Killer App Mod - Demoing new Weapons, Powerups, Translations, other features news - LDSO

Killer App Mod v1.2 - Status Update
and demos of New Weapons, Powerups, Translations

It's been over a year since the last news update for the TRON 2.0: Killer App Mod, here on ModDB. And four years since the release of the previous version of the mod. So, what's been happening?

Well, there are two major reasons for this. 1) Lack of time and manpower. The project was down to one person (myself) for a long period. I'm simultaneously working on another LDSO project called User Error 3 for TRON 2.0, which also has a page here on ModDB. 2) Feature creep. A lot of the features now in the upcoming v1.2 of the mod, were originally not planned until a potential v1.3 much further down the road. But due to certain breakthroughs occurring sooner than expected, features were pushed up into v1.2. (Many thanks go out to Kain-Xavier and another contributor for helping to make this happen, far earlier than planned.)

00:23 - Improved Derez Powerups
01:08 - New Derez Powerups
01:34 - Spawning in protected areas, increased health and energy
02:02 - Powerups semi-randomized, and more than one of each
02:34 - Barriers to protected areas prevents spawn killing and sniping
02:49 - DM-03 retail map expanded play area
03:25 - New Reinstall Powerup
04:03 - New Power Surge Powerup
04:42 - New Read-Only Powerup
05:21 - Reinstall Powerup from another player's perspective
05:43 - Disc Charger weapon in Derez
06:10 - Rod Rifles weapon in Derez, uses two hands
06:59 - Ball Storm weapon in Derez
07:29 - Burst Cannon weapon in Derez
07:58 - Rod Primitive weapon in Derez, now uses two hands
08:25 - Disc Charger weapon in Single Player
09:14 - Rod Rifles weapon in Single Player
09:55 - Ball Storm weapon in Single Player
11:21 - Burst Cannon weapon in Single Player
12:10 - Russian Translation
16:03 - Hungarian Translation

One of the goals of this project, was to eventually bring over as many features as possible from the Xbox version of the game. Thanks to breakthroughs occurring earlier than expected: the upcoming v1.2 release will feature fully functional equivalents of all the Multiplayer weapons introduced in that version of the game, similar powerups in Multiplayer mode (Derez aka Deathmatch), plus the ability to use the weapons in Single Player as well (only via the Gold cheat function), the latter of which is something that wasn't even possible in the Xbox version (to my knowledge).

Russian and Hungarian translations are now included in v1.2 of the mod. Many thanks to the Notabenoid.com team and "Rapid" for giving their permission.

Killer App Mod v1.2 - Game Fixes

Another goal, was to try and fix as many issues as we could in TRON 2.0 and add some new functionality where possible. The video above demonstrates fixes to errors in the Single Player levels, and further improvements to cutscenes for widescreen displays.

An abbreviated list that highlights v1.2 fixes to the game, and to the mod itself:

• Integrates v1.042 Unofficial Patch, which no longer needs to be installed separately.
• Eliminated the "TRON 2.0 has not been run before, you must run TRON 2.0 at least once" error during installation.
• Updated version of the installer program should prevent issues occurring sometimes during installation (hanging, won't install after a failed installation attempt).
• Lists other mod add-ons during installation, offers to download them, and installs everything in the correct order.
• Change any language version of the game to any other language, both text and speech (except Russian and Hungarian, where only text is available).
• Possibly reduced the frequency of the game crashing while fighting DataWraiths.
• The hit detection on the System Memory screen (where you work with subroutines) is now properly aligned with objects, in non-4:3 aspect ratios. Before, you would have to hover over the outer edge of objects to get them to highlight.
• When you went to Options > Display from the main menu in a widescreen resolution, the game would reset back to 640x480 because it didn't support any resolutions that weren't 4:3 aspect. This no longer happens. You can now select any resolution your display supports. Though it's best to stick with the resolution you chose when installing the mod. This is something that was difficult to achieve, but has now been successfully implemented.
• Fixed a bug in the Mod Manager that would cause the game to crash with messages like: Error copying file cres.dll, Could not init CircuitButeMgr, Couldn't initialize DebrisMgr, and various Client MFC errors. This bug could also cause custom maps to not load in Multiplayer.

Killer App Mod v1.2 - Possible in-game Multiplayer server browser functionality

Most people will be aware that GameSpy is shutting down entirely, soon. But they already started dropping support for older games a couple of years ago.

The above video shows tentative support of the in-game server browser working again, via OpenSpy. Whether this will function 100% correctly at the time of v1.2 release, is currently uncertain. OpenSpy's emulation of GameSpy for TRON 2.0 is not perfect, which results in a bit of odd behavior. Browsing and joining servers does work, but not without said issues. We're trying to work with the people at OpenSpy to improve this situation.

The Multiplayer Fix mentioned in a previous news update will likely be included as a fallback, in case the in-game server browser remains flakey.

We don't have an exact ETA for the Killer App Mod v1.2 update. We're hoping to finally have it done around Summer 2014, but don't quote us on that.

You can also check out other new features in v1.2, from an earlier news post.

Thanks from the Killer App Mod team, and if you have any questions or comments: visit the LDSO message forum, the TRON fan sites, or leave comments here on ModDB. Do not use the "Send Message" link on ModDB, otherwise your feedback may not be read for a long time.

List of TRON fan sites:
Ldso.net
Tronfaq.blogspot.com
Tron-sector.com