New Hannibal Public Beta Update v1.05 Now Available!

Hannibal: Rome and Carthage in the Second Punic War is a new and innovative turn-based strategy game that puts you in command of the Carthaginian military during a period of total war over land and sea with the young Roman Republic. With this military juggernaut of the ancient world at your disposal, you will vie for control over Italy, Carthage, Spain and the Mediterranean Sea using a combination of strategic political maneuvering and sheer tactical skill both on land and sea. Play consists of two layers; the first is a strategic layer where you must prudently steer your forces to the destruction of Rome’s army and the ultimate destruction of the Republic and city itself. At your disposal are a variety of unit types and historical commanders from which to form your armies. On the tactical scale, when meeting the enemy in battle, skilled leadership and a knack for war come into play as you use a simple but engaging battle system to best your opponents.

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Andrew Loveridge
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New Hannibal Public Beta Update v1.05 Now Available!

Post by Andrew Loveridge »

Hello All,

We have an update for Hannibal in the works, and have it as a Beta in the Members Club. It adds a High Score table, fixes some rare crashes. and corrects some other bugs.

Please remember this is a Beta, and any feedback is appreciated.

Change List

V1.05 beta – December 2014
    General Improvements and corrections:[/b] [ul]
  • The game now implements a system of high scores. This includes a menu for viewing and managing a player's scores. This menu, the High Scores Menu, is ac-cessible from the main game menu.
  • Corrects a crash which can occur after placing an army in one of the two smaller Agricultural Estates in the province of Zeugitania.
  • Corrects a very rare crash that can occur when clicking the mouse just after the input has been locked and then unlocked during a transition or a "busy" period.
  • Corrects an error in the game which didn't require mountain attrition when an army moves from Spain across the Pyrenees to attack the city of Genua. This can happen when the player doesn't control the city of Emporion in Spain.
  • Corrects an error in the movement logic which allowed the player to use the Ex-tended March option in conjunction with sea movement if an army was escaping a besieged city.
  • Corrects a similar error in the movement logic which allowed the player to use the Extended March option in conjunction with a separate play of the Escape By Sea option.
  • Corrects an error in the game logic which incorrectly allowed a Syracusan leader to leave the island of Sicily.
  • Corrected a couple of typos in the Help System and updated the manual to clarify the rule regarding the Extended March option.
[/ul]
tombo
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RE: New Hannibal Public Beta Update v1.05 Now Available!

Post by tombo »

..thanks for this update and great game!

cheers
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mercenarius
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RE: New Hannibal Public Beta Update v1.05 Now Available!

Post by mercenarius »

I'd like to ask if anyone has any feedback to provide concerning this update.

In particular: is the High Scores idea at all useful?

The scores themselves are only meaningful in gauging your performance against yourself. It's possible to "cheat" if one wants to, so comparing one's scores to those of other players really doesn't mean very much.

I am probably going to close the beta period fairly soon, and I just want to make sure to gather any feedback I can before I do that.

And, by the way, thanks for supporting this game!
James Warshawsky
Forced March Games, LLC
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Drakkon
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RE: New Hannibal Public Beta Update v1.05 Now Available!

Post by Drakkon »

ORIGINAL: mercenarius


In particular: is the High Scores idea at all useful?

The scores themselves are only meaningful in gauging your performance against yourself.

The High Scores are useful BECAUSE you can gauge your performance against yourself. That's what many of us wanted. And, of course, the bug fixes are good also.

I do have one point I would like to raise;

On rare occasions the recruiting pool for Syracuse gets a bit strange, with an overabundance of cavalry. This is particularly the case when Syracuse takes heavy losses and ends up recruiting many replacements.

For example, in a recent game Syracuse lost most of her army fighting off two seperate Roman attacks. Avaliable replacements were all cavalry. By the end of the game I had 2 infantry, 4 cavalry and 2 naval squadrons. This is not a big deal, but it does seem a bit weird. Sicily is not that great as horse-breeding country!

I wouldn't exactly call this a "Bug", but if it's not too complicated to implement, I suggest a unit cap for Syracuse, say 2 cavalry 4 or 5 naval units and the rest infantry.
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mercenarius
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RE: New Hannibal Public Beta Update v1.05 Now Available!

Post by mercenarius »

On rare occasions the recruiting pool for Syracuse gets a bit strange, with an overabundance of cavalry

Yes, I didn't change this in the current beta. I left it this way so that the player cannot always rely on getting infantry in the pool (and therefore anticipate raising a large Syracusan navy if desired). The code is designed to cap the pool based on what is currently in the pool, rather than what you have taken out of it. So if you take cavalry out of the pool then the future growth may be additional cavalry in the pool.

But, I do take your point. I'll have to see if Matrix is game for a second beta. Let me see what Matrix can accomodate.

Thanks for the feedback on the scores system, by the way!
James Warshawsky
Forced March Games, LLC
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mercenarius
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RE: New Hannibal Public Beta Update v1.05 Now Available!

Post by mercenarius »

Well, after checking my own schedule and that of Matrix, I have decided to close out the public beta and make it final.

As for the Syracusan recruiting pool issue, I will revisit that at some point in the future. Certainly I'll issue some kind of "final" patch eventually. When I do that, I'll tweak the behavior of the recruiting pools to avoid extreme outliers. In the meantime I ask people to put up with the occasional odd result.

James Warshawsky
Forced March Games, LLC
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Drakkon
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RE: New Hannibal Public Beta Update v1.05 Now Available!

Post by Drakkon »

ORIGINAL: mercenarius

Well, after checking my own schedule and that of Matrix, I have decided to close out the public beta and make it final.

As for the Syracusan recruiting pool issue, I will revisit that at some point in the future. Certainly I'll issue some kind of "final" patch eventually. When I do that, I'll tweak the behavior of the recruiting pools to avoid extreme outliers. In the meantime I ask people to put up with the occasional odd result.


No problem, like I said it's not a big deal. The new game is much more important!
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jack54
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RE: New Hannibal Public Beta Update v1.05 Now Available!

Post by jack54 »

Thanks again for the game and the update. I still enjoy it very much and look forward to the new game![&o]

Small request... Can saves be sorted by date or turn number; I get confused sometimes if autosave is newer or older.

Not a big deal but sometimes I need to be protected from myself.

Thanks again!
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mercenarius
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RE: New Hannibal Public Beta Update v1.05 Now Available!

Post by mercenarius »

Can saves be sorted by date or turn number

It would be pretty easy to allow a choice for sorting the saved games list by date or name.

I will have to take a fresh look at the save format to see about sorting by turn number. I mean, of course I can do it, but can I do it with backwards compatibility? That's the issue. I'll post something when I have a chance to check the code. I wrote the game-saving logic a long time ago. [:D]

I don't know how soon we'll want to introduce a version 1.0.6, so this might have to remain a "one of these days" kind of thing. At least for the near future. But your request is a good one, and I can understand your need for it.
James Warshawsky
Forced March Games, LLC
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jack54
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Location: East Tennessee

RE: New Hannibal Public Beta Update v1.05 Now Available!

Post by jack54 »

Thank you...

If it's a lot of trouble don't be over concerned with it...I've gotten by so far....hopefully the new game will have the feature.

The new game gets priority anyway....[;)]

All the BEST!
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