Evochron Legacy 1.0718-1.0788 updates...

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Evochron Legacy 1.0718-1.0788 updates...

Post by Vice »

Version 1.0718 includes the following improvements:

- Damage state system added for installed equipment (see notes).
- Quadrant location icon no longer remains visible in 3D and slide map modes.
- Ability to use the ship formation system to approach targeted objects added.
- Contracts enabled for ALC/FDN players at IND cities when no station is present in the sector.
- Set speed selection for autopilot formation system updated for smoother behavior at closer ranges.
- Optional OCRS (Off-Center Readout System) added to HUD for off-center pilot rotations/views (see notes).
- Axis precision for Mouse Look mode can now to scale up to the current display resolution for smoother control.
- Engine damage now impacts its percentage of operational functionality based on damage level, rather than only set speed.
- New contract type added for players with installed repair beams to provide on site repairs of stranded ships with heavy damage.
- Minor fixes and improvements to the recent contract acceptance and management system for opposing factions in the same sector.
- Reinforcements can now be placed at waypoints in disputed regions upon arrival (rather than delayed) for larger scale battles.
- Waypoint marker now renders on terrain walker HUD if another player accepts a contract and/or if player transfers from ship to terrain walker.
- In high econ/tech systems (above about 85), AI ships can now use high end missiles, including disruptors and Leech EMP.
- Initial planet and city inventory configurations/updates better linked to latest regional econ/tech levels.
- Improvements to AI decision making in combat, particularly when/where engaging capital ships with weapons.
- Hostile ships destroyed count notifications added to message log for player-to-player arranged contracts.
- Military contracts in war zones from carriers now better aligned with parameters for station contracts.
- Improved contract pool updates for combat objectives in multiplayer when station conditions change.
- Contract pay value for patrol objectives increased from 50% to 110% for each additional waypoint.
- Improved synchronizing between players for intercept meteor and destroy asteroid contracts.
- Residual MDTS lock state that could occur when switching views now disables as expected.
- Minor visual artifacts that could occur with mining/repair beams on other ships fixed.
- Waypoint total now included with each 'objectives completed' message log notification.
- Attack smuggler contract now more likely in systems supporting the objective type.
- Asteroid cave detail texture aligned with new structure also applied to moons.
- MDTS tracking behavior improved for smoother indicator movement.
- Effective range of repair beam increased to about 180 meters.
- Minor UI click range improvements.


Notes:

By request, installed equipment items can now be damaged in battle, rather than only having the potential of being destroyed. They can now also be repaired at a station or by a repair system (if undamaged itself), much like the subsystems on the ship. If an equipment item is damaged, it won't be able to function (a 'not installed' message will appear when trying to activate an equipment device that requires manual control), but it can still be restored through repair. Previously, there was only a chance of it being destroyed, which required replacing it. There is still a chance of equipment items being destroyed, but it is now much more likely that they will initially just be damaged with the possibility of repair. Damaged equipment items will be considered repairable, but not sellable or useable. So you won't be able to sell, store or transfer a damaged equipment item until it is repaired. Likewise, all equipment items will be sold to the player undamaged.

A dedicated OCRS (Off-Center Readout System) has been added to the helmet visor HUD system. The OCRS will display your ship's velocity (all six readouts), hull damage status, weapon energy status, compass heading, and pitch any time your head rotation is beyond about 30 degrees yaw or 20 degrees pitch from center. With this new system, you can look around (including rear and above camera views) and remain aware of the various readouts that would otherwise only be available when you look directly forward. The only conditions for this system are that the OCRS mode is enabled and the HUD must be turned on. You can optionally turn the system off and on using the new default Alt-H key combination.

Reinforcements can now be present at a waypoint in disputed regions upon arrival. Previously, they could arrive, but would often be delayed. Allowing reinforcements to join in at the beginning of a battle allows for larger scale battles involving more ships of each faction type. This also provides a little more balanced gameplay in regions where such conditions should apply. The same difficulty conditions will still apply in regions where the opposing faction has majority control.

If the engine subsystem sustains damage, it will now operate intermittently based on the percentage of damage, rather than only impacting the available set speed range. This is a fairly significant change to the damage state behavior, but one that provides a more realistic sense of engine damage rather than just linearly capping set speed.

Edit: Quick update to fix a reported bug, version number changed to 1.0718. The game will provide the link for the direct download version, Steam will update, or you can go to evochron.com > downloads to grab it manually for the direct download version.
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Re: Evochron Legacy 1.0718 update...

Post by Vice »

Version 1.0728 includes the following improvements:

- Flight control system updated to provide improved key/button rotation control during active jump drive sequences.
- Set velocity level system updated to remain at selected value when engine damage occurs while using a non-axis (mouse or keyboard) flight control.
- AI ships will now usually no longer hover near city docking ports for delayed docking or waiting, they will now generally dock immediately with no holding patterns.
- Planetary atmospheric density calculation updated to provide more accurate/consistent gravitational pull levels across various speed ranges that are subject to lift offset by ship.
- Under some conditions, recovering cargo from a container with multiple materials could result in lost or mismatched sorted/counted units left behind, now fixed.
- By request, selected firing mode now retains particle weapon setting above maximum particle cannon velocity (no longer defaults to beam).
- Terrain walkers piloted by other players in multiplayer could appear misaligned on the surface of moons, now fixed.
- GPU enabled version of server program updated to provide option to disable menu controls (Alt-C once connected).
- Planet ring particles could sometimes be left behind in view at certain departure angles, now fixed.
- Debris explosion system updated to better account for timer limitation issues on some systems.
- Improved terrain walker Heads-Up-Display reaction and recovery behavior to EMP missiles.
- Inbound missile pointer indicators on HUD better aligned with gunsight 3D spacing.
- Improved lightning effect in planet atmospheres, gas giants, and nebula clouds.
- Improvements to missile contrail behavior with offset movement system.
- Optional control profile added for Thrustmaster T.16000M joystick.
- Custom radio chatter volume option added to customizing options.
- Improved blip indicator alignment in 2D overhead radar mode.
- Faster mixed material/quantity recovery from containers.
- Radio chatter frequency and volume reduced.


Notes:

As with any server update, if you install the updated version, be sure to back up your text8.dat, factionmap.txt, and universemulti.txt files before installing it to retain your server settings, territory map status, and build modules since the installer will restore default files.

A new custom radio chatter volume option has been added to the customizing options. To set a custom volume level for radio chatter, create a file named 'chattervolume.txt' in the game's install folder and in the first line, enter the volume offset factor you want. The default volume level is a factor of 0.35. The volume level factor will be multiplied by the global volume level set in the game. So if you set the in-game volume level to 100%, radio chatter will play at 35% volume by default or at the level you select in the file. Set to 1.0 for 100% volume or you can silence radio chatter by setting the value to 0. The radio chatter volume level will not impact the radio directives sent directly to the player by the station's dockmaster nor radio communication to the player from other ships. Only traffic/docking chatter to/from other ships and other general chatter sequences are effected.

Four training videos are also now available on YouTube, here are links to each:

Navigation Console: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJK85clxFhQ
Build Console: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IdWHDf-5Nc
Ship Control and Physics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcrX8MFGmWc
Space Combat, Weapon Systems, and Target Tracking Systems: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rd7VdKMVEGM
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Re: Evochron Legacy 1.0718-1.0728 updates...

Post by Vice »

Version 1.0788 includes the following improvements:

- Civilian ship textures updated for more vivid coloring.
- Asteroid normal mapping updated for improved detail and light response.
- Shaders adjusted to reduce upper contrast levels under bright light conditions.
- 'Very High' option added for Effects Detail to expand available/selectable range.
- 'Very High' option added for Terrain Detail to provide optional higher texture detail for planets.
- 'Very High' texture detail mode added to provide double detail level above 'High' for certain objects.
- OCRS now automatically deactivates when any console is open and also automatically activates when console is closed.
- Internal client value bypass system added for rare angle lock condition (provides improved rotational behavior at certain angles).
- New distant object rendering system added to provide colored points of light for in-system objects when they are far away.
- Windshield blast shield lighting updated to retain consistent illumination level during entire startup procedure.
- Quest and waypoint radar blips sometimes appearing outside of central radar display frame in mode 2 fixed.
- Slight delay added to player-to-player linked jump system in multiplayer for improved arrival alignment.
- 'Rename Pilot' option in Pilot Manager changed to 'Modify Pilot' to better indicate additional options.
- Revised high speed planet entry burning effect added, including ability to apply to multiple ships.
- Indicated FVL velocity of target would sometimes mismatch by a small margin in multiplayer, fixed.
- Revised multiplayer object interpolation and prediction system implemented for smoother movement.
- Object targeting system would sometimes auto-bypass if a ship wasn't nearby in range, now fixed.
- Hull atmospheric descent flaring now displays only when hull is directly effected by friction.
- Experimental VR system updated for improved movement response performance and reduced judder.
- Atmospheric friction hull damage level that applies once shields are critical reduced by 50%.
- Move option added when the borderless reduced windowed mode is active (via swscreen.txt).
- Smooth rotation system added for panning orbit camera controls in external view modes.
- Improvements to gun turret speed offset system applied to particle cannon shots.
- Multiplayer text chat color option for blue tones updated for higher blue level.
- Improvements to AI ship affiliation distribution when arriving in new systems.
- Field of view and aspect ratio sliders added to Resolution drop down menu.
- 3D server program updated to accommodate required display module changes.
- Improvements to autopilot waypoint proximity based velocity selection.
- Subtle particle/streak effect added to jump drive sequence.
- Minor fixes.


Notes:

The new 'Very High' texture detail mode provides double the texture resolution of the 'High' mode for flyable civilian and military ships, asteroids, and the interior hangar/docking collar. The additional memory requirement is significant for this mode, so a video card with at least 2GB of dedicated video memory is advised for this option. The additional texture content increases the download size and install size by about 40-50 MB. For anyone developing custom texture files for the game, new 'veryhigh' texture filename indexes have also been added for the new optional detail level (in addition to the original 'low', 'medium', and 'high' levels). You can copy any 'high' texture file sets to include 'veryhigh' files to keep the maximum detail level the same when players switch to the 'Very High' texture detail mode, or optionally provide textures at a higher detail level. More details are available in the revised customizing kit.

To facilitate higher speed atmospheric dogfighting and travel, the damage level of atmospheric friction has been reduced by about 50%. This allows for significantly faster travel speeds in thicker atmosphere (ie lower altitude) conditions, allowing players who have been interested in dogfighting each other (particularly on private servers and LAN) to fly faster for evasion and wider turns. Other gameplay modes can also benefit from the faster travel speeds for quicker descents and escape. Short bursts of speeds up to 4000 or more can be achieved with energy shifted to shields and careful array augmenting.

When the borderless reduced windowed mode is activated with the swscreen.txt option, an icon ('+' symbol) will appear in-game in the upper right corner of the screen when the Alt key is held down. Click and hold on the icon with the mouse pointer to move the game's window frame around on the screen. This option, much like the reduced window mode itself, is somewhat experimental, but should be able to provide a way to move the game's window around while it is running on most system configurations.

You can now adjust the field of view and aspect ratio from within the game via the new sliders that appear at the bottom of the Resolution drop down menu. You can optionally reset the sliders to default value by right clicking on the slider bar for the option you want to reset.

The 3D (GPU enabled) server program has been updated to align with required changes to the display module for various VR and related functions. This will allow the 3D server program to run at the same time as the client on the same system, for those interested in running it that way. The old version of the 3D server program will cause the client to display an error message when attempting to launch it, but only if run on the same system at the same time. No changes have been made to the 2D server program as the updates were only necessary for the GPU enabled version. As with any server update, if you install this version, be sure to back up your text8.dat, factionmap.txt, and universemulti.txt files before installing it to retain your server settings, territory map status, and build modules.

The experimental/unsupported VR system has received revisions in attempts to improve movement response and also reduce judder. However, the framerate rendering performance is still very much system dependent. Evochron does not automatically reduce detail levels when the VR system is active. So if you select 'High' or 'Very High' settings, they will apply the same in VR as they do in standard display modes. If added performance is desired, simply change detail levels manually to try and achieve the level of framerate you prefer with the level of performance your system can deliver. That said though, the changes in this update should dramatically improve the VR experience in the game. Also, the vrsetup.txt file option for custom settings has been updated, here is the download link to the latest current sample file with the required options: http://www.starwraith.com/evochronlegac ... rsetup.txt

A smoother rotation system has been added for orbit panning camera controls in external view modes that utilize those options. This helps soften the start and stop movement of those camera controls. The tapering level can also be customized via an external text file (create a file named 'vieworbitrate.txt' in the install folder and enter a value in the first line). The default rotation rate level is 0.1.

The new distant object rendering system will render points of light out in the distance for planets, moons, nebula clouds, and stars that are close enough to be in the same system, but far enough away to not be rendered by the primary entity system. The distant object system will take over when objects reach that distance so there is still a visual cue among the background stars that an object is there even when it is several sectors away. And they are also rendered with a more pronounced glow effect to help make them a little more obvious. The coloring for each point will match the reflective/atmospheric properties of the object (such as planets) or the emissive properties of the object (such as stars). Even though you will now be able to see these objects at much greater distance, as the pilot, you'll still need to learn how to distinguish what is a fairly nearby planet or star object versus something that is much farther out in the background (likely much larger) and is fixed/static rather than a closer entity being rendered by the new system. One way to gauge this is to observe if/how a point of light moves or doesn't move when you move since at some distances and angles, their appearance can line up pretty closely with other points in the background. So learning to distinguish between such points can be a useful thing to practice.
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www.starwraith.com | www.spacecombat.org
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