Seasons greetings, Forts fans!
Finally, 2020 is at an end, and to celebrate we are bringing you some festive cheers and a small update. We have brought back the holiday features with reskinned front end, holiday jingle and baubles, plus some tweaks and fixes.
2020 Retrospective
We hope you have been enjoying escaping the real world by jumping into the Forts world, with the may additions we have brought to the game over the last year. Let's have a look back at some of the highlights.
Commander Update
A few months back we released a huge free update for the commanders of Forts. This included huge rebalancing and a swathe of additional powers and abilities. As a result, we've seen the competitiveness of the fifteen commanders spread more evenly, with players moving away from the characters seen as traditionally strong, to see what the updated commanders have to offer. Click here to find out more!
Pro-HUD
While the vanilla game and the Moonshot DLC had their own unique HUDs, we wanted to experiment with our first mini-DLC. This re-skin adds a new lick of paint to the main console, reactor readouts, commander gauge and replay panel, as well as adding unique versions of these for the Moonshot HUD. This was perfect for players who wanted to refresh their Forts experience with a slick visual overhaul, while also supporting us as developers, for which they also received an in-game medal. Click here to find out more!
Steam Trading Cards
It only took three years, but Forts trading cards finally arrived on Steam, and boy did players enjoy them. Featuring a host of commanders, they were being traded immediately. Along with those, come emoticons, and steam backgrounds, my personal favourite. Click here to find out more!
Changelist 2020-12-22a
Add: console Enter, Backspace, Paste and Quit (for cmdlist command) rebind-able keys
- found at end of input/all keys
Add: log time to load environment resources for dropout debugging
Add: CPU info logging for performance debugging
Improve: when auto recessing, don't consider devices being scrapped
Improve: Updated to latest fmod 2.01.06
Improve: use translated ReplayCorrupt string
Improve: some Chinese translations, mostly commander descriptions
Improve: rename English 'Toggle mute chat' to 'Mute chat'
Fix: crash when viewing replays of games with a timer
Fix: (Eagle Eye) laser sight tip can show twice in quick succession
Fix: (Warthog) Howitzer doesn't receive 2 second reload reduction
Fix: (Warthog) second chance icons aren't removed cleanly when weapons are deleted or disconnected
Fix: mute chat button sometimes fails due to double clicking
Fix: pressing keys while binding in input screen jumps within the list
Fix: the console will process some keys while the IME is open
Fix: players who re-join after elimination can't see the commander panel
Fix: 'Host 5 moonshot lobbies' awarded to non-owners through ranked hosting
Fix: (Pyromaniac) AI sometimes doesn't build delete the EMP, therefore not building the cannon
- Add DD_* result codes to DeleteDevice* script functions
Fix: logging of AI DESTROY_DEVICE actions incorrect for ground devices
Fix: AI instantly gives up trying to build a ground device if it's obstructed by an existing one
Fix: a period in the installation path will prevent some textures from loading, or cause a crash
Fix: timeouts when loading dlc environments due to decompression of dlc packs on slow computers
Fix: slow loading of environment packs can cause some players to drop out
Fix: smoke doesn't block machinegun AA in Moonshot campaign
Fix: Pack does not allocate enough memory in mTempFile to load the largest pack file
Fix: host chat is not logged to own replay
Fix: crash when double clicking maps, replays and training maps with missing required maps/mods
Fix: EnableDeviceUpgrade and EnableWeaponUpgrade doesn't handle * wildcard properly
Fix: multiple upgrade icons issue when first upgrade device is disabled
Fix: workshop screen doesn't cycle through map previews, shows cycle button for mods
Fix: uniform weapon spread is inconsistent
Fix: clicking on a checkbox fails to correctly check and uncheck many settings
Fix: (Drop the Bomb) buildable ground above bombs has non-buildable surface
Changelist hotfix 2020-12-29a
Improve: additional lobbies can be shown in the lobby select screen (from 50 up to a theoretical 150)
Improve: reduce automatic lobby refresh from 5 to 10s to reduce chance of mis-click
Fix: open lobbies are displaced by closed lobbies when there are more than 50
Fix: in TDM players can see reactor health of team mates
Fix: (Pyromaniac) Cannon sometimes fails to build
Fix: (Rhino vs Tiger) Error: loading unknown effect mods/dlc1/effects/forcefield.lua at run-time; it must be pre-loaded
Changelist hotfix 2020-12-29a2
Improve: log last memory file separately to last store file for better crash debugging
Optimise: file select screens (replays, maps, mods) don't progressively update their dynamic layout, reducing load time significantly
Optimise: don't look for cladding triangles to remove when the destroyed node is a projectile or an orphan
Fix: the menu hangs for several seconds when updating the lobby select screen at busy times due to progressive dynamic layout updates
Fix: crash in DestroyDeviceById when device not found
Fix: (Tutorials) speech bubbles are stretched every time the mission is restarted
Fix: (Ranked) on timeout and disconnect while loading, crashes on filename construction in OnStartNewReplay
Fix: cladding triangles could remain after the associated node is deleted
Changelist hotfix 2021-01-08
Add: report button to player disconnection messages so they can still be reported after they leave a lobby
Add: minimum and maximum running average frame rate statistics (only at 1x speed)
Improve: video recording in replay while paused will resume, then pause at end
Improve: ignore effect spawned with invalid directions, and log add error message
Improve: support for Wine on Macs
Optimise: remove event functions for AI when operating in human assist mode
Fix: (ranked) deliberate disconnection can result in a win when Steam caches the change
Fix: (ranked) players can easily win by minigun rush then disconnecting
Fix: crash when upgrading device and platform is not found
Fix: crash on ranked scoring when local player times out
Fix: crash when selecting missiles of background team in Sandbox and Map Editor
Fix: crash when attempting to group a device that was destroyed in the same frame
Fix: crash when damage is applied to background structures
Fix: "Select" button does nothing in replay/file select after downloading required workshop items
Fix: crash when subscribing to items with % characters in some circumstances
Fix: output special characters correctly in player names and chat lines when sending reports
Fix: mods which don't set the fire speed and max fire radius create invalid positions when fired
Fix: crash when triggering context menu on a device that was destroyed in the same frame
Fix: attempts to record video at the end of replays sometimes succeed
Fix: crash in DeleteNode when deleting orphans
Fix: error message in BreakStructure when one of the nodes is deleted in the process
Fix: team Commander selection not updated when a player disconnects
Fix: (EnumerateLinks) PhysicsManager::VisitLinksFrom leaves struts in a marked state, causing destruction in unrelated code
Fix: if weapon min fire speed is zero it can create invalid speeds & positions
Fix: weapon max fire speed can be less than min fire speed
Fix: modded device capacity can be unreasonably large, causing overflow of UI elements (limited to 100k)
Fix: MinWindEfficiency not clamped to [0,1]
Fix: MaxFireClamp not clamped to [0,1]
Happy Holidays from all of us at EarthWork Games, and we'll see you in 2021 with more vaccines for your boredom!
Cheers,
EWG