DW Shadows Public Beta 1.9.0.12

[Andrew Loveridge]

Hello All,

We have a new version of DW Shadows available in the Members Club. It has a numbers of fixes and improvements.

Version 1.9.0.12 – December 9th. 2013
Change History:

CRASH FIXES[/b] [ul]
• Reduced chance of thread abort exceptions occurring
• Fixed rare crash with freighters
• Fixed crash when lock computer (Ctrl-Alt-Del) while playing DW (graphics device lost)

BUG FIXES

• Fixed bug where some failed intercepted intelligence missions were not counting towards victory conditions
• Fixed bug where characters were not being properly transferred to troop transports from Troops tab of Colonies screen
• Fixed bug where pirate facilities would sometimes not be removed from colonies when pirate faction wiped out
• Fixed bug where hyperdeny components not being used on bases defending against attack
• Fixed bug where captured and gifted ships would sometimes be attacked when not an enemy
• Fixed bug where invading troops disappear when planet bombarded to extinction
• Fixed bug where defending troops dropped at rebelling colonies would sometimes join invaders if they were victorious (i.e. rebels or invaders conquered colony)
• Fixed bug where troop generals participating in successful clearance attacks against pirate facilities at your colonies would get event history message indicating that the battle was lost, when it was actually won
• Fixed bug where displayed cashflow was not including facility maintenance
• Fixed bug where freighters would sometimes attempt to dock at mining stations that did not yet have docking bays

RESOURCES AND FREIGHTERS

• Improved freighter resource transport network, especially for construction resource shortages
• Added option to disable construction resource shortage messages
• The random allotment of startup luxury resources at your colonies now exclude super-luxury resources (Loros Fruit, Zentabia Fluid, Korabbian Spice) (alleviates cashflow swings when these run out)

TROOPS AND INVASIONS

• Fixed problems where troops were sometimes being recruited incorrectly (e.g. clone troops)
• Improved garrison levels of troops at colonies, especially when empire is in low- or negative-cashflow situations
• Colony populations now defend better against invasions - their defend strength has been doubled

FLEETS AND SHIPS

• Improved fleet response to enemy threats in other systems (i.e. non-automated fleets follow their posture settings to engage enemies in other systems)
• Fleets in battle now tolerate lower fuel levels (i.e will wait longer before refuelling)
• Ensure that automated fleets load troops when space available
• Changed ship behavior so that if already hyperjumping away (for whatever reason) then they will not reassign an Escape mission (i.e. they are already 'escaping')
• Further improved boarding and capture so that ships and fighters no longer fire at a target once you already have overwhelming boarding parties onboard the target
• Exploration ships now check for uninvestigated ruins or galaxy locations once they have explored the entire galaxy

DIFFICULTY LEVELS

• Game difficulty has been increased on higher levels in the following ways:
• More defending troops at colonies, especially larger colonies
• Buying tech from other empires is more expensive for the player
• Selling tech to other empires is less lucrative for the player
• Relationship thresholds for buying tech from other empires is higher for player (i.e. other empire has to like you more)
• Non-player empires build more exploration and construction ships when they are able
• Overall difficulty factors have been increased (i.e. each difficulty setting above normal is now harder)

RESEARCH AND SHIP DESIGN

• Ship Design editor now warns when Resort Base designs are missing passenger components or are too big to build
• AI-designed spaceports and defensive bases now properly use area weapons when specified in design templates
• Lessened chance of critical research success or failure for larger/longer research projects

GAME PERFORMANCE AND DISPLAY

• Improved game performance, especially in late-game with large galaxies
• Improved rendering performance, especially when zoomed out to sector- or galaxy-level
• Improved appearance of stars in mainview

OTHER

• Pirates now more careful about honoring protection arrangements
• Improved willingness of passenger ships to perform tourism missions
• Retrofit button in Ships and Bases screen now enabled for bases not at colonies

[/ul]

[Larsenex]

WoW, great stuff in there!

[OzoneGrif_slith]

Amazing patch, thank you !

Something strange happened just after my first construction ship was build, the Fully automated AI decided to cancel it's protection agreement with the pirates. Without defences ? The pirates started to shot my construction ship and the starport. Obviously I had to remove the auto-diplomacy.

It was gameover from here because, the pirates being angry at me, I couldn't afford their new protection deal.

[tombo]

[:D]
thanks much
cheers

[solops]

Nice fixes, but my AV (Zone Alarm Extreme Security) program says the patch has a virus in it.

HEUR:Trojan.Win32.Generic

It claims it was high risk (?) and that it was treated. That has never happened before with a patch.

[Erik Rutins]

That's a false positive, the update is virus free.

[ricanuck]

Notice the symbol HEUR before the description of the "virus"...

HEUR --> Heuristics, a.k.a. a probabilistic method to find patterns of behaviour. Your AV found one of those, and is programmed to report it as suspicious, but in reality did not find anything specific. Many times the code is just too sensitive and picks much more than it should.

ORIGINAL: solops

Nice fixes, but my AV (Zone Alarm Extreme Security) program says the patch has a virus in it.

HEUR:Trojan.Win32.Generic

It claims it was high risk (?) and that it was treated. That has never happened before with a patch.

[solops]

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

That's a false positive, the update is virus free.

I rather thought as much, but it would have been irresponsible not to report it.

[Icemania]

Really looking forward to this patch.

Does the Members Club add any value beyond Beta? Yes I've read the Members Club description but what happens in reality specific to Distant Worlds?

[Lecivius]

Can this be played over an existing game, or is a new one required? I suspect the later, but it never hurts to ask.

[Andrew Loveridge]

Should be able to continue after updating, but not all changes may be in effect.

[sventhebold]

Now what. The PC says it cannot access the file
Fixed
My anti virus was blocking it.
Even after shutting off the Anti virus it still keeps coming up and saying there is a problem.
Annoying.

[hewwo]

Some good fixes! I hope the fleet behaviour is a bit more like I want it to be now

Too bad there's no revision of the resupply ship mechanics. But I'm still hopeful it gets looked at... eventually!

[HectorOfTroy]

ORIGINAL: sventhebold

Now what. The PC says it cannot access the file

Did you apply the update and you can't access your save game now?

[PsyKoSnake]

To instal the update and to play the game, I need to restore the file Quarantine by Kaspersky. Close Kaspersky, and remove my internet conection to avoid getting a real virus on the net.

When I stop playing, and acitvate Kaspersky, the Distant world.exe is then Quarantined, until I need to restore it and play the game again.

It's really anoying.

But thanks for the update.

PS: I really hope it's not a virus.

[Algon]

There should be a way to tell your antivirus program to ignore that file. I'm not familiar with Kaspersky, so I can't tell you where to find it, but it shouldn't be too hard to find if you open up the antivirus main console. If all else fails, or you're not feeling adventurous, read whatever instructions you have for it! [:D]

[PsyKoSnake]

ORIGINAL: Algon

There should be a way to tell your antivirus program to ignore that file. I'm not familiar with Kaspersky, so I can't tell you where to find it, but it shouldn't be too hard to find if you open up the antivirus main console. If all else fails, or you're not feeling adventurous, read whatever instructions you have for it! [:D]

I manage to find how to make an exclusion in Kaspersky. Thanks. It will save a lot of trouble

[Elrohir525]

I've noticed in my current game with the beta patch that hyperdeny components onboard my ships never activate.

Edit: Hyperdeny on bases seems to work very well.

[drmario89]

ORIGINAL: Elrohir525

I've noticed in my current game with the beta patch that hyperdeny components onboard my ships never activate. I haven't seen whether hyperdeny on a base works or not.

I've noticed this too. I've also noticed that I sometimes tell myself to remove my military ships from my own systems. There's really no downside to it, besides it being ridiculous.

[ASHBERY76]

ORIGINAL: Elrohir525

I've noticed in my current game with the beta patch that hyperdeny components onboard my ships never activate.

Edit: Hyperdeny on bases seems to work very well.

Are you sure you have enough power.