This latest update for Absolute Territory (Ver 1.1.0) has been published and brings over 50 individual additions, improvements, and bug fixes.
Heads Up Display (HUD) art improvements
As mentioned in the last news update, I've been busily improving the existing in-flight HUD elements, covering the primary, secondary, shield & armor, speed, and range bars along with targeting brackets and waypoint indicators.
These have been designed to draw your eyes towards them when needed, i.e. when taking a lot of damage, and provide a significantly better experience in the presentation of information at a glance.
Based on your feedback, waypoints are now context-sensitive depending on the required usage. Find yourself in an asteroid field and the waypoint will no longer confusingly tell you to use your autopilot, but to exit the hazard first!
New 3rd Person ViewsIncrease your situational awareness in 3rd person with additional sides and rear views. You can also toggle the HUD on/off (which was added quielty in the last update).
Waypoints
Improved visual indicators for waypoints for better "at a glance" awareness.
- Broken with a line: Autopilot required but obstructed (either by hazard or nearby enemy)
- Broken: Autopilot required
- Unbroken: Can be reached without the need of autopilot
Improved missile experience for starting missions
The introductory experience for missiles was not as fun as it could have been. Due, in part, to including the Javelin Heat Seeker missile in the loadout when going up against fast-moving enemies. It just didn't have enough time to reach the exposed tailpipe of its target before it had turned around, therefore losing its lock on the heat signature.
Introducing the Lancea Friend or Foe missile, with significantly improved tracking ability over Heat Seeking variants but with a lower explosive yield. To make up for the lower yield, the base ammo count has been increased.
The existing Spiculum Image Recognition missile has had its settering velocity/acceleration reduced in-line with other seeking missiles which will bring better accuracy, and less wild behavior when being launched.
Random Crashes on AMD Graphics Cards
There was an issue for AMD Graphics Card owners where Absolute Territory would randomly crash. This was related to the Unity version used to build the game. I've updated to a newer version of Unity which has resolved this issue.
Full Patch Notes1.1.0 (20200928)
Overview - Improved the majority of in-flight HUD elements. Added additional views to 3rd person. Improved missile experience for starting missions. Various improvements and bugfixes.
Unity
Amend - Updated Unity to 2019.4.10f1
Amend - Updated TextMeshPro to 2.1.1
Amend - Updates Jobs to 0.2.10
Amend - Updated HybridRenderer to 0.5.2
Amend - Updated NodeCanvas to 3.1.0
Amend - Updated Rewired to 1.1.36.1
Amend - Updated Aura 2 to 2.1.14
General
Added - Default display name for all vessels, used for when the Display Name field is not populated within the Level Editor
Added - Short description for selected Campaign Mission, underneath the campaign drop-down box within the Campaign Menu.
Amend - Radar blips no longer use the camera space for position calculations
Amend - Moved Level Editor button from the Simulator Menu to the Main Menu to make it more obvious
Missions
Amend - Adv Tutorial 201: Killing the Vomitoria too quickly would prevent any further progression
Gameplay
Added - Added Lancea FF Missile
Amend - Replaced Javelin HS with Lancea FF missile as a loadout in the first 3 campaign missions, for a better missile introductory experience
Amend - Spiculum Missile: Reduced Steering from 120 to 90 DPS on all axis
Amend - Spiculum Missile: Reduced Steering Acceleration from 240 to 135
Fixed - Null Reference Exceptions when exiting or restarting a mission during the Autopilot cinematic
Fixed - AI afterburning no longer causes the player camera to shake
Visuals
Added - In-flight External Camera Views
Amend - In-flight HUD graphical improvements across the majority of HUD elements
Amend - Waypoint Icon now context-sensitive based on Local Waypoint or Autopilot destination
Amend - Waypoint Indicator text now displays "Exit Hazard" if within a hazard zone and "Use Autopilot" when out of hazard for static waypoints
Amend - Reduced size of Help Glyph icons
Amend - Help Glyphs, Missile Alert, and Received Transmission Text now positions and resizes based on required usage
Amend - Help Glyphs: Controller Glyphs no longer disappear when interacting with the mouse, and will remember the last used controller
Amend - Missile Alert warning now has a bar representing the distance of the closest missile locked onto the player
Amend - Unintentionally removed Depth of Field effect, when the effect is enabled, from the 1st person cockpit, but looks better for it
Amend - First Person Neutral Camera Sway reduced from 0.25 to 0.15, for less noticeable effect on the cross-hair (if you focus too much on it)
Amend - Increased size of Explosion_003 M (Missile Explosions) Particle Scale from 14 to 20, to make these explosion effects stand out more at a distance
Fixed - Video Options post-processing effects no longer defaults to on when progressing to the next mission
Fixed - AI piloted ships using Hi-Rez assets no longer use opaque cockpit models to reveal there is no actual pilot!
