EIA v1.26.01 Beta Hotfix #2 Available

[pzgndr]

Attached is the v1.26.01 beta for the next v1.26.xx official patch. This beta version should be applied over the installed EIA v1.25.03 Official Update game files. It includes all of the previous v1.25.03 HOTFIX files. You should be able to extract (copy&paste) the new EXE, \Data\database GED files, \Data\docs Release Notes, and \Data\programtext files from the zip file directly into your v1.25.03 install.

Release notes so far, including the recent EIA v1.25.03 Official Update HOTFIX:

Empires in Arms the Napoleonic Wars - 1.26.01
=============================================
- Text overlap for unit stack display sometimes unreadable – resolved.
- Political Standings Screen shows Normal instead of Neutral – resolved (also changed Neutral zone color from Gray to White).
- Victory Conditions Screen showing some units, leaders, and fleets available to be removed that are not in play – resolved.
- Political Restrictions on Peace implements rule that France and Great Britain may never make an informal peace and may never be allies if the Great Britain and France Start At War game option is selected – resolved (see revised rule 6.4.3).
- Royal Marriages not broken upon declaration of war – resolved.
- Added Create Kingdom function to game editor – resolved.
- AI naval combat not taking losses or recording at-start forces in the game log – resolved.
- Added new data files and setup files for the 1813 Grand Campaign and made applicable code changes - resolved.
- AI improvements for Prussia saving manpower and Great Britain loaning money to support wars against France – resolved.
- AI land combat not taking pursuit losses – resolved.
- Reported bug with Turkey Ottoman nations falling to Austria in Fiasco zone – resolved.
- Updated data files and some setup files for the 1812 Grand Campaign and made some applicable code changes – resolved.
- Prussia unused manpower not being saved correctly or shown on nation status – resolved.

Empires in Arms the Napoleonic Wars - 1.26.00
=============================================
- Updated ai_ai_select_casualties and ai_ai_select_pursuit_casualties consistent with fixes made in v1.25.03 Hotfix – resolved.
- 0000774: [Rules Deviation] Garrisoned depots are not blocking enemy supply lines – resolved.
- Added new AI National Objectives functions – resolved.
- Adjusted AI naval builds for Spain, Turkey, and Russia vs Great Britain – resolved.
- Winter Land Movement optional rule not implemented correctly – resolved (see revised rule 13.1.3).
- Updated game options test in game manual and mouse-over messages - resolved (\Data\databases .ged files updated).
- Adjusted AI supporting land battles – resolved.
- find_path bug for missing path type when checking if the adjacent area is adjacent to the target area – resolved.
- find_path improvement for AI to bypass combats and non-access areas enroute to target area – resolved.
- AI-AI combats and human defender versus AI trivial combat attacker not seeing correct losses in game log – resolved.

Empires in Arms the Napoleonic Wars - 1.25.03 Hotfix (10/9/2023)
================================================================
- area_determine_owner bug - resolved.
- area_nation_exerting_control bug - resolved.
- minor country not being conquered by one month's unbesieged occupation of its capital - resolved.
- surrender conditions display glitch - resolved.
- 0000530: [Game Enhancement] Computer not choosing the optimal path when moving multiple areas – resolved.
- Controlling Major Powers issues - resolved (now, AI Major Powers with forces in range of a minor declared war on or close to Instability are excluded from selection).
- some AI garrisons not taking assault losses - resolved.
- game freeze due to insufficient pursuit losses - resolved.
- outnumbered AI garrisons keep attacking larger besieging forces - resolved (recently added feature deleted).
- combat freeze when some human garrisons take final assault losses - resolved (but combat summary does not capture final round losses).
- Accept Control checkboxes in Diplomatic Reactions screen clearing selections - resolved.
- game messages for Attacker to click DONE to resolve siege inappropriate for AI attacker - resolved (\Data\programtext files updated).
- AI not taking correct losses in some battles – resolved.
- human defender versus AI besieger not seeing final forces eliminated for taking losses and not seeing correct losses in game log – resolved.

Besides a few bug fixes and game enhancements, the major new addition with this version is the 1813-1815 Grand Campaign. Based on this, I made a few adjustments to the 1812-1815 Grand Campaign too. A lot of playtesting went into all of this to ensure everything works ok. At least most everything. I'm sure I've missed a thing or two, so I'll be standing by for the next week or so to work on a hotfix as needed before I move on to v1.26.02 and some AI grand strategy work.

A change I made to the 1812 campaign based on 1813 was to update AI Spain's surrender calculations, so now Spain hangs in there even with France controlling Madrid. The AI surrender calculations also help Prussia avoid any pre-mature surrender in 1813. AI Great Britain is better at loaning money to its allies at war with France. And by far, a lot of AI adjustments were made to improve attacks, retreats, redeployments and much more. Please try the new 1813 campaign and share your thoughts. And as always, I'm looking for any other feedback to resolve issues and make improvements. Enjoy!

2/2/2024 UPDATE. Hotfix #1 posted.
2/15/2024 UPDATE. Hotfix #2 posted.
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EiANW 12601 Beta[2].zip

(3.83 MiB) Downloaded 253 times

[pzgndr]

As a separate attachment, here are game manual excepts for section 5.0 for setups of the campaigns and the section on National Objectives. I'll note here that I've found the setup requirements for 1812 and 1812 to be impossible based on the OOB counters. I'm curious how the boardgamers handled the discrepancies. I've provided some default setups. It would be nice if players could post some of their own alternative setups.
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EiANW 12601 Manual Updates.zip

(7.62 MiB) Downloaded 251 times

[lucliu]

Good job, Bill.

[pzgndr]

Good job, Bill.

Thank you. Past few weeks have been more stressful than usual chasing down issues and resolving things to my satisfaction. Things I thought worked pretty well for 1805 and 1812 didn't work too well for 1813. So that's a plus that I implemented the 1813 campaign and went back and forth to 1805 and 1812 to verify changes worked ok.

I often felt like I was in a Columbo episode, with the code telling me "Just one more thing..."

columbo.jpg (58.69 KiB) Viewed 1371 times

[roos]

Access violation when resolving siege:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/STh7TvqyLmiD3QRX9

[roos]

Computer still not taking naval losses. This is AI fighting AI.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/qGuvoL5KLJ4dUMuw7

Battle occurs if the siege in La Rochelle is won by Denmark in this save.

Save.zip

(199.25 KiB) Downloaded 242 times

[pzgndr]

Access violation when resolving siege...
Computer still not taking naval losses. This is AI fighting AI.

I'll take a look. A save for the access violation would be nice. I'll see what I can do without one. Thanks.

[roos]

Access violation when resolving siege...
Computer still not taking naval losses. This is AI fighting AI.

I'll take a look. A save for the access violation would be nice. I'll see what I can do without one. Thanks.

Sorry, i botched that save somehow.

[roos]

Also computer doesnt take persuit losses. Im getting a feeling you didnt get all the fixes for 1.25 in 1.26.

[pzgndr]

Also computer doesnt take persuit losses. Im getting a feeling you didnt get all the fixes for 1.25 in 1.26.

Is this AI attacker or AI defender or AI-AI pursuit? It helps me to have a game save or more specific information.

I think I resolved the AI naval losses but I need to playtest to verify other AI losses are ok. I got an access violation on your Paris battle pursuit but I can't track down the cause. It isn't a game stopper; I was able to play through it. Were you able to play through the access violation you got with the siege of Amsterdam?

[roos]

AI was defender. Ill try to recover a save tomorrow.

[pzgndr]

FYI, I have another Access Violation test case that I have been investigating most all week. Something in the combat functions and how AI takes casualties is messed up and I cannot find it. I keep getting odd discrepancies and put workarounds in place, but something is not right. I'm frustrated. I cannot simply pause at Access Violations and see the line of code causing the problem; that would be easy.

My plan is to take a break now and look at this again next week, probably with a rollback to v1.26.00 combat functions and then slowly make updates and see where things stop working. The good news is that I think I'm on track to having the AI casualties fixed and I've also made some progress to getting the AI to reinforce battles, but only versus a human player and not AI-AI. We'll see.

[pzgndr]

I think the Access Violations and AI pursuit casualties were linked and I think I have resolved them. The headache with all this is how the AI tries to take cavalry casualties last, and there is a difference between the mandatory cavalry loss vs a regular loss vs a pursuit loss. So I've added some more logic to the routine to handle pursuit losses. I missed this piece back with 1.25 and it's caught up with us. Now I need to roll these changes back into the other beta updates, include them in the AI-AI casualty calculations, and playtest some more before releasing a hotfix later this week. Getting there...

[pzgndr]

Hotfix #1 is posted. As discussed above, most of this hotfix was to resolve the Access Violations and pursuit casualties issues. It seems better now and looked OK during my playtesting, but I cannot guarantee that I found and fixed the root cause for the latest Access Violations. We'll see.

Along the way I made a few minor adjustments to AI behaviors as I spotted weaknesses. I also dabbled some with new code to get the AI to reinforce battles, at least for battles against a human opponent. While I was able to get it to "assign" reinforcing units from adjacent areas, I could not figure out how to get the new units and their factors added to the battle screen. Some nuance of the code eludes me. For now, this new code is disabled. I may try again later with v1.26.02. I am not optimistic that if I do get this to work that I could get it to work with AI-AI battles. Morales and leader ratings need resetting upon reinforcement, and these are complicated.

As before, I'll be standing by for the next week or so to work on another hotfix if needed before I move on to v1.26.02 and some AI grand strategy work. Game saves with any bug reports are most appreciated. And of course any other feedback you may have. Thanks!

[pzgndr]

FYI, I will likely post a Hotfix #2 late this week or next week. Something that I noticed during my playtesting last week for Hotfix #1 was how economics were being handled for the AI. With good data for 1805, 1812, and 1813 setups, I did a deep-dive into how the AI was spending money doing builds. It's a bit like squeezing jello to find the right amounts to set aside for estimated supply costs and other miscellaneous costs. Then to find balance between land and sea builds. Then to find balance between unit types to build. Prussia during enforced peace with France should be saving manpower, and Great Britain should be reserving money for Prussian manpower. So I've been working on all that this week and playtesting. And during playtesting, I also noticed some DOW issues for the AI that I want to work on.

I'm not seeing any Access Violations or other issues besides the AI performance issues I mentioned above. If anyone gets a chance to play Hotfix #1 and sees any issues, please let me know and provide a game save. Otherwise, I will assume all is well and will continue to work on the Hotfix #2 issues that I've got.

[pzgndr]

I've had some good playtests over the past few days with 1805 into 1806. AI builds are working very nicely now. I wrestled with an issue with remainder money and manpower not rolling from one troop type to the next, but that's fixed and working. I watched AI Austria build some ships in Trieste and then moved its Lt Flt there to reinforce, and then place a new Lt Flt to add builds. Good to see that working.

I want to run another 1805 game and then playtest some more with 1812 and 1813 next week before releasing Hotfix #2. For those who downloaded Hotfix #1 and get a chance to play some, please provide some comments. I'm not seeing any bugs on my end, just AI performance issues. If anyone sees bugs, let me know and provide a game save.

Here are some of the little AI performance issues I've noted. Great Britain was trying to move a heavy fleet from near Brest to blockade Toulon but was stuck. I added code to force the fleet move to Gibraltar so it could then move to Toulon. Russia was trying to redeploy corps from Sweden to Russia in the winter with ice in the Baltic, preventing a move to Riga and losing the corps. So I added code to restrict such moves during winter. I'm looking for more reports of odd AI behaviors like that if you see any, or any ideas for AI improvements. Comments are welcome.

[JagWars]

the last four menu bars at the top left of the screen are missing. Plus the last four menu buttons that are present, return an incorrect table, example; the forces button returns victory condition table. I have attempted uninstalling existing,rebooting, installing original version, rebooting, installing update 1.25.03, rebooting, installing 1.26.01 hot fix (instructions from an earlier post relative to v1.22.xx).
Equipment:
Windows 11
Intel i7-13700
Nvidia rtx 3070 ti
RAM 32GB
Monitors: 21",24". 27",32", 48"
Corresponding resolutions 1024x768, 1280x124, 1920x1080, 2560x1440, 3840x2160

[JagWars]

I thought perhaps the newer equipment might to the issue, especially the graphics card (RTX 3070 ti is not all that new, but there are not a lot of them in use with this type of game), so I installed the updated version, 1.2503 & 1.26.01, on a slightly less powerful machine,
Windows 10
Intel i7-12700
RTX 1050 ti
1920x1080 monitor
without success.
For clarification, I have set the game to run in compatibility mode Win XP sp2.

[pzgndr]

the last four menu bars at the top left of the screen are missing. Plus the last four menu buttons that are present, return an incorrect table, example; the forces button returns victory condition table. I have attempted uninstalling existing,rebooting, installing original version, rebooting, installing update 1.25.03, rebooting, installing 1.26.01 hot fix (instructions from an earlier post relative to v1.22.xx).

I'm not sure what else to recommend other than installing and running as Admin. Perhaps also to reinstall in safe mode. Some others have had success doing that. You've got compatibility mode set to WinXP SP2 and I assume you have the fonts ok. You may need to contact Matrix tech support for assistance.

The buttons returning incorrect table is new to me. Maybe a Win11 issue, I don't know. I'm still using Win10 with 1920x1080 resolution. AFAIK, your graphics card should not be an issue. But there's definitely an install issue if you're not getting all of the menu buttons at the top.

[pzgndr]

Hotfix #2 posted above. Since I did not receive any reports of issues with Hotfix #1, this build is mostly about AI improvements.

I did add one issue to the release notes for Prussian unused manpower not being saved correctly. As I got deeper into getting AI Prussia to save manpower and AI Great Britain to reserve money for Prussia, I determined that I needed a separate account to set aside these numbers for later use. I needed to make this work for both human and AI players. And I needed to display saved manpower for Prussia on the nation status windows. This is all working pretty well now.

During my many playtests with 1805, I made quite a few AI adjustments. AI preparations for war and AI builds during economic phases consumed a lot of my time. Some of this I discussed above, other issues got resolved along the way as I noticed them. Playtests of 1812 and 1813 were pretty good, but I still tweaked on the place/remove depots code and how the code restricts reckless AI attacks beyond supply ranges. Most all of what I've seen over the past couple of days has been good. I think this build is finally ready for prime time. And I need a break.

BOTTOM LINE: Alright, I believe this v1.26.01 Beta Hotfix #2 is in fine shape now for some serious gaming. Please take it for a spin and give it a workout. I'd like to think most all game bugs are rare at this point, but send me a game save of any issues encountered. I'd also like to think that most all AI functions are working well, at least to the point where the computer opponent is not doing egregiously stupid stuff. If you see AI issues that I need to work on, please provide your ideas. Lastly, and this will be the focus for the next v1.26.02 Beta, I'll be using this build to work on grand strategies for the AI. If any issues come up with this build over the next week or so, I may get a Hotfix #3 out. But I'm ready to move forward. Enjoy.