Wolfpack 4.2.18 Server Release

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.empire (More info?)

We are happy to announce that Empire 4.2.18 is now available. You may
find it and lots of other information on Empire at the following
location:

http://www.wolfpackempire.com

You can download the server at

http://www.wolfpackempire.com/Downloads/server/empire-4.2.18.tar.gz

or from SourceForge at

http://sourceforge.net/projects/empserver/

This release fixes several abusable loopholes. Player visible changes
include changes to fishing and offshore oil drilling, and new and
fixed selectors. Deity visible changes include configurable
announcement and news expiry.

Deities are urged to use this release for new games. Upgrading
mid-game is not supported. We are not aware of any specific reason
why upgrading from at least 4.2.14 should fail, so you might wish to
push your luck.

There is no separate client release 4.2.18, as the client did not
change since 4.2.14.

Any bugs or problems, send e-mail to: wolfpack@wolfpackempire.com.


Change log:

Changes to Empire 4.2.18 - Tue Sep 7 14:08:59 UTC 2004
* Fix info to accept abbreviated arguments under Windows. From Ron
Koenderink.
* Buying planes or land units loaded on something didn't work when
that something moved.
* Fix a bug that could produce update cascades with update policy
UDP_TIMES.
* Fix delivery and distribution to grant packing bonus only to
efficient sectors, just like move. Previously, delivery ignored
efficiency, and distribution behaved as if it were an efficient
sector without special bonuses.
* New sector selectors loyal, access; ship selectors radius, access,
xbuilt, ybuilt, builder, name; plane selectors radius, access,
theta; land unit selectors radius, react, nland, access; lost
selector id.
* Fix sector selectors che, che_target; plane selectors att, def;
nuke selector types; treaty selector exp; news selector time;
commodity selectors type, xbuy, ybuy.
* Option PLANENAMES is no longer optional.
* Ensure config parameter variables and their description in
configkeys[] are consistent. Inconsistencies there caused bugs in
the past. From Marc Olzheim.
* Complain if econfig file can't be read.
* Better messages for errors in econfig file.
* Remove unused econfig keys hard_tech and last_demand_update.
* New econfig key news_keep_days to configure news expiry.
* New econfig key anno_keep_days to configure announcement expiry.
* Fix announcement expiry. It leaked file descriptors and memory,
and could corrupt the anno file. From Ron Koenderink.
* New command xdump: experimental extended dump. Disabled for now.
* Bankers no longer round down debts, and they collect interest for
the time debtors are idling at sub-prompts.
* Loan interest calculation was broken at the due date and after a
last payment made at the due date. With luck, debtors could abuse
this to repay loans cheap (they couldn't gain cash, though), sharks
to purchase loans cheap, and creditors to collect excessively.
* Fix major bug in transport that allowed two cooperating countries
to duplicate items.
* Don't report interdiction damage twice when transporting planes.
* Fix message for attempting to transport a plane in a sector not
owned by the player.
* Fix confusing diagnostics when refusing to improve defense because
option DEFENSE_INFRA is off.
* Simplify confusing code in budget.
* Fix spacing in output of budget and show.
* Change one-way plane sorties to match ordinary sorties: offer
carriers regardless of the sector they're in, require carriers to
be efficient.
* Allow `realm #'.
* Don't print owner of incoming missile twice when intercepting it.
* Simplify constituent storage in product characteristics.
* Replace remaining `variables' leftovers; mainly in unit
characteristics.
* Remove leading spaces in deity unit dumps.
* Replace inappropriate uses of compile time constant ETUS by 60.
Deities don't change ETUS, they change etu_per_update by editing
econfig. This nonsense dates back at least to chainsaw 3.31.
* Change ship production (fishing and drilling for oil) to match
sector production. Ship efficiency and tech are now relevant, and
all people on board work. From Ron Koenderink.
* Code cleanups.
* Minor info file fixes.


MD5 checksums:

4b7dc524b842cf39c657aeb0aa9a75a7 empire-4.2.18.tar.gz
c5dd415ca8dd11ce2545d1f1d9b41dc5 empire-info-html-4.2.18.tar.gz
a26c0c4461611a89986d3a69d98ccb93 empire-info-text-4.2.18.tar.gz


Wolfpack! Bringing you the latest and greatest in Empire development and
support, and, in our minds, the best multi-player game around.

Check out Empire at http://www.wolfpackempire.com wolfpack@wolfpackempire.com

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.empire (More info?)

> * New sector selectors loyal, access; ship selectors radius, access,
> xbuilt, ybuilt, builder, name; plane selectors radius, access,
> theta; land unit selectors radius, react, nland, access; lost
> selector id.

What are these new selectors?

Tom

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.empire (More info?)

"Tom Johnson" <1234tjohnsonREMOVE1234@telogy.com> writes:

>> * New sector selectors loyal, access; ship selectors radius, access,
>> xbuilt, ybuilt, builder, name; plane selectors radius, access,
>> theta; land unit selectors radius, react, nland, access; lost
>> selector id.
>
> What are these new selectors?

Sorry for being so terse. All selectors will be properly documented
in due time.

Sector selector loyal is sector loyalty, as shown by `hidden'. It is
available to deities only.

Sector, ship, plane, land unit selector access is when MOB_ACCESS last
updated mobility. You could use it to predict when MOB_ACCESS will
give you more mobility. It should also be available in human readable
form, but isn't.

Ship, plane, land unit selector radius is the mission radius, as shown
by mission.

Ship selector xbuilt, ybuilt and builder tell who built the ship
where, like payoff. The information must not be disclosed to players
other than the builder. Since we can't do that yet, the selectors are
deity only.

Ship selector name is the ship's name. Since there's no syntax for
strings in conditions yet, you can compare it only to itself, which
isn't really exciting.

Plane selector theta is a parameter governing satellite trajectory.
It should also be available in human readable form, but isn't.

Land unit selector react is the reaction radius, as shown by land.

Land unit selector nland is the number of loaded land units, as shown
by land.

Lost selector id is the lost item's unique id, as shown by lost.

Many of the new selectors aren't that exciting. Why add them then?
Well, the new xdump command (disabled in this release) is based on
selector data. We expect xdump to be well received by client writers.
It's more comprehensive than the existing dumps, easier to parse, and
easier to maintain. To make xdump complete, we have to make selectors
complete.

Our goal: anything you can xdump you can also select, and vice versa.
And you can also get it in human readable form.

We may have to rename a few selectors to make them more consistent,
and to minimize clashing prefixes. It would be nice if three letter
prefixes just worked.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.empire (More info?)

A precompiled 4.2.18 server for Windows platform is now available on
http://sourceforge.net/projects/empserver in the contributions folder.

As in the past, these binaries aren't made, endorsed or supported by
Wolfpack in any way.

If you have any questions, you can contact me at rkoenderink@yahoo.ca.

Ron K.