UserPatch (final v1.2) release date - March 30th!

Topic Subject: UserPatch (final v1.2) release date - March 30th!

Sebastien
Dark Samurai

posted 03-21-13 04:53 PM CT (US)

_{Originally posted by BugA_the_Great on AoCZone.}

Possibly one of the best things that happened inside the AoC community for a decade and more, if not the very best ever - the well known UserPatch is about to see it`s final release, coming on March 30th... Heralds, drum roll, please!

An unbelievable project brought all the long way up by the members of the community itself, for free - hidden by shadows, humble as they are, masters forged it in their spare time, yet widely supported by game fans and lovers.

Carefully listening to voices of the players and driven by strong emotions for the game that became a part of our lives, wishing to save it from years of being officially neglected, to inhale it some fresh energy, fix the bugs, improve game features and support for nowadays computers and operative systems, making sure to allow for many more years of enjoyment with our beloved "Age of Empires II" - they brought us UserPatch.

Confirming its importance, some of the features and ideas from UserPatch can already be seen implemented in AoC online playing clients, but now, after more than 2 years, the long journey has reached an end, and the final result we all waited for is here, oh, and what a result that is!

For those not yet familiar with all the improvements the UserPatch brings, here`s the short list:

General Features and Improvements

Population caps have been extended up to 1000 (preferred 200-250)

All available video resolutions, including widescreen, are selectable.

Mirror player civilizations with the new Team Random civ option.

Select a maximum age for advancement using the "Starting Age" dropdown.

Random Map script can generate 4,294,967,296 unique maps (increased from 32,768).

Multiplayer games can be started with only one human player (for practice with lag).

Single player mode now operates at 60fps (instead of 20fps in v1.0c).

New Random button above game settings for new styles of play.

Flares are now larger and more bold on the mini-map display.

Expanded stats in economic mini-map view.

All food is now just FOOD for resource-gathering, meaning that food collected does NOT need to be dropped off before switching to another 'source' of food (sheep-to-hunting, fishing-to-hunting, hunting-to-farming, etc).

New higher resolution 1:1 and 1:2 full map captures with "Ctrl+F12".

Age advancement notifications are now shown in each player's color.

Restored games can now be recorded in all game modes.

The vote panel/serial sync bug has been fixed for multiplayer.

New auto-save if a problem occurs to ensure that resuming is possible.

Optional multiple building queue to auto-distribute unit training (one click per unit still).

Many, many bug fixes for the core game and many, many improvements for the AI system (details).

The installer will correct any color problems on Windows Vista and later.

Windowed Mode

Select a resolution lower than your desktop resolution to enable.

Press "F7" to toggle displaying the window on top of other windows.

Press "F8" to toggle running even when the window is not focused.

Thanks to menopem for d3dhook, and (belarus) VEG for wndmode.

Port Forwarding

Forwarding ports is only necessary to connect outside a LAN.

Ports will be forwarded dynamically as required when installed.

UPnP must be enabled on your router for this feature.

M3U Music Playlists

Set your favorite tracks as background music during gameplay.

Create a "music.m3u" playlist in the "Sound" folder of the game.

Press "F6" to skip to the next track during gameplay.

Please see the "Music" section of the guide for more information.

Scenario Editor

Press "Ctrl+S" to toggle grid placement of non-building objects.

Fill new maps or modify existing maps with any available terrain.

Create maps using custom rms scripts directly in the editor.

Trees can now be properly replicated by the map copy feature.

Change the names of units in a specific area, without having to preselect.

Use negative numbers more freely with trigger conditions and effects.

AI & RM Scripts

Random Map Scripts now generate 4,294,967,296 unique maps (seeds) (increased from 32,768).

New maps can use team positioning for a different experience.

Start your civilization on maps with new elevation attributes.

AIs are selectable in multiplayer (direct ip or lan games are most stable).

AIs can now choose to close openings created in their walls.

Boar hunting and luring is now fixed and operational for AIs.

Ungrouped AI players will not ally themselves against humans.

The reference guide describes all of the new features.

Please visit the aiscripters forum for more information.

One more important thing to mention, for all those that maybe wonder -- UserPatch does not change the gameplay nor game balance in any way! "Age of Empires II: The Conquerors" with UserPatch stays the game we all love, just tightened, cleaned up and polished to perfection

In order to install the UserPatch, you`ll need to have a valid installation of "Age of Empires II: The Conquerors" with the latest official patch (1.0c) - and that`s it, off you go, enjoy playing with your friends and family!

A new age is upon us...

Author

Replies:

CarolKarine
Squire

posted 03-21-13 05:46 PM CT (US) 1 / 21

0.0

you can map-copy trees?

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Alexastor
AoEO Seraph
(id: Kastor)

posted 03-21-13 05:51 PM CT (US) 2 / 21

Great work! Too bad most of the stuff isn't in AoE2HD.

[This message has been edited by Alexastor (edited 03-21-2013 @ 05:51 PM).]

Basse
Squire

posted 03-21-13 05:52 PM CT (US) 3 / 21

you can map-copy trees?

Yeah, I thought you knew. Forgotten Empires has had this since release I think

CarolKarine
Squire

posted 03-21-13 09:26 PM CT (US) 4 / 21

not that it would have changed much, BUT STILL.

BugA_the_Great
Squire

posted 03-22-13 06:16 AM CT (US) 5 / 21

Thanks for the news post, Tetsuo Shima =) A great thing to come, indeed.

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Devious Dev
Official Professional Qualified Noob
(id: dragonslayermcmx)

posted 03-22-13 12:04 PM CT (US) 6 / 21

Holy Crap O_o

D E V A S T A T O R
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Demon Town ~ Scored 1^st in the HHC11! ~ "...as unique as an AoK scenario can get." - Panel ~ Official Rating: 4.2

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Jetkill Fastmurder
Squire
(id: Mayank Sharma)

posted 03-22-13 12:11 PM CT (US) 7 / 21

Can we play a map made in User-patch on a non-userpatch AOK?

Devious Dev
Official Professional Qualified Noob
(id: dragonslayermcmx)

posted 03-22-13 12:15 PM CT (US) 8 / 21

Change the names of units in a specific area, without having to preselect.

Obviously not

scripter64
Wolved

posted 03-22-13 01:24 PM CT (US) 9 / 21

That particular effect will not work the same way, but it won't crash or anything. Other than that, scenarios should be 100% compatible with 1.0c, including placement without a grid (Ctrl+S once), and completely free placement (Ctrl+S twice). As for the trees and map copy, it isn't limited to trees and should also allow for properly map copying gold mines, forage bushes, etc., as well.

[This message has been edited by scripter64 (edited 03-22-2013 @ 01:32 PM).]

alincarpetman
Squire

posted 03-22-13 10:58 PM CT (US) 10 / 21

Hi, just wondering if this new patch will be ok to use after installing Aoe 2 and exp with both official patches and Forgotten Empires? Thanks.

Enfynet
Squire

posted 03-23-13 01:20 AM CT (US) 11 / 21

I would imagine AoFE will adopt the updated UserPatch. Most of the updates in AoFE came from the first UP.

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Mash
Huskarl
(id: Mashek)

posted 03-27-13 09:19 AM CT (US) 12 / 21

Sounds amazing!

Say, who are "they"? This is the first time I've heard of such a patch and I wouldn't mind giving thanks to the one who made this happen.

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Keisari Tapsa
Smith

posted 03-27-13 10:24 AM CT (US) 13 / 21

They don't want attention.

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palabor
Squire

posted 03-30-13 05:14 AM CT (US) 14 / 21

Will AoC, AoFE, and ToME work with this patch, or not immediately?
Also, will a download link be available here, or will we have to go to AOCZone to download it?
Will it work with newer versions than 1.0c, like 1.0e?

[This message has been edited by palabor (edited 03-30-2013 @ 05:39 AM).]

Basse
Squire

posted 03-30-13 06:03 AM CT (US) 15 / 21

You have to have 1.0c (or 1.0e) installed to install UserPatch.

Check out http://userpatch.aiscripters.net/

scripter64
Wolved

posted 03-30-13 06:06 AM CT (US) 16 / 21

v1.0c is the only supported base version. Please ensure you are using v1.0c before installing.
It should still install on v1.0e, though.

[This message has been edited by scripter64 (edited 03-30-2013 @ 06:34 AM).]

Basse
Squire

posted 03-30-13 06:29 AM CT (US) 17 / 21

Shouldn't 1.0e work just as fine?

scripter64
Wolved

posted 03-30-13 06:35 AM CT (US) 18 / 21

Yes, it probably just hasn't been tested as much lol.

John the Late
Knight

posted 03-30-13 07:48 AM CT (US) 19 / 21

scripter, I don't know where to say this as I can't access the aiscripters forum, but speaking of a name change area effect, would it be possible to add this for the patrol effect as well? That would be pretty awesome for custom scenarios.

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marathon
Squire

posted 03-30-13 08:13 PM CT (US) 20 / 21

AOFE and AOC already work on this. The procedure for making TOME work with UP without the need for a new copy of all Age of Empires II folder is a bit too complex for the casual player, so I believe that TOME team will on their own include UP in their installation, in the same fashion as AOC and AOFE. Copying the whole folder consumes almost a gigabyte of memory, while a lean installation of a total conversion mod is of the order of 60 MB only, so it is worth it.

Maps designed for UP should work for 1.0c, although without certain attributes like team positioning. But I have not tested them adequately, so just test a map from AOFE like Acropolis and see for yourself.

Avoid 1.0e in general, especially with User Patch. I have vaguely tested former versions of UP with 1.0e, it worked but I can't recommend it. 1.0e is revertable to 1.0c, although a clean installation is better. UP already blocks cheats, so there's no true reason to use 1.0e, I think.

[This message has been edited by marathon (edited 03-30-2013 @ 08:23 PM).]

Pulkit
Squire

posted 04-02-13 02:43 AM CT (US) 21 / 21

Yup, the next update of ToME will use the UserPatch natively, exactly like Chivalry and FE.

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