Version/2.34.x

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2.34.8

Release: (TBC)

Features

Changes to squad menu

• Fixed some alignment issues on text / icons.
• Text should is now set as 'proportional' and should better based on resolution.
• Health values update more reliably and are now colored Red->Green based on health percentage. (Squad aura indicator is now white, to avoid confusion.)
• The Squad Power icon now has text displaying time left on it's timer.
• Fixed some issues with the squad member flashing indicator when squad members fire weapons. (This now flashes their name instead of the whole row background.)

Changes to squad revive

• Improved the checks used for positioning revived players. Ray casts are more predictable in terms of where players might be revived, using a radius around the squad leader.
• Added extra checks to prevent reviving through terrain. This might not cover every situation but it's a big improvement over the previous method.
• Player's are no longer revived on locations where they would fall down a slope. It will instead try a different location.
• Squad members now revive slightly closer to the squad leader if the revive is successful. Previously players would spawn in very random locations which could be quite far from the squad leader, leaving no opportunity for counter play from the enemy team. This is no longer the case and squad revive is more predictable, both for the squad leader and the enemy!

Bug fixes

• Spotting is now removed when a player dies. Previously the spotting diamond would display until the spotting timer expired.
• Updated console font to be proportional. It should now be readable on most resolutions.
• Updated some mini-map fonts to be proportional. These should now be readable on most resolutions.
• Fixed an issue with chat closing when you get revived. Although there are benefits to this, it can be annoying if you typed out a whole message and lose it all!
• Fixed issues where the engineer tool couldn't detect a ragdoll when attempting to revive players. (Reviving players who died in water is now fixed!)
• Prone is now automatically removed if the player goes underwater deeper than eye level. There were issues where you would be unable to un-prone and it just makes sense to automatically un-prone instead.

Script/Game Balance

Vehicle Engines

• All Engines
  • Gas Turbine
    • Heat Dissipation increased by 1
    • Heat Output At Max decreased by 1
  • Bio Diesel
    • Heat Dissipation increased by 0.5
  • Fission Reactor
    • Heat dissipation increased by 0.5
    • Heat Output At Max decreased by 1

2.34.7

Release: (2022-06-26)

Bug fixes

• Fixed a bug causing the engineer tool to regain more ammo than expected when re-applying the player's class.
• Fixed an issue preventing map spawned ammo crates from re-supplying tanks in certain situations.
• Fixed a problem with the squad artillery ability being activated in areas that shouldn't be allowed. (Non sky-box.)

Script/Game Balance

Infantry Resists

• RPG Resistances and resulting Damage to Infantry is now same as Mortar
• Scout
  • Increased RPG Resist from 0 to 0.19
    • Reduces RPG Damage from 117 to 105
• Rifleman
  • Increased RPG Resist from 0 to 0.1
    • Reduces RPG Damage from 130 to 117
• Grenadier
  • Increased RPG Resist from 0.2 to 0.28
    • Reduces RPG Damage from 104 to 93
• Engineer
  • Increased RPG Resist from 0 to 0.1
    • Reduces RPG Damage from 130 to 117

Vehicle Weapons

• Plasma Cannon
  • Increased Projectile Speed from 3100 to 3300
  • Reduced Gravity from 0.35 to 0.30
  • Reduced Projectile Spread from 1 to 0.4
• Railgun
  • Increased Cost from 120 to 140
• Biological Cannon
  • Increased Damage from 70 to 80
  • Increased Recoil from 70 to 80
  • Increased Speed from 3000 to 3100
  • Reduced Gravity from 0.35 to 0.325
  • Increased Explosion Radius from 150 to 200
  • Increased Infantry Bio Damage from 4 to 6

2.34.6

Release: (2022-05-01)

Bug fixes

• Fix order distances having incorrect unit conversion from inches to meters.
• Fix an exploit allowing players to refill their engineer tool to full when changing class.
• Disable mine detonation for players on ladders.
• Remove double averaging of scoreboard latency, engine code already handles it.

Script/Game Balance

Infantry Resists

• Engineer & Rifleman
  • Increased Mortar Resist from 0 to 0.1
    • Reduces Mortar Damage from 130 to 117
• Scout
  • Increased Mortar Resist from 0.1 to 0.19
    • Reduces Mortar Damage from 117 to 105
• Grenadier
  • Increased Mortar Resist from 0.2 to 0.28
    • Reduces Mortar Damage from 104 to 93

Command Vehicle

• Reduced Engineer Hull Repair from 3 to 1
  • It triples the time it takes to repair the Command Vehicle's Hull
• Reduced Engineer Armor Repair from 0.04 to 0.01
  • It Quadruples the time it takes to repair the Command Vehicle's Armor
• Reduced Command Vehicle's Armor Health from 275 to 250
• Reduced Command Vehicle's Armor Regenaration from 0.004 to 0.002
• Increased Command Vehicle's Armor Damage to Heat Absorbed from 0.025 to 0.04

Developer Note The Command Vehicle needs to be strong enough to withstand enemy fire for a short period of time, however this strength and the ease of repair have made it possible to use the Command Vehicle to drive into enemy fire with little to no consequence. With these changes taking too much damage will cost your team time.

Vehicle Armors

• All Armors
  • Increased Squad Artillery Resistance from 0 to 0.25

Vehicle Weapons

• Extended Range Cannon
  • Increased Gravity from 0.1 to 0.15
• Plasma Cannon
  • Increased Explosion Force from 100 to 500
• Railgun
  • Increased Gravity from 0.04 to 0.05
  • Increased Explosion Force from 50 to 1000
• Biological Cannon
  • Increased Explosion Force from 170 to 300
• Upgraded Missile Launcher
  • Reduced Heat from 6.5 to 6
  • Reduced Weight from 70 to 60
  • Increased Explosion Force from 50 to 100
• Biological Missile Launcher
  • Reduced Weight from 70 to 60
• Salvo Missile Launcher
  • Reduced Weight from 60 to 55
  • Increased Explosion Force from 20 to 50
• Guided Missile Launcher
  • Reduced Heat from 9 to 8
  • Reduced Weight from 70 to 60
  • Increased Clip Size from 4 to 5
  • Increased Explosion Force from 40 to 100
• Homing Missile Launcher
  • Increased Explosion Force from 40 to 500

Infantry Weapons

• Mortar & RPG now share the same ammo
  • It effectively reduces the amount of ammo Grenadiers carry by half
• Mortar
  • Reduced Speed from 2000 to 1800
• Northern Faction .50cal Rifle
  • Increased Minimal Damage from 20 to 30
    • It ensures that it takes 4 shots to kill an enemy on distances shorter than ~6000 units

2.34.5

Release: (2022-04-02)

Bug fixes

• Fixed a bug/exploit that was allowing refineries to be placed at no resource cost.
• Fixed a bug where the engineer tool kit would not recharge the correct amount if you changed your skills while it was holstered.
• Fixed the "Just in time" achievement being awarded to the local player even if it was a different player that triggered the achievement.
• Fixed some issues where the squadleader.cfg file would not execute when expected, leaving you with the wrong key binds if you specified key binds inside the file.

Script/Game Balance

Infantry Weapons

• Heavy Machine Gun
  • Increased firing rate from 660 RPM to 792 RPM.
• SMG1
  • Reduced Max Falloff from 10k to 6k
  • Changed Moving Accuracy so it accounts for the moving speed
    • This results in lower accuracy while moving
  • Changed Kick to be more consistent
• SMG2
  • Reduced Max Falloff from 10k to 4k
  • Changed Moving Accuracy so it accounts for the moving speed
    • This results in lower accuracy while moving
  • Changed Kick to be more consistent
• BEHR/NFAR
  • Reduced Max Falloff from 10k to 8k
  • Changed Moving Accuracy so it accounts for the moving speed
    • This results in lower accuracy while moving
• Shotgun
  • Reduced Melee Cycle Time from 1 to 0.8
  • Increased Melee Damage from 70 to 80
• NF Shot Pistol
  • Reduced Damage from 20 to 14
  • Reduced Cycle Time from 0.6 to 0.5
  • Reduced Max Falloff from 10k to 2k
  • Changed Accuracy
  • Changed Kick

Vehicle Chassis

• Artillery Tank
  • Removed Cannon's Yaw (movement left and right)
• Northern Faction Artillery Tank
  • Increased minimum pitch (movement up and down) so the cannon does not go inside the vehicle

Vehicle Weapons

• Artillery Cannons
  • Removed Recoil

Vehicle Armor

• Reflective angle modifier effective angle range has been reduced from 5 -> 50 degrees to 2.5 -> 47.5 degrees.
  • This is a direct buff to all armors using the reflective angle modifier script attribute as it will reduce the size of the angle modifier "dead zone" (The zone in which there is no damage reduction).

2.34.4

Release: (2022-02-26)

General changes

• Increased all voice line sound attenuation distance by about 1000 units.
• Removed unnecessary binary files from server packages. (Some client files were being shipped to server packages unnecessarily.)
• Added server commands to limit bunny hopping velocity gain and to enable auto bunny hopping, both are disabled by default. sv_enablebunnyhopping & sv_autobunnyhopping

Bug fixes

• Fixed a server crash relating to mines not being removed correctly.
• Fixed a few minor issues with the squad aura indicator sometimes showing incorrectly.
• Fixed an issue causing prop_physics_multiplayer entities being non-solid to players.
• Fixed player spawn points being able to be blocked by other players.

Script/Game Balance

• Scout hide is now removed from players who are reviving or being revived.
• Added functionality for explosions to be blocked by multiple entities.
  • This allows damage to be applied with a system where multiple entities reduce the damage toward 0, instead of everything behind an explosion ray being blocked by the same thing. This should be more dynamic and it does fix some instances where people could potentially abuse flaws in the old system. (Like throwing concussion grenades at your feet, blocking the ray and causing the damage to pass through the walls and deal damage to turrets hidden behind them...)
• Large explosions no longer lose damage if player body parts are blocked, this feature was added in version 2.33.1
  • This means that some weapons will always maintain their damage if the player is in radius and in line of sight to the explosion. (Currently this affects all artillery shells and nuclear missiles.)

Buildings

• Vehicle Factory
  • Increased Health from 250 to 350
  • Increased Cost from 400 to 500
• Radar
  • Increased Health from 200 to 250

Infantry Weapons

• Concussion Grenades
  • Increased Max Ammo from 3 to 6.
• Northern Faction Assault Rifle
  • Reduced Rate of Fire from 660 RPM to 565 RPM
  • Changes have been made to the Assault Rifle's accuracy
    • The NFAR is most effective while being still and firing short bursts
• Northern Faction SMG2
  • Changes have been made to the SMG2's accuracy
    • SMG2 is most effective while being mobile and in close quarters "spraying and praying"
• Northern Faction SMG1
  • Changes have been made to the SMG1
    • SMG1 is effective for short to medium range engagement in any situation
• Brenodi Empire Heavy Rifle
  • Reduced Rate of Fire from 660 RPM to 565 RPM
  • Changes have been made to the Assault Rifle's accuracy
    • The BEHR is most effective while being still and firing short bursts
• Brenodi Empire SMG2
  • Changes have been made to the SMG2's accuracy
    • SMG2 is most effective while being mobile and in close quarters "spraying and praying"
• Brenodi Empire SMG1
  • Changes have been made to the SMG1
    • SMG1 is effective for short to medium range engagement in any situation
• Brendo Empire Pistol 2
  • The Brenodi Empire Pistol 2's accuracy has been improved
• A few of the weapons have been rebalanced, see the changes here https://git.empiresmod.com/empires_public/empires_scripts/-/merge_requests/231/diffs?commit_id=506bca8eac8be7900d5c799fce0e9c88e9ff66dd

2.34.3

Release: (2022/01/28)

Features

• Added a squad member ID to both the mini-map and the Squad HUD. This can be used to locate specific players.
• Added player requests to the squad HUD. (Ammo/Health/Repairs)
• Added an indicator in the Squad HUD for players receiving the squad aura effect. (Green box next to player health when the player is receiving the benefit of the squad aura.)

Squad HUD changes	Mini-map changes
Added player request icons (Ammo/Health/Repairs) and an indicator for players currently receiving the squad aura effect.	The minimap now shows an ID for each player in your squad, this can be used to identify where each player in the squad is on the map.

Bug fixes

• Fixed an issue causing explosion damage to break completely on vehicles. This was caused by a previous version, some of the explosion code was rewritten to fix a bug involving a tank's turret entity transferring damage to the tank entity. There was an oversight which was causing the damage to be prevented entirely; it should now be fixed.

Script/Game Balance

Infantry Resistances

• Reduced Explosive Missile Resistance (Nuclear Warhead) for all classes
  • Grenadier with Health Upgrade can no longer survive a direct nuclear missile hit
• Reduced Artillery resistance for all classes
  • Grenadier with Health Upgrade can no longer survive a direct high-explosive artillery shell hit.

Research

• Plasma Heavy Machine Gun
  • Reduced Time from 90 to 60
  • Reduced Cost from 360 to 240

2.34.2

Release: (2022/01/23)

Bug fixes

• Fixed a code typo which was causing a bug with explosion damage, meaning double damage could occur to vehicles.
• Fixed a few issues relating to checking a player's team for displaying icons on the minimap. Sometimes player icons wouldn't display even though they should.
• Fixed building smoke not calling StopEmission if the particle system is in a sleep state. (IE not being rendered but inside the player's potential visible set)
  • What this essentially means is that building smoke will continue to change state and even when you're not looking at the building. Previously you could look away from the building, turn around and notice smoke is still there for a few frames; despite the building being repaired while you weren't looking.
• Fixed a typo in vehicle_armor script for BulletExplosiveResist value.

Script/Game Balance

• Lowered Plasma Heavy Machine gun's minimum damage from 10 -> 8 (It previously had no damage falloff.)

2.34.1

Release: (2022/01/16)

Features

• Added cvar "emp_sv_drop_cooked_grenades", this is disabled by default until some gameplay testing can be conducted and feedback gathered.
  • Causes grenades to drop when players die if they had already pulled the pin out. (Excluding mines)

Bug fixes

• Fixed an issue with e-repair preventing mines from being defused inside a damaged friendly building.
• Fixed an issue that was preventing wall gibs from spawning when destroyed. This was caused by a bug fix last patch.
• Fixed an issue that prevented the commander wall limit from functioning correctly.
• Fixed an bug relating to removal of attack targets on a player entering command view or a player entering scout hide. Both actions now remove targets instantly.
• Fixed some issues with how mines are triggered/detonated. Previous to this change, mines would detonate if a vehicle's "absbox" overlapped the mine bounding box. The problem with this is that the "absbox" is calculated every frame and doesn't rotate, it grows in size to encapsulate it's target. This lead to situations where a vehicle that wasn't perfectly aligned to the world origin would have a greater chance of triggering surrounding mines. The new system should be a lot more accurate and result in less frustration/guess work when trying to avoid mines.
• Fixed some issues relating to tanks receiving damage:
  • Physics impact damage on tanks no longer prevents repair stations from repairing your tank. It would often be the case that a small bump when trying to enter the repair station would trigger the repair delay, this damage type is now filtered out of this feature. (For reference the delay is 10 seconds, so this can be quite frustrating for the driver.)
  • Tanks no longer trigger the repair delay if they didn't actually take any damage from the entity trying to damage it. Previous to this change you could use a weapon that doesn't deal damage to delay a tank from repairing. This has long been an issue and the feature should now work as intended. (As an example, bullets can no longer delay a tank trying to use a repair station.)
  • Fixed some issues where damage was being mis-attributed to players with regards to calculating assists/critical assists.
  • Fixed an issue with tank turrets not transferring damage to the hull appropriately.
    • Fixed an issue with tanks taking explosion damage from the turret first, despite the hull being closer; resulting in a damage reduction. This will mostly impact gameplay when explosions occur on the top surface of tanks, they will now deal the expected amount of damage without a drop in damage. Explosions now prioritise dealing maximum possible damage in this situation, in terms of possible falloff reductions etc. This is likely going to have a bigger impact on chassis where the turret is often in the line of sight of explosions; for example NF light tanks, where the turret is easier to hit because it's shorter.
  • Removed some code which was trying to prevent two sets of the same damage applying to vehicles per frame, this was added to prevent a vehicle's turret from transferring duplicate damage. This was crudely implemented and was preventing damage from occurring in certain situations.

Script/Game Balance

Command Vehicle

• Reduced the Heat to Damage Absorbed on the Command Vehicle's armor by half.
• Increased Max Speed from 25 to 30 mph.

General Balance Changes

• Removed the hard-coded variable damage on mines.
  • It was previously written in code that mines would deal double damage if triggered by a vehicle. This has been removed because the damage resistance system should have been utilized to ensure that everything in the explosion radius was receiving the expected amount of damage. With the old method, it meant that everything in the explosion radius would receive double damage if the mine had been detonated by a vehicle.
• Removed the hard-coded variable damage on explosive sticky grenades.
  • It was previously written in code that sticky grenades would deal double damage to all vehicles except the command vehicle. Again, this has been removed because the damage resistance system should have been utilized to ensure that everything in the explosion radius was receiving the expected amount of damage. With the old method, it meant that everything in the explosion radius would receive double damage if the grenade had been attached to a vehicle (Excluding CV).
  • Damage resistances have been adjusted to compensate in the scripts.
• Added a new script variable for use with vehicle armors "Flat Damage Reduction". This change is to give reactive more of a unique identity, being quite resistant early game but being less effective as the game progresses and the enemy unlocks stronger weapons.
  • Reactive now has a flat damage reduction of 5. (Resistances have been adjusted to ensure all anti-vehicle machine guns deal damage.)
  • Reactive now has 120 HP per plate instead of 135.
  • Composite now has a flat damage reduction of 1.