-Changes to Empire 4.2.21 - Sat Jul 9 14:01:49 UTC 2005
+Changes to Empire 4.3.13 - Tue Apr 15 19:03:11 UTC 2008
+ * Work around strptime() lossage on some systems. Fixes the parsing
+ of the schedule file there.
+ * New selector maxnoc for xdump version.
+ * Fix initialization of realms in newcap. Broken in 4.3.12.
+ * Fix add for status arguments active, god, delete. Broken in
+ 4.3.12.
+ * Info file, manual page and documentation fixes.
+
+Changes to Empire 4.3.12 - Wed Apr 2 05:35:06 UTC 2008
+ * Fix rounding error in update that could result in more babies than
+ food permits, and negative food.
+ * Fix a bug that could lead to unfair thread scheduling under
+ Windows.
+ * Fix ship and land unit missile interdiction and ballistic missile
+ interception to require a proper base. Before, missiles could
+ launch from anywhere for that.
+ * Launch bug fixes:
+ - Don't allow launching from unowned sectors.
+ - Don't destroy missiles stuck on foreign ships.
+ - Use up the supplies required for launching an asat only when it
+ actually launches.
+ - Don't ignore satellites' fuel use.
+ * Deity command newcap now requires its second argument (sanctuary
+ coordinates). Before, it tried to pick a suitable location when
+ none was given. The code implementing this feature had problems,
+ and it's not worth fixing: it is obscure, and rarely (if ever)
+ used: no conscientious deity would use it for a real game, and for
+ blitzes fairland does a better job.
+ * Keep track of flying planes properly. This fixes a number of bugs:
+ - While the bomb command awaited pin-bombing target input from the
+ player, other players could interact with the pin-bombers and
+ escorts as if they were sitting in their bases: spy them, damage,
+ capture, load, unload, or upgrade them, even get intercepted by
+ them. But any changes to those planes were wiped out when they
+ landed. Abusable.
+ - The bomb command could bomb its own escorts, directly (pin-bomb
+ planes) or through collateral damage, strategic sector damage,
+ collapsing bridges or nuke damage. The damage to the escorts was
+ wiped out when they landed.
+ - If you asked for a plane to fly both in the primary mission and
+ escort, you got charged fuel for two sorties instead of one.
+ * Plug memory leaks in plane interception.
+ * Fix trade not to let the buyer teleport satellites (not in orbit)
+ and asats to an arbitrary sector. Abusable, because abms
+ intercepted from anywhere, and satellites could be launched from
+ unowned sectors.
+ * The PRNG seed is now logged in the journal.
+ * Fix nightly build for Windows.
+ * Fix crash bug that bit when custom tables contained columns names
+ that existed, but weren't supposed to be in the custom table.
+ * New timestamp selector for commodity, country, game, loan, nation,
+ news, realm, trade, treaty to support incremental xdump.
+ * Deity commands newcap and add wipe the nation more thoroughly. add
+ no longer touches relations and flags for status active and god.
+ * New utility program empdump to export and import game state as
+ plain text. Check its manual for details, including limitations.
+ * Plane, ship and land unit stats are no longer stored as game state,
+ but recomputed from tech and base stats as needed.
+ * xdump ver is no longer a special case. Syntax "xdump ver" is now
+ deprecated. Use "xdump version *".
+ * Fire and torpedo cleanup and bug hunt:
+ - Plug memory leak in fire command.
+ - Fix ammunition use when returning fire: resupply could lose
+ shells when returning fire to multiple targets, and land units
+ were charged per target instead of just once.
+ - torpedo and fire no longer resupply shells automatically. The
+ latter used to resupply land units only.
+ - Land units no longer have to be in supply to fire actively, for
+ consistency with other ways to fire.
+ - Submarines with zero mobility can no longer interdict, for
+ consistency with other ways to torpedo.
+ - Fix bugs that let submarines without capability torp use
+ torpedoes to return fire and interdict.
+ - Fix torpedo command not to require a line of sight for return
+ fire and depth charges, and to use torpedo range instead of
+ firing range for return torpedoes.
+ - Active fire and interdiction didn't work for ships with zero
+ firing range, even though return fire and support did. No such
+ ships exist in the stock game.
+ - Let land units with zero firing range and non-zero firing damage
+ fire, for consistency with ships. No such units exist in the
+ stock game.
+ - Ships required different numbers of military to operate their
+ guns for the various kinds of fire. Unify to require 2*N-1
+ military to fire N guns.
+ - Ship ammunition use differed for the various kinds of fire.
+ Unify to use one shell per two guns.
+ - Forts could fire support even when there were not enough mil.
+ - Fix automatic shell resupply in several places to supply exactly
+ the shells actually fired, no more, no less.
+ * Change depth charges back to how they are documented and worked
+ before 4.0.6, mostly: require no guns, one military, do damage like
+ shell fire from three guns (before 4.0.6: two guns), use two
+ shells. In 4.0.6's model, they worked exactly like shell fire
+ (require guns and gun crew, non-zero firing range, damage and
+ ammunition use scales with available guns), except for missions,
+ which was a bug. Note that depth charge damage for all ships is
+ now like fire from three guns for two shells. No change for dd; af
+ did two gun damage for one shell before, and nas did four gun
+ damage for two shells.
+ * The edit command keys deprecated in 4.3.3 are now gone.
+ * Fix build not to screw up automatic dependencies on certain compile
+ errors.
+ * Fix a bug that could prevent repeated news from properly
+ aggregating into one news item.
+ * Properly initialize all bits in game state files, even those that
+ aren't used.
+ * Fix explore's test for stopping on a splashed bridge. The bug made
+ explore print to a bogus message.
+ * Fix spelling of symbol airburst in table plane-flags. This could
+ affect clients.
+ * Change designate not to check total cost before executing the
+ redesignation. The code implementing that was buggy and too ugly
+ to live. Designate doesn't cost anything in the stock game.
+ * Always charge land units at least as much mobility for assaulting
+ from non-landing ships as from landing ships. Before, marines lost
+ all mobility when assaulting from a non-landing ship, which could
+ be less than what the same assault costs from a landing ship (half
+ an update's worth).
+ * Fix LWP's stack initialization for -s. It caused crashes on some
+ systems.
+ * Fix confused and buggy bridge splashing code:
+ - Flying planes could be reported drowned.
+ - Pin-bombing a bridge head failed to collapse bridge spans for
+ lack of support, unless the pin-bombing caused collateral damage.
+ - Corrupt sector file could lead to infinite recursion.
+ * Relative names now work for econfig keys data and info.
+ * Fix utility programs to abort on internal errors. They used to
+ print a message and attempt to recover.
+ * Fix off-by-one in fairland that ate the last expansion island.
+ * Switch from CVS to git.
+ * Code refactoring and cleanup.
+ * Portability fixes.
+ * Info file, manual page and documentation fixes and updates.
+
+Changes to Empire 4.3.11 - Tue Jan 1 18:57:38 UTC 2008
+ * New sector selector elev. It's set by fairland, but has no effect
+ on the game. It can be useful for deities to customize a world
+ created by fairland.
+ * The client now copes with ids greater than 15. The Empire
+ protocol currently uses 14 ids.
+ * Rewrite the client's code to read server output during login. The
+ old code could write one byte beyond the end of the buffer
+ (theoretically a remote hole), got confused by long lines, and
+ lines that didn't arrive in one piece.
+ * Long country name, password or user name crashed the client.
+ * Fix xdump not to deny access to game state tables when maximum
+ minutes per day are exceeded.
+ * The server considers a country bankrupt when its treasury is
+ negative. Except when it doesn't. Fix that:
+ - report misreported countries with $0 as broke.
+ - If a command spent a few cents more than you had, commands requiring
+ money became unavailable even when rounding brought you back to
+ $0. But logging out and back in then bankrupted you.
+ - If your treasury rose to exactly $0, commands requiring money
+ remained unavailable.
+ - If you had $0, sectors didn't build and sectors and ships didn't
+ produce at the update.
+ * Fix a bug in trade that made your money evaporate when a trade fell
+ through because you couldn't fully pay. This bug was there since
+ the introduction of the market in 4.0.0. It got aggravated by the
+ removal of forced loans in 4.3.0.
+ * Fix printing of the new group in army, fleet and wing. Broken in
+ 4.3.5.
+ * Fix flash not to screw up the message when the first argument
+ contains white-space.
+ * Don't let planes intercept when they are stuck in foreign bases, on
+ inefficient ships or land units, or on land units loaded on ships
+ or land units.
+ * Fix a bug that made interception require petrol to be present even
+ for planes that don't use fuel (SAMs). Broken in 4.3.3. Air
+ defense missions weren't affected.
+ * fairland and setsector now limit fertility to 100 instead of 120,
+ like the other resources.
+ * Generalize the autonav hack for fishing boats so it covers oil
+ derricks as well.
+ * Fix bug in path command that made it swallow every other step.
+ Broken in 4.2.22.
+ * The execute command no longer supports redirections and execute in
+ batch files. Flaws in the Empire protocol make it next to
+ impossible for clients to implement that correctly. See
+ doc/clients-howto for an explanation.
+ * Rewrite much of the client's code for sending commands and
+ receiving server output:
+ - No longer blocks on sending commands. which could deadlock the
+ session.
+ - Fix race condition that could cause server output to be discarded
+ on EOF on standard input.
+ - Don't discard server output when reading standard input fails.
+ - Fix error handling for execute and other, more obscure cases.
+ - More rigorous error checking for redirections and execute.
+ Clearer error messages, too.
+ - Fix execute redirected to file or pipe. Believed to be broken in
+ 4.2.0.
+ - The client now creates files for redirections with the same
+ permissions whether the redirection is in a pipe or not. Before,
+ redirections without a pipe created files with no permissions for
+ group and others. This change may make your redirected output
+ visible to other users on your system. Use the usual controls,
+ like umask, to restrict permissions to your liking.
+ - Reject unexpected redirections (violating the protocol). Before,
+ they silently replaced the current one, and in the case of pipes
+ leaked file descriptors and memory.
+ - Redirections in batch files are not implemented. They didn't
+ quite work before, and could leak memory and file descriptors. A
+ flaw in the Empire protocol makes them next to impossible to
+ implement correctly.
+ - The execute command in batch files is not implemented. A flaw in
+ the Empire protocol makes this practically useless anyway.
+ - Old code leaked memory in various places.
+ - Unfortunate incompatibility with older servers: if you type the
+ EOF character (normally ^D) at an argument prompt, the session
+ hangs. Use the interrupt character (normally ^C) to get out.
+ * The client now supports options -h and -v.
+ * The client no longer zaps its command line in a lame attempt at
+ protecting users who foolishly specify passwords on the command
+ line. Zapping annoys system administrators and creates a false
+ sense of security.
+ * Journal entries are now flushed to disk right away when the server
+ is running in debug mode.
+ * Fix bugs in load that could make loading operations fail noisily
+ instead of silently on some systems.
+ * Server now reliably shuts down session when it receives an
+ end-of-file condition from the client. Before, it merely failed
+ the current command when it got it at an argument prompt.
+ * Fix bug in execute that could crash the server on some systems when
+ it prompts for the argument.
+ * Fix bug that let you check whether a non-allied carrier is
+ efficient enough for takeoff when one of your planes got stuck
+ there somehow.
+ * Fix bug that let you attempt to escort a one-way mission to a
+ carrier with non-light, non-interceptor escorts. Such planes don't
+ fit on carriers, and the command then failed with a bogus error
+ message. Before 4.2.17, the planes flew, and the escorts were
+ teleported home.
+ * Change the rules for fitting planes on ships slightly, so that the
+ order of loading no longer matters. Choppers and x-lights can now
+ use plane slots even when not light. X-light choppers, which don't
+ exist in the stock game, can no longer use x-light slots.
+ * The server now keeps its log file open, just like the journal.
+ * New server option -R to set the PRNG seed. This is for
+ reproducible tests. Change the Windows-only service uninstall
+ options from -r/-R to -u/-U.
+ * Supply a real PRNG for Windows instead of the leaky water-pistol
+ Windows provides.
+ * Threads sleeping until a specified time could return early under
+ Windows. This could cause missed updates. Broken in 4.3.10.
+ * Fix missing newline in show updates.
+ * Power report didn't factor tech into power correctly. Broken in
+ 4.3.3.
+ * Code refactoring and cleanup.
+ * Info file and documentation fixes and updates.
+
+Changes to Empire 4.3.10 - Thu Sep 6 17:59:53 UTC 2007
+ * Bridge spans now cost $1000 instead of $2000, and bridge towers
+ $3000 instead of $7500.
+ * The Windows port now supports IPv6, but it still needs to be
+ enabled manually at compile-time.
+ * The custom table reader detects more errors.
+ * Do not leak world creation time in files and fairland, because
+ that facilitates attacks against the PRNG. This misfeature crept
+ into 4.3.0.
+ * Remove the ancient, crufty non-UCONTEXT system-dependent LWP code.
+ Using it required manual hackery since 4.3.0.
+ * Plug file descriptor leak in add command.
+ * Don't kill player connections violently when their thread appears
+ to be hung. Threads being aborted by update or shutdown could be
+ misidentified as hung, and the violence could lead to resource
+ leaks, locked out updates, and corrupted game state.
+ * Fix LWP to reliably wake up threads sleeping for a time. Before,
+ players with a sufficiently fast connection could starve out system
+ threads, including the update.
+ * Fix a class of bugs that made commands behave differently while the
+ update is attempting to take control:
+ - No MOB_ACCESS mobility was gained.
+ - Telegrams were miscounted.
+ - Bulletins got misfiled as production reports.
+ - The navigate command ignored sail paths.
+ - The declare command was more quiet, and declarations of war
+ failed silently when SLOW_WAR was enabled.
+ - Many messages got misdirected to bulletins.
+ Some of these bugs go back all the way to Empire 2, ca 1995.
+ * New deity command reload, effect similar to SIGHUP.
+ * Not voting for a demand update no longer lets you veto further
+ demand updates. This feature was flawed (it encourages players to
+ vote late so that they can tactically vote no and thus build up
+ veto rights), virtually unused, and buggy. The edit command still
+ accepts and ignores the country key 'U' for compatibility, but it
+ is deprecated.
+ * Fix zdone not to claim to have triggered an update when they're
+ disabled.
+ * New update scheduler and ETU clock:
+ - New schedule file. See doc/schedule for how to use it. Replaces
+ econfig keys update_policy, adj_update, update_times, hourslop,
+ blitz_time. A change of schedule does not require a server
+ restart.
+ - The force command can no longer force updates in the future.
+ Edit the schedule file for that.
+ - New command show updates to show the update schedule. Obsoletes
+ the update command.
+ - New xdump game and xdump updates.
+ - New utility program empsched to help test update schedules.
+ - Replace option DEMANDUPDATE and econfig key update_demandpolicy
+ by econfig key update_demand.
+ - econfig key update_demandtimes no longer applies to scheduled
+ demand updates.
+ - You now receive new BTUs at the update in addition to login.
+ - You now always gain the same BTUs and MOB_ACCESS mobility per
+ turn, even when the update schedule changes, updates get missed,
+ or unscheduled demand updates run.
+ - Remove the mobupdate command, because porting it to the new ETU
+ clock is not worth it.
+ * Redesign of synchronization between commands, update and shutdown,
+ and how updates are triggered:
+ - Simplify update to a single thread waiting for the trigger.
+ Before, three update threads had to perform a carefully
+ choreographed dance to make updates happen. The dance relied on
+ thread priorities for correctness, which are only implemented by
+ LWP. With pthreads and under Windows, demand updates were prone
+ to two update threads starting up concurrently. Even with LWP,
+ forced and demand updates could lead to double updates.
+ - Use a lock for synchronization: commands take it shared, update
+ and shutdown take it exclusive. This makes update and shutdown
+ block until all aborted commands terminated and gave up their
+ lock. Before, they proceeded blindly after waiting two or one
+ seconds respectively, which was cheesy and unsafe.
+ - New commands no longer fail while the update is pending, they are
+ delayed until after the update.
+ - New commands can no longer start during shutdown. Before, they
+ could, but risked getting killed violently, possibly corrupting
+ game state.
+ - Fix command execution so that commands blocked in writing
+ redirections are abortable. The bug allowed players to delay
+ update and shutdown indefinitely.
+ - Fix shutdown not to let player threads block on output. This
+ let players delay shutdown indefinitely.
+ - Fix reading of player input not to block again after update or
+ shutdown aborted it. The bug allowed players to delay update and
+ shutdown indefinitely.
+ * Thread priorities are only implemented by LWP and no longer used.
+ With LWP, they let players with a sufficiently fast connection
+ starve out the threads that clean the lost file and kill idle
+ connections. Drop them.
+ * Show nuke rounded required research incorrectly.
+ * Log unprintable characters as octal escapes rather than question
+ marks in the journal file.
+ * The files program no longer changes permissions of existing files.
+ * The files program now creates all files with permissions ug=rw and
+ all directories ug=rwx, modified by umask.
+ * Fix a bug that could make arm, disarm and nuke detonation work with
+ a used-up nuke instead of the armed one. This could be abused to
+ detonate nukes multiple times. Broken in 4.3.3.
+ * Fix nuke detonation output for zero blast radius.
+ * Plug memory leaks in thread code.
+ * Fix a bug that made LWP I/O wakeup unreliable.
+ * New march sub-command v for view.
+ * Journal was initialized before threads were, which was wrong.
+ * Fix server not to create a journal on SIGHUP when it is disabled.
+ * shutdown 0 now requests immediate shutdown instead of cancellation
+ of a pending shutdown. shutdown -1 now cancels.
+ * flash and wall no longer split long message lines.
+ * Fix a bug in collect that screwed up a fully collected loan instead
+ of deleting it. The screwed up loan could not be sharked or
+ collected, but it could be repaid.
+ * Remove the wait command, it's been broken and restricted to deity
+ since Empire 2, ca. 1995.
+ * Budget failed to take sector production into account for predicting
+ unit repairs. Before 4.3.6, this bug bit only when you fooled
+ around with budget priorities.
+ * When unit repairs are limited by materials, the efficiency gain is
+ now rounded down.
+ * Ship repairs outside harbors and plane repairs by carriers used to
+ consume commodities when and as far as available. Now, they
+ consume the same fraction of the real cost of each commodity,
+ i.e. commodity use is limited by the most scarce commodity.
+ Neither old nor new behavior make much sense, but the new code is
+ simpler.
+ * Code refactoring and cleanup, in particular to make the Windows
+ port less ugly.
+ * Portability fixes.
+ * Info file and manual page updates. All manual pages are now
+ installed in section 6.
+
+Changes to Empire 4.3.9 - Sat Jan 6 12:42:19 UTC 2007
+ * Fix declare to prevent the deity from changing relations for a
+ player to self. Allow the deity to set the relations of a player
+ towards the deity.
+ * Fix arm not to put the same nuke on multiple planes (broken in
+ 4.3.3).
+ * New option AUTO_POWER.
+ * Sectors now repair allied land units.
+ * Sectors now repair only own and allied planes.
+ * Fix repair of planes on foreign carriers: repair allied planes,
+ ignore the others. Before 4.3.3, carriers destroyed rather than
+ repaired foreign planes. Since 4.3.3, foreign planes were treated
+ as recoverable error.
+ * Fix automatic fortification of land units to use all excess
+ mobility even when mobility delta exceeds mobility maximum.
+ * Disable automatic fortification of land units when MOB_ACCESS is
+ on, because it is prohibitively slow then (broken in 4.2.13).
+ * Budget now shows level production (tech, education, research and
+ happiness) rounded instead of randomly rounded.
+ * Fix update not to randomly flush small level production to zero.
+ * Fix overly restrictive game file locking under Windows (broken in
+ 4.3.8).
+ * Fix navigate to charge mobility for sweeping mines without moving
+ (broken in 4.3.6).
+ * Code cleanup.
+
+Changes to Empire 4.3.8 - Fri Oct 20 18:30:28 UTC 2006
+ * Ships no longer produce stuff when the government is broke.
+ * Fix land unit casualties in revolts.
+ * Fix security units not to raid friendly che.
+ * Fix update sequence to ensure stopped sectors don't work on the
+ ships, planes and land units in the sector. Before 4.3.6, this bug
+ bit only when you fooled around with budget priorities.
+ * Fix canal loading (was broken in 4.3.0).
+ * Fix tend not to tend land units that could not be loaded.
+ * Make xdump command available before break, but deny access to game
+ state.
+ * Lock game files to prevent concurrent access by multiple programs.
+ fairland does not yet obey the lock.
+ * Fix production to consider sector item limit.
+ * Fix swapsector to update coastal flag correctly (broken in 4.3.0).
+ * Enhanced mapping sub-commands in move, test, explore and transport.
+ * Code cleanup.
+ * Info file fixes.
+
+Changes to Empire 4.3.7 - Fri Jul 14 23:05:19 UTC 2006
+ * Sanctuaries are again fully populated with civilians (4.3.6 changed
+ the limit, but not the population). Food is now spread evenly
+ among them.
+ * Fix path finder to find shortest naval and aerial paths again
+ (broken in 4.3.4).
+ * transport's map sub-command now does the right thing for a unit
+ number argument.
+ * Fix bug in map sub-command of move, explore and transport that
+ passed junk to map command. Could theoretically crash.
+ * Food need reported by starvation was one short for sectors without
+ food.
+ * Change land unit ammunition use back to what it was before 4.2.3.
+ This lets deities customize ammunition use independent of damage.
+ It also substantially reduces ammunition consumption at high tech.
+ * navigation and march enhancements:
+ - Sub-command 'f' now takes an optional ship / land unit number.
+ - Mapping sub-commands now take an optional ship / land unit
+ number.
+ - New sub-command 'd' to drop mines.
+ * Let minesweepers retreat at their full speed (missed in 4.3.6).
+ * SUPER_BARS cannot be harmed, so don't interdict them.
+ * Don't let trains and non-trains march together for now, because the
+ march code isn't prepared for that.
+ * New mapping flag 'n' to show nukes.
+ * Mapping flag '*' now shows nukes as well.
+ * New command nbmap to bmap around a nuke. Overload command nmap to
+ map around a nuke when given a nuke argument.
+ * Fix an inconsistency that gave tactical bombers a small bonus
+ vs. flak when pin-bombing.
+ * Fix production to show the designation that actually produces, not
+ the designation as it is now (broken in 4.3.6).
+ * Fix accidental whitespace change in output of sdump, pdump and
+ ldump that crept into 4.3.5.
+ * Support user-defined sector types and products in custom tables,
+ not just customization of existing ones.
+ * Fix off-by-one bug in budget that used to be masked by budget
+ priorities until their demise in 4.3.6. The bug could crash the
+ game on certain systems.
+ * Code cleanup.
+ * Info file fixes.
+
+Changes to Empire 4.3.6 - Tue Jun 20 18:46:18 UTC 2006
+ * The shutdown command now terminates the server process correctly
+ even with LinuxThreads pthreads under Linux 2.4 and earlier.
+ * Cope with old versions of groff (broken in 4.3.0).
+ * You can now arm allied planes with nukes.
+ * Taking a nuke off a plane gives it to the sector owner again.
+ Feature was accidentally dropped in 4.3.3. Recipient must be
+ allied.
+ * Naval path went bananas for impassable end sectors (broken in
+ 4.3.1).
+ * New econfig key disabled_commands.
+ * New territory selector dterr, restricted to deities. The territory
+ command defaults to it for deities.
+ * Let land units attack as long as they have positive mobility,
+ except for high-mobility terrain (mountains), where the rules
+ remain as they were: land units need to have all the mobility
+ charged for the attack, not counting combat and moving in to
+ occupy. Rationale: Making sure your land units reach attack
+ positions with enough mobility left is a pain in the neck.
+ Requiring only positive mobility is friendlier, but allowed rushing
+ of mountains, so we make an exception there.
+ * Can typeset info pages as PostScript. Result isn't exactly pretty.
+ * Support disabling of infrastructure in infra custom table. Remove
+ redundant option DEFENSE_INFRA. show command now shows only enabled
+ infrastructure.
+ * Fix crash on empty argument in bmap, lbmap, lmap, map, nmap, pbmap,
+ pmap sbmap, smap (broken in 4.3.1).
+ * New, simpler sector mobility cost formula:
+ - The basic cost is still a linear function of sector efficiency,
+ with customizable cost at 0% and at 100%. The latter used to be
+ derived from the former. The show command shows both parameters
+ now.
+ - Mountains are no longer a special case.
+ - Tweak costs: mountains now range from 2.4 to 1.2 instead of 2.174
+ to 1.304, highway, bridge head, bridge span and bridge tower
+ range from 0.4 to 0.001 instead of 0.2 to 0.001, and wilderness
+ is 0.4 flat instead of 0.6 to 0.4. All sector types mortal
+ players can designate now cost the same at 0%. That's a feature.
+ - Road infrastructure now reduces cost up to 90%, linear in road
+ efficiency (used to be close to that, but non-linear). Same for
+ rail infrastructure, but 99%. Adapted from Ice World V.
+ - Double land unit minimum cost to 0.02, to slow them down on
+ highways.
+ - Change land unit cost penalty in newly taken land to an extra 0.2
+ instead of a minimum of 0.2, to reduce penetration depth.
+ * Reduce bridge head defense and collect value to match highway's.
+ * sinfrastructure displayed bogus rail mobility costs when there was
+ no rail.
+ * Retreating engineers took full landmine damage instead of half.
+ * Fix socket creation code not to print a null pointer.
+ * Fix login option code not to search beyond end of table (broken in
+ 4.2.21).
+ * Spy planes and satellites can no longer spot landspies.
+ * Spy planes can now spot surface ships at sea. They can no longer
+ spot land units loaded on ships or land units.
+ * Fix train retreat mobility cost, and don't permit retreat off rail.
+ * Change maximum population to 100 for plains (was 49), mountains
+ (was 99), bridge spans and bridge towers (was 999), and to 1000 for
+ the other habitable sector types (was 999).
+ * Let minesweepers navigate at the speed their stats indicate by
+ letting them sweep on the move at no extra mobility charge.
+ * Reduce chance for planes to abort from 100-eff (if eff<80) to
+ 80-eff. This should make it easier to punch through air defense,
+ flak in particular, and increase the risk of getting shot down.
+ * Ship and land unit flak intensity is now proportional to efficiency.
+ * Ship and land unit flak intensity is no longer scaled by the tech
+ of the owner of the last thing firing. It's still scaled by each
+ thing's tech.
+ * All ships and land units firing flak now spot the plane and are
+ spotted by the plane. Previously, spotting stopped as soon as flak
+ maxed out.
+ * Inefficient land units were overcharged mobility when reacting.
+ Broken when Empire3 changed land unit mobility use not to depend on
+ efficiency, except for supply units.
+ * New journal file to log complete player input plus selected
+ important events. Controlled by new econfig key keep_journal, off
+ by default.
+ * Fix unsafe shutdown on SIGINT and SIGTERM.
+ * Fix land unit path finding: paths weren't always cheapest (broken
+ in 4.0.2), and trains could be sent down paths without rail (never
+ worked). Also fixes unit reaction path cost.
+ * The custom table reader can now deal with sector, item, product and
+ infra tables more comfortably.
+ * Remove option BIG_CITY. Deities can customize the sect table to
+ get the same effect.
+ * Many more selectors can now be compared with names, not just
+ numbers. This includes nations, e.g. census ?old=Mirkwood. Does
+ not fully work for queer names like &&&.
+ * Let land units on missions support, just like ships.
+ * Don't let units loaded on a train react.
+ * Change update sequence to repair ships, planes and land units after
+ sectors produce. This makes repairs use new avail instead of old.
+ * Let players stop and start units.
+ * Remove budget priorities.
+ * Make plane report easier to understand.
+ * Change land report to show carriers in the same format as plane and
+ nuke report do.
+ * Code cleanup.
+ * Info file and manual page fixes.
+
+Changes to Empire 4.3.5 - Sun May 28 07:49:54 UTC 2006
+ * In conditionals, ~ compared to a string selector now stands for an
+ empty string.
+ * Change encoding of `not in any group' from " " to "". This makes
+ fleet=~ work. It also affects xdump.
+ * Fix plane capture code to clear wing.
+ * People now eat and starve exactly the same in sectors, ships and
+ land units. There used to be small differences, and civilians and
+ uw loaded on land units didn't eat at all. The starvation command
+ has been updated accordingly.
+ * Fix bug that makes it impossible to assault or board with land
+ units (broken in 4.3.4).
+ * Code cleanup.
+
+Changes to Empire 4.3.4 - Thu May 25 05:46:10 UTC 2006
+ * Don't use non-portable groff features (broken in 4.3.0).
+ * Work around potential crash bugs in command argument access.
+ * Plug major information leak through nation selectors (broken in
+ 4.2.21). The fix unfortunately exchanges the meaning of xdump
+ nation and xdump country. Sorry about that.
+ * Minimize redundancy between (mortal's) xdump nation and xdump
+ country.
+ * New nation selector rejects.
+ * xdump nation now shows foreign relations and no longer discloses
+ hidden relations.
+ * Fix crash bug in edit.
+ * Fix number of planes building in budget command (broken in 4.3.3).
+ * Selectors group, fleet, wing and army are now strings, and obvious
+ syntax like fleet#a works. xdump also shows the strings now.
+ Units not assigned to a group currently have group string " ", but
+ that may still change.
+ * Don't fold conditionals to lower case, because it breaks valid
+ conditionals like fleet#A.
+ * Mobility cost of a plane sortie is no longer limited to current
+ mobility + 32.
+ * Various formulas no longer truncate or round intermediate results.
+ * Interdiction mission charged twice the normal mobility cost for
+ torpedoes.
+ * Fix sail not to interpret negative x-coordinates as unsail
+ argument.
+ * Improved configure script.
+ * Code cleanup.
+
+Changes to Empire 4.3.3 - Tue May 16 21:35:47 UTC 2006
+ * power c can now show powerless countries. power c * works.
+ * Fortresses now require 5% efficiency to return fire and interdict.
+ * Range of ship return fire and support fire no longer depends on
+ efficiency.
+ * Fix heap smash in login command client. Remote hole!
+ * Properly destroy nukes on collapsing bridges. Before, you could
+ rescue them by building a new bridge or arming them on naval
+ planes.
+ * Nukes are now numbered like other units:
+ - New selector type replaces selectors number and types.
+ - New selector plane points to plane armed with this nuke.
+ - New selectors effic, mobil, tech, group, opx, opy, mission,
+ radius. Provided because all units have them; values are
+ currently not interesting.
+ - nuke command output redesigned.
+ - ndump output changed subtly: nukes are no longer sorted by
+ location, nukes in the same location no longer share id, and
+ nukes on planes are shown.
+ - transport nuke now works like transport plane.
+ * arm and disarm now accept the common plane syntax, not just plane
+ numbers.
+ * Fix arm to let you change an armed plane's air-burst/ground-burst
+ (broken in 4.2.6).
+ * territory no longer re-prompts when supplied with a bad argument,
+ it just fails.
+ * edit lets you edit stuff that is actually computed from other
+ state, like sector's coastal flag. This makes no sense and is now
+ deprecated. Stuff deprecated since 4.2.15 is now gone.
+ * Code cleanup.
+
+Changes to Empire 4.3.2 - Thu Apr 27 17:59:58 UTC 2006
+ * Fix security units' raid at the update (broken in 4.0.0, fixed only
+ for 100% units in 4.2.7). Back out 4.2.7's 2.5x deadliness
+ increase. Make sure empty units don't kill anyone.
+ * Fix bug in player_init(), which was most likely fatal on 64 bit
+ hosts. Broken in 4.3.0.
+ * Fix xdump not to disclose other countries' realms (new in 4.3.0).
+ * The order in which sectors were visited for `*' arguments disclosed
+ the real origin, fix. Mapping commands used to work around this
+ bug, until 4.3.1 exposed it there as well.
+ * Code didn't compile on some systems.
+ * Fix edit plane not to truncate large values for keys 'a' and 'd'.
+
+Changes to Empire 4.3.1 - Sat Apr 15 11:40:47 UTC 2006
+ * Fix check of game state on server startup (new in 4.3.0).
+ * sail now accepts a destination sector.
+ * Tend could send bogus bulletins (broken in 4.3.0).
+ * Plug memory leaks in mission command.
+ * Close loophole in navigate that allowed players to find all sectors
+ that are unfriendly or inefficient harbors or bridges.
+ * Server didn't start when default econfig was missing and user
+ didn't supply one with -e (broken in 4.3.0).
+ * Retreat condition 'h' (helpless) never worked, fix.
+ * Fix retreating mine sweepers to use mobility for sweeping.
+ * Fix retreating land units to hit mines with the same probability
+ and to take the same damage as in normal movement. Before,
+ hit probability was higher, and damage was lower.
+ * Ships could retreat into sectors owned by whoever made them
+ retreat, but not in their owner's sectors.
+ * Fix 'm' at the movement prompt of transport and test.
+ * Fix march and test not to apply conditionals to sectors mapped,
+ which led to spurious error messages.
+ * Fix break not to respect conditionals. The bug let players keep
+ sanctuaries.
+ * Fix retreat code not to respect conditionals. Attackers could
+ abuse this to suppress fleet and army retreat orders.
+ * Fix retreat and edit to zero-terminate retreat paths.
+ Theoretically abusable for gaining information.
+ * Fix format string crash bugs in load, spy and bomb.
+ * Fix the telegram editor: empty telegrams were broken in 4.2.21, and
+ ~p before the first line of text never worked.
+ * Fix ancient bridge building race condition that could break the
+ test whether the player can afford the bridge.
+ * Fix trade lot change detection in set command. Probably abusable.
+ * The pthread code now compiles under Solaris.
+ * navigate and march now permit any whitespace between route and
+ optional argument for radar, lookout, sonar, not just spaces.
+ * Fix canal navigation (was broken in 4.3.0).
+ * Info file fixes.
+
+Changes to Empire 4.3.0 - Sun Mar 19 08:13:10 UTC 2006
+ * version no longer pretends option SHIPNAMES still exists.
+ * Remove files auth and ban. They could be used to restrict client
+ address and user. Restricting user is useless, because players can
+ send whatever they want. Banning IPs is better done with a packet
+ filter. That leaves restricting deity IPs. Provide new econfig
+ key privip for that. Apply it to session kill as well as login.
+ * xdump escapes GUINEA_PIGS status:
+ - xdump is now enabled unconditionally.
+ - xdump sect now dumps selector coastal, because it can't be
+ reliably computed from other xdump information.
+ - New xdump realm and country. Realm information is now stored in
+ a separate file, with appropriate selectors.
+ - Reviewed for completeness and information leaks. See info xdump
+ for remaining issues. New treaty selector uid, nat selectors
+ relations, contacts. Removed useless selectors: news and lost
+ uid, nat dayno.
+ - Command syntax changed.
+ - xdump opt is no more, option information is now in xdump ver.
+ - xdump can now dump meta-data.
+ - Header and footer changed to be more compact. You now need
+ meta-data to identify fields.
+ - Bug fixes.
+ - Documentation in doc/xdump.
+ * New econfig key builtindir.
+ * New econfig key custom_tables lets you customize configuration
+ tables without recompiling. Customizing tables other than unit
+ tables is not recommended for now. See doc/econfig for
+ instructions.
+ * Check configuration and game state are sane on server startup.
+ * Remove option NONUKES and NEUTRON. Deities can load a suitable
+ nuke table to get the same effect.
+ * Remove option DRNUKE. Use econfig key drnuke_const to control
+ whether nukes need research.
+ * Disqualify land units from performing missions while loaded on
+ ships or trains.
+ * Fix dump for strings without terminating zero.
+ * Fix login command option not to send an extra prompt.
+ * zdone now displays information about demand update vetoing.
+ * The Windows port now requires Winsock version 2.
+ * Remove econfig key powe_cost.
+ * version report now shows all the configurable settings of interest
+ to players.
+ * carg and lcarg now display people as well.
+ * ldump now dumps civ and uw as well.
+ * Fix dangling pointer dereference in dogfighting code.
+ * Tell sector owner when partisans take over. But don't disclose che
+ casualties then.
+ * emp_server, files, fairland now support options -h and -v.
+ * Simplify baroque version numbering to a single version number.
+ This affects output of version.
+ * New show item and show news.
+ * New build process:
+ - Follow the usual steps: configure; make; make install. The
+ latter is optional. The only file deities still have to edit is
+ econfig.
+ - Use GNU Autoconf for system configuration.
+ - Use GNU Make for portability and features.
+ - Support separate build trees.
+ - Remake out-of-date dependencies automatically.
+ - Remake out-of-date info files automatically.
+ - Flatten info directory.
+ - Formatted info files are no longer distributed in source tarball.
+ - Use LWP only with UCONTEXT. Autoconfiguring the other LWP
+ low-level options doesn't seem to be worth the effort, as
+ UCONTEXT should be pretty portable.
+ * Fix use of freed memory in sail.
+ * sail could let large ships enter big cities.
+ * Fix reject and accept not to require contact.
+ * Fix sharebmap and telegram to prompt for a missing first argument.
+ * Fix report to align column research correctly for deities.
+ * When the optional newspaper argument doesn't work because HIDDEN is
+ enabled, complain instead of ignoring it silently.
+ * When BLITZ is enabled, fairland no longer permutes country numbers
+ in newcap_script so that start islands are ordered from top left to
+ bottom right.
+ * Minimize output format differences between options:
+ - census shows column fall regardless of FALLOUT.
+ - show nuke now shows column res regardless of DRNUKE.
+ - report no longer suppress column status when HIDDEN is enabled.
+ HIDDEN limits status information like for the country command.
+ - relations column width differed depending on option SLOW_WAR.
+ Always use the wider format.
+ * Fix a bug in edit that suppressed the player notification telex on
+ military reserve change.
+ * Fix command dispatch not to let deities use commands that are
+ declared not to be available to them. The only command affected is
+ break.
+ * Fix the list command for visitor.
+ * econfig key m_m_p_d no longer applies to deities.
+ * Fix the origin command for country #0. Allow moving origin to
+ another country's origin. Allow deities to reset origin to
+ absolute 0,0. This turns origin into a superset of the offset
+ command. Remove offset command.
+ * Fix a bug that caused unpredictable flak damage when it should have
+ been maximum damage (was broken in 4.2.19).
+ * Don't store initial capital location, remove the associated nat
+ selectors xstart, ystart.
+ * Fix production command to consider resource depletion.
+ * Fix justification of coordinate output in cutoff and mission.
+ * Option UPDATESCHED is no longer optional. Disabling it didn't
+ work anyway.
+ * Support IPv6.
+ * Turn options into ordinary econfig keys.
+ * New econfig key start_cash.
+ * BTU regeneration now depends on the capital's work percentage.
+ * nation now supports an optional argument that lets deities ask for
+ somebody else's nation report.
+ * Fix nation to display SANCTUARY instead of VISITOR for countries in
+ sanctuary.
+ * Fix capital to let you use a regained sacked capital without
+ activating another one in between.
+ * Don't move capital when it is sacked.
+ * New ship capability canal, replacing obscure formula based on build
+ materials.
+ * You now need a capital to request a demand update.
+ * power now ignores landspies.
+ * Fix LWP stack checking.
+ * Clean up LWP, drop dead machine-specific code, fix portability bugs
+ in UCONTEXT code.
+ * census now shows the old owner instead of `*'. dump is unchanged
+ to avoid breaking clients.
+ * peek no longer prints the old owner.
+ * When a bombed land unit retreated, collateral damage was applied to
+ the wrong sector.
+ * paradrop, drop and fly can no longer abandon the base sector.
+ * Tending foreign ships now sends a bulletin to the owner.
+ * Fix bug that permitted login for inactive countries, including ""
+ * Fix tend for spies.
+ * Change launch to fire all missiles selected at the same target.
+ Previously, it prompted for a new target after each missile.
+ * add, consider, build, launch and fire no longer re-prompt when
+ supplied with a bad argument, they just fail. Consequently, the
+ build command no longer lets you list types you can build. It
+ points to the show command instead.
+ * Fix add not to truncate country number.
+ * Fix selector coastal to be accurate at all times.
+ * Fix obscure bug in fairland: the sector added last to an island
+ wasn't considered coastal. Affected resource computation.
+ * Fix sector wiping in add command.
+ * Remove options NO_LCMS, NO_HCMS, NO_OIL. They were broken in many
+ ways. Custom configuration tables should become a serviceable
+ replacement eventually.
+ * Client no longer freezes on long lines of server output.
+ * Fix uninitialized signal mask bugs.
+ * Fix Windows service code's treatment of -e.
+ * Sub interdiction disclosed sub owner through news' actor selector.
+ * country reports on all countries, but carefully limits information
+ disclosed to mortals. Output format changed.
+ * Market no longer forces sellers to grant loans.
+ * Fix potential crash bug in set command. Friendlier prompt and
+ diagnostics.
+ * Substantial code cleanup and portability fixes.
+ * Extend empfile abstraction to cover game configuration.
+ * Overhaul of game state storage.
+ * The above includes major contributions from Ron Koenderink. Many
+ thanks!
+
+Changes to Empire 4.2.23 - Sun Oct 23 09:28:26 UTC 2005
+ * Make version pretend option SHIPNAMES still exists, for the benefit
+ of clients that still depend on it.
+ * The change to conv in 4.2.22 could crash or compute incorrect
+ maximum population.
+ * Info updates missing in 4.2.22.
+ * A few code cleanups.
+
+Changes to Empire 4.2.22 - Tue Oct 11 20:23:51 UTC 2005
+ * Log player login, logout and session kill.
+ * Close loophole in assembly point rules that allowed players to find
+ all unowned sectors. The assembly point must now be owned by you
+ or an ally, or you or an ally must have a ship there.
+ * Don't let embarked land units fire flak.
+ * Fix display of the last connection's host when the host name was
+ not resolved.
+ * Fix change command to accept full length representative (password),
+ currently 19 characters. It used to chop off after eight
+ characters.
+ * Non-recon missions no longer establish contact to owners of
+ overflown sectors, because those missions do not identify the
+ owner. This matches info Hidden.
+ * The following events now establish contact:
+ - Catching a spy
+ - Sighting a ship when toggle coastwatch is off
+ - Spotting overflying planes
+ - satellite spotting land units
+ - lookout and llookout spotting ships, planes and land units
+ - Any relations change
+ * The country command's `temporary' state of disorder ended after
+ ten years.
+ * Telegram notifications could get lost in exotic circumstances,
+ e.g. while a second client attempted to connect. Abusable.
+ * Remove option SNEAK_ATTACK.
+ * Fix lboard not to let you board dead land units.
+ * Fix stack smash in bomb, drop, fly, paradrop, recon and sail.
+ Remote hole!
+ * bomb, drop, fly, paradrop, recon and sail now deal with EOF
+ correctly.
+ * Fix fly to let the player abort the command at the last prompt.
+ * Client no longer reads execute scripts in binary mode under
+ Windows.
+ * New econfig key listen_address.
+ * econfig key port can now be a service name. Service empire no
+ longer takes precedence over econfig.
+ * Client falls back to compiled-in host only if environment doesn't
+ supply one, not if it can't be resolved. Same for port.
+ * Oil derrick could extract slightly more oil than was in the ground.
+ * test command checked start sector for space and some other things
+ instead of end sector.
+ * convert now silently limits conversions to avoid exceeding maximum
+ population.
+ * shoot no longer limits you to 999 victims.
+ * 4.2.19 broke pin bombing commodities on some platforms.
+ * Don't block on output while update is pending. This is required to
+ ensure the update can abort commands.
+ * Commands submitted while the update is waiting for commands to
+ abort now fail.
+ * The force command no longer waits for the specified time. It
+ starts a scheduling thread instead, just like shutdown.
+ * Correct grammar and punctuation in output of version.
+ * Option SHIPNAMES is no longer optional.
+ * Fix output of qorder and sorder for ships with sail path.
+ * Don't change capital to agribusiness on retake. From Pat Loney.
+ * bdes prompt for new designation was messed up for empty bmaps.
+ * Client now supports pipes under Windows.
+ * Care for subtle Windows socket incompatibilities.
+ * Fix strength command not to lie about units reacting into
+ mountains.
+ * strength now yields the processor periodically, to keep the game
+ responsive.
+ * Schedule commands more fairly. Previously, a sufficiently fast
+ player could starve out the others.
+ * launch assumed plane maximum mobility 127 for calculating when
+ satellites will be ready to use.
+ * Drop support for for DCE threads.
+ * Drop support for pthread implementations lacking pthread_kill().
+ This includes ancient versions of OS X.
+ * Code cleanups.
+ * Minor info file fixes.
+ * The above includes major contributions from Ron Koenderink. Many
+ thanks!
+
+Changes to Empire 4.2.21 - Sat Jul 16 17:51:01 UTC 2005
* Don't let threads block on output to another player thread's
socket. Such blocking violates basic design assumptions and can
cause all kinds of grief. In particular, it causes player session
flash and asynchronous telegram notification many years ago.
* Threads sleeping until a specified time could return early under
Windows. This could cause double-updates.
+ * Fix fallout damage (was broken in 4.2.19).
+ * Fix show sector s (was broken in 4.2.19).
* Fix deliver not to deliver friendly civilians into occupied
sectors.
- * Fix mil duplication in board. Broken in 4.2.14.
+ * Fix mil duplication in board (was broken in 4.2.14).
* Fix stack smash in lrange, shoot and execute. Remote holes, and
the last one doesn't even require authentication.
* Fix crash bug in emp_config parsing.
* Fix buffer overruns in turn and shutdown.
* Fix second argument of shutdown.
- * Fix show sector s. Broken in 4.2.19.
* tele and turn now abort on EOF.
* Fix display of MOTD and game down message of maximum size.
* Correctly support telnet line termination on input. Previously,
* Remove obscure login command list.
* Convert client from obsolete termcap to terminfo, and clean up
terminal handling.
- * Rename info topics so they don't just differ in case. Rename deity
- command hidden to peek because its info topic clashed with that of
- option HIDDEN.
* New fairland option -h to print usage information. Improved
command line syntax diagnostics. Exit unsuccessfully on unknown
options.
* Fix news for land unit defensive support.
* Properly mark sea mines hit by retreating ships. Unmark mines
cleared by bridges.
- * Fix diagnostics for unknown selector names in conditionals. Broken
- in 4.2.20.
+ * Fix diagnostics for unknown selector names in conditionals (was
+ broken in 4.2.20).
* Fix selector name clashes: rename ship selector mobquota to mquota,
land selector for reaction range limit from rad to rmax.
* Fix Windows services for relative file names on command line or in
- econfig. Broken in 4.2.20.
+ econfig (was broken in 4.2.20).
* econfig keys ship_grow_scale, plane_grow_scale and land_grow_scale
are now float. This gives deities finer control over maximum
efficiency gain.
* Improve syntax of read for deities.
* Code cleanups.
* Some info topic names differed only in case, which loses on
- case-insensitive file systems, and is a bad user interface even when
- it works. Change those names.
- * Thanks to Doug Wescott, sheep are finally covered properly in info.
+ case-insensitive file systems, and is a bad user interface even
+ when it works. Change those names. Rename deity command hidden to
+ peek because its info topic clashed with that of option HIDDEN.
+ * Thanks to Doug Wescott sheep are finally covered properly in info.
* Documentation fixes.
* Much of the above was contributed by Ron Koenderink. Many thanks!
* Fixed `sabo' reporting damage to player in deity coordinates.
* New option ROLLOVER_AVAIL. Contributed by Drake Diedrich.
* Fix Windows server shutdown on reading "quit" from stdin.
- * Land units now fortify automatically at the update using excess
- mobility. With code from Marc Olzheim.
+ * Land units now fortify automatically when mobility plus growth
+ exceeds the maximum. With code from Marc Olzheim.
* Wandering che are less predictable.
* Land units no longer regenerate mobility faster while it is
negative.
* Fixed bug with scuttling a ship with units on it not scuttling the units
too.
-Changes to Empire 4.0.0 - Initial release
+Changes to Empire 4.0.0 - Wed Aug 21 1996
* Initial Wolfpack release - Long live the Wolfpack!!!!
* Cleaned up the build environment. Now all that is needed is to edit the
build.conf file, answer the questions there and type "make <arch>" to