FROM THE BLOG

[KAG] Build 1591 – Maps and Bombs!

Hey Everyone!

Finally getting out this “mostly small fixes with some bigger stuff” build after testing has come back ok! Sorry for the delays!

(Weekly log covering TR progress likely coming on Monday when we can fully asses the situation, today was all about KAG)

Spamming bombs with abandon is less likely to bring you success this build.
Sorry Henry!

This build’s headline changes are:

• Big CTF Map Changes!
  CTF maps have long been a cause of stalemates and frustration – even in capable hands sometimes flags are too well protected or frustrating to capture, or are woefully under-defended, and often it’s easier to get to the enemy tent before capping the flag. All in all it can be a war of attrition; this build’s map changes aim to fix that as much as possible. Flags are less scattered, fewer, and further from the tent. Base areas are prepared to actually have a base dropped down into them. Rush distances are often shorter. A few especially annoying areas have been reworked. We look forward to your feedback on the map changes and revisiting many maps from other modes.
• News is back!
  The in-launcher news feed is back and will be brought up to date as soon as possible, so you can check for update info on the go!
• Reverted Trap Blocks
  As frustrating as it is for us to revert changes, we’re happy to do it in this case until a “real” solution is agreed on forum-side. Get your thinking caps on and help us figure out how this should be approached – we’re well aware some of you will be happy to go back to sharking out of pits, but the rest of us would prefer the builder have a well rounded, mostly-idiot-proof set of tools at their disposal.
• Bomb Explosion Radius Decreased
  We were surprised (and pleased!) at the support for this on the forums. We expected most knight-main players to be angrily oposed to the thought of reduced bomb spam, but the opposite proved to be true. Archers should have an easier time avoiding bomb explosions and the new explosion radius should reward aiming your bombs all the more. Cost and damage have not been touched. Keep in mind that this is an experimental change, but we’re happy to be able to move forward with it.
• Engine Update
  There’s been quite a big engine update behind all of this that exposes a few more things to scripting and fixes a few more edge case bugs and crashes. Modders will be pleased to know you can now properly remove polygonal bodies from blobs (allowing dynamically reshaped polygon objects, if your heart desires).
• General bug fixes
  “Weird” corpse collisions, missing match timers, drilling people through closed doors, water decaying blocks in hand, a few vote issues, and a few engine-side bugs have been fixed! Thanks to the community members involved in some of these fixes, and see the full changelog for details.

Changes for hosts Generally changes that wont affect most of you, but important for community server hosts to be aware of:

• TCP RCON on Windows
  TCP RCON now works for windows dedicated servers (although they remain unsupported, this is very useful for locally testing some mods). The linux implementation has also been reworked completely.
• “Safer” API Client
  The API Client code used for registering the server is now a little “safer” about how it works and should crash less often (fingers crossed). Hosts: let us know if you see improvements, regressions, or no change with regard to API-related crashes and server registration.

That’s it! Let us know what you think on the forums, facebook, twitter, and in-game!

Have Fun!

Max

Full Changelog:

[modified] LOTS of map changes - flags generally more exposed and further from tent to prevent stalemates and "base-raping"
[modified] arrow always hits burgers and fishies (and anything tagged food) - not hearts this time though (couldn't make it work cheaply)
[fixed] drill hitting through doors
[fixed] dead players taking gold with them to the afterlife (everyone drops everything on death)
[modified] water does not decay doors held in the hand (thanks Obione5256__)
[modified] corpse collisions - should be less snagging!
[added] synced-based rendering of time to end of match
[fixed] tiny chat font (still some tiny fonts to fix still!)
[modified] boulders take 50% damage from swords and arrows
[modified] reverted trap blocks changes - will need more real discussion about a solution or alternative block, hit the forums folks
[modified][experimental] reduced bomb radius by two tiles to reduce bomb spam and reward aiming with them
[updated] engine, polygonal bodies removeshape fix, tcpr re-implementation, API "maybe fix" from MM
[fixed] voting for surrender as spectator
[fixed] news not being read properly (now we use custom solution with json)