OK, all you players and potential joiners for the Zeta Quadrant game. I am tempted to switch it over to the new patch that was just released. Since the game hasn?t yet started, this won?t be a major issue for this game in and of itself. But I wanted to ask all those involved what they thought. Switch over? Not? (at the bottom of this message I have cut and pasted the changes that will occur to those games that are Version 1.84 currently. You can get the patch and more details at:
http://www.shrapnelgames.com/malfador/SEIVGold/6.htm)
However, if you?re anything like me, you?re in a few other games. Because some, none, or all of those games may or may not switch over to the new patch, then an upgrade to Version 1.91 will have to be done in an entirely separate install of SEIV so as to not overwrite the earlier Version (probably 1.84) that you use for other games. Just letting you know.
So, let me know how you feel about going with the new patch.
Thanks,
Alarik
Version History for Space Empires IV (since 1.84)
Version 1.91: 1. Changed - Revised title screen bitmap to make the buttons more visible. 2. Fixed - Upgrading just 1 facility would incorrectly upgrade them all. 3. Fixed - Bug from Last Version resulted in huge spikes in intel and research points. 4. Note - Spaceyards will not work on cloaked planets or ships. 5. Fixed - Cloaked planets were allowing you to add multiple spaceyards to them. 6. Fixed - A planet that was damaged and lost its cloaking facility would not decloak. 7. Fixed - A planet that scrapped its cloaking facility would not decloak. 8. Added - You can now use an override field for Vehicle Type in Components.txt which will allow you to use a list instead of a hard-coded value. Another field is used for the description used in the Components Report. 9. Added - You can now use an override field for Weapon Target in Components.txt which will allow you to use a list instead of a hard-coded value. Another field is used for the description used in the Components Report.
Version 1.90: 1. Fixed - Descriptions for the Facilities changed in the Last Version were still old. 2. Changed - New title screen bitmap courtesy of David Gervais. 3. Changed - Added black drop shadow to "Version" and "Loading" text on main screen. 4. Changed - You can now save/load your turn in the middle when playing a simultaneous multiplayer game. 5. Added - "Generate Points" abilities which will generate points for an empire each turn. These abilities are independent of a planet and will generate an unlimited number of points. These abilities can be used on a facility, component, ship, or anything else. 6. Added - "Order By Name" and "Order By Class" buttons to the Scrap window. 7. Fixed - The View Orders window would show the name of unexplored systems. 8. Fixed - Attempting to colonize in an unexplored system would sometimes show the planets in the sector. 9. Fixed - Rare Access Violation bug during Movement Log Replay.
Version 1.89: 1. Changed - The Create and Destroy Storm components are now destroyed on use. 2. Changed - Mineral Scanner I, II, III have had their modifiers increased to 15%, 30%, 45%. 3. Changed - Hybrid Eco - Farms I, II, III have had their modifiers increased to 15%, 30%, 45%. 4. Changed - Radioactives Collider I, II, III have had their modifiers increased to 15%, 30%, 45%. 5. Changed - System Mineral Scanner I, II, III have had their modifiers increased to 15%, 30%, 45%. 6. Changed - System Eco - Farms I, II, III have had their modifiers increased to 15%, 30%, 45%. 7. Changed - System Radioactives Collider I, II, III have had their modifiers increased to 15%, 30%, 45%. 8. Fixed - The owner of a minefield would not get a log message if the minefield was completely sweeped. 9. Added - Added "Race Directory" to the Empire/Race Report. 10. Fixed - When you replied to a demand for a gift or tribute, you were unable to view the package of the gift or tribute that was demanded. 11. Fixed - Range Check Error upon loading a turn where massive numbers of units were launched the previous turn.
Version 1.88: 1. Changed - Added in Imperator Fyron's smoothed population modifiers. 2. Fixed - A ship would clear its remaining orders if it tried to load cargo and it had no cargo space available. 3. Fixed - A colonizer ship will still be counted as available for colonization even if it has low supplies (but not if it has zero supplies). 4. Fixed - Sometimes an attack force would invade an ally's planet if it was in the same sector as an enemy planet. 5. Fixed - Occasional Access Violation or Range Check Error from the Combat Replay. 6. Fixed - Component mounts were not being used in retrofit change comparisons. 7. Changed - You must have movement remaining on your ship to create a storm. 8. Fixed - "Remove All" in the Fleet Transfer window would break up other player's fleets.
Version 1.87: 1. Added - "Move Hundred" to Cargo Transfer window. 2. Fixed - In Simultaneous games, scanned enemy ship designs would not be saved. 3. Fixed - "Max Positive Anger Change" and "Max Negative Anger Change" were being used as percents instead of tenth of percents. 4. Fixed - Ships were not receiving experience for kills made with seekers. 5. Fixed - Increased the population amount for the storehouse in combat simulations. 6. Fixed - The Small Graviton Beam is now under the Gravitational Weapons tech area. 7. Fixed - Mothballing would not generate a log message in simultaneous games and would show a messagebox instead. 8. Fixed - Unmothballing would not generate a log message in simultaneous games. 9. Fixed - Converting resources would not generate a log message in simultaneous games. 10. Fixed - The Abandon Planet order would not generate a log message in simultaneous games. 11. Fixed - Intelligence reports on planets were not showing the cargo they contained. 12. Fixed - In Computer Versus Human games, the AI's would get negative happiness modifiers on treaties (Partnership) they were forced to have. 13. Fixed - AI's would continue to propose the existing treaty in a Computer Versus Humans game. 14. Fixed - In the Combat Simulator, any player that has a base or a planet will start in the center of the combat map. 15. Fixed - The Fleet Report window's list will now respond to the Mousewheel. 16. Fixed - The component list in the Tactical Combat window will now repsond to the Mousewheel. 17. Fixed - The Add Design window's components available list will now respond to the Mousewheel.
Version 1.86: 1. Added - "AI Tag ##" abilities for use in getting AIs to use specific components. 2. Fixed - Improved Empire placement using the "Evenly distributed through the quadrant" option. 3. Fixed - AI would purchase ships even if it had no resources available. 4. Fixed - Cloaked unit Groups would not show a dotted circle around them. 5. Added - Empire style directory label to the Empire setup window. 6. Fixed - AI would still try to launch units when its maximum units in space had been reached. 7. Fixed - The name of the current item under construction should show how many as well. 8. Fixed - Drones were not inflicting special damage types. 9. Fixed - Decreased seeker damage factor required to move to next target. 10. Fixed - You could build designs which had mounts of higher technology than your empire. 11. Fixed - AI would build all of the same colonizer type in a given turn. 12. Added - Mousewheel support to lists.
Version 1.85: 1. Fixed - AI players were giving away technology too easily. 2. Fixed - There was a limit of 5 neutral players in a game. Now the amount of neutral players is based on the values in the Settings file. 3. Added - 4 more neutral races. 4. Fixed - AI was not taking into account bonus resources for scrapping. 5. Fixed - Changed Population Transport minister so that it takes population to lowest populated planet regardless of distance and also taking into account if a pop transport is already heading to the planet. 6. Fixed - Problem with AI checking its existing ship's orders. 7. Fixed - The race setup screen no longer errors if an empire ship picture is not present. 8. Fixed - "Change Bad Event Chance - System" ability was not working right. 9. Fixed - "Change Bad Intelligence Chance - System" ability was not working right. 10. Fixed - Planets would not recalculate their sight values when a new facility was built (this would make planets with cloaking abilities not light up cloak button). 11. Fixed - A cloaked planet would still show its name for the option "Show Planet Names". 12. Fixed - Rebelling planets would double their population. 13. Fixed - Simultaneous different machine multiplayer games now require that a game master password be provided. 14. Fixed - In the Select Package screen, clicking in the package list would not reduce the resources by the x10000 or x100000 amount selected. 15. Fixed - Integer Overflow if a finite resource planet had too large a value.
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