Modern Toolchain Test Builds 112589-pte / 112585-pte / 112575-pte / 112527-pte

Seasons Greetings Commanders,

As we enter the holiday season we bring you a little present in the form of not one, but two(!) Public Test Environment (PTE) builds. That’s right, the choice is yours. But before we get ahead of ourselves, a little reminder that PTE builds are opt-in and an opportunity for you to try out new features before we move them to stable. They may be a little unstable, a little rough around the edges, but they’re the cutting edge of Planetary Annihilation. Check this guide on how to opt-in to PTE.

Work on Planetary Annihilation started back in 2012, and it was built using the latest and greatest tooling at the time. But like the Progenitors, things have moved on and tooling has improved. This PTE comes in both legacy and modern build flavours, using either the build tools PA has been using since release, or the modern 2018 goodness. Newer tools allow us to lower RAM usage and boost performance, among other benefits. Of course this also means it’s less well tested and therefore possibly less stable at this time.

The PTE will be running its own servers, separate from the stable servers, and all of them running the modern build. This is the place to come for cutting edge performance. Bring your friends!

It’s not just about tech though, there’s a host of goodness packed into this update. In particular, the AI has once again undergone brain surgery to improve the way it evaluates battles, making it smarter about when to fight and when to ru… execute a tactical withdrawal.

Modders should make sure to hop onto this PTE to take advantage of the new audio modding capabilities and get their sweet audio goodness ready to launch alongside this update when it hits stable.

We also nipped in the bud most of the major crash sources we’ve identified. You can help us find more by running the modern build. We salute your sacrifice, Commander.

tl;dr

  • two clients available (stable legacy-pte and cutting-edge modern-pte for testing)
  • official PTE servers using modern toolchain builds
  • 1v1 ranked maps expanded with four community maps from WPMarshall and GrandHomie for a total of 15 maps
  • 1v1 ranked lobby is now anonymous showing Player 1 and Player 2
  • 1v1 ranked lobby leave option has been removed
  • AI improvements with reworked and retrained neural networks
  • AI commander selection (as promised)
  • Server crash fixes
  • NEW audio modding

Balance Changes

  • Pelican cost increased to 160 and health decreased to 150
  • Locust cost increased to 260
  • Spinner range increased to 120

Technical Notes

Next year we will be moving to PAnet, which will replace the legacy UberNet infrastructure with modern server environments. Eventually all the legacy Windows servers will be replaced with faster modern Linux servers.

Toolchains

Software development toolchain: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toolchain

Legacy toolchain

  • Visual Studio 2012 / Windows 8 SDK
  • Xcode 5.0.1 / macOS Mountain Lion for macOS Lion 10.7+
  • Legacy steam linux runtime / GCC 4.8.4

Modern toolchain

  • Visual Studio 2017 latest / Windows 10 SDK latest
  • Xcode 10.1 / macOS 10.14.1 latest for macOS Mavericks 10.9+
  • Modern steam linux runtime / GCC 5.4.1 (currently limited by steam linux runtime)

Community Maps

Server Improvements

  • Faster modern toolchain build

AI Improvements

  • Completely reworked the AI’s neural network fitness function to improve how the AI evaluates the outcome of a battle
    • Instead of being based on the difference between each and every input before and after the encounter, the fitness function now primarily looks at which side lost more metal value. Not every encounter results in a metal loss, so the fitness function also compares unit count losses as well as health losses, but they don’t count nearly as much as metal losses
  • AI commander selection in new game lobby

Server Fixes

  • Fix for crash if the AI was trying to teleport a fabber or commander to a planet as the planet was destroyed
  • Fix for multiple cases where a unit could be removed from a platoon (dropping the reference) before being added to a new platoon, causing a crash later on in the game
  • Fix for crash if the commander did not have an Uber cannon spec
  • Fix for build arms not ticking in multi-threading enabled servers causing fabbers/commanders to not face their build targets
  • Fix for crash if a fabber/commander was assisting in the construction of a projectile that died
  • Fix for a crash if a projectile target died and was cleaned up by the sim
  • Improved fix for players disconnecting from new game lobby not being removed from game

Client Improvements

  • Reorganised start menu is now scrollable with more space for menu items
  • Improved commander and colour selection in new game lobby

Client Fixes

  • Fix for ESC key locking up the start menu if no video was playing
  • Fix for community videos not showing if community mods not enabled

Modding

  • NEW audio modding:
    • api.sound.playSoundFromFile(path)
    • api.sound.playSoundFromFileAtLocation(path, x, y, z)
    • api.sound.registerCueMod(cue, path)
    • api.sound.unregisterCueMod(cue)
  • NEW build.txt with original build number (will differ from version.txt for legacy clients)
  • NEW gBuild global with original build number from build.txt accessible in all scenes
  • NEW –version command line option to override version.txt for targeting a different server build

https://forums.planetaryannihilation.com/threads/modern-toolchain-test-build-112527-pte.73222/

TITANS 1v1 Ranked Ladder Reset and Seasons Update 112314

Hello Commanders,

The official TITANS 1v1 ranked ladder was reset on 2018-11-02 at 06:00 UTC starting a new season that ends on 2019-01-24.

The player holding the Uber #1 position at the end of this season will be shipped an Invictus Commander statue, a beautiful item that everyone should want in their trophy cabinet.

There will be new 1v1 ranked maps later this month with at least one new map every month.

Current Map Pool (11)

  • Amplus
  • Berg
  • Blitz
  • Clutch
  • Crag
  • Duat
  • Forge
  • Lock
  • Meso
  • Pacific
  • Roc

1v1 Ranked Seasons in 2019

Starting in 2019 each 1v1 ranked season lasts 3 months with a ladder reset at the start of every season.

2019 Seasons

  1. 2019-01-25 – 2019-04-25
  2. 2019-04-26 – 2019-07-24
  3. 2019-07-25 – 2019-10-24
  4. 2019-10-25 – 2020-01-23

1v1 Ranked Fixes

  • Fix for never-ending 1v1 ranked queue after a network error

1v1 Ranked Display Improvements

  • 1v1 rank and inactivity displayed in start menu (moved into base game from community mods)
  • 1v1 rank display in game over (moved into base game from community mods)

1v1 Ranked Work in Progress

The following are still in development / testing:

  • Tweaks to limit highest initial placement to Gold
  • Inactive 1v1 ranked ladder decay (slowly lose points if you’re not active)
  • Visible points display
  • Penalties for disconnecting instead of surrendering

Technical Notes

Server Improvements

  • Experimental multi-threading on official servers (still legacy toolchain and infrastructure)
  • More performance and memory usage improvements to navigation cost cells
  • Logging of server rate
  • Logging of system free memory (currently windows only)

AI Improvements

  • Further refinement of AI aggression
  • Adjusted how the AI chooses where to expand
  • Performance improvements
  • Retrained neural networks

Server Fixes

  • Fix for AI Platoon::numUnitsOfType server crash
  • Fix for AI chooseStartLocation server crash when passed bad data
  • Fix for AI attempting to transfer a unit to a planet that did not have an initial planet manager assigned
  • Fix for AI getting stuck building no factories if it is modified to remove the ability for the AI to build one or more factory types
  • Fix for a multi-threading crash

Client Improvements

  • More visible orbital attack lines in the orbital path visualiser

Client Fixes

  • Fix for particle emitter crash when emitter has an invalid fx_trail_spec

Modding

  • MatchmakingUtility.getSeasonEndDate()
  • New gVersion global with current build number accessible in all scenes
  • api.game.isPTE()
  • UTC start_timestamp (landing time) and end_timestamp (game over) in server control state to calculate accurate game elapsed (note that valid_time_range.min is the in-game landing time

Multi-threading, Performance and AI Improvements Updates 112176 / 112209 / 112214

Greetings Commanders,

It took us a little longer than we expected to prepare this build in light of some server issues last weekend, which are now resolved.

This is our first new build on the legacy toolchain and will be the first of many once we stablise our modern toolchain builds.

Our focus is on speed and stability as we work to ensure we’re in the best place possible ahead of upgrading the technologies which underpin the game. We’ve implemented numerous server sim performance improvements, while also resolving a number of the most common causes of server-side crashes.

You should still make sure your graphics drivers are up-to-date as out of date drivers are still the most common cause of client issues. Seriously. Go do it now!

Over time we’ve seen the competitive meta settle, revealing some very visible imbalances. No one likes those. We’ve introduced some small changes to fix things. Balance is as much an art as it is a science, so we’ll continue to monitor and adjust as necessary.

The AI has also seen some love, upgraded to be more ruthless than ever. It’s in it to win it, with an upgraded neural net, along with additional behavioural improvements.

Finally, rumour has it some kind of ladder reset is fast approaching…

Titans Balance

  • Advanced Air, Bot, Vehicle and Naval Factory cost increased by 25% to 4,500 (minor delay to T2 rush)
  • Slammer cost increased to 500 (minor adjustment against Leveler)
  • Solar Array cost decreased to 1,600 (minor adjustment against land-based advanced power)
  • Gil-E vision increased to 220 (vision now matches weapon range)
  • Bluehawk range increase to 220 (buff as a counter e.g. Kaiju)
  • Pelican health increased to 200 with group (formation) preference set to back (increased survivability)
  • Stingray vision increased to 250 with new radar and sonar of 350 (new cruiser role as naval radar)
  • Typhoon vision increased to 250 with drone guard radius of 250 and passive health regen reduced to -2 (20 seconds)
  • Kaiju rate of fire decreased to 0.5 shots per second (minor nerf)

Technical Notes

AI

  • Adjusted the neural network fitness function
  • Neural networks have all been re-trained for Titans and Classic
  • Threat response platoons now see amphibious units as anti-sub threat

Added a couple of new target filtering options, a new neural net input, and a few new outputs

  • AI does a better job of gathering and using intel as well as caching it for later use to improve performance
  • When looking for a place to attack, the AI will now take into account neighbouring areas when determining what size of a force to use
  • The AI will now look for more fights that it can win rather than fights it can at least tie
  • Fix for AI platoons that would get stuck trying to disband
  • Adjusted how much the AI raids
  • Improved AI neural data merging
  • Fixed bug preventing the AI from attacking when it should have been
  • Adjusted AI aggressiveness

Server / Simulation Performance

  • Adjusted how search spaces are updated in an effort to get through as many of them as possible per tick
  • During the nav update, more of an effort is made to allow as many search spaces as possible generate their high level path so units can start moving faster
  • Added a fail safe to allow nav to steal more voxel budget if it is having a tough time getting through search spaces
  • This will give nav an opportunity to fulfill a larger number of move requests over a shorter time
  • We now query a search space to ensure we have enough voxel budget remaining for the space to prevent doing a bunch of useless work
  • Added the count of updating search spaces in nav to the perf output window
  • More aggressive filtering of collision pairs to reduce the number of pairs we have to check
  • Nav now attempts to pre-allocate the cost cells it will need for the updating search spaces it has
  • Search spaces now return their cost cells to nav when they are finished so they can be reused later
  • Moved the spatial DB update for dynamic objects so that it only happens once, at most, per update

Server / Simulation Multi-Threading

Please note multi-threading must be enabled for your server.

  • The task scheduler now supports running the plan step of parallel tasks (such as weapon auto targeting and auto manoeuvring) at the same time, per unit
  • Entity record step now runs in parallel
  • The nav and physics updates now run alongside the economy update
  • Added multi-thread support for the heavy parts of the recon update
  • Units can now update their weapon aims in parallel
  • The physics update now supports multi-threading
  • The small island build is now multi-threaded per sector
  • This helps in-game perf as well as system loading
  • Added –max-threads command line to set the max number of background threads

Crash Reporting

  • Improved crash reporting for all platforms
  • Crash dumps are now stored in the log folder (varies by OS) instead of a temp folder.
  • On Windows, a DxDiag report (stripped of all personally identifiable info) is now automatically attached to crash reports.

Crash Fixes

  • Fix for crash if, during the same tick, a search space was marked for removal and then another search space was created for the same destination
  • Fix for rebuilding the collision geometry BVH when it wasn’t needed
  • Fix for crash in swizzle tree from trying to evaluate log(0), in a rare case
  • Fix for big game crashes caused when the flood runner gets a request from a search space with an invalid goal location
  • Fix for virtual texture binding crash on the client

Modding

  • icon atlases now use grids which increases the maximum strategic icons (52x52px) on an 8K texture (older GPUs) to 157 x 157 (24,649) and on a 16K texture (modern GPUs) to 315 x 315 (99,225) resulting in a breaking change to the following shaders:
    • particle_direct_ring_selection.vs
    • particle_direct.vs
    • particle_icon.vs
    • particle_status_icon.fs
    • particle_status_icon.vs
  • strategic icon mods should use the new utility function calculateAtlasUV (added to particle_common.vs) replacing:
    • v_TexCoord = vec2(a_TexCoord.x, vUVAndExtra.x + vUVAndExtra.y * (1.0 – a_TexCoord.y)); with v_TexCoord = calculateAtlasUV(vUVAndExtra.xy);

Server Issues Resolved

Our legacy infrastructure hit a 10GB limit for archived game summaries. That’s a lot of games!

112209

112209 build is now live to help us track down the cause of sim speed stalls and includes a fix for the XOV commander crash on Linux.

112214

112214 build is now live with a fix for missing metal spot icons in the system editor.

Future of PA and Titans Update

We wanted to share some of the things we’ve been working on and that are currently in the pipeline:

  • Ladder reset for 1v1 giving everyone a fresh shot at hitting the top of the ladder
  • Working on server performance and optimizations to improve player experience (some of these optimizations have already been made)
  • New 1v1 ranked maps

We will let everyone know as these come online.

Also, for those of you who did not see the announcement, Community Mods, the Community Dedicated Server, Community Chat and Legion Expansion support are now up and running.

Hotfix 110069 is now live!

This hotfix resolves the SSL issue preventing MacOS users from being able to sign in. A separate fix for the PA Launcher will be rolled out next and we will release that as soon as it is ready. Thank you again for being patient with us and happy annihilating!

Update: A fix for the PA Launcher on MacOS has been released. However, there is a new bug that has appeared on the Windows PA Launcher that causes it to get stuck in an update loop. For the time being, please hit Cancel and it will allow you to continue to play Offline for now while we sort this out. Thank you for understanding.

Second Update: The issue with the Windows PA Launcher has now been resolved and you should be able to launch the game again using any platform and any OS. Thank you for bearing with us as we worked through this issue!

Hotfix build 110029 is now live

This hotfix resolves the SSL issue preventing most people from being able to sign in.

We are aware that there is still an issue with MacOS as well as the PA Launcher. We are still working on tracking those down and will release a fix as soon as we are able. Thank you for your continued patience.

Official Chinese Localizations now live on build 109959

We’re happy to announce that we now included official translations in Traditional and Simplified Chinese. Enjoy!

我們很高興地宣布，我們現在包括繁體和簡體中文的官方翻譯。 請享用！

我们很高兴地宣布，我们现在包括繁体和简体中文的官方翻译。 请享用！

The Balance and Community Servers Update 108271 is now live!

Balance changes
Zeus

  • Reduced Zeus effective rate of fire to 0.5 from 0.67
  • Increased Zeus ammo per shot and capacity to 10,000 from 9,000
  • Decreased Zeus ammo demand to 5,000 from 6,000

Leveller

  • Increased Leveler build cost to 800 from 600
  • Decreased Leveler turn rate to 50 from 60

Gil-E

  • Increased Titans Gil-E range from 180 to 220 for Titans (same range as Classic PA)

Titans vs Classic PA

  • Titans Leveler ammo velocity is slower (140 vs 150)
  • Titans Gil-E health is lower (150 vs 200)
  • Titans Gil-E build cost is lower (800 vs 1200)
  • Titans Gil-E weapon can also target WL_Air

Polish/fixes

  • Fixed sudden death mode not displayed for other players in new game lobby (patched via community mods)
  • Fixed zoom to celestial for POV camera
  • Added tooltip for POV camera button
  • Fixed attack, move attack and area attack for point / follow units to attack from max weapons range instead of rushing into and hugging target eg bots, hornets, etc.
  • Fixed multiple saves during same game corrupting config
  • Community Servers Support:
  • Posting community servers beacon
  • support for 32 players with 16 alliances
  • command line option –gameover-timeout
  • command line option –community-servers-url
  • command line option –community-server-public-host
  • command line option –community-server-region
  • added missing help for recently added command line options.
  • added state to server beacon
  • added offworld support for AI only (no human players) testing

Enhancement Update 105067

A host of new custom commanders, free for everyone!

  • Added Locust, XOV, Reaver, spz58624, raizell, visionik, tykus24, mostlikely, nagasher, zancrowe, kevin4001, damubbster, commandonut, sadiga, jt00010177, vidicarus

Balance changes:

  • Removed friendly commander reclaim
  • Changed grenadier group preference to back
  • Changed default bounty to 0.25

POV Camera Mode, Spectator Selection, Holodeck Improvements

  • A POV camera mode that follows a unit and watches the action from their perspective! The default keybind for this is Ctrl+Shift+M.
  • More details can be found on the following thread in our forums: https://forums.uberent.com/threads/new-pov-camera-mode-testing.72119/

Alternative Win Conditions

  • Sudden death for teams (protect your weakest player)

Sim Speed Control for Local Servers

  • Added sim speed control for local servers with key bindings -/=

AI Improvements

  • Added AI shared armies
  • Added resume anywhere for AI games with no human players

Fixes

  • Fixed black screen joining game over state
  • Added social notifications when uberbar hidden
  • Fixed broken classic galatic war saves with missing combined unit_list.json for.ai and .player spec tags
  • Changed handling of look at player for spectators to use units
  • Changed label for dynamic alliances eco sharing from RESC to SHARE ECO

Modding

  • Added Friendly_Commander reclaim type and excluded friendly commanders from default unit reclaim type. Commander reclaim can be enabled again by adding Friendly_Commander to reclaim_types.

The Performance Update: Titans Update 99377

Summary of Changes

  • Added Multi-threading support to both client and local servers
  • Tweaked AI
  • LZ4 compression for server mods
  • Major rework of the System Editor
  • Lots of bug fixes and polish

Full changelog below

Multi-threading support

  • Added option to server settings tab to enable multi-threading for local servers.
  • Added server command line option “–mt-enabled” which enables server multi-threading if present.
  • The Nav, Physics, and AI updates are now run in parallel when enabled.
  • These changes do not affect PA servers, only local and private servers (if configured)

AI changes

  • Retrained all AI neural networks.
  • Made changes to reduce AI baiting
  • Support for unit restrictions in new game lobby (work in progress)
  • Added multi-thread safety to the AI neural networks

LZ4 compression for server mods

  • Enable LZ4 server mod compression on servers with replay version >= 2, to help reduce client load times on servers with large mods
  • Added check to enable LZ4 server mod compression only on new servers that can support compression based on replay version sent in login acceptance message.
  • Currently this also changes replays. Older builds cannot load replays created by newer builds with LZ4 compression of server mods, but newer builds can load older replays
  • Server version and buildid also sent in login acceptance message will be used for custom server checks in future.

System Editor changes
Refactored system_editor UI, system_editor_view and system_editor_planet

  • Fixed issues where CSG would be lost
  • Fixed lost advanced edits due to events not firing
  • Fixed resolution scaling not set causing incorrect air zoom calculation
  • Fixed unnecessary rebuilding when changing planet
  • Fixed metal spots disappearing when finished editing (invalid placement)

Camera, camera_controller, camera_contoller_planet and camera_controller_space changes:

  • Added mouseLocationAsJson
  • Added toLatLng (was planet private)

System_editor_view and system_editor_planet changes:

  • Fixed encodeCSGBrushListJson to encode preview brushes or builder brushes in planet
  • Fixed addMetalSpot to validate metal spot and any mirror when placed
  • Renamed senedSelectedPlanetToUI to selectedPlanetChanged and cleaned up usage in view
  • Renamed sendSystemSpecToUI to systemChanged and cleaned up usage in view
  • Renamed updateUIPlanetMetalSpots to selectedPlanetMetalSpotsChanged and cleaned up usage in view
  • Renamed updateUIPlanetLandingZones to selectedPlanetLandingZonesChanged and cleaned up usage in view
  • Added selectedPlanetCsgChanged to view
  • Moved terrain editing status from view into planet (it’s per planet which fixes lost CSG and unncecessary rebuilds)
  • Moved UI interaction out of planet world into view
  • Moved UI planets ready from planet world to view and renamed to updatePlanetsReady
  • Added arePlanetsReady to planet world
  • Added basic camera lookAt support for planet mode to view (TODO: space camera)
  • Added systemEditor.convertSelectedPlanetToAdvanced for advanced editing in UI to view and planet
  • Added selectedPlanetEditingChanged and selected_planet_editing message for advanced editing in UI to view
  • Added selectedPlanetEditingAsJsonMessage to view
  • Added setLandingZoneSize to planet for advanced editing in UI to view and planet
  • Added camera_movement message for UI to view
  • Added planent_csg updates for UI with selected planet index and current CSG selection for every change when editing terrain to view
  • Added selected_csg message for UI when selectected CSG changes to view
  • Added editing mode and planet status to selected_planet_index message for UI to view
  • Added mouse location to time message for UI (to avoid spamming another UI message) to view
  • Refactored state handling to use new engine messages
  • Added handling to restore editing state when changing planets

System Editor Advanced mode changes

  • Changed advanced edit of no preview placeholder to convert with no csg, metal spots or landing zones
  • Changed advanced edit of terrain preview to convert csg only with no metal spots or landing zones
  • Disabled advanced edit mode changes while planets are building
  • Added landing zone rules editor with camera support to look at landing zone when selected
  • Added landing zone size
  • Added display of delete key bindings when editing metal spots and landing zones
  • Added camera location
  • Added mouse location

System_editor_view / system_editor_planet, csg_brush_preview changes

  • Added resetSystem for loading entire system
  • Added previewSelectedPlanet and updateSelectedPlanet
  • Added releaseCsg and changed grabSelectedCsg to save original position
  • Added cameraLookAt with space camera to focus on sun
  • Added cancel check to release grabbed CSG
  • Added saveUndoPosition and restoreUndoPosition to CSG brush preview
  • Renamed buildAllPlanets to previwAllPlanets
  • Tweaked setLandingZoneSize
  • Tweaked systemChanged and selectedPlanetChanged from first pass
  • Tweaked updatePlanetSpec

Additonal changes

  • Added basic camera support to planet view in system editor via camera_movement handler and api.camera.lookAt
  • Added planet selector with sun zoom to celestial (no more accidentally changing orbits trying to select a planet)
  • Added thrusters required for attack to advanced edit
  • Added clickable CSG command bar showing key bindings when CSG selected (was key bindings help)
  • Added api.terrain_editor.releaseCsg with ESC handling to cancel grabbed CSG and restore original position
  • Added sandbox back into biomes
  • Cleaned up handling of planetCSG, metal_spots and landing_zones conversion to source > brushes, metal_spots, landing_zones
  • Cleaned up initial loading of system
  • Added buildAllPlanets to replace convertAllToTerrainPlanets with checks for existing status to system_editor_view
  • Added resize handling to system editor when editing controls section overflows screen height eg long landing zone lists
  • Added key bindings help when editing csg to system editor
  • Tweaked advanced landing zone size and selected csg updates in system editor
  • Added api.settings.title
  • Added systemEditor.set_flooded_csg and systemEditor.set_no_features_csg
  • Tweaked handling of release CSG
  • Added hasUndoPosition and checks for newly placed CSG with no undo position
  • Fixed message spam when planet or CSG grabbed
  • Fixed csg selection not cleared when ending CSG editing
  • Fixed selected csg not updated when placing new CSG
  • Fixed flooded and weight params not preserved in preview CSG

Bug fixes/improvements
Client_connection changes

  • Added CONNECT_TIMEOUT of 5 seconds and STATE_INITIALIZED
  • Added RECONENCT_DELAY of 0.5 seconds and STATE_RECONNECTING
  • Changed MAX_RETRIES to 2 ( best handled in UI where we can provide feedback)
  • Fix for change from list to vector in ThreadPool and TaskBatch where mTasks size is 1 (macos crash fix).

Connect_to_game scene

  • Added cancel button visible for non Ladder1v1 games after first failure which cancels immediately if no penidng engine connection
  • Changed DEFAULT_CONNECTION_ATTEMPTS to 5 (now less in engine)
  • Added DEFAULT_CONNECT_DELAY of 2 seconds when connecting to a new local server (reduces chance of first time fail while server is still starting)
  • Added DEFAULT_RETRY_DELAY of 5 seconds
  • Added connection attempts of 15 with retry delay of 10 seconds when loading local saved games (server is non responsive when loading big saved games)

Other fixes

  • Updated to FMOD 4.44.64
  • Attempted fix for AMD green planet bug
  • Fixed missing build bar images for Enderstryke71 and Nefelpitou commanders.
  • Fixed incorrect economy rate when new player joins an empty slot cleared by another player leaving / kicked / spectating (or an AI removed) that was an economy rate not 1.0
  • Fixed long timeouts with many retries when connecting to non existent or stealh blocked servers.
  • Fixed loading of big saved games
  • Added cancel button while connecting to server
  • Fix for planet wide patrol task not getting enough initial patrol points, causing the task to constantly reset itself and cause lag.
  • Patrol task, auto repair task, and anti entity task now filter possible targets faster. This represents a decent perf boost for later game.
  • Fixed bounty claimed by ally voice over playing in group for nuclear missle ready.
  • Removed the ?_? AI name, since it was not displaying properly on at least one platform.
  • Fixed lobbyId typo in start rejoinGame, lobbyId not set in matchmaking, ko db extender breaking systems and player guide not scrollable
  • Fixed rejoinGame not settings mods, etc due to consistent use of lobbId vs lobby_id
  • Fixed lobbyId not saved in matchmaking
  • Fixed broken systems when not initialised correctly with default value of empty array by ko db extender
  • Fixed player guide not scrollable due to incomplete white flash fix
  • Fixed server mods not uploaded during host connect for manually started local server
  • Changed community mods CDN URL
  • Removed the Mutex from swizzletree. Instead mEnumerationCount is a std::atomic.
  • Fix for an uninitialized variable that was preventing users from being able to change the playback rate of replays
  • Removed a couple of very spammy log messages
  • Fix for burnables attempting to write out to the burning curve during the shutdown call when the curve was already updated by the call to incinerate on the same tick.
  • We no longer query the order’s unit’s position for every pass of (is my fellow unit close enough to me). For area patrols with lots of units, this is a huge perf win.
  • Fixed the army patrol target cache to work more like it was initially intended.
  • Added sim performance percentage next to game time in live_game_options_bar.
  • Fix for agent looking at wrong move type value when determining if it should just steer towards its slot position.
  • Fix for formation looking at wrong move type value when determining grid and cushion size.
  • Fix for group moving an agents goal to its slot position when the slot position is not valid.
  • Fixed nav agent logic regarding when to steer towards their group slot position and when to use their own ground path.
  • Fix for a nav agent variable getting modified on when it wasn’t supposed to be.
  • Adjusted the logic controlling what nav search spaces get updated per tick.
  • Minor adjustment to nav to prevent units from remaining stuck due to not having a flow field for an extended amount of time.
  • Adjusted nav group logic so that slots are not treated as ahead of the group when the group is not moving.
  • Added gNoMods to startupJS for better handling of –nomods by community mods.
  • Added cores, memory and nomods to getSetupInfo and UI start scene.
  • More multi-threading protection for the unit type db.
  • Fix for Collision Geometry potentially rebuilding its BVH in one thread while another thread is walking the tree. Would only occur if there were multiple AIs and multi threading was enabled.
  • Fix for uninitialized variable in nav agent.
  • Adjusted AsyncParallelForDriver to split work more evenly over threads.
  • Added getVersion to AudioWrapper, NullAudioWrapper, FmodAudioWrapper with decoding and logging of FMOD version.
  • Added getVersion / getRenderer / getShaderVersion to GLRasterizer, NullRasterizer and Rasterizer
  • Added fmod_version, opengl_version, opengl_renderer and opengl_shader_version in getSetupInfo for UI
  • Moved where feature observables are removed to prevent features from mutating the sim history during the retire entities step.
  • Fix for octree::walk deleting the FindState we are working before we were really done with it.
  • Fix for failing to parse a unit type string if one of the unit types returned an empty spec set. This can happen if a spec string includes one of the Custom unit types, but there are no mods installed that makes use of that unit type.
  • Added defeated status and AI personality to army replay info
  • We are no longer allocating a string eveytime we validate a build order. We do this often enough that this is a decent perf improvement.
  • Added checkboxes for selected CSG pathable, mergable, no features and flooded flags
  • Added display of selected CSG JSON (temporary until full parameter editing is finished)
  • Added clearMergableCsg, setFloodedCsg, clearFloodedCsg, setNoFeaturesCsg and clearNoFeaturesCsg to api.terrain_editor
  • Improved and renamed respondToResize to checkResize with cleaner handling of landing zone and CSG json overflow
  • Fixed uninitialised weight, weightHard and weightScale
  • Fixed revert to standard mode while advanced editing with zero CSG, metal spots and landing zones
  • Fixed remote saved games not showing last saved time and incorrectly sorting to bottom of saved games list
  • Fixed minor scroll overflow in frame for player guide article
  • Fixed –nomods handling using new gNoMods in connect to game, new game and replay loading
  • Fixed api.net.joinGame never returning for invalid lobbyId
  • Added cancel to join game after waiting 10 seconds

Community Update 94684

Summary of Changes

  • Community Mods in-game mod manager
  • Custom Server support
  • Server improvements
  • New modding capabilities
  • Numerous UI enhancements
  • Tons of bug fixes

Full changelog below.

Community Mods in game mod manager

No external application required. Uninstall your mods in PAMM first and then reinstall them through Community Mods.

  • added community mods in game mod manager to start menu
  • added auto updating of mods
  • added dependency tracking to automatically enable and disable dependency mods
  • replaces PAMM (PA Mod Manager) external application

Custom Server support

No mods required.

  • added game server browser support for hosting, joining and spectating custom server games
  • added game invite support for custom servers
  • added game configuration in new game support for custom servers
  • added reconnect support for custom servers to start menu
  • custom servers now advertise max players and max spectators

Servers

Applies to Uber and custom servers:

  • added metalClusters, metalDensity, landing_zones_count, metal_spots_count and planetCSG_count to game beacons and system info
  • added support for 32 colours
  • added support for custom commanders
  • added support for selecting of AI commander
  • added server mod identifiers to game beacons
  • added support for custom servers to advertise max players and max spectators in game config beacons
  • added –max-players and –max-spectators command line options
  • added –server-password command line option
  • added –default-lobby-name command line option
  • added –default-game-type command line option
  • added –replay-timeout command line option to set timeout when replay will be written even if clients still connected
  • added –replay-filename command line option
  • added UTCTIMESTAMP token for –replay-filename to automatically name replays based UTC timestamp
  • added support for lobby chat history
  • added support for lobby custom json messages (will also add to playing)
  • improved support for server mods status
  • added support for server mods in replays and saved games
  • fixed null secondary colour causing server crash when starting game and showing new game commanders cinematic
  • added validation of secondary colour

Modding

General

  • added support for Legion Expansion mod
  • added support for companion mods to reduce the size of large server mods
  • added game info to session, connect_to_game and various scenes:
  • serverType / game_server_type (local|uber|custom)
  • serverSetup / game_server_setup (game|replay|loadsave)
  • gameType / game_type (Galactic War|Ladder1v1|FFA|TeamArmies)
  • gameModIdentifiers / game_mod_identifiers (work in progress)
  • deprecated joinLocalServer / join_local_server in preference to isLocalGame / is_local_game
  • changed isLocalGame to use the same is_local_game session key everywhere
  • changed join_lobby helper to use isLocalGame
  • updated to latest knockoutjs 3.4
  • added save method to storage extenders

New Game

  • added support for model.send_message(‘set_ai_commander’, {id: model.playerId(), commander: commanderSpecString});
  • fixed empty spectators (playersWithoutArmies)
  • added spectatorCount observable
  • added emptySpectatorSlots observable
  • added serverModsState (uploading/downloading/mounting/mounted) string observable
  • added buildVersion string observable
  • added isLocalGame boolean observable
  • added gameModIdentifiers
  • added serverMods observable array
  • added gameCheats observable arary
  • added localChatMessage(name, message)
  • added mods lobby chat message type
  • added registerHoldReady(identifier, info)
  • added unregisterHoldReady(identifier)
  • added registerJsonMessageHandler(identifier, handler, priority)
  • added unregisterJsonMessageHandler(identifier, handler)
  • added sendJsonMessage(object)

Live Game

  • exposed listen_to_spectators in GameOptionModel
  • fixed lobbyId not set

Build Bar

  • improved modability of build bar (wondible)

Icon Atlas / Strategic Icons

  • added engine support for server mods and reloading (Uber)

Uberbar

  • updated to latest strophe (xmpp used by uberbar and PA Chat)

APIs

  • added api.download for community mods manager (Uber)
  • added api.file.list for community mods manager (Uber)
  • added api.file.zip for community mods manager (Uber)
  • added api.memory.remount for community mods manager (Uber)
  • added api.mods.getMounted (Uber)
  • deprecated api.mods.getMountedMods (Uber)

Engine

  • implemented watcher support for OS X / linux
  • implemented memory mounted shader reloading

5. Polish

Game Server Browser

  • added saving of game server browser filters with reset filters button

Connect To Game

  • added status messages when mounting server mods
  • added busy animation
  • added mounting of server mods when starting game (moved from new game lobby to fix many UI issues)

Galactic War

  • changed default save name to include time

New Game

  • added lobby chat history
  • added planet radius, metal / custom metal, custom landing and custom csg in a tooltip to planets
  • added halleys required and increased size of planet icons
  • added highlights to econ rate when not 1.0
  • moved mounting of server mods when starting game to connect to game

Live Game

  • changed default save name to include time
  • changed global spectator chat default to team chat
  • added spectator label for spectator chat

Live Game Planets

  • added display of metal spots count to tooltip in planets summary
  • reduced size of planets summary tooltip to minimise overlap with preview
  • added metal spots count to planet list with localised metal tooltip
  • reduced height of planets list for large systems with many planets

Live Game Players

  • added right click look at player in PIP
  • added right click track commander in PIP

Uberbar

  • added searching by display name
  • added lobby status to game invites
  • added cancelling of game invites if full or inviter leaves lobby
  • improved reconnect handling

Replay Loading

  • added support for server mods in replays and saved games
  • added downloading server mods status

6. Fixes

GPU

  • fixed windows laptops with AMD GPUs to always use discrete (Uber)
  • fixed negative output of dither in HDR compose pass… should fix crash on Intel 5xx GPUs (Uber)

Audio

  • fixed windows 10 audio issues with updated FMOD (Uber)

Uberbar

  • fixed display names not updating
  • fixed buy missing content dialog description when a classic player is invited to a titans game
  • fixed a long standing issue where a network / data issue or reloading the uberbar reset the user tag map and killed friends list
  • fixed the ubernet extender to not lose data or use bad data from playfab or local storage
  • fixed the ubernet extender to correctly check previous and not update on refresh
  • fixed long standing issue with large user tag and id to interaction time maps (based on optimise user tag map)
  • fixed a long standing issue where idToJabberPresenceTypeMap and idToJabberPresenceStatusMap were not written to session storage
  • fixed long standing issue where searches of existing friends add duplicates to friends list
  • fixed invites to private games
  • fixed long standing issue where previously accepted game invite fails then later invite from same person teleports you into new game without confirmation

New Game

  • fixed game password lost after refresh, selecting system, settings, etc
  • fixed cannot join empty slot issue where player disconnects without leaving
  • fixed the many issues caused by new game lobby loading without server mods ready and the freezes while server mods are uploading and remounting

Live Game

  • fixed alt-tab back to PA then backspace with chat window open triggering window back then reload or connecting to server

Live Game Players

  • fixed missing look at players for spectators

Game Over

  • fixed server freeze 30 seconds after game over while replay is being written which prevents chat, stats, review, etc
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