Hello Spacers!
We've got another round of bugfixes and optimizations, as well as our first balance tweaks. On the balance front we've cut down the number of missiles the Pike can carry, which had previously escaped being cut in half in testing like all the other craft, and decreased the damage of 100mm Flak. These are pretty minor but should address some issues we've been seeing in multiplayer games.
Aside from a few bug and exploit fixes, optimization is at the center of this patch. With the number of signatures and sensors/seekers now active at any given time with the addition of spacecraft, I've overhauled the way signatures are managed and partitioned in the map so that sensors only have to evaluate the signatures that are nearby to them. Passive missile seekers in particular were also optimized substantially. In my benchmarks with 45 dual-seeker missiles searching for targets I saw an over 85% performance increase.
Right now I am splitting my time between Live branch work and developing the tools required for our next major update. Network optimization and further AI improvements (including making the Easy AI a little easier...) are the next things on my list for a near-term minor patch. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy!
Changes/Features:
- Decreased missile capacity of Pike S1 missile pylons to 2 (was 4).
- Updated bomb trail colors so they don't look like hybrids.
- Added a dedicated server admin !skipmap command.
- SALS and TALS launchers will now do a cold launch if firing from the neutral position because the target is out of arc.
- Made many optimizations to reduce per-frame memory allocation substantially.
- Improved performance of all passive missile seekers.
- Improved performance of sensor acquisition cycles with spatial partitioning.
- Decreased 100mm Flak damage to 20 (was 30).
- DC teams will now prioritize consuming restores from non-reinforced and low-DT lockers first.
- Weapons drawing ammo from magazines will now prioritize non-reinforced magazines followed by those with the highest starting quantity of the desired ammo.
- Increased max depression limit for Solomon BB MT1 to -2 degrees (was 0).
- Reduced dust particle density on Canyon.
- Modular missiles now take into account acceleration time when calculating the max range they display in the UI.
Bug Fixes:
- Fixed craft not checking for correct aspect on missile targets.
- Fixed being able to vote-kick server administrators.
- Fixed being able to submit conduct reports for CPU players.
- Fixed players being able to cancel dedicated server debrief end by changing their ready state when the !enddebrief command had been used.
- Fixed Vauxhall MT5 being too high.
- Fixed bomb trail VFX being culled when still inside camera frustum.
- Fixed BSHRT last damage second not being reset.
- Fixed being able to "bank" work in restoring a component for later use.
- Fixed AI ships not approaching a target they were ordered to scout if there was an unobstructed view but it was out of range.
- Fixed white highlight circles remaining in space if a track was lost was hovered with the mouse.
- Fixed craft cruise distance remaining display not accounting for if HBRN was on.
- Fixed missile seekers being pulled off targets by signatures which have had their radius increased by a modifier.
- Fixed exploit allowing hotkeys to be assigned to allied and enemy ships.
- Fixed some Moorline DC board segments having their components misaligned when scaled.
- Fixed ships continuing to maintain heading to a track lost via comms jamming.
See you in the battlespace,
- The NEBULOUS Team