Beta Patch 1.05l

[PhilThib]

All improvements since 1.05i as anounced by Stakhanovist Calvinus


Link to Patch 1.05l
http://ageoddl.telechargement.fr/3rdParty/WW1/Patches/WW1_Patch_v1.0.5l.exe

Link to Demo Patch 1.05l
http://ageoddl.telechargement.fr/3rdParty/WW1/Patches/WW1_DemoPatch_v1.0.5l.exe

Enjoy

[calvinus]

Herewith the news:

[Version 1.0.5l]
************

New Features:
- Added Spanish language localization
- Added two new shortcut keys: F9 (pause/unpause AI) and F11 (do screenshot)
- Commander-in-chief values are now displayed on the leader card
- Game updated to version 1.1.3c of irrKlang sound library
- Introduced the prohibition of battle reinforcements for army-numbered corps in reserve
- Added a new shortcut key (CTRL+R) that allows to display all actual rail connections on the map
- Added a new shortcut key (CTRL+S) that allows to display all supply lines for the selected stack
- Added a new shortcut key (M) that centers the map over the first unsatisfied mandatory attack
- Added a new shortcut key (A) that centers the map over the first not-activated army (army-by-army activation mode only)
- The new combat doctrines adoption tests are now performed also at the beginning of the Grand Offensive
- Added new features for naval IA: patrolling/control of important open sea zones threatened by the enemy and refuge to harbors for repairings
- Added the automatic naval repairings in port during the Interphases

Improvements:
- Added several memory leak checks in most critical points in order to make the game more stable and secure for those unlucky PC configurations that are still suffering randomic crashes
- In 4-players mode the allied AI player does not perform diplomatic missions anymore
- Added a procedure that performs all corrections in border reciprocity among map areas (see Persian Gulf / Red Sea bug)
- Mutinies can now span their effect only on Infantry/Cavalry corps
- Improved the performance of AI for evaluating the play of events (huge mouse lags occurred in advanced play mode when the "hand" of AI events was quite large)
- The message of successful/unsuccessful diplomatic missions has been enriched because it was a bit confusing
- Removed a nasty loop in delay siege action performed by AI
- Technological Researchs window: available technologies are now displayed not grayed out
- Added a check that should avoid the play of not-mandatory events (stratagems) done by the AI against herself
- Removed a cheat that allowed the teleporting of independent detachments during the Military phase with the drag & drop using the right mouse key
- The historical event "Goeben battlecruiser takes refuge in Pola" has now more chances to happen
- Added difficulty checks for most mandatory events
- The max number of losses that can be inflicted to armies due to a mutiny can be now customized (row MME in GameRules.CSV DB)
- The description of French Plan XX has been corrected
- Political actions can be planned now also during the Politics phase
- Battle window: general's values are now displayed also for Commander-in-chief leaders, when used as army generals
- Introduced max number of technological researchs per nation;
- Introduced check on entry year for technological researchs.
- The scrolling offset of the Reiforcements shortcut HQs box is no more resetted when a reinforcement is placed
- Supply rules corrected (HQs may be considered as a supply relay only if supplied)
- Naval movements cannot be anymore performed from land area to another land area, so avoiding the weird moves "inside" Africa
- Added dark caption background rectagle to the combat result texts
- Nationality of strikes and rebellions is now always the same of the owner controlling the target areas
- The political action "Restore Order" now suppress also unrests of other nationality, provided they are located inside the acting nation
- Added memory optimization for background music playback
- Sound engine improved in order to avoid memory leaks and out of memory
- Introduced a customizable armonization in battle reinforcemets rule (Fire-Power doctrine) between the Western and the Eastern Front
- The messages for notification of a successful/failed combat doctrine adoption test is now more visible
- The rule for placement of reinforcement in major cities is now ignored in Africa
- Grand Offensive NW checks improved for the cases when the enemy escapes the battle and the area is conquered without combats
- Added some more randmness in commitment of artillery units during major battles
- Removed cheat in major land battles that allowed to move one commitment from one flank to the other
- Message notifications concerning air and naval missions are now displayed on a popup window in addition to the Game Log
- Lines in Statistics window are now drawn bold
- Removed redundant operations that made sometimes the Events and Political AI very slow

(*) Scenario changes:
- Corrected all rail connections
- Corrected several spelling errors in map area names for German language
- Corrected several spelling errors in fleets names for German language
- Corrected several spelling errors in leader names for German language
- Corrected several spelling errors in unit names for German language
- Added some corrections to the English and French marine troops redeployment events
- Introduced a downgrade of attack/defence/morale values for BEF special units (upon II British army entry)
- Corrected the picture of the "Reshuffle" event
- Added condition to the event "Mustapha Kemal is appointed army leader": Turkey must be at war
- Corrected the entry turns for most Austrian events
- Corrected the die roll modifiers for events "Portugal enters the War" and "Japan enters the War": Great Britain must be at war, not simple pro-Entente
- Added a further condition for the event "Torpedoing of Lusitania": Great Britain must be at war
- Corrected the die roll modifier for the event "Torpedoing of Lusitania": +3 instead of -3 if Germany has adopted the political action "Unrestricted Submatine Warfare"
- Corrected the effects of the event "Torpedoing of Lusitania": now it's a gain of US diplomatic level for the Entente, not more a loss
- Corrected the entry turns for most Austrian events
- "Nationalist Agitations" events in Great Britain and France have now a bit less chances to happen
- Added condition for the "Irish Uprising quelled" event: "Spring in Dublin" event has to be occurred
- Added condition for the "American-Mexican War" event: USA must be neutral
- "Rasputin assassinated" event has now difficulty 4
- Terrain of Vittorio Veneto and Belluno areas is now Hills
- Terrain of Caporetto area is now Plains

Fixed bugs:
- Siege buttons sometimes were disappearing (4-players mode)
- Finally fixed the naval transport and supply bug for the areas bordering the Persian Gulf and Red Sea (see Improvements)
- Fixed a bug that made the drag & drop not working in some occurrences
- The bug of wandering interface elements has been eradicated
- Sieges and battles of just capitulated nations were causing a game hang
- Fixed bug in checks for technology shared and public status transitions
- Trenches level was increased also upon the 2nd or later usages of trench technos
- Fixed a graphic bug in battles window that prevented the scrolling on the right of units on the Rear of naval & air battles, and sieges
- Some multiplayer bugs fixed (crash upon load end on client, synchro of die rolls upon turn startup)
- Justly planned diplomatic moves can now be undone
- Fixed a rare bug in diplomatic missions: only one mission over two were performed in some circunstances
- Fixed a bug in Munitions speding during battles: MUN points were spent during the first three combat rounds when a fortress is present, not during the fourth and following rounds, as designed
- Fixed rare crash in Grand Offensives planning window
- Fixed a very rare crash in save procedure (land battles, only for advanced game more)
- Land battle result determination improved: the cause of the weird results now eliminated
- Fixed bug in diplomatic missions: AI was so quick that was able to schedule two missions per turn
- Fixed an extremely rare hang on siege screen (4-players mode only)
- Fixed a small bug in rail moves that prevented the generation of battles
- Fixed some small bugs in volume settings for sound effects and background musics
- Fixed a regression bug in 1.05i that made all air duels not occurring
- Fixed a crash on game quit caused by the Austrian event that makes Prague as third capital of the triple monarchy in Austria in case of successful reformation
- Fixed display error on refresh of Diplomats Management window
- Removed the flickering of "AI is working" black window when exiting the Statistics page
- Fixed siege hang occurring when the city has already fallen in friendly hands
- Fixed rare hang in battles occurring when the AI had practically no valid choice in tactical options
- Fixed bug in RP spending procedure (if all independent detachment RPs were spent before proceding to the GHQ/Army ones, any further spending became impossible)

(*) : old savegame are not affected, sorry.

Elements highlighted in bold refer to the 1.0.5l.

Important: we strongly need of your feedback about the new Sound Engine wrapper. Do you still suffer from crashes due to musics and sounds playback?

[Marquee]

Very fine effort calvinus! I will begin a new campaign game under this version and commence retesting.

[gbs]

I have been playing now with all sounds/music off. Do these changes mean that I can now play with sounds and music on without the annoying things occuring as before? Hope so.

[calvinus]

I have been playing now with all sounds/music off. Do these changes mean that I can now play with sounds and music on without the annoying things occuring as before? Hope so.

Yes, sure. This is the most urgent feedback I need of. Thanks, Calvinus.

[Nial]

No length of war fix? *sigh*

[dougbush93]

Great work on the patch and thanks to the whole team!

Doug

[Ian Coote]

Hi Phil,will we see the patch this month where us, with the lower end graphic cards will be able to see the whole seas area's?

[Marquee]

Music feedback:

I turned on the music and before long the game crashed during the "freeze" between selections. I had to ctl-alt-del to get out of the game. The volume control finally worked, but the game freeze between selections and the propensity to crash during said freeze makes this music system a complete failure, in my opinion.

Calvinus, I have never had any PC game that experiences freezes between music selections. I'm talking about budget wargames and all other games as well. This is the only one. Even HPS's "bare bones" products have music that plays without freezing up the game between selections. Perhaps you can see what method they use because it gives no issues when playing and it can't be very expensive.

The current music system just isn't working even if the game doesn't crash; you absolutely cannot tolerate game freezes between selections for a viable retail product. Maybe the proprietor of the music player can work to correct it, but this is not viable as is. Sorry to be blunt but it has to be said if indeed we want the game to play music during play.

[PhilThib]

This is a long and cumbersome task. I am still working on it. It also means a heavier patch because we need to "add" new regions to the game... but will be on schedule in February

[calvinus]

Music feedback:

I turned on the music and before long the game crashed during the "freeze" between selections. I had to ctl-alt-del to get out of the game. The volume control finally worked, but the game freeze between selections and the propensity to crash during said freeze makes this music system a complete failure, in my opinion.

Calvinus, I have never had any PC game that experiences freezes between music selections. I'm talking about budget wargames and all other games as well. This is the only one. Even HPS's "bare bones" products have music that plays without freezing up the game between selections. Perhaps you can see what method they use because it gives no issues when playing and it can't be very expensive.

The current music system just isn't working even if the game doesn't crash; you absolutely cannot tolerate game freezes between selections for a viable retail product. Maybe the proprietor of the music player can work to correct it, but this is not viable as is. Sorry to be blunt but it has to be said if indeed we want the game to play music during play.

For what concerns the short freezes between music playbacks, the developer of irrKlang answered that not much can be done. He will anyway work on that.

For the crash, I will forward to him again. My apologizes!

[calvinus]

Ok, worked with Nik (the developer of irrKlang) and got a version with no freeze upon music transition and more stability in multi-threading.

Volunteers for testing a WW1.exe update???

Send PM.

[Kaiser1918]

This is excellent news. Frankly, I have never understood why this game is the only game with this pause 'feature' out there.

Now, if you try to eliminate the lag when detaching units as well (this somehow takes sometimes several seconds), I am more than happy with the current version and I might finally start my campaign game...

[calvinus]

Now, if you try to eliminate the lag when detaching units as well (this somehow takes sometimes several seconds), I am more than happy with the current version and I might finally start my campaign game...

The lag when detaching units is caused by a recalculation of the map upon action execution. I can improve the performances, but a short pause will be needed anyway.

Edit: the main cause of the lag is the recalculation of the Fog of War informations... huge stuff... What I can do is to add some trick to force simply an update of FoW filters, rather than a reworking of the whole filters!

[Kaiser1918]

Edit: the main cause of the lag is the recalculation of the Fog of War informations... huge stuff... What I can do is to add some trick to force simply an update of FoW filters, rather than a reworking of the whole filters!

Understood. But we simply add new troops to the same field? Is it for AI reasons?

[calvinus]

Yes, I have to update the Fow filters: one for the local-human player, one for the AI player.

[tagwyn]

Luca: What did Phil call you?? t

[Marquee]

I just want to express my gratitude to calvinus for responding so well to the music issue in view of my post above. He got on it and fixed the freeze between music. This is small compared to the play of the game, but massive in the big picture of the quality of product. Kudos my friend.

[calvinus]

Many thanks to Marquee: his support has been of fundamental importance for finding the bugs!

[Cetacea]

After having played the game in a quite stable mode with 1.0.5.i, I uninstalled it this morning, did a clean reinstall with patch 1.0.5.l and then got annoyingly regular CTDs in the AI military phase. Find one error report after another crash, as well as the game file. Any suggestions as to the cause?

[calvinus]

The game is giving no crashes on my PC with your save. I suspect there's something wrong in some DLL used in the game, probably corrupted during the installation or not properly installed.

I attached here a zip with all DLLs used by WW1, to be unzipped and copied in the game directory. I hope this helps...

[Cetacea]

Thnx! I'll try and let you know what happened.

[Cetacea]

Unfortumaqtely, no effect of subsituting the old dll's with the new ones; no effect of a clean reinstall including 1.0.5l. Only by switching off both the music and the game sounds was I able to proceed past the military resolution phase. Must be a problem with the audio-part of the program. I guess this was what was reported more or less similarly in other treads.

By the way, when switching on the music again the game froze... had experienced this already in a previous patch.

[AndrewKurtz]

Unfortumaqtely, no effect of subsituting the old dll's with the new ones; no effect of a clean reinstall including 1.0.5l. Only by switching off both the music and the game sounds was I able to proceed past the military resolution phase. Must be a problem with the audio-part of the program. I guess this was what was reported more or less similarly in other treads.

By the way, when switching on the music again the game froze... had experienced this already in a previous patch.

And based on the comments above, it looks like the sound/music issue should be fixed in the next patch.

But until then, it seems obvious that the first thing anyone should do i they experience a lockup with the current patch and earlier is to make sure they have sound/music turned off.

[calvinus]

The "pure virtual function call" is a typical bug in a lot of applications, related to memory release... So I guess there's something not working in the audio codecs or audio engine. Does it happen when a music or sound stops playing?? (This should be the moment when the game releases the RAM used for the music/sound).

If so, I will report this issue to the developer of irrKlang.

Anyway, some of you are already reporting good results with the WW1.exe trial I produced in the last days, where I have refactore a lot of parts of the Sound Wrapper. The only one who is still suffering crashes is Bern, who feels however the cause is the outdated version of his audio-codecs' drivers.

[Cetacea]

I switched off the music and the sound effects and had no problems at all continuing the campaign. Then I swithched both on during events, diplomacy and initial military phase, to be turned off again for the AI/resolution part of the military phase - and on again in the next turn. That works. http://www.ageod-forum.com/images/smilies/thumbsup.png
And then I quit the game being accompanied by glorious martial music - and it FROZE AGAIN... http://www.ageod-forum.com/images/smilies/wacko.gif
Never encountered so much problems with sound effects in any game before!calvinus, why the hell did you choose this Irrklang thing.
BTW: do you realize what 'irre Klang' means in German?

[calvinus]

Dear Cetacea, the developer of irrKlang is giving me really a big support. So I deseve him the max respect!
Consider also that some problems could be my errors too. Coding is a though job.

What does mean "irre klange"???

[Cetacea]

BTW: I'm not whining. The game comes out glorious! It has this wonderful feel of WW1, a feeling of joy and excitement that people must have felt all over Europe in the heydays of that beautiful Indian summer of 1914, prior to the carnage that was about to be.
The colours of the game, the graphics, the music (ahhh, this music thing...), the sounds, the photographs: addicting. It has this same flavour that 'Paths of Glory' -the boardgame, not the movie - makes such a wonderful exerience.
Come on Calvinus, some last efforts to wrap up the tech issues. Than we can really start discussing rules, strategy and tactics, and multiplayer games!

[calvinus]

Never encountered so much problems with sound effects in any game before!calvinus, why the hell did you choose this Irrklang thing.
BTW: do you realize what 'irre Klang' means in German?

We chose irrKlang because the full license costs "only" 490 Euros...
The other solution was to pay 6500 dollars for FMod!

[Cetacea]

Dear Cetacea, the developer of irrKlang is giving me really a big support. So I deseve him the max respect!
Consider also that some problems could be my errors too. Coding is a though job.

What does mean "irre klange"???

'Klang' means sound. 'Irre' (both as a noun and as an adjective) means 'stupid, mentally retarded, idiot' etc. This is not to be rude - only to state that in terms of marketing strategy - and in the context of the problems you encounter - this may not be the most appealing or appropriate name for a company.