3698+1 ongoing development Thread

[PhilipJFry]

Hello Commanders!

As some of you may know, we keep making patches (game and balance) to improve the game to the best of our ability.

This Thread is an attempt in getting more community feedback in an earlier stage of development while informing all of you about what may await you in the next patch (whenever it will be released).

I will list all the upcoming changes and link the respective Pull Requests on Github of everything that made it into the FAF develop game mode which can also be used by everyone of you to test stuff to see how it works in an actual game.

Current list of changes:

• Fix Satellite stops firing on target change - This change will fix the Novax Satellites behavior of resetting its firing cycle in case it lacks a target while shooting. An annoying bug that greatly inhibits its ability to fire at multiple targets.
• Removal of friendly collisions - This change will cause projectiles to go through allied units which makes them behave the same as your own units. There has been a lot of discussion about this change regarding whether or not it will "dumb down" the game or not since you can currently use the fact that e.g. 2 enemy ACUs can hurt each other if they line up improperly/you bait them to shoot each other. Our conclusion so far is that while this change may remove such small details it will also allow for other options in team games as well as making projectile collision behavior more consistent since right now you can just shoot through your own stuff but not your allies.
• added "CQUEMOV" cat - This change (in combination with some changes to the exe - big thanks to Kyryl) allows us to select Experimental units as well as defensive structures while they are being built and give them commands.
• Fix units lose veterancy after transfer - bugfix regarding vet and gifting units
• Fix Aeon tmd deflects nuke (EQ) - fixes bug that allows the aeon tmd to deflect strategic missiles - copied from EQ
• Preset fixes for unit restrictions - quite a few fixes for the unit restriction menu - more details can be found in the PR chat history
  
• AI Patch V2 - lots of AI related changes - not gonna list every single thing since Uveso has a nice list in his comment for the Pull Request on github.
• added CQUEMOV for upgradable building - allows you to select and give commands to upgradeable buildings such as sonar/radar/mex
  
• Wreckage spawn like after death animation - This PR makes Wrecks appear properly when spawning them via a script. This will allow scripted wrecks to have proper death animations etc.
  
• remove player color that is to close to civilian one - changes one of the available colors since it is too close to the neutral civs
  
• Ythotha fix destroy - this PR is a refactor of the code that manages the death of the ythotha - no impact on gameplay/balance
• HARMS fix (dummy unit) - allows you to see and shoot at the HARMS while it is being built
  
• Added toggle option to disable chat colors, fixed factional font color - this change gives you an option to toggle to colored usernames in the in game lobby chat
• Fix OC shell doesn't disappear on impact with mobile shield - fixes a bug that lets the Overcharge projectile go through mobile shields
• Allied Strats aren't damaged by strat bomb Making Strats immune to their allies strat bomb, so that they don't die when the bomb is stopped by an ASF/other air unit
• Keeping upgrade progress Saving the upgrade progress on buildings transferred when using fullshare
• Mobile shield fix Mobile shields will no longer stop moving when assisting friendly units and enemy units are nearby

A complete list of the Pull Requests on github can be found here and the ones that are merged here.

I would greatly appreciate feedback concerning the upcoming changes.
Please keep in mind that game patches are for fixes/enhancements of the game and NOT for balance changes. Some of the changes made may affect balance due to the nature of them but we also try to work as closely as possible with the balance team to get feedback/permission to certain changes.

Best Regards,
PhilipJFry

1st edit: added some more PRs that i forgot (ty Keyser)
2nd edit: added 2 more PRs (14.9.2018)
3rd edit: added 1 more PR (19.9.2018)
4th edit: added 1 more PR (19.9.2018)
5th edit: added 2 more PRs (7.10.2018)
As of 20th of Oktober the 3699 patch is live!
Feel free to voice your opinion about any changes that have been brought to you with this patch in this thread.
We will create a new thread for the next game development patch as soon as we merge the first Pull Request on Github

[Exotic_Retard]

it should be noted that the collision change only affects projectiles which have been set to not collide on friendly units (most projectiles in the game)
if something is decided that its utterly important to collide, then that projectile can have it enabled.

also an important point is that this is NOT friendly fire - projectiles with aoe will still damage friendly units if enabled to do so. this change only makes them pass through your own and allied units, as opposed to just your own.

just clearing that up as its bound to get a bit misunderstood :>

[PandaCuddles]

I'd like to see the "removal of friendly collision" change. I assume this would also stop e.g. t2 tanks shooting allied ones in front which sometimes was quite an annoyance in team games.
And thanks for the clarification, Exotic_Retard. So nukes/strats/etc still kill allied units as well?

[nine2]

added "CQUEMOV" cat - this sounds good. Is there a reason not to have this on all units? my pet hate is not being able to upgrade radar/sonar until it's finished building.

[keyser]

because we didn't thought of it. I just tested it on a radar, and it seems to work.
i will make a 2nd PR when i have time, updating all upgradable building (mexx, radar/sonar, shield...)

[Farmsletje]

Maybe hotkeys will finally work properly then? Right now you can queue t3 hq from a t1 fac but that's not possible with hotkeys cause its not 'build' yet.

[PhilipJFry]

Maybe hotkeys will finally work properly then? Right now you can queue t3 hq from a t1 fac but that's not possible with hotkeys cause its not 'build' yet.

No.
This change will only change the fact that you can now select these specific units and order them stuff/change their fire mode before they are done.

[JoonasTo]

Awesome

Although I will be sad when I can't bait enemies to kill their allied paragons anymore

[Petricpwnz]

Uninstalling.

[keyser]

added "CQUEMOV" cat - This change (in combination with some changes to the exe - big thanks to Kyryl) allows us to select Experimental units as well as defensive structures while they are being built and give them commands.

it has been added to upgradable building : shields, mexx, radar/sonar, hives/engineer stations
thx to the suggestion of anihilnine.
farm try out if hotkey works, i didn't do that yet. (lazy to configure upgrade hotkey)