Author Topic: Prerelease 3.011 (Bugfixes)  (Read 2356 times)

Offline x4000

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Prerelease 3.011 (Bugfixes)
« on: January 15, 2010, 10:30:52 pm »
-The repair range of mobile repair stations has been doubled.

-Four new space tugs have been added: One for picking up starships with less than 100% health remaining, and three for picking up ships with varying degrees of engine damage (they ignore ships without engine damage).

-When there are more than 100 "fuzzy lines" being drawn on the screen (as with tractor beams, etc), the game now switches to a lower-fidelity mode for those lines until fewer of them are being drawn.  This helps performance quite a lot during large battles that include many tractor beams.

-Previously there was a bug that would sometimes prevent players from gifting under-construction or paused reactors to their allies.  Fixed.

-Anti-Starship Arachnids will now do a much better job of preferring to shoot at starships.

-Previously, permamines were autotargeted by player ships to great disaster.  Now, any ships with >= 2 billion health are automatically direct-only targets.

-Instead of patrolling at random, patrolling ships will now patrol between the guard posts on a planet if there are at least two such guard posts.  If there are not, then they will patrol at random.

-Collision-detection on cold storage planets should now be more efficient, and should avoid the "stacks" of ships that were previously possible.

-Previously, Zenith Trade Ships would immediately exit dead-end worlds.  Now they will first travel to the command station and back on the world before leaving.

-Instead of drawn ship-to-ship lines (which could affect performance very heavily in extreme cases), munitions boosting is now indicated by ships having a pink hue to them when you are zoomed far in on them, and shield boosting is now indicated by ships having a light green hue to them when you are zoomed far in.  As before, you cannot tell from far zoom if a ship is boosted or not without hovering over it and looking at the hover text.

-Previously, Marauders and some other minor factions were getting the same 40% speed boost as player ships.  Fixed.

-Planetary Cloakers are no longer put in cold storage (this was causing their cloaked ships to be revealed).

-Guards that were previously "dancing" should now just abandon their guard posts instead.

-Positive handicaps will no longer affect negative resource outflows.

-Previously, area damage was not damaging ships that must be directly targeted.  Fixed. so that it simply doesn't damage ships that cannot be targeted at all.

-Previously, ships with shorter range could not attack force fields that had a radius greater than their range unless they were targeting some ship under the force field.  Fixed so that now there is always at least a 5% chance that they will be able to hit such ships.

-Previously, shield boosters could affect minor factions.  Fixed.

-Previously, FRD engineers could "stick" to docks instead of repairing other allied ships.  Fixed.
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Offline raptor331

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Re: Prerelease 3.011 (Bugfixes)
« Reply #1 on: January 15, 2010, 10:44:57 pm »
Wow wasnt expecting an update so soon, either way, I think I like it when you do those performance updates, it makes the game that much playable on my laptop ;) (i think)

Offline Guardia

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Re: Prerelease 3.011 (Bugfixes)
« Reply #2 on: January 15, 2010, 10:50:46 pm »
Thanks for all the fixes x4000.

I've been noticing some odd Attack-Move behaviour in a recent multiplayer game. I'll get around to posting a bug report as soon as I work out a good example of where it is happening (http://arcengames.com/forums/index.php/topic,3214.0.html). The only other thing I really noticed was the Engineers sticking to my dock, which you've seem to have got a handle on.

How is the puzzle game going by the way?
« Last Edit: January 16, 2010, 12:10:46 am by Guardia »

Offline HellishFiend

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Re: Prerelease 3.011 (Bugfixes)
« Reply #3 on: January 15, 2010, 10:54:47 pm »
Good amount of fixes.  :D My friend and I might get a chance to play around with this build tonight.
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Offline Kalzarius

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Re: Prerelease 3.011 (Bugfixes)
« Reply #4 on: January 15, 2010, 11:27:58 pm »
Awesome fixes there, x!

Glad to see the performance improvements and that the area damage bug was dealt with.  :)

Offline quickstix

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Re: Prerelease 3.011 (Bugfixes)
« Reply #5 on: January 16, 2010, 12:09:09 am »
Like the look of the MRS changes. Can't wait to see the performance improvements when I try this out later.  :)

Offline x4000

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Re: Prerelease 3.011 (Bugfixes)
« Reply #6 on: January 16, 2010, 12:11:23 am »
Glad you guys like the fixes!  I will try to do some more within the next few days or so; it's a balancing act with the puzzle game, for sure.  The puzzle game is off to a great start, and hopefully we'll have it ready for public beta and preorder in a couple of weeks.  It's already had a month in development as a prototype last summer, so it's coming together pretty quickly overall.  Plus, it's based on my same underlying general engine from AI War and all the other Arcen titles, so that makes it a faster start.  

It's still got a long way to go for being a complete experience, but I'm aiming to have something really polished and focused for the basic gameplay modes of Endless (and to some degree, Puzzle), to really show people the basic vision.  Then we have a Vs, Adventure, more puzzle mode, multiplayer (co-op and more), and so on that we'll need to complete, plus various special blocks and other content.  We're still hoping to turn the whole thing around in 2-3 months, though, but we'll see.  We did that with Zenith, which was much more complex, but it was also a fairly unpleasant development process (for me -- not the rest of the team) requiring very little in the way of sleep, etc.  So we'll see where it really ends up, but the whole team is really jazzed -- we all happen to love puzzle games like that, and so do all of our moms. :)
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Offline HellishFiend

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Re: Prerelease 3.011 (Bugfixes)
« Reply #7 on: January 16, 2010, 12:20:20 am »
Glad you guys like the fixes!  I will try to do some more within the next few days or so; it's a balancing act with the puzzle game, for sure.  The puzzle game is off to a great start, and hopefully we'll have it ready for public beta and preorder in a couple of weeks.  It's already had a month in development as a prototype last summer, so it's coming together pretty quickly overall.  Plus, it's based on my same underlying general engine from AI War and all the other Arcen titles, so that makes it a faster start.  

It's still got a long way to go for being a complete experience, but I'm aiming to have something really polished and focused for the basic gameplay modes of Endless (and to some degree, Puzzle), to really show people the basic vision.  Then we have a Vs, Adventure, more puzzle mode, multiplayer (co-op and more), and so on that we'll need to complete, plus various special blocks and other content.  We're still hoping to turn the whole thing around in 2-3 months, though, but we'll see.  We did that with Zenith, which was much more complex, but it was also a fairly unpleasant development process (for me -- not the rest of the team) requiring very little in the way of sleep, etc.  So we'll see where it really ends up, but the whole team is really jazzed -- we all happen to love puzzle games like that, and so do all of our moms. :)

I'd say "sounds good", but it actually sounds like you've had a rough go of it lately... Hope the next few months treat you better. In any case, you can count on my preorder and beta testing for the new game as soon as you put it up.  ;)
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Offline Kalzarius

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Re: Prerelease 3.011 (Bugfixes)
« Reply #8 on: January 16, 2010, 12:35:50 am »
Awesome fixes there, x!

Glad to see the performance improvements and that the area damage bug was dealt with.  :)

Strange....  using 3.011, lightning warheads still can't seem to damage command stations or warp gates at all.  ???

Offline RCIX

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Re: Prerelease 3.011 (Bugfixes)
« Reply #9 on: January 16, 2010, 12:58:40 am »
Glad you guys like the fixes!  I will try to do some more within the next few days or so; it's a balancing act with the puzzle game, for sure.  The puzzle game is off to a great start, and hopefully we'll have it ready for public beta and preorder in a couple of weeks.  It's already had a month in development as a prototype last summer, so it's coming together pretty quickly overall.  Plus, it's based on my same underlying general engine from AI War and all the other Arcen titles, so that makes it a faster start.  

It's still got a long way to go for being a complete experience, but I'm aiming to have something really polished and focused for the basic gameplay modes of Endless (and to some degree, Puzzle), to really show people the basic vision.  Then we have a Vs, Adventure, more puzzle mode, multiplayer (co-op and more), and so on that we'll need to complete, plus various special blocks and other content.  We're still hoping to turn the whole thing around in 2-3 months, though, but we'll see.  We did that with Zenith, which was much more complex, but it was also a fairly unpleasant development process (for me -- not the rest of the team) requiring very little in the way of sleep, etc.  So we'll see where it really ends up, but the whole team is really jazzed -- we all happen to love puzzle games like that, and so do all of our moms. :)

Aww man :(
I won't be able to buy it till march at least.
Will there be some form of trial for the beta so i can try it before i can buy it?
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Offline x4000

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Re: Prerelease 3.011 (Bugfixes)
« Reply #10 on: January 16, 2010, 03:04:08 am »
I'd say "sounds good", but it actually sounds like you've had a rough go of it lately... Hope the next few months treat you better. In any case, you can count on my preorder and beta testing for the new game as soon as you put it up.  ;)

Ah, so it goes.  No pain, no gain.  It's better than any other job, still. But if I didn't love this, I'd never have made it through the last couple of months.  The next few should be vastly better, I think.

Awesome fixes there, x!

Glad to see the performance improvements and that the area damage bug was dealt with.  :)

Strange....  using 3.011, lightning warheads still can't seem to damage command stations or warp gates at all.  ???

Humm... I will have to check that out.  If you have a save, that would be handy.

Aww man :(
I won't be able to buy it till march at least.
Will there be some form of trial for the beta so i can try it before i can buy it?

No worries, the final version won't be out until probably March or April at the earliest, anyway.  There definitely will be a trial of the beta, as has been the case -- basically, the whole AI War model is pretty much the way we're going, although we're taking fewer feature suggestions overall with the puzzle game because it's largely already all pretty well mapped out (compared to something that grows like AI War).  But, on the other hand, we'll be wanting all sorts of feedback on what works and what doesn't, and we'll be opening it up so that players can create puzzles that will be included in the official version of the game using the puzzle editor.  Those that aren't selected for being a base part of the official game will still go into the online repository (think Boom Blox Bash Party or similar) where other players can download an play them at will.  So there will be some unusual opportunities for direct creativity here, too.

As for exactly what the limitations of the trial will be, we have not figured out yet.  Most likely no multiplayer, and some other modes disabled or truncated.  Something along those lines.  But, should be plenty of room for you to find out if you like it, and offer feedback and suggestions if you're inclined. :)
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Offline RCIX

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Re: Prerelease 3.011 (Bugfixes)
« Reply #11 on: January 16, 2010, 03:41:54 am »
No worries, the final version won't be out until probably March or April at the earliest, anyway.  There definitely will be a trial of the beta, as has been the case -- basically, the whole AI War model is pretty much the way we're going, although we're taking fewer feature suggestions overall with the puzzle game because it's largely already all pretty well mapped out (compared to something that grows like AI War).  But, on the other hand, we'll be wanting all sorts of feedback on what works and what doesn't, and we'll be opening it up so that players can create puzzles that will be included in the official version of the game using the puzzle editor.  Those that aren't selected for being a base part of the official game will still go into the online repository (think Boom Blox Bash Party or similar) where other players can download an play them at will.  So there will be some unusual opportunities for direct creativity here, too.

As for exactly what the limitations of the trial will be, we have not figured out yet.  Most likely no multiplayer, and some other modes disabled or truncated.  Something along those lines.  But, should be plenty of room for you to find out if you like it, and offer feedback and suggestions if you're inclined. :)

Sounds interesting! :D
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Offline Fiskbit

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Re: Prerelease 3.011 (Bugfixes)
« Reply #12 on: January 16, 2010, 09:03:20 pm »
I can confirm the energy use one. In one of my own saved games. It bounces around a lot while ships are traveling around.
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Offline x4000

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Re: Prerelease 3.011 (Bugfixes)
« Reply #13 on: January 17, 2010, 12:33:25 am »
I can confirm the energy use one. In one of my own saved games. It bounces around a lot while ships are traveling around.

I know.  I was looking at that before 3.0, and spent several hours on it, but I have not yet found the cause.  It's a particularly nasty one.
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Offline x4000

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