This build has quite a bit of minor tidying work here and there to make way for the fun new additions coming down the road (see the recent post on single player and menus for more info!). It also has some balance tweaks and a couple of new features, as well as crash and regression fixes.



Some messes are easier to tidy than others.


A reminder of the major changes this time around:

• Siege Engine “HUD”
  Thanks to makmoud98 for a nice addition that’s been missing from KAG since classic - charge meters on the siege engines.
• Trampolines back to Full Power!
  This was a small script mistake, sorted out now.
• Smooth Shader Fixed
  See below for a caveat, but the smooth shader should work again, for those missing it.
• No AngelScript Console on Client
  This seems like a minor change, but is a really important security measure. AngelScript code entered into the client console will not be executed. Will still work fine over rcon of course, for players with seclev "ALL".
• No Gold Droughts
  Gold now “drops” from shops that require it when they’re destroyed, including tunnels, to prevent “Gold Drought” and enable late-game tech and tunnel building again.
  Materials of all sorts now fit through 1 tile gaps as well, to prevent them blocking things so often.
• Archers (very slightly) faster while charging shots
  We changed the speed modifier to 75% instead of 70%, nothing drastic.
• Camera rotation works with tiles
  This small (but tricky) fix is important for some new mods, especially Shiprekt mods that add islands using the tilemap!
• Scripts limit raised
  The amount of unique scripts you can have per-server has been raised to 2048 - this is a crazy amount of content to be syncing to the client but we’ve had people reach the previous 1250 script limit, so its been upped to 2k.
• Custom Heads
  With the addition of these heads, we are now "out" of custom head slots for donors (the last 2 are reserved for our current interns). Thanks to all the supporters who donated or contributed so much over the last few years, it means a lot. Enjoy your heads! Everyone else: be sure to congratulate the generous in-game.

Notes on the smooth shader: Some people have reported graphical glitches in the bottom right while using this. We'll look into why this is happening once we can reliably reproduce this on our machines - for now those people will have to play with smooth shader off. PLEASE let us know what sort of machine you're running if you're affected by this glitch, if it happens for you all the time, and so on.


Full Changelog:
[added] archer shop allows you to buy special arrows into inventory + displaces normal arrows down to a single stack. Thanks to makmoud98 for idea and partial implementation.
[added] charge bar to catapult + angle bar for ballista (thanks makmoud98!)
[added] connecting to server message on top of screen
[added] gold does not decay, and shops using it (in CTF) drop a gold stack on death
[added] progress bar for precaching files
[added] progress bar when building downloaded scripts
[added] progress bar when building md5 hashes ("Be nice to each other...")
[added] Sasquash, Mek7/The_French_One (shared) and TheDirtySwine heads, Congratulations!
We are now officially out of head slots, all remaining slots have been reserved.
Thanks to all the donors and contributors!
[added] vote fixes from norill: crashes, better seclev support, better menus, fixed broken cooldowns
[added] warning when a config file isn't saved cause the location is unsafe
[fixed] broken screenshot key
[fixed] crash when player to be kicked leaves the game
[fixed] fire rendering with rotated camera
[fixed] helpful death tips too low on screen and dont show long enough
[fixed] login window appearing after joining game from command line and going to menu
[fixed] mines not being assigned owners reliably
[fixed] missing collisions on tiles on bottom of map (they're still ugly though)
[fixed] modded filter state being set to screwy values at times
[fixed] no objects on localhost for the first map
[fixed] non-bomb ballista hitting no-build/indestructible tiles
[fixed] scripting interface not saving to manual/interface
[fixed] shaders making the game render too light during any fade (was alpha-blending)
[fixed] smooth shader not rendering
[fixed] standard folder creation on first run (crash on first run)
[fixed] tilemap rendering wrong when screen rotated
[fixed] tiles on bottom of map have no collisions - they're still ugly though
[fixed] trampoline "too weak"
[fixed] various "help" bugs (showing when it shouldn't, not saving help settings...)
[fixed] water rendering incorrectly for rotated camera
[modified] archer is (very slightly) faster while charging shots (75% speed instead of 70%)
[modified] materials fit in 1 tile holes
[modified] Script Send limit is 2048 now - we wont go higher than this, optimise your script counts for heaven's sake!
[modified] scripts send limit increased to 2048
[modified] security seclevs example files to include vote_cancel
[modified] TDM menu is 3-wide instead of 4 (looks better with the header)
[removed] scripts access through console as client
[script] bound CBlob.wasOnLadder
[script] bound int getJoysticksCount()
[script][fixed] debug messages not appearing from script debug() and printInt.

Have Fun!
Furai/Lucas

The new update has arrived!

It has quite a bit of minor tidying work here and there to make way for the fun new additions coming down the road. Check out the full changelog by Geti here:

http://www.thd.vg/post/108691940225/kag-build-1373-tidying-up

You can also find more info about the planned changes in the previous blog post on our website.

See you on the servers!

The new update has arrived!

It has quite a bit of minor tidying work here and there to make way for the fun new additions coming down the road. Check out the full changelog by Geti here:

http://www.thd.vg/post/108691940225/kag-build-1373-tidying-up

You can also find more info about the planned changes in the previous blog post on our website.

See you on the servers!

Hey,

The issues related to the wrong paths on OSX have been patched today by MM. Enjoy.

Cheers,
Lucas/Furai

Hey,

The issues related to the wrong paths on OSX have been patched today by MM. Enjoy.

Cheers,
Lucas/Furai

This build marks a return to progress on KAG - it's been a few months between releases, and I'll give a refresher on why that's been the case later, but first, a warning: KAG has had a LOT of changes in the past hundred days and a lot of engine-side stuff has happened, probably more than we can test completely. Please bear with us and calmly report any bugs in the thread and we will fix them as soon as we can.


Without further ado, let's jump right into what's changed this time around, as there's a lot of it! Buckle up!



Prepare to see a little more of this going on!

• Crash Fixes
  A long-term crash in the camera system (causing a common crash on rejoining servers) was found and fixed. This should dramatically improve the game's long-term replayability. Be sure to let us know if any other crashes on rejoin persist! A few other miscellaneous crashes including a hard-to-trace one in one of the network synchronisation routines were also fixed.
• Archer Changes
  
  
  • Inventory Management
    Archers no longer automatically pick up a full inventory of arrows, so you'll have some space left over for special ammo.
  • Less Slippery
    Archers are slowed more when charging arrows, making it a little easier to catch that backpeddalling nuisance archer, and a little easier to aim while running.
• Knight Changes
  
  
  • Increased Shield Angles
    Shield angles have been slightly increased to help deal with fighting through lag.
  • Increased Glide Time
    Shield glide time has been increased to about two seconds, allowing longer jumps and bigger falls without injury.
• Builder Changes
  
  
  • Decreased Spike Damage
    Spikes must be dropped from a higher place to deal insta-kills, damage ramps up with distance.
  • Added nicer building sounds
    Lots of blocks now have individual building sounds.
  • Fixed "buggy" ladder rotation blocking stuff
    Ladder rotations have long caused incorrect blocking of tiles, that's fixed.
• Health Changes
  Swapping class can no longer be used for "free heals" as health is kept in proportion each swap. Archers are still cheaper to heal to full health but the added inconvenience should prevent most of the abuse.
• Inventory Fixes
  A hard-to-track bug causing all your arrow stacks to go missing right when you needed them has been fixed. Items are also automatically taken from the smallest stack in your inventory, rather than the first one found, meaning picking up small stacks off the ground clogs your inventory for less time.
• Inventory Interface Improvement
  Archers and Knights start with their cursor over their inventory after pressing F - builders start with it over their tiles. The rationale here is that knights and archers can easily swap weapons by tapping F and want precision access to any auxilliary items in their inventory, while builders are more likely to want to swap tile types quickly.
• Balancing Changes
  Auto-Balancing should be less "mean" to any one person, and is based on the median score rather than the mean.
• Maploader Changes
  A small set of changes but important for some specific mods and maps, community member jackitch has updated the png map loader to include specific colours for the two types of trees, various mossy tiles, and fixed a bug where the purple team spawn was the same colour as the necromancer.
• Votekick changes
  We're actually on the fence about these changes, but the community have been pushing for something, and norill contributed changes. Votes can no longer be inconclusive, the vote gui has changed, enemy team cant vote unless it's a hacker, and map votes use a global cooldown to prevent spam. Voting is now done via the O and P keys, and the box is much smaller. Leave your thoughts in the thread.

A lot of engine changes from work on Trench Run also makes it back into KAG with this release for modders to play with and for future use in KAG. However - this does mean that there's a body of changes so wide that we're unlikely to have tested everything! Let us know quickly about any drastic bugs and we'll get onto them asap! Here's a small run-down of the most exciting changes:

• Post-Processing Shaders!
  Shaders can be used for postprocessing both before and after gui rendering, with multiple shaders able to be set up and layered on each other. Shader options are significantly extended, including per-shader variables (and textures!) to be set from script.
• Gamepad Control Extension
  Gamepads and the foundations needed for local multiplayer have been added - modders should not consider this part of things stable, but it does open up possibilities for local multiplayer (perhaps co-op? sandbox?) and gamepad play (for those allergic to mice).
• GUI code exposed
  This paves the way for new menus for KAG, and nicer, less rigid in-game menus in mods.

There are a lot of miscellaneous fixes as well, check the full changelog for the details there.


Custom Heads


The following generous donors have received custom heads in-game:

• Guro
• Gurin
• Duke_Jordan

Still to come:

• Sasquash

Congratulations to the generous!


Delays


The delay between builds has been due to wide-sweeping changes in our code-building and repository system. These changes allows us to work on multiple games utilising the same engine (in this case, KAG and Trench Run) while neatly feeding relevant changes from one into the other. While we'll be "off work" over Christmas and new year, this will allow us to get back to timely development on KAG throughout the coming season!


Have Fun!


Furai/Lucas


Changelog:
http://pastebin.com/fkbxmDjD

Attention modders - breaking script changes:

If your mod breaks with this version it is most likely one of these changes:
* onRestart isn't called automatically now after onInit (solution: call onRestart manually in onInit)
* key_zoomin and key_zoomout are no longer part of blob controls (solution: you can still access these buttons from controls like this http://prntscr.com/5k4yaw)
* weird sounds? - disable effects in script: s_effects = false

This build marks a return to progress on KAG - it's been a few months between releases, and I'll give a refresher on why that's been the case later, but first, a warning: KAG has had a LOT of changes in the past hundred days and a lot of engine-side stuff has happened, probably more than we can test completely. Please bear with us and calmly report any bugs in the thread and we will fix them as soon as we can.


Without further ado, let's jump right into what's changed this time around, as there's a lot of it! Buckle up!



Prepare to see a little more of this going on!

• Crash Fixes
  A long-term crash in the camera system (causing a common crash on rejoining servers) was found and fixed. This should dramatically improve the game's long-term replayability. Be sure to let us know if any other crashes on rejoin persist! A few other miscellaneous crashes including a hard-to-trace one in one of the network synchronisation routines were also fixed.
• Archer Changes
  
  
  • Inventory Management
    Archers no longer automatically pick up a full inventory of arrows, so you'll have some space left over for special ammo.
  • Less Slippery
    Archers are slowed more when charging arrows, making it a little easier to catch that backpeddalling nuisance archer, and a little easier to aim while running.
• Knight Changes
  
  
  • Increased Shield Angles
    Shield angles have been slightly increased to help deal with fighting through lag.
  • Increased Glide Time
    Shield glide time has been increased to about two seconds, allowing longer jumps and bigger falls without injury.
• Builder Changes
  
  
  • Decreased Spike Damage
    Spikes must be dropped from a higher place to deal insta-kills, damage ramps up with distance.
  • Added nicer building sounds
    Lots of blocks now have individual building sounds.
  • Fixed "buggy" ladder rotation blocking stuff
    Ladder rotations have long caused incorrect blocking of tiles, that's fixed.
• Health Changes
  Swapping class can no longer be used for "free heals" as health is kept in proportion each swap. Archers are still cheaper to heal to full health but the added inconvenience should prevent most of the abuse.
• Inventory Fixes
  A hard-to-track bug causing all your arrow stacks to go missing right when you needed them has been fixed. Items are also automatically taken from the smallest stack in your inventory, rather than the first one found, meaning picking up small stacks off the ground clogs your inventory for less time.
• Inventory Interface Improvement
  Archers and Knights start with their cursor over their inventory after pressing F - builders start with it over their tiles. The rationale here is that knights and archers can easily swap weapons by tapping F and want precision access to any auxilliary items in their inventory, while builders are more likely to want to swap tile types quickly.
• Balancing Changes
  Auto-Balancing should be less "mean" to any one person, and is based on the median score rather than the mean.
• Maploader Changes
  A small set of changes but important for some specific mods and maps, community member jackitch has updated the png map loader to include specific colours for the two types of trees, various mossy tiles, and fixed a bug where the purple team spawn was the same colour as the necromancer.
• Votekick changes
  We're actually on the fence about these changes, but the community have been pushing for something, and norill contributed changes. Votes can no longer be inconclusive, the vote gui has changed, enemy team cant vote unless it's a hacker, and map votes use a global cooldown to prevent spam. Voting is now done via the O and P keys, and the box is much smaller. Leave your thoughts in the thread.

A lot of engine changes from work on Trench Run also makes it back into KAG with this release for modders to play with and for future use in KAG. However - this does mean that there's a body of changes so wide that we're unlikely to have tested everything! Let us know quickly about any drastic bugs and we'll get onto them asap! Here's a small run-down of the most exciting changes:

• Post-Processing Shaders!
  Shaders can be used for postprocessing both before and after gui rendering, with multiple shaders able to be set up and layered on each other. Shader options are significantly extended, including per-shader variables (and textures!) to be set from script.
• Gamepad Control Extension
  Gamepads and the foundations needed for local multiplayer have been added - modders should not consider this part of things stable, but it does open up possibilities for local multiplayer (perhaps co-op? sandbox?) and gamepad play (for those allergic to mice).
• GUI code exposed
  This paves the way for new menus for KAG, and nicer, less rigid in-game menus in mods.

There are a lot of miscellaneous fixes as well, check the full changelog for the details there.


Custom Heads


The following generous donors have received custom heads in-game:

• Guro
• Gurin
• Duke_Jordan

Still to come:

• Sasquash

Congratulations to the generous!


Delays


The delay between builds has been due to wide-sweeping changes in our code-building and repository system. These changes allows us to work on multiple games utilising the same engine (in this case, KAG and Trench Run) while neatly feeding relevant changes from one into the other. While we'll be "off work" over Christmas and new year, this will allow us to get back to timely development on KAG throughout the coming season!


Have Fun!


Furai/Lucas


Changelog:
http://pastebin.com/fkbxmDjD

Attention modders - breaking script changes:

If your mod breaks with this version it is most likely one of these changes:
* onRestart isn't called automatically now after onInit (solution: call onRestart manually in onInit)
* key_zoomin and key_zoomout are no longer part of blob controls (solution: you can still access these buttons from controls like this http://prntscr.com/5k4yaw)
* weird sounds? - disable effects in script: s_effects = false

This build only contains a hotfix for a crash bug in 1236 related to the unicode changes - servers should be more stable and people should be able to enjoy more uninterrupted play.

Have Fun!

Max/Geti

This build only contains a hotfix for a crash bug in 1236 related to the unicode changes - servers should be more stable and people should be able to enjoy more uninterrupted play.

Have Fun!

Max/Geti

A quick one, so only a few changes this time around.
First up:
We're hearing you on the archer shotgun changes
This has been a strongly dividing issue - some like it, some hate it, there are certainly more archers and more arrows flying.
To counteract this we've made the outer arrows of overcharged shots disintegrate after a moderate distance; you can still use them for support and CQC, but cant rain them in big arcs.
If this isn't enough to stabilise the opinions around it and result in a good archer meta we'll take a vote on where to go next. So far we're seeing more archers, which we take as an indication that the class is currently more fun for the average joe - we've just got to find a balance that appeases the higher tier players and those maining other classes.
Fix and Tweak Summary

• Potential Fix for invisible mines
  This one has been clamoured about for a while - we thought this was fixed a few builds ago but
  
• Fixed Builders getting half materials
  This was a hard to catch typo bug that slipped in halfway through the last round of changes; was good that it was caught early after the release though and has been fixed now.
  
• Fixed some spike network sync issues
  at the cost of a little latency in the spikes reaction
  
• Removed archer ignoring fixed camera setting
  We decided to just let players choose properly; some people have been complaining about this both ways so we removed the conflicting setting.
  
• Clantag re-added to character name in scoreboard
  Adding a new column would take too long, so the clantag was just added to the name column again.
  
• Clantag colour is same as name colour on mouse hover
  
• Removed "invalid utf8 spam" for people with invalid names
  should just cleanly replace bad characters now.
  
• Siege Engine Conversion Tweaks
  Siege engines can't be converted in 0 seconds flat any more, and in fact cannot be sat into before conversion; This should make defending a forward ballista a little simpler and mean a little less "hot potato" seat swapping.

We'll see how it goes over the weekend, thanks for bearing with us with some of these more experimental changes!
Have Fun!
Max/Geti