thanks to this third party program (and it has the blessing of Team17). . Place the original disc in your drive, download this semi-official beta installer/patcher, and run it. it'll install WA with the latest updates.
tried it tonight and it works fine. there's also been a metric ton of small (and not-so-small) enhancements and improvements made to this game as well - the readme file for the latest patch is 40 pages long in WordPad:!:
haven't been able to play this since upgrading to WinXP in 2002. there've been a shortage of playable 2D Worms games for this OS...
Worms: Armageddon now runs on Windows XP - with improvements
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hitbyambulance
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here's the beta patch readme file:
Worms Armageddon v3.6.28.0 Update
Copyright (C) 1997-2007 Team17 Software Ltd
29th June 2007
CONTENTS
1.0 Important Licence Information
2.0 Version History
v3.5 Beta 1 Update 2002.08.09
v3.5 Beta 2 Update 2002.08.15
v3.6.19.7 Beta Update 2004.02.09
v3.6.19.11 Beta Update 2004.02.10
v3.6.19.12 Beta Update 2004.02.11
v3.6.19.14 Beta Update 2004.02.12
v3.6.19.15 Beta Update 2004.02.20
v3.6.19.17 Beta Update 2004.03.11
v3.6.19.17a Beta Update 2004.03.12
v3.6.19.18 Beta Update 2004.03.19
v3.6.19.19 Beta Update 2004.03.21
v3.6.20.1 Beta Update 2004.07.13
v3.6.20.2 Beta Update 2004.08.03
v3.6.20.3 Beta Update 2004.08.06
v3.6.21.1 Beta Update 2004.09.23
v3.6.21.2 Beta Update 2004.09.27
v3.6.21.3 Beta Update 2004.09.28
v3.6.22.1 Beta Update 2004.10.06
v3.6.23.0 Beta Update 2005.03.23
v3.6.23.1 Beta Update 2005.03.23
v3.6.23.2 Beta Update 2005.03.24
v3.6.24.1 Beta Update 2005.03.29
v3.6.24.2 Beta Update 2005.03.31
v3.6.25.1a Beta Update 2005.04.26
v3.6.26.4 Beta Update 2005.11.22
v3.6.26.5 Beta Update 2006.01.05
v3.6.28.0 Beta Update 2007.06.29
3.0 Installation
4.0 Known Issues
5.0 Footnotes
6.0 Credits
7.0 Bug Reporting To Team17
1.0 Important Licence Information
Thank you for participating in this External Beta Test for Worms Armageddon PC. All your comments are gratefully received and we will endeavour to address all of your reported problem points where possible for the intended Update Final Release. We would also like to extend our gratitude to the countless users providing requests and points for inclusion, without which much of the improved content could not have been made possible.
*Please note that we can only receive / provide beta support via English language only.
If you do happen to encounter any bugs during play, please read the 6.0 Bug Reporting section later in this document for how to produce and report any findings directly to the Team17 Development Team.
*IMPORTANT: You should very carefully read and agree to the following External Beta Test Licence Agreement prior to installing this software update.
If you do not agree to the terms and conditions of the licence then please do not install the software. It is also highly recommended to view this entire document in order to fully understand the software content, specific game additions and implications of accepting subsequent installation and use.
External Beta Test Licence Agreement
This software update and accompanying documentation are a copyright of Team17 Software Ltd. This release is provided to end users specifically for evaluation and testing purposes only within the conditions of the licence agreement. Any forms of use outside the terms of the licence agreement are expressly prohibited. On acceptance to proceed with the installation of this software you agree to be fully bound by the terms and conditions of this licence agreement and the acknowledgements comprised herein.
Licence Acknowledgements
It is your understanding that this particular software update is BETA, and is therefore as such a work in progress and may possibly contain problems that could be resultant in a loss of data. Team17 Software Ltd cannot be held responsible for damage sustained to operating system and / or game setups through installation and use of this update program in its current form.
Feedback information should be provided by you, the end user, where possible relating to problematic instances that may occur during use of this software update. This supply of information should be generated and forwarded for the attention of Team17 Software Ltd via the contact method as outlined within this documentation.
The software content comprised within this update is a property of Team17 Software Ltd and should therefore not be reverse engineered, disassembled, de-compiled or altered in any way from its original compilation. If conduct such as the aforementioned is subsequently performed without prior permission from Team17 Software Ltd this will be considered a breach of licence agreement terms and may result in appropriate action being taken.
2.0 Version History
v3.5 Beta 1 Update (2002.08.09)
General
• Worms Armageddon now runs under the majority of Windows 2000 and XP Platforms.
• It is now possible to successfully minimise W:A in all areas, within the front end and in-game.
Front End
• Double mouse clicks are now treated as single clicks where convenient, for example when paging through a list box of schemes or maps.
• Game schemes can now include super weapons, as long as the host has “Full Wormage”.
Game
• Resolution modes up to 1920×1440 are now supported (dependant on video driver / hardware capability).
• It is now possible to scroll the viewport all the way to the left and right of a cavern map. Previously, 2 pixels were clipped from each side. This makes bungeeing off the edge of a 3-layer cavern map much easier, because it is now possible to see the bungee cord and worm. [What I didn't realize when making this change was, it modifies the game logic; it allows a worm to move 2 pixels farther from the edge without losing its rope/bungee/jetpack/chute.]
• Fixed – Clicking the mouse wheel or browser button during a game would lock out all keyboard input from then on.
• Fixed – Crates sometimes wouldn't fall in a crowded terrain (even at 100% probability). This happened because the game previously used an algorithm that tried up to 75 random positions blindly and then gave up looking; the new algorithm scans every pixel of the map. [There is just a tiny flaw in the new algorithm; a crate's collision mask has single-pixel bevels in its corners, but the new algorithm assumes the mask to be rectangular. Known at the time of design, this was deemed acceptable.]
• Fixed – Graves hit from below could absorb Longbow shots. [This was not a complete fix; see v3.6.19.12 for the complete fix.]
• Fixed – Thinning of some terrain types, occasionally creating openings in solid ground [Note: This created blockages in some Battle Race maps designed before the release of this Beta.]
• Fixed – Parachuting Worm could be hit by a falling worm causing loss of parachute and control. Now your Worm still loses the parachute, but control is retained. [Note: This fix inadvertently stopped enemy worms from knocking the attacking worm. This was later fixed in v3.6.19.14.]
• Fixed – Bungee could fail to activate when walking off a cliff with a crate located directly below, possibly incurring fall damage and loss of turn.
• Worms can now change direction and jump in the same instant. When time is critical, and your Worm is limited to ground movement only, it is beneficial to initiate each jump as soon as your Worm has landed and is ready to move. However, upon landing and turning to jump in the opposite direction, it was previously possible to have your direction-change ignored, in the worst-case scenario causing you to jump to death instead of safety.
• Cow-doubling glitch is currently disabled. In the future this may be turned into an option.
Select Utilities Tilde ( ~ )
Display thought-bubble above Worm T
Map Editor
Fixes
• The Import function is much faster now (ironically, the pie-shaped progress indicator was hogging lots of CPU time)
• The Import wraparound bug will no longer happen in the majority of cases. The only case in which it may still happen is when importing a 24-bit colour BMP or TGA.
• The displayed water level now closely matches what it will look like in-game.
• Terrain settings (object / bridge count, border, water level, terrain type) are now retained.
• Custom terrains no longer get their object count reset to a very low number.
• Removed duplicate reference of "Tribal" terrain.
• The mouse cursor is now hidden while drawing, so that only the brush cursor will be visible.
• Brush sizes now match what is actually drawn.
Features
• Settings changes in preview mode are now effected immediately. You can instantly see the effects of adding/subtracting objects or bridges, or changing the terrain type.
New Drawing Functions
• Addition of a tiny brush – 1 pixel in the zoomed-out view, 4 pixels thick on the map
• Drawing Lines – Click a point with the brush, hold down Shift and click an end point. This can be used to draw many connecting lines if Shift is held down the whole time.
Toggle through available brush sizes Mouse wheel
Constrain / limit drawing movement to x or y axis Ctrl (hold down)
Move brush at 1/4 speed, improving drawing precision Alt (hold down)
Network Lobby Chatting
• Much improved quick-messaging of people in the lobby, host/join and in-game chats.
• Current message typed is retained, while the recipient of the message can be changed. In host/join, the right mouse button now achieves this.
• An /ignore command function is now available for the WormNET lobby which will highlight a name in red and is useful to combat spammers. Typing /ignore alone will clear all ignores.
• It is now possible to scroll through message chat lists via a mouse wheel; the list must be initially clicked upon and the scrolling is set at one line per wheel bump.
• People to whom you've spoken privately and the messages typed can now be recalled:
Scroll though messages Up and Down
Scroll through people PageUp and PageDown
Chatting Clipboard Operations
Clipboard operations (text selection, cut, copy, paste) are now possible in the front end, including the line editor and scrolling message lists:
Select text Hold Shift; press Arrows or click and drag mouse
Operate on whole words Hold Ctrl; press Arrows, double click mouse or click and drag mouse.
Select entire line Ctrl+A
Copy text to clipboard Ctrl+C or Ctrl+Insert
Cut text to clipboard Ctrl+X or Shift+Delete
Paste text from clipboard Ctrl+V or Shift+Insert
Network In-Game Chatting
• Message line editing is now possible, using the cursor keys (Left, Right, Home, End). During other players' turns this is enabled by default. During your own turn, Scroll Lock must be enabled, otherwise the chat will be cancelled and your Worm will be moved instead. [Note: This is no longer the case in the latest version. See the entry for v3.6.26.4.]
• There is now an Allied Chat function, to share battle strategies with your teammates. This can be achieved either by the /colour command function or by pressing the appropriate F-key (which will always be F9 unless there are two people playing on the same machine but in different allied groups).
Cheating Loophole Prevention
The following loopholes could previously be exploited online by a utility that directly injected messages into W:A's message stream:
• Placing a girder anywhere, even intersecting with land [Note: In fixing this, another worse loophole was inadvertently created, allowing a girder to be placed anywhere from rope, jetpack, parachute or bungee. This was later rectified with the release of v3.6.19.7.]
• Teleporting on top of the roof in a cavern
• Pausing the timer
• Triggering Sudden Death
• Forcing the game to end or draw
• Making all Worms invincible
• Using Parachute or Bungee during a retreat
• Selection of weapons during Worm placement (when enabled) at the beginning of a game. If a Girder was chosen, the Worm would be located way up in the sky and untouchable during turns. If anything else was chosen besides Teleport, the game would hang.
• Using a Fuse/Herd of 0 or above 5 (a Herd of 0 allowed a player to unleash an unlimited number of Mad Cows, even if only one was possessed)
• Tweaked angles could be used with Strike weapons; this could hang the game with a straight-down angle, as the plane never flew away.
• It is no longer possible to evade being kicked from a game at the host/join stage.
v3.5 Beta 2 Update (2002.08.15)
Note: This update is also known as v3.0.5.0.
New Features
• The symbol ß is now shown in front of games hosted using the Beta. Technically it is not , but it has the closest resemblance in the character set.
• "Ignore" feature added in WormNET. Ignores persist until the W:A application is closed.
Ctrl + Double Click mouse on a name Toggle ignoring of the corresponding person; ignored people are shown in Red.
Type /ignore nickname Same as above.
Type /ignore by itself Clear all ignores.
Bug Fixes
• Font-chopping bug fixed (in v3.5 Beta 1, the bottom pixel row was being erased from all characters.)
• Allied chat colour mismatch fixed
• Utility selection key fixed for UK-layout keyboards. It is now the grave accent key (to the left of the 1 key) in both layouts.
• CPU teleport bug fixed (in v3.5 Beta 1, CPU worms would fail when attempting to teleport.)
v3.6.19.7 Beta Update (2004.02.09)
Features
• A host can now limit the number of players joining, simply by resizing the upper-left player list box. To do so, click and drag the bottom edge of this box. (In v3.5 pre-beta 3 Avacado build, this wasn't working 100% — now it is.)
• 3.5 Beta 3+ users can now connect with each other online without going through the time-consuming CD-check; this saves time for people joining a game and reduces jerkiness/lag for the host.
• You may now play TCP/IP online games directly, bypassing WormNET.
• One person hosts, by leaving the IP address box blank and clicking the Direct TCP/IP button.
• The other people join by entering the host's IP address and hitting Enter or clicking Direct TCP/IP.
• Localisation is improved. Your Nation is set directly from geographic location information if available (Control Panel: Regional and Language Options: Location). Your Language is set in a more direct manner. Sublanguages don't have to be explicitly recognised for the main language to be used, and messages that haven't yet been translated are shown in English.
• Backwards compatibility with previous patches starting at 3.5 Beta 1
• A new feature or bug fix which changes the game logic will not be activated unless all people present in a game are using a patch at least as recent as the one in which that feature/bug fix was implemented.
• When all players light up to signal readiness, a message will be printed stating which game logic version will be in effect. If emulation of an older version is necessary, the message states which players' presence is causing emulation to be necessary. The host then has the option of either booting the players who do not have the latest logic patch, or starting the game with emulation.
• If a player present in an online game at the host/join stage is running a version too old to support a certain game setting (for example, a colour map) the host will see the player's name crosshatched in red in the player list. If this is the case, then when all players light up, the printed message will explain why the game cannot be started with the current settings and players.
• Networked Game Message History
• Now carries through to extra rounds and the finish of a game.
• Can now be read after the host or all other players have left a finished game.
• Features affecting game logic
• Teleporting – Before, if you tried to teleport somewhere that was blocked, the game would search up and down for available spots. Now, it searches nearby in all directions and picks the closest spot, with an orthogonal bias.
• Volume can be changed in-game and in the Options menu of the front end. Using this allows you to balance the game volume with MP3s, voice chat software, etc.
• Added an AFK (Away From Keyboard) mode that automatically skips your turns while you're gone. This mode is activated by entering /afk or /away in the chat. It is cancelled when you press anything chat-related, such as typing or pressing PageUp or PageDown. You can minimise while staying in AFK mode; when you restore, your AFK status will be cancelled.
• The chat is now opened by default in online games, and a message describing how to open it with PageDown is displayed until the user presses a chat-related key.
• Changes relating to maps/levels:
• Imported colour maps are saved in PNG format (with metadata) and usable in online games.
• Maps may have up to 64 colours (65 including black) if graphical glitches are to be avoided.
• Maps can have up to 96 colours (97 including black), but then soil textures (the background that appears when land is blown up) will get corrupted. This is not a problem if Indestructible Terrain is enabled. [Also however, the background graphics get corrupted; the solution is to disable backgrounds while playing.]
• Map previews and thumbnails are now anti-aliased for better detail and aesthetics, and to be informative and accurate in the case of maps with patterns or thin lines. All types of maps now have thumbnails.
• Large map files now transfer more smoothly, and have no file size limit (previously they were limited to 64985 bytes). Progress bars are shown as maps are sent or received, and players can chat in the meantime.
• While clicking rapidly through map thumbnails, you may accidentally skip past a good looking one. Now you can backtrack with a Shift+Click.
• The logic for classifying a custom map as island or cavern has changed. Now, it is only a cavern if its eight topmost rows of pixels are entirely filled. (Before, it was only an island if its entire top, left and right edges were empty.) The reason for this change is that it matches the game's logic; the cavern border added by the game itself always overlaps the top eight rows. To facilitate this in the editor, right-clicking on the Borders button will now add a top border, turning the map into a cavern.
• Maps can be organised into folders, which can then be navigated in the map editor listbox.
• Black and White maps, or colour previews of them, can be converted into full colour maps by right-clicking the Preview/Edit-mode button. They can then be saved in PNG format.
• Games are automatically recorded and can be played back.
• The files are stored in User\Games under your main W:A folder, with the extension .WAgame
• Double-click one of them to play back the associated game.
• You can launch playback instances while another instance of W:A is running minimised.
• The recorded game files are self-contained, and can be moved, emailed, posted on the web, etc. They will play back for anyone with an up-to-date W:A installation.
• During playback, the speed can be controlled with the top number keys 1-9,0. The progression is geometric in pairs: the keys correspond to multiples of 1,2,3,4,6,8,12,16,24,32. Holding Shift while pressing a speed key will slow down playback, otherwise it will be speeded up. (Note: Slowdown is limited to ⅛×, and your machine may not be able to play at the fastest speeds.)
• Front End
• Buttons now behave more closely to standard buttons in other applications.
• Scrollbar functionality is much improved. Before, dragging the scrollbar to the end of a long list wouldn't actually go to its end, which could cause frustration when slogging through long scheme lists, map lists and message histories.
• List boxes and Combo boxes, such as the list of Schemes and Level Files, are now properly sorted and respond intuitively to keyboard control and the mouse wheel.
• Chat Bars always get the default keyboard focus so that it is not necessary to click on them before typing.
• Dialog screens such as Multi-Player, Network Hosting and Game Options behave more uniformly and logically. For example:
• Numerical option buttons that are locked to certain values (e.g. Turn Time of 15,20,30,45,60,or 90 seconds) will now display a value rounded to the nearest instead of defaulting to one value (e.g. Turn Time used to show 90 for any unrecognised value, even low ones like 13 seconds). [Unfortunately, "infinite" turn time (a negative number) was rounded up to 15 seconds for display, which was misleading. This was rectified in v3.6.25.1.]
• A right-click now causes all settings and options to go backwards by one tick, whereas before, in many of them you had to go all the way forward and wrap around just to go back to the beginning.
• Teams can be edited while in an online game.
Fixes
• For some people, in the Team Editor the OK button would remain greyed out inappropriately, making it impossible to edit a team. [Apparently, this may not have been fixed after all. The cause is still mysterious.]
• When Large Fonts were enabled in Windows, W:A's dialogs were enlarged beyond the size of the screen.
• High-ASCII chars (128 and above) could not be pasted from the clipboard.
• When hosting, an updated map was not sent to people in the game if the host Previewed right before exitting the Map Editor. This would result in a desync when the game started.
• There is no longer an invisible colour in the host/join player/team lists (bug introduced in v3.5 Beta 1). The blue text colour, invisible against W:A's blue background, has been changed to red.
• At some point the "Delete" command on the Team17 game-hosting server was broken, making games stick on the list until they timed out if the host quit without starting the game; to work around this, the client now uses the "Close" command instead.
• It is no longer possible for other users to crash you by using an invalid nation flag in the WormNET user or game list, or in host/join. (v3.5 Beta 3pre1 "Avacado Build" was released to rectify this; extra protection has been added since then.)
• Flag and rank icons were loaded all at once outside a channel, but one by one, slowly, inside a channel. This has been fixed; they now refresh along with the game listing.
• At the Next Round stage, if only players of a single ally remained after others quit or disconnected, all buttons would be disabled and the "WA.exe" process would have to be killed externally.
• If you join a network game, light up, then minimise before the game has started, your ready status will now be automatically cancelled. This is now done because otherwise, the host could start the game while you were still minimised, causing a crash on your end.
• The Team Editor and Missions screen would crash on teams with "out of bounds" animated sprite graves. Of course the ability to use these graves was a bug in the first place.
• The Map Import wraparound bug no longer happens under any circumstances.
• Fixes affecting game logic
• Bugs introduced in v3.5 Beta 1
• A Girder could be placed anywhere while the player's worm was on the rope, jetpack, parachute or bungee. If the same thing was attempted with a Teleport, the attempt would fail and the worm would be teleported onto itself without moving.
• Letting the timer run out during manual worm placement would do either either of two things:
• If the central coordinate of the map had space for a worm, it would be forced to place there instead of a random spot.
• Otherwise the game would be thrown into an endless loop, beeping constantly in random spots instead of placing the worm.
• Once Worm Selection was disabled by the onset of Sudden Death, it did not come back in following rounds.
• A team's stats could be lost in a multi-round online game, causing them to lose their weapons in Stockpiling mode. This happened when multiple teams were entered, followed by one or more being removed from the middle of the list. This bug is now fixed. Furthermore, when it is emulated for compatibility, you will get a more informative message saying which teams' stats were lost. (In v3.0, not only was the message uninformative, but it popped up when the screen was faded to black, so it couldn't even be read and had to be dismissed blindly.)
• Before, powerful weapons with Damage×2 could have their blast radius artificially limited, resulting in a bizarre combination of widespread damage with a relatively small hole. Now the effective blast radius limit is doubled. (The explosion sprite is still limited in size, so it may look a bit weird but will work properly.)
• The glitch in which graves could absorb arrows was not fully fixed in v3.5 Beta 1; an arrow hitting a grave at the same time as it would have hit land was still absorbed. This is now wholly fixed. [That "wholly" was rather holey; see v3.6.19.12 fixes.]
• At a certain water level, Crates and Oil Drums would float, throwing the game into an endless loop while it waited for them to sink.
• A bungeeing worm used to look very odd when swinging more than 45 degrees away from straight down. Now it progresses smoothly through 360 degrees of rotation.
• There was a mismatch between the Fall Damage threshold speed, and the threshold speed at which the Parachute was activated. There was a small space between where your Worm could accrue fall damage without the parachute activating. This only happened when the worm was sliding, for example from the Rope. [This fix was not enough; see v3.6.21.1 for the complete fix.]
• In a game with Stockpiling and the Aqua Sheep enabled, stockpiled Aqua Sheep would be lost in the next round.
• The [T] key (thought bubble) now works while you are aiming a weapon with the mouse.
• There are some filename inconsistencies between the various Soundbanks on the W:A CD-ROM. Some have "oof1.wav" instead of "ooff1.wav", similarly for "uhoh.wav" instead of "uh-oh.wav". The game now handles these variations. Affected Soundbanks include Brummie, Cad, Drill Sergeant, Formula One, Geezer, Rasta, Redneck, Rushki, Russian, Thespian, and US Sports.
• Fixed a variety of bugs in the front end, many of which could cause crashes upon minimise + restore in various places.
• The Intro now fades like it used to before the betas. As before, it can be skipped by adding the /nointro parameter to your W:A shortcut, e.g. "C:\Team17\Worms Armageddon\WA.exe" /nointro
v3.6.19.11 Beta Update (2004.02.10)
Fixes
• During the playback of certain game recordings, the telephone icon would be displayed, but the chat box brought down by PageDown would show nothing.
• People running versions of Windows other than English, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish or Swedish would have blank buttons and texts in the front end, and a default of Portuguese in game. The default is now English.
• The Game Version was being initialised to 3.5 Beta 2 when playing Quick CPU games, thus emulating the girder glitch, for example.
• Quick CPU games were recorded with the incorrect terrain, therefore were nonsensical when played back.
• In offline games, Forced Sudden Death was not recorded. Also, games artificially ended would not reflect this in the recording — they would simply go on forever with no movement.
• Could not quit from the Next Round screen as a Joined player in an online game; the Exit button would prompt Yes/No, but would have no effect.
• Team names with illegal filename characters in them could cause crashes when starting offline games, and in any case would cause the recording not to be saved. Now they are filtered to underscores.
• With Large Fonts (fonts set to something other than 96 dpi), the Map Thumbnail was erroneously shifted to the left in the Network Host/Join dialogs.
• Fixes affecting game logic
• Bugs introduced in v3.6.19.7
• In teamed games, i.e. games where multiple teams are allied against each other (a.k.a. clan games), the weapons added to each allied group's team would be multiplied by the number of teams in that group. So for example, in a 2vs2 Team17 game, everyone would get 2 ropes. This could cause a desync if an earlier Beta version was being emulated.
• There was a small area between vertical speed thresholds where a fallen worm would twang without accruing fall damage. [This "fix" introduced a bug; see v3.6.19.12 fixes.]
v3.6.19.12 Beta Update (2004.02.11)
Fixes
• Fixes affecting game logic
• The glitch in which graves could absorb arrows was still not fully fixed; an arrow shot from "inside" a grave would still be absorbed. This is now fully wholly completely and utterly fixed. [This time for real.]
• The previous version 3.6.19.11 introduced a bug where, in certain circumstances, even the lightest fall would incur 1 point of damage. Most notably, every time a worm was rope-knocked it would lose 1 point of health. [This fix was overdone; see v3.6.21.1 for the complete fix.]
Features
• The map editor is now more forgiving when loading PNG colour maps. The palette may have extra unused entries (padding) and the colour black does not have to be at palette index zero. Also, a specific message is shown if the map has the incorrect dimensions.
• Removed the near-useless Generate button in the map editor and replaced it with a Reseed button, which rerandomises the way Objects, Bridges and Holes are placed in a map. This button is only active in Preview mode because that is where you will see its effect. (Does not apply to colour maps.) Holding Shift while clicking the button will backtrack.
v3.6.19.14 Beta Update (2004.02.12)
Fixes
• Version 3.6.19.11 fixed the recording of Quick CPU games, but Deathmatch games still were recorded with the wrong map. This is now fixed; also, recordings made before this fix will now play back properly.
• Fixes affecting game logic
• 3.5 Beta 1 fixed the glitch in which a falling worm, colliding with a parachuting worm, could end its turn. But this fix had the side effect that enemy worms, sliding as the result of an attack, could never horizontally knock the attacking worm (regardless of whether it was using the parachute). This had presented an element of challenge, and at times caused amusing bad or good luck. So now it is back; yet the collisions will still never directly end the attacking worm's turn, as they could before 3.5 Beta 1.
• The timer did not pause when a herd of Mad Cows was released from the Rope, Bungee, Jetpack or Parachute. Thus, it was possible for the turn to end before the entire herd was released, denying the player from having any retreat time.
• Version 3.6.19.11 fixed the allied overstockpiling problem, however, special weapons were still added from all teams. This was intentional on my part (if there can only be one special weapon, and the teams in a group don't have the same one, which weapon should be dropped?), however it has since been made clear to me that this was not a good solution. So now, if there is a disagreement between teams in a group on which special weapon to stock, the choice is made depending on which team gets the first turn (which is random at the beginning of a game, then incremented after each round). The legacy behavior was that only the last team in the team slot list would get its special weapon, and this stayed constant throughout a set of rounds (and indeed, beyond that if the teams weren't reshuffled manually).
• The first team in an allied group to get a turn was not being properly set; usually the first in the team slot list in each group would always get the first turn.
Features
• Ammo is now displayed for delayed weapons in the right-mouse-click weapons panel.
• If the host in a game has an older game version than at least one other player who has joined, the message will now be "Game will emulate n.n.n ..." rather than "Game will take advantage of the latest n.n.n features and bug fixes"
• Right-clicking the Water Level bar in the Map Editor now sets the appropriate level for "water drops", where worms do not drown whereas weapons sink. (The Indestructible Border must also be turned on for this to work.)
• Player disconnections are now properly recorded. During playback, players' names are greyed when their disconnections are reenacted. The reason for a disconnection is also shown, if detected or communicated across the network. (Currently, disconnection reasons are not communicated over the host — so clients still won't see why other clients disconnected; this will be remedied in a later release.)
v3.6.19.15 Beta Update (2004.02.20)
Fixes
• If the host quit too early in the Next Round screen in a game you had joined, the Exit button remained disabled, requiring the "WA.exe" process to be killed externally.
• Allied whispers are now readable during playback. (This is under Bug Fixes because it was the original intention for crate spy, weapon selections and allied whispers all to be visible in a playback once the game was finished, for a "behind the scenes" effect. Allied whispers were recorded from the start, yet were each shown as a coloured **Whisper** in playback before this update.)
• Error messages showing up when a recorded game could not be played back did not show properly. Now they do.
• The background ambient sound loop no longer restarts each time you go back to the Main Menu.
Features
• The French translations have been improved and corrected by JaBBa.
• There is now a Map Extraction feature which can be applied on game recordings. Right-click on a .WAgame file and choose "Extract Map", and the map will be saved in your User\SavedLevels folder using the base name of the recording; you can then rename it to what you want.
Changes
• Recording is now a bit more streamlined: nothing is recorded while there is no controlling team (i.e. between turns) [Note: Chat is still recorded between turns, but since there is currently no timing information, a chat that happened between turns will play back at the beginning of the next turn.]
v3.6.19.17 Beta Update (2004.03.11)
Fixes
• Even when instant replays were disabled in the scheme, one would still be shown following a death that ended the game.
• If there was an error loading a scheme file, the dialog was undismissable requiring the "WA.exe" process to be killed externally.
• W:A accepted the WWP CD, but this was premature in the development of WWP compatibility.
• For a client at the host/join stage, other players' ready indicators were improperly cleared during reception of a map.
• During playback, the dialog menu button (ESC) would beep if a "game over" was in progress (as in normal play)
• Checksums for remote players were not recorded. This is now used to detect who was the local player (whose copy of W:A created the recording); recordings made from now on don't require this detection (nor would it work).
• Fixes affecting game logic
• When placing worms at the beginning of a game, placing directly on land caused an annoying delay of two seconds, whereas letting the worm drop onto land did not create much of a delay. Now, placing directly on land causes virtually no delay (the only delay will be due to network lag).
• Weapons can now be selected while your worm is reshooting the Ninja Rope.
• It was possible to teleport horizontally outside the indestructible border, which could result in an accidental drowning during placement. (Glitch introduced in v3.6.19.7.)
Features
• When the turn timer has a negative value (currently only possible by editing a scheme externally) a forward turn counter is displayed, starting at zero.
• During a replay, hundredths of a second will be shown in the turn timer.
• There is now a built-in screenshot key that works in game. The key is Pause, and it saves screenshots in PNG format using minimum compression for speed. They are named screenNNNN.png and are stored in the main Worms Armageddon folder.
• There is now a single-step key for replays. Press S to step through a replay frame by frame. Press a speed key (1-9,0) to resume normal playback. Note: ESC/PageDown/PageUp currently do not work while single stepping.
• In playback (behind-the-scenes mode) mine fuses are now shown. Dud status cannot be shown in advance because it is decided only upon the triggering of a mine.
• During playback, the camera tracking can now be overridden by holding down the Left Mouse Button. This is especially useful in fast mode, to prevent the camera from jumping around.
• Under Windows 2000/XP, the high resolution system timer is now used. This results in much smoother rendering, especially if your display's vertical refresh rate is a multiple of 50 Hz.
• The mouse and camera are now updated between frames, for much smoother scrolling and local-user-controlled cursor movement.
v3.6.19.17a Beta Update (2004.03.12)
Fixes
• The following change: "The mouse and camera are now updated between frames, for much smoother scrolling and local-user-controlled cursor movement." has been reverted. It was not ready for release, and created some unwanted side effects.
v3.6.19.18 Beta Update (2004.03.19)
Fixes
• The host and join round continue screens had the old problematic player list colour scheme; the latter also did not show the map reception progress bar.
• The new Single Step replay key could cause an infinite loop, requiring the "WA.exe" process to be killed externally.
• If you pressed Space to shoot the Ninja Rope while your Worm was preparing for a jump, and your Worm became airborn before you released Space, then a second pressing of Space would be ignored; an extra press would be required to detach the initial rope (or if the rope catch was denied quickly, the rope would fire again spuriously the moment your Worm became airborn).
• Pressing Shift during an instant replay affected speed in a buggy way. Now, the same speed-control keys used during a playback replay are supported during an instant replay.
• Fixes affecting game logic
• The v3.6.19.17 fix: "Weapons can now be selected while your worm is reshooting the Ninja Rope." introduced a glitch: if you made your worm shoot a starter rope from mid-air, and attempted to select a weapon before the rope caught, the default would be selected instead. It was not intended that selection be possible during the starter rope shot.
Features
• In an offline game or playback, the ESC dialog no longer closes automatically after minimising. This way, the game it will remain paused upon restoring until you press ESC again.
• Added the ability to load colour maps that were saved in .CUS format using Beta 1/2/3pre1.
v3.6.19.19 Beta Update (2004.03.21)
Fixes
• The following v3.6.19.18 fix was incomplete and is now fixed as intended: "If you pressed Space to shoot the Ninja Rope while your Worm was preparing for a jump, and your Worm became airborn before you released Space, then a second pressing of Space would be ignored; an extra press would be required to detach the initial rope (or if the rope catch was denied quickly, the rope would fire again spuriously the moment your Worm became airborn)."
• For some people, PNG maps were saved without a header. At first this merely caused the terrain type (soil background) to be reset each time, but starting after v3.6.19.15 the bug prevented PNG maps from being hostable at all; after loading them and exiting from the map editor a random map would be generated.
• Certain games with CPU players (e.g. the mission Water Surprise) would crash right after the piechart loading stage. (Bug introduced in v3.6.19.17)
v3.6.20.1 Beta Update (2004.07.13)
Fixes
• W:A no longer uses 100% CPU unnecessarily.
• If you experienced a buggy/laggy timer or inoperational game starting with 3.6.19.17, execute the registry script TimerWorkaround_On.reg. (Note: This setting has no effect under Windows 9x/ME.)
• The game no longer freezes when Single Stepping is used up to the end of an Instant Replay.
• The Super/Aqua Sheep visual angle now more accurately depicts the angle in which the sheep is flying.
• The crosshair visual angle is now more precisely depicted.
• The phone icon no longer displays as a result of a whisper which would otherwise be invisible. Note that people with older versions will still see the icon.
• It is no longer possible for a host to start the game on your end if you have not lighted on your end to signal readiness. If the host attempts this, your Ready light will flash; click it to go ahead and start.
• With Large Fonts (fonts set to something other than 96 dpi), certain border boxes were drawn with overextended lines.
• The random map generator is now much less likely to make oversimplified maps; it now generates complex maps more consistently than versions prior to 3.6.
• Fixes affecting game logic
• The v3.6.19.17 fix: "Weapons can now be selected while your worm is reshooting the Ninja Rope." introduced a glitch: if you made your worm shoot a starter rope from mid-air, and attempted to select a weapon before the rope caught, the default would be selected instead. It was not intended that selection be possible during the starter rope shot. In v3.6.19.18 the fix for this wasn't complete.
• Crates no longer fall slowly following a turn in which Low Gravity was active.
• The previous fix: "There was a mismatch between the Fall Damage threshold speed, and the threshold speed at which the Parachute was activated. There was a small space between where your Worm could accrue fall damage without the parachute activating. This only happened when the worm was sliding, for example from the Rope." was incomplete; there was still a small window between the thresholds. This is now fixed once and for all. [Not quite a complete fix; see v3.6.21.1 fixes.]
• If a moving worm knocked a mine directly, it was then possible for the worm to pass out of range without triggering the mine.
• The W:A message format internally allowed a Super/Aqua Sheep to be turned at sudden angles, even full reverse. This would have required hacking, though: it wasn't possible using the keyboard.
Features
• A game timer is shown above the turn timer. (In replays, it has full precision; in game play, it has hours and minutes.) This is useful for referencing moments in replays, and is also a stopgap until bookmarking and cropping are implemented.
• The turn timer no longer "fades in" during replays, so that the duration of a very short turn can be read easily.
• Precise fuse timers are shown during replays.
• The phone icon is now displayed in whichever corner is least intrusive.
• The display can now be scrolled while paused in Single Step mode during a replay.
• Features affecting game logic
• Worms can now change direction and fire a weapon in the same instant. (This is similar to a change in v3.5 Beta 1, which allowed one to change direction and jump in the same instant.) So for example, in a Battle Race, you can now land from a jump, hold the key to face in the opposite direction and fire the shotgun immediately after landing without worrying that your worm may fire in the wrong direction if your timing is perfect.
• Utilities can now be toggled; for example, if you use Low Gravity after it has been activated, it is cancelled.
• Worms can now walk backwards. When you hold the Shift key and walk, your Worm will not change the direction in which it is facing. This is useful for fine-tuning your position prior to a jump or shotgun shot, for example.
• Switched to Visual C++ 7 for compiling, with Whole Program Optimization. This may make the game engine a bit faster (e.g. for faster, smoother fast-forwards in replays).
v3.6.20.2 Beta Update (2004.08.03)
Fixes
• Some people experienced a jerky game with 3.6.20.1, for a reason entirely unrelated to that which the timer workaround addressed. It was caused by the previous fix "W:A no longer uses 100% CPU unnecessarily." and is now resolved; it turns out that in-game, 100% CPU usage only ever occurred while minimised; yet in 3.6.20.1, the fix was applied even when the game was in the foreground.
• To avoid distraction, the phone icon (which could swap sides at any time in 3.6.20.1) now only swaps sides while hidden.
• Fixes affecting game logic
• There was a bug in v3.6.20.1 where instant replays could diverge from what actually happened, especially if roping or mines were involved. Through a loophole, this also allowed the offline use of slow motion. The possible earlier use of the loophole is now reported when playing back replays in which it was used (pull down the chat to see such messages).
• In v3.6.20.1, schemes that had been externally edited to give weapons power levels higher than 5 stars no longer worked in the same way. This caused desyncs when playing back replays and playing online games using such schemes. Now, compatibility is restored, as long as the power levels lie within some "standard" ranges. All weapons must be <=20 stars; Mortar, Cluster Bomb, Banana Bomb, Air Strike and Napalm Strike must be <=15 stars; Skunk and Longbow must be <=10 stars; Axe must be <=5 stars. Schemes that break these limits will bring up a warning when loaded or when a replay is opened.
• Worms can now always dismount the Jetpack or Parachute by pressing Space, whereas before, this was not possible in Artillery mode (in which worms are forbidden from walking).
v3.6.20.3 Beta Update (2004.08.06)
Fixes
• There was a bug in v3.6.20.2 causing improper emulation of v3.6.20.1. Using clustered weapons, skunks, longbows or axes could cause a desync. Now, v3.6.20.1 is properly emulated.
• To avoid invoking v3.6.20.2's improper emulation of v3.6.20.1, this version 3.6.20.3, when hosting, will avoid emulating .20.1 if there are players with .20.2 present; in this case it will emulate 3.6.19.19 instead. Note that there is still an exception in which a desync can happen: if you are not the host of a game, and the other people in it have a mixture of .20.1 and .20.2, then during the game the .20.2 players may desync and drop out. If the host is running .20.2 then the whole game could desync.
• The instant replay fix in v3.6.20.2 was incomplete, and could cause a crash.
v3.6.21.1 Beta Update (2004.09.23)
Fixes
• One of the ways in which W:A didn't work under Windows 2000/XP before the first v3.5 beta, was that it would hang when switching from the front end to gameplay mode, right before the piechart would have been shown. It was possible to fool it into starting anyway (by Alt-Tabbing to one of the W:A processes, or in some cases something more complex), but the palette would be wrong and the update rate would be slow. As it turns out, the fix was not complete, because this bug would sometimes still happen. Now there is a more correct fix that goes closer to the root of this problem, and it may solve problems some people have been having trying to start a game.
• Some people experience a palette bug in which background apps can steal the palette from W:A, corrupting some or all of its colours. W:A will now log these to "palette.log" located in your main Worms Armageddon folder. Note that the problem can still happen; the only change is that it is logged. This information gleaned from this may lead to finding a fix.
• Even when instant replays were disabled in the scheme, one would still be shown after a Worm had skimmed water or used a Kamikaze.
• When using the mouse to point a Strike weapon, the cursor was initially pointed 45° left/right from down. If the angle was adjusted with the Left/Right arrows, it would still point 45° right but would point 34° left. This is now fixed. On the other hand, the cursor for Teleport and other targeted weapons was originally intended to point 45° up-left, but everybody is used to that fact that it points 34° left from up. This is caused by a glitch, but a change would be disorienting, so the 34° angle has been preserved.
• Ran Profiling on W:A to find where the CPU spends most of its time in-game, with some interesting and helpful results.
• The function to render flaming health bars was always being executed, whether or not any flaming bars were actually being displayed. This routine was unoptimised and very processor intensive. It is now much more efficient, and furthermore will not run unless needed.
• Fixed-point multiplication has now been inlined, creating a global speed-up. (Sea bubbles were a heavy user of multiplication, so there's a speed-up even in idle conditions.)
• These changes allow for better performance when fast-fowarding replays, and should also help to keep the frame rate steady during normal play.
• In games recorded with v3.6.19.15 or later, chat messages that were made after a pending game-over were not being shown during playback.
• Fixes affecting game logic
• The Girder Radius (maximum ortho-distance between your worm and any possible place you can place a girder) is now calculated from the center of the girder. Previously, it was calculated from the upper-left corner of an orthogonal rectangle encompassing the girder, which was asymmetric and nonintuitive. Note that the radius actually defines a diamond rather than a circle, as with many things in W:A; ortho-distance is the sum of horizontal and vertical distance, as opposed to distance which is the square root of the sum of the squares of horizontal and vertical distances.
• If an animal (such as a sheep) was sent out to collect a health crate, and the Worm sending it died before collection, the health would still be added to its team total. This could cause the game to see that team as "alive" even after all its worms died out; but when the turn passed to that team, the game would crash. Now, health crates will not be collected by an animal sent by a now-dead Worm. (See Footnote 2.)
• After using Rope, Bungee or Parachute, a player would always get Air retreat time on that turn, even if using a weapon from the ground.
• It was possible to fire a ground-only weapon in the single frame (1/50 sec) step between walking off a ledge and falling. The weapon would not fire, but would incur retreat time. Now, such an attempt will result in a warning beep.
• Under certain very rare circumstances, a roping Worm could become stuck against a wall at the same moment the rope unsnagged, causing it to be trapped in that spot until dismounting from the rope. This also caused the game's CPU usage to soar until the rope was dismounted.
• The parachute/fall damage speed threshold mismatch was indeed fixed once and for all in v3.6.20.1. However, there was again a small area between vertical speed thresholds where a Worm that fell out of a roll or slide would twang without accruing fall damage, as there was in v3.6.19.7. [This was finally a complete fix.]
• Normal mines were not triggered by a Frozen Worm, but mines from a Mine Strike were.
• Under certain rare circumstances, a dud mine could explode. The condition for this made no sense; it didn't have anything to do with blasting or knocking the mine, but rather happened when the center of the mine was within 1 pixel of the center of a worm at the right moment. This is now disabled and in a future version will be replaced with something more sensible.
Features
• It is now possible to play replays as fast as your machine is likely to handle, and at 1.5× as well. The [1]-[9] keys now correspond to 1×,1.5×,2×,3×,4×,6×,8×,12×,16×. Hold [0] while pressing [1]-[9] and you will get 24×,32×,48×,64×,96×,128×,192×,256×,384×. (As before, holding Shift while pressing [1]-[9] will set slow-motion; the multiplier chart becomes a divider chart.)
• The frame rate will not be allowed to drop significantly below 10 fps. Thus the keyboard will no longer become very unresponsive during a fast-forward which taxes the CPU.
• As before, holding the left mouse button during a replay will override automatic camera motion. This now works in an online game during other players' turns. In addition, turning on CAPS LOCK will override the camera during a replay. [Caps Lock no longer has this function. See the entry for v3.6.26.4.]
• There is now a Log Extraction feature which can be applied on game recordings. Right-click on a .WAgame file and choose "Extract Log", and the game information, chat and major game events (with timestamps in game time) and end-game stats will be logged to a file in the same folder with the same base filename.
• Features affecting game logic
• In Cavern levels, the Teleport and homing weapons can now be pointed within a slightly larger range, encompassing the leftmost and rightmost positions where a Worm may stand on the edges of the landscape. When pointing on the rightmost edge, the cursor will temporarily flip for visibility. The cursor can also now be moved all the way down to water level.
v3.6.21.2 Beta Update (2004.09.27)
Fixes
• The first fix in the list for v3.6.21.1 was actually a regression for some people not running Windows XP.
• When a player tries to Teleport to a spot that is partially blocked, the cursor is nudged to the nearest available spot and a spangle flashes in the new spot. But in a game with v3.6.21.1 as the logic version (i.e., no emulation) this would only look correct on the local end, while a game was being played. To remote players in a network game, and during playback, the cursor nudge and spangle would not show up.
• The message "Game will take advantage of the latest n.n.n.n features and bug fixes" will now display the game logic version rather than the exe version.
• For readability, the Extract Log feature now uses "•••" to denote game events rather than "****" as before.
• Speed / update rate
• A check was inadvertently disabled, the purpose of which was to prevent the clock from ticking more than 1/4 second during a chunk of "screen lag". It is now re-enabled.
• During an instant replay, a fast-forward that was fast enough to drop frames could overshoot the end of the turn, eating into the turn time of the next Worm.
• The prior version restricted the rendering rate from dropping below 10fps. This was too arbitrary. The frame drop threshold is now calculated as a point of diminishing returns, where further frame dropping would not boost the speed by more than 10%. When fast-forwarding, this is often well above 10fps, especially on faster computers (this should also make screen lag more tolerable). Additionally, slow computers may sometimes need to drop below 10fps (for example, when a lot of fire is being thrown around).
• In-game palette fading is smoother now. This is partly due to streamlining the way fading is done (previously, each fade increment was done separately for objects, water and terrain), and partly due to making external applications unaware of the game's palette adjustments. (The latter is a workaround for that fact that, regarding palettes, DirectDraw does not give exclusive treatment to full-screen apps.)
• Volume adjustments
• When the volume was adjusted in the front end, and a game was started within the same session, the adjustment would be forgotten.
• Volume adjustments in the front end are now instantly applied to the ambient "menu loop".
• The volume setting was not being applied to the "loading tick" sound effect (made each time the pie chart fills by an extra 4%)
v3.6.21.3 Beta Update (2004.09.28)
Fixes
• In v3.6.21.2, the in-game palette would not be restored after minimising in most circumstances.
• On systems running Windows 9x/ME, W:A v3.6.21.2 would crash when a game was started. Due to this, the DirectDraw palette workaround will be disabled on those systems.
• The following v3.6.21.2 fix was incomplete and is now fixed as intended: "When the volume was adjusted in the front end, and a game was started within the same session, the adjustment would be forgotten."
v3.6.22.1 Beta Update (2004.10.06)
Fixes
• If the volume was adjusted in-game, the change didn't have an instant effect upon returning to the front end.
• Volume adjustment is now applied to streams and in-game ambient music. There is now nothing left that doesn't respond to volume control.
• The Extract Log feature brings up a console window to show its progress. However, it would often be opened behind other windows. It will now try to move itself to the front. [Note: This fix did not in fact work.]
• Bugs introduced in v3.6.21.2
• WAGame files made by private betas before 2004-01-27, or Mission/Training from any version, would crash upon playback. The former would in some cases play without crashing, but would desync due to differing crate falls.
• If W:A were forced to minimise in-game (without using the ESC menu option) then its palette would be garbled and no amount of minimising would bring it back.
• The game would sometimes crash when returning to the front end.
• Fixes affecting game logic
• The Girder Starter-Pack allows you to select a stop sign after placing at least one girder, to prematurely stop placing them. However, in v3.5 Beta 1, this was inadvertently disabled. It works again now.
Features
• The <center> tag is now supported and used in ServerList.htm.
• The Extract Log feature now lists total turn/retreat times for each team.
• The colour scheme used for allies (red, blue, green, yellow, purple, cyan) can now be modified to allow those with certain types of colour deficiency to be able to easily distinguish problematic colour pairs. (It is targeted particularly towards protanomaly.) This switch has been added to the Options menu, replacing the terrain editing button in that screen. If the new colour set does not help you and you still have trouble distinguishing certain team colours, please post in the support forum (see section 6.0).
• Features affecting game logic
• You now get retreat time after using the Girder Starter-Pack on land.
• The Mortar and Homing Missile now have shiny new launchers that are coloured differently, to make them easily distinguishable from the Bazooka and Homing Pigeon. The Bazooka also has a makeover.
Notes
• Due to the changes regarding colours, a pair of new sprite archives have been included in this release. These files are approximately 12 MB each, and are not internally compressed because this allows the distributed package to compress much better (for a quicker download).
• If you are not going to use the colour deficiency option, you may safely delete Gfx1.dir, freeing 12 MB of hard disk space. Similarly, you may delete Gfx0.dir. Deleting them both will still allow W:A to run, but will locally disable the new colour features.
• The original Gfx.dir is still used for compatibility purposes. Do not delete it.
• Due to the larger sprite archive, W:A now requires 8 MB more RAM than before. If this is a problem for you, please post in the support forum (see section 6.0).
• As an upshot, W:A may run be slightly faster in-game since it will not need to decompress sprites on the fly.
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 occured 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 reenacted 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.
• 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 have been added for the countries Chile, Serbia, and Slovenia. Currently these flags work only in the WormNET lobby, not in the host/join lobby.
• 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.
• The WormNET server incorrectly limits nicknames to 15 characters instead of 16, so 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.
• 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.
• Entering a line nearly 500 characters long in the host/join chat caused a local crash.
• 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
• 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.
• 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.
• The blank/duplicate name detection of the Team Editor was broken. It works properly now.
• The ability to scroll the display while paused in Single Step mode during a replay was added in v3.6.20.1, but there was a bug. The camera coordinates were allowed to bypass the normal limits, so while the display didn't scroll beyond the edges, you had to mouse back the same distance you had "virtually" moved beyond the edges to be able to scroll again.
• Since 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.)
• 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.
• 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
[cut off due to post length limit... there is mor
Worms Armageddon v3.6.28.0 Update
Copyright (C) 1997-2007 Team17 Software Ltd
29th June 2007
CONTENTS
1.0 Important Licence Information
2.0 Version History
v3.5 Beta 1 Update 2002.08.09
v3.5 Beta 2 Update 2002.08.15
v3.6.19.7 Beta Update 2004.02.09
v3.6.19.11 Beta Update 2004.02.10
v3.6.19.12 Beta Update 2004.02.11
v3.6.19.14 Beta Update 2004.02.12
v3.6.19.15 Beta Update 2004.02.20
v3.6.19.17 Beta Update 2004.03.11
v3.6.19.17a Beta Update 2004.03.12
v3.6.19.18 Beta Update 2004.03.19
v3.6.19.19 Beta Update 2004.03.21
v3.6.20.1 Beta Update 2004.07.13
v3.6.20.2 Beta Update 2004.08.03
v3.6.20.3 Beta Update 2004.08.06
v3.6.21.1 Beta Update 2004.09.23
v3.6.21.2 Beta Update 2004.09.27
v3.6.21.3 Beta Update 2004.09.28
v3.6.22.1 Beta Update 2004.10.06
v3.6.23.0 Beta Update 2005.03.23
v3.6.23.1 Beta Update 2005.03.23
v3.6.23.2 Beta Update 2005.03.24
v3.6.24.1 Beta Update 2005.03.29
v3.6.24.2 Beta Update 2005.03.31
v3.6.25.1a Beta Update 2005.04.26
v3.6.26.4 Beta Update 2005.11.22
v3.6.26.5 Beta Update 2006.01.05
v3.6.28.0 Beta Update 2007.06.29
3.0 Installation
4.0 Known Issues
5.0 Footnotes
6.0 Credits
7.0 Bug Reporting To Team17
1.0 Important Licence Information
Thank you for participating in this External Beta Test for Worms Armageddon PC. All your comments are gratefully received and we will endeavour to address all of your reported problem points where possible for the intended Update Final Release. We would also like to extend our gratitude to the countless users providing requests and points for inclusion, without which much of the improved content could not have been made possible.
*Please note that we can only receive / provide beta support via English language only.
If you do happen to encounter any bugs during play, please read the 6.0 Bug Reporting section later in this document for how to produce and report any findings directly to the Team17 Development Team.
*IMPORTANT: You should very carefully read and agree to the following External Beta Test Licence Agreement prior to installing this software update.
If you do not agree to the terms and conditions of the licence then please do not install the software. It is also highly recommended to view this entire document in order to fully understand the software content, specific game additions and implications of accepting subsequent installation and use.
External Beta Test Licence Agreement
This software update and accompanying documentation are a copyright of Team17 Software Ltd. This release is provided to end users specifically for evaluation and testing purposes only within the conditions of the licence agreement. Any forms of use outside the terms of the licence agreement are expressly prohibited. On acceptance to proceed with the installation of this software you agree to be fully bound by the terms and conditions of this licence agreement and the acknowledgements comprised herein.
Licence Acknowledgements
It is your understanding that this particular software update is BETA, and is therefore as such a work in progress and may possibly contain problems that could be resultant in a loss of data. Team17 Software Ltd cannot be held responsible for damage sustained to operating system and / or game setups through installation and use of this update program in its current form.
Feedback information should be provided by you, the end user, where possible relating to problematic instances that may occur during use of this software update. This supply of information should be generated and forwarded for the attention of Team17 Software Ltd via the contact method as outlined within this documentation.
The software content comprised within this update is a property of Team17 Software Ltd and should therefore not be reverse engineered, disassembled, de-compiled or altered in any way from its original compilation. If conduct such as the aforementioned is subsequently performed without prior permission from Team17 Software Ltd this will be considered a breach of licence agreement terms and may result in appropriate action being taken.
2.0 Version History
v3.5 Beta 1 Update (2002.08.09)
General
• Worms Armageddon now runs under the majority of Windows 2000 and XP Platforms.
• It is now possible to successfully minimise W:A in all areas, within the front end and in-game.
Front End
• Double mouse clicks are now treated as single clicks where convenient, for example when paging through a list box of schemes or maps.
• Game schemes can now include super weapons, as long as the host has “Full Wormage”.
Game
• Resolution modes up to 1920×1440 are now supported (dependant on video driver / hardware capability).
• It is now possible to scroll the viewport all the way to the left and right of a cavern map. Previously, 2 pixels were clipped from each side. This makes bungeeing off the edge of a 3-layer cavern map much easier, because it is now possible to see the bungee cord and worm. [What I didn't realize when making this change was, it modifies the game logic; it allows a worm to move 2 pixels farther from the edge without losing its rope/bungee/jetpack/chute.]
• Fixed – Clicking the mouse wheel or browser button during a game would lock out all keyboard input from then on.
• Fixed – Crates sometimes wouldn't fall in a crowded terrain (even at 100% probability). This happened because the game previously used an algorithm that tried up to 75 random positions blindly and then gave up looking; the new algorithm scans every pixel of the map. [There is just a tiny flaw in the new algorithm; a crate's collision mask has single-pixel bevels in its corners, but the new algorithm assumes the mask to be rectangular. Known at the time of design, this was deemed acceptable.]
• Fixed – Graves hit from below could absorb Longbow shots. [This was not a complete fix; see v3.6.19.12 for the complete fix.]
• Fixed – Thinning of some terrain types, occasionally creating openings in solid ground [Note: This created blockages in some Battle Race maps designed before the release of this Beta.]
• Fixed – Parachuting Worm could be hit by a falling worm causing loss of parachute and control. Now your Worm still loses the parachute, but control is retained. [Note: This fix inadvertently stopped enemy worms from knocking the attacking worm. This was later fixed in v3.6.19.14.]
• Fixed – Bungee could fail to activate when walking off a cliff with a crate located directly below, possibly incurring fall damage and loss of turn.
• Worms can now change direction and jump in the same instant. When time is critical, and your Worm is limited to ground movement only, it is beneficial to initiate each jump as soon as your Worm has landed and is ready to move. However, upon landing and turning to jump in the opposite direction, it was previously possible to have your direction-change ignored, in the worst-case scenario causing you to jump to death instead of safety.
• Cow-doubling glitch is currently disabled. In the future this may be turned into an option.
Select Utilities Tilde ( ~ )
Display thought-bubble above Worm T
Map Editor
Fixes
• The Import function is much faster now (ironically, the pie-shaped progress indicator was hogging lots of CPU time)
• The Import wraparound bug will no longer happen in the majority of cases. The only case in which it may still happen is when importing a 24-bit colour BMP or TGA.
• The displayed water level now closely matches what it will look like in-game.
• Terrain settings (object / bridge count, border, water level, terrain type) are now retained.
• Custom terrains no longer get their object count reset to a very low number.
• Removed duplicate reference of "Tribal" terrain.
• The mouse cursor is now hidden while drawing, so that only the brush cursor will be visible.
• Brush sizes now match what is actually drawn.
Features
• Settings changes in preview mode are now effected immediately. You can instantly see the effects of adding/subtracting objects or bridges, or changing the terrain type.
New Drawing Functions
• Addition of a tiny brush – 1 pixel in the zoomed-out view, 4 pixels thick on the map
• Drawing Lines – Click a point with the brush, hold down Shift and click an end point. This can be used to draw many connecting lines if Shift is held down the whole time.
Toggle through available brush sizes Mouse wheel
Constrain / limit drawing movement to x or y axis Ctrl (hold down)
Move brush at 1/4 speed, improving drawing precision Alt (hold down)
Network Lobby Chatting
• Much improved quick-messaging of people in the lobby, host/join and in-game chats.
• Current message typed is retained, while the recipient of the message can be changed. In host/join, the right mouse button now achieves this.
• An /ignore command function is now available for the WormNET lobby which will highlight a name in red and is useful to combat spammers. Typing /ignore alone will clear all ignores.
• It is now possible to scroll through message chat lists via a mouse wheel; the list must be initially clicked upon and the scrolling is set at one line per wheel bump.
• People to whom you've spoken privately and the messages typed can now be recalled:
Scroll though messages Up and Down
Scroll through people PageUp and PageDown
Chatting Clipboard Operations
Clipboard operations (text selection, cut, copy, paste) are now possible in the front end, including the line editor and scrolling message lists:
Select text Hold Shift; press Arrows or click and drag mouse
Operate on whole words Hold Ctrl; press Arrows, double click mouse or click and drag mouse.
Select entire line Ctrl+A
Copy text to clipboard Ctrl+C or Ctrl+Insert
Cut text to clipboard Ctrl+X or Shift+Delete
Paste text from clipboard Ctrl+V or Shift+Insert
Network In-Game Chatting
• Message line editing is now possible, using the cursor keys (Left, Right, Home, End). During other players' turns this is enabled by default. During your own turn, Scroll Lock must be enabled, otherwise the chat will be cancelled and your Worm will be moved instead. [Note: This is no longer the case in the latest version. See the entry for v3.6.26.4.]
• There is now an Allied Chat function, to share battle strategies with your teammates. This can be achieved either by the /colour command function or by pressing the appropriate F-key (which will always be F9 unless there are two people playing on the same machine but in different allied groups).
Cheating Loophole Prevention
The following loopholes could previously be exploited online by a utility that directly injected messages into W:A's message stream:
• Placing a girder anywhere, even intersecting with land [Note: In fixing this, another worse loophole was inadvertently created, allowing a girder to be placed anywhere from rope, jetpack, parachute or bungee. This was later rectified with the release of v3.6.19.7.]
• Teleporting on top of the roof in a cavern
• Pausing the timer
• Triggering Sudden Death
• Forcing the game to end or draw
• Making all Worms invincible
• Using Parachute or Bungee during a retreat
• Selection of weapons during Worm placement (when enabled) at the beginning of a game. If a Girder was chosen, the Worm would be located way up in the sky and untouchable during turns. If anything else was chosen besides Teleport, the game would hang.
• Using a Fuse/Herd of 0 or above 5 (a Herd of 0 allowed a player to unleash an unlimited number of Mad Cows, even if only one was possessed)
• Tweaked angles could be used with Strike weapons; this could hang the game with a straight-down angle, as the plane never flew away.
• It is no longer possible to evade being kicked from a game at the host/join stage.
v3.5 Beta 2 Update (2002.08.15)
Note: This update is also known as v3.0.5.0.
New Features
• The symbol ß is now shown in front of games hosted using the Beta. Technically it is not , but it has the closest resemblance in the character set.
• "Ignore" feature added in WormNET. Ignores persist until the W:A application is closed.
Ctrl + Double Click mouse on a name Toggle ignoring of the corresponding person; ignored people are shown in Red.
Type /ignore nickname Same as above.
Type /ignore by itself Clear all ignores.
Bug Fixes
• Font-chopping bug fixed (in v3.5 Beta 1, the bottom pixel row was being erased from all characters.)
• Allied chat colour mismatch fixed
• Utility selection key fixed for UK-layout keyboards. It is now the grave accent key (to the left of the 1 key) in both layouts.
• CPU teleport bug fixed (in v3.5 Beta 1, CPU worms would fail when attempting to teleport.)
v3.6.19.7 Beta Update (2004.02.09)
Features
• A host can now limit the number of players joining, simply by resizing the upper-left player list box. To do so, click and drag the bottom edge of this box. (In v3.5 pre-beta 3 Avacado build, this wasn't working 100% — now it is.)
• 3.5 Beta 3+ users can now connect with each other online without going through the time-consuming CD-check; this saves time for people joining a game and reduces jerkiness/lag for the host.
• You may now play TCP/IP online games directly, bypassing WormNET.
• One person hosts, by leaving the IP address box blank and clicking the Direct TCP/IP button.
• The other people join by entering the host's IP address and hitting Enter or clicking Direct TCP/IP.
• Localisation is improved. Your Nation is set directly from geographic location information if available (Control Panel: Regional and Language Options: Location). Your Language is set in a more direct manner. Sublanguages don't have to be explicitly recognised for the main language to be used, and messages that haven't yet been translated are shown in English.
• Backwards compatibility with previous patches starting at 3.5 Beta 1
• A new feature or bug fix which changes the game logic will not be activated unless all people present in a game are using a patch at least as recent as the one in which that feature/bug fix was implemented.
• When all players light up to signal readiness, a message will be printed stating which game logic version will be in effect. If emulation of an older version is necessary, the message states which players' presence is causing emulation to be necessary. The host then has the option of either booting the players who do not have the latest logic patch, or starting the game with emulation.
• If a player present in an online game at the host/join stage is running a version too old to support a certain game setting (for example, a colour map) the host will see the player's name crosshatched in red in the player list. If this is the case, then when all players light up, the printed message will explain why the game cannot be started with the current settings and players.
• Networked Game Message History
• Now carries through to extra rounds and the finish of a game.
• Can now be read after the host or all other players have left a finished game.
• Features affecting game logic
• Teleporting – Before, if you tried to teleport somewhere that was blocked, the game would search up and down for available spots. Now, it searches nearby in all directions and picks the closest spot, with an orthogonal bias.
• Volume can be changed in-game and in the Options menu of the front end. Using this allows you to balance the game volume with MP3s, voice chat software, etc.
• Added an AFK (Away From Keyboard) mode that automatically skips your turns while you're gone. This mode is activated by entering /afk or /away in the chat. It is cancelled when you press anything chat-related, such as typing or pressing PageUp or PageDown. You can minimise while staying in AFK mode; when you restore, your AFK status will be cancelled.
• The chat is now opened by default in online games, and a message describing how to open it with PageDown is displayed until the user presses a chat-related key.
• Changes relating to maps/levels:
• Imported colour maps are saved in PNG format (with metadata) and usable in online games.
• Maps may have up to 64 colours (65 including black) if graphical glitches are to be avoided.
• Maps can have up to 96 colours (97 including black), but then soil textures (the background that appears when land is blown up) will get corrupted. This is not a problem if Indestructible Terrain is enabled. [Also however, the background graphics get corrupted; the solution is to disable backgrounds while playing.]
• Map previews and thumbnails are now anti-aliased for better detail and aesthetics, and to be informative and accurate in the case of maps with patterns or thin lines. All types of maps now have thumbnails.
• Large map files now transfer more smoothly, and have no file size limit (previously they were limited to 64985 bytes). Progress bars are shown as maps are sent or received, and players can chat in the meantime.
• While clicking rapidly through map thumbnails, you may accidentally skip past a good looking one. Now you can backtrack with a Shift+Click.
• The logic for classifying a custom map as island or cavern has changed. Now, it is only a cavern if its eight topmost rows of pixels are entirely filled. (Before, it was only an island if its entire top, left and right edges were empty.) The reason for this change is that it matches the game's logic; the cavern border added by the game itself always overlaps the top eight rows. To facilitate this in the editor, right-clicking on the Borders button will now add a top border, turning the map into a cavern.
• Maps can be organised into folders, which can then be navigated in the map editor listbox.
• Black and White maps, or colour previews of them, can be converted into full colour maps by right-clicking the Preview/Edit-mode button. They can then be saved in PNG format.
• Games are automatically recorded and can be played back.
• The files are stored in User\Games under your main W:A folder, with the extension .WAgame
• Double-click one of them to play back the associated game.
• You can launch playback instances while another instance of W:A is running minimised.
• The recorded game files are self-contained, and can be moved, emailed, posted on the web, etc. They will play back for anyone with an up-to-date W:A installation.
• During playback, the speed can be controlled with the top number keys 1-9,0. The progression is geometric in pairs: the keys correspond to multiples of 1,2,3,4,6,8,12,16,24,32. Holding Shift while pressing a speed key will slow down playback, otherwise it will be speeded up. (Note: Slowdown is limited to ⅛×, and your machine may not be able to play at the fastest speeds.)
• Front End
• Buttons now behave more closely to standard buttons in other applications.
• Scrollbar functionality is much improved. Before, dragging the scrollbar to the end of a long list wouldn't actually go to its end, which could cause frustration when slogging through long scheme lists, map lists and message histories.
• List boxes and Combo boxes, such as the list of Schemes and Level Files, are now properly sorted and respond intuitively to keyboard control and the mouse wheel.
• Chat Bars always get the default keyboard focus so that it is not necessary to click on them before typing.
• Dialog screens such as Multi-Player, Network Hosting and Game Options behave more uniformly and logically. For example:
• Numerical option buttons that are locked to certain values (e.g. Turn Time of 15,20,30,45,60,or 90 seconds) will now display a value rounded to the nearest instead of defaulting to one value (e.g. Turn Time used to show 90 for any unrecognised value, even low ones like 13 seconds). [Unfortunately, "infinite" turn time (a negative number) was rounded up to 15 seconds for display, which was misleading. This was rectified in v3.6.25.1.]
• A right-click now causes all settings and options to go backwards by one tick, whereas before, in many of them you had to go all the way forward and wrap around just to go back to the beginning.
• Teams can be edited while in an online game.
Fixes
• For some people, in the Team Editor the OK button would remain greyed out inappropriately, making it impossible to edit a team. [Apparently, this may not have been fixed after all. The cause is still mysterious.]
• When Large Fonts were enabled in Windows, W:A's dialogs were enlarged beyond the size of the screen.
• High-ASCII chars (128 and above) could not be pasted from the clipboard.
• When hosting, an updated map was not sent to people in the game if the host Previewed right before exitting the Map Editor. This would result in a desync when the game started.
• There is no longer an invisible colour in the host/join player/team lists (bug introduced in v3.5 Beta 1). The blue text colour, invisible against W:A's blue background, has been changed to red.
• At some point the "Delete" command on the Team17 game-hosting server was broken, making games stick on the list until they timed out if the host quit without starting the game; to work around this, the client now uses the "Close" command instead.
• It is no longer possible for other users to crash you by using an invalid nation flag in the WormNET user or game list, or in host/join. (v3.5 Beta 3pre1 "Avacado Build" was released to rectify this; extra protection has been added since then.)
• Flag and rank icons were loaded all at once outside a channel, but one by one, slowly, inside a channel. This has been fixed; they now refresh along with the game listing.
• At the Next Round stage, if only players of a single ally remained after others quit or disconnected, all buttons would be disabled and the "WA.exe" process would have to be killed externally.
• If you join a network game, light up, then minimise before the game has started, your ready status will now be automatically cancelled. This is now done because otherwise, the host could start the game while you were still minimised, causing a crash on your end.
• The Team Editor and Missions screen would crash on teams with "out of bounds" animated sprite graves. Of course the ability to use these graves was a bug in the first place.
• The Map Import wraparound bug no longer happens under any circumstances.
• Fixes affecting game logic
• Bugs introduced in v3.5 Beta 1
• A Girder could be placed anywhere while the player's worm was on the rope, jetpack, parachute or bungee. If the same thing was attempted with a Teleport, the attempt would fail and the worm would be teleported onto itself without moving.
• Letting the timer run out during manual worm placement would do either either of two things:
• If the central coordinate of the map had space for a worm, it would be forced to place there instead of a random spot.
• Otherwise the game would be thrown into an endless loop, beeping constantly in random spots instead of placing the worm.
• Once Worm Selection was disabled by the onset of Sudden Death, it did not come back in following rounds.
• A team's stats could be lost in a multi-round online game, causing them to lose their weapons in Stockpiling mode. This happened when multiple teams were entered, followed by one or more being removed from the middle of the list. This bug is now fixed. Furthermore, when it is emulated for compatibility, you will get a more informative message saying which teams' stats were lost. (In v3.0, not only was the message uninformative, but it popped up when the screen was faded to black, so it couldn't even be read and had to be dismissed blindly.)
• Before, powerful weapons with Damage×2 could have their blast radius artificially limited, resulting in a bizarre combination of widespread damage with a relatively small hole. Now the effective blast radius limit is doubled. (The explosion sprite is still limited in size, so it may look a bit weird but will work properly.)
• The glitch in which graves could absorb arrows was not fully fixed in v3.5 Beta 1; an arrow hitting a grave at the same time as it would have hit land was still absorbed. This is now wholly fixed. [That "wholly" was rather holey; see v3.6.19.12 fixes.]
• At a certain water level, Crates and Oil Drums would float, throwing the game into an endless loop while it waited for them to sink.
• A bungeeing worm used to look very odd when swinging more than 45 degrees away from straight down. Now it progresses smoothly through 360 degrees of rotation.
• There was a mismatch between the Fall Damage threshold speed, and the threshold speed at which the Parachute was activated. There was a small space between where your Worm could accrue fall damage without the parachute activating. This only happened when the worm was sliding, for example from the Rope. [This fix was not enough; see v3.6.21.1 for the complete fix.]
• In a game with Stockpiling and the Aqua Sheep enabled, stockpiled Aqua Sheep would be lost in the next round.
• The [T] key (thought bubble) now works while you are aiming a weapon with the mouse.
• There are some filename inconsistencies between the various Soundbanks on the W:A CD-ROM. Some have "oof1.wav" instead of "ooff1.wav", similarly for "uhoh.wav" instead of "uh-oh.wav". The game now handles these variations. Affected Soundbanks include Brummie, Cad, Drill Sergeant, Formula One, Geezer, Rasta, Redneck, Rushki, Russian, Thespian, and US Sports.
• Fixed a variety of bugs in the front end, many of which could cause crashes upon minimise + restore in various places.
• The Intro now fades like it used to before the betas. As before, it can be skipped by adding the /nointro parameter to your W:A shortcut, e.g. "C:\Team17\Worms Armageddon\WA.exe" /nointro
v3.6.19.11 Beta Update (2004.02.10)
Fixes
• During the playback of certain game recordings, the telephone icon would be displayed, but the chat box brought down by PageDown would show nothing.
• People running versions of Windows other than English, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish or Swedish would have blank buttons and texts in the front end, and a default of Portuguese in game. The default is now English.
• The Game Version was being initialised to 3.5 Beta 2 when playing Quick CPU games, thus emulating the girder glitch, for example.
• Quick CPU games were recorded with the incorrect terrain, therefore were nonsensical when played back.
• In offline games, Forced Sudden Death was not recorded. Also, games artificially ended would not reflect this in the recording — they would simply go on forever with no movement.
• Could not quit from the Next Round screen as a Joined player in an online game; the Exit button would prompt Yes/No, but would have no effect.
• Team names with illegal filename characters in them could cause crashes when starting offline games, and in any case would cause the recording not to be saved. Now they are filtered to underscores.
• With Large Fonts (fonts set to something other than 96 dpi), the Map Thumbnail was erroneously shifted to the left in the Network Host/Join dialogs.
• Fixes affecting game logic
• Bugs introduced in v3.6.19.7
• In teamed games, i.e. games where multiple teams are allied against each other (a.k.a. clan games), the weapons added to each allied group's team would be multiplied by the number of teams in that group. So for example, in a 2vs2 Team17 game, everyone would get 2 ropes. This could cause a desync if an earlier Beta version was being emulated.
• There was a small area between vertical speed thresholds where a fallen worm would twang without accruing fall damage. [This "fix" introduced a bug; see v3.6.19.12 fixes.]
v3.6.19.12 Beta Update (2004.02.11)
Fixes
• Fixes affecting game logic
• The glitch in which graves could absorb arrows was still not fully fixed; an arrow shot from "inside" a grave would still be absorbed. This is now fully wholly completely and utterly fixed. [This time for real.]
• The previous version 3.6.19.11 introduced a bug where, in certain circumstances, even the lightest fall would incur 1 point of damage. Most notably, every time a worm was rope-knocked it would lose 1 point of health. [This fix was overdone; see v3.6.21.1 for the complete fix.]
Features
• The map editor is now more forgiving when loading PNG colour maps. The palette may have extra unused entries (padding) and the colour black does not have to be at palette index zero. Also, a specific message is shown if the map has the incorrect dimensions.
• Removed the near-useless Generate button in the map editor and replaced it with a Reseed button, which rerandomises the way Objects, Bridges and Holes are placed in a map. This button is only active in Preview mode because that is where you will see its effect. (Does not apply to colour maps.) Holding Shift while clicking the button will backtrack.
v3.6.19.14 Beta Update (2004.02.12)
Fixes
• Version 3.6.19.11 fixed the recording of Quick CPU games, but Deathmatch games still were recorded with the wrong map. This is now fixed; also, recordings made before this fix will now play back properly.
• Fixes affecting game logic
• 3.5 Beta 1 fixed the glitch in which a falling worm, colliding with a parachuting worm, could end its turn. But this fix had the side effect that enemy worms, sliding as the result of an attack, could never horizontally knock the attacking worm (regardless of whether it was using the parachute). This had presented an element of challenge, and at times caused amusing bad or good luck. So now it is back; yet the collisions will still never directly end the attacking worm's turn, as they could before 3.5 Beta 1.
• The timer did not pause when a herd of Mad Cows was released from the Rope, Bungee, Jetpack or Parachute. Thus, it was possible for the turn to end before the entire herd was released, denying the player from having any retreat time.
• Version 3.6.19.11 fixed the allied overstockpiling problem, however, special weapons were still added from all teams. This was intentional on my part (if there can only be one special weapon, and the teams in a group don't have the same one, which weapon should be dropped?), however it has since been made clear to me that this was not a good solution. So now, if there is a disagreement between teams in a group on which special weapon to stock, the choice is made depending on which team gets the first turn (which is random at the beginning of a game, then incremented after each round). The legacy behavior was that only the last team in the team slot list would get its special weapon, and this stayed constant throughout a set of rounds (and indeed, beyond that if the teams weren't reshuffled manually).
• The first team in an allied group to get a turn was not being properly set; usually the first in the team slot list in each group would always get the first turn.
Features
• Ammo is now displayed for delayed weapons in the right-mouse-click weapons panel.
• If the host in a game has an older game version than at least one other player who has joined, the message will now be "Game will emulate n.n.n ..." rather than "Game will take advantage of the latest n.n.n features and bug fixes"
• Right-clicking the Water Level bar in the Map Editor now sets the appropriate level for "water drops", where worms do not drown whereas weapons sink. (The Indestructible Border must also be turned on for this to work.)
• Player disconnections are now properly recorded. During playback, players' names are greyed when their disconnections are reenacted. The reason for a disconnection is also shown, if detected or communicated across the network. (Currently, disconnection reasons are not communicated over the host — so clients still won't see why other clients disconnected; this will be remedied in a later release.)
v3.6.19.15 Beta Update (2004.02.20)
Fixes
• If the host quit too early in the Next Round screen in a game you had joined, the Exit button remained disabled, requiring the "WA.exe" process to be killed externally.
• Allied whispers are now readable during playback. (This is under Bug Fixes because it was the original intention for crate spy, weapon selections and allied whispers all to be visible in a playback once the game was finished, for a "behind the scenes" effect. Allied whispers were recorded from the start, yet were each shown as a coloured **Whisper** in playback before this update.)
• Error messages showing up when a recorded game could not be played back did not show properly. Now they do.
• The background ambient sound loop no longer restarts each time you go back to the Main Menu.
Features
• The French translations have been improved and corrected by JaBBa.
• There is now a Map Extraction feature which can be applied on game recordings. Right-click on a .WAgame file and choose "Extract Map", and the map will be saved in your User\SavedLevels folder using the base name of the recording; you can then rename it to what you want.
Changes
• Recording is now a bit more streamlined: nothing is recorded while there is no controlling team (i.e. between turns) [Note: Chat is still recorded between turns, but since there is currently no timing information, a chat that happened between turns will play back at the beginning of the next turn.]
v3.6.19.17 Beta Update (2004.03.11)
Fixes
• Even when instant replays were disabled in the scheme, one would still be shown following a death that ended the game.
• If there was an error loading a scheme file, the dialog was undismissable requiring the "WA.exe" process to be killed externally.
• W:A accepted the WWP CD, but this was premature in the development of WWP compatibility.
• For a client at the host/join stage, other players' ready indicators were improperly cleared during reception of a map.
• During playback, the dialog menu button (ESC) would beep if a "game over" was in progress (as in normal play)
• Checksums for remote players were not recorded. This is now used to detect who was the local player (whose copy of W:A created the recording); recordings made from now on don't require this detection (nor would it work).
• Fixes affecting game logic
• When placing worms at the beginning of a game, placing directly on land caused an annoying delay of two seconds, whereas letting the worm drop onto land did not create much of a delay. Now, placing directly on land causes virtually no delay (the only delay will be due to network lag).
• Weapons can now be selected while your worm is reshooting the Ninja Rope.
• It was possible to teleport horizontally outside the indestructible border, which could result in an accidental drowning during placement. (Glitch introduced in v3.6.19.7.)
Features
• When the turn timer has a negative value (currently only possible by editing a scheme externally) a forward turn counter is displayed, starting at zero.
• During a replay, hundredths of a second will be shown in the turn timer.
• There is now a built-in screenshot key that works in game. The key is Pause, and it saves screenshots in PNG format using minimum compression for speed. They are named screenNNNN.png and are stored in the main Worms Armageddon folder.
• There is now a single-step key for replays. Press S to step through a replay frame by frame. Press a speed key (1-9,0) to resume normal playback. Note: ESC/PageDown/PageUp currently do not work while single stepping.
• In playback (behind-the-scenes mode) mine fuses are now shown. Dud status cannot be shown in advance because it is decided only upon the triggering of a mine.
• During playback, the camera tracking can now be overridden by holding down the Left Mouse Button. This is especially useful in fast mode, to prevent the camera from jumping around.
• Under Windows 2000/XP, the high resolution system timer is now used. This results in much smoother rendering, especially if your display's vertical refresh rate is a multiple of 50 Hz.
• The mouse and camera are now updated between frames, for much smoother scrolling and local-user-controlled cursor movement.
v3.6.19.17a Beta Update (2004.03.12)
Fixes
• The following change: "The mouse and camera are now updated between frames, for much smoother scrolling and local-user-controlled cursor movement." has been reverted. It was not ready for release, and created some unwanted side effects.
v3.6.19.18 Beta Update (2004.03.19)
Fixes
• The host and join round continue screens had the old problematic player list colour scheme; the latter also did not show the map reception progress bar.
• The new Single Step replay key could cause an infinite loop, requiring the "WA.exe" process to be killed externally.
• If you pressed Space to shoot the Ninja Rope while your Worm was preparing for a jump, and your Worm became airborn before you released Space, then a second pressing of Space would be ignored; an extra press would be required to detach the initial rope (or if the rope catch was denied quickly, the rope would fire again spuriously the moment your Worm became airborn).
• Pressing Shift during an instant replay affected speed in a buggy way. Now, the same speed-control keys used during a playback replay are supported during an instant replay.
• Fixes affecting game logic
• The v3.6.19.17 fix: "Weapons can now be selected while your worm is reshooting the Ninja Rope." introduced a glitch: if you made your worm shoot a starter rope from mid-air, and attempted to select a weapon before the rope caught, the default would be selected instead. It was not intended that selection be possible during the starter rope shot.
Features
• In an offline game or playback, the ESC dialog no longer closes automatically after minimising. This way, the game it will remain paused upon restoring until you press ESC again.
• Added the ability to load colour maps that were saved in .CUS format using Beta 1/2/3pre1.
v3.6.19.19 Beta Update (2004.03.21)
Fixes
• The following v3.6.19.18 fix was incomplete and is now fixed as intended: "If you pressed Space to shoot the Ninja Rope while your Worm was preparing for a jump, and your Worm became airborn before you released Space, then a second pressing of Space would be ignored; an extra press would be required to detach the initial rope (or if the rope catch was denied quickly, the rope would fire again spuriously the moment your Worm became airborn)."
• For some people, PNG maps were saved without a header. At first this merely caused the terrain type (soil background) to be reset each time, but starting after v3.6.19.15 the bug prevented PNG maps from being hostable at all; after loading them and exiting from the map editor a random map would be generated.
• Certain games with CPU players (e.g. the mission Water Surprise) would crash right after the piechart loading stage. (Bug introduced in v3.6.19.17)
v3.6.20.1 Beta Update (2004.07.13)
Fixes
• W:A no longer uses 100% CPU unnecessarily.
• If you experienced a buggy/laggy timer or inoperational game starting with 3.6.19.17, execute the registry script TimerWorkaround_On.reg. (Note: This setting has no effect under Windows 9x/ME.)
• The game no longer freezes when Single Stepping is used up to the end of an Instant Replay.
• The Super/Aqua Sheep visual angle now more accurately depicts the angle in which the sheep is flying.
• The crosshair visual angle is now more precisely depicted.
• The phone icon no longer displays as a result of a whisper which would otherwise be invisible. Note that people with older versions will still see the icon.
• It is no longer possible for a host to start the game on your end if you have not lighted on your end to signal readiness. If the host attempts this, your Ready light will flash; click it to go ahead and start.
• With Large Fonts (fonts set to something other than 96 dpi), certain border boxes were drawn with overextended lines.
• The random map generator is now much less likely to make oversimplified maps; it now generates complex maps more consistently than versions prior to 3.6.
• Fixes affecting game logic
• The v3.6.19.17 fix: "Weapons can now be selected while your worm is reshooting the Ninja Rope." introduced a glitch: if you made your worm shoot a starter rope from mid-air, and attempted to select a weapon before the rope caught, the default would be selected instead. It was not intended that selection be possible during the starter rope shot. In v3.6.19.18 the fix for this wasn't complete.
• Crates no longer fall slowly following a turn in which Low Gravity was active.
• The previous fix: "There was a mismatch between the Fall Damage threshold speed, and the threshold speed at which the Parachute was activated. There was a small space between where your Worm could accrue fall damage without the parachute activating. This only happened when the worm was sliding, for example from the Rope." was incomplete; there was still a small window between the thresholds. This is now fixed once and for all. [Not quite a complete fix; see v3.6.21.1 fixes.]
• If a moving worm knocked a mine directly, it was then possible for the worm to pass out of range without triggering the mine.
• The W:A message format internally allowed a Super/Aqua Sheep to be turned at sudden angles, even full reverse. This would have required hacking, though: it wasn't possible using the keyboard.
Features
• A game timer is shown above the turn timer. (In replays, it has full precision; in game play, it has hours and minutes.) This is useful for referencing moments in replays, and is also a stopgap until bookmarking and cropping are implemented.
• The turn timer no longer "fades in" during replays, so that the duration of a very short turn can be read easily.
• Precise fuse timers are shown during replays.
• The phone icon is now displayed in whichever corner is least intrusive.
• The display can now be scrolled while paused in Single Step mode during a replay.
• Features affecting game logic
• Worms can now change direction and fire a weapon in the same instant. (This is similar to a change in v3.5 Beta 1, which allowed one to change direction and jump in the same instant.) So for example, in a Battle Race, you can now land from a jump, hold the key to face in the opposite direction and fire the shotgun immediately after landing without worrying that your worm may fire in the wrong direction if your timing is perfect.
• Utilities can now be toggled; for example, if you use Low Gravity after it has been activated, it is cancelled.
• Worms can now walk backwards. When you hold the Shift key and walk, your Worm will not change the direction in which it is facing. This is useful for fine-tuning your position prior to a jump or shotgun shot, for example.
• Switched to Visual C++ 7 for compiling, with Whole Program Optimization. This may make the game engine a bit faster (e.g. for faster, smoother fast-forwards in replays).
v3.6.20.2 Beta Update (2004.08.03)
Fixes
• Some people experienced a jerky game with 3.6.20.1, for a reason entirely unrelated to that which the timer workaround addressed. It was caused by the previous fix "W:A no longer uses 100% CPU unnecessarily." and is now resolved; it turns out that in-game, 100% CPU usage only ever occurred while minimised; yet in 3.6.20.1, the fix was applied even when the game was in the foreground.
• To avoid distraction, the phone icon (which could swap sides at any time in 3.6.20.1) now only swaps sides while hidden.
• Fixes affecting game logic
• There was a bug in v3.6.20.1 where instant replays could diverge from what actually happened, especially if roping or mines were involved. Through a loophole, this also allowed the offline use of slow motion. The possible earlier use of the loophole is now reported when playing back replays in which it was used (pull down the chat to see such messages).
• In v3.6.20.1, schemes that had been externally edited to give weapons power levels higher than 5 stars no longer worked in the same way. This caused desyncs when playing back replays and playing online games using such schemes. Now, compatibility is restored, as long as the power levels lie within some "standard" ranges. All weapons must be <=20 stars; Mortar, Cluster Bomb, Banana Bomb, Air Strike and Napalm Strike must be <=15 stars; Skunk and Longbow must be <=10 stars; Axe must be <=5 stars. Schemes that break these limits will bring up a warning when loaded or when a replay is opened.
• Worms can now always dismount the Jetpack or Parachute by pressing Space, whereas before, this was not possible in Artillery mode (in which worms are forbidden from walking).
v3.6.20.3 Beta Update (2004.08.06)
Fixes
• There was a bug in v3.6.20.2 causing improper emulation of v3.6.20.1. Using clustered weapons, skunks, longbows or axes could cause a desync. Now, v3.6.20.1 is properly emulated.
• To avoid invoking v3.6.20.2's improper emulation of v3.6.20.1, this version 3.6.20.3, when hosting, will avoid emulating .20.1 if there are players with .20.2 present; in this case it will emulate 3.6.19.19 instead. Note that there is still an exception in which a desync can happen: if you are not the host of a game, and the other people in it have a mixture of .20.1 and .20.2, then during the game the .20.2 players may desync and drop out. If the host is running .20.2 then the whole game could desync.
• The instant replay fix in v3.6.20.2 was incomplete, and could cause a crash.
v3.6.21.1 Beta Update (2004.09.23)
Fixes
• One of the ways in which W:A didn't work under Windows 2000/XP before the first v3.5 beta, was that it would hang when switching from the front end to gameplay mode, right before the piechart would have been shown. It was possible to fool it into starting anyway (by Alt-Tabbing to one of the W:A processes, or in some cases something more complex), but the palette would be wrong and the update rate would be slow. As it turns out, the fix was not complete, because this bug would sometimes still happen. Now there is a more correct fix that goes closer to the root of this problem, and it may solve problems some people have been having trying to start a game.
• Some people experience a palette bug in which background apps can steal the palette from W:A, corrupting some or all of its colours. W:A will now log these to "palette.log" located in your main Worms Armageddon folder. Note that the problem can still happen; the only change is that it is logged. This information gleaned from this may lead to finding a fix.
• Even when instant replays were disabled in the scheme, one would still be shown after a Worm had skimmed water or used a Kamikaze.
• When using the mouse to point a Strike weapon, the cursor was initially pointed 45° left/right from down. If the angle was adjusted with the Left/Right arrows, it would still point 45° right but would point 34° left. This is now fixed. On the other hand, the cursor for Teleport and other targeted weapons was originally intended to point 45° up-left, but everybody is used to that fact that it points 34° left from up. This is caused by a glitch, but a change would be disorienting, so the 34° angle has been preserved.
• Ran Profiling on W:A to find where the CPU spends most of its time in-game, with some interesting and helpful results.
• The function to render flaming health bars was always being executed, whether or not any flaming bars were actually being displayed. This routine was unoptimised and very processor intensive. It is now much more efficient, and furthermore will not run unless needed.
• Fixed-point multiplication has now been inlined, creating a global speed-up. (Sea bubbles were a heavy user of multiplication, so there's a speed-up even in idle conditions.)
• These changes allow for better performance when fast-fowarding replays, and should also help to keep the frame rate steady during normal play.
• In games recorded with v3.6.19.15 or later, chat messages that were made after a pending game-over were not being shown during playback.
• Fixes affecting game logic
• The Girder Radius (maximum ortho-distance between your worm and any possible place you can place a girder) is now calculated from the center of the girder. Previously, it was calculated from the upper-left corner of an orthogonal rectangle encompassing the girder, which was asymmetric and nonintuitive. Note that the radius actually defines a diamond rather than a circle, as with many things in W:A; ortho-distance is the sum of horizontal and vertical distance, as opposed to distance which is the square root of the sum of the squares of horizontal and vertical distances.
• If an animal (such as a sheep) was sent out to collect a health crate, and the Worm sending it died before collection, the health would still be added to its team total. This could cause the game to see that team as "alive" even after all its worms died out; but when the turn passed to that team, the game would crash. Now, health crates will not be collected by an animal sent by a now-dead Worm. (See Footnote 2.)
• After using Rope, Bungee or Parachute, a player would always get Air retreat time on that turn, even if using a weapon from the ground.
• It was possible to fire a ground-only weapon in the single frame (1/50 sec) step between walking off a ledge and falling. The weapon would not fire, but would incur retreat time. Now, such an attempt will result in a warning beep.
• Under certain very rare circumstances, a roping Worm could become stuck against a wall at the same moment the rope unsnagged, causing it to be trapped in that spot until dismounting from the rope. This also caused the game's CPU usage to soar until the rope was dismounted.
• The parachute/fall damage speed threshold mismatch was indeed fixed once and for all in v3.6.20.1. However, there was again a small area between vertical speed thresholds where a Worm that fell out of a roll or slide would twang without accruing fall damage, as there was in v3.6.19.7. [This was finally a complete fix.]
• Normal mines were not triggered by a Frozen Worm, but mines from a Mine Strike were.
• Under certain rare circumstances, a dud mine could explode. The condition for this made no sense; it didn't have anything to do with blasting or knocking the mine, but rather happened when the center of the mine was within 1 pixel of the center of a worm at the right moment. This is now disabled and in a future version will be replaced with something more sensible.
Features
• It is now possible to play replays as fast as your machine is likely to handle, and at 1.5× as well. The [1]-[9] keys now correspond to 1×,1.5×,2×,3×,4×,6×,8×,12×,16×. Hold [0] while pressing [1]-[9] and you will get 24×,32×,48×,64×,96×,128×,192×,256×,384×. (As before, holding Shift while pressing [1]-[9] will set slow-motion; the multiplier chart becomes a divider chart.)
• The frame rate will not be allowed to drop significantly below 10 fps. Thus the keyboard will no longer become very unresponsive during a fast-forward which taxes the CPU.
• As before, holding the left mouse button during a replay will override automatic camera motion. This now works in an online game during other players' turns. In addition, turning on CAPS LOCK will override the camera during a replay. [Caps Lock no longer has this function. See the entry for v3.6.26.4.]
• There is now a Log Extraction feature which can be applied on game recordings. Right-click on a .WAgame file and choose "Extract Log", and the game information, chat and major game events (with timestamps in game time) and end-game stats will be logged to a file in the same folder with the same base filename.
• Features affecting game logic
• In Cavern levels, the Teleport and homing weapons can now be pointed within a slightly larger range, encompassing the leftmost and rightmost positions where a Worm may stand on the edges of the landscape. When pointing on the rightmost edge, the cursor will temporarily flip for visibility. The cursor can also now be moved all the way down to water level.
v3.6.21.2 Beta Update (2004.09.27)
Fixes
• The first fix in the list for v3.6.21.1 was actually a regression for some people not running Windows XP.
• When a player tries to Teleport to a spot that is partially blocked, the cursor is nudged to the nearest available spot and a spangle flashes in the new spot. But in a game with v3.6.21.1 as the logic version (i.e., no emulation) this would only look correct on the local end, while a game was being played. To remote players in a network game, and during playback, the cursor nudge and spangle would not show up.
• The message "Game will take advantage of the latest n.n.n.n features and bug fixes" will now display the game logic version rather than the exe version.
• For readability, the Extract Log feature now uses "•••" to denote game events rather than "****" as before.
• Speed / update rate
• A check was inadvertently disabled, the purpose of which was to prevent the clock from ticking more than 1/4 second during a chunk of "screen lag". It is now re-enabled.
• During an instant replay, a fast-forward that was fast enough to drop frames could overshoot the end of the turn, eating into the turn time of the next Worm.
• The prior version restricted the rendering rate from dropping below 10fps. This was too arbitrary. The frame drop threshold is now calculated as a point of diminishing returns, where further frame dropping would not boost the speed by more than 10%. When fast-forwarding, this is often well above 10fps, especially on faster computers (this should also make screen lag more tolerable). Additionally, slow computers may sometimes need to drop below 10fps (for example, when a lot of fire is being thrown around).
• In-game palette fading is smoother now. This is partly due to streamlining the way fading is done (previously, each fade increment was done separately for objects, water and terrain), and partly due to making external applications unaware of the game's palette adjustments. (The latter is a workaround for that fact that, regarding palettes, DirectDraw does not give exclusive treatment to full-screen apps.)
• Volume adjustments
• When the volume was adjusted in the front end, and a game was started within the same session, the adjustment would be forgotten.
• Volume adjustments in the front end are now instantly applied to the ambient "menu loop".
• The volume setting was not being applied to the "loading tick" sound effect (made each time the pie chart fills by an extra 4%)
v3.6.21.3 Beta Update (2004.09.28)
Fixes
• In v3.6.21.2, the in-game palette would not be restored after minimising in most circumstances.
• On systems running Windows 9x/ME, W:A v3.6.21.2 would crash when a game was started. Due to this, the DirectDraw palette workaround will be disabled on those systems.
• The following v3.6.21.2 fix was incomplete and is now fixed as intended: "When the volume was adjusted in the front end, and a game was started within the same session, the adjustment would be forgotten."
v3.6.22.1 Beta Update (2004.10.06)
Fixes
• If the volume was adjusted in-game, the change didn't have an instant effect upon returning to the front end.
• Volume adjustment is now applied to streams and in-game ambient music. There is now nothing left that doesn't respond to volume control.
• The Extract Log feature brings up a console window to show its progress. However, it would often be opened behind other windows. It will now try to move itself to the front. [Note: This fix did not in fact work.]
• Bugs introduced in v3.6.21.2
• WAGame files made by private betas before 2004-01-27, or Mission/Training from any version, would crash upon playback. The former would in some cases play without crashing, but would desync due to differing crate falls.
• If W:A were forced to minimise in-game (without using the ESC menu option) then its palette would be garbled and no amount of minimising would bring it back.
• The game would sometimes crash when returning to the front end.
• Fixes affecting game logic
• The Girder Starter-Pack allows you to select a stop sign after placing at least one girder, to prematurely stop placing them. However, in v3.5 Beta 1, this was inadvertently disabled. It works again now.
Features
• The <center> tag is now supported and used in ServerList.htm.
• The Extract Log feature now lists total turn/retreat times for each team.
• The colour scheme used for allies (red, blue, green, yellow, purple, cyan) can now be modified to allow those with certain types of colour deficiency to be able to easily distinguish problematic colour pairs. (It is targeted particularly towards protanomaly.) This switch has been added to the Options menu, replacing the terrain editing button in that screen. If the new colour set does not help you and you still have trouble distinguishing certain team colours, please post in the support forum (see section 6.0).
• Features affecting game logic
• You now get retreat time after using the Girder Starter-Pack on land.
• The Mortar and Homing Missile now have shiny new launchers that are coloured differently, to make them easily distinguishable from the Bazooka and Homing Pigeon. The Bazooka also has a makeover.
Notes
• Due to the changes regarding colours, a pair of new sprite archives have been included in this release. These files are approximately 12 MB each, and are not internally compressed because this allows the distributed package to compress much better (for a quicker download).
• If you are not going to use the colour deficiency option, you may safely delete Gfx1.dir, freeing 12 MB of hard disk space. Similarly, you may delete Gfx0.dir. Deleting them both will still allow W:A to run, but will locally disable the new colour features.
• The original Gfx.dir is still used for compatibility purposes. Do not delete it.
• Due to the larger sprite archive, W:A now requires 8 MB more RAM than before. If this is a problem for you, please post in the support forum (see section 6.0).
• As an upshot, W:A may run be slightly faster in-game since it will not need to decompress sprites on the fly.
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 occured 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 reenacted 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.
• 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 have been added for the countries Chile, Serbia, and Slovenia. Currently these flags work only in the WormNET lobby, not in the host/join lobby.
• 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.
• The WormNET server incorrectly limits nicknames to 15 characters instead of 16, so 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.
• 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.
• Entering a line nearly 500 characters long in the host/join chat caused a local crash.
• 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
• 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.
• 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.
• The blank/duplicate name detection of the Team Editor was broken. It works properly now.
• The ability to scroll the display while paused in Single Step mode during a replay was added in v3.6.20.1, but there was a bug. The camera coordinates were allowed to bypass the normal limits, so while the display didn't scroll beyond the edges, you had to mouse back the same distance you had "virtually" moved beyond the edges to be able to scroll again.
• Since 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.)
• 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.
• 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
[cut off due to post length limit... there is mor
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hitbyambulance
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hitbyambulance
- Posts: 10251
- Joined: Wed Oct 13, 2004 3:51 am
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Re: Worms: Armageddon now runs on Windows XP - with improvements
just now got a new community-made 3.8 patch, Team17 approved: https://store.steampowered.com/newshub/ ... 1903920896
new 'physics' options, among others. of course it now runs on Windows 10, but also works perfectly on Linux (with Proton).
also this game was released 21 years ago
new 'physics' options, among others. of course it now runs on Windows 10, but also works perfectly on Linux (with Proton).
also this game was released 21 years ago
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hitbyambulance
- Posts: 10251
- Joined: Wed Oct 13, 2004 3:51 am
- Location: Map Ref 47.6°N 122.35°W
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