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[KAG] BUILD 1453 – Fixes and “Ergonomic” Tweaks

Hey dudes and ladies, just a small accumulation of fixes here and there; getting it out before a bigger wave of community fixes are merged in and mechanisms and new menus are ready, which will be the next few big builds to make it out.

Knights have swanky new slash animations.

The fixes this time around largely focus on making it easier to get into and removing areas of confusion. They should result in clearer combat, easier to navigate bases, and fewer admin/hosting headaches.

An overview of the changes:

• Slashes Visible
  Knight slash range is now shown with an overlayed animation, showing the approximate arc, duration and distance of slashes. We’ll listen to feedback on this one and may be tweaking the effect, but it’s something we’ve had ongoing confusion about exactly how far you can reach, how aiming works and so on, and this should help with that.
• Swear Filter
  Turning on kids safe mode will also turn on a rudimentary swear filter; this might be split out to its own setting if there’s enough demand. It can be activated serverside (ie “on for everyone”) by setting g_kidssafe on in autoconfig or the console.
• Door Mechanics Revised
  The door visible orientation no longer matters for doors opening angle – if you press “towards” the door, it will open now. You can still rotate doors for aesthetic purposes, but this is intended to lead to fewer mistaken placements of expensive doors costing the team time throughout the game, or resources to remedy.
  Doors are also more prone to damage from builders and explosives, making countering tunnels and opening the front of bases easier to accomplish.
• Map Extension Issues Fixed
  The map extensions that were incorrectly identified from the mods folder and elsewhere should work, and savemap should append the assumed .png extension correctly again.
• “Jab Spam” Nerfed Forever
  Mostly kidding, but the shield is more of a hard counter to jabs than it used to be, with extra stun time from jabbing a shield, giving ample time to punish spammers.
• Miscellaneous Changes
  Most of these fixes are community sourced or inspired, thanks again for your continued outreach of inspiration and support.
  • Can’t farm team-mates
    A bug in the coin allocation script was fixed that allowed you to farm coins by teamkilling each other with spikes. Thanks to Cameron1010 for picking it up.
  • Scripts Reformatted
    A bunch of inconsistent formatting throughout the scripts was fixed; this results in quite a large patch all things considered, but will only have to be done once. Thanks to Rayne and IceDragon for bringing it up.
  • Fixed TDM Mapcycle Issues
    Specific settings could cause the TDM Mapcycle to break and play the same map over and over; this has been fixed.

That’s it for this time, let us know what you think of the changes in the forum thread!

Have Fun!

Geti/Max

Full Changelog:
[added] working swear filter when kid safe mode set on - will also filter serverside if server has kid safe set
[added] better door opening/closing that doesn't worry too much about directionality - thanks Cameron1010!
[modified] doors easier to damage as builder and with bombs to counter door spam - thanks Cameron1010!
[added] bigger indicator of slash distance
[fixed] TDM not setting mapcycle to work (fixes "derp" setup issues, usually when swapping gamemodes)
[fixed] can farm team-mates for coins with spike kills - thanks cameron1010 for the report!
[modified] formatted every script for consistent tab indenting, bracket style, etc. Reduced file size a bit due to sheer reduction in space bytes
[fixed] particles not created at edge of screen on different res aspect ration
[modified] correct aspect ratio resolutions are at top of list in setup
[fixed] pitch corrected sounds no playing if too many sounds played at once
[fixed] issues loading maps with dots in the path instead of the filename
[fixed] savemap broken by previous fixes

[KAG] BUILD 1435 – Community Fixes and Modding Opportunities Abound

The build server is back up and running which means it’s time for a new update! It should be out in the next hour or so across the platforms, please bear with us as server counts will (as always) drop and rise again as they update!

You guys rock!

Big thanks to Fuzzle, Skinney, Makmoud98, Verra, Zerd, and Kodysch/Oodle for a lot of the code and map fixes contributed in this build, it’s wonderful to see the community chipping in and making the changes that they want to see in the game for themselves. We’re really keen to see the modding API get as much use as possible, especially for changes that can make their way to the vanilla game!

Notable changes from the community in this build:

• Many “consistency” fixes from Fuzzle
  Many things including size mismatches (boulder but not keg fitting in inventory), vote crashing (leo you know who to thank) vehicle detaching strangeness, bad tile cursor, missing menus, missing animations, teammates breaking held items, and many more have been whack-a-mole’d by Fuzzle. The sheer number of contributions has been great, often small things but KAG is definitely a case of devil-in-the-details! Many great quality-of-life changes here!
• Siege engine GUI from Makmoud98
  Mak has got a lot of work done on making the siege engine GUI look and feel even better since the previous build. The angle counter has been removed which may be controversial, but the charge bar now has a nice slider that shows where the previous shot was made, which is very important for shot consistency and making your stone and bolts count (particularly in gather)!
• Fixes to Archers for Verra and Zerd
  Two separate issues with the archer firing code have been identified and fixed by Verra and Zerd, arrow jamming and the overcharge “auto-hold” that was a 3 frame trick. Should make archer play a little more consistent, particularly in high tension situations. Verra also contributed some changes fixing “weirdness” with setting knights alight with fire arrows.
• Kodysch fixed some map “bugs”
  These have been a long time coming now due to the delay between builds, but a few stray pixels here and there really put a damper on the TDM experience.
  (More to come in that department soon, stay tuned!)

Notable changes and additions to the modding API:

• Map Loading and Saving
  The console-exposed /savemap command has long been defunct, but has been renewed for preliminary use and tied to the scripting API with this build. You can now implement map saving functionality in the same file as used to define map loading of a particular format.
  These format loads/saves should be as 1:1 as possible, meaning if a format implements saving, it should be able to load the maps that it saves. The currently implemented example of this is any map saved with .png extension is compatible with the .png loading functionality (Credit to Skinney for the implementation of the actual map saving functionality)
• CFileImage can now save png files to cache and maps
  This is obviously important for the map saving functionality above, but could be used to save other data in a pictorial form, and even potentially allow saving and loading some client side drawings, or any other use you can dream of. The file saving is restricted inside maps and cache for security reasons, however, as we cant have you spamming image files in abitrary disk locations.
• Mod Detection on rebuild/reload commands
  We’ve been told that people are intentionally skirting the mod detection side of stuff to create server side mods – while we don’t necessarily disagree with the intent there (nothing needs to be downloaded to the client), we recieved multiple complaints from other admins about this. As such, running rebuild, reload, or reloadall will mark the server as modded.
  We’d much rather people just host modded servers for variety and to enforce to the community that it is ok; quick join joins modded servers as of a few builds ago and this build brings changes for fewer “naggy” messages about joining modded servers as well.
• Map Tile Hooks
  More info and examples of using this will come (at latest with the release of Trench Run), but basically hooks have been added to map scripts for tile flag setting/syncing and to make damaging tiles an easier process to script (ie working with server_DestroyTile). The hooks are as follows:

  TileType server_onTileHit(CMap@ this, f32 damage, u32 index, TileType oldTileType)
  void onSetTile(CMap@ this, u32 index, TileType newtile, TileType oldtile)

  Get in touch with me if you need more information; they generally need to go in the map load script as its the only one present upon map loading (when you want to set the flags for the first time).

Modding Opportunities:
The modding community has been picking up a bit recently, with a few ongoing community projects able to use as much attention as they can get:

• ReBalance Mod
  Rayne, Skinney and Verra have been working on a mod to rebalance the game for more pub-friendly play, with the freedom to break/remove/add stuff that we just don’t have with the vanilla game. They’re also happy to collaborate with anyone competent and pleasant to work with. They’re taking any and all community input on board and adding new things literally every day of the week; find out how to play the mod and leave feedback in the thread HERE.
• Gather
  Cameron1010’s Gather mod and setup is in need of more patronage and feedback on what people would like to see changed/added (gamemode changes? captains mode?), as well as contributers to help lighten the load. Gather is a “casual competitive” mode where players can have a competitive experience without joining a clan or waiting for clan matches to be arranged. Remember though, it only works if people join and add!
  Thread HERE!
• Shiprekt and Roleplay
  Less opportunities and more shout-outs to perseverent modders; community additions to Shiprekt and the ongoing role-play mod have been great to see continue well into 2015. Keep doing what you’re doing guys!

We’ll be posting some big news about Trench Run soon too, so keep your eyes peeled for that!

Have Fun!

Geti/Max

Full Changelog (messy due to incorporation of some sub-changelogs):

[modified] console gives warning on trying to run scripts on client (was double-protected)
[added] total mod files download progress bar
[removed] thumbs down in servers browser for unverified mods
[modified] mod downloads prompt appears only once
[added] can save/create image files from CFileImage - only to Base/Maps/ and Cache/ though.
[modified] /savemap calls a hook in registered map scripts
[fixed] custom map "formats" (eg .yourformat.png) not being registered right - this allows proper saving and loading of different "types" of png files.
[fixed] 32 bit maps wrongly loaded
[fixed] sometimes collisions wouldn't update with tilemap hook flags
[added] [script] hooks for the tilemap hitting tiles and on setting tiles (for syncing of tile flags for custom tiles in TR and mods)
[script][added] bool CScriptedBrowser::getServerPlayers( APIServer@ server, APIPlayer@[]@ players )
[script][added] CopyToClipboard and getFromClipboard
[added] updated vehicle charge bar from makmoud89
- adds a "last charge" slider which turns red when you are close to the charge of your last shot
- adds a cooldown bar for the ballista
- fixed various display bugs
- removes the angle display (noone contacted thought it was necessary)
[fixed] eggs can be stored in inventory
[fixed] food is the same size as materials
[fixed] missing arrows on Catapult seat
[fixed] shielded knights can be burned from the back now + 0 damage hits with fire don't ignite. (thanks Verra!)
[fixed] triple shot "jam" and archer speed mismatch (was still 70% sometimes) (thanks Zerd!)
[added] savemap functionality for pngs - Thanks Skinney! - TODO: fix up any weird stuff with the derived loaders, which probably wont work for saving at the moment.
[fixed] idiot doors on The Cauldron map
[added] can save images
[added] more fuzzle fixes:
	[fixed] Vehicles Buttons only show if you overlap the vehicle.
	[fixed] Vehicles Buttons won't show if you're attached to the vehicle.
	[fixed] buttons didn't show after you'd detached from a seat.
	[fixed] could use buttons on enemy vehicles.
	[fixed] Firing on detach.
	[fixed] Catapult animation.
	[modified] lock button icon ("immobilise")
	[fixed] hit logic, could hit items carried by players from the same team, could hit blocks carried by the Builder.
	[fixed] Items dropped on class switch
	[fixed] couldn't switch class if you'd detached from the blob not not "re-touched" (boat, ballista)
[added] helpful death tip about resource resupplies at workshops
[fixed] that animals could be ridden through the barrier
[fixed] more vote crash issues
[modified] tile background script simpler - careful any modder that uses it for big objects though, it wont work any more
[modified] catapult rocks more consistent - can hit same-team blocks, carried items etc
[fixed] bunk crate offsets
[modified] big work on ballista bolts hitting/mechanics by Fuzzle (should be less "???")
[modified] fish not consumed when destroyed in someone's hands (thanks Fuzzle)
[modified] mines cant be hit by team builders to prevent them getting "smashed" in hands - better fix coming (thanks Fuzzle)
[fixed] arrows hitting blobs (eg platforms) through tile walls (thanks Fuzzle)
[added] EXPERIMENTAL: siege weapons shot angles are affected by their in game angle - didn't work this way due to fears of overpowered ballista placement but we can try it out.
[fixed] tutorial didn't know about new triple shot
[fixed] ballista eats materials on class switch
[modified] merge behaviour a little - can merge going into inventory too.
[modified] mines set damage owner when added to inventory
[modified] swapping class preserves your stun (thanks makmoud!)
[added] changes from Fuzzle:
 - boulder doesn't fit in inventory
 - tile cursor "fixed"
 - item name code centred on blob
 - pickup/throw double tap issue fixed
 - food doesn't stack in inventory
 - quarters no menu after sleeping issues fixed
 - boat shop menu uses 2x2 icons
 - popping wheels off ballista/cata removes driver seat
 - shops put items where they "should" go
  - things used from hands go to hands, or inventory if not available
  - things used from inventory go to inventory, or hands if not available
  - if neither are available whatever you were holding is dropped
[fixed] "crash in spawnfish" when failed to load map.
[fixed] missing traders on kodysch_Upshoot map (TDM)

[KAG] Community Fix Build Delays

Surprise surprise there are some delays with the build; this time due to Trench Run changes sneaking in and messing with things on the network – we’ll get a build out as soon as we can next week but we aren’t confident to push a relatively untested fix out just now. Community fixes have kept flowing in too and some of them could use more testing before going public as well.

There’s actually a very big pair of change coming for modders that enables the custom destructible, synced tiles in TR, as well as scripted map saving commands, and these will likely flow on to make mods like the various spinoffs of ShipRekt richer as development continues. They cover the last “big missing things” in the kag engine mod API, in our eyes at least. We look forward to seeing what you guys come up with using it!

We trust that you understand we’d rather an unpatched KAG to a broken KAG over the weekend, sorry for the delay on this swathe of fixes and
modding additions!

Have Fun!

Max/Geti

[KAG] Community Fixes Inbound

Hey guys, continuing on with the build preview train, without further ado lets get into it!

Community members have rallied together the last few months to improve the game!

Lots of minor fixes from the community, in particular Fuzzle has provided a bunch of small code tweaks for the better, and makmoud98 has tracked down a few things too. Here’s a summary of all the big changes – the full list will be in the update post.

• “Something done” about boulders:
  Boulders have long been a point of contention – some people love them, lots of people hate them. They definitely still do too much damage, haha. The main change in this build is that you cant sneak them into your inventory any more, putting them on the level of the keg as a “huge” item – so at least you’ll see it coming.
• Siege Changes:
  Siege engines get their driver seat removed when immobilised, and their firing angle is now affected by their rotation. The former is just a fix of an annoyance but the effects of the latter are more subtle and experimental – you can angle a ballista to fire directly along the ground for point defense, and get a bit more distance out of an angled catapult (or reduce its minimum range). We’ll address any big issues that come of this, but it should really make siege a little more adaptable and dynamic.
• Lots of shop tweaks:
  Shops now put items in a more consistent location – stuff used from the hands (like mines, kegs and so forth) go to the hands, things used from the inventory (bombs, arrows) go to the inventory, and edge cases are handled a little more gracefully. The quarters buttons going missing sometimes is fixed too, and class-switching preserves your stun (which fixes a few tricky exploits in TDM as well!)
• Food Stacking:
  …Is basically not a thing any more. Thankfully, gone are the days of stacks of steaks, burgers, fish and grains in someone’s inventory, allowing them to tank more or less endless minor damage (they can still stack 4 if they want no special items though, which is at least a little more fair). This fix has really been a long time coming, and was left out more as an oversight than an intentional decision to allow carrying truckloads of food – a good example of a case the community can often pick up much better than us!

There’s also some fixes coming for a few “stupid” bits in TDM maps, a couple more engine fixes, a bunch of smaller bugs fixed and a typo in tutorial addressed. Outside of the game a few security exploits have also been brought to our attention and fixed, so thanks to those involved in identifying and debugging them.

Thanks also for the patience of (almost) everyone affected by the SSL issues over the weekend (and the preceeding weeks, to some extent) – it’s been a big, tricky thing for us to fix and the turnaround hasn’t been perfect, but most players have been understanding once they hear there’s something hard going on, and we’re thankful for that.

Have Fun!

Max/Geti

[KAG] Server Issues

Hey guys, as you will most likely have noticed, most servers are down currently, and there’s been some issues with logging in. Sorry!

This is due to an SSL certificate issue on our end, which basically means the game can’t verify the connection to KAG API is secure – this is being fixed ASAP by our system admins and again any more permanent fixes required should be coming within the week. There will also be an ordinary KAG update some time next week, testing not withstanding.

Clients should at least be able to log in/connect again now, with some (but not most) servers able to connect to the API. If you are able to provide FliesLikeABrick or JRGP with any diagnostic info in IRC (what error you get, what OS/setup you’re running a server on, etc) please do so.

Please bear with us in the meantime, we’ll keep you updated as it develops.

Max/Geti

[KAG] BUILD 1390 – Rendering Fixes

This build is mostly a fix build on 1381, with a couple of little documentation changes here and there.

(You can’t tell from the screenshot, but this is going 60fps)

• Shader Issues Fixed:
  Some big issues with the smooth shader (and other shaders) have been fixed,
  with emotes and the builder cursor rendering properly with them on again.
• Uncapped Framerate Issues Fixed:
  Uncapped framerate will no longer cause flickering or ghosting. Keep in mind
  that the game updates are limited to 30fps anyway, but uncapping the framerate
  with vsync on can help ensure rendering is synced up with your monitor, and
  can appear smoother for those that care.
• Map Changes:
  A few minor changes here and there, but especially to the 8x_fest_pass map (the
  one with the cave cieling) – the cave system above has been shrunk and the
  central flags are less of a nightmare to capture.
• Simple Join Bugs Fixed:
  The simple join “selection” buttons could get stuck in a “wide” state and didn’t
  work well at different resolutions. This has been fixed.

Full Changelog:
[added] new/more readable icons for the TTH trade menu
[fixed] flickering with uncapped framerate
[fixed] no emotes, builder cursor, etc with smooth shader
[fixed] quick join buttons getting mis-sized sometimes at larger/smaller res + when selecting the bigger boxes
[modified] 8x_fest_pass map updated - less nightmarish water flag, no caverns at top of map (just thin dirt and some minor stone)
[modified] mine goes straight into inventory rather than hands (if this causes issues we'll find a middle ground)
[modified] scripting readme contains info on when the interface is generated in preamble
[modified] smooth shader off by default again
[updated] known issues file documents workarounds where possible, and has a new issue found by Monkey_Feats included as well.
[updated] TheDirtySwine head

(For those wondering about the build number irregularities, 1381 was misnumbered)

Have Fun!

Max/Geti

[KAG] BUILD 1373 – Tidying Up

This build has quite a bit of minor tidying work here and there to make way for the fun new additions coming down the road (see the recent post on single player and menus for more info!). It also has some balance tweaks and a couple of new features, as well as crash and regression fixes.

Some messes are easier to tidy than others.

A reminder of the major changes this time around:

• Siege Engine “HUD”
  Thanks to makmoud98 for a nice addition that’s been missing from KAG since classic – charge meters on the siege engines.
• Trampolines back to Full Power!
  This was a small script mistake, sorted out now.
• Smooth Shader Fixed
  See below for a caveat, but the smooth shader should work again, for those missing it.
• No AngelScript Console on Client
  This seems like a minor change, but is a really important security measure. AngelScript code entered into the client console will not be executed. Will still work fine over rcon of course, for players with seclev “ALL”.
• No Gold Droughts
  Gold now “drops” from shops that require it when they’re destroyed, including tunnels, to prevent “Gold Drought” and enable late-game tech and tunnel building again.
  Materials of all sorts now fit through 1 tile gaps as well, to prevent them blocking things so often.
• Archers (very slightly) faster while charging shots
  We changed the speed modifier to 75% instead of 70%, nothing drastic.
• Camera rotation works with tiles
  This small (but tricky) fix is important for some new mods, especially Shiprekt mods that add islands using the tilemap!
• Scripts limit raised
  The amount of unique scripts you can have per-server has been raised to 2048 – this is a crazy amount of content to be syncing to the client but we’ve had people reach the previous 1250 script limit, so its been upped to 2k.
• Custom Heads
  With the addition of these heads, we are now “out” of custom head slots for donors (the last 2 are reserved for our current interns). Thanks to all the supporters who donated or contributed so much over the last few years, it means a lot. Enjoy your heads! Everyone else: be sure to congratulate the generous in-game.

Notes on the smooth shader: Some people have reported graphical glitches in the bottom right while using this. We’ll look into why this is happening once we can reliably reproduce this on our machines – for now those people will have to play with smooth shader off. PLEASE let us know what sort of machine you’re running if you’re affected by this glitch, if it happens for you all the time, and so on.

Full Changelog:
[added] archer shop allows you to buy special arrows into inventory + displaces normal arrows down to a single stack. Thanks to makmoud98 for idea and partial implementation.
[added] charge bar to catapult + angle bar for ballista (thanks makmoud98!)
[added] connecting to server message on top of screen
[added] gold does not decay, and shops using it (in CTF) drop a gold stack on death
[added] progress bar for precaching files
[added] progress bar when building downloaded scripts
[added] progress bar when building md5 hashes ("Be nice to each other...")
[added] Sasquash, Mek7/The_French_One (shared) and TheDirtySwine heads, Congratulations!
		We are now officially out of head slots, all remaining slots have been reserved.
		Thanks to all the donors and contributors!
[added] vote fixes from norill: crashes, better seclev support, better menus, fixed broken cooldowns
[added] warning when a config file isn't saved cause the location is unsafe
[fixed] broken screenshot key
[fixed] crash when player to be kicked leaves the game
[fixed] fire rendering with rotated camera
[fixed] helpful death tips too low on screen and dont show long enough
[fixed] login window appearing after joining game from command line and going to menu
[fixed] mines not being assigned owners reliably
[fixed] missing collisions on tiles on bottom of map (they're still ugly though)
[fixed] modded filter state being set to screwy values at times
[fixed] no objects on localhost for the first map
[fixed] non-bomb ballista hitting no-build/indestructible tiles
[fixed] scripting interface not saving to manual/interface
[fixed] shaders making the game render too light during any fade (was alpha-blending)
[fixed] smooth shader not rendering
[fixed] standard folder creation on first run (crash on first run)
[fixed] tilemap rendering wrong when screen rotated
[fixed] tiles on bottom of map have no collisions - they're still ugly though
[fixed] trampoline "too weak"
[fixed] various "help" bugs (showing when it shouldn't, not saving help settings...)
[fixed] water rendering incorrectly for rotated camera
[modified] archer is (very slightly) faster while charging shots (75% speed instead of 70%)
[modified] materials fit in 1 tile holes
[modified] Script Send limit is 2048 now - we wont go higher than this, optimise your script counts for heaven's sake!
[modified] scripts send limit increased to 2048
[modified] security seclevs example files to include vote_cancel
[modified] TDM menu is 3-wide instead of 4 (looks better with the header)
[removed] scripts access through console as client
[script] bound CBlob.wasOnLadder
[script] bound int getJoysticksCount()
[script][fixed] debug messages not appearing from script debug() and printInt.

Have Fun!

Geti/Max

King Arthur’s Gold behind the scenes – single player features, controller support?

The new KAG build is just around the corner, so I thought meanwhile I’ll update you on some exciting things that are happening behind the scenes of King Arthur’s Gold development.

Currently we’re concentrating on single player, the menus and the engine. And how does controller support and local co-op sound? More info below 🙂

SINGLE PLAYER

a) Mechanisms
Skinney is working on mechanisms to be used in Sandbox, Challenges and TDM. This will allow us to create even more interesting castles, traps and the like for single-player missions, without having to code everything manually. Also, the mechanisms will be available for use in community maps as well, so fun is to be had by all 😉

b) Missions / Campaign
The single-player will consist of separate campaign missions to complete with a set class and feature an overarching story. You will be able to learn how to play (so that we can make the game friendlier for new players), improve your skills and play bonus missions after you finish the campaign.

c) Unlocking heads
We may hook single-player progress up to a set of unlockable heads so you can show off your expertise in multi-player. We’d love to hear your opinion on this.

CONTROLLER SUPPORT AND LOCAL CO-OP

How cool would it be to plug in some controllers, invite your friends over and play KAG in your living room? We’ll try to make it reality, but keep in mind that it will take some time.

MENUS

Norill is moving them to a fully scripted system before they get a full layout redesign. He’s about halfway there. We plan to have a poll on the official forums about the menu layout, so that you can tell us what works best in your opinion.

ENGINE

We’ve been fixing long term bugs related to modding, evalutating optimisation possibilities and improving access to a lot of components. Work from Trench Run is continually being ported over as well, so the more we work on TR, the more features can appear in KAG 🙂

Hope it’s sounds good to you. We’d love to hear your opinions and suggestions (via Facebook/Twitter)!

Maciej/trainchaser