FAZ R4

Details

Release date: November 1st, 2007
Bugs fixed: 20
Features added: 31
Experimental changes: 4

Coding work: AEM, Avalanche, bahdohday, Dogbones, KGJV, TheBored, Your_Persona, w0dk4, Zapper

Artwork: madpeople, Zapper

Release Issues

A lot of players had problems updating from R3 to R4 when the servers upgraded. Many mods were incompatible; some players that had tested R4 Beta had obsolete Beta versions of R4 files still in their directorys which interferred with the new versions; ASGS had trouble updateing Allegiance.exe and got stuck in a loop of downloading the new version. Worst of all there was an error in the new installer on the FAO downloads page, meaning that even a completely fresh install wouldn't work.

But withing a week the problems had been ironed out and Allegiance life continued as normal, apart from losing a number of players who couldn't be bothered getting R4 to work.

Gameplay Controversy

Some of the changes made by the development team were considered to have a large impact on gameplay. They requested that these be tested throughly to determine how much, if any, affect they had. Unfortunately the community was slow to respond, most preferring to play on the stable R3 than the mostly stable R4 beta servers. Arguments in the forums went in circles, with many players that hadn't even played R4 Beta claiming that the changes were astronmical.

Eventually the Dev team decided to release R4 anyway. The code was stable, most of the changes were excellent, it had been almost a year since the last release - the only thing holding R4 up was quibbles over whether a few minor aspects should be included. So in an effort to satisfy everyone the Devs created a new gameplay mode, Experimental. This mode is exactly the same as a 100% Conquest game except the controversial code is used in it.

Changelog

Bugs Fixed

• Fixed resolution checking logic, this should resolve the problem of the game intermittently resetting to 800x600 mode. (AEM)
• Fixed a bug where you could turn off all teams (KGJV)
• Graphics Engine transparency fix for 3D models (this may resolve some of the 'Known Issues' below) (KGJV)
• LAN games have been upgraded to DPlay8 too, fixing them after they broke in R3. (radar)
• Allegiance logfiles now open up properly in Notepad.exe (Windows CRLFs are used instead of unix CRs) (Dogbones)
• Energy can no longer go negative when using cloaking devices with negative recharge rates. (Dogbones)
• Autobalance has been tweaked. You can now only join the team with the lower TeamRankSum. (KGJV)
• A bug introduced in R3 where PMs sent via the new "Click-PM" feature in the game lobby disappeared after joining teams has been fixed. Chat messages no longer disappear. (Avalanche)
• Games that are locked open no longer reset rank restrictions when the last player leaves. (Dogbones)
• The way maps/sectors/etc are sent to clients has changed, hopefully fixing "big game" drops. (w0dk4)
• Player ranks are no longer shown in game names. (KGJV)
• The F3 grid is no longer "cut" on Z axis. (KGJV)
• LAN mode should no longer crash. (KGJV)
• The problem which prevented allsrv from reconnecting to the lobby has been resolved. (KGJV)
• Issuing a GoTo order in F3 sector view above or below the plane will no longer select the rock/object underneath the mouse cursor. (AEM)
• Fixed the crashes due to long debug messages. (Avalanche)
• Fixes in font.cpp for clipped characters. (KGJV)
• Rendering glitches in the minimap. (KGJV)
• Fixed draw order of solar flare. Objects now obstruct the solar flare. (YP)

Features Added

• The AZ's old "Create Game" feature has been restored, with a new dialog box for you to specify which server and core you'd like to play. (KGJV, Zapper)
• The Game Settings screen has been updated to include several new game settings including (KGJV, Artwork: madpeople, Zapper):
  • Map Preview feature: This lets you see what the selected map looks like before launchin
  • Allow Supremacy / Allow Expansion / Allow Tactical settings: These let you enable/disable techpaths making those stations unavailable
  • Allow Empty Teams: This allows you to play 1 vs 0 game so you can explore tech easily
• New Training mission 7 is now a Nanning Training Mission. (bahdohday with improvements by AEM and TheBored)
• Player ranks and TeamRankSums are now shown on the F6 Player pane. (Your_Persona)
• Added a #list command which will list all #chat commands to your private chat. (#draw | #resign | #autoaccept | #autobalance [1|2|a|n] | #ban | #mutiny) (Dogbones)
• You can now chat while waiting to join a team. (KGJV)
• Allegiance's chat logs are now saved with a more intuitive naming format under the "logs" subfolder: logs\chat_YY-MM-DD-Seconds.txt (Dogbones)
• When un-researched tech is brought back to base, a message is now announced to all teammates. (KGJV)
• There are now three lines of "status text" shown at the bottom of the screen instead of only one. (Your_Persona)
• Players who successfully #mutiny are now given the team's cash. (Avalanche)
• Players who leave a team and then return are no longer placed on their old teams automatically, but go to NOAT instead. (Avalanche)
• Servername and corename are now shown in the game lobby. (KGJV)
• Servername and corename are now shown in Esc -> i info pane. (KGJV)
• More "bad words" were added to the word censor. (logic Your_Persona, words BV)
• Redesigned ESC menu
• New Esc -> p menu lists ping times for all players in the same game/server. (w0dk4)
• Players using the "Mute Lobby" option can now choose to receive PMs or not (TheBored)
• Server is now shown in Lobby screen to indicate on which server a game is running. (KGJV)
• Team Faction name is now shown underneath the team name in the game lobby. (KGJV)
• Allegiance can now be restored to a window on desktops with 32bit color depths. (Graphics are now rendered with DirectX 7) (KGJV)
• Multiple artwork formats (JPG, PNG, etc) can now be rendered by Allegiance instead of only bmps. (KGJV)
• Allow administrators to bypass most of the checks when joining a game. (Avalanche)
  • Added @HQ to PrivilegedUsers (Dogbones)
  • Added @Zone to PrivilegedUsers (TheBored)
• Added MonoOff registry key. If there and set to 1 (true), the ToMono calls are skipped over. (AEM)
• Miners hull can be slightly damaged when deciding to run on not. (YP)
• Added a "save" button to gameoverscreen and code to save scores to a XML file. (KGJV)
• Changed boot message text to 'booted' versus 'banned' when booted.(Dogbones)
• Update to new wingman repair AI. Separated it from the attack AI to make it much smarter with a couple small changes. (AEM)
• Drones/miners now exit a base when given a direct order. (YP, Dogbones)
• "Unknown Chat" no longer appears in the chat. (TheBored)

Experimental Changes

• Rotation rates have been limited for ships with high mass, removing the capship "spin of death". (Your_Persona)
• Drone AI has been tweaked in the following ways: (Your_Persona)
  • Drones now check to see if a sector is hostile before entering. This can be overridden by issuing a manual order.
  • Drones now "enter" at a faster speed. This applies to constructors planting in rocks and miners/cons/carriers docking at stations.
  • Drones no longer attempt to dodge friendly craft when "entering". This applies to constructors planting in rocks and miners/cons/carriers docking at stations.
• Commanders can now force their players to stop/resume donations. The "Stop Donating" button is now pressable by commanders only. (KGJV)
• Added #mutiny command to propose an overthrow of the commander by the player who typed the command. Commanders do not see the vote, and automatically vote "no." (KGJV)

Note: Balance changes are highlighted in italic and may be modified or removed as necessary pending community feedback

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