Silica News

"Look alive, Corporal! Colossal life form inbound. Prepare for heavy aerial assault. You are advised to converge fire on its central eye. Hang in there..."
-- Commander T. Sharp, Chronicles of B-Sector

Good afternoon citizens of Baltarus!

Another update just dropped, focusing on improved air vehicle AI, vastly increasing their viability. Work continues on AI at full-pace, as well as on the Sol structures, which we hope to release soon.

We also expanded the team to allow for greater development quality, pace and breadth.

What you can expect short-term from this is a new game mode coming in the next few updates, so stay tuned!

Lastly and most importantly, a new introductory mission has been added to help portray our vision for Silica 1.0, providing players a warm welcome into the world of Silica. This mission is possible to play cooperatively in multiplayer as well, and we encourage you to do so.

Thank you again for your support and welcome to those of you who just stumbled across the game. We truly do hope you have a wonderful weekend.

See you on Baltarus!




Silica V0.8.83:

Gameplay:

• Added: Introduction Mission to main menu
  
• Fixed: FPS view waypoint no longer fades out as much when looking directly at it
  
• Added: Rifle reload sound
  

Multiplayer:

• Added: Vehicles that are claimed can no longer be claimed by other players
  
• Improved: Network security, dropping packets from unknown sources or packets that are too large
  

AI:

• Fixed: Air vehicle AI would ram into target
  
• Improved: Aircraft flight behavior
  

Controls:

• Fixed: Input miss issue when mouse held down
  

A lovely late summer afternoon everyone!

Another build has gone up with numerous fixes, most importantly to the Harvesters which are now able to scale steep dunes just like a player. Additionally pathfinding info for each unit is heavily optimized and sent in a reduced form to each player on the team but in full form to the Commander (so he can see the path the AI will take exactly).

Lastly, the long-standing bug of annoying Barracks doors closing has been fixed as well.

The next update will continue to focus on AI, namely for alien expansion, so stay tuned!

Please enjoy and take care!

Gameplay:

• Fixed: Doors on clients would close after opening
  
• Fixed: Seemingly random null errors caused by optimization for object updates
  

AI:

• Fixed: Harvester gave up too early when climbing steep hills
  
• Fixed: Harvester docking correction algorithm would block it from docking backwards
  
• Fixed: Units could complete path early if there was just one waypoint
  
• Fixed: Harvester no longer gets stuck in Refinery while docking/undocking
  
• Fixed: Harvester could only deposit if the point was not claimed by another Harvester
  
• Fixed: Attacking units would recalculate pathfinding very often when target was moving
  
• Improved: Harvester docking algorithm better corrects for extreme angles and offsets from ideal path
  
• Improved: Commander AI builds Refineries based on needs
  
• Optimized: AI long range path is now only sent to players in the same team
  
• Optimized: AI long range path send is reduced to only the end point for non-commander players
  

Multiplayer:

• Fixed: When a player disconnected from the server it could leave it in an infinite loop of trying to disconnect the player
  
• Changed: Max packet buffer size from 2048 KB to 4096 KB
  

A wonderful afternoon everyone!

We just released hotfix update 0.8.78 which fixed a new issue regarding Harvester pathfinding that popped up in the latest build.
A few other improvements regarding Harvester AI have also been included.

Take care!

Fixed: Pathfinding looped when final destination was off-navmesh
Fixed: Harvester could stop and stay on the spot when harvesting due to constant completion of path bug

Improved: Harvester prefers resource cells that are in front rather than to random sides
Improved: Harvester keeps mining arms going as long as resources are nearby
Improved: AI Commander builds more refineries

Greetings everyone!

We have just released an update focusing almost exclusively on multiplayer networking both in terms of stability and scalability. We have moved from the old Steam Networking API to the new Steam Networking Sockets API. This was a massive change requiring a significant time investment, requiring the AI overhaul to be put on hold. With this done, AI takes the top of the priority list again, so expect to see big improvements in this regard very soon.

Additionally, numerous performance optimizations have also made it in, further improving framerate.
In any case, a list of changes is detailed below. Again, thank you for your support and especially patience. Silica is a complex work of passion that takes a ton of work to polish and we are all looking forward to the day we release a perfected 1.0.

Take care and see you on the surface!

Silica V0.8.76:

Gameplay:

• Added: Aim compensation for Siege Tank and Armed Transport
  
• Added: Chat, TeamChat and ServerChat console commands
  
• Added: Structure rally points
  
• Changed: Siege Tank projectile now has ballistic arc
  
• Changed: Squid may use both speed boost attack and explode attack at the same time
  
• Fixed: Crab stop/start/stop motion on lower FPS
  

Multiplayer:

• Added: Sending packets through lanes, separating reliable and unreliable
  
• Changed: Overhauled Steam networking layer to use Steam Networking Sockets
  
• Fixed: Server advertised only once fully loaded
  
• Fixed: Trying to connect while loading could result in not being able to join again
  
• Fixed: Net Update packets were being sent as reliable (should be unreliable)
  
• Fixed: Messages remained in the read buffer, allowing them to build up
  
• Fixed: When connection is ended but not informed, disconnect client/server if sending a packet returns no connection
  

Controls:

• Fixed: Input stuttering from noisy devices
  
• Fixed: Commander unit selection window not cleared on open menu
  

Performance:

• Optimized: CreatureTurret LOS check uses batched raycasts
  
• Optimized: Soldier LOS check now uses batched Raycasts
  
• Optimized: AI pathfinding calls spread out over time
  
• Optimized: Damage synchronization
  
• Optimized: Use poll group for client connections on server for faster reading
  
• Optimized: Network traffic based on load for damage and pathfinding paths
  
• Optimized: Unreliable packets not sent for a while if the send buffer is full
  
• Optimized: Projectiles multithreading
  
• Optimized: Soldiers and aliens no longer use animated colliders, using a custom algorithm
  

Balance:

• Changed: Squid explode damage from 2500 to 3500
  
• Changed: Dragonfly Health from 200 to 300
  
• Changed: Dragonfly speed from 35 to 45
  
• Changed: Dragonfly latch on force from 3.5 to 5
  
• Changed: Wasp Health from 200 to 300
  
• Changed: Wasp latch on force from 3.5 to 5
  
• Changed: Fighter magazine size from 100 to 40
  

"Commander, this is [REDACTED] reporting in. Several incoming hostiles detected, approaching fast, requesting backup... Holy sh... Mayday! Mayday! Unit [REDACTED] just took a hit and is going down! Need immediate assistance! Several squid-like bogies are closing... [SIGNAL LOST]"
-- Last transmission of the Aerial Covert Ops team

A pleasant morning or afternoon to you all!
An update has just been released focusing on optimization as well as the addition of the Squid, a kamikaze alien unit that is intended to counter human air units, though serves the purpose against ground units as well.
Some balancing changes have also made it in while the focus shifts to the planned, sweeping overhaul of AI. This will continue for some time, so stay tuned!

Without your support the game would not be half of what it is today, so a very personal thank you from the team.

Take care and see you in the skies of Baltarus!

Gameplay:

• Added: Squid alien unit
  

Technical:

• Added: Linux Dedicated Server support
  
• Changed: Upgraded to Steamworks.NET version 20.2.0 and Steamworks SDK 1.57
  
• Fixed: Movement values were normalized leading to reduced turning speed in vehicles
  
• Fixed: AI pathfinding could get broken when soldiers decided to go for cover
  
• Fixed: Linux-related screen size issue caused console spam and broken build
  
• Fixed: AI Commander did not use human air units
  
• Fixed: AI Commander did not use alien air units
  

Controls:

• Added: Support for alternate keybinds and validation
  
• Added: Sneak key to alien air
  
• Changed: Resetting binds uses global binds as defaults if they exist
  
• Changed: Bind validation revamp
  
• Fixed: Various input related bugs
  
• Fixed: Alt shift no longer resets sensitivity
  

Performance:

• Optimized: AI Commander construction placement raycasts multithreaded
  
• Optimized: Fog of war textures for non-player teams only created when needed
  
• Optimized: Team losing target no longer causes frametime spikes in unit/structure heavy scenes
  
• Optimized: Character controller spherecasts multithreaded
  
• Optimized: Update FPS hand animations only for the locally controlled soldier
  
• Optimized: Turret aiming raycasts multithreaded
  
• Optimized: Hovered vehicle jets only modulated when closer than 100m
  
• Optimized: Air vehicle jets and vfx only modulated when closer than 200m
  
• Optimized: Check risk of friendly fire algorithm
  
• Optimized: Animator deactivation on distance
  
• Optimized: GetBaseGameObject, GetHighestParent and GetDamageManager now uses cached results
  
• Optimized: Cached AIAgent, UnitCameraController and CrosshairInfo in Units automatically
  
• Optimized: Camera, CrosshairInfo and AIAgent precached references to all units
  

Multiplayer:

• Fixed: Player score incorrectly incremented by number of players
  
• Fixed: Day/night cycle switching to day suddenly when a player joined
  
• Fixed: Players remained on a team at the end of a Strategy game restart
  
• Fixed: Voice chat no longer worked at the end of a match
  

Balance:

• Changed: Fighter bullet range from 4000m to 600m
  
• Changed: Fighter bullet speed from 800m/s to 1600m/s
  
• Changed: Dropship bullet range from 2500m to 1000m
  
• Changed: Gunship bullet range from 2000m to 1000m
  
• Changed: Thorn Spire targeting range from 500m to 650m
  
• Changed: Hive Spire targeting range from 300m to 450m
  
• Changed: Hive Spire shots range from 800m to 550m
  
• Changed: Dragonfly side-strafe speed to 25% of forward
  
• Changed: Dragonfly rearward speed to 50% of forward
  

FX:

• Improved: Light Quad engine sounds
  
• Improved: Heavy Quad engine sounds