This month's update isn't huge, but version 0.51.3 has some important fixes that I will explain in detail.
(General)
Fixed issue where train yard FTP spawn in Mining Town point wasn't close enough to trigger ToD randomization after respawn:
This one was a basic oversight. Testing every single fast travel point in the game is time consuming. If anyone notices other fast travel points in the game where the player doesn't respawn close enough to trigger the day night randomized and/or inventory refresh, please inform me.
Improved phantom gadget mitigation hack so that dying and loading a checkpoint during a mission won't cause the problem to remanifest:
The prior version of the fix only worked when the player wasn't on a mission. If they were on a mission, after loading the last checkpoint, the previously equipped gadget would be displayed on the HUD but not actually usable. To fix this, I commented out the call to reset the player's inventory on reset. This is a not-exactly-great solution but I don't think it'll cause any issues. My theory is that when the player dies, reset is being called immediately upon death but the player is in the middle of a scripted dying animation. If you try resetting the player's inventory during a "use the workbench" animation, for example, you get a similar symptom. Also, unless I'm badly misunderstanding how Lua works, I think that SGW3's LUA-side reset code is really, really wrong. It's doing stuff like calling Reset(self, bFromInit, bIsReload), yet the method is calling only has the parameters Reset(bFromInit, bIsReload), which means that bFromInit is probably going to return true invariably. I tried fixing this but it broke the game even more. My theory is that the game makes calls to these methods from outside the LUA scripting system, and without looking at that code I have no idea what it expects. Regardless, the spawn/respawn code is borked. My solution was to stop the game trying to reset your inventory on death.
Wait, you ask. But wouldn't that mean I'd have no inventory? No. If you start the game, and you spawn in the safe-house, the safe-house will trigger the inventory refresh. If you start the game and you're not in the safe house, there's only two real scenarios:
- You're on a mission and the game has loaded a checkpoint. In this case, the game's secondary load/save system will set your inventory to the one it has saved, which is handled separately, in the game's C++ coding that I have no access to.
- You've started the game/DLC/etc from scratch. In this case, when you spawn, the game sets you inventory through, again, C++ scripts that don't use the Player class reset methods.
There might be some edge cases where the hack falls apart, but at the very worst you'll end up with no weapons equipped and you can just get them back from the weapon cache.
Minor improvements to Lydia DLC English subtitles:
The Lydia DLC always screamed "rushed", and the quality of the subtitles was testament to that. I did my best to fix typos and weird spacing and punctuation.
(Improvement Project)
New starting loadout for Sabotage DLC will no longer trigger fullscreen weapon acquired messages. (For real this time.)
This was an oversight. I neglected to update the Progression scripts for The Sabotage DLC.
Switched KT-R carrying soldiers to Archers. The AI is too ineffective at using single shot weapons:
Fairly self explanatory. CryEngine AI has generally sucked at using single shot weapons since Far Cry. The original Crysis had enemies that would impotently try to shoot you to death with a pistol. I made the mistake of thinking giving some soldiers the KT-R would be neat. But they suck at using it. So instead I've given them Archers. (The made up gun name for the MSBS). This is the weapon Jon starts the main campaign with, but AFAIK the AI never normally uses it.
Some Improvement Patch+ feature shuffling:
The installer had some oversights where certain features weren't being in the correct option.
Fixed radio playing during opening of Sabotage DLC. (Had to remove Patrol Boat radio hack.):
Another oversight. If the AI uses a vehicle, they trigger that vehicle's "play the radio automatically" hack. I probably need to check that the car Lydia and Racquel escape in doesn't cause a similar issue.
Removed changes to Police Truck vehicle in an effort to fix regression in Get the Red where ambush would not trigger. (Untested):
This was reported to me by a user named Condros. IN the mission Get the Red, there is a 23 Society Ambush that was, they reported, failing to trigger. My theory is that making the Police Truck driveable was causing it. I don't have as save file for that mission, so I've taken the stopgap measure of resetting that vehicle back to how it was.
Re-enabled Advanced Tagging on Normal difficulty to fix issue in prologue. It can be disabled if the player wishes after Prologue ends. It is still disabled in higher difficulties:
This should fix the issue in the prologue where Robert asks you to tag enemies using the CCTV but the objective skips and then it's unclear how to proceed. This could confuse and frustrate players, and also I don't think being able to tag enemies and see their tags through walls is TOO bad to have in the Normal difficulty. I want the Improvement Project to be tough and immersive, not difficult for the sake of being difficult. It is still completely disabled on Hard and Challenge, of course.
Disabled changes to Sabotage DLC economy until better workaround is found for problems:
The Sabotage DLC has some issues with resources disappearing during the first mission, and also the DLC isn't as resource rich as the main campaign. I'm looking into more elegant solutions for this, but in the meantime I've reverted the economy stuff in The Sabotage back to vanilla. So you can buy bullets and equipment in this DLC.
Sniper: Ghost Warrior Contracts trailer reveal:
The trailer for the next entry in the series will be posted on the 6th of June, and I believe there will be Gameplay shown at E3. In the meantime, CI Games have posted a teaser.
A bit late but... Thank you!