Patch Notes for March 5th, 2024

[Jack Power]

13 hours ago, lemming said:

I've been a Linux user since the 90s, and Unix for a decade before.   I wound dual booting for CoH back in the day.   When HC launched I had a Windows 7 laptop that ran the 64 bit fine.   (The laptop sucked, but I didn't feel like fussing with wine right then)

 

Now I run purely Linux.

 

Glad to see the clarification that it was XP, not 95, though marginally better...   I remember in 2000 when McAfee didn't test their release against '98 because NT was close enough, and then crashed every single 98 system on bootup when that was released.  Memory protection sucked.

 I have two computers, one on Win10 and one on PopOs!. Both with CoH (why wouldn't you?). Both using the same mouse and keyboard using Barrier (that doesn't play nice with CoH. Something about reading the inputs wrong. Other games just fine, but not CoH. *cries*

 

Guess only secondary characters gets to play on Linux for me.

 

//Jack

[strix_]

5 hours ago, Techwright said:

I'm intrigued by the Windows 8 RTM and Windows Server vNext in @Number Six's chart.  I've never seen either.

RTM was just the name for the final version of Windows 8 that shipped packaged with computers of the time, iirc. It's the release-to-manufacturer version, so it probably just means people are playing the game on PCs they never updated to Windows 8.1/10. vNext means some SysAdmin's been playing Homecoming on their work computer. 🤣

[Number Six]

2 hours ago, strix_ said:

RTM was just the name for the final version of Windows 8 that shipped packaged with computers of the time, iirc. It's the release-to-manufacturer version, so it probably just means people are playing the game on PCs they never updated to Windows 8.1/10. vNext means some SysAdmin's been playing Homecoming on their work computer. 🤣

 

Yes, it means the original Windows 8, not the 8.1 update.

 

vNext shows up in the launcher stats as "Windows 11 Server" but what it really means is a server OS with a build number >= 22000. AFAIK there isn't a release or LTS yet with that build number and it's preview releases that are sometimes referred to as "vNext".

[lemming]

7 hours ago, strix_ said:

RTM was just the name for the final version of Windows 8 that shipped packaged with computers of the time, iirc. It's the release-to-manufacturer version, so it probably just means people are playing the game on PCs they never updated to Windows 8.1/10. vNext means some SysAdmin's been playing Homecoming on their work computer. 🤣

Also a chance, it is on their home computer.   I used to have a stack of those installs.  Come to think of it, my first CoH system ran a release like that since I was still getting those.

[Coyotedancer]

I still have Win 8.1 on my ancient little second generation SurfacePro.

And yes. I've played City on it. 'Ran just fine.

[Teirusu]

I was one of those Windows 7 die-hards until about a year and half ago.  Eventually newer video card drivers stopped supporting Windows 7 along with the newer versions of Python.  So, was pretty much forced to drop in Windows 10 at that point.  At least with 22H2, Windows 10 has just about all major bugs ironed out of it!  😆

So I know for sure that the 64-bit client can/was definitely running on Windows 7 64-bit.  Certainly wouldn't be surprised if it needs a bunch of newer dependences installed on it though.

[Haijinx]

On 3/5/2024 at 6:47 PM, Captain Fabulous said:

It's more likely they're running a 32-bit OS like Windows 7.

 

I use the 32 bit because the installer won't properly set up the Windows C++ Runtime it claims to need for 64bit, and I can't be bothered to figure it out.

Edited March 8 by Haijinx

[Captain Fabulous]

3 hours ago, Haijinx said:

 

I use the 32 bit because the installer won't properly set up the Windows C++ Runtime it claims to need for 64bit, and I can't be bothered to figure it out.

https://aka.ms/vs/17/release/vc_redist.x64.exe

[Haijinx]

10 hours ago, Captain Fabulous said:

https://aka.ms/vs/17/release/vc_redist.x64.exe

 

Unfortunately even though it said setup was sucessful, it also gives me the same message. 

 

32 bit it is for me until I change computers I guess. 

[Tha-Antmann]

Finally fixed the fly+foot stomp glitch. Awesome.

[GenericHero719]

On 3/6/2024 at 6:03 AM, Number Six said:

 

You're remembering wrong, the absolute minimum requirement for HC is Windows XP, Service Pack 2. It uses API calls that did not exist prior to that version.

 

The 64-bit build requires either Windows 8.1 or Windows 10/11. It might run on 64-bit Windows 7 -- I don't remember the exact details of which features were added when and which specific SDK version dropped support for 7. But the 32-bit client is explicitly built using a toolchain that supports those older versions for compatibility.

 

 

Not saying it will be the case forever, but our general rule of thumb is to try to make it so that if they could run it at shutdown in 2012, they can come back in now on the same machine.

 

As for how many people are using it; we don't have exact numbers because we don't collect that kind of detailed information. The launcher does include OS version in the user agent string so we have a rough aggregate guess based on that. Over the past 30 days:

 

Windows 11 (64-bit)	30189
Windows 10 (64-bit)	36042
Windows 10 (32-bit)	194
Windows 8.1 (64-bit)	207
Windows 8.1 (32-bit)	6
Windows 8 RTM (64-bit)	8
Windows 7 (64-bit)	619
Windows 7 (32-bit)	58
Windows Vista (32-bit)	4
Windows XP (32-bit)	1
Windows Server 2012R2 (64-bit)	6
Windows Server 2016/2019/2022 (64-bit)	2
Windows Server vNext (64-bit) (lolwut)	1
Wine (Mac/Linux)	4843

 

Note that just tells us the OS, not if someone is running the 32-bit client on a 64-bit OS, which might be done for a variety of reasons including some older graphics drivers that don't play nice. Though at least in that case, if they're on a 64-bit OS, the 32-bit client can use up to 4GB of address space instead of 2GB, which is less problematic.

 

Also a glance through the support forums and discord to see a number of people reporting "Out of memory" errors when running the 32-bit client confirms that it's at least a decent number.

I am one of those 58 on Win7 32bit, and you are exactly correct.
The laptop I play on is the same laptop I played on 12 years ago because my desktop is packed up with everything else I own in a storage unit. I just don't have the capability to purchase new hardware at this time. I can't really explain how awesome it is to just copy my old game data onto an external, and install HomeComing and get right back to it.

On a side note, something weird happened with the Feb 20th and March 5th patches for the 32bit client.
I could play 7 hours on an MM before the Feb 20th patch, but after I would Pagefile after about 30min.
I went to support on Discord and found a thread where you were helping someone with an almost similar Corrupted Keyboard Profile problem, but not close enough.
Luckily Michiyo showed up with a couple very old Win7 fixes, and we got a BCDedit memory reallocation command that mostly solved my issue. I did still get a crash, but only after 3.5 hours of heavy SGbase editing.

5 million points to Michiyo for being the most helpful support person I've talked to in years.

The weird part is, after the March 5th patch hit, I read the notes and found that lovely bit at the bottom about 32bit fixes. So I decided to test it, and I waited till about 3 AM when Torch was at about 45 players, and total server count was less than 800 and loaded up my main, then loaded a second game instance. To my surprise my 14 year old dumpster fire laptop ran 2 copies long enough to create an Alt and do all my SG invites, AND I could actually play the game.
So I left the second copy running and ran missions on my main until it crashed, but there was no crash.
So the next night when total server pop was below 800, I multiboxed missions for 4 hours, on 1 box, that's a 14 year old dumpster fire milspec laptop, and it runs great!

I don't know if there's any info or logs I can send ya to help, but yeah, I will help in any way I can, and gladly help stress test if ya ever need it.

Whatever you all did, you fixed it. Like super fixed it.
Ya'll are amazing.

[Hedgefund]

In the absence of a thread for today's patch (March 12) I'll glom onto this one to personally thank the dev that did this, you deserve a raise, well done:

 

Consignment House

• Fixed a bug that could cause the auction server to return sale history for the wrong item.

 

All I've heard for years is how this was nigh unfixable due to "spaghetti code" but you did it, you really did it (based on what I've seen so far).

[General Idiot]

On 3/13/2024 at 8:17 AM, Hedgefund said:

In the absence of a thread for today's patch (March 12) I'll glom onto this one to personally thank the dev that did this, you deserve a raise, well done:

 

Consignment House

• Fixed a bug that could cause the auction server to return sale history for the wrong item.

 

All I've heard for years is how this was nigh unfixable due to "spaghetti code" but you did it, you really did it (based on what I've seen so far).

Is that why half the time when you check history for an item it just doesn't load at all, or is that an entirely seperate thing?

[Rambolazer]

On 3/5/2024 at 9:31 AM, Random Robot said:

Dark Mastery->Murky Cloud: No Fade or Pulse is still fading/pulsing

@The Curator Can confirm, Murky Cloud is still fading/pulsing. Any chance we can get this fixed?

 

Would also second more epic pools to be minimal FX someday.

[Trike]

The camera is broken for new characters.

 

When I try to move the camera to the front of any new character, it immediately snaps back to the rear view. Doesn’t matter which setting I use, Enabled/Disabled, it always does this.

 

However, in battle, the camera orients to every position EXCEPT the rear one, which often results in not seeing who I’m fighting but always ends up pointing the wrong way.

 

This has made the game borderline unplayable for me, and rendered my ability to take both static and action screenshots impossible.

 

Please revert the camera to the old style.

[Sovera]

7 hours ago, Trike said:

The camera is broken for new characters.

 

When I try to move the camera to the front of any new character, it immediately snaps back to the rear view. Doesn’t matter which setting I use, Enabled/Disabled, it always does this.

 

However, in battle, the camera orients to every position EXCEPT the rear one, which often results in not seeing who I’m fighting but always ends up pointing the wrong way.

 

This has made the game borderline unplayable for me, and rendered my ability to take both static and action screenshots impossible.

 

Please revert the camera to the old style.

 

Please, the devs don't need to revert or 'fix' anything when what you speak of is present already in the options. Show us the screenshot of your camera options, please.

[Trike]

6 hours ago, Sovera said:

 

Please, the devs don't need to revert or 'fix' anything when what you speak of is present already in the options. Show us the screenshot of your camera options, please.

You don’t need a screenshot. There’s only one option, clicking “Enabled” or “Disabled”. Neither has any effect, which means it’s broken.

 

Just revert it back to the way it was, which was perfectly fine and 100% intuitive — not to mention functional.

[Ridiculous Girl]

16 minutes ago, Trike said:

You don’t need a screenshot. There’s only one option, clicking “Enabled” or “Disabled”. Neither has any effect, which means it’s broken.

 

Just revert it back to the way it was, which was perfectly fine and 100% intuitive — not to mention functional.

i have encountered a few problems with the camera, some really messed up setting that i could not resolve unless i reloaded everything. i am not sure if this is what is needed, but under menu/ options/ keymapping there is a setting that you can revert from "modern" to "classic" and i am pretty sure that will resolve the problem.

[Sovera]

30 minutes ago, Trike said:

You don’t need a screenshot. There’s only one option, clicking “Enabled” or “Disabled”. Neither has any effect, which means it’s broken.

 

Just revert it back to the way it was, which was perfectly fine and 100% intuitive — not to mention functional.

 

Oh, no need for screenshot. Okay then.

[GM Tock]

3 hours ago, Trike said:

You don’t need a screenshot. There’s only one option, clicking “Enabled” or “Disabled”. Neither has any effect, which means it’s broken.

 

Just revert it back to the way it was, which was perfectly fine and 100% intuitive — not to mention functional.

 

Trike: Options, Keybinds, change the profile to "Classic" and Save.  That should put the camera controls the way you're used to. 

(Similar topic, come with a picture relevant to this.)

Existing characters should not be affected; camera controls are saved with the character on the server unless you change them from the last session.  You'd need to set this on new characters going forward.  See if that fixes it.

[Sovera]

3 hours ago, GM Tock said:

 

Trike: Options, Keybinds, change the profile to "Classic" and Save.  That should put the camera controls the way you're used to. 

(Similar topic, come with a picture relevant to this.)

Existing characters should not be affected; camera controls are saved with the character on the server unless you change them from the last session.  You'd need to set this on new characters going forward.  See if that fixes it.

 

No no, you heard the man. Bo need for troubleshooting or screenshots. Revert the change for 3-4 thousand people, plz.