Patch: September 3rd, free, widescreen support, custom server support

[lamster]

Altitude is now completely free. There is no full version to purchase: new players will automatically gain access to all of Altitude's planes and perks as they level up. Our goal with this change is strictly to attract new players; we will no longer make any money from Altitude.

Widescreen Support: in the interests of maximizing Altitude's attractiveness to new players we've updated Altitude's native resolution from 1024x768 (4:3) to 1280x720 (16:9). Players can now see 25% farther ahead of their plane horizontally and about 6% less far vertically. This change may disrupt plane balance; we'll be around to issue a balance patch once everyone has had a chance to experiment with and provide feedback on the new field of view. Please let us know if you notice any graphical or gameplay problems related to widescreen support.

Altitude's sound library has been updated to reduce sound latency on Windows. Post here if you experience any technical issues related to this patch.

This patch also includes several changes aimed at expanding support for custom servers in recognition of VAN1SH1NG's heroic efforts on this front:

Server Console Commands:
modifyTournament <player> <team> - for adjusting tournament participants while a tournament is in progress (-1=not part of tournament, 0=left team, 1=right team)
overrideBallScore <leftScore> <rightScore> - for manually adjusting scores in ball mode
overrideSpawnPoint <player> <x> <y> <angle> - for dynamic spawn positions in custom game modes
* any spawn attempts by the playerId associated with <player> will use x/y/angle instead of a normal spawning location
* pass x=0,y=0,angle=0 to clear the override and resume normal spawning rules for a target player, otherwise overrides are cleared on map change (after "mapLoading" but before "mapChange") and on player disconnection

Servers can now disallow (or enforce) the use of random plane configurations via a disallowedPlaneRandomTypes block. Edit launcher_config.xml and just before the line starting with "<mapList..." add a block like this (note: this example blocks all random and non-random configurations, effectively preventing any spawning):

<disallowedPlaneRandomTypes>
  <PlaneRandomType name="non_random" />
  <PlaneRandomType name="custom_random" />
  <PlaneRandomType name="full_random" />
</disallowedPlaneRandomTypes>

Server JSON log message updates:
"kill" now includes "victimPositionX","victimPositionY","victimVelocit yX","victimVelocityY"
"powerupPickup" now includes the powerup's "velocityX","velocityY" at time of pickup

Clients will now automatically leave a server after 5 minutes of idle time only if the server is full (for non-full servers, clients will leave after 60 idle minutes).

1DE (objective) game mode timers have been updated to encourage team play:
* Increased bomb plant time from 1.5 seconds to 3 seconds
* Increased bomb defuse time from 3 seconds to 4 seconds
* Increased bomb detonate time from 14 seconds to 22 seconds

[Slender]

DUMBASS m3

[Oyster]

I cant remember if I cried when I,
Read about his widowed bride.
Something touched me deep inside,
The day Altitude died.
They were singing...
Bye bye, ms. balance pie.
Flew my bomber to the lobby,
But the lobby's too wide.
Them good ol' boys they saw it and cried,
Singing, this here screen is way oversized.

[VAN1SH1NG]

Originally Posted by Slender

The widescreen changes are catastrophic. Everything else is great but seriously now, we can see half the map. HC's can now play blindfolded.

Certainly it will have at least some effect on game balance, but will be nice to see if we get more new players because of it. No widescreen was a big turn off to new players.

[Slender]

Originally Posted by VAN1SH1NG

Certainly it will have at least some effect on game balance, but will be nice to see if we get more new players because of it. No widescreen was a big turn off to new players.

Am I now forced to use a 16:9 resolution? This is just unacceptable.

[ABlank]

1. Can i trade in my now useless registration key for community points?
2. Is it cheating to put duct tape on my monitor to avoid widescreen?

[Wingnut]

Originally Posted by lamster

overrideSpawnPoint <player> <x> <y> <angle> - for dynamic spawn positions in custom game modes
* any spawn attempts by the playerId associated with <player> will use x/y/angle instead of a normal spawning location
* pass x=0,y=0,angle=0 to clear the override and resume normal spawning rules for a target player, otherwise overrides are cleared on map change (after "mapLoading" but before "mapChange") and on player disconnection

Hmmm... That might make for some interesting unofficial game modes, like Coop, and maybe could be used to generate some new unofficial mode.

- Wingnut

[JWhatever]

Add "fog of war"?
Bring back the black bars as grayed out areas of the map. The map would pan behind the grayed areas but planes, pups and bullets would not show up in it. Make the viewable area 4:3 (or as close to that as possible).
If a plane goes near the edge of the map, make the screen pan over the edge, just like it does with mouse.
The very edge of the screen (at the edges of the fow) the screen would be fully black and blurry. The closer to the center you get, the less blurry and lighter the bars get.

The increased field of view makes long shots a lot easier. Even out the difference between mouse and keyboard accuracy by adding in a reticle that is locked at a set distance directly in front of the plane. Add a slider that would adjust the range between the nose of the plane and the reticle. Make it toggleable since there is always someone who doesn't want extra stuff on their screen.

Having those fow bars wouldn't bring back the old 4:3 but it would make the rebalancing easier. Planes with really long range / "infinite" range shots would get an advantage even with the bars since they can spam more accurately at choke points. The blurring would distort the view and make it at least slightly harder to aim beyond the 4:3 area.

Also this http://altitudegame.com/forums/showthread.php?t=9413

-J

[lxyao]

Will all accounts bought from your link now generate 300cp?

[Slender]

CP has been discontinued. Better luck next time. : )

[Mulu]

I've played this game for years now, as many of us have, and the last thing I want is any major changes.. the community is small enough so don't destroy it.

You should add ingame $$$ transactions so you can still profit somewhat, many of us I'm sure have bought extra copies of the game (and gifted them) just to get some plane skins in the past. More skins!?

Anyhow, from the perspective of a Randa player I don't see the changes made today as having made anything different from normal, so don't change anything else or I'll literally cry (probably). Widescreen is pretty neat, anyhow, but I'd rather it be removed than lead to any gameplay changes.

tl;dr Change is scary, unless its going in your pocket? o.O

[MoxyCrimefighter]

HA I knew this was going to happen sooner or later.

[Hollywood]

There's nothing wrong with the changes to widescreen, people just want to complain about meta changes. #getguud

Though there should be an announcement on steam to let users know about the change in the model "F2P". I am curious as to why the sudden change in model, and such. A new game coming out or just trying to keep altitude alive? I don't see any reason to... might just be my paranoia for a 2.0 lol

[Slender]

I frankly will never understand why Normal 4:3 resolutions were forced into a Widescreen setting of 16:9 when they are clearly NOT in scale of being so. I truly do not care if it was a downside for new players not having Widescreen support, but having it added in a way that it was going to mess all other resolution with NO support, blows my mind.

I'm not the one who invests on a computer purely for better gaming performance, at all. That being said, I've been playing on a relatively great laptop for the past 2-3 years with a native resolution of 1366x768. Therefore, I always ran Altitude on a 800x600 windowed resolution which served me just fine as I multi task quite a lot. But now, I'm playing on a 800x600 WINDOW with a scaled 800x600 game resolution at 16:9 ?????????????????? Things like this I cannot comprehend.

Please, adjust the scaling of your widescreen support and leave resolutions 1024x768 and lower, alone.

[lamster]

Being forced to use an 800x600 window with the new widescreen aspect ratio is definitely not right. Until we've got a fix in place you can edit your options file manually: ~Altitude/config/options.xml -- and change
overrideResolution="-1,-1"
to
overrideResolution="1067,600"
(or whatever widescreen windowed resolution you prefer)

[VAN1SH1NG]

If there is any followup update I would propose removing the server message that occurs after /overrideBallScore. It is fine for score corrections (parser can announce it though), but it is not ideal when keeping score in custom game modes such as Dodgeball.

Thanks again!

I'm sure balance would indeed need to be addressed to keep widescreen. In particular I think bomber needs extra help. It was probably the least useful plane prior to the update, but now you can see nades coming from so far away. With so much time to dodge, bomber feels even less effective. I believe increasing armor would help make it more viable.

HC probably will need a nerf as well. The easiest fix may be to significantly reduce damage done at long range.

[Slender]

Regarding bomber, yes, it feels far less effective than before because of the visual awareness other players get from the nade spam miles away. Although, I do feel like it can do well if and only if one is positioned in a (perhaps nearly) 1v1 distance against enemy players, though this suggests Heavy Armor as the best way to survive these close encounters with the opposing team. Otherwise, playing a standard Repair + Flak setup would require a good bomber player with outstanding aim, something I (at least) didn't have a problem with from the 4-5 games I played today after the update (all games ending up with a decent positive ratio) but if this is not met when playing bomber, it's basically a 6v5 (in a ball scenario).

[Kennedy]

I hope we spend at least a couple of months fleshing out the new meta before nerfing things based on intuition.

[Lenny']

There should be a new way how you can unlock skins. Or you could just unlock all the skins for everybody, as having custom skins ingame but no way to apply them will make it less fun for the new players.

[Oyster]

I agree with everything slender said.

However, my hunter style bomber has only benefited from the change. I can choose more effective targets now and spend way less energy spamming empty lanes. It's also way easier to read plays and cheat offsides.
The greatest obstacle is that now I have to snipe from basically two screen-lengths away.

Bombers role as a close combat tackler is relatively unchanged, though. Trading damage is still just trading damage.

(And for the small sect of fellow dombers in the building, our setup just got 6% easier!)

[Oyster]

Holy **** 7 full public servers lmao its 12 pm.

[SanGiovanninoMartire]

7 full public server, but my altitude now crushes upon opening without anything I can do it seems...
Do I have to specifie that I'm extremely angry?

[leggomyeggo]

thanks karlam for all the work you've put into this game! are there any more games you guys are working on so we can support them? :3

p.s. thanks for making the game free so i can have more forum drama to watch/troll

[WilliamDodd]

Hey lamster I love the fact that you made the game free. For a whole I was thinking Altitude should be free since it was almost dead. So thank you for this! I am already seeing tons of new players, which is awesome. But if your going to update this please lower the wide-screen ratio a little bit. I feel it's just to big a change for players who have been playing for years like myself. And I should be rewarded a little c. P. Or something because I paid 20 us dollar's which was well spent. But some c. P. would be cool.

[leggomyeggo]

Originally Posted by WilliamDodd

And I should be rewarded a little c. P. Or something because I paid 20 us dollar's which was well spent.

1. no you shouldn't be rewarded anything simply because you bought the game when it wasn't free
2. community points have been discontinued

[ABlank]

I think it makes sense to have a general advisory copypasta for all the new players. I suggest the follow 100 character comment:

if lvl 8+ die, press e, add blue perk. to unstall point down. pass ball. escort carrier. play music

[lamster]

New patch (9/4/2014): Adjusted new timing and audio code. Please post here if you experience any audio issues, or notice strange speed-ups and slow-downs while playing (these may be related related to timing changes).

[j2k]

I gifted the game in the past, and I got comments that the 4:3 resolution is weird, and old looking. I'm used to it, and in fact when I bought Alti I still had my 4:3 crt monitor, but I don't have any problems switching, and I think it's a very good move by the devs.

Sure, the ballance issues will have to be addressed, but that has been done multiple times in the past, so it can be done again.

I think it's a great patch, and it will extend the life of Altitude by quite a bit.
Thanks guys for your continued work!

[CCN]

Thank you for the game and your support.

[Plauze]

what about scaling? i play in 1920x1080 and the scale seems to be ****ed up, the ball icon isn't round like a circle, anyone else experiencing this too? it seems as if ANY 16:9 resolution does this, while in 1680x1050 i get black borders on top and bottom and scaling is fine...adding a native widescreen resolution thats ****s up the scale..wtf???

this is how my game looks now in any 16:9 resolution, which looks to me like being horizontally shrinked, it just looks ridicilous...

<-----> - bomber before patch
<---> - bomber after patch

[don quijote]

i dont understand a **** about resolutions and i dont have any idea about if this ....xxxx is better for someone.

but could you please give me back my old alti? i cant get used to new planes, i see them so tiny, the turn rates are not the same, i am crashing all the time.

the game looks so weird.

[Wicksman]

Maybe you can post a screenshot of what your seeing?

The turn rates will not have changed.

[VAN1SH1NG]

Originally Posted by Plauze

this is how my game looks now in any 16:9 resolution, which looks to me like being horizontally shrinked, it just looks ridicilous...

<-----> - bomber before patch
<---> - bomber after patch

(img)

Your screenshot looks normal to me. If things look 'horizontally shrinked' to you, you must be used to playing stretched which is in fact not how Altitude was intended to look. You are seeing things as they were meant to be now, no longer stretched horizontally.

[Plauze]

yeah, ur right. after playing for years like this it now just looks and feels so different and somehow wrong..

but i'll get used to it...have to anyways

[ABlank]

Now that Altitude is free, how are we supposed to give y'all money? Is there a donate like somewhere?

[Post775]

Wow, nice update, so many newbies in the servers... but... no more CP's

[Slender]

I have to leave my struggle against the widescreen changes aside for a moment, to say that all these new players I've seen around since the update, makes it feel like it was 2010, back when I started playing. It makes me warm inside.

Well done.

[Aki1024]

Originally Posted by lamster

New patch (9/4/2014): Adjusted new timing and audio code. Please post here if you experience any audio issues, or notice strange speed-ups and slow-downs while playing (these may be related related to timing changes).

My audio is fixed ^.^ Thank you.

[SplaciK]

I bought the game on steam and from now free to play players are in the same situation as me. I paid for this game and now i get nothing. When other games goes to F2P user who paid get the additional things like special visual things etc. What will we get ?
P.S.
English is my second language.

[Slender]

I was just thinking that there could be something added to names in order to differentiate those who actually paid for the game from those who didn't. Some type of recognition on our names or perhaps a little star above our badges or something. Sure, we are all on the same level now but I feel like recognizing those who actually supported the game when they could, would be quite nice.