It's been a few months now since we've pushed out a release, and we wanted to assure everyone that we are still alive. The primary developers have been busy and none of us have had much time to devote to the project besides for minor commits here and there. That being said, we have a few things we wanted to make sure got out there, which we think everyone will be excited about!
1) HLstatsX Community Edition 1.6.8 is on the way!
We are looking to finish up the 1.6 branch of HLXCE on a strong note. We know it's been awhile since a package has come out. However, we want to finish up the 1.6 branch and be able to focus on new features. We have been holding back releasing anything until we iron out a few more annoying bugs. We have been actively working on ironing these out and will be letting the beta test group know when we have a test build ready. For those encountering daemon crashes with the Livestats table, we have fixed this in 1.6.8. If you can't wait for the update package, please visit us in irc and we can get you the updated files.
2) HLstatsX Community Edition 1.7.0
With 1.6.8 right around the corner, we are starting our focus on the latest feature-release branch of HLXCE, HLstatsX Community Edition 1.7.0. This version will certainly change the face of HLXCE forever -- literally. We now have a fully customizable and multi-language templating system, and that will be released in the 1.7.0 version of HLXCE! A huge thanks goes out to crayolacrayon for developing a ground-up templating system customized for HLXCE. Combined with some new features that will potentially allow for even faster gamedata updates, 1.7.0 is shaping up to be the most user-friendly version of HLXCE to date. If you're interested in being a beta-tester for 1.7 be sure to join our Google Beta-Testing group. Once we complete the English translation file, we will need help from those fluent in multiple languages to help write translations for other languages. If you're interested please join us on IRC and let us know! We'll make another announcement with the translation files are ready.
3) We've switched to Mercurial for our source code control
Following suit from the Allied Modders group, we've switched from using SVN to Mercurial, or HG. HG suits the project much better than SVN did, as well as the way we prefer to develop (lots of commits to local repositories, then push groups). If you are currently using SVN to get your copy of HLXCE, note that the SVN is still available, however is read-only. No new changes will be made to the SVN site. We're encouraging everyone to switch over to HG. We are still using Google Code as our central, official repository site. If you're curious about the change, or want more details, come stop in our IRC channel.
4) HLXCE + HLSW = WIN!
With the latest version of HLSW you can now easily identify with servers are running HLXCE. Like some of the other ranking systems out there, we now appear right in HLSW under the "Ranking" section for each server. Unlike previous versions of HLSW, no modifications are needed to detect HLXCE enabled servers. Simply update to the latest HLSW and you can see all the servers running HLXCE. Woowoo!
5) Petition to Valve to rethink player attachments
In the 1.0.8.6 TF2 update, Valve blocked the ability of plugin developers to attach items (such as custom hats, weapons, etc) to players using plugins. We realize this is somewhat off topic, however, being developers that enhance and customize the games we love to play, we felt necessary to make mention of an online petition, ran by Voogru to Valve to bring back the ability. As of the time of this writing, we now have over 1500 signatures. We're encouraging all users who appreciate the hard work of plugin developers to sign the petition! Signing of the petition is done using the new Steam ID API, so all you need is a public steam account!
Sign the petition to return the ability to attach items!
Well, that's quite a mouthful -- but that's what has been going on here with the HLX:CE team. We're all alive, but have been very busy. We're starting to pick up momentum now and we're looking forward to getting 1.7 out the door just as quick as we can. Stay tuned, great things are coming down the road shortly!