Version/2.38.x

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2.38.0

This patch has not yet been released The information in this section is preliminary and subject to change, including the addition and removal of entire sections.

Release: (TBA)

Features

• Replaced vehicle shell particle effects with the new particle system. Each cannon can (and now does) have a different trail of particles.
  • This may make it easier to identify the locations of artillery tanks.
• Large rework of the vehicle heat mechanics
  • Added a fourth "Overheat" heat region.
    • Now there is "Low" (Green), "Medium" (Yellow), "High" (Orange), and "Overheat" (Red)
  • The portion of the heat bar that is not filled will still be displayed, but in a way more muted color.
  • The positions of the various heat regions can be defined per-engine.
  • When a weapon cannot fire due to overheating, the ammo indicator for that weapon will turn red.
    • This was already in the code, but the definition of overheating used was incorrect so this condition was never actually triggered.
  • Engines will now begin stalling at the High region, and completely stall at the Overheat region.
  • Weapons can have a "Critical Heat Zone". When a weapon is fired while the vehicle is in this zone or above, then it will fire a crit.
    • Crit shells can have a different firing sound, impact sound, and trail particles. (Impact particle effects and muzzle flash effects are still to be implemented, but if this concept sticks around there's an entirely different way I want to indicate these in the scripts).
    • Critical shells do triple damage.
    • Only the Plasma cannon currently uses this feature, and likely only the plasma weapons will use this mechanic.
    • Only shells have crits implemented. If this idea is kept, then we'd want to implement the same for MGs, missiles, and grenades.
  • Due to simplifications of the engine stall code, the "Heat Stall Penalty" value on engines now indicates the maximum amount the throttle can be reduced to via engine overheating, instead of the square root of the maximum amount the throttle can be reduced to via engine overheating.
• Added Pykrete Armor
  • Pykrete armor is made of ice reinforced with complex hydrocarbon chains.
  • It uses ambient humidity to slowly regenerate when vehicle heat is in the low region, but melts faster in higher heat regions.
• Research now drains resources over time, instead of spending all of the resources up-front.
  • Commanders can pause and resume research at any time.
  • If there is insufficient resources for research to continue, then research is paused automatically.
    • The entire team will hear the "Insufficient Resources" sound clip.
  • When research is complete, the entire team (and all spectators) will hear the "Research is now complete" sound effect, instead of just the commander.
  • Added a new mapmaking entity emp_logic_resource_drain to allow mapmakers to specify their own similar resource drains.
• Engineer and Commander radars now also spot fully-built enemy buildings, in addition to enemy vehicles.
• Added additional HUD icons for certain F-menu requests.
• Added additional cancellation and suppression criteria for certain F-menu requests.
  • Notably, requests for ammo, health, and repairs are automatically cancelled as soon as any health or ammo is recieved, as appropriate.
• Added new listener mapmaking entities, emp_logic_resource_listener, emp_logic_ticket_listener, and emp_logic_research_listener.
• Added a sound effect that plays when a tank loads ammo.
• Pressing the suicide hotkey (delete by default) while already dead force-kills you, preventing engineers from reviving you.

Script/Game Balance

• All research costs have been divided by 60, to account for the change from up-front costs to res/second costs.

Other changes

• Several unused features have been removed:
  • Research can no longer upgrade ammo damage.
  • Vehicle weapons can no longer be "disabled", and research cannot disable vehicle weapons.
  • Servers can no longer disable vehicle horns with the emp_sv_vehicle_allow_horns cvar
• Increased the default value of the emp_sv_vehicle_fadeout_time cvar from 30 seconds to 180 seconds.
• Increased the default value of the emp_sv_vehicle_fadeout_time_partial cvar from 30 seconds to 60 seconds.