EIA v1.27.02 Beta Hotfix #2 Available

[pzgndr]

Attached is Hotfix #2 for the v1.27.02 Beta for the next v1.27.xx official patch. This should be applied over the installed EIA v1.26.04 Official Update game files and previous v1.27.01 Beta and Hotfix versions. 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 v1.27.01 Beta install.

Release notes so far:

- Comprehensive AI improvements – resolved.
-- Numerous naval AI improvements and adjustments
-- Land AI improvements for moving corps out of enemy cities and placing a garrison at end of AI combats, corps remain in enemy city if enemy fleet in port
-- Added new grand strategy reactions for aggressive human players to national objectives modifier
-- Fixed AI defender not always withdrawing and causing extra rounds of combat
-- Adjusted AI economic manipulations
- Documented Ctrl-click land stack move and restricted depot/garrison moves – resolved.
- PBEM Admin menu for solitaire games to allow changing AI players to Human and vice versa without error messages – resolved. (Still cannot change Type selections. To change AI to Human, just select Email Host or Email Client.)
-- Disabled all PBEM error checks for solitaire games
-- Disabled all game log messages for PBEM Admin changes for solitaire games
- Revised AI France 1805 setups for depots at Brest to support possible invasion of Great Britain – resolved.
- Human Major Powers sometimes receiving AI bonuses – resolved.
- Conquered kingdom minors showing up as cedeable provinces in surrender conditions – resolved.
- Kingdom of Poland not being conquered correctly or being ceded as a unit – resolved, and rule 12.8.2 revised.
- PBEM Admin menu and Admin Moves not moving fleets to ports – resolved.
- Talk to AI allies too restrictive for AI and humans – resolved.
- Combat die rolls 0-5 instead of 0-7 – resolved.
- Logic error with deny separate peace selections – resolved (also, separate Unconditional Surrender will not break alliances).
- Simultaneous peace with multiple enemies not choosing peace terms on an alternating basis per rules – resolved.
- Transfer of forces from flank for both sides not always working when combat ends – resolved.
- Reset of minor nation builds money and manpower was being reset to MP money and manpower – resolved.
- Some load_units_to_battle issues with fleets lifting blockade and verifying sides at war – resolved.
- Premature port evacuation issue – resolved.
- Some combat_setup_naval_battle issues for intercepting nation not being assigned as attacker – resolved.
- Fleet could be removed if depot onboard – resolved.

This was in development over the past month as Hotfix #5 for v1.27.01 but there is enough new material here to post it as a new version. There have been several bug fixes but mostly AI improvements or AI bug fixes. Notably, we continue to see issues with sieges, blockades, and naval battles - mainly because the interactions between AI and human attacker/defender, questions of who is attacker vs defender for major, minor and loaned units, etc. are complicated. As our playtesting gets into areas we haven't wrestled with before, we find new issues or variations on the old issues.

A couple of detours got me into fixing some PBEM Admin menu issues for solitaire games and re-discovering Ctrl-click for moving land stacks. Players should try these.

I am fortunate to have a couple of playtesters who play aggressively and break the game every chance they get. My job is to plug the gaps they find. To that end, the AI Grand Strategy model has new national objectives modifiers for reacting to aggressive human players. Over time during a game, these should hopefully kick in to better resist human players and provide a better challenge for solitaire games. The goal for the next month or so is to see how this works and to make adjustments as needed before going final with the next official update. Please check out v1.27.02 and report any issues you may find or make any suggestions for improvements. Enjoy!

UPDATE - Hotfix #1 posted 8/2/2025
UPDATE - Hotfix #2 posted 8/15/2025
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EIANW 12702 Beta[2].zip

(3.18 MiB) Downloaded 5 times

[pzgndr]

Hotfix #1 posted. More fixes made regarding conquering of kingdom components and Poland. This has been challenging. We still need to look at the case where COR or Ottoman is down to the last component and it's conquered, dissolving the kingdom. Admin moves will now move fleets into port, either the friendly/neutral side or the blockade side as applicable.

There is a coment regarding rule 12.8.2 revised as follows:

The Polish minor Free State may only be conquered by the unbesieged occupation of Warsaw for a month (Polish provinces may not be individually conquered), after which the occupying Major Power accepts as a ceded province each province that defined the Kingdom of Poland.

Thus:
- All Polish forces are removed upon being Conquered. Forces may be rebuilt upon declaring Poland a Free State.
- All ceded provinces are transferred to the new controlling Major Power.

There were numerous other adjustments and tweaks that I did not add to the Release Notes:

Fixed AI attacker not asking for another day of combat and lapsing war with minor
Added check at end of land combat to remove lone depots from enemy areas
Adjusted AI to relax restrictions on minors from attacking if capital threatened
Revised AI major DOWs to make forces checks consistent with redeployment forces
Increased AI Turkey starting force in Palestine
Added checks to combat_retreat_units to clear units from battle (Stockholm retreaters became defenders)
Added reality checks to is_loc_blocked to verify no enemy in cities
Adjusted AI to restrict France from ceding back COR or Poland provinces
Fixed glitch with old combat messages appearing in new combat screen?
Fixed load_units_to_battle bug with neutral defenders added to battle
Adjusted AI area_find_enemy_in_range to fix logic errors
Adjusted AI for moving units in overseas minors to port
Adjusted AI for restricting minor free fleets from leaving home port

As you can see, there is still a lot of work going on under the hood. We are pushing to find any and all lingering bugs and other gameplay issues, as well as adjusting the AI for optimum performance. I expect at least one more hotfix or two before going final. I was hoping to get a final official update out before end of summer, but we'll keep going until all is well. As always, I'd appreciate getting any feedback and game saves from anyone who spots an issue or has a recommmendation for improving something. Please help if you can. Enjoy!

[Magpius]

Every time I try to download this Hotfix, I get this.

2025-08-03_16-55.png (17.96 KiB) Viewed 8744 times

I'm okay disabling defender, but why is it finding a known trojan?

[pzgndr]

I'm okay disabling defender, but why is it finding a known trojan?

I get occassional reports like this. I run Norton 360 on my system to keep it up to date. I just ran another scan to verify no issues with the zip file or EXE that I posted. It's possible that Norton is missing something that your anti-virus is finding? I don't know. Is this Microsoft Defender or some other third-party app? Sometimes other apps flag issues (real or imagined) to get you to buy their advanced protection tools. Again, I don't know, I'm not an expert with this stuff.

I would encourage you and everyone else to continue using your anti-virus and malware apps and run system scans. I certainly hope that I am not responsible for spreading trojan viruses. There are some sophisticated trojans out there.

[Magpius]

It's M.S. Defender Windows 11.
Reading the forums, it tends to be over zealous in what it prevents.
I've not had issues with Matrix updates prior; so downloading accordingly.
Just wanted to flag the issue.
...and again, a BIG thanks for the continued support of the game.

[pzgndr]

...and again, a BIG thanks for the continued support of the game.

Thank you! I try. As I reflect back on about 8-9 years(!) of my continued code development of this game, on top of Marshall Ellis's 15+ or so years(!) of code development (from before game release in 2008 until about 2016), it never fails to amaze me how complicated and complex this game is. Harry Rowland was 13 years old when he designed Empires in Arms, little knowing the agony he would cause for Marshall and me to try adapting his boardgame to a computer wargame.

Areas, provinces, nations (major and minor), and kingdoms have either home, influenced, allied, conquered, or free state status, and then there's at war, allied, enforced peace, ceded, or whatever.

Corps and fleets are either major nation home, minor nation free state or kingdom, loaned, or whatever.

Mix and match all possible combinations and permutations of the above and try to ensure the computer code logics account for everything that needs to be accounted for and exclude everything that needs to be excluded and you get a monster of a game unlike any other. I mean, my first game Avalon Hill's Tactics II was Red vs Blue and that was it, just move and attack simplicity. Empires in Arms is the complete opposite.

Anyways, for all those who imagine that boardgames such as Empires in Arms and World in Flames and others can be easily adapted as a computer wargame, with faithful recreation of the rules and implementation of a competent and challenging AI computer opponent, lemme just say it ain't trivial. Certainly not for a single programmer. We're not Blizzard Entertainment cranking out World of Warcraft with millions of paying customers and able to afford teams of professional (ie, paid) programmers and managers and the rest. I've been doing this as a volunteer hobby effort because I enjoy the challenge and I find it all very interesting, if not frustrating at times. So, after all this time, the game is finally approaching a "good-as-it-can-get" stage. I'll end this rant for now, and get back to playtesting latest code changes for dissolving kingdoms. I see light at the end of the tunnel, just hoping it's not another train...

[Magpius]

I've been modding the VASSAL map to match game areas. As there's no zoom, I find my old eyes, (and small laptop monitor), need clean graphics and a reasonable contrast to see what's happening. It's a pity the unit graphics are .bmp and not .png, as I'd love me some drop shadow on the units!
Fully understand the rant, I've pushed pixels on a few mods myself, (never coded), and a simple thanks can go a long way.

Map.jpg (1.73 MiB) Viewed 8665 times

[pzgndr]

FYI. I have been busy working on Hotfix #2 with several end-game issues regarding dissolving kingdoms and multiple surrenders. We are very interested in finding and resolving any and all lingering game bugs and gameplay issues, however large or small. Please, if you get a chance to play with Hotfix #1 and notice anything, please send a game save and your comments. We're getting close to being finished. I want to ensure that we are done done before I go to "pencils down" and wrap up a final official update.

[Jorgito]

Just resurrected my old copy of EiA, patched to 1.27.02 #1 and naval interceptions are completely broken.

I play as FRA in Jan 1805, NED fleet is not blockaded, when I move past the English channel the interception triggers but there are no battles or action and some random PP are awarded. I get to see the naval combat screen but with no fleets and no action. I can click on done to close the window unless there are losses in which case the game is hard locked as there are no fleets to remove the losses from and I have to do a Task manager end task.
The lift blockade does work.

The naval battle did not work - I left a fleet in the sea zone with attack order and nothing happened. No retreat of the enemy, just nothing. Both fleets were still there.

I went back to 1.27.01 and there is no issue with a few tests I've done for interceptions and a naval battle.

I can send a save but it should not be too difficult to replicate.
Thanks for your updates.
Radek

[pzgndr]

I play as FRA in Jan 1805, NED fleet is not blockaded, when I move past the English channel the interception triggers but there are no battles or action and some random PP are awarded. I get to see the naval combat screen but with no fleets and no action. I can click on done to close the window unless there are losses in which case the game is hard locked as there are no fleets to remove the losses from and I have to do a Task manager end task.
The lift blockade does work.

Welcome back. A game save would be helpful so I can see what you're seeing. I did run France in 1805, moving the Holland fleet, it got intercepted, the naval combat failed to load either side, and then the Holland fleet retreated to the London blockade box. Very odd. Something I recently adjusted must be wrong. I'm investigating this and a resolution will be in the next hotfix. Thank you for feedback. I already have several items fixed in Hotfix #2. I'll probably get it out later this week.

[Jorgito]

Yes, that’s the one. I forgot about HOL fleet ending up blockading London while the BR fleet stayed in the sea zone.
Occasionally there is some battle with only BR (intercepting) fleet strength visible and HOL takes losses which are not possible to take as there are no HOL fleets so the game hard locks.

Related to that was strange string of combat log. FRA wins, FRA loses 2PP, BR gains 2PP, BR gains 2 PP (for the same action). I think the PP are adjusted as FRA ended up at the low end of neutral zone, although I wasn’t tracking the exact numbers before and after.

I’m on the previous hot fix now as things work well but for science I’ll upgrade to 1.27.02 to get a save.

[pzgndr]

Yes, that’s the one. I forgot about HOL fleet ending up blockading London while the BR fleet stayed in the sea zone.

I'm finding that somehow Holland is switched to attacker and Great Britain is switched to defender for the interception battle and that screws up loading units to battle. And then Holland retreats as Great Britain back to London. I cannot so far determine what I may have done between the last v1.27.01 and the current v1.27.02 to cause this but I'm on it and I'll figure it out sooner or later. Sorry about that.

[pzgndr]

Related to that was strange string of combat log. FRA wins, FRA loses 2PP, BR gains 2PP, BR gains 2 PP (for the same action). I think the PP are adjusted as FRA ended up at the low end of neutral zone, although I wasn’t tracking the exact numbers before and after.

I have this resolved now, and the game log looks OK. This will be included in Hotfix #2 later this week. My nagging concern is why this was an issue now. I made previous fixes for Russian fleets being intercepted by Swedish fleets, and loser retreats handled properly, and winning Russia fleets able to proceed on to invade Sweden. I was probably more focused on AI Russia rather than a human player moving through interception zones and failed to playtest for that. So, a few more playtests are warranted before I post the hotfix. Thank you again for saying something. I wish more players would provide feedback, so I can investigate and resolve issues like this as they find stuff, large or small.
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Interception Battle.jpg (862.02 KiB) Viewed 7119 times

[pzgndr]

Hotfix #2 posted today. Lots of little things fixed over the past couple of weeks. I think the change to the combat die rolls was something I did a couple versions back, thinking it should be 0-5 (for +1 die roll 1-6), but I got a comment about not seeing any "6" die rolls. The combat tables, of course, go 0-7, so I should have left it alone. And I think the surrender conditions issues are working correctly and working well now, at least better. We'll see how it goes.

I've enjoyed a couple of playtests of the 1813 campaign to review how the end game plays out with allies conquering COR kingdom minors, allies lending corps, France going in and out of Instability and then back into Instability, Fiasco, and suing for surrender. I still have my eye on a few AI issues to resolve, and we're actively hunting for any lingering gameplay bugs to resolve. Again, we'll see how this hotfix goes for a couple of weeks. If we're in good shape, I'll move towards a final hotfix and then an official uppdate patch. I was hoping to be done by end of summer, but I'll take however long it takes to resolve anything left to resolve. Please give it a go and offer any feedback, good or bad, as we approach a finale. Enjoy!

[Jorgito]

I played 1.27.02 over weekend and noticed a few more bugs. Maybe some have been reported already. I enjoy the EiA very much and I am immensely grateful for continual updates. This is to help to make it better, not to pick up problems

1. Multiple city assaults possible in one turn.
I had this issue in the 1.26.04 and 1.27.01. It's possible to assault a city multiple times in one turn. As FRA, SPA was invaded, including from Gibraltar which BR lost thanks to lost war and fiasco. I move to some SPA northern cities and to Cadiz where there is a corps. First the northern sieges are resolved, then Florence than battle in Cadiz. All that by pressing "Begin next battle" first on the left. After the field battle (and FRA victory) "Begin next battle" does nothing but if I click on the corps and the "Attempt to assault the city" the assault takes place. Then I can do it again in a new assault. And again. See screenshot and the save "Land combat".
It seems that something (trivial or normal battle) is resetting the "sieges done for the turn" count.
2. Portraits of leaders who lost a battle and retreated to a different area are shown during siege / assault battle. As FRA Vienna is invaded and Mack and John have to retreat. Assaulting the city still shows their portraits on the battle screen. Not sure if they have an effect. Save "Dec 1806". It's a diplo phase, move to land, invade Vienna and Trieste, which I was able to assault twice. No screenshot.
These are exploits but the next one is more serious.
3. Demanded provinces reset and not ceded.
As FRA I select East and West Galicia to add to Kingdom of PL. On the diplo screen I move them to the top and tick. OK but when I open the screen again they stay at the bottom and now Tyrol and Carinthia are ticked. In any case, in the peace I was only given Moravia. The same "Dec 1806" save
4. Mack and John were captured in the Vienna battle on one occasion (in Jan 1807) and released automatically in Feb 1807, before AUS surrender. That happened alongside some BRI and SPA generals who just appeared and were made available to their countries (More and Cuesta maybe). Seemed like the programme confused the leader pool with the POW camp.

I dont seem to be able to add another file with Dec 1806 save so I'll do a new post.

Thanks
Radek

[Jorgito]

Dec 1806 save.
Thanks
Radek

[pzgndr]

I played 1.27.02 over weekend and noticed a few more bugs.
1. Multiple city assaults possible in one turn.
2. Portraits of leaders who lost a battle and retreated to a different area are shown during siege / assault battle.
3. Demanded provinces reset and not ceded.
4. Mack and John were captured in the Vienna battle on one occasion (in Jan 1807) and released automatically in Feb 1807, before AUS surrender.

First, thank you for some feedback. We need to run these issues to ground. I've looked at these and have some initial responses.
1. I was not able to recreate this issue? I ran the combat phase several times with different sequences of battles and could not recreate repeat combats. I have seen this myself and added some checks to terminate battles at end of combat but I suspect there may still be cases that have slipped through the cracks. I will keep investigating and see what I can do. On a humorous note, when you mentioned the "Begin Next Battle" button I had to look at it. In my 17 years of playing this game I have never used this; I always just click on the yellow highlighted battle areas. Huh.
2. I suspect there are cases where combat retreats may not retreat leaders so I added some redundant checks. As I write this, I suspect retreated leaders are not removed from the area combat list so I'll look at that next.
3. I recently fixed the surrender code to save the province selections. But the reordering of provinces is not changing the index values so that's what's wrong here. I need to troubleshoot this and resolve it. Now, if you don't reorder then the selections are saved. I used your Dec 1806 save to DOW Austria and selected East and West Galicia without reordering the list and it worked OK when Austria surrendered. (See screenshot.) Note that there is a restriction for AI major powers to only cede one home province per surrender and three home provinces max, to give the AI a slight advantage. That probably explains why you were only given Moravia.
4. I need to investigate this further. There is some AI code for the AI to release prisoners for PP gain, but it should be in response to a request. It may be unilateral, I can't remember. But I'll take a look and see what might be happening.
Thanks!!

Austria Surrender.jpg (1.04 MiB) Viewed 113 times