The most notable feature of this release is fixed multiplayer, which should now work on all computers. Please run "Determinism test"
in options to verify that it is fixed. This also helps me to make sure it is really fixed for all CPUs. So far it has been tested
on just a few CPUs, including over 12 year old notebook when running on linux through wine, but the fix looks promising.
The other notable update is introduction of updater. Running it will update your copy of Soil to current version.
If new version is available, you will get notified in the main menu with an "Update" button as well. Updating will preserve your settings,
and also save files, but it is not guaranteed these will work properly (e.g. if ship has changed number of turrets, etc.)
If you experience any problems with updater, please let me know. Occasionally it would happen that it would get stuck, though I hope I fixed it.
If that happens, restarting it should help.
Moving on to smaller things, "turn" order can now accept object as a target instead of position only. This can help to keep your repair ship
pointing its repair beams on specific target. There is now also option to display ranges of certain orders (attack, repair) as well as ranged abilities.
You can now also move your selected ships into formations by dragging with "move" command. These formations are line, wall, sphere, half-sphere.
You can cycle through these formations by pressing move command again. Their order can be changed in options.
These can be used e.g. to order your frigates to surround battleship, or just to get your ships in line. Formation will sort ships by size/function,
so e.g. in "line" battleship will be in center, while smaller ships will be on sides, while in "sphere" battleship will be in back, while frigates
will be in front. Last addition to features is "pause" game speed. In addition to pausing by pressing ESC, you can choose this game speed to pause game,
while not obstructed by menu. During pause, you can still order your ships, but orders will only show in ships' queue once you un-pause.
Since this is implemented as game speed, it also works in multiplayer.
The least exciting new feature is mission briefings... these don't do much except to throw some text at you and show you animated map of what is going on.
I've only added it for first few missions. Nothing particularly impressive, but it is meant to give some more overview about campaign story.
There were also few fixes for a few missions, but that is still ongoing work.
I also fixed some UI issues, added double clicks on various buttons (and ships, if you have that in settings), added tooltips on most GUI elements,
fixed issues with transparency on debris if anti-aliasing was disabled (please let me know if your debris still render as squares).
I've also fixed tow ability to respect maximum velocity of target, since it could be abused to e.g. tow stations at breakneck speed.
I've thought I barely did anything since last update, but look at that, it is slightly more than that! Come join discord if you want to play some multiplayer,
that will be the easiest way to get into some. I've also added discord integration, so Soil will show up there if you're playing it, and it will show what map
you're playing, or in what room are you waiting.
