Builds 222/223 & a Logitech Beta Tournament??? news

Logitech Beta Tournament

This weekend, starting at 1100PDT / 1400EDT / 1800UTC, the RTS/FPSGuru sponsored Guru Tournament is happening live on Twitch TV. Featuring twelve teams and about 90 total players, it is going to be epic. The early rounds will be starting on Friday, watch our Twitter, Facebook, and G+ streams to keep updated on when the first round action kicks off.But how about the weekend after? A weekend of rest, recuperation, and quiet streaming right? Wrong! We are proud to announce the Logitech Beta Tournament, sponsored by the kind folks over at Logitech.

This is an open 'double elimination' tournament to which any and all teams are welcome to register, we have space for 16 teams! The first rounds will begin on Friday night, October 19, the continue into Saturday October 20. The final rounds will run on Sunday October 21.You may well be wondering, why is it called the Logitech Beta Tournament? Here's a picture that will provide you with a clue, taken in our office:

The winning team will receive six Logitech G35 headsets, six Logitech G510 keyboards, and six Logitech G400 mice.
The second place team will receive six G400 mice as well!
If you would like to participate in this tournament, please have your team captain email tournaments@unknownworlds.com.

Of course, the entire spectacle will be broadcast live on Twitch for everyone's viewing pleasure!

Beta Build 222+223 Hotpatch is Live!

Special note for dedicated server operators:

There were many changes to how a dedicated server is configured in this patch.
All you should need to do is run the server with -webadmin in the command line and open your browser to localhost/index.html. From this web page you are able to configure your server. Consult the Dedicated_Server_Usage.txt file for more information.

There were two problems that caused a lot of confusion with yesterday's patch. The first problem was we failed to effectively communicate changes about the dedicated server configuration to server operators. We're looking into setting up a mailing list for server operators so we can get this information out more effectively in the future. Stay tuned for more information.

The second problem was that there were bugs with the dedicated server that made the situation even more confusing. We should have caught these before the patch went out, but thankfully the community very helpfully provided information on how to reproduce the issues and they were easily fixed. Although we have opted for a quick release cycle rather than exhaustive testing during this beta period, we will be more diligent with our testing of the dedicated server to avoid similar problems again.

223 Hot Fixes

• Fixed -webdomain not allowing the web server to be bound to an IP.
• Restored -webport command line option.
• Fixed bug where invalid command line options would not be reported unless they were specified in a file.
• Fixed bug where sv_changemap would not preserve mods.
• Fixed crash when conflicting mods generated an error in the main menu before it was finished loading.
• Fixed Explore mode not properly starting up.
• Added a basic "loading" screen to the web server when the map is loading.
• Fixed bug where the game mode wasn't propagated to the Steam master server under some circumstances.

BUILD 222 CHANGE LOG

Feature

• Rewrote server browser (much faster now)
• Added dedicated server web interface (thanks devicenull!)
• Added map cycle and mod configuration through the web interface.
• Added auto-join to the server browser.
• Added server tick rate to the server browser.
• Servers can now marked as favorite in the server browser.
• Reworked the the web admin interface setup to allow it to be modded through Workshop.

Balance

• Upgrading Robotics Factory cost reduced from 20 to 10.
• ARC cost reduced from 20 to 15.
• ARC build time reduced from 20 to 10.
• Tweaked melee base width. This requires all melee to be a bit more accurate (notably: Skulks).
• Removed "emergency" egg spawning (now always 7 seconds instead of 10 when there are no eggs). When calculating the spawn time for an egg, use the # of eggs that currently exist, not the # that haven't been assigned to a dead Alien.
• Lowered time to evolve Hive to Crag/Shade/Shift Hive from 30 seconds to 20.
• Lowered Arms Lab health by 12%. Lowered build time from 19 to 17.
• Increased Hive grow time from 120 seconds to 150 seconds.
• Increased Shift health from 400 to 500.
• Increased Onos charge energy cost to 40, up from 22, per second (cooldown remains at 1.5 seconds)

Change

• Decreased the rate that the "Infantry Portal Needed" team message is sent from 12 seconds to 20.
• Commander dropped jetpacks and exosuits have to be used (walking over them will no longer pick them up)
• Player will no longer collide with drifters or MACs.
• Adjusted Lerk flap force to make it easier to strafe flap in a tight corridor.
• Slow on land for Marines depends now on impact velocity (jumping on crates won't slow you down)
• Made Marine movement a bit more responsive.
• Marine structures can be dropped on Infestation, but cannot be constructed until infestation is cleared.

Fix

• Addressed issue where two conflicting mods could make the main menu unusable (mods will automatically be deactivated in the case of an error)
• Crash on gamestart (GISP bug) fix.
• Fixed the 2D Vortex start/stop sounds when the local player is Vortexed.
• Fixed rare script error caused by the Gorge using the build menu while the round was ending.
• The Alien Commander will no longer be "detected" by the Observatory on the minimap.
• Changed the changemap console command to use the mod configuration defined in the map cycle file.
• Fixed issue where button positions in Commander menu got changed when selecting different kind of units.
• Fixed bug where no name was displayed when a player had the name "Natural Causes" and fell down into a death trigger.
• The Alien Spectator HUD will no longer display after the game has ended.
• Fixed multi-threading crash when adding and removing layers from a model (happened frequently with the Flamethrower burn effect)
• Fixed a bug that would sometimes cause the Gorge to be stuck in vents after evolving (Thanks eh)
• The Exo will no longer continue to fire the Minigun after death.
• Crash when calculating consistency hash of a large file.
• Fixed crash when alt-tabbing out of the game during the loading screen.
• Fixed bug where a server that failed to download a mod (because it didn't exist) would also force clients to try and download that mod.
• Fixed issue with Lerk where you slowed down immediately when touching a surface.
• Fixed issue with sensor blips staying on screen.
• Remove duplicate/confusing/wrong GetFov from Drifter.
• Fixed script error caused by the Gorge heal help widget in some rare cases.
• Fixed bug where the game mode in the server browser was not updated by the game field in the game_setup file.
• Fixed bug where mods could not be downloaded on some computers due to file system permissions.
• Increased the loading thread sleep time while downloading mods to address multi-threading problems on Machines with a single core.
• The first person view model will no longer appear during the round start animation.
• Fixed issue where the dedicated server required the Steam Client to download mods from the Steam Workshop.
• Cooldowns should no longer trigger if ability was not successfully cast (e.g. Nanoshield)
• The mines now appear in a Marine's hands while equipped.
• Smooth blip movement on the mini-map.
• Insight - Fixed Hive destroyed spam bug for real this time guys I'm serious.
• Fixed crash when script return improper values from a WebRequest event.
• Simplified the configuration process for the dedicated server web admin.
• Fixed script error when sorting by server name in the server browser (thanks Asraniel)
• Fixed bug where file handles for config files were not properly closed in some circumstances.
• Fixed random effects showing up at the world origin for 1 frame.
• Fixed Exos not being able to see any orders.
• Fixed z-fighting on posters and other props.
• Fixed Alien Commander being able to spam ink clouds in the same area (which caused huge FPS problems)
• Fixed Nutrient Mist not allowing to activate when clicking on structures.
• Ghost structures cannot be NanoShielded anymore.
• Fixed bug where blinking while shadow stepping sets your speed to 0.
• Fixed bug where starting a server with mods active that don't exist would prevents client from being able to connect.
• Client update runs at 20 fps instead of 17.

Improvement

• Better/faster logging of net data.
• The field of view for spotting other players on the minimap is now 60 degrees instead of 28, this feels more consistent with what you see.
• Added egg counter to Alien spectator UI.
• Jetpacks are selectable by the Commander.
• Dropped Exosuits are now selectable by the Commander.
• Hooked up the Arms Lab hologram animation.
• The server will now end the game if the teams are too unbalanced. This can be configured by the server admin. It can be toggled and the unbalance percent can be changed (defaults to 40% unbalanced).
• Toothy's delight, smooth player movement.
• Added "maxfps" console command.
• Added separate first person effect for Gorge spit which does not move with the players camera.
• Improved umbra visuals.

Optimization

• Changed particles to be rendered as indexed primitives.
• Optimized particle updates.
• Path for order waypoint UI is only generated once per second now instead of once per frame.
• Less bandwidth used for mapblips.
• Screen effects are now preloaded to prevent some hitches while playing the game.
• Added preloading of textures used in the user interface to reduce hitching while playing the game.
• Fixed issue where precaching cinematics on the client only would not cause them to be precached.
• Filter entities that don't need interpolation.
• Optimized creation and destruction of particle systems.

SDK

• Disabled package.loadlib, package.seeall and package functions for loading from DLLs.
• Added -hotload console command to enable hot loading in the game (off by default)
• Added Client.RefreshServer to update the stored details on a server.
• Removed Client.GetServerGameDescription.
• Added Server.GetNumMaps, Server.GetMapName and Server.GetMapModId functions to query the maps that are installed.
• Removed GUIItem:GetTextureCoordinatesNormalized()
• Added server key value "mods" to give a list of all of the mods that a server running.
• Added Client.GetServerKeyValue to access a key value pair specified on the server.
• Added f_log console command to log all file accesses.

Sound

• Increased the volume of game sounds.