Backwards Compatibility warning
Some of the optimizations in this update are not backwards compatible with
old save files. If you still want to play on an old save, you can do so by
right clicking on Spellmasons in your Steam library, choosing "Properties" >
then "Betas" then v1.43.4 and restart Steam. This will ensure your client is
on the previous update instead of this one.

FPS Optimizations

The game now runs a lot better when there are tons of units on screen.
A few notable changes went into this:
1. Individual sprite outlines have been moved to outline the entire unit container.
Not only does this look much cooler in crowds but it also makes a MASSIVE difference in
FPS when there are over 1000 units on screen. If you still want individual unit outlines
(optionally with different colors and custom thickness, it is still available in the Accessibility
2. Dynamically colored sprites (such as Blood Golem, Blood Archer, Dark Priest, etc) now have their
own sprites instead of being dynamically tinted at runtime. This saves on FPS.
menu but it will slow the game down when there are many units on screen.)
3. Spellmasons is constantly predicting what will happen next turn. When there are over 1000 units
on the screen, this would really bog down the FPS. Significant prediction enhancements have
been made for enemy unit targeting to resolve this issue.
4. Card mana and health badges are no longer updated when predictions run. This was a totally superfluous
function call left over from long ago and will improve FPS. They are still updated when they need to
be like when a spell is added, removed, etc.

Other changes:

Content: New spells "Give bounty" and "Target bounty"

fix: removePickup actually removing
pickup emitter and doing other cleanup even when `prediction = true`

Thanks Hex Obsidian

fix: Prevent multiple runPrediction calls from triggering simultaneously

fix: Don't change player unit movespeed when slowed, only stamina
otherwise it makes their movement jittery due to how multiplayer handles player movement.
Fixes super speed when units were "slowed"

Thanks Monarch and Xulqelyat

fix: conserve to not always working correctly

fix: Fully overwrite players array
when loading a saved game.
This fixes the case where playing a game with more players and then loading a game with less would leave you with ghost player objects that would softlock the game.
Allow multiplayer saves to be played in a singleplayer context (as hotseat).

fix: Add protections to prevent changing a player unit's faction to enemy
Thanks FfrankF, evilcuttlefish and HeyShadowPhoenix

fix: Black Coin desync on Multi
Any time getUniqueSeedString is called with globalThis.player on the server it will desync compared to clients.

fix: Show prediction markers on prediction units
This fixes the issue where cloned units wouldn't show
prediction markers because the unitsPrediction array wasn't
the one being iterated.

fix: runPredictions while player is spawning

Otherwise predictions don't update while choosing a spawn location

fix: unit attention markers persisting after death

fix: infinite mana merge exploit

Limit changeling to 1 max.
Prevent stacking teleport in the same location to spawn a bunch of changelings
and make units that recieve merge immune for 2 turns to prevent infinite mana growth

Closes #1108

[ 2024-09-27 11:31:21 CET ] [Original Post]