New Features
Campaign Ally Selection
Players can now select between KataGo Human, GNUGo, and KataGo as their ally while playing campaign ally matches (matches where the player and an AI ally alternate turns on the same team). Previously, this ally was always KataGo.
Choosing the level or rank of the ally affects how much the ally costs in resources, with the lower ranks, or lower AI strength costing less than those that play at a high level.
The resource costs of a campaign ally have also changed because they now take into account the size of the region/board in the cost calculation. The larger the board, the more moves that will be required from the ally, and therefore the larger the cost. The 19x19 costs are a bit above the previous cost, but the smaller boards cost less than the previous cost.
For allies that take a longer time to initially load and be setup (e.g. KataGo Human), if it becomes the ally's turn while it is still loading, a loading indicator will be displayed over the player panel and the timer will be paused until the ally can begin searching for their move.
New Import and Export Options
Custom Board Themes
Within the Settings > Board Settings menu, you will now see new options for exporting and importing custom colors from the file system.
Selecting import allows the user to select a theme file to be imported.
Selecting export allows the user to select a folder where the theme file will be exported.
This allows players to share themes with each other by sending files or sharing files on other platforms such as Nexus Mods.
Campaign Stories
In the campaign stories menu, there are now options to import and export stories.
At the main stories menu, an import button which allows the user to select a folder of a story to be imported.
While editing a story, there is now an export button which allows the user to select a folder where the story will be exported.
This allows players to share stories with each other by sending files or sharing files on other platforms such as Nexus Mods.
Campaign Resource Availability Changes
The resource availability option when creating a campaign affects the level of resources that are gained throughout the campaign such as those gained from winning matches, solving puzzles, and empire resources.
A new option has been added for unlimited resources, allowing the player to freely use the features that cost resources in an ordinary campaign.
The existing option of "None" has also had some slight changes.
When a resource availability of Unlimited is selected, the following UI changes are present:
Total resources at the top left of the campaign map are hidden.
Resource types listed in the Battle Summary panel of each region are hidden.
The market button at the top right to access the market to trade resources is hidden.
The Ally Match button is available and any ally can be freely selected.
The abilities panel while playing a match is available and abilities can be freely used.
Legend records for each region are automatically unlocked after the player conquers a region.
When a resource availability of None is selected, the following UI changes are present:
Total resources at the top left of the campaign map are hidden.
Resources types listed in the Battle Summary panel of each region are hidden.
The market button at the top right to access the market to trade resources is hidden.
The Ally Match button is hidden.
The abilities panel while playing a match is hidden.
Legend records for each region are automatically unlocked after the player conquers a region.
To ensure functionality remains present in existing campaigns with a resource availability of None, this update has a small distinction between campaigns that were created before this update and campaigns that were created afterwards. Existing campaigns with None for resource availability will be able to use the Ally Match feature as before, but new campaigns will restrict this feature as mentioned above. Since the new Unlimited option is available, those wishing to freely use the Ally Match feature should instead use Unlimited for their new campaigns.
Campaign Abilities Loading Icons
New loading icons have been added to the find move, find variations, and territory abilities in the campaign.
The loading icons will initially be displayed when the match first loads and the analysis AI is being loaded and setup behind the scenes. Once the analysis AI is fully setup and ready to be used, the loading icons will be hidden and the corresponding ability buttons will be enabled if it is the player's turn.
The loading icon will also be displayed when an ability has been used and the AI analysis is underway. Once the initial analysis has been obtained, allowing move suggestions or territory to be displayed on the board, the loading icon will then be hidden.
Updates
The sound effects for the traditional, traditional dark, toon, and simple board themes have been updated to have a more realistic sound.
When using the file browser to import, export, or save files, each drive of the computer will now be listed to the left for quick access.
Improved the "Loading" message for AI opponents during the start of the match to be more accurate for AIs that have started but are still undergoing setup steps before being fully ready to search for a move.
The stone sound effects (stone placement, capture, and atari) when moving forward and backward through moves now have a reduced volume. For example, the moves that play out when loading a match that is in progress, or the stones that are quickly placed or removed by using the scroll wheel when reviewing a match. Stones that are placed on the board while clicking or those that are automatically played in response will play at normal volume. This functionality already existed to some degree, but was not as consistent in which areas had reduced volume. This volume is controllable through the Settings > Playback Settings > Reduced Stone Volume setting. The default value of this setting has been raised slightly, which will be in place for new players and players that have not modified this setting from its old default value. Players that have modified the value previously will keep their modified value.
Fixes
Fixed an issue with resource icons being generated after campaign matches.
Fixed an issue with superko detection while using Chinese rules, for the case of sending two and returning one specifically after a capture.
Fixed an issue when creating a new campaign or quick match with the novice difficulty value (KataGo-Human opponent), where changing the AI strength parameters was not correctly changing the difficulty value from novice to custom.