Talon Game

Refractory Studios

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Announcement

Version 1.2 released; new game mode, new map, misc improvements

#1 2018-07-11 02:52:41

Scott
Refractory Studios
Registered: 2012-08-07
Posts: 463
Website

Version 1.2 now available

1.2 patch requires version 1.1.0.2, so you may need to download apply that patch first if you do not already have it. Run the Talon launcher and it should prompt you to download the correct patch(es).

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Talon Version 1.2 Release Notes
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New Content
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- New Gauntlet mode: single-player mode where the player must defeat sequential waves of enemies increasing in number and difficulty.
- New tutorial in Gauntlet mode introduces new players to basic concepts and controls.
- New Equipment Modules system: shield, afterburner, and cloak are now optional modules.
- Two new equipment module types allow faster rate of fire and increased ammo capacity.
- New XP Credits system: all players now start with only Pulse Laser and Dart unlocked. Additional weapons and equipment modules must be purchased with XP credits, earned during play.

Maps
----
- New map: Depot, larger, symmetric team map deeply defensible bases.
- Fixed some bad collision geometry in Pumping Station.
- Adjusted spawn points in Pumping Station to fix spawning in walls.
- Expanded Frontier map with two additional control point outposts.
- Sim clock now uses high performance system timer instead of old GetTickCount method.
- Adjusted control point capture times on all maps.
- Killingfields map expanded with additional buildings with control points.
- Added center control point in Bunker map.

Gameplay
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- All spawn points now belong to a control point group, all spawn points are capturable in Conquest mode.
- Rogue players can spawn at any neutral/contested points.
- Time window for Quick Kill bonus now normalized by strength of enemy.
- Player can now choose a different ship during play by landing at any repair pad.
- Dead ships now spew any ammo remaining even when this produces a partially full powerup.
- When ship is disabled with critical damage, camera stays in first person until ship explodes.
- Tag missile tracker now removed after 3 seconds landing on repair pad.
- Cloak now hides smoke/fire particles from damaged ship.
- Taking damage now causes temporary disruption to cloaking effect.
- Respawn wait times now defined per game mode.
- Increased size of weapon impact particles to make hits more visible w/o shield effect.
- Conquest mode can now be won by capturing all control points and eliminating all enemy fighters.
- Fixed Spectator mode to allow tracking only friendly ships in team games.
- Control points in Conquest mode now take half as long to contest as to capture.
- In Conquest, send global message to credit first player in cap zone with control point attack/capture.
- Removed CTF mode; plan to restore it but it needs more work.
- Servers now support map lists, server will cycle through list made of currently selected map plus all missions marked as Favorite, or all missions if no Favorites are marked.

Ship Dynamics
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- Equipment modules add to mass of ship, reducing maneuverability somewhat.
- Weapon ammunition now adds to mass of ship, reducing maneuverability; mass is recalculated as ammunition is depleted.
- Add camera shake effect when firing weapons, reduce recoil torque.
- Expand powerup item pickup radius.
- Add warmup time to afterburner mechanics, afterburner thrust now comes on gradually.
- Add thrust force shudder effect.
- Rotational thrust no longer triggers engine noise.
- Reduced time to cloak/uncloak.
- Increased thrust from afterburner.
- Improved drift control code allows for more controlled sliding and "braking".
- Reduced overall drag.
- Increased overall speed, more bias towards omni-directional speed.
- Different ship have different ammo capacity.
- Removed antigravity off-balance effect causing ships to slowly fall when not aligned upright.

Ship Controls
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- Increased precision of rotation values in input move packet.
- Compressing input values on a curve gives greater precision to smaller values.
- Double precision for critical rotation change computations in ship physics.
- Scaled up critical rotation delta values in ship physics to improve precision; aiming with joystick and with mouse is now much more precise.
- Add remappable function for quick joystick center recalibration.
- Improved joystick deadzones, input values are now re-scaled rather than cut off at deadzone, so small, precise, just-off-center is now just-off-deadzone, and small inputs are not lost.
- Added axis sensitivity slider to input binding dialog.
- Fixed zoom bug when using rear view inset, zoom transition is now smooth.

HUD/Game UI
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- Change center screen notice log to show new messages immediately w/o queue.
- "Picked up X" powerup message now considered help message, hideable in Options menu.
- Add HUD chat log length setting to Options menu.
- Removed "Cannot pick up X" powerup message to reduce message spam.
- HUD now only shows friendly or tagged ship names to reduce screen clutter.
- Target lead indicators now only show when within weapon range.
- New radar-range/visibility model: max radar range now decoupled from scene view distance; ship brackets are now drawn based on size, distance, and camera FOV; zoom function now "focuses radar imaging for greater range" resulting in identification/bracketing of ships at greater distances. Ships tagged with tracker missile are now visible from greater distance.
- Cockpit glass damage/crack effect is now semi-persistent, it will auto heal only to a point based on damage level; must repair ship to completely fix cracks.

Weapons
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- Return to max of two weapons of each type equipped at once.
- Reduced damage of Waveguide to re-balance after aim precision improvements.
- Tracking Beacon is renamed Tag Missile.
- Tag missiles now disrupt ship power when they attach.
- Tag missile tracking no longer leads target, makes missiles easier to dodge; missile lifetime increased.
- Waveguide now results in internal fire causing damage over time.
- Reduced Particle Cannon speed and range.
- Missiles launched above their max travel speed will gradually slow to to max speed.
- Missiles traveling faster than defined max speed have reduced turning rate.
- Rebalanced weapons to account for new xp credits system and optional equipment module system.

Game Engine
-----------
- Improved precision for network compressed relative positions beyond 500m.
- Fix for updating particle system bounding box when particles are added, fixes ship jet emitter flickering when camera is tracking a fast moving ship.
- Removed app "sleep" behavior when app is not in focus, in case app is hosting a game.
- Add overdraw-guard particle system performance optimization, limits number of large, screen-covering particles which can cause bad framerate hits.
- Improved static map lighting attenuates ambient light by surface normal for more shape definition on shadowed terrain/buildings.
- Improved dynamic shape lighting with more pronounced directional light for better shape definition and smooth transitions between interior and sun-lit regions.

AI Improvements
---------------
- Adjust AI behavior to be less evasive and more aggressive.
- Fix AI aiming so zero skill AI can sometimes hit stationary targets.
- AI aiming error now increases with target speed.
- Improved AI pack attack behavior in open spaces: bots attempt to take wide path to outflank their target, instead of all lining up to follow the target directly.
- AI no longer relentlessly attempt to follow path that isn't working.
- Improved AI ability to scan around buildings for possible entrances.
- Fix to AI collision avoidance test improve AI ability to negotiate tight passageways.
- Improved AI strategy in Conquest mode.
- Fixed/improved AI weapon/equipment choice logic.
- AI think cycle time is now increased as bot count increases, allowing for higher number of bots in game at less performance cost.
- Misc performance improvements to AI code.
- Reduced radio chatter from AI.

UI Improvements
---------------
- Removed deprecated bindings from options menu.
- Removed confirmation dialog on quit from main menu.
- Improved Escape menu UI.
- Always list player team first on scoreboard.
- Improved Profiles menu includes Cancel and Copy Settings buttons.
- New command-line interface exposes common functions for easier dedicated server management.
- Fixed FOV and zoom speed options not being immediately applied when set in menu.
- Removed accelerator keys from Spawn menu buttons, since they could conflict with key bindings that may be used from spawn screen, such as chat commands.
- Add framerate stats/graph to sim metrics panel (Alt-M).
- Ammo capacity rating added to ship selection screen.
- Replay recording now off by default, with message to turn on when opening Replays menu.

Misc Fixes
----------
- Fixed control point initialization bugs in Conquest mode.
- Fixed replay stream losing sync when player ship powers on/off.
- Fixed coop mode bug forcing player to wrong team.
- Fix ship collision damage calculation.
- Fixed math error in Overkill bonus calculation.
- Fixed net code data compression bug causing incorrect damage state on client.
- Fixed bug causing "press trigger to continue" showing after game has ended.
- Fixed questionable latency correction code believe to cause incorrect render offset on some projectiles.
- Rebalanced audio channel levels.
- Fix zoom getting stuck on when using Alt-Tab when zoom is bound to Alt.
- HUD fix so tagged ships still show blip even when powered down.

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#2 2018-09-10 00:25:23

Hypersonic
Member
Registered: 2014-02-24
Posts: 37

Re: Version 1.2 now available

Great news, I look forward to checking out the new patch!

"1.2 patch requires version 1.1.0.2"
I have talon_setup.exe and talon_1.0.3_patch.exe
OK, when running the game (un-patched version) it'll send you a link to 1.1.0.2 patch. Ugh, Norton keeps removing talon_1.1.0.2_full_patch.exe , Windows Defender complains about it as well. Perhaps because there are only a few downloads so far.

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#3 2018-09-10 00:53:20

Scott
Refractory Studios
Registered: 2012-08-07
Posts: 463
Website

Re: Version 1.2 now available

Well that sucks. I remember Norton used to complain about something in the Torque engine, I think it was part of the TorqueScript compiler. I never saw Windows Defender complain about it, though. I'll verify that patch exe just to be sure.

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#4 2018-09-10 01:08:30

Scott
Refractory Studios
Registered: 2012-08-07
Posts: 463
Website

Re: Version 1.2 now available

Patch files on the server check out. I also scanned them with Windows Defender on my machine and it did not complain.

The 1.1.0.2_full_patch.exe MD5 is 5C77B86DB0B39BD63EFDD68A0EA34D82
and 1.1.0.2_patch.exe is 5C406D9BDF0BBBC1AD3BEF93319D3A40

if you want to verify them. I find it curious that your Windows Defender would complain while mine never has.

But regardless, I suggest instead of fussing with patch files, just run the full 1.2 installer; I'll mail you a link.

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#5 2018-09-25 16:38:59

Hypersonic
Member
Registered: 2014-02-24
Posts: 37

Re: Version 1.2 now available

Does each ship have a limit on how many and what types of weapons they can hold?

I believe in Tribes medium armors could hold more than lights, and heavys more than mediums. Also only lights could equip the sniper rifle, and only heavys could equip the mortar. Light armor could not carry portable repair/equipment stations.

I suppose you can only equip one module at a time, like the backpacks in Tribes. Is there a 3rd person view mode? I used that briefly to see what backpack I was wearing, perhaps it could be used to see what module you're using (assuming there's a 3D visual for it.)

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#6 2018-09-27 05:31:40

Scott
Refractory Studios
Registered: 2012-08-07
Posts: 463
Website

Re: Version 1.2 now available

All ships can equip 2 primary and 2 secondary weapons and 2 equipment modules.

All ships have the same selection of weapons. I hadn't considered disallowing certain weapons for certain ships; it is an interesting idea that I will consider further.

There is no 3D representation of the equipment modules. If you equip the shield, you'll get a shield strength bar at the top of the HUD. If you equip the cloak, you'll get a cloak energy bar at the bottom of the HUD.

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#7 2018-09-27 20:25:07

Hypersonic
Member
Registered: 2014-02-24
Posts: 37

Re: Version 1.2 now available

Thanks for the info! If you already have 2, can you sell and buy another to swap by chance?

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#8 2018-09-27 22:23:30

Scott
Refractory Studios
Registered: 2012-08-07
Posts: 463
Website

Re: Version 1.2 now available

No, but I like the idea.

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#9 2021-02-09 12:50:24

Dglider
Rookie Member
From: Montana
Registered: 2014-01-16
Posts: 7

Re: Version 1.2 now available

It has been 6 years since I last looked at this game.  Nice to see there's a new version out.

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