Worms Armageddon ReadMe (English)/v3.6.23.0 Beta Update

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In other languages: English (en) • español (es) • français (fr) • +/-

v3.6.23.0 Beta Update (2005.03.23)

Fixes

• There were quotation typos in two sets of localised in-game text comments. These could cause a crash when the game tried to display the erroneous text.
  • Worm Death on Land / Spanish: Every time a worm died on land there was at most a 1/38 chance that the game would crash if localised in Spanish.
  • Worm Sickness / non-English: Every time a worm got sick (due to a Skunk, an Indian Nuclear Test, or a Nuke at Sudden Death) there was at most a 1/16 chance that the game would crash if localised in a language other than English.
  • Whether or not a crash would actually happen depended on the layout of RAM, the compiled executable, and random chance. In certain versions of the executable, there may have been no chance of a crash from one or both of these bugs. However, even if there was no crash, the erroneous comment, when displayed, would be a concatenation of two particular comments which would never be individually displayed. For example, if a Worm named Torg died on land, and the Spanish bug occurred without a crash, the comment "Torg falleció ya no podía más" would be displayed.
  • The fix involved changing which comments are randomly chosen; previously there had been two comments in a set which were treated as one. When emulating previous logic versions, the bug will be re-enacted without a crash, by joining the two comments with an '&' character. This guarantees that any two given players will see the same comment at the same time if W:A is localised in the same language for both of them.
• Bug in a feature introduced in v3.6.19.7: If your nation in Control Panel: Regional and Language Options: Location was unrecognised, you were assigned an invalid flag number and thus disallowed from joining hosted games (not to mention being greeted with several error messages regarding defaults upon launching W:A). Now when your nation is unrecognised, you are assigned a question-mark flag and can join any game (and fanfare, flag and soundbank will default to the UK for CPU and newly-created teams).
• Flags that were partially black became partially transparent in the host/join screens.
• The German W:A CD-ROM had some erroneous Mission Image files, causing certain missions to play with the wrong map. W:A now works around this bug by using the duplicate images from elsewhere on the CD-ROM.
• Domain names are now supported and used in ServerList.htm. (Previously, only IP addresses would work.) Also, the default http port is now always 80, and doesn't have to be specified explicitly in a server list with multiple servers.
• At some point around 2002-09-10, the WormNET server incorrectly started limiting nicknames to 15 characters instead of 16, such that if you came onto WormNET with a 16 character name, it would be truncated and you would not be able to properly join channels. W:A now detects and recognises the truncated name as being your own. When you host or join a game, your name will not be truncated.
• Bug in a feature introduced in v3.6.22.1: Changing the team colour set in the Options menu only lasted for a single session; it was necessary to change the registry setting directly to make it stick.
• Bug in a feature introduced in v3.5 Beta 1: Entering a line nearly 500 characters long in the host/join chat caused a local crash. Besides fixing this, the maximum line length has also been changed from 512 to 500 characters. [After this fix it was still possible for long lines to cause a local crash. See v3.6.28.0 for the complete fix.]
• Bug introduced in v3.6.19.7: When using the mouse to open the Scheme or Terrain combo-boxes, if there had been no previously selected item or if it had been modified, the first item in the list would be autoselected.
• Map Editor
  • Bug in a feature introduced in v3.6.19.7: PNG levels saved with indestructible borders, when loaded, would be reset to having no borders.
  • A corrupt or invalid .BIT file would cause a crash when loaded.
  • When an image larger than 1920×696 (horizontally, vertically or both) was loaded with the Import function, it was automatically resized to 1920×696 without prompting the user. Now the user is prompted to choose between Shrinking and Cropping.
• Bug in a feature introduced in v3.6.21.1: As noted in the entry for v3.6.22.1, the Extract Log console window sometimes opened behind other windows. The previous fix did not work. A stronger attempt is now made to bring the window to the foreground. Also, it now displays the timer on one line instead of scrolling.
• Bug introduced in v3.6.19.7: The blank/duplicate name detection of the Team Editor was broken. It works properly now.
• Bug in a feature introduced in v3.6.20.1: When scrolling the display while paused in Single Step mode, the camera coordinates were allowed to bypass the normal limits. The display didn't scroll beyond the edges, but you had to mouse back the same distance you had "virtually" moved beyond the edges to be able to scroll again.
• Bug introduced in v3.6.20.1: Missing checksums were not reported during playback.
• Fixes affecting game logic
  • At a certain water level, Donor Cards would float, throwing the game into an endless loop (the previous fix applied only to Weapon/Utility/Health Crates and Oil Drums).
  • When a Worm was in a confined space, its Ninja Rope would sometimes fail to catch for no apparent reason. (Note that this has nothing to do with the fact that the rope will not catch if you are right against a wall; this remains the same.) In free space, the worm would always be shifted approximately one pixel up and to the left every time the rope caught, regardless of the direction in which the rope pointed.
  • Changes affecting sound/speech (strictly speaking these changes don't affect the game logic, but they are tied to the logic version so that all players will hear the same thing)
    • In the Russian speech bank, the "Collect" sound was missing the initial sound effect.

Features

• The Intro fade-in screens (Team17 and Microprose logos) have been improved.
• The nation flags are improved in the WormNET lobby, with an expanded palette. In the host/join screens however, they cannot use an expanded palette, as it's already taken by the map thumbnail; so in there, they have not changed as much.
• Flags have been added for the countries Chile, Serbia, and Slovenia. Currently these flags work only in the WormNET lobby, not in the host/join screen.
• The Server List now includes a link that automatically logs you onto WormNET using the nickname entered in the main Network Menu (this works because logins are currently not enabled).
• You are now allowed to input all the characters allowed by the WormNET server that parse straightforwardly and are included in W:A's font:
  • Nicknames — Characters A-Z, a-z, 0-9, -`
  • Game Names — Characters A-Z, a-z, 0-9, !$%()*,-./:;=?@[]^_`{|}~£ÀÁÂÃÄÅÆÇÈÉÊËÌÍÎÏÐÑÒÓÔÕÖ×ØÙÚÛÜÝÞŸßàáâãäåæçèéêëìíîïðñòóôõö÷øùúûüýþÿ¿¡
• The <font> tag works a bit more nicely in ServerList.htm, which has been modified accordingly. Specifically, if the size is in quotes (e.g. <font size="2">) the sizes 1-4 are sorted by true size. And colour names (e.g. <font color="yellow">) are supported.
• Two new text colour escape codes have been added: \k for black and \R for dark red. These work in the same places as the other colour escape codes (ygwrnbBpP).
• The red colour used for WormNET join/quit notifications is now darker, unless the alternative (protanomaly) colour set is used.
• Changes to in-game AFK mode (triggered by entering /afk or /away in the in-game chat)
  • If enabled during worm placement, the worm will be automatically teleported to a random spot.
  • If enabled while on the Rope, Bungee, Parachute or Jet Pack, the worm will dismount if necessary before skipping its turn.
• The Extract Log feature now reports user fuse/herd/bounce for each weapon firing, when applicable.
• Changed the frame-drop speed ratio from 10% to 33%. (During fast-forwarding of a replay it will still be 10%.) This should make "screen lag" a bit less disruptive, and is a stopgap until a better method for tempering screen lag is found.
• Pressing the R key during playback of a recorded game will restart it from the beginning. This is useful if you are fast forwarding and have overshot the part you wanted to see.
• The in-game dialog box (ESC) and chat (PageDown/PageUp) transitions now always happen at a smooth default speed, independent of fast forward, slow motion and single step. The scrolling of chat text happens at normal speed except in fast forward, where it speeds up.
• The Delete key now skips past the minimum info detail level when worms are invincible.
• Features affecting game logic
  • Changes affecting sound/speech (strictly speaking these changes don't affect the game logic, but they are tied to the logic version so that all players will hear the same thing)
    • When a delayed weapon becomes activated, the "Drop" speech is now used. (Previously, "Collect" was used for both for this and for collecting crates, and "Drop" was never used.)
    • When a Worm found itself near a fused weapon about to explode, it would be alarmed and randomly say either "RunAway", "TakeCover", or "WhatThe". There was another sound also intended to be used for this purpose, "Grenade", but it was left unused due to a typo. Now it is used.