* "Paging buttons" have been added to the commands display to allow full use of all possible (120) commands available in the game. These buttons appear only if necessary.
* Bodyguard units are now disbanded between turns if they no longer have leaders assigned to them.
* Players who have seen improper exit behavior, such as system freezes immediately on exiting the game or corrupted game.cfg (configuration) files, should no longer experience the problems.
* Players of the English version may choose whether or not to have skirmishers deployed when they order a change of formation. This option is only available when the "oldrules+" command line switch is active. There is no cost for changes in skirmisher deployment if it is requested in connection with a formation change.
* Units with mounts (horses, camels) now show up as "mounted" on the OOB editor screen regardless of actual mount status.
* Tactical formations may now be changed in the deployment editor regardless of the setting of the automatic formations function in the game.
Age of Rifles, Version 1.3
This document describes the changes in Age of Rifles since version 1.01.
FIXES
Fixed: A bug which could turn control of an enemy unit over to a player
at the beginning of a turn. Part of this fix is special code to
terminate the game if 1) player 0 is not capable of moving any units in
the current turn and 2) pbem is in effect. This will prevent confusion
in file swaps at some cost of playability in some scenarios.
Fixed: A bug which could cause a crash if certain unit information was
accessed after selecting an empty hex during the scenario post mortem.
I have also re-enabled cursors during the post mortem.
Fixed: A VCR data handling bug which could cause memory related crashes
has been corrected.
Fixed: Crash in the Load File Manager selecting the down scroll arrow
if the only save present is AUTO.sav.
Fixed: Crash in the Game Options screen before the scenario if selecting
the simple/rich graphics in the Game Play Options menu and then OK.
Fixed: Crash (mostly) at the end of scenario play if one side has no
units left on the map and the swap sides function is selected.
Fixed: In the Game Options screen if the Commander and Automatic
Formations toggles in the Game Rules Options menu are off, then the
scenario will end before it can be played.
Fixed: A bug in commander action reporting which could result in the
following strings "prevents a rout!" or "watches helplessly!", has been
fixed.
Small map miniature uniform graphics have been fixed.
The microview is now properly updated at the beginning of a turn, and has
been extended to improve functionality during computer player turns.
Memory use has been "fortified" to reduce the chance of page faults on
some machines.
The unit info panel is now properly updated when tactical formation is
changed by hotkey.
Inconsistencies in defensive order selection logic have been corrected.
Problems with the 100 yard / 10 minute scale clock have been corrected.
Deployment related errors in the OOB editor copy unit and delete unit
routines have been corrected.
Fixed: A logic error which could cause the program to lock
if a computer controlled enemy exits the map.
Fixed: A logic error which could interfere with an
undercrewed artillery unit's ability to change facing.
Environmental effects are now turned off (clear weather,
firm ground and calm conditions are assumed) properly
when the "Full environment effects" game rules option is
turned off.
Fixed: A bug which had the potential to crash the game
if more than one assaulting unit succesfully advanced into
a hex previously occupied by an enemy artillery unit which
left weapons behind, and the _second_ unit attempted to
salvage the weapons.
Mounted units may no longer enter defensive order.
IMPROVEMENTS
Reports+ command line switch has been extended to replace additional
verbal descriptions with numerical equivalents. Units with attached
leaders show up in the microview as blinking red lights rather than
blinking yellow lights. In the overview, units with leaders are
hilighted with a blinking red cursor. There is an additional menu item
listing the status of all game options. (This display can also be
called up by use of the "?" hotkey.)
Ship fire animations have been improved.
Ships are now easier to sink. Towns, villages, walled compounds etc now
rubble more frequently.
Random Orders of Battle may now be created in the OOB editor. Click on
the small "random" button at lower right and follow the prompts.
Random Scenarios may now be created. Click on the "random scenario" button
in the main screen and follow the prompts. The randomly created scenario
is saved with the name random.sce, and any previous random.sce will be
overwritten. If you wish to save a random scenario permanently, load it
into the editor to rename it there. DO NOT RENAME THE SCENARIO FILE
OUTSIDE OF THE EDITOR, if you do: the game will not properly update high
scores, loads and saves may act strangely, and the scenario will be
useless for campaigns. The only "safe" renaming which can be done
outside of the editor is *.sce to *.sci or *.sci to *.sce.
Quality and movement indicators no longer show up on enemy units during
game play (advanced intel rules).
Fire cursor colors are now modified to reflect time of fire effects on
lethality of fire.
Variable wallop bar: Whenever the mouse cursor is passed over a valid
target for the active unit, the current effective fire strength of the
active unit vs. the target is displayed under the target unit. If the
active unit has less than the full 4 pulses of fire available, a minus
sign is displayed next to the strength number.
There is additional feedback now regarding wallop bar display option
selection.
VCR playback has been slowed down a bit.
Melee and fire losses have been adjusted. Advanced interactions have
been added between mounted cavalry units and infantry in square
formation.
Units in march column now suffer significant morale penalties.
There have been several minor graphics improvements.
Prize crews now train by a random amount from 1% to 10%
per turn until they reach their national average. Prize crews
are also now able to receive stragglers as replacements.
A new VCR replay button has been added. The new button
resets the VCR to the start of the other player's previous
turn.
Map place names are now available when fields of view are
being shown.
Unit experience gains between battles in campaigns are
now tied to the unit's participation in combat during the
scenario. Units not significantly participating in a battle
(no participation in melee or fire combat) will not gain
experience.
Quality indicators ("condition icons") in the active unit panel
now show up only if you have full info on the unit being displayed.
Experimental Command Line Switch: "oldrules".
oldrules+: Decreases killed and wounded and replaces them with
stragglers and unit cohesion losses. Turns on long reaction ranges and
advanced reporting options. Increases severity of fire combat, but
additional losses are channeled as stragglers and loss of unit cohesion.
Morale rules are strengthened. Artillery units tend to abandon
their guns if overrun rather retreating from melee. Units are eligible
for frantic fire in response to fire attacks by adjacent enemy units.
Note: It is extremely difficult to move units in the face of enemy fire
when this switch is on. Assaults are much more difficult to launch, and
due to the stronger morale rules overall casualties for battles are
significantly reduced. If you set oldrules+ and wish to return to the
default rules, set "oldrules-" on your command line.
Age of Rifles, Version 1.2
This document describes the changes in Age of Rifles since version 1.01.
Special thanks to all those involved with reporting and finding bugs in
the field, as well as those who have been *patiently*
awaiting the update.
FIXES
Fixed: A bug which could turn control of an enemy unit over to a player
at the beginning of a turn. Part of this fix is special code to
terminate the game if 1) player 0 is not capable of moving any units in
the current turn and 2) pbem is in effect. This will prevent confusion
in file swaps at some cost of playability in some scenarios.
Fixed: A bug which could cause a crash if certain unit information was
accessed after selecting an empty hex during the scenario post mortem.
I have also re-enabled cursors during the post mortem.
Fixed: A VCR data handling bug which could cause memory related crashes
has been corrected.
Fixed: Crash in the Load File Manager selecting the down scroll arrow
if the only save present is AUTO.sav.
Fixed: Crash in the Game Options screen before the scenario if selecting
the simple/rich graphics in the Game Play Options menu and then OK.
Fixed: Crash (mostly) at the end of scenario play if one side has no
units left on the map and the swap sides function is selected.
Fixed: In the Game Options screen if the Commander and Automatic
Formations toggles in the Game Rules Options menu are off, then the
scenario will end before it can be played.
Fixed: A bug in commander action reporting which could result in the
following strings "prevents a rout!" or "watches helplessly!", has been
fixed.
Small map miniature uniform graphics have been fixed.
The microview is now properly updated at the beginning of a turn, and has
been extended to improve functionality during computer player turns.
Memory use has been "fortified" to reduce the chance of page faults on
some machines.
The unit info panel is now properly updated when tactical formation is
changed by hotkey.
Inconsistencies in defensive order selection logic have been corrected.
Problems with the 100 yard / 10 minute scale clock have been corrected.
Deployment related errors in the OOB editor copy unit and delete unit
routines have been corrected.
IMPROVEMENTS
Ship fire animations have been improved.
Ships are now easier to sink. Towns, villages, walled compounds etc. now
rubble more frequently.
Random Scenarios may now be created. Click on the "random scenario" button
in the main screen and follow the prompts. The randomly created scenario
is saved with the name random.sce, and any previous random.sce will be
overwritten. If you wish to save a random scenario permanently, load it
into the editor to rename it there. DO NOT RENAME THE SCENARIO FILE
OUTSIDE OF THE EDITOR, if you do: the game will not properly update high
scores, loads and saves may act strangely, and the scenario will be
useless for campaigns. The only "safe" renaming which can be done
outside of the editor is *.sce to *.sci or *.sci to *.sce.
Quality and movement indicators no longer show up on enemy units during
game play (advanced intel rules).
Fire cursor colors are now modified to reflect time of fire effects on
lethality of fire.
Variable wallop bar: Whenever the mouse cursor is passed over a valid
target for the active unit, the current effective fire strength of the
active unit vs. the target is displayed under the target unit. If the
active unit has less than the full 4 pulses of fire available, a minus
sign is displayed next to the strength number.
There is additional feedback now regarding wallop bar display option
selection.
VCR playback has been slowed down a bit.
Melee and fire losses have been adjusted. Advanced interactions have
been added between mounted cavalry units and infantry in square
formation.
Units in march column now suffer significant morale penalties.
There have been several minor graphics improvements.
Prize crews now train by a random amount from 1% to 10%
per turn until they reach their national average. Prize crews
are also now able to receive stragglers as replacements.
Version 1.01u - Begin changes for second update
Fixed: A bug which could turn control of an enemy unit
over to a player at the beginning of a turn. Part of this
fix is special code to terminate the game if 1) player 0 is
not capable of moving any units in the current turn and
2) pbem is in effect. This will prevent confusion in file
swaps at some cost of playability in some scenarios.
Fixed: A bug which could cause a crash if certain unit
information was accessed after selecting an empty hex during
the scenario post mortem. I have also re-enabled cursors
during the post mortem.
Version 1.01.01
Except for the version string info (v1.01a), this version
is identical to v1.01u.
Sub version numbers are now displayed in debug mode.
Version 1.01.02
Reports+ command line switch has been extended to replace
additional verbal descriptions with numerical equivalents.
Small map miniature uniform graphics have been fixed.
Memory requirements have been reduced by 3K.
Memory use has been "fortified" to reduce the chance of
page faults on some machines.
Version 1.01.03
A VCR data handling bug which could cause memory related
crashes has been corrected.
A VCR display bug has been corrected.
VCR records corrupted by earlier versions are
automatically cleared.
Ship fire animations have been improved.
Ships are now easier to sink.
Towns, villages, walled compounds etc now rubble more
frequently.
Version 1.01.04 - 1.01.09
These were interrim localized french and german builds.
There were no significant features added or bugs addressed.
A special case of help string now allows display of strings
of lengths up to 68 characters with 7 pixel spacing. This new
spacing only affects strings longer than 60 characters.
There have been a few string length related memory
fortifications.
Version 1.01.10
The microview is now properly updated at the beginning of a
turn.
The "reports+" command line option now returns the debug
version substring in the credits screen.
A VCR data handling bug which could cause memory related
crashes has been corrected.
Version 1.01.11
The microview is now properly updated at the beginning of a
turn, correcting a bug introduced in v1.10.10 and extending
microview functionality during computer player turns.
Version 1.01.12 - 1.01.16
These were interrim localized french and german builds.
There were no significant features added or bugs addressed.
Version 1.01.17
Random Orders of Battle may now be created in the OOB editor.
Click on the small "random" button at lower right and follow
the prompts.
Random Scenarios may now be created. Click on the "random
scenario" button in the main screen and follow the prompts.
The randomly created scenario is saved with the name
random.sce, and any previous random.sce will be overwritten.
If you wish to save a random scenario permanently, load it
into the editor to rename it there. DO NOT RENAME THE SCENARIO
FILE OUTSIDE OF THE EDITOR, if you do: the game will not
properly update high scores, loads and saves may act strangely,
and the scenario will be useless for campaigns. The only "safe"
renaming which can be done outside of the editor is *.sce to
*.sci or *.sci to *.sce.
Version 1.01.18
If the reports+ command line option has been set: units with
attached leaders show up in the microview as blinking red lights
rather than blinking yellow lights. In the overview, units with
leaders are hilighted with a blinking red cursor.
Quality and movement indicators no longer show up on enemy
units during game play (advanced intel rules).
The unit info panel is now properly updated when tactical
formation is changed by hotkey.
Inconsistencies in defensive order selection logic have been
corrected.
Problems with the 100 yard / 10 minute scale clock have been
corrected.
Deployment related errors in the OOB editor copy unit and
delete unit routines have been corrected.
VCR playback has been slowed down a bit.
The following were fixed in versions previous to v1.01.18:
CRASH In the Load File Manager selecting the down scroll arrow
if the only save present is AUTO.sav. - Fixed in previous version
CRASH In the Game Options screen before the scenario if
selecting the simple/rich graphics in the Game Play Options menu
and then OK.
CRASH (mostly) At the end of scenario play if one side has no
units left on the map and the swap sides function is selected.
PLAYABILITY In the Game Options screen if the Commander and
Automatic Formations toggles in the Game Rules Options menu are
off, then the scenario will end before it can be played.
Version 1.01.19
Leader selections, defender prepared positions, and attacker
initial tactical formations logic in random scenarios have all
been improved.
A bug in attacker / defender role logic has been eliminated.
Version 1.01.20
A bug in commander action reporting which could result in the
following strings "prevents a rout!" or "watches helplessly!", has
been fixed.
All retreat and rout related losses are taken as cohesion
losses rather than as killed, wounded, stragglers, etc.
(Not in effect if oldrules+ option is selected.)
Squares suffer 1/2 casualties in melee combat. This is
slightly better than the 2/3 casualties suffered by units
in defensive order.
Units now suffer a cohesion loss in melee proportional to
troops lost.
All melee combats now last at least two rounds as long as
each side has units left. (Not in effect if the oldrules+ option
is selected.)
If the reports+ command line option has been set there is an
additional menu item listing the status of all game options.
Version 1.01.21
Melee combats involving defending artillery units can now
end after only one round. If this occurs, artillery units will
"rout" away from their position if the enemy forces succesfully
assault.
There is additional feedback now regarding wallop bar
display option selection.
Fire cursor colors are now modified to reflect time of fire
effects on lethality of fire.
Version 1.01.22
This was a rebuild of the level 16 German executable, and
did not include fixes since build 16.
The unit report plaque has been enlarged in the German version
to avoid string overwrites at the edges.
Version 1.01.23
Variable wallop bar: Whenever the mouse cursor is passed
over a valid target for the active unit, the current effective
fire strength of the active unit vs. the target is displayed
under the target unit. If the active unit has less than the full
4 pulses of fire available, a minus sign is displayed next to
the strength number.
Version 1.01.24
The attack bias in random scenarios has been decreased.
Supply points are now included in random deployments.
Random deployments have been refined, with improved
balance and use of redoubts, breastworks, and tactical
formations.
Randomly created units now have slightly more randomized
troop strengths.
Melee attrition per round of combat has been reduced by
33%.
In assaults involving defending units in square and mounted
attackers, defenders will suffer fewer casualties and attackers
will suffer greater casualties.
Units in march column now suffer significant morale penalties.
Version 1.20.00
Obscure reserved DOS system filenames are no longer
allowed.
Version 1.20.01
An assault lockup bug has been fixed.
A new hotkey has been added. If the "?" is pressed,
the active game options list pops up.
Version 1.20.02
A memory optimization (deleting a development option)
in v1.01.17 caused a casualty reporting bug. This affected
a number of items, and combat reporting should generally
look better now.
Version 1.20.03
The new random scenario / random OOB interface has
been implemented.
Note:
It would be best if I were to rewrite this file for inclusion
in the publicly distributed v1.2. Some of the reported bug
fixes affected bugs that were never released publicly, and
the current document would give a false impression of
"bugginess'.
Experimental:
oldrules+: Decreases killed and wounded and replaces them with
stragglers and unit cohesion losses. Turns on long reaction
ranges and advanced reporting options. Increases severity of
fire combat, but additional losses are channeled as stragglers
and loss of unit cohesion. Morale rules are strengthened.
Artillery units tend to abandon their guns if overrun rather
retreating from melee. Units are eligible for frantic fire in
response to fire attacks by adjacent enemy units.
v. 1.10 PATCH RELEASE NOTES
------------------------------
Welcome to the Age of Rifles v.1.10.
The patched version of AOR addresses those bugs found immediately
prior to shipping as well at those (unfortunately) found in the
field. Special thanks to all those involved with reporting and
finding bugs in the field, as well as those who have been *patiently*
awaiting the patch.
This patch fixes all of the known bugs and outstanding issues:
GAMEPLAY
---------
* All issues surrounding PBEM games have been corrected.
* The game no longer looks for a sound init file, enabling a
true "no sound" option.
* When playing campaigns, sides will no longer switch through
the course of a campaign - once Union, always Union (etc.).
* Notification is now given at the end of a scenario within a
campaign to pull down the continue option from the File menu.
* A palette related bug in command displays has been corrected.
* A bug in commander assignments during reinforcements has been
corrected.
* Commander replacement logic has been improved, eliminating a
bug that could have left formations without commanders in long
battles.
* Melee problems have been corrected.
* Replaying a scenario in the VCR with ships no longer causes
the game to crash.
* Selecting UNDO will now remove any graphic casualties from
the game field.
* Problems associated with viewing the battlefield at the end
of a scenario has been corrected.
EDITOR
-------
* When "show field of view" is on (set in the game), the editor
no longer displays a gray overlay over the entire map.
* Selecting "move unit" in the oob editor no longer crashes
the editor when fewer than 2 units are defined.
* The title bar at the top of the screen is now updated when
a map file is loaded in the editor.
MISC.
------
* This patch contains the MSCDEX.EXE version 2.23, necessary
to identify the WGCSIII disc in your CD-ROM drive.
* A problem with the Crimea text file has been corrected.
