HERCULAN 1.1.2

This release includes improvements to gamepad support, the Mission Editor, and custom missions, and adds a new example custom mission.

General

• Added difficulty selection to the Custom Missions panel.
• Added example custom mission INVASION, which demonstrates terrain created with the terrain sculpting tools from the previous release.

Input

• Gamepad mouse emulation is now supported on the Heads Down Display (HDD)
• On the HDD, you can use the left analog stick to scroll the F7 map or cycle through the F8 readouts.
• Vanilla dialogs can now be navigated on gamepads using standard controls (left stick/directional pad to change selection, A to confirm).

Mission Editor

• Cybrid flyers are now always drawn above-ground.
• Retail's "one squadmate is left behind" bug for standalone missions no longer applies to custom missions.
• Added a missing "player squad target handling" setting that is necessary for data link missions.
• Improved wording of some tooltips and warnings.
• Fixed a bug which could cause a foldout in the lefthand mission panel to toggle open and closed each frame.

Full Changelog: v1.1.1...v1.1.2

HERCULAN 1.1.1

This release adds support for terrain editing to the Mission Editor, and several fixes/improvements.

Mission Editor

• The "New mission" window shows a preview of the selected terrain heightmap.
• Added support for customizing terrain. Terrain can be sculpted with in-Editor tools, or imported from a 128x128 or 256x256 grayscale image.

Fixes

• Fixed a crash when loading Basic Training 3.
• Fixed fog not applying to gouraud-shaded faces.
• Added a separate near-clip plane for beams so that they don't visibly clip near the edge of the screen on widescreen.
• Renderer draw order now more accurately matches retail. For the old behavior, see the "Per-pixel depth sorting" tweak below.
• Fixed some issues with large buildings disappearing near the edge of the screen in widescreen.
• Fixed rare softlock when trying to quit the Editor, caused by competing dialogs.

Tweaks

• The "Fix mouse turret aiming" tweak now lets you fire with LMB while holding RMB to aim.
• Added "Per-pixel depth sorting" tweak, which uses the sorting from previous builds rather than retail's draw order.

Full Changelog: v1.1.0...v1.1.1

HERCULAN 1.1.0

HERCULAN Engine

This release adds the HERCULAN Mission Editor (beta), which can now build missions from scratch, and a new Custom Missions menu for playing and sharing them.

General

• Added a Custom Missions menu (in the HERCULAN menu bar on the main menu) for playing missions made with the editor.
• Custom missions can be shared as .hcm files and added with the Import button in the Custom Missions menu.
• HERCULAN now includes a custom mission, City Evac.
• Copy, paste and other keyboard shortcuts now work in HERCULAN's text fields.

Editor

• The Mission Editor can now create new missions and edit existing ones: place HERCs, flyers, ground vehicles and buildings, and set up their routes, orders, objectives and triggers.
• Added a "Play" button for test-playing a mission straight from the editor.
• Added a built-in manual for the editor (Help menu).

Fixes

• Fixed flickering surfaces on two types of buildings.

Tweaks

• The tweak that fixes Cybrids not moving in the final campaign mission now affects only the six Cybrids guarding the base, and nothing else.

Full Changelog: v1.0.1...v1.1.0

HERCULAN 1.0.1

HERCULAN Engine

1.0.1 is a minor bugfix release.

Fixes

• HDD F8 damage readout screen: the "paper doll" wireframes are now drawn in retail order (body parts over weapons) by default; a Tweak restores the weapons-on-top order, see below. Thanks to user Jammer for reporting.
• On HDD F8, when the weapons are drawn on top with the new tweak, they no longer tint the body parts blue.
• HERCULAN's UI now better adapts to long localized strings; fixes German text being cut off in some places.
• Improved error handling; file-read and file-write issues will now display an error message, rather than crash or only log to the console. Thanks to user Flöte for reporting.
• The CD is no longer allowed as an install location, since save data can't be written to the CD.

Tweaks

• Added a tweak to draw weapons on top of body parts on the HDD F8 screen (as in previous builds).
• Added a tweak to fix an issue in C5_05 (Luna mission 5) where a squadmate spawns inside a ground vehicle and can't move.

Full Changelog: v1.0.0...v1.0.1

HERCULAN 1.0.0

HERCULAN Engine

The 1.0 release fixes many bugs, improves support for controllers and the Steam Deck, adds new Tweaks, and adds a new Keys reference screen and a new Accessibility menu.

General

• Added music and SFX volume sliders.
• Increased HERCULAN UI font size by 25%.
• Added an accessibility menu.
• Added a menu for reviewing retail key bindings.
• On a controller, the B button can now be used to close the HERCULAN menu bar.
• When saving while using a controller, the save name is now auto-filled (pilot name plus sector and mission number).

Accessibility (a11y)

• Added a setting to further increase the font size.
• Added a setting to disable full-screen heavy-damage flash.
• Added a setting to disable full-screen heavy-damage camera shake.

Fixes

• Fixed mouse emulation right-click not working in shell.
• Fixed cursor not showing while using mouse emulation on Steam Deck.
• The "Backturn = Reverse" setting in keyjoy.cfg no longer affects the Razor (this was a retail bug).
• Target pip now renders in the side panels when widescreen rendering is enabled.
• Fixed heavy-damage screen shake not matching retail.
• Fixed rare case where "Shields Critical" message could play more often than it should.
• Fixed some issues with keyboard bindings not matching retail for foreign keyboards.
• Fixed various issues where AI behavior did not exactly match retail.
• Fixed minor timing inconsistency with retail.
• Implemented missing Alt-P binding to show Preferences panel.
• Squadmate radio message random selection now matches retail bug (a tweak was added to fix the bug, see below).
• Fixed various minor issues where weapon status bars were rendered differently than retail (thanks to user dml! for reporting).
• Fixed MFD showing the wrong name for Arachnitron (thanks to user dml! for reporting).
• Fixed keyboard auto-repeat not working while typing in shell (for pilot/save name).
• The "?" button on the lefthand side of shell's tab bar now opens the On-Line Manual.
• A notification is shown while the On-Line Manual loads, so that HERCULAN doesn't appear to be frozen.
• Opening the manual no longer kicks the game out of fullscreen.

Tweaks

• Added a tweak to enable mouse aiming, as in Metaltech: Earthsiege. While the cursor is in the forward viewport (not over the dashboard), press and hold right mouse button and move the cursor to aim the turret. This works like a virtual joystick, rather than like typical FPS aiming.
• Added a tweak that fixes many Cybrids not moving in the final campaign mission.
• "Change PBW hue" now uses green for PBW2, since that's what Metaltech: Earthsiege's expansion pack used.
• Added a tweak that fixes the squadmate radio message random selection, so that all lines can play.
• Added a tweak to auto-fill save names (pilot name plus sector and mission number) even when not using a controller.
• Added a tweak to auto-save in slot 10 after every campaign mission.

Full Changelog: v0.9.9...v1.0.0

HERCULAN 0.9.9

HERCULAN Engine

Input

• When playing with a controller, input from a stick is ignored for 0.5s after using that stick's radial menu.

Controller menu

• Added a setting to invert the Razor's pitch input.
• Use clearer labels for controller axes.
• Fixed default controller settings not working until the user manually clicked Defaults and then Save (thanks to users dml! and Emo Duck for reporting)

Fixes

• Fixed AI obstacle avoidance behavior divergence from retail.
• Fixed how Turbo Pod is drawn on MFD.
• HERCULAN now supports bare files in install directory overriding VOL files, as retail does.
• Fixed audio desync when watching intro cutscene from a real CD (thanks to user Jammer for reporting).
• AVI files are now streamed, reducing load times from CD.

On-Line Manual

Thanks to user Jammer for reporting these issues:

• Fixed missing font formatting from some pages
• Fixed Structures reference page having misaligned click overlays in Firefox

Tweaks

• Added "Change PBW beam hue".
• "Show correct stats" now shows correct missile warhead damage.

HercWorks CSharp

• Added an editor for INI_*.DAT files, which define HERC's default loadouts (used in Practice missions)

Full Changelog: v0.9.8...v0.9.9

HERCULAN 0.9.8

HERCULAN Engine

General

• The shell (menus), gameplay, and Editor now all are contained within the same window. The loading screen is visible when a mission is loading.
• Settings menu: Added "Check for updates" button and "Auto check for updates" checkbox (off by default).
• Controller menu: Added mouse emulation settings.

Fixes

• Fixed terrain shape sometimes not matching retail underneath animated buildings.
• Fixed AI behavior when LOS is blocked sometimes diverging from retail.

Tweaks

• High-resolution rendering is now a tweak, and can be turned off for 640x480 gameplay.
• Added a description to the Tweaks menu.

Full Changelog: v0.9.7...v0.9.8

HERCULAN 0.9.7

HERCULAN Engine

New features

Mission Editor (preview)

The Mission Editor is currently a read-only preview. You can load any mission in the game and navigate around the mission environment with the camera. View objectives, groups, triggers, actions, timers, routes, buildings, spawn points, and more. The Editor can be accessed through the HERCULAN menu bar (shift-Esc).

Enhanced controller support

• HERCULAN's UI can be navigated with gamepads.
• Add "Radar Toggle" as a custom binding in the Controller menu.
• During gameplay, hold the left stick to display a radial menu for selecting squadmate orders.
• During gameplay, hold the right stick to display a radial for selecting MFD/HDD screens.
• In the shell (menus) and Editor, the left stick can be used to move the cursor and right-trigger to click.

Experimental Linux support

• Add Linux build to this and future releases.

Fixes

• Fix squadmate portraits not being clipped to MFD.

Tweaks

• "Show correct stats" now shows more accurate energy usage and recharge rate for energy weapons.

HercWorks CSharp

New features

• Add Compare Weapons screen and Compare HERCs screen

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Full Changelog: v0.9.6...v0.9.7

HERCULAN 0.9.6

New features

• Add experimental controller support, with default bindings for Xbox-style controllers.

Fixes

Thanks to user Jammer for reporting many of these.

• Logs are now stored in Local instead of Roaming on Windows.
• Cockpit HUD: Frame and slot number are not shown for hardpoints with no weapon (Jammer).
• Add missing sound effect when selecting weapon with number key (Jammer).
• Improve weapon convergence (Jammer).
• Fix a palette issue that caused green pixels at the bottom of a specific fire effect.
• Match a retail quirk where a second Turbo Pod can be activated but gives no boost.

MFD

• F5 TARGET menu: Use high-res paper doll for Cybrid Landskimmer (Jammer).
• F2 STATUS/F5 TARGET: Fix scaling issues at some screen resolutions (Jammer).

Tweaks

• Add "Play all music tracks".
• Add "Shuffle mission music".

Full Changelog: v0.9.5...v0.9.6

HERCULAN 0.9.5

Fixes

General

• Add a welcome dialog which explains how to open the HERCULAN menu bar.
• Add an About window with version number and license information.
• Esc key no longer opens the HERCULAN menu bar.
• Fix Shift-Esc conflicting with retail functionality for Esc
• Fix a potential crash during installation, caused by a race condition (thanks to users dml! and Emo Duck for submitting crash logs)

Gameplay

• Fix many minor bugs and discrepancies on the Heads Down Display F7 map screen (thanks to user dml! for reporting most of these).
• Fix some bugs with keyboard input (keys not repeating, or conflicting)

New tweaks

• Fix mission flags not resetting when we replay a mission after dying.
• Adjust Delta Sector mission 5 to prevent a critical Stingray from potentially loitering in a hard-to-find location.

Full Changelog: v0.9.4...v0.9.5