Can you believe we've been updating Forts for 4 years? Yes, in just 10 days it will have been 4 years since launch. Our passion for this game hasn't waned at all. If anything, watching the dedication and creativity of our players has spurred us on. We continue to patch issues big and small, and add features as we can.
This bimonthly update contains some interesting items!
Out gratitude goes out to Daniel Rusnák for providing a complete translation of Forts into Slovak. This is no small feat as there are an estimated 15,000 words in the base game, the Moonshot DLC, and various associated Workshop items. Not even including the Store pages. Welcome to any new Slovakian players, and join us in thanking Daniel.
For the recent Forts Map Making Contest II we promised immortality by including the winning map in the game. More importantly, the ranked multiplayer map selection! The talented map maker who won was Cronkhinator, with his map 'Desert Ruins'. Congratulations, Cronk!
Some players will enjoy the new convenience of associating Forts with replay (.fwr) and map (.fwe) files, and those sensitive to bright light are now able to disable the full-screen reactor destruction flash.
There is a long list of improvement and bug fixes, plus a few essential balance updates. Several exploits have been closed, such as being able to charge your commander by destroying your own weapons. A few long standing crash bugs have been addressed, especially in relation to mistakes made by mod authors.
The full patch notes are below for your interest. As always, have fun and thanks for playing.
Cheers, EWG
Changelist 2021-04-09
Add: Slovak translation Add: (Desert Ruins) Cronkhinator's contest winning map, included in ranked maps Add: replay (.fwr) and map (.fwe) filenames can be passed on the command line alone, allowing file association Add: game option to disable full screen reactor flashes Add: instant replay button to Sandbox pause menu Add: (sprite effects) relative time values (Colour1Time, Colour2Time) to fade into and out of given colours Add: parameter projectileNodeIdFrom to OnWeaponFired script event for better projectile conversion tracking Add: constant Devices.DoorCloseDelayDefault to replace hardcoded value Add: Physics.ImpactMomentumLimitDefault to prevent physics instability Add: ImpactMomentumLimit to projectiles to combat exploits of certain projectiles Add: 'default' to mMomentumThreshold to allow a projectile to override deflection/penetration thresholds of all materials Add: fired and count parameters to OnGroupFired script event Add: ScreenshotsShowReadout settings.lua option to allow debug readout during screenshots Add: additional workshop console warnings if an item download state seems incorrect following a download Add: additional console warning if a symmetrical map if not marked as symmetrical in the map script Add: SaveName to materials, devices, and projectiles in debugging mode (Ctrl+Shift+D) Add: additional slots to ReplayKeyFrame to support up to 16 AI teams
Improve: (Vanilla Large) updated to comply with style guide, fixed symmetry, increased elevation, lowered & stepped windfloor Improve: (Mushroom cloud effect) reduce full screen screen reactor flash opacity to 75% Improve: (RayOffset) default is set to -0.1 to ensure impacted strut is damaged Improve: (BeamPenetrationDistanceThreshold) default increased from 5 to 1000 to remove unexpected damage/fire reduction in mods Improve: Chinese translation Improve: fade in and out default device smoke Improve: projectiles now retain the weaponId after a conversion action when multiple projectiles are spawned Improve: AutofireCloseDoorTicks defaults to physics frame rate times DoorCloseDelay if absent Improve: moved Forcefield sound to main master bank so it's always available. Improve: set forcefield sound to virtualize when away from camera Improve: moved forcefield effect location so field and safezone terrain blocks no longer trigger console error Improve: write console message if a banned player tries to join your lobby Improve: drop console and display error message if you try to directly join another players lobby (via steam friends/invite) while you have an active ban Improve: OnContextMenu* doesn't need to restrict itself to associated side, allowing use from mod scripts Improve: fade in residual laser sights to avoid clunkiness when group is targeted separately Improve: file extension passed on command line is validated before opening
Balance: (Laser) remove the stability requirement from laser damage and fire Balance: (Buzzsaw) add 50 splash damage with radius 80, offset 60 back, vs bracing/backbracing Balance: (Buzzsaw) reduce fire std dev by 50% Balance: (Scattershot Buzzsaw) increase build cost by 75 metal to account for extra blades (+37.5%) Balance: (Repair Station) increase hitpoints from 40 to 60 (+50%) Balance: (Magnabeam) increase hitpoints from 180 to 300 to allow it to take 3 sniper shots (+67%) Balance: default door close delay is increased from 0.5s to 1s Balance: (Base and Moonshot weapons) removed DoorCloseDelay and AutofireCloseDoorTicks to use new default of 1s Balance: (Door) increase the minimum length from 37.5 to 49 (+31%) Balance: (MG, Sniper, Minigun, Shotgun) limit impact momentum to allow slanted armour to defend against accelerators Balance: (Pinchfist) reduce production bonus from 10% to 5% Balance: (Buster active) reduce distance travelled by 20mm Cannon DU round from 400 to 300 (-25%) Balance: (Buster active) reduce distance travelled by Rocket DU round from 600 to 400 (-33%)
Optimise: (Mushroom cloud effect) condense full screen flash into one sprite effect Optimise: (Mushroom cloud effect) reduce overall effect lifetime to from 20 to 15 seconds and removed cruft
Fix: when out of focus for a long time, simulation can freeze or structures have extreme distortions Fix: projectiles can slip between two struts to escape particle accelerators and structure in general Fix: device positions are not set when loading a map in the editor Fix: (missiles) when target is close, clearance can be too short and the projectile can turn into the fort Fix: (Fort Worthless) 2 cannons can be fired to satisfy the 3 cannon group fire objective Fix: upgrading a master weapon doesn't update the icon in the group tab Fix: aligning solid struts with a pass-through portal allows you to create a one-way barrier Fix: commanders can be charged by reflecting buzzsaw up into own backbracing Fix: (Buzzsaw) ray damage doesn't apply to the strut the projectile lands on Fix: (Pyromaniac) dropping your own cannon achieves the objective Fix: (Scattershot, tutorial 2) trajectory preview is obscured by background terrain and structure Fix: (Shockenaugh) barrels dropped outside of world charges self Fix: (Warthog) double howitzer shot possible when firing through a firebeam close to weapon Fix: (Buster active) depleted uranium rounds do not pass through devices as intended Fix: (Firebird active) mortar and sniper trails are not updated Fix: (Phantom) when connected to a mutual (neutral) structure via ropes, the neutral and connecting team's structure become invisible Fix: targeting laser can be swept rapidly to obscure target Fix: weapons are over-damaged, charging the commander excessively Fix: shooting own weapons at devices charges commander Fix: when players rejoin during a game they are not on the team they left on Fix: players can change to observer after start when lock teams is on Fix: password entry on join has no length limit Fix: devices can be placed such that corners of them protrude beyond solid structure Fix: (ai.lua) SetGroupingAffinity causes error in absence of GroupingAffinity table for saveName Fix: AI fires howitzers together, damaging itself Fix: using the incorrect case when forcing mods on in a mission script can cause errors (e.g. Weapon_Pack) Fix: crash when trying to connect lobby via invite while in offline mode Fix: crash when auto-AA targets non-missile shootable projectiles Fix: material context menu buttons remain enabled when the selected strut is too short or too long Fix: crash when rolling over the context button of a weapon which upgrades to the opposite inversion type Fix: crash when deleting multiple replays Fix: audio effects without a corresponding effects file were ignoring disabled audio sfx option Fix: spamming non mesh projectiles in particle accelerators can freeze game Fix: lobby list scrollbar overlaps player ban history Fix: CreateLink & DestroyLink can be called during EnumerateLinks, causing a crash Fix: EnumerateLinks can be called recursively Fix: mDesiredFireAngle not set for devices Fix: when device platforms are destroyed the device goes neutral before destruction in the next frame Fix: turbines at device index 0 do not have their efficiency updated Fix: (Pinchfist) Buzzsaws can be reclaimed for the full metal value Fix: (Hurricane active) weapons reloading when activated don't reload any faster Fix: writing past buffer with more than 9 AI teams Fix: AI can fail to launch missiles due to excessive clearance Fix: scrollbars don't update properly when the parent clears items or resizes Fix: lobbies are added to the listview when the banned text panel is currently visible
Remove: link deviation angle from node debugging
Changelist 2021-04-11 hotfix
Add: ray damage stops when it hits a material which takes no damage Add: projectile_wireframes line effects to show where ray damage is being applied and stopping
Balance: (Buzzsaw) no ray damage applied to any material except bracing, backbracing, portal, and rope Balance: (Buzzsaw) adjust direct damage to compensate for -0.1 ray offset (destroy 5 spaced bracing struts) Balance: (Buzzsaw) move splash damage back to prevent damage beyond point of impact Balance: (Moonshine active) remove EMP from Buzzsaws
Fix: when damage multipliers are applied to the projectile's damage it can continue due to rounding error Fix: player 2 can suggest mods in ranked Fix: Chinese translations
Changelist 2021-04-11b hotfix
Add: new Forts Pro League season one medal asset
Improve: Non publicly visible workshop items now appear disabled in Multiplayer map/mod selection screens Improve: misc Slovak transation
Fix: smoothed paint target sometimes becomes invalid, preventing missiles from launching Fix: (Smoked Out) destroy a barrel with flak objective fails to trigger Fix: potential memory leak after receiving large messages via Steam
The Forts ranked multiplayer season 10 has come to a close with some new faces gracing the top 20. But 1st place once again belongs to [DFC] Etan who successfully defended their title and takes home the gold! [DFC] Matteo also repeats their season 9 finish in 2nd place and stays within striking distance of that elusive title. [DFC] Geiger rounds out the top three and secures the DFC stranglehold on the podium after being upset in season 9. trygon_123 who broke though the DFC podium blockade last season was unable to reprise the spoiler role and falls to 8th despite an amazing yet all too brief undefeated run.
While [DFC] Etan, [DFC] Matteo, and [DFC] Geiger add gold, silver and bronze to their already impressive collections all players finishing within the top 20 will receive a season 10 medal. Congratulations to everyone who placed...
1v1 Leaderboard
[DFC] EtaN
[DFC] Matteo
[DFC] Geiger
[DFC] Firework
[DFC] Pan W
[DFC] Bobereto
[DFC] Bowser
trygon_123
Marvin
南部Type 2A SMG
Teutonick
白给今天Sky了吗
[DFC] ShinyMoney
Finn
[DFC] Tux
[DFC] Luca
[DFC] LandPlanters
[DFC] Alexc
KillerGruetze
[DFC] Noha
Season 11
Look for Desert Ruins, the winning map from Forts Map Making Contest II designed by [DFC] CronkhinatorYT to debut soon in Season 11, which is already underway and ends on Monday, May 31st.
Discord
If you haven't already, join our the Forts Official Discord server for discussions on weapons, strategies and modding with our friendly and helpful community!
We're pleased to announce that Forts is now available to play on GeForce NOW!
GeForce NOW Instantly transforms nearly any laptop, desktop, Mac, SHIELD TV, Android device, iPhone, or iPad into the PC gaming rig you’ve always dreamed of. Instantly play the most demanding PC games and seamlessly play across your devices.
GeForce NOW is available in North America and Europe, as well as through partnerships in these countries.
Sale
To celebrate, Forts and all it's additional content is now on sale with the following discounts...
If you or your friends have been waiting on the perfect moment to join the fun, with more ways to play, and a juicy discount, this is it!
Huge congrats to Noobs Confirmed for winning a huge tournament! Tournament XVII was the largest ever and our first 4v4. Their path to victory got off to a bumpy start, needing to pull off a stunning comeback against Genesis down 2 bases to 4 to avoid plummeting down into the losers bracket. After narrowly avoiding a first round loss they ultimately emerged undefeated, overcoming their opponents, barrages of cannons and warheads, and everything else that stood in their way (including timezones) to claim the title and medals.
Crustacean Fortification did not go gently to close the day in 2nd place but lightning in the form of a cannon round struck as it threaded the needle to score an early elimination and they were unable to recover. In 3rd place Facharbeiter clawed their way back into contention after an early loss to the Crustaceans only to face them again in the finals of the losers bracket where falling teammates put an end to their run.
The Final Standings
1st Place
Noobs Confirmed Land Planters Alexc96161 EtaN Firework
Facharbeiter Geiger KnuffigesPuffi General Miau Bowser
Thank you to all the participants and our alternates on standby for what was a very fun, and very long day of intense competition. Our casters, Frazzz (resident Scotsman), Nozehed (he makes all the things go sounds), Project Incursus (totally not a robot), and Reloflex (director of the Reloflex Forts Pro League). Recordings of the tournament are archived on their channels at the links below. Relive the epic moments or catch them for the first time if you missed out.
All Tournament XVII match replays are also available in the Featured tab of your Forts Replays menu once you click Download. Learn from the best and prepare yourselves for the soon to be announced Tournament XVIII, where a new 1v1 champion will be crowned. May the Forts continue!
As revealed during the recent map making contest finale, Tournament XVII will be our first ever 4v4 event. Assemble your teams now to join in all the glorious chaos!
In order to participate, you must do the following...
We're thrilled to announce the winner of Forts Map Making Contest II and the results could not have been any closer. With our judges deadlocked over the top two maps and their scores identical it fell to the viewers to break the tie and vote their choice into Forts history. They did so by the slimmest of margins, selecting CronkhinatorYT's map as the first ever player submitted map to be granted entry into the ranked pool. Cronkhinator will also receive a medal and take over the current Map Maker Champion's role on Discord. Congratulations!
Our runner-up and winner of the previous map making competition is M4r0x.
M4rox https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2403425388 Coming in with another stunning map invoking imagery of rose vines and thorns and very nearly claiming a second consecutive title M4r0x continues to prove his reputation is well deserved as both player and map maker.
3rd Place
In 3rd place is Thonio who submitted an exquisitely detailed wraparound map.
Thank you to our map testers who battled it out on stream, DFC members Etan, Geiger, Bowser, Firework, felixwoelmuis, and LandPlanters.
And to our hosts and judges, Frazzz and Project Incursus. Catch the tournament recorded on their channels and see all the other great maps that were submitted.
Smash Gaming (Frazzz)
Project Incursus.
Discord
If you haven't already, join the Forts Official Discord server to find these and other maps and for more information on mapmaking, modding, strategy, and upcoming events.
Have fun playing Forts on all of these amazing new maps!
The first stage of the competition is now complete and our judges have narrowed the field down to 10 finalists. Please congratulate the following players and join us as the winner is chosen live Feb 28th 6pm UTC with our judges and hosts Frazzz and Project Incursus. Don't forget, your vote will help decide which map is added to next season's ranked map pool!
Our 10 finalists
[DFC] Gxaps
Alexc96161
Crernian
CronkhinatorYT
LilRenn
MandalorianJedi
M4r0x
PanW
SamsterBirdies
Thonio
During the stream viewers with a Google account will be able to log in and rate the maps along with the judges. Voting itself will be anonymous, but this precaution is necessary to prevent ballot stuffing. Voting links will be posted during the stream.
In addition to our judges we've also invited some of the top finishers from Season 9 to help field test the maps. Our testers include reigning champion Etan along with his fellow DFC[/b] members Geiger, Bowser, Firework, felixwoelmuis, and LandPlanters. We also want to acknowledge all the effort put in by the contestants whose maps were not selected. There were some amazing maps submitted that people will doubtless enjoy outside of the ranked experience.
Discord
If you haven't already, join the Forts Official Discord server for more information on mapmaking, modding, strategy, and upcoming events.
Today we announce a map contest with a very special prize. The winning map from this upcoming event will qualify for admission into next season's ranked map pool. That's right, your map could become a season 11 battleground!
The event will consist of two stages. Competitors have from now until 6pm UTC Feb 21st to submit their maps in accordance with the rules below. From there, On Feb 27th our judges will announce 10 finalists whose maps will be judged live on streams Feb 28th 6pm UTC. A group of top players will compete in exhibition matches while the judges and the viewers rate the map. The winning entry will be added to the ranked map rotation pending revisions. The map creator will also be awarded the Map Making Champion medal in game and the Map Making Champion role on Discord. Don't miss your chance to help decide which map becomes a part of Forts history!
Our Judges and stream hosts Frazzz Project Incursus Romerolagus And live voting by the viewers of each stream
In order to participate you will need to:
Have Forts
Familiarise yourself with The Forts Map editor and Style Guide
Create and submit a map that fulfills all requirements by Feb 21st 6pm UTC
Be present for the judging (Feb 28th 6pm UTC)
Updated 2021-02-10 If you cannot be present for judging, you may prepare a description of your map to be read on stream by the judges or an assigned proxy
Map Requirements
An original map created from scratch
Balanced for competitive 1v1 play
Begin with 1-3 Mines
Have a wind floor set
Allow most weapons, and starting weapons do not dictate optimal strategies
Be symmetrical
Have suitable performance on all computers
How to submit your map
Upload your map to the Steam Workshop with the name "[FMMT2] - yoursteamname" example, FMMT2 - Romerolagus
Maps will be graded according to appearance, gameplay potential, Forts best practices, and viewer ratings. A more detailed description of the full grading criteria can be found on Discord. We look forward to seeing your creativity on display.
G'day Forts fans! As always we are constantly trying to improve the performance and experience of Forts. Today brings a mixed bag of improvements and fixes, as well as a couple of features added to the 'Alert to new lobbies' setting in the Lobby selection screen. We appreciate your continued support, bug reports and suggestions.
Changelist 2021-02-06
Add: sound effect and highlight when a new lobby appears in lobby select screen with Alert to New Lobbies enabled Add: a count of lobbies found to the Lobby Select screen's Online tab
Improve: remove steam IDs from ranked replays Improve: prefix ranked replays with the season Improve: (Armourdillo active) new sounds for AP Sniper and fixed its sounds cutting off when spammed Improve: (Magnabeam) hit sound has more variation to help solve loud sfx during accelerator Improve: add error message when a weapon's inverted type doesn't exist Improve: add logging of monitor selection for debugging Improve: eliminate weapon overheating when rapid fire is enabled Improve: change email address to support@earthworkgames.com Improve: add player steam id to crash and desync filenames Improve: 'alert to new lobbies' set in Lobby Select screen is triggered for ranked lobbies Improve: only show cursors in replays when position commands are being received Improve: (Wedge) updated to have proper AI Improve: remove featured replays that no longer exist on ftp on game startup Improve: Raknet socket failure is not fatal to Steam multiplayer Improve: hide "Player Name" text in reporting dialog for ranked matches Improve: various map fixes
Fix: (Magnabeam) field projectile isn't recreated when the beam returns from off-screen Fix: (Magnabeam) impact effect appears on portals Fix: (German) translation of 'Capture' Fix: (Chinese) various translations Fix: ranked score logging accidentally enabled and spamming log Fix: replays with missing local maps are considered invalid (old or corrupt). They can't be loaded and will get cleaned up if players click "delete invalid replays". Fix: crash when a file prefixed with 'language-' exists in the mod folder Fix: (Firebird active) flaming trail sounds missing Fix: (Armourdillo active) AP minigun passes through many shields Fix: (Buster active) flaming and flaming damaged DU warheads don't have DU projectile Fix: when projectiles hit a shield, penetrate effects are not executed according to momentum; it's always impact Fix: PhysicsManager::ExecuteProjectileAction doesn't apply speed loss to surviving projectiles Fix: when the player doesn't have the resources to build a ground device, the error effect is at the origin Fix: (Blastdoor) missing audio Fix: invalid versioned featured replays appear in the featured replays list Fix: game crashes if item download completes after being kicked from a lobby Fix: terrain edges are drawn twice due to display list generation in both background and foreground Fix: terrain filling and edge display lists assume current blend function and colour Fix: (BreakStructure) when PlaceNode fails the link is not correctly destroyed Fix: (replay desync) keyframes can be made in the middle of messages received for the current frame Fix: (replay desync) temporarily braced node positions are not consistently updated after a keyframe is restored Fix: disconnected player reporting issues
Remove: (ranked) Capture as an option due to lack of popularity
Changelist 2021-02-07
Fix: Cannons, howitzers, etc. will cause no damage to shields - projectiles without correctly specified penetration momentum will now use an impact effect Fix: terrain edge corruption due to random series overshoot in some situations (reverted fix) Fix: crash in HandleCollisions when node is out of range
Changelist 2021-02-07b
Fix: (projectile desync) PNode::mProjectileAgeTrigger is uninitialised Fix: terrain edges are drawn twice (fixed original fix) Fix: steam ID in desync report folder name cause separation of host and client folders Fix: flaming EMPs pass through enemy portals
The Forts ranked multiplayer Season 9 has just wrapped up and the competition has never been fiercer. Against a field of over 9000 participants trygon_123 claims their first top 20 finish in style taking third place and breaking the DFC's lock on the podium. But the DFC is still the force to be reckoned with as [DFC] Matteo surges into second after finishing seventeenth in Season 8. And in first place, the new Forts ranked multiplayer 1v1 champion is [DFC] EtaN! Congratulations!
[DFC] EtaN wasted no time climbing to the top. After finishing third in Season 8 as a newcomer he is now crowned Champion in only his second season. He will be recognised with the awarding of the season 9 gold medal, with the second and third placed players receiving silver and bronze medals respectively. As usual, all players who finished in the top 20 will receive a medal to reflect that. Well done to all the following participants...
1v1 Leaderboard
[DFC] EtaN
[DFC] Matteo
trygon_123
[DFC] Geiger
[DFC] Bowser
[DFC] Kaspov7
✠Spealder✠
[DFC] Firework
KnuffigesPuffi
Xeilang
[DFC] felixwoelmuis
[DFC] Pan W
Marvin
[KFC]岩贼龙(zjz)
[DFC] LandPlanters
MandalorianJedi
[DFC] Tux
Teutonick
[DFC] ShinyMoney
[DFC] Taichu
Season 10
Season 10 has already kicked off, and ends Wednesday March 31st. How well will you do this season?
Discord
If you haven't already, join our the Forts Official Discord server for discussions on weapons, strategies and modding with our friendly and helpful community!