EIA v1.26.03 Beta Hotfix #6 Available

[pzgndr]

Attached is Hotfix #6 for the v1.26.03 beta for the next v1.26.xx official patch. This beta version should be applied over the installed EIA v1.25.03 Official Update game files. It includes all of the previous v1.25.03 HOTFIX files. You should be able to extract (copy&paste) the new EXE, \Data\database GED files, \Data\docs Release Notes, and \Data\programtext files from the zip file directly into your v1.25.03 install.

Release notes so far, including the recent EIA v1.25.03 Official Update HOTFIX:

Empires in Arms the Napoleonic Wars - 1.26.03
=============================================
- Separate Peace not working correctly – resolved.
- Besieged unit foraging not working correctly – resolved.
- Comprehensive AI improvements – resolved.
-- add/remove depots
-- alternate capital protection (Leningrad)
-- amphib ops
-- blockades
-- builds in general and Polish Gd builds added
-- estimated supply costs
-- garrison attacks
-- informal peace and separate peace
-- land and naval redeployments
-- loaned corps
-- money loans from France and Great Britain
-- placing Cossacks
-- reinforcements in general to add new units/factors
-- sieges and besieged unit foraging
- Game freeze on AI finding over-garrisoned cities – resolved.
- Alternate Dominant Powers morale changes shown in unit display not being used in combat calculations – resolved.
- Accept Informal peace and Deny Separate Peace not working correctly – resolved.
- Turkish Nizami-Cedid corps not correct in Alternate 1812 campaign – resolved (database .ged file updated).
- Siege combat hangs when defending corps inside city surrenders – resolved.
- Mandatory surrender for civil disorder not working, and multiple victors in a simultaneous peace choosing terms based on highest PS not working correctly – resolved.
- Naval interceptions into adjacent sea zone(s) not working – resolved.
- Minors not conquered when kingdom unit is present – resolved.
- France and Great Britain cannot re-declare war with Start At War option selected – resolved.
- Alternate Dominant Powers bug for Great Britain – resolved.

Empires in Arms the Napoleonic Wars - 1.26.02
=============================================
- Added game status percentage to Victory Point Status – resolved.
- Added AI grand strategy options – resolved.
- Added Alternate Dominant Powers optional rule – resolved (fixed in hotfix).
- Updated Fog of War optional rule for AI-AI combat – resolved.
- 0000110: [Game Enhancement] Add: Restrictions on Territorial Losses rule – resolved (v1.24.01 implemented the three province restriction on territorial losses, v1.26.02 implemented the one province per victor restriction for AI only).
- Change AAR land move arrows to center of areas – resolved.
- Game freeze when militia in outflank pinning force cannot be taken as casualties – resolved.
- French I Corps not appearing in Classic 1805 Campaign – resolved (updated database file eianw001.ged).

Empires in Arms the Napoleonic Wars - 1.26.01
=============================================
- Text overlap for unit stack display sometimes unreadable – resolved.
- Political Standings Screen shows Normal instead of Neutral – resolved (also changed Neutral zone color from Gray to White).
- Victory Conditions Screen showing some units, leaders, and fleets available to be removed that are not in play – resolved.
- Political Restrictions on Peace implements rule that France and Great Britain may never make an informal peace and may never be allies if the Great Britain and France Start At War game option is selected – resolved (see revised rule 6.4.3).
- Royal Marriages not broken upon declaration of war – resolved.
- Added Create Kingdom function to game editor – resolved.
- AI naval combat not taking losses or recording at-start forces in the game log – resolved.
- Added new data files and setup files for the 1813 Grand Campaign and made applicable code changes - resolved.
- AI improvements for Prussia saving manpower and Great Britain loaning money to support wars against France – resolved.
- AI land combat not taking pursuit losses – resolved.
- Reported bug with Turkey Ottoman nations falling to Austria in Fiasco zone – resolved.
- Updated data files and some setup files for the 1812 Grand Campaign and made some applicable code changes – resolved.
- Prussia unused manpower not being saved correctly or shown on nation status – resolved.

Empires in Arms the Napoleonic Wars - 1.26.00
=============================================
- Updated ai_ai_select_casualties and ai_ai_select_pursuit_casualties consistent with fixes made in v1.25.03 Hotfix – resolved.
- 0000774: [Rules Deviation] Garrisoned depots are not blocking enemy supply lines – resolved.
- Added new AI National Objectives functions – resolved.
- Adjusted AI naval builds for Spain, Turkey, and Russia vs Great Britain – resolved.
- Winter Land Movement optional rule not implemented correctly – resolved (see revised rule 13.1.3).
- Updated game options test in game manual and mouse-over messages - resolved (\Data\databases .ged files updated).
- Adjusted AI supporting land battles – resolved.
- find_path bug for missing path type when checking if the adjacent area is adjacent to the target area – resolved.
- find_path improvement for AI to bypass combats and non-access areas enroute to target area – resolved.
- AI-AI combats and human defender versus AI trivial combat attacker not seeing correct losses in game log – resolved.

Version 1.25.03 (08/15/2023)
Empires in Arms the Napoleonic Wars - 1.25.03 Hotfix (10/9/2023)
================================================================
- area_determine_owner bug - resolved.
- area_nation_exerting_control bug - resolved.
- minor country not being conquered by one month's unbesieged occupation of its capital - resolved.
- surrender conditions display glitch - resolved.
- 0000530: [Game Enhancement] Computer not choosing the optimal path when moving multiple areas – resolved.
- Controlling Major Powers issues - resolved (now, AI Major Powers with forces in range of a minor declared war on or close to Instability are excluded from selection).
- some AI garrisons not taking assault losses - resolved.
- game freeze due to insufficient pursuit losses - resolved.
- outnumbered AI garrisons keep attacking larger besieging forces - resolved (recently added feature deleted).
- combat freeze when some human garrisons take final assault losses - resolved (but combat summary does not capture final round losses).
- Accept Control checkboxes in Diplomatic Reactions screen clearing selections - resolved.
- game messages for Attacker to click DONE to resolve siege inappropriate for AI attacker - resolved (\Data\programtext files updated).
- AI not taking correct losses in some battles – resolved.
- human defender versus AI besieger not seeing final forces eliminated for taking losses and not seeing correct losses in game log – resolved.

Alright, when I say "Comprehensive AI improvements" above that's an understatement. I summarized key issues from my eight pages of notes from nine rounds of playtesting all three of the campaigns over the past few weeks. I started with 1812, then 1813, and then returned to 1805. The computer opponent is now pretty darn good. Not perfect, of course, but I am satisfied at this point to release v1.26.03 for public comment.

Please try this Beta version and see what you think. As always, I would appreciate any feedback players may have but lately it's been like crickets out there. So be it. My plan is to continue my playtesting next week and maybe get out a hotfix with more AI adjustments and resolutions for any reported issues. After that, I'll be on travel the last week of May. The goal for June is for me to finalize my playtesting, clean up documentation, and wrap up everything for the next official update.

I know many players dislike being "playtesters" but this is your opportunity to provide whatever comments you may have - good, bad, or ugly. After this next official update, I'll be going into 'Maintenance Mode' with Empires in Arms. If bugs or issues come up, I'll get to them when I can. On a personal note, we've got a new home being built and we'll be relocating by the end of the year. What I'm saying is you've got EIA code development as a priority right now so please take advantage of it. Let's get it right. Enjoy!

UPDATE 5/24/2024. Hotfix #1 posted.

UPDATE 6/18/2024. Hotfix #2 posted.

UPDATE 6/27/2024. Hotfix #3 posted.

UPDATE 6/29/2024. Hotfix #3 re-posted. Please re-download and install if you got the previous one.

UPDATE 7/3/2024. Hotfix #4 posted.

UPDATE 7/8/2024. Hotfix #5 posted.

UPDATE 7/16/2024. Hotfix #6 posted.
.

EiANW 12603 Beta[6].zip

(3.9 MiB) Downloaded 19 times

[lucliu]

Thanks, Bill.

This new patch caused BSOD with my Windows 11, I could only remembered that it reported with a file named "Acx01000.sys".
I opened the game 3times and got the BSOD every time.
I have not seen BSOD for a long time under Windows 10 and 11.

One clue it may related to this issue:
I changed my monitor from 1080p to 2k, that was the first time I opened EiA after the change.

[pzgndr]

This new patch caused BSOD with my Windows 11, I could only remembered that it reported with a file named "Acx01000.sys".
I opened the game 3times and got the BSOD every time.
I have not seen BSOD for a long time under Windows 10 and 11.

First, I don't know what BSOD is. Could you clarify? I copied the new files into my "official" game and everything is fine. Nothing new in the Beta except updated files. Was this from a new game install? You have to run the updated v1.23.08 installer first, then the latest v1.25.03 update, and then install the updated Beta files on top of that. Maybe try another clean install? Hope this helps.

[lucliu]

First, I don't know what BSOD is. Could you clarify? I copied the new files into my "official" game and everything is fine. Nothing new in the Beta except updated files. Was this from a new game install? You have to run the updated v1.23.08 installer first, then the latest v1.25.03 update, and then install the updated Beta files on top of that. Maybe try another clean install? Hope this helps.

BSOD=Blue screen of death
Are there any methods that I could change the in-game resolution? I think the BSOD may caused by the resolution higher than 1080p.

[pzgndr]

BSOD=Blue screen of death
Are there any methods that I could change the in-game resolution? I think the BSOD may caused by the resolution higher than 1080p.

OK, got it. I'm running 1920x1080 resolution fine. I know some folks have newer larger higher-resolution monitors, and this old game won't scale up. IDK, there may be some way to set these monitors for smaller screen size and lower resolutions? I was just looking at an article at Techspot about resolution scaling https://www.techspot.com/article/2161-r ... rformance/. Maybe if you or somebody else can figure it out, post something here for others. But as I understand it, this is a display issue beyond my control and not a problem with the game or this Beta per se. Perhaps Matrix Games support has some suggestions.

[lucliu]

OK, got it. I'm running 1920x1080 resolution fine. I know some folks have newer larger higher-resolution monitors, and this old game won't scale up. IDK, there may be some way to set these monitors for smaller screen size and lower resolutions? I was just looking at an article at Techspot about resolution scaling https://www.techspot.com/article/2161-r ... rformance/. Maybe if you or somebody else can figure it out, post something here for others. But as I understand it, this is a display issue beyond my control and not a problem with the game or this Beta per se. Perhaps Matrix Games support has some suggestions.

Weird, I changed my resolution to 1080p and still got the BSOD..
However, I agree the issue seems not related to the beta patch, but more a high-resolution issue. May give it a shot in the future once I have time to reinstall the game cleanly.

[AndrewV]

the game works with 4k resolution works for me. (Some of the text looks like it is scaled up, and is sometimes slightly miss-aligned/sometimes slightly overflows the borders of the appropriate textboxes. The rest of the text is uncomfortably small, but the game is perfectly playable, if your eyes are up to reading the tiny text. I normally change my screen resolution to 1080p before playing).

Playing 1805 classic campaign as France versus 6 Hard-AI opponents with the channel crossing arrow option enabled (and England and France starting at WAR).

Setup-phase

- Place a French corps in the Hanover area, add some factors, then remove the corps. Now cannot place the corps in the Slade area, nor back in Hanover.

- There seems to be a bug with adding corps counters to areas that already contain corps counters. (Possibly the above Hanover bug was actually an instance of this bug).

- Place the Holland corps, and all the Holland factors, then decided I want to remove one of those factors from the corps, to place in garrison. Can't remove factors once all corps are placed. (But you can remove factors during setup from corps using the add/remove factors button if you still have factors to place for that nationality, and you can remove a Holland garrison, then you are able to remove factors from the corps).

- Removing corps counters does not update the forces box until some other interaction triggers a re-draw. (I'm sure you are aware of this type of bugs as there are lots of them in the game, and have been since release).

Turn 1 Naval.

I started with all the French and Holland fleets in Toulon. First turn England sailed one fleet of 17 ships from Gibraltar to blockade my 64 ships. That did not go well for England. (Most of his fleet is in the Channel, so the English ai seems to be aware of the crossing arrow. That is an improvement over last time I tried playing with the crossing arrow option enabled).

[pzgndr]

AndrewV, good feedback, thank you. I will add the setup bugs and naval AI issue to my list to work on this week for a hotfix. I must admit, I've been using the saved setups for so long that I hadn't noticed the setup bugs you mentioned, and did not notice them when I was wrestling with the 1812 and 1813 setups. This wasn't in the old Mantis bug list that I was working off of for many years, or else I would have gotten to it long ago. As for understrength AI blockades, I have some checks to prevent this but obviously they need a review. And your French strategy to place all fleets in Toulon warrants an adjustment to the Great Britain AI response, so I'll work on that too. Good stuff.

UPDATE. I have been unable to recreate your setup bugs? Placing/removing corps, adding/subtracting factors, etc. The forces box updates for me with changes. So I'm not sure why you may be having these problems. IDK, maybe a re-install might help. Try that and let me know? I found my problem with the understrength AI blockades. The code was checking for heavy fleets within 7 areas (<8), fine, but a failed path of -1 was also passing so it was thinking fleets from London were making it. So that's fixed, and I'm working on an improved redeploymeny strategy for Great Britain to move additional fleets to Gibraltar as necessary.

[AndrewV]

This was already a clean install.
I renamed the old install directory.
Downloaded and installed fresh copies of EmpiresInArms-SetupRelease-v1.23.08.zip and EmpiresinArms-UpdateComp-v1.25.03.zip, then overwrote with the files from EiANW 12603 Beta[0].zip.

Basing the French fleets in Toulon was pretty common in my group back when we played face to face 40 years ago. If the English blockade Toulon, then half the English fleet is too far away to reach the channel/English coast in one move to interfere if Russian and/or Spain declare war in unexpectedly (perhaps to support Sweden/Denmark/Portugal against an English DoW).

Reproduction recipe for the first setup bug. (Probably some steps aren't necessary, but easier to give them all anyway).

Load the game. Start a new game France vs 6 AI. Options screen

Options

Screenshot 2024-05-21 153646.png (172.3 KiB) Viewed 1170 times

Place 1 factor garrisons in Lille, Antwerp and Namur.
Place the French IV, V, and VI corps in Antwerp. Add 1 infantry factor to each corps.
Place the French VII, VIII and IX corps in Namur. Add 1 infantry factor to each corps.
Remove the VIII corps from Namur. Now try to place the VIII corps back in Namur.
That last step fails. (However I can still place the VIII corps elsewhere).


New Setup Bug

Load the game.
Start a new game.
Place a French garrison in neutral territory, eg Munster. (Rules specify land factors must be placed within the borders of their home nation and/or controlled minors).


New bug. Land combat phase

Attached is a zip file containing save files from the start of the Feb 1805 French land combat phase and the next turns diplomacy phase. As the game log shows (March diplomacy phase save) shows I managed to attempt to break in to Modena twice in the Feb 1805 combat phase. I have managed to reproduce it by replaying the combat resolution phase.

Reproduction recipe.
Load the attached save from the start of the combat phase.
Attempt to break into Modena. Fail the roll.
Fight and win the field battle in Hesse or Wurttemburg. (I eliminated the defending corps on pursuit, no idea if that is necessary).
Break in to Kassel/Stuttgart, and eliminate the defending factor.
Now you can attempt to break in to Modena again.

Thanks for your work on Empire in Arms.

[AndrewV]

Now the game consistently hangs whilst processing the Spanish AI land turn. Last autosave attached.

EDIT: Just end the naval phase. The French are moving last on land, and the French navy is happy to sit in Toulon.

[pzgndr]

Load the game. Start a new game France vs 6 AI. Options screen Screenshot 2024-05-21 153646.png
Place 1 factor garrisons in Lille, Antwerp and Namur.
Place the French IV, V, and VI corps in Antwerp. Add 1 infantry factor to each corps.
Place the French VII, VIII and IX corps in Namur. Add 1 infantry factor to each corps.
Remove the VIII corps from Namur. Now try to place the VIII corps back in Namur.
That last step fails. (However I can still place the VIII corps elsewhere).

Sorry, this works for me. Your Options screenshot shows you're not using QuixleyLET fonts, and since this contributed to some odd battle freezes a while ago I checked it out by uninstalling the font and seeing if that solved your setup issues; it didn't, but you may want to install those fonts so you can read things better. (See https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/view ... 1&t=280699) Maybe that will help, it won't hurt. Since I'm not seeing anybody else reporting these setup issues, perhaps you have some system/graphics configuration that is interfering with the game somehow and perhaps Matrix Games tech support could help. I'm at a loss here. Maybe somebody else has experienced this and found a workaround? No telling what's going on with this old code running on the latest rigs.

I'll check out your other issues later. And good point about basing the French fleets in Toulon, so Great Britain needs to worry about Spain and Russia. I don't think I'll change the 1805 setups but I'll make some adjustments to the AI grand strategies.

UPDATE. I found and fixed an issue with the AI Spanish land phase related to finding over-garrisoned cities. I could not reproduce the siege problem with Modena; once combat in that area was resolved it never became eligible for combat again after dealing with Hesse and Wurttemburg. I went back and tried recreating your issues with different compatibility settings for the game. That's not it, everything still worked for me. I suspect that you may have done something to corrupt something in the game files. My recommendation is to try a full uninstall, including deleting any residual files/directories, then reboot your system, and then perform another clean re-install. Maybe try on a different system if you have one? I just don't know what is causing your issues, and if I cannot recreate an issue then I cannot find and fix it. I'd be curious to hear from any other players if they have seen any of the issues you're having. Sorry, I'm at a loss here.

[pzgndr]

Hotfix #1 posted above. I think I found and fixed the issue with Alternate Dominant Powers morale changes being displayed correcte but not carried over into the combat calculations.

Most of this week was devoted to AI Great Britain. There was a bug with the AI not aborting understrength blockades, so that's fixed. I was also concerned about AI Great Britain making landings in North Africa but then sometimes moving the fleet away and/or the corps not moving to port. This is better now, so Great Britain can DOW/invade, say, Tripolitania and then go on to DOW/invade Cyrenacia, etc. This is all intended to give AI Great Britain in 1805 a fighting chance to take Denmark in the north or to take some North Africa minors in the med.

The other thing about AI Great Britain grand strategy was what to do about the scenario presented above where France sets up all its fleets in Toulon and Spain and/or Russia could get feisty. The Royal Navy has some serious limitations in the early game so must be careful. So I've made some adjustments to maintain some naval reserves in England and to beef up naval builds. And in the event that AI France selects a naval strategy, there's now some increased incentive for Spain and Russia to consider an alliance with France. I cannot possibly program the AI to react brilliantly to every human player strategy, but if you're playing solo as France or Great Britain then you should find your computer opponent nemesis a bit more challenging. We'll see. Give Hotfix #1 a try. I will be on travel next week and will resume final playtesting and adjustments during June.

Oh, last item. I do not understand the reported setup issues and some other glitches that I cannot recreate. I understand what is being reported; I just don't understand what the code may be doing wrong. As I've mentioned, I suspect some O/S system and/or graphics configuration(s) may be corrupting gameplay somehow. I don't know. Confirmation from players that all is well is helpful, and also any confirmation of the reported issues by other players is helpful. Any feedback is helpful. I'd like to know, and I'm sure there are other players who would like to know. So, don't be shy. Enjoy!

[pzgndr]

FYI. In my latest playtest as Prussia in 1805, I've noted a couple of issues. The fixes I made for AI Great Britain in the med needed to be carried over for DOW/invade Denmark, to keep the fleet from moving away and redeploying the corps back to London too soon. Actually, it was happening for a different reason but still needed resolution. The other thing was Prussia surrendered to France but remained at war. Something I did for the late war multiple surrenders wasn't working right so that needed resolution. I'll get another hotfix out in a day or so. If anybody has spotted any other issue(s) that need attention, let me know.

UPDATE. As I've continued this playtest, I noted some issues with AI Russia trying to redeploy corps out of Finland, both by sea and by land. Then after Prussia surrendered to France, there was an issue with France prepping for war against Austria. Also, Spain took Portugal and Morocco, the Russia DOWed Turkey and activated Algeria, so Spain should have been moving against Tunisia but wasn't. These have been resolved, but I want to rerun my 1805 playtest to verify all is well before posting next hotfix. As always, it's interesting what problems pop up with code functions I thought were settled but some new situation exposes a weakness. Onward!

UPDATE #2 (6/6/2024). For the 8 or so who have downloaded Hotfix #1 and others monitoring, I will continue to playtest some more before releasing Hotfix #2 sometime next week. I am seeing some good stuff with 1805-1806 but also a few quirks that need attention. I'll make another run tomorrow. I want to verify several things and then run some confirmatory playtests of 1812/1813. For the good stuff, I saw GB invade Tripolitania and then Cyrenaica, deploy forces from London to Gibraltar, and then invade Sardinia. For the quirks, I saw Russia not redeploying forces towards Turkey when at war with Turkey; found and fixed that. I saw a few spurious amphibious attempts, like Russia trying to go from Riga to Rhodes and Spain to Denmark. I also got bogged down with reviewing and fixing AI builds (again!) and informal peaces. I continue to watch for things that are not quite right, figure out why and resolve them. So, rather than release another work in progress, I'll wait until things are working right to my satisfaction. Stand by.

UPDATE #2 (6/14/2024). My playtesting continues. I had hoped to get Hotfix #2 out this week but I am not satisfied yet. I want to rerun the 1812 campaign again next week and verify a couple of adjustments I've made. I hope to release Hotfix #2 next Tuesday if all is good. Thank you for your patience.

[pzgndr]

Hotfix #2 posted above. I fixed a couple of bugs with Accept Informal peace and Deny Separate Peace and also a problem with the Turkish Nizami-Cedid corps in Alternate 1812 campaign (it had a militia instead if cavalry). I also made a minor update to the 1805 Austrian setups, basically to avoid an AI weakness I noticed.

A lot of time was spent improving the late war AI Great Britain amphibious operations. I spotted and fixed a money leak that was nagging me, where the AI was spending more on builds than budgeted and reducing the money left over for supply costs and such. AI redeployments got a minor improvement. I found and fixed a bug in the AI code for setting alliances when I spotted Great Britain not allying with Prussia. I also noticed some AI leaders occassionally being left alone so I cleaned up code to ensure they are found and either reassigned or removed back to the unit pool. Overall, things are working pretty well but as new situations arise there are always chances for weaknesses to pop up.

As an example from my 1805 playtest this morning, AI Great Britain DOWd Denmark and Russia DOWd Sweden. But Russia gained control of Denmark so not only launched an invasion of Stockholm but also a Danish invasion of Straslund. Great Britain intercepted the Danish fleet and failed to invade Denmark, causing a lapse of war and Russia getting Denmark. It's little head-scratchers like this that cause me to back up and adjust something. The good news is that as I find and fix things like this, I keep telling myself that I'm almost done with issues. LOL

I am hoping there are no installation issues for anybody or odd game freezes. I completed an 1812 campaign playtest yesterday all the way to AI Austria winning the game in March 1815. AFAIK, everything is working. Some AI logics may still need adjustments, and that's what I'll be looking at over the next few weeks. If all goes well, I hope to wrap up this version for release. As always, any feedback from players is helpful. Enjoy!

[pzgndr]

Hotfix #3 posted above. Several bug fixes in this one based on reported issues in the Tech Support forum above. (Thank you for the feedback!) There was a problem with siege combat, and this included how the game log reported things. There was another problem with civil disorder not forcing surrender, and also how mulitple surrenders were not be correctly sorted by the victors with highest PS. Lastly, there was a problem with naval interceptions and this included interceptions into adjacent areas that have not worked properly. This has been a busy week. I think the improved naval interceptions should spice up the game now, so be wary. I also continued to improve AI Great Britain (primarily) amphibious ops to ensure sufficient landing forces for DOWs and executions; I saw a couple of cases during playtesting that concerned me.

I am continuing to see a lot of good stuff in my playtesting. We really are at a point where bugs are rare and have been mostly obscure, but with more folks playing we can spot them. If any gameplay bugs get reported, I will investigate and resolve them. Please keep playing, and keep an eye on AI grand strategy issues. If you see something particularly weak then let me know and I'll see what I can do. And if you see something particulary strong, please share it so others can get a better sense of the AI computer opponent improvements that are starting to bear fruit.

Alright, looking ahead, I want to continue my playtesting and making adjustments as needed. More feedback is always helpful. I'll see how things go over the next week or two. I think we're getting close to a release build for the next official update. We'll see.

[pzgndr]

I just re-posted Hotfix #3. I got into another playtest game today, anticipating a smooth game, and I noticed the AI adding more new units to the game than reinforcing current units. I should have dug into this earlier. I investigated and discovered I had been excluding units on depots. This appears to be working much better now. I also noticed AI Great Britain still making some unwise amphibious landings in 1805 so I made some more adjustments. Alright. Let's try again. Sorry about that.

[amandkm]

Russia is conquering Sweden and the game gets caught in a loop as the Swedish fleet is evacuating Stockholm

[pzgndr]

Russia is conquering Sweden and the game gets caught in a loop as the Swedish fleet is evacuating Stockholm

Good news is that I found and fixed this, but the bad news is I do not understand why this wasn't a problem before. There was an issue with the battle type not being set to runblockade. There was another issue with not correctly identifying both sides as AI. And then there was an issue with the Swedish fleet not being tagged for battle. But I've seen AI-AI evacuate ports with run blockade and losing and having to scuttle ships. Why this bug reared its ugly head now is very odd.

This will be in Hotfix #4, probably tomorrow. I want to run another playtest to confirm this "fix" hasn't broken anything else and also verify a couple of other AI adjustments I made yesterday. Thank you for the feedback and a good game save!
.

Sweden Runblockade.jpg (255.4 KiB) Viewed 592 times

[pzgndr]

Hotfix #4 posted. This fixes the runblockade bug reported. Plus several AI adjustments.

In my current playtest as Spain, I've gotten to the end of 1806. AI France is wrapping up a war with AI Austria, started at the end of 1805 and then complicated when AI Prussia DOWd France in the summer of 1806. AI Russia DOWd AI Turkey and they're fighting their private war. But I am most pleased with AI Great Britain now, conquering Denmark in 1805 and making it a Free State in early 1806. It then redeployed its corps from Copenhagen to London. Then in spring 1806, it DOWd Cyrenaica and then deployed the corps from London to Gibraltar. At one point, Russia dipped into Instability and lost its minors. Great Britain then DOWd Corfu and took it. Overall, a pretty smooth game but one where I still stopped a couple of times to make some AI adjustments or minor code improvements when the game was being sluggish. I intend to continue this playtest game into 1807 and beyond to verify AI performance in the mid-game and continue making adjustments as needed.

I am increasingly satisfied with how the AI computer opponents are playing now. I hope others are too. We're getting there. Enjoy!

UPDATE 7/5/2024. I continued my playtest game into 1807. Here are the little things that got my attention and required some adjustments. AI Russia had a problem placing a depot at Kamenetz or Odessa to support a war into Turkey so I helped them out there. AI Russia also had a problem with redeploying units out of Crimea to Turkey so I helped them out there too. AI Great Britain was trying to naval redeploy units out of Corfu to London but that was too far. I tried redirecting them to Gibraltar but that was too far (complicated path). Now they will go to Malta, and then on to Gibraltar and London or be available for other invasions. I noticed AI France had several minor capital cities heavily garrisoned with French infantry (eg, Piedmont had 11 and Lombardy had 9) and I'm not sure why. Seems Nappy could have better used those troops in Austria and Prussia. Anyways, it's little stuff like this that I am paying attention to and making adjustments. I share this so players can look for similar things that they question and send me a game report so I can investigate and resolve stuff. I will start another playtest next week and give it another go.

[amandkm]

OK, I've been playing Turkey against AI Russia. Russia almost always DoW's, but then just trickles corps in against me, allowing for me to defeat them in detail. They are very good with Cossacks though.

On the plus side, the game is now running pretty smoothly. No more lock-ups noted.