Update 3 Beta 3

[Balthagor]

Latest test build for update 3. If this version tests out well, the plan is to shift it to being the official build in short order.

http://www.battlegoat.com/downloads/SRCW-Update-7-2-72.exe

Full Changelog (Green lines are changes from beta2 to beta3)

Changes:
- Income and Expense reports in Treasury completely redesigns
- Income and Expense totals shown per department
- Spending shortfalls only shown when shortfalls exist
- Scorecard shows flag for “region is target of destabilization”
- Header will sort to find regions the player is targeting
- 25 more leaders faces (all leaders into the ‘80s)
- Map Fixes
- BattleZones touched up
- Balance reviewed based on engine changes
- Various fixes
- Tech Tree updated
- Equipment File updated
- Orbat fixes
- Updates to events
- Unit Trade - default to "trade where located";
-Scenario lobby option “Diplomatic Merchant Marine”, off turn will “magic transport”.
- Regions more likely to trade goods
- Allies will offer money more often (but less money)
- Approval negative effects minimized for players "in sphere"
- Military upgrade maintenance costs reduced / inflation adjustments
- Colonies auto-send their surplus to their parents daily (no cost / no trade)
- Colonies will max production, and not sell to market (send to parent instead)
- Fixed issue with certain minister priorities - rewrote internal priority handling
- Fixed garrison reduction issues (will still take time, though)
- GUI Crash bug resolved
- Naval "AI Request" message flood bug resolved (memory "leak")
- Adjusted use of interception-AI requests for stationary units
- Liberate Colony added for Single Player
- Neutral Exit flag inherited by merchant marine
- New Consumer demand formulas - more GDP tie-in; Roads/Rails for fuel use
- Start of game world GDP calculation fixed
- Power no longer stocked over multiple days
- Improved AI / Minister handling of Social Spending, Research spending
- Start of game world GDP calculation fixed again
- Adjustments to social spending when no money (AI/Minister)
- Colonies will slash research spending unless they are rich
- Exit Rule bugs fixed - units on 'neutral exit' will not get shot at; will use ports
- Fixes to trade w/o transit issues
- Air Patrol / Fuel bug fixed
- Tax / GDP Formula bug fixed
- Sphere changes when declaring war on other sphere member adjusted
- Handling of colonies of defeated player fixed in MP
- GUI items; handling of 'excluded flag' by AI updated
- Supply contribution of port is now based on largest value instead of prior order
- Fix bug in reduction-of-supply calculations
- Fixed Relationship change issues when liberating region
- Garrisons are eliminated when land changes hands
- AI war declarations on same "leaning" sphere increasingly possible
-State department Region Select now with Theatre headers
- Reserve and Production facility select now with Theatre headers
- Adjusted quick-exit path (Window X or alt-F4) to try to prevent exit-crash
- Fixed cache creation, memory bugs
- Aircraft landed on carrier units will no longer be shot at if sea but no land transit
- Diplo trade of units from base locked in colony should hopefully work
- Minister will no longer recommend research that is already in queue
- More on parent/colony exit rule fixes
- Fixed some goods reporting: diplo trades now show up in 'trades' total (but only quantity, not dollar value)
- Fuel/Ammo given to transit units w/o regional supply now reported in demand/use
- Adjusted save write buffer size for large unit counts (should resolve 1K save crash)
- Optimization - reduce RAM use
- Optimization - reduce savegame size
- More error checks in code
- AI unit scrap code will reduce more types of leg infantry, incl cavalry
- AI players will no longer send units to support a colony request (but may still respond to calls for assistance from parent units)
- on-map graphic events no longer queued when game is minimized
- More Merchant Marine fixes
- AI Merchant Marine that are completely lost will auto-scrap
- Performance adjustments:
- Units unable to sea transp to base will not try repeatedly
- Resupply is no longer done per slice; up to 120 slices at once if idle
- Units retreating to safe areas no longer need to go back to a base
- Reduced occurrence of "traffic jams" due to stack size pause & allies in the way
- findclosestbase routine improved to use seed pathing to check if reachable
- Possible issues with Resupply rate of in-reserve units fixed (minor)
- New Consumer demand formulas - more GDP tie-in; Roads/Rails for fuel use
- Oil prices for high GPD adjusted (Modern World mod) and should behave better
- Pathing improved
- Less idle units over long term
- Better AI control of defcon & buildup
- Minister will reduce preparedness/alert level properly once wars are over
- More N Korea and N Vietnam balance adjustments (allies can still disrupt balance)
- Commodity markets improved
- Economies for long term games improved
- Map changes for Suez and Panama. These canal colonies set for international transit.
- Spies work in games without Fog of War
- Naval invasion preparations now cancelled when enemies all die
- Long-idle units return to reserve more often (including air and naval and leg)
- More tests and fallbacks to prevent clone unit bug
- More use of AI Assistance requests when units destroyed
- More use of Naval AI Assistance requests
- AI war declaration consideration of 'allied with superpower' now considers colonies too
- Formula that ties demand to GDP adjusted
- Fixed Bug with DAR calculation based on domestic prices
- Improved formula for calculation of production cost related to gdp
- Adjusting social spending thresholds for minister
- DAR hit for high domestic prices is increased
- wmrelrate increases over time (affects some facility/tech cost formulas)
- wmbasegdpc increases with world inflation (affects formuals)
- wm base cost of resources increases with world inflation
- socialdefault baselines increase over time
- Regional cost of resource production affect by world pricing
- Increased facility maintenance costs calculations
- Parents now provide more support to colonies in need
- Social costs increased esp for higher levels of quality & richer nations
- Rich nations expect higher social values
- AIParameters updated (ver 7.2.59)
- Fixed accounting for dead spy in mission numbers
- Implemented AI use of Spy Recon, Spy Espionage, Spy sabotage
- Adjustments to Espionage & Counter-intelligence code
- Fixes to spy hap reporting / counts; Fixed spy gui issues
- Spies and no-move units no longer call for resupply
- Excluded units are no longer auto-built by minister
- Favorited units get some extra preference by minister
- Added default values to Minister specs when not set in People DB
- Improvements to Minister tax rate set
- Minister social spending fixes
- Minister domestic pricing fixes
- Improvements to minister alert/preparedness spending decisions
- Economic adjustments / Minister control
- Ministers will build facilities in compatible cities (not just industrial complexes)
- Ministers will not automatically reduce garrisons when told to reduce spending
- Fixed issue where AI rulers may not finish their work before end of day
- Adjusted tax income in large-population regions
- forcesplan region CVP setting better used by AI ruler
- Sphere Change email only sent if sphere victory condition is set
- Human player global unit initiatives new defaults set to low/high/low at start
- Theatre transfer by Merchant Marine is only done if distance > 200 hex - otherwise normal pathing is tried
- Colonies no longer directly make AI Requests for parent units
- Regions will no longer merch marine as much to low-priority colony requests
- Regions will not respond to out-of-theatre ally/mutual def requests unless TH or BZ priority level is above default
- AI Rulers Air unit buildup and other adjustments
- Air units will give up trying to reach unreachable destinations
- Fixed bug where some circling air units would not try to return for fuel
- Some optimization of air return to base code
- Improvements to AI request for assistance by colony, ally, mutual defense, etc
- Migration to Direct X9 - Win98/ME legacy attempts abandoned.
- Graphic code optimizations
- Relationship changes on liberating a colony fixed
- Unload command fixed to prevent improper unload on oceanic complex, bridges, etc (amphibious allowed)
- Factors involving civilian approval of different government types improved
- Support for more screen resolutions
- Alliance with player now provides mutual defense w/colony (for proxies). Does not apply to existing treaties in existing savegames.
- Priority of Research Recommendations lowered. Only seen if set to show lower priority messages.
- Garrisons not removed in low-priority zones if garrison lock set
- Various other small fixes

 

[Balthagor]

Known issues for U3B3
- Boats use up fuel too fast causing travel range to be only slightly more than 50% of reported range
- loading a savegame,starting time may take longer as all paths are re-calculated. This is especially noticable in games where there are hundreds of units actively moving.
- Boats still get stuck in “inlets”. (Baltimore, Bay of Fundy, etc.)
- Queuing units from “all production” will not always divide properly between available build locations
- Some scripted events are not properly triggered
- If you use the Global Rules of Engagement and push “Lock from Minister AI to every unit that will cause spies to stop working

 

[Balthagor]

There seems to be a compatibility issue with Windows XP and Beta 3. If you're running XP you won't be able to test this update at this time.

 

[deadmeat1471]

Thanks for the work/update! Me and mah circle of friends will be testing this out for the next couple of days at least, will let ya know if we find any bugs etc.

 

[deadmeat1471]

Comments so far;

By January 8th the game begins to slowdown quite dramatically compared to the previous patch. Probably 50% at least

A day now takes Between 6 and 12 seconds instead of before it was approximately 3 or 4. (both on fastest speed)
It's not an prohibitive increase, but i'm just commenting on what i've noticed!
*Speed seems to pick up to its old speed after a year or so.

**AI seems better at not spazzing out its troops walking everywhere for no reason.

 

[Balthagor]

Please continue testing, changes were made up to the last day therefore we only got into "late game" a few times. There is the risk of "regression errors" which may have broken something.

At the same time, other changes such as adding "espionage" to the AI code and other new features may have some performance impact. Every feature we add is more load on the AI.

We look forward to the feedback...

 

[Wowwars]

Nice to see more updates for games.

 

[Sovereign Dixie]

Edit: Never mind, I'm an idiot. My question is answered in another thread lol.

 

[jmac006]

I Installed this update and having come from SR2020 gold I noticed something right away so i wanted to bring it up, not sure if its supposed to be this way in srcw or not.

When you takeover a nation,(annex) normally your unemployment and Inflation will automatically adjust within a dew days for the increase in population. I noticed that did not happen at all in srcw with this current update. I do hope you are able to fix this easily so it can make it into the final patch for update 3, i know this can not be correct.

Also a general question....is it normally a bit choppy for everyone when moving the mouse from one place to another, or could my graphics settings just be to high? I noticed an Nvidia workaround button tab, I have an Nvidia video card, Should i be clicking this automatically?

I normally do not post, I bought 2010, 2020, global crisis and gold, and then cold war, this is really the first time i played cold war since buying it on release. I've seen you catch a lot of crap balthagor, thanks for what you do. I think the most frustrating thing as a consumer I've noticed over the years is the understaffing and missed opportunties the studio has not capitalized on in relation to other paradox titles. I believe at some point i read that you were the only coder. I feel for ya man.

Case in point, a german reunification ability/scenario would of captured a lot of hearts of iron fans and it would of been cool to advertise just how long you can play cold war, how far into a timeline you can go, you already had everything from 2020....
Best wishes, Happy Holidays and I hope 2013 brings you great success.

 

[unmerged(442876)]

I am saddened to say the slow day progression is still persistent for me. I'm playing as Egypt using the latest beta patch. The game starts off nicely, probably due to having no units at the start. But, as the game progresses, a massive reduction in speed is noticed. This begins around the years 1951-1952. I would be more than happy to upload my save-game if any developer has an interest in it.

 

[Balthagor]

Hello,

Please zip and e-mail it to me. Include ticket 17029 in the subject line. Thanks.

 

[jmac006]

Chris,

There ya go, I just spent the last 35 minutes registering 2/3 of my paradox titles. Now Maybe I can please have an answer, its an extremely big deal to me as it is a game breaker IMO.

1. On the current update, did you guys already know that when you annex a country it does not calculate unemployment and inflation for your increased population size upon takeover. I was playing Argentina, pop 17 million, took over chile, which is another 6 million people, my unemployment and inflation stayed the same. (when I play 2020 gold this auto adjusts day 1 or 2)

2. If you already knew about the above challenge is it in the upcoming final patch of update 3?

3. I read on Fistalis (spelling) forum that his current mod which is used in the current update, has to high maintenence fee's so the US always goes broke later on in the game...Do you happen to know if I read incorrectly or got his versions mixed up or is this always true, US will always go broke in the current update?

4. Does anyone have any Idea How long the game can be played ? 30 yrs? 50? When does it become...tech/econ wise not playable anymore?

Lastly, Thank you for your time and hard work on these titles.

Jason McIlvain

 

[Balthagor]

@jmac006

1 and 2. I had noticed this but had not be watching for it either. Do you have a savegame from before you annex that I could test with? As I do further testing, I'll watch for this sort of issue. Update 3 is in final testing. Unless we find something massively broken somewhere, no further changes are expected. We have made changes since the beta update was released so it may already be different than what you're experiencing. A savegame would be most useful.

3. Fistalis had created a modern world mod. There have been so many engine changes that his mod will need to be rebalanced to work with Update 3. We have communicated with him to try our best to not create situations that he can't balance for. Last I heard he had not had time to do any testing yet so I don't know where his mod is at now.

4. The tech tree runs out ~ tech level 175 (~ = 2075) but the levels aren't actually reported in game. I'd expect an ambitious player could complete the tech tree by ~ 2050. The game itself has no date limit. The economic changes for update 3 (particularly those done since Beta 3 was released) have a big impact on helping AI regions "grow" over long play spans.

To your earlier comments, we are a small studio (5 members in the studio) but I'm not the programmer, that's George. The Nvidia workaround resolved issues where some older drivers did not draw the graphics properly. Large parts of the GUI where simply missing. I've seen no reports of a choppy mouse movement so can't really make any suggestions without more information.

 

[jmac006]

@Balthagor

I do not have that save game, However as a test I just started a new game as argentina with units, deployed all the reserves, zerged the capital of chili, same results, no change in gdp, inflation or unemployment even though the population increase is dramatic.
In 2020 I use to takeover low gdp countries to curb my inflation so i always pay close attention to these things.
In the original game i had 15%inflation and 2.5% unemployment, which was why i took them out, boy was i suprised lol
Sorry no save game but if u do the steps above you should get the same results, only takes like 3-4 min.
Thanks for your reply I appreciate the information.
By the way I know you guys are a small studio, I wasn't knocking any of you, just saying I wish you had larger resources, I really think you guys should look into Kickstarter for your next game, it can really help with initial funding and your fans can support you way more then the 40-60 bucks for a game. I paid 120 bucks for mechwarrior online lengendary and its a free to play game, Just supporting the company doing the work. Anyways, just an idea from the sell side of the industry, ive spent most of my professional life selling things and doing business, just want to see you guys make it =0)
A WW2 game gives you guys the chance to give all the HOI fans something to play with a deeper economic model, and better graphical combat. You already have the customer base installed, Just have to use that synergy to get yourselves a best seller in this genre

 

[zezeb]

How long do you expect it to be left until full release?

 

[Balthagor]

@jmac006 - thanks or the detailed info, I will try and recreate that (ticket 17031 in our system). I also bought into MWO, but wish it was better with a joystick .

@zezeb - I don't, it's out of my hands now. I'm still doing some testing but waiting for final word that George has tested all his economic changes. We're close, but no date yet.

 

[Balthagor]

@jmac006 - just started as Argentina, started conquering Chile. Had 12% unemployment when I started, dropped to 9% as I conquered some territory. Seems to be happening progressively.

 

[jmac006]

I thought I replied to this but I guess it didnt go through.....The drop is regular for argentina in the very beginning.....remember, unemployment should be going up as you conquer territory, not down. gdp should go down, unemployment up and inflation down.
If when u deploy all your reservers, you move them to the road right by the capital, then declare war when they r all set, it should only take less then a week to capture the capital, once you do, the next couple days should auto adjust those variables, ive tried it 3 times now and it hasnt yet
MWO....nice.....they did the best they could with the resources they had, i supported it and bought the legendary pack but havent played more then a couple times, there were only like 3 maps last time i played.

okay...
Started as US....Mexico has a huge diff in gdp with 28 million people...there should be at least a few points jump following the 2020 model.....called up the reserves, moved to border, zerged capital.....minor movements which can be expected from minister commands, but even when i choose to annex it the points really didnt reflect absorbing 29 million new people with over 1100 points diff in gdp. Maybe the calculation for srcw is just different then 2020? but if so, its still odd this doesnt auto reflect when u annex a nation because income, gdp, unemployment and inflation should all be dramatically affected at least by a few points in a move that big....

adding mex is roughly 1/5 of a pop add, adding chile to argentina is about a 30% increase....i could be wrong but my logical mind says the numbers should be moving...


Last Edit...I just jumped onto 2020gold. vic condition capital, started as US, deployed reserves, zerged mex capital...6k drop in gdp and 3 % drop in inflation upon takeover...unemployment kinda stayed same which is odd, but had i been deeper then start of game, it would of risen like it always does...

So Now i feel like i am spamming ya but i am not imagining it, it doesnt seem like its updating gdp, inflation and unemployment like it should, or at least like it does in 2020gold
Thanks for checking into this, I know it seems minor but if the country dynamics arent reflecting upon takeover they may never be integrating properly which could deal a serious blow to the supply and demand of the entire games enconomy

 

[Balthagor]

I'll get this information to our programmer and get his take on it. He's much better with the economy stuff anyway. Thanks for the details!

 

[unmerged(356217)]

I thought I replied to this but I guess it didnt go through.....The drop is regular for argentina in the very beginning.....remember, unemployment should be going up as you conquer territory, not down. gdp should go down, unemployment up and inflation down.
If when u deploy all your reservers, you move them to the road right by the capital, then declare war when they r all set, it should only take less then a week to capture the capital, once you do, the next couple days should auto adjust those variables, ive tried it 3 times now and it hasnt yet
MWO....nice.....they did the best they could with the resources they had, i supported it and bought the legendary pack but havent played more then a couple times, there were only like 3 maps last time i played.

okay...
Started as US....Mexico has a huge diff in gdp with 28 million people...there should be at least a few points jump following the 2020 model.....called up the reserves, moved to border, zerged capital.....minor movements which can be expected from minister commands, but even when i choose to annex it the points really didnt reflect absorbing 29 million new people with over 1100 points diff in gdp. Maybe the calculation for srcw is just different then 2020? but if so, its still odd this doesnt auto reflect when u annex a nation because income, gdp, unemployment and inflation should all be dramatically affected at least by a few points in a move that big....

adding mex is roughly 1/5 of a pop add, adding chile to argentina is about a 30% increase....i could be wrong but my logical mind says the numbers should be moving...


Last Edit...I just jumped onto 2020gold. vic condition capital, started as US, deployed reserves, zerged mex capital...6k drop in gdp and 3 % drop in inflation upon takeover...unemployment kinda stayed same which is odd, but had i been deeper then start of game, it would of risen like it always does...

So Now i feel like i am spamming ya but i am not imagining it, it doesnt seem like its updating gdp, inflation and unemployment like it should, or at least like it does in 2020gold
Thanks for checking into this, I know it seems minor but if the country dynamics arent reflecting upon takeover they may never be integrating properly which could deal a serious blow to the supply and demand of the entire games enconomy

It might not be. I mean since the actual effects of Inflation and Unemployment have been pretty much removed he may have removed the code to update them since the Original plan was to not even have those numbers available. They only gave us those back because a few of us threw a hissy, but as far as i know they never reintroduced the effects.. meaning He's not likely to have bothered modifying the code to update them.