Announcement

**DanQ** · October 15, 2000, 20:11

Hi Ron. An interesting idea...

Could you post a week's worth of daily build notes here every 7 days?

----------------
Dan; Apolyton CS

**RonHiler** · October 15, 2000, 21:56

Sure, that's a good idea, Dan. I'll try to post on or around the weekends, give or take, depending on how our releases go (if we release on a Monday, I may hold off a day, etc.)

Before I post the build notes, let me just quickly mention what the dailies are and how they work. The Daily builds were started at the request of the people on our newsgroup (alt.games.mdestiny). They are meant to be incremental builds, so you will rarely see major changes from build to build. Very often, they will have aspects which are only partially functional (this build is such an example). They are not, strictly speaking, official releases (see our download page for our last official release). Of course, comments, questions, and concerns are very welcome. You can always contact me at my work address (RHiler@RJCyberware.com) and I always answer all mail (though it may take a day or two if I get swamped, so bear with me if I don't answer right away).

You'll need some sort of unzipping program to decompress the program files.

Okay, with that being said, here are the notes for the build published today:
==========================================
A new build has been made available (#552), and can be found at http://www.rjcyberware.com/ (under the Daily Build).

Version 517-552 Build Notes:

1) Partial compression of the host file complete.

2) Preliminary Map Icon display system online.

3) Food resource placement added during game creation.

4) Resource Icons now can be toggled on-off via button on the map bar.

Designer notes:

1) The compression system of the map is being implemented for the host file only at this point, to give us a comparison between full size (player files) and compressed size (host file). When sufficiently compressed, this system will also be used on the player files. Compression is at ~50%, but this is
being exaggerated by our icon markers. Without the icon markers, we are closer to 30% of full.

2) The Icon system is *very* preliminary, and, as you will see, they are not placing correctly. Black spots have been placed on the map terrian to denote actual icon locations, but the icons themselves are not corresponding to these spots. Once the icon placements have been corrected, the markers
will be removed. Also, the icon graphic is being displayed upside down.

3) Only Food1 is being placed currently (deer icon), but four others are in the works (mammoth, boar, buffalo, and goat). In terms of gameplay, there will be no difference between the five food icons. They are only there because it would look strange to see deer grazing near the north pole

4) Seems to work as intended.

Again, give it a minute to load, I haven't gotten around to putting a spinner on the load screen. To see icons, you'll need to create a new game. Otherwise, the play files from build #516 are fully compatable with this one. Tell me what you think, gang.
==================================

[This message has been edited by RonHiler (edited October 16, 2000).]

**RonHiler** · October 20, 2000, 15:02

Hey guys, here it is. Only one build is being released this week (I was working on a particularly tricky bit).

===========================================
A new build has been made available, and can be found at http://www.rjcyberware.com/ (under the Daily Build). You will need an unzipper program to decompress the program files.

Version 553-600 Build Notes:

1) Icon orientation corrected.

2) Icon rotation corrected.

3) Icon location corrected.

4) Four new food icons added (Boar, Buffalo, Goat, Mammoth).

5) New game creation routines modified to place new icons.

Designer notes:

1) The icons are now tangential to the globe sphere, and face outward. What this means is icons will always be facing directly toward you when they are centered on the screen.

2) The "top" line segment of the icon is now closest to the North pole.

3) Icons now appear on thier designated spots (if you turn off the icons, you will see the black location markers directly underneath them).

4) Seems to work as intended.

5) Food icon types are chosen with some degree of intellegence. Mountanous areas willl likely have goats, cold areas mammoths, etc.

With this release, the icon display system is finished, except for one small bug (icon widths are being compressed as they approach the poles, which is *not* supposed to happen).

You will need to create a new game to see the four new icons placed. Otherwise, play files built with version #552 are fully compatable. A new game file has been included for anyone who doesn't want to bother with building their own game. Give it a minute to load once you choose a game, I haven't gotten around to putting a spinner on the load screen.
================================

Have fun, and let me know what you think. There will be no builds next week, as I will be in Mexico on vacation. See you guys next week.

Ron

**DanQ** · October 29, 2000, 15:48

Thanks, Ron! Looking forward to the next build update.

----------------
Dan; Apolyton CS
[This message has been edited by DanQ (edited October 29, 2000).]

**RonHiler** · October 29, 2000, 21:33

Sure thing Dan. I don't know if anyone is reading them, but I'll keep posting them just in case, unless people tell me to stop

There are no builds this week, since I was gone on vacation, and no work got done.

So the next build notes will be next weekend. I think we will probably release two new builds this week, unless something goes wrong.

**DanQ** · October 30, 2000, 14:47

Sounds good, Ron! Once they're posted [build notes], be sure to watch for a corresponding news item in the Alt. Civs. section.

---------------
Dan; Apolyton CS

**RonHiler** · November 6, 2000, 01:14

Hi guys,

There were two builds released this week. Although you can no longer get build #633, I'm going to post the notes, since these things build upon each other. Also, keep in mind that, although you guys only see these once per week, I post the notes as releases are made on our newsgroup. I am simply copying and pasting here, so it may be that there are items in the first set that are fixed or changed in subsequent sets.

So without further ado, here they are....

==============BUILD #633=============================
A new build has been made available, and can be found at http://www.rjcyberware.com/ (under the Daily Build). You will need an unzipper program to decompress the program files.

Version 601-633 Build Notes:
1) The Unit Workshop Screen is back.

2) The Research Screen is back.

3) The Credits Screen is back.

4) The Icon Markers have been removed.

5) Icon picking is now operational.

6) Several new options are now available on the Game Creation screens.

7) Icons now have resources placed within them by the new game creation routines.

Designer notes:
1) The screen is back, albiet pretty much non-functional right now.

2) Same news for this screen.

3) So you know who is behind all this nonsense

4) The black markers behind the icons have been taken out, they were only there as programming aids, and have finished their purpose.

5) When you click on an icon on the main map, it will now highlight (in red). In addition, a set of stats for that icon will appear on the landscape info panel (shows the resource name and number, as well as the
quantity of resources within the icon).

6) We now have choices between an open or closed economy (see in-game for explanations of these options). Also, quantities of icons and resources can
be set to low, normal, or high.

7) Depending on the settings chosen for new games (ie note 6), each icon will have one to two hundred food resources or so inside. Clicking on an icon will show you how many resources are in that particular icon.

Bug Warnings:
On occassion, when you click on an icon, the program will abort with a D3D error. I'm still tracking this down. It seems to happen when the icon in
question is near the edge of the map. In addition, highlights will not appear on the icons until after you move or zoom the map for the first time,
although, once moved, they appear just fine. Again, I'm working on it.

Due to changes in the player files, build #633 is not compatable with files built with previous daily build versions. Again, a player file has been provided if you don't want to go through the bother of building your own game (although I encourage you to do this). The player file was built with the normal amount of icons and resources. Give it a minute to load once you
choose a game, I still haven't gotten around to putting a spinner on the load screen (I really ought to do that pretty soon).

Although I am more interested in adding new features than fixing the old ones to work with our new internal data classes, I will try, from now on, to add one or two of the old functions back into the program with each new build, so we can once again have our research and unit workshop screens functioning again

Let me know if there are any problems.

==============BUILD #643=============================
A new build has been made available, and can be found at http://www.rjcyberware.com/ (under the Daily Build). You will need an unzipper program to decompress the program files.

Version 634-643 Build Notes:
1) Icon pictures now appear in the icon information panel (along with it's stats) when an icon is picked on the main map.

2) Bug Fix: Information on the first icon now appears when the the main screen first shows.

3) The eight tech trees now appear in the research screen, as appropriate.

4) Information on techs appear in the tech information panel when clicked, either in the tech tree or in the research queue panels.

5) Techs may now be placed into a research queue.

6) Player Files have been modified to give players credit for an initial tech (food), as well as set up costs for unresearched techs.

7) Two new resource icons are included, Wood and Stone.

8) Bug Fix: In the game creation screens, the last spinner (creating game files) was incorrectly showing progress. This has been fixed.

Designer notes:
1) You will now be able to see the artwork for the icons quite a bit better

2) Previously, information on icons only appeared when an icon was picked from the map. However, the game automatically picks an icon for you on startup and the information for this icon was not being shown. Now it is.

3-6) The research screen has been restored and is now fully functional. You can set up a queue of techs to research in whatever order you wish. Note that the save/load game function hasn't yet been restored (it's coming!), so once you exit the game, your queue will be lost.

7) Jim has finished two new icons, which have been included in the zip file. They are not yet being used in the program, but should be added in soon.

8) Now works as intended.

Due to changes in the player files, build #643 is not compatable with files built with previous daily build versions. Again, a player file has been provided if you don't want to go through the bother of building your own game (although I encourage you to do this). Give it a minute to load once you choose a game.

The next build will restore the unit workshop screen to all its previous functional glory, and probably have a few other new goodies as well. See you then.

As always, let me know if there are any problems.
[This message has been edited by RonHiler (edited November 05, 2000).]

**RonHiler** · November 11, 2000, 15:22

Hi gang,

Only one build this week, but it was a big one. Lot's of stuff changed. This is a mix of new technology and restoration of old technology. Here it is.

=======BUILD #657============================
A new build has been made available, and can be found at http://www.rjcyberware.com/ (under the Daily Build). You will need an unzipper program to decompress the program files.

Version 644-657 Build Notes:
1) Save and Load game now functional.

2) If your game has changed and you attempt to close before saving, the program will now prompt you for a save.

3) Player starting positions have been added.

4) Stack icons have been added to the main map (with a different color for each player).

5) A single stack has been given to each player, placed at their starting position.

6) The unit workshop screen has been restored with much of it's functionality.

7) Bug Fix: An access violation error bug was removed from the research screen.

8) Bug Fix: The D3D error which sometimes aborted the program when a resource icon was selected has been fixed.

9) The white backgrounds on the resource icons were removed.

10) The turn number is now displayed just above the message panel.

Designer notes:
1) You can save the game via the File menu on the main screen. This is a very quick process, so don't fear that it didn't work. When a player file is loaded, the appropriate save file will also be loaded automatically.

2) The only change you can make to your game (at this point) is your research queue. Should this be changed and you forget to save your game before closing it down, the program will give you a reminder prompt.

3) Each player now has their own starting point on the map, and the map will open over this point.

4) Triangular icons for right now. We may change these to actual drawn icons (like tanks or ships) later.

5) To go along with your starting position, a stack has been placed where you start. Note that the bug which vertically squashes icons as you get near the poles also applies to stack icons, so if you start near the pole, you may be a bit distorted.

6) The unit workshop screen now shows the unit template list, draws the templates, shows the template stats, and shows the template costs. In addition, the unit component list is also drawn/listed. Because the turn generation sequence has not been restored yet, I have disabled template and component tech limitations for now (otherwise, you wouldn't be able to see anything, having no techs researched). This means you can see every component and template currently in the program from this screen. Enjoy it while you can, it won't be that way for long

7) In games with more that one player file, any attempt to access the research screen would result in an AV error. This has been fixed.

8) I *think* we've killed this bug. If anyone sees it again, could you let me know?

9) By popular request, the icon backgrounds were changed to transparent. You guys were right, they do look better that way

10) Turn 1. Once the turn generation sequence is back online, this will have more meaning.

KNOWN BUGS:
It has been recently brought to my attention that the host files (*.hst) are not loading correctly. For now, do not attempt to load a host file. The host file functions are not working right now anyway.
When you click on a stack icon, the icon information panel appears as if you clicked on a resource. I'm aware of this, and am working on fixing it.

Due to changes in the player files, build #657 is not compatable with files built with previous daily build versions. A player file has been provided if you don't want to go through the bother of building your own game (although I encourage you to do this). This file is player 5 of a 5 player game (players 1-4 not included). This is how you would normally get a
player file from your host (if you happened to be player 5 in that game, players 1-4 getting their own player files) Give it a minute to load once you choose a game.

As always, let me know if there are any problems.

The next build will focus on only one item, stack control and movement. This is a tricky bit, so it is likely nothing else will change, unless critical bugs are brought to my attention. See y'all then.

Ron

**RonHiler** · November 18, 2000, 22:13

Hi gang,

Only one build this week. This one was all about getting movement routines out of our stack icons.

=======BUILD #704============================
A new build has been made available, and can be found at http://www.rjcyberware.com/ (under the Daily Build). You will need an unzipper program to decompress the program files.

Version 658-704 Build Notes:
1) The main map starting zoom level has been adjusted.

2) Players may now highlight one resource icon and one stack icon simultaneously.

3) Stacks may now be given destination orders.

4) Bug Fix: Highlighting a stack icon no longer affects the resource icon information panel.

5) Bug Fix: Player starting positions are now restricted to a minimum distance from the poles.

6) Bug Fix: The main map drawing to the desktop has been fixed.

7) Bug Fix: Failure to highlight icons before the map was moved for the first time has been fixed.

Designer notes:
1) As voted on by members of the newsgroup, the starting position of the main map was moved closer to the viewport. Never let it be said your opinion doesn't count!

2) This will help for when you are looking to move a stack toward a resource. The stack information panel is not yet functional, so you don't get any info when you highlight a stack yet. That'll be coming soon.

3) The big one for this build. Stacks may now be given destination orders. There are a specific set of steps you need to perform to give movement orders to a stack. When the map opens, it will open over a stack. This stack belongs to you. Click on it to highlight it (in red). Now, with the cursor over the map somewhere, hit and hold down the Shift key. The cursor should change to a cross. If it does not, you do not have your stack highlighted (or you have another player's stack highlighted). While the cursor is a cross, click on the map anywhere. A movement line will appear, showing the path your stack will take. More information on this function is below.

4) Highlighting a stack icon used to change the resource icon information panel to erroneous information. This is no longer the case.

5) The program will no longer start you off in either of the Arctic circles

6) An error in the icon drawing routines was forcing a map draw before the screen was displayed, resulting in a map graphic appearing on the desktop. This has been fixed.

7) Previously, before an icon would show the red highlight border, you had to move or zoom the map first. This is no longer the case.

MORE INFORMATION ON THE MOVEMENT ROUTINES
We had a compatibility bug earlier this week which caused the stack movement paths to not appear on some machines. I believe we have killed this bug. If you get the cross cursor, but do not see a path appear when you click the mouse, it is vitally important to let me know as soon as possible!

You can only give movement orders to a stack that belongs to you! This is by design. When the game starts, you own a single stack, and this stack is centered in the main map when the game first opens. You may run across other stacks on the map. These belong to other players. You cannot give movement orders to those stacks, though you may highlight them. If you hit the Shift key with another player's stack highlighted, the cursor *will not* change to a cross. I emphasize, this is by design. Please don't report this as a bug!

Let's be honest, the resolution of the movement paths suck. I have every intention of upping them to make things more aesthetically pleasing. But we've run right into a texture limit imposed by hardware, so I will have to write a workaround to get a higher resolution, which is not particularly trivial. This will be coming at some point soon, I hope.

The movement routines are horribly stupid at this point. They have no concept of terrain, not even land vs. water. All movement is (basically) in a straight line, and you cannot give waypoints to units. Also, they will make no attempt to move across the texture seam. If the texture seam happens to be right next to your unit, and you try to move across to the other side, the movement routine will give you a path that goes all the way around the world. These are all items that will improve in later builds.

Build #707 is fully compatable with files built with the previous daily build version (#657), but not with ones produced earlier. A player file has been provided if you don't want to go through the bother of building your own game (although I encourage you to do this). This file is player 4 of a 5 player game (players 1-3,5 not included). This is how you would normally get a player file from your host (if you happened to be player 4 in that game). Give it a minute to load once you choose a game.

As always, let me know if there are any problems.

The last two daily builds have been very ambitious ones. These things are meant to have gradual changes, not these major sweeping changes of the last two But, having said that, the next build set is also very ambitious. It will include the return of the turn generation sequence, host files, city icons, and the city management screen, assuming I can get all that in in one week. See y'all there.

Ron

**RonHiler** · November 25, 2000, 17:22

Hi gang,

This one is huge. I have no idea how we managed to get all this done in one week. There are changes both minor and major, with some restored functionality and some new functionality. It may look as though I'm jumping all over the place, and, in fact, I am. I write down notes as each item gets finished. Here it is.

=======BUILD #723============================
A new build has been made available, and can be found at http://www.rjcyberware.com/ (under the Daily Build). You will need an unzipper program to decompress the program files.

Version 705-723 Build Notes:
1) Bug Fix: Opening a host file no longer causes a game crash.

2) The main screen caption now shows both the name of the game and the name of the player race.

3) Players may now drag components onto unit templates in the unit workshop.

4) Stack movement AI has been improved to allow stack movement across the texture seam.

5) Giving a stack movement orders is now considered a game change for purposes of closing the game (a save prompt will appear if needed).

6) Stack destination orders are now saved.

7) Bug Fix: When a stack is highlighted or de-highlighted, it will no longer lose its rotation.

8) The game-to-player message system has been restored.

9) A "goto" button has been added to the stack information panel. Pushing this button will center the currently highlighted stack on the screen.

10) Turn generation has been restored. Currently, only research updates are handled.

11) Stack names now appear on the stack information panel when they are highlighted.

12) On game open, the current player's stack is highlighted first.

13) Two new resource types have been added to the map, wood and stone.

14) The host screen now shows much more information.

15) A file load spinner has been added to the splash screen.

16) Access to the combat screen has been moved to its permanent location (Menu->Reports->Combat).

17) The city management screen has been restored.

Designer notes:
1) Previously, opening a host file would eat memory until the system crashed. This is no longer the case.

2) To help players keep track of which game they are playing and which race, the caption on the main screen will now show this information. This should help those players who are playing in four or five different games at once

3) Drag-and-drop functionality is back. You may now design your units at will. I still have the tech restrictions turned off for now, so you may design any unit you wish and see their stats appear. I'm still not going to quite let you save them yet (that's coming very soon).

4) Some people had commented (in the last version) that when they move to the east or west, the movement line gets drawn all the way around the world rather than straight to the destination. This was due to the fact that you were asking the stack to move across the texture seam, which it didn't know how to do in the last version. It has now learned this trick. This is the first of several improvements to the movement AI in the works, more to come. It's still not real bright, but at least it's smarter than it was

5) Similar to changing the research queue, if you give a stack orders, and forget to save before attempting to close, you will be prompted.

6) Stack destinations are now saved in the player save file.

7) When a stack icon was rotated (in the direction of movement) and you highlighted it (or it was dehighlighted), it would redraw facing north. This is no longer the case.

8) Messages are back! Currently, we have the "welcome" message, the "research complete" message, and the "no-message" message. More will be coming soon.

9) When you've rotated away from a stack, it can sometimes be tricky to find it again. You can now hit the "goto" button in the stack information panel and automatically center right on it.

10) The turn generation routines have returned. The program will give each player some research points and update their research queues accordingly. Because the tech limitations are currently shut off, this doesn't mean a whole lot right now. A message is sent out to a player when a research project is completed.

11) Stack names will now appear in the stack information panel when you highlight a stack. This will tell you which race the stack belongs to.

12) Previously, when the game opened, player 1's stack was highlighted, regardless of who's game was opened. This is no longer the case. The current player's first stack will be highlighted.

13) Two new resources have appeared, Wood and Stone. Right now, they will appear at game start. When tech limits are returned, they will not appear until the appropriate techs are researched.

14) The host file screen will now show which players have save files turn in and which do not. It will also show the current turn number as well as the pending turn number.

15) Finally!

16) The combat screen test was on the message panel. Since we needed to put our messages there, it had to be moved. It now resides in its permanent home in the menu. You will also be able to access it via the combat message that will appear whenever you get into a fight.

17) The city management screen has returned, but still clearly needs much work. You'll see this one change quite a bit in the next two or three weeks.

KNOWN BUGS:
1) For those of you creating your own games, you *must* close out of the game entirely and restart the program after you have created the game. If you attempt to load a player file without exiting the splash screen, you will get an AV error. Something is not resetting correctly, I'm still tracking this one down.

2) Stone and Wood resources, when highlighted, show up as Food on the Resource Information panel (just the names, the pictures are correct). I'm still working on this one as well.

3) Player opening positions are being lost after a turn generation. This means that when you open a game with a turn number >1, it will open over the N pole rather than your starting stack icon. Just hit the "Goto" button on the Stack Information Panel to get back to your stack until I kill this one.

Build #723 player files are *probably* compatable with files produced by 657-722 games, but I wouldn't count on it. Host files are definitely not compatable, do not attempt to open a host file from a previous build. To be safe, I probably would stay away from the player files as well. Race files have not changed. A player file has been provided for you if you don't wish to create your own game. In order to use the host file functions, you *will* need to create a game, for I have not provided a host file with this build.

As always, let me know if there are any problems.

========The next build============
Stack movement during turn generation was bumped. The reason being is that I'm about to add waypoints to the routines. This will significantly change what happens during turn generation, and I didn't want to write a bunch of code to move the stacks, only to have to pull it all back out again.

The major task for our next build is going to be unexplored territory and player history files (the two are intimately connected, though you may think they wouldn't be). It's almost going to be a shame to cover over our beautiful map This routine was a very low priority item, but it has now been moved up the priority list. The reason: With those two functions in place, Player file sizes will drop dramatically. No longer will they be the 1.5 MB monsters they are now!

See y'all then.

Ron

**RonHiler** · December 8, 2000, 21:27

Hi gang,

First, let me apologize for our lack of a release last week. We did have one ready, but (as some of you noticed) our web site was on the blink for most of that week. We're back now, and the new build is better than ever, with several major changes and additions.

I'm going to change the format of the notes slightly. I will now list design notes immediately following each build note. Here it is!

=======BUILD #793============================
A new build has been made available, and can be found at http://www.rjcyberware.com/ (under the Daily Build). You will need an unzipper program to decompress the program files.

Version 724-793 Build / Designer Notes:
1) Bug Fix: Opening a player file right after creating a new game will no longer cause an access violation error.
--Given the nature of this bug, I was very surprised the game wasn't having more problems loading files than it was. Anyway, if you had any trouble loading a game file before, this should help.

2) Bug Fix: Icon transparencies were changed to black.
--This won't affect most of you. On a few video cards, the white backgrounds were not being accepted as a transparency color, leading to all kinds of problems. If you couldn't see them before, they should now work. If you could, you won't notice any difference.

3) New Message: Player Stack has arrived.
--If your stack reaches its final destination, you will be alerted to the fact.

4) Message 'Goto' button is now functional for some messages.
-- for the "Stack arrived" and "Research Complete" messages, you can hit the "Goto" button to the right of the message panel and be taken directly to the appropriate place in the game.

5) Bug Fix: Icon rotation is now faced correctly, even when crossing the texture seam.
--If your first movement of a stack took you across the texture seam, the path line would draw properly, but the icon itself would turn the other way! This has been corrected.

6) New Screen: The Leader Information screen is now available.
--You can access this screen from the 'Orders' menu (or by hitting Ctrl-L from the main screen). This will take you to a screen describing your initial leader.

7) New Leader Skills: Settler, Scientist I, Builder I, and Scout I.
--To go along with our new screen, we have four new leader skills. You can get descriptions of each of these skills and their game effects on the leader screen.

8) Player File Size Reduction: Player files are now much more compact.
--They were running 100K or so, but are now around 5-20K, a size *much* more receptive for transmitting through e-mail

9) New File Type: History File
--The history file will load automatically when you open your player file, you should never have to worry about loading this file. This file holds all data garnered throughout the game, rather than transmitting every peice of information you have ever learned across e-mail in the player file. This is one of the ways the player file was reduced. You can think of your history file as your gathered intellegence data.

10) Unexplored territory now functional
--No longer will you get a full and complete map on the first turn of the game. You can now only see the area directly around your starting stack. As you explore, more territory will be revealed to you.

11) Stacks can now be given waypoints
--This means you can tell your stack to move to point A, then point B, then C, etc. To delete the last waypoint, hold down the shift key over the map (as if you were going to add a waypoint) and hit the 'delete' key.

12) The Stack order panel will now show stack destinations
--As you add waypoints, you will see destinations appear on this panel.

13) Stacks are now moved during turn generation.
--That's right, actual movement! If you give your stack an order to move, when you get your turn file back from the host, the stack will have actually moved! Huzzah!

14) Resources remain hidden until revealed.
--This goes along with the unexplored territory thing. If you haven't explored a bit of land, you obviously won't be able to see the resources there.

15) The resource information panel icon background was made transparent.
--It just looks better that way.

Build #793 player files are not compatable with files produced by previous versions of the game. Two player files have been provided for you if you don't wish to create your own game (four or five turns into a game). In order to use the host file functions, you *will* need to create a game, for I have not provided a host file with this build.

As always, let me know if there are any problems.

========The next build============
I think we are going to be working heavily on cities during the next week, hopefully getting some functionality out of the production queues, as well as providing the abiltiy to actually found them. I hope to finish up the Unit Design workshop save function as well, so you will be able to save your unit designs, then build them in your cities.

See y'all then.

Ron

**RonHiler** · December 17, 2000, 22:10

Hi gang,

Lots of new features in our build this week. The big one is the ability to found your own cities. There are also new functions for the unit workshop and new items in the turn generation sequence. Let's get to it.

=======BUILD #821============================
A new build has been made available, and can be found at http://www.rjcyberware.com/ (under the Daily Build). You will need an unzipper program to decompress the program files.

Version 794-821 Build / Designer Notes:
1) Unit workshop template class selection will now work.
--The radiobuttons which say "Aircraft", "Infantry" and all that will now give you only those types of templates.

2) Unit designs made in the unit workshop may now be named.
--So you can call them things like "Constitution" or "Archer" or "Stealth Bomber".

3) Bug Fix: The unit workshop screen will now properly show template class design limits.
--These are set by the player in the race creation phase of the game

4) Bug Fix: Resource Icons will now show the proper name on the main screen when highlighted.
--The *second* time this bug has been fixed

5) The Leader screen will now show the primary leader's name and title.
--Also set by the player during race creation

6) Unit designs may now be saved and deleted at will
--The save function also takes into account your limits, so if you already have 5 of 5 infantry designs saved, you will not be able to save another until you delete one of them.

7) Save game now shows a confirmation message
--As requested by players, you will now get a small screen confirming when you save a game .

8) Unit designs may now be examined via the unit workshop screen. Both friendly and enemy units can be examined in this manner.
--Goes along with 6, you can examine your existing unit designs, and take a look at any enemy designs you will be fighting against.

9) The Primary Leader was added to the player's initial stack
10) Several starting units were added to the player's initial stack
--A list of all leaders and units in a stack will now be shown on the main screen whenever you highlight a stack (under the Stack Info panel).

11) Bug Fix: Under certain conditions, Save files would not read properly. This has been fixed.
--This caused problems both on the host screen and when loading a play file (only if a save game had already been generated for that file for that turn). This is no longer the case. The save file will now always read when appropriate.

12) New Stack Order: "Establish City" implemented
--To establish a city, pick a waypoint, as you would normally do. On the Stack Orders panel, you will see a default order appear. Click on the blue dot near the order, and you will receive a popup menu listing a new set of orders to choose from (you have only two choices for now, "Move To" and "Establish City"). Chose the city option. You will be prompted to name your city. After you have done so, hit Enter to return to the main screen. You should see your orders changed for that waypoint.

13) Bug Fix: Under certain rare conditions, an AV error could occur during turn generation. This has been fixed.

14) City Icons now appear on main map
--After a turn generation, if your stack has completed an "Establish City" order, you will see the city appear on the map. You will also get a message letting you know about this momentous event.

15) The City screen now shows several new stats about cities
--Including the Name, population, Production point gain, and Research point gain.

16) Multiple cities can be scrolled onto the city screen
--If you own more than one city, use the arrow buttons next to the Exit button to bring up the city of interest.

17) City populations now grow during turn generation
--Check your city population totals after a turn generation. Your empire grows!

Build #821 player files are not compatable with files produced by previous versions of the game. Three player files have been provided for you if you don't wish to create your own game, along with a host file.

As always, let me know if there are any problems.

========Known Bugs=============
From time to time, cities seem to "disappear" between turn generations, taking their entire populations with them. We are investigating. Currently the prevailing theory blames alien abduction.

After a turn generation, the host screen will show the current turn and next turn labels incorrectly.

========The next build============
Our goal for this build was to get city production working, which, sadly, we missed. This will be our primary focus for the next build.

See y'all then.

Ron

**RonHiler** · December 27, 2000, 11:07

Hi gang,

Yes, I am aware that we are two days late with this one. Some of the new items in this build were quite complex, and took a while to debug. Everything seems to be working now, more or less. There are one or two
items which still make this version an unplayable demo, so we're going to leave this as a pre-alpha. They are very minor items, and I expect our *next* release will very likely be our first official Alpha version! Get ready to play

But let's not get ahead of ourselves, here are the notes for this version.

=======BUILD #855============================
A new build has been made available, and can be found at http://www.rjcyberware.com/ (under the Daily Build). You will need an unzipper program to decompress the program files.

Version 822-855 Build / Designer Notes:

1) Bug Fix: City dissapearance during turn generation has been fixed.
--We were right, aliens were abducting the populations and leveling the cities. Negotiations went well, and the aliens have agreed to cut it out Your cities should stay where you put them from now on.

2) Player Designs now appear in the City Production Availability panel.
-- If you design a unit type, it will now become an option to put into the city production queues.

3) Player Designs are now saved to file.
-- Previously, when you closed down a game, your designs were lost. This is no longer the case (assuming you saved your game). Designs are now
permanent until you delete them.

4) The Stack Icon Highlight color was changed.
-- As per player request, stack icons will now be highlighted in a different color than city/resource icons, in order to differentiate them.

5) New Message: Empty research queue.
-- If your scientists have nothing to do, you will be alerted to the fact.

6) City Production may now be set.
-- You can place unit designs into your production queue on a per city basis. When you do this, be sure to watch the cost requirements of the design. If you don't have the production points, population, or raw
materials available to build a design present in the city, the design won't get built!

7) City Production Queues are now saved to file.
-- Goes along with 6, the production queues you set are passed along to the host file via the save file for processing.

8) Cities may now contain Leaders and Units.
-- Much like player stacks, cities can now hold both leaders and units inside. The composition of the "city stack" will be shown on the city information screen.

9) Founding stacks are now moved inside a city.
-- When you build a city, the stack units/leaders that founded it will now be placed inside. The original stack is now empty, and is deleted.

10) Bug Fix: Opening map position corrected.
-- Previously, a game with a turn number > 1 was not opening in the proper position (ie over the player territory). This has been corrected. If you
own cities, it will open over your first city. If not, it will open over one of your stacks. If you own neither, you've probably already lost the game (for now, in this situation, the game will open over the N pole).

11) Units and Leaders may now be moved into and out of cities.
-- Goes with 8 and 9. Any units or leaders inside a city can be moved out onto the map (via a button in the city info screen). Conversly, if a map stack is on a city, it may be moved inside using the same method. Right now, you can only move entire stacks in or out of a city (rather than choosing particular units/leaders to move). This, of course, will not do
for a playable version, and is one of those things that will be worked on for the Alpha build.

12) Resources will now show Claimants on the Resource Info Panel.
-- If a city is founded near a resource, it will begin mining that resource. When you click on a resource on the main map, it will tell you what civ is collecting from that resource.

13) City Screen now shows resource income and resources in storage.
-- You can see how many resources your city collected during the last turn generation, as well as accumulated resources in storage.

14) Resource costs of some unit templates were adjusted.
-- Our first play balance adjustment! Some of the template costs were out of whack, and were changed. If you see a resource costs that says "Unknown?" on the unit workshop screen, it means the template uses a
resource type that hasn't actually been implemented in the game yet (an example of this are the mage templates, which require mana crystals. They show up as "Unknown?" now, since mana crystals have not actually been put into the code).

15) Cities will now produce units.
-- *If* you have all of the raw materials in storage, and *if* you have enough population, and *if* you have enough Production Points, a unit will be created. Note that, at this point, there are no partial creations. A unit is either created, or it is skipped altogether (this will change fairly soon). If a unit cannot be built, the program will go down to the next unit in your Production Queue and attempt to build that one, until it runs out of Queue to look at. Produced units will be placed inside the city.

16) The City Information screen will now show Production Points projected for the next turn.
-- This will give you an idea of how many points you will get next turn to spend. Note that Production Points are *not* accumulatable, they are a
"use-or-lose" type of resource. Your production points for any given city equal 1% of your population total. If you have a Leader in your city with
the "Builder I" skill, you will get an additional 5 points.

17) Research Screen will now show Research Points gained during the last turn generation.
-- Research Points are a global resource, and, like Production Points, are a "use-or-lose" kind of resource. You receive 5 RPs per city you own, plus an
additional 5 points for your Leader ("Scientist I" skill).

18) Bug Fix: The left arrow button on the city screen will now properly scroll through cities.
-- This wasn't working right before. Now it is.

Build #855 player files are not compatable with files produced by previous versions of the game. A full four player game has been provided for your perusal, although you are also welcome to create your own game.

=======KNOWN BUGS============================
1) Most importantly, resource icons will sometimes not be assigned to cities properly. This means that it is possible to found a city right next to a resource icon, but not be allowed to collect from it. This is a critical bug which I am working on, as it will make the game unplayable. It will be fixed for the Alpha build. This is happening to the first three players in
the provided sample game, though the fourth player seems to be collecting resources properly.

2) If you give a stack an order to found a city, and it has further orders *after* the founding order, when you open your player file after a turn generation, you will get an AV error. This will not stop the program from running or cause any play errors. You can safely ignore this error.

3) Rarely, when you attempt to move a stack into or out of a city, you will get an AV error, and no units will appear in the movement panels. Simply close the screen and reopen it, and everthing should be fine.

4) Naming of new stacks is not working properly. They will be named something like "0 Stack 2" rather than "Lannister Stack 2". I'll fix this one soon.

5) After a turn generation, the host screen will show the current turn and next turn labels incorrectly.

6) The game creation screen summary is not showing the number of players properly. It consistantly shows one less Human and AI player than is actually correct.

7) If you want to generate multiple turns (rather than just one), you have to exit to the splash screen and reload the host file after each turn gen. I realize this is a pain in the arse, and I will fix it soon.

As always, let me know if you encounter any problems I don't have listed here.

========The Next Build============
Because of the lateness of this build, and the holiday season, there will be no build next weekend. Our next build will be on or around Jan. 7th. We are going to evaluate everything that needs to be done to produce a fully playable Alpha version of the game, and attempt to finish all of those items, if possible.

See y'all then.

Ron

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