A Path Beyond APB 3.2.2.0 Changelog

[Pushwall]

 Red Alert: A Path Beyond Update 

Can you tell I'm running out of things to say in these? There's still more coming up, like the Chronotank and RockTrap overhaul, but I didn't want to put this patch off any longer. Enjoy!

(.1 and .2 are just to fix some post-release issues)

General

• Bullet ricochet sound radius up (15 -> 20m)
• You can now learn some basic information about your unit by pressing H.
• Crosshair is now dynamic; the less accurate your weapon, the more its lines move away from the dot. Jumping/falling will produce a considerable effect here, and with some weapons, crouching. This should make it a lot more obvious that these accuracy penalties/bonuses are in play.
• Flashing effect for the out of bounds zone is now less harsh (opacity was previously 0.3 or 0.4 varying between maps; is now 0.2 for all)
• Your team's mine count is now displayed on the HUD.
• Mine limit now ranges from 20-60 depending on the map (lower tech level, size, number of buildings = lower mine limit) instead of being 60 for all maps. Here's a list of all the maps' new mine limits. Use !mlimit ingame if you forget.
  20 mines: Seamist
  30 mines: Canyon River, Metro, Pipeline, Under
  40 mines: Bonsai, Camos Canyon, Coastal Influence, Complex, Keep off the Grass, North by Northwest, Zama
  50 mines: Stormy Valley, Ridge War
  60 mines: Siege, To the Core

Infantry

• Human animations have partially been fixed. Right now only injury animations are back, but in future we may see the return of idle animations, and the taunts/emotes that existed in Beta.

 Grenadier

• Back to its old durability system of having 80 health with no armour.
• Now has a limited pistol so that it has some option for point-blank infantry engagements.
• Grenades are equal for both teams; Soviet now has the direct damage of the Allied one (50 -> 45), and Allied now has the splash damage of the Soviet one (30 -> 37.5)
• Splash radius up (7m -> 8m)
• Damage to buildings up (0.25 -> 0.3)
• Damage to vehicle shields up (0.9 -> 1 for light, 0.7 -> 0.8 for heavy, 0.5 -> 0.6 for mammoth)
• Grenades more affected by gravity.
• No longer explodes on death.

 Medic

• Medic Kit has returned to the old area-of-effect, over-time heal that can be interrupted by Flamethrowers and doesn't affect other Medics.
• Armour Cache has been nerfed for anti-infantry purposes but boosted for anti-vehicle; while it still prevents armour loss from non-fire weapons and thus prevents the possibility of your men becoming extra exposed to rifles/pistols, it doesn't have additional small arms damage reduction on top of that anymore. Instead, it's returned to its old system of only being effective against indirect explosive attacks - but it's now somewhat more effective against them; most forms of explosive splash damage are reduced by 80%. Fire, electric, nuclear, C4 and AP mine damage are still unaffected.

 Rifle Soldier

• Damage to base defenses down by 20%.

 Shock Trooper

• Splash damage to infantry down (7.5 -> 5)
• Direct hit damage to infantry up (20 -> 25); DOT duration down from 2 to 1 second (harder to interrupt)
• Speed up (6.5 -> 7m/s; now "average")
• Health down (70 -> 60)

 Tanya

• Points value down (100 -> 75)
• New gun sound.

 Volkov

• No longer has napalm or trishot attacks.
• AT cannon damage down (70 -> 60)
• AT cannon warhead changed (Sabot -> Shell) - this is the same warhead as the Light Tank, so it is less effective vs heavy/superheavy vehicle shields, but better against buildings (its anti-building DPS is now on par with an RPG).
• AT cannon range up (90 -> 100m)
• AT cannon ROF up (0.75/s -> 1)
• AT cannon now has no splash damage.
• Shotgun replaced with a slug rifle; range up (60 -> 100m), damage down (50 -> 22.5), ROF up (1.5 -> 2/sec), inaccuracy down (3 -> 0), velocity up (250 -> 1000m/s). Poor for close combat; keep your distance and snipe stuff.
• Now receives the same damage from anti-tank weapons that everyone else does.
• Can't be tracked by homing missiles anymore.
• Can now only receive a maximum of 25 damage from a single fall instead of 50.
• Speed up (7 -> 7.5m/s; now "fast")
• Price down (1750 -> 1500)
• New death sounds.

A-Bomb Flare

• Damage down (1000 -> 800); now needs to be a little closer to buildings to one-shot them, so it'll be harder to take down an entire base in one go.

 

 

Vehicles

 Neutral vehicles

• Can now be sold for money at the Service Depot; Supply Truck 75, Cargo Truck 350, Mobile AA Gun 300, Mobile Construction Vehicle 1000
• Respawn times increased; Forklift/Supply Truck 30s -> 60s, Cargo Truck 30s -> 3m, Mobile AA Gun 2m -> 3m, Mobile Construction Vehicle 5m -> 10m

 Minelayer

• AP mines are no longer an instant kill to ALL infantry - they now deal 110 damage with 0% armour penetration, or instakill you if you don't have armour. This only makes a difference for Mechanics, Sergeants, Captains and Medics who are now able to survive a single mine from full health+armour, but will be left injured and completely unarmoured afterwards. The Medic's Armour Cache does not reduce health damage from mines or make armour immune to mine damage like it did in older versions, but it'll at least allow a group of infiltrators (if they only get hit by one mine) to regain enough armour to benefit from armour's damage reduction properties against other weapons.

 Mobile Artillery

• Fixed position of front lamps (they were slightly floating).
• Now comes in forest/desert/urban/snow camo variants.
• No longer benefits from the "base defenses take more damage with less players" system (as it allowed V2s to 2-shot pillboxes and they share the same damage type)

 Mobile Radar Jammer

• Cannot be deployed in mid-air or on the sides of cliffs anymore.
• Prints a chat message to your team when in range of the enemy Radar Dome.

 Ore Truck

• Value of higher-end resources is reduced; mixed ore/gems are worth 525 instead of 700, and pure gems are 1050 instead of 1400. This also means the Soviet default economy on KOTG/RidgeWar are weaker.

 Ranger

• Soviet Rangers no longer get targeted by defenses when stolen by a spy.
• Allied version now comes in forest/desert/urban/snow camo variants.

 V-2 Launcher

• No longer benefits from the "base defenses take more damage with less players" system (as it allowed V2s to 2-shot pillboxes)

 Submarines

• Much more resistant to tilting; they should now be completely level at all times, which should stop them from getting stuck when re-entering a Sub Pen for repairs.
• Having only the periscope above water no longer counts as surfaced; you have to go all the way up to the surface, which should stop torpedoes from "missing" boats by going under them.
• Climb/dive speed increased by about 35%.
• When diving, there is now a 2 second delay before you gain underwater damage resistance bonuses; this means bobbing up and down between shots for invincibility time is no longer a viable cheese tactic against boats (it's still possible but it would drastically slow down your damage output if you wanted to do it).
• Attack Sub price down (550 -> 450)
• Missile Sub price up (950 -> 1150)
• Missile Sub range up (160 -> 170m)

 Aircraft

• Now have Red Alert-esque "generic" names just like ground units do, instead of their "real" name (AH-64 Longbow -> Longbow Helicopter, Mi-24 Hind -> Hind Gunship, Yakovlev Yak-9P -> Yak Attack Plane)

 Yak

• Now flies forward automatically while airborne (cruise control). So you no longer need to keep a button held to avoid death, meaning you can chat freely and won't be screwed if your game window loses focus, and you can't "kill your engines" in flight to quickly deny the enemy a kill at any time.
• No longer able to gain altitude while on the airfield. So no more accidentally trying to treat it like a helicopter and instantly dying.
• Control scheme adjusts slightly depending on if you are taxiing (on the runway) or cruising (airborne). While taxiing, W accelerates (just like it does for everything else) and S descends and decelerates (but cannot reverse). While cruising, W ascends and S descends. Since you have to hold W to leave the runway properly, this will create a smooth transition into ascending while automatically cruising - and since you have to hold S to land, this will create a smooth transition into stopping on the runway. Just in case you're wondering why the controls aren't inverted.
• Is now much more stable when trying to turn around on the runway; you should never end up accidentally flipping over when doing so, even if you're not holding the descent key at the same time. Unfortunately the stability measures in the vehicle physics do slow down its rotation somewhat but it's better than worrying about flipping.
• No longer gets targeted by SAMs when stolen by a spy.
• Removed the enlarged in-flight hitbox.
• Max speed down (~44 -> 40m/s)
• Build limit down to 2.
• Can no longer fire while grounded.
• Now has limited ammo and must refill at the Airfield. Carries a total of 30 rounds.
• Damage output in a single pass is no longer limited by magazine capacity; your full ammo loadout is now all in one magazine, so if you are able to line up multiple targets, you can hit them all in one strafe with all of your ammo. However, against a single target like one building/arty that you want to focus on, you will still need to make multiple passes in order to use all your ammo. If there are no terrain obstacles or other Yaks hindering your approach and you get the timing down you should be able to use up to about 20 of your 30 rounds at a time against one stationary target.
• Gun vertical tilt restrictions loosened from -22.5/7.5 to -25/25 (so now it has an easier time of hitting longbows that decide to go above it)
• Role overhauled; it's now more of a base assault and anti-infantry unit than an arty hunter. One Yak can do about 45% damage to a main building (except CY) with all its ammo, only taking slightly more time to use all its ammo than a Longbow would - so it's basically the Soviet equivalent to the Longbow in this regard, except even with 2 they need some ground support to finish the job. Being able to fire as many bullets as possible before passing their target also greatly helps their damage output against infantry. However, they are somewhat weaker against vehicles than before, and can't kill a full-health artillery in one pass. The exception is against Rangers and Longbows, which they can easily decimate in one pass if they can hit them.

 

 

Buildings AA Gun

• Damage down (60 -> 50 vs helis, 60 -> 37.5 vs planes)
• Rotation speed doubled.

 Airfield

• Maintenance for landed planes (repair/refill/sell) is no longer available when the Airfield is destroyed.
• Can no longer be used to sell helicopters.
• Repairs are no longer automatic and free; they work just like Service Depot repairs, but unlike an SD multiple planes are still allowed to repair at the same time.
• Allied planes can no longer use it to repair. However, they can use it to refill ammo, so a spy can still wreak a decent amount of havoc if he's allowed to.

 Barracks

• On infantry-only maps (currently only Wasteland but will apply to future inf maps too) it has 40% less health and grants twice as many points when destroyed compared to normal.

 Radar Dome

• Airdrop price reduced (150% of the vehicle's War Factory price instead of 200%)
• Can now call in Ore Truck airdrops.

 SAM Site

• Damage down (75 -> 65)

 Tesla Coil

• Range vs vehicles down (160 -> 150m)

 

 

Bots

• Can now buy infantry that don't require a Barracks (Sergeant, Captain, Grenadier) if the Barracks is dead.
• Grenadier bots now hold their weapons properly.
• No longer get stuck shooting Construction Yard exteriors after they're destroyed.
• Group rushes start faster.
• Better at getting into vehicles.

 

 

Maps

Canyon River

• Reduced trees in lower route.

Coastal Influence

• Remade the island to have a wider vehicle route and a much lower altitude; passing naval units can now fight vehicles on the island and vice versa.
• Added more defenses to island route, and in positions that are harder to abuse.
• Soviet base no longer has a height advantage.
• Allied land route has much fewer defenses.
• "External" SDs are closer to the base.
• Ore Silos are more sheltered.
• Added new piers.

Guard Duty

• Allies now have a Construction Yard instead of a Radar Dome. (Radar Dome's "backup WF" nature basically never mattered due to the WF having a really sheltered position compared to the dome's. And just like the dome, an Allied CY was also in the mission this map's based on.)
• Allies now only have 1 AA Gun and it's on the War Factory roof, where it's harder to kill, but doesn't protect nearly as much of the base as the old layout did.
• Added an extra flame tower by the Soviet Refinery.
• The mountains around the south side of the Soviet Airfield are gone to make it easier for Yaks to take off and land from that direction, and for the new flame tower to do its job.
• Reopened the northern mountain infantry route into the Soviet base, since sneaks at the south aren't really possible anymore due to the new terrain layout.
• The ledge with the tree and the bush on the mountain between the Soviet Refinery and central river is no longer accessible.
• Both Soviet river banks have been narrowed a bit so Allied vehicles have to expose themselves and drive up onto land to attack flame towers.
• Fixed V2 rockets glitching through water.

Keep off the Grass

• Moved frontal Flame Towers a bit further away from base.
• Allied WF turret has been moved up to the hill between the WF/barracks - so it's a bit more exposed because it's further from the base, but it should actually be able to hit enemy units now and not be a pain to repair because you don't have to jump to repair it.

Lunar Paradox

• No longer has the restriction on donations that normal maps have. (Both because it's not a serious map and because the map constantly causes the server bot to die, which resets the timer for enabling donations when the bot comes back.)
• LST physics are unfucked, shouldn't get stuck on everything anymore.
• Pimpin Ranger is more lowridery; when idle its chassis is about as low as it can go without clipping through the tires, its suspension only becoming exposed when accelerating or decelerating - even a slight tap is enough to get a good bounce out of it.
• Pimpin Ranger has proper LeanK settings which should make it more resistant to self-tipping.
• Added a new vehicle to each team: Rangerhead for the Allies, and Flammoth Tank for the Soviets. As for what these units do, you'll have to find out yourself. They show up on the sidebar as the more expensive unit that's using the ranger/mammoth icon; the old Pimpin' Ranger/Micro Mammoth are the cheaper ones.
• Chrono Dust Blower's warping has been upgraded to a newer, more instant system.

Metro

• Removed blocker around the "unfinished" building with the forklift (you still can't drive it)
• Rangers can't ramp over the hedgehogs anymore.

North by Northwest

• Fixed spikiness of the central hill.
• Allies' frontal defenses are now 2 pillboxes/1 turret instead of 2 turrets/1 pillbox.

Pipeline

• Oils are only worth 2 creds/second instead of 2.5.
• Adjusted position of Allied coastal pillbox and nearby cover so that heavy tanks can't hide from it and infantry are less protected.

Seamist

• Cutscene Cruisers have been fixed, they actually attack the Soviet base now.
• Cutscene Cruisers now also deal damage to ground vehicles if any happen to be caught in the path of their shells; still completely harmless to infantry though.
• Cutscene Destroyers no longer snipe air units; they're just there for show.
• Added cutscene Gunboats too; also just for show.
• Spies can no longer crash the game by trying to infiltrate a Refinery that doesn't exist.

Siege

• Added extra ground routes in the form of bridges going over the river, connecting the behind-castle route to each team's Radar Dome.
• The base walls close to these routes have been opened up and an additional base defense has been added to guard them (Flame Tower for Soviets, Pillbox for Allies)
• Tesla Coil is moved closer to the Conyard so that it doesn't cover the Soviet bridge.

Stormy Valley

• Fixed infantry collision on the girder ramp in the Allied ore field.
• Fixed small portion of the out-of-bounds area that played the sound every frame.

To the Core

• Church door now repels all heathen machines (except our lord and saviour Volkov).

[blurb]Can you tell I'm running out of things to say in these? There's still more coming up, like the Chronotank and RockTrap overhaul, but I didn't want to put this patch off any longer. Enjoy![/blurb]

[thumb]thumb_apb.8.png[/thumb]

[FRAYDO]

9 minutes ago, Pushwall said:

AP mines are no longer an instant kill to ALL infantry

This will take some getting used to. I can probably see a battle-hardened Captain surviving a mine, but the others (Mechanics, Sergeants, Medics) I don't quite see it. What's the reasoning behind this change? Sergeants bumrushing the mines into a Soviet building could be problematic. Despite the loss of armour, they'll still tear apart a building quickly.

10 minutes ago, Pushwall said:

Now comes in forest/desert/urban/snow camo variants.

Sweet! I've been wanting to main the Artillery again and this is a great addition!

12 minutes ago, Pushwall said:

Church door now repels all heathen machines (except our lord and saviour Volkov).

[Pushwall]

40 minutes ago, FRAYDO said:

This will take some getting used to. I can probably see a battle-hardened Captain surviving a mine, but the others (Mechanics, Sergeants, Medics) I don't quite see it. What's the reasoning behind this change? Sergeants bumrushing the mines into a Soviet building could be problematic. Despite the loss of armour, they'll still tear apart a building quickly.

Hopefully making the loaded APC rush a thing again for more than just Guard Duty. Remember that Rifle Soldiers, Starshinas, Grenadiers, V2 splash through walls, and Volkov (if you can land your slow-ROF shots at close range) annihilate unarmoured troops in buildings - and in turn, Sergeants and Captains get very little bonus damage against unarmoured troops so the high-health no-armour Grenadiers can be a surprisingly good counter here. So this shouldn't be a massive concern unless they're backed up by a medic's healing and anti-splash power, and if that happens then I guess I've finally succeeded at making the medic useful on vehicle maps and making the APC useful on non-air vehicle maps, and even if they both have to be combined to do something, that's still better than the previous state of "why do these units even exist". Mechanics aren't intended to benefit from this, they just do because they have more than 110 combined armour+health (140).

Your concern is noted though, I may have overtuned it a bit, especially with the more stringent mine limits. If the sergeant flood does turn out to be a big concern I can dial the damage up enough for it to kill sergeants/mechanics (140) but not captains/medics (160), which should help a little without defeating the point as captains are a little harder to spam due to price and speed, don't do as much damage to buildings, and are prided mainly on their durability which is a moot point when mines make them naked.

[FRAYDO]

Fair play. Like I said, it'll take some getting used to. Would be good to see some daring party bus rushes so I'll be on the lookout for those.

[Pushwall]

Another part of it is to give another method for people to thumb their nose at some killwhoring jerk who's laying AP mines around Allied buildings instead of trying to win the game, especially if Allies can't get engys. A Captain can just walk out of a door, survive a mine, go back in, refill, and repeat until he either meets resistance or hits 2 mines at once, the latter of which would again be a risky strategy to employ in forward mining due to the lower limits. I made sure that this new system wouldn't directly affect any of the units who REALLY want to get around AP mines (engies, thieves, tanyas) for reasons that should be fairly obvious.

[Pushwall]

3.2.2.3:

- Volkov AT slightly nerfed; damage is down from 60 to 55 but reloads slightly faster at 7.5 seconds instead of 8.

- Playing safe with the minelayer tweak; AP mines can now only be survived by Captains/Medics.

[Killing_You]

12 hours ago, Pushwall said:

 

 Mobile Artillery

• Now comes in forest/desert/urban/snow camo variants.

 Ranger

• Allied version now comes in forest/desert/urban/snow camo variants.

@Pyryle I think it's time to update the pack ?

[Pushwall]

3.2.2.4:

- Subs shouldn't spaz out at low framerates anymore (issue of recent patch) and they shouldn't get stuck when repairing (issue I tried to fix but it caused that other issue to pop up in its place). Only issue now is that you may have a 1-2 second delay on being able to enter your sub if you buy it right at the pen as it will take a bit of time to "settle" to the bottom of the dock when it's bought, but it seems we just can't have everything.

 

Unit Hint key not working is a known issue, it's supposed to automatically bind but it doesn't seem to be doing that for anyone. Until we can figure out a way to fix it you will just have to bind the key manually (Esc -> Options -> Extended Options -> Logical Keys).

[Raptor29aa]

All excellent changes except why only 20 AT mines on sea mist? 

(That’s 5 dome side, 5 middle to block demos, 5 helipad side to block that huge water area, and 5 in base to block stolen reinforcements.)  

[Raap]

The hint menu worked fine for me. Upon loading the first level post-patch I got a notification informing me of the new key binding for the help unit menu, and it worked as well in-game after that with the H default key.

Good to see this function returning, I'd like to see it applied for literally everything a player can take control over.

Edit: Spotted a few problems on Siege, firstly since the building updates, War Factory roofs extend slightly outward. Not a problem in normal environments, but here it causes vehicles to get stuck (both sides): 

Nothing that a simple vehicle blocker wrapped around the corners cannot fix.

The new bridges have some difficult to navigate terrain in these locations:

There are a few graphical issues in these parts as well:

 

Lastly, I noticed the Yak, while on the Airfield after a flight, has a pull towards the left or right that isn't based on user input. I have not done extensive testing however.

Edited June 3, 2018 by Raap

[Pushwall]

33 minutes ago, Raap said:

The hint menu worked fine for me. Upon loading the first level post-patch I got a notification informing me of the new key binding for the help unit menu, and it worked as well in-game after that with the H default key.

Yeah, it worked for me too in testing and after deleting the keys.cfg entry and reopening the public game. But I've had reports from six people so far that the key does not work.

I'm surprised you have nothing to say about the bridges themselves. They're not an addition I really wanted to make since the concrete bridges contrast so starkly with the medieval castle, but the wooden bridges simply aren't long enough to span these huge gaps and would look ridiculous if enlarged, and I couldn't really find any other feasible way to make the map less of a meatgrinder. We'll have to see how it works out though.

[Raap]

Just now, Pushwall said:

Yeah, it worked for me too in testing and after deleting the keys.cfg entry and reopening the public game. But I've had reports from six people so far that the key does not work.

I'm surprised you have nothing to say about the bridges themselves. They're not an addition I really wanted to make since the concrete bridges contrast so starkly with the medieval castle, but the wooden bridges simply aren't long enough to span these huge gaps and would look ridiculous if enlarged, and I couldn't really find any other feasible way to make the map less of a meatgrinder. We'll have to see how it works out though.

Yeah I instantly understood the bridges were kinda dumped there to see how the game plays with them, but that's why I focused on issues rather than aesthetics. 

I personally would have just added two more sets of rocky/sandy crossings like the ones already in place, although they would require more foliage cover, which is rather taxing.

[Pushwall]

1 hour ago, Raap said:

Lastly, I noticed the Yak, while on the Airfield after a flight, has a pull towards the left or right that isn't based on user input. I have not done extensive testing however.

In a game yesterday I saw a couple of people swerving directly into the SAM rock to the left of the airfield while trying to take off. However I am looking at it right now trying to get it to happen and the only times I have managed to get the Yak to veer off to one side on the runway is if I decide to press the same buttons that make any vehicle veer off to a side (A/D) while accelerating, when really you should be using the rotation while stationary to line up for a straight take-off and then flying straight. It feels like people are just going out of their way to try to find new ways to fail to take-off whenever old methods are squashed 

I believe this new method of failure is the result of two things: its traction, which was reduced in order to allow it to taxi along the runway at high enough speed to have no chance of dying on a clean take-off, and its "yaw controller gain" which was reduced to make its banking start out slow to really give it the appropriate "flying bathtub" feel of an old prop plane (compared to the previous Yak which pretty much instantly magnetized to whatever rotation you wanted it to when making slight adjustments, feeling more like a helicopter) and make it hard to change target on the fly to something that's not directly in front of you - trouble is, that force seems to also be applied on the ground. I should be able to fix the slipperiness on the runway somewhat through higher traction but the low yaw controller will likely stay.

1 hour ago, Raap said:

Good to see this function returning, I'd like to see it applied for literally everything a player can take control over.

I already have; let me know if there's an object I missed. Reading this I thought I might have forgotten to hook up the help string for the Siege cannons, but that one is definitely there (though I didn't put much effort into that particular one and it shows).

[Raap]

18 minutes ago, Pushwall said:

In a game yesterday I saw a couple of people swerving directly into the SAM rock to the left of the airfield while trying to take off. However I am looking at it right now trying to get it to happen and the only times I have managed to get the Yak to veer off to one side on the runway is if I decide to press the same buttons that make any vehicle veer off to a side (A/D) while accelerating, when really you should be using the rotation while stationary to line up for a straight take-off and then flying straight. It feels like people are just going out of their way to try to find new ways to fail to take-off whenever old methods are squashed 

I believe this new method of failure is the result of two things: its traction, which was reduced in order to allow it to taxi along the runway at high enough speed to have no chance of dying on a clean take-off, and its "yaw controller gain" which was reduced to make its banking start out slow to really give it the appropriate "flying bathtub" feel of an old prop plane (compared to the previous Yak which pretty much instantly magnetized to whatever rotation you wanted it to when making slight adjustments, feeling more like a helicopter) and make it hard to change target on the fly to something that's not directly in front of you - trouble is, that force seems to also be applied on the ground. I should be able to fix the slipperiness on the runway somewhat through higher traction but the low yaw controller will likely stay.

It is the kind of W3D vehicle movement likely to be amplified over network play, so yeah, people crashing sounds about right.

Honestly it is already interesting to see where you got it now, and this seems to be the last notable issue with 'air plane physics' on the engine. No one needs to know the whole thing hangs by duct tape when said duct tape has pretty paint on it...!

[Pyryle]

On 6/2/2018 at 8:52 AM, Killing_You said:

@Pyryle I think it's time to update the pack ?

Hell yea. I've been too tired from work lately that I'm being a lazy bum whenever I get home, but I have a good length of time off (a week) starting next weekend. I'll (hopefully) get to it then.

[Silverlight]

We can't call OT airdrop from allied dome... The map is Ridge War.

[Pushwall]

2 hours ago, Raap said:

Honestly it is already interesting to see where you got it now, and this seems to be the last notable issue with 'air plane physics' on the engine. No one needs to know the whole thing hangs by duct tape when said duct tape has pretty paint on it...!

The only thing I could possibly hope for out of airplane mechanics in this engine in future is having the plane's pitch and velocity adjust appropriately for climbing and diving. Probably not to the point of being able to do completely vertical dives since that would count it as a "tipped" vehicle and kill it, but whatever. It'd look a lot better than right now where it stays completely level at all times while in flight. As it stands though it's only able to pitch when being bought due to the power of cinematics and it's only able to pitch while taxiing on the runway at high speed due to the power of suspension (yeah aircraft actually have suspension in this engine! obviously it only matters when grounded though). At the very least though, it's only a visual issue and not a gameplay one.

1 hour ago, Silverlight said:

We can't call OT airdrop from allied dome... The map is Ridge War.

Damn, should have known I'd forget a map. I'll fix that later.

[Alstar]

Small feedback from me, regarding the Coastal Influence.

Today i played the first game on it after patch, and i have to say - this map changed insanely when it comes to positioning of defensive V2. To the point where i was unable to stop anything that came through island/bridge unless its right in front of me and im certain i can hit it without problems with arc missile. The only areas where i can easily straightshot at anything on bridge were Service Depot close to Refinery and right in front of entrance to bridge. Refinery fundations can also be counted here but (just like service depot) you can only fire from side on bridge, while risking your shots being most likely blocked.


In addition to that, lowering the elevation of middle island makes it nearly impossible to attack Arties on island. The fact that bridge (and entire island) was moved a bit to the North also have a bit of part in that, as you need to fire over bridge to hit anything - and you still wont be able to do that.



Another thing is defense vs naval. Previously you could rather easily fire at ships coming to attack the Sub Pen - now since the area is flat you cant freely adjust your V2 trajectory by pointing your launcher on hill from Refinery to SubPen and aiming that way. It can be done, but you must be very close to the water now.

In other words, as someone made a joke in discord,

[thedisclaimitory]

finaly im kinda pleased with this patch or update what ever you wanna call this!!! But I think the yak did need more than 10 rounds or what ever it had before because I think its annoying that you have to reload after firing ten rounds and I felt that you need more rounds to fire instead of ten but over all I am pleased with this patch great job with the patch or what ever it is

[Raptor29aa]

7 hours ago, Alstar said:

Small feedback from me, regarding the Coastal Influence.

Today i played the first game on it after patch, and i have to say - this map changed insanely when it comes to positioning of defensive V2. To the point where i was unable to stop anything that came through island/bridge unless its right in front of me and im certain i can hit it without problems with arc missile. The only areas where i can easily straightshot at anything on bridge were Service Depot close to Refinery and right in front of entrance to bridge. Refinery fundations can also be counted here but (just like service depot) you can only fire from side on bridge, while risking your shots being most likely blocked.


In addition to that, lowering the elevation of middle island makes it nearly impossible to attack Arties on island. The fact that bridge (and entire island) was moved a bit to the North also have a bit of part in that, as you need to fire over bridge to hit anything - and you still wont be able to do that.



Another thing is defense vs naval. Previously you could rather easily fire at ships coming to attack the Sub Pen - now since the area is flat you cant freely adjust your V2 trajectory by pointing your launcher on hill from Refinery to SubPen and aiming that way. It can be done, but you must be very close to the water now.

In other words, as someone made a joke in discord,

Why not just make the bridge destructible?

Although I do suppose giving an extra meter or two of hieght would suffice. (Lastly I can almost get an HT from soviet ore filed to island via water... it was awesome. I don’t know if that was intentional)

Edit: I am joke by the way about blowing up a bridge just to get off a better V2 shot.

 

Edited June 4, 2018 by Raptor29aa

[Raap]

12 hours ago, thedisclaimitory said:

finaly im kinda pleased with this patch or update what ever you wanna call this!!! But I think the yak did need more than 10 rounds or what ever it had before because I think its annoying that you have to reload after firing ten rounds and I felt that you need more rounds to fire instead of ten but over all I am pleased with this patch great job with the patch or what ever it is

I think your Yak comment holds some merit. The Yak is what you can call a high-maintenance unit with the largest barrier to entry compared to any other unit, it is also currently the rarest unit. All of that considered, when in the field the unit seems to have very little staying power.

If the current typical damage pass uses up 2/3rd of its ammunition, perhaps bumping up the ammunition by 25% to allow for two full damage passes seems more reasonable - even if the damage output in total remains the same, it's more of a unit gameplay issue.

[Pushwall]

2 hours ago, Raap said:

If the current typical damage pass uses up 2/3rd of its ammunition, perhaps bumping up the ammunition by 25% to allow for two full damage passes seems more reasonable - even if the damage output in total remains the same, it's more of a unit gameplay issue.

That's not a "typical" pass - it's the perfect pass. I tried to account for the fact that people besides just the pros are going to want to try and use this thing. If you are lined up for clear shots, are very low to the ground, and start firing the instant the target box appears, you can use 20 bullets in one pass. If you aren't perfect, you will likely end up using somewhere between 14-17 bullets. So the way it's done now, you will pretty much always make 2 passes regardless of if you're perfect or not - unless your approach and reflexes are really bad on both tries.

The way you suggest, having something like 40 bullets, means that if you have a perfect approach, you only need to make 2 passes, but if your timing and approach are even slightly off, you need to make 3 (or just give up and go home with your 1-5 remaining bullets and the shame of only having inflicted 85-95% of your maximum damage potential).

Now with the system I used there is still an advantage to being skilled of course; if you make a strong 20 bullet first pass, you don't need to expose yourself as much on the second pass due to only needing to stick around long enough to fire 10 bullets, allowing you to swerve away early. And against a heavily damaged vehicle you of course stand a much better shot at outright killing the vehicle in one pass. But at least someone less skilled isn't taking a huge penalty for firing slightly less bullets on the first pass than they could have.

And there's even an alternative to all this. If you don't want to fly past your target because flying too far would lead you into redeyes or AA guns, you can always fire 10 bullets as early as possible, swerve away early so that you don't run into the aforementioned AA weapons, and make 3 passes - delivering damage more slowly, but more safely.

[Mojoman]

6 hours ago, Pushwall said:

unless your approach and reflexes are really bad on both tries.

 

 

I wish you would stop talking about me.

[FRAYDO]

I can always appreciate a Jack Sparrow meme.

[Pushwall]

3.2.2.5

General stuff

• Re-added the Gamma sound for the refill button so it can't be mistaken for a nearby medic.
• Accuracy penalties for jumping now only apply if you stay airborne for more than 1/10th of a second; this means that the various things that cause you to stop touching the ground for a millisecond (like getting off the end of a ladder, buying a new infantry, or touching a prop with collision that isn't a perfect square such as rocks or sandbags) will no longer unfairly impose accuracy penalties on you. (This has been an issue for all of Delta but only the new dynamic reticle brought it to light.)
• If you don't like the dynamic crosshair, or need to be able to tweak its pixel boundaries to use a custom crosshair texture, you can now edit it; use XCC Mixer to extract crosshair.ini from the always2.dat (or always.dat if it's not in always2 at some point in future) and place it in the your game's data folder (the same folder that always.dat is in). Set Enabled to false to disable it, and edit the other settings at your leisure if you're just tweaking for a custom crosshair.

Soviet Rifle Soldier

• Fixed missing AK-47 secondary.

Yak

• Fixed build limit.
• Tweaked physics again; should be less slippery on the runway.
• Damage multiplier to base defenses up (0.24 -> 0.3; now identical to its damage multiplier to main buildings)

Construction Yard

• Repairs main buildings twice as fast, but defenses half as fast.

Power Plant

• Damage penalty for buildings on low power is more harsh (10% -> 16.67%)

Bonsai

• The terrain is finally dry again. (All surfaces with mud effects are now dirt or sand where appropriate, except the riverside and the depths of the tunnels)

Coastal Influence

• Some minor terrain tweaks around the Soviet end of the bridge to hopefully make V2 defense more plausible???
• Land route turret is now a pillbox.
• Removed patch of trees on the Soviet end of the island; V2s can now occupy that spot to attack the turret from just outside its range.

Guard Duty

• Turret moved 20 metres forward so it has more coverage but is harder to defend. (Super vulnerable to yaks!)
• Reshaped cliffs around turret.
• Moved both teams' watch towers onto the cliffs for better visibility.
• Added rocks and deep water around the Allied side of the bridge so it's not such a safe space for artillery.
• Soviet Ore Silo is now behind the Airfield.
• Fixed out-of-bounds zone leaking into Construction Yard basement.

Lunar Paradox

• Rangerhead "crushing" weapon tweaked to be more consistent.
• Rangerhead speed and handling improved.
• Flammoth Tank damage up (20 -> 25)
• Medic suicide damage down (600 -> 500)
• Guided V2 suicide damage down (800 -> 600)
• Fixed Militant Force not playing on gameover screen.

Ridge War

• Fixed missing Allied Ore Truck airdrop terminal.

Seamist

• Soviet defenses have been pushed back, particularly on the CY side, giving Allies reign over more of the map and thus more of a chance at taking down the inevitable CY V2 flood.

Siege

• Fixed some awkward terrain around bridges.
• Fixed vehicles getting stuck on back of Soviet WF.

[Raap]

Quote

The terrain is finally dry again. (All surfaces with mud effects are now dirt or sand where appropriate, except the riverside and the depths of the tunnels)

That gives me an idea/question, is it possible to change terrain types via post-load in-game events? Say you have dynamic rainy weather in your map, can you accompany it with a change that makes terrain 'wet' for character movement? I know changing terrain materials dynamically isn't possible, so no visual wet effect can be added, but it could be neat for footstep sounds/walking effects.

Edited June 9, 2018 by Raap

[Pushwall]

39 minutes ago, Raap said:

That gives me an idea/question, is it possible to change terrain types via post-load in-game events? Say you have dynamic rainy weather in your map, can you accompany it with a change that makes terrain 'wet' for character movement? I know changing terrain materials dynamically isn't possible, so no visual wet effect can be added, but it could be neat for footstep sounds/walking effects.

Footstep sounds and particle effects are tied to terrain materials though.

So this would probably require the map to have visible terrain and invisible collision meshes as two separate entities, with there being two collision meshes, one where certain parts of terrain are treated as dirt/sand and one where those parts are treated as mud, and then swap the wet and dry mesh on demand by object replace through scripts (the same way the siege cannon's "state" changes) instead of actually changing the terrain, because muh VIS. Would still have its fair share of problems though, you'd probably have to do it by having the swappable collision meshes be a simple object instead of terrain - and the engine really does not like having you walk around on those. Back when the Coastal Influence bridge was destructible - that is, a simple object - it was a common occurrence to see infantry spazzing between the first two frames of their running animation as they ran across it. Or falling through the bridge after they die. You can probably imagine how noticeable the issues get when they're applied to the entire map instead of just a bridge that people rarely even bothered walking across back in the day due to how exposed it was to arty fire and such.

Doable but more trouble than it's worth I'd say.

[Raap]

I know the material 'type' is part of the material system, but given that it is a non-visible element (the logic of it), I wondered if there would be a way to force a change on it during a game session.

The idea of using collision mesh swapping... My God that would be beging for problems. All the problems.

Edited June 10, 2018 by Raap

[delta]

On 6/3/2018 at 3:35 PM, Alstar said:

In other words, as someone made a joke in discord,

I literally had the words "nerf Alstar" in my mind as I was reading through this post...then I got to the end 

[Alstar]

The changes provided by Pushwall made it better tho. Thanks Push, you're a good man.