Empires 2.30 Released news

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Version 2.30 is the latest patch for the long running HL2 mod, Empires. The new sudden death feature has been extended to emp_urbanchaos and various infantry and vehicle weapons have been modified for better balance.

Posted by ScardyBob on Nov 23rd, 2010

Just in time for the Holidays, the Empires mod team has brought you another great update to our long running HL2 mod. With Empires v2.30, the focus has been on improved balance and performance. Several infantry and vehicle weapons have been tweaked, while particles have been adjusted to give a better framerate. Also, the sudden death mode has been extended to another infantry-only map, emp_urbanchaos. We have also made it even more suspenseful by restricting turrets and healing when activated.

Empires v2.30 features:

Infantry and vehicle balancing update
New sudden death mode for emp_urbanchaos
Improved performance

While the scout's hide ability got a makeover in a previous patch, we'd like to showcase the change here. The ability has been modified so that it works better on most textures. Hide activates when a scout crouches or goes prone for a couple of seconds. In addition, the more walls you touch, the more hidden you become. The change has made the scout more fun and deadly.

Can you find the scout in this picture?

A scout sneaking around on emp_escort

Download Empires v2.30 on ModDB

Read the Quickstart Guide
Read the Empires Manual
Visit the Empires website

Empires 2.30 Changelog

Added:

Muzzle flash effects for cannons, missiles and artillery cannons.

Draw distance set for most particles to 10k units.

Sudden death on urbanchaos after 45 minutes.

Modified:

Allow building refineries near enemy walls.

Restricted turrets during sudden death on maps without commander.

Disabled healing and squad heal during sudden death on maps without commander.

Sudden death causes ticket bleed that ends at 0 : 0.

Lowered speed of vehicles going out of vehicle factory.

Allow building vehicles when vehicle factory is restricted but there's enough wages to pay for vehicle.

Doubled health regeneration from health regeneration skill.

Increased stamina boost from stamina increase skill.

Added tone mapping controller to: emp_crossroads, emp_cyclopean, emp_escort and emp_isle.

Spawn protection is disabled after firing a weapon.

Balancing changes
+ Changed RPG speed to 1500.
+ Railgun clip size changed from 15 to 20.
+ High Explosive Cannon heat changed from 15 to 13.
+ Updated infantry weapons.
+ BEHR and BEAR positions in class selection screen switched.
+ Grenadier mine detection image replaced with Grenadier Armour.
+ Grenadier Bullet resist 0.0 -> 0.3 (30% resist to bullets. 40 damage weapon does 28 to Grenadier, etc).
+ Spawn ammo for Scout rifle 15 -> 10.
+ Max ammo for BEAR 90 -> 80.
+ Concussion Grenade timer 3 -> 4.
+ Seismic Grenade timer 6 -> 5 (May or may not make a difference, timer may be hardcoded).
+ HMG Damage 25 -> 30, HMG Falloff 1000 -> 1500.
+ Mortar Damage 120 -> 130.
+ Pistol 1 Damage 30 -> 28, Pistol 1 Minimal damage 23 -> 17, BE pistol clip size 15 -> 12 (NF pistol 1 was always 12).
+ BE Pistol 2 Minimal Damage 30 -> 25.
+ BEAR Minimal Damage 22 -> 22, BEAR DuckingSpreadMax 0.2 -> 0.3, BEAR ProneSpreadMax 0.1 -> 0.2, BEAR StandingSpreadIncrement 0.0050 -> 0.0055, BEAR DuckingSpreadIncrement 0.0040 -> 0.0045, BEAR ProneSPreadIncrement 0.0030 -> 0.0035, BEAR IronsightKick (Jumping, Standing, Ducking and Prone) 0.75 -> 0.5
+ BEHR Damage 40 -> 35, BEHR Minimal damage 27 -> 20, BEHR StandingSpreadModifier 0.05 -> 0.025, BEHR StandingSpreadDecrement 0.05 -> 0.03, Kick vertically was lowered considerably, but I'd have to paste a tonne of values just to show I lowered it.
+ Scout Rifle Falloff 8000 -> 6000 (This may or may not make any difference at all. If not, I'll lower it further next patch)
+ RPG damage 120 -> 130.
+ NFHR Damage 45 -> 40, NFHR Minimal Damage 30 -> 28, NFHR StandingSpreadModifier 0.1 -> 0.2, NFHR StandingSpread 0.005 -> 0.007, NFHR JumpingSpreadIncrement 0.01 -> 0.022, NFHR JumpingSpreadIncrement 0.008 -> 0.015, NFHR DuckingSpreadIncrement 0.006 -> 0.012, NFHR ProneSpreadIncrement 0.005 -> 0.01
+ NFAR Falloff 2000 -> 1500, NFAR FalloffBase 0.9 -> 0.85, NFAR Minimal Damage 24 -> 20

Fixed:

Server used wrong collision mask for unstuck check and teleported players that were not stuck.

Armory placed in Hammer and not built at start had working ammo and health crates.

Chat was reset during revive.

Player heard "vehicle constructed" sound instead of the commander.

Client vehicle machine gun firing each frame in prediction.

Commander not visible in death messages for kills from turrets.

Grenades sticking only to NF infantry.

Vehicle spawner checking if chassis was researched when told not to.

Ammo and health crates prediction bug.

Semi-automatic weapons being dependent on player latency.

Vehicles not being precached on map without command vehicle.