The Morning After

Hey there AFF Community!

So the release went surprisingly smoothly given how scrappy of an endeavour this is! There's still obviously a bunch of things we'll have to hotfix - but a lot of people seem to be having fun with the game and we're eternally grateful for all your input and reactions and reviews and how much the Community is growing right now! The online matches have been awesome, we've had our share of fighting all of you in space and on the ground, had the laughs and the drinks and now we're back to work!

The release period was so busy we didn't manage to write a proper changelog up for the 1.0 post, so you'll find it below. Most importantly - we managed to fix a large number of server crashes and it totally wouldn't be possible if you guys and gals haven't turned out in force before the actual release day - even if we had the budget, running QA on a 32+ players servers would be a nightmare without such a dedicated Community :)

Things to address

DX11 vs DX9- so at the absolute last second we decided to roll back the change that makes the DX11 renderer the default - now you'll again get the choice to launch in DX9 or optionally DX11. The DX11 version still runs a tiny bit faster (although admittedly it doesn't matter on 99% of PCs, outside of some anomalous cases AFF is barely taxing in terms of rendering) and allows for the very pretty MSAA, but we've seen a lot of people still getting annoying UI glitches with it, far more than we were aware of in internal testing. We'll revisit the renderer some time after the release, see if we can clean those up once again.

Steam Server Browser - did you know that thing existed? We kinda forgot! And people made us aware after the release it doesn't show playercounts on our servers at all (it still shows the list of servers though, and you can join from it). We'll look into the issue but for now do rely on the in-game server browser or the one on our Discord, those are absolutely fine.

Things coming shortly

In-game server browser improvements - we've noticed with the large number of servers now the browser has become a bit slow to refresh. And also lacking in a couple QOL features and general responsiveness. We're working on improving that.

The Knife - currently a hot topic in balance discussions. Some of you are exceptionally good with the knife, especially when paired with the light suit and agility spec. You know who you are! ;) We don't like to knee-jerk balance changes but this is something that absolutely needs to be addressed.

We'll start with a 25% nerf to the refire rate of its primary attack which we'll make it a bit less of a dumb slash-around weapon and if that doesn't change the impression enough we have several other ideas how to make it more deliberate and less OP (swing speed reduction, diminishing returns on hit, cooldown after a successful hit etc.) Let's test it together over the next few weeks!

Profanity filter - oh yeah, a few of you have been naughty with the server names and we've noticed! If you know us you'll know we're the first to curse like sailors at a pub but some phrases are unacceptable, especially in a game our kids might play too.

Even more stability - we're aware there's at least 2 rare client crashes, an even rarer no-audio issue and some performance hitches on some hardware configurations. We're investigating and fixing them as the reports keep coming in.

Bot tweaks - we've adjusted a bunch of logic around how the bots behave and position themselves when capturing and defending objectives, should result in more organic and evenly spread-out encounters.

So those changes, alongside a bunch of other balance and map tweaks, will probably come out in a patch within the next couple days. We got to time the updates a little more sensibly now so we don't kick all of you from the server at peak hours ;)

Furthermore, expect another post like this in a couple days - with a little bit of history, a little bit of how and why we are where we are and more about the future of AFF - both the very nearest and the possibly very distant.

And once again, huge thanks to all of you, enjoy the game, spread the word and see you next time!

Onwards and upwards!

The changelog from the 1.0 build:

• Maps:
• Added multiple new and improved mission briefings across several maps
• Reworked objective layout and attack routes a little on Ascella
• Major navigation overhaul, more cover, adjusted landing zones layout and prevented vehicles from entering unintended interiors on Fortress
• Added new infantry routes around Objective D on Irega
• Improved collision and prevented vehicles from entering the terminal on Lukather
• Improved collision across Majuro, namely around tracks and turbines
• Fixed some lighting glitches in multiple interiors, and the briefingroom
• Gameplay fixes & improvements:
• Fixed several server crashes with more than 32 players and on map transitions
• Reduced unnecessary network update frequency for several replicated actors (ship interior consoles, subsystems, destroyables
• Bots now spread out more effectively when capturing objectives
• Improved Instant Play matchmaking logic
• Added support for resetting all custom loadouts back to their defaults
• Improved boarding exit behaviour for dropships and stations
• Added a new " Lava" damage type and corrected related achievement tracking
• Fixed space-fighter killstreak incorrectly tracking in gunships
• Corrected the Basta burst-fire weapon descriptions
• Server browser now trims pasted addresses automatically
• Fixed deleting loadouts occasionally selecting an empty entry
• Fixed various menu and frontend presentation issues
• Improved vehicle materials and multi-material rendering
• Balanced texture brightness across multiple assets
• Improved loadout preview scene lighting
• Added additional AISN voice work
• Fixed several missing audio triggers
• Balance:
• Gunship rockets - Increased maximum damage, reduced splash radius, adjusted damage falloff
• Rebalanced Locust and Sturm main cannons - shorter effective range, higher close-range damage
• Increased bomblet explosion radius

Some of you also asked for a detailed changelog from before 1.0, all the little things that went into Update 30. We posted highlights back then because the full thing was really way too long to fit into a Steam post, but you can click HERE for the full document.