Empires 2.8.0 Released! news

Bugfixes

Crash when spawning an APC, if you fire the MG immediately after constructing it
Comm crash fix
Commander can once again place buildings near enemy walls, engineer cameras & radars, and unbuilt buildings
Reverted unintentional change, so that vehicle weapons aim towards the crosshair again, rather than parallel to your aiming direction (dual cannons still work)
Fixed exploit building through the walls of emp_canyon, by reinstating a check from 2.6.9 that was missing
Reverted unintentional change; you can now build through ammo crates again (and multiplayer physics props)
The squad popup back in your face every round, because we just can't trust you to remember
Fixed building underwater and through world, found in 2.8.0 beta
Fix vehicles not being forced out of vehicle factory on creation.
Removed emp_gauntlet descriptions since that map is gone
Map description file for emp_noreturn

Balancing changes for "Asymptote"

For years, there have been only 1~2 usable armors. We would like each armor to have its own special trait that makes it a decent option to research under different circumstances; to that end, we've modified capacitive, absorbant and reflective, as well as bio MG and plasma MG, to better suit the strategic commander. We've also buffed railguns and nerfed walls to make for a faster endgame. Artillery is back, baby! The new 180mm Artillery Cannon packs a much better punch than before. See the full changelog below.

Other code fixes:

8 traces in cilinder to establish evenness of terrain; draw traces that fail
No more building placement on top of buildings/players/vehicles.
Arty Max Weight 870->855 Health 150->125
Reduced collision radii of all buildings to fit snugly around the model, allowing the ramps on all buildings to stick out and overlap. Added OffsetZ of 10 for all buildings to enable placement on not quite even terrain (except for walls, those weren't touched)
Added building_flushscript cheat, to allow you to keep the game running while adjust building collision bounds
Added con command to give a team resources, only usable by server admins; "emp_give_resources"
Added cl_mute_all_comms to mute chat as well as voice.
Don't count player dropped buildings towards the max turret limit.
Disabled stripping symbols for server for better sourcemod support
Rename Assault class to Scout.
DefaultLightmapScale is now 64; this is a setting for new brushes created in hammer, and was requested by DocRabbit; it does not change how existing maps will compile
A player's ticket usage is also incremented for first spawn, as they use a ticket anyway.
Save player stats when they spawn and are killed.
Re-added building hints, reimplemented much simpler than the old ones, and properly scaling to screen size
Updated the Source SDK with the latest code from the TF and HL2 branches. (now on 0d8dceea431 in the Source SDK, latest commit)

Non-code fixes:

New models for Brenodi engineer camera and radar, courtesy of Smithy.
emp_streetsoffire: Fixed misaligned overlay outside BE main. Change contributed by D.D.D. Destroyer.
emp_district402: Fixes flag model for be 3rd flag using the wrong emp_cap_point
Add a template map for new mappers: SteamApps\common\Empires\empires\mapsrc\emp_template.vmf
Change starting armor in emp_glycencity to absorbant instead of budget.
Replaced the broken "test microphone" textures.

Semantic versioning:

We're now using semantic versioning as described on Semver.org
The major version number is 2, and is bumped whenever we change so much that the game is fundamentally different.
The minor version number is 8, and is bumped for any change that requires both server and client to update
The patch version number is 0, and is bumped for any change that does not require an update to remain compatible - so, only crash fixes.

See the forums for more discussion on our versioning system.

In addition to semantic versioning, which is useful for server owners and devs mostly, each future version will maintain a name for the current balancing (or "scripts"), with an optional suffix to indicate small tweaks or (potentially major) bugfixes. This also helps for beta testers to know what balancing they are testing.

More detailed balancing changelog:

HEMG Damage 11 -> 10.5
Reflective->Deflective (thanks Mr.X), also corrected a typo (absorbant).
Bio MG rework, more single shot dmg, longer cycle time, much shorter bio dmg interval.
Plasma MG rework, lower heat gen & heat to enemy, longer cycle time, higher damage.
Angle modifier 1->0.95 & 10% shell/missile/MG resist for Deflective, 15% MG resist for Absorbant.
HML dmg 45->52 clipsize 6->7 reload time 6->5 SHML lock time1.5->1.2 total clip 6->7
5% shell/missile resist for Deflective, 15% vehicle MG resist for Absorbant.
Capacitive cost 15->20
Capacitive rework, more hp, no degen, negative angle modifer, increased bio dmg.
Absorbant health 60->66
Explosion force 100000 -> 70000, less flipping.
Artillery cannon rework, higher "alpha" damage, lower DPM. Higher radius except for ranged. (2.8.1 buffed the range for the small and medium arty)
wall resist against kinetic/missile 0.95->0.925, everything else 0.97->0.94 (mortar and seismics unchanged); NB; effective strength against tanks halved
Always spawn with max ammo for BEHR.
Reactive weight 20->18
HMG Stamina drain decreased significantly, slight damage buff.
Abs bio damage modifier 0->0.3
DUMG/DUHMG spread 0.04->0.03
Regen health 60->70 Regen 0.067->0.07
Composite cost 15->20, reason same as Deflective.
Deflective cost 15->20, this is to make cheaper armor stands out.
NFHR rework, damage buff, slightly increased cycle time, better standing acc, lower crotch/prone acc.
BEAR rework, damage & accuracy buff, slightly longer cycle time.
NF&BE ref now have same resists.
Budget armor removal.
Rail gun damage 45->50
Absorbant cost 12->4
DUMG damage 4->5 DUHMG damage 6->8
Coolant engine buff; +10% heat dissipation, -25% heat output at max