Gigantic Games 2/Gigantic Games 2.iso/pc/_e_/empire/changes

Text File | 1994-12-23 | 12KB | 202 lines

List of player-related changes from 2.2w to 2.3w:
================================================
*When you contract a sector that already has a contract rate set you will be
       told the current rate and asked if you want to change it. Answering
       no will allow you to leave the sector unchanged.
*Fixed a problem in the navigate command that prevented ships owned by other
       countries from sailing through checkpointed sectors.
*Fixed a problem that could occasionally result in a country getting more BTUs
       after an attack than they had before the attack.

List of player-related changes from 2.1w to 2.2w:
================================================
"." can now be used the same as "e" when moving/flying/navigating items
       so that the keypad may be used for all movement actions.
*New "compressed" option for the "change" command. This will toggle the
       default mode used by the map command.
*Nation command now displays the default compression mode.
*Map now uses the default compression mode, but can be overridden by the
       "!" or "compressed" flags.
Idle countries don't show up in the sorted country list
CTRL-C handler now resets the interupt bit before each command, so extra
       breaks don't interupt the next command you do.
Sending a telegram to country 0 (god) does not generate a news item, and a
       deity sending a telegram to anyone does not generate a news item.
EmpServ, Empire, and SEREmp have a new flag to use a different message
       port, so that Empire may be tested while the main system is still
       running.
*Fixed a bug which caused system failures when trying to do a census on
       a boot camp sector with more than 999 military.
*Now lists in the log the passwords used when a country enters an incorrect
       password. This will help detect attempts to break into a countries
       account.
*Now has the idle country recycling feature of 1.3x
*All the commands that can list out available commands (help, ?, commands)
       will now only list commands that can be executed by a country in
       the current countries state. IE, an IDLE or DESTROYED country will
       only see 10-12 commands rather than having to find the commands they
       may use through trial and error.
*The Deity may turn on an optional flag to have the server flush the buffers
       when a client terminates, as was always done in version 2.0. Flushing
       the buffers can take some time, and should probobly only be used on
       single user games.
*SEREmp now has a seperate command-line flag to flush the buffers every time
       a country logs out, as was always done in version 2.0. Flushing the
       buffers can take some time, and should probobly only be used on single
       user games. This flag is independant from the one used to flush the
       buffers at client termination. You may set the client termination
       flag to false, and set this flag, and the server will flush the
       buffers whenever a country logs out from the serial port, but not
       from the local port.
*The move command now checks to see if bundling and/or attacks may have
       reduced the amount of items you are moving to 0, and if so, will not
       let you move. Previous versions would allow you to move around
       basically forever (0 times any mobility cost is still 0), and map out
       sectors for free.
*SEREmp now prints out the serial device and port number it is using in the
       start up and shutdown messages in the log.
*A deity can now remove ships from a fleet with the edit-ship command.
*The "xxx had a ship sunk" messages were not being entered into the
       newspaper. in 2.1w. Fixed this.
*Distribution disk now includes a door client for Paragon BBS systems.
Added the TEST option to the workbench interface of SEREmp
*Added a new flag, NORESET, to the workbench & CLI interface of SEREmp. This
      turns off the "ATZ" that was being sent to reinitialize the modem.
      Some users had a problem with this.
*Added a new flag, NONEWS to the workbench interface, and "-n" to the CLI
      interface of EmpServ. This flag turns off the creation of news files.
      When playing a game with very small update periods it was possible
      for EmpServ to create a tremendous number of files.
*Will now return the spy info for sectors owned by a deity, as it did under
      1.33w. Will also return a more meaningful message if you try and spy
      on one of your own sectors.
*Added a new deity command "verify" which will verify all the Empire
      databases for correctness, and automatically correct any problems it
      finds.
*Added a new flag the deity may set to allow all users to use the "flush"
      command.
*The sector number is now printed when a bridge span collapses. Message is
      recognized and used by EmpFE.
*Bridge spans will now collapse if the bridge head supporting them is damaged
      by bad weather. Previously only bridge spans were checked for weather
      damage.
*There is now a message printed confirming the sector number and country you
      granted a sector to. Primarily used by EmpFE.
*Refurbishing a ship costs needs only 1/4 of the production units.
*You can tend any ship but a freighter.
*Fixed a problem with the drop command causing a software failure if the
      country name was long.

List of player-related changes from 2.0 to 2.1w:
================================================
*Serial handling is patched so that it always, definately, maybe, resets
       a modem to 2400 baud after a disconnect, if SEREMP was started with
       autobaud enabled.
*When the "compressed" or "!" options are given to MAP, it no longer leaves
       those annoying spaces between the top and bottom lines of numbers and
       the actual map sectors
*It no longer displays your name on every line in the NAT command for
       relations. You know who you are, so it apropriately say's "you".
*Numerous places were fixed to now generate "suicide" news items and correctly
       kill off your country. It will now correctly mark your country dead if
       you load the last of the population into airplanes, and it will also
       correctly mark you as alive again if even one plane should happen to
       land safely in an unoccupied sector.
*Numerous "sunk ship" news items were added, so that it will always generate
       some news when a ship other than a sub is sunk.
*A couple of "sunk ship" news items were removed for sunken subs, and it will
       now send a telegram to the owner of a sub that torps another sub or
       ship in self defense. This happened for normal ships before, but was
       overlooked for subs.
*When a destroyer sinks a sub in self defense, a telegram is now generated
       and the destroyer owner has a 50/50 chance of identifying the owner
       of the sub by the wreckage, just like the active DROP command.
*The load command will now generate a message or telegram if all the civilians
       and military are loaded into a ship.
*Country numbers are always displayed in the COUNTRY command.
*Public messages can be sent by sending a telegram to *, &, @, or !. These
       relate to all, allies, neutral, enemies, respectively.
*The deity can allow/dissallow public messages
*The deity can allow/dissallow changing countries without hanging up.
*Bridges can be more than 1 sector long.
*Bridge collapses are handled for bridges more than 1 sector, and multiple
       supports for bridge spans are possible.
*If you own a sub, or a country that own's a sub is allied to you, the
       country name will appear just as it does for other ship types.
*Subs will defend each other.
*You can only buy from a country that is at least neutral to you.
*You pay a "technology tax" when buying ships that are at a higher tech level
       than your country.
*The dissolve command really dissolves you.
*Sectors that are owned by countries allied to you will show up when you
       do a map just as if you owned them yourself.
*Radar will show sectors as A, W, or ? depending on whether the owner is
       allied, at war, or neutral to you. Of course, any sectors within
       the smaller range will show the real designation, as always.
*Deleteing your telegrams actually does delete the old file and recreate
       a new, blank, file.
*If a country has no sectors, you may declare a loan paid off and collect
       80% of the original amount as bad debt. You get no interest.
*New option for POWER command, "all" will list all countries in the report,
       even those that are dead or resigned. Usefull if someone's last
       sector gets taken, but they still have ships.
*Info command now lists the person/alliance who won the last game.
*You can use "tf" as a conditional when refering to ships to specify a
       certain tech factor. (shi ?tf>75)
*More telegrams get sent, and new news items exist. Also more headline
       summaries.
*Levels of storm, hurricane, and monsoon changed to make it more likely for
       a hurricane to occur. If the deity wants to limit them he may reduce
       the maximum level of the low pressure zone. 2.0 had an imposed limit
       of -15 (-16?), and so it would be very rare for hurricane to occur
       even with the weather set to the limit.
*New command discharge will release military into civilian life. You must
       already have 25 civs and 5 mil in the sector to discharge military.
*New sector type boot camp (a) will convert civs into mil automatically,
       in classes of 100 at a time. Some civs will always remain, and
       civs & mil are bundled in units of 10.
*Info command now allows the "?" option to display the topics info is
       available on.
*New headlines for the newspaper.
*NATion command now displays the countries' notify status
*Country command has new option "on" which will limit the countries listed
       to those that are currently logged in.
*Disconnects after 5 minutes of inactivity instead of 15.
*The country command now uses "<" to indicate a country is in chat mode.
*God is now listed as one of the countries already chatting when a new
       country enters chat mode.
*Removed a loophole that allowed you to remain in chat mode when your time
       would have expired. It will now remove you from chat mode and log you
       out if you run out of time while chatting. It will also print a
       warning when you are down to 3 minutes or less remaining time.

List of player-related changes from 1.34w to 2.0:
=================================================
Now supports multiple players at the same time. As many players as the host
       computer has memory for may play, and as each player only requires
       32k or so, the number of ports is probobly the limiting factor.
Now has a chat command/CB mode for player to player communication. As many
       players as the host allows may be in chat mode at the same time.
The message command now allows a message to be sent to any country, not just
       the local console. If the country is not logged in, the message can be
       sent as a telegram automatically.
Telegrams may now only be 980 characters long. But there is now an editor, so
       you can correct your mistakes.
The serial port will now time out if there is no activity for 15 minutes,
       so output can safely be paused by the user, eliminating the need for a
       file pager.
New command "propaganda" lets countries enter items permanently onto the the
       days newspaper for a cost of 5 BTUs.
New command "doc" allows access to files larger than those in the "help"
       directory.
New command "info" can list info about various stats in the current game.
       See the help file entry for more details.
CTRL-S and CTRL-Q stop and start output.
The census command no longer updates sectors. This was done to eliminate a
       loophole that allowed you to update your sectors without using any
       BTUs.

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An * indicates a feature found only in versions by David Wright.
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