Update Schedule Information

[jalapen0]

That's perfect.

[Mozo]

Thanks Erik! Please thank Elliot too.

Mozo

[tjhkkr]

Thank you guys...

[Gelatinous Cube]

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

Ok, I just finished a call with Elliot. We're aiming for Wednesday morning for the public beta release (we're confident on that) and I will post a change list for you all tomorrow. It has a lot of bug fixes as well as the design list screen improvements we discussed.

Regards,

- Erik

Outstanding.

[MisterBenn]

Thank you, I'm looking forward to this.

[J HG T]

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

Ok, I just finished a call with Elliot. We're aiming for Wednesday morning for the public beta release (we're confident on that) and I will post a change list for you all tomorrow. It has a lot of bug fixes as well as the design list screen improvements we discussed.

Regards,

- Erik

Yes!
Now just have to kill time for a day. Darn this extreme cold; Wouldn't really want to torture my car by cruising around town.

[Belhoriann]

Fantastic news, it's becoming very hard to not play. Keep up the awesome work !

EDIT : Oh and Hello to you all, that's my first post obviously.
Bon baisers de France ! [;)]

[Falokis]

My F5 button is getting worn out. [:)]

[Javaslinger]

ORIGINAL: Falokis

My F5 button is getting worn out. [:)]

For a changelog?

[Falokis]

Yeah, did I miss it somewhere?

[adecoy95]

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

Ok, I just finished a call with Elliot. We're aiming for Wednesday morning for the public beta release (we're confident on that) and I will post a change list for you all tomorrow. It has a lot of bug fixes as well as the design list screen improvements we discussed.

Regards,

- Erik

i cant wait to see whats on it!!!

any chance of any slight automated tax rate balance adjustments? it would make me this happy!

[Erik Rutins]

Ow, my eyes.

There will be a few additional changes and fixes for tomorrow's release, but here's what we have so far. Please note that the support for external designs is still in the works and planned for the next public beta, but the other design improvements are in this one.

These are changes from 1.7.0.7 Beta:

CRASH FIXES
- fixed rare crash when zooming into systems
- fixed rare crash in diplomacy
- fixed crash when take over colony with unowned troops
- fixed crash when building ships
- fixed crash when ships exit hyperspace
- fixed a number of rare crashes related to ships
- fixed crash when AI disbands excess troops
- fixed crash when an empire's last colony is wiped out through bombardment
- fixed crash when assigning ship mission

BUG FIXES
- fixed bug where game would sometimes lockup
- fixed rare situation where ships would sometimes not undock properly, preventing hyperjump from working
- fixed bug where setting a subjugated empire free sometimes did not remove visibility of all their ships
- fixed bug where AI empire in Mutual Defense Pact with you sometimes mistakenly cancels treaty
- fixed bug where moving to another ship that then hyperjumps would drag the other ship through hyperspace
- fixed bug where planets would sometimes become invisible

EMPIRE TERRITORY
- New Start Game options: empire territory colony influence size slider (defaults to current setting), maximum colonization range slider (this is off by default)

CHARACTERS
- increased maximum skill count for intelligence agents from 3 to 4
- increased chance of randomly generating new intelligence agents

FLEETS
- fleets no longer auto-refuel when ships under construction mistakenly triggering refueling
- fleet mission "Repair and Refuel" (from Action button) now correctly both repairs AND refuels all ships
- now ensure that automated fleets intercepting enemy forces wait at defend location until enemy attack force arrives

SHIPS AND PATROLLING
- rebalanced AI selection of patrol locations for automated military ships - now avoid too many ships patrolling same location
- improved patrol missions - automated ships now patrol for longer at a location
- military ships no longer keep engaging threats after manually ordered to do something else (manually-assigned missions now always override engagement stances)
- troop loading improved - all available troops at a colony will be loaded when a ship or fleet is ordered to pick up troops

FREIGHTERS
- ensured freighters carry minimum amount of resources for orders (thus less trips) - especially affects bases in deep space that need constant fuel replenishment
- added further fixes to ensure that freighters do not attempt to dock at incomplete space ports (i.e. no docking bays), but instead dock at colony of space port

DIPLOMACY
- fixed Protectorate display in Diplomacy screen (narrow end was wrong)
- AI empires now give diplomatic gifts only when other empire's evaluation drops below friendly threshold
- fixed AI empires sometimes canceling military refueling rights when have Mutual Defense Pact

DESIGNS SCREEN
- added extra filter to show only state ships, state bases, private ships or private bases
- default view is now 'Show non-obsolete designs' (was 'Show latest designs')
- state-owned designs can now be designated not to automatically retrofit (e.g. via advisor suggestion). This setting will flow through to any ships or bases built from the design, but can also be changed individually for each state-owned ship or base. These ships and bases will only retrofit when manually ordered to do so by the player. See top of Design Detail screen for this new setting. Also see Components tab in Ships and Bases screen to update this setting per ship. Also available in a column on the main Design List screen.
- added new button 'Manually Upgrade Design' that functions similarly to 'Copy As New', but also obsoletes the existing design to save time.
- added ability to turn design upgrading on or off for each subrole. Thus you can automate ship design for some ship types (e.g. private ships), while manually designing other types (e.g. military ships). See Empire Policy screen for settings (Research & Design section). Also available in a column on the main Design List screen.
- added extra buttons in Design Detail screen to allow adding and removing multiple components from a design at a time

COLONY BOMBARDMENT
- increased reputation hit from bombarding colonies
- fixed bug where bombarded colonies that were totally wiped out were becoming 'lost colonies' that could be acquired
- rebalanced bombardment so that colony damage occurs at a slower rate

OTHER
- now properly revert zoom level when load saved games
- fixed mixed up setting for Empire Policy setting "Prompt for Retrofit when new tech becomes available" - now properly allows auto-retrofitting regardless of this setting
- ensured that invalid advisor suggestions in diplomatic message panel are removed, e.g. treaties no longer valid, bases already built, etc
- accelerated ROTS storyline progression when have expensive research settings
- fixed missing text for title of message when civil war or revolution in another empire
- increased size of popup message panel so that message text not cut off
- fixed bug where Ardilus creatures were sometimes not visible
- space ports built from advisor suggestions are now located over colony instead of further away
- AI empires now more likely to use Trade Sanctions against other empires
- further improved freighter availability by reducing empire willingness to do freight missions for other empires
- slightly altered how retrofitting works - private ships are always retrofitted if new designs are available, whereas retrofitting for state ships is prompted by your advisors (if Empire Policy setting 'Prompt for Retrofit when new tech becomes available' is enabled). Retrofitting is no longer controlled by the Ship Design automation setting

Regards,

- Erik

[ASHBERY76]

Wow the gay picture worked well.

EMPIRE TERRITORY
- New Start Game options: empire territory colony influence size slider (defaults to current setting), maximum colonization range slider (this is off by default)

Bravo
I am also glad bombarded has been fixed and balanced.

I know what I am playing this weekend.

[adecoy95]

huzzah! civilian ships retrofitting!

[Falokis]

Man, lots of good stuff in there. My favorites....

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

- fixed a number of rare crashes related to ships
- fixed crash when AI disbands excess troops
- fixed crash when an empire's last colony is wiped out through bombardment
- fixed crash when assigning ship mission

EMPIRE TERRITORY
- New Start Game options: empire territory colony influence size slider (defaults to current setting), maximum colonization range slider (this is off by default)


- fleet mission "Repair and Refuel" (from Action button) now correctly both repairs AND refuels all ships
- now ensure that automated fleets intercepting enemy forces wait at defend location until enemy attack force arrives

- troop loading improved - all available troops at a colony will be loaded when a ship or fleet is ordered to pick up troops

FREIGHTERS
- ensured freighters carry minimum amount of resources for orders (thus less trips) - especially affects bases in deep space that need constant fuel replenishment
- added further fixes to ensure that freighters do not attempt to dock at incomplete space ports (i.e. no docking bays), but instead dock at colony of space port

DIPLOMACY
- fixed Protectorate display in Diplomacy screen (narrow end was wrong)
- AI empires now give diplomatic gifts only when other empire's evaluation drops below friendly threshold
- fixed AI empires sometimes canceling military refueling rights when have Mutual Defense Pact

DESIGNS SCREEN
- added extra filter to show only state ships, state bases, private ships or private bases
- default view is now 'Show non-obsolete designs' (was 'Show latest designs')
- state-owned designs can now be designated not to automatically retrofit (e.g. via advisor suggestion). This setting will flow through to any ships or bases built from the design, but can also be changed individually for each state-owned ship or base. These ships and bases will only retrofit when manually ordered to do so by the player. See top of Design Detail screen for this new setting. Also see Components tab in Ships and Bases screen to update this setting per ship. Also available in a column on the main Design List screen.
- added new button 'Manually Upgrade Design' that functions similarly to 'Copy As New', but also obsoletes the existing design to save time.
- added ability to turn design upgrading on or off for each subrole. Thus you can automate ship design for some ship types (e.g. private ships), while manually designing other types (e.g. military ships). See Empire Policy screen for settings (Research & Design section). Also available in a column on the main Design List screen.
- added extra buttons in Design Detail screen to allow adding and removing multiple components from a design at a time

COLONY BOMBARDMENT
- increased reputation hit from bombarding colonies
- fixed bug where bombarded colonies that were totally wiped out were becoming 'lost colonies' that could be acquired
- rebalanced bombardment so that colony damage occurs at a slower rate

[Igard]

Yip, all looks good. The new colonise range slider should be interesting.

Thanks team.[:)]

[Kadrush]

Are the AI designs improvements coming with this patch?

[MartialDoctor]

Looks like you all put a good amount of work and made some nice changes.  Big for that!

But, to be honest, the only thing I really wanted for this patch was 3 or 4 more AI difficulty levels... [:(]  I await the day when I can put the AI on a similar start as myself and have a fun, challenging game.

[nickwwest]

Can't wait to give it a go, thanks for the fixes!

As an aside, any chance you've made some of the menu and screen rendering faster? I still haven't been able to finish a game as it eventually gets so slow: http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=2979297

[Kayoz]

ORIGINAL: nickwwest

Can't wait to give it a go, thanks for the fixes!

As an aside, any chance you've made some of the menu and screen rendering faster? I still haven't been able to finish a game as it eventually gets so slow: http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=2979297

Why not? After all, it would be just one line of code, right?