Universal Combat

Platform(s): PC
Genre: Action
Publisher: Dreamcatcher
Developer: 3000 AD

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'Universal Combat' - Update Patch Available NOW

by Rainier on May 7, 2004 @ 3:05 p.m. PDT

Get the Universal Combat v2.00.00 patch off Worthplaying (24mb)

1. Revisions to AI kernel

1. NPC troops can now more frequently self-heal (using medkits) and self-repair (using repair kits). They can also do this while clearly close to the point of death (Grey TTD). Previously they won't pause to do this during a combat engagment or if badly injured.

Since there is no ability for you or an NPC to carry an injured comrade to safety (wait for the next game), you have to ensure that you manually pull your people out of a hostile zone if they are badly injured as they will NOT abandon their order (and subsequently their comrades) without a direct order. i.e. an Assault Force Marine, carrying the devastatingly powerful A9MAG will never leave - even if he has a very low LF or very high FF. You have to find a safe location and then give him the order to escort you (and subsequently to that location) or another NPC (in a safe location). If you give the RTB, he will bugger off home and be lost to you.

NPC marines have long term memory - so treat them nicely or they will get you killed at the very first opportunity, by ignoring a direct order.

2. NPC troops can now use supply stations (like the player) - even ones located in hostile bases.

* The supply station object is now a support platform so that NPCs
(and player) can get closer to it, since several NPCs may decide to use it all
at the same time.
* The supply station must must exist in the current 3D world to be
usable.
* A supply station is not usable if more than six people are
already using or i ntend to use it.
* A supply station is not usable if a hostile person is using or
intends to use the station.
* A supply station is not usable if more than 5km from the position
of the person trying to use it.
* Persons currenty do not go to a supply station of their own
accord because there are situations where they will bugger off in search of one
- just when you need them to be engaging enemy forces. They must be given an
order using the Proceed to Supply Station order in the Team Orders Menu. The
order is ignored if there is no suitable supply station nearby.
* Once a station is selected, the person will then proceed to the
supply station, stand at a vacant position, and orient towards it. The supply
operation takes 10 seconds to complete. On completion the person is rearmed,
healed, resupplied and the armor is restored. The person then resumes previous
orders.
* Supply station use is implemented as a gesture. The disarm/pose
change/rearm gesture sequence begins when the person arrives at a certain
distance from the TEAM tag position being used that is defined in the station
object. The person uses side steps to position accurately similar to when
escorting a person.
* The supply station use is cancelled if an order is issued that
sets the objective of the person e.g. "Attack My Target"
* The LAND waypoint order will now cause the craft to land and
halt, instead of taking off 10 seconds later. To have a craft take off after
this command, either change the waypoint command or create a new waypoint, then
issue the Resume Waypoints order to the craft.

3. NPC personnel troops can now RTB to a Mobile Forward Base
4. Sometimes when you (as the leader) of a marine team goes prone, some
members of the team do not follow suit. This is because members who do not have
direct orders from you, will take orders only from their leader. So, if you
have marine A escorting you and you go prone, only marine A will go prone, as
marine B (escorting marine A), will not. This has been addressed so that orders
are propagated based on the chain of command within the team.
5. Changes to NPC repair/healing

* Armor repair takes priority and has a higher "must repair"
threshold. Unit will now repair armour if it is less than 50%.
* After performing healing/maintenance the NPC will repeat until he
runs out of supplies or is repaired/healed.

NOTE: that using a single MEDPAK, NUTRIPAK, or TOOLKIT (as viewed
in the CVD/SMD) will not immediately change the stores manifest as they each
have 2 and 4 uses respectively. The stores manifest will change after the
healing process is completed, not when it starts.
* Disabled persons will not repair/heal themselves. They are
considered unconscious, it is up to something else to treat them.
* The pain timer is used to reduce the number of pain SFX. The pain
SFX will not be issued for 3 seconds. (this uses the pain timer).

6. Increased the spectrum coverage of planetary SAM/SAL threats so that
they acquire and fire on hostile targets more frequently. This was heavily
revised from previous BC games in order to make the game a bit more playable
without overwhelming the first time player with a barrage of hostile fire they
simply couldn't avoid. Now, their previous rules have been restored, but a
margin of error has now been introduced so that experienced players don't cry
foul.
7. Added target acquisition/prosecution logic to several units in order to
make it more difficult to wipe out bases. If you are assaulting a base, the
high priority targets are bunkers, barracks, command and control, starbases
etc. If you even think of dropping inexperienced troops on the ground without
first softening these targets, they'll all die. Quickly.

NOTE: STO silos are still disabled until they can be prevented from
activating several planet maps during their flight from planet to space. Once
re-enabled, observing a base from orbit in order to execute an OTS strike, will
trigger an OTS launch if a silo exists on the base/city being viewed.

2. Revisions to Dynamics kernel:

1. Tweaked the CALS system (manual p59) a bit more in order to alleviate
twitching when landed on some terrain slopes. Also resolves some issues related
to landing profiles in some instances.
2. Tweaked the landing profile for NPC gunships in order that they can
better intercept landing waypoints especially when under fire.
3. You can now eject from a craft (while in VTOL mode) without having to
first land it. This allows you to do silly and crazy things like, oh, I dunno,
say (a) flying a fighter into another unit while ejecting at the last minute
(b) dropping in on a carrier deck and stealing a fully functional fighter from
its deck (c) ejecting from a craft that is sure to be destroyed in the coming
moments etc. Naturally, if you jump at a high altitude and end up on land
instead of water - without a jetpack - you're dead.
4. Significantly revised and tweaked the collision detect and avoidance so
that it is less likely to fail during low frame rate processing. NPC units will
now predict a collision more quickly and can avoid them where possible. This is
mostly beneficial on planetary scenes where there are a lot of buildings and
NPC (mostly troops) have too many buildings to process in order to eliminate
from their decision tree.
5. The orbits for stations and orbital defense systems have been moved out
from 800km to 8000km and 500km to 5000km from the center of the planet,
respectively.
6. The egress altitude has been reduced to 14,000 feet because some
playets were unable to reach this altitude and breach some planets escape
velocity in order to return to space - because they're not reading the docs.
7. The sea to surface ascent rate of subs has been reduced to prevent them
overshooting the surface level and then having to drop back down again, as
observed in IA0111 scenario.
8. The 0-9 keys can now be used to set the thrust of crafts and vehicles
to preset values. You can still use the W and S keys, which effectively act
like afterburner and retros. e.g. if you set your max speed to 5, the craft
will slowly ramp up to thrust factor 5. However, if you then press and hold the
W key, you can exceed this thrust setting and go up to the max speed of the
craft. When you let go of the W key, the craft will slowly reduce it's thrust
back to factor 5. A thrust factor of 9 sets the max thrust of the craft, while
0 brings it to a halt.

If you are using a joystick the speed value is modified by the joystick
throttle if enabled. This means that if you have thrust factor 9 set, then
setting the throttle to min level will effectively bring the craft to a halt.
While setting it to the max level (pushing it all the way forward), will take
the craft up to the max thrust speed set by the 1-9 thrust settings. e.g. if
you have thrust factor 9 set, then moving the throttle all the way forward will
ramp the craft all the way up to its max speed. In the CC, this is dependent on
the Logistix engine power setting. See below.

In the case of the CC, this is also dependent on the Logistix engine
power settings. By default this is set to 5 (which keeps the engines on) which
means that the thrust value of 9 will take the craft up to near cruise speed.
e.g. if the craft's max speed is 400 m/s, a thrust factor of 9 with a power
setting of 5, will take the craft up to around 300 m/s. At higher engine power
settings (6-10), the craft will ramp up accordingly and use more fuel. e.g. at
engine power 10, the craft can go up to 400 m/s.
9. Revisions to Logistix power setting as related to CC thrust controls

* Reducing the Logistix power level now causes the craft speed to
drop if higher than the limit set by the new power level. e.g. if Logistix
power level 10 and thrust level 9 are set (causing the craft to attain its max
speed) and Logistix power level is later reduced to level 5, the craft's thrust
level will also start to drop.
* Logistix power level greater than level 5 no longer increases the
craft's max speed beyond the craft's defined limit
* The default power setting of level 5 now sets the craft's max
speed to half the limit and level 10 gives the maximum speed

10. The orbital speed for stations is now 5 m/s (was increased from 1 m/s
to 100 m/s in RC1)
11. The orbital speed for Orbital Defense Systems is now 100 m/s (was
increased from 50 /ms to 750 m/s in RC1). The rotation speed has also been
increased.
12. The speed of the jetpack has been revised as follows

PLANET - increased from 12.5 m/s to 15.0 m/s and boost reduced from x5 to x2
SPACE - increased from 42.0 m/s to 250.0 m/s and boost reduced from x5 to x2

3. Revisions to interface:

1. Revisions to the Priority List Viewer (PLV)

* The PLV is now active in all craft views. Was previously only
available in the fp mode view. It was originally designed for ease of handling
combat troops in this mode.
* The image of a speaker is no longer displayed if the PLV is
active
* Adding a target to the priority list (P) now plays a sound and
provides visual feedback (same as target designation using G)

2. Revisions to the Team Orders Menu (TOM)

* Now has three new orders :(REPAIR, DOCK WITH, PROCEED
TO...WDU/SUPPLY STATION)
* The 1-9 command keys have been remapped to F1-F12.
* Entries that have no effect are displayed in Red
* The "DOCK WITH" order tells a person to dock with a player asset.
When completed the person will disappear. This command will later be revised
for better support so that if an NPC docks with, e.g. a vehicle, it can later
exit when you do. Also, if you order your own CC team to dock with one of your
own assets (e.g. SC), they will appear in the cargo manifest.
* The "REPAIR" (NYI) command tells a person to repair either
another person using a Medkit for LF or Toolkit for armor. Since NPC do not
currently assist each other in this regard, you can order them to do it.
* The "PROCEED TO..." command takes either a (1) WDU (Waypoint
Designator Unit) which you can select from the list, if you have deployed any
or (2) a supply station (the NPC will seek out the nearest supply station in
the vicinity).

3. Completely revised the DJP menus. Are now cascade style menus; making
selection navigation easier
4. The gun hotspot in the HUD now works like the turret one, so that you
can toggle it ON/OFF. Previously since the gun was always on, there was no need
to turn it off.
5. The altitude digits and orbit marker have been relocated so they do not
visually intersect. The altitude digits have been shifted vertically to improve
registration with the overlay.
6. The Egress Altitude Indicator (EAI) now blinks when the required egress
altitude has been reached.
7. The WAYPOINT button in Tacops is now available in first person mode
when playing the commander career
8. The ASSET and GEAR buttons are no longer displayed in campaign mode,
since you can't alter the user details required by the campaign.
9. The launch command menu for fighters, now shows the missile class which
will be loaded into the selected profile prior to launch. For a list of missile
class and loadouts, refer to the appendix.

4. Revisions to content:

1. Revised the numbering scheme of the IA scenarios to go from IA0101 to
IA0115 for those non-programmers who don't understand that numbering starts at
zero. Not one. And thus wondering what IA0100 to IA0114 is all about.
2. Revised the APR_GPR rocket (fired by some weapons e.g. the KLMP
launcher) attributes and added a shockwave explosion for better effect and
coverage
3. The intensity in the textures for artic (White) animals has been
reduced in order to prevent shimmering.
4. The pilot's texture has been revised so that it looks better when his
hand (holding a pistol) is visible in the front view.
5. The ASSETS.INI had incorrect entries for a reactor and shield upgrade
type
6. The class for the Medical Officer was missing, so sending her on away
missions was not possible.
7. Added a second ROAM scenario to the CMDR career for training purposes.
8. Revised the CAMPAIGN scenario script and fixed a bug related to
repeated EPs being awarded when player reaches LV-130 (the final destination
system).
9. Changed the skybox type used in the Eluria (mp) starsystem
10. Revised some terrain textures to use higher detail variants
11. Major content revisions. Yeah, thats right, saved games are obsolete
and will be deleted by this patch. Before crying out loud, just think of the
benefits of this patch.

* Replaced tree billboard textures with new ones created with
Bionatics natFX
* Revised ALL scenes with smaller and better organized variants.
All bases now have an abundance of assets, buildings etc.
* Cities (scenes also revised as above) now have defense systems.
Also due to their new revision, fp combat in cities is now a ton of fun. HINT:
Got a launcher? Take out the bunkers first!!!
* Revised all IA scenarios to support new mzone/scene revisions
* Added five new adrenaline pumping IA scenarios : IA0116 - IA0120.
* Revised the Marauder and Intruder gunships by removing the
problematic rear tail gate and the door separating the cargo area and gun
compartment. This allows more players to pack into these gunships.

Also tweaked some properties of all gunships e.g. they are now a
tad faster, the Blackghost gunship now has a pair of mounted guns etc etc

12. Increased the volume on some soundfx files

5. Revisions to gameplay:

1. All capital naval (sub, carrier, cruiser) units can now be used by any
career if the EP is 500 or higher.Previously (see the manual addendum) for game
balancing reasons, only some careers could use them, regardless of EP.
2. Revised the damage factor for some missiles (ATS/APM/APR)
3. Due to their vulnerability and need for precision strikes, gunships no
longer use conventional ATA/ATS missiles. They now all (those with weapons) use
the more powerful and accurate all purpose RALIX and RALAR missiles.
4. Implemented turret target prediction, mostly to prevent friendly fire
within planetary scenes
5. Enabled gesture animations in single-player mode and taught NPC marines
how to use/respond to them. This allows NPC personnel to (a) use them (b) react
to them based on your use. e.g. if you salute and a bunch of NPC marines are
around (and friendly to you), they will also salute. If you wave, they will
wave back. If you tell them to hold position or follow you, they will comply.
As long as they see you do the gesture. Refer to the keyboard commands sheet
for a list of gestures. WARNING: Go saluting your troops in the middle of a hot
zone and they'll all get shot in the head (since they have to drop their
weapons in order to return the gesture).
6. When starting the Elite Force Pilot career in ROAM mode, a wing of four
fighter escorts is also launched. This is only for aggressive castes (Military,
Insurgent etc) and not harmless ones (Trader, etc). Since these are escorts,
they will respond to team order commands (see Team Orders Menu info for
details).
7. Threat generation has been activated for the Elite Force Pilot career
in ROAM mode.
8. The fighter loadouts in LOADOUTS.INI have been revised so that fighters
going on planetary sorties, no longer have STS missiles. To see what missiles
are loaded for an assignment (TACTICAL/LOADOUT), see the updated appendix
LOADOUTS.HTML file.
9. In IA0111 and IA0112 scenarios, the fighters now have only ATA (loadout
profile 7) missile loadouts
10. The VTT tags for personnel has been reduced to a min/max value of 1/250
m in space and 1/1000 m in space. This was done for gameplay reasons. What is
the VTT? Refer to the UC_MANUAL_REVISIONS.PDF file.
11. The max range of the DIE radar is now 5km (same range as a craft's
PASSIVE radar mode when on a planet). This makes it easier and faster to scan
for targets in the immediate vicinity. The average size of a scene is about
2.5km edge-to-edge (depending on furthest object in the scene) and an mzone is
204.8km, edge-to-edge. So, since the default radar scan range is 250km global
(i.e. in crafts, DIE etc), in the heat of fp combat (when NPCs with weapons of
mass destruction are hell bent on, well, sending you to hell), when you're
searching for a target, you don't want to be cycling through targets that are
up to 250km away when an important threat could be less than 1km from your
location.
12. Revised some entity attributes so that they can be destroyed with
lasers and fp weapons. Some folks didn't understand why some units (e.g.
bunkers) could not be destroyed with lasers or fp weapons - only with missiles.
Some still remain laser and fp weapon resistant, but it should be easier to
have a team of NPC marines flatten a base or city.

6. Revisions to graphics kernel:

1. You can now toggle OFF planetary clouds in Config
2. Several improvements to the rendering kernel e.g. lighting, detail
texturing, optimizations etc
3. Implemented Pixel Shader or TnL toggles for clouds and oceans rendering
on the planet. This is for cards that have a lower than 1.1 Pixel Shader
version; or if the shader versions don't look good on your video card. If you
do want to use the non-shader version of the clouds and oceans rendering, then
you can change this in the OPTIONS screen, save the settings, and quit/restart.
See the CONFIG OPTIONS.PDF file for more details.
4. Revised blending of alpha bitmaps (e.g. on trees).
5. Implemented a new model caching scheme via the PRELOAD 3D MODELS
option. WARNING: This increases game load times and takes up an additional
memory - but its worth it, as you will soon find out. See the CONFIG
OPTIONS.PDF file for more details. The previous /preload commandline option has
been removed.
6. Implemented a new character animation loader via a new 3DM file format.
This is significantly faster. On high end machines, this in addition to the
model caching (above) virtually eliminates the delay when new character models
(and their animation models) enter a scene. e.g. in IA scenarios which take
place on a planet, when a batch of NPC ships appear in space etc. NOTE: The
patch will run a process which converts all 3D animation models to the new 3DM
format. As such, do NOT interrupt the patch process until you get the prompt
that the patch process has completed!!
7. Revised several explosion specialfx settings
8. Rockets fired from fp weapons (KLMP, LR12) used by the AFM, will now
generate post-destruction fragments and sound. WARNING: These weapons, by their
very nature, are absolutely dangerous - especially in the hands of low AI
marines. Expect to get killed a lot unless you learn how to dodge these
rockets.

7. Miscellaneous Revisions:

1. Updated several appendix files, as well as the CONFIG OPTIONS.PDF and
UC_MANUAL_REVISIONS.PDF files
2. In first person mode, the numeric mappings for step L/R keys have been
changed from from END/PGDOWN to HOME/PGUP. This is so that stepping left and
right works when using a weapon with a zoom scope. Previously you could not use
END to step left with such a weapon because that key would effect zoom in
instead. Using HOME/PGUP avoids this problem because the zoom out function
provided by HOME has no effect when zoomed out (off) so the key can function as
step left. Stepping left/right is disabled when zoomed in.
3. The numeric arrow keys are no longer effected by the state of NUMLOCK
4. ALT+J max toggle rate has been reduced to 0.25 seconds so that it does
not switch rapidly
5. Implemented (UNSUPPORTED!) quick save (CTRL+Q). This will save the
current game state and which allows it to be resumed via the Main Menu. ALT+Q
no longer auto-saves the game on exit; so if you use this to quit the game and
you don't have a quick saved version of the game, you won't be able to resume
the game. If you are killed in a game or just wish to revert to a previous
quick save point, simply use ALT+Q to quit the game, then resume via the Main
Menu. In order to do a full game save, you must use ALT+G or the Command Menu;
both of which will take you to the Roster save screen.
6. Changed the Designate Target from G to CTRL+P in craft and also now
implemented in fp mode when the DIE is active. NOTE: CTRL+P no longer activates
the PTA system (the menu must be used instead) and G is now undefined for
crafts.
7. Updated EP.HTML, VEHICLES.HTML, TRADEITEMS.HTML, CASCRAFTS.HTML,
ARTIFACTS.HTML, UCFAQ.HTML, CONFIG OPTIONS.PDF and UC_MANUAL_REVISIONS.PDF
files
8. Added UC_TUTORIAL.PDF which takes player through various tutorials in
order to be better introduced to the more advanced elements in the game. This
does NOT replace the manual, which, in itself, is a MUST READ.

8. General Bug Fixes:

1. FIXED: Naval units could sometimes not be moved if they were too close
to land e.g. there is a naval base on Earth and even when you switch to the
carrier (assuming you have the required EPs and rank), you couldn't move it.
Same thing applies to subs, LCACs etc. This bug actually crept in as a result
of a recent seabed detection routine revision and nobody noticed it (since
naval units aren't that sexy to play with).
2. FIXED: The PL12 sniper rifle and FG45 combat rifle had incorrect export
values. This resulted in them being incorrectly attached to a jetpack or
backpack when holstered. They attach just fine to the characters back holster,
as long as there is no jetpack or backpack.
3. FIXED: Grenades are no longer removed from list of inventory ammo when
running an IA scenario. This also fixes an issue whereby NPC troops are created
without grenades (for manual throwing) if they don't have a weapon (ZS10 rifle
or GLE22 launcher) that uses them.
4. FIXED: A crash related to escort NPC troops trying to copy the pose of
a target that has not yet selected one.
5. FIXED: Escort troops remain in prone state and move at running speed
when leader decides to up and run
6. FIXED: Excessively injured characters no longer instantly vanish
instead of being correctly killed and thus causing the death animation to be
played. If you ever see a marine killed and he instantly disappears with no
death animation, thats what this fix corrects.
7. FIXED: commlink personnel image sometimes not being displayed in FP
front view e.g. in some IA scenarios the image of the speaker (e.g. NPC
marines) is only displayed in other views
8. FIXED: Player gun no longer fires (left-click) after using the DJP menu
to make a destination selection
9. FIXED: Turning some planetary terrain options off in CONFIG, had no
effect
10. FIXED: Game was attempting to auto-save (when player killed) in INSTANT
ACTION mode. This could cause a crash in some instances.
11. FIXED: The person would not re-arm or resume action after maintenance
if the gesture time was decreased to exactly zero.
12. FIXED: The invert Y axis toggle in CONFIG did not work in first person
mode or when in turrets. Now operates in the first person view and mouselook.
It now also effects the turret pitch when controlling a turret in a vehicle
(OC).
13. FIXED: Switching to some assets (e.g. AX25 SAM) would sometimes cause a
crash due to incorrect missile loadouts defined in the DATAASSETS.INI
14. FIXED: The environment weather was not being overwritten via a script
command if not running in debug or cheat mode. e.g. IA0115 should take place in
stormy weather.
15. FIXED: Crash in some Frontend modules (e.g. Logistix, Tradcom) due to
inventory not being initialized
16. FIXED: Crash resulting from items inventory not being initialized. This
resulted in weapon modes containing incorrect clips counts for weapons with
more than one mode (e.g. ZS10)
17. FIXED: The NAVCHART.INI file was missing some military base entries.
This would result in a crash if you tried to start on EARTH08_MB01 using a
marine career.
18. FIXED: A crash would occur if you tried to select an asset for the
Space Force Marine career. At one time this career could not use assets, but in
UC it has access to shuttles.
19. FIXED: When attempting to repair a reactor, the ship's alert condition
is set to Red. This in turn sends all personnel to on station and ready for
evac. A crash would occur when station engineers were sent to on station,
though you were'nt actually docked.
20. FIXED: In first person the view position would drift due to precision
loss.
21. FIXED: A 90 degree orientation/direction snap in first person mode.
This was caused by the previous fix.
22. FIXED: When NUMLOCK is on, keys in the control cluster (between the
numeric pad and main keyboard) were innefective.
23. FIXED: The NUMLOCK key (which has the same scan code as the PAUSE key)
no longer pauses the game.
24. FIXED: The GAME PAUSED message was sometimes not displayed (it was
behind by a frame)
25. FIXED: The player image in Start New Game didn't change when the sex of
the Commander was changed
26. FIXED: The commander's Wristlaser was not firing
27. FIXED: At resolutions higher than 1024x768, the menus would sometimes
be incorrectly positioned at the left or right edges of the display.
28. FIXED: If you changed the default commander gear profile and then tried
to exit the craft while in space, the game will no longer crash due to missing
SFM profiles.
29. FIXED: The status of destroyed mining drones was not being updated in
some cases. This causes the drone to not be located on the planet (since it is
destroyed), but the CC still thinks it exists and thus continues to track its
location, status, contents etc in the Tactical computer.
30. FIXED: when an object moves off the boundary of a support structure
while over water, the object is no longer relocated onto the seabed. This used
to happen in instances where you had landed on a naval carrier (e.g. IA0111
scenario).
31. FIXED: Repair levels should no longer exceed 100 units
32. FIXED: If you first exited the CC in space using ALT+E, then entered a
planet, landed and tried to again exit, the operation would fail because the
SFM profile (used by the AE when in space) was still active.
33. FIXED: Medkits were not being updated correctly when used
34. FIXED: If a prisoner died while in detention, his status was not being
updated when player docks at a station/base and the prisoner removed.
35. FIXED: When you asset switched to some SAM units (e.g. AX25) the
missiles would not lock on because the missile launch tables were out of synch
or not defined in ITEMS.INI
36. FIXED: A rendering problem on gaseous (e.g. Jupiter) planets

MULTIPLAY

1. Developed an all new console based server. To use it, add /console to the
"Start MP Server" shortcut. You should also use some form of logging when using
this console server. e.g. /console /l3
2. The multiplayer console server no longer does the vertex shader check, so
you can now host a console server on a spare machine with a video card that
does not have a shader engine.
3. Significant improvements to packet sizes, rates, transmissions etc etc
resulting in a marked improvement in multiplayer games.
4. Enabled client side gestures (wave, salute etc). This no longer needs to be
configured on the server.
5. If you joined a server using the server browser, using ALT+Q to quit the
game will now return you to Start New Game (SNG) screen. If you want to quit
the game, just use the CANCEL button. If you joined a server using the +connect
command line option, you will quit the game entirely. If you are killed in the
game, you still spawn (as normal) instead of returning to the SNG screen.
6. The multiplayer executable is no longer SafeDisc copy protected. This
allows you to host a dedicated server by installing a copy of the game on
another machine and not required the game CDROM in the drive.
7. All server/client chat messages are now logged to the MPCHATCLIENT.LOG and
MPCHATSERVER.LOG files. This requires the /logchat parameter to be added to the
"Join MP Server" and "Start MP Server" shortcuts. All messages that you (local
client) send, are preceded by a ">" character.
8. Implemented a new chat log window display which can be activated by
pressing ESC twice. This window is open by default.

Messages are displayed in a first in, first out fashion (they scroll up)
and contain info about the sender such as race/caste alliance, time sent etc.

Up to 16K worth of messages are displayed in the chat log window. These are
identical to what is recorded in the .LOG files, though those files can grow
larger than the 16K that is displayed in the chat log window. The chat log
window can be navigated when the chat message window is active, as follows :

UP/DOWN arrow: scroll up/down one message at a time
PGUP/PGDN : scroll up/down one page at a time
HOME/END : scroll to top/bottom of the list

If the chat log window is closed, use of a navigation key will open it.

If a chat log navigation key is used, the chat message window is not closed
when ESC is pressed to leave the chat message window.

Normally when chat messages arrive, the chat log scrolls to the end of the
list so the message is visible. This is disabled while navigating the chat log.

The chat log window has a header that indicates the number of messages in
the log and the number of messages that have not been "read" (i.e. seen). The
header has two carets similar to Perscan that indicate that there are
additional messages before or after the section being viewed.

The chat message log is color coded as follows :

On Client

Yellow: outgoing messages
White: messages from server
Green: messages from friendlies
Red: messages from hostiles
Cyan: all other incoming message sources

On Server

Yellow: outgoing messages
White: incoming messages

In order to send a message, press the ESC key as before, type the message
and send it as normal (e.g. by pressing ENTER).

To remove both the chat send and log windows, press the ESCAPE key twice.

To see the clients on the server, use SHIFT+ESC to activate the clients
list.

Chat and mp related messages are no longer sent via the COMMLINK system.
They all go through the chat log system.

Because the PLV is only active for 4 seconds it has higher priority than
the chat log window since they are both displayed at the same screen location.

9. You can now use the UP/DOWN arrows to cycle through the multiple recipient
list in the chat message box.
10. Client date/time stamps are now synchronized from the server upon connect
11. The GEAR/ASSET/CAREER buttons are now also available in the multiplayer SNG
screen.
12. You can now manually activate your SOS emitter in fp mode using CTRL+ALT+T.
This will allow your allies to come to your aid. Of course, the enemy can also
see this emitter if they have you targeted or if they are viewing the region
from Tacops. Note that your TTD/VTT tag will go Grey when you have your emitter
activated.
13. The following OPTIONS are now ignored and set by the game in order to
remove any advantage that one client may have over another.

PLANET TERRAIN GRASS ON
PLANET TERRAIN TREES ON
PLANET WILDLIFE FLOCKS OFF
EXPLOSION FRAGMENTS ON

14. Created all new mp specific scenes. Like the newly revised single player
versions, these are better laid out, contain a lot of assets etc. There are now
a total of 34 mzones and 278 scenes containing 80 starbases, 111 military bases
and 65 cities.
15. Can now start at all base types (starbase, military, naval) which your
starting race/caste alliance has access to.
16. The following asset usage rules have been implemented

* Marines (all except SFMs) can no longer have an asset selection option.
If you want an asset, go find one when you deploy.
* Planetary Support Pilots now have access to light and medium class
fighters as a starting asset.
* Elite Force Pilots now only have access to super and medium class
fighters as a starting asset.
* Space Force Marines now have access to heavy class fighters as a
starting asset. Remember, if you enter a planet and attempt to exit the
craft....well, try it.

17. For performance and speed of update reasons, the graphical server no longer
renders the planet terrain. So if you observed the planet from the server, you
won't see any features, just the clients that are there.
18. FIXED: In some cases a dropped client object remained on the server
indefinitely, though the client had physically disconnected.
19. FIXED: Starting as Terran Insurgent at the Farpoint station located in the
MP_TAPESTRAN region would cause the game to exit due to an incorrect INI file
setting.
20. FIXED: Dragging the server window or exiting it, would sometimes cause a
crash.
21. FIXED: Minimizing the console server or covering it with another window
will no longer cause display corruption on some cards.
22. FIXED: If you exited the CC in fp mode, it would crash the server, due to a
missing texture asset (the commander can use one of two texture types for male
or female)
23. FIXED: When the player is in fp mode, the character is no longer 3 ft above
the ground.
24. FIXED: The client spawn time is now obtained correctly from the
UCSETUPMP.INI file instead of using the default 30 secs value. NOTE: If you are
on a LAN server, you can safely reduce this to as low as 5 secs. On a Net
server, you don't want to go lower than 10 secs (since 30 secs may be too long
for some players).
25. FIXED: The console (/console) server will now start more reliably if
logging is not enabled in the shortcut. NOTE: you really SHOULD use server
logging (at the very minimum use /l3) at all times.
26. FIXED: The status messages at the top of the display (e.g. when you press
ALT+Q) are now displayed correctly instead of flashing with a Black background
27. FIXED: Due to the target prediction, when viewed from an external camera
view, the speed of the target will fluctuate. This is just a display glitch.
28. FIXED: The target info in the CVD was in a different format from the single
player game. This is due to the fact that everything appears neutral to the
server (since it does not have a race/caste alliance).
29. FIXED: Entering a chat message which contains direction letters (e.g. WSAD)
will no longer pass those characters through, causing client movement.
30. FIXED: Some characters when typed in the chat box were not echoed because
they are reserved meta-characters used in menu systems. e.g. you couldn't type
"Hi There" because the quotes will not be displayed. Also *G* could not be
typed because of the asterisk character.
31. FIXED: Due to a recent change in the first person mouse view controls, when
playing in mp and standing on the ground, your view position will slowly drift
and making it seem as if you are actually moving - when in fact you are not.
32. FIXED: Over time, clients position (predicted) will sometimes go out of
synch. This results in anomalies such as missiles locking on incorrect target
positions, radar tracking an incorrect target location etc
33. FIXED: Clients jumping from one system to another, are not updated on
client radar systems (only on the server). This causes "ghost" clients to be
left behind at the previous region. The same thing happens when moving from
space to planet and vice versa. The problem is that when the client jumps to
another region, the clients still think it is in the previous region and thus
cannot see it on radar in the new region.
34. FIXED: Sometimes if the first client on a server either disconnects, quits
(ALT+Q) or dies and respawns, when they reconnect to the server (from the
server browser) without entirely quitting the game (to the Main Menu), their
object will be "ghosted" on the server. This sometimes causes problems such as
other clients thinking this client is either connected when not and vice versa
- which in turn results in comms messages (to this client) from being received
etc.
35. FIXED: Sometimes a crash will occur if the first client on a server is
destroyed and then respawns.
36. FIXED: To the server, when clients join and start on the planet, they seem
to be falling gradually to the ground (this does not appear on the client
side).
37. FIXED: When in a Frontend (e.g. Logistix) module, the time was accelerated
by six times the normal rate.
38. FIXED: Pressing ALT+S would sometimes crash the server
39. FIXED: A separate packet containing data for scripted entities with name
overrides (e.g. a station) is now sent. This for example, corrects the station
info as displayed in the VDD/VID mode.
40. FIXED: The hyperspace effect is now disabled on the console server. This
should fix the problem related to the HJ timer not being updated on clients
running on a console server.
41. FIXED: If you took extensive damage and messages were queued up prior to
your death, when you respawn, the queued messages (from the pre-death
situation) are now flushed.
42. FIXED: If a client disconnects and then reconnects (or respawns after
death), the sound system is now re-initialized.
43. FIXED: If a planetary building which can collapse into the ground when
destroyed, was in fact destroyed, the server would CTD if logging was turned
on.
44. FIXED: When any client quits the server, it causes all the other clients to
disappear from the server because the server was sending a disconnect packet to
all clients and not just the one that was disconnected.
45. FIXED: Turret beam graphics are now always rendered on clients
46. FIXED: Clients joining a server are now properly separated in order to
prevent launch collisions when clients launch around the same time from the
same station.
47. FIXED: A significant problem with packet queues in which the queue, though
filled up, wasn't being allowed to send more than a certain amount based on a
limit imposed by the GameCom network driver. This manifests itself in a host of
problems, all of which made mp on the planet near impossible (due to the
massive amount of data that needs to be sent). This problem also resulted in
positional updates being lost, choked etc. This was the cause of the massive
delays when playing on the planet.
48. FIXED: A major problem related to object creation on the planet. When a
client entered the planet, a set of objects on the planet were created and
tracked. The same set of objects were then also created by the server. This
resulted in duplicate objects (e.g. as seen in Tacops) which in turn also led
to the problem described above.
49. FIXED: The fp weapon for remote clients wasn't being sent; so you could
sometimes not see someone holding a weapon in their hands, even if they were.
50. FIXED: Sometimes when you establish planetfall the shield burnup effect is
not cleared on some clients.
51. FIXED: Chat messages are no longer aborted if the OUT queue is filling up.
52. FIXED: Was unable to set waypoints in Tacops if playing any career other
than Commander.

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