Automata Update #3: Patches and Performance

In the past few weeks, I quietly patched Automata Empire several times so that everyone could benefit from things I’ve fixed while working on multiplayer. Many of these changes make multiplayer more fair by eliminating slowdowns and timing issues for people with slower computers, but it also reduces lag in singleplayer. I still have to tackle the Steam friends matchmaking functionality, but multiplayer should be live in Update #4 this month.

• fixed several bugs that caused game to freeze
• fixed building construction/destruction timer bugs
• clicking a sidebar button no longer constructs a building underneath when your monsters are present
• remade Game Over menus to prevent bugs when spectating after a multiplayer loss
• fixed bug that occasionally prevented player from building on valid locations
• significant improvements to FPS again! (~60FPS)
• adjusted overpopulation thresholds
• fixed another bug that allowed players to destroy their own flag capture zone in CTF
• improved AI’s responsiveness to human threats
• fixed bug preventing AI from building walls on the NE corner of their bases
• AI generally builds more walls now
• improved AI’s flag return capabilities in CTF
• fixed bug that caused lower post-game achievement scores
• fixed bug when pressing ESC in Game Over menus
• monsters no longer talk when Purple is selected in Autoplay
• fixed a memory leak

edit: On August 5th, I also patched one more time to fix a brand new bug that sometimes caused construction to stall on certain buildings.

edit: On August 11th, patched again to fix a rare bug where buildings started teleporting around the map. Also fixed some missing images in the How To Play guides.