test patch for Spain bug available via email

[Joel Billings]

I have an exe file that fixes the bug with Spain and a few other items. I'm willing to email it to those wishing to try it out since it will be at least a few more days before Matrix is available to post it. It's had limited testing so far but seems ok and the few changes seemed fairly safe. If you want it, email me at 2by3@2by3games.com. The file is a 1MB zip file that needs to go into the root directory (there is no installer). It needs to be used with the 1.008 patch version and you will still see 1.008 on the Main Menu but the properties of the exe will show that it is the 1.009 version. The following changes are in the file and these changes should work with save games:

V1.009 – January 2, 2007

1) Rule Change (Section 10.7) – The chance that the Coup in Spain political event will occur is now 1% (instead of 3%), and increases by 2% if Malta is German controlled, by 4% if London is German controlled, and by 4% if Gibraltar is German controlled. These are cumulative so if all three are German controlled the chance the event will be triggered is 11%. All conditions for the event to occur remain the same.
2) Rule Change (Section 10.2) – The Soviet Union and the United States will now only check to see if they have exceeded their second war readiness thresholds at the beginning of their respective turns (just after any War Readiness increases are applied for the turn). This will prevent the unfreezing of USSR and US politically frozen zones, due to reaching these WR thresholds, during other player turns.
3) Bug Fix – In version 1.008, the chance of the Spanish Coup occurring was 100% (instead of 3%). The chance is now based on the rule change in item 1 above.
4) Bug Fix – When the US was attacked in such a way that the 5 WR increase for attacking a US territory put the US over its second WR threshold, the basic 15 WR increase for the attack would not be added for the attack on the Allies. This has been fixed so that these attacks will increase WR by 20 (15+5) in all cases.

[wargameplayer]

I like the new spain rule. Its pimp.

[dobeln]

Aye, thanks for getting a patch out so quickly  

[GKar]

ORIGINAL: dobeln

Aye, thanks for getting a patch out so quickly

Fully agreed, great service! [:)]
Now if you'd just include tech advances in the event log... [:D]

[Joel Billings]

ORIGINAL: GKar

Now if you'd just include tech advances in the event log... [:D]

Jan will look into adding tech advances to a future patch.

So far it looks like 1.009 has been checking out ok. We have posted to testers a 1.010 that fixes the Portugal Joins the Allies random event (it was not working correctly either). We expect to be able to release this patch to Matrix for public release within a day or two.

[JanSorensen]

Something like this?

[GKar]

ORIGINAL: JanSorensen

Something like this?

[&o][&o][&o][&o][&o]

That would be great! [8D]

I hope it won't use up the available space in the event log too fast - 250 messages?

[JanSorensen]

Aye, its 250 messages (well, lines, as that number includes the "German Movement phase" lines as well as the blank lines).
It should be plenty for even the most active season though - and in most cases for several seasons. Adding the tech advances should not drastically change that considering that 30 tech updates during a single season would be extremely high.

[GKar]

Is there anything that speaks against increasing the number of lines? I agree that 250 should be more than sufficient for a season, but it might be nice to have a longer game history for AARs or just for the flavour of it. I don't think it'd affect the savegame size much as I guess it is plain text and the files are compressed anyway as far as I know.

Just asking though, I know we're talking about your and other people's time here... [:o]

[JanSorensen]

The only thing that speaks against increasing the size is the save game file size. I just set it at 250 as I figured that would cover atleast one full season nomatter what and likely several seasons.

[Lebatron]

Does anybody still use dail-up? Over my connection it only takes seconds to email a save. If your worried about increasing the size of the save file for fear of making it to large for some. Let their voices be heard. I for one will say make it as large as you want. It would be cool to have the entire games history saved. The only thing I would request is that the scroll bar always keeps the most recent messages within view, by defaulting to the bottom and not the top.

[GKar]

ORIGINAL: Lebatron

I for one will say make it as large as you want. It would be cool to have the entire games history saved. The only thing I would request is that the scroll bar always keeps the most recent messages within view, by defaulting to the bottom and not the top.

My points exactly. I don't think the log will make the compressed savegames grow significantly, and the few dial-up users might even accept it given the full event log. [:)]

[GKar]

Jan, I hope your work will be added in a later update? [:)]