It’s been a little over two months since the game’s release. I’ve been pretty happy with the number of things I’ve accomplished since the release, including doing updates at least once a week. Here’s a list of 129 Items (Suggestions or Bug-Fixes) that have been added to the game since its launch:

Version 1.01.3737, January 26, 2009
- Fixed a bug that caused turn-processing to run very slowly (in one case, the time dropped from 67 seconds to 2.7 seconds)
- Added additional information to the city-build window
- Added the Pangea map-type to the New Game window
- Fixed a display bug with radar lines
- Fixed a crash
- Fixed a bug with city-population growth
- Removed the city ‘anchor’ icon and replaced it with a blue number indicating the number of city improvements.
- Fixed a display bug with the technology tree
- Fixed an issue with aircraft combat

Version 1.01.3118, January 18, 2009
- Fixed a crash
- Fixed the washout bug
- Faster draw system (about 20% faster)
- Added “Pangea” to the Map Editor, but not the New Game window because the AI seems to run slowly on Pangea maps (will be fixed in the next update)

Version 1.01.2818, January 11, 2009
- Border Violation bug: The AI should not detect units inside transports
- The AI won’t complain about submarine border violations unless he actually saw the submarine
- “Sightings” list now shows the unit-name, rather than just “Sighted”
- Fixed some problems with the AI that caused it to consume lots of memory on large maps
- Adjusted ship/submarine combat balances
- - Some of the changes
- - - Reduced Battleship->Submarine power, Increased Battleship->Ship power
- - - Slightly reduced Cruisers->submarines power, Increased Cruiser->Aircraft power, reduced the cost of cruisers by 7%
- - - Increased Destroyers->Submarines power, reduced the cost of destroyers by 10%
- - The end result is that ships have more defined roles
- - - Destroyers->Submarines (good), Destroyers->Ships (fair), Destroyers->TacticalAircraft (fair)
- - - Cruisers->Submarines (fair), Cruisers->Ships (fair-good), Cruisers->TacticalAircraft (good)
- - - Battleships->Submarines (poor), Battleships->Ships (good), Battleships->TacticalAircraft (fair/poor)
- Satellites move faster now
- Fixed problem with Battleship bombardment (can’t target) and artillery bombardment (can’t target some enemies)
- Added a ‘random’ option to Game Setup > Land Density
- Added a ‘random’ option to Game Setup > City/Resource density
- Cities could see submarines out to a range of 60. Changed this - cities cannot see submarines by default anymore
- Fixed a bug in the Map Editor that was switching to the wrong player
- Added some debug settings to the Preferences Window to help track-down the washout-bug
- Fixed a crash that occurs when you change the “View As” setting
- Added a flag to the map-tooltip (important when hovering over a yellow-diamond and you can’t see the unit)
- Fixed a bug that caused aircraft unit-groups to ignore field orders

Version 1.01.2609, January 4, 2009
- When the AI sends a “violating my borders” message, it will tell you exactly which units are violating its borders
- Reduced the amount of memory used by borders
- Fixed a bug that would cause the AI to falsely complain about border violations
- Fixed a bug with the rules-editor that could cause the game to crash
- Players can see other players borders if they are near their own borders
- Fixed a crash during Turn-Processing. It’s related to expired TradeAgreeements

Version 1.01.2459, December 31, 2009
- Fixed bug: Sometimes the city-build window wouldn’t appear, causing player to think the game locked up
- Added Borders
- - Borders are created automatically, based on cities and resources
- - The AI gets irritated if you violate his borders
- Fixed a crash during turn-processing
- Fixed a lockup during turn-processing
- Adjusted some things on the MapEditor interface to make map< ->scenario more obvious
- Aircraft can be given more complex (move to, land, move to, land) orders
- Added ’sentry for five turns’
- Units which are set to ’sentry until repaired’ will not attack enemies based on field-orders
- UnitGroups can be given orders to ’sentry until repaired’ (until all units inside the group are repaired)
- Repairs cost iron. The iron cost is equivalent to the original iron cost (e.g. a ship at 50% damage will require 50% of the iron that it cost to build it originally).
- Fixed bug: AI was not accepting trade agreements

Version 1.01.2038, December 23, 2009
- Fixed bug: sometimes the ‘trade window’ doesn’t allow players to enter numbers
- The game-setup window now let’s players individually adjust land-density, cities, gold, iron, food, and oil abundance.
- - This applies to random maps and custom maps/scenarios.
- - Added the same feature to the map-editor’s random map generator tool.
- Changes to the AI:
- - Now, the AI can experience resource shortages
- - Fixed a bug that was causing the AI to be too passive
- - Added more behaviors to the AI to make it smarter
- Nukes automatically trigger war
- Added ability to turn-off the ‘low oil’ warning on the cursor (in the preferences window)
- Made adjustments to the pathfinding system to (hopefully) avoid the ship-beached-on-land problem
- Fixed problems with satellites:
- - it sometimes showed the wrong time until crash
- - they were jumping to their target location after launch
- Fixed bug: Sometimes if aircraft land at the very end of a turn, they are not refueled
- Fixed a bug with food-shortage starvation
- Added warning popups that appear if you try to submit your turn and you’re about to have a resource shortage.

Version 1.01.1609, December 17, 2009
- Reduced memory use
- - Reduced memory-use by 20% or more when playing the game
- - Save-game files are about 35% smaller (which also means faster loads/saves)
- Faster AI
- - In one test case involving a 4000×3200 map and 5 AI on turn 110, the AI processing time was halved
- Fixed bug: Nuclear Bombers running out of fuel/not destroying target
- Altered the AI to reduce wolfpack attacks (where players jump in and attack players already at war)
- Fixed bug: Game sometimes crashes after forming a team
- Added “oil shortage/low oil” icons to the cursor, and a warning message when submitting turn

Version 1.01.1203, December 11, 2009
- An upgrade order no longer turns-off ’sentry’.
- Added a “70% Population” Victory condition
- Improved the trade window interface
- - The interface splits immediate-trade and ongoing trade
- - Allow per-turn open-market trade
- - The AI gives more feedback on trades
- - You can improve foreign relations with the AI by giving generous trade agreements or gifts
- Fixed bug: Can’t cancel ongoing trade agreements
- Fixed a bug invoving the production money in cities without orders
- Small decreases in memory use and AI processing time
- Removed ‘Freighters’ from the Field Orders list
- Fixed bug: The Foreign Relations window showed the wrong information if you’re not Player 1
- Fixed bug: Saved Games don’t remember the ’sneak attack’ state
- Fixed bug: Infantry UnitGroup cannot capture a neutral airfield
- Added a “Full” icon to transports/carriers when they are full
- City list is sorted from highest-production city to lowest-production city

Version 1.01.777, December 5, 2009
- Fixed bug: The scenario editor forgets player restrictions if you edit the map-setup settings.
- Fixed bug: Players were allowed to do per-turn open-market trades
- Added a page to the game-manual for the “Unit Description” window.
- Bumped up the version from 1.0 to 1.01 because it was triggering a bug that users weren’t being automatically notified of updates
- Fixed lockup (turn processing never ends) that can happen when sending Units to join a UnitGroup
- Fixed bug: sometimes unit-groups cannot target enemies
- Improved some things with unit-groups and orders, to make it more intuitive
- Fixed bug: National Summary information was wrong if you weren’t Player 1.
- Added “Show All Paths”/”Show all Orders”, and a hotkey (K)
- Fixed bug: Nuclear Bomber was showing up on the idle-units list even though it had orders
- Thumbnails are automatically added to map/scenario uploads
- Fixed a bug in the download system - only the first paragraph of the “Description” section was showing up
- Fixed a lockup during Turn Processing

Version 1.0.613, December 2, 2009
- If a city has a “Produce Wealth” order, and you select a new build item, “Produce Wealth” is automatically removed from the queue
- Fixed bug: Problem moving ground unit that was next to water
- Fixed bug: Sometimes units don’t capture resources
- Fixed bug: Aircraft can’t land on moving aircraft carriers
- Fixed bug: Sometimes sea-units cannot move into/out-of certain coastal cities
- Fixed bug: Certain units (air-units that self-destruct) were not showing up on the “idle units” list (this was by design, but I decided to change it; players can just hit ’sentry’)
- Changed some code around to hopefully avoid crashes
- Fixed the crash that occurs if you try to pickup an air-unit from a city
- Fixed a problem with AI technology research
- Tweaks to the AI to make it more active

Version 1.0.461, November 29, 2009
- Fixed some memory leaks, reduced memory use
- Faster AI
- Players can now see how many people are in the chatroom from the main-menu
- Players can tag others as friends, and see if they are in the chatroom from the main menu
- Thumbnail images on the ‘Downloads’ tab (inside ‘Updates and Downloads’). This isn’t fully functional yet, but you can see the Europe and Mediterranean thumbnails.
- Fixed a variety of bugs related to unit-repair and “sentry until repaired” orders
- Fixed a crash that occurs when loading certain files. Error in a compression algorithm.
- Fixed bug: Aircraft in aircraft carriers sometimes show up in ‘idle units’ list even though they have orders
- Fixed bug: Sometimes aircraft won’t move if they are given orders to move to nearly their maximum range

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Recently, we played a multiplayer game with four players + 1 novice AI player. It was a randomly generated map, with wrap turned off. This means there would be corners and edges to the map. Having edges to the map is nice because it means players don’t have to worry about being attacked from certain directions. On the other hand, if you’re unlucky enough not to be backed-up against a map-edge, you don’t have the advantage that other players do.

The map was not visible, so, except for the immediate surroundings, it appeared as a black mass of “unknown” to everyone. Using the Game Viewer (which is only available once a game has ended), I pulled up a complete map - showing you what none of us knew at the beginning of the game:

Brit: Playing under the American flag
Moon: Playing under the EU flag
Steve: Playing under the Nazi flag
NormalDude: Playing under the Pirate flag
Yamamoto (novice AI): Playing under the Japanese War flag

This map’s size was 1400×1200. For comparison, the smallest map size is 800×800 (40% the area of this map), and the largest map is 4000×3200 (7.5x the area of this map).

I started-off slightly towards the middle of the map. This made me a little nervous because I was afraid I might be accessible to several other players - who might gang up against me. I also worried that someone was located to the northwest, cutting off my ability to back my nation up against the edge of the map. For anyone to my northwest, I was the natural target.

We all started with the normal game units: one transport, one zeppelin, and two infantry.

I started off sending one infantry around my island, capturing the resources there. At the same time, I sent my zeppelin out exploring, put my remaining infantry on the transport, and sent it out looking for new lands to capture. I sent my transport to the northwest. I wanted to find out if any players were up there, and eliminate them from the game as soon as possible.

By turn 15, I had discovered and captured the island north of me, and discovered and partially-invaded the island to my northeast. There were three other small islands to my southeast and southwest. I had also researched the “factory” and “biplane” technology advancements, allowing me to build faster and explore territories around me faster. I was still unsure if there was another player to my northwest, so I was sending my biplane out to find any enemy units. Unfortunately, biplanes don’t have very good range.

The game on turn 15:

I was keeping an eye on my northeast, as well. I knew it was only a matter of time before some player would be moving into that area. I needed to capture those oil and fish resources in the northeast before another player did. By capturing those resource, I also wanted to to establish a perimeter that would define the area as “mine”.

On turn 23, I discovered Moon’s oil resource in the northeast. He had captured it much earlier in the game - on turn 6, but he hadn’t pushed any further west. Now, I knew who was to my northeast. Around the same time, the AI player was squeezed against the map by Steve. The AI started pushing north, and decided to declare war on me. So far, I had been pretty lucky; I had been winning all my battles with the militias in the neutral cities.

The game on turn 30:

There were a few tense turns around turn 35 when the AI was moving along my home-island with a fully-loaded transport. To make matters worse, I had moved a lot of my military off the island to capture other territories. Was the AI going to invade my most valuable island while it was vulnerable? I was trying desperately to churn-out ground units for defense. Then, for completely unknown reasons, the AI’s transport suddenly turned around and left. It was inexplicable at the time, but (looking at the turn replay) it turns out that Steve had started invading one of the AI’s important islands at that very moment. The AI seemed to be turning back to reinforce his own territory. Had Steve waited a few more turns, things would’ve gone very differently.

Between turns 30 and 45, Steve and the AI were fighting it out. Steve had captured one of the AI’s islands - containing Boston and a Gold Mine. The AI responded by invading one of Steve’s valuable islands.

I had figured out by this point that there simply wasn’t enough room to my northwest for another player to be up there, so I was happily capturing neutral territory. Eager to discover more land, I started building an airfield on the island to my southeast. This would extend the range of my airforce.

I could see that we were running out of areas to expand into. I started thinking about who I wanted to attack. Moon was to my east. Steve was to my south. The AI was to my southwest. And, I still hadn’t seen any of NormalDude’s territory.

The game on turn 45:

Over the next five turns, the AI had captured a great deal of Steve’s island. The AI was also pushing hard to recapture Boston and the gold mine - territories Steve had taken 15 turns earlier. I knew by this point that NormalDude was helping Steve with the AI’s invasion. NormalDude was sending over ships and troops to fight-back the AI.

The game on turn 50:

On turn 50, Moon and I formed an alliance. We agreed to continually share maps. This meant that we could not only see the geography each other had discovered, but all of our units and all future unit-movements were fully visible to each other. If he saw another player’s aircraft flying around, I could see it, too. We also began exchanging technology - which helped accelerate the pace of our technology research. We could tell that the two of us controlled slightly more than half of the map.

We began constructing a plan to capture the valuable island near the middle of the map. On turn 50, I already had a transport on my way to capture the unowned island, but unbeknownst to me, NormalDude also had a transport en-route to the same island. We both made landfall on the exact same turn. I had two units: an artillery and an infantry, and he had three: a tank and two infantry. We both frantically tried to capture the unowned cities and resources. Moon and I discussed the fact that we we needed to go to war soon - there was very little free territory left on the map, and now might as well be a good time to do it. Unfortunately, I was outgunned on the island.

To be continued …

I’ve been doing a lot of AI-testing lately - making sure the AI is making intelligent choices, fixing errors, and so on. I was playing a game today, and after only 25 turns, I resigned and looked at the current state of the game. It’s true that I was only 25 turns into the game, but here’s the screenshot of the game results so far: the AI was clearly expanding faster than I was, and had control of more city-production and every resource.

(I managed to capture two new cities on turn 25. The graph would look a lot worse if I had failed to do that.)