Improved Chat

• Empty chat tag text is now ignored.

• Fixed the map vote notification sometimes blocking mouse input (most noticeable when attempting to click the chatbox settings button).

• Fixed config validation preventing use of hostnames.
  
• Improved config validation to reject invalid IP address values.
  
• Hostnames can now be up to 63 bytes long (up from 15).

• Fixed mouse input being blocked in the main menu when an SGUI window is opened (such as the MOTD).
  
• TextEntry controls now handle the "Home" and "End" buttons as expected.
  
• Fixed text sometimes disappearing when clicking a slider's label to edit it.

Base Commands

• Fixed a script error when permanently enabling a server-side only plugin that was not previously loaded.

• Improved behaviour of map preview loading to avoid texture pop-in for maps not loaded from mods.
  
• Improved map mod detection logic to avoid false positives in certain cases.
  
• Fixed a rare script error when updating the map vote notification.

This update overhauls the map vote to use a full-screen grid menu that shows preview images for maps, both vanilla and mods, as well as being able to display overviews for both vanilla and mod maps.

Map Vote

• Map voting is now performed in a full-screen menu, showing a grid of options with preview images for each. Previews for mod maps are loaded using the Steam mod's preview image.
  
• Maps that are mods are detected automatically by querying Steam for information about each mod in the "mods" list per map in the map cycle.
  
  • If the Steam query fails for any reason, the first mod in a map's "mods" list is assumed to be the mod for the map itself.
    
  • This data is queried once and then cached, so as long as the first query for a previously unseen mod succeeds there is no further reliance on Steam responding correctly.
• Maps are now referred to using more friendly names, e.g. "Docking" instead of "ns2_docking". Gamemodes can define an "OnGetNiceMapName" hook to decide how to name their maps. The naming has defaults for common mod prefixes:
  
  • "co" becomes "Combat:"
    
  • "sg" becomes "Siege:"
    
  • "gg" becomes "Gun Game:"
    
  • "sws" becomes "SWS:"
    
  • "ls" becomes "Last Stand:"
• The old map vote menu can still be used by altering the map vote settings, either in the client config menu, or using the settings button at the top right of the new menu. It has been enhanced to also be able to load overviews for mod maps.
  
• Both the old and new menus now highlight the current winner of the vote in green. In the case of a tie, each map is highlighted in yellow.
  
• The old screentext used to indicate a map vote is in progress has been replaced with a more distinct UI element that clearly shows the required key to press to open the vote menu, as well as the countdown of time remaining.
  
  • When in the ready room/spectate, this element is placed at the bottom centre of the screen to make it more obvious.
    
  • When on a playing team, it remains at the top right to avoid being too distracting.
    
  • If a user has not bound the vote menu, the old screen text will be shown.

• More improvements have been made to SGUI, as well as the addition of a dynamic texture loading API. See the PR on GitHub[github.com] for more information.

Chatbox

• Fixed more scaling issues at resolutions other than 1920x1080.
  
• Added a button to open the config menu chat settings.
  
• Altered the settings scrollbar to be permanently visible.
  
• Fixed occasional script error when auto-completing commands/arguments.

• Fixed occasional script error when displaying a message due to the local player having no chat sound.

• Fixed potential script error when shuffling players with friend groups.

This update adds a new plugin, "improvedchat", that overhauls the chat system outside the chatbox (and updates the chatbox to account for it) to allow for rich text messages.

This overhaul is entirely optional, the underlying chat interaction has been refactored into an API, where the "improvedchat" plugin is simply a provider that allows for rich text. If the plugin is disabled, the old vanilla chat is used and any rich text messages are converted into 2-colour messages.

Improved Chat

• Enables rich text messages in the chat, allowing other plugins to enrich messages with colour/images.
  
• Allows certain users/groups to have a chat tag that is displayed before their chat messages, which consists of coloured text and an optional image (e.g. a badge icon). See the wiki page[github.com] for an explanation of how to configure chat tags.
  
• Overhauls how chat is displayed, making new messages appear in a fixed position with old messages moving upwards, and enforcing a limit on the number of messages on screen to avoid them going off screen entirely. The behaviour can be configured, including:
  
  • Configurable font size (automatic based on resolution, or a fixed size).
    
  • Configurable background opacity (where the background is a black gradient that fades out from left to right).
    
  • Configurable max messages to display before fading.
    
  • Configurable positioning behaviour, either moving old messages upwards (the default), or using the old vanilla behaviour where new messages appear after old ones (with all the downsides of that approach).
• When using the new display mode and not using a custom chat position (due to moving the chatbox and setting it to position outer messages), the chat position adapts automatically to the various UI elements:
  
  • When playing as an alien, the chat avoids overlapping any status indicators.
    
  • When playing as a commander, the chat avoids overlapping both the minimap and control group icons.
    
  • When spectating, the chat avoids overlapping the minimap.

• Advert messages can now be defined as rich text when the "improvedchat" plugin is active. Use an array of strings and colours for the "Message" field in an advert to make it rich text.

• The font size used in the chatbox can now be configured in its options.
  
• Added an option to display timestamps against messages.
  
• Improved how the chatbox size is derived from the current screen resolution and fixed numerous scaling issues.
  
• Chat command parameters can now display auto-completions. This is populated for certain types by default. To auto-complete parameters, add an "AutoCompletions" table or function that returns a table to the command argument definition.

• Improved the "sh_teamstats" command:
  
  • Fixed sometimes including duplicate players in the team skill lists.
    
  • Fixed counting spectators in the total number of players expected to be on the same team as the last shuffle.
    
  • The number of players on each team is now shown.
    
  • Added the player's current team preference weighting multiplier.

• Join/leave messages can now be defined as rich text, as with adverts.

• Fixed user config validation expecting a default group when it is not required.
  
• Fixed TextEntry placeholders scaling incorrectly at resolutions other than 1920x1080.
  
• Fixed scaling issues with NS2+'s global scaling option.
  
• Fixed the local all talk option in the client config menu being inverted.
  
• Screentext now has a shadow by default to make it slightly easier to read. This can be controlled on the client using the "ShadowEnabled", "ShadowOffset" and "ShadowColour" fields.

• Many improvements have been made to client side plugins and SGUI. See the pull request on GitHub[github.com] for a list of notable API changes.

Vote Shuffle

• Fixed skill difference constraints preventing a shuffle when team player counts differ by 1 and there is an eligible player in the ready room that could be shuffled to make the teams even.
  
• Added an indication of the team preference of the friend group a player is in to make it clear when a player's own preference differs from the rest of the group.

• Pressing the escape key when the vote menu is open now only closes the vote menu and does not also open the main menu.
  
• Improved validation of user data.

AFK Kick

• Fixed players being kicked when a round is not in progress, "OnlyCheckOnStarted" is "true" and "KickOnConnect" is "true".
  
• "MinPlayers" is now used when "KickOnConnect" is "true" providing it is between the number of player slots, and the number of player + spectator slots.

• Added log messages when the Alien commander starts consuming, cancels consuming, and finishes consuming buildings, controlled by the "LogConsuming" config option (defaulting to "true").
  
• Added a log message when a Marine commander cancels recycling a building (controlled by the existing "LogRecycling" config option).

• Added "VoteSettings.ConsiderSpectatorsInVotes" option to control whether spectators are included in votes.

• Spectators are no longer considered part of the total player count for "MinPlayerFractionToConstrainSkillDiff".
  
• Added "VoteSettings.ConsiderSpectatorsInVotes" option to control whether spectators are included in votes.

• Added "VoteSettings.ConsiderSpectatorsInVotes" option to control whether spectators are included in votes.

• The admin menu button in the vote menu no longer pops into view the first time the menu is opened, and it will be added/removed automatically if user data is reloaded and a player's access to the admin menu has changed.

Adverts

• Advert cycles and individual adverts can now specify a "MinPlayers" and/or "MaxPlayers" constraint to prevent them displaying if the player count is not in bounds.
  
  • Cycles with no trigger will automatically start/stop as the player count changes.
    
  • Cycles with a trigger will stop if the player count is no longer in range, but will **not** automatically start if the player count changes to be in range. The player count conditions are evaluated when the cycle's trigger fires only.
    
  • A cycle with adverts with their own player count range will skip each advert that is not valid for the current player count until one is found that is.

• Warning time, kick time and marking players AFK can now be configured based on player count using an array of intervals in the "PlayerCountRules" field.

• The "sh_listmaps" command is now allowed for all players by default.

• Fixed occasional script error when moving players back to the ready room.

• Enforcement policies can now specify "MinPlayers" and "MaxPlayers" to decide when they apply.
  
• Starting and passing conditions for the shuffle vote can now be configured depending on the current game state ("PreGame" or "InGame") in the same way as "VotePassActions".
  
  • A grace time can be specified ("StartOfRoundGraceTimeInSeconds") to delay the transition to "InGame" to allow votes to use more lenient pass conditions at the very start of a round.
• Added "BlockBotsAfterShuffle" option to configure whether bots should be prevented from being added to teams after a shuffle vote (applies only if "ApplyToBots" is "false").
  
• Improved behaviour of automatic shuffling:
  
  • Auto-shuffling now occurs after a reset round is started again.
    
  • Shuffling due to previous votes now has a configurable delay time ("EndOfRoundShuffleDelayInSeconds") after a round ends before it is applied.

Map Vote

• Buttons that conflict with the vote menu binding are now listed with the action they are bound to during a map vote.
  
• Fixed a benign error when no map can be found in the map cycle that passes the configured restrictions when cycling the map.

• Moved all talk text down below the team HUD when it's displayed at the top of the screen.
  
• Removed old startup console messages.

AFK Kick

• Improved debug log output to better explain what the plugin is attempting to do when applying warning actions.

• Fixed labels at the top of the chat history sometimes being invisible until scrolled into view.

• Fixed script error that could occur when switching between the bans and commander bans tabs in quick succession.

• Fixed off-by-one error in "TextEntry" mouse to cursor translation which meant clicking near the start of a character would put the caret at the end of it.
  
• "Label" controls now ensure they render properly when they are beneath a cropped element.
  
• Sending network messages using "Shine:ApplyNetworkMessage" (e.g. through the plugin "SendNetworkMessage" method) now defaults to setting the reliable flag to "true" when omitted rather than throwing an error.