Altitude Update Released

[RSS News]

Updates to Altitude have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The major changes include:

Added Plane Skins:

• View all skins under Hangar Deck -> Community Points
• Added shark skins for all planes
• Added zebra skins for all planes

New Maps:

• Added 10 new 1-life deathmatch maps (thanks Maimer)
• Updated 1dm_clocktower (thanks pig_bomb)

Ball Mode Improvements:

• Refined ball collision bounds for more predictable bounces off terrain
• Increased elasticity of ball collisions (less speed lost when bouncing off surfaces)
• Decreased drag on ball (less speed lost while ball sails through open air)
• Miranda must now wait 0.7 seconds after releasing the ball before warping (Realism note: warp core jury-rigged to provide blast for ball ejection, takes a moment to reconfigure)
• Larger planes now shoot the ball significantly faster (previously, all planes ejected with velocity = 13.5)
  • Bomber: 18.5
  • Explodet: 18.5
  • Miranda: 16.8
  • Biplane: 16.5
  • Loopy: 14.5
• Larger planes now retain more speed while carrying ball, smaller planes significantly slowed by extra weight (all planes still lose 50% afterburner effectivness while carrying ball)
  • Explodet: 94% (up from 87%)
  • Bomber: 94% (up from 87%)
  • Miranda: 88% (up from 86%)
  • Biplane: 86% (up from 85%)
  • Loopy: 79% (down from 82%)

Balance Changes:

• Ace Instincts: now reduces XP required to gain a bar from 10 to 8 in addition to increasing per bar bonuses to speed/turn/regen/damage by 50%
• Miranda's Reverse ability now temporarily disables Repair Drone just like afterburning
• Miranda's Time Anchor cooldown is increased by 42% when carrying the Big Bomb or Ball
• Miranda Charge Shot:
  • improved collision bounds for more predictable bounces off terrain
  • can no longer hit the same plane twice with a single shot
  • each bounce now reduces the total damage by 25% (up from 20%)
• Miranda Laser:
  • increased total damage by 4% (260 -> 270)
  • increased length by 1% (273 -> 276)
  • increased duration by 1% (.8045 -> .812)
• Explodet (all forms):
• Explodet Remote Mine:
  
  • no longer collides with planes, complete control of detonation just like rockets
  • increased cooldown (0.35 -> 0.66)
  • increased minimum release->detonation time (0.15 -> 0.30)
  • reduced blast radius by 4%
  • increased ejection speed by 18%
  • increased damage by 3%
  • increased knockback by 3%
  • increased maximum lifetime (6.8 -> 8.8 seconds)

Expanded Options:

• Options -> Graphics now remembers independent resolution preferences for fullscreen and windowed mode (new defaults: fullscreen at native/desktop resolution, F3 toggles to 1024x768 windowed)
• Additional display options available under Options -> Gameplay:
  • Show Plane Skins
  • Show Ping/FPS in bottom left
  • Show Exp Log (Killed A for 10 xp, Assist on B for 4xp, etc) in bottom middle
  • Show Kill Popups in bottom right
  • Change chat opacity (for better visibility of left side of screen, hit enter to view chat at full opacity)

Network Improvements:

• Improved UPnP compatibility on many routers
• Improved network compatibility for players with unstable, multi-IP network connections (bindIp="AUTO")
• Improved server list retrieval to avoid a rare issue that could cause disconnections on some routers

UI Enhancements:

• Re-skinned menu UI
• Added "Assists" and "Current Map" information to scoreboard
• Added "Server Event" info boxes for major events (ex: successful bomb drop in TBD, includes percent damage inflicted)
• Added graphical "You killed" and "Killed by" notifications
• Added "Team Eliminated" messages to 1-life game modes
• Reworked Respawn UI for better clarity and full-screen spectating
• Reworked Award Screen for better clarity and additional info (Team MVPs, top 3 in FFA)

Gamepad Support:

• Added "disable controller support" option to Options -> Controls
• Move up/down/left/right using the Axis and POV directional pad
• Click buttons by pressing FirePrimary/FireSecondary/UsePowerup
• Change window focus (e.g. between ServerList and MainMenu) by pressing ChangePlane/ChangeTeam
• Tab cycle component focus by pressing Scoreboard
• Cancel by pressing Escape

Server Improvements:

• Added infractions to kick command (a player gains an infraction each time he is kicked from a server, each infraction expires after 24 hours)
• Kick times now scale with infractions (2 min, 10 min, 30 min, 60 min, 120 min) to prevent problematic players from continuously rejoining

Bug Fixes:
<ul style="padding-bottom: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;" > Fixed visual artifacts (font, UI lines) for widescreen resolutions, native resolution should look good on all displays now

Plane balls can no longer teleport through the goal when fired point-blank

Server list now retains current selection while updating

Server list no longer shows "maxPlayers