This is just a short video highlighting some of the new features in the past month. There are many more than what is shown in this video, but I just wanted to highlight all the major ones.

Some of the things I didn’t cover are the newest maps that have been added such as New Iammas by Kaiserj and Folsom Dam by SirArtturi. I apologize for not being more active in keeping you guys up to date with the latest updates, but there is so much that is in the works that I just haven’t had the time. However, I will try to post more often in the future.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0KkxV5x0I0

Numerous updates, performance enhancements, and fixes over v0.25, and a new name, what’s more to be desired?

Lets start with vastly improved Evolution RTS gameplay. Working with Foreboding Angel, we’ve improved performance greatly, adding support for newer units, and general efficiency improvements. I’ve also added extra behaviours to prevent massive factory spamming.

Numerous API changes are included as well! A handful of additions, such as unit resource usage are added, and a major change to the existing structure with the addition of a map object, and the movement of numerous API calls to the new object.

Various bugs in 0.25 have also been fixed, and more safe guards are now in place. I have also added extra optimisations, and rebuilt Shard in release mode, meaning a massive performance boost when idle.

You can find the full API listing in the ai/preload/api.lua folder, and I have added a Shard page to my projects section which I will be filling over the next 2 months.

Download here

Brought back from the depths of obscuredom, here is the old favorite, Deserted Gully. It is set up for a 3v3 north v south but is also a great map for 1v1s. Enjoy kids!

Click here to download!

The newest addition to the Official Evolution RTS map Set. Geared for up to 3v3 teamplay or 6 way free for alls. Enjoy!

Download Here!

Hello everyone! I was going to write a big ol’ newspost about all the new cool stuff that we’ve been working on,

but I figured if a picture is worth a thousand words, then a video must be priceless!

So that’s exactly what I did. I didn’t cover EVERYTHING, but I did cover a lot of the cool new stuff that’s been going on. You can of course find the videos at our youtube channel (http://www.youtube.com/user/forbodingangel) or you can just watch the embedded videos right here! Make sure to turn the quality up to 1080p for maximum win and awesomeflakes.

Part 1:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSLzA9SaGgU

Part 2:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=knHhBtp0ffY

Well this has been a pretty busy week so far. So I’ll list the highlights.

• Over 50 new features added to featureplacer bringing the total map features available to nearly 540
• New featureplacer randomizers
• New EMP blast weapon added to the commander (press d to activate while the commander is selected, costs 50 energy and has a 10 second recharge)
• Added new LUPS effects

I realize that many of you probably don’t have any idea what LUPS is. Quite simply, it stands for Lua Particle System. It allows for many more dynamic effects like pretty shields, epic jet flame trails and much more. So far the only LUPS effects that have been added are jet trails. You can see them for yourself by grabbing the latest revision via Spring Downloader.

However, with every new advance comes some caveats. In particular, LUPS requires a newer video card (7 series nvidia or equivalent ATI Video card) to be seen. The graphics requirements for Evolution RTS are already quite low, but LUPS is a much needed graphical advancement. If LUPS is not available to you, first try getting the latest video drivers for your video card. If that doesn’t help, then you simply won’t see them, it will not effect gameplay at all.

Hope everyone enjoys all the new stuff! More coming next week, so stay tuned!

This release is mainly maintenance, and bug fixes, as well as minor performance improvements. I’ve also added new API functions and call outs!

Bugs:

• Fixed a bug causing the spring API call for UnitDamaged to be sent to Shard as a UnitIdle call. UnitDamaged calls should now work correctly, and phantom UnitIdle calls should no longer exist.
• UnitDamaged calls were never passed along from the AI object to all units and behaviour objects
• Removed numerous debug messages
• AttackHandler now maintains attack group sizes above a minimum value to prevent attack group sizes degrading to that of a single unit or two
• Minor fixes to task queue management and certain failure cases that were never accounted for

Optimizations:

• Checks added to prevent processing after the game has finished
• Attack targeting now only checks for targets every 6 frames not every single frame
• LUA_PATH is now set up correctly. Instead of calling game:ExecuteFile(file) or ai:ExecuteGameFile(file), you can now use the standard Lua library functions/keywords:
  • require – note if this fails the AI will exit and take the engine with it after printing a stacktrace to infolog.txt
  • include

Features:

• Added game:IsPaused()
• UnitDamaged now has a second parameter indicating the attacker. If the attacker isn’t available, nil will be passed and must be checked for
• Added game:MinimumWindSpeed()
• Added game:MaximumWindSpeed()
• Added game:TidalStrength()
• Added unit:IsCloaked()
• Added game:GetResource(idx)
• Added game:GetResourceCount()
• Added game: GetResource(name)
• Added Resource object
  
Resource {
name,
income,
usage,
capacity, -- how much we can store (-1 for unlimited)
reserves, -- how much is stored
gameframe, -- the game frame these stats were recorded at
},
• Added a new api.lua with a proxy object implementing game
• Added a preload folder, and moved api.lua, class.lua, and aibase.lua into it
• game:GetEnemies() now returns the enemy units in a normal lua table
• game:GetFriendlies() now returns friendly units in a normal lua table
• game:GetMapFeatures() now returns features in a normal lua table

Functionally, the game play should be near identical to 0.21, with only tiny improvements, however, performance should increase slightly, as well as stability. I’ve also added a lot of things that were requested by content developers using Shard, which allows them to do even more things!

Download it here

This map was designed specifically for All-Terrain and Aircraft. I would highly advise against using hovers or amphibious units on it. It is set up for 3way ffa gameplay, but there should be enough decent places to start for a 2v2 or 3v3.

Enjoy!

Click here to Download

Not as fail commentary as the last one, but still could be a lot better in my opinion.

This vid really is in 1080p. Comments welcome :-)

The game is between 4 human players and 4 shard players.

The human team consists of:
[Mr]Kaiser
[Mr]Universe
ScarySquirrel
Willk

Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AltFWRIlRk

www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AltFWRIlRk

Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sp_OCXRFXJA

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sp_OCXRFXJA

Part 1 just finished uploading, so it will probably take a while before the HD option shows up. Part 2 finished some hours ago and is already available in 1080p.

Many of you have heard me mention Shard before (affectionately knows as “Shart”… cause that’s what will happen when it starts owning you). Shard is an AI, created by AF of http://www.darkstars.co.uk. This AIi is very unique in the fact that it is a hybrid of sorts, using Lua scripting and C++ libraries.

The important part of the above is the fact that it uses Lua, which means that it is configurable. You can edit task queue’s, behaviors, and many other specifics on the fly, simply by editing with a text editor (notepad++ is great for this — tutorial on how to do it coming later on).

Until last night, I had never been able to beat Shard in a 1v1. I play 2v2 against it fairly regularly (me and one Shard vs 2 Shards), and win the majority of those games. Shard is an extremely tough opponent. It spreads like wildfire or a virus and can be extremely difficult to kill.

As such, I have made Shard the official AI of Evolution RTS. None of the other AI’s come even remotely close to being able to do what Shard can manage. You can even design your own behaviors for Shard and make it play the way you want it to, so in effect, you can more or less design an AI tailored to your playstyle.

Long story short, Shard is the best AI I have seen in a while, and it’s ingenuity rivals that of sliced bread.