CHANGES FROM ACTION 1.1b2 TO ACTION 1.5


General Weapon Changes

o Ducking alone (without lasersight) now improves aim.  Previously, it only
helped if you had a lasersight too (we believe this was a bug).  See "Spread
Modifiers" heading for more specific information. 

o Guns now center their fire around your crosshair, rather than an invisible
spot down/right of your crosshair.  

o Players have smaller head regions.  Any shot that would have hit the head in
the old system that doesn't now will instead hit the chest.

o Added support for Akimbo and Sniper Rifle bullet shell ejection, and support
for left handed usage with shell ejection turned on.


Specific Weapon Changes

o M4 Assault Rifle is now less accurate, the original accuracy was due to a bug
in the selection of which random function to call that determined spread.  The
same bug caused it to fire way to the right, and is also gone.

o M3 Super 90 Assault Shotgun now does slightly more damage.  Reloads slightly
faster.

o Sniper Rifle doesn't do the re-chambering sequence when leaving 6X
magnification mode.  Reloads slightly faster.  Lens-changing and firing
behavior improved slightly in some ways.

o Combat Knife remembers what mode it was last in (throwing/stabbing). Also has
improved animation sequence for putting away a knife prepared for throwing.
Doesn't have the old bug where knife becomes unusable for several seconds while
playing random animation frames.  Your last knife now isn't stopped by vests
incorrectly.  Knife slashing damage has been changed.

o M26 Fragmentation Grenade now drops to the ground at your feet if the pin is
pulled and user switches to another weapon or begins bandaging.  Slight
improvement in animation sequence for it dropping from view.

o In teamplay, you now start with a full pistol plus one extra clip
(previously you got no extra clips).


Spread Modifiers:

This section gives the specific details on all the spread modifiers in the
game.  These only apply to the weapons that fire bullets.

(without lasersight) 
Standing: base 
Walking: 2x as much spread
Running: 6x as much spread
Crouching: 35% reduction in spread over standing. 

(laser, compared to standing from above) 
Standing: 30% reduction in spread over standing w/o laser. 
Walking: base (standing from above) 
Running: base 
Crouching: same as crouching w/o the laser 

Burst mode (or semi-auto mode with the pistol) gives an additional 30% spread
reduction to any of the above.

The Sniper Rifle when zoomed (any magnification) is always 100% accurate,
regardless of any of the above.


Item Changes

o Lasersight improves accuracy while standing still and not ducking (makes you
almost as accurate as crouching).  Lasersight provides no benefit to a user who
is also ducking.  (See "Spread Modifiers".)  Lasersight's red dot is
translucent and follows your crosshair more closely.

o Silencer no longer suppresses flashes from Akimbo pistols.

o Bandolier correctly cleans up after itself when dropped.  If server
operator sets "ir" to 1 then the new command "irvision" is available which
toggles on/off infra-red vision while wearing the bandolier.  The new
"tgren" variable can be set by the server operator to a number, and that
many grenades will be given to each player who selects the bandolier in
teamplay (default is 0).  The bandolier now allows you to carry one extra
weapon in teamplay (the normal max carry is now 1 in teamplay, the
previous behavior was a bug).


Existing Command Changes

o "use special" now loops through all available special weapons, ie: if you
have two it will toggle between them.

o "drop special" will discard only one special weapon at a time.  It defaults
to the one you are currently using and then goes through your inventory in this
order: Sniper Rifle, Handcannon, M3 Super 90 Assault Shotgun, MP5/10
Submachinegun, and finally M4 Assault Rifle.  Switches to single pistol if
currently using Akimbo pistols, this is also the way it worked previously.

o "weapon": Knives now remember their last mode correctly.  Live players no
longer hear a "click" when a nearby observer changes their weapon mode.

o "team": Players can now use the "team none" to leave the teams and become a
spectator again in teamplay.


Other Changes/Improvements/New Features

o After dying in teamplay, you remain at the spot you died as an observer,
instead of being moved to a spawn point. 

o When a player enters a server, the default team to join is the one that
currently has less players.

o "sv_roundtimelimit" server variable is now "roundtimelimit", for consistency
with other server variable names.  The "roundtimelimit" feature now uses this
method for determining who won: which team has the most players, if the same,
then which team has the most total health.

o All items (such as ammo) can be dropped, see the README file for exact item
names.

o The new code appears to use a somewhat less CPU when running a server than
1.1b2 did.

o Jumpkick code improved, jumpkicks are more predictable and reliable,
less randomness.

o Location of grenade and item in right-side HUD reversed for a more logical
arrangement.

o New "id" command allows a player to turn off player identification if he
doesn't want it.

o Players can become observers in DM using the standard Q2 "spectator" variable
(spectator 0 or spectator 1).

o Messages from dead players are now visible inbetween end-of-round and the
start of the next round, for end of round chatting.

o MOTD: Server operator can now control how long the MOTD stays up by using the
"motd_time" variable (see README for more info).  Much more info about the
server is now in the MOTD.  If a "motd.txt" file is present in your action
directory, it will be appended to the standard MOTD.  The new "motd" command
allows a player to bring up the MOTD at any time.

o Teams-by-skin and teams-by-model now work in DM (other teamplay features also
work in conjunction with DM teams: radios, partners, etc...)

o New "unpartner" command allows you to break a partnership.

o New unstick system.  The new system is unobtrusive, there is no "unstick"
command and you do not get moved around in any way.  Players remain in the
"transparent" state where they are able to walk through fellow "transparent"
players.  After the "lights, camera" sequence finishes, players are removed
from the "transparent" state as soon as they are free of other team members.
Players can be shot and affected normally by all weapons/items regardless of
"transparent" state.

o When in center-handed mode, you now get an icon at the bottom middle of the
screen of which weapon you are currently using.

o Server operator can use the new "radiolog" variable to turn on logging
of all radio messages to the console. 

o Dead bodies are now removed at the beginning of each teamplay round, this
should allow for more strategy (you can tell who's down) and also remove some
lag (less entities lying around).

o New server variables: "weapons" and "items".  These control the maximum
number of special weapons and items that each player can carry.  "items" always
defaults to 1.  "weapons" defaults to 2 in teamplay, 1 in DM. Special-weapon
carrying is handled more cleanly in teamplay now, a player will always be able
to carry up to 2 special weapons in teamplay, not just his main weapon plus the
first other one he picks up.

o New server variable "knifelimit" allows the server operator to control how
many thrown knives can be lying around on the map at any given time. Default is
40.  This should be lowered if you are having overflow or lag problems when
players are using lots of knives.

o The "allweapon" and "allitem" server variables can be set to 1 in DM or
teamplay to give all weapons and all items to each player at spawn.  If used in
teamplay, normal weapon/item menus etc will not be presented. Defaults on both
are of course 0.

o The new "choose" command allows you to select your special weapon or item in
teamplay, without going through the menus.

o IP banning and flood protection are now supported (see README).

o The "give" (cheats) command has been improved to work better in the Action
environment.

o New "noscore" server variable allows a server operator to disable
individual scores in teamplay. 

o New "nohud" server variable allows a server operator to disable the
standard HUD on his server to record better-looking special demos. 

o New variable substitutions allow you to tell your teammates your current
weapon, item, ammo, and health, as well as which teammates are near you
(see README for a list).


Other Bugs Gone

o Various death message typos and grammar errors corrected.

o Long model/skin names work in action.ini.

o "###" lines are not required at the end-of-sections in action.ini.

o Scoreboards: The main scoreboard now looks decent in 320x240. Scoreboard no
longer gets stuck on your screen when chase-camming. Players' names are no
longer truncated unnecessarily.  More items on the scoreboard are updated in
realtime than before.

o The list of maps in the MOTD is no longer overwritten by the "Hit tab for
team selection menu" message.

o M4/sniper rifle can no longer crash the server when shooting two players that
overlap.

o Random crashes on certain maps (ie cliff, teamjungle, ...) gone.

o Your frags no longer appear as the frags of the person you're observing to
GameSpy, CLQ, etc.

o The item selection screen now always goes away properly after choosing your
item.

o Players hanging in midair at the spawn points, unkillable, will no longer
occur.

o Backdoor commands (testshow, forceend) gone.

o Picking up a gun in teamplay when you start with dual pistols no longer
lowers your total ammo.

o You can establish a new radio partnership when your old partner dies now.

o Dropping and picking back up a handcannon or shotgun no longer results in
ammo loss.


Features No Longer Present

o "noguns" is not currently supported, we have plans for more flexible "weapons
banning" support in the future.
