EIA v1.25.02 Beta Hotfix #3 Available

[pzgndr]

Attached is the fourth update to the recently released v1.24.03 official patch. This update should be applied over the installed v1.24.03 game files or previous v1.25.xx Beta update(s).

Release notes so far:

Empires in Arms the Napoleonic Wars - 1.25.02
=============================================
- Reported bug placing supply depot - resolved.
- Naval stack move glitch following creation of naval battle – resolved.
- Unconditional Surrender conditions not being properly implemented – resolved.
- Surrender conditions not properly displayed in game log – resolved.
- Alexandria misspelled in database files – resolved.
- Blockading fleets sometimes moved to port upon capture of city and enemy fleets not forced to run blockade upon evacuation – resolved.
- Victor’s units being improperly evacuated from loser’s ceded provinces as part of peace conditions – resolved.
- AI should be taking insurrection and feudal losses first – resolved.
- Path error with selected unit moving through illegal non-highlighted area and not paying higher move cost – resolved.
- Graphics bug following lifting of blockade where duplicate attacker fleets remain in the port – resolved.
- Imminent rural combat situation was not set to battle – resolved.
- Minor DOW allowed against an Allied Major Power's Influenced or Allied neutral – resolved.
- AI weaknesses with placing new units and adding factors – resolved.
- Peace condition not resetting all minors to new status – resolved.

Empires in Arms the Napoleonic Wars - 1.25.01
=============================================
- AI adjustments for strategic redeployments for some early war aggressive actions – resolved.
- Some conquered minors not converting control properly when controlling major power forces present – resolved.
- Some combats not properly initiated when enemy corps present – resolved.
- Canceling builds not working per warning implemented in 1.24.01 – resolved.
- Undo Move for COR Kingdom units not working properly – resolved.
- AI adjustments for redeploying forces back to a threatened capital – resolved.
- Turkish AI place/keep feudals issue fixed in 1.24.01 not working – resolved.
- AI adjustments for being able to reach objective areas – resolved.
- Ceded provinces should evacuate all friendly forces, including naval units – resolved.
- Classic 1805 campaign setups incorrectly place a Spanish garrison in neutral Tuscany – resolved.

Empires in Arms the Napoleonic Wars - 1.25.00
=============================================
- Minor country secondary districts stay at war despite lapse of war of controlling minor country – resolved.
- Cannot build ships for minors – resolved (error related to Algeria able to build ships but has no fleets issue in v1.24.03).
- Several 1805 EIA/EIH minor country statuses, at-start strengths, and morale discrepancies – resolved. (See Game Manual sections 5.3.1 and 5.3.2 completely updated with corrected values. Databases and tables updated accordingly.)
- AI-AI naval combat bug – resolved.
- Adding province to kingdom bug – resolved.
- Some minor diplomacy settings not cleared upon DOW – resolved.
- Rule clarification, lone transports engaged in naval combat are eliminated, not captured – resolved (see revised rule 8.3.1).
- Minor corps and fleets at war not able to engage enemy when controlling major not at war – resolved.
- Corps destroying depot should also be able to lift siege – resolved.

The download includes the updated EXE, updated .ged database files and .tpj table files, updated setups, and an excerpt of the updated Game Manual with the setups and corrected minor morale values for both the classic EIA and alternate EIH versions.

This Hotfix #3 build took a bit longer to get out. A few obscure bugs demanded attention. And several AI adjustments were needed (see below post for details). The computer opponent is really starting to shine. Let's see how this goes.

As always, I'm standing by to investigate any and all reported bugs and observed AI weaknesses. And as before, if you spot something then please please get a good game save of the issue and perhaps of the previous game phase so I can reproduce the issue for troubleshooting. I could really use more feedback, good and bad, as I drive towards a final version for the next official update. Thanks. Enjoy!

2/13/2023 UPDATE. Hotfix #1 posted.

2/22/2023 UPDATE. Hotfix #2 posted.

3/23/2023 UPDATE. Hotfix #3 posted

EiANW 12502 Beta[3].zip

(4.91 MiB) Downloaded 5 times

[pzgndr]

Hotfix #1 posted. I had a lot of time to playtest this week and make LOTS of AI adjustments. DOWs are better, lapses of war are rarer, AI is less reckless with making attacks, some naval movement improvements, etc. I've lost count. It's better.

Still not perfect! There are a couple of minor issues that I want to run to ground next week. As always, I'm looking for any other feedback, particularly any bugs and obvious AI weaknesses. Getting closer. Please give it a try and report back, good or bad. Let's clean this one up and proceed towards the next official update in March or April.

[pzgndr]

Hotfix #2 posted. As mentioned, Jimmi_Magnus and I have been playtesting several builds over the past couple of weeks. A few of the AI bugs I worked on are: feudal corps creating garrisons, insurrection corps and feudal corps not taking losses before regular corps, some improvement to AI placing/removing depots, attacking/defending minor capitals, and more.

Something else we're trying is increasing the AI money/manpower bonuses from 5/15/25 to 10/20/30. Additionally, I've added some bonuses to AI_talk to improve cooperation between allies when their common enemy is Dominant and when a human player is winning. We'll see how this goes for a bit. Granted, the AI has its weaknesses and always will. I do what I can to make it less stupid, and then more aggressive as practical. The goal is to have challenging computer opponents, and Hard difficulty should be very challenging without being impossible. I would appreciate any feedback from players, good or bad, regarding how well this goal is being met or not. Suggestions for improvements are welcomed. We're getting close to having this game play about as well as it's going to play. Let's get there!

[roos]

- I guess this is a bug: Human player cant DOW allied or influenced minor countries of major allies. However, Russia can DOW Sweden even when Sweden is an ally of a human major.

[pzgndr]

- I guess this is a bug: Human player cant DOW allied or influenced minor countries of major allies. However, Russia can DOW Sweden even when Sweden is an ally of a human major.

The game rule is: A Major Power may not declare war against an Allied Major Power's Influenced or Allied neutral
minor country. So I need to clarify whether Sweden was an ally of an Allied human player or not? If not then OK, but if the Human player was Allied then that's a bug.

I checked the code and it's definitely looking at whether the controlling major power of the Influenced or Allied minor is Allied with the game player. So I assume Russia was not allied with Sweden's human major.

[roos]

Yes, Russia was allied to the MP having Sweden as an Ally. They should not be allowed to DOW Sweden then.

[pzgndr]

Yes, Russia was allied to the MP having Sweden as an Ally. They should not be allowed to DOW Sweden then.

OK. I've added some redundancy to the function that checks if a minor can be manipulated. In the future. A game save would be most helpful for me verifying the problem and then for verifying the fix.

[pzgndr]

Quick update. I've been working on Hotfix #3 this past week. One of the issues I've been running to ground is a weakness with the AI placing new units and adding factors. This seems to be working much better now. As I resolve the more obvious bugs and issues, we can start to focus on the less obvious issues and resolve them. So this is good. I want to playtest some more and then try to release Hotfix #3 next week. If all goes well after that, we'll look towards the next official update sometime in the spring.

[Cunctator]

I'm trying to install the hotfix but it gives an error msg: problems with current version.
I updated to 1.24.03 but ... nothing to do.
<please help me

[pzgndr]

I'm trying to install the hotfix but it gives an error msg: problems with current version.
I updated to 1.24.03 but ... nothing to do.
<please help me

I assume update 1.24.03 runs ok for you, yes? You should be able to open the hotfix zip file and just copy&paste the updated files into your EIA game directory to overwrite the current files. Then run the game. Do not try 'running' the zip file. If you are still having problems, please explain what you are doing and show a screenshot of the error message?

[pzgndr]

Hotfix #3 posted. The big news with this build is the extra time I spent digging deeper into the AI code to ensure what I thought was working actually is working and working well. Four areas were improved:

1. AI builds in the economic phase are more efficient. There was a loop to go through unit types and to build certain percentages, but I added a feature to carry over men and money to the next unit type(s). First land units less infantry and militia, then infantry last, then sea units, then infantry again if men and money still available, and lastly militia for remaining men.

2. AI reinforcements are more efficient. Factors are being added to current units, then new units are added and factors added to the new units. I've verified new ships are added to current fleets, but I have not yet seen a new fleet added. It should.

3. AI is now adding leaders as it should. A function to determine best leader was not working as I intended. I had previously changed it consider all leader ratings instead of just two and that wasn't working with the seniority rating. So it's back down to the other three ratings, which now works for AI placing leaders and should also help with combat selection of best leader.

4. Lastly, placing and removing depots got another look. I've lost count how many times I've tried to "fix" this. I did find a couple of things not working right and fixed those, and now the AI is more adept at building and maintaining longer supply lines.

Overall, players should now (finally!?) find the computer opponent to be much more challenging. Let's see how this goes for a while. I will either continue work on v1.25.02 with another hotfix or move forward to v1.25.03 with another version heading towards an official release. Fixing any and all remaining bugs is still my #1 priority, then improving the AI is my #2 priority. I think we're getting there. We'll see.

[roos]

Sadly, AI is still able to attack its allies influenced countries. Here Russia is allied with Prussia and Sweden is Prussian INF. Russia still DOWs Sweden.

There is also something else strange going on in the attached screenshot. Human Prussia who has Sweden as INF and has checked the box of trying to control Sweden doesn't even get a roll. Russia looses 1 PP.

Save of diplomacy step attached below.

Screenshot 2023-03-23 225047.png (9.04 KiB) Viewed 84 times

Save.zip

(181.26 KiB) Not downloaded yet

[pzgndr]

Sadly, AI is still able to attack its allies influenced countries. Here Russia is allied with Prussia and Sweden is Prussian INF. Russia still DOWs Sweden.

Sorry! I did update a check for whether a country can be manipulated, which excludes an ally's Influenced or Allied minor, but the AI minor DOW code apparently does not use that function. I thought it did. I have added it in. Should be fixed now. Try again? Enjoy!

EiANW 12502 Beta[3] EXE.zip

(2.53 MiB) Downloaded 4 times

[roos]

Yes and ouch!
It looks like that solved the DOW thing. However, if you open the provided save and end the naval phase, the game crashes after a while. My guess is during the land phase. Could the new depot code be the culprit? I have seen never ending loops between turns, but no crashes before this, at least not for many years.

Save.zip

(185.14 KiB) Downloaded 1 time

[pzgndr]

However, if you open the provided save and end the naval phase, the game crashes after a while.

Sorry, I am away and will check next week when I get back. In my playtests, the game ran fine. Note that if the mouse is still moving then there is no crash, just a lengthy period for the AI to run. Maybe restart from previous phase autosave and see if the problem persists. I'll take a look when I can and figure it out.

[roos]

The program actually crashes and exits.