idea of tweaking rooftop access routes came to mind, I figured I might as well get a hell of a lot more map/building-related stuff done too so that it doesn't have to be done later and make you guys redownload all the maps even more times. So apologies for the long wait, but it should be worth it![/blurb]

[thumb]thumb_apb.5.png[/thumb]

General

• You no longer get a "sticky" hitmarker if you directly hit someone with a weapon that inflicts afterburn damage (fire/shock)
• Shrunk bullet tracers 30%.
• Made the radar marker for A-Bomb flares larger.

 

Infantry

• The limitation against combat refilling has been expanded to prevent purchase of ALL infantry during infantry combat, not just free ones.
• Hiding on radar now takes 5 seconds instead of 3.
• Jogging speeds have been increased by 0.5m/s (so all infantry are now one "tier" faster than before when jogging, e.g. rocket soldiers jog as fast as rifles used to, rifles as fast as sergeants used to, and sergeants a little faster). Sprinting speeds are the same as before.

 Fast Regen Bois (and girls)

• These infantry now have to wait 30 seconds to start regeneration just like everyone else, but they now heal 10 HP/sec instead of their old settings (5 for Tanya/Volkov, and the "staggered" heal of the Medic)

 Repairmen

• Repair tool takes 50% more time to capture capturable buildings.
• Golden Wrench takes 25% less time to capture. (Don't mind its 100 ammo, this is just to aid its capture rate due to the way the capture script works; it still has 10 seconds of charge and repairs/disarms things at the same rate it did before.)

 Flamethrower

• Range down (100 -> 80m)
• Health down (60 -> 50)
• Splash radius reduced (8.5 -> 7m)
• Splash damage reduced (30 -> 25)
• Burn-over-time effect now has better DPS (1 instead of 0.75) but a shorter duration (10 -> 5 seconds). So it's a little more impactful for direct combat and flushing people out of cover, but worse at slowing down enemy regen and preventing infantry purchases.
• Projectile gravity effect doubled (0.25 -> 0.5)
• Projectile damage multiplier to infantry drastically reduced (0.5 -> 0.2).
• Projectile damage multiplier to base defenses and MCTless structures down (0.3 -> 0.25); is now identical to damage dealt to building exteriors.
• Projectile damage multiplier to MCTs up (0.35 -> 0.375), a 7.1% improvement; damage to MCTs is now on par with that of a Sergeant/Starshina.
• Accuracy penalties for jumping increased, now sprays even more wildly than a jumping Sniper.
• No longer takes reduced damage from direct flamethrower hits.
• Infantry armour shredding capability up (75% -> 100%). But be careful not to destroy your own armour too.
• Reduced strength of particle effects.

 Grenadier

• Now has armour, but health is down (80 -> 50). This improves their survivability against most things - especially the explosive splash of tanks and themselves - but weakens them against heavy machineguns and non-bullet/non-explosive based weaponry.
• Grenade range down (80 -> 70m)
• Grenade projectile velocity down (75 -> 50m/s)
• Price up (150 -> 200).

 Mechanic

• Move speed down to average, same as a rifle/tech (was fast, same as medic/tanya)

 Medic

• Medic Kit now acts like the Repair Tool/Golden Wrench in that you have to hold LMB or RMB constantly to heal someone, and you have to be directly targeting them. This means that it no longer applies a "fire and forget" effect that allows you to gun people down while teammates continue healing in the background (you'll still see the red crosses effect against someone you're focusing healing on though), it now only affects one person at a time, and its effectiveness is drastically reduced while bunnyhopping.
• Medic Kit healing rate increased; now heals 20HP/sec instead of 10. (Still, bear in mind it can only target one person and you can't heal and shoot at the same time.)
• Medic Kit now affects other Medics again. However, its healing rate against them is only 20% of normal (4HP/sec).
• Medic Kit no longer cancels burning/shocking (since it doesn't apply an afterburn-type heal effect). However in turn it is also no longer cancelled by them.
• Health down (90 -> 80).
• Armour Cache smoke is thinner and slightly more blue, so it should be harder to mistake for an A-Bomb flare and less obstructive indoors.
• Armour Cache, in addition to its previous explosive splash resistance, gives all friendly armoured infantry (including the medic of course) a flat 20% reduction against ALL other damage types, except AP mines/fire/electric/environment damage. This is on top of what normal armour already gives you - and like before, doesn't affect anyone who doesn't use armour (sniper/tanya/thief).
• Armour Cache effect radius down (30 -> 25m)

 Shock Trooper

• Health up (70 -> 80)

 Sniper

• Price down (650 -> 600)
• Health down (90 -> 80)
• ROF up (0.5 -> 0.75)
• Enfield now has a bolt action sound.
• Standing/jogging inaccuracy reduced (0.1 -> 0.05)
• No longer has a severe inaccuracy (0.33) if you walk while scoping (this was a bug, this inaccuracy was only supposed to be added to crouchwalking where it would become a mere 0.03 due to the crouch bonus)
• Crouchwalking inaccuracy removed (0.03 -> 0)
• Range down (300 -> 250m)
• Firing sound radius down (300 -> 225m)
   

 Spy

• Backup relay from infiltrating Radar Dome now lasts 6 minutes (was 5).
• Infiltrating the Refinery no longer tells you how much money the Soviet team has (that isn't very helpful anyway). Instead, the spy sabotages the refining process - the next load of resources dumped at the Refinery (whether it's from a player or AI ore truck) will be ruined, giving the enemy no credits. Like the Radar Dome ability, this has a cooldown period of 6 minutes. Unlike the other infiltration abilities, this one has a chargeup time - the spy must stick close to the refinery's MCT for 10 seconds in order to sabotage it.
• Can no longer "infiltrate" Ore Silos.
• Infiltrating the Barracks/War Factory no longer floods the chat with notifications of what vehicles/infantry the Soviet team has (as that doesn't tell the Allies much anyway). Instead, the unit report causes all of the appropriate Soviet units to become visible on global radar, marked by blue magnifying glasses (I wanted to do red chevrons or something red but that's kinda difficult since then it'd make the markers visible to the Soviets). These markers remain visible for 15 seconds. Infiltrating the Barracks will reveal all Soviet infantry who are not in a vehicle (even if they are sneaking), and infiltrating the War Factory will reveal all Soviet ground vehicles (including cloaked ones if Soviets happen to get a hold of an MGG/Phase). Aircraft cannot be marked in this way, and watercraft are marked elsewhere. Be sure to infiltrate the Soviet radar beforehand if your own radar is down!
• Can now infiltrate Submarine Pens. Doing so provides a similar effect to the new Barracks/War Factory infiltration, except it reveals Soviet watercraft (LSTs, submarines and stolen boats) and the markers stay visible for 1 minute.
• Infiltrating a Missile Silo gives a less ambiguous message for the spy: "Soviet A-Bomb preparations reset", matching up with the "A-Bomb preparations reset" the Soviets get, instead of the previous "Launch Sabotaged" (I have no idea what the Gamma APB team were thinking there since he only resets the terminal countdown and not any actual launches...)
• All infiltration abilities now have a small trigger zone like the War Factory one; they now require the spy to get close to the MCT, instead of just being anywhere in the building that's on the same level as the MCT. (Excluding the Missile silo which, like it did previously, still requires the spy to press E on the A-Bomb purchase terminal.)
• All spies now have 70 health. (Was 60 for armoured spies, 80 for unarmoured)
• Rifle/Shock spy now have "fake armour" - a whole 0.7 points (1% of their health) which will immediately dissipate when shot by pretty much anything (though it does protect these two spies from basic splash damage as long as it remains unbroken). This is there so that they still have an armour bar so that they look "legit" when an enemy targets them, but they still have practically the same level of durability as the techie/sniper spy, and still communicates to the spy himself that he should not be relying on his armour (which wouldn't work if he had 70 armour that just didn't protect against anything).
• Shock spy is no longer immune to electric splash damage.

 Thief

• Fixed bug where the 3-second stealing countdown would keep going if you left the stealing zone, which allowed you to get a quick steal as long as you managed to make it back into the stealing zone before the countdown hit 0. Now you have to stay in the stealing zone for the whole 3 seconds.
• Now has to be close to the Refinery MCT to steal, not anywhere on the second floor.

 

Vehicles

 Ranger

• Is now much, MUCH harder to flip over (still possible though so don't go out of your way to do stupid stuff). Small rocks in the field are no longer its bane.
• Is no longer a god at climbing near-vertical cliffs.
• Suspension no longer stretches in stupid ways when steering. (However, now it just doesn't move at all. For those who weren't on Discord when it came up, fixing the suspension to move properly without stretching caused the Ranger to drive insanely fast in reverse.)

 Minelayer

• Overhauled pretty much all the warhead resistances for landmines. TL;DR they're more vulnerable to bullet-slinging infantry, a little less vulnerable to splash damage, and resistance to bullet-slinging vehicles and direct hits from anti-tank weapons is barely changed.

 Light Tank

• Price up (700 -> 800)

 Tesla Tank

• Can now aim 135 degrees to either side (was 90). So its blind spot is narrower, allowing it to better counter the flanky things it's intended to counter (such as phases and longbows)
• Its "barrel" now starts at the edge of the dome instead of the middle. This gives it one whole extra metre of range! Yay!

 Gunboat

• Depth charges now damage surfaced subs and other boats, and no longer damage any ground units.
• Depth charge ROF increased (1 per 2 seconds instead of per 2.5 seconds)
• Depth charge damage decreased (140 -> 100). Their DPS is now identical to the main gun so against a surfaced sub you don't have to worry about favouring one weapon over the other, just don't use the main gun on deep subs.
• Depth charge range decreased (150m -> 110m, about the same as the main gun horizontally but can get more reach against things that are underwater)
• Cannon damage decreased (70 -> 62.5)
• Cannon ROF increased (1 per 1.333 seconds -> 1 per 1.25, DPS -5% due to lower damage)
• Gun elevation restrictions are tighter; can only fire 10 degrees up and 20 degrees down (was 22.5 up 37.5 down)

 Destroyer

• Depth charges now damage surfaced subs and other boats.
• Depth charge damage decreased (140 -> 100).
• Depth charges ROF greatly decreased (1 per 6 seconds instead of per 2.5 seconds)

 Attack Sub

• Torpedo velocity increased (62.5 -> 75m/s)

 Yak

• Now uses normal Splash warhead instead of SplashFire; base damage is adjusted (10 -> 20) so that its base damage output against armoured infantry is unchanged. So it no longer has the extremely lenient afterburn effect for so much as a single splash hit, and the Medic's Armour Cache can make an impact against its damage output.
• Now has a larger hitbox while in flight.
• Damage to Wood destructibles (like Siege's scaffolding) halved.
• Just like the Longbow/Hind it no longer deals extra damage to base defenses at low player counts.
• Damage to all buildings up (0.25 -> 0.28), a 12% increase.
• Damage to heavy vehicle armour up (0.4 -> 0.5), a 20% increase.
• Range up (110 -> 120m).

 

Buildings

• Insignias on team-locked doors no longer have physical collision (this was causing the doors to be jammable, particularly with the new roof doors)

 Advanced Sub Pen

• Raised the "gate" at the front slightly.
• Reshaped the submarine blockers to fix the following issues:
• Moving a sub out of the dock no longer forces it to dive to a depth where it can't hit boats from; this made it hard for newly bought subs to fight against gunboats.
• If someone parks and ejects a sub in the spawn point, it will now only take about 5-10 seconds instead of a whole minute or so to "settle" into a position where it can be re-entered safely.

 Airfield

• Moved one of the rooftop antennae to block infantry from being able to run a circle around the roof door, so Allies hiding up there can't just juke hinds etc forever.
• Added a small length of chainlink fence around the depot.
• Added Raap's exterior texture overhaul.
• Upgraded the comms dish on the rooftop to the same one from the Radar Dome/Advanced Naval Yard, but scaled up 50%.

 Barracks

• For Allied barracks, added wooden supports to the interior so that the tarps aren't "floating".
• Fixed black void around Allied Armoured Corps poster.
• Fixed vehicle blockers at the entrances floating slightly (which may have contributed to vehicles getting stuck there)
• Added filler inside the walls to make it harder to see things on the other side by camera clipping.

 Construction Yard

• Added extra access routes to the different rooftop areas: a team-locked elevator in the side area that leads to the roof, and some ramps connecting the roof of the side area to the roof of the main door.
• Texturing on the roof of the side area is slightly less ass.

 Missile Silo

• EVA now prints notifications in chat for ready flares, taken flares and spy sabotage in addition to the voices that were there before.
• Added a PCT in the basement by the elevator (no spawn point down there though).

 Power Plant

• Added extra access routes to the rooftop: a pair of team-locked elevators that go up to team-locked doors connected to the middle of the roof.
• Added PCTs up on the catwalks between the elevator and roof door (no spawn points up there though).

 Radar Dome

• Added some additional vehicle blockers around the entrance and ramps, hopefully this should be the end of tanks getting stuck on absolutely nothing there. Sadly you can't drive rangers up the ramps anymore but sacrifices have to be made.
• Added filler inside the walls to prevent seeing things on the other side by camera clipping.

 Refinery

• Added an extra access route to the rooftop: a team-locked door above the MCT.
• Added filler inside the walls to prevent seeing things on the other side by camera clipping.

 Repair buildings

• Ground/air vehicle repair costs 50% of the vehicle's price just like naval vehicles (was 25%)
• Vehicles are repaired at 7.5% health/armour per second (was 10% for both SD and naval buildings)
• Naval repair zones now disappear when the building is destroyed.

 Sub Pen

• Added grating between the two solid walkways so it's much easier to walk in.
• Added an arrangement of props between the stairwell and the bridge. With this and the easier time walking into the pen, it should not be so easy for Allies to turn the stairwell into the ultimate defensive position when invading the sub pen.
• Relaxed the vehicle blockers a bit; vehicles can now drive into the Sub Pen, though not down the piers and obviously not down the stairs. Most importantly this allows Soviet Minelayers to cover the MCT room, but it can have its defensive downsides as well.
• Removed the fences on the ends of the piers to allow more room for LSTs to land, since now Allied landers actually have something to worry about on CI/Under.

 Tesla Coil

• Anti-vehicle range up (150 -> 160m)
• Reload time up (4.5 -> 6 seconds)
• Splash and direct hit logic reversed (splash damage hurts vehicles and inflicts shock effect on infantry, direct hit does instant damage to infantry). Splash radius is very small so it will be very unlikely for multiple vehicles to get hit at once; it's mostly just a nerf against massed infantry that get kicked out of a supply truck/APC and all spawn in the same spot (only one infantry dies, the rest just take the relatively weak shock effect and get brought to half health at best, giving them a chance to spread out for the next attacks), and a buff against vehicles (APC/Med can no longer take reduced damage from it by making it hit their strongpoint).

 War Factory

• Added extra access routes to the rooftop: team-locked doors on either side of the upper floor, which lead to small balconies with ladders leading to the roof. (Except Soviets on Siege, they don't get these doors.)
• Moved the rear ladder to the front so it's not too close to a new ladder. (Except Soviets on Siege, their WF has both the old rear ladder and the new front one.)
• Added catwalks around the left/right side of the upper floor.
• Moved the interior pipe slightly further away from the centre so it doesn't poke through the window.
• Moved upper floor PCTs 1 metre closer to the MCTs so it's harder to accidentally trigger the new doors.
• Updated exterior appearance to fit slightly more with the RA sprite; brown brick, frames for the windows, and a slightly extruded roof.
• Transplanted pipes and fuel tanks from the unfinished War Factory of former staff member Cuddling (getting his whole WF to work would just be pain because it doesn't fit the shape of the current WF and exterior props like the pipes/fuel tanks are really the only parts of it that were actually finished!)
• Due to the larger size of the new pipes, you can no longer jump over the rooftop pipes from the lower side of the roof, only the upper side.
• Added filler inside the walls to prevent seeing things on the other side by camera clipping.
   

 

Maps

• Reverted the "permeable" status of water on naval maps (so you will be able to get target boxes again), as it was causing too many problems (bots/base defenses not being able to see anything through water including infantry standing in ankle-deep water, imperfect reticle targeting around water, splash damage being blocked by water, and destroyers sometimes failing to fire when aiming skyward). Water on naval maps is now as opaque as it was before last patch, since the reduced opacity was a balancing factor against the INTENDED effect of permeable water: not being able to see target boxes through water.
• VIS occlusion has been redone to account for all the new props that have been added since the initial release of Delta, as well as the fact that a lot of VIS setups for building interiors were broken in previous versions due to certain wall meshes being treated as see-through when they actually aren't. Performance should be a little better on most maps, but unfortunately there may be some new VIS errors (meshes that should be visible from a certain position but aren't) as I probably didn't find them all.
• Forest of Illusion, Fissure and RockTrap have been axed from the game for the time being, pending redesigns. Ridge Racer is also out as it's pretty much run its course for the time that it was played, but it may come back as a filler event map if I can refine the driving mechanics.

RA_Bonsai

• Closed off the northwesternmost part of the map (the part with the campfire and the lone house atop a ledge). The nearby farm/Soviet waterfall route is still open.
• Returned weather to its Beta style (morning lighting, no thunder/rain). This also means most of the drips and the ankle-deep water in the wine cellar are gone.
• Added Raap's new bridge.

RA_CanyonRiver

• Removed some trees.
• Added Raap's new bridge.

RA_CoastalInfluence

• The "long upper" path has been mostly cleared of trees so it is much easier for vehicles to traverse. Most of the trees now sit near the edge of the ridge so it is harder for vehicles on one path to interact with the other path, or the edge of the border mountain so that they continue to shelter infantry without making vehicle access too difficult.
• Made a little extra room for vehicles on the island.
• Added a fence along the shoreline near the dead Heavy Tank on the lower land route, to make it harder for vehicles to fall in water. (Projectiles can go through this on purpose because otherwise it would impede the Barracks turret.)
• Fixed missing spy zone for Soviet Barracks.

RA_Complex

• Added vehicle blockers in between the bridge supports, so that vehicles passing under the bridge don't have to worry about lagging into the inside of the supports instead of coming out of the other side of the bridge.
• Added Radar Domes for all your "backup for your easily destroyed WF" needs.
• Enabled MRJs. Time to roll out that snow MRJ camo for the first time since Beta?
• Added Raap's new bridge.

RA_GuardDuty

• Removed the Allied inf-only cliff extension.
• Moved Soviet Ref-side Flame Tower closer to the Service Depot.
• Tweaked shape of the back of the Allied river hill a bit to make it even harder for artillery find spots on the hilltop where they can shoot stuff while "in cover".

RA_HostileWaters

• Naval structures back up to 750 health (dropping them to 500 turned out to be not the best idea with the faster pace of the game compared to old HW)

RA_KeepOffTheGrass

• Added vehicle blockers to the Allied PP route and Soviet Ref route. Both teams still have one vehicle-accessible backdoor (Soviet PP and Allied WF), the other one is just restricted to infantry.
• Hill route going behind the Allied WF has been sectioned off a bit; the wider path has been removed entirely, leaving just the narrow path that Mammoths/TTs cannot cross, but all other Soviet vehicles can.
• Soviet PP flame tower has slightly worse coverage.
• Replaced both the previously existing Coils with Flame Towers and added a new Coil in the middle of the base. This still doesn't have the coverage to prevent PP attacks unless vehicles get VERY close to the PP.
• Removed the rear Gap Generator; the front Gap has been moved about 25m closer to the WF. Gap coverage still covers almost as much of the base as it previously did; the only thing it covered previously which it doesn't anymore is the ore field.
• Made the Soviet PP hill less slippery on the PP end.
• Removed a Service Depot from each base.
• Halved chance of crate giving a class change (which resets your equipment).

RA_PacificThreat

• Allied boats are now spawned facing forwards instead of left.
• Removed the little island near the Soviet Helipad as it was causing more grief for defending Soviet subs than for attacking Allied boats. Instead, added a pier near the house which boats have to go around before they can start hitting buildings.
• Removed a bunch of out-of-bounds trees.
• Made piers look a little less ancient by repurposing parts of Raap's new bridge for them.
• Fixed missing spy zone for Soviet Barracks. (Gee, can't imagine why THIS went unnoticed for so long.)

RA_Pipeline

• Removed starting ore silo since a non-capturable source of income isn't really needed now that technicians can capture and the economy was too strong previously anyway.
• Oil pumps now give 2.5 credits per second (was 2). So credit income still peaks at 10 (unless you can somehow steal and hold the oil in the enemy base for 12.5... don't count on that), but now bottoms out at 2.5 if you have no field control instead of the previous 4 (oil+silo). Income across the whole map totals at 12.5 (5 oils) instead of the previous 14 (5 oils + 2 silos). So keeping control of the oil is more important.
• Removed some of the jersey barriers around the central oils as they were easy to get stuck on.
• Moved each team's initial oil pump back to the safe position that the ore silo used to be.

RA_Siege

• Fixed lumpy terrain near the new bridge.
• Added Raap's new bridge.
• Fixed destructible scaffolding not transitioning to its "settled" state (which reduces draw calls and stops smoking) at the end of its death animation.
• Fixed some oddly shaped blockers around the recently-cleared Soviet-side rock pile.
• Removed wall between Allied WF and landing pads (what is this even doing here)
• Transparent water edges are less gradual.

RA_ToTheCore

• Removed bridges. (Raap's new bridges are too large for this map's rivers)
• Removed some trees.

RA_Under

• Removed a bunch of out-of-bounds trees.
• Pier update.
• Expanded the ejection zone for LSTs/subs. Subs should be able to eject at the Allied shoreline now.

[Alstar]

Bloody hell, thats a lot of changes.

Balancethrower - Deserved bunch of nerfs.

Grenadiers - well, they were in fact a bit too squishy.

Medics - Well, now its gonna be harder to heal during combat but i like it. Armor cache changes also look good.

Sniper - Oh boy, time to annoy everyone

Spy - This gonna be good. And annoying. Now it will be a bit more useful beside ability to steal vehicles

LT - Guess 800 price seems a bit too harsh but then i see their preformance. I have mixed feelings about this one.

Rooftop changes - necessary. Now it's gonan be easier to fend off anyone who plans on flaring the rooftops.

Quote

Coastal influence - Made a little extra room for vehicles on the island.

Complex - Whoa, Radar Domes are back. Feels like old times.

KOTG sounds fine for me, those gaps were really annoying

Pipeline now ends up being real oil control war.

 

Overall, looking good for me. Also what is this with big patches coming out lately, APB, Forged Battalions, tomorrow Fire Emblem Heroes, soon MO xD

[Pushwall]

45 minutes ago, Alstar said:

Complex - Whoa, Radar Domes are back. Feels like old times.

Wow I'm an idiot, I completely forgot that the original CF Complex had radar domes. When adding them in I noticed the map already had a radar spy zone set up hidden underground, so I figured that maybe I tried adding domes at some point in the past, declared effort and stopped but left the zone there, and then just forgot about it all 

[Raap]

Good work.

As I've told Pushwall, I'm available for more environment related updates. As long as I got time, I can work on updating APB's more out-dated assets... So long as he stops touching my noise filters.   

[OrangeP47]

5 hours ago, Alstar said:

LT - Guess 800 price seems a bit too harsh but then i see their preformance. I have mixed feelings about this one.

I'm going to echo this.  I'm not sure about the change.  That's my biggest concern though, so most everything else I'm happy to see.

[Pushwall]

The extra price is mostly there so that in the super-common instant LT rush you don't get to put even more power into it by buying better infantry. Maybe on maps with slow dumps you can get a sergeant/grenadier but you'd have to rack up a lot of combat credits or have people donate credits around to be able to get a LT+cap or LT+RS on first dump. And on maps where income is decided by trickle instead of ore dumps, means Allies don't have such a big advantage in getting early tanks out. Later in the game Allies typically have money to burn so this shouldn't do much at that time except make the Medium a little more alluring, and I've seen a surprisingly small amount of Medium use...

[OrangeP47]

Fair point I guess.  As soon as I saw the light got a price change the next thing I did was search to see if the med got tweaked at all too.

[Raptor29aa]

I like the changes, not sure about the medic but I don’t use medics anyways, still I have two concerns. 

a) on guard duty without hill coverage how  will artillery defend again V2 bombardment? (Not to mention Refinery AA gun sniping).

B) and this one is important! If there are no silos or refineries on Pipeline then how am I supposed to early game LT thief the Soviets and send most of the opposing team into an angry screeching fit? (Edit: Or maybe I should just ask that thief’s get removed from the map).

[Pushwall]

5 minutes ago, Raptor29aa said:

a) on guard duty without hill coverage how  will artillery defend again V2 bombardment? (Not to mention Refinery AA gun sniping).

Guard Duty prior to this was one of the most Allied biased maps. I'm sure they'll find a way.

5 minutes ago, Raptor29aa said:

(Edit: Or maybe I should just ask that thief’s get removed from the map).

Fair enough.

Or maybe I can stick an "Oil Pipeline Control Terminal" inside one of the Soviet buildings or near the Soviet base oil, which looks like an ore silo terminal and is just there for thieves to interact with.

[Raap]

In case anyone is wondering why the airfield asphalt still looks relatively blurry, that is because despite using 8 2048x2048 textures in two rows, the airfield is still very big. It looks fine when looked at it from an aircraft point of view however. The sharp edges of the runway paint is achieved through a 3rd pass material, this is why it doesn't blur along with the main texture, and also why it can reflect light, useful if there ever is a night-time air map.

In hindsight (cough) I could have opted to go for an asphalt with less observable patterns, but I only had limited asphalt materials to pick from and believe me this one was the best I had on hand, although I think the original photograph quality could have been a lot better. Consider it an error I'm unlikely to repeat again.

Edited March 9, 2018 by Raap

[Mojoman]

17 hours ago, Raap said:

 8 2048x2048 textures

Should have used 0.5 1x1 textures.

[thedisclaimitory]

Just now, Mojoman said:

Should have used 0.5 1x1 textures.

OK but what about any new textures any info or nein

 

[des1206]

On 3/8/2018 at 7:50 AM, Pushwall said:

  Red Alert: A Path Beyond Update     

 Repair buildings

• Ground/air vehicle repair costs 50% of the vehicle's price just like naval vehicles (was 25%)

 

I don't like this. When WFs are down, SD served as a mitigant and helped with defense. This kinda nerfs SD.

[Pushwall]

Released patch 3.2.0.1:

 

General

• Fixed a bunch of memory leaks.
• Fixed a leak involving Gap fields which was causing empty vehicles in them and anything that was in the process of stealthing/unstealthing in them to gradually hinder performance more and more throughout the course of a match.

Infantry

• Removed accuracy penalties for the initial shots fired after exiting sprint mode. You now only get penalties from jumping/falling (including exiting a vehicle).
• Removed the server's "built-in" rebuy timer (the one that produced "Barracks in use" messages) as that main purpose of that is now covered by the new "no buying in combat" script. So now you should be able to buy new infantry immediately after respawning just fine (unless someone shoots you of course).
• Lowered the server's "built-in" refill timer (the one that only prevented you from getting multiple refills in succession) down from 15 to 5 seconds, as the main purpose of that is now covered by the new 5-second "no refilling in combat" script.
• Fixed assorted infantry weapons that had worse accuracy when crouchwalking/scoping than they did when standing.

 Medic

• MP5 no longer has a damage penalty against hard targets.
• MP5 ROF up slightly (11.25 -> 12)
• Medic Kit now has projectile extensions so it should be easier to hit moving teammates with.

 Kapitan

• PKM ROF up slightly (12 -> 12.5)

 

Vehicles

 Ranger

• Some further physics tweaks, should be again less flippable.
• Suspension now moves again, this time without the stretching when steering, as the crippling issue mentioned in the original changelog has been fixed.
• Soviet Ranger ROF up slightly (12 -> 12.5)
• No longer has a unique armour class; takes damage exactly like a normal light vehicle instead of having a bonus vs AT mines, penalty vs Hinds, and faster meching.

 Demolition Truck

• No longer has a unique armour class; takes damage exactly like a normal light vehicle instead of dying instantly to MAD shockwaves.

 Minelayer

• AT Mine damage up from 200 to 225 (as previously 2 mines were dropping HTs to 1 health)
• Fixed AP mines spawning with too low health, which would cause them to take time to become hidden.

 Tesla Tank

• Reverted the change to their turret restrictions.
• Instead, their health has been increased slightly (200 -> 225).
• No longer has a unique armour class; takes damage exactly like a normal light vehicle instead of having a bonus vs tesla damage.

 

Bots

 Ants

• Fixed AI issue where they would freeze up and fail to attack infantry that were too close to them; they will now attempt to back up if enemies are too close, and can attack infantry that are standing in or on them anyway.
• Can no longer be shoved by infantry.
• They no longer produce constant "anti-cheesing" explosions in a small radius around them as they are not needed anymore.
• Scout/Warrior ants will now start attacking before they have gotten in range to hit their enemy, as this reduces their stutter-stepping issue.
• Fire Ants will no longer launch fireballs into the sky if they decide to attack while moving backwards.

Other bots

• Infantry bots' muzzle direction now behaves like a player's, so they will now continue to fire at their intended target instead of random directions if they aren't using the standard firing animation (like when infantry bots are set on fire/shocked, or when a Fire Ant is moving backwards)
• Flamethrower bot no longer has a nerfed ROF (doesn't need it since it can't cheese other bots' aiming anymore)
• Grenadier, Rocket Soldier, Flamethrower and Fire Ant bots will now try to aim at enemy infantry's feet for splash damage instead of trying for direct hits.
• Sniper and Flamethrower bots now attempt to initiate combat at the correct ranges of 250m (sniper) and 80m (flamethrower).

 

Buildings

 Helipad

• Fixed glass somehow becoming much more opaque than it was previously (even though I hadn't touched it before)

 

Maps

Seamist

• Fixed placement of Soviet War Factory spy zone.

Metro

• Fixed VIS in War Factory basements.

[Mojoman]

1 hour ago, Pushwall said:

Fire Ants will no longer launch fireballs into the sky if they decide to attack while moving backwards.

That's a shame.

[Raap]

On 16-3-2018 at 7:12 PM, Pushwall said:

Released patch 3.2.0.1:

 

General

• Fixed a bunch of memory leaks.
• Fixed a leak involving Gap fields which was causing empty vehicles in them and anything that was in the process of stealthing/unstealthing in them to gradually hinder performance more and more throughout the course of a match.

 

Based on my observations during a few matches, these seem to have a notable impact. 

More of these excellent improvements, @jonwil & engine team!

[des1206]

On 3/8/2018 at 7:50 AM, Pushwall said:

 

 Spy

• Backup relay from infiltrating Radar Dome now lasts 6 minutes (was 5).
• Infiltrating the Barracks/War Factory no longer floods the chat with notifications of what vehicles/infantry the Soviet team has (as that doesn't tell the Allies much anyway). Instead, the unit report causes all of the appropriate Soviet units to become visible on global radar, marked by blue magnifying glasses (I wanted to do red chevrons or something red but that's kinda difficult since then it'd make the markers visible to the Soviets). These markers remain visible for 15 seconds. Infiltrating the Barracks will reveal all Soviet infantry who are not in a vehicle (even if they are sneaking), and infiltrating the War Factory will reveal all Soviet ground vehicles (including cloaked ones if Soviets happen to get a hold of an MGG/Phase). Aircraft cannot be marked in this way, and watercraft are marked elsewhere. Be sure to infiltrate the Soviet radar beforehand if your own radar is down!
• Can now infiltrate Submarine Pens. Doing so provides a similar effect to the new Barracks/War Factory infiltration, except it reveals Soviet watercraft (LSTs, submarines and stolen boats) and the markers stay visible for 1 minute.
• All infiltration abilities now have a small trigger zone like the War Factory one; they now require the spy to get close to the MCT, instead of just being anywhere in the building that's on the same level as the MCT. (Excluding the Missile silo which, like it did previously, still requires the spy to press E on the A-Bomb purchase terminal.)

1

We should give a cool down time to the Barracks/War Factory/Subpen ability, as well as a notification to the Soviets of infiltration, or else a good spy in base would mean Soviets can never do any sneak attacks or flanking again. A required time deplay near the MCT would also make things more realisitc (the spy is "hacking" enemy records) and fun, there is a thrill of waiting try to not get caught.

Also not sure about the radar dome delay to 6 minutes. I feel the Soviets should be adequately incentivized for destroying Allies' radar dome. What's the point hitting the radar with 20 minutes left in the game if the Allies can just infiltrate 3 times and get radar back no problem? Also it would be great if we require the spy to stay near radar MCT for a bit to "activate" the relay.

 

Edited March 30, 2018 by des1206

[Pushwall]

1 hour ago, des1206 said:

We should give a cool down time to the Barracks/War Factory/Subpen ability, as well as a notification for the Soviets, or else a good spy in base would mean Soviets can never do any sneak attacks or flanking again. A required timer deplay near the MCT would also make things more realisitc (the spy is "hacking" enemy records) and fun, there is a thrill of waiting try to not get caught.

Don't let the spy do his rounds tbh. It's already not that hard to know that a spy exists, he needs some time to reach your base after being bought, and with this patch he is also much more fragile so the only "combat" he is really suited to is picking off the unaware from the shadows before they can notice him - if anyone is aware of his presence he is really easy to deal with. But even then, if there's a spy going around your base unmolested hitting up all the buildings because your entire team is on the front lines, then that means the Allies have one less tank/rocket/Tanya/whatever able to sit around and defend from whatever's coming their way. That was a pretty big problem with spies before - most of their contributions for their team were absolutely not worth giving up an extra combatant for, especially if the Allies are stuck on the defensive which is more likely when they have less manpower to push out to the field. Oh good, manifest says the Soviets have 5 mammoth tanks, we kinda already gathered that from their limited war factory purchase pool, would have much rather had a medium tank/rocket at home to actually deal with that! And if your base is completely empty so anyone wanting to infiltrate will have a field day, would you much rather that the infiltrator was a spy signaling your sneak attack, or a phase-thief destroying mines and stealing half your credits, or a phase-tanya or phase-engineer destroying a building?

I'd be open to maybe adding a slight delay for the hacking, but an absolute no to letting the Soviets know that they've been spotted. Soviets not knowing that is kind of the entire point.

1 hour ago, des1206 said:

Also not sure about the radar dome delay to 6 minutes. I feel the Soviets should be adequately incentivized for destroying Allies' radar dome. What's the point hitting the radar with 20 minutes left in the game if the Allies can just infiltrate 3 times and get radar back no problem? Also it would be great if we require the spy to stay near radar MCT for a bit to "activate" the relay.

You can't get airdrops with a relay. And if Allies want to get radar back, they have to render themselves one tank/tanya/rocket/other-inf-of-choice short for as long as it takes the spy to reach the enemy base, which on most dome maps is a fairly long time even if the spy is taking the shortest possible route which would almost certainly involve running past multiple Soviets, at least one of whom should recognise him.

If the other spy abilities get a chargeup delay I would do it for this one too just for consistency. I had only considered it for the refinery ability initially because of how incredibly powerful it is and the fact that its eventual effect can be pretty heavily delayed by killing ore trucks.

 

The  "one man down = gg" and "spy is easy to spot" arguments may be less applicable to larger games; however, it's been a thing for all of Delta that map victories have gotten more and more skewed in the Soviets' favour the higher player counts get. The spy seemed a pretty obvious choice for a unit who could be buffed to help give Allies a bit more of a fighting chance in larger games without suddenly causing the Allies to dominate small games. You really can't afford to dedicate someone to "reveal the sneaks/slow the economy/get the radar back" duty in a 4v4 unless there's a pretty severe player skill imbalance.

[des1206]

36 minutes ago, Pushwall said:

Don't let the spy do his rounds tbh. It's already not that hard to know that a spy exists, he needs some time to reach your base after being bought, and with this patch he is also much more fragile so the only "combat" he is really suited to is picking off the unaware from the shadows before they can notice him - if anyone is aware of his presence he is really easy to deal with. But even then, if there's a spy going around your base unmolested hitting up all the buildings because your entire team is on the front lines, then that means the Allies have one less tank/rocket/Tanya/whatever able to sit around and defend from whatever's coming their way. That was a pretty big problem with spies before - most of their contributions for their team were absolutely not worth giving up an extra combatant for, especially if the Allies are stuck on the defensive which is more likely when they have less manpower to push out to the field. Oh good, manifest says the Soviets have 5 mammoth tanks, we kinda already gathered that from their limited war factory purchase pool, would have much rather had a medium tank/rocket at home to actually deal with that! And if your base is completely empty so anyone wanting to infiltrate will have a field day, would you much rather that the infiltrator was a spy signaling your sneak attack, or a phase-thief destroying mines and stealing half your credits, or a phase-tanya or phase-engineer destroying a building?

I'd be open to maybe adding a slight delay for the hacking, but an absolute no to letting the Soviets know that they've been spotted. Soviets not knowing that is kind of the entire point.

You can't get airdrops with a relay. And if Allies want to get radar back, they have to render themselves one tank/tanya/rocket/other-inf-of-choice short for as long as it takes the spy to reach the enemy base, which on most dome maps is a fairly long time even if the spy is taking the shortest possible route which would almost certainly involve running past multiple Soviets, at least one of whom should recognise him.

2

I don't disagree with your point that having 1 player short is a big handicap to the Allied team, and no notification to the Soviets makes sense to me. But I would still lobby for a delay in infiltration refresh (like every 2 minutes?). In APB surprise attacks matter a lot. Buildings in APB are best taken down by a sudden concentrated attack before the defenders can react or repair. As the Soviets in a medium sized game, I would much rather face 1 more Allied defender but get my 15 seconds initial attack on a building in, than they know we are coming everytime. I don't care if my entire attack force gets owned, as long as we manage to kill a building each time. 

You can't get airdrops without relay, but it doesn't matter if Allies still have their War Factory. On many maps I remember being able to get a spy and ranger after our radar was down and get relay back within 2 minutes. Again surprise attacks are really powerful in APB, and being blind should be a big penalty (and reward for the Soviets for killing dome).

Edited March 30, 2018 by des1206