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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
directory; replays (.rrp) can be loaded as a regular .tsc or .sts
- 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)
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.