Update 26

Hey there AFF Community!

It’s April 1st guys and girls but it’s not exactly laughing matter this year, is it? We did include something more light-hearted in the update for this occasion but first and foremost in these difficult times... stay safe, everyone. Stay at home, wash your hands, act responsibly. We’ll try to offset the boredom of this planet-wide quarantine a bit with some cool AFF updates, so here we go:

New map - Ascella

Set on an icy moon, this map sees ULA infantry storming subsequent emplacements and taking over an AIA research station hidden among the frozen cliffs. It’s also the first map to feature our new dynamic weather system - it’s not its final form yet but when finished all the maps will benefit from it the same way Ascella does. No spoilers on the screenshots, go check it out yourself, just be sure to wear something warm under your armour!

Helmet mods and spotting mechanics

Infantry loadouts now feature helmet mods which let players further specialize in different roles on the battlefield if they wish to. Consider this a set of perks you can pick in your loadout to get certain unique situational bonuses.
Spotting mechanics have also been reworked, to constitute more of a conscious enemy identification tool than a persistent wall-hack. Details can be found in the extremely sizable changelog below.

Big balance changes and experiments

We’re polishing a lot of aspects of AFF at the moment but we also want to make sure the game plays as we envisioned it for the final release. This update brings in some significant changes to gameplay mechanics and balance:

The majority of weapons have been rebalanced to better fit into their intended roles, with drastic changes to how damage is modulated per distance. Most fighter ships can now pick 2 different primary weapons and switch between them.

We reworked how reviving works, with the players getting up with less health the longer they were bleeding out instead of always having full HP. Incapacitated players are also more vulnerable now and we fixed an issue that would give players invulnerabilty frames while getting up from the incapacitated state.

There are also quite a few experimental features in this update - like the 3D target display on the HUD. Those will not necessarily look like that a few updates from now but they’re tests of new features we want to have in the final release - and the new pieces of rendering tech we need to realize our final vision.

Map polish and material penetration

A lot of the maps got fixed up in terms of cover, collision, objectives etc. We’ve also done a significant pass on what objects on the maps are “made out of”. Everything in AFF should have a physical material description assigned, which determines how easy it is to shoot through it, what effects are displayed upon hitting the object, what footstep sounds play etc. Up to this point there were quite a few omissions in this department, now most of those oddities should be sorted out. Still, please do report any cases of bullet penetration misbehaving on objects if you manage to encounter those though!

Networking improvements

We’re also working around the clock on optimizing the game for its final release and this month we ironed out some pesky issues in the multiplayer connections. Playing on multiple accounts behind the same router should work reliably now, LAN game discovery should be more robust. We also improved the mechanisms responsible for checking and reporting why the player couldn’t connect to a particular server.

All the details of the changes in this version can be found below. It’s a massive list this time, we picked up the pace quite a lot these past couple months. Not sure how the current state of the world will affect us but so far we’re on track for full release later in the year. Stay tuned for more updates!

Full changelog:

• Fixed the idle-kick / idle-move-to-spectate functionality being unintentionally disabled
• Tweaked the size of player names printed on armor and vehicles. Shouldn’t get clipped as often
• The spotted HUD marker on infantry is now raised slightly when crouched (Should make them be less likely to end up hidden) - doubly so if they're moving crouched
• The spotted HUD marker for hostile infantry now takes a slightly darker color when out of line-of-sight (occluded by walls etc.). Note, it’s based on the enemy’s center of mass, so they may not be fully occluded
• NAT punchthrough should now correctly support connection attempts from behind the same NAT and generally work in more cases of exotic network setups
• Updated default loadouts to include helmet mods
• Fixed being unable to open the tab-menu but not the tacmap in the period immediately after commander vote
• Added a 3D target-info display to the right side of the HUD, instead of the elaborate healthbar near the target bracket (can be scaled or turned off completely in the settings menu). This display will also have information about helmet mods, target’s name, how fast they are going and a representation of their model
• Revive rework:
  - Multiwrench no longer heals incapacitated pawns; Only repairs armor
  - When revived, you no longer start with full HP, but whatever you had left in incapacitated state
  - You can now be shot while being helped up
  - Bots will more aggressively use their multiwrench
  - If taken considerable overkill damage, a straight death is guaranteed
  - Removed reduction in damage taken for pawns bleeding out
  - Taking explosive damage as the killing blow should no longer disallow going into bleedout
  - Starting health when incapacitated now respects any corrosion value
• Tacmap
  - Tilting the camera too far down should no longer invert the forward/back control
  - Zoom amount is now scaled to the current zoom-level; Less volatile zooming
  - Movement (Forward/back/left/right) is now scaled to the current zoom-level; Less volatile movement
  - Some destroyables (Like objectives, boarding points and LZs) are now visible on the tacmap
• Helmet mod rework - removed all current helmet mods, and replaced it with:
  - Agility spec
  * - Allows shooting sidearms while sprinting
  * - Adds dodge move (double tab in a direction)
  - Support spec
  * - Multiwrench repairs own armour at 50% of output
  * - Unlocks 2nd support item slot to loadout (currently always available)
  - Assault spec
  * - 30% reduced recoil (currently modulated by armour amount)
  * - Adaptive armour, increased resilience to repeated damage of the same type; (reduces damage taken by 0.9^number-of-hits-of-same-ammo-type, the number-of-hits factor will decay by 1 every second)
  - Turtle spec
  * - 50% armour regen delay while crouching
  * - 50% reduced flinch/viewshake on hit/radial
  - Infiltrator spec
  * - Scrambler (invisible to sensor nades, doesn’t trigger proximity explosives)
  * - Ablative armour, no damage bleed through armour
  - Levelling spec
  * - Redirects all experience gained to your lowest ranked channel
• Spotting rework:
  - Enemies get identified marker while tagged and in team's sight
  - Enemies get identified marker while in sensor radius and in team's sight
  - Enemies get tracking “eye” blip while in sensor radius and out of team's sight, unless sporting the infiltrator spec
  - Enemies firing loud weapons get temporary minimap “?” blip, unless using knife, multiwrench, throwing grenade, silencer or deployableVehicles
• Changed some flight handling; Spacecrafts should be more responsive
• Gunships and spacecrafts should be less jittery
• Land vehicles will now take 50% less damage from the front, in addition to the current 50% additional damage to the rear
• Added significant spread to the Basta and Turtle’s main weapons
• Changed dropships from being “Use to exit” to “Hold use to exit”, like gunships, in order to avoid accidentally getting out of the seat from missing boarding-points or rearm points
• Tweaked capital ship components; They can now always take damage. If they have been downed, they cannot be fully destroyed again until restored, but damage taken sets back the process
• Increased damage-induced regeneration delays for land-vehicles and gunships
• The fighters that visually had two weapons, now have two seperate weapons (you can equip two primaries on Sword, Katana, Scimitar, Firefly, Salamander and Rakshasa)
• When looking at someone in a seat (for instance in a dropship), their name should now be displayed correctly, rather than show the name of whatever you last looked at
• Components that are not active (like shields, engines and core-lockouts in Kerrat) will no longer be displayed as such. Their physical console(s) or objects will no longer have a mouseover popup, they will no longer act as objectives or be damageable - and if they have text, they will now explicitly tell that they are disabled.
• Fixed EMP/acid/fire having infinite lifespans if triggered on something with no armor value (such as LZ turrets)
• Fixed driver position in vehicles being off if entered crouching in multiplayer
• Dropships will depart faster after boarding; When the pod is attached, it will take off, rather than hang around for an additional ~5seconds
• Fixed dropships showing up as belonging to the wrong team if driverless while boarding; It will now be shootable regardless of a driver being present
• Added slight shield boost to dropships while boarding to make them more likely to succeed if they have initiated boarding
• Fixed being unable to repair driverless neutral vehicles (such as stationary turrets)
• Shields on defensive platforms and stations have been removed, as they were unintentional
• Crouching while boosting should no longer cancel boosting, if piloting a jetcraft or spaceship (consistent with jump key, or rather “go up”, not cancelling it either)
• Vehicles are now harder to be afflicted with elemental effects, and the duration of the effects got reduced
• Vehicles can now be accepted or declined while dead in the UI in a more convenient fashion. If accepted, you will be able to tweak the loadout of the vehicle until you are able to spawn as usual. Vehicles without loadouts are spawned immediately
• Added timer to the vehicle-award-offer prompt, counting down the time left on the offer, untill it expires (until it is auto-declined)Weapons
• Corrected error in SAR's reload animation timing
• Reduced MNL screenshake significantly
• Reduced C30i shell damage by 10%
• Added flinching when zooming and being shot at
• Removed flamer’s ability to headshot
• Adjusted flamer’s damage output to be variable based on distance to target (intensity), and slightly lowered their maximum damage output
• Reworked infantry weapon falloff models; Damage will now be more variable over distance, where certain types will perform better at certain ranges
• Removed various hidden damage modifiers. The damage stat of the weapon should be more accurate to the actual damage you deal
• Increased the damage of MLIs primary slightly
• Slightly tweaked all vehicle weapons to follow the new falloff model. Minimal impact.
• Slightly reduced the effective radius of the flare countermeasures
• Tweaked the FKR ᵘⁿᶠᵏ'ᵈ ᵗʰᵉ ᶠᵏʳ
• Fixed decoy nades callouts misbehaving and hijacking the squad broadcasts (and changed their audio from "sent to squad over net" to what you'd expect to hear (said out loud)
• Fixed module weapons (for instance turrets on LZs) not being valid lock-on targets; Should allow locking onto a droppod when aiming at their body.
• Added deployables (turrets) as icons visible on the HUD; Will now show up with friendly-color for teammates, and task-color for your own. Will always show your own, and teammates if nearby, or if you have the deployable tagged. Should help with identifying if a turret is friendly or hostile.
• Moved the behaviour for multiwrench’s purge-elementals effect from default, to a mod
• Fixed some grenade types not passing correctly through shields
• Decreased price of all multi-wrench mods
• Fixed picking weapons up occasionally leaving you with nothing
• Reduced base headshot multiplier to 2x, down from 2.5x. Note that the multiplier is increased by having helmet mods equipped
• Improved handheld weapon weight mod
• Significantly reduced hip-fire spread penalties on sidearms
• Increased magsize of TA to 36
• Reduced reload time of TA by 0.3s
• Increased reload time of A420 by 0.1s
• Reduced fighter flechette spread in-line with infantry gun changes
• Increased radius of sensor grenades detection from 15m to 20m
• Fixed some lockon missile types having different range and lockon range when used on Ti/Gryphon/Javert/Chons/Heimdal instead of on the fighters
• Fixed underbarrel smoke grenades’ name on the HUD
• Reworked knife somewhat; It should now be more forgiving to hit with. Slightly increased the range.
• Removed the GU34’s lightsObjectives
• Fixed hack objectives displaying the wrong objective to defenders in MP
• Out-of-bounds volume damage should no longer persist if you were inside the volume as it got deactivated
• Objectives inside an out-of-bounds volume will now be delayed from activating for the attacking team by 20s
• Out-of-bounds volumes will now persist for 20s longer to further discourage ninja-capping objectives on phase-changes
• Mapvote timer has been decreased by 20s
• Between stages, while waiting for the next to start, it will now display "INCURSION, AWAITING NEXT STAGE" as the stage-description
• When starting a map, the stage-description will now display "INCURSION, INTRODUCTION" or "TERRITORIES, INTRODUCTION" during the introduction cinematics
• Fixed "Phase N completed, timer extended" message not showing up when completing Phase 1
• Added a soundcue for objectives being activated on phase-progression (Should make it clearer when a stage is completed, and you have new objectives available)
• Destroyables linked to another (Such as the turret on LZs or dropships attached to carriers) should now properly sync their damage and healing
• Fixed drop module weapons (Such as the turret on LZs) not taking explosive damage
• Increased health of capital ships that are marked as objectives by 20%
• Tweaked space-related objective-helpers to better guide you to perform your objective. Will now properly tell you to use fighters/dropships or docking depending on your goal. AI
• Bots will somewhat slow down when near a “Need a ride” callout
• Bots are now able to use boost in ground-vehicles
• Bots will now react to the callout “Get in” from a larger distance, if they are part of your squad
• Bots should now be a little more considerate about changing their weapons
• Fixed an issue where bot would cycle their weapons needlessly when not having a target
• Reduced AI response time to already-identified enemies
• Bots should now better understand the range of their multiwrench, and move accordingly when trying to revive
• Bots should now better understand the range of deployable ammo and healthkitsMaps
• New Map: Ascella - snow/ice themed infantry-only Incursion map
• Pass on physics materials - what can be shot through, how it looks when you shoot it; Some materials will behave differently than previously as a result. Feel free to provide feedback on any objects you think behave oddly in this context.
• Mirnoide changes:
  - Refined all collision in both biodomes; Fixed holes where it was possible to fall out of the map, better collision near all objects, each dome now extends out to where it visually looks like they end
  - Tweaked various stuff to be AIA themed
  - Polished a ton of objects that were partially see-through, Z-fighting, floating or otherwise out of place
  - Spawns are now properly protected
  - Fighters now have launch animations
  - A lot of terraforming to fit the new larger domes, and add additional paths
  - Adjusted both sides of the biodomes in space; They should now have proper collision and no longer snag ships
  - If you jump out of the biodomes somehow, you will now be killed
  - Added cover in various locations to interrupt line of sight and make reaching the objectives more feasible and fair in the desert biodome
  - Added major line-of-sight blockers to reduce cross-map sniping and make getting out of the chokepoint more fair
  - (Desert biodome) Added stairwell to give more path options for the attacking players
  - (Desert biodome) Fixed the water plane's weirdness with being over-extended beyond where the water should be
  - (Desert biodome) Water should now act as water
  - (Lava biodome) Refined all environmental hazards to better fit their visuals
  - (Lava biodome) Added additional bridges around the place
  - (Lava biodome) Terrain should now be more intuitive to navigate
• Tannhauser:
  - Added larger side walkways outside the hangar
  - Added additional ramps to the roof inside the hangar
  - Added more cover on the outside areas of Phase 2
  - Attempted to allow mechs to reach more locations
  - Improved accessibility in yellow girder walkways in Phase 3
  - Addressed missing collision on elevated platforms above the deck
  - Re-added out of bounds volume to prevent girder camping/repairing with gunships
  - Added out of bounds volume to prevent misuse of area behind ULA Phase 3 spawns
  - Implemented phased out-of-bounds volumes to prevent crafty ninjas from getting to objectives before defenders can set up
  - Fixed Phase 3 spawns not being properly protected
  - Modified ramp towards AIA side of Phase 2 to allow for mech traversal on both ends
  - Added arrows to indicate optional pathways up to the roof
  - Fixed some issue with getting snagged on geometry, when trying to enter the huts
• Yin Tao Shan:
  - Addressed anomalous blocking volume in front of Phase 1 stairwell to objective
  - Resized spawns to fit better, and ensured they are properly protected
  - Renamed ULA LZ that didn’t comply to the naming of other LZs
  - Fixed flora being floaty
  - Added collision to the bridge pillars
  - Fixed some meshes being partially see-through and floaty on the bridges
  - Water should now act as water
  - (Phase 1 area) Sorted some z-fighting and misalignment on lower columns and platforms
  - (Phase 1 area) Sorted collision on downstairs desks in building
  - (Phase 1 area) Sorted lacking collision on wall leading into building
  - (Phase 1 area) Added collision to the lamps and parts of the “railing”
  - (Phase 2 area) Sorted rock without collision near old AIA spawn, and three others that didn't block gunfire
  - (Phase 2 area) Sorted a few pillars without collision
  - (Phase 3 area) Fixed piping in middle building being floaty and some collision there
• Ixion:
  - Addressed missing collision on some pillars/columns in the interior of the station
  - Fixed a slightly incorrect introduction timing
• Lacroix:
  - Fixed incorrect introduction timing that would actively open and then close the tacmap while still going
• Poranti:
  - Addressed missing collision on blue barrels
  - Addressed some snags in Phase 4 hangars near fighter platforms
  - Fixed issue with some AI pathing on Phase 4’s catwalks
• Delta:
  - Fixed floating pebbles
  - Tweaked rocks collisions to maybe be more accurate
• Fortress (Incursion):
  - Fixed floating flora
  - Moved hovercars in garage down to the ground (since they're clearly inactive)
  - Terraforming pass to properly ground all the buildings
  - Fixed a few z-fighting incidents on the wall
  - Slightly tweaked the location of the Phase 3 AIA vehicle drop points
• Lukather:
  - Addressed missing collision on the tunnel walls
  - Fixed water towers having two holes in the walkway
  - Fixed up the Incursion train a little; Should follow the path better, have better collision, and no longer snag on the pillars; Also is partially bulletproof where it is logical that it would be; It's now also technically a map hazard
  - Added vehicle-blocking-pole-meshes to all entrances to the tower; Should properly convey that vehicles can't enter
  - The collision in the Phase 3 terminal should now be more intuitive
  - Properly sealed entry to the building coming off the Phase 3 terminal
  - Sorted a few z-fighting cases
  - Polished the Phase 3 tower; Fixed misalignments, z-fighting, added another walkway in the center going up; Added exterior pathway for the final level; Added a bit of additional cover; Enabled collision on consoles
  - Tweaked size of shields on ULA spawn-huts
  - Replaced AIA tech with ULA tech near train and in the spawn-huts
• Igneous:
  - Patched exploitable missing collision in Phase 3 which allowed for players to drop down and snipe from the building with impunity
  - Added grates to one of the Phase 3 up/down tunnels that was missing it (looked strange and hitched movement) + moved 'door mesh' down a bit, since it was snagging collision
  - Fixed Phase 2 spawn being enabled in Phase 1
  - Phase 3 tweaks: Ramp should no longer have bits sticking out, should no longer have arbitrary collision, all rails have been moved a bit to better fit the walkway, round collisions for the meshes near ramp have been downsized to be more accurate
  - All spawns should now be properly protected
  - Added out-of-bounds volume to cover objective D
  - Tweaked a hut to be more easily enterable near first objective
  - Fixed some strange collision on commonly used objects like toolboxes
  - Changed all AIA tech to ULA aesthetic
• Cricket dropship interior:
  - Tweaked collision of everything to feel more natural
  - Fixed some z-fighting and misalignments
  - Turned the seats to both be facing forward to make it easier to navigate from the middle
  - Replaced mis-used ULA tech meshes with AIA aesthetic
• Dragoon dropship:
  - Same as cricket, but also extended triggers for doors so they should be more responsive
• Irega territories:
  - Fixed having to jump over a set of stairs at street level plus misc. collision improvements
• Meudeverre:
  - Fixed floating bits of cover, z-fighting, some parts of the floor lacking collision and lack of collision on hack consoles in the interior
  - Fixed bad collision on a ramp near final objectives and added out-of-bounds volume to Phase 3
  - When the station gets boarded, the AIA spawn in the hangar will be disabled and replaced with one that is properly protected inside the wall
  - Slightly tweaked tunnel from interior AIA spawn towards Phase 3 objectives, so bits of the AIA spawn aren't glitching through the wall
  - All the huts in ULA hangar have been tweaked slightly so they don't hamper movement; Also some meshes have been moved about a bit to prevent see-through spots and z-fighting; And a bit of mesh-painting to blend the segments slightly better
  - Fixed a slightly incorrect introduction time
• AIA Briefingroom:
  - Fixed some lacking collision on map-columns
  - Fixed infinite resupply point that was broken near the shooting range
  - Tweaked lighting on the central tables in the eating area
  - Removed ULA tech that had snuck in
  - Polished shooting range; The heads should now be inside the models, heads are slightly larger, and the models should overall be better aligned with the rails
• ULA Briefingroom:
  - Fixed some Z-fighting and collision issues in the kitchen area. Also returned a vent that had gone on a journey
  - Polished shooting range; Increased size of heads, and overall be better aligned with the rails; Tweaked position of shooting range triggers to make them easier to activate
  - Removed AIA tech that had snuck in
  - Slightly moved one of the briefing rooms "play briefing" triggers to match the console
  - Changed material of the shooting ranges buttons to be ULA blue, rather than orange
  - Fixed weapon table not having collision
  - Fixed floating light fixture - and added collision to it
  - Fixed a guy holding his rifle funky
  - Door wasn't properly covering doorway, bit of "look through the world"; Resized to fit
• Khamun interior:
  - Added missing team-blocking-volume to bridge spawn
  - Tweaked collision on turret seats
• Ranger interior:
  - Fixed one of the two boarding points (left) not functioning properly as a spawn point
• Kerrat territories:
  - Upscaled shields slightly, to better fix the ships
  - Potentially fixed the desync of the capital ships happening over time (should allow for them to be boarded entire match)
• Anubis interior:
  - Fixed one of the boarding points not functioning properly
• Huginn interior:
  - Fixed some collision issues (some ceiling issues, and being able to fall out of the map)
  - Fixed issue with passengers in the dropships being killed as they leave the hangar
• AISN hangar:
  - Added fighter-restocking animation
• USN hangar:
  - Fixed some collision and z-fighting issues around the place
  - The Katana should now look more natural
  - Animated ladders and improved the fighter-restocking animations
  - Added another set of blockades on the floor, for the fighter that didn't have one
  - Sorted a number of look-through meshes (mainly ceiling)

For feedback, or just a lovely chat with the devs, post on AFF's Steam forums or contact us directly through our Discord.

Onwards and upwards! Stay safe everyone!