Release Wrapup & Patch Plans news

It's been just under a month since the release at 2.2, so we wanted to take a moment to talk about common problems, what's coming in patches, and also release on of those patches. Overall we've been happy with the release of 2.2 so far. There's a lot still to be done and worked out, but the goal with 2.2 was to establish a new basic starting ground for the updates we want to make going forward, and we feel like we've accomplished that. There have been a few issues which we'll talk about today, but very little that's entirely gamebreaking, and very little that we're not confident we can fix. Before we get into direct plans though, we want to address some of the most common problems that have come up.

Before we get into it though, as always I have recorded a video version of the update, which can be seen just below. The information in both is the same, so pick whichever medium you prefer:

Issue: I get a crash/perception parsing error when the game starts/a Galactic Conquest starts/I can't build any units with the filters

This is generally caused by another mod having installed its AI or Scripts folders to the base data folder, which will interfere with other mods. Because a lot of features in TR heavily rely on being able to use our own AI and scripts, this can cause several issues. To resolve this, you just need to go into your Forces of Corruption data folder (not the mod's) and delete the folder named Scripts if it's there, and then into the XML folder and delete the AI and Enum folders if they're there. Sometimes only one of those three will be present.

Issue: Some planets blink red and can't be accessed.

This has actually been one of the most common reports we've received, however this is not a bug- this is what a locked planet in EaW looks like. these are planets which have story elements tied to them (generally emergent factions or era progression). It's kind of ugly, but there's unfortunately not much else we can do with them, the functionality wasn't really intended to be heavily used by PG, so it does look kind of weird.

Issue: When I try to load games, they'll sometimes crash.

This is basically a base game issue caused by memory accessibility for the program. The bad news is, it's not something mods can fix as it's a base game issue, the good news is the Steam version of EaW is hopefully being patched soon to address it. This does unfortunately mean the GoG and retail disk versions will, much llke with the selection freeze bug, continue to have the issues, so we may have to make certain larger GCs where it's especially prone to occurring, like Empire's End, Steam only. Mitigating this is also why certain things like extra VO and planet preview images were left out of the initial release, and will be patched in afterwards. We'll have to make some choices about how exactly to handle that for the versions of EaW where the issues will persist. We do however recommend getting EaW for Steam (it goes on sale fairly often) to get the most stable experience as mods continue to push the boundaries of the engine, since it's currently the only version of the game receiving official patches from Petroglyph.

Issue: I ran 2.15 fine, but 2.2 often lags on the galactic map in larger GCs

EaW can only use a single processor core, so even the best computers will start to struggle with larger maps that have a lot of active factions on them. 2.15's largest map was about 90 planets with 3-4 active factions, counting the player, whereas int largest in 2.2 is 138 planets and up to 6-7 active factions, so there's a lot more going on that the processor has to keep up with. This is also why we have such a wide array of GCs- regardless of computer strength, you should be able to find a good amount that run smoothly for you. We are also playing with some other factors, like AI modifications, hyperspace speed, etc to reduce how much has to be processed at once, so you may see some back and forth during patches on this front while we experiment- this is one of the things that we'll be actively playing with even after the last "full" patch for 2.2.

Since release, we've been working on fixing various bugs which have arisen, and for the most part we seem to have handled the biggest ones in the 2.2.1 and 2.2.2 patches. Because Steam workshop has automatic updates, we've been testing them in smaller chunks on Steam and the ModdB releases will be updated with larger patches less frequently, to make sure people have the most straightforward installation processes. Tonight, some time after this post goes up, (May 7th) we'll be releasing 2.2.3 to both Steam and ModDB, which on top of the fixes already handled by 2.2.1 and 2.2.2, has some more experimental lag changes, focuses on stabilizing some of the era change edge cases where the script controlling some spawns would sometimes not work. The full patch notes for all patches can be found both in the download description when it goes up, and here (the same changes apply to both the Steam and ModDB versions).

As we approach 2.2.5, which will be the last major patch for 2.2 before moving onto the new content for 2.3, we will have a couple primary focuses. The first and foremost is addressing any remaining major issues with era progression, which once we're comfortable it's all working properly, will include adding in other forces to some of the emergent faction events (Hapans are pretty powerful, but things like Zero Command were left kind of bare-bones to make sure they weren't causing problems before we flesh them out more). Second, we'll be trying to find out what's wrong with the Yevethans so we can re-enable them and the Empires at War & Black Fleet Crisis scenarios. Third, we'll be starting to overhaul some of the documentation in the mod, to make it more consistent and informative. In the super-short term, this will involve removing some information about weapon loadouts for ships- they'll be added back in 2.3 with full information on hardpoints, but they will be handled differently and we want to make sure translating the mod into other languages is as easy as possible, so doing it this way makes the most sense long-term. Finally, we'll be working on adding some multiplayer GC maps to the mod. This was left out because there are many features the mod relies on which can't be used in MP, so we have to basically use entirely separate unit sets for it, among other changes. We'll be starting with just one or two Empire vs New Republic scenarios, but we'll expand this when possible.

After that, it's on to 2.3 where we'll be adding the Corporate Sector Authority as a playable faction and beginning the ground overhaul, as well as working on Fall of the Republic, or Clone Wars mod (and Ascendancy for Sins, of course), so there's plenty to look forward to. If you want to keep track of development as it goes, in addition to these news posts, I also do preview playthroughs and other videos on my YouTube channel, which can be found at Youtube.com