Posts on Oct 2013

Build 926 – Story behind the Build

It seems every game of KAG I play recently I have the same 3 nags :^)

• “pls geti add mor heads 4 me and i luv u
• "OMG I FELL THROUGH FLOOR!!! GETI FIX”
• “geti pls fix votekick its still broken plsssss”

Here’s the meaning behind these, and how I’ve addressed them this build:

• Even though each head is just 16×16 pixels with no gameplay benefit, apparently that means 16×16 pixels of joy to a lot of people. There are 6 new heads and the heads list has been rearranged to group them a little more sensibly. The new heads are Bomberman, a new “cut up” zombie head, a wounded knight from a distant land, a dubstep music man, as well as two new male hairs, female versions of the bandana and headband heads. A lot of heads have also been updated (check out the samurai head).
  Also: there’s a free slot in the menu just waiting for one last head before the steam release to be slotted in, if you see me ingame feel free to suggest something cool, as long as you get back to the game immediately afterwards ;^)
• We’ve had a look at two things that might be causing the physics bugs – if it’s one of them, there’ll be spam in the console about a limit being exceeded every time it happens, please pass that on to us if that is the case. If it’s the other, it should be fixed or happen much less frequently. Either way, one step closer to less weirdness and more focusing on the game – report back in the thread with any changes noted. The fix that has been performed is likely to slightly degrade performance, but we can’t have such strange bugs just in the name of the game running quickly.
• Votekick has been recoded entirely in scripts, check out the scripts for information on how to bind new buttons into the main menu (!!!) and how to kick players from inside a script (it’s as easy as a single function call!). You can now vote with just a quick click, and it should be a little more risky to abuse since if your vote fails you will be kicked out of the game. Vote next map has also moved to this new system as a simple example of fairly modular code – this means modded servers can use this system to make votes for anything they please – you could have a vote everyone turns into chickens if you really wanted! None of the legacy code should have any affect any more, if it does, please report it as a bug.

Hopefully this addresses those three main concerns directly and sufficiently; we’ll be looking into the next emerging concerns soon of course! (I expect performance to be the major one, sadly)

Other notable changes this build:

• Chicken colour in map changed to hex 8d2614 – if you have custom maps with chickens, please double check you update them correctly or there’ll be some red doors there :^)
• Can change your name – currently, only with /cl_name in the console. This is to facilitate the name changing feature in steam, we’ll have to figure out rules for abuse.
• Platforms and doors have rotated versions available in png loaders now, for those intricately complex maps you’ve always dreamed of.
• Script exceptions will not crash the game any more – they will show up in the console for debugging, but the script will be disabled and the engine will keep on trucking, resulting in “something weird” in game if something bad happens instead of KAG locking up.
• Steam integration starting to be visible/causing issues, haha. The steam API stuff should be off unless you run the game with “steam” command line parameter (including overlay, etc) but some of it may not be checked properly, be sure to report any issues with this!
• Lots of fixes, as always!

MM and Shadlington and FliesLikeABrick have all been working through the weekend and all this week on the steam stuff, it’s looking very close to ready, so that’s exciting. I’ll get MM to post more news as he has it since he’ll be better informed on exactly what’s going on than me.

Full Changelog in the previous post.

Max/Geti

Build 926 – New Voting, Steam news & Heads!

I’m sure Geti will add more info concerning this build when he’s online. Right now I’m in a hurry so excuse my brevity. Come back later for more news on this build :).

The way voting works now is “lazy kicking”. This might change cause it’s an experiment, post your comments. Voting is now in scripts so you can modify it as you wish and add main menu items (cool!).

Your character name can be changed with the /cl_name command in console. This is part of preparing for the Steam release where players from Steam will use their Steam persona names in KAG. Your username will be visible in paranthesis in the scoreboard

The known issues about mod downloads have been fixed. If not let me know!

if KAG is taking extremely long to startup goto /KAG/Base and delete the /old folder.

I scheduled Steam release for Monday November 4th. This might still change because we need to finish the trailer and make sure everything is working, first with testers and then with public.

That’s right – if you bought KAG you will get pre-release access to a Steam code and will be able to play KAG from Steam before the official release. This should ease things up for everybody and deadline slips won’t be so bad :). Stay tuned for when this will happen (hoepfully this weekend).

Have fun!
MM

Changes 921-926:
[added] 6 new heads + updated some past heads

[modified] rearranged heads

[added] debug message "box2d limiter breach" to check if this is the source of warping through things

[modified] box2d iteration count increased (may have been source of warping through things

[modified] kick delay is lower

[script][added] binds for void KickPlayer(CPlayer@ player) and void BanPlayer(CPlayer@ player, int time_seconds) with obvious effects (automatically takes seclevs into account)

[modified] map files updated by jackitch

[added] script exceptions don't halt the engine (debugger removed in release/test)

[script][removed] unsafe function config.saveFile(); - use config.saveFile(filename) instead (only saves to KAG/Cache)

[modified] clearer mod downloading messages and colors in console

[fixed] modded include file scripts not loading properly after download

[fixed] /Mods scripts not updating ever again (there's still an issue because they will only update in memory not in the files)

[script][added] scripted main menu items

[removed] hardcoded vote kick + next map stuff

[added] lots of features to the vote nextmap stuff

[fixed] builder can build on himself (thanks Verra)

[modified] builder must be inside building frame to build new shop

[added] some flags to shop for banning building any more things - wip for fixing double-shops

[modified] buildings destroy if they are overlapping each other too much

[added] can't double build from the same building frame

[modified] spawn shield protects from knockback and lasts a little longer (not instantly cancelled)

[modified] progress bar is hard-capped to at least one percent to help prevent rendering bugs

[added] JTG and Monsteri Sol Badguy twins unique, congrats

[added] allowed to change character name with /cl_name in console

[modified] more space for player names in scoreboard

[fixed] not spawning when username empty and clicked offline

[fixed] challenges not progressing on time end

There was meant to be Build 926 Today…

Instead, steam integration bugs that were merged into mainline have prevented release – while it isn’t essential to run KAG through steam, there have been a few integration points that have required changes to the “normal” behind the scenes stuff.

The funniest/most annoying of these currently is everyone’s name getting a 2 applied to it (locally and on net) as if they are the second to join. We had a good testing session with JTG2, sinnertie2, Monsteri2, Lieber2, Geti2, Mazey2 and bst Kouji (because clantags seemed to avoid the bug).

In a way it’s a good thing, because it means all the steam integration bugs are exposed to testers and can be fixed asap, but it’s bad because its another day without votekick, without modding fixes, without extra heads, and means that steam deadlines are again, quite dicey.

However, we’ve found that we’re able to give more or less whoever we want access to the game via steam, so we will probably do that this week for players who have already bought the game, to properly test the steam integration stuff before we launch it. We’ll tell you when and how you should request a key.

MM has set a tentative steam deadline for Monday, and these bugs shouldn’t prevent us from reaching that, though they sure to mean it’ll probably be a close shave.

Next build will have fixes or partial fixes for the 3 major repeated concerns I’ve been hearing from everyone:

• Not enough heads
• Falling through terrain
• Missing votekick

As such, I’m as anxious for a patch as the next guy, very disappointed we couldn’t get it out tonight.

More as it comes; figured we should keep you updated while we try to get this thing out; bear with us.

Max/Geti

Build 921 – Heads, Fixes, Maps

Of course, the most important news first ;^) 2 new heads have been added, templar heads that (while knight focussed) look cool on any class! Now you can enjoy your own crusade – minimising religious persecution, of course.

There have also been a nice plethora of misc fixes and tweaks:

• Crates change team when you grab them.
• Catapults don’t “steal” kills when you get fired out of them.
• Wrong menu sound being played (cut out early)
• Music slider bugs – not adjusting the music in real time (still a few potential bugs there), as well as a very big memory leak with music volume set to zero.
• Egg and other food making eating noises at inappropriate times
• Saw has on-off button to help prevent “oops”
• Pickup priorities rebalanced to avoid those “why am i holding this corpse instead of those bombs” moments.
• Warboat costs 130 coins, not 150.
• A few new maps for the cycle, retired a few older ones.
• Catapult and Ballista convert instantly when sat into.
• Catapult and Ballista don’t collide unless moving.

Steam update: MM tells me that we’re waiting on valve for the release, there are a few minor things to complete but the integration is “mostly done” and the store page is more than functional, with flashy promo images like the following:

We’re working as hard as possible on getting the game released there; the waits from valve are a setback but nothing we’re unable to overcome. The game will be released ASAP – when exactly that falls is anyone’s guess, but for all intents and purposes we’re “ready” and just waiting for the checklist to be looked over and the big red button to be pushed.

We’re not 100% on the date because as mentioned above, we’re waiting on valve for this, so it’ll be done when they’re ready. ASAP is as honest an answer as we can give – that said, hopeful estimates are early next week if they get their act together.

Full changelog for 921

[added] turning saws on and off
[modified] pickup priotities have a few per-class modifiers and de-prioritise corpses a lot
[modified] boulders are 35 stone
[modified] warboat costs 130 coins, not 150
[removed] rayne_liquidate and rayne_flarellbridge1 from default ctf cycle
[modified] removed koujimap from default map cycle
[added] 2 "templar" heads, one bucket, one egghead, both definitely badass.
[added] MonsteriCTF3 map
[added] NewTortuga map
[added] catapult and ballista convert instantly when sat into
[modified] idle/still siege engines don't collide with you
[modified] siege engines need a bit more speed before they hurt you
[modified] updated felleres map
      - named Fellere_FourRivers.png
      - hopefully less stalemate
[fixed] catapult "steals" kills of people shot out of it
[fixed] map key binding not visible
[fixed] music volume slider not adjusting in real time
[fixed] some sound functions still doing processing with zero volume
[fixed] wrong menu song used (cut out too early)
[script][added] hasTileSolidBlobsNoPlatforms function to omit platforms
[fixed] can't build backwall over platforms
      - note, this works like building stone "over" wood,
        the platforms still prevent building "through" them
[added] crate changes team when picked up
[fixed] egg makes chomp chomp noise when not eaten
[updated] kag icons on windows
[fixed] big leak when music slider set to zero, and awful sound when turned up again

Max/Geti

Build 919 – Fixes, Heads, Balance, Maps

Quite a few things, all of them somewhat minor but definitely worth mentioning:

• Added 3 new heads
  Diving helmet, Horse head, Alchemist head
• KAGGen generator functionality has been expanded with configurable caves and (simple) ruins.
• Sandbox mode has been re-added due to popular demand.
• (hopefully) Fixed the annoying buzzing sound on Mac and Linux
• Fixed WASD equivalents not working on AZERTY etc keyboards (should now listen for keybinds not the actual key)
• Fixed the flagbase not being tagged invincible – may have been causing it to die.
• (Re)Added the player light radius and config vars for it.
• Rebalanced coin costs.
• Made the warboat lightly more resilient
• Kegs are no longer able to be killed by teammates – no more accidental detonation by a teammate trying to slash the guys ahead of you! The explosion is still indiscriminate though.
• Improved chicken farming – can buy eggs from quarters/inn and can farm them in a smaller radius than before
• A few crash bugs fixed

Full changelog:

[modified] JTG Map changes:
  - boulder lake map has fewer boulders
  - removed bison from newgetisburgmines map
[modified] rearranged ctf mapcycle a little
[fixed] crash on null pointer in blobplacement script
[modified] kaggen has caves and ruins
[fixed] flagbase is not tagged invincible (may be causing it to die by other means)
[fixed] kaggen generates trees overlapping ruins
[modified] updated fellere valley map
[fixed] a few missing default variables in gamemode.cfg - caused crash on omission
[modified] sandbox map is kaggen
[added] player light radius (set in gamemode.cfg as player_light_radius) returned - default 32, limit 255
[fixed] sound glitch on OSX when jumping
[added] fire extinguish sound
[added] player_light_intensity to gamemode.cfg - range 0 to 255 , default 128
[added] kaggen ruins can have wood in them
[added] sandbox again
[fixed] wierd line through the sky in fast graphics mode
[modified] keg gets a team when picked up -> no more keg slashed off your back by friendly knights
[modified] coins for building wood blocks decreased to 1
[modified] coins for building stone blocks and structures increased to 4
[fixed] moving spectator camera uses keybinds for move left right up down instead of hardcoded WASD
[modified] floating islands now "allowed" at map design time
[added] sandbox uses default png loader
[modified] warboat has +50% hp
[added] 3 new heads - horse head, diving helmet, alchemist head
[added] JTF_FirstBadlands map
[added] undercooked egg to quarters for 30c
[modified] chicken breeding parameters a little

News on the steam release – as valve don’t work over the weekend, MM is currently slating the steam release for “Approximately Monday”. This is still subject to change, but we’re as anxious to get it on there as you are – trust me :^) We’ll keep you posted as things solidify, there have been some more frustrating issues on non-windows platforms. As usual, everything is just that little bit different.

Enjoy the build!

Max/Geti

Unused KAG gifs!

I heard two inspirational stories about gifs and indie games yesterday and decided to dig out some old unused gifs that were meant on our website. These aren’t as good as the ones on the web page but still cool I think.

enjoy
MM

The rest is on http://kag2d.com/

Oh and we’re coming to Steam some time after the weekend. If you buy now you’ll get a Steam code once it’s out! (and we get the entire cut instead of % for Valve:p)

Edit: Considering that buying direct from us gives you a steam key, if its possible for you to buy direct then we’d appreciate it – if it’s not then don’t fret too much about it and just enjoy the game.

Build 915 – More optimisations, CTF Balance Tweaks, More Maps

This build is another minor one as we’re mostly working on steam related stuff at the moment. That said, it’s always good to get a balance/tweak patch out before the weekend. Failing that, it’s good to do it at 2am on Saturday ;^)

Most importantly:

• Catas are a little more resilient
  Bomb arrows don’t quite 1 hit them any more and they’ll be a little less slash prone – we’re still figuring out the ideal parameters here.
• Coins for more things in CTF
  particularly building workshops and killing siege/boats will net you coins to buy goodies with.
• Optimisations
  Even more has been done to keep cata rock lag down, and particles in general should be even faster. Hopefully this will help deal with some of the “KAG Hates my computer” lag, but it’s not certain, of course.

Changelog:

[fixed] excessive particle spam from catapult rock
[add] coin from killing/hurting siege and vehicles
[modified] builder gets coin from building almost everything
        (ladders and backwall left out)
[modified] extra coin for building workshops
[modified] standard coin decrease during warmup (/3, rounded down)
[added] 2 more JTG maps
[modified] catapult can resist 1 bomb arrow (just)
[fixed] crash in server
[fixed] minimap crash
[fixed] nasty loadmap minimap bug
[modified] water doesn't treat the bottom of the map as solid
        - allows waterfalls if you're into that
[fixed] dirt backwall going missing sometimes (particularly bad on client!)
[added] chat console keeps last channel when you press enter
        - means you can hit Y once, and then use enter to team chat in the thick of battle
[modified] door sprite shows orientation a little better
[modified] more cata rock optimisations ... this shouldn't be so hard
[added] even fewer particle iterations and better cache performance
[modified] rock is even more optimised, avoids a lot of logic on client

Max/Geti

Last Day for Hat Voting

Realised a lot of these haven’t made it to the blog/news and that the last one would be good to go out with a bang :^)

Vote in the thread, basically 2 votes for the heads you want, and the ones that get voted in will get added to the game.

This is the last one for now and there’s only a few days left so get voting for your favourite head!

Also: new build will be out tomorrow, the build server is a bit sick at the moment but should be fixed by then. Changes include bug fixes, two new maps, and more coin where coin is due – from damaging enemy vehicles and from building things like workshops and doors.

Max/Geti

Build 912 – Catapult Optimisations and Changes

So, you know that slideshow thing that happens when the catapult fires sometimes? Hopefully that’s fixed. If it’s not, let us know in the thread and tell us if the parameters have changed at all (used to lag as the rocks hit the ground in busy games).

As well, cata damage versus tiles has changed a little, and the vehicles code has been completely reworked by MM today to require many fewer hash table/properties lookups. This basically means it runs faster, as confirmed by profiling – we’ll see how much of a difference it makes in public games though.

Particles have been optimised a little more – there’s still one possible optimisation there that will be turned to if they still pose a problem, but the focus at the moment is problem scripts :^)

Very glad to be done with B911 and its map problems.

Server owners, for the third time in 24 hours, get your patching hats on!

Full changelog:

[removed] hurt on collide etc from catapult rock
[modified] rock doesn't use collisions (wip)
[script][added] bind for Random::getSeed()
[script] major change to Vehicle scripts
[script] optimized vehicle script to use a structure isntead of properties
[fixed] fixed camera on gunner position
[modified] config files missing are warnings instead of errors
[fixed] chicken == flag mistake on JTG map
[modified] cata more effective on roof than wall, but doesn't "pierce" with normal rocks so much

Max/Geti

Hotfix for B911 – Server owners please patch

There was a bug in the map cycle pushed, this has been fixed but needs server owners to patch their servers! Build should be out in 30 minutes or so – thanks to JTG and the players of Donk CTF for “identifying” the issue :^)

Big apologies for any inconvenience caused, in particular any inconvenience related to falling to your death forever.

Max/Geti