I really need to update this page more often, so from now on I'm going to begin posting progress on the public betas here as well. So, here goes; it's been over a month since the release of RC125, which contained some pretty large show-stopping bugs - like getting stuck in Alaska when purchasing a new ship, or receiving a "You have attacked a friendly object. Mission Failed." message when attacking friendlies, which caused a crash upon clicking "Load Game". So what's the deal?
Unfortunately, these bugs were just plain missed in the testing, and I apologize. However, M0tah and I are at work to fix these issues, and here's the changes so far:
-- Universe Chat is now blue (same color as old system chat). System Chat is now yellow.
-- Capital Ship Full-Tilt Camera Steering is now much wider. This nearly eliminates the need for Turret View / Rear View altogether.
-- Removed the red damage indicator, in an effort to further clean up the HUD a little (besides, it's obvious enough as it is that you're getting shot at).
-- Arena Tokens are now sold in every house system, instead of just the core house systems.
-- Alaska Jump Holes now have correct orientation.
-- Removed the Hazard Buoys leading to the Alaska gate in NY. They aren't really needed any more and just got in the way.
-- Standard Scanners now have a 10k tracking distance, to assist in keeping track of distant fights. Scanners ramp up 1k tracking distance per scanner. Cargo Scan ranges are unchanged.
-- Rare Ship bases, and other assorted bases, are no longer stored on the NavMap. This prevents issues with accidentally targeting the bases using the NavMap.
-- New version of the AI Companion Bot Generator, which correctly generates AI Bot types.
-- Title screen system re-written via a MultiIntro client hook from M0tah. 12 Title Screens are now picked at random (3 are new to RC126).
-- Fixed a rare occurance of "You have attacked a friendly object. Mission failed." messages, which would cause a client crash if the user selected "Load Game".
-- Freighters now support Full-Tilt Camera Steering, similar to Capital Ships. This increases their efficiency in combat, allowing players to take advantage of their wide turret coverage.
-- Cargo space on Capital Ships has been halved - Small Caps now have 80 cargo; Large Caps now have 100 cargo; Stations now have 100 cargo. WPs have not been changed, as they already had 80 cargo, curiously enough.
-- Cruise charge-up times on Capital Ships, Stations, and WPs have been doubled.
-- Narrowed the Kusari Gunboat firing arcs a small amount. It has even less rear coverage now, to help compensate for its tiny size.
-- Widened the Bretonia Destroyer firing arc on the lower central mount to full 360* coverage, to help compensate for its large size.
-- Lowered the additional global firing arc allowance to 22.5*, from 35*.
-- Sniper Turrets now inflict 5000 hull damage (up from 4000). Updated the infocards on them as well.
-- Lowered mass on Freighters to that of Heavy Fighters.
-- Raised Nanobot and Shield Battery count of Freighters to 45, up from 35.
And here's what's still to do:
-- Fix Arena Tokens unmounting when purchasing a new ship (causes players to become stuck in Alaska upon purchase of new ship) - I may simply mount Emergency Arena Tokens on newly purchased ships in the meantime
-- Add in a command to toggle receiving of Universe Chat messages on/off?
-- Fix /ignore not ignoring Universe Chat from a player (only ignores system and private chat)
-- Implement w0dk4's Global Server Workaround into 88 Flak, since the current Global Server is a bit wonky (ask permission of w0dk4 first)
I plan on releasing RC126 tonight, or at the latest tomorrow morning. As you can see, the getting-stuck-in-Alaska glitch still lingers, however we've devised two solutions - one a direct solution via FLHook to simply re-mount Arena Tokens when purchasing a new ship, and the other a more indirect workaround by packaging Emergency Arena Tokens with the newly purchased ship.
As always, progress (and downloads) of the 88 Flak Betas can be found here: 88 Flak 1.27 Beta Topic
Thanks, and see you in space!
~fox
