Author Topic: Prerelease 3.117 (Release Candidate 4, Bugfixes)  (Read 4972 times)

Offline x4000

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Prerelease 3.117 (Release Candidate 4, Bugfixes)
« on: May 05, 2010, 09:01:07 pm »
Note: unless bugs are found, this is the version that is going to go live tomorrow.  So please do let us know if you find anything critical!

The latest beta is available via the Updates window in version 3.060 or greater of the game.  Just open the game and you can quickly download the prerelease through the updates tab.  If you don't yet have 3.060 or greater, you can download 3.060 here.  This prerelease version is compatible with any vendor's version of the game -- Steam, Impulse, whatever.

Note:  If you have bug reports related to this release, please log them in the bug reports subforum with one bug per topic.  It makes things infinitely easier for us.  Thanks!

Looking for a Patch That Can Be Manually-Installed?
Because of the time involved in creating multiple versions of each patch, we only create manually-installable patches for official versions of the game, not each beta prerelease.  But you can easily create your own manually-installable beta patch!  Please note that current betas can only be successfully applied to version 3.060 of the game or later (if you later wish to revert to the official version for any reason, you can download the full raw files from the above link to do so).

To create your own manual beta patch, simply download these two files:
1. Current Beta Director Xml File.
2. Current Beta Zip File.

If you try to open that zip file, it will say it's corrupt -- that's okay, it's not really a zip file.  Finally, create a new zip file on your computer, and put both the director and the fake-zip-file inside it.  Call your outer zip file something that starts with Beta and ends with an extension of .zip.  Beta.zip will work just fine, or you can name it after the specific version number if you want to hang onto it.  And that's it!  Now you have your very own manually-installable package of the AI War beta version of your choice, which you can install by simply selecting via your Updates window in the game.  Please note that "Beta" in the filename is case-sensitive.

What's new since 3.116:
(Cumulative release notes since 3.060 are attached at the bottom)

-------------------

-Changed icon-combination recalculation to be always clear both directions of the association, despite the performance cost of this, to prevent rare cases where the same icon group was being released into the pool twice, leading to a variety of strange things including flicker.

-Previously ships paralyzed while fading in from a wormhole were basically stuck and invlunerable until the paralyze wore off; fixed to continue the fade-in process even when paralyzed.

-minor performance improvements to check-retreat-to-guard-post and ships-with-minimum-range "anti-chase" logic.

-previously the "engineers prefer non-military" control node was not catching some cases where a very nearby military ship would be preferred.

-devourer golem made non-auto-targeted, like astro trains, to cut back a bit on FRD mass suicide.

-removed quip in tutorial about building using a mobile builder after hopping a planet, since that is no longer possible due to supply rules.

-fixed bug in tutorial where it wasn't checking the right unit list to determine if a specific planet's ion cannon had died.

-other minor fixes to tutorial accuracy.

-fortress multi-repair range increased from 1000 to 5000 (for comparison, MRS's earlier-amended range is 15000).

-updated epilogue implementation to use a simple DirectX window instead of GDI+, to use localized strings, and to display some more interesting data (though still needs work on the narrative content).
Have ideas or bug reports for one of our games?  Mantis for Suggestions and Bug Reports. Thanks for helping to make our games better!

Offline Giegue

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Re: Prerelease 3.117 (Release Candidate 4, Bugfixes)
« Reply #1 on: May 05, 2010, 09:59:02 pm »
woa! and I was just on here a couple hours ago, and already a new update!

Offline x4000

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Re: Prerelease 3.117 (Release Candidate 4, Bugfixes)
« Reply #2 on: May 05, 2010, 10:07:08 pm »
:)
Have ideas or bug reports for one of our games?  Mantis for Suggestions and Bug Reports. Thanks for helping to make our games better!

Offline WinterBorn

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Re: Prerelease 3.117 (Release Candidate 4, Bugfixes)
« Reply #3 on: May 05, 2010, 10:31:38 pm »
Non- critical but confusing

My ion cannon is still not attacking the AI bulletproof fighters.

Please see bug report:  http://arcengames.com/forums/index.php/topic,5088.0.html

TY

Offline Vaos

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Re: Prerelease 3.117 (Release Candidate 4, Bugfixes)
« Reply #4 on: May 05, 2010, 11:14:37 pm »
Non- critical but confusing

My ion cannon is still not attacking the AI bulletproof fighters.

Please see bug report:  http://arcengames.com/forums/index.php/topic,5088.0.html

TY

Aren't bulletproof fighters immune to Ion Cannons now?

Also congratulating the Arcen Team on a job well done again. The game becomes more and more enjoyable to play (if that's even possible) than before!

Offline triggerman602

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Re: Prerelease 3.117 (Release Candidate 4, Bugfixes)
« Reply #5 on: May 06, 2010, 12:25:37 am »
Non- critical but confusing

My ion cannon is still not attacking the AI bulletproof fighters.

Please see bug report:  http://arcengames.com/forums/index.php/topic,5088.0.html

TY

Aren't bulletproof fighters immune to Ion Cannons now?

Also congratulating the Arcen Team on a job well done again. The game becomes more and more enjoyable to play (if that's even possible) than before!

At the moment they are, when they shouldn't be.

Offline x4000

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Re: Prerelease 3.117 (Release Candidate 4, Bugfixes)
« Reply #6 on: May 06, 2010, 12:29:48 am »
Thanks for the kudos!

And actually, the bulletproof fighters are now immune to being insta-killed as one of their main abilities, which makes them also immune to ion cannons by definition.  I posted about that in the other topic, too, but basically you'll just need to rely on something other than an ion cannon for those guys -- that's essentially their special ability above regular fighters.
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Offline keith.lamothe

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Re: Prerelease 3.117 (Release Candidate 4, Bugfixes)
« Reply #7 on: May 06, 2010, 12:38:12 am »
I had no idea immune-to-insta-kill was supposed to make a ship immune to the normal damage and engine damage of an ion cannon, but good to know it wasn't a bug :)

Since it's just in the loca .xml which either lives or dies (and isn't some huge stability concern), I've added a note to the IonI and IonII descriptions that "Cannot fire upon ships immune to insta-kill."
Have ideas or bug reports for one of our games? Mantis for Suggestions and Bug Reports. Thanks for helping to make our games better!

Offline x4000

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Re: Prerelease 3.117 (Release Candidate 4, Bugfixes)
« Reply #8 on: May 06, 2010, 12:44:21 am »
I had no idea immune-to-insta-kill was supposed to make a ship immune to the normal damage and engine damage of an ion cannon, but good to know it wasn't a bug :)

Anything that is immune to being insta-killed is immune to being shot in any fashion by something that normally would insta-kill, yeah. :)

Since it's just in the loca .xml which either lives or dies (and isn't some huge stability concern), I've added a note to the IonI and IonII descriptions that "Cannot fire upon ships immune to insta-kill."

Good idea. :)
Have ideas or bug reports for one of our games?  Mantis for Suggestions and Bug Reports. Thanks for helping to make our games better!

Offline triggerman602

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Re: Prerelease 3.117 (Release Candidate 4, Bugfixes)
« Reply #9 on: May 06, 2010, 12:59:35 am »
Does this mean that Ion cannons should fire at MarkIII BPfighters since ion cannons dont insta-kill MarkIII ships but do normal damage instead?

Offline x4000

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Re: Prerelease 3.117 (Release Candidate 4, Bugfixes)
« Reply #10 on: May 06, 2010, 01:08:54 am »
Does this mean that Ion cannons should fire at MarkIII BPfighters since ion cannons dont insta-kill MarkIII ships but do normal damage instead?

Nope.
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Offline WinterBorn

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Re: Prerelease 3.117 (Release Candidate 4, Bugfixes)
« Reply #11 on: May 06, 2010, 01:54:55 am »
I had no idea immune-to-insta-kill was supposed to make a ship immune to the normal damage and engine damage of an ion cannon, but good to know it wasn't a bug :)

Anything that is immune to being insta-killed is immune to being shot in any fashion by something that normally would insta-kill, yeah. :)

Since it's just in the loca .xml which either lives or dies (and isn't some huge stability concern), I've added a note to the IonI and IonII descriptions that "Cannot fire upon ships immune to insta-kill."

Good idea. :)


Thanks for the clarification that immune to insta-kill means inmune to Ion cannons.

BP fighter description could use an update to say immune to "Ion Cannon attack" -- I think that would be clearer than saying "immune to insta-kill" :-[
« Last Edit: May 06, 2010, 02:18:37 am by waveman55 »

Offline danando

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Re: Prerelease 3.117 (Release Candidate 4, Bugfixes)
« Reply #12 on: May 06, 2010, 10:56:23 am »
nice one x4000 keep em coming :)
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Offline WinterBorn

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Re: Prerelease 3.117 (Release Candidate 4, Bugfixes)
« Reply #13 on: May 06, 2010, 12:09:38 pm »
Amazing new official release.  :)

Offline Buttons840

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Re: Prerelease 3.117 (Release Candidate 4, Bugfixes)
« Reply #14 on: May 06, 2010, 01:48:36 pm »
We still on track for the official, or are there more bugs to squash?