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This week the v1.23.00 Beta was released for playtesting. This took longer than I wanted since the last official v1.22.02 update in April 2018, but I think it successfully resolves the 1812 scenarios and issues with loaned units. The 1812 scenarios are playable; however, I've noted two major issues with the loaned Austrian/Prussian corps and with the setup situation in Spain. I would greatly appreciate feedback on these two issues over the next couple of months before going final with another official update. Two major areas of effort that I wanted included in this next update were improvements to AI allied operations and enhancement of the surrender code to allow additional separate peace options. I will continue to work on these over the next couple of months, as well as a few other issues.

Since 2016 when I took on code development, progress has been steady. The old Mantis bug list had over 150 items, now up to about 174 with additional items added over the past couple of years. The v1.21.04 update in March 2017 resolved or closed out 39 items (22%), including significant AI enhancements and separate campaigns for classic Empires in Arms and alternate Empires in Harm. The v1.22.02 update in April 2018 resolved or closed out 48 items (27%), mostly bug fixes, AI improvements, game enhancements, and resolving PBEM issues. Several PBEM games were in progress, although not without occasional hiccups with an odd bug that swaps human players for AI at inopportune times, so there is still definitely interest in playing the game. This v1.23.00 beta resolves or closes out 38 items (22%), leaving about 49 items open. Most of these remaining items are either not reproducible and need to be closed, or fall into the "too hard" box and not likely to ever get resolved (e.g., Mantis #91 to add TCP/IP play).

So. If I can knock out the AI improvements and surrender code, plus maybe a dozen other items and make some acceptable compromise adjustments to the 1812 scenarios, that would be the ideal goal for the next official update. Please try the v1.23.00 Beta (players can make a separate install and still maintain v1.22.02) and provide feedback. Thanks. Enjoy!

A quick update. On 3/29/20, we released v1.23.05 Beta to resolve many of the growing pains with this Beta release. On 4/18/20, we had to release a Hotfix to resolve a couple of lingering issues. Within a day, I already had a bug report for a siege battle not working correctly with loaned corps involved plus another instance of the pbem game swapping a player with AI. I resolved those issues and we're playtesting another Hotfix. I will post that soon if all goes well.

Moving forward, there are still a number of issues I would like to tackle for v1.23.06 Beta. In no particular order:
1. Verify autoforage and besieged forage issues.
2. Pursuit after trivial combats.
3. Retreats toward nearest depot, otherwise toward capital.
4. Several AI enhancements per Mantis items 822, 823, 825, and 826.
5. If I can, I will also look at trade listings (Mantis 247) and combat modifiers info (Mantis 74 and 506).

And, of course, any more reported issues with the Hotfix. Most important is to get some good player feedback on the 1812 scenario setups. With gameplay issues mostly resolved (hopefully), we should be able to have some decent 1812 game play and comments about the opening moves. The intent is to get to an official v1.23.xx update patch with scenario data and setup saves squared away. After v1.23.xx, future updates could just be an EXE file and I could post those without an installer package. Anyways, those are my thoughts at this point.

Another update is in order. Yesterday 8/19/20 we released v1.23.06 Beta. More bugs are fixed and other improvements made. The game is much more stable now with various movement, combat, and supply issues resolved. Mostly, issues regarding minors, loaned corps, and kingdom units caused the most headaches with this version. We're keeping an eye out for any more reported problems with pbem players being inadvertently switched to AI and any other problems with kingdom units.

Looking ahead, my #1 concern is the 1812 scenario. Player feedback on the setups for France, Great Britain, Russia, and Spain would be helpful, as well as any alternate setups players may wish to provide me for inclusion in the final official comprehensive patch. Since scenario information and data files are involved, these need to be finalized. The idea being that future updates could be as easy as EXE patches without needing Matrix installer packages, as I mentioned previously.

The new AI strategic advances and retreats are working well. But these are only local functions. When I was messing around with updating allocating additional AI units to battles, to consider special units (Guard, Artillery) first, I initially had Napoleon in Poland "advancing" westward. Hmmm? I tracked this down to trying to support a battle in Leon, Spain, against the British. I failed to include a range check, for the units to be in range of the battle to be assigned. But... this introduces an opportunity now for a more grand strategic redeployment function, to move units forward to the front when at war or retreat back to home capital if necessary; otherwise, units can stay in place. This has potential for allies to move forward, such as Russia towards Austria in 1805, etc. Anyways, I am full of new ideas now and will try to implement some more AI enhancements into v1.23.07.

As mentioned last month, I've been working on strategic redeployment functions and finally getting things to work. I set up a test case in January 1805 with France at war with Austria and Russia, with Austria allied with and granting access to Russia. Screenshot shows Russian cavalry advancing from Grodno towards Vienna and II Corps advancing from Caucasus; VI and VII Corps from St. Petersburg are also advancing. I still have a couple of fine-tuning items to work on.

The latest beta v1.23.06 appears to be stable with no pbem bug reports in past couple of weeks. This is a good sign. I'm down to wrapping up this new AI redeployment feature and resolving a couple of AI issues for release. Then clean up documentation and submit files to Matrix for a public beta. If the bugs behave, we should go public beta in October and then official patch before the holidays.