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Empire in Arms the Napoleonic Wars of 1805 - 1815
pzgndr:
Well, FWIW, here's an observation to share. After spending about 6 months getting into somebody else's code to find and fix some bugs and finally get things working better, and then another couple of months waiting for Matrix Games to finalize and post the public beta installer, the response has been a tad bit disappointing. I got several kudos along the way that somebody was actually doing something, and I expected some of them to provide some feedback since the public beta has been out for a few weeks, and yet I did not expect such silence. Granted, it is the holiday season and folks are probably playing with their newer and shinier toys, so perhaps it is still too soon to jump to any conclusions. The good news is that I have not gotten any bad news about the update. LOL
I share this simply as a data point for consideration. We all get disappointed when our games get to be like 90-95% "there" and then development dies. We continue to hold out hope that the developer returns or somebody else steps up to take on the project. In some cases we've seen development resumed as with TOAW (Ralph Trickey), JTCS (Jason Pethro), and others. The problem in our game industry is that this rarely happens enough and there just aren't many good solutions for resurrecting dead games that remain entombed under various copyright and other proprietary rights laws. I don't think throwing source code to the wind hoping it will grow roots as an "open source" project somewhere is the right solution. However, more encouragement should be offered to developers to allow other developers to continue projects. In my case, I am not comfortable trying to develop game source code from scratch but I am persistent enough to run issues to ground and resolve them by editing existing source code. It's doable, and others can do this also.
Ah well, I intend to keep at it and get this update officially released so that I can move on to another update. I have the latest Embarcadero Berlin C++Builder and I've started working through compiler errors to port Empires in Arms into the Win7/8/10 world. And I will continue to fix bugs and make improvements. Cuz, that's the kind of guy I am. Onward!
Asid:
Keep at it pzgndr.
I think some people get fed up with waiting for a fix or an update. It can get to the point where the abandon the game and move on. The people who are deeply interested or passionate about the game will remain.....This can be a small number if it is a niche game.
In today's age of Steam & regular sales people tend to discard games at a greater rate.
I appreciate your efforts.
Regards
Asid:
New v1.21.04 Hotfix for Public
Hello, the public beta installer appears to be fine and folks are able to play. I've fixed a few issues related to sieges and blockades, and made a few other little enhancements. Unless there are some showstoppers with PBEM that I need to look at, I'd like to move towards an official game update using v1.21.04. There are still plenty of bugs on the list, but I'd like to lock this down and get a final package to Matrix.
I suspect a lot of players are holding off trying these hotfixes and public betas, waiting instead for an official release patch. Once that happens, we should get some more players back and more feedback about going forward. Or arguments, whatever.
Below is a list of latest improvements. Please save a copy of the v1.21.03 EXE and paste the attached v1.21.04 EXE into your game folder. Let me know if sieges and blockades are better. Thanks.
Empires in Arms the Napoleonic Wars - 1.21.04
=============================================
- 0000541: [Rules Deviation] Incorrect interpretation of separate peace in the game - resolved.
- 0000576: [Game Bug] Enemy Depot in City blocks occupation - resolved.
- 0000646: [Game Enhancement] AAR battle marker - closed.
- 0000759: [Game Enhancement] Instead of an AAR battle marker, simply indicate number of factors involved in a battle in the log - resolved.
- 0000811: [Game Bug] Forces in city and out of city somehow switched - resolved.
- Game bug with port guns firing without enemy garrison present - resolved.
- Game bug with naval attack upon enemy fleets in a blockade box - resolved.
- Added political shading on/off toggle for main map based on mini-map selection.
- Added additional checks for besieged cities using sea supply to verify no blockades.
Download (2.60MB): HERE
Original post: HERE
pzgndr:
I think we are getting closer to an official update? A group is starting a PBEM game so I want to wait for some feedback on whether PBEM still works OK or if I need to fix something that I may have broken along the way. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
I managed to successfully tweak the AI last night to stop Britain AI from making frivolous amphibious invasions into France and Holland. Intuitively I could think of blocking Britain and Russia from invading France and Holland prior to 1813, but making it happen in the code while still allowing invasions of French-controlled Sweden or Denmark was frustrating me all weekend. It appears to work OK and I can further tweak it as needed. But for now, this is a significant improvement for Britain AI since it won't be losing precious forces and needlessly giving up PPs to France.
I really would like to wrap this up and be done with v1.21. Then I can do the grunt work to port the code to the latest Embarcadero Berlin C++Builder compiler and move ahead with the next version.
Asid:
New UPDATED v1.21.04 Hotfix for Public Beta
I am posting an updated v1.21.04 as a pre-release candidate. Based on comments received from a pbem game, I think the path problem may be resolved now. At least, I was able to recreate the error before the fix and now it seems OK. This needs verification by the pbem game team.
Also included in the zip are two updated .ged files for the \Data\databases directory to correct map data bugs. Please copy the new EXE into the main game directory and the other two files into the sub-directory.
One minor graphics glitch I am working on is transfer of unit factors during reinforcement phase. Land unit images appear fine but naval fleet images and names are not appearing on the selection menu for some odd reason. You are still able to click where the icon should be to select a fleet and then transfer factors normally with images, so this is not a game stopper. I will continue to investigate this.
If the pbem game works ok and there are no other burning issues to resolve, this should be close to final for official release. I will wait to hear back from the pbem game, or from any others trying a smaller group pbem test game. Thank you.
Empires in Arms the Napoleonic Wars - 1.21.04
=============================================
- 0000541: [Rules Deviation] Incorrect interpretation of separate peace in the game - resolved.
- 0000576: [Game Bug] Enemy Depot in City blocks occupation - resolved.
- 0000646: [Game Enhancement] AAR battle marker - closed.
- 0000759: [Game Enhancement] Instead of an AAR battle marker, simply indicate number of factors involved in a battle in the log - resolved.
- 0000811: [Game Bug] Forces in city and out of city somehow switched - resolved.
- Game bug with port guns firing without enemy garrison present - resolved.
- Game bug with naval attack upon enemy fleets in a blockade box - resolved.
- Added political shading on/off toggle for main map based on mini-map selection.
- Added additional checks for besieged cities using sea supply to verify no blockades.
- AI Enhancement to restrict risky British and Russian amphib invasions into France and Holland prior to 1813 - resolved.
- Game bug with display of naval unit factors for heavy fleets with both heavy and light ships - resolved.
- Map data bugs with duplicate sea Area3 near Sveaborg that should be Area700, and duplicate land Area253 near Sevastopol that should be Area252 - resolved.
- Game bug with path and opening files related to loading PBEM gamestart file - resolved?
Download (2.97MB): HERE
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