30 June 1992 -- CHANGES TO GLOBAL CONQUEST -- The new version is v2.0. All known bugs in the original have been addressed, and some additions and changes (detailed below) are included. The files needed for the update are: CHANGES.TXT (this file) GC.EXE v2.0 of the main program HTERRAIN.PIC main art file M_GAME.PIC play options menu OSCR.PIC opening screen DRIVER1.OVL new "host" overlay SERIAL.OVL new 2 player overlay The changed and added features include: -- RANDOM EVENTS -- Economic Upturn and Economic Downturn now last only 5 turns each (previously permanent). Volcanos are no more. Diplomacy Disruption no longer cancels all treaties, but imposes random levels of treaties for 5 turns. Space Pirates not only take saved money from burbs, but cancel any pending production as well. -- COMBAT -- Carriers firing range is now 6 spaces (previously 4). The "scan" range (range at which units "see" other units) is 6 as well. The range of the Comcen attacking carriers has been increased as well to keep things equitable. -- AIRPLANES -- A new airplane command has been added: "Orbital Recon." This feature is to calm the popular revolt caused by the Thinking Man's Map (i.e., undiscovered territory is ocean until proven otherwise) in the shipped version of the game. This feature puts dots on "undiscovered" spots of the map, like the film. When a plane flies an "Orbital Recon," the ComCen launches it into a low geo- synchronous orbit and gets information from the plane via a "tether." This lifeline also keeps the plane from drifting out into space. This airplane mission has several restrictions and side effects. It must be flown by a plane based on your ComCen. The energy drain from keeping the plane in orbit causes a 3% attrition to your COMCEN each round the plane is in orbit, to a minimum level of 30%. The orbit lasts as long as your ComCen's energy level remains above 30%. The plane will automatically be off-line for 3 turns, no matter how long the orbit lasts. While the plane is in orbit, your ComCen MUST NOT MOVE. If you set any movement destination for your ComCen, the Orbital Recon data will immediately be lost and your plane will drift out of the atmosphere, lost forever. What this means in practical terms is that if your ComCen is at 100% at the start of an Orbital Recon, it must STAY PUT for three turns while it attrits down to 30%. Needless to say, you want to do this only when you REALLY need the information. The "Hot Key" while in airplanes display mode for Orbital Recon is (the envelope, please) 'O'. -- ECONOMICS -- You can now transfer money into other players' treasuries (bribe them). The mechanics of this are the same as transferring money on the Burbs menu, except that the money must first come from your treasury and you click on the player's quadrant in the top monitor. For example, if you want to give Cyan Circle $10, you open the Burbs menu, click Transfer to begin transferring funds, click on your own treasury to pick up a $10 bill, then click on the Cyan corner of Monitor 1 to give it to Cyan. Also, while the Burbs menu is shown, the contents of each player's treasury is shown in Monitor 1 as a number on top of a stack of dollar bills. This way, you can tell who's bribing who if you happen to be watching. Oh. Bribing the computer has absolutely no effect. He doesn't need your stinking money. -- GAME OPTIONS -- By popular demand and not-so-difficult code, a fourth Visibility option is available in custom scenarios. This option is called "HQ Style" and mimics the map and unit visibility of Command HQ. In other words, everyone can see the map, but units must be discovered. We personally don't see the appeal, but this was the third-most requested feature, so here it is. -- TREATIES -- An extra incentive has been added to the "Teammates" level of play, which Alan has dubbed "Knockout Insurance." If you're teammates with someone who get's knocked out, you get ALL of their units and burbs, not just your apportioned number. If, for some odd reason, THREE people are teammates and one of them gets KO'd, units get divided as before. If all four people are teammates, you should all see your analyst for some aggression therapy. -- GAME STARTUP -- If you're having problems with non-standard (i.e., OLD) EGA cards, typically lots of white bars on the screen, try starting the game with a '/E' parameter. "GC /E" for example. This turns off the VGA palette manipulation calls regardless of what kind of card the game thinks you have, and has been proven to solve certain problems. -- MODEM/PHONE CONNECTIONS -- A rudimentary "dialing directory" has been added to both the point to point and host mode serial overlays. It merely holds telephone numbers in a text file so you can pick them quickly (by name) rather than enter the full phone number each tim you play. In order for this feature to work, you must have a DOS text file called CONQUEST.DIR in you main Conquest directory, and the file MUST be formatted as follows: columns 1-19: telephone number (may include hyphens and 'P' or 'T' in front to indicate tone or pulse dial. columns 20-40 or so: name of this entry. The length limit here is restricted by how many characters can fit in a standard menu, and since the fonts are all proportional, this can vary widely. But around 20 characters. Like this: T1-501-227-7694 Ozark's BBS T1-501-376-8111 JD's home number (NOT!) ^ |__ column 20 You can have up to eight numbers in your directory, and you always have the choice of manually entering a number. -- BUG FIXES -- While (embarrasingly) too numerous to list in full, here is a partial list (i.e., the ones I remember) of bugs fixed in v2.0: * probabalistic crash with 60+ turn games * saved games of longer than 60 turns or so unloadable * "no-support" units only attrit to 63%, not 10% as the manual says * FBI comes to your house and confiscates computer equipment after game ends * game freeze when moving the mouse really fast (Mouse Fatigue Syndrome) * "Free" units go no-support rather than assigning to nearest city. Not actually a bug, but it's fixed anyway. * 1 point per burb or resource in econ scoring scenarios rather than the "value-rated" system in the manual * game freeze during random event card flip * 'E' hot key for Infantry Exploit non-functional * multiple players on 1 machine leaves nasty info in message window JD CIS 76326,403 on GAMPUB