Dear all,
We've finally released V1.07b patch. This is a bug-fixing patch more than an implementation patch. Nevertheless, there're some important implementations as well.
Implementations
1) Implemented mouse sensitivity to deal with mouse with differing DPIs used on different resolutions. Because DirectInput takes raw data, the final input is not adjusted against Window's own mouse sensitivity. To that end, we've implemented 2 things:
a) An automated tuning system that scales based on a default height ie, 768. Therefore, if you're running 1080p, the mouse is automatically 1.4x more sensitive.
b) If the automated tuning system isn't enough or is making your mouse go at roller coaster speeds, there's a user-defined mouse sensitivity introduced - IN Options -> Gameplay -> Mouse Sensitivity. This is an adjustable bar which will immediately take effect when changed. (without the need to click apply, but you'll still need it to save the value). Adjust till you're comfortable - ie, a single move from left to right should get your cursor across the screen without the need to lift your mouse.
2) Added safeguards around steam calls so that in an event of an exception the game might not crash that easily. We'll try to handle it as much as possible - this is a blind catch, steam might still cause the game to crash beyond our means to understand why.
3) Added automated port forwarding for folks who want to try out the multiplayer. However, the IP address is still required for your friends to join. This will be done away with in the future. (Yes I promise, a steam-integratd lobby WILL be up). The server setup is now handled by a thread, which eliminates that nasty hang while waiting for the server to be up (about 10 seconds for some cases).
4) Automated LOD system implemented to automatically cut certain unnecessary emitters off, thereby improving performance and almost certainly eliminate the black triangle, poly syndrome problem with ATI users. How does it work?
a) Based on your Graphics -> Particle Density settings, the game will apply a limit on certain unnecessary particle emitters that will stop emitting when the total number of particles has reached a certain level OR the frame rate has dropped below a certain number.
b) If your frame rate drops below, ie, 30 fps - which is the mark for Medium settings, some emitters will stop emitting temporarily until the performance improves. High setting will have higher tolerance towards frame rate drops.
c) If the total amount of particles is too high, it'll cut. All game-affecting particles, ie, bullets, lasers etc will take priority. Therefore, if there're more ships firing at each other, even if your system can take the load, the game will limit itself before it hits the maximum particle threshold (before the black triangle aka poly syndrome appears). This is not a 100% fix as there might be a scenario where more than 10,000 bullets/projectiles can appear on screen at once, that will certainly cause the triangle effect on ATI cards.
d) The experience will be a little stuttering for slower machines. But we'll continue to take in feedback and make the necessary adjustments if need be.
Changes
1) For Mission 2, objectives have been modified to state more clearly what you're supposed to do. You're supposed to find the pirate and arrest him.
2) For Mission 5, it's discovered that the models all look pretty black and oily due to the angle of lighting. We've adjusted the lights to have a little more ambient so that you can see your ships and the enemy ships better.
3) IFF colours now look more obvious and you'll definitely know if that ship is yours or not better. Though, this has come at a cost; the IFF bands no longer react to diffuse lighting, and thus might look a little awkward under certain angles. But we recognize that players will value identification more over asthetics when they play. Again, we'll make modifications as necessary if there's feedback.
4) The following 2-step orders will no longer remove from selection when executed.
a. Move + position or ship
b. Attack + ship or position (attack move)
c. Launching Bombers + ship
This is to allow players to change their minds if they need to last minute on their targets and/or positions.
5) For Mission 5, neutral UNC ships will no longer attack you just because you accidentally fired upon them from behind. This hold true until you purposely target them. Upon knowing that, those neutral ships will turn hostile against you... permanently. Otherwise, stray hits will no longer cause that to happen.
Bug Fixes
- Listbox issues, scrolling, showing the final item, etc are all fixed.
- Fixed a bug where combined selection of ships, with the buttons clashing against each other at their designated position, some commands like request for NSAU gauntlet can still be triggered EVEN when the button isn't visible.
- Fixed a bug where sub-widgets that are hidden can actually trigger a onMouseOver event causing the cursor to change state.
- Fixed a small bug where selection ring colours are not updated when joining or leaving a fleet.
- Fixed a small bug where choosing fleet 1,2,3,4,5 to join fleet doesn't have any ESC button. The only way is to deselect and re-select the ships.
- Fixed a bug with timing achievements where everybody can get a 250 hours playtime achievement even when they've just played for 2 minutes. Achievements attained will still persist despite the fix.
- Fixed a bug where fleet requests may NOT always be on top. This is because not all fleet requests have asked to be insert from the top.
- Fixed a bug where NSAU turrets can sometimes exit from a wormhole looking weird like a glowing pancake.
- Fixed a bug where NSAU turrets can sometimes move up or down so much that they're effectively useless.
- Fixed a bug where NSAU turrets can sometimes IGNORE your will to move them even when their destination line is based on yours - they'll just drift away. That's fixed.
- Fixed a bug where NSAU turrets sometimes have a hard time going through wormholes. They take longer and almost certainly must be in the throat before going through.
- Added feature to allow fleets to be selected by CTRL+ double-clicking them.
- Added caching to introduction so that the cutscene will flow more smoothly while it transitions between scenes. (in some cases, the music even stopped for a short moment). Note: The real fix for this is to thread load the assets so that any delays will be borne by the thread, not the main game itself.
- Improved display resolution robustness for frequency rate failure. This will ensure that Foresight will always pick a supported resolution at the lowest refresh frequency FIRST if the default resolution isn't supported.
- Fixed a bug in Options menu where some options were never reverted correctly when Revert / Default button is pressed. (and confirmed)
- Fixed a bug where UNC ships are not deselected when they're chosen to be repaired by the Global Repair tool. It causes confused when the player double-right-click to cancel the tool, causing the ship (still selected) to move away thinking that it's a move order.
- Fixed a bug where fighter blips weren't displayed due to an incorrect condition. By default, fighter blips are displayed to highlight whose fighter/bomber belongs to who by holding TAB (default). Green means they belong to you. Red means the enemy. Yellow means allies and Cyan - neutrals.
- Fixed a fighter return approach issue where in certain cases, the fighters can overshoot the hangar causing it to drift out of the map until it stops - then it'll auto-recover and tries to land in the hangar again. This behavior is incorrect and is potentially deadly to exposed fighters/bombers. Now it's fixed to retry the moment the hangar is BEHIND its final approach vector.
Some fix requires a mission restart to apply. Ie, materials and lighting.