Free Allegiance Zone

FAZ stands for "Free Allegiance Zone" which is a joining of two terms originally used to segregate this community under Microsoft's rule: "Free Zone" and "Allegiance Zone" The term is used to describe a new version of Allegiance which is being developed by the community.

Until now, everyone has been playing with the Allegiance game written and compiled by Microsoft 5 years ago. Since then, no changes have been made to the game.

Two years ago, Microsoft released the sourcecode to our community which allowed us to finally start modifying the game however we wanted... unfortunately this code was still written to use a 1999 compiler, and did not offer an easy way to work with it in modern development environments. The code was almost useless to us in its state.

Even if we wanted to modify the game, we couldn't because we weren't even able to reproduce regular Allegiance let alone create an enhanced Allegiance.

Since then, the FAZ Dev team has worked on changing Microsoft's sourcecode to compile with todays compilers under today's development environments. It's pretty much done now, and we're finally able to create our own stable build of Allegiance. This allows us to finally start adding features that have been requested for the last 5 years, and correct bugs/errors that have been plaguing us.

The first release from the FAZ Dev team (R1) did not change much from Microsoft's original. Its purpose was to duplicate the original functionality without introducing new bugs or problems. However, a few simple changes were made to increase stability and add small much-needed enhancements. The second release (R2) made many more changes to Allegiance. A full listing of all changes made to Allegiance since Microsoft released the sourcecode is listed below.

Changes made in FAZ Release 1 (Release date: March 1st, 2006):

• Allegiance is built against a modern compiler, offering slightly increased speeds and better interfaces with modern hardware. Sounds may sound clearer, and visuals may seem crisper depending on your hardware and drivers.
• SOVLogin has been removed from the login sequence, and its core functions have been written into ASGS and Allegiance itself
• Chat Logging has been written into Allegiance itself via the LogChat String Registry Key. Set its value to "1" to enable chat logging. (This is handled automatically by ASGS using the "Log Chat To Disk" option)
• When marking yourself as AFK, you will no longer be marked as "back" after a game has ended
• When logging in with ASGS , you no longer have the ability to modify your callsign within Allegiance which used to cause "Authentication=2" errors.
• The in-base Ship Loadout screen no longer requires 800x600 resolution. When docking/launching, your monitor's resolution will no longer switch
• Missing "Game Information" was added to the Game Info screen (Esc, I)
• The Teleport Probe's 1-in-6 chance of "Random destruction" has been removed. All teleport probes will always work, and no longer have any chance of detonating
• Additional events are fired behind the scenes, allowing more detailed gamelogs to be captured for historical and game-balancing purposes
• The "Help" screen has been rewritten to include up-to-date help information

Changes made in FAZ Release 2 (Release date: August 1st, 2006):

• Ranks are now shown in the Rank column.
• Allegiance's "ShipKilled" messages now match the ingame stats. As a result, the RecentGames webpage should now always match the ingame LastGameStats.
• Allegiance now automatically sets you AFK if it detects no activity for 5 minutes.
• AFK is now unset when joining teams.
• Giving command to someone else now keeps you on Command Wing instead of dropping you to attack.
• You can no longer chat to enemy constructors/miners/drones.
• Quickchat keystrokes are no longer affected by the mouse unless the mouse is moved.
• The game lobby now auto-sorts all games by #players.
• Game stats now default-sort to points instead of players.
• NOAT now shows up as a team in the F6 screen so you can see who's in NOAT .
• NOAT now has its own teamchat just like any other team in the lobby
• You can now PM players from NOAT by clicking their name in the team lists to select them. Click them again to de-select them and once again chat to "all".
• Player restrictions on original maps have been removed.
• Investors can now partially invest 10% increments into developments by right-clicking them. Partial-investing will always leave 1cr unpaid to avoid finishing the investment. You must use the original "Invest" button to complete it as usual.
• Investors can now fully invest in a development by doubleclicking it.
• Chat Messages now have a length restriction of 255 characters. Attempting to chat more will no longer crash the client.
• Removed dependency on EULA.dll since Allegiance's EULA is now accepted during install.
• Custom resolutions set via registry keys are no longer overwritten at random.
• Virtual Joystick now works during launch animations.
• Drone status and other info is now relayed to 3 wings in addition to the "Command" wing: Charlie, Delta, and Echo
• Drones can no longer "see" targets after the targets are no longer spotted.
• Ingame Help screens (F1) can now include hyperlinks.
• + and ? tokened players can join rank restricted servers
• Chat logs can now be accessed by external processes while Allegiance is running

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.