Changes

Changes since 0.9.3 (not released)

• No Changes

Changes in 0.9.3 (released 20080424)

Gameplay Improvements

• Better unit movement:

• Removed hidden forbidden area, replaced with a new 'immobile units' array (same purpose (avoid unit clashing), done differently)
• Units can now move backwards to get around blockages (before they had to move forward or stall)
• Warriors no longer consider enemy walls and towers blockages when plotting their route to a war flag / defence area.
• Warriors now pathfind using an A* algorithm. This means that attacks are more effecient (they surround enemies to kill them faster for example)

• Better flag/area functionality:

• Checkboard and half-checkboard brush are now tilable (they space out on a grid rather than clump together)
• Clearing areas have been adjusted to pull free healthy units, rather than waiting for one to walk into a clearing area
• Clearing flags no longer call units that can't swim, if what they have to clear is over water
• Forbidden areas are now respected over clearing areas/flags

• Many improvments to Nicowar's stability and performance (fewer crashes, and now uses ground attack explorers if the game goes on that long)
• Script text is now added to the history box ('h') so people who play the tutorial can read the last messages if they forget
• Now more more than 4/3 units per resource needed for a building construction/upgrade are allocated to a building
• Explorer attacks are now 2/5 the power of what they once were
• Tutorial text updated to reflect features in recent version.
• Building worker count, and building future working count (the amount assigned the moment a construction is complete) is now saved in the game file and restored when loaded

Overall Improvements

• Moved fertiliy from on the fly, to being calculated with the map when saving it (less bugs, faster performance). Older maps will compute fertility before being playable
• Fixed several memory leaks
• syncRand system changed to use the well known Mersenne Twister algorithm through Boost Random
• Removed the verbose messages from Map that outputted things like "pathfind local resource failed" in the console
• Map editor now asks you if you want to save the map before quitting
• Improved keyboard shortcut system (can now assign shortcuts with CTRL, ALT, SHIFT, and meta (Mac OSX Command key for example), as well as pressed/unpressed events)
• Flag default worker settings are now editable in the Unit Settings tab

Network Improvements

• Made net connections multi-threaded
• General code improvements for maintainability
• New Administrative YOG commands (for muting and unmuting players who spam the channel, or resetting a player password)
• Ghost buildings (previous release feature) now display in your teams color
• Improved latency computation on server (games with lag should run a bit smoother now)
• Games will now be sent over network to joining players when the computed sha1 does not match (no longer uses game checksum). More reliable now
• VOIP changes:

• Experimental Win32 VOIP
• You can now adjust the sound of someone talking through the Settings panel on the main menu or in game

Graphical Improvements

• Minimum (default) resolution now 800x600
• The cursor now uses your team colour, rather than the default pink
• A new talk indicator (for Linux players) shows who is talking on VOIP
• Flag/Area in game button now differs from the building button.

Translation Improvements

• The tutorial campaign text is now in the translation files (the ingame text isn't yet though)
• Updated Italian and Russian translations

Miscellaneous Improvements

• scons script now checks for a compiler, to prevent problems with it tries to compile with nothing
• Experimental, but semi stable, Mac OS X .app bundle and dmg file creation in scons. Needs more people to test
• Added spec files for making Fedora packages
• The adition of two new command line options:

• -test-games  : Runs the game automatically, with different maps, different players, for 1 hour or until game is won, using GUI. Good for testing features or AI's
• -test-games-nox  : Same as -test-games, but without a GUI, so many times faster, but harder to knnow if features are working as they should. Good for finding bugs in the engine

For changes older than these, please check out the Older Changes page.