EIA v1.27.00 Beta Hotfix #3 Available

[pzgndr]

Attached is Hotfix #3 for the the first beta for the next v1.27.xx official patch. This Hotfix should be applied over the installed EIA v1.26.04 Official Update game files and v1.27.00 Beta version. You should be able to extract (copy&paste) the new EXE file from the zip file directly into your v1.26.04 install or previous v1.27.00 Beta install.

Release notes so far:

Empires in Arms the Napoleonic Wars - 1.27.00
=============================================
- PBEM Admin button not always working correctly – resolved.
- PBEM simultaneous diplomacy not always working correctly for some human client players – resolved.
- Warning message added for last PBEM player to verify all simultaneous diplomacy files are loaded prior to ending turn – resolved.
- AI improvement for Reinforcing A Field Combat – resolved.
- User Manual section 11.2.11 updated for allied forces reinforcing a field combat – resolved.
- Units not in a city sometimes being foraged as besieged – resolved.
- AI-AI siege combats not always working correctly – resolved.
- AI-AI city trivial combat not working – resolved.
- AI determination of enemy in range of target area not always working correctly – resolved.
- Swedish minor corps not drawing allied supply in 1813 – resolved.
- AI improvement for defending capitals of allies – resolved.
- AI improvement for place/remove depots – resolved.
- AI improvement for naval interceptions - resolved
- Game bug lone transports not being eliminated – resolved.
- Some minor nation control not correct at start of Classic 1805 campaign and possibly others – resolved.
- Downgrade Free State to Conquered evacuates units – resolved.
- Restrictions on Territorial Losses rule implemented v1.26.02 to restrict one province per victor for AI only changed to exempt Kingdom of Poland provinces – resolved.
- Saved manpower for human Prussia not working correctly – resolved.
- Added PBEM Admin Menu button for non-PBEM solitaire games – resolved.
- Port build capacities not working correctly, nor documented in the game manual – resolved, and section 12.5.3 updated in the manual.
- Nation current status of forces, land factors and sea factors, added to the game log during Economic Phases for player reference – resolved.

This is another incremental improvement to the game. I spent a lot of time working with Maple Leaf and his pbem game to resolve PBEM simultaneous diplomacy issues. These appear to be fixed now, although there are still some other issues probably related to file corruption(s) related to the multiple reloads of hotfixes along the way. I was going to release a hotfix for the pbem issues but got started on v1.27.00 updates in parallel, so I'm just going ahead with releasing the Beta. Most of the updates are AI improvements and enhancements, notably getting the AI computer opponent to reinforce field combats. Players should expect a few more surprises now. Additionally, I've spent the past couple of weeks playtesting the 1805, 1812, and 1813 campaigns and making numerous AI improvements regarding sieges, foraging, placing/removing depots, and naval interceptions. I am mostly satisfied with how the AI computer opponents are behaving. Again, players should expect more surprises and more competent game play. The AI ain't Skynet and it ain't self-aware yet, but we're getting there.

Alright, here's where we're at. My playtests have been mostly hands-off observations of AI performance for the three campaigns, usually playing as Turkey or Spain for about 6-12 months. Besides the AI improvements, I've been spotting and fixing various other minor issues regarding combat messages, game log messages, and such. This Beta version is ready for 'prime time' wargaming for players to challenge the AI. Firstly, I'm looking for any and all reported issues of game bugs, odd messages, and AI tactical or operational weaknesses. As I fix whatever may need fixing, I'll post a hotfix or two. Secondly, for the long term over the next few months, I'm looking for AI strategic weaknesses so that I can make improvements to the AI grand strategies. Specifically, how are the AI major powers doing between 1806 and 1812/1813. Where are they being taken advantage of by a veteran human player and where are they missing opportunities that a veteran human player would be jumping on? Primarily for France and Great Britain, but also for all major powers. How can we help the AI perform most like a human player? Please help make Empires in Arms a great computer wargame with the most challenging AI we can get.

As always, if you spot any issues, a game save of the previous phase is most helpful (both .dat and .sav files). If I can run your game save and recreate your issue, then I can better debug it and resolve it. Even if you see the AI do something odd, like a stupid naval or land move, report it and give me a chance to figure it out and make it better. I really want to get to the point where players can have a great solitaire game or feel confident in having AI computer opponent substitutions in small-group pbem games. I think that would be ideal, small-group pbem games of 3-4 players that can move along quickly enough for everybody to have fun and not have to spend 2+ weeks to complete a turn. Let's get there. Enjoy!

UPDATE 3/1/2025 - Hotfix #1 posted.
UPDATE 3/11/2025 - Hotfix #2 posted.
UPDATE 3/12/2025 - Hotfix #2 reposted with PBEM Admin Menu button fix.
UPDATE 3/13/2025 - Hotfix #2 reposted (again) with PBEM Admin Menu button fix.
UPDATE 3/24/2025 - Hotfix #3 posted.
.

EiANW 12700 Beta[3].zip

(2.51 MiB) Downloaded 23 times

[pzgndr]

FYI, I have already resolved one issue with lone transports not being eliminated and made some AI improvements for naval invasions. I will wait a week or so to see if there are any other reported issues and then post a hotfix.

The issues reported to me was the case of AI Russia DOW on Sweden and the human player set up the Swedish fleet in area700 near Sveaborg to interecpt the Russian invasion fleet. The AI failed to handle this well, resulting in an unnecessary lapse of war. It was an interesting and challenging case, but it highlights the kind of stuff I'm looking for. Where are there AI weaknesses that a human player can take advantage of? I realize this could turn out to be an iterative series of whack-a-mole investigations, but if we can identify and resolve issues like this to help make the AI computer opponent less stupid and/or less reckless then the game becomes that much more challenging for human players. And that's the goal for v1.27.xx, to find and fix AI weaknesses.

[pzgndr]

Posted v1.27.00 Beta Hotfix #1. Main change is a game bug for lone transports not being eliminated is resolved. Actually, they were being eliminated but then showing up as available builds at the nearest port for the victor.

Other changes involve various AI improvements. I spent a lot of time playtesting the 1812 campaign and noting that AI France was not placing enough depots. First, they have to remove some low priority depots before they can place new ones in Russia. Then France needs to prioritize certain cities for its supply chain. So, with Warsaw as a supply source, AI France will attempt to place depots at Brest-Litovsk, then Kovno/Vilna/Minsk, and then Vitebsk. I added code to help make these happen. Beyond that, the AI is on its own again. I added similar "help" for AI Russia to use Brest-Litovsk as a supply source and then attempt to place depots at Warsaw and Posen as it advances toward Prussia. The attached screenshot shows the situation in September 1812 as AI France advances beyond Vitebsk. AI France also managed to attack Lisbon this turn. AI France managed to avoid most forage losses in Russia until December, when supply costs rose to $129 but France only had $54 left; the Grande Armee took some hard hits then.

I also noted how the AI often overextends itself to make attacks into out-of-supply (OOS) areas. I don't want to preclude all such attacks but I felt a modest penalty was needed. I already had restrictions for the AI attacking into OOS areas with forage values less than 2. So I imposed an additional 25% force needed requirement if attacking into areas with forage values less than 4. The AI will still attack if it has enough force, but now should better handle foraging losses prior to battle.

I then spent some time playtesting the 1813 campaign and noted a few AI issues with AI Russia failing to defend Berlin, AI Great Britain minor Swedish corps not retreating when outnumbered, and AI Austria not declaring war on France when it had sufficient force to do so. For Austria, they usually DOWed Bavaria and won so had sufficient force in range of France, but they lost and the war lapsed. The invasion base at Linz had sufficient force, so I made a code change to account for that. Bottom line is that both the 1812 and 1813 campaigns are working much better now. Moving forward, I plan to "play" more than playtesting, probably as Russia or Austria in those later campaigns to see how the end game looks now. I will also revisit the 1805 campaign to see how the hotfix changes affect the early- and mid-game. As always, I am also looking for any player feedback for issues you might see.

FWIW, I find the later campaigns very interesting. Players should try them. One thing that gets me is how one can go from the 1812 setup, fight a campaign in Russia during 1812, and then get anywhere near the 1813 setup with Russians all the way to Leipzig and Dresden. I probably need to restrict AI France reinforcements and attacks in Russia during the winter months and force more retreats. That may help recreate more historical results but I don't want to overly restrict the AI. I am open to suggestions.
.

1812 September.jpg (918.52 KiB) Viewed 664 times

[pzgndr]

- Warning message added for last PBEM player to verify all simultaneous diplomacy files are loaded prior to ending turn – resolved.

FYI, regarding this change, I've added a note to the game manual under 4.2.6 Loading Turn Files:

NOTE: It is important for the last human player in the Diplomacy phase to ensure that all diplomacy files are in his commin folder before he plays his turn. The game will not warn of missing files and will process the Diplomacy phase with missing files, essentially skipping those players, human or AI. The game log will provide a message for loaded diplomacy files for PBEM games. The game will also provide a warning message for the last human player during the Diplomacy phase when the End Current Phase button is clicked to verify all simultaneous diplomacy files are loaded, and to proceed or not. Additionally, it would be a good practice for the last human player to make a backup of his game save (i.e., just zip the DAT and SAV files) for reference so he can restore his turn and start over if he makes a mistake.

I think most everything described in 4.2.2 Setting Up a PBEM Game is accurate. I've previously asked Maple Leaf if anything needs further clarification and he didn't think so. I'd like to think more players are interested in trying pbem, moreso now that AI computer opponents can be substituted to allow small groups (3-4 players) to play faster games. If you try to run a pbem game as admin and have any questions, just ask.

[pzgndr]

Well shucks, I already got one issue report for hotfix #1 and fixed it for hotfix #2. The problem is that some minors in the Classic 1805 campaign show the wrong area/city control. For example, neutral Munster is under France control and not Munster control. Not sure why, and not sure when/how this became a problem and never reported until now. The problem was that Prussia DOWed Munster and could not move into the area. As I mentioned, this is now fixed for hotfix #2. I added a new function to verify minor control at game start and this appears to work. I think playing the Alternate 1805 campaign is still OK so players should play that until I release hotfix #2 later this week. I'd like to see if anyone else has any other issues with hotfix #1.

UPDATE. FYI, I had a naval AI issue reported this past week and I am working through quite a few related naval AI issues. Mostly regarding how AI France sets up fleets versus how AI Great Britain sets up fleets and how blockades get set up. The AI does well most of the time, but there are some 1805 setup combinations that challenge Great Britain and lead to performance weaknesses. I need a couple/few more days to work through all of this and verify all is well.

[pzgndr]

Posted v1.27.00 Beta Hotfix #2. Several changes made related to minor nation control, downgrading Free States, Territorial Losses rule, naval AI improvements, and Prussian saved manpower. The naval AI issues were challenging enough to resolve but then I got a report from a human Prussia player noting issues with the saved manpower. This past week has been full of multiple headaches. The Territorial Losses rule came up because a player commented on the difficulty of creating the Kingdom of Poland if AI Prussia is limited to ceding only one province. I think this is only an issue for creating Poland, but if anyone has other thoughts then please share.

Regarding naval AI. I think AI Great Britain is now handling early 1805 naval actions better. It has to blockade French and Dutch fleets, but sometimes also French fleets in Toulon or perhaps elsewhere for a human France player. Sometimes this is easy and sometimes a fleet from London needs to redeploy to Gibraltar to be available to blockade Toulon or wherever. England first, and then the Med. Meanwhile, AI Great Britain is poised to either DOW and invade Denmark from London OR DOW and invade North Africa from Gibraltar, and the invasion fleet needs to hold until a DOW and not run off to a blockade or redeploy as a "free" fleet. And then there are interceptions. I had a case where another AI-AI interception naval battle was not being resolved correctly and I think that's fixed. And I had a case where the "free" Dutch fleet in Brest was trying to redeploy home to Amsterdam and either getting intercepted in the English Channel or moving to sea area1 (finally caught that glitch) and I think those are fixed. Overall, better. There may yet be other AI naval issues. Please report them if you see them.

Regarding Prussian manpower. This is an evil can of worms; thank you Harry Rowland for this. Understand that there are some differences during the economic phase between getting national manpower and what the current manpower is as you build or cancel builds. Prussia needs a parameter for saved manpower, to be added to its national manpower. So it also needs another parameter for its unique current manpower. And for all human players, there needs to be parameters for pre-build money and manpower so that if builds are cancelled those values can be restored, otherwise the money and manpower need to be decremented and shown correctly on the nation status and again when you go back to a build screen. So the past couple of days have been insane as I set up a Prussian economic phase and proceeded to build something, cancel it, and verify numbers; build something again and hit "OK" but do not "Proceed" and cancel it, and verify numbers; and lastly to build something and "Proceed" with the build. I now have all of that working correctly for human Prussia and verified for human Austria. I now also have the nation status manpower being decremented for builds during the economic phase, but otherwise showing regular national manpower during the other phases. In the attached screenshot, Prussia built a couple of infantry in March and the Prussian manpower in April shows "21(17)" for 21 national manpower and 17 saved manpower. In June, Prussia gets 21 + 17 = 38 manpower, and this is working correctly. I am optimistic that all of this is now working correctly, but again there may yet be other issues somewhere. Again, please report them if you see them.

I will proceed with what may be hotfix #3. I certainly want to verify AI Prussia is handling saved manpower correctly. And I have a couple of other AI adjustments I want to make. Beyond that, I expect I may get reports of issues. Either I have failed to fix what I think I have fixed, or the issues that are now fixed will allow players to find New! issues. It never really ends. Anyway, I want to wrap up v1.27.00 Beta sooner or later and then move on to v1.27.01 Beta to look at AI grand strategy issues. Lastly, a big Thank You to several players who reported issues to me and provided good game saves. It helps, a lot!!

UPDATE. I forgot to mention that I added the PBEM Admin Menu button for solitaire games, but just verified that there is a problem with this. So, for non-PBEM games, please disable the game option for the Admin Menu. I will fix this so that solitaire players can eventually use the Admin Menu features to fix glitches in their games. I added it to my development version and it's helpful in addition to my other debugging tools.

UPDATE. (Again.) I fixed the error for the PBEM Admin Menu button. Players can now enable the Admin menu during non-PBEM games. I leave it restricted to only the host and not clients during PBEM games. The two players who already downloaded yesterday's hotfix should downlaod and install the revised EXE. Sorry about that.

UPDATE. (One more time.) I did fix the PBEM Admin Menu button issue, but failed to verify that it works for starting a new game. I got a report about this, so fixed it right away. All should be well now for starting and playing, with or without the Admin Menu game option enabled or not. My apologies. (Again.)
.

Prussia Manpower.jpg (54.23 KiB) Viewed 552 times

[pzgndr]

I'd like to share what I've been working on for Hotfix #3. The whole point of these hotfixes is to work out the kinks in v1.27.00 before proceeding on to v1.27.01 to focus on AI grand strategy improvements. So naval AI issues and Prussian saved manpower issues are resolved. This past week I've been working on some surrender terms issues, getting the AI to make smarter selections. One of the terms, paying reparations, was not working correctly. I think I have all of that resolved. I want to continue playtesting for another week or so. I really need other eyes on the game to find and report issues or just comment on something you see that's odd. I have my blindspots and don't catch everything. Many I do, but I can always use help. Please help if you can. Thanks!!

[pzgndr]

Posted v1.27.00 Beta Hotfix #2. Besides a couple of additions (port build capacities and nation status of forces), I struggled with Prussian saved manpower issues and builds. I got an issue report about Prussian builds started and then cancelled did not restore manpower back to the original pre-build value, so massive builds were possible. In fixing this, I noted that the massive naval builds would exceed the port capacities. The game would restrict additional builds to a maxed out port, but would not restrict new builds exceeding the capacity. Nor was this documented in the game manual. So all of that is fixed. In playtesting 1812, I reviewed how AI Prussia was saving manpower and AI Great Britain saving money for Prussian saved manpower. I found some issues and resolved those. And I found and resolved several other minor AI performance issues. Bottom line is that this Hotfix #3 is in good shape.

I'm crossing my fingers and hoping most all of the v1.27.00 bugs are resolved. I'd like to move on to v1.27.01 and start looking at AI grand strategy issues. And of course any other reported issues. We'll see how it goes.

BTW, for reference, small ports have a build capacity of 5, medium ports have a build capacity of 10, and large ports have a build capacity of 15. The new nation status of forces messages in the game log are for player reference to see how your nation measures up against the other nations. This should be helpful. Enjoy!

[pzgndr]

FYI, I have started work on v1.27.01 Beta. I am playtesting it and hope to release it next week or so. If anybody has comments on the latest Hotfix #3 regarding issues I should look at, please speak up. Thanks!