[2.24] Forum pre-release

OFFICIAL RELEASE IS FRIDAY
Full installers forthcoming, test out these 2.23->2.24 patches for now.

<LINKS REMOVED, SEE OFFICIAL RELEASE>


Balances:
+ Dig In effectiveness decreased (50%-->25%)
+ Repair amount required to disable sabotage decreased from 50 to 25
+ Sabotage now does 4 damage every 3 seconds
+ Raised Jeep health from 120 to 200
+ Jeeps no longer can carry armor
+ Jeep speeds have been increased (fission and 3phase excluded) and minor horsepower changes
+ APC speeds have been decreased (fission and 3phase decreased the most)
+ APC health has been restored to 150 health
+ Upgraded and Advanced Grenadier RPG research times and costs reduced, their effectiveness improved (-15 sec, -50% cost, +5/+10 more)
+ Raised Max weight of all vehicles by 10 (jeep excluded)
+ Raised engine weights and differentiated between engines
+ Hull now inherits armor resists (change for future versions, shouldn't affect this one)
+ BE medium steering changes
+ BE standard cannon is now "Improved Standard Cannon" with better characteristics (temporary fix)
+ Various changes to vehicle hull healths (mainly BE AFV/temporary fix)
+ Infantry weapon changes (exact changes in changelog located in /scripts folder)
+ Building HP and thus building times have been tweaked (Armory is weaker, barracks and vehicle factories are stronger but take longer to build)
+ Walls are generally weaker. It is now feasible to blow up walls using seismics.
+ Mortar versus building damage is higher
+ RPG damage against buildings > 1 but still very crappy
+ Gas turbine, research time from 120 to 150 (but moved down one research level saving 325 res and 60 sec)
+ Biological projectile, research cost from 500 to 400
+ Biological warhead, research cost from 700 to 500
+ Reactive armor, research time from 90 to 150
+ Composite armor, research time from 120 to 90
+ UML, weight from 50 to 60
+ BioML, weight rfom 80 to 70
+ HITML, weight from 200 to 120
+ SalvoML, weight from 40 to 50
+ GML, weight from 50 to 60
+ UGML, weight from 50 to 60
+ HML, weight from 50 to 60
+ UHML, weight from 50 to 60
+ Reactive, damage mod from 0.8 back to 0.9
+ Lowered health of the following armor
reflective, absorbant, composite, reactive, biology
from the original values to 33.3%, 20%, 20%, 25%, 25%, 33.3%, respectively.
+ all weapon costs increased, all armor costs decreased resulting in armor costs being equal to weapon costs (was: armor cost = 60-80% of total tank price)
+ Infantry resists set, rifleman has resists against vehicle mgs and other infantry fire (effective armor increase); grenadier has resists against tank shells
+ Lower "heat to target" values on all weapons safe for plasma and HIT

Added:
+ Building and infantry resist system support
+ Plus sign in class selection screen next to weapons that have multiple options.
+ If you have Revive as an Engineer, there will be an icon above friendly corpses.
+ Mappers can now [set/get/modify] [NF/BE] [tickets/resources] via inputs/outputs for emp_info_params
+ New entities "emp_vehicle_preset" and "emp_vehicle_spawner" for spawning vehicles
+ New entity "emp_mine_restrict" to block placement of grenadier mines
+ Squad artillery strike 'whistle' noise
+ Lua support for servers
+ Chat escape sequences (%_c,%_h, %_l, %_m, %_n, %_s, %_w)
+ Cheat command: emp_increase_squadpoints to increase squadpoints for testing
+ Bindings for the slotn commands, so plugins can use their on-screen menus
+ Can now see name and health of friendly players without directly looking at them; health indicator on friendly players is coloured according to health
+ A few client messages for research (research cancelled, insufficient resources, research already in progress)
+ New particle effects and sounds for certain vehicle MGs
+ emp_coast (works now)
+ emp_arid
+ cooldown on squad abilities; squad arty and revive cost changes

Modified:
+ Weapon and skill descriptions are now stored in a script (emp_descriptions.txt).
+ When selecting infantry units in Comm View, the selection images will accurately reflect the infantry class of the unit.
+ Removed the "Leave Squad" button in the Pop-Up Menu.
+ Default commander option is now to be opted out
+ Bullet knockback forces when proned and crouching are now equal to that of standing.
+ Maximum number of slots is now 64 (I wouldn't recommend using it though)
+ emp_urbanchaos and emp_slaughtered optimizations -- turrets work now too
+ BE medium viewpoint altered
+ Recycletime and carcass removal time added to building.txt (this prevents "turret corpse spam" to block off areas for example)
+ Updated manual and quickstart guide

Fixed:
+ DLLs compiled with statically linked libraries, should no longer need the c++ redistributable
+ A rare server crash
+ You no longer run faster against a wall
+ Bug with changing resolution
+ Chat window buttons are now hidden at the start of a map, but chat window permanently has a slightly slightly grey background
+ Locked various server-crashing commands
+ You can now use the center button of the flower voice menu in a vehicle with handbrake (jump for infantry)
+ You can now bind commands to semicolon
+ Crash on emp_streetsoffire
+ Vehicle presets

Biggest known issue:
+ new vehicle MG tracer particle effects only show up for the one doing the shooting

 

There we go!

 

nice, heres to a (hopefully) larger player base:D

 

FUCKING NOOOOOOOO
I loved that :/ running at 333 speed against a wall with speed upgrade. WHYYYYYYY

 

the new chat box annoys me, can it be changed to vanish entirely when not in use?

 

PRE-RELEASE PARTY!

Bring out the whiskey and strippers!

 

yeah, god forbid you be easier to hit

 

Merci/Thankyou

 

Uhm why does the rifleman has resistance against vehicle mounted mgs?
Tanks have thinner armor again, means stickys are deadly.
Doesnt that encourage to use the rifleman as a suicide sticky class?

 

and

i love you guys.

 

That's a good looking changelog!
Congrats

I actually feel like playing again.

 

My initial reaction is negative about a few things, but at the same time I really can't say I know how they will interact. I am kinda annoyed that sab got double-nerfed with no other benefits at all for scouts. They were just beginning to be useful for sabbing.

That said, the involved interactions might be making them better in a way I am not realizing, but I am not seeing it yet. Really I think I would have to test this to have a real opinion at all.

 

the changelog looks rather positive actually

 

The armors dont protect against specific damages right now, correct? I looked over the armor doc and it did not seem to be the case.

 

Me likey! :D

 

Sometimes the weapon tracers for infantry come out like 3 metres away from them. I only just found this.

 

Nothing on the Mark 2?

 

</girlish glee>

I luv the jeeps, the med pov change, the gren tech and the rest looks very positive!

thx for fixing emp_sof too.

What about the AFV MKII?!?!?

The model have got to change and there's already a new made(and a very cool looking) model for it, is it even on the to-do list?

P.S. Thank you so much for the consideration in us pug players and releasing it *BEFORE* the weekend, cheers!

 

The AFV model you mean is in a rather desolate state, in game terms the model misses a "wheel" and the "wheelpairs" are mixed up and are not perfectly aligned. The model itself is in the patch, feel free to see if you can make it driveable I can't yet.

 

DOES DIG IN WORK IN PRONE BECAUSE I HAVE HEARD IT DOESN'T WORK IN PRONE IT ONLY WORKS IN CROUCH!!!! OMG ONONEONEONEONOENONEOE!!!!

I want to know. :[

Edit: Anyway, it seems to be very nice release and to me it looks all those changes have been finally thought out carefully before implementing/doing them. I also felt like playing Empires again.

But I have the same question too as Mayama. If riflemen have resistance against vehicle MGs and they have stickies and armors are less effective against stickies again doesn't that result in more suicide bombing and more vehicle losses?

But I don't know yet because I haven't tested this release yet but to me it feels like this when I think about it without experiencing with it.