Fixed another build queue problem.

Units that take zero time to build (Like Organizations) are no longer added to the build queues.

This was causing an assert in the unit construction code when it found a unit in the build queue that was not under construction.

Buld Queue Problem Fixed

Some of the units that started the game in a build queue were not initialized properly... they were marked under construction but were not added to a build queue. The result was some units were going to be under construction forever.

I fixed the scenario file and then went in and ran a fix on the active game so everything should be working correctly now.

Getting ready to start the next campaign

The next campaign should start next week if all goes well.

One of my players wanted to play Argentina so I added the Argentine flag to the resource file.

I did a few searches and updated the Argentine army and added their navy which I had neglected while they were still just NPC's.

Vista Compatibility

I knew the time would come sooner or later. Since most new systems are coming with Windows Vista some of my players have Vista on their systems now.

I need to get the game to run under Vista. The client mostly runs now, but there are a number of tweaks to do. Right now, the main task is moving the game settings out of the .ini file in the windows directory.

Got Things Working Agian.

I finally got the client and server talking to one another again. One of the casualties of the change to VC++ 2008 was I need to rewrite my game download progress bar. Once that is done and I clean up some of the logging and debugging code, we should be ready to start another game.

Migrating to VC++ 2008

I finally broke down and ordered Visual Studio 2008 and have spent the last few weeks migrating the game to the latest version of Visual C++. Most of it has been working fairly well. I still have a few things to work out before we start the next campaign.

Tonight I got the new installer working to my satisfaction. The old installer used Install Shield and just barely fit on a floppy. The new installer generates a .MSI file that is about four times the size of the old Setup.exe file.

'Join Organization' and 'Leave Organization' are now instant orders.

'Join Organization' and 'Leave Organization' are now executed as soon as you upload your orders. You no longer need to wait until the end of the turn for them to be executed.

Reworked the At War / Neutral / Alliance dialog

Reworked the At War / Neutral / Alliance dialog. You can no longer be allied with both sides of a war. Also made the effects of changing status more explicit.

Fixed Company Purchase Screen Error

Fixed an error in the initialization of the price edit box on the company purchase screen that was initializing the edit box with zero instead of the last price entered.

New Units Now Have A Build Priority.

The latest changes:

• Added the ability to set new unit's build priority.

• Cleaned up build queue page.

• Added "Construction Halted" message to the unit status page.

Change to Unit Construction Costs

Unit construction costs are now more even. They were originally tied to increases in combat strength as the unit was built and since the unit strength increases were back loaded (a unit would get most of its strength in the last few turns before it was complete) units were costing a few pennies a day to build for the first 30 turns or so.

Recent Updates

Everyone hated having their companies shut down when they had an overstock of resources.
Now when you have too many resources, one of three things will happen to them:

• They will be sold to the market and the money will go to the players stock.

• They will be sold to the market and the company managers will pocket the money.

• The resources will be lost and never seen again.

If you produce more than you use, you need to either build enough storage to stockpile the excess or set up an ongoing sale to the market.

Fixed the cache error that was keeping the budget page from being initialized properly when the player list was selected on the tree view.

Added Grain, Oil and Mineral columns to the World Region Tab and the Continent Region Tab.

Reworked the Continent Nation Tab and the World Nation Tab, added populations.

Added GDP and Region Count to the Continent Nation Tab and the World Nation Tab, added persistent sort.

Added a cancel button to the feedback dialog.

Aircraft Carriers Completed

Today I finished work on the aircraft carriers and updated the manual to include all the changes put in since last game.

Debugging and Rule Change

Work continues on debugging orders relating to aircraft carriers and verifying everything works as it should.

Air Superiority orders can now be given to aircraft in the deep sea regions.

You can now issue "Bomb Supply Lines" order to aircraft in a deep sea region. Deep sea regions still may not be the target of a "Bomb Supply Lines" order.

Carrier Air Unit Configuration Page

I am now mostly done with the Carrier Air Unit Configuration Page. I am happy with the way it looks and all I need now is to make the number of aircraft editable.

Cargo Tab Completed

I just completed the cargo and loaded aircraft tabs. You can now see what is loaded on a ship without going to the orders tab and selecting unload.

Icon and Bitmap Day

Today I cleaned up some minor icon and bitmap errors. Added the missing white bomber icon, added some planes to the aircraft carrier icons and added a Venezuelan flag to the flag icon list.

Updated Board Ship Screen

Today I finished with updating the board ship screen. Its a little clearer and now shows the mass of the unit boarding and the cargo space of the transport ship being loaded.

Aircraft Carriers and Menu Bugs

Finished adding the aircraft carriers to the scenario database.

Fixed the broken context menu on the the board ship window.

He was the last of the Big Three

Arthur C. Clarke died today, at age 90. He was the last of the Big Three — Isaac Asimov, Clarke, and Robert Heinlein — to pass away, and we shall not see their like again.







"Life is just one big banana. Science fiction allows us all to peel open the reality and discover the yellow truth inside." -- Arthur C. Clarke

I have a MySpace page

I now have a MySpace page:

http://www.myspace.com/packtactics

Not much there yet, I set it up mostly to run the MetaPlace chat application.

Work continues on the aircraft carriers.

I have worked out the tech levels and which ships are available at each level.

If all goes well, this will be my deepest tech tree so far. One of the problems I have been having is that the players have been going all out on technology and running off the end of my tech tree. This one runs up to 1960's level tech, so if the players want to spend all their money on aircraft carrier development they can be building Kitty Hawk Class ships in 1946 if they want.

USS United States

I was happily working through doing the research needed to add aircraft carriers to the game when I came across this:

http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ship/cva-58.htm

To make a long story short, in 1949 the US Navy laid down the USS United States, the largest and most expensive aircraft carrier ever built. It would be as big as the Nimitz, carry 45 fighters and 12 long range nuclear bombers.

It was canceled by the secretary of defense 5 days after construction began, the components were scrapped and it resulted in the resignation of the Secretary of the Navy.

I could leave it out of the game, since it is pretty much at the end of the tech tree anyway.

... or I could leave it out until I add the nuclear weapons tech.

Right now I am leaning towards tweaking the current carrier stats to make it fit and having it in the next game.

I also think it is something the Japanese and Germans would probably have built if they had had the chance.

North American Arctic Rework

I reworked the map in Alaska and Northern Canada. I separated Hudson Bay from Baffin Bay and made the area a bit more impassable.

Tranport ships are weaker now.

Transport ships now have half the defense value they had in the last game. When mounting an amphibious invasion you will need a larger naval escort to avoid having them sink.

Home Page Updated

I finally got around to updating my home page. It had been rotting for way too long, for example it still had a link to my UO guild. (Mork Slayer is the last one of us still playing over there).

New Commanders on Unit Completion

The server is now assigning a new unit commander when a unit is completed.

Scenario File Change

Added a ground defense value to the aircraft. It turns out that air units without a ground component such as carrier air groups were invulnerable to attack while on the ground not flying missions.

Client Update

Added the commander text to the unit status page in the client.

Bug Fix and New Rank Titles

Fixed a problem where a player could give subsidies to a company even if he had no cash, giving a free boost to a company and producing a negative cash balance in his treasury.

Added national ranks to the unit commander's titles so now we have a Général de division commanding French divisions and a Lieutenant General" commanding the US divisions.

Client and Server Update

Added a NGovTypeIndex field to the NGov record. I will be using this to track different titles for leaders of the various nations. For example, one may have a king and another a president.

Client and Server Updates

Adjusted the chance of units surrendering with giving a lower priority to national stability and more to current morale.

There was a problem where units belonging to very high stability nations would never surrender, even when they were completely destroyed. Now there is a 15% chance of a 0-Morale unit surrendering every turn even if the player has a 100% stability.

Moved the unit surrender and unit sink notification to the notes field in the combat mail.

Changed the unit serialization to save the unit commander field.