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Release v0.8.3.0

April 24, 2011 by Chris Hazard

This release contains performance improvements, numerous bug fixes, balancing tweaks, and additional terrains.

If you have already preordered Achron, you can download it here.

Achron changelog:

changed Patrol to be circular, can enqueue 5 points to continuously patrol around
added ability to Hold position by using Patrol and targetting your own units; select a single location to Hold that position
added single-click 'Cancel All' to progeneration units, quit progen mode for all nearby progenerators of the same tier
added single-click progeneration tripod setup when reporting to the same Arcticus and within progen range
added speed matching and formation maintenance to Grekim heirarchies when orders are issued by leaders
added teleport by hierarchy for Grekim when teleport is issued by a leader
added teleport control to all RPs
changed automatic closest Depot lookup for Vir piloting to be default behavior (not requiring smart-idle)
fixed bug where newly created Octo with objective to morph into RP would not move towards destination
fixed bug where fast air units reporting to slow ground units wouldn't move full speed when far behind
fixed bug where MFB would recover statuses without using energy
fixed bug with ordinance movement (torpedoes) being jerky
fixed bug where Arcticus chronoport disptach wouldn't always order all subordinates to chronoport
changed Level Editor file chooser to open in different directories based on specific file types
added the Observation Hub, a static invincible unit for use in MP maps as allied-to-all player for large area shared vision
reduced cost of Grekim Loligo class upgrade by 75% and time of research by 50%
fixed bug where Foundations repaired resource boxes
fixed bug where Blackbird would attempt to heal biological units and Reaph failed to heal all biologicals
fixed bug where making an Octo right after an Octo-RP would lose the original RP dispatch
fixed bug where Arcticus move or attack dispatch could be overwritten with distination of a build dispatch
fixed bug where units didn't always attack vecgir structures that had autodefense upgraded
fixed bug where Vecgir vehicles wouldn't return power to player if they were frozen at time of death
fixed bug where Foundations destroyed during mid-construction would consume power
fixed bug where neutral Vecgir vehicles wouldn't blow up
changed the unit message window to be 25% shorter, takes up less screen space
changed Carrier to be cheaper and improved weapons to be 1.5x stronger
changed Incepter to be cheaper and improved weapons to be 1.25x stronger
changed splash damage for Pharoligo to be 2x larger than the Pharopod's
increased cost of most air units by small amounts
increased visibility and weapon ranges for most units and structures by 10-15%
increased Octo's total HP by 5
updated unit icons
included models/units for story mode-characters Holloway and unarmed armored civilian for use in custom maps
included more tile sets in terrains/

Resequence Engine changelog:

prevent crash when scenario monitor indicates an invalid player has lost
fixed a PERFORM SET_PLAYER_TIME bug that would cause inconsistencies
changed neutral units' visibility to not require direct line of sight (range is fine); improves Resequence performance by up to 20% because of the algorithmically worst-case yet common in-game scenario of a row of resource containers along side a row of resource processors
added action step TRANSFER_CARRIED_UNIT_TO
fixed bug where level editor could crash if scrolled off map and try to place units
fixed surface normal computation bug (increases contrast for terrain lighting)
scenario monitor can now use distance operations to compute distances on units
fixed bug in Rescript compiler where continue and break statements would not be caught by the error handler if issued outside of a loop

Escapist Writeup on Trust in Gaming

April 13, 2011 by Chris Hazard

The Escapist has a story on my talk this morning at the East Coast Game Conference on trust as a game mechanic: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/109247-Games-Can-Make-You-Trust. I'm giving another talk tomorrow on serious games.

Release v0.8.2.0

March 25, 2011 by Chris Hazard

This release introduces the explosive large Q-Plasma container, unit hierarchy improvements, numerous bug fixes and balance improvements.

If you have already preordered Achron, you can download it here.

Achron changelog:

added importers and armories to Mech's building abilities for emergency creation; cost 1.5x of what it costs the Marine to make them
added smart-idle repair to Vecgir (look for Foundations) and Grekim (look for Reaphs) when damaged will slowly go towards nearby healer
added large QP crate with over 6x the QP; very explosive when destroyed with >40% resources; can cause chain reaction
added green 'unit created' timeline stats for units changing into others for upgrades and building creation
added toggle to toggle replay saving in multiplayer pre-game room
added toggle to enable/disable meta-replay recording
fixed ability to switch players during replays and enabled switching via double click
fixed bug where ejected Vecgir pilots would survive on unwalkable terrain
fixed multiple bugs where units were executing actions if prerequisite for action was undone in the past
fixed bug with hierarchy where a Stop dispatch would be ignored
fixed bug with Grekim hierarchy when commanding multiple tiers through proxy units
fixed bug where Grekim would check for resources at time of dispatch instead of at time of morph
fixed bug where the one queued order immediately after a teleport would be ignored
fixed bug where grekim units lost their commanding arcticus when going into progen mode
fixed bug where Arcticus could change Octo's RP placement while the Octo was already en route
fixed bug when creating new units, hierarchy lines would blink between creator and created
fixed bug where right clicking on ally units with Arcticus selected dispatched an attack insead of a change-commander
fixed bug where anti-air units would (incorrectly) switch air targets during auto attack
fixed bug where Vecgir vehicles could not be destroyed when frozen
fixed bug where Arcticuses could not be Comm Jammed
fixed bug with Zayin Tercher regenerating Skip energy if power is negative
fixed bug where Vecgir vehicles would not blow up when under attack by too many units at once
fixed bug where Chronoporter could stop chronporting units during specific conditions in a big game
fixed bug where units would attempt to use a Gate while it was still being constructed
fixed bug where virs could get permanently stuck inside depot if not enough resources to pilot right after request
updated visual effects for Mar and to units changing from one into another
updated animations and textures for ordinances
improved pathfinding performance for Grekim units moving to morph into buildings
improved hierarchy formation shape retention when moving medium-long distances
decreased build time for Octo by 1 second and Octo morphing into RP by 2 seconds
changed Repel mode in Slipgates to not work on cloaked units (even if detector is nearby) and reduced active radius by 1
increased range of Sepiligo weapon
decreased HP for resource crates
inclusion of more terrain objects: human unsealed buildings

Resequence Engine changelog:

improved minimap rendering: dark colors more visible and steep slopes shaded
releasing a unit from being carried now remembers rotation
added error check for missing tile set
replays now add level name to path
fixed bug where replays of replays would not store proper level (but instead store replay, causing .scn files to not be found via the proper path)
chronal AI players can now be observed in replays
fixed bug where engine would crash or read random data in certain circumstances when reading or comparing a distance to a valid but off-map location
removed 20ms delay if a player issued a command when another player was joining or disconnecting (also fixes rare replay consistency bug)
normalized timeout after player time change (when the timeline is grayed out) to game time rather than wall-clock time for game and replay consistency
fixed bug where chronoenergy stats would not be properly updated when a player was not connected (important for replays)
fixed bug where comm jam'd units would not ignore commands from player
added IgnorePlayerInput to skin language (mainly for toggling editability of replays)
added action precondition U_IS_ALL_TERRAIN_GROUND
fixed bug where Achron would hang on loading when a unit was pushed above the maximum height for the level
fixed bug where certain commands issued at time 0 would crash Resequence (only practically possible with replays)
added action step ACCUM_UNIT_CREATED_COUNTER to count major upgrades toward production
added action flag to morph one class into another via the creation shader
increased number of Achronal fields from 256 to 1024
added unit->TimeCameFrom, unit->Parent, and unit->NumQueuedObjectives to Rescript
unit creations and chronoportations no longer overwrite ActionParameters or ObjectiveParameters
added action step COPY_RETURN_TO_ACTION_PARAMETER
fixed bug where nonprojectile units would not alpha blend properly
changed control SHORTCUT_UNIT_OWN to SHORTCUT_UNIT_ALLY to group own and ally commands (rather than initially treating allies as an enemy and checking in-script)
when SelectAdditional skin variable is set and control group slot is restored, control group units are now added to those selected
fixed bug with UPnP initialization and teardown (should improve compatability with routers) and updated to miniupnp 1.5.20110314
added PERFORMs ENQUEUE_OBJECTIVE, DEQUEUE_OBJECTIVE, CLEAR_QUEUE, and ISSUE_ENQUEUED_UNIT_COMMAND to Rescript
fixed bug where units would sometimes be deselected after a menu button was pressed
fixed bug where couldn't always switch players when viewing replays

Release v0.8.1.0

March 12, 2011 by Chris Hazard

This release includes numerous bug fixes, unit behavior and balance improvements, game replay improvements, and minor visual indicator improvements.

If you have already preordered Achron, you can download it here.

Achron changelog:

added heuristic for preferential target acquisition based on weapon utility (i.e., anti-air prefers to shoot air)
fixed behavior of ground-attack-only units when facing airborne enemies
added rally point congregation to units being released from the Depot
moved the Skip Torpedo launch ability from the Depot to the ACC
add command relay to Arcticuses reporting to other Arcticuses, allowing subgrouping of Grekim hierarchies
added autocorrection for RP placement when footprint overlaps with resource crates
improved Vecgir RP skip logic and Grekim RP move logic
fixed smart RP attack behavior for maximizing economic damage by auto-targetting open RPs first
added animation and notification message when RPs convert resources
changed resource checking for building creation from time of order issue to time of placement
increased strength of upgraded Bastions
fixed several tooltips: Incepter cost and weapons upgrade for Vecgir
fixed bug with troops hitching a ride in tanks not working for Heavy Tanks and TwinMars
updated unit textures and team colors
fixed bug with keyboard binding for creating Teth Vir
fixed bug where Foundation would give Power as soon as it was made
changed Vecgir units to drain energy when player has negative power
fixed bug that allowed the Depot to produce vehicles without consuming Power
fixed bug that would cause construction units to lose their commander after placing down a building
fixed bug with Grekim RP placement via progen units reset the waypoint to the same location
fixed bug where waypoint build markers would temporarily dissapear while the building was being placed
increased the size of multiplayer hosted games window in main menu to improve map name readability
added missing plasma bomb explosion effect
added explosion animation to vecgir vehicles
added charge-up animation to dome beam
added warning if vir can't pilot because depot is over capacity
changed rotate-around-unit-intro to not rotate (less jarring and goes easy on slower GPUs)
updated grekim dome's beam charge
added forced-ally window display to paused players in multiplayer game
fixed bug where human carriers could be teleported
fixed bug where vecgir foundations wouldn't build if enemies were nearby
fixed bug where neutral/deactivated vecgir buildings wouldn't die
fixed bug where the spyre and progen-mode units would continue flashing on minimap if attacked
fixed bug where RPs sometimes would clear commander resource on assignment
fixed bug in demo level 3 where the (yellow) allied gamma team did not share vision
fixed bug where self-skipping Vecgir units would keep telporting indefinitely when in a circular hierarchy
fixed bug where units would ignore player issued orders to follow teleporting commanders
fixed bug where units would attempt to use neutral/disabled gates for teleporting and chronoporting
added always-visible progress bars to units
changed exiting during multiplayer games to automatically surrender on exit
fixed bug that wrong password joining private multiplayer game kicked player back to the main menu
fixed terrain passability for hover and non-hover units
reduced Importers' HP, cost of Sepiligo, Pharoligo and increased Pharopod cost and Sepi's air-splash during a balance pass
changed Gargantuan to be significantly cheaper and faster to produce and removed its adv weapon requirement
reduced range of repel mode in Slipgates
changed replay UI for player point-of-view switching to be dynamic during replay instead of in main menu
added toggle to main menu setting for hide/show camera pan arrows when panning the view around
inclusion of more terrain objects: human sealed buildings and human capital ship objects

Resequence Engine changelog:

fixed bug in ResequenceXML compiler where it would crash when a blank terrain would be specified in a .til.xml
unit die action step no longer immediately terminates action step sequence
fixed older bugs related to miniupnpc API changes
action step preconditions now evaluate to 0 if no player resources exist (e.g., neutral player)
player's timewave changes back to normal speed (or paused) when it hits the front of the time window
improved error handling on unit objective lines, such that an erroneous objective will be skipped over and the subsequent objectives will be rendered
in Rescript, unit->IsAlly now returns -1 for neutral units
progress bars are now always rendered over units
action sounds from units are no longer played if the unit is carried (carrier unit is responsible for sound)
revamped EventData's Event handling to be more consistent
added ActiveLocatorBeacon attribute to object class; makes blink on the map (e.g., to mark locations for single-player games)
fixed bug where certain global lighting values would sieze the scenario monitor
fixed bug where projectiles rendered without end_movement would not always show up
objects that show through fog of war now show up on unit placement grids (e.g., for building)
put cap such that excessive amounts of timeouts (> 30 minutes / 90 minutes of gameplay) cannot be set by the server
added UnpauseEngine to skin language (changed from toggle variable to two state change vars)
player-initiated pauses now ignored in replays
multiplayer replays no longer require all players to be connected to initiate
replays now log player names and game-level commands (like disconnects)
added unit->SecondOwner to Rescript
added PERFORM GET_PRESENT_TIME_WAVE_FIXED_TIME to Rescript
added more error checks to sound library calls to be more avoidant when errors occur
fixed bug where games would sometimes erroneously linger on the server after they were completed (particularly if they had unused players)

Release v0.8.0.0

February 17, 2011 by Chris Hazard

This release denotes official "beta" status of Achron. This release includes many new polish improvements, visual effects, replays, and more! Also, the Vecgir and Grekim alien species are now included in the main download, so you do not need to download the additional content for that.

Note: if you have previously installed Achron, you will need to manually create a "replays" directory within your home Achron directory (Documents/Achron for Windows, ~/.Achron for other platforms)

If you have already preordered Achron, you can download it here.

Achron changelog:

added new visual effects for weapons and improved existing ones
added loading of replays to main menu, and a toggle whether to save replays in settings
increased mech's anti-air strength during another balance pass
reduced power generation in foundations from 6 to 5
increased HP of launched torpedoes by 2.5x
increased costs of launched torpedos while increasing their attack power and radius
increased chronobomb's ability to future-send up to over 50 units
increased energy for teth tercher (recover-ability unit) from 50 to 150
increased the range of commjam to be all enemies within visible range of jamming unit
increased rate of self-healing for progeneration units
improved logic for skipping vecgir units
improved logic for when units should give up trying to get to a blocked-off location
improved flying logic for launched torpedos
improved landing logic for flying units trying to land on steep terrain
added error to flying buildings that fail to land due to bad terrain or obstactles
improved attack behavior of octos to increase effectiveness
improved foundation structure creation logic that checks for obstacles
fixed bug with race chooser that could prevent all the start-game units from being created
fixed bug with race chooser allowing old objectives in altered timeline with different race chosen
changed Vecgir RPs to continue attempting to skip as energy regenerates, instead of stopping
fixed bug where flying Grekim RPs would bounce between two resources without settling down
added 15 sec delay to automovement for start-game Grekim RPs
improved RP logic when approaching resources, faster to start processing when within range
fixed bug where air units landed on their own when idle and under attack by ground forces
decreased time for air units remaining idle on the ground to ~3.5 seconds
Grekim & Vecgir cloak-capable units now cloak smartly
Grekim & Vecgir units now will use chronoporters and slipgates if available
fixed bug where subordinates would teleport to random spot when commander started to patrol
fixed bug with healers that caused them to move to random spot when clearing commander mid-repair
fixed bug where depot's make vehicles disables when it's mid-attack after autodefence is researched
fixed bug where a cruiser wouldn't automatically get close enough be reloaded with nuke
fixed bug where moving cruisers could get stuck when surrounded by other cruisers
fixed bug where slipgate would spin and recharge after placing down a foundation
fixed bug that where units moved to top left corner when relink-dispatched by newly placed arcticus
fixed bug with carriers not being able to drop off cargo
fixed bug with air units flying too high when unable to follow commander to destination
fixed bug with zayin and teth pulsers occasionally incorrect objective lines for moving or attacking
fixed bug where virs were enqueued but then stuck inside depot if not enough resources to pilot both
fixed bug where zayin vir would remain cloaked when ejected from destroyed cloaked zayin tercher
fixed bug where arcticus sometimes did not clear nanites of subordinates
fixed bug where arcticus still required a mound to dispatch chronoports
fixed bug where units attacking a specific target would ignore new hierarchy-issued orders
fixed bug with keymapping for building the south foundation
updated tutorial demo levels 1 and 2
updated most tooltip texts along with various tooltip text fixes
fixed UI bug that allowed incorrect unpausing of game if skipping the rotate-around-unit popup
added flashing warning to chronenergy bar when out of/insufficient chronoenergy
updated hierarchy arrows in the in-game UI
updated unit selection circles in the in-game UI
fixed bug in demo level 3
updated grekim team color textures to make more visible
minor improvements to unit behavior for Grekim and Vecgir computer player
included community-made maps: Void Platform, Oliverstone Pass, and Ovegrown Citadel all by Shadowfury333, and Cratoria by ChronAberant

Resequence Engine changelog:

put check in level editor to not crash if right-click off map
added glow parameter to projectiles in model compiler to scale emissivity
removed generation of spurious noise texture, reducing VRAM usage by 2MB
ally visibility now defaults to unshared
added translate_texture, distort_texture, and double_sided to animation script, model compiler, and rendering engine
fixed bug in model compiler that would cause crash when animation names were too long
added ResequenceBaseDirectory and ResequenceUserDirectory to skin language
added replay functionality: added persistant variable LogGameReplayData which saves all games in user's Achron/replays
added skin variables StartScenarioFromFile and SpawnScenarioFromFile which can spawn any playable level from path specified
added skin variable InReplay to designate whether or not a replay is being played
unit selection box no longer appears on same click and drag when a command is issued
improved variance of unit health indicators
Linux build now uses .deb installer
player time wave force-to-present at the front end of the time window is now accurate if there is no future portion of the timeline
minor CPU reduction for the cases when the CPU is keeping far ahead of the game state
minor CPU reduction for pathplanning

Release v0.7.0.0

January 11, 2011 by Chris Hazard

This release contains a polish art pass over all 3 species' unit models, numerous bug fixes, some balance improvements, and improved loading time when opening up a second level.

If you have already preordered Achron, you can download it here.

Achron changelog:

increased the speed of air units by an average of 25% and some ground units by 15%
increased costs of air units by 5%
updated Mech to be stronger vs air units
improved responsiveness of speed matching in hiearchies
fixed end-level bug in the demo campaign level 5
fixed bug with shin vir not attacking air units
fixed flight-capable buildings to move to destinations via air route
updated the chooser to a 3d unit
increased skip range for incepters by a factor of 2
increased visibility range for all carrier units
added ability to pickup resource crates to all carrier units
updated walking units remain upright while traversing hills: all vir units and pharos.
fixed bug with placing vecgir RPs when low on resources
fixed bug in main menu, buttons not showing when erroring out due to router error in pregame lobby
improved vecgir textures and meshes
optimization pass on all 3D model textures and some meshes
team color made more clear on some units
updated example scenario monitor scripts

Resequence Engine changelog:

updated Windows installer to warn about Nvidia driver bugs and on deleting files
added option to add desktop icon to Windows installer
fixed unit position placement issues on south and east map boundaries in level editor and for building placement
enabled SSE2 instruction set in Win32 build
enhanced error messages for launching Resequence and added Error reporting variable to skin language
keep object set cached between level loads for faster subsequent load times
level editor now ignores playable units that are off the map on loading
fixed bug where unit shadows would dissapear when zoomed in too close on certain maps
added check to make sure terrain objects were not painted past northern or western edge of visible map
added PERFORM ISSUE_UNIT_COMMAND to scenario monitor in Rescript
upgraded to FreeType 2.4.4
upgraded miniupnpc to version 1.5
changed active camo technique to project camo for surfaces facing camera

Release v0.6.4.0

December 19, 2010 by Chris Hazard

This release includes the full set of first-pass textures for the Vecgir, several important bug fixes, improved edge cases in path planning, and reduced critical VRAM footprint.

If you have already preordered Achron, you can download it here.

Achron changelog:

fixed bug where foundations were not always allowed to be built due to false overlay error
fixed bug where Vecgir slipgate could not be built
fixed bug where octos moved to rally point before following orders if inturrupting morph into RP
fixed bug where RPs would keep on trying to move towards a box that they couldn't get to
fixed bug where arcticus attack dispatch to target could send units to a corner of the map
fixed size of vecgir RP
complete first pass of Vecgir textures
fixed bug in vir and human throw animation when weapon was raised

Resequence Engine changelog:

increased threshold by which traveling units are considered obstacles as opposed to flow in the same direction (fixes some badly performing edge cases)
reduced video card ram usage by over 2MB by consolidating functional textures
neutral units now appear through fog of war

Release v0.6.3.0

December 13, 2010 by Chris Hazard

This release includes 3D model updates to the Vecgir, animation updates, zoom-to-cursor, pathfinding improvements, Newport terrain textures and many bug fixes. We've also made tons of progress on creating the single-player campaigns, which will be released later with the full game.

If you have already preordered Achron, you can download it here.

Achron changelog:

fixed bug where foundations would repair resource crates
fixed bug in ui that prevented clicking on a small area to the right of center
improved initial group movement for newly dispatched move orders
fixed building placement bug where a unit moved into the way of placement during animation
fixed path finding bug with resource processors moving around selected resources
added tornade to IcedTactics and QuadTactics as cloak detector
fixed bug where nanite infect would sometimes not work
fixed bug where a nuke would not be reloaded once heavy cruiser was close enough
fixed tooltips: prices in arcticus, sepipod and pharopod recover statuses
added new 3d models for Resource Processor, industrial teleporter
added animations to Pharopod
fixed bug vecgir RPs wouldn't teleport to empty locations
fixed bug with carriers incorrectly alerting of being under attack when picking up or releasing units
fixed bug where carriers wouldn't pickup units in some situations
fixed bug where short vis range units would fail to chronoport when on the edge of gate's active radius
added absolute time toggle to in-game settings (default clock shows relative time)
changed grekim chronoporting to not require a mound - for real this time
fixed popping animation for SOP's heal action
fixed incorrect tooltip for equipping nuke in macrofab
updated turrets - 10% cheaper and 10% stronger
added hotkeys for vehicles to the depot
updated hotkeys for arcticus, added missing hotkeys and made 'make cto/sepi/pharo' consistent
fixed bug where repair units would fix inactive neutral units while idle
added Vecgir vir 3D models
updated Vecgir textures
included base terrain tile set for Newport in terrains/

Resequence Engine changelog:

fixed bug where a scenario consisting only of scenario monitor and no units would not run scripts
removed team color, active camo, and scripts from units with no player/owner
fixed bug where engine would crash if neutral unit attempted to consume its own player resource
neutral units no longer compute visibility (saves cpu on levels with many neutral units)
right-clicking on units in level editor now sets the HP, energy, etc. to paint to the value of the right-clicked unit's attributes
improved terrain clipping algorithms (fewer clipping issues where blackness appears)
added CameraZoomFixedCursor to skin language - enables zoom-to-cursor functionality
fixed bug where undo commands to the past would not always work (despite chronoenergy charge)
added CameraZoomInFixedCursor, CameraZoomOutFixedCursor, CameraMinXRotation, CameraMaxXRotation, ConstrainCameraToMap to skin language

Release v0.6.2.0

November 13, 2010 by Chris Hazard

This is primarily a bug fix and polish release. This release features a pass on unit balancing, enhanced performance stability under heavy CPU loads, and many control improvements.

If you have already preordered Achron, you can download it here.

Achron changelog:

improved attack logic for close-range units
increased visibility and attack ranges by 5-10% for many units
changed costs of chronoports, most air-capable units, teleporter, annex, reaph
updated Chooser unit to smartly place starting units on the side of the resources
added ability to set rally points on units; auto-sets target as commander for newly deployed
changed units to attack-move to rally/congregation points from factories/progeneration units
changed relocating buildings to automatically activate when stopped on the ground
fixed attack-move bug where dequeuing the command or temporal changes could result in attack of your own units
fixed bug where heal-capable units would stop to heal themselves mid-fight
fixed bug where clicking in certain parts of the UI would not register the action
fixed bug with in-game save menu where having many saved games would overlap with input and arrows
fixed bug with main menu multiplayer, left-side buttons were not hidden during pregame lobby loading
fixed bug in total defeat logic that intsa-ended the level if player lost immediatelly at start
fixed bug where a cruiser could get stuck rotating back/forth when trying to nuke a unit
increased speed for garguantian and incepeter
increased damage per second of Twin Mar by 23%
increased fire rate and damage per second for Carrier and decreased HP
increased damage per second for Incepter and decreased HP
added chronoport dispatch to arcticus
added build/place buildings dispatch to arcticus
added congregation/rally point to Grekim progeneration units
fixed bug where octopods would occasionally "moonwalk"
added release cargo control to swift-mode gargantuan (fast-delivery)
added rechronoport warning to grekim instead of insta-dying with consecutive jump attempts
swapped the random chronoport-back-in-time ability from the vecgir skip torpedo to the grekim plasma cruise missile
fixed balance bug with Sepi balance vs ground units
updated several units' strengths based on balance pass
fixed bug where units in the middle of changing into progeneration would enable full progeneration
fixed octoligo nanite infect button to work like other buttons
fixed pharopod cloaking controls
added stop control to Incepter
added Repel mode to incepter (randomly teleport nearby enemies away using skip-teleport energy)
changed Vecgir multiplayer start game to have an additional Teth Vir
changed sizes of Vir units to be larger and Teth Pulser to be rectangular
decreased build time of most Vecgir units
updated slipgate repel to not work on carriers
updated annex to be cheaper and disables the build foundation control while deploying troops
updated foundation to prioritize fixing units over buildings
updated foundation to not have the unused energy field
fixed bug where building a depot would fail due to an obstacle but still use up resources
fixed skip bug where skipping multiple units could break their skip ability
fixed skip bug where destination had an obstacle (building), units would get stuck teleporting
fixed bug where ACC would not stop flashing on minimap after it was attacked
fixed bug where multiple Depots next to one ACC or Annex wouldn't allow creation of allowed vehicles
changed Vecgir RPs to disconnect from patches when executing player-issued teleports

Resequence Engine changelog:

campaign images no longer set with incorrect color profile and image compression
fixed bug where sync between host and client was more fragile when SendBufferSize was greater than 0 due to incorrect message header initialization
improved timing code to prevent CPU seizing
fixed bug where unit objective lines would not be displayed in rare cases with multiple units selected
alpha depth now explicitly specified in SDL - improves performance on certain Linux video card drivers
removed MOUSEOVER_POSITION inputs and added POSITION_OR_UNIT input, which packs a unit number in the x,y coordinates and sets z to an invalid height if a unit is over the position
improved accuracy of distance checks for units with a collision map length of an even number of tiles (improves short-range attack behavior and accuracy)
fixed bug where rendering state would not cull backward triangles for terrain and terrain shadow rendering: slight rendering performance improvement on some scenes
fixed bug where shadows were rendered incorrectly on terrain objects
fixed bug where scenario monitor would not be run in certain cases of irrelevant data field values in scenario monitor
UnitControlsCustom skin variable now cleared when unit selection changes (resets control menus)
added gradient to timeline stats rendering

Release v0.6.1.0

October 18, 2010 by Chris Hazard

This release features revised heads-up display graphics, improved loading time, and many bug fixes and improvements to the Vecgir and Grekim alien species (currently available via separate download).

If you have already preordered Achron, you can download it here.

Achron changelog:

incorporated the first pass of the new in-game interface/HUD
added key bindings to main menu for vecgir and grekim under settings
updated level editor to display tooltips for all advancements and unlocked button for the 6th vecgir upgrade
updated several buildings to not display active radius when selected for no reason
updated Vecgir buildings to last until destroyed completely
changed grekim unts to not use any energy to chronoport (not limited by energy)
change grekim to require an active comm mound (instead of an arcticus) to chronoport
updated octoligo and octpod to have 360 degree attack range (no need to rotate to attack)
updated arcticus to be significantly cheaper, progenerates 3x faster and smaller in size
added nanite clear ability to arcticus (for anything within its hiearrchy)
added ability to not have a commander for grekim units and default to be commander-less
added remove from hierarchy control to grekim units
updated the octo to move faster
updated swift-mode change for sepiligo and gargantuan to not be instantanteous (to accomodate animations)
changed Dome beam to have range of 250 and do 150 hp damage
fixed the mech factory in chronoclone challenge level
fixed a bug where any carrier could attempt to load itself
added several new textures to 3d units and several new 3d models
fixed UI bug with defeated text overlapping the OK button in the 'you won/lost' window
fixed various tooltips, objective texts, unit description, cost values
fixed Grekim-specific bugs:
-the 'upgrade chronoporting' button in the Reaph did not work
-The Octoligo nanite infect button didn't do anything
-Reaph did not regenerate ammo for super weapons
-progen-mode units lost a portion of their energy when exiting progen mode when near a spyre
-progen-mode units didn't always regenerate energy in progeneration mode
-grekim icons in progen mode don't match up (now must only select one unit to progenerate)
-closed and open RPs could not be given any orders when selected together
-key bind conflict in Dome with Beam
-Domes got stuck in fire beam mode if target is destroyed before the beam fires
fixed Vecgir-specific bugs:
-a depot that wasn't adjacent to an annex allowed making vehicles if selected after an annex-adjacent depot in vehicle mode
-depot could still create aircraft if it was originally next to an ACC that was destroyed
-Vegir Virs could pilot aircraft without an adjacent ACC
-The Vegir slipgate chronoporting was not functional
-shin-class units didn't set commander when right clicking on units
-vecgir skip didn't render the teleport animation properly
-the incepter was missing skip ability
-RPs spent energy when told to self teleport even if the teleport failed due to obstruction
-RPs never opened once attacked, staying closed forever
-RPs continounsly auto-skip into impassable locations
-incorrect HP for Incepter
-foundations sometimes would not expand to validly open spaces
Improved texturing for Grekim and Vecgir Incepter mesh included

Resequence Engine changelog:

units can no longer carry self (which crashes the engine)
additional check in constructing a player's profile name to prevent crashes in rare circumstances when selecting profile
broke skin window UNIT_INFO into UNIT_INFO and UNIT_GAUGES
consolidated projectile effects by adding .ers and .emdl files, decreasing VRAM usage and improving load times by 20-40%

Release v0.6.0.0

October 11, 2010 by Chris Hazard

This release includes both the Vecgir and Grekim for the first time (as a separate download), as well as many improvements to unit art assets. It also includes numerous bug fixes, some improvements to pathfinding and CPU performance, and balancing improvements for the Humans.

The other two species are available via separate download. The texturemaps are very much a work-in-progress, and the Vecgir only have a smattering of team color and active camo. The weapon effects are also placeholders. With the large amount of functionality in this release, there are sure to be some bugs and balancing issues that crop up, and we will likely have a minor patch fix in the near future based on any you find. We don't have instructions for the other two races yet, so try them out in the sandbox first.

This release also contains significantly improved Human units. With all the new assets, the load time is a little longer, and we'll be working to improve that.

If you have already preordered Achron, you can download it here.

Achron changelog:

Initial Vecgir and Grekim release for DLC Sandbox level
integrated Human 3D models: Marine, SOP, MAR, TwinMar, Heavy Tank, MFB, Tornade, Cruiser, carrier, Importer, Turret
improved and polished music
updated carrier - lowered cost and moves faster
updated turret - lowered cost for turret and upgrade, additional visibility range with upgrade
fixed bug where marines riding in a chronported tank set their previous selves as commanders on arrival
fixed bug where using default level editor values for factories allowed one instant-create of first unit
fixed bug where loading cruisers with nukes was enabled with specials upgrade instead of the aerospace upgrade
improved building movement code to reduce bounciness
fixed bug with enqueuing upgrades - you can now enqueue upgrades correctly
fixed bug during upgrades where clicking another upgrade would show the new objective incorrectly
fixed resource conversion exploit bug
removed the Triple-MAR completely
changed the Twin-MAR to be much stronger
updated comm center to not have full visibility until it is fully constructed
changed unit controls to still be visible when there's not enough chronoenergy to use them
updated importer logic for optimal selection of siphoning reserves
moved cloak-detection ability from ATHC to SOP
moved cloak-detection ability from Lancer to Tornade
added depth blending option to graphics settings

Resequence Engine changelog:

fixed bug in model compiler where comments at end of files and certain numbers of newlines would cause a crash
added GET_PLAYER_TIMEWAVE_VISIBILIY and SET_PLAYER_TIMEWAVE_VISIBILIY to rescript; non-connected players now default to displaying no timeline indicator
controls are no longer displayed for units that are being constructed; double-click selection is also changed to not additionally select units being constructed
decreased minimum camera height slightly
improved performance of line-of-sight computation on server; initial results show a 4-12% performance improvement
explicitly define shaders as version 1.20 to improve portability
removed old OpenGL matrix code causing warnings to be issued by Mesa on Linux
fixed consistency bug having to do with subordinate and carried unit iteration
in Rescript, QUERY BESTMOVE now requires the unit's move action and min_action_time to be initialized if used
in path planning, accuracy of cost of rotations is now improved
path planning is now more aggressive at expanding distant search (as opposed to only finding the absolute optimal local move)
fixed bug where if individual player's fog of war was disabled (but not globally), units would be updated continuously, consuming bandwidth and adversely affecting animation and sounds
activation of unit and projectile shaders now delayed until object is confirmed for rendering (minor reduction in number of shader state changes)
projectiles with no depth write are now rendered after depth-writing objects to make sure they are always visible
added validation checks on unit animation rendering later in the rendering pipeline in case data is misaligned from slow Internet connection or lagging CPU
removed external dependency on Visual C++ Runtime from bundled dlls
fixed bug where visibility queries in Rescript would not return correct units visible when a unit was on a high-altitude terrain position
when carried units are selected, selection indicators are no longer rendered on terrain where unit used to be
fixed bug where if tangent attributes were optimized out of shaders (because not being used in lower graphics settings), they were still being attempted to be used
if querying the visibility/attackability of a location and can't see the location but can see the unit on the location due to line-of-sight, that now counts as the location being visible/attackable
noise textures, such as active camouflage, are now mipmapped
removed uninitialized texture delete from terrain objects shader teardown code
added ability to render soft particles: DepthBlending to configuration.ini and soft_depth_blend to animation script files (Model Compiler)
made linear and quadratic lighting parameters consistent in Model Compiler
fixed bug where level editor would crash if time bookmark controls were used
units with size of zero (collision map length of 0) no longer appear on minimap and cannot be selected
improved movement timing accuracy for rotation-based moves and on different terrain slopes

Release v0.5.1.0

September 8, 2010 by Chris Hazard

This is a bug fix and unit usability polish release. Units behave more intelligently and game server performance is improved slightly in some cases.

If you have already preordered Achron, you can download it here.

Achron changelog:

fixed bug where mechs had visibility issues with marines, sops and importers
fixed bug in Level Editor where a player's color overwrote another's but switching players and canceling edit color mode
fixed several UI bugs dealing with camera rotation and added the ability to close in-game dialogue boxes by hitting Enter
fixed bug where ground units were allowed to teleport to air locations
fixed bug where air units wouldn't teleport to the specified height level
fixed bug where air units wouldn't attack air units at different elevation levels
fixed bug where units sometimes wouldn't follow commanders through teleporters while moving/attacking
fixed bug where cut scene unit descriptions would flash 0 when clicking OK to close the description popup
fixed bug where air units at very high elevations wouldn't lower themselves to shoot at ground targets
fixed bug where MARs would get permanently stuck in merge animation
fixed bug where RP got stuck in a loop deciding between two resources when not able to move close to either
fixed bug where cruiser wouldn't drop nuke if something was in the spot it was trying to nuke
fixed bug where cruiser would drop the nuke but the nuke would not blow up
fixed bug where relative time was not shown or shown incorrectly to players 3 and up
updated timings and costs: increased research time, decreased marine build time, changed costs and rates for healers
updated the flow of the in-game save menu
updated importer selection method for siphoning reserves to maximize reserves generation rate
changed height of elevations of the forest levels to be shorter (easier to manage)
changed Comm Center to have very large visibility range when in active mode (can now be used as a watch tower)
changed Chronoporting to be smart about selecting the minimum number of available chronoporters for use
added reset-to-default for key bindings in main menu

Resequence Engine changelog:

fixed crash when selecting units when no scenario monitor unit defined in ocs file
fixed unit control bug where unit controls would be wrapped incorrectly when rendered at certain resolutions, making the controls difficult to use
fixed bug where sometimes the 3rd enqueued command (4th counting current objective) would have an incorrect flag as to whether to clobber the current objective parameter
"PERFORM UI_SELECT_UNIT 0" now deselects units
fixed player control flags to not disable time controls
added code to differentiate numpad keys from main keys on Windows due to the way Windows handles key bindings
in Rescript, IsAttackable and ClosestAttackablePosition now don't check line of sight if the current weapon does not require it
in Rescript CAN_CLASS_FIT_AT now uses the unit variable rather than the unit running the script
fixed bug where last selected unit control would sometimes be incorrectly rendered as reselected when undoing commands
reduced memory churn for skin strings
fixed bug where conditional play_sound could misalign the remaining skin bytecode
added SeeThroughObjects flag to Object Class
added channel parameter to play_sound in skin language
fixed bug in skin compiler that would occasionally cause the process to hang on certain code
fixed one bug where an attackable position wouldn't be hit due to rounding error
improved new unit memory estimator that prevents crashes with extreme time wave rates
sequential binds of the same variable to the same key in the skin language no longer require an equal number of unbinds to remove
fixed checks to indicate whether a unit is on the ground
removed ability to teleport a unit into the air if it is disallowed (for total conversion mods this can be enabled by multiple classes or restrictions on movement)
changed data types in post-processing shader to remove issues with strict GLSL compilers
fixed bug where unit visibilities were sometimes calculated incorrectly on certain terrain heights (and units could not see things right next to them)
improved efficiency for visibility queries for units that do not need direct line-of-sight

Release v0.5.0.0

August 26, 2010 by Chris Hazard

Version 0.5.0.0 is a nice big round number. And with nice big round numbers comes lots of under-the-hood improvements. For starters, this release has a new rendering model, which is more accurate with respect to lighting. It also has support for custom keybindings, a clone brush in the level editor, a new major balancing pass, as well as the usual bug fixes.

We have figured out the Nvidia driver bug that occurs on Windows and Linux with Nvidia drivers 256.x and up, and it is the same bug seen by other groups. The solution to this is to set the number of lights in the configuration file to 2; if you use any more of the light variables the bug pops up. Nvidia does not have a fix yet, but we'll let you know when they do. We're looking at using a different mechanism for populating light data anyway, so we do have a long-term solution.

Because much of the rendering has changed, please be on the lookout for rendering bugs. Framerates should be improved on most cards, but on some low-end cards and configurations the performance may be slightly worse. Let us know how it compares.

If you have made custom maps, you'll need to update the number of resources and also the lighting. We have changed the resource magnitude as well; a rule of thumb is to divide everything by 5 and it will be close to what it was before, though some things have changed considerably with the balancing pass. A good set of starting resources is 300 LC and 40 QP.

If you have already preordered Achron, you can download it here.

Achron changelog:

added unit introductions and improved cutscenes in demo levels
added ability to change keybindings under main menu->settings
added Clone Brush to the Level Editor
added connecting message for multiplayer login
added buttons to share or block vision to players in multiplayer games
fixed bug with MAR merge where tanks wouldn't merge on non-flat ground
fixed bug in multiplayer scenario monitor ai-surrender heuristic that caused it to give up right away
fixed bug when RP moves towards a resource box the objective line points to incorrect spot
fixed several old text descriptions for actions and objectives
balancing pass and costs updated - reduced costs by a factor of 5
changed Resource Processors to only work at close range
changed Teleporters and Chronoporters to not move
changed tech upgrades to allow Concurrent research in different buildings
changed chat console to auto-hide after 20 seconds
changed Teleporters to maintain unit formations when teleporting several units
changed gate tech upgrade to not require specials upgrade
updated build-times for all units and buildings
updated units to prefer to attack healers and repairers over other units
updated Slingshots to move as fast as marines and increased range to 65
updated unit creation buildings to point objective line to congregation/rally point
updated unit creation buildings to allow placing rally points anywhere, not limited to a small range
updated in-game font size to be larger, fixing readability issues on low resolutions with antialiasing disabled
updated open RPs to be able to move along with closed RPs via right click on ground
terrain texture touchups

Resequence Engine changelog:

holding enqueue button now keeps current control selected for subsequent commands
improved Resequence performance in cases when a large battle falls off timeline - up to 20 percent performance improvement in certain situations
don't display objective lines to invalid position
increased maximum number of unit controls to 48 (for conditional controls)
added AnimatedChronoporteeLineSpeed and AnimatedControlActiveLineSpeed to configuration
added ability to have unit controls take on the value of an exported skin var with dollar sign (e.g., $skinvar), allow bind command to use a variable to specify the button pressed
fixed bug where skin variable SpawnLevelEditorError was incorrectly aliased with the first user skin variable
fixed bug where level editor would crash if went too far south
changed CustomField7 in Rescript to CustomControls, and propagate to control conditions
added LevelEditorCloneBrushEnable, LevelEditorCloneBrushSourceX, LevelEditorCloneBrushSourceY, LevelEditorCloneBrushDestinationX, LevelEditorCloneBrushDestinationY, LevelEditorCloneBrushMirrorX, LevelEditorCloneBrushMirrorY to skin language
fixed camera lines on map to always be control color (not team color)
engine no longer loads defunct units with invalid class numbers (prevents crashes)
separated terrain object shader code to reduce rendering operations
fixed bug where clicking and dragging off the map in the level editor would disable painting on the terrain
added required variable specification to unbind in skin language to allow multiple variables to be bound to the same key
frames per second is now computed in menus as well, so if framerate is limited, it applies everywhere
tightened scene clipping for shadow rendering; improved ratio of visual quality to performance
streamlined skin built-in window UNIT_INFO
fixed bug where terrain would sometimes be depth-clipped at a distance when camera was really high
changed rendering to use the sRGB gamut
improved performance by only rendering valid circles around unit when on screen (~2-4 percent more frames per second on certain levels)
added LastKeyboardKeyPressed to skin language
resizing the map height in the level editor now updates the maximum camera height while editing the level
upgraded to FreeType 2.4.2
changed mipmap generation method to use newer OpenGL standard (the old method was a workaround for a bug with ATI drivers which has been fixed in recent months)
improved active camo rendering
prevent unit info bar overlays from rendering beyond bar when at edge
fixed RescriptCompiler bug where "say a, ,b;" would cause a crash

Release v0.4.1.0

August 2, 2010 by Chris Hazard

Today's release fixes a number of long-standing control issues with units, and also many bug fixes. Build menus are now accessible without using chronoenergy and units' objectives are shown via arrows. Objective arrows may be enabled on the settings page in the menu. This release also contains some performance improvements to the gameplay and improvements to terrain elevation controls in the level editor. To smooth out terrain, press and hold right-click to continuously update the current height brush, and while the right mouse button is held, left-click and drag to smoothen.

Note that all players must upgrade to this version in order to play multiplayer.

Keyboard remapping was originally planned for this release, but was pushed back due to the timing of the birth of my son!

If you have already preordered Achron, you can download it here.

Achron changelog:

fixed bug where changing the rally/congregation point for newly made units wouldn't always work in mid deployment
fixed save-game bug where the host could not save in multi-player games and overwriting existing saves wouldn't work
updated chronporters to be more forgiving, they now continue spinning/looking for units to chronoport for 5 seconds before recharging
added a heuristic for computer player to surrender once it sees that it's being heavily beaten
added constraints to painting in the level editor - min and max angle and height boundaries
changed elevation values in level editor to be based off maximum ground height for the map
fixed objective text for buildings while they are being created: now says "Constructing..."
changed switching to build/other sub-menus for units to not consume Chronoenergy
added allowing to enque creation of multiple buildings
fixed bug where if during attack-move a friendly moved into the target location it may get attacked by accident
added toggle to show/hide objective lines
added toggle to always display unit stats - or hold W key on keyboard
fixed bug where a smart idle heal-me request would continue to request healers after one had already responded
fixed bug where air units would bounce up/down instead of crossing over a hill
fixed bug with carrier unable to release units
fixed bug where selecting a unit in a factory and right clicking on ground would stop deployment
fixed bug where subordinates that teleported before their commander would return towards the original destination by the teleporter
idle units now try to report to commander's commander if commander dies or quick-find a new commander when autohierarchy is on
changed MFB so it can fix/heal all units and made Blackbirds heal slower
minor terrain texture touchup

Resequence Engine changelog:

fixed bugs in ResequenceXMLCompiler where weapons would get chopped off and first script not used (also patched up XML)
fixed bug where changing alliances would not consume chronoenergy
changed ActionStep::Probability to be an optional element in game XML
added LevelEditorBrushMaxHeight, LevelEditorBrushMinHeight, LevelEditorBrushMaxAngle, and LevelEditorBrushMinAngle to skin language
forced create action is no longer performed when a unit arrives via chronoport
added PlayerFogOfWarDisabled and PlayerUnitControlsDisabled to skin language, and also player->ControlFlags in Rescript and P_CONTROL_FLAGS as a resource type
visibility sharing is now independent from alliance. added ShareVisibilityWithPlayer and RevokeVisibilityFromPlayer to skin language, PERFORM SET_PLAYER_VISIBILITY_SHARING and player->VisibilitySharing to Rescript
fixed bug that made high-up air units difficult to select in some circumstances
improved terrain height painting in level editor by improving numerical rounding
when continuous painting in level editor is enabled, holding down right mouse button will now dynamically sample, so if both mouse buttons are held down, the terrain is continuously blurred about the central point (useful for making ramps)
fixed bug where player notification sounds would sometimes be heard by other players
fixed rare consistency bug (found through analysis) that could subtly affect an individual unit's behavior if the following events happened all to the same unit: locally portion of spatial index aliased between two time waves when they arrived at a particular point in time, unit is performing a query on other units, and query data is sensitive to and affected by weak ordering (many units on the boarderline of a query comparison)
fixed bug where level editor would sometimes crash if map was right-clicked upon
improved Resequence performance by 5-10% when large armies are moving
fixed bug where shadows weren't rendered when camera was too close to a high terrain position
upgraded to FreeType 2.4.1
added ShowControlActiveLines and ShowSelectedControlActiveLines to skin language, and also corresponding control number per objective to indicate which control represents which objective
added flag so that unit controls may denoted as disabled from mouse clicks or invisible
added UnitControlsCustom to skin language and respective flags in unit controls (controls can set the variable)
mouse shortcuts are now an attribute of controls so that quick icons (radial menu) and all other mouse-based controls can be updated dynamically like keyboard-based controls
hierarchy lines now shown when mouseover unit
fixed bug where the client sometimes receive delayed updated unit objectives
added ammo to unit overlay bars
built units now start with 0 ammo by default
decreased minimum distance for clipping in model compiler and slightly in Achron
removed trailing zeros from decimals in level editor (and elsewhere)
increased maximum load timeout for slow machines
fixed bug where not all terrain types would be loaded in level editor
fixed crash when connecting to multiplayer where OS does not have hostname
improved visibility of build placement red and green tiles
quick icons no longer cause underlying unit to be selected

Release v0.4.0.0

July 1, 2010 by Chris Hazard

We made another big release today. One of the main features is the terrain; the terrain can be much more variable than before (large mountains and valleys), and units have limitations on how steep of terrain they can move, making the terrain far more strategic (the editor has tools to aid with level design for this). We also released our XML compiler (Windows only for now - Linux and Mac forthcoming), which means that we've now released all the tools required for someone to make a completely different game than Achron. We've included a small sample XML file as an example. Further documentation will be forthcoming.

This release includes a large number of minor internal tweaks that allow for significantly more flexibility, such as allowing air units to fly within canyons instead of just above them. The level editor also has a few improvements, units now have helpful descriptions in their info boxes, and path finding and CPU performance are both improved.

If you have already preordered Achron, you can download it here.

Achron changelog:

increased speeds of some units to add more differentiation in units' speeds
added creation of custom level sizes to Level Editor
fixed Level Editor bug where entering player Objectives did not allow carriage returns
updated units to respect elevation slopes for not being able to move over steep elevation changes
added to Level Editor: toggle to view Allowed move for selected unit
changed slinghots and teleporters: distances set to 50 and 250 respectively, no active mode for teleporters
added unit descriptions
improved pathfinding performance while decreasing cpu utilization
fixed continuous recharge/drain rates for blackbird and athc
fixed chronoported doesn't die when recharging bug
fixed vertical range of nanite infect
fixed typing \ in console would enable camera rotation
fixed size of tank's animations
updated several ui and in-game sfx
made height levels less tall (easier to select air units)

Resequence Engine changelog:

AdditionalParameters2 is now initialized to 0 on unit creation
fixed bug where when selecting a position, undetected units could adversely affect the position selection
added PERFORM GET_XPORT_TIMEOUT to Rescript
fixed bug where PERFORM SET_TIME_WAVE_TIME would always set time waves to time 0
added LevelEditorShowUnitAllowablePositions to skin language
added maximum terrain angle each unit can traverse
fixed bug where .sts files would not be displyed in quick play list
added ConsoleExpectEnter to skin language to accept return as part of the string, console now ignores empty input
improved accuracy of camera look-at code
added CameraQuickness, LookAt, LookAtX, LookAtY, LookAtZ, SetCameraPosition, CameraPositionX, CameraPositionY, CameraPositionZ, CameraRotationX, CameraRotationY to skin language
fixed bug where placing or releasing a unit/building would sometimes fail when it was a valid location
Rescript unit attributes ClosestAttackablePosition and ClosestVisiblePosition now return the position closest to the front of the target when the target is moving to lead shots to increase accuracy
added ability of terrains to span multiple height levels
added PERFORM GET_MAP_NEXT_Z_POSITION_UP and GET_MAP_NEXT_Z_POSITION_DOWN to Rescript
level editor can make maps of arbitrary size using new skin variables MapHeightSpacing, MapMaxGroundHeight, MapWidth, MapLength, MapHeight, MapBorderSize
increased maximum camera angle to 40 degrees
added maximum distance traveled to MOVE subaction
added LevelEditorResizeMap to skin language
added IS_MAP_POSITION_VALID to Rescript

Release v0.3.0.1

June 6, 2010 by Chris Hazard

Today's point release fixes a number of bugs from our major release last week for the Mac and the level editor. This release has some scripting additions for mods involving time wave manipulation. If you have made a mod, you must recompile your scripts and skins in order for them to work with this release.

If you have already preordered Achron, you can download it here.

Achron changelog:

added custom graphics configuration to main menu
level editor: fixed mode-switching input bugs
level editor: added tooltips
level editor: added value input limits
level editor: simplified allies and advancements input
updated 3D models and terrain textures to improve smoothening groups and remove some corrupt legacy data that was causing instability with certain driver configurations

Resequence Engine changelog:

fixed bug where setting present time to 0 in the level editor would cause the screen to be black
fixed bug where newly saved maps would not be put in the quick play list
fixed bug where creating a new level in the level editor would occasionally crash
fixed bug where importing non-square heightmaps into the level editor would cause a crash
added bitwise or (|), and (&), and not (~) operators to the skin language and changed logical to || and &&
removed spurious "./" in file name in level editor save-as dialog for Mac & Linux builds
fixed bug where setting the most significant bit of player flags would invert other bits (was incorrectly treated as signed)
added 3-bit AdditionalParameters2 chronal attribute to units
fixed bug where PERFORM SET_TIME_WAVE_TIME_RATE would seize the engine
added PERFORMs SET_PRESENT_TIME_WAVE_TIME_RATE, GET_PLAYER_MAX_CHRONOENERGY, GET_PLAYER_CHRONOENERGY, and GET_PLAYER_MAX_CHRONOENERGY to Rescript
corrected orientations for unit normalmaps
added consecutive moves bit field to QUERY BESTMOVE return value

Release v0.3.0.0

May 31, 2010 by Chris Hazard

Today we've made quite a major release. The two biggest components of this release are our new level editor and experimental Mac support. We've completely rewritten our level editor using the Resequence engine itself, and though some aspects still need some improvement, such as being able to resize levels and being able to apply a change across all players in one button press, but it's quite usable and actually fun to paint the terrain. Note that in order to save levels, the level directory in Achron must be writable (so if you use Windows Vista or 7, you may wish to copy the whole Achron directory somewhere else outside of Program Files to work on it). Being able to save to your home directory is something we're planning for future releases.

The editor has many controls that may take some time to learn. While we don't have a tutorial written up yet, we'll be happy to answer questions about the editor on the forum in the mean time. Also, in the current release, it is possible (and easy) to make cliffs that tanks and things will drive up and down which looks bad. We'll be adding terrain clipping and cliff detection in an upcoming release.

Mac build seems to be working quite well. However, we are releasing it as an experimental build because we have not been able to test it on much hardware yet. The Mac version requires OS X 10.6.3 (the most recent Snow Leopard release) and must support 64-bit binaries; we require the latest version because OS X had some major OpenGL bugs that existed all the way up through 10.6.2. Further, we have only tested Achron on Nvidia cards on Macs as of this release, so we are unsure about ATI or Intel cards (though for Intel cards, it does need to support at least OpenGL 2.1). Our other usual requirements also hold, such as a dual core processor an 1 GB of RAM. The Mac and Linux builds only include the level editor for now (the other tools are planned to be included at a later date).

This release also includes our first pass at balancing the Human race. This does not mean that the Humans are balanced yet, it simply means that we have begun to seriously work on it. We will be including textual descriptions of units' roles, strengths, and weaknesses in a future release. Further balancing of unit speed and visibility are awaiting other engine features.

If you have already preordered Achron, you can download it here.

Achron changelog:

reimplemented the level editor in Resequence
first balance pass completed
added several new UI sfx
fixed tutorial1 bug that prevented user from continuing if preemptively setting ATHC to commander
factories no longer set as commander and then cleared when units are deployed
fixed carrier bug where carriers would not release all units and landed on the ground

Resequence Engine changelog:

fixed bug where querying visibility on a nonexistent unit would cause a crash
PERFORM SET_TIME_WAVE_TIME_RATE no longer allowed to set negative values
added many new skin variables for level editing controls
fixed bug in Linux build involving spawning Resequence that prevented effective compiler optimization
upgraded libogg to 1.2.0 and libvorbis to 1.3.1
added MouseMapPositionX, MouseMapPositionY, MouseMapPositionZ to skin language
added DIRECTORY_CHOOSER and FILE_CHOOSER built-in windows to skin language and accompanying control variables
added macros to skin language
added exponentiation to Rescript ( operator)
allow setval to accept integers and floats in skin language
added eval to skin language
increased maximum console command size to 512 bytes
included skin language compiler in build

Release v0.2.4.0

May 8, 2010 by Chris Hazard

We made a new Achron release today. This release includes the RescriptXMLCompiler, along with the functionality to generate .til files which specify the tile set for a level which includes the graphics and objects. An example .til.xml file is included in levels/tile_sets along with an example Perl script that will compile all the .til.xml files within the directory. The XML schema is listed in doc/til.xsd. This release also includes a number of bug fixes, minor improvements, and internal code refactoring to prepare for upcoming features. The IcedTactics level now recharges chronoenergy constantly regardless of when the player is; this is a trial, and we are planning on expanding this to all of the levels as long as the gameplay effects are as we expect.

If you have already preordered Achron, you can download it here.

Achron changelog:

changed factories to not auto-set units' commanders based on create order while being dequeued
updated Level1 (tutorial) to be easier to follow so players can go through at their own pace
fixed bug where units did not chronoport when on the edge of chronoporter's action radius
changed repair units to prioritize repairing over attacking when not following priority orders -also prioritize commanders over other nearby damaged allies
fixed repair bug where repair units attempt to fix neutral units
fixed incorrect end game time display for winner in multiplayer Clone Tactics level
fixed UI bug with first selecting Restart level, then Canceling and then trying to go to Main Menu
changed multiplayer IcedTactics level chronoenergy recharge rate to be same at all points in time
added 3D armory model
fixed stay-close-to-commander bug for air units, causing them to bounce from air to ground repeatedly

Resequence Engine changelog:

added Type as object class attribute to Rescript
added UNIT_DESCRIPTION to skin language
fixed bug with unit visibility caching, where cache results would not always be accurate if query_vis_distance was changed
fixed bug where not all units would always be deselected when recalling commanders via alt-#
shift, alt, and ctrl modifier keys are no longer built-in controls, replaced with skin variables Select3DPosition, SelectCommanders, SelectAdditional, EnqueueCommand, EnableBookmarkStorage
added pos_x_scale, pos_y_scale, setval_mouse_x_scale, setval_mouse_y_scale to Skin Language
added skin variables MusicVolume (config variable), SetMusicVolume, EffectsVolume (config variable), and SetEffectsVolume
removed built-in windows MUSIC_VOLUME and EFFECTS_VOLUME, and also globals slider_background_image and slider_position_image, as slider controls can now be generically created
added video card driver detection in Windows installer
included ResequenceXMLCompiler with ability to create TIL files (tile set for level graphics)
changed core code to support basic level editing capabilities along with the following variables to the skin language: LevelEditorEnableTerrainPaint, LevelEditorEnableElevationPaint, LevelEditorEnableTerrainObjectPaint, LevelEditorContinuousPaint, LevelEditorSquareBrush, LevelEditorBrushSize, LevelEditorBrushCenterStrength, LevelEditorBrushEdgeStrength, LevelEditorBrushProbabilityFill, LevelEditorBrushTerrainElevation, LevelEditorBrushTerrainType, LevelEditorBrushTerrainObject, LevelEditorBrushRotation

Release v0.2.3.0

April 16, 2010 by Chris Hazard

We made a new Achron release today. This release contains a number of unit AI and interaction improvements, as well as some internal changes in preperation for the upcoming support of in-engine level editing. This release also includes the blackbird unit. April has proven to be an even busier month than we were anticipating, but the level editor rewrite is moving along and should be ready in a few weeks.

If you have already preordered Achron, you can download it here.

Achron changelog:

increased idle stay-close-distance-to-commander to improve formation preservation
fixed bug where in certain situations subordinates were non-responsive to their commanders' new orders
vert_weight removed from scripts to improve vertical movement for air units
improved idle-attack behavior
minor improvement in group-movement logic dealing with fast rotating units
incorporated 3D model for the blackbird and added the blackbird to a few levels
more new sound effects

Resequence Engine changelog:

bug fixed where highlighted areas around units (such as chronoporters) were not shown for allies' units
added nonsquared versions of SightVRange, SightHRange, WeaponVRange, WeaponHRange to Rescript for performance
added query_vis_distance to Rescript to control visibility queries
alt-number key now selects top-level commander(s)
vertical distance calculations in Rescript now automatically use vertical map spacing
changed distance calculations to be based on absolute distance rather than just map spacing
added PERFORM GET_MAP_VERTICAL_SPACING to Rescript
path planning now better accounts for units moving in an opposite direction to avoid them (also prevents large units from getting stuck trying to side-step each other)
objects' collision maps now can be visible or attackable through even if the unit partly occupies the space
chronoport arrivals and departures are now indicated as different colors on the timeline

Release v0.2.2.1

March 23, 2010 by Chris Hazard

We have made a new minor version release available for download. This release fixes a consistency bug on both Windows and Linux, and also contains a couple other minor fixes and improvements to the Resequence engine. We'd also like to say thanks to Stakhanov from the Achron forums for finding and digging into the consistency bug.

If you have already preordered Achron, you can download it here.

Resequence Engine changelog:

fixed bug where Linux version would not show saved games in list
changed rechronoport logic such that units rechronoported before the minimum time are immediately destroyed
terrain objects may now have collision maps taller than one height level
in Rescript, perf_ret and perf_ret_float are now initialized to -1
fixed bug where commands to units would, on rare occasion, be randomly deleted

Release v0.2.2.0

March 15, 2010 by Mike Resnick

We are excited to announce that we have a new release available for download. This release includes the Rescript compiler for making custom level scripts, experimental 64-bit Linux support, as well as many bug fixes. More control and integration for Rescript will be coming in future releases.

If you have already preordered Achron, you can download it here. We've also included an additional sandbox level available for separate download.

Achron changelog:

fixed patrol frozen unit bug
moved Nanite infect from TriMar to Heavy Tank
fixed Armory's repeating error bug when trying to upgrade something without enough resources
changed behavior of slingshotting units to wait even if the commander changes objectives after being sent first
changed top bar resources and menu buttons

Resequence Engine changelog:

fixed bug where player would be dropped from game matching service when colors were swapped
changed code to make future builds of Achron compatable with 64-bit architectures and more cross-platform
fixed many minor bugs related to cross-platform and cross-architecture compatability
fixed bug where upgrades, resources, etc. would not always be instantly communicated to the player
minor improvements in ability to jump to a time on the timeline near start edge, near own current time, and near other players' time
added checks to prevent crash if issues loading OpenAL
improved exit speed on some systems
improved sound play offsets so sounds are more accurately represented when jumping around on the timeline

To run the Linux build simply extract it and run Achron. You will need the following library dependencies, so make sure you have these installed:

freealut
freetype
libogg
libvorbis
SDL
openal
opengl (with ATI or Nvidia drivers)

Website Redesign

March 13, 2010 by Mike Resnick, lead developer and game designer

Our new website redesign is up, thanks to Heatbrain. We've added an extra downloadable wallpaper and will be adding more content in the near future.

Archived News

Release v0.8.3.0

Achron changelog:

Resequence Engine changelog:

Escapist Writeup on Trust in Gaming

Release v0.8.2.0

Achron changelog:

Resequence Engine changelog:

Release v0.8.1.0

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Resequence Engine changelog:

Release v0.8.0.0

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Resequence Engine changelog:

Release v0.7.0.0

Achron changelog:

Resequence Engine changelog:

Release v0.6.4.0

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Resequence Engine changelog:

Release v0.6.3.0

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Release v0.6.2.0

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Release v0.6.1.0

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Release v0.6.0.0

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Resequence Engine changelog:

Release v0.5.1.0

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Release v0.5.0.0

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Release v0.4.1.0

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Release v0.4.0.0

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Release v0.3.0.1

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Release v0.3.0.0

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Release v0.2.4.0

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Release v0.2.3.0

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Release v0.2.2.1

Resequence Engine changelog:

Release v0.2.2.0

Achron changelog:

Resequence Engine changelog:

Website Redesign

Achron in the Media

News & Game Updates

Release v1.7.0.0

Release v1.6.5.0