FROM THE BLOG

‘COMBAT BUILD’ 90 RELEASED

After a long period of play testing this build it is finally time to make a final test, that is, release it publicly! I like how Minecraft names major releases so I decided to do the same and have named this build the “combat build”. We have worked mostly on Knight & Archer combat. I decided to slightly overpower each class to make the game more dynamic and fun. But this was of course balanced during play testing. What you will experience here is a result of hours of testing so please play for at least that much time before criticizing, I’m sure you’ll see the changes are for the best. From this point I’d like to also THANK YOU everyone that play tested and posted their comments on the forums!

The game auto-updates by itself when you launch it. When it updates, the first thing you will notice is that you have to login to browse the servers list. Game accounts are from now on mandatory. This was probably one of the most requested features. It will help prevent anonymity and griefing, so that we can all have a better gaming experience. 

Account registration is super easy now. Just fill in your user name and password on this page (click).

Your username is also your nickname in the game so choose it carefully (clans can add a clan tag in Player menu). If you experience a user is abusive please report this on the forums.

Some other highlights of this build…

* Builders can drop a castle block while standing still

* Block repairing (just place a castle/door/bridge block over the damaged one)

* You can already jump on top of a knight’s shield but now I added the ability to help out your teammate below. You can simply climb a knight with shield up from below:

* You can now see how much damage you’ve dealt to an opponent or check your teammates health by hovering over him with your mouse.

* Added mapcycle! This means that every round change a new map will be loaded with a different map generator (currently there are 3 types; see change log for details and usage)

* Arrow ladders! Have you seen this in sword & cloak movies? Now you can do it in KAG!

Here is the detailed list of all changes:

Changes build 80-90:

– added mandatory game accounts
  * player nickname is the same as account user name
  * added optional clantag in main menu Player settings

– Archer changes:
  * offscreen arrows deal only half damage
  * removed blocked jumping when bow fully charged
  * added arrow ladders (archers can climb their own arrows on a wall)
  * archer full charge is faster
  * arrow gravity and maximum speed changed
  * archer charge decharges when after reaching maximum point
  * archer charge bar appears on mouse cursor
  * arrow leaving archer is properly positioned
  * added knockdown period for arrow hit
  * slow arrows deal half damage
  – archer arrow deals max 1 heart damage

– Knight changes:
  * changed knight sword mechanics
  * 2 hits available: quick jab (1 heart), charged swing (hold fire button; 2 hearts)
  * hitting with charged swing stuns the opponent for a moment
  * charged knight jumps lower
  * knight has same movement speed as archer and builder
  * new knight sword strike animations and sounds
  * knight can only dig with fully charged swing
  * shielded knights always pushes other players in the shield direction
  * new ability to climb shielded upwards knight
 
– Builder changes:
  * builders can’t penetrate knight armor
  * building is delayed and requires builder to stand still
  * added possibilty for builder to drop castle block
  * builder square cursor is always drawn
  * added repairing destroyed parts (takes always half of full block materials)
  * increased builder build radius
  * builder sees more into the map

– new score system
  * earn points for: building, killing, capturing/returning flag
  * lose points for: suicide, mining structures
– fixed resolution changing when desktop is the same size as window
– fixed wrong resolution ratio picked
– fixed resolution change offset bug 
– improved open door/bridge mechanics
– more dirt particles velocity
– players have less acceleration on ground
– fixed background dirt bugs
– scores render over player labels
– fixed trees not growing on right side of map
– trees don’t lose coronas when chopped
– fixed server disconnection errors
– fixed collapsed blocks create random blocks
– fixed outpost not giving supplies on start
– outpost during capture does not give out supplies
– changed all damage using discrete values
– fixed grass appearing underground
– half hearts health are drawn on HUD
– can’t throw bomb while holding flag
– fixed player names appearing as one letter on Linux
– fixed spikes not collapsing
– disabled periodic automap saving [temporary]
– fixed not able to join own team again if teams unbalanced
– added server variable “sv_require_auth” (default: yes; requires clients connecting to server be logged in master server)
– optimized server tree storage
– added sky gradient
– emoticons and point frame stay until key pressed or chat above head dissapears
– changed vote kicking mechanic (takes into account players time on server and score)
– added server mapcycle (Base/Scripts/mapcycle.cfg)
– two new map generator files added to mapcycle (generator_ctf_hole; generator_ctf_mountain)
– fixed png maps not saved or loaded on Linux server
– fixed outpost color not changing after capture
– added take screenshot sound (F4)
– flag carrier is slower by 10%
– fixed bomb-block damage miscalculation
– lowered ping kick time to 15 minutes
– vote minimum time lowered to 3 minutes
– fixed players not respawning after map change
– removed bridge gibbing
– fixed catapult spawning at right map edge
– main menu change : “Map editor” instead of “Start game”
– fixed ground and other blocks not appearing in editor block palette
– fixed not being able to destroy blocks around tent
– only main tent restores health
– fixed infinite outpost volcano
– fixed gold bullion not destructible by catapult
– fixed catapult ground collision sound
– fixed shield collisions
– above head chat stays shorter