[i]"The Queen calls to her spawn, an inaudible link of the mind. She nests, interfacing with the biotic mass using her tendrils. They listen to her every command, yet, migrating leaves her vulnerable - an opportune moment for her elimination..."[/i][i] -- Elite Captain Brenn of the Heavy Ordnance Unit[/i] A wonderful spring day to you all! Today's update introduces the Alien Queen to the Strategy game mode, whose elimination results in a loss for the Aliens, previously tied to the Nest. As an added bonus there are a multitude of performance optimizations, primarily improving late game performance with tons of units, as well as a plethora of fixes and improvements. Not forgotten are improvements and fixes to voice chat, which suffered from occasional looping. The Queen herself is a formidable opponent, capable of defending herself should the need arise, though given her importance to the success of the Alien swarm, it is best to keep her safe and protected in a Nest. With the above complete, our focus now shifts to improved respawn mechanics, AI collision avoidance, and the introduction of control points to all maps, providing additional objectives to capture and hold. Further performance improvements will continue to be worked on throughout the year. Thank you all for your support, your feedback, and your patience. Please take care and see you on Baltarus!" [b]Silica V0.8.49 Change Log:[/b] Performance: [list] [*] Improved: Network position/rotation synchronization significantly optimized on clients [*] Improved: Wheeled vehicles' raycasts are now batched, improving performance [*] Improved: Soldiers' AI evaluation raycasts are now batched, improving performance [*] Improved: Hovered vehicles' raycasts are now batched, improving performance [*] Changed: Loading of levels first unloads current level, then loads the new one, reducing memory usage [/list] Gameplay: [list] [*] Added: Queen as critical lose condition in Strategy [*] Added: Queen spawns with initial alien Nest [*] Added: General 'Special Action' support (such as 'Migrate Queen', or 'Deploy Units') including MP synch [*] Added: Aliens begin with 3 Shrimp [*] Added: If Queen is not nested, aliens cannot produce new units nor construct new structures [*] Changed: Queen now spits molten projectiles [*] Changed: Queen heals much quicker than other alien units [*] Changed: Queen is ejected when Nest is killed [*] Changed: Nest may be built right after BioCache, no tech required [*] Changed: Nest cost from 4000 to 2000 [*] Removed: BioCache starting with free Shrimp [*] Fixed: Technological tier construction sites can no longer be obstructed [/list] Visual: [list] [*] Added: Display of voice chat icon for audible enemy proximity chat [*] Added: Coloring and icon of team for voice chat [*] Added: Name of player above icon in map [/list] Technical: [list] [*] Added: 'VoiceDebug' command in console to print out which players' voice chats are currently audible [*] Added: Waiting for server hint when the client needs to wait for the server [*] Added: Countdown to server disconnect when waiting for it [*] Added: Logging of friendly kills [*] Added: More logging for tech tier requests etc [*] Added: Drawing of damage grid debug info via 'DamageGrid' console command [*] Changed: Advanced video options always visible in options menu [*] Improved: Logging of issues and errors in network data write/read with associated ID and function name [*] Improved: Server/client connection timeout doubled when loading a map to ensure each has enough time [*] Fixed: Looping of voice chat in lower framerates [*] Fixed: Target detection system could sometimes break, causing wrong detection of enemy targets [*] Fixed: On level change, server sometimes instructed the client to delete network objects after they were deleted, potentially breaking the game for the client [*] Fixed: When HQ or Queen were deleted (not destroyed), the game did not register the loss/win [*] Fixed: Nest had tendrils which connected to Queen visible all the time [*] Fixed: When a unit boarded another and then ejected, its AI was stopped permanently [*] Fixed: Possible null reference in UnitAimAt component [*] Fixed: Possible null player reference in Strategy game mode [*] Fixed: Asynchronous loading of levels now ensures network objects are locally invalidated [*] Fixed: Vehicles shooting when destroyed [*] Fixed: AI Commander did not pause when AI was disabled [*] Fixed: Network heartbeats used scaled delta time, resulting in a disconnect when time was stopped [*] Fixed: Unit/Tech tier construction site progress time was not synchronized [*] Fixed: Unit/Tech tier construction site completion was rarely not correctly synchronized [*] Fixed: TimeScale console command was not correctly synchronized [*] Fixed: Potential NULL reference in IdleHarvesters UI [*] Fixed: Potential NULL reference in Structure for unit/tech tier construction site [*] Fixed: Sometimes team data was incorrectly sent/read [/list]