Steam DLC, Hosting Games now Free, UI Improvements & Bugfixes
Steam DLC "All Maps & Modding": the game can now be also purchased also via the "All Maps & Modding" DLC. This includes everything for single player including hotseat or playing against the AI. Also includes modding. This covers the same as the corresponding "All Maps & Modding" that is available in-game.
Hosting Games: hosting games over the official servers is now free. The original goal was to cover hosting fees but also encourage players to join other players' games. Given hosting games is now free, giving 5 coins per day to each player isn't really needed anymore and the amount has been reduced to 1 coin a day.
Official Events: there was a bug in the verification code preventing an official event game from being started ('null' pointer).
Private Messages: there is now a dropdown allowing to select how a message is to be sent. E.g. via clan or moderator etc.
Network I/O: reduced the number of data packets that are sent to improve networking (e.g. official event-polling reduced by a factor of 6x).
Display Scaling: the display scale factor setting had the scale into the wrong direction. It's now fixed. If you had it set before, it was reset due prevent problems. Please re-apply your setting again, sorry for the inconvenience.
UI: tutorial hint panels updated.
UI: export options for avatars and other images updated to also allow to export animated avatars in their internal format.
Tooltip Delay: reduced the default from 1000ms to 800ms. Also, the tooltip delay can now be adjusted inside the game's settings.
Mouse Middle Button: the mouse middle button (if available; possibly "merged" with mouse wheel) allows dragging the map when pressed.
Key Binding: F10 will now bring up the game menu with settings & exit option when pressed in-game.
Formatting: {SKEW} tag now formats text in italics.
Manual: slight wording update to happiness penalties regarding to war (clarity).
Language: latest translations added - Thanks :-D
Language: misc. spelling bugfixes.
Language: improved descriptions for "All Maps & Modding" and "Modded Maps". For "Modded Maps" you get ALL the modded maps (not just a single map). It just excludes official maps.
Translation Guide: encouragement added to have players fix existing translated texts also.
Avatar Builder: now with 4-bit alpha for better compression.
Admin Function: ID blocks now allow max. one wildcard character '*'.
Maintenance: memory consumption of RenderPool reduced (capped the cached items).
Maintenance: legacy product IDs renamed from "official:#..." to "pack:# ..." and "idol:# ...".
Steam API: update the API calls to the Steam servers from v1 to v2/v3 with support for 64bit. Potentially resolves problems?
Sponsoring Maps (for others): fee reduced to 99 (from 500).
Betting: the option now has been removed.
Maintenance: updated the backend libGDX library to 1.11.0 (LWJGL at 3.3.1). If you are on Mac OS X, you might have to re-install the binary if you got it (a) via itch.io or (b) our website. Sorry for the inconvenience!
Droid: "uiMode" added to "configChanges" to prevent restart of app when docked or undocked.
Bugfix: text cursor position would not properly work (left/right arrow key) due to unit conversion not being reciprocal.
Bugfix: properly disposing GUI atlas, i.e. box-selection (minor).
Bugfix: application not shutting down when status bar notification was turned on (desktop).
Bugfix: ANGLE OpenGL wrapper only used starting with Windows 8+ (to prevent problems on older operating systems).
Bugfix: logging in didn't work with database eror for some users if certain data was over 64 characters (database column too small).
Bugfix: input field is not handling CTRL+V if image.
Bugfix: purchase & refund confirmation emails could results in error messages (if the email address was wrong).
Bugfix: we cannot declare war or send message otherwise to eliminated factions.
Bugfix: we cannot swap to a faction that is already eliminated (preventing endless-loop).
Bugfix: TAB-key could change the keyboard focus preventing the map to be scrolled via ASDW and arrow keys.
Bugfix: tooltip for awards properly reset when touch is gone (could stay visible for long-touch!). Fixes https://www.reddit.com/r/retrocommander/comments/v0xptx/bug_report_screen_forgot_to_redraw_after_popup/
Bugfix Crashes: setting the max. distance to '0' could result in a crash due to division by 0 (modding only).
Bugfix Crashes: if output matter was 'null' (default to gold).
Bugfix Crashes: when the server went down and one tried to download the latest translations (developer only one affected).
Bugfix Crashes: if Steam wasn't properly setup and relevant code couldn't be linked.
ANGLE Disabled for Windows 7 (or lower).
ANGLE wrapper for OpenGL disabled on Windows 7 or lower due to crashes. The game will use OpenGL calls directly.
Bugfix: Shutting Down
Bugfix for game not properly shutting down when closed.
Update 1.32.220 - UI Updates & Misc. Minor Updates
Graphics Driver (Windows): updated the graphics driver on Windows to use DirectX via ANGLE framework (wrapper for OpenGL ES 2.0). The performance appears to be the same (not slower). However, on the upside, most if not all graphics issues, especially crashes on Windows due to driver problems, should now be resolved.
Steam Windows Binary 64bit ONLY: updated the requirement to run the game to 64bit (32bit Windows binary is gone). The reason for the change is that the new ANGLE drivers didn't properly work on 32bit. Based on the Steam hardware survey only 0.38% of players should be affected. If you can't run the game anymore, please use the official binaries provided on the website instead (there is still 32bit). Sorry for the inconvenience.
Kicking from Game: in addition to AFK-players, the owner of a game (and moderators) can now kick any players from a game as long as the game hasn't started yet.
AFK: deleted and disabled accounts are now also considered AFK for obvious reasons.
Tag "1VS1": renamed to "DUEL" as it's not necessary a 1 vs. 1 but a game involving 2 players.
Clan & Blocked Players: players that have been blocked by a clan are not able to send requests to join that clan anymore.
UI: touch-scrolling of text now more ergonomic with a scroll factor of 1.75x.
UI: wall posts now show a link to all the decorations available (for easy of use).
UI: wall posts show the remaining characters also.
UI: game wall not shown for password-protected game until a player has joined (with password).
UI: offering or requesting gold from another faction will go in steps of +/-10 (instead of +/-1) to reduce the risk of carpal tunnel syndrome.
Game Guide: updated the "Code of Conduct" section with more details and a large list of examples of what behaviors are not tolerated.
Game Guide: updated the section regarding nation-wide festivals for happiness and population growth.
Game Guide: simplified text markup in addition to tags explained in manual.
Rating Guide: explained how the clan ratings are calculated.
Language: latest translations added - Thanks :-D
Map Download: download speeds increased.
Word Censor: updated with additional words.
Sponsoring Coins: to prevent abuse, sponsoring coins in only possible for accounts that show a purchase.
Screenshots: all screenshots taking via camera button or ALT+F1 now follow the same naming.
Translation Admin: better detection of bad translations (moderation option).
Moderation: moderators are now required to have secure network I/O turned on when they login (for security).
Moderation: access statistics such as IP addresses are now obfuscated for regular moderators (for privacy).
Internal: auto-setup & event games are now setup via system account (not creator account), to prevent potential problems.
Maintenance: misc. improvements in code for synthetic accessor methods.
Maintenance: better tracking of translation errors for the misc. translation systems.
Bugfix: map preview images wouldn't show if the version didn't exactly match what was in the database.
Bugfix: user's name in chat could appear blank if the font didn't support the characters.
Bugfix: event listing was showing an already active event in the upcoming section.
Bugfix: zoom panel wasn't pixel-perfect for bad zoom factors.
Bugfix: scroll bars still working when continuing dragging outside of scroll area.
Bugfix Crashes: enabling notifications would crash.
Bugfix Crashes: during login when account data wasn't fully loaded yet.
Bugfix Crashes: improved synchronization for RenderPool.
Update 1.31.217 - Sponsored Maps & [HERD]
Sponsored Maps: it is now possible to sponsor maps for multiplayer games (per game). That means everyone incl. players that do not have the map are able to join! One can for example sponsor the "World Map" allowing everyone to play it for the game. Please note, this only works for players that upgraded to the latest version of the game! Be adviced to probably best wait a few days for FAST-games before you use the feature (until all have the latest version).
Sponsoring Awards: new multiplayer awards added, i.e. (1) for sponsoring a map and (2) sponsoring 1000+ coins for a game. They will be shown in the user's profile after a game has started.
Ranking System: preventing ELO & award-farming by making sure each game actually has a valid human end condition.
Ranking System: placeholder AI cannot be used for rated games.
Ranking System: [GANG]/[SLOW] ranking added due to popuplar request.
Ranking System: [1VS1] 1 vs. 1 games are not counted as [GANG]-ranked.
Ranking System: [HUGE] games with large number of players are not counted as [GANG]-ranked (e.g. championship event).
Ranking System: [GANG] games that are not ranked as [GANG] are designated as [HERD] in game listings.
Ranking System: updated the categories to make it clearer that neither [1VS1] nor [TEAM] are counted as gang-ranked.
Ranking System: moved the information about game types from the general game guide to the ranking system guide so it is all explained in one place.
Rankings Table: now shows the TOP-100 also on mobile.
Tournament Trophies: trophies for tournaments and leagues are only given out if at least 7+ players joined.
Tournaments: increased cost of creating tournaments from 100 to 250.
Events Popup: streamlined the events display to be more readable. It now also shows more upcoming events.
Chat Broadcasts: old game broadcasts removed. Please upgrade if you still want to broadcast your games in the chat.
Chat Broadcasts: indicating also if a game sponsors a map or coins (excludes betting).
Quick Join: slightly increased the required min. players to setup another quick join game after one was just created.
Ancient Europe Map: 1 vs. 1 scenario added.
Lone Wolf FAST-Server: updated to allow solo games incl. max. 1/clan again (rather than '0').
Events: longhaul games can now be scheduled 2x per month as needed (rather than just 1x).
Events: CRON option updated to also allow limiting to 1.&3. or 2.&4. week (e.g. to schedule longhaul 2x per month).
Game Info Popup: shows the category under which the game is rated also (for clarity).
Game Info Popup: link added for the map used, which opens the preview images for a map (so one knows what map is played before entering a game).
Reporting Games: reporting games is now possible for all type of games.
Copying Links: improved copying of game and user links by already wrapping them into the correct tag.
Game Manual: artificially farming rating points is now considered illegal and we reserve the right to lower player's ratings and flag the accounts in question.
Game Manual: made it specifically clear that award-farming is against the fair-play policy also.
Game Manual: setting up games for personal gain only is not acceptable.
Game Manual: updated to make it clear that playing with friends (or clan-mates) in incognito games is not acceptable and offending players will be flagged.
Game Manual: explaining undefined and unclear rules. Ask us if you are unsure.
Game Manual: sponsoring info moved from events popup into game manual.
Game Manual: information about bug reporting and a new bug bounty program with cash-payout (serious bugs only) added.
Player's Games Listings: show incognito games also once they are over!
Final Game Statistics: lists the initial monetary assets at the beginning of the game under "Income Statistics" (for verification). Will only display for new games, but not already existing games.
Coin Icons: added to misc. places in the UI for clarity.
Language: latest translations added - Thanks :-D
Moderating: only name changes of players that are flagged or restricted are reported now (rather than everyone) to cut down on noise.
Maintenance: games restored from backup don't update right away, but are scheduled to update later (after 1x time per turn) to give everyone the chance to properly re-enter their turns.
Bugfix Investigation: checked why some translations could not be submitted. No bugs found. Please make sure the line breaks & tags all match. Also, please read the translation guide if you are not sure. Thanks!
Bugfix: misc. fixes for RTF document export (background fill & private characters).
Bugfix: game rankings were wrong by listing some eliminated players ahead of still active players.
Bugfix: viewed games could appear on one's list of joined games (prematurely added to list).
Bugfix: event icons now also show in the event when it was actually created (image wasn't copied).
Bugfix: panel for random join had minimum width too large causing it to render wrong when joining a game in progress.
Bugfix: showing replacement characters as needed if display name cannot be rendered (missing font glyphs).
Bugfix: links in the match-making chat panel were not working (e.g. user links).
Bugfix Crashes: when initializing mouse capture system (error better swallowed).
Update 1.30.215 - Ranking System & Broadcasts
Gang-Rating & Ranking: category [GANG] added that has ratings & rankings for ganging-type games.
Game Broadcasts (Chat): re-formatted again to be better readable (with proper line breaks).
Game Broadcasts: [LONE] means lone wolf games (no clans), [SOLE] means max. 1/clan and [GANG] is open to everyone.
Game Broadcasts/Icons: please note, until everyone has upgraded to the latest version of the game, icons for game broadcasts can be wrong (even if you have the latest version).
Game Invites: private message game invites streamlined so they match the chat.
Game Setup (Multiplayer): games can now be restricted to ranked players. Including which players with selected min. & max. ranks are allowed to join. Similar to rating restrictions.
Event Setup (Moderators): game events can now be restricted to ranked players. Including which players with selected min. & max. ranks are allowed to join. Similar to rating restrictions.
Quick Join Games: they are now better advertised in chat (with number of current players that joined).
Quick Join Games: after a new quick-join game was just created, the service tries to wait for a little longer initially trying to find a larger pool of players (if possible).
Friends & Clan Server: sets the minimum default to '2' for max. per clan given the assumption is one plays with friends.
Player Listing: player listing for games improved with colors and abbrevations.
Player Listing & AFK & Kicking: game owners and moderators can now remove AFK-players before a game starts if they want to do so.
Player Listing for "Incognito": now visible to moderators also (for moderation).
Game Info Popup: shows the rating and ranking limitations now also.
Ranking System: information popup added that explains how it works.
Tournaments: dropdown list for tournaments now allows selecting all the numbers between 2-10000.
Downloaded Maps: UI updated so they can now both be searched and sorted.
Translation Center: improved the check & warning when you are trying to translate to a language which you shouldn't.
Asset Loading: there is now a loading indicator at the start of the game in the menu screens. It indicates that assets are still loaded in the background.
Language: latest translations added - Thanks :-D
Language: bugfix for double-spaces in manual (should have been a single space).
Game Manual: explained the chat broadcast tags [LONE], [SOLO] and [GANG].
Maintenance: updated Droid to OS version 12 (API Level 31)
Bugfix: game API returns the 1. frame of an animation, if an image is animated (rather than the full BG).
Bugfix: max. turn selection when showing joinable games didn't work anymore.
Bugfix: max./clan selection when showing joinable games didn't work anymore.
Bugfix Crashes: when looking at games list without being properly logged in.
Bugfix Crashes: not being able to properly initialize constructor for room configuration (complex initialization).
Update 1.29.213 - Update for Multiplayer Games
Teaming Accounts: family members and friends playing together will now be marked as "Teaming". This is not a punishment, but rather to foster fair-play towards solo players. Same as for clan players, those accounts are restricted to the friends and clan section.
Teaming Accounts Marker: players that have been found in solo games playing with friends will be tagged with "Teaming". That will prevent players to join solo games. This is not a punishment, playing with friends is fine, but the marker prevents players from mistakenly joining solo games.
Flagged Accounts: are now prevented from posting in the chat (abuse and manner).
Family & Friends: there are now additional checks in place to prevent friends & family to play together in solo-games. It's against our fair-play rule. Please join games in the clan & friends section instead if you want to play together.
Family & Friends: there is now internal tracking to identify friends playing together outside officially being in either (a) a clan or (b) marked as team-player.
Password Protected Games: they are NOT checked anymore if players violate the max. clan players/game rule. Given they are private and someone has a password, it can be joined no matter what.
Game Broadcasts (Chat): reformatted the game broadcasts in the chat to be more readable (also can now fully be translated).
Server Time: chat command /time added which returns the date & time on the server (it's generally in UTC).
Server Time: using the deoration {TIME:} will replace the UTC-time to the local time for the person that is viewing the text.
Copy/Paste: copying the link for an user is now supported also (user://...). Available when right-clicking (or long-pressing) on a user's username in the profile popup.
Copy/Paste: copying the link for a game now is available also (top/right corner button next to the title of a game).
Game UI: game listing now also indicates which games are intended for teaming or no.
Game UI: made some popups taller on larger screens, so more is visible if possible without scrolling.
Language: latest translations added - Thanks :-D
Language: misc. textual updates for clarity in admin section.
Game Manual: updated the section regarding clans, friends & family members to let them know they should not join games designated to solo players.
Game Manual: added instructions on what the escape characters are for the tags, i.e. ^[ and ^].
Game Manual: account status icons listed with their corresponding meaning.
Investigations: streamlined the interface by grouping related and also adding additional options & information.
Admin Guide: updated the "Cheat Investigation" section with more detail what is cheating and what is not.
Admin Guide: update for flagging section (effects on players).
Admin Guide: there is now the option to mark players as "Teaming". This is not a punishment, it simply forces friends & family members to play in the friends and clan section.
Bugfix(?): deselecting a selected text when pressing the ENTER key. Prevents sending empty messages!
Bugfix: user administration panel updated to all fits nicely even on small screens (moderators).
Bugfix: game links can now also be posted on the wall and properly function (i.e. the open the popup).
Bugfix: quick join games didn't work properly. The index didn't increment properly, preventing new games from being created when an existing game already existed.
Bugfix Crashes: investigation popup could crash.
Update 1.28.207 - Maintenance Update with Bugfixes & Minor Updates
Multiplayer Games: game creators can now pin game-wall posts (or delete offending messages by players).
Lone Wolf Server (Multiplayer): clan-players are now prevented from joining (improving fairness).
Username Changes: username changes are now available for all types of accounts (incl. guest accounts). You can change your username for free during the first 24h, after that any changes are paid. Giving free username changes has been a lot of busywork for the moderators, that's why the policy has changed. Sorry for the inconvenience.
Username Changes/New Accounts: usernames can now be changed freely during the 24h after account creation.
Username Changes/Old accounts: if you have an older account, and you didn't get a free name change, you have till March 31, 2022 to get your name changed. After that, changing the name is a paid feature. Please contact the moderators with your username if you want to change it. Any messages requesting to change the username without an actual username given will be ignored.
Clan Names: can now be changed also.
Account Verification: requires username and password now, so people remember what they used and also change the password in case it was auto-generated.
Language: latest translations added - Thanks :-D
Game Manual: lists the available text decorations for the game (moved out of admin guide into regular manual).
Game Manual: RTF export now supports images and is better formatted.
Investigated (reported by Hustla): 1. place finisher didn't properly get the 1. place award and ratings. Problem not found and not able to reproduce (sorting checked).
UI: improved the copy/paste popup for text messages. Should now work always also on touch screens using long-touch.
UI: minor update for dropdown list (better alignment).
UI: awards will not be capped at "999+" anymore and show larger number also.
UI: map scroll speed can be adjusted (in game's settings).
Mouse: option to capture the mouse cursor in the window added (defaults to fullscreen only for now).
Internal: collection ArrayList replaced with faster internal implementation.
Internal: minor performance update due to better utilization of suitable collection classes (no auto-boxing).
Internal: fail-safes added for chat server (string checks).
Admin Guide: information that we cannot hand out passwords for players that cannot log in. They need to remember.
Moderating: player-created games can be deleted by the owner or Executive members.
Moderating: incognito games a player is in are shown to moderators also.
Maintenance: location lookup database updated.
Backup: changed the backup interval to daily. Please note, some servers will be down for a few minutes daily around UTC 9:00 and UTC 9:30 to perform the backup. Sorry for the inconvenience.
Bugfix: under some circumstances, a dead faction could still give e.g. -1% permanent negative happiness due to a declaration of war that was created directly after it perished.
Bugfix: animated GIF export using ALT+F2 not properly working (transparent color problem).
Bugfix Clan Rating: the bottom instead of the top player ratings were taken to calculate the average clan rating.
Bugfix: preventing line breaks when number for stone, wood etc. are too big.
Bugfix: looping text in Arabic had spaces added which resulted in the text to be wrongly rendered.
Bugfix: retaining images could result in the callback not be called causing a locked screen.
Bugfix: some smilies including the '|' character didn't render due to the parser believing it to be a control character.
Bugfix: prevent OpenGL invalid value errors if glScissor(...) had negative width.
Bugfix: parsing the {RISE} tag parameters took the wrong index [1] instead of [0].
Bugfix: improved parsing of country/language to obtain correct store (especially Droid for CN).
Bugfix: moderators can now force-add a user to a clan (was failing if no clan request was pending also).
Bugfix: countdown timer value was written wrong for certain hour-values (e.g. 1080).
Bugfix: proper text escaping for error message when creating a tournament or so. Won't show "" anymore.
Bugfix Attempt: mail system timeouts by better synchronization (mail deletion).
Bugfix Crashes: when the window was resize too disproportional causing a too wide or tall texture buffer to be requested.
Bugfix Crashes: legacy map town overviews were crashing (polygons didn't have enough points defined).
Bugfix Crashes: game could crash when being shut down due to still executing actions after everything is disposed.
Bugfix Crashes: random events could have division by '0'.
Bugfix Crashes: game could crash if start up in fullscreen mode was enabled.
Bugfix Freezes: fixed some problems while installing file handlers on Mac OS X (cause freezes due to starting on 1. thread requirement).
Legacy Maps: Bugfix for Crashes
Bugfix for crashes. Playing legacy maps and opening town overviews produced crashes.
Update 1.27.201 - Spectator Mode
Spectating: other people's games can now be viewed once they are (1) set to publicly viewable (2) finished (3) or you have spectator permission.
Spectator Mode: players can now set games to publicly viewable, i.e. everyone can go and see a game being played.
Spectators Group: there is now a new group that once joined allows viewing games. This is designed for streamers (e.g. YouTube, Twitch etc.) that want to show games live/recorded.
Spectators UI: lists all the games that can be watched.
Renamed "Officers" Group: now called "Developers".
Renamed "Managers" Group: now called "Moderators".
Clan Ratings: need a minimum of 4 players to get a rating for a clan.
Betting Games: at least 4+ players spots are required for betting-type games.
UI /w Touch: long-push brings up the tooltip if there is any (for relevant buttons).
UI Text Animations: misc. text animations such as shine added.
Window Title (Windows): shows indicators for loading and active games/messages.
Renaming a Protectorate: this functionality has been disabled due to abuse in multiplayer games.
Mailbox: the topic list doesn't "randomly" shift anymore while reading/marking messages as done.
Language: the game now supports both Cyrillic and Latin scripts for Serbian.
Language: latest translations added - Thanks :-D
Language: updated with latest glyph list.
Translation Center: making sure the line breaks match the original text.
Translation Center: verifying punctuations for translations also (latin).
Moderating: moderators can now view users in incognito games as long as they are not part of it.
Admin Guide: text decorations listed to help moderating.
Admin Guide: moderator guidelines updated how to proceed on punishment for bad language, ganging etc.
Maintenance: misc. code cleanup incl. 'final' and 'arraycopy'.
Maintenance: streamlined the UI layout functionality for "min(w)" or "min(h)".
Maintenance: keyboard handling updated to be consistent and correct.
Maintenance: directory for translations moved to 'txt' (to exclude it from the IDE).
Maintenance: compression added for future releases (map bundles).
Performance: 32bit and 64bit integer square root functions now run 5x-9x faster than original.
Deployment: 'getdown' auto update functionality updated to 1.8.6 (both for client & server).
Deployment: 'getdown' function updated on Mac OS to better integrate with the operating system (no splash screen but direct).
Server Logging: preventing non-relevant Bitronix warning to show (Transaction Manager).
Bugfix: clan ratings didn't show in the listing because the time for the rating wasn't updated (i.e. considered old an ignored).
Bugfix: emoticon parsing should now also work when the come just before a line break.
Bugfix: potential bugfix for errors on desktop (multiple threads entering the render-pool only method).
Bugfix: making sure music is played from render thread (in-game 'lead' buttons).
Bugfix: music when game has ended only plays 1x (the first time). It doesn't start playing again.
Bugfix: relative time on Droid was wrong resulting in game time displays to be off (now using SystemClock.elapsedRealtime()).
Bugfix: report image popup had scaled x-axis due to inproper layout (should now always be correct proportional).
Bugfix: statistics were not showing if there was a 'null' country or language in the list.
Bugfix: when entering a password for a password-protected game, the wrong mouse cursor (wait-cursor) was shown.
Bugfix Bitset: data stored in a bitset wasn't handled correctly resulting in bugs (e.g. fog of war vision).
Bugfix Crashes: while modding, consume of fuel per tile needs to be greater '0' if fuel consumption is given.
Bugfix Crashes: when we couldn't load files and tried to free memory (some require to be called via render-thread!)
Bugfix Crashes: when the language selection popup could not be opened.
Bugfix Crashes: when logging in and account data was not ready, i.e. 'null'.
Bugfix Crashes: when login information was not available but queried (for showing the start game button).
Bugfix Crashes: when initial window size was still '0' and we tried to divide using it.
