openFA 0.597.22 dev

What's new in 0.597

This is a fairly substantial preview update, with major changes to presentation, multimedia playback, saves, fleet controls and a number of fixes based directly on community feedback.

Community-reported fixes

Several issues reported against the 0.525.2 preview have been addressed:

• Ship Yard construction now enters placement mode correctly after confirming the building from the construction menu. (openfa-preview #8 / #539)
• Fixed the Linux Saved Games crash that occurred immediately after opening the Saved Games screen. (openfa-preview #9 / #538)
• Fixed fleet orders and multi-leg range planning - issuing a new command no longer leaves the default Patrol order blocking the fleet, and queued stops at owned asteroids with a Refuelling Depot are correctly taken into account when planning subsequent legs. (#577, #578)
• Fleet targeting now also restores more of the original animated route and target presentation, including outbound/return routes and moving route indicators. (#579)

Thanks to everyone reporting preview issues - these reports are directly helping to uncover problems that automated tests do not always expose.

FFmpeg is now optional

openFA can now play the original game's multimedia without requiring FFmpeg.

The core contains a new media module built from recompiled original Fragile Allegiance audio and video codecs, allowing the game to decode and play the original media formats directly.

FFmpeg is still supported, but is now only required when using the gameplay recording feature.

Larger and more flexible game view

The presentation system has received a major overhaul:

• The procedural game world can now use the available window space independently from the pixel-perfect legacy UI. (#537, #550)
• The legacy gameplay interface remains sharp and pixel-perfect while the asteroid view can extend beyond the original 640×480 area.
• Added configurable UI scale and asteroid-world zoom.
• The asteroid surface can now be zoomed and panned by dragging. (#543)
• The strategic map can now be panned directly by dragging empty space instead of using click-to-center behaviour. (#544)
• Background layers and asteroid horizon now move with proper parallax while panning the surface.

Improved asteroid rendering

The expanded viewport is backed by a substantial amount of renderer work:

• Extended asteroid terrain now blends more naturally with the original legacy relief. (#540, #550)
• Procedurally extended areas better preserve the appearance and shading of the original asteroid surface.
• Restored more of Fragile Allegiance's original sky diversity, including the original star brightness distribution and moving stars. (#559)
• Fixed several rendering and hit-testing edge cases introduced by larger viewports, zooming and window resizing. (#590)

Ship Inventory improvements

Ship handling has received several fixes and legacy-fidelity improvements:

• Launch from Hangar now launches all selected ships, rather than only one of them. (#513)
• Removed the artificial 20-ship Landing Pad capacity that was not present in the original game. (#553)
• Restored per-type scrolling in Ship Inventory, allowing larger groups of ships to be browsed correctly. (#554)
• Clicking a Landing Pad now correctly opens Ship Inventory. (#553)

Saves and native game state

The save system has undergone a significant internal change:

• Games imported from original Fragile Allegiance saves can now be stored as native openFA checkpoints. (#586)
• Native saves no longer need to carry and repeatedly reinterpret embedded legacy SAV state.
• Several original 8/16-bit storage limits that do not represent actual gameplay rules have been removed from the native simulation. (#586)
• Incompatible native saves remain visible in the Saved Games screen and now produce a clear in-game error instead of breaking the session. (#588)
• Fixed alien colony ownership disappearing from the strategic map after loading some native saves. (#589)

Save compatibility between preview builds may still change while the native format continues to evolve.

Smaller gameplay and UI fixes

• Missile Silos now distinguish between a missing Weapons Factory and one that exists but is temporarily unavailable, for example because of insufficient power. (#501)
• Ship Yard construction status now displays the proper localized ore name instead of an internal package identifier. (#502)
• Various additional fixes to fleet behaviour, asteroid rendering, inventory interaction, save restoration and legacy-compatible gameplay behaviour.

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openFA is still a preview, not a finished product.

Some mechanics remain incomplete, bugs are expected, and compatibility may change between preview releases. The project still requires an installed copy of the original Fragile Allegiance for its original game assets.

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A note about confusing version numbers

openFA preview version numbers are currently generated automatically from Git history and development issues rather than following Semantic Versioning.

The current format is:

<production version counter>.<issue number>.<commit number within the issue>

This makes every preview build uniquely traceable back to the development work that produced it. The numbering scheme is temporary and will likely be replaced with a more conventional release versioning system as openFA moves closer to a stable release.