If you want to help translate the game into your language and have some time & patience to deal with the programming aspects of it .. and they're not for the faint of heart .. then we would be happy for your input.
I've said this before, but since there's the hope of a new release coming up, I thought I'd push it again.
Look at the basic file used, this should stop anybody "faint of heart" right off the bat - but please, if you're not totally discouraged right away, I'm willing to help with the first steps!

Basically, what's going on is that some (not nearly all) messages inside the engine have been tagged for translation-capability - then we have a "master"-file with the english version and a "translation"-file with the proper sources for showing that message in another language.
Since there's a number of issues involved with sentence structure etc. there are also a number of aspects that go beyond simply translating the message to make the file work .. but if you can translate the message and talk to a coder to answer questions about word-order and the proper placement of colour-codes etc. you'll be fine .. you don't need to fully understand the file I linked above .. as I said - some willingness to interact with a programmer is required.

At the moment the only language provided is german; some input from Apollo has been tried to be incorporated .. but most of it is still my "quick-n-dirty" translation .. so even the german-language one can still do with some work!

CubeScript is not nearly half tagged, just a bit of the main-menu; once we see this feature actually used we'll be sure to push forward on the scale of translateable messages!!

There's a push going on, to break the stand-still reached with shotgun-balancing - the final piece we've been constantly delaying the release for.
Once that the shotgun is properly configured, the AntiCheat updated and no known critical bugs in the SVN:trunk anymore we will release the v1.1.1.0.
This will also be my last release as project leader and - at least for quite a while - as a member of the dev-team.

And because this goes along with that change we will also be moving the server to a new hoster. This means you might be experiencing some outages of the website and/or masterserver during the next week; we will endeavour to keep them to a minimum and to times when their services are least in demand.

There's something in the air .. I feel like the next month or two are going to bring a couple of changes to the project.
I know .. this is very enigmatic - just thought you should know, change is coming .. whatever it may be, you're now (somewhat) prepared.
Stay tuned, don't badger other members of the dev-team - and for that matter - or me about details .. it's like with the releases. It's ready, when it's ready.

Be nice to each other!

flowtron

Offtopic posts will be deleted, this is only meant to be a poll to gauge the community's opinion.

Since the old thread is falling apart, here's a new one.

SVN sources are up-to-date now, so you can compile your own if you like. Bins have been provided, sorry no mac bins though. I hope they work properly. I will now list the main diffrences from the current 1.1.0.4 version once again:

SMG: Damage is now 15.5. Handling is inbetween 1.0.4 and 1.1

AR: Damage is now 22. Handling is inbetween 1.0.4 and 1.1

Pistol: 10 bullets, slightly faster, a tad more recoil.

Sniper: 83 damage. Happy medium between 1.0.4 and 1.1
Sniper+pistol combo is possible, until you pick up a helmet. Pretty much behaves like 1.0.4 really. (just less coarse).

Shotgun: Complete overhaul. Less maximum damage, better distribution of damage over range. Less random. Aim well and you will get some guaranteed damage. Extra damage when really close.
No more missing by a meter while still getting huge damage in. A bit harder to handle.

Armour has not been changed since 1.1.0.4.

Please test it out and let us know what you think! Some stuff might be buggy. Main focus is the balance at this very moment.

I have the pleasure to inform you that we have another coder in the team.
In the last months he pointed bugs and fixes in the code, and we could not ignore it!

Welcome to the team, tempest!

Another developer has joined our ranks - GeneralDisarray;
he's going to bring a lot of OpenGL knowledge to the team!

Bukz and Mr.Floppy have been added to the team :)

Bukz will take care about docs and scripting, Mr.Floppy will be working on anything maps/models/art.

Cheers!

I would like to announce that our boss (flowtron) gave SVN access to Luc@s.

So, you can buggy him for fixes and enhancements in the game now!
(Yes guys... I know you are crazy for this!)

HURRAY!
Welcome to the team, Luc@s!

We need to get some heavy-duty testing going with our current state of development.
The new weapon-balance and -code has to be observed under near-to realistic conditions - meaning more than two to four developers only ;-)

* Mac Installer [MD5: ff22e00b5fe9524395d1ec4699d3c117] - 51 MB
* Windows ZIP [MD5: db7755b22b42a336074e5e2f59f53d0d] - 50.21 MB
* Linux Binaries in tar.bz2 [MD5: d0b11c167666423de83e7299a797822c] - 1.89 MB

For Mac there's the usual full-installer, for Windows & Linux just get the ZIP, unpack it and play from there (don't overwrite an old installation or anything!). If you can't manage to make the linux binaries executable from the ZIP (hint: chmod +x) there's also a tar.bz2 of just the linux binaries, which is better than the ZIP for you, since it keeps the executable bit intact - so just get that too and overwrite the files from the ZIP with it.
There are a number of SVN servers already running, so you can test-play when you like, but also feel free to test out hosting your own servers with the binaries provided.

The weekend will be the time I guess most testing will occur, it will also be the end of the beta-testing phase (unless it needs to be extended). After that we will continue with some more minor adjustments - assuming no bug-fixing is required (haha, as if) - and should then be ready to release in the near future.

Please leave your comments to this beta-test here; especially bug-reports should try to contain as much information as possible so we can reproduce the bug, find the cause and fix it. Thank you, in advance, to all who help contribute to improve the game for all players!

Mod edit: split from weapon balance thread.

---

Hi all, this is not associated with balance in any way, though I had found no where else to post this for the devs to see it.

These are the maps I think should be placed in 1.1.0.5

- ac_swamp by |oNe|.ExodusS* and Undead|oNe| <-- CTF or TDM
- ac_origin by DaylixX <-- A nice map for CTF
- ac_terros by DaylixX and Sanzo'' <-- Really strategic map
- ac_dusk by A&D_Shadow <-- This should have been in AC a long time ago.
- ac_venganza by jiba <-- A nice map like ac_arabian
- ac_casa by $N!P3R* <-- Nice map for CTF (found this map today)
- ac_casa2 by $N!P3R* <-- Best for TOSOK
- ac_edifice by DES|Bukz and optus <-- CTF or TDM
- ac_derb by $N!P3R* <-- Another good TOSOK map
- ac_wadi by Bloodsport <-- DM or TOSOK
- ac_mojave2 by Andrez <-- A real quality map in either CTF or TDM; I guess

Suggested by Forum Users

- ac_avenue DES|jiba <-- CTF
- ac_yard by jiba <-- CTF
- ac_komplex by oblivion <-- TDM/CTF
- ac_metl3 by DES|Halo <-- DM/OSOK
- ac_dust2 by Unknown <-- CTF
- ac_roofs by |BC|$N!P3R* <-- Really fun map overall
- ac_oasis by RuThLe$$ <-- TDM
- ac_debris by DES|Halo <-- TOSOK or TDM
- ac_wasteland by DES|Halo and DES|R4zor <-- TOSOK
- ac_fabrik by Mr.Floppy <-- Really nice large map for CTF or TOSOK
- ac_ruinas by fetus & jiba <-- OSOK or CTF
- ac_sylang by ExodusS" *Hybr!d." & $p@k0 <-- CTF or TDM

Please consider putting these maps into 1.1.0.5

Since the old thread is falling apart, here's a new one.

SVN sources are up-to-date now, so you can compile your own if you like. Bins have been provided, sorry no mac bins though. I hope they work properly. I will now list the main diffrences from the current 1.1.0.4 version once again:

SMG: Damage is now 15.5. Handling is inbetween 1.0.4 and 1.1

AR: Damage is now 22. Handling is inbetween 1.0.4 and 1.1

Pistol: 10 bullets, slightly faster, a tad more recoil.

Sniper: 83 damage. Happy medium between 1.0.4 and 1.1
Sniper+pistol combo is possible, until you pick up a helmet. Pretty much behaves like 1.0.4 really. (just less coarse).

Shotgun: Complete overhaul. Less maximum damage, better distribution of damage over range. Less random. Aim well and you will get some guaranteed damage. Extra damage when really close.
No more missing by a meter while still getting huge damage in. A bit harder to handle.

Armour has not been changed since 1.1.0.4.

Please test it out and let us know what you think! Some stuff might be buggy. Main focus is the balance at this very moment.

We are releasing version 1.1.0.4 today.
Downloads:

Most notable changes:
- fixed the kick-bug
- added URL-protocol support
- added a demo-tutorial
and a slew of tiny tweaks & fixes

Makke says: This is mostly a bugfix release. We are now starting to adress the balance issues for the next release.
ärkefiende says: Mac package is now availlable, thanks to wahnfred :)

We are aware of the issues that separate the players between 1.0.4 and 1.1.x.x. I have already picked up a lot of information from previous threads, and I would like to start a decent discussion about the future changes required. The next release will focus on bug fixes, but after that, we will adress these issues asap.

This is your chance to voice your opinion and discuss the future development needed. Please keep it civil if you can. Make sure you have played 1.1 enough to be able to compare. Please try to structure your posts clearly, that will make it easier for us to filter the information later. Also, please keep this thread clear of anger posts about 1.1 - instead, try to help in a constructive way.

Here are my impressions and ideas that I picked up from recent feedback, mixed with my own impressions:

SMG: I think some points may need revision. First off, it's damage.
I think it's ideal damage would be 15 1/2. (this is not possible yet).
The feel might have changed a bit. Recoil and spread (especially the full blast spread) might need revision, to give it it's original feel back, while maintaining the improvements for long range.

AR: All fine, though we might have made the handling a tad too easy.

Shotgun: Ok, it's overpowered, no denying. I think raising the spread will help. All that needs to be kept is that aiming properly must be the key to this weapon.

Sniper: Since it's gotten quite a bit harder to headshot, we might have to think about raising it's damage again. Not sure about getting it back to the one-shot combo, but something must happen there.

Carbine: Imho it's fine. Maybe a tad overpowered when used in a defensive manner. A bit lower rate of fire might help here.

Pistol: I think it's just fine.

Nades: In my opinion, having just one nade adds tactical depth and makes nades more valuable, thus you will think twice until you shot it. On the other hand, I can understand it feels like less fun.

Armour: Since 1.1.0.3 it has almost the same characteristics as in 1.0 - with the exeption that more armour means more protection (and less actually means less).
Some maps might need revision in helmet placement and numbers.

Remember, these are mostly my personal views and not even all devs' views. Just to start this discussion :)

Hiho,

As you might have noticed, the "gibs" now have their specific messages, to make them more distinguishable. So I thought, why not have gun-specific messages for all types of death, so you can easily see what killed you? Here's what I came up with, but you might have some better ideas. They are all in the format "you got ***** by ...."

AR: shredded
SMG: sprayed
SG: peppered / splattered
Sniper: punctured / headshot
Pistol: busted
Carbine: picked off
Knife: slashed
Nade: gibbed

Thoughts? Ideas?

We are releasing AssaultCube 1.1.0.3 today.

Download:

Linux

Windows

Mac OS

Most notable changes:

- Armour Values have been nerfed slightly.
- Addition of in-game clock ( /clockdisplay 0|1|2 )
- LSS now back to two-nade pickups (no more random)
- Pistol Frenzy has nade-pickups removed

and as usual, several bug-fixes...

I hope this will please those who have been disliking 1.1
The new armour values have been nerfed, so the "shots-to-kill" ratio of the guns is now more like 1.04 again (though not exactly of course).

I hope players will give 1.1 a thorough try again, because I plan to discuss any other necessary weapon balance issues with the comminity soon, so we can make 1.1.0.4 a release that everyone will be happy with.

The masterserver for 1.04 will still be running, but I hope that those who prefer 1.04 will give this new version another try.

Have Fun!

We have just changed the armour values and a slight change to the way the armour behaves.

This should bring the damage required to kill down again towards a 1.0.4 feel. No more 3 sniper shots to kill... most "shots to kill" are quite close to 1.0.4 again.

Also, having only picked up one helmet alone (having 25 armour) will not provide as much protection anymore...

Armour protection above 50 is still higher - just increasing less dramatic.

These changes will be in the upcoming 1.1.0.3 release.
We are not planning on making inter-weapon balance changes just yet.

I'd first like to see how this change is being percieved. I hope it will convince the majority of 1.1 - after that I hope there will be time for constructive criticism and discussion about fine-tuning the weapons.

Please test it in the svn if you have the time and means. Thank you.
Keep in mind, this is a server-side change.

I have told many people many times, that we will not be putting up any archives of the old forums, for the simple reason, that they were compromised and corrupted.

I have mentioned this many times, example: http://forum.cubers.net/thread-11-post-28.html#pid28

I am sick of answering the same question, again and again, from people who know the answer, and are just asking it to cause trouble. Don't ask, and your thread won't be deleted for spam.


Thank you.

We've just released the AssaultCube v1.1.0.1 packages on sourceforge - get your package from the release files page.

It contains a number of important bug-fixes, like the errors and anticheat kicking in on certain maps (like ac_keller), also a number of scripting issues have been addressed.
The admin connect fix appears to still not be working though, and linux users with libjpeg.so.8 still need to use the work-around I described on the last release-thread.

So you see - there's still enough for us to do, but we hope that each release does give you a bit more reliability, stability and above all fun.
Here are the checksums so you know if your download is correct - please use an alternative mirror from sourceforge.net if you have problems with your download. They always need some time to distribute it and the process doesn't always work 100% on all servers - that's the interwebs, I guess - but redundancy = "failure relief" ;-)

I deeply apologize.

There was a bug in the server code: if the z of the shot was negative, the server was making it zero. Since the x and y cannot take negative numbers, I thought the same would happen to z. This would be just an visual "mis-effect" if the hitbox and direction checks did not use this vector.
So, every time a player was hitting at a negative z value, in the logs were possible to see:
"suspect sniper hit", "suspect hitbox", "target direction mismatch", "suspect hit"... and so on. This happened only in some maps (mostly in the positions where the floor had negative z).

The second issue was that the speedhack detector is working flawless even when the player is lagging.... but I never thought what happened if the server lags. I analyzed this (indirectly thanks to stef) and found that if the server lags, it thinks all players are speedhacking.

Now we are taking into consideration these facts, so, in the next update I do not believe we will have people being autobanned.

If we had more people testing before the release, probably we would not have these misfortunes...
Anyway we found it and fixed it, so all can I do now is apologize.

We tested and re-tested the AC1.1 in the last weeks, and we did not have one single case of false positive in these tests.
The laggers are flagged as "laggers" and are treated in a special manner, and we tested with many laggers in these weeks. So it is very improbable to have "false positive", and if honest people are really being kicked, it is more probable to be a bug in the anticheat engine.

If you got auto-banned and (obviously) you were not cheating, please, try to get the demo of the game and post it here. Additionally I ask to the server owners to post here the logs of the incident. With this information I will be able to fix possible bugs and/or lower some thresholds.

I would like to post here some words about this system.
First of all, these values are experimental, and can change in the next releases.
Also, all this is decided by the server... so, it cannot be (easily) cheated.

The idea behind the new "score" column is to put in just one number frags+deaths+flags+teamplay, with the intention of rip ratio from this game. Ratio was an very artificial number, which rewarded only the nade spammers and "evaders" (those who hide, camp and when take 20 of damage, run for the nearest life pack).

In 1.0.4, those who play to cover his teammates (or to catch or defend the flag) usually have bad ratios. The guy who score the flag, at least gain the flag score... but that guy who covered him or defended the flag in base (which is crucial to flag score) gains nothing.

So, we managed to create this new united score to count all these things.
The way this score is counted is not *much different* from the ideas behind the ladders, but with many enhancements characteristic from AC1.1 (and still experimental).

In AC1.1, you can check these extra source of score using /hudextras 2... so you will see some extra messages, like: "combo", "multicombo x2", "you covered the flag", "teamwork done", between others.

FRAGS

The basic source of score is the "frag", and its value is 10. If you die you lose 4 points. Considering only frags and deaths, and thinking in the old ratio system, you have score > 0 if ratio > 0.4 (what it is not much difficult, right?). Anyway, after some initial complains, if the ratio is less than zero, it is presented zero in the scoreboard (so, the overall teamscore can mismatch the sum of the players scores presented).


FLAGS

One important (and probably controversial) feature of the new score system is that some score sources are dependent of the player number (limited to 12 players, i.e., this specific source of score does not change anymore if there are more than 12 players in the server). These sources are mainly related to the flag games. And the reason is very obvious: it is easier to score a flag when there are less players in a server, so, the reward is in some way proportional to the difficult.

Since some score sources are proportional to the difficult, it is also coherent to make the flag score proportional to the distance between the two flag bases (otherwise people playing ac_sunset would receive the same for flag score as playing ac_depot). In special, the distance between the flags in depot is about 200 cubes.

Many people can argue it is difficult to measure the exact value of this... and it really is, but there is no other way to reward the true skill and difficult level, and using depot as reference (third column below) one can quickly think: "this map has half of the size, so, i will get half of the points when scoring a flag"... in the same way: "this server has half of the players... i will get half of the points in flag related scores".

(N is the number of players, D is the distance between flags, and the third column is the value for ac_depot with 10 player in the server)

SKILL BONUS

The third controversial point is that there are a little small bonus for killing high score enemies. Obviously this is difficult to measure, but this will disrupt players from hunting high score by killing noobs only.

(P is the score of the target, the third column is the expected points to kill a high level enemy: 75 frags and 38 deaths = score 600).

COMBO

The combo is a successive sequence of hits, which worths 5 points. It can be produced by the same weapon (like a PISTOL sequence, or a AR, SMG or AKIMBO burst), or for different weapons: like primary+pistol or primary+nade or primary+knife. The exact number of hits depend of the kind of combo and the timing between the hits.

COVER

Cover happens when the player kills an enemy in a short distance from the flag (both player and enemy must be in this range). The flag can stay in the base, or being carried by a teammate. As the same as the other flag score sources, cover worths proportional to the player number.


There are other sources of teamwork, but they are WiP, so I will not comment them now.

Please post your feedback or bug-reports about the v1.1.0.0 release here.

We've now released packages for AssaultCube v1.1 on sf.net;
get them from our release files page.

I want to take a moment to thank all the contributors and beta-testers for their time & effort:
Without you this release wouldn't have been possible, the project-reboot couldn't have gone much smoother - I'm very grateful for all the patience and understanding you've all brought to the situation. We owe you all a debt of gratitude. Three cheers for the volunteers!
Hip-Hip Hurray, Hip-Hip Hurray, Hip-Hip Hurray!

There might be a problem for Linux gamers with this package - see below for a work-around.
To check for the validity of your download, use MD5 or SHA1 checksums.
For Windows you may want to download one of these apps:
MD5sums for Windows or wiki:Md5sum to find some more links and background information.


Regarding the mentioned work-around, if your linux box provides /usr/lib/libjpeg.so.8, you will experience a crash when starting AssaultCube. We're very sorry for this and that you'll have to use BMP screenshot format, for now, but we promise it will all become better once we dump JPG entirely and use the much more sensible PNG format!

A couple of small glitches have crept into our CubeScript/Menus too - these were community provided modifications that appear not to have been properly tested and/or double-checked - again my sincere apologies. The only thing you really need to change though - and only if you want to select a different crosshair by menu - is line 423 in config/menus_settings.cfg to look like this (means: remove one erronous space from "concatwo rd"):
You can also download a corrected version to replace your installation-dir file with or put into your game-home-dir, but for once replacing the installation-file would be "the right thing" to do ;)

Last, but not least, I want to thank the gamers.
Without you this game would be nothing!
Thanks for sticking with us and supporting this game - even through rough times - from the plain public-server scouring newcomer and/or veteran to the clan-members and, of course, especially the clan-leaders who keep the community organized and happy by providing background-services like ladders, tournaments or media.

Many people are experiencing problems to run the mac version of the AC1.1 alpha.

The reason, according to WahnFred (our xcoder) is very simple: if you do not have X11, you will miss a lib necessary to run the MAC version (I do not remember the name of the lib now).

Please, be patient or try to install this lib by yourself. :P

An experimental package for the upcoming AssaultCube v1.1 has been packaged.

We've uploaded alpha-packages for Mac OS-X, Win32, and Linux32/64 to this 1.1.0.x Folder

If all goes well - when does it? - we just rename the packages online later and are through.
Most likely we will build one package after one or maybe two weeks of trial-running the alpha.
That will be the official AssaultCube v1.1 release.

From then on we plan on very rapid releases of v1.1.0.1, v1.1.0.2 and so on - till we fine tune all the balance-stuff

In case you're an "early bird" and get a broken D/L from a not-yet-updated sourceforge mirror:

Discuss here what you think about the current development branch.
If you find a bug please give us as much detail as possible so we can try to recreate it ourselves and hopefully find a fix.
Always remember: The SVN is WiP (work in progress), so some stuff may actually be broken at some point and you need to be prepared to regularly move your saved.cfg out of the way, to ensure you're playing with the default settings.

I've gotten a Mac DMG built by Julian "absinth" Mayer which we would like to get some feedback about. You should be competent in adminstering your Mac OS X even when it starts acting up if you really want to try this - I can't guarantee anything about this package ATM. For instance, to compile, absinth had to remove "gettext" as dependency, which may or may not lead to problems down the line - this is why we need courageous beta-testers willing to try it out.
The file is 94 MB in size and
can be got from AC-v1.1-for-Mac-BETA-TEST-package.

Please leave some feedback here if you do test it out.
And .. be sure to read all those posts before trying it out yourself to find out wether to expect any trouble with this package.

Welcome back!
We are very sorry for the long time you had to wait until this forum got back.
The wiki will be available in the next days too.
The masterserver for 1.0.4 will continue to remain manually moderated.

All of this has very technical reasons most of you will find very boring;
suffice it to say that there was a big security issue stemming from the sexy-but-unsecure work that had given us the previous main site. The new design was done by RandumKiwi, just like he's been working hard on getting this forum back up.
The initial period of waiting was due to a change in DNS - which took way longer than it really should have - and was required to get finished before we could even start reviving the services.

Since this security issue has compromised the reliability of previous content,
we will not be providing the old threads of this forum.
This is also the reason why you have to create a new account here.

Again - We are very sorry for this inconvenience.
Here's hoping our efforts have ensured that such a catastrophic fail will not happen as easily again.