Steam News20 June 202613d ago

5.820 Multiplayer Intel

Full release notes here. Multiplayer improvements, and improvements to the Necromancer intel menu. 5.

In this update5

Full notes

Full AI War 2 update

Read the full published notes in a cleaner layout. The original post stays linked below.

What changed

1 fix1 addition6 changes1 removal

Gameplay
Performance
Server
Fixes
Store

changedMultiplayer improvements, and improvements to the Necromancer intel menu.

changedMultiplayerFurther improved multiplayer full-resync handling. When a client finishes receiving a full world sync, it now tells the host which simulation frame it loaded through, and the host uses that to more accurately resume from the right point. This should reduce cases where a client finishes a force-sync and is then still treated as much farther behind than it really is.

changedMultiplayerImproved the host's catch-up behavior when a multiplayer client is behind. If the host briefly pauses to let a client catch up, but the client still cannot catch up within the safety timeout, the host now waits before trying another hard catch-up pause. This should avoid repeated hitching/freezing in cases where a client is genuinely struggling or stalled.

changedMultiplayerReduced the amount of heavy network sync data the host sends while it is temporarily holding for a behind client. The host still sends the lightweight frame authorization messages needed for the client to catch up, but avoids repeatedly rebuilding and sending the larger sync payload every render frame during that hold.

fixedMultiplayerFixed a case where newly-joining or still-loading clients could be incorrectly counted as extremely far behind before they had reported any completed simulation frames. This could cause the host to slow down or hold unnecessarily during some multiplayer join/resync situations.

addedMultiplayerRemoved some temporary full-resync diagnostic logging that was added while investigating the recent multiplayer timing issues.

AI War 2 changes

changedMultiplayer improvements, and improvements to the Necromancer intel menu.

changedFurther improved multiplayer full-resync handling. When a client finishes receiving a full world sync, it now tells the host which simulation frame it loaded through, and the host uses that to more accurately resume from the right point. This should reduce cases where a client finishes a force-sync and is then still treated as much farther behind than it really is.

changedImproved the host's catch-up behavior when a multiplayer client is behind. If the host briefly pauses to let a client catch up, but the client still cannot catch up within the safety timeout, the host now waits before trying another hard catch-up pause. This should avoid repeated hitching/freezing in cases where a client is genuinely struggling or stalled.

changedReduced the amount of heavy network sync data the host sends while it is temporarily holding for a behind client. The host still sends the lightweight frame authorization messages needed for the client to catch up, but avoids repeatedly rebuilding and sending the larger sync payload every render frame during that hold.

fixedFixed a case where newly-joining or still-loading clients could be incorrectly counted as extremely far behind before they had reported any completed simulation frames. This could cause the host to slow down or hold unnecessarily during some multiplayer join/resync situations.

Full release notes here.

Multiplayer improvements, and improvements to the Necromancer intel menu.

5.820 Changelog

General

Suppress some harmless ThreadAbort errors

Multiplayer

Further improved multiplayer full-resync handling. When a client finishes receiving a full world sync, it now tells the host which simulation frame it loaded through, and the host uses that to more accurately resume from the right point. This should reduce cases where a client finishes a force-sync and is then still treated as much farther behind than it really is.
Improved the host's catch-up behavior when a multiplayer client is behind. If the host briefly pauses to let a client catch up, but the client still cannot catch up within the safety timeout, the host now waits before trying another hard catch-up pause. This should avoid repeated hitching/freezing in cases where a client is genuinely struggling or stalled.
Reduced the amount of heavy network sync data the host sends while it is temporarily holding for a behind client. The host still sends the lightweight frame authorization messages needed for the client to catch up, but avoids repeatedly rebuilding and sending the larger sync payload every render frame during that hold.
Made full world-sync sends more robust. If the host fails to serialize or send the world during a multiplayer resync, it now restores the client's previous "waiting for world data" state rather than potentially waiting forever for a response to a world packet that was never sent.
Fixed a case where newly-joining or still-loading clients could be incorrectly counted as extremely far behind before they had reported any completed simulation frames. This could cause the host to slow down or hold unnecessarily during some multiplayer join/resync situations.
Removed some temporary full-resync diagnostic logging that was added while investigating the recent multiplayer timing issues.
Cleaned up the experimental Host OnlyAdaptive Frame Budget Under Load feature. The sim performance readout now ignores temporary multiplayer catch-up pacing adjustments, so it better reflects the actual intended simulation budget. The internal adaptive-budget hysteresis now resets more cleanly when paused, in setup, or when the feature is disabled.

Necromancer

More improvements to the Necromancer intel menu

Heart of the Machine 1.0 Is Out Now!

https://steamcommunity.com/games/2001070/announcements/detail/538879349212841215 https://steamcommunity.com/ogg/2001070/announcements/detail/667242081733840048

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2001070/Heart_of_the_Machine/

Source

Steam News / 20 June 2026

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