Notepad++ v8.5.1 Release is available here:
https://notepad-plus-plus.org/news/v851-released/

Notepad++ v8.5.1 bug-fixes and new features:

• Use the new modern shell "Edit with Notepad++" of Windows 11 instead of hijacking "Pin to Quick access".
  
• Update scintilla to 5.3.4 and lexilla to 5.2.4.
  
• Add MS Transact-SQL support.
  
• Add GDScript language support with autocomplete & functionlist.
  
• Fix UDL empty button regression after changing localization.
  
• Add the ability to copy “Find what” to “Replace with”, and vice versa in the Find Replace dialog.
  
• Fix the DocSwitcher RTL problem, and use the edit field instead of a small popup value dialog.
  
• GUI visual enhancement: Fix whole dialog items blink when an item value changes.
  
• Make the tray icon context menu translatable.

For people who have ARM devices, could you test http://download.notepad-plus-plus.org/repository/8.x/8.5.1.RC/npp.8.5.1.Installer.arm64.exe and confirm if the newly added Explorer context menu entry ("Edit with Notepad++") works fine with your Windows 11 ARM64.

Auto-update will be triggered in one week if no critical issue is found.

It sure has been a long time. Sorry about that!
But the mod isn't dead. That's all that matters, right?

Anyway, as promised last time, this is a look at the 8 Heroes of the Dwarfs!
Once again, while Warhammer is the main inspiration, several of the Heroes are characters of my own creation. In the case of the Dwarfs, I leaned a bit on actual Norse mythology for some.

(Note: Ability effects may change as development continues; Some abilities that affect specific enemy types may not be of much use for the moment as their targets aren't in the game yet)



Hreidmar, High King of Kar-Karan








As the current High King of all dwarfs, Hreidmar sits upon the Throne of Power and carries the Great Book of Grudges, which contains all sleights that have ever been dealt to the dwarfs. Faced with the potential fall of his people, Hreidmar has become more open to technological advancements and help from strangers.

Traits and Abilities

• The High King:Dwarf units across the map deal additional damage
  
• Great Book of Grudges: Redcues armor for certain enemies
  
• Anti-Large:Deals additional damage to large units
  
• Causes Fear:Enemy units deal less damage

Reginn, Master Runesmith








The oldest of Hreidmar’s three sons, Reginn is widely known as the greatest living runesmith. So impressive are his skills that even non-dwarfs have sought out his help to forge enchanted weaponry. Yet Reginn rejects these offers, for his work is only meant to help out his own people.

Traits and Abilities

• Wizard: (coming whenever I implement a proper Magic System)
  
• Inspiring Presence:Nearby units deal additional damage
  
• Forgefire:...
  
• Anvil of Doom:... (requires Anvil of Doom Mount)
  
• Causes Fear:Enemy units deal less damage (requires Anvil of Doom Mount)

Mount Progression: Shieldbearers -> Anvil of Doom



Fafnir, The Dragon of Greed








The middle son of Hreidmar, Fafnir is a ruthless warrior who rides into battle upon a ferocious fire drake. He harbors disdain for his father and greed for power, leading him to disregard dwarf traditions. Many suspects he is secretly plotting to usurp the throne, yet none dare to confront him.

Traits and Abilities

• Flaming Attacks:Deals additional damage to flammable units
  
• Inspiring Presence:Nearby units deal additional damage
  
• Dragon’s Breath:Nearby units gain Flaming Attacks

Mount Progression: Drake



Otr, Grand Admiral of Kar-Vanar








The youngest of Hreidmar’s three sons, Otr may be the greatest seafarer in dwarf history and thus rules Kar-Vanar, the biggest dwarven port. During a naval battle with Norse raiders, Otr lost his left arm. Thankfully, he was given a mechanical prosthetic, and so he continued his battles on the sea.

Traits and Abilities

• Inspiring Presence:Nearby units deal additional damage
  
• Advanced Calibrations: Nearby artillery gains increased accuracy
  
• Master of the Sea:Naval units deal additional damage

King Goldemar, True King of the Seven Peaks








Long ago, the Seven Peaks were claimed by hordes of goblins and ratmen. Yet the royal family managed to survive in exile, leading to their last heir: King Goldemar. As the last of his line, he is determined to reclaim his rightful throne and return it to its former glory, no matter the cost.

Traits and Abilities

• One True King: ...
  
• Reclaimer of the Dark:...
  
• Vermin Killer: Deals additional damage to ratfolk

Mount Progression: Shieldbearers



Udo, The Slayer King of Kar-Muspa








Udo is the king of Kar-Muspa, a keep whose rulers are forced to take up the slayer’s vow. Forced to both fulfill his royal duty and honor his vow, Udo is left quite conflicted and struggles to do both. Still, he hopes to finally die an honorable death and end the burden that has haunted his family line.

Traits and Abilities

• Slayer King:Slayers across the map deal additional damage
  
• Dragon’s Cloak:Nearby units gain Fire armor
  
• Anti-Large:Deals additional damage to large units

Mad Mumkai, Slayer Engineer








Mad Mumkai was once a thriving engineer whose inventions kept ending in terrible accidents, each leaving him as the lone survivor. To atone for this, he was forced to take up the slayer’s vow. But this didn’t stop him from creating, his newest work being the infamously ludicrous Goblin Hewer.

Traits and Abilities

• Lone Survivor: Mumkai spawns by himself if the Hewer is defeated
  
• Anti-Large:Deals additional damage to large units
  
• Goblin Hewer:Deals additional damage to goblins

Grim God’s Wrath, The Thunderbarge








Thunderbarges are the pinnacle of dwarven engineering. Unfortunately, they have yet to be perfected, and so there are few of them in use. The Grim God’s Wrath is currently the most promising of these vessels and could very well turn the tides for dwarf kind, leading them to a brighter future.

Traits and Abilities

• Marvel of Engineering:Nearby units deal additional damage
  
• Causes Fear:Enemy units deal less damage
  
• Flight:Able to cross every terrain

And that concludes the Heroes of the Dwarfs!
Once again, the individual abilities may still be tweaked as I continue working on the mod.
Next up will be a detailed look at the Heroes of the Orcs and Goblins.
(Hopefully, that one won’t take quite this long...)

See you then!

Hello guys!

I hope you all enjoyed the beta version of Vermins of Dune I released last month. Since that, I have worked on polishing the already existing content, and my estimates are

Vermins of Dune 1.0.0 will arrive before July (hopefully much sooner)



Balance
One of my focuses now will be to make the faction more balanced. I'll appreciate any help on that. Please write down in the comments how you think the balance can be improved.



Upcoming Changes


Installer
According to your feedback, the installer for some of you couldn't download game files, which prevented a successful game installation. To tackle this problem, I added an additional mirror for game data, and the mirror list is now stored on GitHub.

Also, we now finally have an installer for the Linux version!

Visuals
Several sprite polishes will also arrive in 1.0.0.

• Smoother Radar Animation for Outpost
  
• Polish for Palace Sprite
  
• Loading Screen image will feel slightly less flat

Breaking Change
Custom map folder is now relocated to d2k_smugglers/1.0.0 instead of d2k/{DEV_VERSION}

Other
The update will also include some minor fixes, like polished encyclopedia entries.



For those of you that want the freshest news the soonest, this changelog is continuously updated. Please note as this changelog is updated more frequently, it might contain some nonfinal statements.

GitHub Copilot has become a trusted AI-assisted pair programmer helping to auto-complete comments and code more productively. That’s just the beginning, though! We’ve been working to evolve Copilot to move beyond code completion and provide enhanced AI assistance that you can access throughout your development lifecycle, whatever task you happen to be doing at the time.

Copilot chat in Visual Studio
We’re bringing fully integrated AI-powered Copilot chat experiences to Visual Studio. This is no ordinary chat! With tight integration in Visual Studio, it understands what you’re working on. That means it can quickly help you get in-depth analysis and explanations of how a code block works, generate unit tests, and even find and get proposed fixes to bugs or explain exceptions. Check out the video below to see what we mean. And this is just the start.  Watch out for more AI assistance across your whole lifecycle as we continue to develop Copilot. Already excited? Sign up for the private preview below.





With GitHub Copilot chat, if you find yourself needing more information, you can ask it to explain the code you’re working on. When you hit an error, ask Copilot to help fix it and generate unit tests. If an exception gets thrown, ask Copilot to help you figure out possible causes and even suggest fixes. By gathering the right data from Visual Studio, Copilot grasps your intent and helps you form exactly the right question to get useful answers. Using GitHub Copilot with Visual Studio gives you more time for creativity by spending less time on boilerplate manual tasks and diagnosis.

Sign up for the private preview

We’ll be sharing GitHub Copilot Chat for Visual Studio with a private preview soon – just sign up to be wait-listed.

This update introduces Zeno, the 5th missile for the Missile Silo, which homes onto a target, hits it for a massive dose of slow damage, and then leaves lingering slow in the surrounding area. Another major change is an increase in general unit visibility via a few nerfs for area cloakers. As usual, there are a few months of fixes, features and, contrary to the title, performance improvements.

New Missile
Added Zeno, a homing slow damage missile built in the Missile Silo.

• Has significant range, equal to Quake.
  
• Homes onto its target.
  
• Deals 10k slow damage to a single target.
  
• Interacts with shields similarly to Eos, as 10k slow damage is 3333 damage to a shield.
  
• Leaves a large area of lingering slow damage for 30 seconds.

Cloak Fields
Many players felt that cloak was a bit too prevalent and that whether to use it lategame wasn't much of a choice. We address this with a few targeted nerfs to area cloak. Most notably, Cornea has a directional cloak field rather than a huge bubble, and larger armies are slower to cloak. The latter is implemented with the new cloak rate mechanic.

• Area cloakers now apply cloak at a set rate, starting with units closest to the centre of the bubble.
  
• Cloak rate is in terms of mass per second, and only spent on units that are ready to cloak.
  
• For reference, Bandit has 90 mass, Lance about 300, Dante about 800, and Detriment about 2400.
  
• Cloak can still be maintained on any number of units.
  
• Units with personal cloak are unaffected. They don't wait to be cloaked, and don't spend cloak rate that could be used on other units. This includes units that cloak while stationary.

Cornea cloaks a much smaller area, but the area can be moved with Fire Special Weapon (D).

• Jamming range 550 -> 600
  
• Cloak field range 550 -> 400
  
• Can shift the centre of its cloak bubble up to 200 elmos away
  
• Has a cloak rate of 1200 mass/s

Iris has a small range reduction and cloaks at a slower rate than Cornea.

• Cloak field  range 400 -> 360
  
• Jamming range 400 -> 360
  
• Has a cloak rate of 800 mass/s

Commander Area Cloak loses a similar amount of cloak range and has the same cloak rate.

• Cloak field range 350 -> 320
  
• Jamming range (with cloak field module) 350 -> 320
  
• Has a cloak rate of 800 mass/s

Conjurer is the most efficient cloaker in terms of cloak rate per cost.

• Has a cloak rate of 600 mass/s

Balance
Puppy now leaves wrecks and debris when killed, but not when it hits a target. Previously it left nothing.

Imp now only barely "makes cost" against a lone Scorcher.

• Cost 120 -> 125

Snitch costs a bit more to spam.

• Cost 160 -> 170

Cyclops slowbeam had a bug that made it do 3x the intended damage to shields.

• Slowbeam damage to shields 2000 -> 666

Hercules can reach the ground and lift everything.

• Fixed a weapon bug that caused its laser to not reach ground units while cruising.
  
• Can now transport Shogun and Reef.

Advanced Radar is a bit too good after its cost reduction from 500.

• Cost 400 -> 450

Maps and Campaign

• Added Zeno to planet Nataa (the Missile Silo mission).
  
• Tweaked planet Mstaras (the Gunship Factory mission) to be a bit easier on difficulties below Brutal.
  
• Added startboxes for Angel Crossing, Calamity v1.1 and Supreme Crossing V2.
  
• The "Sun, Fog & Water" map tweaking tool now loads its defaults from map settings.
  
• Added shadow density to "Sun, Fog & Water" map tweaking tool.
  
• Added compatibility for more metal layout standards.
  
• Removed map fog by default. This is the type that was visible when zoomed out.
  
• Tweaked the lighting and water settings on a few maps.

Graphics and Interface

• Reordered battles in the multiplayer lobby to put empty autohosts below running games.
  
• Build spacing UI has more options, found under "Settings/Interface/Building Placement".
  
• Added a contrast adaptive sharpening shader. It can be enabled under Settings/Graphics/Effects with "Sharpening".
  
• Added notable death explosion to ingame unit help menu (accessed via space+click).
  
• Added better support for flipping the minimap, which is useful when used with a flipped camera.
  
• Added a widget that displays map info like a label on a painting. Disabled by default.
  
• Fiddled with the way line of sight adds to radar. This unlocks more ways to customise radar coverage.
  
• Tweaked war and peace detection to spend a bit more time playing peace music.
  
• Fixed slight visual misalignment when Missile Silo launches missiles.

Fixes

• Improved performance of game mechanics that handle orders.
  
• Fixed significant framerate drop (with certain settings) caused by many multi-weapon striders firing at once.
  
• Fixed kicking a spectator sometimes causing a player to resign.
  
• Fixed X-Ray shader issues on some hardware.
  
• Fixed a rare bug with jumpjet behaviour.
  
• Fixed a rare crash in the tab playerlist.
  
• Fixed missing text on shield charge bars.
  
• Blitz description no longer mentions its old EMP death explosion.

Level Up Your Productivity
With Visual Studio 2022, our goal is to help you get more done in less time throughout all your development tasks inside the IDE. In this Preview, we’re introducing enhancements to make your Git, debugging/diagnostics, and C++ editing workflows more efficient.

Git Stage and Commit During Build
We responded to customer feedback, and you can now stage your changes and commit your staged items during a build. Committing directly is a risky operation since your files may change, but now you can stage them, verify your files are correct and commit them – all while a build is running.

Improved Merge Dialog
Updates to our Merge Dialog make it easier to understand how many files are being affected by the merge operation and warn you if there might be conflicts. You also have more control over when you’d like automatically commit your changes after the merge.



Breakpoint groups
The breakpoint groups feature allows users to simplify the debugging process by organizing breakpoints into specific groups and managing them as a single entity, making debugging, testing, and troubleshooting more efficient.

Navigate to the “New” dropdown in the breakpoints window and select “Breakpoint Group” to create a new group for your breakpoints.

To add a breakpoint to an existing group, right-click the breakpoint and choose “Add to Breakpoint Group”. You can also drag and drop the breakpoint into the desired group. These breakpoint groups can be enabled, disabled, and deleted. The breakpoints can be toggled individually or in combination as needed.

Instrumentation Profiling for C++
The Visual Studio Instrumentation tool now supports C++ code, providing improved performance analysis. To access the instrumentation tool, go to Debug > Performance Profiler and select “Instrumentation” from the Profiler window that appears.

The Instrumentation Data View presents a list of functions ordered by longest-running, making it easier to identify potential bottlenecks. Additionally, the Hot Path section displays the call stack for the functions that are consuming the most CPU, providing further insight into performance issues.



To learn more about Instrumentation, check out Instrumentation in Visual Studio on Microsoft Learn.

Profiler Live Graph for .NET on WSL
The Visual Studio profiling tools now also support live graphs while collecting from dotnet-monitor for WSL. The WSL live metrics are available for .NET object allocation, CPU usage, and the .NET counter tool.

While the tool is initially collecting data from dotnet-monitor for WSL, you can see the real-time graphing for live counter information. Then you can stop collecting and see detailed breakdown views of memory allocation, call trees, functions, collections, and other related data.



Microsoft Learn has more information about Analyzing memory usage for .NET objects.

Create C++ Member Function
Create Member Function is a feature that can help you quickly add C++ constructors and equality operators. When you have a class with fields, three dots will appear under the class name, and hovering over them will display a screwdriver icon. The drop-down from the screwdriver icon will display the new member function suggestions. Thus, you can add a default constructor, constructor with all fields, equality operator, and equality operator with all fields.

The example below shows how a constructor with all fields and an equality operator with all fields can be added. The operator’s Go to def is also displayed.

Streamline Game Development
We’ve also been working tirelessly to ensure that Visual Studio is a great tool for building games, whether you are a single-developer indie game creator or working on a AAA title. 17.6 Preview 2 includes more improvements that help you build better games faster.

Unreal Engine Code Analysis
You can now see warnings and errors from the Unreal Header Tool directly in Visual Studio. Available as a preview feature, the Unreal Header Tool emits warnings and errors while parsing Unreal-related C++ headers. You can find these warnings in the Error List as well as see them visually denoted by purple squiggles in your editor. For more information about these warnings and errors, please visit the Unreal Header Tool Documentation page.



To try this feature, make sure the “IDE support for Unreal Engine” is selected in the “Game development with C++” workload in the Visual Studio Installer.



Since this is a preview feature, we would greatly appreciate it if you leave feedback by commenting in Code Analysis Feedback ticket. We plan on adding additional Unreal Engine-specific code analysis in the upcoming previews. Stay tuned!

HLSL Tools Extension by Tim Jones
HLSL (High-Level Shading Language) is a DirectX-specific programming language used to create shaders in game development and rendering applications. The popular HLSL Tools extension by Tim Jones is now available as part of Visual Studio. Power up your HLSL development productivity with syntax highlighting, statement completion, go to definition, and more!



To use HLSL Tools, please enable the component in the “Game development with C++” or “Game development with Unity” workload in the Visual Studio Installer.



.NET Mobile Development
Android Manifest Editor
You can now use a visual editor for modifying Android manifest files. Double-click on your AndroidManifest.xml file from the Solution Explorer and easily set available properties and request device-specific permissions.



To learn more, check out Working with the Android Manifest on Microsoft Learn.

Enterprise Management
Administrators want to properly enable, configure, and deploy Visual Studio within their organization. In this release, we’re continuing to make improvements with two new features described below. Watch this space for more to come.

Host and Deploy Visual Studio layouts from your intranet
Many companies that want to tightly control the Visual Studio version their organizations use or whose client machines don’t have access to the internet currently have the option to download and store Visual Studio in a “layout” that is made available via a file network share for their developers to install and update from. Starting with Visual Studio 2022 version 17.6 Preview 2, organizations will now be able to host and deploy layouts on an intranet website in addition to a file share. Using an intranet location can simplify layout maintenance and improve installation performance, particularly for those organizations that currently use multiple global network file shares. The scenario is currently targeted for IT Administrators to remotely deploy from. Please visit the feedback site to view guidance for how to enable this experience and let us know if there’s any functionality missing that you would need.

Limit exposure to available products in the Installer
We’ve updated the logic that controls what products are offered as available when you view the Visual Studio Installer’s “Available” tab. You should now have easy access to current Previews, as well as the ability to restrict exposure to certain products by disabling channels or using the new “HideAvailableTab” policy to disable the available tab altogether.

Features:

• Chapters 4 and 5 of the single-player campaign.
  
• Many improvements to existing missions.
  
• Added co-op variants of Duality and Containment.
  
• Increased the variety of unit types AI uses to attack within the campaign.
  
• Restored old color picker to allow darker colors.
  
• New music track, Recon Remix.

Balance:

• Concussion applies -25% speed and -50% rate of fire reduction (instead of -45% speed and -33% rate of fire) - affects (H)MLRS Hammerhead Missiles, Sniper, Siege Tank, Aurora, Sonic Tower, MAD Tank.
  
• Reduced (H)MLRS damage vs. heavy armor. Reduced turret turn rate. Reduced AA range, projectile speed, and maximum tracking range.
  
• Increased Hypersonic missile accuracy.
  
• Increased Hailstorm missile damage vs. buildings/defenses.
  
• Increased Mothership main weapon damage (and improved visual effects).
  
• Increased Tank Destroyer damage vs. light armor.
  
• Reduced rearm times for all aircraft.
  
• Increased Hind/Apache/Venom/Longbow/Orca/Comanche vision by 1.
  
• Increased range of Hind/Apache/Venom by 0.5.
  
• Reduced reload time for Nighthawk Cryo Missiles.
  
• Reduced cost of Heavy Flame Tank from 1100 to 1000. Increased speed slightly.
  
• Increased Flame Tank speed slightly.
  
• Reduced Rocket Soldier AA auto attack range by 1 (halfway between the two previous values).
  
• Increased Enlightened EMP duration from 6s to 10s. Increased splash damage.
  
• Increased JumpJet range slightly.
  
• Yuri/Mastermind gain experience from slaves, gain +1 capacity per veterancy level, and +1 range when elite. They can now release slaves by right-clicking them.
  
• Reduced Intruder damage vs. heavy armor slightly.
  
• Use TankBuster damage type for Snipers (reduced damage vs. non-tank heavy units, increased vs. tanks).
  
• Increased Veil of War cooldown from 3 minutes to 4 minutes. Reduced radius slightly.
  
• Reduced the "veiled" debuff effect from 50% range reduction to 20% (Veil of War, Gap Generators). Direct gap generator beam applies 40% range reduction.
  
• Increased XO range and damage vs. heavy armor slightly.
  
• Increased range of base IFV by 1.
  
• Increased range of rocket IFV by 0.5.
  
• Increased range of Raider APC by 1.
  
• Increased Vulcan range by 0.25.
  
• Increased Darkener Tank turn rate and turret turn rate.
  
• Frenzied units no longer take increased damage, but after frenzy wears off, they have reduced speed and rate of fire for 10 seconds
  
• Gryo Stabilization buff no longer affects Titan missiles. Effects of the buff reduced by 25% (so +75% range, +75% reload time, down from 100%).
  
• Thief no longer slowed by Heavy Hazmat Suits upgrade.
  
• Reduced Tripod/Reaper Tripod speed slightly.
  
• Increased Tesla Tank range by 0.5.
  
• Increased Leecher price from 900 to 950. Reduced speed slightly.
  
• Reduced V2 price from 900 to 800.

Fixes/Misc:

• Fixed AI stopping all production on Easy/Normal difficulty. Improved low cash handling.
  
• Fixed Spectre being replaced by Howitzer when repaired.
  
• Fixed LSTs built by the player in mission 5 being uncontrollable.
  
• Fixed crash in mission 11 caused by destroying Nod Airstrip before the southern base is cleared.
  
• Make walls other than concrete/biometallic no longer block projectiles.
  
• Fixed Grenadiers/Engineers standing with their arms in the air.
  
• Lowered selection priority of Mobile Sensor and Mobile Stealth Generator.