v1.24.03 Beta, Hotfix #2 - 8/12/2022

[pzgndr]

Guys, this is BIG. Attached is v1.24.03 Beta for playtesting. Release notes so far for v1.24:

Empires in Arms the Napoleonic Wars - 1.24.03
=============================================
- 0000826: [minor AI Enhancement] AI Cossacks and Guerillas [and Freikorps] do not auto-withdraw from trivial combats - resolved.
- Naval AI weakness for amphibious invasions - resolved.
- AI naval reinforcement not working – resolved.
- AI weakness for reinforcing battles with minor corps – resolved.
- Game log message missing for battle loser breaks but no pursuit – resolved.

Empires in Arms the Napoleonic Wars - 1.24.02
=============================================
- 0000835: [Game Bug] Poland not receiving money or manpower - change made for v1.22.01 incorrectly added redundant income and manpower collection at Kingdom creation - resolved.
- AI combat casualty number displays and game log messages sometimes incorrect - resolved.
- Placing depot allowed across blocked sea crossing - resolved.
- Naval AI weakness for blocking sea crossings - resolved.
- Keep AI bonuses if under siege or enforced peace by a human player (to make the computer opponent more challenging) - resolved.
- Naval landings not allowed in some controlled areas - resolved.
- Some surrenders still resulting in some enemy minors remaining at war with a former enemy major power - resolved.
- Effects of Peace not implemented correctly - resolved (see Rule 6.4.1 and 6.4.2 updates).
- Problem with evacuating garrisons under some nation control changes - resolved.
- Combat selection of best leader in battle does not include maximum tactical rating - resolved.
- Cavalry withdrawal rule incorrect - resolved (see Rule 11.2.4, Resolve Withdrawals, updated to apply to the Austrian Light Infantry Corps but to not apply if the attacker is also an all-cavalry force and/or if the commanding leader has a Strategic Rating of 5.)
- Light ships autoevade combats with Heavy should not apply to a forced running of a blockade box - resolved.
- Persia setup for Alternate EIH has 2x corps of 10i5c but 30i20c available - resolved (database updated to 4x corps of 10i5c).
- Creating Confederation of the Rhine should give +2 PS - resolved (database updated).
- AI victor selecting unit/leader/fleet not working correctly during implementation of surrender conditions - resolved.
- Nations and provinces should be marked on the map with a "(R)" or a "(O)" for the available Confederation of the Rhine or Ottoman Empire components, respectively - resolved.
- Minors that have corps should be marked somehow - resolved (the Show Selected Nation Information box now includes a "[FS]" indicator).
- FrClassicCampaign1805-_Flexible setup and AI setup should not have French fleets at sea - resolved.
- Supply cost calculations for units on depots not correct - resolved.
- AutoForage incorrectly resetting foraged units to normal supply and charging supply cost - resolved.
- Game locking up related to AI transferring factors from garrison to corps – resolved.
- Ghost corps remaining after unit eliminated in combat – resolved.
- French conquered minors re-conquered by Austria were lost when France went into Instability – resolved.

Empires in Arms the Napoleonic Wars - 1.24.01
=============================================
- 0000112: [UI Enhancement] No method of tracking or changing what has been purchased in the economic phase – closed (warning prompt added that builds cannot be changed once made).
- 0000167: [AI Enhancement] Foolish Spanish AI – closed.
- 0000578: [Game Enhancement] Pay for Supply button - closed.
- 0000649: [AI Enhancement] AI leader choice is sometimes quite suboptimal – resolved (best leader now assessed with all four ratings).
- 0000650: [AI Enhancement] Turkish AI arguably places/keeps feudals too much – resolved.
- 0000656: [AI Bug] AI has strange priorities for stacks – closed.
- 0000659: [AI Enhancement] GB AI: 'Dead Frenchmen' bounty? - closed.
- 0000815: [Game Enhancement] Unable to create new cavalry corps or heavy fleet in game editor – resolved.
- 0000822: [AI Enhancement] AI Operations with Allies – resolved.
- 0000822: [AI Enhancement] AI Cossacks and Guerrillas – resolved (exempted from regular AI battle assignments).
- PBEM human player sometimes switches to AI following combat - resolved (additional function added to verify player types at end of PBEM land move and land combat phases).
- AI sometimes DOWs minors with insufficient factors in range (e.g., Turkey DOWing Egypt) - resolved.
- Program sometimes retreats units to capital under siege - resolved.
- Miscellaneous land and naval AI adjustments - resolved.
- AI naval reinforcement bug for ships not ready and ships not owned being added to fleets - resolved.
- Show highlighted areas for possible naval unloads - resolved.
- Game incorrectly allows friendly controlled non-national ships to be added to friendly fleet - resolved.
- Auto-Forage incorrectly foraging besieging units - resolved.
- Unit-to-Unit transfer graphics for ships not working - resolved.

Empires in Arms the Napoleonic Wars - 1.24.00
=============================================
- 0000530: [Game Enhancement] Computer not choosing the optimal path when moving multiple areas – closed. [NOTE: Manual path selection by player is still most efficient for considering movement costs and forage values, rather than shortest path.]
- 0000531: [Game Enhancement] Cannot remove a depot with a depot garrison on it - resolved, player may now opt to disband garrison.
- 0000855: [Game Bug] Scenario Editor Later Campaign Issues – resolved (unit availability dates do not change when start date is changed).
- 0000862: [Game Bug] Admin cannot move ships into harbor of conquered minors or Free States – closed.
- mcextentions.cpp file removed from build to remove legacy alternate modern conquest functions (wgsbombing, wgsintel, wgsresearch, terrorism) - resolved.
- Standard (non-EIA) battle types removed from build (BTsea, BTrural, and BTsiege) to remove legacy alternate combat model - resolved.
- AAR move arrows incorrectly displayed as hashed lines instead of solid lines in winter zones - resolved.
- UI scaled up about 40-50% as it is tiny on a modern screen size - resolved (top menu bar scaled up 50%).
- Some game buttons not updated to standard font - resolved (17 new BMP files for \Graphics\ui\buttons).
- Fonts on Unit Report screen not clear on high-resolution screens - resolved (changed Quixley LET to Verdana Italic).
- Create new scenario limited to 1805 classic EIA by default - resolved (player is now prompted to select 1805 classic EIA or 1805 alternate EIH scenario database).
- Spurious French corps units displayed in unit box towards right and bottom - resolved.
- Access Violation errors related to setup of minor (Naples) upon declaration of war - resolved.
- AI building too many militia - resolved.
- MAXDEPOTS previously changed from 8 to 10 in nwvars.cpp was not also changed in nwvars.h and caused a supply chain break with the Austrian IXd Depot - resolved.
- Some surrenders incorrectly evacuating cities despite temporary access - resolved (replaced nation_correct_force_locations function with the more standard nation_evacuate_all_units function when executing surrenders).
- Some DOWs still resulting in some minors not being at war with other minors of the major powers - resolved.

You should be able to extract the new EXE, \Graphics, and \Setups files from the zip file directly into your v1.23.08 or v1.24.02 Beta install. Alternatively, you may want to install a separate copy of the official v1.23.08 and update that to the v1.24.03 Beta.

There have not been any bug reports since v1.24.02 Hotfix #4 was posted over a month ago, which is great. There are not too many documented updates in v1.24.03, but there have been numerous other undocumented AI adjustments and fine-tuning as I've been playtesting over the past few weeks. Players should find the computer opponent considerably more challenging now than before, especially on Hard settings. I expect this version, with perhaps a hotfix or two if necessary, to be THE version going into an official update patch by end of summer.

PLEASE, give this a go and let me know if you see any issues? I think most everything that I can reasonably do with Empires in Arms, I have done. Perhaps a few more minor bugs are lingering, and certainly a few more AI adjustments are possible. Enjoy!

UPDATE 8/4/22 - New zip file updated for v1.24.03 Hotfix #1. See notes in post below.

UPDATE 8/12/22 - New zip file updated for v1.24.03 Hotfix #2. See notes in post below.

[pzgndr]

Hotfix #1 is complete and posted above. Updated release notes:

Empires in Arms the Napoleonic Wars - 1.24.03
=============================================
- 0000512: [Rules Deviation] More than 3 Provinces of Home Nation can be ceded; also capital province should be cedeable – resolved, but capital province not cedeable.
- 0000826: [minor AI Enhancement] AI Cossacks and Guerillas [and Freikorps] do not auto-withdraw from trivial combats - resolved.
- Naval AI weakness for amphibious invasions - resolved.
- AI naval reinforcement not working – resolved.
- AI weakness for reinforcing battles with minor corps – resolved.
- Game log message missing for battle loser breaks but no pursuit – resolved.
- AI enhancement to create Free States – resolved.
- AI enhancement to create Kingdoms or add province to Kingdom – resolved.
- EIH alternate campaigns Turkish Nizami-Cedid corps has militia instead of cavalry – resolved (database updated).
- Algeria able to build ships but has no fleets – resolved.
- AI winning nation selecting surrender conditions that cannot be met by loser – resolved.

I continue to work on AI improvements, including several back-burner issues I've held off of since most of my time over the past year was working off bugs and other issues. Notably, the AI should now create Free States (if its land force pool is mostly complete), create Kingdoms (if minimum conditions met, and then additional provinces added), and selected surrender conditions should be more appropriate. As I was playtesting as Turkey, I spotted and resolved the issues with the Nizami-Cedid corps and Algeria being able to build ships. I got as far as end of 1806 and AI France had 13 of 15 components needed to create the Confederation of the Rhine, so I'm still looking for some confirmation that creating kingdoms works.

I am serious as a heart attack wanting to resolve whatever lingering issues remain in the game that I can resolve over the next month. PLEASE, play a round or two and provide some feedback. Either good feedback to confirm improvements are on track, or any negative feedback for any issues that should get fixed. Bugs, graphics, OOB, whatever. And if you see the AI doing something egregiously stupid, let me know. Thanks. Enjoy!

[pzgndr]

Piracy.jpg (1.08 MiB) Viewed 1700 times

This is a teaser for what's coming up in Hotfix #2. Piracy! Here I'm playing Russia, allied with AI Austria and AI Prussia and all at war with France. AI France has sent Privateers against Prussia and Russia. Russia has an anti-piracy fleet deployed. Game log is showing results during the March 1806 economic phase. This took a few days to work through piracy to verify what the game code was doing and then add new code for the AI to play piracy and anti-piracy. The logic is fairly conservative, but players will have something new to deal with against the computer opponent(s).

I have also been working through some AI weaknesses with placing/removing depots and minor DOWs involving possible amphibious invasions. Things are improving. I should have Hotfix #2 ready later this week.

[pzgndr]

As promised, Hotfix #2 is complete and posted above. Updated release notes:

Empires in Arms the Napoleonic Wars - 1.24.03
=============================================
- 0000512: [Rules Deviation] More than 3 Provinces of Home Nation can be ceded; also capital province should be cedeable – resolved, but capital province not cedeable.
- 0000826: [minor AI Enhancement] AI Cossacks and Guerillas [and Freikorps] do not auto-withdraw from trivial combats - resolved.
- Naval AI weakness for amphibious invasions - resolved.
- AI naval reinforcement not working – resolved.
- AI weakness for reinforcing battles with minor corps – resolved.
- Game log message missing for battle loser breaks but no pursuit – resolved.
- AI enhancement to create Free States – resolved.
- AI enhancement to create Kingdoms or add province to Kingdom – resolved.
- EIH alternate campaigns Turkish Nizami-Cedid corps has militia instead of cavalry – resolved (database updated).
- Algeria able to build ships but has no fleets – resolved.
- AI winning nation selecting surrender conditions that cannot be met by loser – resolved.
- Piracy rules clarified, and piracy game log messages improved – resolved (see revised rules 8.9 and 12.2.1).
- AI enhancement to perform piracy and anti-piracy operations – resolved.
- Turkey home provinces for some Anatolia and Armenia feudal corps not set correctly – resolved (database updated).
- UI Enhancement for showing nation political status on top menu bar – resolved (nation name and game phase text colors reflect current political standing: Dominant – Green, Normal – White, Instability – Yellow, and Fiasco – Red).

Adding piracy to the AI code was the main emphasis. As I was playtesting as Turkey, I noted that I could not place the Anatolia II or Armenia corps and had to fix the databases. Unfortunately, the editor could not fix this and I couldn't fix the editor code, but manual edits using the hex editor did the job.

As I was zipping database files for backup, I noted that these actually compress to very small size. Therefore, the Hotfix #2 zip file is comprehensive and includes the EXE, /Data, /Graphics, and /Setups files. You should be able to extract all of the new files from the zip file directly into your game directory.

Overall, I think the computer opponent is better now. A little better at placing/removing depots and a little less aggressive/reckless in some cases. Along the way I wondered about adding some color for political status, so now players can visually see that on the top menu bar. I believe this build is pretty solid going into an official update. I will continue to playtest more and make minor adjustments. I can only see so much, so please if you get a chance to play and see some issues then please provide some feedback. Enjoy!

[jscully]

I'm not very knowledgeable with IT and am trying to install this update. Tried extracting the graphics, setup and exe from the Zip but I get "problem with installation" when I try to launch game. I've used Zip files before and have the 1.23.08 update installed but am not sure how I did it previously. Can you point me in right direction? (This game is one of my all time favorites, especially with your updates.)

[pzgndr]

I'm not very knowledgeable with IT and am trying to install this update. Tried extracting the graphics, setup and exe from the Zip but I get "problem with installation" when I try to launch game. I've used Zip files before and have the 1.23.08 update installed but am not sure how I did it previously. Can you point me in right direction? (This game is one of my all time favorites, especially with your updates.)

No problem.

EIA Hotfix.jpg (19.1 KiB) Viewed 1502 times

You should be able to just open up the zip file and then copy and paste its contents into your game directory, and that will overwrite the current files. Enjoy!

[jscully]

Got it. Many thanks.

[mark41974SlitherineSSL]

still getting the Division by zero error on startup. bought the game last year, had the original board game and very excited to play. if anyone nows the fix please let me know.

[pzgndr]

still getting the Division by zero error on startup. bought the game last year, had the original board game and very excited to play. if anyone nows the fix please let me know.

Must be an installation issue? First, uninstall whatever you have and delete any remaining files if the game folder still exists, and then reboot. Then try running the v1.23.08 installer as Admin and be sure to set compatibility to WinXP SP3 under properties (that may be your issue). You should be able to open and run the game without an error. After that, you can try installing and running the v1.24.03 hotfix, or just wait a few days for the official v1.24.03 patch. Matrix has had the files for a couple of weeks now and should have released the patch by now.

I'd be curious to know if you still have any problems with v1.23.08, or if your problems start with the v1.24.03 hotfix/patch. Others are installing and running the game fine, so it may the compatibility setting in properties. Good luck!

[mark41974SlitherineSSL]

floating point division by Zero is the error that loads up on the screen as soon as the game loads up. it repeats and normaly locks up my computer.

[pzgndr]

floating point division by Zero is the error that loads up on the screen as soon as the game loads up. it repeats and normaly locks up my computer.

Did you do everything I suggested above? Delete everything, reboot, and reinstall v1.23.08 as Admin and set compatibility to Win XP SP2 and run as Admin. Maybe redownload the installer package; you may have gotten a corrupted file. Did you get the error on v1.23.08 startup? If not, and you are able to open the game, then install the latest v1.24.03 official update. Do you still get the error on v1.24.03 startup?

If you are still getting the error, then you should contact Matrix Games tech support. Maybe something about your system configuration is the issue. Running DXDIAG and working with tech support may resolve it. Sorry, I'm running out of ideas. Others seem to be installing and running the game fine so there must be something else going on with your system? Good luck.