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EnigmA AMIGA RUN 01 (1995)(G.R. Edizioni)(IT)[!][issue 1995-10][Aminet 7].iso
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GlobalWar
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GW2.History
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1995-06-21
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GLOBAL WAR 2 - PROGRAM HISTORY
Version updates since v1.18d
- List is in reverse chronological order (latest version first) -
Version 2.18 (21-Jun-95)
On popular demand; special weapons can be stored for later use!
Note; the specials are now launched during the Attack phase, and
not before the Deploy phase. New specials are reported during the
Take turn phase, before the Deploy phase, as usual.
Each player have a storage capacity of maximum 3 specials of each
type.
Removed some (obsolete) control routines in the minefield code;
program will no longer warn if there are over 10 minefields on a
single border.
Enforcer hits removed (harmless, but anyway...)
Thanks to Kyle for reporting. Maybe I'll get a MMU some day... ;-)
Added a new feature; the status of mission games can now be one of
two things:
o All players have the same mission
o Each player has a unique mission (the old way)
The type of mission is asked during the game creation phase.
Thanks to Dean 'The Funmaster' for the idea.
The ranking list has been modified, all information did not fit
into the old list.
The supreme commander bug has been fixed; whenever a new player became
S.C, the game sometimes gave the honorary title to a wrong player.
Thanks to Dean for reporting.
Improved the appearance of specials; players are now guaranteed to get
a special at least every 5th turn, if not sooner.
Thanks to Dean for the comment that lead to this change.
Fixed a 'cosmetic' bug; when a player did Fortify in a
team game, the game displayed "Country not found" even if the
input was correct. Thanks to Kyle for reporting.
o o o
Version 2.17 (28-Mar-95)
Corrected a timer routine; the program didn't calculate next day
correctly. (The timer stuff was rewritten in v2.16, but it was very
poorly tested).
Also, the C code was compiled with full optimization; program got
13 Kb smaller.
o o o
Version 2.16 (23-Mar-95)
The cli door version.
Special thanks to Grant Robinson, he gave me the necessary boost
to finish this thing.
Check out the about menu, there are two pages now.
o o o
Version 2.15 (07-Dec-93)
Smarter input analyzer
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Global War is smarter when it tries to find a match for a country
name; the final choice depends on the current turn and the actual map.
Thanks to Per Careberg for this brilliant idea.
o o o
Version 2.14 (04-Dec-93)
3rd public release of GW 2, tested and ready!
o o o
Version 2.13 (03-Dec-93)
(Only for testing)
Improved input
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Now accepts all characters, including Scandinavian chars.
Uppercase/lowercase routines (if activated) converts all
characters correctly (handles ASCII-7/ISO).
Changed BBS title
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The "<bbsname> presents" text on the presentation screen
is converted to uppercase before displaying.
Banner
~~~~~~
Added a "Running on <bbsname>" banner to the World map.
Give continent
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This option was "out of order" in earlier versions. Fixed.
Page length
~~~~~~~~~~~
GW gets the actual page length from the BBS.
(Default 25 lines is used when running from CLI/Shell)
Thanks to Lars Siden for suggestion.
Save game
~~~~~~~~~
Global War games are now saved after each turn. Some boards
run unfortunately faulty programs that sometimes crashes the
computer, and when it happens the current and not-yet saved
GW turns will be lost. This option will reduce this risk.
Requested by Rasmus Pedersen. Thanks!
Minefields more dangerous
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The minefields cause slightly more damage now.
Nuke gives no bonus score
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Special Events give no bonus score anymore, it gives
enough advantage as it is - without the extra score.
Thanks to Rasmus Pedersen for suggestion.
Improved Rankinglist
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Added some code to make the rankinglist look better.
Alltimes Highest
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Total rewrite of alltimes highest. As soon as somebody becomes
Supreme Commander, all the other players will be notified and
they may watch all possible information on current player
standings.
o o o
Version 2.12 (24-Nov-93)
Reported bugs
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I expected that some bugs would be "discovered", and how
right I was...
Fixed - Negative values input bug
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As you know, -1 can be read as 65535, it's one and the same
to the computer. Some players found out that they could
fortify thousands of armies thanks to this bug!
Not anymore; it's practically impossible to fool the computer
with values below zero now.
Thanks to Tom De Ruyter for bug report.
Fixed - Join team game bug
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Another GW 1.18d -> GW 2 conversion bug. Caused strange effects
on the game standings screen.
Thanks to Ed Dukeshire for bug report.
Harder to score with Specials
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It's harder to get more than 2 from Special events.
1 and 2 points are normal values, 3 is very good and more than that
is superb!
Added feature!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Players may now choose whether they want to see the game listed
in compact or expanded mode in the main menu.
The expanded mode is the old way Global War listed games.
To toggle list mode, go to Options and press 'L'.
Thanks to Rasmus Pedersen for this nice suggestion.
o o o
Version 2.11 (22-Nov-93)
(Only for testing)
Fixed
~~~~~
Interesting; two minor bugs were found shortly after the release.
Despite all testing at the local test BBS. Well, this was fixed:
Fix 1 - always redraw map when needed:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The selected map wasn't redrawn after a player had destoyed another
player's empire and had exchanged any new commendations, and was
about to continue the game.
Incase you didn't understand that looong meaning above, it simply
says; map gets drawn always when it's supposed to now!
Fix 2: tell'em they can't always give it away:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When a player was giving away a continent (lots of countries), but
there wasn't enough fortifications left to do this, there should
have been a message telling this. The message was there, in the code,
but it never got displayed (only a weird <Enter> prompt).
More fortifying!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Also fixed; fortify can now be done across team partner's countries
in team games as well as own countries.
Version numbers checked
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Oops, the version number checker was out of order in v2.1.
Works a lot better now, I guarantee. Incase any of you ran GW2
without converting data files from 1.18d -> 2.1 and got their
games trashed, I'm very very sorry.
This won't ever happen again, the version checker makes sure of that.
Reduced chance for Special Events
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Specials did occur too often, I noticed.
Chance reduced from 20% to 15% per player and turn.
o o o
Version 2.1 (18-Nov-93)
First public release of Global War 2.
o o o
Version 2.00r (17-Nov-93)
Dummy game
~~~~~~~~~~
If a player pressed the escape key after B:egin game, a dummy game
with zero players was created.
Lots of documentation finished.
o o o
Version 2.00q (15-Nov-93)
Player can now see team partner's commendations in the Give commendations
menu. Suggested by Tomas Matuschek.
Rankinglist gets updated right after a special event has occured, just to
avoid confusion. It used to get updated only after the Attack phase.
Some minor color adjustments made.
o o o
Version 2.00p (12-Nov-93)
(A month later - version 2.00o never released)
Another break
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lots of late evenings at work, I can't do much about it...
The special event ansi pictures didn't look good - I had forgotten
to put carriage returns at the end of each line!
Multi-run bug
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Finally smashed that stupid (and very fatal!) multi-run bug.
Each time a game was deleted from the roster, for eg. a waiting game
that had been waiting for more players for too long, the program did
delete the game - but only locally for the actual node! The other nodes
didn't know about the deletion. When it was time to save the game, the
whole thing went to nirvana, taking the system with it.
Sorry about the nuisance (only occured on the beta test site, phew!)...
o o o
Version 2.00n (26-Sep-93)
Improved input part 2
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Added some more code to the Select game routine, it's even smarter now.
(See previous version history for more about this feature)
Specials
~~~~~~~~
Chance of Special Events to occur has once again been raised. It's now
20 % each turn per player!
Game standings
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Made several adjustments to the Game standings menu, where I thought
it was necessary. Anything to get that better feeling...
o o o
Version 2.00m (19-Sep-93)
Improved input
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Made the "Select game" input routine in the main menu a bit smarter;
previously when a game number was entered that was more than 10, the
game always asked for more input. Quite irritating in fact - but not
anymore. When a game number is entered, the program checks for any
games that could begin with that particular number. If it only finds
one game it assumes it's the one the player wants, otherwise it asks
for more input.
Old gets new
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Replaced some old ugly looking code (written years ago) with better
and faster routines. For instance the code that reads the
configuration file (GW.con) was totally rewritten.
The New Game notice
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Some people complained about the New Game notice that was display
when a player selected 'B' to begin a new game in the main menu.
The text will from now on only be displayed to new players and to
those that have been away for some while (and need a remainder).
The veteran players will NEVER have to see the text anymore.
Erase minefields... NOT!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Minefield data was not erased from finished games, which caused
some funny (harmless) effects; a new game could by chance get a
"forgotten" minefield data list and - voila! - it had already loads
of minefields all over the world, even before the game had begun!
Special Events
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Testing what will happen to game strategy if special events occur
more often. Chance is now 10 % per player each turn.
o o o
Version 2.00l (18-Sep-93)
The Special Events
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
So what's this - something new stuff added?
Surprise surprise, I'm not going to tell you! But I can guarantee that
you'll all like it. I have spent many hours to make it look n' feel
good, as you are used to in GW!
The only thing I can reveal for you is that the new stuff will add some
VERY powerful weapons to the game! It certainly brings some new aspects
to the game strategy.
The chance to trigger a special event is 5 % each turn (so if there are
six players in a game, it's a pretty good chance that at least one
special event will occur each day!).
To find out if something special has happened - just read the news!!
There will be more special events added later, but they are all up to
you to discover...
o o o
Version 2.00k (14-Sep-93)
News
~~~~
Corrected a few bugs in the News module :
Mission descriptions ended sometimes with "1 turn) 1 turn." which
didn't look good.
When a single game had finished, the News told that it was a team game
which of course was totally wrong.
Improved some News-messages.
Attack any country bug
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When I cleaned up some code, I accidentally changed a routine in a
wrong way; players could attack all countries from any other country!
That's what I call GLOBAL war!! ;-)
Strange MF text removed
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Removed the "Can't display MF on world map" message which came up when
a player deployed minefields on the world map. The players didn't
understand the text! (Mines can still be deployed on ALL maps)
GW gets a new timer
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Totally revamped the date-time routine. The (very) old one was such a mess.
o o o
Version 2.00j (06-Sep-93)
We want messages!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Found another 1.18->2.0 conversion bug; players couldn't send messages
during a game anymore.
Beware of mines
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Finally found the Minefield bug!!
It caused some very strange (mis)behaviour and was quite tricky to find
out. Had to do with multitasking (ports, GW-nodes etc).
o o o
Version 2.00i (05-Sep-93)
Bart for president (the vote bug!)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Change vote bug fixed; when the player selected "wait for more players",
the game said that the player "wants to start asap". This was a GW 1.18->
GW 2.00 conversion bug, hopefully the only one.
GW Loses weight
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
All code optimized with compiler, gained some kbytes. Added some debug-
routines to help me track any "unwanted features"...
o o o
Version 2.00h (29-Aug-93)
After the summer break, let's get some code done...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lots of debug code added, several minor changes made in code.
Improved multi-gw support (possibility to run several GWs simulta-
neously, taking advantage of OS multi-tasking).
Scores.txt looks a bit nicer.
o o o
Version 2.00g (May-93)
Another one of those bug-fix versions. Here we go...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When a player logged off, Autodeploy didn't deploy minefields if the
player was in DEPLOY phase. Now it checks both armies and minefields.
Players couldn't change between "Waiting for more players" and
"Start as soon as possible" in a waiting game.
Minefields didn't work when somebody attacked - players could simply
walk over the fields!
It didn't look nice when more than 3 commendations of the same type
were displayed on the screen when taking a new turn. From now on,
it will only display max 3 commendations of each type, and if there
are more than 3 commendations there's a brief note explaining that.
I made a little but funny mistake when I polished the attack code;
if a player destroyed another player the game told that the attacking
player had killed himself (a suicide!!).
Another change to the minefields. From now on, minefields can be
deployed on ALL maps - even when the world map is displayed. Just one
thing; the minefields are not displayed on the world map, but they do
get deployed.
Minefields removed from Reality level 1 games.
Level 1 is 'The Original Global War' with no extra features. So if you
want minefields, choose one of level 2-5!
Thanks for these bug-reports, to Per Careberg and Christian Lizell.
o o o
Version 2.00f (23-May-93)
A bugfix version - nothing new added
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The following things were fixed :
- No minefields printed on the world map (there's no room for that!).
Actually, MF deploy can only be done when one of map 2-6 is
selected.
- A fatal memory bug in the minefield loading routine corrected.
Could crash the machine. This is the main reason for this quick
release.
- Corrected a 'layout bug' in Show player info.
o o o
Version 2.00e (18-May-93)
Minefields
~~~~~~~~~~
Added a new game feature - the minefields. A very powerful defensive
weapon that can cause severe casualties amongst the enemy.
Made the Autodeploy to work with minefields, just incase a player
accidentally hangs up. There's a message in the News every time the
Autodeploy has done something with a player's minefields.
And bugs, bugs....
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Fixed several small, mostly 'visual' bugs that doesn't need to be
mentioned here.
Rewrote the view-text-file routine, it was a mess (C code from the
good ol' days when I didn't know better).
Fixed a bug in date/time calculations; sometimes it produced a negative
time.
o o o
Version 2.00a (July/Aug '92)
The BIG update from old Global War game format to new, better 2.0 format.
The new features are underlined, bugs and less important things are not.
Use GWconvert to update your old 1.xx GW.dat file to the new format.
Because of the complexity of the new Global War, the data file will
expand about 1.5 KB per game.
First: Global War is now a pure XENOLINK DOOR. It will not work with
any other BBS software. The reason to this is that the ParagonDoor
protocol, which GW used before, doesn't support all the necessary
functions that the game will need in its new format.
The program can still be executed from the CLI.
And this is what has been done since the last version, 1.18d:
Games can be selected by entering just a number instead of 'S':
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
For eg. to select game 15, press '1'. The program will prompt you for
the rest of the number - simply press '5' and hit enter.
Fortifications can now be: Unlimited OR range from 1-65535.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
New feature in the Fortification phase: fortify across countries:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Players can now move their armies easily from one part of the world
to another thru a chain of connected countries, owned by the player.
If the game uses a limited number of fortifications, the program will
compute the shortest path between the starting and destination countries,
and thereafter inform the player about the number of fortifications the
movement would take. The player may thereafter proceed or cancel the
operation. This feature has been HEAVILY requested by a lot of people!
The input routine has been improved. Cursor can be moved by pressing
arrow keys left or right when running in Xenolink (local or remote).
The entire input text can be erased by pressing control-X.
Fixed the bug in the routine that checks if a player has reached the
rank of Supreme Commander. Because of the bug, SYSOPS could almost never
become S.C's ! (All sysops out there, you can continue breathing now!)
Global War now records all scores and ranks in a better way:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Players that have become Supreme Commanders will have a special title in
the ranking list called "Class x S.C.", where the 'x' is the number of
times the player has reached the rank of Supreme Commander.
Fixed a tricky bug in the routine that deletes inactive players that *could*
have caused some random gurus sometimes.
Fixed a bug in the GW-MultiRunDoor routines: when the GW node that created
the MultiRunDoor port finished, the name of the port disappeared (it's
memory was released). Other GW nodes that tried to access the port started
to behave strangely, displaying garbage instead of player names and so on.
Swap empires with team partner:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This new option is only available in Team games with Unlimited
fortifications. Expert players should have discovered the swap empire
technique ages ago (if you don't know the power of this strategy, don't
expect me to tell it here!). This option was added just to make life
easier for YOU. You will find the S:wap empires option when you are going
to F:ortify. Also, please note: this event is stored in the news file.
Rewrote the 'Begin new game' procedure. Looks better, more colors.
Rewrote parts of the Game standings menu. Added some ansi gfx.
Reality levels
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This is a new, advanced option for Global War. Each game has a special
reality level, where 1 is the same as the good ol' original Global War,
that is; battles are not particularly realistic. Lots of things depend
on luck etc. You can play more realistic games by selecting levels 2-5,
where 5 is the utmost reality level, only recommended for expert players.
As this part of the game will expand very soon, I'm not going to tell
you more about it here.
The lists of games on the main menu are displayed in a more efficient
format. Instead of displaying '1 2 3 5 9 10 11 12' etc, the numbers will
now be displayed as '1-3 5 9-12', notice the difference.
I managed to compress the Global War maps with several hundred bytes
(totally), which means that the output of maps is now a bit faster.
Improved the ranking list, added some ansi gfx.
Rewrote the Alltimes Highest routine (that's the routine that creates
the GWalltime.txt file, which contains all Supreme Commanders). It now
uses more ansi gfx and looks better (I hope!).
Sysop cannot see what players do anymore:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When a user plays Global War remote, the output the the local screen is
closed. Instead, a status text is displayed and maintained as long as
the user is playing.
(This feature will work as soon as Xenolink supports it - currently not!)
Thanks for reading me!
-janne
========================= End of document =============================