This Thursday, a bill that would create America’ s first Internet censorship system is going to a full committee for a vote, and is likely to pass. We can kill this bill now. This week, millions of us will protest censorship, censoring our own posts and asking you to call Congress. We need your help! Click HERE for more info.

For more news and information about SOPA (American Censorship Bill), click HERE.

The need is dire! This bill could easily kill many of your favorite open source projects (Including a sister project on the spring engine, Gundam RTS)! Please help us kill this bill!

People this is very real. It’s tough to believe, as this bill makes China look like the bastions of free speech. I can’t believe it myself how close to the brink we are. This is the stuff of bad movies and chain letters, but unfortunately, it’s here, and we need to stop it.

Please understand… Under this bill, as an example, if you uploaded a video of yourself singing a popular song to youtube, you could be sued and even sent to prison! Can you believe it? I scarcely can.

Please, call your congressman today!

Hi everyone! Here is a chance to “kick in”. While I’m sure that there are plenty of other deserving indie games with larger fan-bases, I saw the competition on indiedb and decided “why not? To vote, just click on the widget above and show your support. Thanks everyone!

Ok, ok, yeah I know, this probably doesn’t seem like it should be that big of a deal, but it really is. Many bugs in the engine were fixed, more functionality was added, and a bunch of little features got added that I have been dying to get my grubby mitts on.

 

Namely, Isolation mode. For those of you who use the Spring Engine “Vanilla”, you will understand immediately what I mean when I say that using Desura install on top of another regular engine install was a messy process. For that matter, it qualifies as a disaster. Thankfully, that is now fixed within the engine. I can force the engine to stay in it’s install folder and no longer interfere with any other engine install. This also means that I will FINALLY be able to test my own game’s install process without using a Virtual Machine.

For many users, from rates have doubled. In my case, frame rates quite literally tripled. You can probably imagine the look on my face. Using basic water (default is bumpmapped), my framerate peaks up around 260 fps. With bumpmapped water on it goes down a little bit and of course this is all without any units on the screen at all, but the simple fact is that performance got a huge boost with this update.

The main updates in v1.9 are as follows:

• Map borders now look much much nicer

• AI tuning is more or less perfected (unfortunately due to some unforeseen issues, Shard AI cannot be included yet)

• Keybind for “Repeat” command added (bound to “q”)

• Console only shows chat messages now instead of chat + system messages

• 3 new maps added (CenterRock, Eye of Horus, and MoonQ20x)

• 1 new War track added “Better Than Nothing – Deathkllr84″

I am still working on various other features to add such as different gametypes, scoring modes and a few other little surprises.

Oh and because I keep being asked, I am working very very hard on getting Evolution RTS onto Desura Linux. I have run into a lot of pitfalls and unfortunately I can’t solve these issues myself and must rely on assistance from the engine devs, so just hang tight guys, it’s being worked on!

On another note, I plan to have another Evolution RTS hangout on Google+ semi-soon so stay tuned!

Hi everyone!

So, it’s been 2 months since I have made a newspost and most of you probably thought that in the meantime, I died. Well, truth is, I haven’t been all that active due to a host of reasons, but suffice it to say, I have been working on getting Shard AI ready for inclusion on Windows and Linux.

v1.9 won’t be adding a lot to the game. I’ve stamped out all the bugs I can find. I am working on some new features but I am not sure when they will be ready. Also, I am experimenting with different gametypes and the best way to properly implement them. One of the gametypes I am currently messing with is a DOW2/Battlefield style of point capture. Those of you who have been around since the dawn of time will remember that a long time ago I tried to implement such a feature to mixed success as a modoption. As I am not advocating the use of nothing but autohosts for hosting games, modoptions are not easy to change for newbies on an autohost, so I’m thinking that when this comes about, I will segment the game into another branch. This branch will rely on the regular version but just have point captures on by default.

I don’t know if any of you have been paying attention to my games with shard:

I do not know when 1.9 will be released. I would say within a week, hopefully.

Now, in another interesting turn of events, I will be hosting a public Google+ Hangout where any of you are welcome to join and ask/talk about anything Evolution RTS related. This can range from technical development questions, or “How do I?”, or “When is …”, etc. All is fair game. In order to see the invite easily, simply follow me on Google+, or you can click on “Add Ben to your circles” on the sidebar. Hopefully, Koshi will be able to be there as well, so he can help with any Lobby/SASI related questions as well as Evolution RTS on Linux and so on. I hope this will be a fun event and I’m looking forward to meeting you guys!

Saturday, November 5, 2011 at 12:00:00 Noon (Pacific Standard Time) (UTC-7 hours)
Saturday, November 5, 2011 at 19:00:00 (GMT)

I haven’t forgotten about the Tournament. It is still being planned, but I wanted to wait till the lobby system is a bit more newbie friendly.

Another month+ has gone by, and now I have all kinds of juicy little tidbits for you!

Evolution RTS v1.8

All things considered, this was a very minor release, but it fixed a pretty giant bug (giant bug imo, however it was actually very small) that had gone for many weeks unseen. Due to a mistake in the cover gadget, units tagged with stealth, weren’t actually getting it, unless they were hiding in trees. Unfortunately, testing for things like this is really hard, because it’s somewhat obscure, and you don’t see every tech used in every game. Still, i am glad to see it fixed and to all your amphibious enthusiasts out there, I am sorry.

New Map! Altored Divide:

Originally made by Caydr, then remade by Nixa, and now remade by me (using much of Nixa’s assets) for Evolution RTS. It is set up for anywhere from 1v1 all the way up to 5v5 play. Large hills in the center make it harder for hovers and amphibs to maneuver, however, all terrains are susceptible to arcing ballistics and missile fire with nowhere to hide. The vast majority of the metal spots are in the center, along with 5 geothermal vents, making the center of the map worth dying for… literally.

As you may have noticed… I’ve been trying to bring you a new map every month. In fact, I was going to have a lava map for you, but unfortunately, it isn’t finished yet.

SASI

SASI (Pronounced Saw-ze) is a semi new project by Koshi, much brought around due to my continual complaints about the lobby (but it’s not all my fault! :-)). It is designed to be a proper frontend for a game. You will be able to edit your settings inside of it, launch singleplayer games, missions, and join multiplayer servers and even a quickmatch button! I wish to god it was already here but unfortunately it isn’t quite ready. I do have a treat for you though, koshi made a short video showing off some aspects of SASI. Unfortunately youtube ate the first 12 seconds, but after uploading it twice, I concluded that the problem was not on my end. I cannot give you an accurate timeframe of when it will be ready. There is still a lot of small details that need polishing and unfortunately, it’s only Koshi who is doing the work on it (my C++ foo, isn’t).

So, without further ado, I bring you, SASI:

Community

Ok, the last bit I wanted to discuss was the community, or, more accurately, the lack of it.

Assuming that my stats are more or less correct, somewhere in the area of 2000+ people have Evolution RTS installed. As the sole dedicated developer of this game, I am flattered! Unfortunately, I am by myself. I’m not exactly the type who is great at starting online communities. Especially one where I have such overwhelming bias.

I have been reading up on how to build online communities from nothing. The first thing it says to do is to identify who the community is for. Well… That one is easy. It’s for everyone who likes this game! I love this game. I eat sleep live and breathe this game. I work very hard and even into the very early hours of the morning on it for no other reason than that I love it, and I want you to enjoy it as well. I can tell you that while I love playing it, I love watching others play it more. Seeing strategies that I never thought of, being able to throw out helpful pointers here and there, and mainly, simply seeing all of you enjoy it. For me, that is where I get the biggest reward.

Next I am told that I should reach out to people. This is me reaching out! :-) I want to talk to all of you (preferably not all at the exact same moment, but you get the idea ;p ). I want to hear what you liked about the game, I want to hear what you hated about the game, and I want to hear your suggestions for how it could be improved! I try very hard to remain as accessible as possible, whether it be via forums, the lobby chat, email, private message, etc, but I still feel like most people think that they are probably dealing with an actual games company that doesn’t care about what you have to say. Well I’m here to tell you that I do care, and I want to hear what you have to say!

So, without going further into boring detail, I would like to invite you to our forums. It’s small and cozy right now, but I would love to hear from you and have the chance to speak to you!

The general discussion forum is here

And the help and bugs forum is here

Please come in and say hi! I am looking forward to speaking with all of you!

That’s it for now, but there will be more later. Hopefully, sooner!

Evolution RTS 1.7 has been released to the masses! That would be you. This version doesn’t change a whole lot visually. It is mostly an intermediate version as we prepare for the next engine update. There was, however, a very nice feature addition, and that addition is a new gadget that will automatically destroy map features (trees, etc), immediately when you place a building. You will not get any resource gains from these features being destroyed, so it is not the same as reclaiming map features.

Previously, when a building was placed, features would only be automatically reclaimed if they blocked the construction. This caused building time to increase significantly if there were a lot of features in that area, as they would all have to be reclaimed first before the building was constructed. Now, it is no longer an issue as anything within the building’s perimeter will instantly be destroyed.

Much of what I focused on in this release is the new maps. I completely remade riverglade and pockmark valley…

RiverGlade:

Pockmark Valley:

If you are familiar with the older maps you will appreciate when a massive improvement this is. The update containing the maps is currently undergoing testing and QA with the Desura folks, so please be patient while they make sure I didn’t mess anything up.

In other news, I will be going on a work vacation for the next 2 weeks! I will still be available for contact, and there are many ways to get hold of me (probably the easiest way is just making a post on the Forums).

Tournament:

There isn’t much to report on yet, but be advised that there is a tournament in the planning phases. I will be starting a thread in the forums once I have more to say on the matter. We will need to arrange players, brackets and so forth, but first we need to hammer out the details.

CodeName “SASI”:

I am not at liberty to comment on this at the moment, but hopefully the screenshots will give you an idea of what this is about.

Have a wonderful day everyone and happy gaming!

This release carries with it an extreme sense of satisfaction. I will tell you why…

One of the biggest annoyances (actually, tbh, the only one) with how the teching system worked, has been fixed. Ginormous thanks to Zwzsg for actually fixing the bug, and big thanks to Niobium, Knorke, and Lurker for helping me out in my crisis :-)

Ok, as most of your probably know by now, when you want to build something in a power field, you have to have the builder in the power field as well. While it wasn’t game breaking by any stretch of the imagination, it was irritating as hell to deal with.

The behavior had not been changed earlier simply because I was under the impression that it couldn’t be done. The other day I played a very excellent 1v1 vs Google_Frog, and he asked me about it. I proceeded to bemoan the fact that it drives me crazy, but that I was more or less powerless to do anything to make it better. Boy, was I wrong.

Turns out, all that was required was a bit of a logic change inside the code of the tech gadget itself. Without getting into boring details that no one cares about, here is the new behavior:

Builders no longer need to be in range of power to build structures that require power. As long as the location that you place the powered structure is in range, it can be built.

So, in other words, it works the way it should have in the first place.

Forums are Open!
As many of you know, the Evolution RTS forums on Desura have been closed since the release of the game. This is because we have used google groups forums as our discussion forum for quite a while, and moreover, it also functions as a mailing list, making it easy for me to interact, no matter where I am.

LuckyWaldo mentioned the other day that since the bulk of players and the community is coming from Desura, then it makes sense to HeadQuarter the forums here (so to speak anyway) and keep the google groups forum as a developer discussion group. I agreed, and now the forums are active! Come by and say hi! Embellish upon what you love or hate about the game, give suggestions on how you think it could be better! Interact!

Haha, ok, enough of the infomercial :-) Thanks guys! Have fun!

The New, New Iammas

Ok, so some of you in the know are fully aware of how much pain and heartache has gone into getting Evo ready for Desura, not only on the logistics front, but also with the gameplay, features and etc…

I am immensely proud to say that Evolution RTS has finally reached the release point intended for Desura. In this release we have a ton of new stuff, but I’m not even going to spoil the surprise, save for one thing. Dynamic Cover System.

You’re prolly sitting there thinking, “ok, big deal…” well, it is a huge deal, and it has a massive effect on gameplay. I can count on 2 fingers the number of RTS games that have done cover systems well. I aimed for it from a different direction and it has succeeded so incredibly well that I can barely contain my excitement!

First of all, let me point out that Knorke did all the hard work, I only made a few edits to his code, and he should be immortalized for writing the cover gadget.

Here is how it works: If a feature on the map (say like a small tree or something) is 2×2 footprint or less, it gains non-blocking status and provides cover for units. Cover causes the unit to cloak (for free), and also causes the unit to gain stealth from radar, meaning that it is totally undetectable. That is until it fires. When units under cover fire, they will lose cloak (but not stealth). This means that you can use trees rock jumbles, etc to set up true ambushes for your opponents. I myself have been playing around with it for a few weeks (had some icky bugs  to squash) and I gotta say, it is fun as all hell.

So that was the big news about v1.5, but lets get back to the Desura release…
Some of you are well aware that you could get and play evo before desura came along. No doubt those of you that tried it probably gave up in frustration (and I don’t blame you… it never was meant for public consumption to be installed that way. Only for those dedicated enough to make it happen :-)). Well with Desura I am proud to announce a butter smooth installation. All you need to do is run the graphics settings program and register a nickname with the server, and you’re in!

Please remember that if you need help, just ask in the chat and someone will definitely help you. Make sure to mention that you installed the game via Desura (Evolution RTS is released on ubuntu launchpad for linux as well). My name on the lobby is a little hard to miss… I am [Evo]Forboding_Angel (real inconspicuous amirite?). Feel free to private message me if need be. I will try to help you out as much as possible. Please do not ask a question and log off a few minutes later. Sometimes your question isn’t immediately seen and so takes a little time to get a response.

And finally, a warning to ATI video card owners… Like Brink, Evolution RTS uses OpenGL. ATI drivers are awful, and unfortunately through no fault of our own, the end user suffers because of this company’s inability to produce decent driver support for OpenGL, so your mileage may vary, but if you ask in the lobby chat we will do our best to help you out. If you are an Nvidia owner, don’t worry, you will have no trouble.

Thanks everyone! Please be sure to comment here, on our forums, on the site ( http://www.evolutionrts.info ) and post any bugs on our bug tracker!

Giant thanks to the Desura guys for putting up with me, you guys pwn!

I’ll keep the commentary fairly short this time around as I have much to do, but… Desura has come up with a solution to the issue that was preventing Evo from progressing through the approval process (Evo wasn’t the only game needing a solution to the particular issue) and things are more or less back on track. I have no real idea as far as time estimates go, but I am hoping that we can get some testing in tonight, and that we can get it all worked out quickly! Cross your fingers for good luck! :-)

r130 VERSION{v1.4}
Today (2 hours ago) forbodingangel

r129 The allterrain shield unit will automatically cloak upon being built. This increases cost, but decreases silly micromanagement. Fixed descriptions on light and heavy turrets. Added game manual, proper tips and storyline to the help menu.
Yesterday (23 hours ago) forbodingangel

r128 debian: fix main package section so it shows up in software center searches (hopefully..)
May 18 (4 days ago) koshi

r127 Aircraft fixes. I’m still not happy with how the fighter performs, but it’s getting better.
May 13, 2011 forbodingangel

r126 New war track… METAAAAAAALLLLLLL!!!!
May 12, 2011 forbodingangel

r125 Adding welcome banner for spring site to svn
May 11, 2011 forbodingangel

r124 Randomized unit death sound effects. (I also added about 40 or so random death sound effects)
May 9, 2011 forbodingangel

From reading the changelog, it probably doesn’t look like a whole lot happened. Well, the good news is that that isn’t true! The new loadscreens were generated form scratch and are amazing compared to the old ones. The new distortion effects on flamethrowers massively improve the overall look.

Now, for a moment lets talk about AA… It came to my attention that in short, aa sucks. Well, I took that to heart and am actually using an entirely different method that works so much better. For example, it still looks like a missile on the fighter and aa tank, however it’s actually a ballistic projectile. Fighters have a few different characteristics now as well, but their behavior is much better. The AAtank is able to actually do it’s job now, while not becoming overpowered. One large change is the fact that the aatank will no longer fire at ground targets. I actually balked at that change a little bit, but it was necessary to improve the aatank’s behavior overall. In the same breath, the survival spawner is much much better now and no longer so vulnerable to aircraft, so those of you who liked massing gunships for an easy victory have to actually work for it now! Another big change to survival mode is the fact that now the destroyers have 10 minutes instead of 5 to make it to your base before you win, meaning that you’ll actually have to deal with them now.

Now, a few seemingly minor but huge improvements… Building animations. I optimized the crap out of them and in the process reduced the particle load by about 1200% percent, which is an incredible gain. I spent the better part of a day working on that one, all for you. Awww! Aren’t you special?

Last but not least, pretty ceg effects when pieces get blown off of units. That probably doesn’t mean anything to most of you. Let me explain it a bit. When units die, many times they get “gibbed” meaning that pieces of the model will fly off in random directions from the explosion. I’ve added a pretty burning effect to them and now they look quite spectacular I believe!

Thats all for this time, see you in a week for v1.4!

Changes since v1.2

r123
Add the ability to use lua unit scripting.
                                forbodingangel

r122
Unit Movement improvements
        May 3 (4 days ago)      forbodingangel

r121
Fix AA sucking Add pretty ceg effects when pieces get blown off of units
        May 3 (4 days ago)      forbodingangel

r120
Fixed loads of scripting problems decreased particle load of building things by
somewhere around 1200% (assuming I did hte math right, and if not... who cares,
it's a free speedup!!!)
        May 2 (5 days ago)      forbodingangel

r119
Modified the way that the aa tank works. Should be vastly improved now. Set max
age on survival bots to 10 minutes instead of 5 (that way when the large units
are spawned, the actually have a chance to make it to your base and deal some
chaos). Changed turret given to burrows (the Survival Spawner Nuke Reactor) to
an antiair flak turret.
        May 2 (5 days ago)      forbodingangel

r118
Move artwork out of game files.
        May 2 (6 days ago)      forbodingangel

r117
Fixed typo in loadscreen. Added pretty LUPS effect to Flamethrower tank.
        May 2 (6 days ago)      forbodingangel

r116
Fixed spelling error in loadscreen.
        May 1 (6 days ago)      forbodingangel

r115
New Loadscreens.
        May 1 (6 days ago)      forbodingangel

r114
Pretty piecetrails when units explode.
        Apr 29, 2011    forbodingangel

r113
Forgot to update the text in the Multithreaded warning message.
        Apr 27, 2011    forbodingangel