Version/2.29.x

2.29.6

Release: (2020/10/17)

Bug fixes

• Fixed a bug where turret gibs (broken parts) didn't receive any force from damage sources (Explosions etc.)
• Fixed bad shading on some of the NF barracks model
• Fixed bad lighting on all unbuilt wall models when the $illumposition was underground
• Fixed an issue with part of the NF wall using the wrong material on certain LOD models
• Fixed an issue that would sometimes cause water refraction to render incorrectly.

Other changes

• Reverted a change which prevented tickets going into negative values. Some conquest maps rely on the ticket drain effect of capture points to end the game.
  • Those maps should now be fixed without affecting other aspects of the game.

There are some changes to how explosion damage is applied and blocked by other buildings There is a built in system that checks what blocked explosion damage and scales it based on the mass of the object that blocked. This caused a few issues for buildings because their mass wasn't set to reflect this system. Most building's previously had a mass of 180, which meant if they intercepted a raycast between the explosion and another building it would block ~51.43% of the damage

• Notable changes that have been made to address this:
  • In Empires we don't want big explosions to be absorbed completely when buildings block other buildings (IE, nukes & artillery)
    • As a result, explosions that deal over 100 damage and have a radius of over 500 will ignore building mass and instead scale based on damage. (At 1000 damage the explosion will not be blocked at all, dealing full damage to all buildings in the explosion radius)
  • NF wall models were blocking more explosion damage than their Brenodi counter-part, this is now resolved; both walls will block 100% as default.
  • Turrets block now block 50% damage by default (Previously 51.43%)
  • Engy camera/radar blocks 25% damage to other buildings.
  • Every other building will block 100% of damage unless the explosion was larger than the damage/radius threshold.

2.29.5

Release: (2020/10/11)

Bug fixes

• Fixed a bug causing scout hide vignette visual to not display even though you were hidden

Other changes

• Tweaked sabotage smoke effect again, purple color is slightly more saturated.

2.29.4

Release: (2020/10/09)

Features

• Restyled some of the HUD elements on the right side of the screen.
  • The ammo pickup indicator has been moved slightly, recoloured to white and now only shows when the player is given additional ammo. (No weapon pickup icons)
  • The voice status popups when players talk now list from top-to-bottom, instead of bottom-to-top. The list has also been shifted slightly on the screen to fit properly between other HUD elements.
• Some cross hair changes have been made to better communicate the sabotage to the player.
  • The repair bar and icon will be coloured purple if the building has the sabotage effect currently applied.
    • The idea behind this is that players can clearly see when the sabotage effect is still active. Previously, smoke particles were the only way to tell if the building was still sabotaged.
  • Enemy buildings already sabotaged will change the cross hair to purple for the scout class. (There was previously a bug where the cross hair would disappear completely.)

Bug fixes

• Fixed a bug where explosions created inside of vehicles wouldn't damage the inflicting vehicle.
• Fixed soundscape effects on emp_midbridge.
• Fixed a bug where the "Never Give Up Never Surrender" achievement would not be awarded even though it was earned.
• Fixed a bug where players that swapped team could be squad revived with the wrong team's weapons.

Other changes

• Added a 5 second delay to the reinforcement drain effect that occurs when there are no available spawn points.
  • Changed the interval for the drain effect from 1 second to 5 seconds.
• Made sabotage smoke particle effects slightly more purple.
• Added "Loading..." message to the steam friends rich presence when loading into a level.

2.29.3

Release: (2020/09/13)

Bug fixes

• Fixed a server crash relating to the emp_eng_map_brush entity.
• Fixed a bug with the "Never Give Up Never Surrender" achievement not being awarded.
• Changed the default setting of cl_interp_npcs to 0.1 - Fixes choppy NPC animations.
• Reverted to the old behaviour for grenade scout hide removal; lobbing/rolling grenades doesn't remove scout hide (Right clicking)
• Allowed the map compile tools to use a max of 32 threads instead of 16.
• Allow VBSP (map compile tool) shipped with Empires to bypass allowstatic flag if $staticprop was already set when the model was compiled.
  • Some HL2 models aren't able to be used as prop_static because they don't have allowstatic set in their physical properties, this allows us to use them regardless.
• Fixed several issues with Soundscape's used in official maps.
  • Fixed an issue with the emp_duststorm soundscape (It shared a name with a HL2 soundscape which had coast noises, now has it's own unique name without the wave noises)
  • Fixed an issue with the emp_mvalley soundscape file (It had the wrong file name so it wasn't being loaded.)
  • Fixed missing sound files and soundscape definitions for emp_crossroads
  • Reduced ambient sound volume slightly in the sound mixer system.

Map changes

Cyclopean

• Tweaked lighting and HDR skybox textures to fix some issues with overly shiny textures.
• Removed the env_sun entity as the Skybox texture has a prominent sun already and this was making it appear to have 2 suns.
• Tweaked fog color as it was a little too bright.
• Changed HDR auto-exposure settings min 0.2 -> 0.3 / max 0.5 -> 0.6
• Embedded vmt files to override envmaptint for certain hl2 textures in use in the level. (Reduced their reflectivity)

Mvalley

• Removed high ground areas around main bases and in the north from play

The high ground portions of the map have been a point of contention for a long time now. They are extremely defensible positions with limited approaches on an otherwise wide open map. This is mostly due to map size limitations, which prevent players from climbing up to the high ground in safe, more distant locations by way of an invisible wall. This isn't immersive and can easily frustrate players, who see a wide open approach but can never use it. As such, we have decided to modify the terrain in a way that prevents access to these portions of the map. It's a significant gameplay change to a level that has remained the same for many years, so we will be closely monitoring its impact. We also encourage you to share your feedback regarding it.

• Added hard cover to C5
• Added ambient sound to dam building resource node
• Fixed clipping on fences in D1
• Fixed bug where players exiting a vehicle on a wooden bridge could get stuck inside it
• Expanded dam door override mechanic presentation
• Texture and displacement adjustments around the map

Other changes

• Added a default lights.rad file for use by map makers.

Script/Game Balance

• Changed NF barracks collision height for commander placement as it was more restrictive that it needed to be
  • 260 -> 210.

2.29.2

Release: (2020/07/27)

Bug fixes

• Fixed a few issues with scout hide introduced in 2.29.1
  • Fixed an issue where scout hide would trigger when you weren't crouched/prone
  • Fixed an issue where grenades wouldn't remove scout hide

2.29.1

Release: (2020/07/26)

Features

• Implemented Rich Presence for Steam Friends. (More info on Steam Enhanced Rich Presence can be found here.)
• Implemented Discord Rich Presence.

Discord rich presence example

Bug fixes

• Fixed an issue where walls were not being removed correctly, causing servers to reach the entity limit very quickly.
• Fixed an issue with the BE commander model & BE APC model which made the bounding box appear incorrectly in command view.
• Fixed scout hide not being removed when the last bullet in the scout's gun is fired.
• Re-enabled and fixed a number of the achievements. (Hopefully all of them)

Script/Game Balance

• Removed the armour penetration effect to vehicle damage
  • (Previously taking more than 30 damage at once, would mean the armour will take 90% of the damage and the hull will take 10%. This has now been removed.)

Other changes

• Players can now join any squad through the menu without having to join them sequentially.
• Updated PBR shader with latest changes. - https://github.com/thexa4/source-pbr