Ancient Warfare 3 News

Alpha 0.37.7 is just a small technical update to improve the stability of the game and change some minor things in preparation for the custom creator update.

There is also some new stuff:

• Added an option to campaign levels to not show the description/prepare UI between levels (this screen will still be visible when starting the campaign from the main menu)
  
• Added an Array/Clear scripting node to remove all elements from an array
  
• Added nodes to help with different aspect ratios when creating custom UI
  
  • CurrentWidth, CurrentHeight, AspectRatio nodes can be used to get information about the current dimensions of the game window
    
  • NormalizeX & NormalizeY can be used to convert screen coordinates or sizes from absolute pixels into normalized values (0-1)
    
• [Win64] When overwriting a save file and using the recycle bin is not allowed, the game will create a '__backup.xml' file in the same directory to prevent accidental loss of save files
  

[h3]More modular building material settings[/h3]
Material settings (color, metallic, smoothness) have been added to glass and stone modulars. The transparency of glass modulars can be adjusted as well.


[h3]Air vehicle improvements[/h3]

• Placed air vehicles in the editor will now be placed depending on the terrain height below them (or the height of the closest terrain edge if placed outside of the terrain)
  
• Modern and future era planes and helicopters now have flares to defend from anti air missles. The amount of available flares depend on the air vehicle and every time flares are used, there is a 90% chance that the missle targets one of the flares instead
  
• Added the LH100 bomber (fictional) which is similar to real life stealth planes
  
• Helicopter improvements
  • Added inertia to helicopter movement
    
  • They will now look ahead when calculating their target height to prevent crashes
    
  • Height calculations will now consider modular buildings and other objects
    
  • Before crashing into a building, helicopters will try to stop and move up now
    
  • Helicopters will no longer try to shoot through the terrain and objects (if there is no chance that the target can be hit)
    
  • Improved destruction: Helicopters will start to smoke and fall down with their current velocity and random rotation, once they hit the ground they will explode
    
• Plane improvements
  • Plane movement is no longer physics based to make it more predictable and reliable
    
  • Planes will look ahead (similar to helicopters) to calculate and keep a safe flight height
    
  • Their targeting has been improved slightly and ground only targeting should work again
    
  • Improved plane/plane avoidance in the air
    
  • Dropped bombs will now have inertia. As a result, planes will drop their bombs much earlier to hit their target
    
  • Instead of just breaking apart when being destroyed, planes will now start to smoke and fall to the ground similar to helicopters
    

[h3]New scripting nodes[/h3]

• Added OnUnitStart event node which runs for each placed/spawned unit
  
• Added nodes to get information about an equipment id: GetDamage, GetCaliber, GetMagazineCapacity, GetArmorClass
  
• Added OnBeginReload and OnReload event nodes which will run when the player starts to reload and when the reloading process has just finished
  

[h3]Other improvements[/h3]

• Updated the pause menu
  
• Added a volume adjust slider to the pause menu, which can be used to quickly adjust the volume while playing a map from the workshop.
  
• Modular pillars can now be dragged upwards to place multiple at once
  

[h3]Bug fixes[/h3]

• Fixed that punching with ranged weapons would trigger the OnShoot event node
  
• Fixed generation of destroyed vehicle variants in the editor
  
• Fixed that png files with uppercase extension (.PNG) could not be loaded
  
• Fixed that searching with uppercase text for units in transport vehicles would not find any
  
• Fixed that the fog edit button would be hidden in the fog for high fog intensity
  
• Fixed that custom poisoned zombies did not cause poison damage
  
• Fixed that fog would become invisible when returning from the custom unit editor
  
• Fixed various errors related to zombie grenades
  
• Fixed incorrect aim point positioning and weapon accuracy when using scripting walls which only block the player
  
• Fixed a bug that caused the max health of the player to be set to the amount of the previous campaign level
  
• Fixed a bug that caused the plant in plant pots to stay in place when the pot dropped
  
• Fixed various issues that caused wall mounted objects to fall to the ground when deleting any object with a relation to it
  
• Fixed that open doors would break as if they were closed
  
• Fixed plane settings UI errors
  
• Fixed that editing modular colors would result in slight rgb value differences when selecting the same object again
  
• Fixed a bug that allowed objects to be deselected while using transform handles
  

[h3]Alpha 0.38.0 (Custom Creators)[/h3]
The custom creators are still being worked on. The first private beta test is next week to test the functionality of the editors. If everything works well, I'm going to start implementing the custom items in the save system and other parts of the game, which will bring it much closer to release.
If you want to see the creators in action, here is a video about them:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-pkkQwlfIc

[h3]Features & Improvements[/h3]
New scripting loop nodes
Added 3 new loops which allow you to quickly implement timers and linear interpolation without using the update node and variables.

• TimedLoop runs every frame for 'duration' seconds
  
• LinearLoops runs every frame for 'duration' seconds and linearly interpolates between two values during that time
  
• SmoothStepLoop works like LinearLoop but uses a interpolation function that smooths the beginning and ending of the interpolation
  

Unlike the EndlessLoop node, these nodes can be started multiple times in one script and will then run concurrently

Fog zones
Added fog areas to the scripting view. You can create fog cubes with custom size, color and intensity. These areas can be controlled with scripts to change the visuals dynamically based on gameplay events.

Collection node
Added a scripting collection input node which outputs and array, but allows you to select multiple references at once in the scripting view instead of having to create and select an input node for each individual reference.

Zombie infection option
Added an option to the battle settings which will result in the zombie infection to spread.

• If a unit gets bitten by a zombie, it will transform into a zombie after 2.5 - 3.5 seconds
  
• While the bitten unit is transforming, zombies will be far less aggressive towards that unit
  
• If a bitten unit dies, it will stay dead but still turn into a rotten corpse
  
• Feral and poisoned zombies will cause the infected unit to transform into a feral/poisoned zombie as well
  
• If the player gets bitten, its body will start to rot which will result in the player dying after 7-10 seconds
  

Other improvements

• Future walkers and mechs will now break apart when being destroyed
  
• Saved at path message will now hide the default path similar to the file browser
  
• Recycle bin errors (missing permission, etc) will now be visible in the console
  

[h3]Bug fixes[/h3]

• Fixed a bug that caused spawned units to be covered in snow with snow enabled
  
• Fixed AI visibility detection through door frames
  
• Fixed invisible spectate notification
  
• Fixed a possible error when closing the script editor
  
• Fixed that the IngoreTarget node did not work for multiple targets at once
  
• Fixed that most custom units were immune against poison and most gas grenades
  
• Fixed that reloading the steam workshop panel could result in white icons
  
• Fixed that HUD/ShowProgress node didnt work in some cases
  
• Fixed that placing a prefab with scripts multiple times could result in various bugs (e.g. unwanted deletion of scripts)
  

(0.37.4.1)

• Fixed a problem that prevented the deletion of battles if the game has no rights to use the recycle bin
  
• Fixed a crash when opening the edit terrain shape panel
  

(0.37.4.2)

• Fixed a problem that caused massive performance degradation when using scripting panels before playing a battle
  
• Fixed increasingly slow loading times when opening scripts after each other
  
• Improved CustomInfo node performance when generating a node every frame
  

[h3]Features & Improvements[/h3]

• Color and intensity of the environment fog can now be controlled with the new scripting nodes 'SetFogColor' and 'SetFogLevel'
  
• Added scripting input nodes for keybinds (attack, defend, interact, ...)
  
  
  
  • Please note that changes to keybinds will only take effect after restarting the battle
    
• The age of workshop battles is now shown next to the name and creator when inspecting the item
  
• You can now load custom terrain brushes (grayscale heightmap images) into the custom terrain editor
  
  
  
  • Custom brushes can be used to modify the height and paint color on the terrain
    
• Shapes can now be rotated with Q/E while painting the terrain
  
• Added a distance slider while selecting scripting references to hide far away selection points and make it easier to select the reference of your choice
  
• On windows, when overwriting or deleting battles, prefabs or units the deleted file will now be moved to the recycle bin instead of being permanently deleted to prevent data loss
  
  
  
  • This can be deactivated in the game settings and is enabled by default
    

[h3]Bug fixes[/h3]

• Fixed a bug that caused flying vehicles when entering them as a player
  
• Fixed a crash that could happen when dividing by 0 in scripts
  
• Fixed that copy/pasting wire settings would cause them to despawn
  
• Fixed inverted materials on 'Jungle Tree 23'
  
• Fixed that units tried to shoot through destroyed ground vehicles
  
• Fixed incorrect SubF node description
  
• Poison damage will no longer be applied indefinitely in very small amounts
  

[h3]Next update[/h3]
There will be another intermediate patch in two weeks (28.02.22) with qol/regular features and the latest bug fixes. Work on the big custom creator update continues alongside.

Please note that there are issues with the windows 32bit version that are preventing it from receiving this update. Once these problems are resolved, the update will be released for 32bit as well.

[h2]Next major update[/h2]
Hello everyone, just in case you missed it, custom weapon, armor, equipment and object creators are coming to Ancient Warfare 3 in the next major update!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLvXIpComqU
Until then, there will be intermediate updates like this one.

[h2]Alpha 0.37.3[/h2]
[h3]Scripting tag system[/h3]
Handling units in the scripting system has always been somewhat difficult. Whether it's the question if a specific type of unit was involved in certain actions or getting certain units without having them referenced beforehand, there was no easy way of doing that.
This update introduces tags which can be added to units in the scripting view or with scripting nodes.

By using tags you can quickly test if a unit has a tag to identify a type of unit or gather a list of units with a certain tag to quickly create groups of units which can be controlled as a whole. Units can have an infinite amount of tags which can be added and removed at any time.

[h3]Other scripting features[/h3]
New restrict nodes Added RestrictShoot, RestrictMelee and RestrictSupport nodes to prevent the usage of melee/ranged weapons or support equipment like grenades
CustomInfo output Added an output for the reference to the HUD element when using the CustomInfo node which allows you to delete the HUD element before redrawing it in the next frame. That way custom HUD elements can be drawn without any overlapping or flickering
Preview selected reference When selecting any reference in the scripting view, the currently selected referenced will be highlighted in red now
Bullet spawning Bullets can now be spawned from scripts by using the SpawnBullet/SpawnBulletEx nodes

[h3]Bug fixes[/h3]

• Fixed a bug that prevented workshop items from being uploaded if the thumbnail was too large
  
• Fixed that controlling the siege shield would result in weird movement
  
• Fixed despawning of equipment (from scripting) for units with dual wielding
  
• Fixed that passive non hostile units spawned by scripts would be attacked
  
• Fixed missing icons for ropes/wires
  
• Fixed a bug that caused (scripting controlled) music to continue to be played after leaving the battle
  
• Fixed OnLand scripting node visuals
  
• Fixed that punching with ranged weapons would damage allied units with friendly fire deactivated
  
• Fixed a bug that caused various problems when starting to control a unit with projectiles stuck in them
  
• Fixed that pasting text in a text field would also paste copied nodes in the script editor