OpenClonk 5 has been released, with lots of new stuff to enjoy, so download it here!

So, what’s new?

Finally, music has been added! K-Pone has contributed three exciting pieces which you can hear in the game if music is enabled (Press F3 to toggle music). Under the hood, our sound system has been migrated to OpenAL and big plans are in progress to improve the music even more.

The league has opened. Compete online for ranks and play against the best of the best. Just press the league button when hosting a game to sign it up to the league server, then use your forum username and password to join. If you prefer cooperative play, the settlement and adventure league are also soon to be opened.

For those who rather play offline, achievements have been added. Achievements are little icons beside the scenarios which you can earn by playing through scenarios. In some worlds, you can get special symbols for finishing them in harder difficulty and some missions contain special icons unlocked by finding secrets.

We have also added new scenarios: The Raid, Deep Sea Mining and Treasure Hunt are beautifully designed new missions especially targeted at new players. Chine and Flooded Veins are two new worlds which can provide a challenge for the more experienced Clonkers. Finally, Fight for Gidl is an action-packed, cooperative scenario where you defend against waves of attackers.

Some new objects can be found in the scenarios: Underwater you can now find corals as well as fish both peaceful and evil. To secure your settlements, you can now also build basements available in all scenarios in the worlds folder.

And a lot of improvements

We’ve started a big overhaul of the missions folder by connecting the scenarios with a thrilling storyline. The hero is sent all over the world of Openclonk in a great endeavour to kill the evil king. So far, the first five missions have been integrated into the story but more are yet to come.

The worlds folder has also been reworked significantly. Most worlds got parameters to adjust difficulty and map size before the game so both rookies and experienced players can enjoy these scenarios. Maps have been improved using better dynamic map generation and features such as regrowing gems in the Gem Grabbers scenario. Short intro sequences have been added to introduce the game goals. Goals have been made more interesting in Gold Rush and Iron Peak. Finally, player knowledge and base material have been improved in all the worlds.

Additional gameplay improvement has been targeted especially at settlement players. For example: You should no longer be afraid of solid, single pixels as they’re now removed before you can get stuck on them. Acid now corrodes coal and firestone. Snow and ice can be used to melt loam. Pumping pipe heads shouldn’t get stuck any more. And many more stuff you have reported in the bugtracker, which we hope you continue to do.

Attentive players will also notice some work on cosmetics. For example, ice and gem sounds have been tweaked and smoke graphics reworked. If the cool graphics run slow for you, there’s a new option to skip graphics frames if the game is lagging especially useful in internet games.

… and of course, as usual we have done lots and lots of smaller changes and fixes.