Posts on Nov 2013

Build 954 – New TDM Maps, Waterfalls, And More!

Lots of things this time around, a few big, a few small, all good!

Popping the wheels of siege engines:

We’ve all had someone drive our siege engine when they shouldn’t have. You can now completely and permanently immobilise siege using the new immobilise button, netting you some stylish chocks and a much more stable engine that is less prone to “that guy” ruining your siege.

Packing catapults up has been removed to make way for this feature, which conveniently fixes all of the bugs around packing catapults, most notably the infinite ammo and repair :^)

Waterfalls now look quite a bit nicer

Simple change, but exposed edges of water now have some nice animations instead of being blocky blue nothingness. This makes floods look that much more impressive, and makes a few maps with endless waterfalls even cooler.

Mods less “Hidden”:

It’s long been an issue that modded servers have been hidden from the public eye at large – the modded server button has been changed to “Non-Vanilla”, and a pop-up about what modded servers are has been added. This is a temporary measure until we have access in-game to how long a player’s account has existed (requires some changes to how things are stored) – once we have that, we’ll make the vanilla only button turn itself off after a few days, but this should help with visibility.

New Crash Reporter:

Crashes should be caught by the crash reporter again (on windows), which should help with fixing any crashes people are experiencing. Unfortunately, the crash reporter is not available on linux and OSX, but over 80% of the playerbase uses windows, so a lot of crashes will be contributed.

Much-needed new TDM maps:

The Cauldron by Geti

Cramped Castle by Geti

Bleak Arena by Geti

MonsteriTDM1 by Monsteri

MonsteriTDM2 by Monsteri

LavalordTDM1 by Lavalord

A lot of the older maps have also been retouched, all in all they should be significantly more conducive to some longer play, so be sure to give your nearest TDM server some love!

Full changelog:

[fixed] held non-constructed blocks protecting builder
[modified] ignore damage actually ignores all damage now
[removed] all old generator files to avoid confusion (+ they dont work)
[modified] updated existing tdm maps
[added] tdm map from extra/ , The Couldron
[added] Bleak Arena map
[added] Cramped Castle map
[added] MonsteriTDM1 and 2 maps (gratz)
[added] upgrade to CrashRpt 1402
[added] 30 sec video recording of crashes (run debug.bat on Windows)
[added] jackitch and contrary heads, congrats!
[modified] renamed 'modded' button to Non-Vanilla
[added] popup informing about non-vanilla disabled
[modified] Monsteri boat balance changes - longboat costs less for early rushing, warboat only costs (lots of) coin
[added] LavalordTDM1 map
[fixed] sounds still being calculated and played when volume is set to zero
[fixed] loadmap looking for strange files (should work more or less as expected now)
[modified] made it clear that loadbitmap shouldn't be used any more
[modified] water has nicer edge appearance now, imroves flooding and "waterfalls"
[added] pop wheels off catapult or ballista once it's in place
[removed] packing catapult into crate
[fixed] joining with scripts from previous server

Have fun!

Max/Geti & MM

Desura Key -> Steam Key Update

Hey guys, news on the desura keys to steam keys conversion situation.

The planned system is not in place yet, as jrgp hasn’t been able to finish the site side of things yet. We’re currently nagging him to get it done asap, and it should be done “soon”.

A refresher on how it’ll work:

• Old Desura owners will be able to redeem a steam key.
• New Desura owners will NOT be able to redeem a steam key.
• Anyone who bought or buys the game directly from us will be able to (and is currently able to) redeem a steam key.

The cut-off date defining “new” and “old” desura owners will be around the date the system gets implemented. If you want to guarantee access to a steam key, buy it from us, (or at least from steam).

Cheers,

Max/Geti

Build 947 – Fixes and Improvements

First stage of that “cleaning up” bullet point.

Update on the crashing situation: We’re reverting the changes to the server browser, we’ll be debugging them more next week but we want to avoid having people crash and complain. As such, server browser pings will still likely be inaccurate, just a heads up.

Mostly fixes, but a few changes as well, most notably:

• No RNG when firing “normal” shots as archer, only legolas
  This means that legolas spamming isn’t as accurate at long range and pinpoint sniping is feasible, raising the skill ceiling a little.
• All classes can arrow climb
  This increases the utility of the archer as it can now be used to help allies over walls – arrow climbing has been revamped to kill the arrow quite quickly, and allow you to “jump” off of the arrow instead of climbing it like a ladder (no movement penalty). We’ll be paying close attention to how this affects balance, but I think it’ll allow archers to feel more useful during a push.
• Vote kick tweaks
  Most notably, if someone leaves while being vote-kicked, the system presumes they were guilty. The ban time has been increased to 30 minutes to help deter persistent griefers.
• (the changes to server browser have been left out of this build to prevent crashes)
• Spawn immunity doesn’t restart when changing class
  Preventing the (minimal) abuse that had been going on with that.
• Visible boards over a tunnel that you can’t travel through
  No more tapping E to “check”

Full Changelog:

[modified] votekicking kicks for 30 minutes
[fixed] extra spawn immunity when changing class (now it's static spawn immune time, no extension)
[modified] RNG only on legolas shot for archers, do normal shots for accuracy.
[fixed] freeze continuously gibbing stuff
[script][added] void RemoveSectorsAtPosition( Vec2f position, const string& name, const u16 id ) for removing sectors only with specific id
[fixed] tree removes flag base no build zone
[fixed] too much coins on client (server_DropCoins could be run by client)
[dev] removed drop peer dbg msgs
[dev] additional move files works on steam only now
[modified] potential fix for "ghost" colliding arrows
[fixed] under raid war boats and ballistae included in spawn list
[dev] more fixes for arrows
[modified] flag base puts down bedrock underneath itself
[modified] all classes can arrow climb
[modified] arrow climb only when holding up, destroys arrows, gives extra jump
[modified] very slightly increased archer stun arrow range
[fixed] fire arrow not put out by water bomb/arrow
[fixed] Space flags (hopefully)
[modified] stomp doesn't stun or hurt the stomper
[added] boards layer to tunnel
[fixed] archer grapple staying attached through tunnel when attached to doors
[modified] if someone leaves while getting vote-kicked, they're banned for 30 minutes (as if they were successfully booted)

Max/Geti

What’s coming next?

Now that we have done the world-wide Steam release and our playerbase has grown substantially we are heading towards new objectives. These are the main ones:

1. Cleanup
   There are some bugs (you’ve seen them) and some things need polishing and explaining (you know what I mean). This is first priority and me and Max will be spending this week and the next on this probably.
2. People want a simple in-game map editor. We will give it to them.
3. Steam Achievements
   Whether you like them or not you’ll like our idea for achievements. We have a really cool concept that’ll be fun instead of stupid or ridiculously competitive and will add to the game.
4. Fix modding. Attempt to document scripting. Attempt to refactor scripting.
   I’m writing ‘attempt’ because I’m not sure it can be done. We don’t want to break existing scripts but at the same time I feel the engine needs some sorting and cleaning.
5. More TDM maps
   More maps are always welcome in other game modes but we desperately want new deathmatch maps!
6. Get community content
   We want stuff from you in the game! We’ll write a bigger post about this later, but for now just know we are looking for new maps (TDM/Challenges), tutorials (in-game and video) and simply usable hacks and fixes.
7. We are gonna be introduced into other stores, some of them somewhat “modest”.

This stuff is short-term, which is by our measures a matter of weeks.

Long-term we have plans too, I won’t say what it will be, but if you followed KAG’s development you might suspect what we want to do or what is still left to be done. This might involve a new gamemode and/or new vehicles.

Stay tuned and have fun!
MM

An Interview With Max and Michal on GameSkinny.com

Enjoy,

http://www.gameskinny.com/8ygnr/king-arthurs-gold-an-interview-with-max-and-michal-marcinkowski

Fixed tutorial signs & singleplayer

Singleplayer has bad luck since Steam release. Fixed it once again because there were no signs or directions in the tutorials. Please play tutorials and Save the Princess again if you missed it.

If you get kicked from server during map change, don’t worry,  it’s the server auto-restarting to patch after a hotfix has been released. Just restart the game yourself and a server again.

Players also report that a lot of crashes have been fixed. We’re happy about that. 

Hotfix changes:

[reverted] the last uncapped framerate change

[fixed] singleplayer scripts being cleared and not running

[modified] vote kick/nextmap has rudimentary anti-spam built in.

[removed] redundant sound effect on some sounds

[fixed] OSX/Linux crash on some sounds 

Read if you have lag in a game

If you’re playing on a server and bombs are twitching and collapses look funny and laggy then most likely the server can’t handle the action and the player count.

Please read this note in order to have an optimal and fun experience in KAG:

NETWORK LAG

– first of all we don’t support more than 32 players, the server owner can set the player limit to whatever he wants to but we know the game won’t perform fully

– check if it’s not your internet connection that is the problem (is it fast in other games? check it with www.pingtest.net/)

– you should have low ping times in games, under 100ms

– turn off all external programs (especially file downloads and Steam patching)

– use the Quick Join buttons or sort servers by ping in the browser (http://prntscr.com/23tuh2 – join green and yellow)

– there are a lot of 30 player servers out there that simply cannot take the load and are lagging, we kindly ask to not play on these servers. Our official servers have 20 players and the we find that with this setting the game is most fun and optimal performance-wise

– just join servers with up to 24 players, try a different one if it’s lagging

FPS LAG

Some things that might help run the game smoother:

– turn off help texts by pressing F1

– update your video drivers

– switch off “uncapped framerate” in Settings

– switch off “smooth shader” in Settings

– switch ON “faster graphics” in Settings

– turn off all music in Settings

– lower the resolution

– try fullscreen versus windowed

– turn off minimap (press [M] until it’s gone)

– avoid TTH with over 20 players

Build 939 – Partial unicode support, Water and Saw Tweaks + Many Fixes

This is mostly a fix build, but has a few nice additions too.

There has been partial unicode support added. We’re looking into the areas where support is not so good (anything that doesn’t get entered or shows up as ???). Either way it wont mess up the console output any more, and you can now say the other team got rekd™.

Votekick now has a confirm dialogue to prevent a mis-click from making you boot someone you didn’t want to.

Saws teamkill again (no more seas of saws, thank god) but turn themselves off after they saw a teamie. This should help curb griefing and accidental loss of life and limb.

Lots of crashes have been fixed, obviously not all of them but a fair number of independent ones.

Buckets also no longer stun anything. Thank god for that. You may optionally thank me for that too ;^)

Full changelog:

[modified] FPS will be higher without uncapped framerate setting
[added] rcon admins have red name in players list
[fixed] LAN client not authed as admins on join
[fixed] kick not banning for 5 mins
[added] if you rejoin within 2 mins on a server your stats
			will be preserved
[added] username and character name to votekick menu
[fixed] crash when trying to launch solo mode with dedi server
			running in back
[modified] lifted default ping kick threshold
[fixed] saw graphical bugs
[modified] saw turns off after killing teammate
[removed] saw from world.png to prevent confusion
[modified] removed a bunch of enet debugging prints that were
			confusing people (like enet_blah_blah: 15195)
[modified] fixed a small leak and a big crash in the servers
			browser + that annoying deprecated image complaint
			on opening it
[modified] buckets don't stun (about time)
[modified] water bombs don't collide with team-mates
[script][added] water_stun hitter, use water if you want to put
			out fire but not stun
[added] removing redundant game files when launched from Steam
[fixed] being able to join server with client modified scripts
[modified] changed words in new Steam player window
[fixed] buzzing sounds on Mac/Linux
[fixed] saw not showing gib effect on client when teammate sawed
[added] confirmation dialogue to votekick
[fixed] script kicks not banning

Max/Geti

News on Steam keys for Desura players

If you’ve bought the game from Desura and are trying to get a Steam key you’ve probably encountered that right now you can’t do it. Unfortunately we have a serious defect in our key generation system that doesn’t allow to do this safely for Desura. 

You will get your Steam key when we write the system to distribute the keys, we will have this working this week.

After we do this, purchases from Desura most likely won’t grant you a Steam key. Only the ones from before.

So if you’ve purchased already on Desura, don’t worry, you’ll get your Steam key this week.

MM

EDIT by Furai:

Please redeem your gold codes on your accounts. There is no other way for us to verify that you come from Desura and are eligible to get KAG key.

Here are the instructions.

B935 – CTF & TTH tutorials added

I added the much needed game mode tutorials for Capture the Flag and Take the Halls. They are a bit text heavy but I’m quite in a hurry and couldn’t do something more fun in a day. The important thing is you will learn all the necessary things about the game modes from playing these tutorials.

Some things were cleaned out. Like saw killing team mates (too griefer friendly and annoying). Item arrows and far item destruction in TTH workshops. I find those things useless and confusing so I removed them.

Also, fixed Necromancer not appearing at final map in “Save the Princess”. This must have sucked, but you can play it again now if you missed him.

Have fun!
MM

Other changes in build 935:

[modified] saw doesn't kill team mates (too annoying!)

[fixed] can't hit constructed rooms in CTF as builder.

[script][added] convenient builder_alwayshit_fragment array for partial name matches (eg "shop" for all shops)

[remove] far item destroy button

[removed] item arrows in workshops

[fixed] texts appearing in front of research menu

[modified] renamed peasant/migrant to worker wherever necessary

[fixed] crash in minimap on next map