Project Wingman/Updates

A comprehensive transcription of game updates.

Pre-release

Patch Notes 0.2.10c -> 0.3.2 (December 13, 2017)

Scenario:

• Added new scenario from Perth Games Festival 2017 showcase "Chainlink". A multi-role showcase mission to preview A2G weaponry.

Aircraft:

• Added F\E-18.
• Adjusted Sk.27 cockpit.
• Added flavor text to all flyable aircraft.
• Adjusted names for all aircraft in the game.
• Updated all flyable aircraft with higher fidelity models and textures.
• Adjusted weapon loadouts for all flyable aircraft.

Weapons:

• Added URKTS (Unguided Rocket Pods)
• Added MLAG (Multi Lock Air to Ground missiles)
• Added UGBS (Unguided Bomb)
• Overhauled missile behavior.
• Adjusted machine gun damage.
• Parameter adjustments for every armament.

Graphics:

• Adjusted lighting and post processing effects to be more consistent through multiple scenes.
• Ejecting pilots has been added into the game.
• Adjusted effects and mood in various weather.
• Reduced cloud and rain effects to reduce overdraw.
• New high detailed vegetation has been added into various environments.
• Added ground and water wake effects when flying close to the ground.
• New loading screen has been added.
• Revised various destruction effects to be more optimized.

Gameplay:

• New difficulty options ranging from EASY, NORMAL, and HARD. (Please provide feedback on the difficulty on whichever one you play at)
• New HVT markers for high threat units.
• Improved camera behavior.
• UI is now fully normalized for gameplay related HUD.

Controls:

• Removed Mouse Control mode. (Currently being overhauled)
• Arcade control scheme has been overhauled and is now usable.
• Controls UI overhauled.
• Adjusted cursor speed when using other methods of input.

Music:

• Various tracks by Jose Pavli has been added to multiple levels throughout the game

Hangar:

• Completely overhauled the hangar.
• New Hangar UI.
• Added various props in aircraft selection.

Audio:

• Added rain audio.
• Added manoeuvering audio.
• Added ambient audio.
• Added ambient radio effects.
• Added cloud ambient effect.
• Overhauled player engine audio.
• Overhauled cockpit engine audio.

Misc:

• Added level streaming so loading screens are no longer static.
• Added various color options to HUD color.
• Main menu has been completely overhauled with a new appearance.
• Added alternate keyboard/gamepad buttons to accomodate "back" function in various menus.
• Added Imperial measurement units

Bugfixes:

• Fixed weapon cycling issue for those using weapon cycle command as opposed to the d-pad or numbers.
• HUD no longer appears during missile cam.
• Various other little bug fixes but i can't remember them because i didn't keep track of them (oops)

Patch Notes 0.3.2c (December 13, 2017)

Weapons:

• STDM Guidance Factor has been changed from 6.5 -> 5 (Lower is better)
• STDM Lockon Range has been changed from 2000m -> 2800m
• STDM detonation radius is 10% smaller
• MLAA Input Cap has been increased from 1 -> 1.5 (Higher = snappier)
• Variable Guidance Factor has been changed from "-3 to 2" -> "1 to -1"
• Variable Guidance range changed from 0->90 degrees to 0->180 degrees
• MLAG ammo count has been reduced from 28 -> 14 per weapon slot
• URKTS ammo count has been reduced from 26 -> 12 per weapon slot

Bug Fixes:

• Changes has been made on how FPS cap settings apply at the start of the game. Will need feedback whether it works or not on game start
• Adjusted Gun Firing Particle, which was especially prominent on the F/E-18 cockpit view
• Fixed HUD size in resolutions greater than 1080p (up to 4K)
• Removed "Caps Lock" key dev toggle
• Lock on element visibility fixed where it would be obstructed by objects
• Bombs now can now hit air units
• Bomb now emit explosive sounds
• Adjusted Bomb Widgets so it's more consistent with the rest of the UI
• Fixed where cockpit HUD would be visible in missile cam
• Fixed where vibration would persist when the player has finished the mission or crashes
• Fixed compass bearing where it would show 000 instead of 360
• Fixed level streaming where it packages every single map in the Project file causing it to bloat deployment size

Graphical Changes:

• Reduced cloud and rain effects intensity to reduce graphical overdraw

Patch Notes 0.3.3 (December 13, 2017)

Weapons:

• Variable Guidance Values has been changed from 1.5 -> -1 to -1 -> 0.5
• Reverted back again because it made it too likely that the missiles will hit when fired from a bad angle
• Variable Guidance range changed from 0->360 to 0->120
• Made the range where it gets variable guidance smaller so the behavior of the missile is more consistent
• STDM initial guidance cone has been reduced from 120 degrees to 45 degrees
• Made it so the missiles are less likely to receive guidance when fired from a ridiculous angle and sometimes causing them to do a complete U turn towards the enemy.
• STDM detonation radius has been decreased by 5%
• STDM Guidance Factor has been changed from 5 -> 5.25 (Lower is better)

AI:

• Adjusted Normal Difficulty AI behavior to be more aggresive
• Adjusted Hard Difficulty AI behavior to be extremely aggressive
• Adjusted player damage modifier in HARD difficulty (0.65 -> 1)
• Adjusted behavior on multiple aircraft to homogenize the performance for consistency

Bugfixes/Misc:

• Player destruction effect when shot down has been adjusted.
• Fixed gunsight being hidden by smoke
• Adjusted Bomb sight pipper to be smaller
• Adjusted gun pipper to be smaller

Patch Notes 0.3.4 (February 21, 2018)

• Adjusted spatial audio effect in the cockpit
• Adjusted rain effect visuals to increase visibility
• Chainlink music track updated to the latest version
• Disabled debug keys for world origin rebasing
• Fixed an issue where lock sound would persist after level ends
• Changed FOV configuration to use vertical FOV instead of horizontal FOV

Patch Notes 0.3.4b (February 21, 2018)

• Fixed broken audio for cockpit sound
• Fixed smoke appearing suddenly upon facility destruction
• Upgraded textures of all aircraft
• Reverted faction specific aircraft liveries to generic liveries for demo purposes
• Fixed UI resizing issue
• removed debug gears

Patch Notes 0.3.5 (February 21-22, 2018)

• Added new Cirrus clouds
• Tweaked missile particles
• Changed scenario mission order
• Tweaked UI settings
• Opened up Chainlink map
• Adjusted placement of enemy reinforcements in Chainlink
• Optimized performance by 20-30% on certain hardware
• Adjusted subtitle font to be more readable
• Fixed stretching cirrus clouds
• Removed ominous black dot from appearing in the sky
• Changed offscreen target indicators to say "PRIORITY" instead of "TGT"
• Fixed constant negative acceleration bug

Patch Notes 0.3.5 -> 0.4.0 (May 30, 2018)

NEW CONTENT

Aircraft:

• SV-37 by Norden Co.: A high speed strike aircraft capable of carying deadly Air Ground payloads.

Unit type:

• Anura-Class Cruiser Airship: A Federation multi-purpose airship capable of delivering air superiority with it's 2 wing mounted AA and 2 VLS Anti Air installment on the top part of its fuselage.

Level:

• Operation Blackout: A deep strike mission behind enemy lines to destroy hostile Communications Base.

FEATURES AND FIXES

Weapons

• Added ADM (Anti-Defense Missile): A long range high damage missile capable of destroying ground targets as long as radar lock is maintained.
• Removed HMAA (High Manouver Anti-Air Missile): Removed for a rework
• Increased overall ammo count for every single weapon including standard missiles in exchange for longer reload times.

Controls

• Added a brand new controls rebinding screen
• Added calibration screen so users can verify their input within the menu

Gameplay

• Added an on-screen altitude warning

Audio

• Replaced all AWACS Galaxy callout

Misc

• New title screen
• New Splash screen
• Added temporary "Kickstarter" button
• Replaced typesetting of majority of the UI
• Added confirmation screens to various UI options
• Adjusted overall grading of the game to be much more consistent
• Laid out groundwork for Conquest mode. Full patchnote regarding Conquest mode soon.

Patch Notes 0.4.0.0523 -> 0.4.0.0529 (May 30, 2018)

Gameplay

Airship

• Fixed subsystems lead indicator: Fixing this issue has made fighting Airships almost trivial because missile tracking is much more accurate since it's getting speed information from the subsystems (which it wasn't before either) So a few balance changes has been made to the airship.
• Increased health from 60 -> 130
• Increased subsystems health from 50 -> 75
• Adjusted destruction VFX for a much more dramatic destruction
• Adjusted ground impact VFX for variation
• Fixed issue where Airship was not removed from the map during a map change causing many scripting issue to break.
• Fixed an issue where airships would go partway or fully into the ground making it impossible to complete some scenarios

Ground Units

• Hitboxes now extend to the actual 3D models of the game. However this may hurt performance as the game has to account for more hitboxes. Feedback required.

Hostile Aircraft

• Reduced issue where they would chase targets too far away from the AO.

Operation Blackout

• Transport aircraft no longer gets endlessly chased by enemy fighters upon dropping their payload.
• Fixed where Hitman 2 and Hitman 3 are trying to compete with the same spot for the player formation.

Player Aircraft

• Removed landing gears from being able to be deployed.
• Fixed target indicator showing twice after unpausing the game
• Fixed odd camera behavior when the player crashes onto the landscape

Bombs

• Pipper no longer stays if it's predicted to drop on an airship.

Missiles

• Adjusted missile behavior so it's less likely to level off in some scenarios.

Graphics

• Reduced odd grid effects from Ambient Occlusion. Not fully fixed yet.
• Fixed mountains not rendering properly in Clear Skies.
• Changed video memory allocation for individual settings.
• Adjusted AWACS Galaxy callout volume to 75% of it's original volume.
• Reduced the verbosity of AWACS Galaxy
• Removed some over-enthusiastic AWACS Galaxy callout lines.
• Fixed machine gun audio from starting out too loud in some scenarios

UI

• Removed leftover VR menu from GDC demo
• Fixed sortie screen not progressing other than a few keyboard keys
• You can now unpause using the "START" key of the gamepad.
• Subtitles made thicker and has a much more drawn out shadow for readability.
• Fixed mappings failing to unbind with certain hardware.
• Reduced UI snapping on ground vehicles.
• Fixed credits screen overlapping with each other

Patch Notes 0.4.0b.0529 -> 0.4.1.0625 (June 26, 2018)

NEW CONTENT

Game Mode

• Added Conquest mode Prototype with pre-set settings of Air to Air battle only and with a limit of 9 alert levels

Changes and Fixes

Aircraft

• Adjusted Sk.27 textures to be less uniform

UI

• Fixed confirmation UI from being able to click other things on the background
• Moved Altitude warning closer to the bottom of the screen

Hangar

• Fixed crash when mouse wheel is used
• Fixed where holding and releasing the mouse button in certain order would mess up Aircraft loadout menu

Vague

• Other changes

Alpha Patch Notes 0.4.1.0625 -> 0.4.5.0923 (September 23, 2018)

Gameplay:

• Fixed cannon hit detection radius on water.
• Enemy railguns now show a charge up animation before firing.
• Slowed railgun projectile.
• Fixed projectiles not colliding with instanced static meshes.
• AI Aircraft can now shoot their cannons at their target.
• Fixed hit detection on airship VLS/SAM to be much more accurate with the model appearance.
• Allied kills now nets 40% of the original score reward.
• Added UI warning when the player gets near the map limits.
• I/A-52 HP increased from 70->75

Controls:

• Removed default keybindings for rookie flight controls and mouse controls.
• Adjusted UI cursor controls and deadzone.
• Mouse controls has been enabled
• Mouse controls and rookie flight controls now disable each other in case of a conflict
• Mouse controls and rookie flight controls is now saved in user settings.

Conquest:

• Adjusted map lighting on all areas to be more consistent with the rest of the game.
• Removed ominous black circle in some conquest maps.
• Conquest cursor now remains in the same location after and before sortie.
• Increased fighter count at lower alert levels to reduce loiter times.
• Conquest no longer spawns random AA facilities throughout the map as it adds too much targetting noise for players.
• Revised Conquest final boss fight.

Chainlink:

• Adjusted the lighting to be more consistent with the rest of the game.

Clear Skies:

• Adjusted the lighting to be more consistent with the rest of the game.

Operation Blackout:

• Adjusted the lighting to be more consistent with the rest of the game.
• Fixed collision profiles on the power lines near the transformers to no longer block missiles.
• Fixed collision profiles on the power poles so that collision is now enabled for both players and projectiles.
• Overhauled the appearance of the forward base facility.
• Overhauled Oil Silo/Tanks to include destroyed models.

Hangar:

• During loadout selection, the camera now remains static in front of the Aircraft. The camera can still be freely moved by toggling free camera mode.
• Overhauled Conquest hangar to use the same hangar/loadout selection as Scenarios.
• Added missing SV 37 picture on hangar screen.
• Hangar now shows weapon compability list on each aircraft.
• Weapon listing is now separated into category onto what they are effective against.
• Readjusted the placements of a few UI elements in the hangar to be less intrusive.

Effects:

• Adjusted flare particle effect.
• Adjusted ground explosion effect.
• Added cannon impact effect on water.
• Adjusted water wake and dust effects activation distance.
• AI aircraft now correctly shows water wake effects.
• Fixed wingtip trail effect still appearing upon aircraft destruction.

UI:

• Adjusted on which elements gets shown and hidden in cockpit minimalist mode.
• Fixed rebinding UI that would occasionally show more sections than it should.
• Revised the cockpit pitch ladder appearance to show more clearly on positive and negative pitch.
• Revised radar UI appearance.
• The radar now zooms in and out depending on the distance of selected target for better visibility and awareness.
• Added grids onto the radar overlay for situational awareness.
• Adjusted the opacity of friendly units on radar to be not as opaque.
• Fixed inverted X and Y view axis in calibration view.
• Fixed Target indicators to be consistent in size no matter the field of view.
• Added preferred camera view.
• The game now remembers which camera view was used last.
• Adjusted the credits scene.
• Resolution scale now rounds to the nearest whole number.
• Fixed kill log not removing itself properly.
• Water splashes and heat haze no longer distorts the UI.

Visuals:

• Fixed the alignment of the F/D-14 model.
• Fixed a bug where some Post Process effects were flickering on lower settings.
• Adjusted Sk.27 external textures.
• Adjusted SV 37 cockpit txtures.
• Adjusted F/E-18 external textures.
• Fixed shadows pop in on parachutes and the radar dishes in Operation Blackout.
• Improved tree appearance in various levels.
• Further landscape optimizations.
• Fixed SV 37 cockpit textures where it would remain blurry for an extended period of time.

Audio:

• Lowered STDM lockon tone volume.
• Fixed Stall sound persisting on death.
• Fixed where audio effects did not play during a cloud dive in some camera views.
• Normalized some audio that were too loud or too quiet.
• Fixed some subtitle mismatch.
• Added gun hit sound on player.
• Added projectile whizz sound when it flies near the player.

Alpha Patch Notes 0.4.5.0923 "RC" to 0.4.5.0923 "Release" (September 26, 2018)

Operation Blackout:

• Re-adjusted the ground texture brightness in Operation Blackout
• Fixed a map boundary issue where the player would start the mission with exiting map warning.

Conquest:

• The mouse now moves the Conquest overworld cursor regardless of keybindings.
• Fixed the timer not going up when HUD is hidden.

Controls:

• Fixed an Issue where it would occasionally unbind everything unless the user presses "RESET" button.

Gameplay:

• Fixed an issue where pausing and unpausing the game would cause a split second camera jitter.
• Fixed an issue where Airship collision doesn't work properly on the player aircraft.
• Fixed missile hit detection on airships where sometimes it would simply pass through or miss on shots that should hit.

Targeting system:

• Fixed an issue where the targeting system would bias something that is closer to the player (despite being behind them) rather than what's in front of the player.
• Fixed a sticky targeting issue where sometimes it would target the same thing despite having other units in the area to target.

UI:

• Fixed UI elements misaligning in the Conquest Hangar
• Fixed Conquest hangar where a player can endlessly bring up the exit confirmation menu.
• Fixed the selected target indicator to be more distinct to the player.
• Fixed Mouse Control cursor not dissapearing properly when disabled.
• Mouse controls re-labeled as an Experimental feature.
• Hangar UI now will no longer display weapons that has been removed/disabled from the game to appear in the weapons compatibility list.
• Fixed the UI reappearing for the player despite HUD being disabled in the options menu.
• Fixed some UI elements from still appearing for the player despite HUD being disabled in the options menu.

Visuals:

• Fixed an issue where fade out to black to loading screens would constantly dissapear on lower settings making the screen flash constantly during loadings.
• Fixed long distance shadows (again)
• Fixed Mouse Control pointer appearing in subsequent playthroughs after a level.
• Readjusted the Sk.27 textures.

Post-release

Patch Notes 1.0.3->1.0.4C/Beta (December 7, 2020)

General:

• Fixed Cruise Missiles spawning in Return
• Fixed repeating take off sequence in No Respite.
• Fixed Red Sea Ending too quickly causing some endgame transmission to be cut off.
• Fixed Conquest specific weapons appearing in the Campaign loadout summary.
• Fixed a bad radio take in Presidia.
• Reduced the amount of camera sway in cockpit view.
• Fixed an issue where after playing either free flight or free mission. Starting a new campaign and completing the first mission would kick players out of the campaign and into the mission select menu.
• Fixed the clouds in Black Flag looking splotchy and scribbly.
• Fixed the clouds in Clear Skies looking blocky and visibly tiling.
• Adjusted water roughness value in Black Flag to look more reflective.
• Updated Credits Text
• Fixed an issue where the CR.105 would appear distorted and triangulated for users on lower settings.
• Freetrack option that was in the 2018 demo now available again. (Not highly supported but it's there)
• Reduced the amount of head sway in cockpit view and made transitions to be smoother as well.
• Fixed random bolts of lightning in Mission 21.
• Fixed an issue where some priority targets would attempt to go out of bounds in Mission 5.
• Fixed an issue where the MG-31 escorts for the missiles would behave like the missiles (ignoring the player) and be marked Priority as well.
• Airliner in Clear Skies now properly says CIVILIAN rather than designation consistent with the civilian Airships.
• Fixed canister gunpod not having the proper shooting sound.
• Fixed an issue where enemy aircraft would spawn on free flight of Prospero.
• Fixed an issue where a truck would spawn underground in Open Season.
• Fixed an issue where a Priority tank would spawn underground in Open Season.
• Fixed an issue where a Priority fighter would escape outside the map in Open Season.
• Slightly changed the targeting priority algorithm.

UI:

• Shortened the amount of time Boss Announce UI takes during gameplay.
• Fixed where boss names would clip into the health bar of the boss UI.
• Boss announce UI now no longer hides off screen target indicator.
• Boss announce UI now no longer hides Active Lock on elements on screen.
• Boss announce UI now no longer hides missile warnings on screen.
• Boss announce UI now no longer hides bomb widgets.
• Fixed an issue where your HULL status would show 0. (You're not that cool... yet.)
• Fixed an issue where HUD would reappear despite user turning it off through user settings. (Specifically during boss announcements)

Aircraft:

• AOA Module now available for the MG-29, F/E-18, and Sk.27]

Weapons:

• Reduced range of SAA from 13000m to 12000m

Level Adjustments:

Mission 6:

• Hazawa now only spawns in Mercenary Mode

Level Lighting Adjustments:

Dev Notes:

• A lot of users have noticed the heavy usage of certain colors and high contrast in some missions. Particularly ones that involve a lot of orange tone. And in some cases, we used incorrect gamma values while adjusting the lighting of some missions. We wont be addressing all the levels yet as we plan to tackle this issue step by step and garner feedback on each adjustment.

Mission 1 Black Flag:

• Adjusted Time of Day from dawn to early morning.

Mission 6:

• Reduced the amount of contrast in the areas before the player gets to the Apodock Fracture.
• Adjusted the orange tone before the player gets to the Apodock Fracture.
• Significantly reduced the amount of glow lava "beaches" emit.

MIssion 14:

• Slightly reduced contrast.

Mission 21:

• Reduced the amount of orange tint in the level.

VR

• Fixed an issue where Reset Orientation in VR would not properly apply and causes user to face a different direction.
• Game start should reset view before initializing the game.
• Fixed an issue where objective text would not fade out properly and stay in front of the player.

Conquest:

• Fixed a critical issue where players would occasionally spawn in front of a mountain and immediately crash into said mountain before the screen fades out. (For now player is guaranteed to spawn high up in the skies until we find a more elegant solution)
• Added most of the soundtrack to the Conquest music lineup.
• Made Conquest allies significantly more durable.
• Added Sky Sequence Names and Time of Day indicator in Conquest Pause Menu to help track down which sequences are too bright or too dark in Conquest.
• Disabled Conquest progress reset when versions are different as some users were having troubles with it constantly resetting progress.

Boss Fight: (!!! May Contain Spoilers !!! )

• Kings Rework

Dev Notes:

We realize that the final phase of the fight it was extremely unclear and somewhat whether you could down the boss or not. This was not the intention. And also how terrible idea was removing the radar without a properly telegraphed AoE attacks from C1. Hopefully, without changing too much of the boss fight. These changes can help maintain our original vision of the boss fight without changing it too drasticly.

OVERALL:

Crimson's AoE attack will now show a warning radius in grey before fully expanding. The Final phase now shows both unit's health bar except in Mercenary mode.

EASY:

Crimson will no longer use AoE and Railgun Cluster Bombs in 4th stage. Crimson will only restore to 50% of his health in the 4th phase.

NORMAL:

Crimson will no longer use AoE and Railgun Cluster Bombs in 4th stage. 4th Stage will give player extra 50 health instead of 40. Crimson will only restore to 50% of his original phase health in the 4th phase.

HARD:

Crimson will only restore to 75% of his original phase health in the 4th phase.

MERCENARY:

No change.

Patch Notes 1.0.4D (December 11, 2020)

General:

• Optimized ground vehicle spawning function to prevent jitters/stutters while ground vehicles spawn.
• Once again fixed tanks spawning underground in Open Season.
• Removed several testing maps from the game to reduce package bloat.
• Fixed F/C-16 STDM floating off to the side.
• Fixed numerous English subtitle mismatch.
• Restored head sway values to default.

HOTAS:

• Fixed a critical issue where joystick axis constantly jitter. Making joystick input somewhat unstable.
• Potentially fixed an issue where Joysticks with "_" in their names would no longer be detected upon bootup.

Conquest:

• Fixed a critical issue where the final fight would occasionally not finish.
• Fixed an issue in Conquest where enemies would stop spawning
• During reinforcement phase. Regular enemy units will no longer continously spawn.

Boss Fight: (!!! May Contain Spoilers !!! )

• Kings

Overall:

• Fixed railgun orbs showing the same grey telegraphing orb as the damage orbs. It has been changed to a smaller bright blue orb as a separate warning to the player.

Minor back-end update (December 21, 2020)

• Enabled Steam Cloud

XBOX + WIN 10 Title Update 0.6.11 Patch Notes (December 2, 2021)

• Fixed "Hoarding Problem" achievement not unlocking.
• Fixed "I see no Kings up here" achievement not unlocking.
• Fixed "Light Show" achievement not unlocking.
• Added the ability to rebind controls.
• Fixed an issue where only the first ally is hireable in Conquest.
• Adjusted airship hitboxes to be more consistent with the visual shape.
• Fixed an issue where a map had unassigned texture.
• Fixed an issue in Sirens of Defeat where a strange red haze was present through the entire level.
• Fixed an issue where Kings would not play on Xbox versions of the game.
• Fixed a possible soft lock during the hangar viewing mode.
• Fixed video settings not applying on some platforms.

1.0.4D -> 2.0.11 CHANGELOG (October 3, 2023)

WEAPONS

• UGB-L blast radius doubled from 90m -> 180m.

• UGB-L ammo count doubled.

• UGB-S blast radius doubled from 45m -> 90m.

• GBS blast radius doubled from 45m -> 90m.

• CBU16 blast radius doubled from 45m -> 90m.

• BML-U projectile count has been reduced by 1 (this was not a balance decision this was a bug)

• BML-U should now launch correctily with the orientation of the player aircraft.

• Railgun rounds now penetrate through most objects.

• Bombs now have a 10m activation detection radius.

• Bomb behavior has been significantly altered.

• Reworked bomb drop behavior.

• Gunpods are now classified as a dumbfire multi purpose weapon in the weapon selection screen.

• ASM is now classified as a multi-purpose weapon in the weapon selection screen.

• Fixed an issue where bombs would occasionally spawn misaligned to their hardpoint.

• Fixed an issue where missile and bomb racks would appear in virtual HUD view.

GAMEPLAY

• Added Camera Padlock tracking speed switch. Users can now switch between a faster camera speed or the standard camera speed the game shipped with when holding the targetting button to track an enemy.

• Adjusted the interpolation speed post AoA maneouver in "unlocked" camera mode. Should result in a smoother transition after the maneouver.

• Significantly increased combat effectiveness of both Diplomat/Hitman 2 and Comic/Hitman 3

• Player death sequence has been updated.

• Added controller force feedback when in clouds.

• Slightly adjusted afterburner force feedback effects.

• Added NEXT indicator for the next targettable unit in the target list sequence.

• Reduced the update rate of target list so it can select new targets more often rather than going back and forth between 2 targets.

• Slightly adjusted where "center" is for the next target system. It should now more reliably target what's currently the perceived center of the screen. (Which is actually slightly lower than true center of the screen.)

RENDERING: Clouds 2.0

• The cloud and sky system has been completely overhauled! Allowing us to have much more control over the artistic direction of the skyscape and drive our skies further. It's still a largely work in progress so feedback is appreciated!

• Added an additional cloud resolution setting labelled \[EXTREME\] resolution. (Caution, potentially slow on some machines)

• Cloud resolution setting has been slightly overhauled. The following settings now correspond to the following resolution. Due to the change of the default scaling, you may notice a reduction in performance due to the setting going up a tier.

• • Low

• • High

• • Very High

• • Extreme

• Adjusted overall brightness of the game.

VISUAL FX

• Adjusted rain opacity on the canopy. Greatly improving visibility in cockpit view while its raining.

• Improved snow weather effects.

• Improved missile smoke particle effects.

• Improved aircraft destruction smoke particle effects.

• Adjusted and optimized several explosion particle effects.

• Debris mesh has been fixed for both Airships and Air units.

• Debris particle orientation for airships has been fixed.

• Particle orientation for gun impacts now align correctly.

• Improved water splash particles.

• Added a special afterburner category for the VX-23 which conforms with the nozzle shape of the VX-23.

• Fixed F/C-16 engine size smaller than the nozzle opening.

• Gun firing smoke no longer appears in virtual cockpit.

• Afterburners no longer appear in virtual cockpit.

• Landing gears no longer appear in virtual cockpit.

• Lightning strikes now should consistently appear under cloud cover.

• Gun impacts now should work properlty when hitting ship hull and airship hull.

• Railgun and railgun trails now emit light.

• Improved rain particles.

• PW-Mk.I Monarch uses no longer have mini cordium inerter built into the engine.

• Adjusted gun impact particles.

• Reduced falling wreckage material glow.

• Adjusted rain effects on player aircraft.

• Adjusted default values of lightning spawners.

• Adjusted lightning particles to have supporting lightning step leader.

• Improved Countermeasure flare VFX and behavior.

• Transport/AWACS now can use flares as a visual effect. Although just like regular fighters, it's only there as visual flair(heh).

• Aircraft destruction effects has been slightly adjusted.

• Aircraft destruction effects now has a more gradual onset.

• Improved ships fire effects.

• Adjusted ship sinking rate upon destruction.

• Improved aircraft fire effects.

• Fixed an issue where weapon racks would receive decals.

• Fixed an issue where Motion Blur would occasionally distort during world origin shift.

• Fixed an issue with EUFB particle orientation when viewed from above.

• Fixed an issue with the Cordium explosion in Mission 1 being see through.

• Improved radar visibility.

• Missile smoke no longer follows head rotation.

VIRTUAL REALITY

• Separated video settings between when the user plays in VR or on regular screen. Saving the settings depending which display option is used.

• Rain canopy effects has been slightly reduced in VR for improved visibilty.

• VR now defaults to Round Robin occlusion.

• Subtitles in VR now only rotate on one axis instead of second. This will prevent users from constantly "chasing" the UI element they want to see.

• Subtitles now adjust to size with the HUD size options in the Interface settings.

UI

• MENU INPUT OVERHAUL

• Menu input has been overhauled. A new set of "Menu" bindings has been added to the game and should provide a much more tactile and responsive menu interactions.

• Gamepad mouse style navigation has been permanently disabled.

• Upon startup, the game will reinitialize several default menu bindings. It shouldn't conflict with any of your other bindings.

• Fixed an issue where certain aspect ratio would fail to display the Debrief screen properly.

• Fixed an issue where certain aspect ratio would fail to display the Briefing screen properly.

• Added reconnaisance data to the hangar screen for better loadout decision making incentive.

• Added an indicator whether an aircraft has a WSO available or not.

• Legacy UI element sizes made more consistent with the New UI element sizes.

• Legacy UI now should scale correctly depending on the UI scale setting.

• More elements in Legacy UI now uses the screen space projection as opposed to the world space projection which now includes

• • Gun reticle

• • Horizon Indicator

• • Velocity Indicator

• • Cockpit UI

• Files/Codex primary info section font has been changed for something more readable in general.

• Mission images has been added to the mission select screen.

• Bomb prediction widget now turns red when it detects a target.

• Fixed an issue where lock on elements will get stuck on screen upon firing missiles.

• Lock on indicator size is now much more consistent with the target size UI element.

• Made UI transitions much more consistent with the rest of the game.

CAMPAIGN LEVEL ADJUSTMENTS

FRONTIERS

• Adjusted weather sequence.

• Adjusted level lighting.

• Fixed an issue where a skin is applied incorrectly to some aircraft in the level.

HOMESTEAD

• Fixed landscape casting oddly lit lighting.

UPHILL

• Landscape has been overhauled to use a new experimental workflow.

SIRENS OF DEFEAT

• Fixed an issue where the environment would have inconsistent lighting between Low and High Post Processing setting.

EMINENT DOMAIN

• Fixed cloud illumination under cloud cover.

CLEAR SKIES

• Adjusted cloud sequence.

• Adjusted level lighting.

• Reduced the brightness of the landscape.

• Landscape layering has been adjusted.

PILLARS OF COMMUNICATIONS

• Landscape layering has been adjusted.

COLD WAR

• Fixed cloud illumination under cloud cover.

MIDNIGHT LIGHT

• Adjusted cloud sequence.

• Adjusted moon appearance.

WAYBACK

• Galaxy no longer follows you since it's not consistent with the dialog he says. Now he flies directly to Rowsdower.

NO RESPITE

• Greatly increased ground visibility by reducing contrast and increasing sun intensity.

RED SEA

• Adjusted overall mood to be closer to a twilight sunset.

• Adjusted the speed of the friendly and enemy vessels in the area to emphasize the chaotic and desperate nature of the engagement.

• Adjusted player spawn position.

• Adjusted lighting.

• Fixed an issue where mission would end earlier than intended because airships would not be included in the target pool.

TRACKIR

• Added TrackIR support. (Thank you Nicholas Chalkley!)

CONQUEST

• Reunified Conquest implementation with the main game. Now it's no longer a separate instance.

• Fixed a critical issue where modifiers would not load when continuing a save file.

• Fixed a critical issue where airships would occasionally fly outside the map boundaries.

• Fixed an issue where player skin doesn't load upon loading a game.

• Fixed an issue where bloom would display incorrect values during Conquest runs.

ADDITIONAL FIXES

• Updated Credits Text.

• Fixed a coordinate mismatch for Presidia.

• Fixed an issue where not having the window on focus upon startup would crash the game.

• Fixed an issue where the intro sequence would not skip properly causing rare cases where the player stays on a black screen.

• Fixed a location mismatch for Briggs range in the briefing for mission Clear Skies.

• Fixed lava field glow showing through clouds on some levels.

• Restored Vibration/Force Feedback on Afterburner input from early demos.

• Fixed an issue where colliding with turrets or ground units defies laws of physics and stops the aircraft on the spot. Player aircraft will now correctly destroy itself as nature intended.

• Fixed an issue where Ship units do not report their velocity to attached units thus throwing off missile and gun prediction paths.

• Adjusted the amount of time airship destruction cracks to appear.

• Airships will now crash into the landscape in a more graceful manner.

• Fixed an issue where airship smokes do not align with the falling trajectory.

• Fixed an issue where cloud shadows on some level do not dissapear.

• Reduced the amount of cloud flicker in VR. However the issue is not fully fixed yet.

• Increased the brightness and frequency of building signal lights.

• Cannon projectile hit radius now compensate to see whether the object is destroyed or not. Doing a strafe run now should no longer result in bullets being "caught" on already destroyed objects due to their hitbox. That being said, it is only a hitbox reduction so it still will hit if the projectile is close enough.

• Adjusted Hangar camera field of view.

• Adjusted nozzle material in the hangar screen.

• Fixed an issue where some landing gear models are still visible despite the gear being extended.

• Fixed an issue where a highway element would not have its collision properties applied.

• Missiles no longer phase through airships when the airship is destroyed.

• Improved NPC Carrier textures.

• Various particles and sound effects should now correctly die out when the player dies.

• Slightly improved cockpit visibility during rain.

• Fixed F/C-15 misaligned flaps.

• Telemetry check interface should correctly fade out in the game settings page.

• Fixed an issue where hangar models would sometimes use a higher LOD on lower settings.

• Disabled Screen Space Reflections due to HUD occasionally being reflected in SSR.

• Adjusted "blue" HUD color for better visibility.

• Fixed audio concurrency issues where music and UI elements wouldn't play properly.

• Motion blur should no longer activate while changing camera.

• Fixed an issue where certain weapons would fly sideways from the hardpoint.

• Adjusted Cockpit HUD bloom intensity.

• Adjusted Velocity HUD bloom intensity.

• Adjusted Horizon HUD bloom intensity.

• Adjusted Enemey Indicator HUD bloom intensity.

• Increased the volume of Lock on sounds.

• Fixed an issue where crawling text would occasionally flash the completed state.

• Fixed an issue where crawling text would fall back with the timings of the text fade in and fade outs.

• Smoothed out mouse controll rolls.

• Smoothed out AI aircraft rolls. Should prevent wobbles while fighting the player.

• Dialog sequence should no longer interrupt each other when a new sequence is starting.

• Adjusted pitch ladder behavior.

• Cockpit HUD altitude and speed notches should now correspond to the correct selected measurement values.

• Overhauled weapon selection appearance in cockpit mode.

• Removed random "turbulence" in mouse flight and in AI flight. Made it look glitchy rather than aerodynamic.

• Fixed an issue where some thunder sounds ignored volume sliders

• Fixed several instances where the pilot models were clipping into the instrument panels.

• Fixed shadow banding on the player missile lights.

• Improved sharpness of cockpit instruments.

• Reduced the brightness of MFDs to not take focus away from gameplay UI.

• Reduced the brightness of some colored instrument panels to not take focus away from gameplay UI.

• Fixed an issue where Airships do not properly loop their waypoints.

• Fixed an issue where railgun circular booms do not appear on lower settings.

• Generally improved visibility at high altitudes.

• Reduced altitude limit to 10000m

• Optimized various shaders that had a high cost.

• Optimized various particles that had a high transluscency cost.

• Optimized various UI elements overdraw.

• Removed any unecessary GPU calculations for some particles.

• Switched over the overall post processing tonemapper to use a film tonemapper.

• Fixed an issue where players can "speedrun" the game by pressing the SKIP button during end of mission sequences.

• The player now may only unpause the game using the main pause key in the main pause menu.

• Fixed an issue where the Railgun particles would detach itself from it's parent too quickly causing shifts in its appearance during origin rebasing.

• Adjusted button colors in Telemetry Check.

• Enabled Temporal Anti Aliasing for higher Anti Aliasing settings. (You can still use FXAA via Anti Aliasing Low)

• Improved the appearance of shadows on lower settings.

• Significantly improved targeting systems.

• Mouse cursor will no longer center itself upon the start of the game.

• Fixed strange loading behavior where sometimes audio would play before loading is finished.

• Fixed Kings fade screen sometimes not reaching full whiteout stage before fading out.

• Improved several water related particle effects.

• Fixed an issue where hangar actor would occasionally dissapear when viewed at certain angles.

• Flares are now disabled while landing gear is out.

• You can now change angle of the VR hangar by pressing the change camera button.

• Increased the render resolution of VR cutscenes.

• Adjusted camera sway configuration.

• Updated english localization to reduce the amount of typos present in the game.

• Fixed a few scaling issues with the primary UI in the game.

• Fixed an issue where the user can perform actions while the game is paused in VR.

• Fixed a green dot appearing in several menus in VR (leftover from Gaze menu controller)

• Fixed an issue where Conquest items would appear outside of the map..

• Fixed debriefing UI from crawling over towards the score screen.

• Fixed an issue where HUD appears before the completion of a startup sequence.

• Fixed mission completion state not turning green once mission is completed at a specific difficulty.

• Fixed debriefing text from crawling over to the score card.

• Fixed an issue where conquest UI was still ticking even when not focused.

• Fixed an issue where interface setting do not reflect the new settings when the default key is pressed.

• Fixed an issue where ground and air assets appear outside of map boundaries.

• Fixed an issue where conquest modifiers do not appear as a list in Conquest.

• Fixed an issue where hangar is still selecting aircraft via an invisible cursor in VR.

• Highlighted Decline by default for the Data Processing screen.

• Fixed an issue where aircraft pitching at -90 or 90 degrees would completely break the camera and force it onto a gimbal lock.

• Brought CQ\_Vineyard map to parity with the new ENV\_Vineyard material in M04.

• Removed all holes in CQ\_SteppingStones

• Fixed CQ\_PGF altitude not adjusting properly to the new origin rebasing system.

• Brought CQ\_Coul\_1 map to parity with the new ENV\_Vineyard material in M04.

• Potentially fixed an issue where dev mode and shipping dialog would differ in execution by interrupting each other.

• Fixed broken subtitles.

• Fixed several typos in Mission 21.

• Several QA localization corrections.

• Fixed an issue where you could override the number of CQ allies.

• Fixed an issue where enemy units could spawn outside of the boundaries in Conquest mode..

• Fixed an issue where bomb camera loses tracking completely if it followed a weapon until end of life.

• Migrated mission completion flags onto a new system. Should not require any intervention from the user and does not make the player lose progress.

• Fixed an issue where chainlink fence does not have collision.

• Fixed an issue where the return button on difficulty screen wasn't selectable on gamepad for PC version.

• Fixed several issues where several entities were still moving despite the game being paused in VR. This was due to the limitation of the pause system in VR not being able to do a "real" pause.

• Reduced the flash intensity of "nuke" defined explosion to reduce strain on the eyes for VR users.

• Fixed an issue where a Conquest area was not accessible from its neighbors.

• Fixed several trees appearing inside the highway take off tunnel for the main campaign during the takeoff sequence.

• Fixed conquest territory not being accessible from certain neighboring territory.

• Fixed an issue HELMET RADAR IN COCKPIT setting does not restore the previous state of radar visibility. It should now refresh itself properly depending on which setting is selected

• Fixed the language tab missing in the settings menu

• Fixed an issue where hiring den could provide players with more than intended allies.

• Fixed an issue where missile cam would completely bug out when following a weapon until its end of life.

• Fixed an issue where localization menus did not have gamepad support.

• Exit button should no longer be selectable in the main menu of the base game.

• Fixed an issue where language apply and back buttons are the wrong way around.

• Removed spoken language tab in the language section.

• Fixed skip button appearing in Conquest

• Fixed a strange mission appearing when skip button is pressed in Conquest.

• Fixed Conquest hiring den being able to access a hidden button.

• Adjusted default VR interface size values based on playtesting.

• Attachment spawning in Airships and Ships are now staggered to reduce stutter.

• Adjusted default VR interface size values based on playtesting.

• Attachment spawning in Airships and Ships are now staggered to reduce stutter.

• Fixed UI appearing and dissapearing with an animation on pause.

• Reduced instances where the sun is visible through the cloud.

• Reduced the amount of contrast on iced water to make it easier on the eyes.

• Reduced all performance overhead in the game in general.

• Updated some localization files.

• Fixed an issue where the enemy spawner keeps spawning.