Game version 3835

A leftover change from April fools made the overcharge projectile invisible. This is now fixed.

Kind regards,

BlackYps

Game version 3834

This patch reverts the April fools changes. With thanks to Deribus and M3RT1N for preparing the changes.

Kind regards,

BlackYps

Game version 3833

Two files snuck into the patch that should not be there, leading to desyncs.

With special thanks to Nomander for reacting quickly and investigating the cause,

BlackYps

Game version 3832

This hotfix most notably fixes the bug where a campaign mission no longer shows the 'Operation Complete/Failed' dialog.
We also release some more bugfixes and balance changes that were made in the meantime as a bonus.

With gratitude to all those who contributed to this patch and/or took the time to report issues,

BlackYps

Balance

• (#7056) Reduce how often shots fly over the top of the Seraphim destroyer by lowering how high units aim at the destroyer.

  Uashavoh: T2 Destroyer (XSS0201)

  • Aim point above-water elevation: 0.65 -> 0.45
    • Resulting height of hitbox above aim point: 0.25 -> 0.45

• (#7059) Adjust VeteranMassMult to better align the Vulthoo with its role as a 'Tech 2.5 unit'

  Vulthoo: T2 Gunship (XSA0203)

  • VeteranMassMult: 1.5 -> 1.375

• (#7062) Reduce the build time of hives, especially for the lower levels, to make them worth building over T3 engineers when you need buildpower very quickly.

  The Hive: T2 Engineering Station (XRB0104, XRB0204, XRB0304):

  • Build time:
    • Level 1: 1171 -> 880
    • Level 2: 1171 -> 1000
    • Level 3: 1171 -> 1120

Bug fixes

• (#7039) Salem Class (URS0201): Fix Nanite Torpedoes preventing the other weapons from firing during their salvo.

• (#7050) Fix campaign/coop missions not ending properly after completion

  The dialog to continue to the mission after dialogue and/or score screen pops up again.

• (#7061) Fix wrecks from overkilled units taking extra long to reclaim.

Other changes

• (#6529) Update German localization of loading tips.

Contributors

With thanks to the following contributors:

• Jip
• Nomander
• ETFreeman
• Uveso
• BlackYps
• Nory

Game version 3831

We had to fix some important bugs. Most notably manual OC works again now.

With gratitude to all those who contributed to this patch and/or took the time to report issues,

BlackYps

Bug fixes

• (#6959) Add the Salvation to Notify's default messages.

• (#7031) Fix manual overcharge not shooting.

• (#7032, #7033) Fix spooky and etfreeman unit databases not being updated.

• (#7034) Don't show reclaim labels for unreclaimable props.

• (#7038) Fix various sim callbacks detecting the incorrect army as the source of the callback in games with AI or observers. This fixes the issue where paintings were displayed to the incorrect players in AI games.

• (#7042) Fix the score screen button not appearing at the end of a game.

• (#7043) Fix missing hotkey label for the 'Minus' key by mapping it to the '-' symbol.

Other changes

• (#6856) Add -toLobby arg to the developer local multiplayer launch script which launches the instances into the lobby.

Contributors

With thanks to the following contributors:

• Nomander
• NoryGit
• Gatsik
• Jip
• BlackYps
• ETFreeman

Game version 3829

Two months have passed and it is time for another scheduled release, whoop whoop!

With gratitude to all those who contributed to this patch and/or took the time to report issues,

BlackYps

Balance

• (#6535) Improve the maneuverability and reliability of Strategic Bombers to promote proactive use of them and as a competing option to T3 gunships

  Strategic Bombers (UAA0304, UEA0304, URA0304, XSA0304):

  • Maneuverability:

    • Turn speed: 0.8 -> 1.2

      Lets strats micro to more effectively avoid flak damage and leaves less opportunities for ASF/SAMs to deal damage.

    • Lift Factor: 7 -> 10

      Complements the new turn speed by improving how quickly strats lift off and navigate up/down terrain.

  • Reliability:

    • Bomb drop threshold: 3.5 -> 8

      Greatly improves the reliability of bomb drops on uneven terrain or during turns. This is similar to what was done for the Ahwassa in #2465.

      As a side effect, this usually makes the bomb drop from further away, so ACUs will have an easier time dodging bombs. Dodging was made more difficult with the strat elevation reduction in #4799, so this counteracts that change.

    • Smaller loops on auto attack to maximize DPS:

      • BreakOffDistance: 60 -> 50
      • RandomBreakOffDistanceMult: 1.5 -> 1

      This only affects bombers automatically attacking from an idle state or from an attack, attack move, or patrol order. Previously strats would drop bombs every ~13 seconds, and now they drop every ~10 seconds.

    • Auto-attack range: 90 -> 64

      Strats will no longer automatically fly off to attack very distant targets. The 64 range matches strats' radar range.

• (#6535) Reduce the veterancy requirement for Strategic Bombers to match their mass cost reductions in previous patches.

  Strategic Bombers (UAA0304, UEA0304, URA0304, XSA0304):

  • Mass killed required per veterancy level: 4200 -> 2x of own mass cost (3500)

• (#6559) Various fixes and improvements for Megalith's build capabilities:

  • Fix the build range preview to display the real build range.
  • Extend build range by +1 so that eggs can be more easily placed far enough away so that the Megalith doesn't have to walk due to the egg being placed within its footprint.
  • Add repair capability to the Megalith so it can finish unfinished eggs.
  • Add reclaim capability to make it more clear that it can reclaim. Previously it could only reclaim by building an egg on top of wrecks.
  • Add pause capability as is standard with engineering units.
  • Update the T3 Mobile Arty and T3 Mobile Anti-Air crab eggs stats to reflect previous balance changes to those units.

• (#6842) Make land scouts prioritize radar structures over mobile units and remove their PD/static AA target priority.

• (#6897) Make the Beetles' cloak consume 10 Energy per second. Beetles were previously the only cloaked unit without an energy upkeep, which allowed players to rush them at the early T2 stage with both low build and upkeep costs. Since the unit is already very strong, this exception was not necessary. Adding a 10 E/s drain brings Beetles in line with other cloaked units and tones down their early rush potential while still preserving their identity.

  Fire Beetle: T2 Mobile Bomb (XRL0302):

  • Economy
    • Energy consumption: 0 -> 10

• (#6900) Remove the Seraphim Lightning Tank's FiringTolerance, as it could have caused the unit to miss aircraft. Functionally, the unit remains unchanged.

  Uyanah: T3 Lightning Tank (DSLK004):

  • Lightning Projector (anti-air)
    • FiringTolerance: 2 --> 0

• (#6920) Automatically start rebuilding the Novax Satellite at the base station if the satellite is destroyed by artillery fire, nuclear missiles, or any other means.

• (#6921) Decrease Salem's anti-torpedo flares' target check interval from 1.0s to 0.4s (the default for anti-projectile weapons). This makes it more likely to detect torpedoes and fire the flares correctly, especially against torpedo bombers.

  Salem: T2 Destroyer (URS0201):

  • Anti Torpedo Solution
    • Target Check Interval: 1.0s -> 0.4s

• (#6934) Increase build time for ACU TMLs so that they are less effective on the move, in combat, and from the water. You can still reach a high fire rate with engineer assistance.

  Seraphim and UEF ACU (XSL0001 and UEL0001):

  • TML Missile build time: 450 -> 700 (same as SACU)
    • Build time with T2 suite: 10.8 -> 16.7 seconds
    • Build time with T3 suite: 4.5 -> 7.0 seconds

• (#6935) Increase minimum range of ACU TMLs so that they are less powerful in ACU vs ACU fights.

  Seraphim ACU (UEL0001, XSL0001):

  • TML:
    • Minimum range: 15 -> 30

  UEF ACU (UEL0001):

  • TML and Billy Nuke:

    • Minimum range: 15 -> 30

    The minimum range for Billy nuke has to be increased so that the TML's minimum range ring is visible.

• (#6936) Adjust HP of T2 Air/Land HQs so that Cybran T2 HQs do not die to 1 TML hit. This helps to prevent Cybran players from being locked out of the tech needed to counter TMLs.

T2 HQ (Air and Land) HPs (in order: Cybran, Aeon, Seraphim, UEF): 5.5k, 6.4k, 7k, 8k -> 6.1k, 6.6k, 7.2k, 8k

Cybran T2 HQ (Air and Land) Regen rate: 20 -> 15
Regen is reduced because the HP difference between Cybran and other factions is reduced.

Features

• (#6938) Introduce a lobby option to enable or disable the sharing of excess resources with allies (overflow)

  The lobby option is enabled by default. It can be disabled for training purposes.

Bug fixes

• (#6712) Fix the attack-move engagement range for Torrent (increased from 120 to 180)

• (#6848) Fix RemoveOutliers statistics function used in the profiler for when all given values are the same.

• (#6865) Fix unit view detail error when nuke damage isn't written properly in the blueprint for a unit.

• (#6915) Fix weapons with fire rate modifiers getting stuck waiting for energy drain.

• (#6916) Fix not being able to queue the upgrade for the Aeon T2 shield before it is built.

• (#6919) Fix ACUs being unkillable if their player disconnects in the middle of a recall.

• (#6932) Adjust default maximum frame time to not interfere with vsync

• (#6945) Add Terrain301 shader again. It is used by the sunset biome in older map generator versions. Regenerating a map like this on the current FAF patch would create an error on loading the map, because the shader had been removed in the meantime.

• (#6947) Fix replay ID extraction possibly breaking UI.

Graphics

• (#6918) Add high resolution mass and hydrocarbon markers.

• (#6946) Increase the StrategicIconSize of the Obsidian's Quantum Cannon and the Wagner's Meson Rocket from 1 to 2, to better align their visual representation with their overall power. Furthermore, this change makes it easier to distinguish between the Wagner's high-damage and low-damage weapons.

Performance

• (#6892) Improve deciding what support factories are available during ACU enhancement to higher teches.

  Reduces number of required internal selections down to 2 (was 7), that were resolving available support factories for construction during ACU enhancement to higher teches.

Other changes

• (#6828) Update the description of the Aeon ACU's vision upgrade.

• (#6857) Refactor duplicated SCX menu panel border creation into a uiutil function.

• (#6883) Update blueprint modding documentation in the game repository (MODS.LUA).

• (#6920) Fix typo in RU translation of UEF T2 transport description for how many T3 units it can carry.

• (#6910) Improve annotations of the trail emitter blueprint

• (#6911) Remove debug statements when building kernel drones

• (#6938) Remove the ability to toggle sharing excess resources when teams are locked

  There is no benefit to yourself or your team to disable sharing excess resources (overflow) when the teams are locked. Disabling it is equivalent to silently sabotaging your allies. The toggle in the diplomacy menu is removed when teams are locked. When teams are unlocked you can toggle it accordingly.

• (#6942) Annotate the UI function OnMouseButtonPress and related code.

• (#6955) Add annotations related to command graph functions.

• (#6964) Remove time requirement for rating custom games when recalling.
  Games ending through recall are always rated now.

Contributors

With thanks to the following contributors:

• 4z0t
• Basilisk3
• BlackYps
• Hdt80bro
• Isocinetic
• Jip
• Maudlin27
• Nomander
• Speed2

Game version 3828

This patch provides a fix where in some scenario's an ACU would become invulnerable when recall is initiated.

With gratitude to all those who took the time to report issues,

Jip

Balance

• (#6921) Decrease Salem's anti-torpedo flares' target check interval from 1.0s to 0.4s (the default for anti-projectile weapons). This makes it more likely to detect torpedoes and fire the flares in time, especially against torpedo bombers.

  Salem: T2 Destroyer (URS0201):

  • Anti Torpedo Solution
    • Target Check Interval: 1.0s -> 0.4s

Bug fixes

• (#6919) Fix a recalling ACU to become indestructible when a player disconnects in the middle of the recall sequence.

Other changes

• (#6916) Enable queueing an upgrade to the Tech 2 Aeon shield while it is under construction

This behavior matches the behavior of other shields.

Contributors

With thanks to the following people who contributed through coding:

• Nomander
• Jip

Game version 3827

This patch removes access to a potentially dangerous engine function that was exposed to all Lua environments.

With gratitude to all those who took the time to report issues,

Jip

Bug fixes

• (#6911) Remove lingering print statements that trigger to events of the construction drones from Kennels.

Contributors

With thanks to the following people who contributed through coding:

• @lL1l1
• @4z0t
• @Garanas

And, last but certainly not least - with thanks to those that took part in constructive discussions:

• @MostLostNoob

Game version 3826

Fix an edge case where announcements would break cinematic mode. This caused coop missions to hang.

With gratitude to all those who took the time to report issues,

BlackYps

Bug fixes

• (#6905) Fix an edge case where announcements would break cinematic mode

Contributors

With thanks to the following people who worked out the solution:

• Jip
• Nomander

Game version 3825

Another three months have passed which means it is time for another game patch.

With gratitude to all those who contributed to this patch and/or took the time to report issues,

BlackYps

Balance

• (#6435) Add ability for Soul Ripper weapons to fire at gunships. Gunships can fire at other gunships, so the Soul Ripper should be able to do this too.

• (#6705) Adjust cost of Aeon ACU's first range upgrade so that first range + speed matches the cost of other factions' gun upgrades. Equalize the individual costs of speed and range to make it so one upgrade isn't easier to rush than the other on small maps.

  Aeon ACU (UAL0001):

  • First range upgrade:
    • Mass cost: 300 -> 400
    • Energy cost: 6000 -> 12000 (20 -> 30 energy per mass)
    • Buildtime: 350 -> 400
  • Fire rate upgrade:
    • Mass cost: 500 -> 400
    • Energy cost: 15000 -> 12000
    • Buildtime: 500 -> 400

• (#6843) Reduce the damage of the Cybran T1 mobile anti-air since its projectiles can now retarget, as it no longer needs so much damage to match the AA of other factions.

  Sky Slammer: T1 Mobile Anti-Air Gun (URL0104):

  • Nanodart Launcher (Anti Air)
    • Damage: 16 -> 14 (DPS 32 -> 28)

• (#6870) FAF significantly increased the uniform scales of both the Bulwark and the Mermaid. Overall, these changes were a bit excessive, with both (relatively cheap) units reaching approximately 2/3 to 3/4 the size of their faction's destroyer. Furthermore, FAF reworked the Bulwark to be cheaper but less effective, so from a gameplay perspective, there is no reason for it to be this large anymore. To prevent the already powerful Mermaid from becoming too strong, and to encourage more counterplay, its high HP/mass ratio has been reduced.

  Bulwark: T2 Shield Boat (XES0205):

  • Display
    • UniformScale: 0.135 --> 0.11
  • SizeX: 1.575 --> 1.4
  • SizeY: 1.35 --> 1.3
  • SizeZ: 4.125 --> 3.5

  CI:18 Mermaid: T2 Counter-Intelligence Boat (XRS0205):

  • Defense
    • Health: 1500 --> 1000
  • Display
    • UniformScale: 0.12 --> 0.10
  • SizeX: 1.25 --> 1.1
  • SizeY: 1.5 --> 1.3
  • SizeZ: 3.6 --> 3.2

• (#6877) The Aeon T2 shield can now be upgraded to T3. It has the same 20 buildpower as UEF and Seraphim T2 shields.

• (#6880) Increase the reload time of the Seraphim T1 submarine's anti-torpedo defense so that it is less dominant against other T1 subs. This slows down their snowballing and allows for a transition into T2 counters (T2 subs, Coopers, Seraphim and Aeon destroyers).

  Sou-istle: Seraphim T1 Submarine (XSS0203):

  • Anti-Torpedo Defense reload time: 5 sec -> 13 sec

• (#6894) Nerf the Cybran ACU's Nano-Repair System, as it has proven to be an oppressive tool that causes Cybran ACUs to overperform during the Tech 2 stage.

  Cybran ACU (URL0001):

  • Nano-Repair System
    • Additional Regen Rate: 60 HP/s --> 50 HP/s

• (#6895) Further increase the MuzzleSalvoSize of the Cybran ACU's Nanite Torpedo upgrade to 4, as it still had difficulties penetrating torpedo defenses after (#6476) increased it to 3. Its DPS remains unchanged.

  Cybran ACU (URL0001):

  • Nanite Torpedo Launcher
    • Damage (DPS): 60 (225) --> 45 (225)
    • MuzzleSalvoSize: 3 --> 4

• (#6887) Blocking the ACU with quickly started but unfinished 1x1 structures which decay only very slowly such as T1 point defense, is often considered unfair as the ACU's pathfinding can get ruined to a point where the ACU is completely stuck and effectively unable to move, because of the unbuilt structures. While the mechanic of blocking an opponents movement by quickly starting a building in front of them is a valid strategy, most buildings in the game such as factories or other structures larger than 1x1 leave gaps inbetween them even if built right next to each other, allowing some way to escape while still slowing down movement as the ACU walked around them. As 1x1 structures can completely block movement when built next to each other, their very slow decay makes them far more oppressive when used for such a strategy. To allow some more counterplay, these structures will now decay more quickly when below 10% completion. This means that quickly spamming many barely started T1 PD's for example will now also have them disappear more quickly, making it more difficult to fully trap the enemy, giving them a better chance to escape while still retaining the advantage of slowing the enemy down.

  • When below 10% completion structures with a 1x1 footprint now have the decay rate of walls
  • Structures affected are:
    • T1 point defense
    • T1 static anti air
    • T1 torpedo launchers

Bug fixes

• (#6796) Fix error when lobby rejects a data message with no sender name.

• (#6824) Fix factory upgrades disappearing upon completion.

• (#6830) Fix unit/projectile/weapon debug component logging and drawing causing desyncs.

• (#6835) Revert the change that made factories immediately start building after an upgrade or after cancelling a unit, since it seems to be causing occassional desyncs.

• (#6844) Fix error when eye of rhianne finishes building during an energy stall.

• (#6845) Fix various issues with the new setup for announcements.

  In campaign-like scenario's the interactions with the objectives should now be good again.

• (#6868) Correct ACU threat values after they were accidentally miscalcuated in a previous PR. SurfaceThreatLevel from an average of 765 to 45.

• (#6871) Increase the StrategicIconSize of the Seraphim ACU's OC projectile to match that of the other ACUs.

• (#6879) Fix Cybran engis not turning wheels back to land mode after exiting water.

• (#6884) Fix being unable to build adjacent to the north or south side of an air factory that is building a continental.

• (#6885) Check whether LazyVar.OnDirty exists in case it was destroyed earlier.

• (#6891) Remove a redundant category from the unupgraded Cybran T2 Engineering Station (XRB0104).

• (#6898) Fix a desync-causing error when a player is defeated the same tick a recall vote is started.

Graphics

• (#6763) Introduce a new slider to adjust the rendering distance of shadows

  Strogo made the observation that the extensive (default) rendering distance of shadows can have a significant impact on the framerate. We increased the default rendering distance of shadows in FAForever two years ago. At the time we did not notice this impact. With these changes we turn it into a slider in the graphics options. The default value (260) matches the value used by Steam version of the game.

• (#6851) Push the rendering distance of tree (groups) to better match the values in Steam

  After thorough testing we think it is safe to increase the rendering distance without running the risk to destroying the framerate of the average user.

• (#6858) The water now changes less when tilting the camera on maps using advanced water absorption. The effect was too big before, now it looks more reasonable.

  This change also makes the water appear slightly brighter when viewed from the top. Only the handful of maps using advanced water absorption are affected, and their authors can compensate this by increasing the abyss height. The vast majority of maps are unaffected.

• (#6877) With its new upgrade ability, the Aeon T2 shield has an adjusted model and a new upgrade animation.

AI

• (#6877) Add the now upgradeable Aeon T2 shield to the existing T2 shield upgrade AI behaviors (upgrade templates, platoon templates, builder group).

Performance

• (#6826) Reuse unit categorization table instead of allocating a new one when issuing uncached formation orders.

• (#6853) Reduce conditional table accesses of projectiles when colliding or losing targets

• (#6854) Upvalue and localize frequently used functions and tables in formations

• (#6860) Reduce weapon damage table computations when applying buffs by storing constant data.

• (#6862) Reduce table accesses of projectiles especially on impact.

• (#6864) Remove unused lastAccel field from default projectile weapon salvo data.

• (#6866) Reuse tables when creating beam weapons instead of allocating new ones.

Other changes

• (#6797) Remove the teleport reticle object from the command mode data.

• (#6798) Annotate WorldView control and ping sync data.

• (#6799) Annotate exit callbacks.

• (#6823) Proper type annotation for GetCommandMode.

• (#6828) Update the description of the Aeon ACU's vision upgrade.

• (#6832) Fix most annotation warnings in the new profiler code.

• (#6837) Improve annotations related to Buffs.

• (#6873) Improve singleplayer command line launch by adding a /noAi command line option and adding neutral/enemy civilian armies when launching from the command line.

Contributors

With thanks to the following people who contributed through coding:

• 4z0t
• Basilisk
• BlackYps
• Jip
• Nomander
• Ostrovaya
• RabidPope
• Relent0r

With thanks to the following individuals who contributed through model, texture, and effect changes:

• Saver
• Sting

And, last but certainly not least - with thanks to those that took part in constructive discussions:

• Archsimkat
• JaggedAppliance
• Nomander
• Rhaelya
• Sainse
• Strydxr
• Tagada