BBS Toolkit/BBS Toolkit.iso/doors_1/isa_099.zip/WHATSNEW.099

Text File | 1993-01-07 | 16KB | 305 lines

 Whats new with ISA:

v0.99
~~~~~

   ■ Added a new User Editor for local use (ISAUSER.EXE), the old user
     editor is recomended for use as a remote editor.
   ■ New version of ISAClean to deal with PKT*.ISA files created by
     ISAPack.
   ■ ISAPack has been added to ISA. It is a utility used to pack
     outbound ISA files into one file, and unpack incomming PKT*.ISA
     files. Read the documentation for more information.
   ■ The manual feed option on the food menu now works correctly.
   ■ When you buy or sell food you are taken back to the food menu.
   ■ You can sell some items in the Underground.
   ■ Fixed the number entry bug that limited number entries to one or
     two characters when more characters should be allowed.

v0.98
~~~~~

    ■ Fixed the bug that caused Error in line 11 of ISA.CFG when nothing
      was wrong.
    ■ The scoreboard now shows how many turns of protection a user has
      left beside their name.
    ■ Money transfers are not permited by users under protection.
    ■ Routing bug has finally been fixed!! Double hub routing also works
      correctly now.
    ■ Planets are now correctly taken away if lost in battle.
    ■ Fixed a bug that prevented ISA from running locally properly.
    ■ If the file BIOS is found in the ISA directory it forces ISA
      to make BIOS writes.
    ■ If the file NOTRANS is found in the ISA directory it prevents
      users from sending money transfers.
    ■ If the environment lable ISAOVR exists ISA will use it to find the
      overlay file.  This allows you to load the overlay from a RAM drive.
      Eg.  Set ISAOVR=F:\OVERLAY
    ■ Did a few changes to ISASETUP.
    ■ Changed the way the interest on money transfers works.
    ■ Remote Attacks now report what BBS they are from in the message.
    ■ The new food screen can now be aborted and is hot keyed.
    ■ Added a new SysOp Key : Alt-G = Garbage (Fake Line noise).
    ■ Added a Imortals list.  If someone reaches a certain score,
      configurable with a new line in the config (line 24), their
      name and comment will be added to the imortal's list (viewable
      at the end of the game when the score board is) then their
      empire is deleted.  This was added to prevent large empires
      from crashing the game.  If you get a runtime error 207 and
      it's not from a remote attack or something try lowering this
      number.  It's also sort of a way to 'win' the game.
    ■ Made it so that only a certain amount of planets can be bought
      per turn.  Defaults is 200, but it is configurable as a new line
      in the config (1000 is the max).
    ■ Added the undergound, each user has one of 8-10 random passwords,
      they can find it out if they find a hidden option on one of the
      menus that will tell them their password.  Then the under ground is
      another hidden option off of a menu.  There are several ways to find
      out both of these things, but I'll let you and your users figure it out.
    ■ 2 New files that can be displaied: UNDER1.A?? which is displayed when
                                         the user finds the underground and is
                                         prompted for their password.
                                         UNDER2.A?? which is displayed when
                                         the user enters the underground.
    ■ Updated the bar tenders chat file.
    ■ Added Reflex Wrestling to the Underground.
    ■ Added Nukes (hidden option).
    ■ Added Treaties.. Treaties now replace the black mail option on the
      goverment options menu.. but black mailing is still part of the game,
      humm I wonder where that option could be!??!
    ■ Totally re-wrote the attack formula, attacks should be more realitic now.
    ■ Re-did the food input method.
    ■ Lot's of cosmetic fixes.
    ■ Fixed a bug with the buying planets.
    ■ Fixed a bug with costing, user score is re-determined every round.
    ■ You can only buy a certain amount of planets per turn.
    ■ Other small hidden features, expo's etc.
    ■ Some other little things I can't think of.
    ■ Fixed lots of little bugs.


v0.05b
~~~~~~

    ■ The field length has been restricted to 3 characters when
      purchasing planets. (Limits purchase of 999 planets/turn).
    ■ New line in the Config to Enable/Disable local attacks, to
      encourage Multi-BBS attacks (and spying).
    ■ Money transfers are now available from the Bank.
    ■ New version of ISAScore and ISAEdit to reflect the new user
      structure.
    ■ ISAClean now won't delete LOCAL.ATK and COMMENTS.SPY if found.
      This only occured if a directory for routed files was not defined.
    ■ You can now select your mailer type in the ISA.CFG.  This was done
      make it possible for Binkley users to have their mailer Delete
      files when they're sent.
    ■ Fixed the routing bug that prevented double routing, or routing
      through two or more hubs.
    ■ Configurable User effects from the Government Menu.
    ■ New User structure to accomidate new features and bug fixes.

v0.05a
~~~~~~

    ■ The command line parser was accepting some illegal command lines.
      This has been fixed the help screen will come up.
    ■ ISASetup lets you Delete BBS's from the NODES.CTL.
    ■ When running ISA in /Local mode if REGISTER.KEY is found the
      information contained in the file will be used to determin the
      Sysop, BBS Name and the current player (that being the Sysop).
    ■ We've implemented the file REGISTER.KEY to help avoid registration
      problems we've been having. The file contains two lines, Line 1 is
      the Sysops Name, and Line 2 is the BBS Name.  If the file is found
      the information in it will be used to create the registration code
      instead of the information found in the DORINFOx.DEF or DOOR.SYS
      file.  If you are currently registered you don't need to worry
      about this. If you plan on registering please create this file to
      avoid registration problems.
    ■ Problem with INTL Kludge was fixed, with help from Ryan Murray.

v0.05:
~~~~~~

    ■ Selecting Remote Spy option 2 (Terrorize Civilians) now subtracts
      the proper amount of spies sent.
    ■ The program ISACLEAN.EXE now comes with ISA.  It is a little
      utility that will clean out ISA's out-bound files.  We were having
      problems with some mailers that do not support the delete/sent
      flag with netmail file attaches. Out-bound files were not getting
      deleted as a result of this, if you run a mailer like this it is
      sugested you run this program in your nightly event.
    ■ Several optional text files can now be displayed at certain points
      from within the game. Please read the file TXTFILES.DOC for more
      information.
    ■ The sub-archive ISAROUTE.ARJ is now included with ISA.  This is a
      colection of text files explaining in extensive detail the setup
      of internal ISA routing.  Many thanks to Jeff Bolton for this one.
      NOTE: You can now configure the use of the direct flag in netmail
            messages, so if you would rather you can also route file
            from within your mailer.
    ■ Improved ISASETUP.EXE by adding setup of: DORINFOx.DEF or DOOR.SYS
      (ISA Setup will no write the BBSNAME.DAT for you), routing,
      multi-node configurations, send a blank or filled out registration
      form to disk or the printer.  As well as many cosmetic and
      technical fixes.
    ■ Updated the casino so it is now even more 'rigged' in the computers
      favor.  We found that to many people were making lots of money from
      the casino.  However you can still get lucky :)
    ■ Added more disasters and cosmetic fixes to DISASTER.EXE.
    ■ When a random event happens you are asked to press a key to
      continue giving you time to find out what happened. (ie lost knife
      troops, etc.)
    ■ When viewing the scoreboard from the Government menu you see your
      updated score, instead of the score you had when you logged into
      the game.
    ■ If you withdraw alot of money from the bank and go buy planets,
      the price of the planets gets adjusted to reflect the amount of
      money the user has.
    ■ Amount of money a user has is now added to the Score Calculation.
    ■ Added the ISA Bar to the casino.  Here you can talk to the
      bartender and get several useful hints.  Also amusing
      conversations can be started if you're feeling in a wierd mood. If
      your bored good topics included: 'Elivs' and 'Fish' <Grin>
    ■ Spy comments are now read properly from the file COMMENTS.SPY.
    ■ Rewrote the Duplicate User checking procedure.  Duplicate Empires
      should be deleted properly now.
    ■ Fixed the LAN bug that caused runtime error 163, when two nodes
      where loaded at the same time.
    ■ If you setup ISA for Multi-Node checking, and the INUSE.FLG file
      is found the date of the file is checked.  If it is older than one
      hour the file is deleted.
    ■ I think I found a fix for the Runtime Error 207 Bug, if you still
      get it please let me know, if I don't hear from anybody I'll asume
      it's fixed.
    ■ Fixed the Overlay Init problems when running Multi-Node.
    ■ ISAScore won't cause sharing violations if it is run while
      somebody is in the game.
    ■ ISA won't load the overlay into EMS if the file NOEMS is found in
      the ISA directory.
    ■ A new line was added to the ISA.CFG file to toggle use of the
      Direct Flag in netmail messages.
    ■ ATK files now get processed when they should, instead of sitting
      idle in the inbound directory for many days.
    ■ ISA now doesn't pack files when users log into the game if the
      game is setup for Multi-Node operation.  This caused errors.
      Nightly maintenance MUST be run for Multi-Node systems in order to
      ensure that the files get packed.
    ■ You can't spy now and end up with negative money.
    ■ ISA now doesn't say you've succesfully caused other peoples spies
      to defect when they don't own any.
    ■ You cannot pay negative amounts when you're asked to pay for Peace
      or to pay to stop unrest among your Army.
    ■ The INTL kludge can now be forced to be written to messages.  This
      will correct problems with different networks getting mixed up.
      The option was added to the ISA.CFG file.
    ■ Added more Random Events.
    ■ Lots of other little bug fixes.


v0.05 Gamma:
~~~~~~~~~~~~

    ■ A new external sysop utility DISASTER was made to create
      disasters.
    ■ ISAEdit now lets you change the user alias field.
    ■ Fixed up ISASetup's Reset Game procedure to clear all the remote
      BBS directories of attacks and other files that shouldn't be there
      when the game is reset.
    ■ Command lines are now parssed better, and help is given if a wrong
      command line is used.  ISA /H will give you the help screen.
    ■ Fixed up the newspaper so it now correctly displays the date it
      was created at the top.
    ■ You can now properly view the newspaper from the government menu.
    ■ Various Cosmetic improvements.
    ■ Added routing to ISA!
    ■ When listing blackmails you can see who still hasn't recieved
      their blackmail.
    ■ Fixed up some of the spy routines, they should work better now.
    ■ Found and fixed the runtime error 2 bug.  Finally.
    ■ The foodmart now correctly saves the amount of food left.
    ■ User names are not searched case sensative anymore.
    ■ Found an obscure bug when buying items from the buy options menu that
      let you buy knife troops, bombers etc. when you couldn't afford
      them.
    ■ Fixed up ISAScore.
    ■ The Scoreboard looks better now, big scores are justified properly.
    ■ New format for CONFIG.ISA.
    ■ The users current turn is now displayed on the Status Bar.
    ■ You can now withdraw money from the bank if you do not have enough
      money to pay for your planets and other maintanence fees.
    ■ Fixed the problem that screwed up D'Bridge Mailer by numbering REP
      files. REP files are now numbered CODExxxx.REP, and get renamed to
      CODE.REP after they are moved to their appropriate directry.
    ■ Fixed a bug in the casino that gave people a lot of money when
      they weren't supposed to.
    ■ Updated ISASetup.
    ■ Lost return files should finally be fixed.  (I hope)
    ■ Avatar is now correctly read from the Dorinfo1.Def file.
    ■ ISA is now Mult-Node!
    ■ Improved the get industry percentages procedure with help from
      Russel Mennie.

v0.04:
~~~~~~

    ■ Doesn't let duplicate users to write a message locally or remote
      before they get kicked out of ISA.
    ■ You cannot have draft or tax rates over 80%, and if either is too
      high unrest is created among your people.
    ■ Cannot purchase negative amounts of items from the main buying
      menu (ie. buy negative amount of laser troups giving the user a
      ton of money)
    ■ The Split Screen chat has been improved and some bugs were fixed.
    ■ ISA now processes incomming files more selectivly making sure that
      only ISA files get moved and not other files.  Any files with the
      following extensions will be moved by ISA: <CODE>*.MSG,
      <CODE>*.SPY, <CODE>*.RET, <CODE>*.ATK, <CODE>*.RE? (REP Files)
      where ? is equal to P or between 1 and 9. It also now checks for
      duplicate REP files and keeps the latest one. (ie. out of the
      files *.RE1 and *.RE2 it'll keep *.RE2 and nuke *.RE1 and *.REP,
      then rename the *.RE2 file to *.REP).
    ■ Line 17 of the config is now the maximum time the user is allowed
      to stay in ISA.  This line is optinal.  If a user exits and
      re-enters ISA and they have enough time left they will get all
      their time back.
    ■ In the Casino playing coin flip users can only win what they bet,
      not twice what they bet.
    ■ Users are asked to leave the casino when they have too much money
      on them.  This is to avoid users from winning too much money and
      haveing the variable that stores the users money loop around to a
      negative value of around -2 billion dollars.
    ■ Bank interest is now configurable.  Line 16 is now used it
      indicate the interest rate per turn on money left in the bank.
      This line is optional.
    ■ Rewrote the read config routine.  Now if there is an error in the
      config the line number containing the error is reported.
    ■ You can now view the remote teams scores and players from the
      Government Options Menu.
    ■ There is a random chance that a user can inherit several new
      planets from a distant relative.
    ■ Fixed an error with the Multi Node detect feature, it should now
      correctly detect if ISA has already been loaded.
    ■ Government Options Menu now moved to a more prominent location on
      the menu.  Also the key was changed from '*' to 'G'.
    ■ Cannot purchase negative amounts of planets anymore (sell planets).
    ■ Added an earthquake disaster, it destroys some of the users
      population and several urban planets.
    ■ When purchasing planets the defaults now work. Also if the user
      selects to purchase 0 planets it returns them to the buy planets
      menu instead of the main menu.
    ■ ISA does not beep anymore if it is unregistered, it only has the
      small delay.
    ■ If the user turns off Avatar and Ansi from the Government Menu and
      chat is entered, a regular chat will be invoked instead of the
      split screen chat.
    ■ You can read the Player.Doc from the Government Options Menu (only
      if the Player.Doc file is found in the ISA directory).
    ■ ISA now supports DOOR.SYS, read the documentation for more info.
    ■ You can now display LOGON.AVT (Avatar File) for Avatar users.
    ■ Various Other Bugs
    ■ Lots of Cosmetic fixes and spelling corrections.

History of what's new for older versions of ISA has been removed from
this file.  It was taking up too much room.