Updates
- Details
- Written by: Jared Petersen
This update catchup features the implementation of two improvements to bot AI that had to be added to a ton of maps, so expect quite a few downloads!
Map Changes
- Two new bot improvements were made via changes to the AI path network in several maps. Bots now understand most traps and bounce-pads much much better! Bots will now use logic to determine when it is appropriate to spring traps. They should also not get stuck on most bounce-pads, though some maps still need tweaking. As a side-effect, live players should also benefit from the updated bouncers. Bouncers where directional freedom was not required have been updated to the same type that bots now use in most cases, making bouncers with specific endpoint destinations much more reliable.
- Many many little bugfixes were applied to maps to fix bad playerstarts, BSP holes, bad lighting and textures, and other broken features.
- BallBlast maps received a bit of love. All vanilla BallBlast maps have improvements as well as visual changes to differentiate them from their PointBlast counterparts.
- Added map-specific special events that reveal the ball that was scored in a way themed to each map.
- Added improved logic to the crowd sounds when scoring that prevents repeated overlaps of sounds.
- Added doubler signs where needed on each map.
- New BallBlast maps were added to expand the lineup of available maps. Check out the BallBlast versions of Amateur Arena, One 2 One Industrial Avenue, Abandoned Production Plant, Chroma Cleanroom, Egyptian Temple, and Foam Busters Arena.
- Added signs in the vanilla maps warning players of reduced gravity zones.
- Added a new weather event for the Asteroid arena: meteor storms!
- Improved the skyboxes of all space maps with higher resolution planetary bodies.
- Improved flare visuals such that they no longer have tiny square holes in the middle.
- Foam Busters Arena received a new passageway from the bedrooms hall to the vents to alleviate the dead-end effect. I also placed a bouncer from the Wildfire room up to the Pulsator spawn.
- Added missing weapons to The Very End of You making it playable.
System Changes
- Reduced the impact of a bug that caused you to lose your score in a match when the pause menu was opened. One instance of this bug has been fixed, leaving one instance left. This bug now only occurs once, on first opening the pause menu. This bug should be fully fixed in a future update.
- Many BallBlast gamemode fixes were added including issues with scoring and picking up duplicate balls. Scoring the gold ball no longer fills the gold ball slot if you haven't scored the prerequisite six balls. Bots also now ignore duplicate balls rather than getting stuck on them.
- Added an updated OpenGL renderer with improvements to mesh lighting, corona / flare rendering and mirror / glass rendering.
As always, check out the forums for more detailed patch notes.
- Details
- Written by: Jared Petersen
Map Changes
- Many many little bugfixes were applied to maps to fix bad playerstarts, incorrect textures, missing sounds, BSP holes, and screenshots that were missing or too dark to see.
- Final Level received better bot support for the gravity trigger so bots will now interact with it.
- NHS Railroad received a bit of renovation. Two alternate routes were added; one from the roof to the front car's top floor, and one from car two to the first car to avoid the chokepoint at the doors. The ladders were re-lit to make them easier to see, and the ladders in the fromt car received grates to help players on the top floor look out for ladder campers. The cockpit was also adjusted to make it easier to navigate and prevent players from getting wedged on geometry.
- Last Crusader ][, known infamously as a hellish BSP hole spawning ground, has had most of its bad geometry tamed. Most if not all of the BSP holes should now be fixed!
- Air Rage receives a much improved skybox.
- Anoxia has had a number of bot pathing issues fixed, improved lighting, better jump-pads, and a new passageway from the Electroshield area to the Pulsator spawn. Also look out in the broken shipwreck room, as a new window allows snipers to take aim at you from other areas.
- Anoxia has also been converted to a BallBlast map!
- All vanilla and custom BallBlast maps have been audited for scoring multipliers. A little known fact is that the majority of vanilla BallBlast maps feature one scoring hole that doubles the points of any balls scored in it. Now, these doubler holes feature a visual indicator in the form of "x2" neon signs nearby that animate when balls are scored!
System Changes
- Added an exciting new gamemode: One on One. This mode pits two players against each other at a time in a fight to the death. Once one player is knocked out, the map resets and the next pair of players duke it out. Repeat until one player wins the specified amount of rounds.
- Visual improvements were made to team HUDs. The HUD now shows the logos of the participating teams, and in CTF shows both the number of captures and the point total each team has.
- Fixed a few exploits in the King of the Hill gamemode, and added a configurable delay variable for hill capture sounds to prevent them from overlapping so much. Configure the value (in seconds) in the KingOfTheHill.ini file (defaults to 3).
- Improved the visibility of Electroshield hit effects.
- Adjusted the in-game mouse sensitivity slider to allow for more granular settings.
- Bot Chat mutator was updated with new responses, bug-fixes, and integrated rage-quit functionality!
- RPG Stats Arena received a few bug fixes and a nerf to health conversion values both positive and negative that made some weapons horribly unbalanced.
- A number of map description files have had typos fixed.
- The BallBlast gamemode has received a refresh to make it more enjoyable. A number of bugs were fixed, and some balance and clarity adjustments were made:
- A new HUD feature was added. When there is one or more copies of a BallBlast ball on the ground, you will see a down arrow in its slot to indicate this. A question mark indicates all copies of that ball are in possession of other players. You only see this information for balls you are not carrying and have not yet scored. This should help players not waste so much time hunting for balls in the wrong places.
- BallBlast now spawns two of each ball one through six in Mega Nerf difficulty for added challenge. Only one gold ball is still ever spawned.
- The gold ball now gives off light and features a trail of particles when moving to help distinguish it from the yellow ball. If a player is carrying the gold ball they also will give off a trail of particles.
- Details
- Written by: Jared Petersen
Map Changes
- Some remixes were brought into the game under the PointBlast gametype despite being appropriate only for team games. These remixes have been moved into the Capture the Flag gametype and the pointblast version archived: CTF-Face][Remix and CTF-FusionRemix. Missing CTF versions of some other maps were added as well, namely CTF-HalfPipes and CTF-Noxion16Remix.
- Several remixes were re-done in order to perfect them. This includes fixing bad textures, missing sound effects, broken bot pathing, and in some cases, select missing decorations. A number of these maps have new paint jobs, so check them out! Old versions are available in the archive as usual. The list is as follows: CTF-AntimatterRemix, CTF-CoretRemix, CTF-Face][Remix, CTF-FusionRemix, CTF-LavaGiantRemix, PM-MetalCoreRemix, CTF-OrbitalRemix, PM-RadianRemix, TT-CoretRemix, and TT-Noxion16Remix.
- A few brand new renovations in this patch including PM-Halfpipes (which received a CTF and SH version as well), PM-RocketRun2 (check out the gravity well!), PM-CircleOfAir, and PM-One2One.
- Some love was given to more Target Tag maps TT-Archon, TT-FaceRemix, and TT-Noxion16Remix so that they are now playable in the new version of Target Tag.
- Added back the original version of PM-Ender'sGame that was removed by accident. This map also got updated with bot-pathing.
- A number of tiny bugfixes on a huge list of maps including texture issues, broken playerstart fixes, BSP holes filled, item improvements and bot-pathing fixes: CTF-CivilWarRemix, CTF-FaceRemix, KOTH-111, KOTH-TechComb, PM-1on1-ApexRemix, PM-1on1-RajanRemix, PM-AdenoraRemix, PM-AlcatrazRemix, PM-Anoxia, PM-Archipel, PM-Archipel(TheBeginning), PM-ATATBargeRemix, PM-BarricadeRemix, PM-CircularFortsStadium, PM-DaMaze, PM-Downtown, PM-EvilMonasteryRemix, PM-Fool'sBravadoRemix, PM-GalleonRemix, PM-GFK-PirateIsland, PM-GoldMine, PM-KringleRemix, PM-NibelheimRemix, PM-Observatory)(Remix, PM-OracleRemix, PM-PingPong][Remix, PM-PirateShips, PM-Production, PM-Sk8'sBedroom, PM-TantricRemix, PM-TechComb, PM-UrbanArena][Remix, PM-UrbanUprisingRemix, SH-GoldMine, and TT-FloatingIslands.
System Changes
- New skins were applied to the vanilla weapons and items to eliminate artifacts that have cropped up in the newest rendering engines.
- Fixed the in-game news being broken.
- RajMutators2 weapons received a number of bug-fixes and balancing.
- RPGStats weapons also received a number of bug-fixes and some rebalancing with more to come in the future.
As always, see the patch notes forums for full details and more minor changes.
- Details
- Written by: Jared Petersen
Map Changes
- Several remixes were re-done in order to perfect them. This includes fixing bad textures, missing sound effects, broken bot pathing, and in some cases, select missing decorations. A number of these maps have new paint jobs, so check them out! Old versions are available in the archive as usual. The list is as follows: CTF-BarancoRemix, CTF-LokiRemix, PM-BarricadeRemix, PM-ColdHeartRemix, PM-DistinctiveRemix, PM-ElsinoreRemix, PM-FacesofPharaohsRemix, PM-GatewayRemix, PM-GothicRemix, PM-GrinderRemix, PM-HealPod][Remix, PM-HiSpeedRemix, PM-HyperBlastRemix, PM-JadedRemix, PM-LeadworksRemix, PM-LiandriRemix, PM-NovemberRemix, PM-Observatory)(Remix, PM-OracleRemix, PM-RealWorldGoneBadRemix, PM-RustyIncRemix, PM-SionRemix, PM-StarDockRemix, PM-TalathRemix, PM-VoacRemix, PM-WindyRemix, and TT-LokiRemix.
- BSP issues were found and fixed on a few maps. CTF-PirateShips, PM-1on1-Ancient, PM-BathroomRemix, and PM-PirateShips were affected.
- The screenshot for PM-AlcatrazRemix has apparently been missing for some time. I have restored it.
- Three additional Target Tag maps were given bug-fixes related to the Target Tag gamemode bug-fixes discussed below. Note that currently, only these three and TT-LokiRemix are working examples of the Target Tag gamemode. The other maps need additional fixes as well, and will be worked on in the following updates.
System Changes
- The Target Tag gamemode had two major bug-fixes applied which were subsequently applied to the Target Tag maps listed above. Note that not all Target Tag maps are currently working as they are being worked on as I go through all the maps. Bug number one was regarding being able to shoot enemy targets. This bug was also responsible for prompting me to discover the bug in the weapon changes section below. The second bug fixed was in regards to team targets that are used in maps as "helper targets". These targets are not worth points, but the gamemode was still assigning them point values by mistake. For now, targets with 0 as their point value are ignored by this code, but other targets with point values are equalized to the game-mode specific configurable scoring amount.
- A bug was fixed where some audio tutorials in the tutorial maps could repeat even after they were supposed to be shut off. NerfPlayer135 on our discord discovered this bug, so thanks for helping improve the game!
- TarPointTriggers are special triggers used in some community maps to give players points for doing certain tasks (like shooting the Tie Fighter in TieBayRemix). There was a small bug with them where they could not be on by default, and had to be triggered on. This is now fixed.
- Since the Bonus Points update added new ways to score bonus points, a number of small issues have been found and fixed. This time, a bug was discovered where if a bot tried to shoot at a point target that no longer existed, under certain circumstances the game could crash. This code has been adjusted to hopefully prevent most if not all cases where this can happen.
- Mega Jumps (and most other powerups) have special code whenever you pick up an inventory item to make sure it cannot be combined with an existing version of the pickup in your inventory. Mega Jumps were not doing this check correctly due to a typo which has now been fixed.
Weapon Changes
- A bug was fixed where the Secret Shot and SHBallGun were not reporting the owner of the projectiles they were firing. This caused some inconsistencies within code that relied on these properties to award points or otherwise know the owner of a weapon that shot it.
- Details
- Written by: Jared Petersen
Just a short update catchup for now since a few versions have passed. The patch notes for this particular catchup are contained in just one post located here.
Map Changes
- Minor renovations to maps: PM-LavaRun, and PM-RocketRun1.
- Major renovations to CTF-PirateShips, PM-PirateShips, PM-LavaCenter, and PM-Sk8'sBedroom. These are some of my favorite renovations recently, so check them out!
- Added fall damage reduction to the remaining "shrunken player" maps including PM-Sk8'sBedroom, PM-BreakfastRemix, CTF-Bedrooms][Remix, and PM-Bedrooms][Remix.
- An old community favorite PM-OutcastFacility receives some quality of life updates including item placement, some additional cover in open areas, an extra route to the second floor, and triggers for the doors to make them more reliable and intuitive.
- While not the most playable maps, CTF-FloatingIslandExtremeRemix and PM-FloatingIslandExtremeRemix are an interesting piece of community mapping history. These maps contained some of the first conceived customized weapons. Though they tend to be simplistic, they have now been updated to be functional after updates years ago broke them with changes to weapon functionality.
- CTF-CivilWarRemix and PM-CivilWarRemix received some standard updates, but also functional cannons for the forts!
- And for the first time in a very long time, a new map was submitted by Grafik, PM-GFK-Renovatio.
System Changes
- The Greed gamemode has received some much-needed quality of life updates. The scoring system has been redone to reward scorers with bonus points for scoring large amounts of points at once, encouraging stockpiling and rushing. The more points you carry, the more bonus points you can potentially net! The bonus points are even shown on the HUD! Also, improvements were made to bot AI in this mode, though the work in this respect is not yet finished. Lastly, players who are knocked out can drop more than one point if they were on a spree, adding more variation into the scoring potential and encouraging you to hunt down that sniper for all his accumulated bounty.
- Two improvements were made to the menu system. For one, work was continued on the loading system code for the Setup Botmatch screen when it comes to loading map information (screenshots and descriptions). These updates have once again improved the loading speed of this potentially long list. Secondly, a bug was fixed that caused issues reading in the map description info for gamemodes other than PointBlast. Sometimes, under certain circumstances, the reading of description files could fail, resulting in several maps reporting to have "no description" when indeed they did have descriptions. This has been fixed.
Weapon Changes
- The RocketsNAB mod received some slight tuning to bring the weapon out of "overpowered territory".