Re: Up to date beta patch info..
 

Cetero censeo human players should be destroyed.

Re: Up to date beta patch info..
 

BTW I won't have much chance to answer questions as we are busy preparing for a convention in Alabama we will be going to in a few weeks.

Any questions should be directed to Malfador via email if possible, thanks!

Version 1.22:
1. Fixed - Fixed a few memory leaks.
2. Fixed - AI was not using cloaking correctly.
3. Fixed - Fixed up some of the constraints on what a cloaked ship
can do.
4. Fixed - AI will choose Stealth Armor for its designs instead of
Cloaking Devices.
5. Fixed - AI would fill up remaining space on its designs with
regular shield generators (not phased shield generators).
6. Fixed - Maximum number of ships and units per player in a game was
not being enforced correctly. In Game Setup, Maximum number
of units (in space) has been changed so that the units can be
in space or in cargo. Increased the starting maximums for
units.
7. Fixed - Games using Multiplayer Save Game Path would try to get
the combat replay and statistics file from this location,
instead of where the savegame was loaded from.
8. Fixed - Ships destroyed with ramming were not providing experience.
9. Fixed - Ships destroyed with ramming were not add in to the design
statistics.
10. Fixed - Units carried by a ship were not being tallied in the unit's
design statistics.
11. Fixed - If an item that is in a trade has been lost, destroyed,
captured, etc. before the trade is excepted, it will be listed
in the trade as "unavailable".
12. Fixed - Jettisoned units weren't being tallied in that unit's
design statistics.
13. Fixed - Ships or Units that are received as gifts, will also have
their design available as an Enemy Design.
14. Fixed - The notes in the Galaxy Window would allow you to see the
names of systems that you had not explored.
15. Fixed - Planets that are in systems that you have seen, were not
showing a green or red star if they were colonizable.
16. Fixed - Omnipresent view of systems would allow you to see
cloaked ships.
17. Fixed - Added a new restriction that you cannot edit a prototype
design if it has been added to one of your construction
queues.
18. Fixed - Change directory in the Load Game window would error if the
Multiplayer Save Game Path was invalid.
19. Fixed - Improved the AI ship design based on the terrific "Mephisto
Mod".
20. Fixed - Transports with a "Capture Planet" strategy were not attempting
to drop troops on the planet.
21. Fixed - Colony planets in the Combat Simulator window were showing the
incorrect player color for the population bars (or possibly no
bars at all).
22. Fixed - Planets should not show up in the Combat Simulator's Fleet
Transfer window.
23. Fixed - Type priorities settings for targeting were not working in
certain situations.
24. Fixed - The Ship\Planet report for a piece in a combat simulation
would sometimes show the wrong status icons.
25. Fixed - Sometimes multiple stats and event files would be copied for
each savegame.
26. Fixed - For a Launch All Units order, if a unit failed to launch
early in the list, then all later units in the list would
not be attempted.
27. Fixed - Sometimes the treaty grid would show two races having two
different treaties with each other.
28. Fixed - If a unit group was at a location in space with other unit
Groups, then the unit Groups amount number and the number
of space objects present would overlap.
29. Fixed - Sometimes the Colonies Window (Facilities tab) would list
the same facility type on multiple lines.
30. Fixed - Ai was not checking correctly for nearby enemies to potential
colonization sites. Improved the AI colonization determination
a bit.

------------------
Sarge is coming...

Richard Arnesen
Director of Covert Ops
Shrapnel Games
http://www.shrapnelgames.com

Re: Up to date beta patch info..
 

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>
BTW I won't have much chance to answer questions as we are busy preparing for a convention in Alabama we will be going to in a few weeks.
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

So, one would hope the next patch, whether 1.22, 1.23, 1.24, etc... will be out before you go to the convention?


Derek

Re: Up to date beta patch info..
 

3. Fixed - Fixed up some of the constraints on what a cloaked ship
can do.

Can any of you Beta testers explain this better?

Re: Up to date beta patch info..
 

This is truly an honour! http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: Up to date beta patch info..
 

Mephisto - I'm so happy to see you in the patch! Aaron's use of external mods is a testament to a developer who is "for the gamer's".

Thanks Aaron!

OK, can we have it now??

Re: Up to date beta patch info..
 

now this is too Kewl!

THE developer adds a gamer MOD in a patch.

Re: Up to date beta patch info..
 

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Richard:

19. Fixed - Improved the AI ship design based on the terrific "Mephisto Mod".
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Now this fix simply rocks! http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon7.gif.

Re: Up to date beta patch info..
 

I can see the fan support will be growing stronger and I LOVE it! I am amazed how much devotion to the fans is displayed in the patches and updates! Thanks for your wonderful care for us all!

------------------
"Doctors, glad I'm not sick!"

Re: Up to date beta patch info..
 

Zodd: Cloaked ships were able to do too many things, and we needed to stop them from doing some of those things (I cant remember any specific ones)
WTG Mephisto!

Re: Up to date beta patch info..
 

Mephisto - way to go!!



[This message has been edited by Tampa_Gamer (edited 06 February 2001).]

Re: Up to date beta patch info..
 

bump.

Re: Up to date beta patch info..
 

Congrats Mephisto http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon7.gif

------------------
"We've made too many compromises already, too many retreats! They invade our space and we fall back -- they assimilate entire worlds and we fall back! Not again! The line must be drawn here -- this far, no further! And I will make them pay for what they've done!" -- Patric Stewart as Captain Picard
UCP/TCO Ship Yards

Re: Up to date beta patch info..
 

Does anyone have any information on when the next SE4 patch is coming out? How about tcp/ip?

I am currently playing a four person hotseat game. We are having a very good time; but, long for the day when we can all log on to the net and play instead of getting into our cars and meeting and some convenient location. Tcp/ip will simply make this great game fantastic!

Re: Up to date beta patch info..
 

Latest word on the patch is that it *might* be out by the end of this month. By all accounts it is going to address even more stuff than is currently listed here. Should be a big one.

Re: Up to date beta patch info..
 

Aaron told me Last week that it will take at least 2 months with a lot of testing before TCP/IP will be ready.

Re: Up to date beta patch info..
 

TWO months or more before tcp/ip is available? That is very sad news. SE4 would take on a whole new dimension with it. My hotseat games have been a bLast and all my opponants would love to just be able to log on and continue the game. Besides, all you solo play artists would get a real test in your game skills if you faced a human rather than an AI which makes you look like a legend in your own mind.

Re: Up to date beta patch info..
 

I don't just look like a legend in my own mind. I AM a legend in my own mind....
The AI agrees. So there!

Re: Up to date beta patch info..
 

And again...

Version 1.23:
1. Fixed - AI should only build one sensor buoy at a time.
2. Fixed - Some of the empire files were saved with all of the ministers
turned on.
3. Fixed - In some circumstances, the AI will design Base Space Yards with
more than one space yard.
4. Fixed - Cloaked ships were triggering population unhappiness.
5. Fixed - A race that has been destroyed should show "Conquered" for the
treaty in its race report window.
6. Added - Added a new tab to the Strategies window called "Damage". This
tab allows you to set the percentage damage you want to inflict
on different kinds of enemy ships before moving on to a new
target. So for ships, if it says 80%, then your ships will
damage the ship up to 80% and then will switch to a new target.
If no other targets are available, your ships will go back and
finish off those remaining ships. There is also a setting for
"Damage targets until all weapons gone". If this is set true,
then your ships will fire on enemy ships until all of their
weapons are gone, regardless of the percentage damage setting.
7. Fixed - Sometimes the AI Resupply minister would give a Divide by Zero
error.
8. Fixed - The Last patch caused the display of the letters "RSY" in the
system window to not work.
9. Fixed - The AI was not balancing armed and non-armed ships correctly
when considering a trade.
10. Fixed - Typo in the SectType.txt file.
11. Fixed - Mothballed ships were blockading enemy planets.
12. Fixed - Improved the AI's use of seeking weapons in combat.
13. Fixed - Improved the AI's firing of weapons before or after moving.
14. Fixed - Sometimes the AI would not fire seekers on a target.
15. Fixed - Tactical Combat: When a seeker destroyed a colony, there would
be no explosion.
16. Fixed - Tactical Combat: When seekers were launched by a planet, the
selection icon would show for the planet and all of the seekers
at the same time.
17. Fixed - Maximum Weapons Range strategy would sometimes cause the ship to
move closer to the target.
18. Fixed - You should only be able to scrap satellite Groups and fighter
Groups if a spaceyard is present.
19. Fixed - Combat Replay would show the shields for a ship that was hit with
a shield skipping weapon.
20. Fixed - You should not be able to add a minefield to a combat simulation.
21. Fixed - Vehicles in the Combat Simulation design list were not being
sorted by name.
22. Fixed - Improved the AI's determination of when to skip an item in its
purchase list if there is no cargo space available to hold it.
23. Fixed - The AI would try to build defense bases at planets without
spaceyards.
24. Fixed - Mothballed ships should not effect happiness at all.
25. Change - Increased the amount of happiness troops on a planet generate.
26. Change - Increased the amount of happiness a ship in orbit generates for
the planet.
27. Fixed - Added the field "Maximum population for abandon planet order" to
Settings.txt. This will prevent people from abandoning a planet
with a full population of rioting people.
28. Fixed - After an abandon planet, a new colony on the planet would start
at the same happiness as the Last population.
29. Change - Changed the starting happiness of colonies to "Happy" instead of
"Jubilant".
30. Fixed - A mothballed ship that was the only ship in a system could not be
attacked by the other players.
31. Fixed - Simultaneous Game: Reasons for a ship failing to load cargo, drop
cargo, or lay mines were not being added to the log.
32. Change - Cloaked ships cannot lay mines, launch units, or recover units.
33. Fixed - System level point modifiers were being summed instead of max'd.

------------------
Sarge is coming...

Richard Arnesen
Director of Covert Ops
Shrapnel Games
http://www.shrapnelgames.com

Re: Up to date beta patch info..
 

Wow! Waiting for this patch to come out is worse than waiting for this game during christmas break.

Does anyone know how much is left for Aaron to do before he releases the patch? I mean, he already has fixed about 80 things since the Last patch. Is this going to be the patch that ends all in-game fixes for a while?

Re: Up to date beta patch info..
 

Correct that, Aaron has fixed/revised 113 issues so far. Thanks MM!

Re: Up to date beta patch info..
 

Between the file fixes that have been discovered independently by the modders and these combat fixes, I think you'll find this next patch is practically a different game. The AI used to handicap itself in all sorts of ways in combat, like moving TOWARDS the enemy after firing missiles or firing seekers on each ship before it had finished firing direct fire weapons -- and destroying some of the targets of the seekers before they could even move. With the build bottleneck broken and the combat smarts added you'll be fighting for your life against these modded AIs... http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: Up to date beta patch info..
 

6. Added - Added a new tab to the Strategies window called "Damage". This
tab allows you to set the percentage damage you want to inflict
on different kinds of enemy ships before moving on to a new
target. So for ships, if it says 80%, then your ships will
damage the ship up to 80% and then will switch to a new target.
If no other targets are available, your ships will go back and
finish off those remaining ships. There is also a setting for
"Damage targets until all weapons gone". If this is set true,
then your ships will fire on enemy ships until all of their
weapons are gone, regardless of the percentage damage setting.


Great addition!!!

Re: Up to date beta patch info..
 

You never know we have a tough crows of testers, including the Baron himself http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/ima...ons/icon12.gif.

I am very please, personally, to see all of this going so well.

------------------
Sarge is coming...

Richard Arnesen
Director of Covert Ops
Shrapnel Games
http://www.shrapnelgames.com

Re: Up to date beta patch info..
 

While everybody is at this patching, is there a way to patch the game so that when you select a group of fighters and deselect some of the rocket pods, then fire, ALL the pods don't fire? You should not have to fire them ALL.

Re: Up to date beta patch info..
 

Maybe we won't have to use AI bonus' anymore.

Re: Up to date beta patch info..
 

I have started playing against new AI... not easy not easy at all.

------------------
Seawolf on the prowl

Re: Up to date beta patch info..
 

33. Fixed - System level point modifiers were being summed instead of max'd.

whats max'd mean? they apply the system percent modifier after the planetary modifier instead of adding both together and applying the sum?

Re: Up to date beta patch info..
 

That's the way the system is now though...

If you have a 20% mineral bonus, 20% from happiness, 10% from population, 30% from a planet facility, and 30% from a system facility, you don't get +110%. The bonuses you see in the abilities window of your planet are summed (+50% in this case), and the facility and system facility bonus are applied in turn. That ends up being (production + 50% bonus) = 1.5x production. Then 1.5 * 1.3 * 1.3 = 2.535, or a bonus of 153.5%. At least, that's what I've found when doing testing trying to max my score.

-Drake

Re: Up to date beta patch info..
 

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Puke:
33. Fixed - System level point modifiers were being summed instead of max'd.

whats max'd mean?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Might mean that if you had two bonuses from a system facility, say +15 and +20, it gave you +35 when it was supposed to only take the higher (or max) of +20.

Re: Up to date beta patch info..
 

Just like to add to what Baron said. The AI is MUCH tougher. I thought I'd start a new game and just kinda mill around through it, before you know it I'm in 7th place ! Arghh,cloaked ships are a pain..

Re: Up to date beta patch info..
 

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Zanthis:
Might mean that if you had two bonuses from a system facility, say +15 and +20, it gave you +35 when it was supposed to only take the higher (or max) of +20.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I haven't found it to be doing this, but maybe some more testing is required. Has anyone else seen a specific facility type added system-wide vs taking the max in the system?

-Drake

Re: Up to date beta patch info..
 

Are you beta testers getting beat by the AI without giving it a bonus??????

Please be more specific.

Re: Up to date beta patch info..
 

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>27. Fixed - Added the field "Maximum population for abandon planet order" to
Settings.txt. This will prevent people from abandoning a planet
with a full population of rioting people.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

D'oh! WHO TOLD THEM ABOUT THIS? HUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM? I guess they do read the board, and me way bad for exploiting this so they fixed it.

------------------
"We've made too many compromises already, too many retreats! They invade our space and we fall back -- they assimilate entire worlds and we fall back! Not again! The line must be drawn here -- this far, no further! And I will make them pay for what they've done!" -- Patric Stewart as Captain Picard
UCP/TCO Ship Yards

Re: Up to date beta patch info..
 

tsk, tsk, now we can't have those riotous punks walk the "space plank"; guess we just have to glass them now http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/ima...ons/icon12.gif


hehe

Re: Up to date beta patch info..
 

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Drake:
I haven't found it to be doing this, but maybe some more testing is required. Has anyone else seen a specific facility type added system-wide vs taking the max in the system?

-Drake<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>


I found that the Time shrines and System Robotiod facilities both work together even though they say they don't this is probably the fix for that.

Re: Up to date beta patch info..
 

On "Damage until weapons destroyed" setting vs WPs:

Even if this does stop your ships from shooting on planets after the WPs are gone, it will Last only until all other ships are gone and then your ships will finish off the planet.

Re: Up to date beta patch info..
 

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Richard:
6. Added - Added a new tab to the Strategies window called "Damage". This tab allows you to set the percentage damage you want to inflict on different kinds of enemy ships before moving on to a new target. So for ships, if it says 80%, then your ships will damage the ship up to 80% and then will switch to a new target. If no other targets are available, your ships will go back and finish off those remaining ships. There is also a setting for "Damage targets until all weapons gone". If this is set true, then your ships will fire on enemy ships until all of their weapons are gone, regardless of the percentage damage setting.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Does this mean that if you set "Damage targets until all weapons gone" to true your ships will stop firing at planets when all weapon platforms are gone? I certainly hope so anyway.

And thanks for the update Richard! Much appreciated.

Re: Up to date beta patch info..
 

Damn! Any news on the lobbying for weapon platforms as specific targets?

Re: Up to date beta patch info..
 

It IS worth waiting for the patch when we know the betatesters are kicked there a... by the improved AI http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/ima...ons/icon10.gif. http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon7.gif.

In the mean time I'm playing SE IV in a hugh universe of 250 systems (I know for sure this game is NOT finished before the next patch comes out!) using races from the combined Modders pack 1.01 and 15 races selected by the computer). Man, this is a thrill! And as a bonus I added (as a betatester) Mephisto's "Narn in development". If you want to have a challenge for the time being, try this!
Everytime I hit the next turn button I wonder IF I still will be alive!

No reason to doubt, Version 1.19 from AARON/MM/SHRAPNEL http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon7.gif can be a real challenge (with a little help from, oh blessed for the existence, all of us SE LOVERS/MODDERS http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/ima...ons/icon10.gif).

Keep up the good works, you guys, and try to convince your partner (if any) SE IV is much more important than anything else they might come up with http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon6.gif

------------------
PERHAPS THIS IS A GOOD DAY TO DIE &lt;Worf facing another critical fight&gt;

[This message has been edited by nmoppa (edited 10 February 2001).]

Re: Up to date beta patch info..
 

I have seen that the patch is expected at the end of the month. Why not release intermediate patches with each group of fixes. Two benefits:

More testers.
We get intermediate fixes to some of the more annoying problems.

Re: Up to date beta patch info..
 

I like that idea a lot.

Re: Up to date beta patch info..
 

I like this idea alot too, but unfortuneatly its probalby not do-able. even if you put the early patches in a 'beta patch' section to be downloaded by 'experienced / testers' only, everyone would want to download them and then Shrap/MM customer services would be swamped with people sending in requests for fixes, suggestions, or complaints about it not working.

more testers is not always a good thing, you can only have as many as a company can adequatly support.

Re: Up to date beta patch info..
 

That can not really be the issue. As it is they must still be getting a large amount of suggestions and just queueing them up, to concentrate of feedback from the official beta testers until the patch is released. If intermediate beta-patches were released, there is no reason they still couldn't concentrate on the feedback from the official beta testers and queue up the other email. Of course there would be more of it. But so what, queue it up.

If someone has a problem with an intermediate patch making things unworkable in some part of their game, they can always go back to the Last official Version or workable beta patch.

However as it stands now the AI is no challenge for me. The game sits idle on my hard drive for the three weeks until the patch is released and I can go back to missing large amounts of sleep. I'd rather deal with instability in game or rules just to get more of a challenge.

[This message has been edited by Lastseer (edited 12 February 2001).]

Re: Up to date beta patch info..
 

Puke is right. You need to control what you are working on and set limits for the patch.
Other patches can be used to fix/add to the game. You can't allow the programmer to be overwhelmed, even if the ideas are great.

Re: Up to date beta patch info..
 

Good news!

Aaron told me today that the patch should be out this week!

Re: Up to date beta patch info..
 

Hey Lastseer you better crank the old drive up ready http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/ima...ons/icon12.gif hehe

tic

Re: Up to date beta patch info..
 

THANKS, Zodd. We can't wait for it to arrive http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/ima...ons/icon12.gif http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/ima...ons/icon10.gif

------------------
PERHAPS THIS IS A GOOD DAY TO DIE &lt;Worf facing another critical fight&gt;

Re: Up to date beta patch info..
 

Excellent!!!!

Re: Up to date beta patch info..
 

Let's see, if the patch is due out this week...and it is already Tuesday... hmmm I better catch up on my sleep ASAP because I feel a few sleepless nights coming on real soon!

------------------
Vir! You have made a mess of this post once again, now give me a large cup of brivari so that I may begin to forget the bad times and remember the glory of the great Centauri Republic.