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

• 4z0t (#4522)
• Sheikah (#4446)
• Jip (#4449)

Game version 3748

Bug fixes

• (#4414) Revert changes to prefetching of assets
  We thought we understood how prefetching worked, but we were wrong. As a result some
  people ran out of memory. That results in an application crash.

  We reverted the changes.

Contributors

• Jip (#4414)

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 1.5

  Note 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

• (#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

• (#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

Contributors

• ErikMekkes (#4379)
• Relent0r (#4385)
• BlackYps (#4391)
• 4z0t (#4306, #4407)
• Hdt80bro (#4377, #4370, #4369, #4398, #4409)
• Jip (#4348, #4367, #4366, #4380, #4387, #4389, #4393, #4390, #4406, #4405, #4408, #4375, #4388)

Game version 3746

I'd like to show my appreciation to those that made a friendly report on what was broken. We tackled
the majority of the issues, with the exception of the resource button in the diplomacy tab. We disabled
that for now.

As an alternative you can also share resources via the scoreboard. The default scoreboard supports
this too by ctrl / shift clicking on the resources of an ally. See also the tooltips.

I was also informed that the author of Economy Manager released a patch, it is now compatible again. For
those that use the range ring preview you can download a UI mod called 'Build Range Preview' made by Sheikah.

With thanks to 4z0t and Sheikah for their help in writing this hotfix,

With kind regards,

Jip

Features

• (#4358) Allow reclaim overview to be customizeable
  You can now enable / disable batching via the game options. It is part of the
  interface section. You can also scale the text of the labels. Note that
  excessive scaling doesn't work properly with batching.

  It is highly recommended to enable batching for low-end systems.

Bug fixes

• (#4348) Fix attack ping cursor being stuck
  Occured when you tried to issue an attack ping.

• (#4353) Update Nomad shaders to the latest version
  As part of a series of steps to remove shaders from the Nomads repository. We can't
  update our shaders unless we update theirs too. Instead, we now migrate the Nomads
  shaders into the base repository and remove the version in Nomads.

  This should fix graphics issues that people are experiencing.

• (#4354) Fix cursor for text message
  Occured when you tried to issue a text ping

• (#4354) Fix decals not showing for strategic launcher

• (#4352) Re-introduce the zoom pop hotkey
  This was removed on accident

• (#4355) Rating now shows properly on the scoreboard again

• (#4359, #4363) Fix hotbuild being unable to reset the cycle properly

• (#4361) Fix error when spawning in units

• (#4362) Fix air units not sinking
  This was not related to the patch, but we included it anyhow. Transports would sometimes be unable to sink
  properly, especially when they are landed on water.

Contributors

• 4z0t (#4363)
• Jip (#4348, #4353, #4354, #4352, #4355, #4359, #4362, #4361, #4358)

Game version 3745

And there it is, the last major patch of the year!

This patch was ambitious. The purpose was to introduce modern features into the game, while at
the same time make the game easier to customize to your liking. Some of the patch can be
immediately applied by players, like the extended features on control groups, camera recall
functionality and the improved performance of the reclaim overview. Other features are not
immediately visible but are a major step forward, like the navigational mesh we generate for
the map you're playing on for AIs.

Previous patches primarily made changes in the code directly related to the simulation. This
patch also includes changes to the code surrounding the user interface. Also refers to UI
code or UI mods. It was not possible to do this patch without causing incompatibility with
some of the UI mods that are out there. We introduced a list of incompatible mods at the
end of this changelog. Authors can update their mod, bump the version number and the game
should automatically make it available again.

As a minor note to the authors of UI mods: it is better to have many small UI mods that each
add in a single feature, then it is to have one large UI mod that adds in many features. One
example is Economy Manager - a mod often used by players - is no longer compatible because
one of its dozen features is incompatible:the command feedback no longer triggers with Economy
Manager enabled. Long story short: keep the UI mods small and simple, as people can enable
any number of them.

And as this year ends I'd like to show my personal appreciation to some contributors and community
members. I'll start off with hdt80bro, who has been working on the repository for the past few
months. His extensive knowledge and motivation was visible in our discussions and above all in his
code changes. We're lucky to have him. Next to that I'd like to thank Madmax for always being
there when I needed essentially anything. Whenever I needed a tester, Madmax is usually there
ready to help confirm the stability of it. And of course there is Rowey - always ready to assist
with his friendly character. Rowey has pushed the FAF Youtube that increased exposure on the development
of this game, like being there when we were producing the game development series. a lot of the videos
on game development. And last I'd like to thank Sprouto - creator of the LOUD community - for being an
inspiration to what he managed to achieve with LOUD. Every time we talk I learn something new and I am
looking forward to our next conversation.

And like that, a new year of development will start. And with a new year we'll take a new route
to how we'll further develop this game. Instead of having a 'game team' - that introduces an arbitrary
boundary between contributors - we'll move towards how other projects are managed: by creating a clear,
properly scoped backlog of issues that contributors can pick up. Anyone can add and discuss issues in
the backlog. Once an issue is accepted it is added to a milestone. Milestones allow us to steer contributors
towards a common vision. They make it immediately clear when you can expect your changes to be live. Alas -
there's too much to tell and too little room in this changelog. For those interested, we'll soon make a post
on the forums and release the new contribution guidelines on the repository.

With appreciation towards all the contributors that made this patch possible,

Jip

Features

• (#4119) Extend functionality of control groups
  Adds in modern features into how control groups work. This includes:

  • the 'stealing' units from other control groups (like in Starcraft II)
  • being able to toggle the control group inheritance of factories
  • allow you to adjust the behavior of the camera when you double tap
  • allow you to adjust the double tap interval

  And on top of that we've introduced various new hotkeys that interact with
  control groups.

  You can find the settings in the game options. You can find the additional
  hotkeys in the hotkeys menu.

• (#4124, #4331) Improve cursor / command behaviors
  Acts as an integration of the 'Random UI improvements' mod of Strogo. This includes:

  • disabled reclaim cursor when you can't issue reclaim orders due to camera distance
  • manual tactical / nuke launchers no longer attach to units, and instead always
    target the ground
  • area of effect preview when you try to issue an attack order
  • allow you to adjust the selection threshold, particular useful for 2K+ displays or
    when watching replays

  You can find the settings in the game options.

• (#4124) Extend camera features
  Acts as an integration of Additional Camera Stuff. This includes:

  • Allows you to retrieve up to 9 camera locations
  • Allows you to restore the previous camera position

  You can find the additional hotkeys in the hotkeys menu.

• (#4188, #4190, #4191) Allow observers to view mouse position of players in-game
  In particular useful for casters. The feature does not work with replays or live games
  (that are replays too). In order for it to work you need to be an observer in the game,
  as it starts. The information is not stored in the replay either.

• (#4203, #4204, #4212, #4234, #4244) Introduce recall
  Adds in a recall feature. Similar to a the 'concede' feature that other games provide,
  it allows you to cast a team vote on whether you want to recall as a team. When you
  are with two or less alive players it requires all alive players of the same team to
  agree. When you are with three or more alive players it requires all but one
  of the alive players of the team to agree.

  Was introduced because people got frustrated with the Fullshare mode in combination
  with the limitated player base size.

• (#4219) Add in successive upgrades hotkeys for Hotbuild
  Allows you to easily queue the upgrade of an upgrade using Hotbuild.

• (#4232) Add batching of reclaim labels
  Reclaim labels are batched as you zoom out. As a result they remain readable.

• (#4241, #4334) Add coloring of reclaim labels
  Reclaim labels are colored based on their value.

• (#4175) Add PBR blender nodes for rendering of units
  This acts as a step-up towards introducing PBR-based shaders. It is used to check the
  textures / assets of units and acts as an inspiration to the shader implementation.

• (#4131) Introduced of shared armies
  Allows you to play as one army, where you all share control over the same units. This
  used to be a standalone executable and is now integrated with the base game.

  You can find these settings in the lobby options. Note that when applied the game
  is no longer rated.

• (#4254) Improve text markers
  When you create a text marker it is also send to the chat with camera coordinates
  attached. This allows you to jump to text markers.

  Based on a forum post.

• (#4253) Attempt at fixing engineer behavior for Seraphim air factories
  Engineers constructed by the Seraphim air factories get teleported instead of
  'tractored' off the factory. This was the only factory that made it impossible
  to select the engineer during roll off. Attempting to make the unit selectable during
  tractoring introduced a pile of issues.

  Therefore now all Seraphim air factories are magicians until we find better effects.

  Based on a forum post.

• (#4249) Add in a hotkey to select intelligence structures

  Based on a suggestion by a user.

• (#4249) Add in a hotkey to filter your selection to the engineer with the highest tech
  All other engineers in your old selection will assist the selected engineer

  Based on a suggestion by a user.

• (#4266) Improve pathing surrounding props
  Only large props (the size of a frigate or larger) block pathing.

  Previously a lot of props blocked pathing, in particular small rocks. This introduced a
  lot of noise in the occupancy layers, where it isn't clear that this noise exists. Especially
  when you are zoomed out, being unable to see the rocks.

  The noise caused units to behave strange, suddenly stop, circle around, etc. By removing
  this noise we indirectly improve pathing a lot.

• (#4270, #4282, #4285, #4298, #4312, #4313, #4308) Introduce generated navigational mesh to interpret maps
  This feature is technically involved. The idea is similar to the marker generator that has
  been part of the Uveso AI for a few years now, but instead of markers we work with
  areas. The navigational mesh can be used by AIs to understand and interact with the map.

  The feature is based on compression via quad trees that compress the pathing information. We use
  the leafs of the quad tree to create a graph. This graph is initially used for just pathfinding,
  but we can use the graph for so much more.

  All the code related to this feature is licensed using the MIT license. We're improving
  it in collaboration with the AI developers. We try to convert their requests into an
  algorithm that computes the answer. The algorithm needs to be simple, yet efficient as there
  is essentially no budget to perform computationally expensive algorithms.

  We're open to new contributors to help maintain and expand this exciting new feature of FAF.

• (#4287, #4328) Adjust factory behavior when building and finished building a unit
  Drastically reduces the time it can take for a unit to roll off the building pad of a factory. The
  production of a new unit starts the moment the build pad is clear. Also allows units to rotate to
  the correct roll off point right before being finished.

  Tech 1 tanks, artillery and labs have one second additional build time to compensate for the
  ...

Game version 3744

The maintainers of Nomads have resolved the issues with tactical and strategical defenses! They should now work as intended again.

Jip

Bug fixes

• (#4178) Do not allow regular projectiles to collide with missiles

  Reverts the behavior to before game patch 3741.

• (#4173) Fix minor issue with recoil of weapons

Contributors

• Jip: #4178
• Hdt80bro: #4173

Game version 3743

There's an issue with tactical and strategic defenses not working when Nomads is enabled. This is due to
changes to the base game done by patch 3741 that guarantees SMDs to function properly when there are
multiple strategic missiles on top of each other. We can't revert this change without re-introducing the
original bug that we're trying to fix.

We've reported the issue and the solution to the maintainers of the mod.

Jip

Bug fixes

• (#4169) Fix internal state of HQs

  There was an issue with the internal state of the HQs, causing it to get corrupt. This was caused by a refactoring of
  patch 3741. If there are more issues with HQs then do report them on the forums or via Discord.

• (#4167) Fix text focus of mods manager after exiting

  You can now type again after exiting the mods manager as a non-host user :)!

• (#4165) Add guard for Blueprint.General for command caps

  Not having the guard broke a few mods, among one of them being SCTA.

Contributors

• 4z0t: #4167
• Jip: #4169
• Hdt80bro: #4165

Game version 3742

Other changes

• (e35f16) Revert an engine patch that tries to update the XACT (audio engine) version

Contributors

Sheikah: e35f16
Jip: e35f16

Game version 3741

Another month, another patch! With pride we present the next version of the game where we slowly start
tackling long-standing issues that we've been taking for granted. Among them the tactical missile
defenses that feel underwhelming, broken weapons such as those of the Galactic Colossus and beam
weapons being unable to hit reliable. But soon no more - we're tackling them one by one!

Not only that, from a development perspective we've made great strides. The amount of annotated
code has exploded, allowing our extension to give proper suggestions and hints. Step by step,
pull request by pull request we slowly turn the code base into one that supports modern programming
features such as being able to jump to a definition and we now provide sane suggestions and snippets.

Let alone the improvements to the infrastructure surrounding FAF. With the cache servers of Cloudflare as
our backbone the distribution of maps, mods and game assets have never been better.

With appreciation towards all the contributors that made this patch possible,

Jip

Bug fixes

• (#4002) Fix issue with single-item combo list

• (#4016, #4080) Re-implement game results
  A complete re-implementation of how the game results are tracked. This should fix the famous
  draw bug (where one player wins and the other loses) and in general there should be less
  unknown game results.

• (#4063) Fix targeting bones of static shields
  Should make them easier to hit with low-arc projectiles and beams

• (#4058) Fix units being able to evade area damage
  Due to how the game processes the game over several steps the area damage could be applied too
  late, allowing really fast units to already be out of the area of damage, even though the
  projectile had a direct impact. This is particularly noticeable for spy planes, where they
  are able to 'sustain' a lot of SAM fire while barely receiving a scratch in damage.

  All in all, this makes the game feel a lot more consistent. A hit should be a hit.

• (#4058) Fix beam weapons being unable to hit all air units
  Due to how the game processes beams there's a possibility that the beam aims 'in front' of the
  unit, causing it to miss. This is fixed by giving the unit (air units, for this change) a collision
  box (or sphere) that is of sufficient size. As a result, the Seraphim Lighting Tank (T3 MAA) no
  longer requires its hack, and because of that can no longer pierce shields :).

• (#4071) Remove smoke ring on underwater SACU death

• (#4074) Disable blue shield bar of shields when turned off

• (#4079) Remove problematic code of JSON library
  Could occasionally cause a game crash

• (#4078) Adjust collision hitboxes of all transports
  Allows their cargo to receive (splash) damage more consistently and makes the transports easier to
  hit when they are landed.

• (#4082, #4083, #4084) Fix target bones - Seraphim Land units
  Similar to #4058 and #4063, makes these units easier and more consistent to hit when firing with
  beam weapons. We'll slowly tackle all of the units in the base game, but this is a consuming process!

• (#4093) Add guard to check if dummy weapon of shields are de-allocated

• (#4088) Fix stack overflow in UI when units are assisting each other

• (#4102) Adjust collision box of Megalith due to build animation
  Allows units to consistently hit the Megalith while it is being constructed

• (#4110, #4109, #4160) Add guards to prevent execution when c-object is de-allocated

• (#4103) Attempt at fixing a shield assist bug that could send all your resources into limbo
  Particularly relevant for hives when they are assisting shields that are also taking damage

• (#4121) Rowey fixing Jip
  What would we be without him!

• (#4112) Attempt to fix the save / load functionality of the game
  Long story short - we tried applying some tricks to improve performance a while ago and those
  did not work anymore after saving and then loading in the game. As a consequence, after loading
  the game was working with the wrong data causing all sorts of issues!

  We hope this fixes it, but if you still have issues with saving and loading then you can
  contact us via Discord or the forums.

• (#4113) Reduce projectile speed of air to air weapons
  There's a collision bug that causes the game engine to pick the furthest collision if a projectile
  collides with multiple instances at the same time. As a consequence, it was difficult for interceptors
  to hit landed air units and in particular transports. By reducing the projectile speed (and increasing
  the size of the hitboxes with #4078) we try and solve this issue consistently for the base game

• (#4115) Prevent manual attack move (via the UI) of clearing structure queues

• (#4125) Fix Solace not having the bomber category

• (#4120) Fix the enhancement removal dialogue being stuck

• (#4132) Fix mass of wreckage of Kennel

• (#4144) Fix the death animation of the tempest

• (#4140, #4152) Fix rare occasions when the statuos quo of HQs are not updated properly
  In particular, when gifting due to full share and when directly destroying the unit

• Fix beam weapons not disabling themselves (#4154)

Features

• (#4040, #4043, #4044) Re-implement the tractor beams of the Galactic Colossus
  Re-implements the tractor beams of the Galactic Colossus from the ground up. They finally work
  as intended and can no longer remain stuck on invalid targets. Includes a slight boost to the
  effects, enjoy toying with the physics!

• (#3893) Add shooter cap to tactical missiles
  Prevents the TMDs from overshooting their targets, as a result TMDs feel a lot more consistent
  and are in general a lot stronger.

  Fixes an issue with multiple SMDs being unable to stop multiple strategic missiles.

  Adds callbacks to units when their missile is intersected by a shield, a defense or by terrain.

• (#4018) Improved Mod Manager UI
  Improves the mod manager by introducing a search bar, being able to mark mods as favorite and being
  able to sort mods on their type. Introduces the capability of interpreting URLs from the mod_info.lua
  file, allowing you to send people to a github, gitlab, bitbucket, sourceforge page or to a topic
  on the forums.

• (#3927) Allow jammers to recreate their jamming blips
  Fixes the issue of jamming blips being gone forever once they were scouted. With this implementation,
  after fifteen seconds of being in the fog of war the jamming blips should re-emerge on their own.

• (#4114, 44fd74) Alternative CPU benchmark pt. 1
  The first of two parts on creating a new CPU benchmark. The current benchmark tries to run some computations
  in the lobby. This has shown to be inaccurate. The new benchmark takes samples during the game and stores the highest
  possible sim rate you can run in combination with the total amount of units. Initial data points suggest that this
  is highly accurate and is even capable of detecting the throttling of laptops.

  The next part will replace implementation of the CPU score in the lobby. That will be part of the next release. This
  guarantees that everyone has some data to start off with.

• (#3650, #4158) Improve team color mode
  Allows players to adjust the colors used in team color mode. With it, we can finally support people with color blindness.

  Players can choose their own colors by right clicking the team color mode button.

• (#3916) Introduce reclaim statistics for engineers
  The game now keeps track of the reclaim statistics of engineers. They are shown where you'd usually see the veterancy of
  a unit. You can not see the statistics of allied units, just your own. Works for observers (and casters).

  This is the start of a new era where we'll be introducing statistics gradually. They help players with understanding the
  value of their actions - as an example, an engineer reclaiming trees on Seton's Clutch can quickly become responsible
  for hundreds (if not thousands) of additional mass.

Performance

• (#3932, #4011) Remove unused unit blueprint tabels related to veterancy
  Reduces total amount of allocated memory

• (#4003) Remove collision shape of the Cybran Build Bots

• (#3995, #4000, #3995) Refactor effect utilities pt. 1, 3 and 4

• (#4073, #4076, d86021) Optimize vision and range-ring shaders
  Includes an engine patch - significantly reduces the impact of vision and range rings on your FPS.

• (#4064, 84f68f, 9fd987, 647bdfe) Reduce memory allocations for when bombers fire their projectiles
  Significantly reduces the amount of table allocations when we correct the trajectory of a
  bomber in Lua.

• (#4111) Reduce memory impact of weapons

• (#4141) Reduce number of pre-allocated trashbags for units

• (#4140) Remove remainders of an experimental setup for caching data

• (#4037) Implement alternative, less resource-hungry vision entities
  Used for example by the lobo - the tech 1 UEF mobile artillery

Annotation

• (#3936) Annotate and refactor layouthelpers.lua
  Improves performance of UI functions that are used by almost every UI element

• (#4009) Annotate campaign related functions pt. 2

• (#4021) Cleanup annotation of engine documentation

• (#3975, #4023, #4086) Add annotation support for blueprints

• (#4049) Annotate /Engine/Sim.lua creation functions

• (#4050) Annotate /engine/Sim damage functions

• (#4057) Annotate engine/Sim.lua

• (#4053, #4055, #4054, #4056) Annotate engine/Sim/

• (#4041) Annotate categories

• (#4047) Conform /Engine/Sim/ to Moho

• (#4039) Annotate entity.lua

• (#4034) Annotate engine/core.lua

• (#4051) Annotate /engine/Sim army functions

• (#4052) Annotate command functions

• (...