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Fighting the undead – Now with friends! (Build 393)

It’s a bad day to be a zombie…

Fortunately, most of our players aren’t zombies, so they won’t mind. 😉

ZOMBIE FORTRESS MULTIPLAYER IS OFFICIAL!

This means you can defend your fort with your friends without tampering with the server software too much, without repeated server crashes and with a nice new bot control interface.

Basically, use the R key to tell bots what to do. We think you’ll like the change, we’re leaning more towards this kind of interface than the pie menus in future. If we can find things to convert, we likely will. It feels much better interacting directly with the game objects.

A giant swathe of fixes is included, to AI (migrants now 40% less useless – can go through bridges!), to gameplay (reduced fall damage stupidness, reduced building weirdness, a bunch of misc exploits removed, particles getting eaten by bridges fixed, combat “lag” reduced…) and many general bugfixes (slow closing fixed, many server crashes fixed) – see the changelog for more!

You can also wear a kettle on your head, among other new heads. Hopefully this will help increase the diversity of premium folk’s appearance – We’re working on a skin colour option as well, just requires re-touching all of the actor sprites so I’ve been putting it off…

Big thanks to the testers for starting to get into the swing of things with testing, a lot of these issues would still be undiscovered and the mechanics unrefined without them!

Full Changelog:

“zf” = zombie fortress
– u_shownames now uses new player name style instead of big stupid one
– spectators with u_shownames see all player names
– spectators now see unit counters
– Fixed single character player names no longer crash the server (and are therefore allowed) (#327)
– Fixed full name not showing on linux/mac when someone changes teams (#151)
– Fixed username is not cased correctly after successful authentication. (#237)

– dropped the materials counter delay
– the blinks still take a while to go away but the counter is always up to date
– Fixed broken Connect To…. (#148 and #1)
– Fixed Looks like red builder is going to build blue tiles (#254)
– Fixed breaking a shop that is on background tile doesn’t give mats (#253)
– Fixed setting high duration results in ban for 0 seconds (#266)
– large bans (longer than 2 years) and bans with -1 time now result in permbans.
– Added expiry time to listbans
– Made bans case-insensitive

– changed/improved/added server side logging of game/player events

– Fixed – Archers deal massive damage to team catapults (#271)
– really fixed trap door+back wall = free money (removed hack) (#198)
– Fixed lost stone on removing trapbridge on background (#258)
– Fixed GOALTICKS independent ticktime mod operation in director.cpp
– Fixed Knights attack catapults when they use it (#81)
– Fixed various potential server crashes while fixing (#327)
– Various tweaks that may fix small bugs/instability – fixed
– KAG crash when closing KAG with server browser open (#333)
– addressed chat box/minibox background hardcoded, now takes center pixel colour. (#157)
– Fixed the listPlayers() script
– fixed abusable bug where spectators can block map start (#305)
– fixed more meaningful autoupdate failure messages for libcurl (#306)
– fixed the launcher menu text for the various sites sucked and fixed some of the URLs
– fixed can repair trap bridges with backwall (#205)
– fixed can repair other team’s door to be your own (only works blue->red) (#76)
– fixed about 3 related bugs/exploits
– fixed can’t slash shielded target sometimes (#276)
– fixed jumping on someone and slashing hurts you (#309)
– stomping does less damage to the stomper
– Fixed quarters don’t heal when there’s less than 0.5 hearts to heal (#353)
– fixed door breaking/fixing (#204)
– updates to how paper rendering works
– Fixed catapults dont hurt backwall enough, though haven’t done bridges etc yet (likely related to arrows) (#331)
– Lowered chat spam timer and inserted anti-spam message if you exceed it rather than failing silently
– Added sandbox room and tweaked sandbox to include it
– sandbox now has free items and shops.
– fixed server segfault due to API error conditions
– fixed quarters light not acting like a light
– fixed chests giving light by default
– bomb in zf costs 10 coins (was 20)
– more probability of zombie having coin
– disconnect issue should be fixed, please playtest for a while and see
– fixed client-side light in blob
– added constructor to APIPlayer, too much non-initialized vars bugs
– fixed free full version access
– bots attack dead zombies
– removed buildnum from launcher caption to avoid confusion
– collapse anti-grief doesn’t work for outposts
– fixed charged arrows dealing no damage when shot through bridge (#321)
– fixed knights don’t stop when ordered to go to zombies
– destroying castle blocks in zf doesn’t remove coins
– bots try to jump over kegs
– fixed bots not following orders when faced with zombies
– fixed throwing kegs into walls
– removed “buying” zombies from Portal 

DISCUSS ON FORUMS

Interrupt while we’re waiting

Still 2-3 things to iron out before the release so here is some Sunday fun for you all, while we are waiting for the new release.

This is something we’re trying to move away from which you’ll see in the next release with the new Party Interface.

And at first I thought this was a KAG meme 🙂

Cu later,

MM

Release Holdup – Should be out Monday

We’ve had a hold-up actually releasing the update because MM had to give a lecture for Friday and I’ve had family engagements all weekend – There are about 3 issues that need tending to before we can release the update.

The blog post has already been written, almost all of the testing completed, we just ran out of time getting it finalised and out the door. Hope to have it out Monday night.

Geti

Soldat is 10!

Holy crap.

I wont clog up the KAG devlog with talk about soldat, but you can read about the awesome work Shoozza has been doing and a note from MM about the game reaching a decade here. The 1.6.3 update has been (conveniently) released in tandem with the anniversary.

Could be time to play a few games for nostalgia’s sake, veterens!

No roundup this week as you’ll get a changelog with the release and I need to get back to fixing bugs rather than writing about fixing them 🙂

Spoilers: mostly zombies multiplayer fixes with some general gameplay and security fixes so that we can officially release zombies multiplayer. Also, more heads.

Geti

Just an informal reminder

People messaging admins, developers and moderators about bugs on the forums – please stop doing this! Use bugs.kag2d.com to report bugs! We don’t need the extra correspondence 😉

Geti

Combat fixes and Exploit patches

Here’s a roundup of changes, old to new:

• Made team unit counters work for “any” number of teams
• Fixed #271 archers deal massive damage to team catapults
• Fixed #198 trap door + back wall = free money
• Fixed #258 lost stone on removing trapbridge on background
• Fixed #81 Knights attack catapults when they use them
• Fixed #327 one character nicknames kick everyone from the server
• Addressed #157 chat box/minimap background colour no longer hardcoded, loaded from image. Sometimes breaks though, need to find a workaround for crappy graphics cards.
• Fixed #305 game wont start if there’s >1 spec but less than minimum players
• fixed #245 ‘report bugs’ links to bug tracker in game launcher
• fixed #306 useless autoupdate failure codes.
• fixed #150 casing error on smoke texture
• fixed #276 can’t slash shielded target sometimes
• fixed #205 can repair trap bridges with backwall
• fixed #353 quarters dont heal when there’s

There’s some experimental stuff going on with network smoothing and whatnot to try to reduce the “lag” that people see in-game, its having mixed results. Ideally there’d just be enough servers to go around though, and enough people playing at all times 😉

Obviously more fixes coming and more testing to be done.

Thread here

Geti

Fixes Galore

We’re doing a fix cycle at the moment because we’re unhappy with the state of things bug-wise. There are some more drastic measures that we might take, but we’re not certain which way some of those will go. Either way I’ll likely just be fixing bugs this week and next.

The list of stuff that’s already been fixed/tweaked this cycle:

• Removed cc_valign 0 from config.gm to prevent it being reset every time the game updates.
• Added shownames behaviour for spectators
• Changed u_shownames to use the smaller labels with hearts (more consistent and easier on the eyes)
• Fixed #304, unit counters for spectators
• Fixed #151, full name not showing on linux/mac when someone changes teams
• Fixed #237, username is not cased correctly after successful authentication (still some work to do here)
• Fixed #148 and #1 “Connect To” patchy functionality (now works cross platform and reliably)
• Dropped the materials counter display (was confusing far too many people, who thought it prevented you from using the items etc before the counter drained in and other strange things)
• Fixed #254 looks like red builder is going to build blue tiles (you wouldn’t believe how tricky it was to find a proper fix for this…)
• Fixed #253 breaking a shop on background tiles doesn’t give materials
• Fixed #266 Setting high ban duration results in 0 second ban.
   – large bans and negative time bans are now permbans (/ban Henry -1 to ban henry forever)
• /listbans now gives expiry time for ban (hard to read at the moment, might need to make a more human-readable format…)
• Made bans case insensitive: ban Rayne, ban rAyNe and ban rAYNE now all ban the same user and can be unbanned reliably (using any casing).
• Refactored ban system to ease maintenance

We’ll be working on more fixes tonight and tomorrow, while we continue to do a bunch of design work and get the automated build system working.

A heap of the fixes for the UI, Auth and connect to stuff is FliesLikeABrick’s work, good to have him on board to ease the load as we go through the (large) backlog of issues.

The latter is going to save us an incredible amount of time and will make getting patches to both the public and the closed testing group about a hundred times easier and faster. This means more testing, quicker patches and less “file got patched to the wrong directory because it was 2AM when the build went public and some mistake was made”.

MM is currently at a games conference in Berlin, he’ll likely write a post about it tonight or tomorrow.

In short, progress all ‘round!

Discussion thread here

Geti

Build 370 Released!

Last week was a monster in terms of productivity. We had this ready Friday but then I was too tired to release and fell asleep. During the weekend Geti was doing the Ludum Dare and I strained my neck for some crazy reason and couldn’t move (I’d like to say it was in a swordfight but it’s probably related to sitting in front of a monitor :D).

So we have a massive list of fixes and changes. Some are zombie related but we are perfectionists and still won’t release this officially. We don’t want to just make multiplayer working but add some elements that we feel are missing from Zombie Fortress.

We now have Spectator mode [BACKSPACE].
 

Resource counter works a bit differently. It takes a few mins to get used to but then you’ll see that it is awesome. The way it works now is it says how much you’ve added recently and only updates the resource count after a while.  So if you’ve just mined for 50 stone it will say 0 +50 stone in green. After a while the green +50 will merge with the white 0 and say 50. It’s pretty cool, check it out.

Geti moved nearly all player class variables into the Rules files. Server admins prepare for some fun! Be sure to make a copy of your Rules files instead of modifying the existing ones because they get overwritten in autoupdates.

Networking should be improved very much. I optimized the server code to make it less CPU intense, but this will result in more bandwidth usage unfortunately. Admins, report back if you prefer it this way.

Other than I have started a whole new scriptable components system that was mentioned in previous posts and FliesLikeABrick will be working full-time with us for a while. So you can count him as a 3rd coder now.

Changes 360-370:

The numbers in the changelog are bug tracker report numbers.

– fixed builders pick up catapult stone in mid air (#250)

– add per-gamemode modding of archer variables

– fixed crash where lightmap was null

– fixed some hud readout bugs (thick stone)

– fixed some issues with #164’s fix and tree chopping

– fixed trees heal when reaching the bottom of the trunk (#164)

– fixed crash in menu when no player exists

– backspace menu when not playing game is the same as when playing game

– Added previous bitstream compatibility through  *force_bool methods

– fixed zombie mode order crash

– fixed no spawn as zombie when changed team to red

– fixed disconnecting from server when launched server browser

– singleplayer gamemodes get paused when in ESC menu

– fixed crash after launching zombie mode after deathmatch mode

– zombie/migrant bodies collide in air with players and hurt them

– added sound when zombies fall or hit walls

– added random pitch variation for most sounds

– added resource drop amount on hud

– fixed migrant-player colliding

– fixed big particles not spawned when in solid block

– tweaked zombie network syncing

– added spectator mode

– fixed bot archers not shooting arrows

– fixed wraith explosion on net

– fixed wall hugging on ladder

– added “killed by zombie message”

– builder only stays close to buddy and defends himself from zombies

– synced migrant bubbles on net

– creative/Sandbox servers are also add to beginner servers now

– fixed disconnecting player message

– fixed crash when closed ingame browser at a wrong time

– fixed zoom out from editor affecting other games (#246)

– fixed arrows going through walls (#125)

– workshop blocks cost 2 wood now

– all CTF workshops cost 50 wood (no stone required) (+30 gold siege workshop)

– migrants now say hello on network

– backwall on spikes gives materials resolved (#208)

– moved body throw offset a bit to avoid self collision

– archer can’t hurt others when stomping

– fixed shield adding velocity on ground

– made inventory counters 50x more awesome (and they read the correct numbers for more cases too)

– fixed coins from frozen players (#16)

– dropped amount of coins from shooting catas (IRC request)

– fixed custom heads for non-admins

– made guard hat only apply to builder head and class default head

– added custom head check in player (checks if name matches a custom head player or if is guard or admin)

– added class modding to CTF rules

– bound runner variables to rules

– added falldamage vars to rules config (-> balancing ahoy)

– fixed crash in starter caused by autoupdate not initialised

– nerfed sheild push to help with desync and wall damage

– fixed wall sliding + fixed notch jumping (related)

– added server_setup_info.txt and readme.txt

– modified readme.txt and server_setup_info.txt for nicer formatting

– added stats format info to server_setup_info.txt

– added /listbans function to list all currently active bans

– fixed bug in bans (time was in seconds not minutes)

– made bans more user friendly with their output

– stats updated to more easily parsable format

– fixed some stats/counting bugs (#191, #225)

– fixed typo in tutorial (#197)

– fixed typo in builder menu (#264)

– added curl license to distribution (#295)

– fixed u_shownames not showing enemy names/health (#142)

– fixed fall screaming at wrong time

Post-Birthday Developments

So, after the smoke cleared and we cleaned up the cake crumbs, we got straight back into development.

(Note that a build with these changes hasn’t been released yet)

Some things that have been fixed:

• Fixed bot archers not shooting arrows in multiplayer
• Fixed wraith explosion over network
• Fixed zombie position desync
• Fixed particles not spawning when inside a solid block (important for kegs/wraiths)
• Wall hugging doesn’t occur on ladder
• Builder AI doesn’t rambo quite as hard (still needs a lot of work…)
• Fixed build tutorial typo
• Fixed some HUD readout bugs
• Fixed trees heal when they get to the base (no more double-harvesting arrows)
• Fixed crash in menu when no player exists
• Fixed arrows going through walls
• Fixed body throwing sometimes killing the thrower
• Fixed archer stomping people (sorry archers)
• Fixed shield adding velocity on ground
• Fixed coins from frozen players
• Fixed (I think) custom heads for non-guard non-admins (basically just pawel)
• Reduced amount of coins from shooting catas

Some things that have been added:

• Spectator mode (still has some issues and needs the underlying mechanic reworked to not affect gameplay balance)
• Synced Messages + Bubbles on net (Migrant says hello and frowns when getting eaten by zombies)
• Workshops now cost 2 wood per tile in CTF and making them into actual shops costs 50 wood (no stone required) to leave more building mats.
• Lots of game variables bound to rules file

The last one is fairly important for server owners and people interested in game balance – you can change how long attacks take, how much stun they give, how long building takes, the thresholds for fall damage… lots of things. Be sure to bug me about things that are missing (damage from attacks and arrow speed among them) – I’m considering opening up what tiles each class can attack in the class config file as well (so people can try games with knights that cant break anything or knights that can break everything, or even archers breaking through solid stone).

There’s some other stuff going on behind the scenes but zombies mode is becoming more stable over the internet – we’ve still got to add migrants as a respawn option (because its a massive pain as it stands to die and be stuck spectating for 15 mins as the last 2 players cling to life).

Our server guys, Joe and Ryan are still working on getting the build server up which would allow us to push changes to testers as soon as they’re complete (no tiresome multiple building and uploading, hurrah!) – we’re hoping it’ll be done next week. As it stands testing is still relatively up to date (testers, get your asses ingame) and bug hunting has been refined to use mantis properly (thanks to Ryan again for getting that in gear and overseeing it).

In short, its been a pretty productive week. Hopefully we can iron out the major kinks and release this build tonight (no promises though)

Discussion here

Geti

Happy Birthday King Arthur’s Gold!

Exactly one year ago on a sunny April afternoon I took what I call the Crimson Engine. Something that I have been developing for the last 4 years. I scratched the game code I have been mainly working on (Link-Dead) and a prototype I made in 3 days and officially started work on something that I called King Arthur’s Gold.

It was a direct twist on the name King Arthur’s World, a SNES 2D RTS game. I found that game one day when I typed “2D Side-Scrolling RTS” in Google. I can admit that I never actually played the game. I only saw videos and wondered about its design. Just watching, I knew it was brilliant.

The idea for “KAG” was really simple – design the game as an RTS but make a Player vs Player game out of it (because these are my roots). KAW had excellent design of classes and a map that needs cooperation to conquer. I wanted to have that but in a massive multiplayer game where people play as a single unit with dozens of other players. Knights flood the terrain and conquer by force, archers darken the sky with thousands of arrows and builders see the big picture – strategize like in an RTS game, but have to do the work instead of point-click. That’s King Arthur’s Gold – one year later. Personally my current favorite game ever.

Happy Birthday and Thank You everybody that makes this possible.

MM