Our latest alpha release is a big one! We have two new models, two mapping updates, gameplay progress, and plenty going on behind the scenes. First, let’s go over the new models. We’ve got the repeater, which means that of this release, all human building models are finished! As for the alien team, we have the spiker, a brand new defense structure that acts as a living proximity mine. For our maps, Antares has received a significant overhaul with a new detail pass, and Forlorn has seen another large graphical update, with both maps heading towards a stable state soon.

Gameplay has the spiker, as previously mentioned. We’ve also improved performance when facing rocket pods and turrets, as their targeting calculation has been refactored to be more efficient. Rocket pods now have a lock-on delay, their firing rate has been halved, and their damage has been increased by a third. Engine-side, we’ve been working on preparing NaCl for a tentative public release of the new VM system next month. We presently use NaCl server-side, but this will now run for clients too, completely replacing QVM with NaCl. The sys_rewrite branch has been merged into NaCl-cgame, and the new VM system is playable, but it needs some final tuning. You can expect a more detailed update on this soon!

Now, for the commits made over the course of this release cycle: