v1.01.04 - 03.08.04
GENERAL
FIXED: The server would crash if you exited the CC in fp mode
FIXED: The multiplayer executable was not starting at the server browser by
default (it required /c parameter).
v1.01.03 - 03.02.04
GENERAL
FIXED: A crash introduced in the previous version, related to Tradcom and an
incorrect file parameter.
v1.01.02 - 02.28.04
GENERAL
Minor cleanup
Explosion sounds are no longer played for missiles blowing up or for fragments
resulting from an explosion. This presents a slight performance boost in that
sounds are only played once in these two instances.
Recompiled with revised PTE2 terrain engine. This removes randomness for straight
and curved corner transition tiles which caused height variations when matched
with the reference heightmap for these transitions, resulting in incorrect terrain
heights at tile boundaries.
IA/TA scenarios numbering scheme has been revised
Now includes a limited version of the UNSUPPORTED GBS-II system for creating
mission scenarios
MULTIPLAY
Minor cleanup
ALT+Q in mp no longer quits the game. Now ALT+Q will return to the SNG screen
if the server was joined via the server browser. If +connect was used, the game
will quit. Dying (KIA) while on the server still spawns you on the server after
30 secs (BCSETUPMP.INI setting)
FIXED: Some client synch problems when on the planet
v1.01.01 - 12.12.03
GENERAL
After starting a new Roam or Campaign scenerio, player is now taken to MISCON
so that they can select a scenario other than the default. And upon exiting
MISCON, player is now taken to launch screen.
When observing a planet with TACOPS, the view now zooms all the way to the player
if the player is located on the planet. Previously the default zoom view is
from the top level GBM.
Player can no longer drop the tractor beam during a hyperspace transition by
lowering the shields
Minor legacy cleanup e.g. BRIG has been changed to DETENTION HOLD, all occurences
of SH (shuttles) are now SC, IC to FC etc etc. Note that some locations are
still abbreviated in order for them to fit in the displays when running the
game at 640x480 resolution. This usually happens in Perscan and other systems
which display this information.
Roam or campaign scenarios (e.g. Feather Duster) which take place in the IA
galaxy didn't allow access to all the station menu options (i.e. only Logistix
is accessible) due to a script command resetting some values to IA.
The Quick Save option has been removed from the TLM/SYSTEMS menu. Also the ALT+CTRL+S
command has been removed and ALT+S now does the Full Save.
Intruders and now prisoners are removed from the CC (and any support crafts)
when docked at a station. Previously, intruders were captured and either converted
into prisoners and placed in the detention hold, or removed.
The DIE unit is no longer cancelled automatically when player moves.
Revised LBASES.HTML and NAVCHART.HTML files in the DOCSAPPENDIX folder. These
files now contain the launch bases and galaxy maps for the two IA/TA galaxies.
Also revised several other appendix data files e.g. the crew sections for cruisers
and transports and also added the turret shot ratings to ships etc. Also revised
the craft related files to include the turret shot ratings, units etc
Revised the granularity of AG events so that too many NPC entity classes don't
get generated at the same time
FIXED: The OC wasn't recharging when docked with the CC
FIXED: Some of the IA scenario descriptions (e.g. BCIA0026) were truncated in
MISCON due to a missing blank line in the .DES file
FIXED: The regions in the IA2 galaxy regions will no longer show up in the Start
New Game options for ROAM/ACM scenarios
FIXED: The regions in the IA1 and IA2 galaxy regions are now correctly filtered
out of the HSD menu
FIXED: The Esoterica station was using the New America station base class data
in Tradcom/Info
FIXED: Prisoners can no longer be given orders from Tactical/Loadout/Team
FIXED: A very serious problem with loading saved games. In some instances the
EOF marker was not being preserved and this would cause the game to either enter
an infinite loop or crash.
FIXED: The fatal error window will now be displayed when the game is running
in full screen mode
FIXED: Cloned personnel were re-created without their default inventory
FIXED: If the controller in CONFIG is set to Mouse or Keyboard the joystick
rudder axis is now ignored. This forces mouse X to perform roll when SHIFT is
pressed and yaw when shift is released irrespecive of the type of joystick that
is connected
MULTIPLAY
Implemented server version checking. The client will abandon connections to
a server with a mismatched version. NOTE: Release and Debug versions are classed
as incompatible i.e a release build client cannot connect to a debug build server
Further prediction and orientation tweaks. Orientation error correction is performed
so that objects turn smoothly and don't snap orientation when the predicted
orientation deviates from an incoming positionion/orientation packet. The error
correction is performed using a velocity correction with a quadratic ease-in
and ease-out profile. The duration of the correction is set to half of the delay
between the last two packets.
The orientation component of the position packet therefore no longer directly
sets the orientation of the object (which causes the snap). This can result
in a slight delay when an object is initially created while the error correction
procedure sets the proper initial orientation. During this time the object may
be observed to spin. This usually occurs after docking and launching from a
station.
During prediction, the velocity vector is rotated with predicted orientation
adustment to reduce positional deviation.
On the server, the TTD of cloaked or hidden objects is no longer displayed
Some packet sizes have been reduced (in particular the position/orientation
packet)
Remote craft prediction is now disabled during hyperspace jumps (this would
disrupt/delay the entry into a jump).
The crafts progress time through a hyperjump is now sent in order to improve
syncronization.
Status packets (armor/shield/integrity etc) are now sent during hyperjump. Status
data that effects the visual state of the craft is ignored.
The client can now chat when in TACOPS (ESCAPE key)
SHIFT+ESCAPE now displays the list of clients currently connected on the server.
Press any key or mouse click, to dismiss the menu. Works on the server or client.
Server operator can now send chat messages to clients by pressing ESC. Interface
is the same as client chat (except t there is no "team" option). Clients
can send chat message only to the server op by de-selecting all players from
the send list. When the message is sent, only the server op will get it.
Server logging to BCSDEBUG.LOG is now enabled using "/l[level]" where
level can be 1 to 5. The higher the level, the more info that is recorded. The
/l (lower case!) option and (a) it must be preceded by /s (server) and (b) it
is valid in the debug and release builds. e.g. "bcmg.exe /s /l2"
First pass at non-dedicated (unsupported) server. This allows the client and
server to run on the same machine. To connect a client to a server running on
the same machine, create (you can just clone the existing Join MP Server shortcut)
a new shortcut and add +connect 127.0.0.1 commandline parameters. Then start
the server and connect to it using the newly created shortcut.
* FYI
You need a high-end machine for this setup. Minimum requirements are : P4 2.0Ghz
or Athlon 2200+ with 512MB RAM
This will work for a LAN or Internet server.
When the client attempts to initialize using the port number for the server
(2302) it will fail the first time as the server is already using that port.
In that case the client will now attempt to retry using the next port (2303).
Since only one retry attempt is performed it is only possible to run one client
on a machine also running a server.
If the server and windowed client (/w1) are run it is possible to switch focus
between the two windows
Adding additional clients (on the LAN or otherwise) does not work. This non-dedicated
server only allows a single client and server on the same machine; for the same
reason you cannot run two clients on the same machine and both trying to access
a server (on another machine).
The client running on the same machine as the server will currently not receive
any player-to-player communications (e.g. chat). This is being researched further
and a workaround for this will be forthcoming.
Further prediction and object orientation tweaks. Its now a lot smoother than
ever before (WIP)
Added support for scenario loading via the commandline
Usage is similar to other commandline parameter passing e.g. "bcmg.exe
+scenario bcmp0000"
The commandline option takes precedence over the BCSETUPMP.INI setting i.e.
if +scenario is specified, then the value set in the INI file is ignored.
The default is BCMP0000 in the event that (a) +scenario is not specified and
(b) the [game.scenarios] block in the INI file is empty or doesn't contain a
scenario
The scenario value is also reported to the master servers
Several revisions to player name/asset reporting
The primary asset status of an object is maintained globally. The primary asset
is the object that the player starts in (unless he starts in a FP career without
an asset). The name given to this asset is specified in SNG. This name will
appear in logs and TTDs etc. When the player is aboard the primary asset the
player name preceeds the asset name in the format: player name (asset name)
When aboard a support craft, the support craft name replaces the primary asset
name
When the player is not aboard the primary asset, its name is simply the asset
name
When in FP mode the name of the objects is the players name
The client info list now shows just the player name and asset name. The third
name (the effective player name which would change depending on the players
location, has been removed to avoid confusion and to avoid problems with very
long names)
Several revisions to the chat system
The key entry menu item is now taller at low screen resolutions so the text
does not overflow the bottom of the menu.
If the text entered into a chat menu item forces the menu width close to the
width of the display then menu item font size is reduced to allow entry of more
text. Additional text input at the smaller size is limited so the menu cannot
exceed the display width.
If the chat message length is longer than might fit into the Commlink or Commlink
menu, then it is broken into multiple parts e.g.
[SERVER OP] If the chat message length is longer...
...than might fit into the commlink or commlink...
...menu then it is broken into multiple parts
A reasonable attempt is made to split the message at whitespace.
WIP: A new multiplay specific chat system is being implemented. This allows
the previous 8 (or perhaps more) messages to appear in the entry menu above
the text entry menu item. Incoming messages (not local messages) will scroll
here in Teletype style as they are received. This makes it easier to view messages
(press the ESC key and leave the dialog open) without having to use the default
Commlink system which may not be desirable during heavy combat sessions.
The names of objects that are displayed in the CVD and TACSCAN can overflow
the instrument, e.g. this one definitely does "TER/MIL Supreme Commander
(GCV-Warmonger)". This happens usually when the player is aboard his primary
asset. The name is too large to fit at lower resolutions. Such names are now
trimmed using the following methods
The asset name is stripped ie "TER/MIL Supreme Commander". If the
name is still too large then
The race and caste are stripped ie "Supreme Commander". If the name
is still too large then
The name is truncated and an ellipsis is added until it will fit, e.g. "Supreme
Comman..."
NOTE: This may be required for some menus as well, e.g. Zoom To menu that lists
object names and status information can easily be too wide to be visible at
lower resolutions if the player names are long.
Some properties of cloaked obects are now supported (eg noise spikes and "there's
something out there"). This also addresses instances where a ship that
was cloaked before cannot be seen in the CVD when it decloaks
Added several server/client messages (e.g. destroyed, connect, disconnects etc).
These are sent to clients and also the server log file
The client info list is now consistent in all clients and server. Previously
the server used a different format
The default initial chat (when the client first joins the server) recipient
is now set to ALL (when the user selects the recipient with ENTER key)
The scenario name format in the BCSETUPMP.INI file has been revised to support
future multiplay scenarios
WIP: In fp mode the names of all clients on the server are now displayed above
their TTD. When this is completed, the names will be displayed only for friendlies
at long distances and be displayed for hostiles at short distances. This new
feature makes combat in fp mode a bit easier (and consistent with other multiplay
games) for picking out friendlies from hostiles without having to constantly
use the DIE to find targets. However, since only their name is displayed, if
you want the full TTD info, you have to select the person in the DIE radar mode.
The metacharacters "~", "@" & "*" no longer
perform special processing in chat text entry menu items (chat and password
entry), thereby allowing them to be used.
The CHEATS menu has been added to the graphical server window. This allows the
server op to dynamically create entities in the game world. e.g. you could create
a hostile carrier in the middle of a group of friendly players or even create
a cargo pod of minerals (currently only Plutonium, Iridium, Radine are supported)
and drop it in the game world for gamers to fight over and collect for themselves.
Implemented -nms (no master server) which will prevent the server from broadcasting
to the master servers. Can be used in cases where you don't want anyone to see
your server in the in-game browser or ASE. The only way for anyone to then join
the server is if they know the IP address - and then they'd have to join the
server using command line options.
Server now supports AutoGenerated entities in scripts. This is controlled in
the BCSETUPMP.INI file using the allow_ag option e.g. allow_ag=1. If set to
0, then no NPCs will be generated regardless of what is in the script. i.e.
this INI option overrides whatever is in the script currently running.
The Individual and Multiple chat recipient menus can now be navigated using
the up and down arrow keys so that you don't have to take your hands off the
keyboard in order to use the mouse to select a recipient. The space bar will
toggle the selected menu item that has a check box.
In the Indivudual recipient menu, the enter key will action the selected menu
item.
In the Multiple recipient menu, the enter key will action "Send"
irrespective of the currently selected item. (This is so the player does not
need to navigate to send to actually send the message).
The mouse can still be used to manipulate the menu.
The BCSERVERCONFIG app now supports the new scenario naming format introduced
in RC6
FIXED: If you exited your craft, you sometimes couldn't get back in it. This
problem appeared when the ability to have your player name in your TTD, was
implemented.
FIXED: If the first player to login to a server logged off, the server would
not destroy the object. As such, it will remain "ghosted" on the server
until the server was restarted.
FIXED: Chat menu items widths/tab stops calculated using lower case text which
was later forced to upper case causing text to overflow RHS of menu
FIXED: Client crash if another player disconnects while in hyperspace
FIXED: Location of remote craft during hyperspace jump was undefined and would
sometimes cause a crash or out of synch condition
FIXED: The Insurgent caste was available for all races instead of only for the
Terran race. This would cause a problem if player selected, for example, Gammulan
Insurgent.
FIXED: Crash on server when pressing ALT+S and F1 to F10. This bug appeared
when the ability to chat on the server was implemented in RC2.
FIXED: Problems sending chat messages in FP mode
FIXED: Tacops "ZOOM TO" menu not functioning on server
FIXED: In the release build, when the client sends any packet to itself, (e.g.
sends chat to "all"), the client could become disconnected from his
asset. This manifests itself in various ways e.g. creation of ghost objects,
pauses, inability to control craft, inability to see craft in exernal views,
spurious instability issues etc.
FIXED: several client synch problems due to high packet loss from the client
FIXED: several problems related to client info in the TTD, the SHIFT+ESC client
info list, the server, etc etc
FIXED: If you have weapons armed and try to discard the comms message box with
a left mouse click, the guns will no longer fire
FIXED: Previously if a client was destroyed and respawns, sometimes it could
no longer receive comms messages from other clients.
FIXED: current speed indicator in HUD not updated. Also fixes any other problem
cause by the use of the predicted velocity for local objects.
FIXED: remote object cloaking SFX "looping" on local clients
FIXED: sometimes, depending on their asset, when a client was destroyed a GPF
would occur after the respawn delay
FIXED: ALT+Q and ALT+S now quit the server instead of causing a crash
FIXED: Exiting Perscan with the ESC (or any key) no longer activates the chat
window on return to the bridge li>FIXED: A call to a time function
on the server (which has no valid player profile object) is likely to cause
a crash if AG is enabled on the server and an NPC docks to resupply the station.
v1.01.00 - 05.30.03
GENERAL
Replaced DivX version with Indeo 5.10 version of Dreamcatcher logo animation.
For more on this, read the troubleshooting FAQ.
Updated README.RTF, added BCMG_MANUAL_REV.HTML and renamed BCMFAQ.HTML to BCMGFAQ.HTML
(update your shortcut properties accordingly because the old version will continue
to point to BCMFAQ.HTML) to avoid confusion with files from the original BCM
game.
Added IA galaxy maps galaxy_map_links_ia1.jpg and galaxy_map_links_ia2.jpg to
docsappendiximagesmaps.
If you go to MISCON and attempt to LOG OFF while running an IA or TA scenario,
you will now return to the game instead of only being allowed to exit entirely.
Previously, you could only return to the craft by first going to another sub
system e.g. Logistix.
The wing of fighters in BCIA0043 will now start in the same space region as
you, instead of being created on the planet you are supposed to be attacking.
Some people didn't realize that they were being created on the planet.
Your race/caste in BCIA0044 is now set to TER/INS instead of TER/MIL, thereby
preventing your imminent destruction by the station when you launch.
Navitron will no longer display the main galaxy map in IA/TA scenarios, since
they take place in a different galaxy
Restricted the station's ability to have extremely high quantities of items
Revised orders menu so that access to all assets is now possible regardless
of where the AE is located. Previously the Tacops shuttles menu could not be
used to launch a shuttle if the AE is not aboard the CC. This was reported as
a bug. Its not. Thats how it was originally designed to work.
Also, a problem was reported in which if the AE was assigned to an OC in a launched
shuttle, on quit/restore, the Tacops waypoint orders menu only listed orders
for the OC regardless of the craft selected. This is not a bug. Basically the
waypoint menu is showing options valid for the SC (for example it shows TOW
which is not a valid OC option), however the AE is located in the OC and the
startup code is using the asset (OC) that the AE is currently located in to
create the menu and not his primary asset (CC). As the OC has no OC/FC/SC/DRN
assets of its own, no orders that relate to these craft will be added to the
orders menu. This occurs when the game is restored and the player is not located
in his primary asset. The menu revision above should alleviate this confusion
but it may cause other quirks elsewhere e.g. trying to order a unit that is
invalid or in a completely different region.
Introduced special handling so that TER/MIL and TER/INS station captures work
more reliably. Someone reported that EPs and medals were not awarded for capturing
stations. This is false. As the manual indicates, EPs and medals are only awarded
for the capture of hostile stations. In the case of TER/MIL and TER/INS, because
the Insurgents are a special case caste, sometimes EPs would not be awarded
in some cases. Also, as the EP.HTML file in the appendix indicates, medals for
station captures are only awarded if you are playing as TER/MIL, TER/INS and
TER/EAR.
The commander career now has access to the illegal items list in Tradcom
FIXED: If you attempt to tow a unit when there is no power to launch control
and cannot, when you turn power on to launch control and try again, the tow
operation will fail. What was happening is that after the message "LAUNCH
CONTROL NEEDS POWER" message is displayed a further message: "RECOVERY
FAILED" is queued. This message had a zero display time, which is used
when asking a question. But no question was issued with this message. The consequences
of this situation are:
1) the message is never seen
2) the message remains locked in the message channel (waiting for a response)
3) the icon representing the person asking the message will remain on the display
4) further messages from the person are queued but never seen
The deadlock is cleared when the message queue is flushed.
Updated appendix files airdefense2.html, cruisers.html, transports.html
FIXED: Clearing the Commlink log will cause a crash due to the long install
path to the game folder
FIXED: If you accessed Logistix from Tacops, selected the SC icon and then select
the CARGO icon (for the CC) without first selecting a craft, a crash may sometimes
occur.
FIXED: The LBASES.INI file had some incorrect entries which affected the starting
base locations for some careers.
FIXED: In certain conditions an item can get into the "repair suspended"
state but will be prevented from switching to "ready" status once
it was 100% repaired.
MULTIPLAY
The /c parameter in the "Join MP Server" shortcut is no longer required.
If this parameter is present in the shortcut, it can safely be removed. Note
that this patch will remove this parameter.
Requesting a tow ship has been disabled on the client in order to prevent abuse.
Once acceptable restrictings are identified, it MAY be re-enabled with said
restrictions.
Implemented several towing restrictions in order to prevent cheating. See the
FAQ for more on multi play restrictions
Local LAN servers will no longer report to the master server. This was a problem
in the ASE sdk.
Servers will no longer connect to the CDKEY authentication server. THIS IS TEMPORARY
AND WILL BE RE-ENABLED IN A LATER UPDATE!
There is now a backup master server hosted on 3000ad.com. Internet servers will
now report to both the ASE and 3000AD master servers.
Optimized the prediction code to make it smoother under low transmission conditions.
Still needs further tweaking.
Added support for Multiple (M) and individual (P) chat recipients. With individual
recipients, select one item from the chat menu. With multiple recipients, check
the menu boxes for desired recipients and then click SEND.
The text entry (for sending chat and server password) now uses a larger font
in order to improve readability.
When the player quits the game or if the connection to the server fails, the
game will do a clean exit instead of going back to the server browser.
When a player is killed he goes back to Start New Game to change settings (remains
connected to the server) instead of being spawned with previously selected settings.
This is required in circumstances where player may wish to change his game options
e.g. switch from Elite Force Marine to Planetary Support Pilot, without having
to disconnect from the server, reconnect etc because on popular and crowded
servers, player may lose his slot when disconnected.
Implemented a third-party networking SDK update which fixes packet flooding
and other problems on the server.
Support for the /cheat parameter has now been disabled in the client in order
to prevent, well, cheating.
Included a stand-alone MFC server config app called, funny enough, BCServerConfig.
This allows you to configure the server without having to manually edit the
BCSETUPMP.INI server file. For usage info, see the BCServerConfig.txt file located
in the game install folder.
The server will no longer do any graphics rendering when minimized. This improves
performance as well as the reliability of a minimized server app. THE SERVER
REQUIRES A GRAPHICAL INTERFACE AND WAS NOT DESIGNED TO BE RUN WHILE MINIMIZED.
SO, DO THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK
All sound fx have now been disabled on the server. This greatly improves performance.
This has no effect on the client.
Some graphics options e.g. planetary terrain detail texturing, blast fragments,
are now disabled on the server. This improves performance. This has no effect
on the client.
Added more options for All Seeing Eye browser support.
More entries in the BCSETUPMP.INI file are now reported to the ASE master server
Revised ASE launch syntax: bcmg.exe +connect ip:port +name "my_name"
+password "server_password". You can also use this syntax to connect
directly to a server (i.e. its not just for launching the game from within the
ASE browser)
Added more options to the in-game browser (powered by ASE).
An internet server which also resides on an internal LAN subnet will no longer
appear in the browser's LAN servers list
The in game server browser now has all elements as part of the bitmap. Previously
they were handled by program code. It looks better this way and entities are
now nicely lined up and neater looking. To see what I mean, compare the previous
ROS-MP.BMP file in the GFXFRONTENDINTERFACE.ZIP file to the newer version from
this patch.
You can now see and filter different server types e.g. dedicated, fleet, private.
An icon indicating the server type is also displayed next to the server name.
The server list is now obtained when you start the client. No need to do a Refresh
first. If you don't see any servers, the master server is either down or your
firewall is incorrectly configured. Read the Multiplayer Issues section of the
troubleshooting FAQ for more info on this.
Added support for displaying the selected server version. When a server is selected,
the version number is displayed at the bottom of the server list display, next
to its ping time.
The C key conflicted with the first person crouch action and so was changed.
In order to chat, press the ESCAPE key and the message prompt will appear. See
the manual revision file for more info on multiplay chat.
FIXED: The "Start in" section in the properties for the "Join
MP Server" and "Start MP Server" shortcuts did not contain the
path to the game folder.
