FAZ R3

Changes made in FAZ Release 3 (Release Date: December 14th, 2006):

• Underlying networking code rewritten using DirectPlay8, allowing users to connect through NAT boundaries without problem. (College students can now play!)
• Entire codebase ported to Visual C++ 2005 (VC8).
• Sound engine upgraded to DirectSound8 with new changes. This should fix "crackles" and "static". You can still choose the old sound engine by selecting its menu in the "Sound Settings" section of the Esc menu.
• Up to 8 mouse buttons can now be mapped within Allegiance.
• Unspotted enemy miners no longer cause mining 'lightning bolts' or mining sounds. You must spot a miner to hear/see its activities.
• Users attempting to defect now see "No defections are allowed" instead of "You have been banned."
• Allegiance can now play ogg files natively. If no .wav files are present, Allegiance will play .ogg files with the same name.
• Collision damage bugfix (Hull/Shield hitpoints were tabulated incorrectly, resulting in incorrect amounts of damage being applied after collisions)
• Commanders can now enable Auto-Accept while ingame. Commanders can type #autoaccept to toggle it on/off.
• On the Map Keys and Controls screen, the "Drop Mine" action has been renamed to "Drop Mine or Probe" to be more clear.
• A new "Imbalance=Auto" setting has been added to enforce balancing by rank. Clicking Randomize will balance players evenly across all teams when this setting is chosen.
• The "Stats Count" checkbox once again works, and forces Imbalance=Auto.
• Newbies with a rank of (0) will count as a rank (1) when tabulating team RankSums.
• The "Force-Launch button still visible after players leave" bug has been fixed.
• A "FAZ R3 Build#YY.MM.DD" menu has been added at the top of the Esc menu to make it easy to check build#s.
• You can now take screenshots!! You can now bind "Take a Screenshot" to any key. By default, this will be mapped to the PrtScn key when R3 is deployed.
  • Screenshots will be saved as a 24-bit bmp file in Allegiance.exe's folder with the format: 2006.09.29_3.15.03.456.bmp
• Unmounting/mounting a part while inflight now reloads that part.
  • Eg: If you had 4 missiles loaded and fired 2 there would be two left in your missile slot... Previously, re-mounting missiles would load 2 missiles into your missile slot.
  • Now, re-mounting cargo will load 4 missiles into your missile slot.
• You can now right-click users in the lobby to perform actions on them (make leader, boot, etc).
• Game Commanders can no longer launch the game when another Team Commander is looking at the game settings.
• High-Res textures can now be seen by enabling the "High Res" menu.
  • You will need to install high-res textures into your artwork\textures folder in order for them to work. See "Artwork Development" forum.
• Skill Level restrictions are now reset on the game server when there is no more Game Commander.
• The F1 Help has been updated.
• AFK is now automatically set after 90s of inactivity for players on NOAT . Players on a team still have an inactivity timer of 180s.

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