Releases: FAForever/fa
Game version 3756
Hopefully this is the last hotfix for now. Includes various fixes of recent and longstanding bugs.
Jip
Features
-
(#4770) Overhaul of the cheat menu
The menu now inherits from the Window class, as a result it can be moved around and rescaled. Units
can now be dragged into the game, instead of the old box spawn formation. Includes a section to
spawn in props, meshes and a new section to preview and spawn in entire templates.This was long over due. The new cheat window is completely configurable, note the little wrench next to the title.
Bug fixes
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(#4805) Fix orientation of structures being applied multiple times after gifting or capturing
-
(#4793) Fix disabling of the tabs (in the center) when you are in a replay and your focus army is defeated
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(#4806) Fix lingering draggers around window controls such as the chat and console window
-
(#4807) Add a check before applying a platoon function to fix a co-op problem
-
(#4804, #4813) Fix various options not listening to the game settings
This includes the following options:- Options for the water depth indicator
- Options for the plane height indicator
- Toggle for rendering mouse positions when observing
-
(#4809) Re-order the sync in an attempt to mitigate 'unknown results' of ladder games
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(#4812) Fix overcharge damage not scaling with your power supply
Other changes
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(#4795) Lobby option to share unit cap now defaults to share the unit cap to all allies
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(#4800) Auto-hide the mass fab panel when you change to the observers view
-
(#4789) Forward the old ACU-kill event to the UI layer
Contributors
Game version 3755
Game version 3754
See the patch notes of 3751 for the full patch notes.
We would like to remind people that we're always open to feedback. Specifically for the changes surrounding the factories we made a few topics for you to give feedback on the various line ups. You can find them here:
If you can't click on that link then navigate to General Discussion -> Suggestions
on the forums. The overview topic is pinned at the top.
At the moment there is a game-breaking issue with Nomads. The maintainer has been informed.
With kind regards,
Jip
Features
Bug fixes
-
(#4756) Fix extractors not aligning with the terrain
-
(#4743) Fix civilians not being revealed
-
(#4752) Fix auto balance button when no faction is selected
-
(#4757) Fix hot build not being reset after a build order
-
(#4759) Fix beam weapons continiously restarting as they ground fire
This also fixes the bug where beam weapons that are firing on the ground apply the damage twice -
(#4763) Fix veterancy triggering before death weapons do
-
(#4771) Fix a typo in
CreateIntelTriggers
-
(#4777) Fix a bug where reclaiming props with no value could prevent the ACU from shooting
-
(#4778) Fix tractor beams from making units invulnerable
-
(#4768) Fix orientation of structures with pre-defined orientations (from the editor)
-
(#4782) Fix cursor not changing when you manually issue an attack order
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(#4719) Fix significant weapon delay on the anti air gun of the Sky Slammer, Siren and Bouncer
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(#4784) Fix units receiving full vet after being transferred
AI
We would like to remind people that there are various mods that provide different AI experiences. We can highly recommend you to download them from the vault and give them a spin.
A short list of AIs we recommend at this point:
- M27: made by Maudlin
- RNGAI, as made by Relent0r
- Sorian Edit, as made by Marlo
- Uveso AI, as made by Uveso
- Dilli Dalli, as made by Softles
- Swarm AI, as made by Azraeel
And not to forget the AI that ships with the Total Annihilation mod that is maintained by Dragun.
- (#4674) Fix base AI logic running with AIs from the vault
Navigational mesh
The navigational mesh is an abstract representation of a map. The AI can use that representation to gain an understanding of what the map 'looks like'. The navigational mesh is generated at the start of the map and works on any map.
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(#4761) Fix labels being culled even though they have resources
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(#4762) Introduce a search threshold when searching for a valid leaf
-
(#4776) Fix navigational mesh being able to be generated multiple times
-
(#4780) Fix order of execution so that expansion markers are properly generated
Physics Based Rendering (PBR)
We're slowly but surely preparing the game for a significant visual improvement. This is a long term project that is going to consume hundreds of hours. We're hoping to find additional contributors that have an interesting in creating (and fixing) meshes and textures. If you have that interest and/or experience and you'd like to help out then you can introduce yourself in the dedicated channels in the official Discord channel!
- (#4713) Fix animation problems with the Cybran air factory line up
Other changes
- (#4758) Add division icon for the unlisted 'division'
Contributors
RabidPope (#4719)
Relentor (#4674)
Rowey (#4752)
Jip (#4745, #4756, #4743, #4757, #4759, #4761, #4763, #4762, #4778, #4777, #4776, #4768, #4780, #4782, #4719)
Wotan (#4745)
SlinkingAnt (#4755, #4783)
4z0t (#4771, #4758)
Game version 3753
See the patch notes of 3751 for the full patch notes.
Bug fixes
-
(#4741) Fix build preview of underwater storages
-
(#4739) Fix Aloha being ignored by tactical missile defenses
-
(#4740) Fix reclaim values of wreckages
-
(acc6893) Enforce UTF8 encoding of preference file
We weren't entirely aware that we stopped enforcing the encoding of the preference file. As a result a lot of people encountered issues. We hope by enforcing it again that those issues are resolved
Contributors
Game version 3752
Game version 3751
In this first development update of 2023, we introduce three month's work of bugfixes, quality of life changes, and assorted improvements. It is, by far, the most exciting patch we've released so far. While the full changes are detailed below, a quick summary of those changes we think you'll find most important:
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We've changed how structures interact with the terrain. Previously, structures built on uneven ground could create terrain deformations. On some maps, this resulted in changes to the terrain that prevented the player from placing neighboring structures and created pathing issues for units. With this update, buildings deform the terrain less and may be placed at a slight angle.
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We've introduced a new series of hotkeys that will make it easier to select and micromanage your units.
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The process of managing your mex upgrades will now be easier than ever thanks to several small features. You can now choose to have mexes automatically queue an upgrade and (un)pause extractors when you order engineers to assist them.
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Several smaller quality of life changes have been made to existing features, such as no more empty reclaim orders and preventing ground attack orders from snapping to props or units. You can read more about all these changes in the 'Features' section.
In future updates, we'll be shifting our focus to improving the AI we ship with FAF. So far, we've been working on a navigational mesh that can help the AI understand any map you throw at it. The task ahead is to extend this with additional features to help the AI understand specifics about a map. You can read what we've achieved this patch in the 'AI' and 'Navigational mesh' sections.
And last, but certainly not least: this patch contains the largest performance improvement to date; the game is on average 10% to 20% faster in comparison to the last developers patch! This is exciting because with this patch the average game no longer slows down. We've been running tests and a CPU as cheap as a Ryzen 3600 can now run up to 6000 units without slowing down. We find this is extremely exciting: the game is nearing the point where you can just enjoy playing the originally intended experience in real-time!
With appreciation towards all the contributors that made this patch possible,
Jip
Features
-
(#4584, #4607, #4615, #4636, #4714, #4724) Improve terrain structure interactions
Instead of flattening the ground below structures, they now slightly tilt to reduce terrain deformation. -
(#4474) Ground attack now ignores all props/units
You can now assign a ground attack exactly where you clicked without it accidentally snapping to props or units -
(3dd620c) Prevent being able to issue 'empty' reclaim orders
It is now impossible to create a reclaim order with no prop or unit attached to it -
(#4474) Move command mode no longer creates patrol orders by accident
When you specifically issue move commands using the hotkey (usually 'm') or by clicking on the move command button it now ignores the 'convert to patrol' functionality -
(3dd620c) Remove the use of CTRL to issue commands with formations
When you hold control units first move towards each other and create a formation before they would go to where you told them to. This is a hidden feature of the engine and often players were not aware. We patched this out because often people use the same key for hotkeys, after which players (usually accidentally) would issue a formation order instead of a regular move or attack move order -
(#4510) Add a game option to set the zoom threshold at which reclaim values are grouped together in the reclaim-overlay
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(#4586) Add game option to tweak the camera shake multiplier
When set to zero it will entirely remove shaking from the game. Additionally, the default shake multiplier is now set to 0.5 (instead of 1.0) -
(#4577) Add game option to upgrade and pause tech 1 extractors when you issue an assist order
A small quality of life feature that reduces the use of a few hotkeys -
(#4577, #4620) Add game option to unpause tech 1 extractors as engineers start assisting
A small quality of life feature that reduces the need to check up on your extractors -
(#4587) Add hotkeys to divide your current selection into subgroups
There is a separate hotkey to tab through the subgroups. This feature significantly improves your ability to manage and micro larger chunks of unitsAs a few examples of divisions:
- Divide your selection by tech level
- Divide your selection into groups of 5
- Divide your selection over those nearest and furthest from your mouse location
- Divide your selection into two equally sized groups
For UI mod authors: the changes introduces a framework that allows you to define additional ways to split a selection into subgroups.
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(#4626) Allow mass storages to be built underwater
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(#4490) Add mission briefings to the lobby for all campaigns that ship with Supreme Commander
When you are in a co-op lobby the patch notes button is replaced with a briefings button. There you can see the briefing of a map. Only original campaign maps support this feature at the moment. -
(#4689, #4690, #4691) Add hotkey that resembles the 'hard move' functionality introduced by Strogo
For those unware: it allows you to continiously issue move orders without queueing them and without accidentally converting them to patrol orders. This is particularly useful for ASF battles -
(#4095) Adds a partial share game option
An alternative variant of full share. While structures and engineers are transferred, all other mobile units are lost. -
(#4463) Add a new key binding to select naval units, excluding sonar structures
AI
This update adresses several long-standing issues that affected the custom AI that FAF introduces. Further developments and improvements of the AI will remain our focus in future updates.
Additionally, we would like to remind people that there are various mods that provide different AI experiences. We can highly recommend you to download them from the vault and give them a spin too.
A short list of AIs we recommend at this point:
- M27: made by Maudlin
- RNGAI, as made by Relent0r
- Sorian Edit, as made by Marlo
- Uveso AI, as made by Uveso
- Dilli Dally, as made by Softles
- Swarm AI, as made by Azraeel
And not to forget the AI that ships with the Total Annihilation mod that is maintained by Dragun.
-
(#4413, #4419, #4450) Tunes the economic assesments of the AI.
Throughout the game the AI constantly tries to balance his decisions and those decisions depend on various conditions. These conditions can be tweaked and that is exactly what we did here. -
(#4445, #4447, #4455, #4462, #4461, #4460, #4454, #4475, #4505)
General tuning and bug fixing of the AIs. This involves all sorts of improvements, such as fixing a bug causing the AI to hoard units in their base and improving their use of naval units. -
(#4386) Separately keep track of radar structures for AIs
These are interesting and often vulnerable targets for the AI. By keeping track of them separately it can interact with them more easily.Better guard those radars from now on!
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(#4412) Add logic to prevent prematurely disbanding a platoon
A platoon is a group of units that is acting according to some logic that describes the behavior of the platoon. When a platoon disbands it returns to base to receive a new order. We fixed platoons disbanding too soon due to a bug. -
(#4682) AI has been upgraded to make better use of experimentals.
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(#4436, #4450) Improve consistency of builders used by the AI
A builder is not an engineer, but a set of conditions that the AI uses to determine what to build. These conditions depend on the status of the AI (do I need additional factories given my income?) and the status of the enemy (should I produce more interceptors?)These are tweakable and that is what we did here.
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(#4525) Allow AIx multipliers that are lower than 1.0
Some people asked for this feature and here it is - for new players you can lower the multiplier to below 1.0
Navigational mesh
The navigational mesh is an abstract representation of a map. The AI can use that representation to gain an understanding of what the map 'looks like'. The navigational mesh is generated at the start of the map and works on any map.
We're looking for people with an interest in computer science to add features to add many other functions that allow the AI to understand. One example of such a feature is the ability to generate expansions markers: points of interest for the AI when it would like to build an expansion. And we'd like to add so much more so much more so that an AI can understand and properly play on any map. The navigational mesh is only use by the AI and only runs when there are AIs in-game.
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(#4432) Add label utilities
Allows the AI to understand the value of an area, such as a plateau. -
(#4485, #4495) Only load in the navigational mesh as requested
Entirely skip the generation of the navigational mesh when it is not used. This prevents allocation a few megabytes to store the navigational mesh in memory -
(#4555, #4559, #4561) Improve retrieval of (nearest) leaf for path finding
This is an improvement to a macro feature (what is the general path from A to B?) and not a micro feature (how should I move this unit?). It is now more consistent, such that if a unit is remotely able to navigate to some place it will always have a label assigned to it. -
(#4569) Add generation of expansion markers
These markers are generated for each map. The AI can now identify sane expansion locations on any map
Bug fixes
Game version 3750
Land
T2 Land
T2 land is much slower than T1 and T3 which doesn't allow it to adequately cover the map, raid, and defend against attacks, especially on bigger maps. The meta in team games is to generally either completely skip T2 or go all in. These changes hope to make T2 more viable in team games and 1vs1. Another advantage in increasing the MS of T2 land is how they will interact with Rambo ACUs, especially in 1vs1. Currently, Rambo ACUs are extremely strong and even if you have more army value it's very difficult to press your advantage since if you are the one engaging the enemy gets at least 2-3 OCs for free. With the MS changes it should allow the player with more army to more easily punish the opponent for miss positioning their ACU or being overly aggressive/borderline suicidal.
Increase of 0.1 Movement Speed to all Flaks, MMLs, Range Bots, and Main battle tanks.
Rhino gets a buff of 0.2 (and so does Cybran flak) as it's currently comparatively weak to its T2 counterparts and Cybran needs a buff during its T2 stage.
Hover tanks don't get a movement speed increase as they are already very fast and we don't feel like this change is necessary for them. Perhaps they will get some other small tweaks next patch.
Asylum (Aeon T2 mobile shield)
- EnergyMaintenanceCost: 45 > 55
Aeon t2 land has become arguably the best with a combination of powerful tanks, cheap shields, and the strongest ACU. This minor nerf aims at reducing the strength a little bit.
Titan and Loyalist
- BuildTime: 2160 > 2400
The Titan and Loyalist build-time buffs from patch 3725 are reverted to make it harder to snowball out of control with a T3 land rush.
Titan
- HP 2600 > 2400
Loyalist
- The Loyalist's ability will no longer disable weapons and the charge will kick in 1 second faster
After T3 rebalance Titans with their fast recharging shields became a bit too oppressive and they are currently stronger than loyalists. A small HP nerf should put the unit in the right place while not taking away from its specialty of constantly dashing in and out and letting its shield recharge.
Loyalists' ability has been underwhelming and thus it's getting a well-deserved buff, we hope this will be enough to make mixing in Loyalists in your army in later stages a more viable option instead of being a gimmick that is rarely used.
Sniper bots
Sniper bots get an overall nerf to make it harder to snowball out of control. With the energy cost nerf specifically we aim at delaying the first few snipers from hitting the field immediately after a player gets T3 Land.
Usha-Ah
- Mass Cost: 880 > 960
- Energy Cost: 9700 > 15.360
- BuildTime: 4500 > 5400
The snipe mode icon is changed to make the difference between the snipe mode and normal mode easier to see.
Sprite Striker
- Mass Cost: 800 > 880
- Energy Cost: 8900 > 14.080
- BuildTime: 4500 > 4950
Air
Air Experimentals
Air experimentals were always extremely cheap in energy cost compared to t3 air. This led to the ability to build air t4’s without any power setup like is required for t3 air and thus became a relatively cheesy way to win games. With this change, the e cost is more streamlined with t3 air.
We also reduce the crash damage of air T4s. Their ability to kill heavily shielded targets by simply dying and hitting them provided the defending player with little counter-play. They still deal a considerable amount of damage to not break the immersion of the game but these values will be further reduced if deemed necessary.
Ahwassa
- Energy Cost: 780.000 > 1.920.000
- DamageRadius: 20 > 19
- Crash damage 10.000 > 7000
In addition to the energy cost nerf the ahwassa gets a small nerf to its AoE considering its dominance compared to the other air T4s.
CZAR
- Energy Cost: 731.250 > 1.530.000
- Crash damage 10.000 > 7000
Soulripper
- Energy Cost: 480.000 > 952.000
- Crash damage 7000 > 5000
SoulRipper Mini-rework:
A decrease of roughly 15% across the board. The goal is to make the SR a more viable option and further establish it as the value over time air experimental. With the lower cost, it will be easier for the player to justify investing in the SR
and slowly leverage a small-medium advantage he had in the air.
In addition to the stat changes we also increase the movement speed by 1 and give it 75 hp regen per second.
HP: 90.000 > 75.000
Regen Rate: 0 > 75
Mass Cost: 34.000 > 29.000
Energy Cost: 952.000 > 812000
BuiltTime: 56.250 > 48.000
DPS: 1535 > 1368.3
The decrease in hp is slightly larger than the decrease in DPS meaning the SR will be a bit less tanky but will pack a bigger punch relative to its cost.
Strategic Bombers
All strategic bombers have their elevation reduced. This will make them easier to hit by non-homing AA which should greatly increase the effectiveness of T1 AA and T2 Flak (although that will now hit rarely instead of never) which should make the early strats a lot less oppressive since now every play will be able to build a unit that will at least partially counter the strat.
- Elevation: 20 -> 14
T3 UEF Air
Added jamming for Spy Planes and Strategic Bombers allowing for more counter-intel capabilities. The scouts will have their jamming on by default and for free while the Strats will have theirs off by default and it will cost 25e/s to run (same as the T3 gunship). These changes should allow UEF air players to trick their opponents by including Air scouts in their mix and artificially inflating the size of their ASF cloud. It will also make the Air scouts harder to shoot down by static AA/ASF and buff unscouted strat runs.
T2 Air crash damage
Notha
For some reason Notha had different crash damage than other T2 Fighter bombers
- Crash damage 25 -> 200
T2 Transports
T2 transports had lower crash damage than T1 (100). These changes will also nerf arty drops since now if the transports die and land on top of them it will kill all of the arties.
- Crash damage 25 -> 250
Navy
For a long time, Aeon frigates were absolute garbage while their Destro's were insanely good while Cybran had the exact opposite with OP frigate and weak destroyer. These changes redistribute the power of those factions while retaining the units' unique traits and further enhancing them by adjusting the ranges of the frigate. We hope it will also introduce more micro potential in frigate fights, especially with Cybran vs Aeon.
Bulwark gets a mini-rework to establish it as a T2 support vessel instead of a unit that is mainly used during the T3 stage with Battlecruisers and Battleships. This should help UEF's notoriously weak T2 stage while making their T3 one less oppressive.
However, with the changes to Bulwark UEF Battleships are left out to dry. We are making them slightly less clunky so that hopefully they can dodge at least some shot if you micro them.
Tempest has been very powerful for a long time and it's getting a well-deserved nerf. It will cost a bit more, and you will need more BP/infrastructure ready to build one. It won't be able to act like a quick mass dump after spamming destroyers and skipping T3 Navy completely.
Frigates
Aeon
- Mass Cost: 290 > 280
- Energy Cost: 2900 > 2800
- Built Time: 1450 > 1400
- Range: 31 > 33
Cybran
- Mass Cost: 250> 260
- Energy Cost: 2500> 2600
- Built Time: 1250> 1300
- Range: 28 > 26
Destroyers
UEF
The valiant has always been one of the weakest destroyers. With this change, we hope to give it more of a tank role that fights at a short range.
- HP: 7200 > 8000
Cybran
Salem has always been extremely squishy compared to other destroyers. It will still have the least hp but will now be able to survive a few more shots.
The TurretYawRange of salems is again slightly increased to improve the handling and micro potential.
- HP: 6050 > 6500
- TurretYawRange: 140 > 145
Aeon
Exodus was one of the 2 higher-range destroyers yet it had the highest HP of all. This was necessary due to how weak the Aeon frigate was but this kind of balance made Aeon really bad at T1 and extremely oppressive at T2 where they spammed destroyers only. With the buffs to their frigate, we can finally tune down Exodus a bit. We are reducing its HP to punish Aeon players for letting their destroyers get into range of their enemy and reducing the max range down to 70 to allow shorter-range destroyers to get into range more easily. This will also mean that the Cybran destroyer will now outrange the Exodus and thus have some edge over them.
- HP: 7500 > 7200
- Range: 80 > 70
Bulwark Mini-rework
Decrease of roughly 1/3 in the stats to allow UEF players to get them out during the T2 stage to support their navy without having to worry about having fewer destroyers and dying immediately to an enemy push.
- Mass Cost: 1300 > 900
- Energy Cost: 13.000 > 9000
- Build Time: 5200 > 3600
- Maintenance Cost: 150 e/s > 100 e/s
- HP of the unit: 750 > 550
- Shield HP: 8000 > 5500
- Shield Recharge Time: 40 > 30
Battleships
UEF
With the changes to the bulwark Summit will struggle against the other Battleships since it's the slowest one by far and is not able to dodge shots. It used to rely on Shield Boats to just tank all of that damage but that won't work to such a degree anymore. We are increasing its Movement Speed and Turn Rate slightly to make it less clunky and allow UEF players to micro their Battleships
- Movement Speed: 2.5 > 2.75
- Turn Rate: 25 > 27.5
Acceleration and Break speed were adjusted accordingly
Experimentals
Tempest
Tempest is an extremely powerful unit in the right hands. It was a common sight to see them with 20k+ mass killed while the Battleships had < 5k. With a relatively cheap mass cost and e...
Game version 3749
Features
- (#4522) Add snowflakes to lobby
Bug fixes
-
(#4446) Remove abort button when connecting with matchmaking
Data shows that the majority of games do not launch because players
pre-maturely cancel during the connection phase -
(#4449) Fix encoding issues with preference file
This caused a wide range of issues for various users, including the issue
where mods could not be updated and that the mods shown activated when
hosting a lobby isn't representative of what is actually enabled
Contributors
Game version 3748
Game version 3747
Features
-
(#4377, #4380) Improve reclaim overview
Adjusts the colors, scaling and depth to better represent what is valuable. -
(#4387) Add toggle to enable / disable always showing splash damage
It is off by default, you can find the toggle in the game options -> interface -> cursor features -
(#4393) Paint feature for observers
Observers can now paint on the map and other observers can view each others paintings. Useful for
casting to communicate to your viewers and fellow casters.Works by pressing the
ALT
key, can be adjusted in the game options.This feature also works in replays.
-
(#4391) Improve rendering quality of water
Slightly adjusts how water looks like in-game to make it look better overall -
(#4390, #4409) Add in missing tooltips for game options
All the game options should now have a consistent tooltip. -
(#4385) Change default aix multiplier values
Especially the AIs that can be found in the vault become complete beasts when they have
twice the resources and build time. The default multiplier is now set to 1.5Note that you can change the AI multipliers in the lobby options
-
(#4406) Prefetch session and unit assets
Decreases the loading time when launching through the lobby. Assets of units are loaded
as you play to reduce stuttering of the game.This is an experimental change.
-
(#4405) Tweak network parameters
Reduce the amount of lag that players experience by reducing the delay when messages are send.This is an experimental change.
Bug fixes
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(#4379) Fix weapon priorities not working for units that can snipe
-
(#4367) Fix the UEF factory unit build animations
-
(#4367) Fix the cheat window build preview hanging around
-
(#4370) Fix the resource sharing panel
The 'resources' button is now available again in the diplomacy panel -
(#4306) Fix SubtractCurrentEngineer and formatting in base manager
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(#4388) Revert accidental footprint changes of Titan, Loya and Ilsa
-
(#4375) Fix TMDs trying to shoot down missiles that are too nearby
They now have a minimal firing range, it prevents them from trying to hit missiles
that they can't find a firing solution regardless -
(#4398) Fix and update recall feature
In particular, fixes a few glitches that people could apply to influence the results. -
(#4407) Scenario Framework GetRandomEntry fix
-
(#4408) Slightly reduce mods manager size
Fixes the overlap of the last mod in the list with the search bar
Other changes
-
(#4366) Add slight transparent background to changelog
-
(#4369) Add guard for validation of LayoutHelpers
It would otherwise spam the logs, causing a delay