IMPERIUM REX Revision History: ============================== v1.0 - Oct.31/93: First release --------------------------------- SIDE EFFECT: * World leaders used Imperium Rex to simulate their plans for future conquests. Having won minor battles, they demanded more features, and of course bug fixes, so that they can all plan World War III (for which a slightly more complicated simulation program is required). Brainstorm Software has had to remind these leaders, numerous times, that no responsibility will be accepted for the collapse of empires as a result of the use (or more likely the misuse) of this simulation tool. Brainstorm Software is primarily concerned about surviving World War III, having to face the inevitable (but of course unjustified) legal battles by all sore losers in the aftermath. v1.01 - Nov. 9/93: Second release ---------------------------------- * Aesthetic correction (misaligned window) in Game Editor * Bug fix: If playing pooled resources, resource collection will proceed even though the limit of 255 units will be exceeded, resulting in an 8-bit overflow - in other words, the number of units will wrap back to 0! This has been corrected so that collection will halt as it should at 255 units. (Yes, this is embarrassing!) All games initiated in v1.0 may be played in v1.01. v2.00 - Aug.22/94: Third release --------------------------------- NEW FEATURES: * Repair units may now repair damage to Settlements. * More objects have been added to the transport table, including the ability of Armies to be loaded onto Hydro-Porters. * Remote Playing Provision has been added, which provides the ability for play-by-email and other forms of remote playing. * The off-line manual contains more playing tips. * An extra Global Market damping effect has been added for single- player games, where transactions made by the player induce a more powerful reaction by the Neutral Player. * Each game file now has an embedded object specification table, and game parameter table, to allow modifications to this data on a per- game basis. * Up to 5 object specification tables, and up to 10 game parameter tables may be accessed individually. * Grid lines appear on maps (and may be toggled on/off). * Password protection provided for each player. * The Tactical Report is sorted by object type. * A fully graphical world map editor is provided. * World map views may be saved as Microsoft Windows DIB (.BMP) files. * Move mode order buttons are now also selectable using the keyboard. * ... and other features that are more minor, or ones that I forgot to mention. BUG FIXES: * Bombs can no longer attack on their own (they must be dropped by a Bomber to do damage). * Satellite scanning unknown territory will no longer leave a scanned area blank if an object was there that it failed to notice. * Transports other than RT's may have shown itself assigned to an RT schedule and would cause the program to hang if the schedules were listed in the ORDERS menu. This was due to improper initialization of shared data locations, and has now been corrected. This was explained in more detail in Special Notes Release 2 of Jan29/94 that was mailed to registered users. * ... and many other little annoying things that hopefully no one came across in earlier versions! All games initiated in v1.0 or v1.01 may be converted to v2.00 format using the REXEDIT /c command. Type REXEDIT ? for more details. The object specification and game parameter tables may also be imported for use with v2.00 using the IMPORT program. v2.10 - Feb.02/95: Fourth release (this one) --------------------------------------------- BUG FIXES: * If an object moved onto a transport hovering over a mine (such as an aero-porter) then the object detonates the mine, damaging the object and if killed, the transport's weight capacity is deducted. Even if there is no room on the transport for the object, the object detonates the mine anyway. This has been corrected so that the presence of the mine is ignored. * Attempting to move an object of speed 0 (such as a photon cannon, a fuel depot, etc.) to an adjacent location occupied by a mine will cause the mine to be detonated and the object to be damaged. The object of course remains at the same location, but its movement points are used. This has been corrected so that the presence of the mine is ignored. However, attempting to move such an object will still use up its movement points, as time and effort is expended by the object's crew while preparing and trying to move the equipment to the transport or base that they expected to be there. * The status line in MOVE MODE showing the feature object and surface type underneath the current object displays the feature object (such as mines, resources, rail, etc.) whether or not it was scanned. In addition, if grid lines are on, an extra vertical grid line disects a map location if one of these feature objects exists there. These undocumented reconnaissance features have been removed. * If an enemy object is "killed" and a friendly is moved to the killed object's location in the same round, the "killed" object will do a visibility scan for its enemy objects causing itself to reappear, but not immediately to the enemy who "killed" it. Any further movement by the friendly player's objects to that location will fail, indicated by an obstacle avoidance notice. This has been corrected so that free movement is allowed at the location of the "killed" object during that round, and no scanning by the "killed" object takes place. The reason for the object still existing to do a scan is that it does not technically get destroyed until the player's damage report for that object is produced. * Owned resources that are not collected show up as collected in the collected resources world map view. It now only marks resources that are collected in the given round and are owned by that player. (Note that as per the following bug report item, the term "owned" is now synonymous with "collected".) * Once resources were scanned by a particular player, the colour of the resource as shown to that player always indicated the most up-to-date information on who last collected that resource, regardless of when that resource was last rescanned. This gave players information that they should not have. Resources are now owned temporarily only, on a round-by-round basis. In other words, the colour of the resource will either be light green if it was not collected by you, or your colour if it was collected by you that round - there is no memory now as to who last collected it. As before, other players may also own the same resource(s) during their rounds. * For objects with object number (ON) above 255, the incorrect number and object type appears in the movement status window in MOVE MODE. (Another byte-wrapper! You will find that it corresponds to object number (ON mod 256).) All games initiated in, or converted to v2.00 may be played in v2.10. Some of the included programs have not been promoted in version as they have not been modified. Since this is a bug-fix release (otherwise known by some parties as a "maintenance" release), promoting every program in the package to v2.10 was deemed not necessary. However, the package in its entirety is to be called Imperium Rex v2.10.