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Happy Holidays Forts fans!

This year’s festive update is rolled into one of our regular Forts updates. Once again, we have updated the game with limited time holiday features. Returning are the re-skinned front end, holiday jingle and baubles, and festive tech buildings. New this year is the appearance of Santa hats on gunners, and machine guns, miniguns, 20mm and cannons that fire snowballs!

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Moving on to the update proper, we have made some interesting commander balance changes, as well as the usual fixes and improvements. Read on to find out which active and passive abilities have been updated.

Traditional Chinese is now supported, and characters from all languages are always visible. No more walls of question marks! Player names are shown in team colours in the lobby and console. Audio in video recordings is now functioning without Stereo Mix, and the compression and other parameters can be edited in data/db/constants_user.lua. For those having trouble with Alt + Tab, it should work now. There’s also an option in the Video tab to minimise Forts when inactive.

For modders, there’s the new ReloadBank machanic introduced for the Eagle Eye update. This is inspired by FTL’s charge weapons, allowing rapid fire after waiting sufficient time. Documentation to come – see Eagle Eye’s weapons/weapon.lua in the meantime. There are also new Warmup and Firing sprite animation states.

Commander Balance Changes

Fast Doors – Door opening speed increased from +100% to +200%.

• Door opening speed increased from +100% to +200%. – Passive
  
• Energy shields reflect incoming projectiles. – Passive
  
• 20% reduction in shield run costs removed. – Passive
  
• Shield build and repair bonus removed. – Passive
  

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Reload Banking – 1. Fully loaded weapon charges ‘banked’ reload. 2. Banked reload icon appears under weapon. 3. Weapon fires as normal and swiftly reloads with banked reload. 4. Banked reload is fired, icon is removed, weapon reloads as normal and continues to step 1.

• Medium to heavy weapons reload rapidly once after waiting for a reload cycle plus 20% (Reload Banking) – Passive
  
• Extra mg rounds moved to active. – Active
  
• Increased aiming arcs removed. – Passive
  
• Laser sights can be toggled with ” by default. – Passive
  

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Flaming missiles, mortars and rockets never expire.

• Flaming missiles, mortars and rockets never expire. – Passive
  

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Active 20mm Cannon fires 5 projectiles at a time. Spread can be determined by proximity of cursor to weapon, the closer it is, the greater the spread.

• 20mm Cannon fires 5 projectiles at a time instead of 3 to accommodate extra projectile. – Active
  
• Active 20mm Cannon spread now uniform and controllable. Slightly increase deviation. – Active
  
• Projectile preview is proportional to shortest reactor separation (66% of the distance). – Active
  
• 20mm Cannon and Smoke bomb not excluded from +1 projectile gain. – Passive
  
• Buzzsaw no longer has build cost increase. – Passive
  
• Deviation change decreased from 35% to 20%. – Passive
  
• Energy shield reflection removed. – Passive
  
• Increased attack charge from 9000 to 11250 hitpoints (+25%). – Active
  
• Increased damage charge from 2250 to 4500 hitpoints (+100%). – Active
  
• Double shot snipers moved from passive to active. – Active
  
• Burst bonus reduced from 2 to 1 projectile (-50%). – Passive
  

• Shotguns auto-AA optional ability added. – Passive
  
• Explosive Barrel can store metal and energy (100M/3000E). – Passive
  
• Explosive Barrel cost increased to 200M. – Passive
  
• Battery cost reduced to 105M (-30%). – Passive
  

• Device creation notice is delayed by 30s. – Passive
  
• Increased attack charge from 7200 to 8640 (+20%). – Active
  
• Increased damage charge from 3375 to 4050 (+20%). – Active
  

• ‘Heavy Weapons reload instantly on miss.’ Shooting down of projectiles doesn’t count as missing. – Active
  
• Auto-AA shotgun ability removed. – Passive
  

Change list dlc2 25 r13729

Add: ‘Minimise when inactive’ to options screen Video tab
Add: (Christmas) added snowball projectiles and impact FX for machine gun, minigun, cannon and 20mm
Add: (Eagle Eye) key to toggle laser sights, defaults to ”
Add: (OnProjectileDestroyed script event) destroyType parameter
Add: (SetBlockSurface, GetSurfaceIndex script functions) documentation
Add: DoorCloseDelayMultiplier and AutofireUpdatePeriodMultiplier to db/rules.lua
Add: per team player name colouring in chat messages
Add: reload banking mechanic – up to 10 (ReloadBank table in weapon config script)
Add: separate option ‘Hide Tournament Medals in Lobbies’
Add: Traditional Chinese translation
Add: weapon sprites have Warmup and Firing animation states

Balance: (Armourdillo Shield) remove build and repair bonus
Balance: (Armourdillo) gain shield reflection
Balance: (Armourdillo) increase damage charge rate by 100%
Balance: (Armourdillo) increase door speed bonus from +100% to +200%
Balance: (Armourdillo) reduce weapon door close delay and auto-fire update period by 75%
Balance: (Armourdillo) remove 20% less shield run cost
Balance: (Eagle Eye) assign reload banking to weapons except short reload weapons, Firebeam, longer reload on Deck Guns
Balance: (Eagle Eye) medium to heavy weapons reload rapidly once after waiting for a reload cycle plus 20%
Balance: (Eagle Eye) move extra mg rounds to active
Balance: (Eagle Eye) remove increased aiming arcs
Balance: (Firebird) flaming missiles, mortars and rockets don’t expire
Balance: (Flak) reduce damage vs mortars multiplier from 1.5x to 0.6x (-60%)
Balance: (Marine Swarm) reduce build cost by 100 metal (-14%)
Balance: (Marine Warhead) reduce upgrade build cost by 100 metal (-33%)
Balance: (Scattershot 20mm Cannon, Smoke Bomb) no longer excluded from +1 projectile gain
Balance: (Scattershot active 20mm Cannon) fires 5 projectiles at a time instead of 3 to accommodate extra projectile
Balance: (Scattershot active 20mm Cannon) now uniform and controllable spray, increase deviation slightly
Balance: (Scattershot active) projectile preview is proportional to shortest reactor separation (66% of the distance)
Balance: (Scattershot Buzzsaw) no longer has build cost increase
Balance: (Scattershot) deviation change decreased from 35% to 20%
Balance: (Scattershot) increase attack charge from 9000 to 11250 hitpoints (+25%)
Balance: (Scattershot) increase damage charge from 2250 to 4500 hitpoints (+100%)
Balance: (Scattershot) move double shot snipers from passive to active
Balance: (Scattershot) reduce burst bonus from 2 to 1 projectile (-50%)
Balance: (Scattershot) remove shield reflection
Balance: (Shockenaugh) add metal and energy storage to explosive barrel (100M/3000E)
Balance: (Shockenaugh) gain auto-aa shotgun
Balance: (Shockenaugh) increase cost of explosive barrel to 200M
Balance: (Shockenaugh) reduce cost of battery to 105M (-30%)
Balance: (Spook) device creation notice is delayed by 30s
Balance: (Spook) increase GaugeAttackHitpoints from 7200 to 8640 (+20%)
Balance: (Spook) increase GaugeDamageHitpoints from 3375 to 4050 (+20%)
Balance: (Warthog active) shooting down of projectiles doesn’t count as missing
Balance: (Warthog) remove auto-AA shotgun

Improve: (Orbital Laser) direction of sweep is taken from direction of projectile rather than weapon
Improve: (Runway, Runway2) can be grouped
Improve: (shrapnel) configuration doesn’t depend on machinegun projectile
Improve: (Spook) initially targets the first fort horizontally opposite by default and will retarget when a player is defeated
Improve: (Tutorial 2) add a flashing effect to damaged struts when awaiting repair
Improve: capability for weapons to have no queue mode, or for their default to be a specific ammo index
Improve: characters from all supported languages are now displayed in chat
Improve: move video recording parameters from constants.lua to constants_user.lua
Improve: reduce default bitrate of video recording to 1000-4000kbps to reduce file size
Improve: script function documentation regarding block index
Improve: terrain checksum includes all water levels
Improve: update Steamworks SDK from 1.34 to 1.55
Improve: when connecting to a neutral structure doors are automatically closed

Fix: ‘Achievements’ translation in campaign select screen missing
Fix: “AddWorkshopItem failed to retrieve item details” error (deleting handle too early)
Fix: (Armourdillo active) repair cost reduction doesn’t apply to devices
Fix: (Eagle Eye) laser sight adjustment sound effects are spawned at the origin
Fix: (Eagle Eye) shotgun reload animation is not split between start and end
Fix: (EnableMaterial, EnableWeapon, EnableDeviceOfType) do not support TEAM_ANY
Fix: (Flak) barrels are misaligned and overlap while shooting.
Fix: (ground snapping) positions further away are ignored when there are nearby fissures
Fix: (ground/grid snapping) sometimes can’t snap to edges of ground
Fix: (IsTeamConnectedToGroundBlock) crash when blockIndex is out of range
Fix: (Phantom) moved devices are not id switched over correctly at the end of a move
Fix: (Pillars) lowest buildable block has incorrect surface on underside
Fix: (Rock Pools) underwater background terrain is incorrectly layered
Fix: (SelectBlock) accepts invalid block indices
Fix: (SetBlockVertexPos) crash when vertexIndex is invalid
Fix: (Shield) when connecting to neutral shield: activates immediately after replace, allowing reflection or orbital lasers
Fix: (Shield) when connecting to neutral shield: completes initial construction immediately
Fix: (shrapnel) doesn’t burn out when colliding with firebeam
Fix: (Steam Deck) crash when multithreaded physics is enabled
Fix: (trail effect) LocalPosition variable does not affect source
Fix: (UniformSpread, ProjectilesEachRound > 1) immediately spawned projectiles are inconsistent with secondary
Fix: (Warthog active) converting/upgrading weapons loses instant reload
Fix: Alt + Tab doesn’t work for some players due to video buffer not swapping when inactive
Fix: change replay video capture to capture audio via custom dsp so stereo mix is no longer required
Fix: desync when refire fails due to doors closing or going neutral, and later getting repaired
Fix: freeze for several seconds when writing debug information after desync
Fix: Orbital Laser beacon can pass through a portal while underwater.
Fix: temperature icon not visible while painting a target
Fix: trails with z >= 100 are drawn behind background terrain and structure
Fix: unnecessary frame delay when recording full game videos
Fix: when laser passes through friendly portals, background materials ignite
Fix: when Orbital Laser beacon is returned to the firer by portals, it does not fire

Optimise: don’t look up checksums for empty effects

Remove: ‘Border’ setting in Video options tab – buggy and unused

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Make Sure To Join Our Discord

If you haven’t already, join our Forts Official Discord server to connect with other players, share strategies, create maps/mods, and receive advance notice of upcoming events.

Cheers,
EWG