After a well earned Christmas break we got back to work. We hope you got to enjoy time with friends and family too.
This update features some much needed bug fixes and improvements. The context menu has received some attention, as well as ranked play and various gameplay bugs and exploits.
To make the season rollover more predictable, fair, and to make an event of it, we've automated the process. The new season starts at midnight UTC on the first of every second month.
Also, when there are technical issues such as disconnection or desyncs, there will be no score change unless a player appears to have manipulated their connection.
There are some bug fixes too, which we hope will improve the ranked experience.
We've added some functionality to allow organisation of ammo and material conversion buttons into rows. Some mods have an ungodly number of items. This is a small effort to help tame them.
They can have optional localised labels and icons to the left of the row.
Just add the AmmoRows table to your weapon or ammo device configuration script, then assign each ammo an appropriate RowName value.
-- Name is used to identify the row, Label and Sprite are optional
AmmoRows =
{
{ Name = "HarpoonRow1" },
{ Name = "HarpoonRow2", Label = "Weapon.ammo_high_explosive", Sprite = "warmup" },
{ Name = "HarpoonRow3", Label = "Weapon.ammo_acid", Sprite = "device-ammo"},
}
Rows to make large item selections more manageable.
For material conversion buttons, create and add to a MaterialRows table:
MaterialRows =
{
{ Name = "Row1", Label = "Weapon.ammo_high_explosive", Sprite = "hud-play" },
{ Name = "Row2", Sprite = "hud-pin" },
{ Name = "Row3", Label = "Weapon.ammo_acid"},
}
Then set the appropriate RowName value in the material.
In addition, we've allowed mod scripts to add to and modify a new layer of the context menu. While the built-in controls are off limits for now, they can be hidden with the call HideContextMenu(HIDECONTEXT_BASE) for complete replacement.
Cheers,
EWG
Add: FRAME_CONTEXTMENU used with SetControlFrame script function to allow custom controls to be added to context menu
Add: HideContextMenu script function taking HIDECONTEXT_BASE or HIDECONTEXT_ALL constants
Balance: (Scattershot) Shotgun maximum projectile density is consistent with the base weapon
Improve: (Machinegun) Reduce ClearanceAngleStdDevFactor from 1 to 0.4
Improve: Ammo can be organised into rows in the context menu using AmmoRows table and ammo table RowName
Improve: Desyncs, timeouts, and hangs cause ranked games to be voided unless network manipulation is detected
Improve: Fort Select no longer locks up the UI for a few seconds on large maps
Improve: Increase memory limit of scripts to 200MB
Improve: Material conversion buttons can be arranged into rows in the context menu using MaterialRows table and material RowName
Improve: Ranked season ends automatically at midnight UTC of the first day of every second month
Improve: Reduced ClearanceAngleStdDevFactor from 1 std dev to 0.8
Improve: Reduced GravityToClearanceAngleFactor by 50%
Improve: Show 'technical issue occurred' message when game ends in a desync, hang or timeout
Improve: Surviving reactors are considered to be at full health for the purpose of breaking ties
Fix: (Beams) Smoked, reflected or teleported Plasma Lasers destroy Warheads in one hit
Fix: (Machinegun) ClearanceAngleStdDevFactor set for campaigns, potentially affecting balance
Fix: (Map Editor) Crash cycling to the next block when there are no blocks
Fix: (Phantom) Moving a weapon causes it to recloak after reloading
Fix: (Phantom) 'Recloaking weapons' is missing from description
Fix: (Seep) 'Narrow silos' is missing from description
Fix: (Seep) Starting neutral silos have sprite of side 1
Fix: Apparent hang while loading during long file validation
Fix: Commander can be self-charged by shooting the platform of a device
Fix: Crash when repainting during long file validation
Fix: db/rules.lua missing from checksum
Fix: Desync at start when a client selects a fort while another client does not have the map
Fix: Desync when building devices on neutral structure
Fix: Desync when using keys to adjust weapon power mid fire
Fix: Devices can be built on recently neutral structure
Fix: Game doesn't update when user moves or resizes the window
Fix: Missing mod script causes crash during join
Fix: Population caps can be exceeded using barrels in team deathmatch
Fix: Population limited device construction can be accelerated using a neutral device of the same type
Fix: Report button is sometimes missing from the 'player disconnected' notification
Fix: Scoring on timeout incorrect when disconnection happens during ranked loading
Fix: ScreenMode in Options > Video is not translated
Fix: Season is not matched during the ranked lobby alert search
Fix: SetControlFrame doesn't validate input
Fix: Terrain rendering
Fix: Unable to connect to ranked lobbies using alert popup
Optimise: Rendering performance
Fix: Crash calculating teleport when a node is missing
Fix: Crash when a fully built weapon is disabled, deleted, and restored
Fix: Crash when queueing for ranked play after casual match
Fix: File validation sometimes fails
Fix: Ranks are missing from the lobby
If you haven't already, join our Forts Official Discord server to connect with other players, share strategies, create maps/mods, and receive advance notice of upcoming events.
Cheers,
EWG