Continuum Revision History

Continuum 0.40:

added additional anti-cheating checks
edited for better compatibility with Windows XP and Vista

Continuum 0.39:

test release

Continuum 0.39 pre-release 1

fixed proximity bomb bug introduced in 0.38
fixed crash in some systems few seconds after entering zone

Continuum 0.38:

Gameplay
added support for specifying spawn location and radius per team is settings
added server option to disable passing ball through wall
added server option to disable catching ball when stating still in safezone to eliminate "ball killing"
added support for new configuration variable Misc:AntiWarpSettleDelay which will activate artificial anti-warp for given amount of time after attaching, portaling and warping. This should fix "getting past anti" bug in flagging zones
added support for multi-server zones
added support for negative gravity
fixed ball remaining in phased out state for long periods of time
fixed removing of powerballs from arena
fixed point blank bomb shrapnel doing full damage, istead of inactive shrapnel damage as it is supposed to
fixed driver stealthing entire turret
fixed crash when somebody attaches you at same moment when you go to spectator mode

User Interface
fixed auto commands not beeing sent when there is not any chats in profile
fixed character keys not working as PREV/NEXT key in menus
fixed arena list not working with many areas (50+)
moved first 2 previously hardcoded help pagas into Commands.hlp so they can be changed too by including Commands.hlp to lvz file
fixed attach, tick next and tick previous actions not working with joystick

Graphics
added support for GIF, PNG and JPG files in addition to BMP. This should help reduce lvz file size v reworked lvz loading logic. image, audio and help files and now loaded directly from lvz file instead of extracting all files and saving to disk. files are now loaded in following order: 1. zonedir\arenaname (arenaname (public) can be used for main spawn), 2. active lvz files, 3. zonedir, 4. graphics/sound dir, 5. Continuum dir.
added support for 16, 24 and 32-bit display modes
added support for aligning screen objects with various screen elements (stats box, energy bar, specials, weapons, radar, chat). See BuildLevel docs and examples for details added configurable colors. Background color, menu colors, radar colors are now read from colors.bm2
added advanced option 'Always show common resolutions'. Checking this makes 800x600, 1024x768, 1200x1024, 1600x1200, 1920x1440 and 2048x1536 modes available for selecting even if DirectDraw says that these are not supported. Useful when DirectDraw detects your monitor maximum resolution wrong.
added advanced option 'Disable clipping'. Use this when you have problems with tasking in and out in fullscreen mode
added support for lvz objects in multiple lvz files. In earlier versions only objects from last lvz where used
added support for *objset command with multiple objects
fixed loading of shipX graphics from lvz
fixed freeing of lvz sprites when changing arenas
fixed gradient.bm2 beeing not re-loaded
fixed radar lining images transparency
fixed "holes" in radar at high resolutions and made scrolling smoother
fixed "move object" packet handling
fixed thor explosions not showing on the radar
fixed graphics not beeing displayed after tasking out
fixed graphics beeing reloaded twice after tasking in, causing low-end computers to lag out during that process
fixed level and screen objects not showing up when changing arena while in chat window
fixed zone setting Frequency shift 0 crashing Continuum
fixed ship name displaying when ships with different sizes attached to eachother

Menu/Chat
fixed menu window was creeping up/left each run if task bar was at left/top of display
fixed menu not showing some ships when using mixed ships.bm2 and ship#.bm2
ignore left button while in right-click zone info mode, and remove state if focus lost
zone pings showed invalid spike after zone/proxy dialogs because of old packets sitting in network buffer
fixed " #" in chat showing in blue instead of green
don't flash chat for 5 seconds upon opening to avoid flash for existing text
rare crash on menu close fixed
added web links, news, help, banner editor to chat menu
fixed bug with passwords having non-ascii chars
fixed macros not showing right in chat/edit dialog if they have been changed in game
numeric zone ping now shows lowest of last 8 pings, not average
edit chats feature in chat window (Ctrl-H)
added find support to chat with advanced options for message types
ability to add custom zones
improved menu/skin draw speed and loading of custom ships
improved URL detection
support optional chatbg.bm2 for chat window background (graphics/ or zones//)
fixed web links and help menu URLs
removed all accesses to resource.dll from menu
fixed bug in skins drawing animations for many regions
fixed minor mouse cursor bug in banner editor
added color depth to menu and profiles
added "show default resolution" and "disable clipping" to advanced graphics options

Sound
fixed not beeing able to set music volume to higher after setting it once

Misc
fixed zone setting BounceFactor 0 crashing Continuum
fixed frequent 'Packet tampering' server messages caused by incorrect retry handling when packet got lost during initial handshake
added support for hashed passwords
better timer synchronization with server
fixed Continuum not starting sometimes when clicked on icon
added asss support

Continuum 0.37

Gameplay
made ship radius part of server ship settings so it is possible to make ship hat squeezes through 1 tile wide hole or a capital ship with size 5x5 tiles you can also make appropriate graphics for it using graphics download functionality)
fixed bug that allowed laying portal right after attaching even if enemy has antiwarp engaged
fixed bug in simulation code that caused ship to jump back after long screenlag period (for example, using PrintScreen no longer makes you lag on other player's screens)
fixed drawing of "lagged" or "phased" ball (.36 did not draw phased ball at all)
changed the amount of time a ball stays "lagged/phased" from 3 seconds to 1
fixed ball movement glitch on map when ball goes outside of radar range
removed weapon fire/warp delay after passing with Insert key
fixed turrets falling apart if several people attached at same time making turret bigger than allowed
fixed bombs hitting the spot a player specced from, fixed not being able to fire bombs in spot player specced from
fixed /*warpto safe zone
fixed energy deplete prize sent by moderator which did not work (*prize #-13)
made flagger/baller decoy behaviour compatible with SS 1.3x (baller decoy no longer red)
fixed multifire bullets when one turret is blocked and ship is touching wall
fixed proximity bomb safety radius which was slightly smaller than VIE
fixed turrets consisting of people from different teams when driver reenters arena
fixed crash when doing /*warpto to spectator
fixed bug with decoys standing still beeing counted as mines
you can no longer be warped during death timer
support for more (Public) arenas

Graphics
added functionality to download custom graphics, sounds and help files with level file per zone or arena (View -> Options -> Misc -> Use Optional Level Graphics and Sounds) through use of *.lvz files
ship graphics loaded from ship1.bm2 - ship8.bm2 to allow different ship sizes. If these files are not present ships.bm2 is used for backward compatibility
added map graphics objects. map designers can place any image (also animated images) anywhere on the map now, so map design is not limited by tileset. further more, these graphics objects can be attached to certain events (enter zone, enter arena, death, kill) or commands issued by moderators. it is also possible to move these objects around using bots
added screen graphics objects. screen graphics objects are similar to map graphics objects, only they are not on the map, but on user's screen. some ideas for screen objects: arrow pointing to enemy with flags, powerball, etc, controlled by bot; clock showing time till end of league game, splash screen when you enter zone
added green-line coordinate grid to radar (optional in View -> Options -> Radar -> Show Radar Grid)
fixed screenshot funcionality (PrintScreen)
fixed burst trails (which were not diplayed in .36)
fixed visual bug of thors disappearing at level edge
fixed frequent DirectDraw error when reentering zone
fixed goal tile animation speed
max number of flyunder tiles displayed is unlimited now
asteroids and wormholes are drawn with black transparency now
rolling ship is now displayed when rolling ship graphics is in same directory as regular ship graphics
corrected thrust output position when rolling ship is disabled
fixed banner palette when setting banner
fixed windows PrintScreen functionality when tasked out
fixed problem with maps with > 10x compression ratio
fixed ship disappearing when decloaking
fixed some sprites not displayed after tasking out and in
fixed various color palette bugs, incorrect tile graphics displayed, and invisible tiles bug
fixed various bugs and crashes when changing graphics or sounds in-game

Chat
added 2 new fonts Large and Extra large (View -> Options -> Chat -> Font Style, thanks to ZippyDan for graphics)
added command ?nopubchat. it toggles displaying of public (blue) chat on and off. useful for league games
added international character support (öäõü etc - also ZippyDan)
help menu texts and help ticker texts are optionally downloaded from server, so they can be customized for zones
added option to require message key to be able to chat (View -> Key Defs -> Require Msg Key). useful so you dont accidentally enter message mode
increased chat window history length from 128 to 1,000 lines (applies to ?logbuffer too), so you can scroll back much farther
fixed ` key handling problems
fixed ignoring of players with )> in name
empty *arena messages are not displayed - moderator bongs no longer make a blank space
fixed dedupe messages so it now works ignoring duplicate messages (View -> Chat -> No Duplicate Messages)
fixed ;9999999999999; not to show random numbers
fixed problem with Enter beeing message mode key
fixed empty lines in help ticker
added ability to use %% to send %
fixed ignoring of leading spaces when determining chat color

User Interface
reorganized options menu so it is easier to find options and renamed some options so that they are more easily understood
added joystick/gamepad buttons configuration (View -> Key Defs -> Joystick/Gamepad)
added support for configurable ship names and ship graphics in main menu and in-game so each zone can rename and describe its own ships abilities
fixed joystick/gamepad incompatibility problems under Windows XP
fixed Alt-Tab firing bombs
made pageup/down and shift-pageup/down to open player list
added option to remove banner (Esc + B, scroll to bottom of banner list)
added option to activate Chat Window in Windowed mode and to disable chat window in options (View -> Options -> Chat -> Chat Window). Now you can copy text and click links if you use Windowed mode!
added "auto-execute" commands functionality to profiles (View -> Profiles -> Auto) that lets you auto-send chat/commands every time you login. Use\ to indicate a new line of chat.
added option for all users to see other players' ping times (View -> Options -> Misc -> Player Ping Times, this was previously moderator-only feature, note that it is roundtrip time!)
added functionality for moderators to view a player's real-time weapons damage (/*watchdamage)
added server option to disable PrintScreen while playing
fixed bug when changing arenas while map download was in progress
added detection of Continuum infected by virus, so players won't get the "you need to upgrade" message when they have already upgraded which is caused by many viruses
fixed AntiWarp engaged by .. text if there is % in the name
F11 will reenter to last ship used instead of always entering as Warbird
opposite arrows will cancel each other out when scrolling in spec mode
using shift-F5 macro no longer specs ball in spec mode
completely new alt-tab Chat Window code
added scroll-bar to chat window
added clickable URL links and emails to chat window (links -http,https,ftp, email- are underlined). Clicking on links/emails will open new default browser window or default email client at clicked address
added highlighter to chat window that can be used for copying very large or small portions of text as you want- just like in a word processor (can modify selection color Edit -> Selection Color)
red arrow in chat window shows when new messages received when scrolled up
added "standard" keyboard and mouse support including: up, down, left, right, pgup, pgdn, home, end, ctrl-home, ctrl-end; shift with above selects text, left button click sets caret; left button drag selects; mouse wheel scrolls; wraps at commas in additions to spaces; can select font/size/bold, increase/decrease/bold font with keystroke
can change chat window font and style (Edit -> Font)
copy (Ctrl-C) in chat window without selection copies entire current line as in .36
ESCAPE puts cursor back into edit field, deselects and snaps text back to bottom
TAB toggles between edit and text windows
up/down in edit field moves cursor to bottom line of text
chat player list selection stays visible as players come and go
fixed buffer overflow for long private message from a player with a long name
moved player passwords to registry
added zone dns name fix for corrupted zone.dat files
fixed a number of small resource leaks in the menu and chat window
fixed problem pasting text with CR/LF
added simple banner editor (View -> Create/Edit Banners, hold CTRL for eyedropper)
fixed chat window not showing sometimes after alt-tab
added more skin features for developers
menu can optionally display default ships for each zone as zone selection changes (View -> Options -> Menu -> Zone-specific Ships). This option is left off by default because it can degrade menu performance
holding mouse over ping column on zone list now shows packet loss
zone download dialog re-vamped and shows what zone properties changed -if any (ip, port, name, etc) after a download (View -> Zones)
fixed some potential mouse wheel problems
added tip-of-the-day (Help -> Tip of the Day)
added ability to change macros in chat window (Macros -> Edit)
added right-click menu to Continuum on taskbar
added chat window icon flash on taskbar when a private message is received
fixed window focus problem when 'skip splash screen' is selected
added target bounty to player profiles (View -> Profile -> Target)
fixed activation of chat window when no other top-level windows present
added news.txt viewing for each zone in main menu (Weblinks & News)
added export text file feature to trace dialog (View -> Trace -> Export)
title.dat now applies to main menu and program window
added saving of f3 name tag status (all name tags off is not saved)
fixed refresh bug when changing macro/key def/profile names
all macros/keydefs/profiles required to have unique names now
fixed a bug where skin selection was not saved
added several checks to make sure players have working dirser address
pressing f2 in chat window changes player sort as it does in-game
better handling of zone pings when there's a lot of zones in list
added menutext.bm2 which main menu uses for font
fixed always displaying chat window at last position
added wav file size limit for sound macros

Sound
added support for team sounds. Players can play sounds %150 - %255 in team chat, zone sysops can upload these sounds in lvz file
up to 5 bong sounds can be played in parallel instead of previous 1
fixed sending voice messages
fixed bug with sending wav macros to clients that werent accepting wavs
fixed bource.wa2 misnamed file
some fixes to 3d sound (View -> Options -> Sound -> 3D Sound Effects)

Communications
added SOCKS5 proxy support
fixed incompatibility with some cable modems / non-standard TCP/IP stacks
fixed security checksum not returned error

Continuum 0.36

Gameplay
down arrow has now priority over up arrow
enemy team decoys doesnt make sound when released anymore
mines (and all other weapons) are removed when player leaves arena
portal is removed when changing team
bomb with bouce count 1 bounced from corner is shown using non-bouncing bomb shape
fixed BombSafety setting
prizes are not generated after user gets disconnected
added waepon fire delay after shooting ball with Ins
sounds are stopped when changing arenas
fixed problems with shift keys getting stuck when WM_KEYUP message is lost
made mines 2/3 darker on radar
added server option to disable shooting while using afterburners
added server option for showing bombs on radar
added server option to hide flags for spectators
added server option to disable xradar in spec
added server option to disable random bullet damage
added server option to specify low fps limit

Chat/Menus/Misc
changed screenshot key to PrintScreen
fixed typo Sealth -> Stealth in text weapons display
when trying to change to team that is full, 'Team is full' message is displayed
rest of the macros are cleared out if macro file contains only few macros
when downloading level chat and names box is displayed
double-click on player name in chat window sets focus to edit
fixed player name list scrolling to top when it is changed in chat window
fixed security checksum not returned while downloading level
added arena list sorting
added banner list sorting

DirectDraw/DirectSound
fixed problem that mouse cursor was blinking on screen in fullscreen mode on some systems
fixed memory leak when locking workstation using Windows 2000
fixed windowed mode not working with some video cards with 32bit desktop mode
added DirectDraw troubleshooting options (Advanced options) by default all options should be OFF in there when Refresh in profile is set up DirectDraw interface is used for compatibility instead of DirectDraw2 interface
added Sound Quality option "Default". With this option sound card is left to cooperative mode, so sounds of other applications such as WinAmp are audiable too (works only if your sound card drivers support it)

Profile/Skins/Zone
increased player name length to 23 characters
fixed unassigned macro keys blocking usage of valid F-keys
fixed bad zone.dat file with names like "name,0,0,0,0,0,0,0"
fixed zone dns lookup (still another related bug)
fixed problem that caused key sequence set to "key 255" when editing key definitions
possibly fixed transparent draws on menu with some weird drivers
added check for wave size
changed default macro keys from Shift F1-F12 to LShift F1-F8 and RShift F1-F8
duplicate names for profile/macro/keydef are not allowed anymore
blank macros/keydef is created when creating new profile
text "updated" persist in zone list when downloading
backspace set to message key is cleared first time you run 0.36. This will get rid of chat bouncing problem fixed problem clipping skin size when menu bar wraps

Continuum 0.35

Initial public release