Well, it's here. I sure hope I didn't forget anything

This is *not* a daily build, this is an official release. As such, it can be found on our download page, not on the front page (where you might be used to seeing it). I'm taking the Daily build section down, to prevent confusion.

Here are the notes for this version.

=======ALPHA BUILD 0.4.0.000=========================
A new build has been made available, and can be found at http://www.rjcyberware.com/ (go to the download page) . You will need an unzipper program to decompress the program files.

Version 0.4.0.000 Build / Designer Notes:

1) Bug Fix: Cities will now always collect resources as appropriate.
--Previously, a city might or might not collect resources from a resource icon, even when it was in range. It will now do so in all cases.

2) City Names will now appear on the resource information panel.
--When a resource Icon is highlighted, and is currently being mined by a city, the name of the city will appear.

3) Stack scroll buttons on the stack info panel are now functional.
--Using the left or right arrow buttons on this panel will cycle though all available stacks, centering them on the map.

4) Bug Fix: Stacks and Cities in unexplored areas will no longer appear on the map.

5) Stack Order menu dots will now only appear for stacks that belong to the current player.
--No more telling enemy stacks to found cities

6) Diplomacy screen designed.
--The screen can be accessed via the "Mail" button on the message panel. Alas, the screen is still not functional, but at least you can see it.

7) Bug Fix: Component costs and Unit Template costs will now appear correctly on the Item description panel
--In the Unit Workshop screen, the item description panel was using an old system. It has been updated, and now dispalys costs correctly.

8) Bug Fix: Corrected an AV error on game open.
--If there were no stacks do display, an AV error would occur when the game was started. This is no longer the case.

9) Bug Fix: Stack names will now be correctly named.

10) Cost Lists are now displayed on the city screen.
--Whenever you click on an item in the production queue, you will get a list of how much it costs. Designs will show total costs. Items in the actual queue will show how many resources remain to complete the item.

11) Partial Production is now functional.
--If an item in the production queue cannot be completed by your city due to lack of resources, it will be completed as much as possible, leaving remaining amounts to future turns.

12) Several AV errors were fixed on game open.
--If no resources are shown on the main map, the game would display an AV error. This is no longer the case.

13) Production queue items may be moved up and down the list.
--Allows you to change the priority of items in your queue. Use the up/down arrows on the city production panel.

14) Adjustments were made to most Unit Template costs, as well as several template components.

15) Bug Fix: AV error fixed when picking a stack
--On certain ocassions, attempting to highlight a stack would cause an error. This is no longer the case.

16) Specific Leaders and Units may now be moved into and out of a city.
--Previously only entire groups could be moved in or out of a city. You may now move them individually as desired.

17) Technology restrictions have been restored
--This includes Unit Templates, Unit Components, and Resource Icons. If you don't have the required tech, you won't get to use these items. Start researching...

========The Next Build============
The formats of future builds will change slightly. If games begin to be played (and I know of at least one that is starting ), we will allow the next few build items be driven by player requests for improvement of the game. I do, however, intend to give some priority to the Diplomacy screen, and Combat will be coming very shortly.

The Daily Builds section has now been retired. All future releases (and patches) will be on our download page.

========Other Notes==============
A text file has been provided with this build. This is sort of a mini-tutorial on how to set up and play a game. If you are unfamiliar with how to play MD, or how PBEM games work, please read over this file.

Note that it is possible to create a stack which has no units or leaders in it (from the city screen, move units in the city out to the map, then pull them back into the city). The (now empty) stack will now appear outside the city. I recommend against doing this, for if you click on an empty stack, you will get an error, and this will cause you to be unable to click on *all* stacks, even full ones. I'm working on this bug. For now, just avoid this situation, and don't create an empty stack. If you do, don't click on it!

With this release, multiplayer games are now an option! Single player games are still a little ways off (we're working on it!). If you begin a game, let me know how it goes. And send in any requests you have for improvement of the game. If something about the play of the game really bugs you, send me a note! Your input is critical to us at this stage.

This build's game files are *not* compatable with previous versions of the game, so you must create a new game rather than try to load older game files. A four player game has been provided with the download. Note that from now on, I will make every attempt to keep game files compatable with previous versions, in order to avoid disrupting ongoing games. I can't make any promises, but I will do my best!

Enjoy!

Not many new play features in this one. This is mostly a bug fix patch.

If you have a current game in progress and you do nothing else, *read the first part of this message before you patch*. It is entirely possible to wreck your current game if this is done improperly.

================================================
How to Patch if you have a game in progress:

If you are playing in a multiplayer game - Players should run their current turns and save using the old version (0.4.0.000). Send this file to the host. The host should first upgrade to the new version(0.4.0.024), and then generate the turn. Send the players their new turn files. Before opening the new turn, players should upgrade to the new version.

If you are playing a single player game - You should do the same as above, though you may skip the bits about sending files out There is a new shortcut for single player games, see below.

By using this method, current games in progress should continue to run without compatability problems.
=============================================

Here are the notes for this version.

=======ALPHA BUILD 0.4.0.024=========================
A new build has been made available, and can be found at http://www.rjcyberware.com/ (go to the download page, 1728 KB) . You will need an unzipper program to decompress the program files.

Also available is a patch (at the same place, 635 KB). This is a self extracting patch. Download the file into the same directory as the game, and run it to update to the new version.

Version 0.4.0.024 Build / Designer Notes:

1) A Host screen memory leak was plugged.
--After every turn generation, the host screen would leak about 20MB! This has been fixed.

2) Host screen display will now update properly after a turn generation.
--Previously, after generating, the screen would display the current turn as -1 and the next turn as 0. It would also not update the player status'. Both of these errors have been corrected.

3) Multiple game turns may now be generated without leaving the host program.
--Previously it was necessary to exit to the splash screen in between generates to reset the program. This is no longer the case.

4) The host screen will now poll the save directory for save game files.
--This means you can leave the host file open. When a save file is placed in the directory, it will automatically be detected and loaded without having to leave the screen.
*********NOTE: The combination of the above 4 items leads to a nice shortcut for hosts in blitz style games, or those playing single player games. See the end of this post for more details.

5) Bug Fix: Fixed technology restrictions on unit templates.
--There was a bug which could allow players to partially ignore the technology restrictions on unit templates, designing units they otherwise would not have the required research to build. This is no longer the case.

6) Positioning of some techs in the General Tech Tree were adjusted for more clarity.

7) Bug Fix: Fixed an AV error that could occur when opening a player save file by the host screen.
--If a player had units or leaders in a city, but no production items, this could have caused an AV error. This is no longer the case.

8) Bug Fix: Fixed several problems with Stack <-> City unit transfers.
--Units should now transfer back and forth between cities and stacks with no problems.

9) Stack Info Panel will now update after exiting the City and Unit design screen.
--It is possible to change the composition of a stack from both of these screens, so the main screen panel is now updated when leaving either of them.

10) Enemy Design Lists (on the Unit Workshop Screen) will now show Civilization names rather than player numbers.

11) Units will now be deleted when a design is deleted.
--If a unit exists which is based on a design that the player deletes, the unit will also be deleted. If active units of a design exist, the player will be asked to confirm the deletion.

12) Several spelling and grammatical errors were fixed.
--Thanks to all the players pointing them out. I'm sure it won't be the last time Keep pointing them out, guys!

13) The Research Ponit costs of technologies were adjusted.
--Almost every one of them were brought down. Only one went up.

14) The message screen continues to evolve.
--Still not functional yet, but very close now....

=======A Shorcut for Single Player and Blitz Style Games======
If you are playing one of these two types of games, you know that the longest wait is when you are loading a host file. There is now a way to load the host file and leave it open while you play, bypassing this lengthy load time.

Start the game and open your host file. Now, leaving this open, start *another* instance of the game (so you now have the program running twice). Load your play file in the second instance. Play, save, and exit to the splash screen. Now switch over to the other instance. You will see the host screen tell you your save file has been received. Generate the turn,
and switch back over to the game instance. Reload the play file. You can continue to do this as long as you like.

========Other Notes==============
A text file has been provided with this build. This is sort of a mini-tutorial on how to set up and play a game. If you are unfamiliar with how to play MD, or how PBEM games work, please read over this file.

Enjoy!

First off, I want to thank our Alpha testers. Their input has been invaluable in producing our first two patches since the release of the Alpha version. Keep up the good work guys!

This is a pretty short one, only 6 items, four bug fixes and two new features! But what they lack in quantity, they make up for in quality. The two new features are big ones.

================================================
How to Patch if you have a game in progress:

There were no major changes to the file system which would cause any problems with this release. All files from version 0.4.0.024 are completely compatable with 0.4.0.065. You may feel free to update your game in any order without worry of corrupting the files.
=============================================

Here are the notes for this version. The format for these release notes are as follows:
1) A brief description of the change/fix.
-- Where needed, a brief discussion of how this change affects new games.
** A discussion on how this change will affect ongoing games, if different than new games.

=======ALPHA BUILD 0.4.0.065=========================
A new build has been made available, and can be found at http://www.rjcyberware.com/ (go to the download page, 1744 KB) . You will need an unzipper program to decompress the program files.

Also available is a patch (at the same place, 537 KB). This is a self extracting patch. Download the file into the same directory as the game, and run it to update to the new version.

Version 0.4.0.065 Build Notes:

1) Bug Fix: Fixed an AV error on the city screen.
-- Previously, if you clicked on the left/right arrows which cycle through the production queue, it could produce an AV error under certain circumstances. This has been corrected.

2) Feature Improvement: Main map resolution has been increased.
-- The texture surface for the main map previously was one very large surface. This was causing problems with certain video cards, and prevented us from implementing better looking maps. The texture has now been split into several smaller parts. We have also doubled the resolution of the map using an upsampling method, allowing the play files to remain the same size. This causes a slight delay in game opening, as a few seconds (~5) are required to upsample the map texture. In addition, you may note visible seams on the map where the texture parts fit together. We are working on this, and will have it corrected soon.

3) Bug Fix: City production queues will no longer default into the first city.
-- After a turn generation, all player city's production queues and completed production were erroniously being moved into the player's first city. This is no longer the case.
** For ongoing games, it will take a couple of turns for the host program to sort this problem out. On the first turn after the host patches, you will see your production shifted into your first city as previously. After the *next* turn, however, you should see proper production taking place.

4) Bug Fix: Units will no longer be duplicately named.
-- In some cases, units could share the same name (ie you might end up with two Hominid 4's). This is no longer the case.
** For ongoing games, previously named units will not be renamed, so you may still see name duplicates. However, newly produced units (from the point
after your host patches) will be correctly named.

5) Bug Fix: Unit costs on the city production screen will now display the proper values.
-- Newly placed units into a city production could, under some conditions, show improper costs (ie 654324543 of 5 Production Points, etc). This is no
longer the case.

6) New Feature: The city screen now displays an overview map, marking the locations of player cities with a red dot.
-- To help players know which city they are currently working with, an overview world map has been provided. Cities belonging to the player are marked on the map with a small red dot. The currently selected city will show a bigger dot than other city markers.

========Other Notes==============
A text file has been provided with this build. This is sort of a mini-tutorial on how to set up and play a game. If you are unfamiliar with how to play MD, or how PBEM games work, please read over this file.

===============================
That's it for this one. Hopefully that will be the last of our problems with units moving between cities unexpectedly.

There are a whole host of things I want to work on for the next patch. Improving the resolution of the movement lines, multiple stacks outside of
cities, right clicking on the map to get a menu of stacks/cities, and player-to-player messaging, and improvement of the movement AI routines are the current big ones I'm focused on. With any luck, the number of serious bugs in the game has now been reduced to a level where I can start to think about new features again

See you then.

But some observations:

- PBEM

This is a very strange way to start. Even PBEM players like to learn the game in SP and then "advance" to PBEM.

- zoom levels

Was it my settings or is map small?
And I dont think you need all that zoom out, more zoomed in start would be better (IMHO)

- simulataneous turns

Excellent. Err, can I read more about it somwhere? Conflict resolution and such?

Thats about it. I think RPG elements are a strongpoint of MD, but I dont like to play RPG, actually the only ones I played were Fallout 2 (the greatest game ever, next to civ ) and diablo 2 which was a disaster I erased after half a game ). But Leaders and stuff are good to see back in the genre...

If I was you I would advertise the game among the Master of Magic crowd (and bend it towards that more) more then space conquest people (although the groups probably overlap )

grpahichs you have are honestly nothing much, but Star Empires IV has MS Paint graphics and people swear on its gameplay - in this genre, graphics is not much for an established brand, but may help us new hopes to gain a market.

quote: Originally posted by VetLegion on 02-01-2001 04:51 PM - PBEM This is a very strange way to start. Even PBEM players like to learn the game in SP and then "advance" to PBEM.

Single player requires computer opponents. You want to write the AI for that?

The computer player AI is going to be one of our biggest challenges, as it will have to make very sophisticated decisions to keep competitive with the human players. It will be neural net based. Fortunately, we have another AI that will handle combat that is a bit simpler, but uses the same kind of techniques. I'm going to use that one to practice before I try to take on the much tougher computer player AI routines.

The combat AI is in the coding phase right now, and I've already become much more aware of how the techniques will and won't work for the computer players, so I think we are using the right method. Start with a small AI, then do the monster one

So, while single player will come, you won't see a real computer opponent until we get near the end of the Alpha phase.

quote: - zoom levels Was it my settings or is map small? And I dont think you need all that zoom out, more zoomed in start would be better (IMHO)

Yeah, I've gotten this comment a couple of times. It's a play balance issue, and the movement rates and scanning ranges will be adjusted as our testing moves forward. We have a lot of playbalancing to do, in a bunch of areas, and that's one of em.

quote: - simulataneous turns Excellent. Err, can I read more about it somwhere? Conflict resolution and such?

I haven't really written anything on it all in one place. Any written comments I've made would be scattered across usenet. But if you have specific questions or comments, I can answer them directly.

quote: Thats about it. I think RPG elements are a strongpoint of MD, but I dont like to play RPG, actually the only ones I played were Fallout 2 (the greatest game ever, next to civ ) and diablo 2 which was a disaster I erased after half a game ). But Leaders and stuff are good to see back in the genre...

The leaders are our biggest RPG element, since they are player trainable in various skills. I like the system, since it gives the game a bit of a personality it wouldn't otherwise have. Imagine running a civ with leaders based on the characters in Tolkien, or The Wheel of Time, or from an actual historical period here on Earth (with your cities named appropriately, of course).

The idea behind the leaders is for them to develop a sort of reputation, not only for the controlling player, but for the other players as well. A stack with 30 swordsmen might not be such a big deal for the defenses of your city, but the same stack with Mat Cauthon in it could be a whole different matter. Especially if you've run up against him before!

quote: grpahichs you have are honestly nothing much, but Star Empires IV has MS Paint graphics and people swear on its gameplay - in this genre, graphics is not much for an established brand, but may help us new hopes to gain a market.

First rule of game programming - Never sacrifice playability for realism.
Second rule - Don't allow lack of graphics to hold up programming. Where needed, use prototype or temporary graphics until the real graphics are ready.

That's what you are seeing in many cases, the prototype graphics. Don't worry, it'll get prettier, it's just not a real high priority right now. I'm after functionality first, heh.

Thanks for giving it a look, Vet, and for the comments. I hope GG&S is going well.

Here is the new major release version I've been trying to finish up what seems like *forever*

Be aware, there are two completely new subsystems in this version, and I can make no absolute promises as to their stability. I've tested them as much as I can, and I believe they are working more or less to spec, but there could be issues (in fact, with the new movement paths, there *are* still issues, which I will discuss at the end of this post). But let's get to the release notes first.

================================================
How to Patch if you have a game in progress:

There were no major changes to the file system which would cause any problems with this release. All files from version 0.4.0.065 are completely compatable with 0.4.4.198. You may feel free to update your game in any order without worry of corrupting the files.

The host *must* upgrade before being able to process any turns which have a player message embedded within. And players receiving messages must upgrade before they will be able to read them. If you get an error message on opening a file, and you haven't yet upgraded, this is probably the reason. Update your game, then reopen the file.
=============================================

Here are the notes for this version. The format for these release notes are as follows:
1) A brief description of the change/fix.
-- Where needed, a brief discussion of how this change affects new games.
** A discussion on how this change will affect ongoing games, if different than new games.

=======ALPHA BUILD 0.4.4.198=========================
A new build has been made available, and can be found at http://www.rjcyberware.com/ (go to the download page, 1756 KB) . You will need an unzipper program to decompress the program files.

Also available is a patch (at the same place, 680 KB). This is a self extracting patch. Download the file into the same directory as the game, and run it to update to the new version.

Version 0.4.4.198 Build Notes:

1) Bug Fix: Fixed an AV error that could occur on host generation of new turns.
-- If a player had a stack moving near the one of the poles, an error could occur which would prevent a new turn from being generated (due to an error in the visibility calculations). This is no longer the case.

2) Game Balance / Bug Fix: Some tech prerequesites were modified.
-- In some cases, it was possible to bypass prerequesite techs (such as being able to research Iron Sword without first researching Iron). This was unintended, and has been corrected.
** For ongoing games, if you have already researched components for which you now do not have the prerequesites, you will still keep those components. However, items in the research queue which have not been finished will have been removed. You must now research the prerequesite first. You will not lose any RP points already spent on the items, however. They will still be credited to the tech.

3) Cosmetic: Updated the credits screen
-- Added some relevent information.

4) Cosmetic: Resource names now start with a 1 rather than a 0.
-- You will no longer see (for instance) Food 0 in newly generated games.
** Current games will not have their resource icons renamed. Food 0 will remain named as such.

5) Game Balance: The Mana Crystal resource has generally been reduced both in icon numbers and number of resources per icon.
-- Mana Crystals are meant to be a rare item. We felt there were too many appearing on the map.
** Current game Mana Crystal numbers are unaffected.

6) Cosmetic: The visible seams between textures has been greatly reduced.
-- It's not quite gone yet. If you look close you can still see them, especially in the unexplored grey areas. But they have been much improved from the previous version. We are still working on them.

7) Bug Fix: Fixed a load bug which could, in rare cases, cause a non-fatal error box to appear when a player file was loaded.
-- If the only resources shown on the main map happened to be Mana Crystals, the Resource Information Panel would fail to load the resource icon, causing an error message. This has been corrected.

8) New Feature: Diplomacy Messages
-- Hitting the "Mail" button near the message panel will take you to our new Diplomacy screen. You can send messages to selected players, which they will recieve at the start of the next turn. You may also reply to messages you have recieved by hitting the reply button (after highlighting a message on the message tree). The message fonts on the tree are coded (although see the "Known Bugs" list below). Plain fonted messages are old, bold fonted messages are newly recieved, and italicized messages are newly written by the player and have not yet gone out to the host (and may still be edited). Player messages which have already been aknowledged by the host file may *not* be further edited, even if written by you. Player messages which have not yet gone out to the host may not be replied to (but may be edited).

9) Feature Modification: The Overlay Surface has been broken into smaller interlocking parts.
-- In much the same way the main map has been split up, the overlay surface has also had the same modification. This is to preserve video memory and bring the program into compliance with some older video card's limitations.

10) Feature Modification: The Overly Surface texture resolution was increased by 4 fold.
-- Again, in the same manner the main map surface was reworked. Note that we currently do not have any active systems using the Overlay Surface (the movement paths *were* on them, but were moved off with this build). The surface will be used for player borders, territory, and city influence shadings. For now, you'll just have to take our word for it for items 9 and 10

11) Feature Improvement: New Tech Blurbs added.
-- Several of the techs have gotten new tech blurbs on the research screen. With thanks to Chris Subach, who wrote parts of them.

12) Feature Improvement: Open Economy Routines.
-- Resource Icons will now regenerate resources in the manner described under "Open Economy" in the game creation screen. Note that games created using the "Closed Economy" mode will, for now, use the Open Economy routines (until we can finish the Closed Economy routines).

13) Feature Improvement: All icons (stack, resource, and city) were moved to individual surfaces.
-- This helps preserve video memory space, and will (hopefully) allow better compatability with certain video cards.

14) Game Balance: Most Template Component costs were adjusted.
-- Template Component costs should now make some sense. No longer will your bow cost Mana Crystals to build!

15) Feature Improvement: New resource - Copper.
-- A new resource has been added to the game, the first metal. For new games, this resource is placed and treated like any other, and is considered a "common" resource.
** For current games, the resource is placed on the map more randomly. It may very well end up in the oceans or other inappropriate places. Games created under the new patch will not have this problem, but those playing in games created under previous versions will just have to live with it. There is no way for us to intelligently place the resources once the game creation phase has been completed.

16) Feature Improvement: Combat Test functions have been removed.
-- In preperation for making this screen active, the testing functions were taken out.

17) Feature Improvement: Empty Stacks are now removed from the main map.
-- It should now no longer be possible to click on an empty stack, causing an AV error, as they are promptly removed from the game.

18) Feature Improvement: New Movement Paths
-- The large ugly lines that showed movement were removed and replaced. The new paths are animated and have progress bars, showing where the location of the stack will appear after each turn generation.

========Other Notes==============
A text file has been provided with this build. This is sort of a mini-tutorial on how to set up and play a game. If you are unfamiliar with how to play MD, or how PBEM games work, please read over this file.

========Known Bugs===============
There are still several outstanding issues with the new movement paths. They do not always connect properly, leaving gaps between themselves. Further, for stacks with more than one waypoint, it is possible for the progress bars to be inaccurate. The progress bars from the stack to the first waypoint should *always* be accurate, however. After that, you should take them with a grain of salt. In addition, a few "rouge" movement path tiles appear from time to time. We are working on these issues now.

The fonts on the message tree do not always appear properly. This has something to do with the highlight line. Run the cursor from the top of the first message all the way down, and they should appear correctly, with the exception of the final message title. For now, you should be careful about checking your messages for new items, until we can stabilize this feature.
======================================

That's it for this one. I must say *thank god* that one is finished, it was a very difficult build

For the next version, we will work on outstanding bug issues with the movement lines and messaging system, as well as any other new bugs that might have appeared with this release.

Combat is going to be our next big item, and in preperation for it, the Unit Workshop will recieve a fair bit of overhauling. Look for significant changes in that subsytem for our next patch.

Until then.

The [only slightly late] weekly build is here once again. More changes bringing us closer to a working combat system have arrived. A number of bugs were fixed on the new Diplomacy screen. A few other things. Lets get to it.

================================================
How to Patch if you have a game in progress:

There were no major changes to the file system which would cause any problems with this release. All files from version 0.4.0.198 or higher are completely compatable with 0.4.4.256. You may feel free to update your game in any order without worry of corrupting the files.

The host must upgrade before being able to process any turns in which a player has added one of the new techs to their research queue (from the 243 build). Failure to do so will cause errors.
=============================================

Here are the notes for this version. The format for these release notes are as follows:
1) A brief description of the change/fix.
-- Where needed, a brief discussion of how this change affects new games.
** A discussion on how this change will affect ongoing games, if different than new games.

=======ALPHA BUILD 0.4.4.259=========================
A new build has been made available, and can be found on the download page (at the bottom of the page under "Weekly Builds", 1895 KB) . You will need an unzipper program to decompress the program files.

Version 0.4.4.259 Build Notes:

1) Feature Change: Armor values are now single number values.
-- Previously, they were represented as dice rolls (ie 3D5+2). They have now been converted to a single number value (ie 12) as the weapons were in the last build. We thought the dice roll thing was a little to role-playish.

2) Bug Fix: The Diplomacy Screen now displays proper From: and To: values for all messages in the message header.
-- Although all messages were being sent to the correct players, the "From" and "To:" display was not correctly showing on the reciever's side. This could cause confusion as to who recieved which messages.

3) Bug Fix: The Diplomacy Screen Reply Button now will reply to the proper players.
-- Note that you can override the default values by changing the check boxes, as you would in a normal message send.

4) Feature Improvement: The animation timer has been optimized. The front screen controls will be less sluggish now.
-- I'm still not entirely happy with the responsiveness of the front screen, but it is better than it was. We will continue to tweak it.

5) Feature Expansion: All units have been given, in addition to the visibility radius, two new radii. The first is the Combat Radius, and the second is the Reaction Radius. All three of these Radii are inherited by the stack or city in which they live.
-- If an enemy unit enters into the combat radius of a stack, combat will commence. If a combat begins within the reaction radius of a stack, and one of the participants is a friendly stack, the stack will move to join the combat. Since combat is not yet functional, these radii don't have any effect yet. But they are a current stat of the stack. Currently, all units have equal Radii (10/15/30 for Combat/Reaction/Visibility respectively), however, this will be changed in the near future.

6) Feature Improvement: Stack Radii can now be shown on the main map.
-- Radii are shown as three concentric dotted circles surrounding the stack. The Combat Radius is shown in red, the Reaction Radius in yellow, and the Visibility Radius in green. Radii displays can be shut off with a new speed button under the main map.

7) Cosmetic: The front main screen has been "Skinned".
-- Our current skin is a stone age skin. Others will be introduced and will be placed on the screens based on technologies known by the player. They will also make their way to the other screens.

8) Bug Fix: Speed buttons under the main map are reset when a game is loaded.
-- Previously, loading another game after closing one could cause problems if the buttons were not in their default positions. This has been fixed.

========Other Notes==============
A text file has been provided with this build. This is sort of a mini-tutorial on how to set up and play a game. If you are unfamiliar with how to play MD, or how PBEM games work, please read over this file.

========Known Bugs===============
There are still several outstanding issues with the new movement paths. They do not always connect properly, leaving gaps between themselves. Further, for stacks with more than one waypoint, it is possible for the progress bars to be inaccurate. The progress bars from the stack to the first waypoint should always be accurate, however. After that, you should take them with a grain of salt. In addition, a few "rouge" movement path tiles appear from time to time. We are working on these issues now.

The fonts on the message tree do not always appear properly. This has something to do with the highlight line. Run the cursor from the top of the first message all the way down, and they should appear correctly, with the exception of the final message title. For now, you should be careful about checking your messages for new items, until we can stabilize this feature.
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Okay, hopefully next week's build will be on time. I will continue to move toward getting combat functional, and I hope that in the next build you will see some concrete results of that work.

Until next week.

Hey look, I'm on time!!

This week's build notes are really short. Since I'm mainly working on the combat AI routines, most of the changes are internal, and don't yet have much effect on the appearance of the game. But the good news is they have finally begun to show concrete results. I'll get to that. Here are the notes.

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How to Patch if you have a game in progress:

There were no major changes to the file system which would cause any problems with this release. All files from version 0.4.0.198 or higher are completely compatable with 0.4.4.298. You may feel free to update your game in any order without worry of corrupting the files.

The host must upgrade before being able to process any turns in which a player has added one of the new techs to their research queue (from the 243 build). Failure to do so will cause errors.
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Here are the notes for this version. The format for these release notes are as follows:
1) A brief description of the change/fix.
-- Where needed, a brief discussion of how this change affects new games.
** A discussion on how this change will affect ongoing games, if different than new games.

=======ALPHA BUILD 0.4.4.298=========================
A new build has been made available, and can be found on the download page (at the bottom of the page under "Weekly Builds", 916 KB) . You will need an unzipper program to decompress the program files.

Version 0.4.4.298 Build Notes:

1) New Feature: The Espionage Screen makes it's debut.
-- The first pass at adding espionage functions to the game have arrived. These additions are based on discussions from our forum. The screen is accessable from any city screen (and therefore you must have founded at least one city to get to it). The screen itself is basically a mock-up. There is nothing very functional about it, and it has no effect on gameplay at this point. The purpose of adding this screen now is to solidify the abstract discussions about espionage from our discussion board. With an actual screen to work from, I hope to generate additional discussion on the specifics of the system, which will (with any luck) lead to having all of it's problems and changes worked out before major coding begins on it.

2) Feature Improvement: Combat units now understand the concept of "Safety" as regards to locations on the battle screen.
-- This may not seem like a big deal, but actually, it is huge. This is the first step (and probably the hardest) in teaching the units how to move intelligently during combat (and has some bearing on other actions a unit may take buring battle). They understand the danger they are in standing in the position they are at, and the danger at other locations on the map. They don't yet do anything about it, because they don't have the concept of moving learned yet. But at least they know what sort of danger they are in

3) Feature Improvement: The battle board can now display Positional Safety Potentials for either side.
-- This is not really for you guys, it's more of a testing/debugging function. Once you reach the battle board (from the Report|Combat menu on the main screen), you will see three new buttons under the combat map. One shows the unit positions (as normal). The other two shows either side's Safety Potentials (ie how safe a unit would feel at any given place on the board based on enemy position and range). The greener the spot, the safer they would feel, while redder means more danger. Eventually, this will be entirely internalized, and you won't see this part of the battle. But it will remain there until I'm convinced units are moving in an intelligent manner. You can reset the unit test placements with a fourth button on the board, as you like.

========Known Bugs===============
Same old bugs. I haven't gotten to these yet.

There are still several outstanding issues with the new movement paths. They do not always connect properly, leaving gaps between themselves. Further, for stacks with more than one waypoint, it is possible for the progress bars to be inaccurate. The progress bars from the stack to the first waypoint should always be accurate, however. After that, you should take them with a grain of salt. In addition, a few "rouge" movement path tiles appear from time to time. We are working on these issues now.

The fonts on the message tree do not always appear properly. This has something to do with the highlight line. Run the cursor from the top of the first message all the way down, and they should appear correctly, with the exception of the final message title. For now, you should be careful about checking your messages for new items, until we can stabilize this feature.
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I told you it was short. Only three items! But they're big ones, especially the AI one. I think that the next build will show dynamic movement of the units in combat, as I will be teaching them the concept of movement. However, they still will have no inherent hostility toward the enemy units, so I'm not sure exactly how they will move! It will be interesting to see how they interpret movement with no particular motivation to move (except to stay in a safe place).

Until next week.