Hello all,
The latest update to GunColony introduces a new major change to our gun mechanics: Hipfire Recoil. In combination with several improvements to movement and hipfire gameplay, we have completely overhauled our hipfire gameplay and hope to provide a greater variety and skill factor of aggressive playstyles in GunColony. The update also introduces a new map, a new armor type, Competitive mode improvements, a resource pack update, special scenarios, balance changes, and bug fixes.
HIPFIRE RECOIL
In this update, we are adding recoil to all weapons during Hipfire, just like they have when Aiming Down Sights.
A few years ago, we removed hipfire recoil due to the Minecraft 1.14 bug where recoil caused a lag in player movement. Now that the bug has been fixed in Minecraft 1.19.3, we are re-introducing hipfire recoil to the game!
- 120% of recoil and 20% of sway are now applied to weapons in hipfire
- Unlike aiming recoil, all of hipfire recoil always recovers to the initial position
- Hipfire sway only exists while moving, except when using Laser Sight
- Hipfire sway effect is quite low – it is noticeable only with heavy weapons and when sprinting, and generally only provides a cosmetic effect
- Reworked the algorithm to calculate hipfire recoil and sway in order to support the new features and modifiers
- Added modifications which affect the amount of hipfire recoil on all weapons
HIPFIRE ACCURACY REWORK
Due to the new addition of Hipfire Recoil, hipfire accuracy has been increased for most weapons, and other changes have been applied to improve the hipfire experience in GunColony.
- Hipfire accuracy for most weapons has been increased by about 25-40% to account for the addition of Hipfire Recoil
- Bolt-action snipers and all shotguns received no hipfire improvement
- Szecsei, WA2000, and Crossbow received only a slight amount of hipfire improvement
- M82, L39, and Thunder .50 BMG received no improvement
- Dual Berettas received no hipfire improvement, but its vertical recoil has been cut by 20% instead to make its hipfire recoil easier to control
- Jumping Inaccuracy has been reduced by 25% while sprinting (2x -> 1.5x sprint modifier)
- Moving Inaccuracy has been reduced by 18% while sprinting (1.7x -> 1.4x sprint modifier, can be further reduced by a weapon perk)
- These two changes keep weapon movement inaccuracy stats more aligned between the PVP and Competitive modes, as sprinting is only enabled in PVP
- Flamethrower horizontal recoil while spraying reduced by about 40%, due to it now being applied to hipfire as well
- Golden Gun hipfire accuracy increased
- Some high caliber rifles will now gain slightly less spread per shot when hip firing (5-10%), but still a high amount overall
- Due to the base improvement in hipfire accuracy in this update, the Point Shooting perk has been nerfed from 0.3x to 0.35x hipfire spread. Also changed its description to clearly state the amount of benefit it provides
- Added a new modification: Strike Pads
- Available on all weapons, except all Sniper Rifles and pump-action Shotguns, in the Stock category
- Decreases hipfire spread by 30%, including spread increase from shooting
- Causes your shots to go significantly above your crosshair (this is also visible with Laser Sights)
- Due to the gameplay-oriented nature of this modification, it is also available on weapons without a stock
- Provides the best experience when combined with the Point Shooting perk!
COMPETITIVE MODE IMPROVEMENTS
We have added some significant improvements to the Competitive mode to give it extra polish and complement the new improvements to hipfiring.
- Everyone now gains the Point Shooting perk by default in Competitive Mode
- This means that hipfire is much more accurate, as long as the player is standing still
- The round start message now mentions to switch to the Equipment Tablet to buy equipment
- Ammo in the magazine is now properly refilled when a new round starts
- The C4 Finder particle trail towards the bomb now displays from 0.3 blocks lower than your eye location so that it will no longer obstruct your vision
- When holding the C4 Finder, Bomb, or Defuse Kit, you can now right click to find out where bombsites are
- The bombsites will display as blue fire trails
The Counter-Strike inspired scenario in Competitive Mode have been improved:
- The scenario is now called “CS2 Scenario” rather than “Scenario Mode”
- Added the R8 Revolver, MP5SD, and USP-S to the CS2 scenario
- The USP-S has a reduced price, but not zero to prevent players spam-buying it
- Added the new “Strike Pads” modification to all compatible weapons in the CS2 scenario
- The full-auto SIG 556 now has $200 reduced price
NEW MAP: CINDER
Cinder is a new map by James_4007 which takes place in a large medieval mansion. Fight in a sprawling and unique layout, and use parkour and secret areas to gain an advantage! Available in TDM, FFA, and Zombie Siege.
IMPROVED MINECRAFT 1.20.x SUPPORT
We have now improved our support for the newest Minecraft versions.
- GunColony now supports Minecraft 1.20.2 clients
- Minecraft 1.20+ clients can now properly see our custom font characters which previously failed to render
NEW ITEM: SPORT VEST
To improve aggressive gameplay in PVP, we have now added the Sport Vest, which can be equipped instead of body armor. This item is available to all players without needing to unlock, and increases your movement speed by a flat 10%, but does not grant any protection. This is the perfect equipment to pair with inexpensive, lightweight weapons for fast mobility and hipfiring in close-quarters situations.
Note that the Dragonskin perk’s armor upgrades will replace the Sport Vest, and the Sport Vest itself cannot be granted as an upgrade by the Dragonskin perk to another player.
NEW RESOURCE PACK
This update introduced a new resource pack lovingly put together by Herobrine_2143, containing a huge quantity of improvements!
The new resource pack fixes all known issues regarding incorrect model positions, especially on Sci-Fi scenario weapons:
As you can see in the above image, we have also added a new model for the Knife!
The resource pack also contains several new weapon models, which will be added in future updates. It also has negative spacing characters which may become used in a future update.
IMPROVED ACCURACY INDICATOR
This update (re-)introduces an improved Accuracy Indicator experience for players.
Veteran players of GunColony may know that the accuracy indicator underneath the crosshair used to have 32 distinct levels of accuracy in version 1.12 or below. It had been reduced to 16 levels after changes to the Minecraft resource format in 1.13+.
Now, if you play with the latest resource pack, the accuracy indicator has been improved to display 32 levels of accuracy once again by leveraging the new font system in Minecraft, letting you see your current weapon spread with greater detail! This is available on all recommended Minecraft versions from 1.17 – latest, and especially handy if you prefer a static crosshair while hipfiring.
OCTOBER FOOLS
It is October Fools again! The special time of year that we totally didn’t invent just to have April Fools events twice a year and with players not suspecting it, just like changing the link on a rickroll video!
This year, we have brought a few new Scenarios, one of which takes advantage of the new hipfire recoil feature, while the other is just for fun.
- Airsoft Scenario – Instead of GunColony, it is now Airsoft Colony! Use a variety of airsoft guns with authentic behavior and balance. Enemies will be defeated in one hit!
- LaserOnly Scenario – You can no longer aim down sights and must use Laser Sights to aim and defeat the enemy! This scenario is sure to test your familiarity with the new Hipfire Recoil mechanics.
- The Gulag and GhostGulag scenarios have been improved
- Halloween maps & GhostGulag scenario have been brought back because October
DONATION STORE CLOSURE
We have now officially closed our donation store. You can read our full rationale behind the closure on the donation store’s home page. This decision means that there is no monetary way of supporting GunColony for the time being. At our current size we are able to pay for the servers out of pocket for a while.
For the long term, we hope to find other platforms and methods to monetize and support the game. As previously announced, we hope to drastically cut down on hosting expenses through the standalone game’s focus on performance. Our ideal future is one where players should only pay us a fair price and only if they want to, and whenever possible we hope to pour our resources back into supporting the community.
If you already own a donation rank, your perks will still be available, and for the time being they are exclusive to you – other players cannot obtain them for now.
If you still wish to support GunColony, inviting your friends to play and sharing the server online are the best ways to support us! Growing the playerbase lets us experiment with new and cool gamemodes in the future. For example, our builders have built huge maps that we plan to start experimenting with in the larger lobbies.
Due to the removal of the donation store, we have removed the Donation NPC at spawn, and moved the Voting NPC to replace it:
BALANCE CHANGES
Note: does not include changes already mentioned above in the hipfire rework section.
- Thunder .50 BMG: reduced bullet velocity by 10%
- USP: increased spread per shot by 20%
- HK69A1: backup ammo increased from 2 to 4 in PVP
- This makes the weapon a significantly better pick in larger maps, and a good choice in longer-ranged loadouts. It will still not explode at close range, which continues to limit its effectiveness in smaller maps.
- Recoil recovery speed reduced on all pistols by ~15%, and on starter pistols by an additional ~30%
- This makes starter pistols no longer trivially recover all recoil between shots and making their use more skillful, as well as encouraging spending Supply or money on more expensive pistols
- Starter pistols now have the same recovery speed as Magnum Pistols like the Desert Eagle
- Starter pistol description changed to indicate that they reduce recoil recovery speed
DEVELOPMENT PROGRESS UPDATE
As you might remember, a few months ago we announced the development of a standalone game for GunColony. To build towards the release of the game in 2026, we are first focusing on creating a new server-side block game engine called Place.
Our work on this engine started in June 2022. As announced in May this year, we are focused on integrating the engine into the existing GunColony server first, which would allow us to start a migration process to gradually move code from the existing plugins into the Place engine, making them no longer interact with Minecraft code in the process.
We can now announce that we have finished an important first step: we have created a working compatibility layer that allows the Place game engine to be loaded as a Minecraft server plugin. In this update, the Place engine is now loaded in every GunColony server to test its stability and performance in a real-world environment.
At this time, the new engine is not responsible for any game mechanics yet, which means that you will not notice anything in game and it will most likely not break anything if it turns out to not work. (However, the code does contain a partially-implemented player data system, which will kick players if it fails to connect to the database.) Therefore, we can do monitoring to ensure that the engine is fully stable before implementing our next step.
OTHER CHANGES
- Removed “Speed” effect icon on the top right of the screen while aiming down sights
- This results in a more seamless experience during overall gameplay
- All custom GunColony plugins were updated to target Java 17 instead of 16
- This allows the existing plugins to use the Place engine (which targets Java 17) as a dependency
- Added a warning message if you join with a version lower than 1.19.3, telling players to expect movement jittering issues
- The Fort-224 model scale has been increased especially in third person
- Decreased the Smoke grenade disappear duration from bullet damage significantly, and from explosion damage slightly
- Updated the description of HK69A1 and RPG-7 to include the exact ammo count
- Updated the description of armor to include the exact movement speed penalty
- The Dragonskin Perk was modified to not remove a speed modifier from an item if it has a positive modifier (e.g. Sport Vest)
- Removed Overpowered Kill Confirmed limited time playlist
BUG FIXES
- Fixed a bug where the “Trump Wall” boss skill was able to hit Creepers and spawn more Creepers, leading to a chain reaction
- Now it will no longer be able to hit Creepers but can still hit other mobs
- Fixed a bug where items without a rarity (such as body armor) showed in a purple color in the PVP Loadout Customize GUI
