NEWS

2008-03-10 - XSW version 0.47 is up!

* Fixed bug in Team Death Match that caused a server crash

* Fixed bug which prevented some computers from connecting to a server

* Now xsw should be playable with java 1.5 again.

2008-02-22 - XSW version 0.46 is up!

* Fixed bug causing late joiners in Base Attack mode to not see the correct team of power nodes.

* Turrets shoot with 900 ms delay instead of 800 ms.

* Increased turret respawn time from 20s to 25s.

* Power nodes do no regenerate for 1s after shot.

* Increased player spawn delay in Base Attack from 3s to 5s.

* Some small changes to the new base attack map.

2008-02-22 - XSW version 0.45 is up!

* Fixed an issue which prevented a client to connect to a server started on another computer on the same local network.

* Added a new map for Base Attack game mode.

* Several small fixes to the mapeditor.

2008-01-25 - XSW version 0.44 is up!

* Several minor fixes. Maps updated with new weapon. New version of lwjgl - graphics library used in xsw, should fix some linux issues.

* You can now set which port to use for udp communication, can possibly solve some connection problems by allowing you to specify port and open that port in your firewall.

2008-01-05 - XSW version 0.43 is up!

* Fixed a small bug introduced in 0.42. (Tnt became vastly to strong, a setting I used for debugging and forgot to remove in the release).

2008-01-05 - XSW version 0.42 is up!

* In Base Attack the team with fewer player now gets a handicap; they spawn faster, destroy and build nodes faster.

* Fixed bug causing the level to reset every time a player logged in

* Fixed bug preventing the mapeditor from running.

* Fixed bug that could throw out players from the server occasionally.

2008-01-02 - XSW version 0.41 is up!

* Fixed bug that destroying a node did not 'unpower' nodes connected to it.

* Fixed null pointer exception.

* Core and nodes can now take more damage.

2007-12-31 - XSW version 0.40 is up!

* Adds a new game mode - Base Attack!

* New weapon named 'tnt' for now - in search for a better name.

* Home page got a face lift.

* Added stats for player kills. Now you can see your favorite targets and worst enemies.

* Proper windows Installer - Linux and Mac users still have to manually install with zip file.

* A new Map for the new game mode added. More maps are wanted!

* Tweaked ranking parameters - All rankings have been resetted (sorry for this).

* Many bug fixes.

2007-04-30 - XSW version 0.31 is up!

* Fixed Notifier so it reestablishes connection after internet connection is lost.

* Fixed a bug which could cause a server to crash.

2007-04-28 - XSW version 0.30 is up!

* Player accounts! (No more hazzle with someone stealing your nick)

* Ladder servers! Ranking points are adjusted after each kill on a ladder server. Statistics are kept and can be accessed through the home page. (Finally!)

* An in game menu has been added. With it you can change ship during the game, start a voting to change level, kick out a player (if you are an operator, or start voting for it if you are not).

* New notifier look - thanx Davvan!

* 3 New ships added: Pollux and Peregrin by Davvan, Silverfin by miniApan. Thanx Davvan and miniApan!

* Smooth fill up of ammo bar.

* Minimap moved to upper right corner.

* Changed graphics format to a custom format which improves loading time alot. You can still modd it by removing an image and replace it with a png or jpg image with the same name. If you want the original png's send me an email.

* Fixed bug where the game would sometimes completely hang itself while connecting to the master server.

* Added some pages to the homepage for showing rankings, creating an account etc.

2006-12-06 - XSW version 0.22 is up!

* A mini map has been added to help in navigation. You can see enemies near to you or to one of your teammates on the minimap.

* Improved "hud" abit. Ammo bar, 3 latest kill messages shown instead of one, shield and health texts over the corresponding numbers.

* Accelerated turning. Not that noticeable, but should make it a bit easier to aim, and to make small adjustments to the ship direction.

* Spread out the intervals of updating the clients from the server, before everyone was updated at once. This will spread the sending cost of the server and should (in theory at least) lessen the delay when many players are connected.

2006-12-06 - New Homepage!

As you can see, www.xsw.se has gotten a little more pleasing to the eye. Hope you all enjoy the change! (By Davvan)

2006-11-21 - Version 0.21 is up!

* Chat "macros" have been added. Press RIGHT SHIFT + NUM KEY to say a predefined message. Messages can be customized in chat.txt.

* Team chat mode has been added. Press RIGHT SHIFT + CHAT KEY. or press TEAM CHAT KEY to say something that only your team can hear.

* Fixed some bugs that would cause the connection to drop. (might still be some bugs in this area, but it should be alot more stable now).

* Lowered bandwidth usage quite a bit. Now more players should be able to play on the same server.

* Moved kill messages.

* Kill messages now fade out.

* Lowered mass of asteroids.

* Centurion hawk got faster. (Now it's one of the three fastest ships)

* 2 new maps. Davvan2on2, Davvan03 - huge map suitable for 3 teams. Thanx go to Davvan!

2006-10-25 - Version 0.20c is up!

* Team score is now updated correctly without pressing TAB.

* Added team images for firefly ship (this was missing out, and caused a crash if someone choose the firefly in team mode)

* Davvan gave some shots a facelift.

2006-10-20 - Version 0.20b is up!

* Team score is always visible

* Position, score and difference in score to 1st player (or 2nd player if the player is 1st) is shown in the top left corner.

* Black transparent box underneath scoreboard to make it more readable.

* Killing messages in different colors depending on what team the player belongs to.

* To show scores the TAB key is now used instead of F1. (F1 was to far away, ant to easy to press escape by mistake)

2006-10-14 - Version 0.20 is up!

* TEAM DEATH MATCH is the big news in this release. Up to 3 teams can compete against each other! Thanx Davvan for drawing all ships in the different team colors!

* Fixed bug which caused players to disconnect, or the entire game to hang sometimes when a new level was being loaded.

* Balanced weapons a bit more. Shotgun got a little less reach, and a little less damage. Blaster a little more damage.

2006-10-03 - Version 0.19 is up!

* 3 New maps, 2 by Davvan and 1 by Doman.

* Fixed collision bug that could cause ships to get stuck on top of each other.

* Fixed bug that could cause buffer overflow between map reloads.

* Tweaked some weapon and ship stats.

2006-09-29 - Version 0.18c is up!

* Fixed bug that shocker could not shoot down shots.

* Better logging to the log file to help with finding bugs. Send in your Client.log file if you are thrown out from the server!

* Fixed not being able to trigger a missile after firing it while a DAGGER (smallest missile) is still in the air (cryptic huh?)

* Lowered bandwidth to newly logged in players by not sending data while they are loading the map.

* Tweaked a few ship stats (not many).

* Now the game *should* not hang itself when wrong data is coming in (this could happen on sometimes), instead it should exit to the start menu and write some useful information in the log file to help track down the bug.

2006-09-23 - Version 0.18b is up!

* Fixed bug with missiles: Only one of the missiles exploded when two missiles collided. Some weapons could shoot down missiles and the shot would then continue, and sometimes missiles would not explode while being shot.

* Music volume slider added in the settings window.

2006-09-16 - Version 0.18a is up!

* Fixed bug with shocker weapon.

* Fixed bug where players would become attached to each other for short moments.

* Uses a bit less bandwidth.

2006-09-14 - Version 0.18 is up!

* Music! (By Marcel)

* New graphcis for start menu (By Xedric)

* New sound effects (Killing spree levels etc) (By Marcel)

* Warp Zone (By SpaceAce)

* Speed arrows (By The Emperor)

* New maps (By Davvan and Doman)

* A new ship - Centurion Hawk (By SpaceAce)

* New notifier - new look + settings

* Saves which ship you last used.

* Improved internet connection - clients communicate peer to peer when in sight.

* Client spawned bullets (more responsive to high ping)

* Fixed bug that caused crash if someone logged in during winning screen.

* More people should be able to run servers.

* Killing a player by shooting his missile will give you the kill.

* Different colors on messages

* Fixed bug that caused shotgun to blow up in your face when shooting it next to a wall but not at the wall.

* Tweaked some settings.

* Improved map editor - Objects can be rotated. Change color of layers (any object can now be used in the background by darkening the layer)

2006-02-10 - Version 0.17c is up.

Fixes an issue that could make ships appear at a very wrong position sometime. Now it corrects error in position faster.

Fixes a bug that would let someone get the kill from someone elses missile if the missile was shot by a missile... (cryptic? ;-) )

Linux and Mac versions are now up. These have not been tested.

2006-02-03 - Version 0.17b is up.

This update fixes an issue that made the shields display wrong. In 0.17a the sheilds could be shown as full even though they had no energy left. It's only a small fix updating the visuals of the shield.

2006-02-02 - Version 0.17a is up.

This update to version 0.17 improves the smoothness of the movement of other player ships alot. The game still plays the same and 0.17 will continue to work. But 0.17a is recommended as it makes the experience alot better.

2006-01-31 - Version 0.17 is up!

* Done alot of work to optimize playing with a higher ping.

* Fixes several bugs.

* Deebs maps have been slightly updated.

2006-01-30 - Version 0.16 is up!

* A new missile - the Dagger. This missile is much faster than the original one, makes less damage, and cannot be triggered. You can shoot several at the same time, beware not to shoot them too rapidly after each other as they will blow up in your face otherwise.

* A new ship, the Red Baron. This is one cool piece of art, drawn by Samuel 'SpaceAce' Höglund. I'm sure the ship will be a favourite with many pilots, I hear rumors that even the Emperor himself has found strong interest in this ship.

* Ammo, healt and shields have gotten a facelift by Samuel 'SpaceAce' Höglund.

* Fixed the client so the shots doesn't seem to bounce on the walls (the shots that shouldn't bounce)

* Fixed a bug which caused the Server to crash on some rare occasions.

* Now the server updates the client's position at much shorter intervals, should make it smoother for high ping connections.

* Made the server send much less data when the level restarts. Should fix the problem with players unwantedly disconnecting when a new map loads.

* Shield reload times are faster for Spider and Nova.

* Destroyer has had it's health raised to 170 again.

* Ship now flashes when it gets damaged by something. A visual indicator of damage.

* Now xsw.jar is used to run XSW, Server and map editor. It also serves as notifier.

* Three new maps have been added: deebs02.map, doman02.map, doman03.map. Cool stuff.

* Dropped a zero in the versions... pointless zero anyway.

2006-01-13

A new map pack is up. Adds a (very cool I must say) map from deebs. This is how new maps will be distributed in the future. A server should say what date it's map pack originates from, so players know when to download a new map pack.

A New player guide has been added to the page.

A Star player guide has been added to the page.

2006-01-12

XSW 0.015a is up.

This release contains a better Notifier, in this notifier you also see how many other people are using the notifier. Notifier is now in an executable jar file, so no more annoying command prompt window underneath. Just double click on it to run it.

Some graphics have changed slightly, better details on some ships and such.

Added one new map (small sized).

Version 0.015 will still work... but if the server runs the new map it will crash. Grab a patch to upgrade to 0.015a.

2006-01-08

XSW 0.015 is up.

Corrects a bug that could cause the server to hang (end up in endless loop). Also tweaks some ship settings a bit.

2006-01-07

XSW 0.014 is up. This version just corrects a few bugs, mainly bugs related to connecting to the server. Also a new map has been added.

If you still have problems connecting to the master server it might be caused by a blocking firewall. By opening XSW.bat and adding -port ### you can specify which port should be used for communication, then configure your firewall to open that port.

2006-01-06

XSW version 0.013 is finally up! (After 4 months of long waiting). A lot of major changes has been done for this version. Future versions will come more rapidly adding more maps, graphics and other things.

New in this version:

* Maps are used! If you want to create a map, grab the MapEditor, create a map and send it to me and I will add it to the next release.

* The communication protocol between the Server and Client has been rewritten to use UDP instead of TCP. This should reduce lag and now Players can finally host their own servers!

* 2 new cool ships has been added. Thanx go to Samuel Höglund.

* Many stats of existing ships have been tweaked to get the ships more balanced.

* Keys for selecting each weapon can now be configured.

* After a missile type runs out, the next missile type is automatically activated.

* You now get score if a ship is killed by colliding with something immediately after being hit by your missile (before this would render a suicide).

* A small notifier program has been added that notifies you when a player has logged in. (without having to start xsw). run Notifier.bat.

The Mapeditor has been upgraded abit:

* Now large tiles can be integrated on the primary layer, and collisions will work properly.

* By holding shift and using scroll wheel the window scrolls in the vertical direction.

* Right clicking an object with yellow border removes it.

* While hovering over an object it can be moved with the arrow keys.

* Pasting a selection will make it a brush that will be used for painting until ESC is pressed, or another tool or tile is selected.

2005-12-21

The site has undergone some changes. Most important it is now in english. A lot more will change on the site in the future, this is a quick change to allow for a more general test group.

2005-12-20

A MapEditor has (finally) been put up for download. Use it to create maps for the upcoming version of XSW. Any maps/tiles/objects must be sent to me for inclusion in the game.