PC PowerPlay 29

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Text File | 1998-06-30 | 26.5 KB | 562 lines

******************************************************************************* CHANGES IN BC3K v1.07D ******************************************************************************* Last Updated : 07-01-98 Author : Derek Smart, Ph.D [Project Manager/Lead Developer/Designer] Lead Tester : Robert 'Pandora' Hentsche Public Version : v1.01D7C - 11-03-97 v1.04B - 03-18-98 (3DFX only for free v1.01D7C) v1.07D - 07-01-98 Testers Version : v1.07D - 07-01-98 =============================================================================== THIS FILE IS EASIER TO READ THAN BC3KVER.TXT BECAUSE IT DOES NOT LIST BUG FIXES JUST FEATURE CHANGES/UPDATES THAT THE GAMER SHOULD BE AWARE OF. =============================================================================== NOTES: 1. The v1.07D patch will ONLY patch v1.00 UK or US CD-ROMS as well as v1.01D7C CD-ROMS purchased from 3000AD directly. It will NOT patch the free version nor are there plans to allow this. Debug mode is disabled; you need the CD-ROM in the drive at all times even if you do a FULL install. 2. Distribution files now contain both software and Glide version. The software version is executed by default. To run the Glide version, use /g on the commandline. You can use either version to play the game without having to start a new player profile. 3. You can now use the SAVE/RESTORE screen to save multiple profiles. However, since work on surface ops started, you will encounter bug #074 sometimes when you select CONTINUE from the MAIN MENU. This only occurs if surface object auto-generation was going on at the point when you saved. This is a VERY rare occurence. 4. ACM is disabled until the missions being created for it, and which also be used for the SDF campaign, are finished and tested. 5. Please do NOT report ANY bugs. We are aware of all of them. If you are experiencing a problem, see BC3KBUGS.TXT and find out if it's listed. If something works differently, then read this file or BC3KVER.TXT. If you have configuration problems, then read BC3KHELP.TXT 001 Keyboard changes [CTRL-Z] - sets the NID range to maximum [ALT+,] - decrease GAMMA correction by 0.1 [ALT+.] - increase GAMMA correction by 0.1 Glide Gamma adjustment control added. The value is stored in setup.cfg the default is 1.4, valid range is 1.3 to 2.0. BCKEYS.TXT updated. 002 "Match target speed" (SHIFT-`) is now a toggle. When on [M] is displayed in the HUD near the speed indicator. So, if you have a target in front of you, at say, 100km, you can match its speed. If you want to close or increase the distance, use the normal [`] and [tab] speed keys SHIFT-` turns off or sets the current CVD target for match speed. The [M] caret is constantly adjusting your set speed, but pegs at 0 and 1500 kps. Has no effect with A/P off. It makes dogfighting rather easy, because once you're on a target six, it prevents overshoot and maintains your distance from the target (just as it is supposed to). All you need to do is keep the target in your sights and blast away. It does make flying formation on the surface possible though (but still tricky, because ships are constantly varying altitude). You can test this by... - setting a waypoint for IC-1 (as shown in #012 below). Launch it - launch IC-2 and simply follow IC-1. You can do this by setting waypoints for as many ships as you like and flying in formation with them. Simply set the waypoints for each ship a few feet from each other and since they will all be on A/P, will follow the waypoint accordingly in space or on a planet. 003 The NID grid in space is supposed to indicate a flight plane to the target. This was unclear and caused confusion. Chevrons have been added to the grid to define which edge of the rectangular grid indicates direction to the target. When the chevrons are pointing up wrt to the display, the ship is pointing towards the target. The chevrons are active only if a target is selected. 004 Added "stalks" to NID blips to give better feeling of depth. The stalks are pointing away from the center of the NID (your position) It seems that the grid interferes with this visual depth cue so the grid is disabled unless a target is selected, cancel your target to remove the grid. Note: the stalks are a fixed length and only indicate relative position. 005 Targets in the NID (space mode) are now color coded. Planets - Green Moons - Grey Jump points - Blue Worm holes - Brown Flux Fields - Yellow Comet/Meteor/Asteroid Field/Black Holes - Red 006 Major overhaul in navigation route finding logic. AI ships will now be able to span the galaxy without getting confused along the way. Player's ships can now span space regions as well as enter/leave planets. 007 Shield impact animation is now implemented and will be played when a ship is hit with it's shields up. Due to the changes in collision detect, several animations will be played wherever a hit occurs. Though the animation is scaled accurately to match the size of the target, they will look blocky and pixelated if an inpact occurs in close proximity of a large target. 008 Added support for dynamic asteroid fields in various space regions with full collision detect. Hyperjump engines are disabled when inside an asteroid field. If you are in hyperspace transition a field is in your path, the ship will drop out of hyperspace. Debris such as the hulk of ships, ghost ships, discarded cargo pods etc, may sometimes be present in fields. In hostile fields, expect to see mines and other nasty things. Note: You cannot currently collect cargo pods or destroy asteroids. Also the debris field is only visible in tacOPS as a red sphere. 009 Added support for rings with asteroid fields to planets. 010 Planet shadow is now smooth. It depends on the position of the Sun which can now be elevated from the z axis (in Earth region the elevation is 23 degrees to match the spin axis of the Earth). The Sun position should be different in each space region (Uranus for example should have a solar elevation of closer to 90 degrees). 011 Collision detect is now activated for destroyed objects under repair 012 The PTE now has support for high-res GBMs (Global BitMaps). These are the maps used on the external surface of planets/moons. This won't be obvious until surface ops is completed. 013 Reduced the displacement value of CRAFT1,2,3 cargo units 014 Support added for gas giants, which means no PTE surface. The code still needs to be modified to remove the surface on such planets once I define all of them. 015 The REPEAT ACTIONS waypoint order is now implemented and resets the current waypoint to the first. The default order for the ship once it reaches the last waypoint in the pattern is always RTB. 016 Smoke trails added for: () Missiles in 'dumb fire' mode (no valid lock) () Aircraft that are about to blow up () Some surface object blast fragments 017 Implemented new personnel images. The originals are 150x150 but due to the format of the current version of the game, had to be resized. This makes the images smaller and less distinct. In v2.0, the bridge is different and I will find a way to make the images larger. 018 Missile guidance no longer operates while a missile is detonating 019 Missile collisions are disabled from the instant that they are destroyed by a collision. 020 Missiles now have proximity detonation technology which causes them to detonate when within a certain range of the target. 021 Added contrail technology to missiles. Currently a temporary smoke animation is used in space and on planets. 022 You will no longer be able to launch missiles if the EMD is active. 023 Changed Glide tractor beam effect and modified the software renderer version so it is closer to the Glide version. Also changed beam so it is more conical shaped (probably needs a rear section to enclose the entire ship). 024 TACOPS camera now shows the shimmering effect for transported personnel. 025 tacOPS will now be automatically updated if a probe you're observing in TACLINK mode, jumps to a new region. 026 Using new nav code, entities (AG or scripted) can now acquire, engage and attack a target in *ANY* part of the galaxy. They will use advanced route finding logic to locate the objective. You can test this by scripting a ship to take out a station and then manually follow it as it plots a route. 027 Scripted AI ships with escort orders will now revert to SAD mode if their target is destroyed or goes out of scope. 028 Scripted AI ships with escort orders will now be able to follow their target where it goes (using new nav code) 029 Instruments are no longer linked to the probe's TACLINK mode. Only tacOPS now has access to the probe when in this mode. This means that NID, TACSCAN and BridgeViewer will no longer use the probe's TACLINK data. 030 Detaching a probe now self-destructs it. This allows you to replace it. 031 Probe menus entries: "View Probe/Local region" now show the name of the region to be viewed. 032 Nebulae added. Eventually, each starsystem will have it's own nebulae bitmap. A total of 25 in all. In this version, Sol, Sirius, Alpha Centauri and Tau Ceti have unique maps - Nebulae are not visible on planets. - Nebulae currently wrap around the Z-axis and have fixed width. - All regions in a given system use the same nebula. 033 The race/caste of the target is now displayed in the CVD 034 Fragmentation code modified. The degree of fragmentation now varies with AI class of object. Only large objects now generate large numbers of fragments. The maximum number that can be generated with max fragmentation in CONFIG and greatest magnitude is 75, the minimum is 5 035 Shockwaves implemented and completed. Software renderer uses a monochrome shockwave while Glide uses 16-Bit version. Three shockwave types are supported with different speeds that are used according to the size of the object for best visual effect. Only dynamic objects generate shockwaves. More shockwave types can be added at any time. Missiles are explicitly excluded. Note: Time to go alt+x crazy! 036 Transparent bitmaps (such as the gridwork bitmap) are now rendered transparent in Glide version. 037 Modified flight dynamics. Control of large ships is now a little more sluggish. Still needs more work. 038 The COMMLINK will no longer auto-launch in XC when running in debug mode 039 The cockpit COMMLINK will now flash when questions are asked 040 If you have a planet selected in the CVD and you activate tacOPS, it will no longer OBSERVE the planet. Instead, it will start tacOPS (as normal) and you can then select the planet and OBSERVE it. 041 You will no longer be able to launch a probe if the probe assigned to the current slot, is deployed. You need to detach/destroy the probe before you can put anything in that slot. 042 You will no longer be able to dock with stations under repair or under attack. In order to dock, all hostiles, including missiles in flight, must be cleared before you are granted docking clearance. You can't dock while in hyperspace either. 043 The EMD's performance is now directly linked to it's damage state. The EMD integrity must be at least 20% for it to work. Integrity is dependant on: BC: Weapons computer & tactical computer IC: Dedicated EMD system SC: Computer ATV: Computer & Weapons systems The greater the EMD integrity, the more effective it is at jamming missiles. A jammed missile operates in dumb-fire mode, so EMD is ineffective if a missile is launched on target and/or at point-blank range. The EMD jammer is now more accurate. Note: If a missile has a lock and is flying toward you, when you turn on your jammer, there is a probability that the missile will be jammed as long as the EMD is on. BUT you must change your location because the missile will then assume a 'dumb fire' AI mode which causes it to fly straight ahead. 044 Target Lead indicator in HUD should be more accurate now 045 Since all ships now use an advanced route finding logic, you can recall your ships from anywhere in the galaxy (space or planet) and they will seek the Battlecruiser. 046 Ships on the planet surface will now ignite a short VTOL power burst in order to take off if they are touching the surface. This will allow them to leave the planet and return to space if they need to. Sometimes if the pitch angle is down, they may get stuck. You then need to take off manually and then give them the command again. 047 The alter-ego now has the commander's name when deployed as a 3D object 048 If you tractor personnel, they will be killed 049 Added right arrow in Tactical/Crew screen so that you can now cycle thru the personnel assignments list easily. 050 Crew now consume 3 NUTRIPAKS a day. This means that you start off with 2 days worth of food for the crew. 051 Reduced price of VACPAK to 5000. Reduced initial amount to 10. Low warning level at 5, critical level warning at 2 (same as MEDPAK, NUTRIPAK) 052 Marines will now prep for combat before going to any location. Also, you no longer need to 'prep' them beforehand because if you assign them to a location and they are NOT prepped, they will prep and then proceed. 053 Radar scanning circle is disabled if object is not 100% operational 054 ALT-F1-F4 will no longer launch ships unless the current ship is the BC 055 tacops command palette teams for SH1-4 and ATV1-4 are now enabled if there are personnel in the ship 056 You will now be awarded EPs for kills by your AI pilots, ATV drivers and personnel whether you're flying the ship or not. You will also be penalized with EP deductions if they screw up and destroy a friendly! 057 Prisoners on the ship will now be transfered to the station when you dock. You will be awarded 2 EPs per prisoner. I thought of doing the same for intruders but decided against it because then everyone will be running home at the first sign of trouble. 058 You will no longer lose 100,000 EPs if GHQ is destroyed when the Earth region is not your PZ. 059 Cargo pods are now created as HAZARD/MIXED so they are not valid AI targets 060 Ships are no longer capable of ridiculous speeds. The max normal speed is Factor 9 (1500 mps). The A/B and retros can only go at 1.5 times max speed. Support ships, using the A/B and retros constantly will depleted all stored power in 15 mins. In the case of the BC, the time to depletion is dependent on the current Radine. AI ships will use short bursts of A/B in order to breach vast distances. Note that your max speed at any time is also dependent on the current amount of damage to the ship's systems. Note: If you max out the thrust or after-burner, then the [`] and [tab] keys won't reduce/increase speed. Use [0] to slow the ship down, or alter your thrust vector by turning the ship. 061 AI ships in escort mode will now break and defend themselves if attacked while in escort mode. They will not attempt to follow the attacker but will break and return to escort duty once the attacker goes out of range. Previously, the escort would ignore attacks on itself but respond to attacks on the escortee. They will also attack ships that are within range IF the target they are attacking/escorting is not currently under attack. If the ship they are escorting jumps, the escort will break off any attack and plot a route to where the escortee jumped. They won't do this if they are defending a ship that then leaves the region. 062 Removed escort/defend command conflict. If a ship is escorting an object and defending another, preference will be given to the ship it's escorting. If the escortee goes out of scope, the escort will revert to defending the other ship. If both go out of scope, it will revert to SAD mode. 063 Turret laser velocity is now independent of the platform it's on 064 The turret rate of fire has now been increased in order to increase their accuracy. 065 Turrets will now fire in their relative directions. Used to fire ahead only 066 Turret leading and target acquisition logic second pass implemented. Turrets and missile launches for carriers and stations will no longer fixate on a single target but instead will acquire and fire on targets as they come into range. 067 The hyperjump charge will now be 100% depleted when a ship jumps into a new region. 068 Reduced the hyperjump timer of all ships so that they make jumps less frequently 069 Increased the range at which ships will use their hyperjump engines. This means that they will fly to targets most of the time rather than jumping all over the place. This needs some tweaking though. 070 BC bridge systems are now activated on new game startup and set to MODE 1 071 Battlecruiser changes - IOD graphics changed - IOD recharge rate increased - IOD firing sound changed 072 Increased re-arm time for AI ships docking with their platform 073 Surface Ops: planetary egress Pressing [O] at any altitude takes you to space after responding to Y/N 074 Surface Ops: Implemented terrain following model Turning on the A/P will set the current altitude as that which the A/P will attempt to hold. The altitude is relative to Ground level. AI ships have an implicit altitude hold of 250 feet. Needs some tweaking. 075 Surface Ops: Implemented terrain avoidance model Terrain avoidance logic is implemented for aircraft on the surface It is currently active in the player ship even if the A/P is inactive. (WORK IN PROGRESS) 076 Surface Ops: Implemented new heading indicators for waypoints The HUD heading scale shows up to three carets () A solid triangle is the current objective and relates to the box-X/Target leader line symbology, TTD, range scales etc. - This is the target currently selected in the NID or TACSCAN and set as the nav target using the FPD key [f] () An open triangle is the target shown in the CVD - This is the current target NOT designated with the FPD key [f] () a vertical box is the current waypoint (if set) When shown the current waypoint ID and range are displayed on the right of the HUD below the heading display 077 Surface Ops: Implemented waypoint follow model You can now follow waypoints for the ship you're flying (set in tacOPS) from the cockpit and either in manual or a/p mode. Sample. - go to tacOPS and 'observe' the planet (works in space too). Click about 2-3 times so you can see the separation grid. - set 3 waypoints with 'proceed to next' orders and a 4th one with 'repeat actions' for IC-1. Try to space them apart by putting 2 to a grid. Each grid is about 2000km wide so don't go overboard! Note: If you ever wanted to see all the climate zones on Earth. Here's your chance. Set the waypoints headed North as far as you can go. Get ready to sit there for HOURS. - launch IC-1 and switch to it - Switch to it and you will notice that it's diving for the hard deck (needs to be fixed). Turn off the a/p and fly to about 1000ft and engage the A/P. The ship will now fly to each of the waypoints avoiding the ground, flying the pattern and repeating it when it passes the 4th one. - You will notice a waypoint designator on the top right corner of the HUD (inverse color for now so it's easy to see) and the range in km. The current waypoint being tracked is indicated by a vertical box in the HUD below the heading indicator. If you are doing this manually, fly toward this heading in order to reach the waypoint. - While the A/P is flying the waypoint pattern, you can still cycle targets in the NID or TACSCAN and view them in the CVD. The current target will be designated with an open triangle (see below). If you make this target the current destination, and engage the A/P, this will over-ride the current waypoint and the a/p will fly to the target. In order to resume following the tacOPS programmed waypoint, destroy or cancel the current target using [x] and the A/P will resume. - Since you have tacOPS control when flying an interceptor, simply activate it, alter the waypoints. This may be a bit difficult if there are objects showing on the map. So, use the command palette, select the desired waypoint and use the PLACE command to relocate it on the map. The ship will simply follow the new waypoint path and from the HUD, you will see the new distance. Note: Press F1 to return to the cockpit. 078 Surface Ops: Explosions Explosions on the planet now follow a parabolic curve and will fall to the ground on detonation 079 Surface Ops: collision changes Only Air objects (objects with "A" in the dynamic flags in objects.scr) will spin if they collide with anything. They are also prevented from spinning if they are touching the surface. 080 Surface Ops: Xtreme Carnage Enabled surface AG on Xtreme Carnage planets. 081 Surface Ops: NID object legend update white - compound site (city, naval fleet, bases etc) green - dynamic blue - airborne craft yellow - naval ships 082 Surface Ops: support ship deployment The mining drone is now deployed immediately ahead of the shuttle and has a random roving AI model. It moves across the surface, pauses to mine, changes direction at random and continues moving. It will reverse in a random direction if it hits another object. To see this in action, launch the drone say on Mars, target it in the F10 camera view, get a good angle and just watch it. Like a total idiot, I sat there one day and watched it rove the Martian surface for over 30 minutes. Some of the views were just too cool. Deployed personnel use similar logic for the time being. The ATV is now deployed immediately behind the shuttle Wanna see something cool? Try this 1. Put a marine in the shuttle 2. From tacOPS, set 3 waypoints on a planet as follows. Space them a little apart but before you place them, zoom down a bit. 1. deploy atv 2. deploy drone 3. wait for instructions 3. Launch the shuttle and follow it from the F10 cam view until it enters the planet. Then switch to it 4. Make sure a/p is on and just watch it. Check the waypoint range and when it's about 25 km from it (where it's going to deploy the atv), switch to the F8 external camera view. Use the zoom and direction controls to get a cool view of the shuttle. Zoom out, so DON'T fill up the screen with the ship. Now pan the camera using the arrow keys so that the ship if facing to the right of the screen. When it reaches waypoint 1, it will deploy the atv (you will see it drop!) and turn (really cool) to the next waypoint and do the same thing before finally flying to waypoint 3 and waiting for further orders. 4. At this point, you can go into tacOPS (from the shuttle) and change the orders of waypoint 1 and 2, so that it collects the atv and drone. When you switch back to the HUD using F1, it will do the action. You may also want to delete waypoint three. This will allow the shuttle to return to the BC when it picks up the drone. The final waypoint is always RTB unless given an explicit 'wait for instructions' command. 083 Surface Ops: completed surface clouds. On planets with a different time zone than Earth, the palette is screwed up when clouds are active. This needs to be fixed. 084 Surface Ops: planetary date object records Deleted all old .POF files. Program will auto-create new ones when the planet is first entered. There will be a slight delay once planetfall is established the first time you enter a planet. 085 Surface Ops: object auto-generation Enabled surface object generation on Earth, Mars & Sygan in order to test surface ops and start fixing problems with object placement and dynamics. Earth has some hostile, friendly and random regions, Mars is over-run by Insurgents and the guys over at Sygan...well, pay them a visit. Though BC3K does not display the region segments yet (will do once orbital surface scan is in), you can see the region segments by running either PTEproto or GLDproto. You will then see the regions once the GBM loads. 086 Surface Ops: Cargo Manipulation The cargo transfer option in the shuttle and atv menus are work in progress. Use at your own risk. You can use the ATV/DRONE/CREW/CARGO menus in the HUD to transfer cargo, personnel etc amongst the crafts currently IN the shuttle Play around with it. The worse that could happen is the game will crash if you do something weird. At any rate, you can now deploy a drone and transfer it's cargo to the shuttle or atv without having to bring the drone back. You have all the options. Since it's work in progress, I'm not going to bother explaining in this version.