Seven years in the making, the long-awaited 3.8 update is finally here!
Highlights of v3.8CD-ROM Edition:
Download HereSteam Edition: Update automatically through Steam.
GOG Edition:
Please read this to avoid losing your team data.SHA-256 sum:
c93765fe0fd6ab6a106cb124a9aba3ba3c134f8de365313a8c70d4a48aae1089 *WA_update-3.8_[CD]_Installer.exe
v3.8 Update (built 2020-06-21, released 2020-07-16)
Fixes
- [DC] Bug introduced in v3.7.2.1: Opening a team for editing, in which an animated gravestone (numbered 1-6) was selected, and then clicking OK to save the team (even if nothing was changed), would reset the grave to Gravestone 1.
- [DC] Bug introduced in v3.6.28.0: When the Map Editor was in Preview mode for a .BIT or .LEV type map, and preview was updated while the water level was set high enough to force there to be fewer than 18 Placement Holes, right-clicking the Placement Holes button caused the displayed number to be updated to a value lower than 18, even though there was (and still is) no support for changing the number of placement holes in a .BIT or .LEV map. Subsequently lowering the water level would result in the displayed preview disagreeing from what would be seen in-game (because there were now too few placement holes in the preview). Note, this bug became easier to reproduce by accident in v3.7.2.1, due to the fix that forced the preview to update when the water level was changed.
- [DC] Bug in a feature introduced in v3.6.28.0: In the Map Editor, the water level was previewed as if the map were of standard height, and could be shown incorrectly if the map was of custom height.
- [DC] In v3.6.26.4, a feature was added to the Map Editor in which Ctrl-clicking the Terrain Texture button toggles v3.0 terrain emulation (mainly in the application of grass).
- [DC] When loading a .BIT or .LEV map with a date stamp earlier than 2002.08.08 (the approximate release date of 3.5 Beta 1), the file was supposed to be treated by default as if it had been designed for W:A v3.0. However, this feature was non-operational.
- [DC] There was no indication of whether this mode was in effect, other than the effect seen on the map when in Preview mode. Now, a "3.0" indicator will be displayed on top of the Terrain Texture button when this mode is enabled.
- [DC] Bug in a feature introduced in v3.6.24.1: When "Playback at...", or restarting from a marked location, was used to skip to a point in a replay in which a looped sound effect (such as the Super Sheep flying sound, or the Dynamite fuse) should have been playing, the sound would not be heard.
- [DC] Bug in a feature introduced in v3.6.26.4: When "Playback at...", or restarting from a marked location, was used on a replay extracted from a network log, it did not begin fast-forwarding until the loading stage had finished (i.e., until the first frame of game time had passed, it played back network time at normal speed).
- The French, Spanish, and Russian translations have been updated by LTK, OutofOrder, and StepS, respectively, encompassing all new strings added since v3.7.2.1 and some corrections and improvements to existing strings. Some corrections have also been made to existing English strings.
- The Portuguese translation has been updated and improved by Kaleu. All strings added/changed in the updates are now translated.
- The German translation has been updated and improved by schaf. All strings added/changed in the updates are now translated.
- The Swedish translation has been updated and improved by Olle Settergren. All strings added/changed in the updates are now translated.
- [DC] The Dutch, German, Portuguese, Spanish, and Swedish translations had a complete absence of paragraph breaks in the descriptions of some missions (MISSION_DETAIL_*). These descriptions have now been given paragraph breaks directly corresponding to their English versions.
- [DC] Bug in a feature introduced in v3.6.26.4: The translated language name of Portuguese (displayed in the language drop-down of the Options menu) has been fixed.
- [DC] The spelling has been corrected in some string names. To make a user-made language file which was written for an earlier version of W:A compatible with the latest version, please see the list of "rename" entries in the DATA\User\Languages\localisation.log file. Make sure to put user-made language files in the appropriate subdirectory of User\Languages, not DATA\User\Languages.
- [DC] Cheat Options dialog box, as accessed by a client who joined an online game
- [DC] Bug introduced in v3.6.30.0: The buttons in this dialog box (corresponding to options enabled by the host) appeared to be changed by being clicked, even though a client who joins a game cannot change its scheme options. (The changes were not in fact saved, however; this was a cosmetic bug only.)
- [DC] Even before v3.6.30.0, there was a minor bug in this dialog box; clicking the buttons gave a sound effect implying a successful click, when it should have given the "can't click here" sound effect.
- [DC] Bug in a feature introduced in v3.6.30.0: When Home Lock was in effect (activated by pressing Ctrl+Home), this mode should have been temporarily overridden while aiming a cursor or controlling a Super/Aqua Sheep, but was not. Also, Home lost its old function, which has now been restored, of snapping the cursor to the current worm.
- [CS] In certain circumstances, W:A would crash when it attempted to play a music track, and the respective file was missing.
- [DC] In the team statistics viewer, "Overall Team Rank" was incorrectly calculated, and had a maximum of 85% instead of 100%.
- [CS,DC] Bug introduced in v3.7.0.0: At in-game resolutions with a width not evenly divisible by 64 pixels, when playing on maps that force a custom gradient to be dithered, the background gradient would not be drawn all the way to the bottom of the screen, causing a strip at the bottom of the screen (with a height of ScreenHeight*(ScreenWidth%64)/ScreenWidth) to have artefacts due to being drawn but never erased.
- [CS] A logic condition was improved when using a DirectDraw graphics API. The condition was used to determine when it is safe to resume the game after it was minimised and restored. The fix was required for hardware rendering, but may improve compatibility in certain hypothetical circumstances.
- [DC] Flaw introduced in v3.6.31.0: The message "<team> (<player>) forced out by possible message injection" was almost always a false positive, and furthermore the message itself was too easily misinterpreted. This message has been replaced with "<team> (<player>) forced out by an unknown cause", using the new string NET_UNKNOWN_CAUSE.
- [DC] Bug introduced in v3.7.0.0: If the camera tried to centre on an object that reached the top of the coordinate system, the game would crash. This could happen, for example, when flying a Super Sheep as high as it would go, or selecting a cursor-aimed weapon while flying at maximum height with the Jet Pack.
- [DC] Bug in a feature introduced in v3.7.2.1: When hosting a LAN game, the 5 minute notification would be shown (inappropriately), and attempting the /open command would cause a crash.
- [DC] Bug introduced in v3.6.30.0: If a client was editing a team or viewing the current scheme's Options or Weapons, and during this was kicked by the host or disconnected, then upon exiting back to the Join screen there would be no sign of having been kicked, and the game would behave as if it were still connected to the host (although it would not be).
- [DC] Bug introduced in v3.6.29.0: When a new localised string, NET_LOC_HOSTER, was added to distinguish between the verb "to host" and the noun "person who is hosting", it was accidentally left as "Hoster" in English, even though both strings should be "Host".
- [DC] Bugs in the interaction between the map thumbnail and intrinsic maps
- [DC] Bugs introduced in v3.6.30.0 and v3.7.0.0: When an intrinsic map was the current map upon entering a screen that displayed the map thumbnail, it was (incorrectly) possible to right-click the map thumbnail to enter the Map Editor, which would then generate a random map; upon exiting the editor the name of the intrinsic map was not cleared.
- Starting in v3.6.30.0, this bug was introduced to the online hosting screens, and could be triggered by starting a New Match or entering the Next Round stage.
- Starting in v3.7.0.0, this bug was introduced to the offline multiplayer screens, and could be triggered by starting a new game from the Main Menu, starting a New Match, or entering the Next Round stage.
- [DC] Bug introduced in v3.7.0.0: In the offline multiplayer Next Round screen, clicking the map thumbnail (to generate a new random map) when the current map was intrinsic did not clear the name of the intrinsic map.
- [DC] Bug in a feature introduced in v3.6.31.0: When W:A forced the current map to be randomly generated, it would ignore the setting of the map complexity slider. The circumstances under which this could happen include:
- Hosting an online game when the current map is a .BIT or .PNG.
- Hosting a game on a third-party WormNET server in a channel that enables ranking.
- Starting an online or offline game when the "current.thm" file is corrupt or nonexistent.
- [DC] It was impossible to successfully join a password-protected game having a 16 character password (except by using a URL to join), because a user-entered 16 character password was truncated to 15 characters.
- [DC] Bug introduced in v3.6.30.0: When someone with a 16 character player name hosted a game, their player name was truncated to 15 characters in an inconsistent way. This resulted in the following bugs:
- In the host's front end chat history, the 16 character version of the host's name would appear, but in all other places on the host's end, the 15 character version would appear.
- For all clients, only the 15 character version of the host's name would be seen.
- When clients tried to send a private message to the host in the front end, the host would not see the message, regardless of whether the 15 character or 16 character version of the host's nickname was used.
- [DC] Some potential security vulnerabilities have been fixed.
- [DC] In the Network screen, the TCP/IP - IPX/SPX toggle button would initially only allow an installed protocol to be selected (i.e., in most cases, only TCP/IP), but after entering and leaving either the LAN screen, WormNET, or Direct TCP/IP, both TCP/IP and IPX/SPX would be selectable, even if one of these was not installed.
- [DC] Bug introduced in v3.6.20.1: IPX/SPX support was almost completely broken. The player list was empty, and whereas hosted games could be seen under certain conditions, they could not be joined.
- [DC] Bug introduced in v3.6.30.0: In the LAN lobby, lines of chat could be received but not sent.
- [DC] The registry tweaks TimerWorkaround_*.reg (introduced in v3.6.20.1) and RegisterAssociations_*.reg (introduced in v3.6.30.0) were in Unicode format, making them incompatible with Windows 98.
- [DC] Bug in features introduced in v3.6.29.0 and v3.6.30.0: Export Log did not count the self-kill and self-damage of a Kamikaze upon the worm that used it.
- [DC] Bug in a feature introduced in v3.6.28.0: The M key, which creates a "bookmark" if pressed during playback, functions both during replay file playback and during instant replays. Previously, when pressed during an instant replay, the mark created could not be removed or used, and would be displayed uselessly for the entire remainder of the game. Now, the mark disappears at the end of the instant replay.
- [DC] Bug in a feature introduced in v3.6.23.0: Once an end-game fadeout began during playback of a replay file, it was too late to press R to restart the replay. Pressing it would restart playback, but the fadeout would continue, finish, and close the playback session.
- [DC] The instant replay countdown timer was displayed in the format 00:00:00, with the last two digits indicating hundredths of a second, making the second colon misleading. The second colon has been replaced with a decimal point, yielding the format 00:00.00.
- [DC] If, within the same WA.exe instance, a WormNET game was hosted with an N digit Game ID, and later was hosted with a Game ID having N-2 digits or fewer (without a game being hosted in-between with N-1 digits), anybody attempting to join the later game would fail, seeing the error "Incorrect Game ID.". This could happen either by disconnecting from one WormNET server and connecting to another one that uses smaller Game IDs, or if within the same WA.exe instance a single WormNET server reset its Game ID counter.
- [DC] Bug in a feature introduced in v3.6.23.0: Restarting playback with the R key did not respect camera lock (enabled by turning on Scroll Lock or holding down the left mouse button).
- [DC] Some in-game "Morse code" messages in languages other than English were too long to be fully displayed at 640×480. They are now wrapped to two lines. Note, user translations that are too long to fit in 1280 pixels of total width or too long to fit in two lines will still not be fully displayed.
- [DC] Since v3.5 Beta 1, W:A correctly recognized and hid IRC operator status (instead of incorrectly interpreting the nickname as beginning with the "@" character), but did not do so for other IRC user modes (voice, half-op, admin, and owner). This was not a problem on the official WormNET server, but could have been on third-party servers.
- [DC] Once the IRC error "Nickname is already in use" popped up once, it was ignored subsequent times within the same instance of W:A.
- [DC] Bug introduced in v3.6.26.4: When connected to a host who was using a version earlier than v3.5 Beta 3pre4, the game start command was ignored (when the remote host clicked Start, nothing happened locally).
- [DC] Bug in a feature introduced in v3.6.19.7: When a player in an online game, who has at least one team that has not surrendered, disconnects after the last turn has finished, but before the "game over" sequence has finished, then the message GAME_NET_FAIL ("<team> - forced out due to network failure!") was displayed during the live game, but not during playback of the replay file. It is now shown in both circumstances.
- [DC] When a team name or worm name began with the "!" character, game comments (such as those shown when a worm drowns – GAME_WATER_DEATH_COMMENTS, or when a team receives reinforcements when a weapon's delay expires – GAME_REINFORCEMENTS_COMMENTS) could potentially begin with "!", and that would be interpreted by the game as a command to show the comment immediately instead of queuing it (also resulting in the "!" prefix being trimmed away). This bug was fixed in v3.7.0.0, but the fix was done without realising that the bug had existed, and as a result emulation of the bug was not implemented. So, when an older version was emulated, if the bug occurred it could potentially result in desynchronisation. The bug is now fully emulated (except for the trimming of the "!" prefix).
- [DC] W:A would crash if an in-game ambient music track failed to play.
- [DC] The v3.7.2.1 fix, "The game would crash if a CPU Worm, while enumerating possible places to which to walk, reached its maximum search depth at a point in its path where it would fall and retain control. (See Footnote 2.)", treated some situations as a crash that would not have crashed. The game is now allowed to continue in most of those situations. It still errs on the side of caution, but less so than with the initial fix.
- [DC] Bug in fixes introduced in v3.6.21.1, v3.6.24.1, and v3.6.30.0: When doing Export Log on a Mission replay with WinningCondition=2 (Survive), the mission would falsely be logged as "Mission Successful" if the replay file was truncated, had invalid data, or had one of the types of crashes or endless loops that are emulated by halting playback.
- [DC] Bug introduced in v3.6.30.0: When doing playback or Export Log on a replay of an online game created by v3.6.19.15-v3.6.29.24 (i.e., a version that did not record the time between turns) a trio of errors was incorrectly printed following certain types of player disconnections.
- [DC] When doing playback / Export Log of an online game replay file created by versions earlier than v3.6.29.24, disconnection of players/teams was in some cases not correctly interpreted. Most notably, in a game with at least three players, the automatic disconnection of other clients caused by the disconnection of the host, as seen by a client, was incorrectly interpreted.
- [DC] When doing playback / Export Log of an online game replay file created by v3.6.19.4-13, disconnection messages were completely ignored, instead of printing "unknown user is quitting" as was supposed to happen.
- [DC] When doing playback / Export Log of an online game replay file created by v3.6.29.24 or later, in which game logic <v3.6.19 was emulated, playback would cut off right after any player quit, with the message "Invalid file data".
- [DC] In the Team Editor, pressing Delete while editing a team or worm name that had spaces in front of it would delete the spaces and move the cursor to match its previous spatial position. Pressing Delete while editing a team or worm name that started with the "[" character would cause the entire name to be erased.