It's been some time since we have done an official blog post about what's been happening with the game. We're all working 110 percent, trying to polish everything we've prepared for the Horrors of Mars update that's coming up next week, so again we end up putting everything else off.
There has been a testers version update on Friday showcasing some of the stuff we are doing, and today, in big part thanks to your feedback, we feel we have done enough fixing to release some of the changes as an official update.
As announced, there have been further changes to netcode and movement algorithms, making characters move a bit more precisely over systems with high latency times. Also included in the testers version was the new netcode responsible for engaging and disengaging weapons fire. New system is taking into account the latency between host and client, so characters should start and stop firing at the same time on both system, greatly reducing the issue where client has begun firing, but dealt no damage until host received the "I started firing" packet.
Similar system is being implemented for all skills and is expected to be ready for next week's update.
We have also managed to reintroduce ping display in game lobby, so you should be able to determine if you'll be able to play on a particular host without having to start the game.
Since steam needs to open a channel for peer to peer communication before ping packets can be exchanged, it takes a few moments before values start appearing.
Textures have been converted to a new format that is a bit larger but much faster to load, so loading times should be noticeably improved.
Further optimizations have been introduced to the graphics engine. On our machines we are seeing about 10 FPS increase.
language game files have been changed as a part of the work we're doing on the text renderer, preparing for better localization options in the future. This change should not impact the game in any way at this point.
Some additional deep nested bugs in the system have been found and eliminated, so we hope white screen issues have been resolved.
Controls system has been reworked to enable mapping up to three buttons for one action. As a result of that change, you'll need to reset or remap all your controls in the options menu.
Descriptions for skills, components etc. have been updated to represent real in game values. Please note that, no changes in that area except for purely visual ones have been made. Nothing has been really buffed or nerfed just some wrong values have been fixed.
Followers will no longer stand idle until a player finds them. They will defend themselves by shooting at the monsters attacking them.
Additional smaller tweaks include:
glow being properly disabled if turned off in options menu,
turrets are properly activated when a mission is finished,
added class icons in party info,
orbital beacon will not call down shiva when used,
reload icon will not be displayed if character is invisible when he enters APC,
fixed STROL counter,
no more double evacs,
followers will no longer stand idle, they will shoot until player finds them.