Arsenal of Democracy update

Started by solops, April 29, 2012, 11:49:08 AM

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solops

Arsenal of Democracy update 1.11 came out today. As I mentioned elsewhere, I think this is probably a better game than HOI3 or 4.

Hi everyone
Its now the end of 11.11.2018, 100 years after WW1.
So to celebrate the end of WW1, we now announce the beginning of WW2 :)
For those that havent been using the experimental:
Fully working on modern systems, which required:
+New rendering engine
+New networking engine
+Big cleanup and rewrite of the base code.
Also:
Complete overhaul of all research AIs. As this uses a new syntax 1.11 is not savegame-compatible with earlier patches.
10 new nations.
Many new leaders, ministers and tech teams.
Many bug fixes and minor changes.


IMPORTANT:
This will contain breaking changes, and as such we advise to play a new game.
So if you want to complete a current 1.10 campaign with no issues, use the 1.10 "beta" option in steam to keep the current version and switch when you are readt.

1.11 Changelog:
Updated Launcher that allows the new SDL features
FullScreen/Windowed mode now fully supported
New shortcuts:
r = radar
p = improve port
o = improve airport
Rewrite of the underlying directplay network code.
- DirectPlay and IPX network is hereby depreciated and the game thus should finally work on modern systems without any special compability mode or require specific installed windows features.
Rewrite of the underlying directdraw based engine.
- DirectDraw is hereby depreciated and the game thus should work on modern systems.
All new rendering and input engine.
Extended Reserach Softcoding API
Added a check for air units and gave air/sea units a seperate trickle back.
Introduced new class of error: Parsing Error
- will be written into ParsingErrors.csv
- will only display popup messages for first ten errors encountered
- new Parsing Error: on specifying a "type" parameter with invalid value to a trigger "garrison"

Tweaks:
ESE value changed for capital a bit.
Added network log for release.
Small speed in rendering compared to 1.08 by adding a fast path for creating half intensity textures (shadows).
AI now handles synthetic plants better
AI research now handles tech blueprints better
Added more keyboard special key support like "!%/ etc
Tweaked Encirclement and VOV losses.
Tweaked ESE rules to prevent capital bombing exploit.
AI research tweaked further.
Changed AI build preferences, so it follows its script more accurately.
Improved low manpower situation handling of the AI.
Performance wise there is a small speedup depending on number of units in the game.
More country tags for modders
Better moddir support
AI puppets will no longer initiate gift-trades to their overlords, as those get the resources anyway once a stockpile of 1000 is reached.
Block ai/admiral/ignore will now complain if encountering duplicate or invalid (NONE or LAKE) or purely land areas.
Game can be continued normally by choosing "Ignore".
Development queue will now push finishing non-closing lines to the top instead of the bottom.
Fleets carrying land units will only unload them upon arrival in port, if they have the "Sea Transport" mission.
Inaccessible on-map provinces will never have Revolt Risk.
Number of different areas is now virtually unlimited (65533 max).
Production menu previews of models will now display attribute values with a precision of up to two decimal places.
Decimal places beyond the second are rounded-to-even.
Trailing zeros are truncated and trailing decimal point are truncated.
Provinces with only impassable adjacencies will now be automatically ceded to enemies like those with 0 infrastructure.
Provincial manpower is now a floating point value.

Bugfixes/code changes:
Fixed several CTD bugs
Fall Weiss scenario fixed.
Cleanup of country destruction code,
Fixing a null reference / CTD error.
Fixed PING command and savegame transfer for multi player.
Improved memory cleanup on savegame transfer
Fixed a few counters
Fixed death dates of leaders
Fixed combat scenario's setup
Fixed a bug in initialization of fonts
Find province shortcut key added (?)
Zoom Fixed shortcut (+/-)
Ghost Fleet's removed on savegame load
Fixed Causes of ghost fleet creation.
Wrote a manual 8 bit renderer, thus reducing memory footprint by 500MB
Fixed paratrooper over command limit.
Fixed network / router section in manual to reflect the new networking system.
Changed ESE calculation to reduce effect of capital bombing.
Fixed IC calculation & resource income in low resource situations.
Fixed Memory leak in SDL
Resource Tooltip fixed
Fixed a bug relating to giving techteams and leaders to/from nonexisting countries
Fixed transparent scaled images like unit health bars.
Fixed reinforcement during combat on day change.
A cause for the AI placing more than 4 Air units in a stack has been resolved.
Tutorials fixed
F1(HELP) button fixed
Battle events images now synced to the actual event.
Fixed minor memory leak
Transport & invasion AI bugfixes.
Bugfix: windowed mode mouse support
Bugfix: Brigade stats initialization wrong on savegame load
1.08 regression: buildings reduced to size 0 would not be saved, resulting in restoration of their size from scenario data on reload.
Activation of new division models would message upgrade availability once for each model per unit type and technology project, even if only one activated model actually pertained to the production line in question.
AI would assign only empty fleets to bases (inverted check), completely eliminating AI base fleets. (possible 1.08 regression)
AI would assume that an Air unit contained strategic bombers if it had none and vice versa (inverted check).
AI would check whether Air units have strategic bombing capability by only checking the first unit contained (in order of assignment).
AI would never consider available unused escorts when deciding whether to build more, building more whenever it needs (more than four builds of) convoys
AI would try to send air units into provinces without access, hogging pathfinding and keeping those units from acting
AI would try to send sea units convoy raiding into land provinces, hogging pathfinding and keeping those units from acting
AI would try to build infrastructure in provinces with maximal infrastructure.
Air divisions with exactly 0 ORG could still attack in combat (checked for less-than instead of less-or-equal).
Air and Naval units could in theory exceed the engine-limited maximal movement speed because difficulty modifiers were applied after the check (largely hypothetical crash issue).
Leader trait gain from combat events would be processed even if the assorted trait was already given - blocking acquisition of other traits
Leader traits from combat events always had priority over those from terrain - even if the leader already had the event trait but missed the terrain trait
Map mode button Weather was clickable while Weather map mode was already selected.
Non-submarine naval units would fail to select new targets if they had no target at the very first combat round.
Production lines of militia type divisions could not be upgraded.
Provinces automatically ceded to an enemy due to 0 infrastructure would not be ceded to the original owner in the same manner.
Selecting a mod-only scenario in multiplayer would crash the game.
The first unit in AI build lines longer than 1 would be unnamed.
Triggers areacontrol, areaowned would not actually check all provinces in the given area.
Whether a carrier has CAGs equipped only checked the first attachment (in order of assignment).

Softcode effects:
new event trigger "tech_team_active = <team ID>" - is true if team is working on a project
new event command "type = change_team_picture which = <F := file name without extension> value = <T := team ID>" - replaces <T>'s picture with <F>
event command "type = national idea" can now take parameter "value = -1" to indicate country receiving the event
event trigger "garrison" can now take parameter "country = -1" to indicate country receiving the event or omit it to count all units regardless of owner
event trigger "under_attack" can now take parameter "value = -1" to indicate country receiving the event
Resource columns in db/Provinces.csv are now interpreted as floating point values.
Three new keys were added to Boostertext.csv:
EE_TEAM_PICTURE - text for new command "change_team_picture"
TC_TEAM_ACTIVE - text for new trigger "tech_team_active"
TCNOT_TEAM_ACTIVE - text for negated trigger "tech_team_active"
Three new keys were added to text.csv:
RCDM_BUILD_SYNTHETIC_MATERIAL_PLANT - text for new right-click-dropdown-menu entry "Build Synthetic Material Plant"
RCDM_BUILD_SYNTHETIC_OIL_PLANT - text for new right-click-dropdown-menu entry "Build Synthetic Oil Plant"
RCDM_BUILD_DISP2 - text for new right-click-dropdown-menu entry "Build Nuclear Power Plant"

Summary of softcoded changes:
AI now aims at a severly higher industrial build up resulting in resource shortages in the later years.
AI Germany will thus use synthetic plants to a high degree when it becomes a necessity.
Daily manpower gain from provinces has been increased by 50%(same as in Doomsday).
90% of manpower losses by aircrafts are now returned back into the manpower pool.
Air bases and naval bases no longer require manpower.
Complete overhaul of naval divisions in the building queue at the start of all 6 grand campaign scenarios.
A new event for Japan enables to liberate Nanjing-China without dissent once Japan controls the better part of China.
Complete overhaul of all research AIs. As this uses a new syntax 1.11 is not savegame-compatible with earlier patches.
10 new nations.
Many new leaders, ministers and tech teams.
Many bug fixes and minor changes.
Some clean up and outsourcing of some events into seperate files for better human readability.
"I could have conquered Europe, all of it, but I had women in my life." - King Henry II of England
I may be drunk, Miss, but in the morning I will be sober and you will still be ugly. - Winston Churchill
Wine is sure proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy. - Benjamin Franklin

ArizonaTank

Probably a silly question, but here it goes. What is the difference between this and Darkest Hour?  Where should I invest my gaming time?
Johannes "Honus" Wagner
"The Flying Dutchman"
Shortstop: Pittsburgh Pirates 1900-1917
Rated as the 2nd most valuable player of all time by Bill James.

Sparhawk

One big difference is the number of provinces. I would say that Arsenal of Democracy plays like an improved version of Hearts of Iron II. It has the same look and feel. To me Darkest Hour feels like a Hearts of Iron - Europa Universalis mash. I would say Darkest Hour gives you more hard choices.  Playing Hearts of Iron games I feel like I sit on the razor's edge between production for province improvement and military units. I always like to make sure all my industry producing provinces have air defense. Darkest Hour makes this much more expensive production wise with so many more provinces. My preference is Arsenal of Democracy. It is one game that never leaves my hard drive. I love playing as Germany. You can't out produce the United States once they get rolling. You have to think outside the box.

solops

#3
I have both AoD and DH as well as all of the HOI series. AoD vs DH: DH is prettier, better map and more "stuff". AoD is cleaner and has an AI that does not make the stupid mistakes DH ( and the HOI games) make. AoD and DH are both worth playing, but AoD is, IMO, a better contest, especially with the big CORE mod. And that is before this last patch, which I have not played. Having said all of that, remember an AI is just an AI. AoD is what we all wish HOI2 had been when it was released.

Paradox Forum: https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?forums/arsenal-of-democracy.462/

"I could have conquered Europe, all of it, but I had women in my life." - King Henry II of England
I may be drunk, Miss, but in the morning I will be sober and you will still be ugly. - Winston Churchill
Wine is sure proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy. - Benjamin Franklin