Dark Angels 2.30.00 Public Release (OBSOLETE) file

This is the next version of the Dark Angels mod for SoulStorm.

Installation Instructions
Just unrar the archive in your SS folder, and select the mod from your in-game Mod Manager. Make a CLEAN Install of this latest version. DELETE previous versions.

Mandatory Mods
Besides the Objective Points Mod, Dark Angels now requires FreeUI Mod.
Get FreeUI 1.6 Mod Here: Moddb.com

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CHANGELOG

The Changelog is immense. What follows does not cover the full extend of changes. For those lazy to read, you may want to explore the the darkshroud for the ravenwing, and the Knights for the deathwing. So:

AI
- (Serious) now keeps same strategy once one is chosen. This will make the AI not go crazy, once you change_players or save->load. It cannot be 100% consistent, as we cannot check if a research is_being_buit. But it is far better now.
- (Serious) Updated AI to use the Deep striking capabilities of the army more effectively. First, the DP of the Chapel was not activated at all, not it is. Second, the vehicle transport capabilities also fixed (there was a wrongly named variable).
- (Serious) The Techmarine, now uses the updated dual-role AI tactic. He behaves both as a builder, and as a fighting commander.
- Updated TH entrench tactic. It now tries to entrench/detrench on condition, in order to recover HPs.
- Updated the number of Rhinos used by the AI. It was using 4 (and their cap is 1 support, so this was inappropriate). Now uses 1 or 2.
- Slightly increased the range of the mine placing (from LPs) of Whirlwind's castellan missile.
- The Build Order of the Deathwing was slightly updated so that to have more terminators fielded.
- All Build Orders slightly updated for better performance.
- (Juicy update): On AI re-initiation (change players or save->load), the AI now keeps the same strategy, EVEN IF the branch research IS BEING built!
- Updated, so that in Battle Company to try and build ALL THREE Legendary heroes (each once, of course).
- Attachments code greatly re-worked. Made faster, and much more effective.
- Branch building placement made much safer for the Army (BaseBack).
- NEW CODE: General Vehicle Transportation code updated, to count the number of SLOTS each squad occupies when enters a transport. Upt to now (including dwai), the code counted ALL vehicles as if occupying ONE slot - which sometimes cases issues.
- Updated the landing/take-off method of the Thudnerhawk so that to use hen new abilities and NOT entrench. Code highly updated and optimised.


ART
- Updated Belial model. All taken care of. (old Belial model re-textured, and used as leader for the Knights squad - see below in New Added units)
- Scout and sergeant scout models, changed to very higher quality textured ones.
Note: For the Sergeant Scout model I kept the old one but changed the textures. This because the new one has a problem with the plasma pistol firing. If someone can fix this, it would be awesome to use the new (the new model has updated textures for all weapons, and an animated chainsword!). I put in for anyone who wishes to try. For now, we will use the old model that has no problem.
- Inheritance cleared. All anim XRefs and other art files are DA folder ONLY. Devastators HB weapon colour bleeding fixed, among other things.
- Added shadows (3) to the models that didn't have it thus.
- Updated some FXes (the book aura of the librarian).
- Slightly updated the RW Building Icon. Now it is different enough to the vehicle building.


SCaR
- SCaR code SERIOUS issue found -> fixed.
>Just note that the new no_more_heroes code checks the spawning of a dummy entity that each named hero creates ONCE fielded. Thus for Belial, his ghosted icon disappears once you field him (as opposed to when built). It has NO impact on AI or human gameplay whatsoever of course. After all, you no can no longer call again a hero once you see him!! So all good there.
- Fixed the issue where the stuck TH was not "passing" its current HPs to the entrench version.
- No more heroes and TH SCaR codes HEAVILY optimised (ONLY run if necessary, and ONLY for the DA players, and only if needed). Brother Evil Isador contributed much on this.
- Serious: Thunderhawk SCaR completely redesigned/rewritten. Highlights: NO MORE glitches. NO MORE disappearing/stuck THs, that land elsewhere after many secs. Support for infinite number of THs per race. Land/Takeoff buttons now with complete UCS (no more entrench/uproot). Shortcut button is still "E". Event warnings when something happens (when destroyed, or unable to land). Runs with 0 interval, as opposed to 1, of the previous code - but is AS fast (or faster). FAR less memory needs. Rule runs ONLY if necessary, and ends if no longer needed.
- Heroes SCaR code updated, to allow ALL THREE Battle Company legendary heroes to be fielded (each once, of course). Further optimised and made even faster. I managed to squeeze it to achieve as less calculations as possible to maximise performance. Guys, I do not think the two rules can be made any lighter...
- The project now requires FreeUI, so that to have the Devastators attachable. Excellent!


AE/Issues/Additions
- (SERIOUS) New Units Added
>RavenWing: Darkshroud vehicle. Everything taken care of (abilities, icons, sounds, AI, etc.). Pending voices.
>DeathWing: Deathwing Knights squad. Everything taken care of (abilities, icons, sounds, AI, etc.). Pending voices.
>Battle Company: No new unit added, but BOTH veteran squads are now available. This will definitely give BC the extra punch the other branches got.
- Scouts were NOT using their sniper rifles past range 25 (while snipers have 40)!!!! Now fixed.
- Techmarine's flamer and plasma cutter weapon firing issues fixed.
- Made the named heroes have NO persistent bodies (as Watchers in the Dark take them away, ain't they?).
- Castellan Missiles ability of the Whirlwind re-worked. Now, it is "TWO" abilities instead:
>Castellan Missile (yes, only one missile): It fires the missile, upon impact it scatters mines.
>Vengeance Missiles Barrage: Just what it says. It replaced the previous (not-so-well-coded) Castellan Round ability.
Both Require BC branch. ALL taken care of. (including AI)
Anim Pending: Also, the previous ability had a broken anim that was unfixable. I removed it. We have no firing anim for the above abilities...
- Fixed/updated the modifiers responsible for despawning the Watcher In The Dark, once Azrael is dead. Now, it ALWAYS despawns (as opposed to "most of the times"). I also set its getup time to 0, as it lacks a knock-back anim. It is perfect now, so all is good!
- There were some issues with apothecaries' requirements (Limit 2, Limit 2). Fixed.
- Some requirements' orders fixed as well (we had some more limit 1, limit 1) (Need more testing to verify integrity.)
- Fixed a minor apothecary glitch when going BC (the "old" apothecaries were "turning" to squads!).
- Better timing for Ezekiel's and librarian's abilities.
- Azmodai's demoralise passive ability was buggy and NON-operational. Now fixed to be as it should. Just try him, and you will see that he is now a WORTHY choice!
- RW branch building CANNOT be built in allied places any more, as it should be (just like all other branch buildings).
- Terminator assault cannon range was wrongly set to 40. Reverted to normal 30.
- (Serious) Thanks to brother Shodar, the Ravenwing is now having much better pathing. MUCH. Quite acceptable behaviour, forget the entities of the squads that were left behind. Visually, the compromise is minimal - the bikes are still moving like bikes. We kept the tank turning system of course !
- Some entities' Masses, and some other info (regarding special attacks), updated.
- All grenade abilities (melta/krak/frag) updated (projectiles initial position, timings etc.).
- DA smoke launchers had a small entity busy time issues. Fixed.
- The range of vindicator's enemy engagement, modified to match it's primary weapon range (it was 100).
- Command Squad entities' requirements updates.
- Added better/longer camera angles.
- Updated the Block formation, so that the models not to collide amongst themselves.
- Slightly updated the dummy entity that limits heroes.
- Flying TH turning behaviour, moving updates.
- The missiles of the WW could target air units. Fixed.
- Mines' (created by the Whirlwind's ability) opacity DEcreased a bit, as they where too "dim".
Note: The castellan mines ability spreads the mines horizontally, so note that if fired at steep slopes, some mines will appear under, and some over (this is the slightly awkward visual) ground level... But the same goes for normal mines (and buildings), of course..
- Many issues with the infiltration of numerous units fixed.
- Covers and event_ext seriously updated. There were some missing issues there.
- Poison/Souls stats form many entities were missing.
- Fixed a many UCS errors (fe Devastator Sergeant).
- UCS greatly updated beside somw necessary additions (fe the Landspeeder's weapon upgrades), many new lines added for the new abilities and units.
- German UCS added, courtesy of brother Evil Isador. WILL NEED to update that to our latest version...
- (Serious) Battle Company: Now all 3 Legendary Heroes (Azrael, Asmodai, Ezekiel) can be requisitioned. Each ONCE, of course. This way, we get even more variety for the BC.
- The Knights' squad UCS now states they are limited to 1.
- Sore requirements issues regarding the Techmarine's 3 researches, fixed.
- Fixed MANY wrong KeyBindings. All clashes updated. Seems minor, but took me MUCH time to remedy - even with the help I got !
- Requirements visual update: There were some complaints about the inconsistency of non-disappearing squads when a certain branch is chosen that forbids them. Fixed. For example, Devastators and the Command Squad will now disappear for DW/RW. Previously, they were greyed.


Balance-related Fixes.
- Updated Hellfire ability to affect squads. Both Librarian's and Ezekiel's abilities were taken care of. There were some inconsistencies with the ability's stats that are now fixed as well. UCS also updated where needed.
- Devastator fragmentation missile launcher had damage issues. Now fixed. I had to rise the damage from the values I mentioned, as I tested it in-game and it was still TOO low. I think damage now it quite ok.
Also changed the model of the projectile. Last but not least, I fine-tuned the origin/muzzle of the projectile as well.
- Updated Mind Worm ability with a secondary effect of half sight and ability disabling (14 secs, 20 for Ezekiel's version).
- Sammael is now repairable, by only one repairer. He has low regen, so it is pity to lose him easily.
- Increased the damage of BC Drop Pods (only the min damage and armour penetration, as all values were 0).
- ThunderHawk airborne version armour type changed to air_med. It got a 0.6 ranged damage reduction to averagely compensate. Entrenched version further STRONGLY increased regen (it was still too slow to fully regen)!
- Heroes building (BC) bot one more DS slot and faster upload time (30->24). Because the AI now uses it to DS as it should, the squads were CROWDING around it, so this is necessary.
- As said above, in BC now BOTH veteran squads are available.
- A bit more HPs (+200) given to the DarkShroud.
- Razorback was too weak with less HPs than the Rhino, and its role was nigh redundant. Now it has +200 hps more than Rhino (+400 hps boost).
- The Bike and Attack Bike Squadrons are now limited to 4, each.
- The Veterans squads are now cumulatively capped to 2 (you can get whatever combination of 2). Made the AI to build 1 + 1.
- Bikes Squadrons and Bike leaders are now transportable by the TH (only). Squadrons occupy 2 slots, leaders 1. DNs are still NOT transportable, even by the TH.
- The Devastators are now attachable.
- Devastator squads available are now 2 (it was cap 1). AI updated.
- Devastators start with 4 weapons available (it was 6), Veterans start with 2 (it was 4). And they both get +2 after a NEW research. ALL devastator weapons are capped 4. AI updated. Everything taken care of.
- DarkShroud now occupies 2 slots.
- Branch Buildings: All 3 are now cap 2 (they were cap 1). Didn't use any other restriction or limitation (like related to the HQ numbers), as it would not be balanced as you would be able to have 5 hqs, and thus 5 branch buildings with IMMENSE DS potential!!
- Branch Buildings: All branch buildings have now 3 "squad holding" slots each. AI updated.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Original and Current Team
Morat - Co-Lead/3D/Textures/Music/Tester/etc
ravenmorpheus - Co-Lead/Textures/Tester/etc
Thudmeizer - Co-Lead/Code/AI/UCS/2D/Sounds/Voice Recruitment/Post-Processing/Tester/etc
Greenphearo - 3D/OE
RavenwingRetribution - 2D/Icons
jONES1979 - 3D/FX/OE/Tester
Karandras - 3D/OE
WhiteShield - Textures
Skinnie - 3D/FX/OE
Goldenhorde - Voice Scripts/Tester/War40k Fluff/Codex Guru/etc
Brother-Captain Vesuvious - 3D
starfox444 - Tester
Kontuz - Code
Madan - Textures
Snackov - Post-Processing Voices

SPECIAL THANKS: To the FoK team for the use of some of their absolutely beyond-magnificent models!

SPECIAL THANKS to brother Fedor_Russia for his excellent Darkshroud model !

External Voice Artists
Techmarine -- Damien
Servitor -- Michael

Scout Marine Squad -- Michael
Scout Marine Squad Sergeant -- Michael
Space Marine Squad -- Jai
Space Marine Squad *SPOTTING VOICES* -- Jai
Space Marine Squad Sergeant -- Jai
Assault Squad -- Jai
Assault Squad Sergeant -- Jai
Devastator Squad -- Shaharris
Devastator Squad Sergeant -- Shaharris
Ravenwing Bike Squadron (Close Combat) -- Donovan
Ravenwing Bike Squadron (Close Combat) Sergeant -- Donovan
Ravenwing Attack Bike Squad -- Donovan
Ravenwing Attack Bike Squad Sergeant -- Donovan
Deathwing Terminator Squad -- Dreux
Deathwing Terminator Squad Sergeant -- Dreux
Deathwing Assault Terminator Squad -- Dreux
Deathwing Assault Terminator Squad Sergeant -- Dreux
Deathwing Terminators Kill Team -- Chris Thurman
Deathwing Kill Team -- Cody
Deathwing Kill Team Sergeant -- Cody
Veteran Tactical -- Tyler
Veteran Tactical Sergeant -- Tyler
Veteran Assaults -- Tyler
Veteran Assaults Sergeant -- Tyler

Command Squad Leader -- Richard
Company Champion -- Tyler
Apothecary (Power Armour/Bike/Terminator) -- Dreux
Standard Bearer (Power Armour/Bike/Terminator) -- Calavera
Interrogator Chaplain (Power Armour/Bike/Terminator) -- Dreux
Epistolary Librarian (Power Armour/Bike/Terminator) -- Dreux
Company Master -- Calavera
Deathwing Company Champion -- Chris Thurman
Ravenwing Master Bike/Landspeeder -- Michael
Azrael -- Rick Jordan
Azrael's Companion - Watcher In the Dark -- Chris Thurman
Ezekiel -- Calavera
Asmodai -- Shaharris
Belial -- Monty
Sammael -- Christopher

Rhino -- Michael
Razorback -- Michael
Ravenwing Tempest -- Calavera
Ravenwing Land Speeder -- Calavera
Dreadnought -- Dreux
Mortis Dreadnought -- TagDaze
Venerable Dreadnought -- Shaharris
Vindicator -- Dreux
Whirlwind -- Tyler
Predator -- Tyler
Land Raider Ares -- TagDaze
Thunderhawk -- Michael