Xonotic 0.8.5 Release

Xonotic 0.8.5 is here at last! There’s been thousands of commits since 0.8.2 making this quite a long read for all the right reasons: refined gameplay, new and updated maps and models, new sound effects, more dangerous bots, new HUD and menu features, more translations, better infrastructure, too many fixes to count, and much more.
XonStat and NetRadiant made great progress too.

Download information:

New to Xonotic?

Download it here

Already have Xonotic on your machine?

There’s no need to download the game again to get into the action. Use the following steps to upgrade your client to the 0.8.5 release:

  1. Navigate to your Xonotic installation folder
  2. Navigate to the misc/tools/rsync-updater folder
  3. Execute the update-to-release.sh (for Linux or Mac) or update-to-release.bat (for Windows) and wait for it to complete
  4. Profit. You’re done!

Gameplay

Balance

Vortex’s push force has been reduced from 400 to 200 so players no longer fly to the other end of the map when hit by a Vortex shot.

Electro primary bolts are now capable of detonating secondary orbs in close proximity.
This adds support for midair combos but is currently disabled by default.
Previously, bolts could only trigger the combo by hitting the orbs’ bounding boxes or an adjacent surface.

Crylink now has a linkexplode property which makes all pellets explode at once when any of them hit a player.
This makes damage more consistent because when only 1 pellet hits, the others may still deal splash damage.
It also reduces visual clutter compared to having all the missed pellets bouncing around.

Duel

Duel is now a dedicated gametype, there is no longer a need for deathmatch with max playercount of 2.
This allows duel-specific gameplay settings and cleaner handling by XonStat.

Freeze Tag

Clever tactics are rewarded with epic comebacks and laziness is punished with these changes:

Gameplay miscellaneous

Bots

Behaviour
Waypoint editor
Bots miscellaneous

Artwork

Player model skins

All player models have improved visibility by default, and there's several fixes:

Click to see hidden (unavailable in the menu) player models


Maps

We have two new official maps:

Existing maps received various fixes and/or visual updates:

Drain and Oil Rig are now hidden from the game menus and will be removed in the next release.

Sounds

Refreshed weapon and item sounds are easier to distinguish in combat, and more fun.

Item models

The new cell and explosives ammo pack item models made by Morphed are visually attractive. Cell item behaves like a pretty shinning blue plasma lamp. Explosives ammo pack has a shader animation changing Mortar, Hagar and Devastator icons.

Explosives ammo pack
Cell ammo
Weapon models

Morphed has turned up the polygon count in the splash damage department with these impressive Crylink and Electro models. They’re animated and feel like a natural match for the gameplay and art style.

Crylink
Electro
Prototype
Textured
Monster models

Joining the existing Zombies are the new Wyvern, Golem, Mage and Spider.


They feature new animations and are supported by reworked and faster code with some new abilities.
The Invasion gametype remains a work in progress but you may encounter these monsters on certain maps or servers.


User Interface

HUD, Centerprints and Scoreboard

Match starting centreprint with titleWarmup phase in Freeze TagSudden Death phase with round timelimit

Translations

XonStat 2.0

During the pandemic XonStat was written from the ground up, solving many of the pain points of the previous version. A full list is too lengthy for this post, but here are some highlights:


NetRadiant level editor

Development activity got a boost and the project now has its own website (netradiant.gitlab.io) and its own release schedule and downloads (see the NetRadiant download page). This is still a Xonotic project maintained by the Xonotic Team with code hosted at Xonotic GitLab.

More details about the NetRadiant builds at Xonotic 0.8.5 release time and more informations about changes having been done the past years can be found on the NetRadiant website itself.


Other changes in Xonotic

Build systems
Campaign
Terms of Service

At first start, a “Terms of Service” (ToS) dialogue will explain transparently what data is required or optional.
Server admins can (and should) provide server-specific Terms of Service that will be displayed in the server info dialogue (right-click on the server in the multiplayer menu).

Resetmatch

New votable command resetmatch restarts the match without restarting the whole server, meaning players stay in their teams and don’t have to reconnect. Loading screens are eliminated and the process is instant.

Quake 3 map compatibility
Map entity logic and documentation
Rulesets

Popular gameplay configurations are now organised in ruleset-*.cfg files.

QC Physics

Player physics is now implemented in QuakeC gamecode instead of using the engine physics.
This will enable custom features that otherwise wouldn’t be possible. It also brings bug fixes for stairs and moving platforms.

DarkPlaces Engine
Visual effects and sprites
Miscellaneous

Backward compatibility notes

Several official maps have been significantly updated and old clients will have issues with these maps on current servers, or vice versa.

The "glowy" high visibility player model skins are now used by default, and the skin numbers are inverted.

Xonotic is a fast paced first person shooter where crisp movement, nuanced weapons, and in-your-face action combine to create addictive arena-style gameplay.
Xonotic is free to play and modify under the copyleft GPLv3+ license. Download it today!

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