Game Version 0.3X

0.35

Game Features

• Leaderboards. Better Your Standing. Good folks in the rank and file, artilleryman, skirmishers, crewman, those playing a support role as well as the ones in high-command strive to better their standing in the newly introduced class-based leaderboards.

» You can view the leaderboards by clicking the button present on the main menu or by pressing the ‘Esc’ key during a match.

» Expand the leaderboard to show the top 100 fellows by pressing the arrow button next to each class.

» Class-based leaderboards are respectively split into 'Class' and 'Melee Arena'. You will only be able to better your standing in the 'Melee Arena' leaderboard by playing on the respective servers.

» You require a minimum of 10 players on the Army Front servers for your score to contribute towards bettering your leaderboard standing or soldier rank advancement. Naval Warfront servers only require 6.

• Leaderboards. Medals. Leaderboard medals are awarded based on a particular bracket you fall under. Show-off your honourable feats to those good men standing shoulder to shoulder. These medals will be displayed right next to your name whilst playing the game.
• Soldier Rank. Battlefield Experience. Soldier your way through the field of battle and rise through the ranks! You’ll gather experience based on how well you did during a match. Start by picking one of the many classes to join the fray and advance through all 50 ranks.

» You can view the ranks of your soldiers through the leaderboards.

• Soldier Rank. Medals. There’s a total of 9 medals you can gather through soldiering. Similarly, these will also be displayed next to your name while playing. It’ll certainly be quite the sight to see those good fellows well decorated.
• Scoring. Game Balance. Player scoring has undergone balance changes. Musicians and flag bearers will see an increase in score they gather by playing a supportive role indicative of their class and more.
• Steam Achievements. Decorate. Up for hunting a few Steam achievements? There are 50 ones to unlock all of which vary in difficulty. Humourful references to community on goings, legendary works of art and more. Take a look at all the achievements you can gather below.

» Holdfast NaW - Steam Achievements

Bug Fixes

• Solved an issue which caused players to be pushed back when jumping aboard a moving ship.
• Solved an issue which caused players to get stuck ramming or loading a cannon.
• Solved an issue which prevented players from opening the spawn menu user interface when a ship was sunk by the enemy faction.
• Solved an issue which allowed infantry officers to stack ‘fire at will’ and ‘fire’ firearm accuracy bonuses.
• Solved an issue which caused special characters from various localised languages on enemy player name plates to show.
• Experimental fix towards an issue which causes interaction icons indicators to stretch throughout the map.
• Solved an issue which broke subsequent Army Battlefield and Army Assault map rotations if a greater or lesser number of spawn points where present and using spawn overrides.
• Solved an issue which allowed server administrators to slay a player which was already dead.
• Solved an issue which caused other players to disappear when looking at a specific area on Fort Salettes.
• Solved an issue with invisible rock models on Snowy Plains 2 (L).
• Solved an issue with invisible gabions on King George.
• Solved an issue with invisible rocks on Fort Winston.
• Solved an issue with one of the pillar models missing a face on Desert Ruins.
• Solved an issue where the background appeared to be cut-off on Desert Plains 1.
• Solved an issue with the church door override props always spawning sideways.
• Solved an issue with the door1 props always spawning sideways.
• Solved an issue which allowed gates on Fort Salettes to be openable while playing as the attackers on the Army Siege game mode.
• Solved an issue which allowed gates on Southsea Castle to be openable while playing as the attackers on the Army Siege game mode.
• Solved an issue with floating barrel props on Palisade Arena.
• Pianos are no longer destructible.

Game Polish

• Hiding behind partially built Chaevaux De Frise (L) will no longer make you impervious to shots from firearms.
• Reduced the number on infantry spawns on Fort Salettes gatehouse while the Army Siege game mode is playing.
• Several maps have received amendments to prevent players from capturing points from obscure locations on the Army Siege and Army Conquest game modes.

» Fort Christina - Fort Flag = You can only capture this flag from the top of the blockhouse.

» Fort Salettes - Gatehouse = You can only capture this flag from ground level.

» Fort Salettes - Cellar = You can only capture this flag from the cellar itself.

» Fort Salettes - Tower = You can only capture this flag from the first floor upwards.

» Fort Schwarz - Fort Flag = You can only capture this flag while atop the tower.

» Balamor Bay - Tower Flag = You can only capture this flag from atop the fortification’s base.

» Fort Imperial - Fort Flag = You can only capture this flag while standing at the very top of the fort.

» Martello Tower - Tower Flag = You can only capture this flag from inside the tower.

» Martello Tower - Shipwreck = You can no longer capture this flag without going ashore.

» South Sea Castle - Fort Flag = You can only capture this flag from the first floor upwards.

» Fort Winston - Fort Flag = You can no longer capture this flag from atop the walls.

• Increased the number of Infantry Officers playable on the Melee Arena game mode.
• Blocked a few pathways on the walls present on Fort Arena to prevent players from running around in circles unnecessarily delaying the round.
• Players can no longer enter inside the towers present on Watchtower Arena.
• You will now find the kill streak announcer present on the Army Deathmatch game mode.
• Several amendments to the top bar user interface while playing the Army Deathmatch game mode.

» It now shows neutral flags instead of faction-based ones.

» Flag to the left now tracks the kills you’ve gathered.

» Flag to the right now tracks the player that has gathered the most kills while excluding yourself from the equation.

• Removed obsolete centre screen text from showing during the end of round screen while playing on the Army Deathmatch game mode.
• Changed the winning condition of the Melee Arena game mode so it enables teams to make a comeback. Victory is now determined based on the team which first reaches a set number of rounds.
• Several amendments to the top bar user interface while playing the Melee Arena game mode.

» It now correctly tracks the winning team.

» It now correctly represents the maximum number of rounds.

• Solved an issue with the match duration being displayed incorrectly in the end of match screen while playing the Melee Arena game mode.
• Solved an instance where the maximum player respawns parameter would break the Melee Arena game mode.
• Solved an instance in which the round start countdown timer would flash shortly after the round reset in the Melee Arena game mode.
• Solved an instance in which the wave spawn timer would be displayed whilst spawning in the Melee Arena game mode.
• Prevented double kills from occurring inside spawn locations for fresh spawns in the Melee Arena game mode.
• The battle timer is now visible for spectators in the Melee Arena game mode.
• The end of round score now displays for longer in the Melee Arena game mode.
• Removed the respawn timer displayed in the death screen whilst playing the Melee Arena game mode as it served no purpose.
• Solved a rare occurrence which caused the Army Assault game mode to end early.
• Disabled the wave spawn timer on the army Assault game mode. Players should spawn in instantly.
• Slays from Administrators and player suicides now correctly count towards the enemy team in the Army Assault game mode. This sometimes resulted in the top bar displaying incorrect information.
• In the Naval Assault game mode, the out of time winning condition was changed to count the number of ships sunk instead of the ships that remain alive.

Map Editing

• Implemented a command that copies the position and rotation of the player automatically to the clipboard. You will no longer have to get position then rotation and typing everything over manually to the server configuration file to place object overrides.

» Make use of the following command: get details

• Players can now spawn green and blue screens through overrides.

» bluescreen

» greenscreen

• You can now make use of more spawnable objects during your map editing endeavours.

» Palmetto_1

» Palmetto_2

» CoconutPalm_1

» CoconutPalm_2

» MusketStack

» CrateLong_Red

» CrateLong_Brown

Hotfix 1 - Game Version 0.35.7196.286

• Solved an issue when the round resulted in a draw which could halt the server.
• Client-side optimisations to reduce framerate spikes. We'll be working more on this.

Hotfix 2 - Game Version 0.35.7197.2161

• Solved an issue which resulted in players being unable to spawn or join the round.
• Pushed more client-side optimisations towards instances where players experienced a sudden drop in framerate.

Know Issues - Upcoming Fixes

• Players sometimes don't see medals while playing the match or are unable to open the leaderboard.
• Launching the scoreboard will cause a spike in framerate.
• We're currently looking into these issues. All of the data throughout your play-session is being logged and accounted for. You will not lose any progress.

0.34

Performance

• Player Optimisations. It sat at the forefront of this update’s development as we delved into ways to improve CPU utilisation when a lot of players are on screen.

» Optimised functions used to animate players.

» Optimised player movement.

» Optimised the minimap.

» Optimised the name tags.

» Optimised the player markers.

• Map Optimisations. Our one-man art department embarked on optimising over 30 game levels that make part of Holdfast’s current map selection in an effort to cut down on draw calls.
• Memory Optimisations. Conducted multiple optimisations to reduce memory.

Bug Fixes

• Game Bugs. A good majority of the bugs which saw an introduction due to the massive number of additions in the recent major updates have been tackled. We are aware that some remain in the game and we’ll be tackling them in future updates.

» Solved an issue where the charge command didn’t provide a buff which increases melee damage at times

» Solved an issue where a cannoneer was still able to take control of a cannon when another cannoneer was already operating the piece.

» Solved an issue where players would take priority over carrying a ladder irrespective of the class.

» Solved an issue with class priorities when carrying a rocket.

» Solved an issue which caused extra score gathered from killing a Guard to be shown as support. Players will now receive the correct message informing them of their ‘Guard Kill’.

» Solved an issue which allowed players to grief teammates by igniting an explosive barrel.

» Solved an issue which allowed players carrying an explosive to kill their own teammates if they got shot while carrying the barrel. Should you get shot when carrying an explosive barrel, only damage to players in the enemy faction will be applied.

» Solved an issue which caused the server to crash when playing on the Watchtower Arena map.

» Solved an issue where gabions and infantry spikes placed through object overrides couldn’t be destroyed.

» Solved an issue which caused bonfires placed through object overrides not to deal any damage.

» Solved an issue which allowed surgeons to reload and heal.

» Solved multiple instances which caused recurring exceptions causing dips in framerate.

» Solved an issue with weapon racks missing their localisation.

» Solved an issue which enabled players to clip through constructible earthworks.

» Attempted fix towards an issue which sometimes caused players to immediately die after they respawn.

» Solved an issue with a swivel gun clipping through one of the windows present on Linburg.

» Solved multiple issues with destruction pieces on Balamor Bay’s lighthouse.

» Solved an issue when dynamic snow was enabled on Sharpton.

» Solved issues with missing faces on some ruin props.

» Many more map-related fixes.

• Error Handling. Improved the way on how errors are handled when a player is unable to connect to a game server or otherwise play was also a part of this update’s objective.

» You will now be accordingly informed if Steam isn’t running before launching the game for instance.

User Interface

• You are now provided with the option to auto-join the round.
• The spawn menu has been restructured to show the attributes tab from the get-go and remain visible as players opt between different class selections.
• Classes, naval vessels, land-based spawn points or factions that are unable to be selected are now being greyed out serving as an additional indication that all slots have been taken.
• An all-new launch splash screen.
• New functions to facilitate navigation in the server browser along with other additions to improve its looks.
• Several changes and additions to polish the main menu user interface.
• Introduced additional tips tackling new game functions, game modes and community-related matters.
• Cleaned up the map loading screen interface and implemented new map loading screens that feature up to date graphics. This is still a work in progress.
• Improved the looks of the flag and infantry stakes kill log icons.
• Players that are experiencing framerate or latency related issues will be accordingly informed through the use of multiple warning indicators. You can disable this through the ‘Game’ settings by looking for ‘Warnings’ under ‘User Interface.
• Players can now view the cooldown and duration of each order by hovering on one of the icons present in ‘Attributes’ panel before spawning with the Infantry Officer class.

Gameplay Balance

• Guardsmen are no longer always guaranteed to kill other classes in the rank and file with a single strike. Instead, they have been equipped with muskets that have a greater reach when compared to other classes.
• Due to the above change, we have done away with the slight differences in weapon reaches on bayoneted muskets between factions.
• Grenadiers now tank less damage when hit by a melee weapon as they had their resilient trait reduced by 10%.
• Firearm accuracy for the Light Infantry class when crouching and firing has been increased from 10% to 13%.
• Reduced the health points of palisade walls and slightly increased the time it takes to build them making them more susceptible to artillery fire.
• Those playing a support role and carrying a pistol are now provided with a chance to kill a foe with a single shot if they are only a few meters away. If you miss your target, you’ll end up in close quarters without a melee weapon equipped so choose dearly.
• Surgeons now receive more score for their good deeds.
• Infantry Officers can now toggle on and off beacons issued through the ‘Reinforce’ order.
• Fort Schwarz. Ladders on this map have been moved near the initial infantry spawn location instead of at the back were the artillery resides for the attackers.
• You are now able to spawn with the carpenter class on the Crosshills map. Same goes for Desert Ruins when played on Army Siege.
• You can now jump over the fences present on Balamor Bay.

Combat Mechanics

• You are now able to quickly bash and stun an opponent through secondary attacks. Kick or push an opponent by pressing the ‘F’ key. Secondary attacks have limited range and are only able to deal upwards to 5 damage.

» Equip the spyglass by pressing the ‘G’ key or a lantern by pressing the ‘H’ key.

• Ironed out an issue which caused players rotating and striking to miss their target more often even if they were playing on servers correct to their region and using a stable internet connection.
• Crouching animations have been changed to help players better distinguish the direction a strike is coming from.
• Stun timers have also received amendments to incentives players to block after they’ve been struck by a melee weapon and managed to survive the hit.
• Solved an issue which caused players to became almost invulnerable to melee strikes if they had their back facing against the wall.
• Functions used to determine if a strike has hit the player’s chest or legs have been redesign to improve accuracy.

Graphical

• Improved the looks of the Training Grounds, Sharpton, Caribbean and multiple other game levels.
• You will now find more ruins on the Desert Ruins maps.
• Camps on Fort Winston are now enterable.

Server Configuration

• Server administrations are now able to teleport players to their location by using the rc teleport player <Players> <Destination> command.

» Players is able to accept the following parameters: player id, me, attackers, defender or all.

» Destination is able to accept the following parameters: player id, me, co-ordinates using the usual ‘x, y and z’ format as floating-point numbers.

• Server administrators can now disallow melee strikes from bouncing off friendly players if friendly fire is disabled.

» Input the following parameter on your community server to enabled or disable this functionality: friendly_fire_melee_bounce true or false

Spawnable Objects

• Events. Those with a keen interest in map customisation will be pleased to hear that we’ve significantly expanded the selection of spawn-able object overrides with the inclusion of over 150 new props and customisable spawn points!
• Introduced two completely empty maps that are perfect to let your imagination run wild.

» Input the following parameters to play this map on your community server: map_name custommap or map_name custommapnaval

0.33

Game Additions

• Class System. Roles Redefined. Classes in the game which make part of either the army, naval or coastal military branches are now assigned specific roles that distinguish them from the rest in the field of battle.

» Command, Rank & File, Skirmisher, Support, Artillery & Crewman

• Class Selection. Military Branches. Sectioned into multiple military branches classes now come with multiple traits and abilities to define, distinguish and characterise them.

» Have a go yourself at all of the classes and see which ones you like best. There’s plenty to go over!

• Officer Orders. Make Ready, Fire! Staying true to the tactics of war during the Napoleonic era, this new gameplay feature brings with it additional firearm accuracy or melee damage bonuses to those in the rank and file bravely standing shoulder to shoulder.

» Officers are able to issue the following orders: Form Line, Make Ready, Fire, Fire At Will, Crease Fire, Charge, Break Rank & Follow and Reinforce.

» You can disable orders by inputting the following command per map rotation in the server configuration file: class_system_orders false

• Arsenal. Melee Weapons & Firearms. Your melee weapon and firearm selection just got a whole lot bigger! Guard muskets, dragoon muskets, blunderbusses, pistols, sabres, cutlasses, axes and pikes.

» Holdfast: Nations At War now features over 35 melee weapons and firearms.

» Carbines have also been added to this very selection in this update.

» Ramrods now make part of the cannoneer’s melee arsenal.

» Administrators should amend their weapon overrides in the server configuration file to match the new inputs listed on the Wiki as the weapon system has undergone a complete rework.

• Sappers. Infantry Stakes. Casually jumping over player-built infantry stakes without fearing for your good life is now a thing of the past as these stakes will deal damage if you run into them. The sapper that constructed the stake will be rewarded the kill.

» Fires and the smaller variant of the chevaux de frise similarly deal damage as well.

» The placement of player-built defences has also received some much-needed polish.

» Earthworks can be raised higher providing for greater cover.

» Facilitated the placing of sandbags on earthworks.

» Defences can be built closer to one another.

» Gabions no longer provide cover for firearms unless fully built.

» Multiple issues with objects jittering prior to their placement.

» Improved the visual identification for when an object cannot be placed due to an obstruction.

» Reduced the carry cooldown of explosives to 3 seconds.

• Swimming. Lakes & Rivers. Lakes and rivers across a multitude of maps present on Holdfast’s army front can now be crossed due to this recent inclusion.
• Player Scoring. Multiple additions to reward players for their actions.

» Surgeons will finally receive a score for their good deeds. Healing another while playing with this class will gather you score pending on the health that has been replenished.

» Assisting with the loading or ramming of ammunition in artillery pieces will too receive additional points through assist kills should the shot hit its intended target.

» Officers receive a score for successful kills by those in the rank and file.

» Players will also be rewarded with some points when healed.

• Carpenters reintroduced to the selection of Army Front classes. They come equipped with a blunderbuss and a two-handed axe.
• Grenadiers have been included to the Melee Arena game mode class selection.

Performance

• Solved an instance which was causing frequent lag spikes on the naval and coastal game modes.

User Interface

• The attributes tab in the spawn menu now serves to display various information related to classes. Traits, abilities, orders, the represented regiment, health points and multiple others.
• The equip tab in the spawn menu now serves to display various information related to firearms, weapons or secondary equipment.
• Hovering on a trait, ability or order in the spawn menu will display information relative to it.
• Military branches in the spawn menu now change according to the game mode being played.
• Redesigned the panels used to select shouts or a jolly tune.
• Implemented a new kill log icon for death by flags.
• Implemented a new shield objective icon serving as a better indication that a capture point must be defended.
• Capture point indicators on the minimap will now overlay all the others so they remain visible.
• Adjustments to the interface representing cooldowns for objects after they’re carried.
• You no longer display both the attacking and defending objectives while in free-flight. Instead only the defending objectives will be displayed to reduce clutter.
• Multiple amendments to localisation.

Graphical

• Solved an issue with normals present on the French Carpenter, Fifer and Drummer.
• Buildable chairs have been resized and their sitting position adjusted.
• The spawnable second variant of the large tent is now enterable.
• Flags now come with new wind physics. We’ll continue improving on this in future updates.

Quality Of Life

• You can now change the colour of the centre screen dot from the crosshair settings.
• You’ll now find it much easier to open, close and yes, sometimes even turn on doors.

Bug Fixes

• Solved an issue with the back wall of Fort Schwarz when destroyed.
• Solved an issue that allowed drummers and pipers to crouch and play a tune.
• Solved an issue that allowed players to ignite than carry an explosive.
• Solved an issue with interaction labels on doors flickering.
• Solved an issue which allowed players to heal a player in the opposing faction.
• Solved an issue where players would teleport to the middle of the map for a short while when going to spectate.
• Solved an issue which was causing certain players to appear to be frozen in place due to an exception.

0.32

Bug Fixes

• Solved an issue that allowed players to place down defences with the Sapper class even after they met an unfortunate end.
• Solved an issue with moveable field guns and carriable swivel guns being present in an incorrect location or turning invisible while in spectate or free flight.
• Solved an issue with an error occurring on the client due to an incorrect hand pose.
• Solved multiple issues related to audio.
• Removed various debug logs.

Game Balance

• Decreased the health points of the constructible palisade walls and platforms.

0.31

Game Additions

• A New Class. Sappers! Your go-to class to freely construct a multitude of defences, carriable swivel guns, fusible explosive barrels and repair damaged artillery pieces.
• Player-Built Defences. Fortify! A vast selection of defences, artillery and explosives to construct.

» Defences: Infantry Stakes, Gabions, Chaveux De Frise (L), Chaveux De Frise (S), Palisades, Palisade Platforms & Chairs.

» Artillery: Explosive Barrels, Carriable Swivel Guns, Ammoboxes & Rocketstacks.

» Digging: Earthworks & Sandbags.

• Deconstructing Defences. Deconstructing a defence will retain back its material points allowing sappers to make use of those materials to build the defence once more.
• Destroying Defences. Destroying the enemy faction’s emplacements through the use of various artillery pieces, explosives or melee weapons will deplete materials from their pool and bring them into yours.
• Repairing. Should a defence become damaged, sappers can equip their hammer and repair the emplacement back to its original state. Field guns, rocket launchers, mortars, swivel guns and long guns that have seen better light of day can similarly be repaired as well by the same class.
• Fort Doors & Windows. Whilst playing on the Army Siege or Coastal Siege game modes, the attackers no longer gather instant access to a fortification by casually opening up a fort’s door. Instead, they must now topple them down using artillery, explosives or melee weapons.

» Windows now shatter if hit by projectiles from firearms or stricken by a melee weapon.

• Target Dummies. Dummies present at the shooting range on the Training Grounds map now provide feedback when shot at. They can also be spawned using the spawn override commands.

» Have a look at our Wiki[wiki.holdfastgame.com] for more on how to spawn this object.

Gameplay Balance

• Reduced the health points of all coastal cannons. If you manage to land a single shot, the cannon will be no more.
• Reduced the coastal cannon’s range and projectile travel velocity.
• Increased the time it takes to reload coastal cannons by 2 seconds.
• Reduced the health points of Fort Imperial’s walls.
• Improved the effectiveness of the smaller variation of the grapeshot. This was done by increasing its effective range and shots it fires.
• Carpenters are now playable only on naval and coastal scenarios.

Server Configuration

• Server administrators can configure limitations per buildable object as well as the starting material points.

» Have a look at our Wiki[wiki.holdfastgame.com] for more on how to make use of this new functionality.

• Included a new model as part of the spawn able object selections that ships can collide with.

» Have a look at our Wiki[wiki.holdfastgame.com] for more on how to make use of this new functionality.

Bug Fixes

• Solved an issue which caused the map rotation to cease functioning if more than 250 objects are spawned using override commands.
• Solved an issue which caused a specific user interface element to remain on screen after interacting with a spawn-able firearm ammobox.
• Solved an issue that enabled players to clip inside one of the ruins present on Fort Schwarz.
• Solved an issue with a red-line showing underneath the water in naval scenarios.
• Solved an issue which caused swivel guns present on all coastal scenarios to be indestructible.
• Reduced the volume of specific destruction sounds.

0.30

Naval Gameplay Additions

• The 50-Gun Frigate! Complimented with a well-organised and trained crew the 50-Gun Frigate based on the ‘La Proserpine’ is quite the sight to behold!
• Rocketboats! Rocketboats will come in especially handy during the bombardment of coastal fortifications. Work your way through the enemies’ defences and create a breach before the landing parties do their deed.
• Rowable Rowboats! Up to four players can assist the crewman steering the rowboat with rowing the boat increasing the speed at which it travels.
• Coastal Siege! A community-favourite game mode is now playable once more. Fend off naval vessels and marine-filled rowboats with chain, round and grape shot in an attempt to capture your fortified position.
• New Map. Balamor Bay! A lighthouse on the beachhead overlooks the oncoming invasion as the garrison must make their stand in defence of the fortification until the timer runs out.

» Input the following parameter to play this map on your community server: map_name balamorbay

• Naval Battlefield. Redesigned! Pending on the type of vessel sunk, factions gather a score that will ultimately determine the victor. Sinking larger vessels contributes more score than smaller ones do.

» Ships and boats will also respawn shortly after they’re sunk enabling the crew that lost their vessel to join the round. Having to wait for the next round to join in the battle is now a thing of the past.

• Naval Assault. Redesigned! The Naval Assault game mode has been redesigned to factor in the ship’s sunk instead of the crewman killed as the condition that determines the victor. Ships don’t respawn in this game mode. By setting the commands below per map rotation, it is also possible to prevent players from respawning once they meet their end.

» allow_midround_spawning false

» round_spawn_close_timer_seconds 120

• Naval Warfront! Combined Naval & Coast. The Naval Battlefield and Coastal Siege game modes will feature a combined front on the Naval Warfront official servers. Different scenarios will continue to iterate and provide for a unique experience.

Roleplay Gameplay Additions

• Roleplay Scenarios. Providing solid groundwork for various roleplay scenarios to occur, hosts can now configure multiple server-side setting that will take Holdfast: Nations At War outside the confines of its usual gameplay experience.

» Configure limits for classes.

» Define the allowed spawn-able classes per spawn point.

» Define the allowed spawn-able classes for every naval vessel.

» The weapons each and every class spawns with per faction.

» The ammunition each and every class spawns with per faction.

» Spawn objects and various artillery pieces by inputting coordinates per map rotation.

» Allow players to equip weapons from racks.

» Allow players to replenish firearm ammunition from ammoboxes.

» Configure the health points for every naval vessel.

» Define the selection of ships to spawn per map rotation. This can be unique for both factions.

• Causeways. Players can now play this map once more on their community server. Due to its sheer size, we thought it could prove useful for some roleplay scenarios.

» Input the following parameter to play this map on your community server: map_name causeways

Naval Mechanics

• Protect The Stern. Be on the lookout for enemy vessels looking to gather a tactical advantage by manoeuvring behind your ship!

» Upwards to 30% damage of the overall ship’s health will be dealt if the stern is destroyed.

• Fight With The Weather Gauge. Raising your square-rigged sails is of much more importance now when sailing into the wind.

» Each and every naval vessel sails differently from one another. Learning your way through their strengths and weaknesses will significantly improve your chances of staying afloat.

• Global Ship Health Pool. Ships are now assigned a global health pool. Every shot irrespective if it hit a damageable object or not will deal damage.
• Round & Chain Shot. Chain shot is now your shot of choice if you’re looking at de-masting an enemy vessel. Be sure to make your shots count however as chain shot deals much less damage than round shot if it lands anywhere but the mast.
• Bigger Guns. More Damage! Larger calibre guns like the relatively massive long gun present on the 2-Gun Schooner deals more than the 4-pounder aboard the 8-Gun Schooner.
• Player Scoring. Captains. Players that decide to take up the demanding role of the Captain class will now gather score when an enemy vessel is sunk by their crewman.

» This score is calculated based on the damage dealt by crewman manning the guns so Captains will also be rewarded for assisting with sinking an enemy vessel.

• Player Scoring. Crewman. Crewman that manage to successfully land shots through the use of various artillery pieces on deck will similarly gather score based on the damage that they have dealt to an enemy vessel.
• Designated Rowboat Spawns. Designated rowboat spawn positions will ensure that players will always find an available spawn point to join the round.
• Launching Rowboats. As a preventive measure against the frequent launching of rowboats aboard bigger ships, we have now implemented a two minutes cooldown in between spawns.

» Cooldown will be reduced to just 5 seconds if the ship is sinking.

• Battlefield Areas. Borders placed around the map edge restrict naval engagements to a specific area. This will prevent players from endlessly sailing the seven seas making the fight at sea more engaging.
• Paint Schemes. Yellow, red, black, green blue and a combination of paint schemes for each and every naval vessel present within the game!
• Ringable Ship Bells. Is it time for breakfast? Stuck in heavy fog with the rest of the fleet? Sound the ship’s bell!
• Naval Announcer. You’ll now be notified when an allied or enemy vessel has been sunk. This announcement is also voice acted.

Gameplay Balance

• Rocketeers are now able to carry ammo boxes.
• Players can now fire round shot from swivel guns on Gunboats.
• Performed multiple changes to better balance the Army Conquest game mode on plains maps.

User Interface

• Increased the size of the wind indicator to make it more distinguishable.
• Players interacting with the Captain’s wheel or tiller will have a user interface displayed atop the minimap displaying the various sail groups they have raised or lowered.

» The numbers on the sail groups represent pressable hotkeys to raise or lower them. Once again, be sure to lower your square-rigged sails if you have no choice but to manoeuvre against the wind.

• Designed a new user interface to aid players to distinguish the remaining health of the ship they’re crewing amongst various other ship statuses.
• A user interface addition will now provide feedback to players when they successfully damage an enemy vessel or fortification with artillery pieces.
• Ships that have been sunk will have their re-spawn timer displayed in the spawn menu. You’ll also find scrollbars present next to the spawn and class selections.
• Included more varied ship names.
• The bar at the very top which aids players to identify the faction in the lead now correctly reflects the defender’s winning condition on the Coastal Siege game mode. In this mode, the defenders must survive until the timer runs out.
• Ships that get sunk are now displayed in the kill feed.
• Multiple interaction icons have been included to aid players to become familiar with various interaction points aboard a naval vessel. Launching rowboats, climbing the rigging and various others.

Graphical Additions

• Several additions to the ocean system present on the Naval Battlefield, Naval Assault and Coastal Siege game modes to improve its looks.
• Players steering the rowboat now have their hands placed on the tiller.
• Improved trails for cannonballs.
• World objects now reflect in the water.
• Adjusted the musket and cannon water hit particle effects.
• Improved the animations for pennants atop a ship’s mast.
• Changed the map loading screen for Open Waters. We plan to do the same with other maps in the future so they reflect the update graphics.

Quality of Life

• Cinematic Camera Mode. Players have the option to toggle cinematic view for the free-flight camera. Enabling this will smoothen your movement when turning in free-flight.

» Several setting to adjust the yaw and pitch speed, as well as sensitivity, can be found in the ‘Game’ options.

• You will now find artillery pieces to make use of on all the smaller variations of the plains maps.
• Players are now provided with the option to filter out ‘Private Servers’ from the server browser.

Optimisations

• Servers no longer idle at a 100% CPU usage when hosting the Naval Battlefield, Naval Assault or Coastal siege game mode. Servers idle at maximum usage irrespective of the player count.

» This occurred due to several inefficiencies with how a third-party plugin functioned.

• Switching to a lower quality ocean setting will completely replace the ocean shaders to a much simpler one gathering more performance.

Server Configuration

• Administrators can now reload the server configuration file during runtime without restarting the server. Be warned that performing changes to the override commands incorrectly may cause the server to shut down. The same can occur if the syntax is used incorrectly. Changes will occur on map reload.

» rc fileReloader serverConfigFile true

• Administrators are now able to input rc commands in the server configuration file per map rotation. Once inputted, the command will be executed when that map rotation comes into play and will continue to persist through the rounds unless defined in a map rotation thereafter.

» Most of these commands are used for development proposes but can also prove useful for events or other roleplay scenarios.

• Administrators can now configure the time it takes for a ship to respawn by inputting the following command per map rotation.

» ships_respawn_time_seconds 120

• Administrators can now configure the required score that must be gathered by a specific faction in order to become the victor whilst playing the Naval Battlefield game mode. This should be done per map rotation.

» max_tickets 700

• Administrators can now adjust the wind strength. Wind strength impacts both the maximum knots at which a ship can travel and its manoeuvrability when sailing against the wind.

» wind_strength 1

• Administrators can adjust the cooldown timer for rowboats spawned aboard ships by inputting the following commands per map rotation.

» rowboat_cooldown_timer 120

» rowboat_cooldown_while_sinking_timer 5

• Be at the forefront of interplanetary travel! By inserting this command per map rotation, you can enable ships to fly. Press the ‘Space’ key to ascend and the ‘Shift’ key to descend.

» ships_spacemode true

Bug Fixes

• Solved an issue which caused buoyancy on ships not to function.
• Solved an issue which sometimes causes the weapon used to kill another player to be displayed incorrectly in the kill feed.
• Solved an issue which caused ships to take flight when they hit the rocks on Harouti Islands or the shoreline on Coastal Siege maps.
• Solved an issue which sometimes caused cannonballs to become invisible when fired.
• Attempted fix at an issue which sometimes caused a player to spawn in the middle of the ocean.
• Solved an issue were sails in a damaged state remain visible on the ship even though the mast was destroyed.
• Solved an issue which sometimes caused ships to spawn on top of one another and flip. Same goes for when spawning a rowboat aboard a ship.
• Solved a bug which caused ships in the spawn menu not to retain their correct order from largest to smallest.
• Solved an issue with masts not floating correctly on the water when destroyed.
• Attempted fix towards an issue which caused the initial looking direction to not retain its original position when switching from 1st to 3rd person camera. This caused players to end up looking at another direction when switching between modes.
• Solved an issue that caused interaction icons to still remain visible when a ship is sinking.
• Solved an issue which sometimes caused ships to be pushed back when hit by an artillery shot.
• Solved an issue were sails belonging to a destroyed mast still followed the lead of the ship when being raised or lowered.
• Solved an issue which made interacting with ladder and rope positions aboard a ship to be quite tedious.
• Solved an issue with ladder positions on the rowboat being inverted causing players to frequently fall off the boat.
• Solved an issue that enabled players to interact with the guns aboard a ship’s deck when swimming.
• Solved an issue with the reflection probe not updating correctly causing the ocean to appear extremely bright.
• Solved an issue with normals on the Marine.
• Solved an issue which caused other players to appear jitter when moving in free-flight.
• Solved an issue with an ammo box giving the wrong ammunition on Fort Imperial.
• Solved an issue with server showing up as an empty black bar in the server browser if they are unable to correctly establish a connection with the lobby.