User:MIDIMan/Ringslinger Revolution/Changelog

Version 1.x

1.0

Initial release.

1.1

CHANGES:

• Gameplay
  • Players now get score for assisting someone else in killing an opponent.
    • ...only if the player dealt more damage than the killer.
  • Environmental kills now give score to the last player the victim was hit by.
  • Time and Emeralds are now shown on the HUD.
  • Players can now shoot weapon rings at each other in co-op with "friendlyfire" enabled.
  • Players now emit particles when damaged, scaling in severity with the damage inflicted.
  • The red screen tint when you get damaged is more severe.
  • Added killfeed icons for switching to spectator, drowning, being spiked, Fang's popgun, Amy's hearts, and Amy's hammer.
  • The killfeed now has a transparent black background that turns white when the player kills an opponent or assists in killing an opponent.
  • The killfeed now shows up on both screens in splitscreen.
  • Seekers now need to kill hiders to tag them in Tag gametypes.
  • Amy, Fang, and Metal Sonic are now automatically unlocked when loading the singleplayer pack.
• Audio
  • The homing ring now makes a sound when it finds a target.
    • It also now has a special sound if you are the target.
  • The sounds for hitting and killing an opponent have been updated.
  • Added a knockdown sound effect if two melee-attacking players collide.
  • Added Final Demo MIDI for Conveyor Conflict.
• Weapons
  • All projectiles now have a trail as they fly.
    • The homing ring's trail changes to smoke when it locks onto a target.
  • Projectiles have been made ~14% faster overall.
    • We're still experimenting with the effective range of players in Ringslinger Revolution, and while we got very close to the ideal value at launch, it's still just a bit shorter than we would have liked. Give us your thoughts!
  • Homing Ring
    • We launched Homing quite overtuned, so we've tried to reduce its power in direct combat while enhancing its strengths as a finisher and anti-air tool.
      • Signficantly increased pre-chase projectile speed (target-chasing speed is unchanged).
      • Increased search radius by 25%.
      • Decreased turning speed by 20% for players.
      • Decreased damage from 30 to 19.
      • Decreased knockback factor from 1x to 0.33x.
  • Scatter Ring
    • Gave the scatter ring its own unique sprite from the pickup (it actually faces the direction it's going in now).
    • Reduced angle spread from 4 degrees to 3.5 degrees.
      • We're aware that the scatter ring is a popularly requested weapon to change, so we're hoping this makes it a bit more useful. Again, give us your thoughts!
  • Rail Ring
    • The rail ring's trail is now red by default to match its slug.
    • The rail ring now ignores the infinity powerup.
      • This should hopefully make the rail ring slightly more balanced in multiplayer.
    • Using your last rail ring now automatically switches to the red ring.
• Characters
  • Amy's heart scatter now deals damage (and increased knockback).

BUGFIXES:

• Gameplay
  • Killfeed icons no longer default to Eggman if the victim had a Force Shield.
  • Fixed the Force Shield absorbing less damage than the other shields.
  • Fixed non-IT players in Tag being able to fire rings.
    • This behavior can be re-enabled with the "rsr_lasertag" console variable.
  • Added better support for the "touchtag" console variable.
• Weapons
  • Fixed the homing ring targetting spectators.
    • This behavior can be re-enabled with the "rsr_ghostbusters" console variable.
  • Fixed a bug where the homing ring could target blast executors (invisible objects inside the breakable walls in Jade Valley).
• Maps
  • Fixed Silver Cascade's turntable being actionable multiple times per cycle.
  • Fixed rogue vanilla RS objects in Granite Lake and Sapphire Rapids.
  • Fixed a bug where Frigid Mountain could spawn you over a death pit.
  • Fixed Sapphire Falls and Sapphire Rapids using the wrong skybox.
  • Fixed REDWALL textures on the lifts in Starlit Warehouse.
  • Updated maps that were still using their 2.2.14 versions to 2.2.15.
  • Fixed a bug where the music change trigger before the final elevator in Techno Madness could be thokked past.
  • Removed leftover "NextLevel" parameter in Techno Madness' level header.
• Characters
  •     Fang remembered to bring ammo for his popgun and is able to fire it now.

Version 2.x

2.0

CHANGES:

• Modding
  • NEW: Five new level header parameters have been added:
    • Lua.RSRKeepInv
      • This allows the player to keep their inventory (weapons, shield, etc.) from the previous level in the RSR gamemode. This doesn't work in Special Stages.
    • Lua.RSRLoseInvOnDeath
      • This makes the player lose all of their inventory upon death, even if they've passed a starpost. This also doesn't work in Special Stages.
    • Lua.RSRWeaponStart
      • This lets the player start a level with any amount of ammo of any type. Must use the format WEAPON:AMOUNT,2NDWEAPON:2NDAMOUNT,etc.. Ex. BASIC:50,RAIL:10 starts the player with 50 red (basic) rings and 10 rail rings. This also doesn't work in Special Stages.
    • Lua.RSRWaves
      • This marks the map as a "Waves" gamemode map. In this gamemode, enemies and items have their own spawners that can be placed in the map editor. Object types and which waves they spawn in on must be defined in the spawner's arguments in Ultimate Zone Builder.
    • Lua.RSRWavesTags
      • This lets the mapper decide what linedef tag is executed at the start of each wave. It must use the format [First wave tag],[Second wave tag],[Third wave tag],[Finish tag]. Ex. 1,2,3,4 executes the linedefs with tags 1, 2, 3, and 4, in that order. If you don't want to define a tag for a specific wave, simply use 0 as the tag.
  • NEW: A hook system has been added that gives modders more control over how certain Objects behave. Uses Snu's "Hook Library" addon.
    • Click here for more details on how to use the hooks.
  • NEW: A skin system has also been added that lets modders determine how characters interact with RSR's systems.
    • Click here for more details on how to use SKIN_INFO.
  • NEW: Custom gametypes can now be set to use RSR's game mechanics using the RSR.AddGametype function.
    • Five new gametypes have been added using this method, in order to add RSR's game mechanics to the five Vanilla RS gametypes.
      • Playing these gametypes with custom Ringslinger maps automatically converts the Vanilla RS pickups into RSR pickups, if none of the latter already exist.
  • Separated the PSprites system from RSR into its own "PSprites" table. Click here for more information.
  • The HUD now uses Skydusk’s updated version of the Custom HUD library. This means better compatibility with MRCE and other mods that use the Custom HUD library.
• Gameplay
  • NEW: Each weapon ring now has an altfire if the player has the associated emerald, triggered with the FIRE NORMAL button. Some of these alternate firemodes use remote detonation. To do this, use the corresponding weapon’s altfire while its altfire projectile is already in flight.
    • Red (Basic) Ring = Green Emerald
      • Charged Shot: Hold down FIRE NORMAL to gradually empower your Red Ring, release to fire. This attack grows in power fastest during the initial charge. Ammo is consumed rapidly during the initial charge, and consumed slowly while holding it. The Charged Ring goes through damageable entities.
        • The Rail Ring also gains a scope with the Green Emerald when using FIRE NORMAL, making faraway targets easier to see.
    • Scatter Ring = Pink Emerald
      • Mass Slug: Fires a large and fast low-damage projectile. On contact or remote detonation, it explodes into a regular Scatter shot; a remotely detonated Mass Slug keeps going in the same direction, while a contact detonation causes the payload to bounce away from the impacted surface.
    • Automatic Ring = Blue Emerald
      • Spray&Pray: Massively amps up the fire rate! ...projectiles might not go anywhere near where the player is aiming. Takes 3 ammo.
    • Bounce Ring = Cyan Emerald
      • Goldburster: Fires a giant projectile that explodes into a radial cluster of Bounce rings on contact or remote detonation. Takes 3 ammo.
    • Grenade Ring = Yellow Emerald
      • Stickybomb: Fires a more powerful explosive that sticks to terrain, bounces off of enemies, and explodes after a brief delay when an enemy or opponent gets close to it. Takes 2 ammo.
    • Explosion Ring = Red Emerald
      • Self-Propel: Explodes the player, propelling them in the direction they're aiming. Takes 3 ammo.
    • Homing Ring = Gray Emerald
      • Router RPB: Searches for an enemy or opponent in line of sight while holding down FIRE NORMAL, then fires a quickly-moving homing projectile that explodes when close to the target. Takes 3 ammo.
  • The player's currently held emeralds on the HUD have been moved to above the weapon bar so the player knows which emerald corresponds to which weapon(s).
  • NEW: Players can now kill themselves in multiplayer using the console command rsr_kill.
    • This allows players to “ragdoll” themselves at will if they really want to, among any other use you could think of for such a command.
  • NEW: Players can now go super in both singleplayer/co-op and ringslinger maps!
    • A new "hype" bar has been added that fills up when the player has all emeralds and kills enemies and/or other players. When it hits a threshold, the player can jump and press spin to turn super! Make sure you don’t have a shield effect when trying to do this.
    • While super, the player's hype bar will go down both on its own, and from taking damage. Dealing damage to enemies/other players will delay its inevitable decline, and once you run out, you lose your super form.
    • While super, you jump higher, move and fire faster, deal tripled melee damage, and are invulnerable to damage to your health or armor. However, any damage you take is instead docked from your hype meter, so be careful! Additionally, you will not be able to use your shield effect while super.
  • Jumping off a cliff, drowning, being crushed, dying to an environmental hazard, etc. no longer prevents other players from being credited for your death.
• Gameplay Balancing
  • NEW: Flag-bearers in Capture the Flag now take 50% more damage from ALL sources and have a marker pointing out their location at all times!
    • Why: Granting flag-bearers access to weapon rings and a health bar to survive hits with proved to be a lot more powerful than intended.
      • In RSR you only drop the flag when killed, which made chaining consecutive fights or even a singular fight against multiple opponents very winnable with the flag so long as the flag-bearer was good at finding healthpacks; this made games drag out for longer than felt fun. Additionally, rocket jumping made the flag run trivial on some maps with little counterplay beyond hoping someone on your team is a crack shot with Rail. This change still lets you do all that if you’re a flag runner, but now it’ll be a lot more difficult; hopefully this encourages more back-and-forth over the flags. We’re also hoping it encourages going for sub-objectives by making power items beyond Rail more enticing to either use on a flag run or to counter a flag runner.
  • All weapon projectiles have 14% more forgiving hitboxes.
  • Every projectile's speed has been increased by ~18%.
  • Scatter Ring
    • Reduced the vertical spread to be more in line with Vanilla RS.
    • Damage increased to 19 (was 16). Total damage is now 95 (was 80).
      • Why: Scatter was still found to be mildly underperforming; damage at maximum impact was underwhelming when it was properly landed, which was too hard to land in the first place.
  • Grenade Ring
    • Direct hit damage increased to 35 (was 25). Total damage is now 90 (was 80).
      • Why: Grenade is intended to be the classic FPS grenade-launcher weapon, comparable to the rocket launcher but much faster at a skill, range, and ammo consumption cost. We’ve evened out its total damage per hit with Explosion and slightly increased the edge it has in sheer DPS over Automatic to reflect this, though it should still be more demanding to use than either alternative.
  • Homing Ring
    • Technically a bugfix, but it now has the intended speed once locked on, which is a lot slower.
  • WRM: Force Shield
    • No longer takes less damage to armor.
      • Why: Force having two non-damage-type-resist passive abilities of significant power felt a bit overtuned, and Attraction only having a damage-type-resist passive felt incredibly undertuned, especially for a Strong Random Monitor drop. To even out these shield effects while honoring the legacy of 2.0’s Force Shield and keeping deterrents to Rail easily accessible, Force keeps its bullet deflection effect; the damage resistance portion of this shield effect has been buffed and moved to Attraction.
  • Power Items
    • Now take 50% longer to respawn compared to regular items. This affects Rail, Infinity, and the Strong Random Monitor.
      • Why: We think it’s good for power items to be game-changingly strong, since it gives players sub-objectives to fight over; however people were previously able to accumulate massive advantage through stacking power items too easily.
    • Buffed the following power items to hopefully bring them up to the same level of awesome as Extra Life and Rail:
      • Infinity Ring
        • Duration refreshes by 10 seconds on opponent kill.
      • SRM: Invincibility
        • Duration refreshes by 10 seconds on opponent kill.
      • SRM: Armageddon Shield
        • Blast damage increased to 99 (was 50).
      • SRM: Attraction Shield
        • Now provides a 25% damage resistance and firing speed bonus.
• Maps
  • NEW: Emerald Tokens are hidden around Techno Madness. Completing the level with Emerald Tokens in your possession will transport you to a Rumble Rift, a wave-based map which rewards you with the green Chaos Emerald upon completion...
  • NEW: Two new maps have been added to the multiplayer pack:
    • The aforementioned Rumble Rift, ported directly from singleplayer. This map is in the Standard rotation.
    • GET 180 RINGS!, a port of 2.0's first Special Stage with weapons, powerups, and monitors added. This map is in the Classic rotation.
  • Blizzard Fortress now has Emerald spawns.
  • Noxious Factory's layout has been redone from the ground up, thanks to orbitalviolet.
    • The original layout has been moved to the Classic rotation and renamed to "Legacy Factory".
  • Rearranged some item placements in every map, with a primary focus on rebalancing the power items.
    • To make a long story short, some power items are persistent (e.g. Rail) and can accumulate, while some can’t (e.g. Infinity). We’ve tried to spread out power items from each other and put persistent items in spots that are easier for everyone to access and contest to reduce the likelihood of one player hoarding everything because nobody else noticed.

NEW: SPECIAL EFFECTS:

The mod's special effects have been completely redone to make every action feel more impactful!

• Player
  • Improved player “ragdolls”.
  • Tweaked amount of player damage particles emitted on hit.
  • Armored players now emit a small amount of deflection sparks when they take damage.
  • Players now emit two sounds when taking damage, based on whether or not they have armor.
  • Armored players emit a new sound when their armor breaks.
  • Damaging an armored opponent now plays a different hitsound.
  • The hit that breaks your opponent’s armor plays yet another different hitsound.
  • Attempting to attack an invincible opponent plays yet another other hitsound.
  • Invincible players now emit a large amount of deflection sparks when they block damage and also emit a weak feedback sound.
• Weapons
  • Each alt-fire has its own sound, plus certain alt-fire handling cases such as not having enough ammo to use it.
    • Some alt-fires also have extra VFX as needed.
  • Nearby explosions now cause screenshake.
  • Refined a few regular fire sounds to make them more crisp and less crispy.
  • Homing and Stickybomb trails are “ghost” by default; they only emit smoke when in their “active” states.
  • The Rail Ring has been remade to feel appropriately powerful for something that deals 250 damage in one go.
    • The Rail Ring’s firing and impact sounds have been completely revamped; the firing sound is now audible from further away.
    • Added a new sound that plays when an opponent’s Rail Ring barely misses you.
    • The Rail Ring’s shot now echoes around the entire map for a few seconds.
    • Firing or being near an impacting Rail Ring causes the screen to shake.
    • The Rail Ring’s impact now scatters sparkles.
    • The Rail Ring’s trail now has an outer circular trail of sparkles.
• Powerups
  • The Strong Random Monitor has new sprites to distinguish it from Weak Random Monitors; now it should be easier to tell at a glance which one’s the power item.
  • Power items now continuously emit small sparkles to signify their powerful status.
  • Chaos Emeralds now continuously emit bigger sparkles.
• Other
  • Made the weapon bobbing follow the player's vertical momentum if not on the ground.
  • Updated MIDIs for Lime Forest, Diamond Blizzard/Nimbus Ruins, Sapphire Falls/Pristine Shores/Sapphire Rapids, Summit Showdown, Crystalline Heights, Silver Cascade, and Invincibility with ones based off of the current digital versions.
  • Respawning entities now play a respawn sound according to what type of entity it is.
  • Respawning entities are now shrouded in a brief fog.

BUGFIXES

• Gameplay
  • Crawla Commanders now use their pain state when at half health.
  • Fixed a bug where gliding or dashing into an enemy would sometimes not deal damage.
• Weapons and Powerups
  • Grenade and Bounce Rings no longer bounce off of the sky.
  • Fixed a bug where the Homing Ring was significantly faster than intended.
  • Fixed an oversight where the Rail’s hitbox was 75% vertically wider than intended.
  • Fixed an oversight where the item "sparkle" animation would stall for 3 game tics before disappearing.
  • Fixed bugs related to the Attraction Shield:
    • Players shouldn’t get stuck in infinite loops of trying and failing to collide with an opponent anymore if the opponent is unable to be melee attacked.
    • Players shouldn’t be able to target unintended players with the Attraction Shot effect.
  • Fixed players being able to self-damage and deal damage multiple times from the Armageddon Shield’s effect in Tag/Hide & Seek.
    • Incidentally fixes hiders being able to die to the Armageddon Blast without being tagged.
  • Fixed a couple of bugs related to Tag/Hide & Seek:
    • Fixed seekers not being able to use their weapons after a player hits a recycler monitor.
    • Fixed hiders being able to hurt each other when the friendlyfire console variable is off.
  • Adjustments made to the rsr_lasertag console variable:
    • Hiders can no longer damage each other by default. To re-enable this behaviour, turn friendlyfire on. As a consequence of this implementation, seekers are now able to damage each other in lasertag if friendlyfire is on.
• Maps
  • Fixed the outer rim of the first elevator in Techno Madness being marked as a death pit.
  • Fixed non-sloped ramps in Silver Cascade.
  • Removed rogue vanilla rings from Dual Fortress.
  • Fixed doubled up pickups and a missing health pack in Sapphire Rapids.
  • Crystalline Heights now has monitors.
  • Pristine Shores now has monitors other than Super Rings.
  • Blazing Precipice now has a Rail pickup.
  • Fixed non-sloped alcoves in Diamond Blizzard.
• VFX
  • It should be a lot harder for ragdolls to cause the ragdolling player’s camera to clip out of bounds.

2.1

CHANGES:

• Modding
  • NEW: The hook system has been revamped from the ground up (thank you, Jisk!)
    • Click here for more details on how to use the hooks.
  • Added a nohud option to SKIN_INFO for characters that aren’t supposed to use RSR’s HUD.
  • The mapper can now define how many waves a wave-based map uses. Use the level header parameter RSRWavesCount to set the number of waves. Default is 3.
• Gameplay
  • NEW: LaserTag reworks! The console variable rsr_lasertag, which allows hiders to fight back in Tag only, is now on by default. In addition, the following changes have been made to the gamemode in order to even the odds between hiders and seekers:
    • Seeker count on round start now scales with total player count.
    • Hiders now have the damage vulnerability and inability to critically heal that flag holders have.
  • NEW: Critical healing! The first time you heal when you fall below 40 combined health and armor in a fight, you’ll heal just a bit more than you usually would... unless you have the flag or are hiding, in which case be careful!
    • Why: Sometimes, you just need a slight, tiny boost to potentially turn a fight around, but you’re running out of ammo and the big health kits are nowhere in sight. Have no fear! Now, the slight supercharge to your healing when critically injured should give you that minute advantage you need to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat!
  • NEW: Mass Scrambler! We’ve reworked the payload of the Scatter Ring’s alternate firemode. Now, the big slug releases twelve bomblets that quickly fall to the ground and explode in a small radius on contact, at the cost of 4 ammo.
    • Why: Mass Slug was conceptually fine, but it proved brutally unforgiving to use with even a slight bit of ping and less interesting than it could have been. Additionally, an unfilled category in the weapon selection was noticed where characters such as Tails and Knuckles could enjoy a strong air-to-ground option to fight back against the dominance of the Sonics. To remedy all of this at once and hopefully make it more exciting to use, we’ve turned it into a remotely-activated clusterbomb. Bounce this off a wall ahead to demolish a pursuer, send a carpet of bombs up and down slopes, strike opponents from above, there’s a lot to be done with this one.
  • Hide and Seek is no longer affected by lasertag, both as a bugfix and to make it more distinct from Tag. Hiders are also instantly killed in this mode.
  • NEW: Viewmodel settings! You can customise your viewmodel with the console variable rsr_viewmodel! Use the following parameters:
    • Right: your character holds the weapon on the right.
    • Left: your character holds the weapon on the left.
    • Center: your character holds the weapon in the middle of the screen like it’s Quake.
    • None: the game won’t show your character holding a weapon.
  • NEW: Console killfeed! In the works for a while, a proper and polished text-based killfeed has been added with that ‘90s edge you can expect from RSR!
    • All killfeeds now track how far away you killed opponents from.
  • Added safeguards against unintentionally firing and wasting a precious Rail Ring when switching to it.
  • Also added safeguards against exploding yourself when swapping weapons during saturation fire, or from charging a shot when you fire your last Rail while using the scope.
  • Explosion and Bounce have swapped places in the weapon bar because you’ll probably be using Explosion a lot more often than Bounce.
  • An icon has been added to your HUD if you have a flag.
  • Replaced the Elemental Shield with the Flame and Bubble Shields in the Weak Random Monitor pool. (The odds of a WRM spawning a shield vs. not spawning a shield remain overall the same.)
    • Why: The Elemental Shield ended up being rather uninteresting to play with compared to the other shields, with the Stomp being prohibitively difficult to strike enemies with and its abilities all being useful but boring-feeling passives; the two replacement shields seem a lot more interactive. The Bubble Bounce adds an alternative source of verticality to the Whirlwind Jump into the WRM pool, and the sheer horizontal speed offered by the relatively common Flame Dash allows any character to easily grab a fighting chance against the Sonics.
      • So you might be wondering, “where’s the Thunder Shield”? We thought Attraction and Whirlwind were good enough as it stands and that Thunder wasn’t distinct enough from either of them to warrant any additions or replacements, so it won’t be joining its brethren in RSR.
  • Shield monitors no longer grant you armor if you already have more than 10.
    • Why: The armor granted by shields was always primarily intended as a failsafe to make sure you don’t have a shield effect on 0 armor. The main draw of picking up shields is the shield effect, and the presence of what are effectively armor pickups in the Random Monitor pool made the distribution of armor a bit too common for our liking.
  • You now penetrate through weak enemies in Singleplayer/Co-op when melee killing them.
  • Picking up an Emerald Token when you already have all the Emeralds now heals you for 50 of both health and armor and gives you enough hype to go Super.
  • Added two new console commands that cause the user to instantly die:
    • rsr_explode, which reduces you to ash after a brief delay.
    • rsr_disintegrate, which instantly vaporizes you in a colorful flash of energy.
    • Note: rsr_kill, which simply instantly kills and ragdolls you, is in fact still in the game.
  • RSR killbinds can now be used in non-deathmatch multiplayer gametypes.
  • Added extremely rare silly things that happen sometimes.
    • Please be liberal with bug reports still, we’d rather you report something you think is a bug that turns out to just be an Easter egg; it might actually be a bug, and we want to know

• Gameplay Balancing
  • Kill assists
    • You only gain an assist if somebody dies because you did significant damage to them, after considering healing.
    • You no longer gain kill assists on opponents who were instantly killed by the map 8 or more seconds after your fight.
      • Why: there were a lot of cases where, after healing from multiple pickups in a row, entering a brand new fight and dying there would grant several unrelated people from your last conflict assist points. This was even more egregious when one minute after a conflict, your target fell off the map and you randomly gained points for it. We want a flexible assist system, but it was a bit too crazy.
  • Melee: your damage now starts at 10 and gradually increases the faster you go.
    • Why: this is mostly just a flavour thing, it feels nice if going really fast causes your kinetic attack to hit harder, BUT it’s always nice to give players more options to turn melee attacks into a viable main strategy that don’t rely completely on the Attraction Shield. It also rewards offensive melee attacks, as an attacker going quickly will overall deal more damage in a collision than a stationary defender who jumps at the last minute as a defensive measure.
  • Scatter Ring: projectile speed increased by 50%. (Spread, the main limiter on its effective range, remains unchanged.)
    • Why: Wow, Scatter never gets a break, does it... Well, hopefully we got it right this time. At some point everyone figured out that the weapon’s wide spread limits its range well enough already, and that it didn’t need to have a slow projectile on top of that. This should help make it feel more consistent to use.
  • Automatic Ring:
    • Damage decreased to 8 (was 14).
      • TTK on 100/0 players is 0.71sec (was 0.42sec), 100/100 players is 1.43sec (was 0.81sec).
    • Knockback factor reduced to 25% (was 100%).
      • Why: Look at the changes. Less than a second to kill a fully-stocked player was insane. One second to kill a Lance-a-Bot (250 health) with plenty of ammo to spare was insane. As people get better at the game we realise that a properly-connected Automatic attack is too devastating, so these new numbers should give you more reprieve on the receiving end.
  • Spray&Pray
    • Spread reworked: 2.5 horizontal & 2 vertical degrees -> 3 horizontal & 1.5 vertical degrees
    • Damage decreased to 8 (was 10).
    • Knockback factor reduced to 25% (was 50%).
      • Why: Spray&Pray needed to be looked at given the change to Automatic, which gave us a chance to solidify its identity compared to its base firemode while we were at it. Spray&Pray was originally intended as a hallway saturator, and this should help it lean even harder into that niche; the greater damage crossed with the greater horizontal spray should kneecap its ability to be aimed precisely but allow for maximal sweeping of corridors and crowds of enemies alike.
  • Explosion Ring
    • Splash damage decreased to 62 (was 70).
    • Projectile damage decreased to 4 (was 20) - effective direct hit damage is now 66 (was 90).
      • HTK on 100/0 players is 2 (was 2), 100/100 players is 4 (was 3).
    • Blast radius increased to 224*FRACUNIT (was 192*FRACUNIT).
      • Why: The explosives in general have been the premier damage option for a while ever since Doom, and this worked fine in Quake and Unreal Tournament... but not in RSR where everything is more freely available. To give each weapon even more distinct identities, Explosion is now even stronger at splash damage at the cost of direct damage, giving Scatter an edge as an anti-armor weapon in both SP and MP modes. We’re aware this change is a bit of a gamble, so let us know if you like it.
  • Grenade Ring
    • Now explodes 1 second after the first bounce instead of 2 seconds after being lobbed.
    • Splash damage decreased to 50 (was 55).
    • Projectile damage decreased to 15 (was 35) - effective direct hit damage is now 65 (was 90).
      • HTK on 100/0 players is 2 (was 2), 100/100 players is 4 (was 3).
    • Reduced maximum ammo reserve to 50 (was 100).
      • Why: Grenade previously did... over 300 DPS. So, basically the same story as Automatic. This used to not feel like a problem, but as players become more proficient, it’s becoming readily apparent just how overtuned this weapon is once you do get the hang of it. The DPS has taken a sharp decline to 228, but it now has increased range and trickshot potential thanks to its new fuse. Hopefully this makes it more entertaining to both use and fight. Give us your thoughts!
  • Stickybomb
    • Made the Stickybomb’s throwing distance chargeable by holding down the altfire button and greatly reduced its initial velocity.
    • Added a half-second arming period.
      • Why: If a player was being followed by an opposing player, that first player could throw a Stickybomb towards the ground and immediately delete the opposing player from existence.
    • Weapons can now interact with Stickybombs - enemy weapon damage shortens Stickybomb fuses (other Stickybombs instantly cause a chain reaction).
    • Splash damage decreased to 48 (was 128).
    • Rounds per second increased to 1.3 (was 1).
    • Ammo cost reduced to 1 (was 2).
      • Why: We got feedback that the Stickybomb was particularly egregious in CTF due both to its obscenely high damage output, and the fact that players could place them right in front of a flag base. This combined with the other reworked features should help incentivize players to think more strategically about where they place their Stickybombs to better catch their opponents off guard, as well as require them to invest more time and ammo into setting up particularly impactful traps.
  • Goldburster (Technically a bugfix)
    • Speed increased to 75*FRACUNIT (was 60*FRACUNIT).
    • Submunition speed increased to 90*FRACUNIT (was 60*FRACUNIT).
      • Why: It’s a bugfix, but it’s a bugfix with balancing implications so it’s here on full display.
  • Homing Ring, Router RPB
    • Now chases faster characters better. (Technically a bugfix)
      • So we went ahead with the bugfix anyway? Yes. The heat-seeking class lost a lot of its threat once it was fixed to finally modulate its chasing speed properly because we didn’t account for characters that could exceed normal top speed! Now everyone should have equal reason to worry about it and equal opportunity to evade these weapons.
  • Homing Ring
    • Knockback factor reduced to 25% (was 100%).
    • No longer targets non-Eggman Monitors.
      • Why: Homing is fine as is, but sometimes your ping is too high and you get pelted by a barrage of Homing rings, and those two things combined mean you can’t really move and evade. It’s not a balance problem but it’s kind of frustrating, so it should happen less now. As for the monitors, Homing being able to target random monitors can mess up your build by changing your shield effect, and it makes SRMs too easy to grab. We’re keeping the ability for mappers to use Eggman monitors as a Homing deterrent.
  • Router RPB
    • Now detonates in close proximity to enemies instead of only on direct impact.
    • Increased average damage output by 17%.
    • Increased ammo cost to 4 (was 3).
    • Increased distance from which targets can be painted by 380%.
    • Decreased projectile speed by 6.25%.
    • Decreased rate of fire to 19.3 RPM (was 27.3 RPM).
      • Why: So, funny story, this is actually how RPB was meant to work since day 1; a version of Homing that’s easier to land on an opponent fleeing from you in line of sight, but with worse damage per ammo and that can’t really turn properly. RPB has always been an awkwardly sort-of pointless firemode, this is why. Hopefully it should have its own identity now.
  • Rail Ring: alt-fire scope zoom increased by 217%. (Due to SRB2’s limitations, this might not change anything if your base FOV is low enough...)
    • Why: After playing around in Infernal Cavern a bit, it was noticed that the scope really doesn’t zoom in all that much. It’s admittedly the weakest Emerald power, but it could at least feel like it’s doing more than it currently is over the super long ranges you’d assume a scoped Rail should be useful at. So now it does!
  • Infinity Ring, SRM; Invincibility
    • Timer replenish on kill gets less effective the more your killstreak grows.
      • Why: This shouldn’t change anything but in the most extreme of cases of domination by the mod’s best players. The nightmares now eventually end.
  • SRM; Invincibility: invincible players can no longer carry flags.
    • Why: We should have caught this one in hindsight, but combining the time-increasing killstreak properties of the powerup with rocket jumping and flagruns made the game too one-sided if a good player grabbed the flag.
  • SRM; Attraction Shield: No longer refills armor on kill.
    • Why: Following its buff to grant fire rate and damage resist from 2.0, the extra help this shield had as a shield that only had special melee attacks to its name is no longer necessary.
  • SRM; Attraction Shield, Character Ability; Homing Attack
    • After 2.5 (Attraction)/1 (Homing Attack) second(s) of homing, the pursuer’s velocity gradually decreases, breaking lock-on when it reaches 0.
    • You can no longer fire weapons while using a homing attack.
    • Damage threshold required to break lock-on reduced from 45 to 27 (Attraction)/40 to 28 (Homing Attack).
    • Attraction Shot damage reduced to 15 (was 20). HTK on 100/0 players is 7 (was 5), 100/100 players is 13 (was 10).
      • Why: Another case of players becoming more proficient and drawing out the previously hidden strengths of items thought to be balanced. As it turns out, just the threat of having to maybe suddenly deal with an incoming homing attack is a powerful deterrent in a fight, and the effectiveness of the actual attack itself makes dealing with this a zero-sided coin in favour of the attacker. Removing the ability to fire weapons while homing attacking gets rid of the frustrating scenarios where you’d get bursted for 300 damage with no time to react, and the added limiters on how homing works opens up more ways to deal with the attack on the receiving end while keeping its primary offensive draw intact.
  • SRM; Armageddon Shield: Armor gain from manual detonation is now halved if used below 25 armor.
    • Why: Armageddon healing from manual detonations was designed to promote offensive usage of the shield effect at high armor values as an alternative to leaving it on yourself as a deterrent against being shot, but previously it was too easy to achieve a blend of both by leaving it to low armor values then manually detonating it. This should strike a nice middle ground of risk and reward.
  • Super mechanics: you now lose your Emeralds upon powering down.
    • Why: Super forms are a win-more mechanic, because by then you already have all seven buffs and the only way to lose them is to be killed, which is difficult when Super gives you an extra 750-ish health that can be regenerated by doing damage. Once the best players got their hands on all the Emeralds, the game was more or less settled already. Now there’s a real strategic tradeoff to activating Super: you’ll win super hard now, but are you sure you want to lose your alt-fires and redistribute the Emeralds?
• Maps
  • NEW: The automatic conversion script for maps not explicitly made for RSR now generates a Rail pickup in addition to everything else.
    • HOWEVER this DOES NOT WORK in Capture the Flag! This is to prevent auto-generated layouts from being unbalanced.
  • NEW: Added every pre-2.2.14 map to the Classic rotation of Deathmatch Pack. We’ve also thrown in 2.1 Granite Lake for good measure!
  • NEW: Packaged the Red Barrage Zone addon into Deathmatch Pack.
    • Now comes with a MIDI!
  • NEW: A level header now exists to prevent players from using the alternate firemodes granted by the Emeralds in your custom map; Use Lua.RSRNoAltfires = true in your map's level header to disable them.
    • This also exists as a gametype rule via RSR.AddGametype; Use noaltfires = true when defining the gametype's info table.
  • Redistributed the pickups in Techno and Legacy Madness a bit to improve map flow, especially in multiplayer gametypes.
  • Rebalanced power item distribution in the MP maps again.
• Special Effects
  • NEW: A proper hitsound exists.
  • NEW: Reaching dangerously low health or taking damage while you have the flag or are hiding plays a sound and causes your HUD numbers to flash. Be careful!
  • NEW: Players are cooked to perfection if killed by fire damage, explosions, or the Armageddon Shield.
  • NEW: Added a continuous soft sound that plays while you have any amount of Homing or Router RPB rings chasing you.
  • NEW: Sounds have been added for when you’re targeted by Attraction Shot or a character’s homing attack.
  • NEW: Added overlays that signify when you have Super Sneakers and Invincibility. Closed captions as cluttered as usual? No worries!
    • Use the console command rsr_screeneffects off if you need them to go away.
  • NEW: Each regular weapon firemode has its own sound that plays when you’re getting low on ammo, and it’s louder the less you have.
  • NEW: Added a light blue HUD number flash for the Attraction Shield’s damage reduction.
  • The sounds for dealing and receiving damage while armored have been improved.
  • Explosives now sizzle as they travel through the air.
  • Changed the trail of active heat-seeking weapons to jet flames.
  • Improved the sound effect for an incoming RPB.
  • Adjusted how far away certain sounds (mainly Stickybomb-related ones) can be heard.
  • Completely redid the Mass Scrambler and Stickybomb’s special effects from the ground up to accompany the reworks.
  • Added low-CPU-cost variants of the explosion VFX for use on weapons that can generate a lot of explosions quickly.
  • Maximally charged Red Rings emit a low electric crackle as they fly through the air.
  • Adjusted Charged Shot impact audio.
  • Rail now plays a sound effect when you hit multiple players in a single shot.
  • Made the Rail near-miss sound a lot more threatening.
• Other
  • Updated the in-mod CREDIT.txts.
  • Changed a lot of sound effects to .wav to save on storage space.

BUGFIXES:

• KNOWN ISSUES: These are things we’re aware of, but can’t currently fix for one reason or another. If you notice something weird, please let us know!
  • Recycler monitors can occasionally duplicate Emeralds or fail to de-Super somebody if a Super player has their Emeralds given to someone else. Cause unknown.
  • Stickybombs bounce off slopes at certain angles. To be fixed in 2.2.16 when the necessary functions are added.
• Gameplay
  • The Chaos Emeralds now spawn in Tag and Hide&Seek.
  • The flag and enemy radars should look more stable now.
  • Character mods using the Homing Attack ability are properly prevented from locking onto opponents in Tag when rsr_lasertag is disabled.
• Weapons and Powerups
  • Projectiles should get stuck inside terrain geometry less often when fired too close to a solid surface.
  • Stickybombs no longer stick to death pits.
  • Players killed by a reflected Rail Ring or point-blank projectile will no longer drop an extra piece of ammo (this previously caused the duplication of Rail ammo).
• Maps
  • Fixed a softlock that could happen in Techno Madness in multiplayer gametypes if you managed to die while in the pre-boss elevator before hitting the pre-boss checkpoint.
  • The Chaos Emeralds now spawn in a few Legacy maps they didn’t before.
  • Fixed a double-stacked SRM in Iron Turret.
  • Fixed floating pickups in Diamond Blizzard.
  • Fixed rings disappearing into the skybox walls in all Rumble Rifts.
  • Fixed Techno Madness’ skybox not having rippling water.

Special thanks to orbitalviolet for helping out with the changelog.