…has been released. let there be much rejoicing. The game auto-updates once a day, so you don’t need to do anything. Lets take a look at the list of changes!
1) Fixed bug where you could invite a friend with no name.
2) Added the hull size and size type to the hull picker dialog on the unit design
screen.
3) Holding down G as you drag props on the level editor now snaps them to a grid
4) Support for new 'starting year' for scenarios and equipment to set a battle
before lasers and mechs etc.
5) Re-balanced the missile modules (slower rate of fire).
6) Re-balanced the ambulance/command/repair/supply trucks to have less hitpoints.
7) The units on the unit customisation screen now render shadows.
8) Changed targeting calculation so the fastest speed of firing and target unit
is used, not just the target unit.
9) Battles now start with the map focused upon one of the entry points for
attacking units.
10) Different vehicle targeting systems now have different weights.
11) Unit Design screen now filters modules to only show modules that the
current unit has a slot to deploy.
12) Various AI balance changes.
The big items are probably the re-balancing and the change to the unit design screen (11), which I think is much better. Here is a screenshot of that screen if you selected an ambulance hull with the old version:
And now with the new version:
Much simpler huh? I don’t know why I had not done this earlier, but in any case, the screen now only shows modules that the current selected hull has a slot for, which hopefully makes that screen seem a lot less daunting for people who buy GTB thinking it’s just tower defense and think WTF? when they get to that screen. This was a screw-up on my part, because generally I feel that a good design rule is never to clutter the players view with information that they definitely don’t need right now.
There are a lot of under-the-hood changes to AI and other code affecting battles which is all a bit arcane to explain, but basically the AI should be a bit more sensible now, the various weapons and modules are more balanced, (in my humble opinion) and things should be a lot more playable in general. I don’t consider this patch to be the ‘last word’ on GTB. People who bought GSB know I love to improve and finesse a game long after release. I actually have a GSB patch (a kinda scary one) sat there daring me to release it, even all these thousands of years later.
I’ve also patched the demo for the game. I just uploaded the new steam demo, and I’ll be bunging the direct-downloaded version up on my site soon.