V1.08b-TRIAL3 released!

This is BETA patch; not the main patch provided to most users

Dear folks, Sorry for the delay. Apparently, there's a weird problem that stalled the deployment during our internal trials between Windows 7 and Windows 8. We'll investigate further and hopefully resolve the issue by the full release.

Notice

This will be the final beta patch. The next patch will be made available to everybody automatically. The time of release is slated to be end of this week. I reckon it'll be around late Friday or Saturday night.

Implementations

1. AI Build Orders have been re-tailored to maximize efficiency. So now they'll build faster and build more sensibly than previously. This is especially so for Slavic Sirerians where they have to juggle blood usage between structures and ships as well.

2. Increased reaction time between attacks. This is done so that the defending fleets can quickly rejoin the battle.

3. Implemented a proper bonus system. While it's tied to the game, all the values are at default state. Until we've revamped the game enough to introduce upgrades, this system won't be useful (though in use) for now.

4. AI has been improved to understand that it may be impossible to wait for N-fleets for a certain ruse to take place. At a certain timing, it'll choose a second option that requires lesser fleets until it's forced to not use any ruse and let the fleets handle the attacks themselves individually.

5. AI Fleet Commanders can now make requests to their player commanders. The act of request itself isn't reveal to YOU playing the game, but it's there for the AI player to decide if it's possible to grant the request just like you'd for your fleets.

6. AI players will now expand their bases.

7. AI players now have a new under-attack system which properly documents targets who've attacked the main base, expansions 1, 2 or

8. The protection fleet will always guard the main base, while the defending fleet will be brought to expansion bases if necessary to repel the enemy attack. Based on a simple priority - main base being the highest priority, all defending ships will systematically destroy all aggressors; the harder the AI, the better decisions it'll make in choosing who to retaliate against first.

9. Optimized collision detection processing between 2 ships.

10. Implemented new states for ship data and weapon data to help identify ship types, roles quickly for bonuses.

11. UNC AI players will now repair fleets damaged to a certain extent back in base.

Modifications

• Fleet standing orders, when set, is applied sector-wide. That includes ships that are not in the fleet central (near the commander). This does not apply to ships enroute and will not apply even when they enter the same sector as the commander. For ships enroute to the fleet central, the same rules apply. Standing orders for such ships will only be applied when they're in the fleet central zone. - When a player is defeated, all his ships and structures will be disabled and take on a darker appearance. That means it'll definitely look more dead than previously. - AI Budget is now adjusted slightly. 1) Base build order budget 2) Expansion build order budget 3) Fleet building budget Items #2 and #3 were inverted previously causing a bottleneck in funds required for the AI players to expand. - Made the criteria for NSAU AI players to turn on shield overdrive to be stricter and more reactive towards the situation. The same is applied to SS forces as well. - Fleet will now have a new "Fleet Attack Move" flag that allows the fleet to move without storing a specific target. - Modified certain API calls to be thread-safe. - Improve the flight plan system to prevent any form of movements should the ship be given the flight plans WHILE they were about to enter a wormhole. As such, the ships will be caught in a limbo instead.

Bug Fixes

1. Fixed a bug where the AI player may have discovered a sector, or an ally for a human player; once discovered the intelligence shared between players did not include whether or not the sector have any resources. This was the reason why AI players didn't managed to expand in earlier patches.

2. Fixed a bug in ship indicators where you can instinctively tell, without using scouts to scan, where the flagship might be. This is due to a text positioning problem which relied on the manifest icons's height (regardless of visibility).

3. Added more defensive programming into areas where pointers can be null. This is to prevent "cheap" crashes due to carelenss from occuring.

4. Fixed a bug where ships, under a certain way of selection, can be set to dormant mode without a way to be awaken again.

5. Fixed a bug where the SS ships do not turn off their blood burst despite having full health.

6. Fixed a bug where NSAU ships can be found travelling with shield overdrive switched on. This effectively prevents them from firing at all and becomes a sitting duck as a result.

7. Fixed a bug iterating the set of wormholes from a sector while measuring distance to the sector within the loop itself. This causes the outer loop's iterator to expire a lot faster than usual.

8. AI Player Memory will now be set from 5 to

9. This is to prevent over-reaction towards enemy positions that may nort be valid anymore.

10. Fixed a bug with the existing handling of defence. Shifted codes to a more centralized location.

11. Fixed a bug that prevents the AI from remembering that a fleet is headed for repairs. So the same for fleet trying to set their assigned tasks to none.

12. Fixed a bug in the AI managed attack system where the state flag isn't properly updated, causing the attack to be in a limbo.

13. Fixed a bug where previous standing orders weren't clear after new orders were giving, causing the managed attacks to be hard to play.

14. Fixed a bug where a fleet can have no tasks but is still tagged for assault nevertheless.

15. Improved fleet creation protocols to either rebuild a new ship or just find an existing ship to grab as the flagship.

16. Finalized the way the fleet builder should begin. In any case the ship can't be built due to a lack of fleet commander's command points, the ship may be assigned into the protection flag.

17. Fixed a bug in a very special condition of the character movement order. This is due to some ships or players being destroyed while enroute.

Known Issues

• For Windows 7 and below users only - our thread model currently have a problem with your OS. We'll do our best in resolving thie situation asap. - Saved games in single battles not tested. Thus it may crash when loaded.

Conclusion

We've come long and far to the end of the road. Soon, the full AI patch will be released as the proper V1.08b patch. We're targeting it to be released by Friday or Saturday night. Thank you so much for your support. Thanks for sticking with us through the good and bad times. Have a nice week ahead! Regards, Jeremy