Brit

You can submit bugs using the "report a bug" item on the main menu. It doesn't have allow you to attach files, but if you need to attach a file, just report and bug and I'll send an email back to you. (I'd post the email address on the forums, but spam-bots would pick it up.)

Quite a few people requested a zoom-in function, so I added it along with zoom-in/zoom-out functionality using the mouse-wheel.

Hmm, I'm not seeing that on my main computer. I'll try it on my second computer.

Yes, I think the AI is under-using aircraft. I don't know if this will be helpful for what you're doing, but all units and cities that need orders appear in the News window. Also, new units appear in the News window under "Construction Completed". A left-click will select the unit/city and scroll the map to that unit or city. You can also double-click the button and it behaves just like double-clicking the unit or city on the map.

Thanks for the feedback. Units will automatically capture resources if they walk over them. Unfortunately, only ground units really do this since roads go through resources, and units have to be right on top of the resource to capture it. I was a little worried about having units detour to capture resources, because I didn't want ships who are on a mission (say, to attack an enemy ship) suddenly veer off course to capture a resource. Maybe there's a way to avoid that situation.

Thanks! Unsure at the moment. $45

BTW, I've been copying everyone's suggestions into a file on my computer. Just wanted to let everyone know that even if I don't respond immediately, it doesn't mean the suggestion was ignored.

Yes, in the preferences window. The button to open Preferences is just below the minimap.

The news panel also has a "Construction Completed" category, though it sometimes gets overlooked because of all the other information on there. A visual cue on the map might also be useful.

I was hoping that the transport / 2 infantry / Zepplin starting units would get the game started a little more quickly. I suppose a variation could be added to add more starting units. Another thing is that the game-setup screen allows you to modify the production rates for each player. You could crank up the production rate to 150% for everyone.

I've added zoom-in to the game. It will be available.

Attrition is a high-level concept I use when thinking about combat balance. It takes into account the odds of winning and the costs of building the unit. If two identical tanks are fighting each other, the odds of winning combat are the same and the cost to build the units are the same. They have an attrition value of 1.0. But, let's say that one side uses a tank that fights 20% better and costs 20% more. The attrition is still the same because, even though it's more likely to win combat, it also costs more to build. If a tank costs 20% less and has no combat advantages, that will give you better attrition values (1.2). If a tank costs the same, but has a 20% combat advantage, then you will have better attrition values (1.2). Attrition is a number I give to units to figure out it's 'value' in a fight. Also, the attrition values are dependent on which two units are in combat. For example, a fighter aircraft has good attrition values when fighting another aircraft, but it has bad attrition values when fighting, say, a ship or ground unit. In some places on the interface, I give attrition numbers ranging from 0-100. In that case, "50" is the mid-point, where two units are equally balanced. I should also add that attrition values don't take everything into account. For example, attrition values for/against ranged units can vary because a unit might be 'under fire' without returning fire. If an artillery is firing on an infantry for several turns and the infantry isn't within combat range to fight-back, then the attrition value of artillery is very high (it isn't in danger at all). On the other hand, if an infantry gets within combat range of the artillery, the artillery isn't going to survive very long - it will have very bad attrition.

To upgrade an individual unit, select it and press the [blue up-arrow] that appears just above the map window. It's a few items to the right of the "field orders". Units have to be in a city to upgrade. You mean a section that gives you a list of the unit's orders when you select it, like: - Disembark from Transport - Capture Oil Field ? I'm not quite sure what you mean. A list that looks something like: City Production Complete London Infantry (Class 1) Turn 3.0 Paris Artillery (Class 1) Turn 4.0 ? One useful thing might be to single-click or click and drag to select everything in an area. Once it is selected, it will appear in the unit-bar above the map. You can double-click stuff in the unit-bar. All units are categorized into a combat type (aircraft, missile, soft). All units have an attack value against each combat type. All units also have a defense value (which gets augmented by things like terrain, entrenched, etc). So, when two units fight, the numbers might look like this: Infantry: Attack Vs Tank: 3, Defense: 2, HP: 1 Tank: Attack Vs Infantry: 5, Defense: 4, HP: 2 (These are not the actual combat numbers, btw, just an example.) Over the course of a turn, we calculate a small time-period of combat. You can think of these attack and defense numbers as numerator and denominator. The Infantry tries to hit the tank using an attack of 3 and a defense of 4 (the tanks defense) = 3/4. Then, the tank attacks back using an attack of 5 and a defense of 2 = 5/2. Those numbers determine the odds of a hit within a turn. If a hit happens, then the unit being hit loses a HP. If both units have high defense values and low attack values, then combat can last several turns with no hits on either side.

I actually monitor that piece of code closely to figure out what takes the most amount of time. I've done some work in the past to improve the speed of that code (so, yes, it is possible to improve it). I don't know how much more improvement is possible, but I'm always looking to make that part faster.

I've had a couple people suggest a zoom-in function. It's actually not that different (from a code perspective) as a zoom-out. I don't think it's a big deal to add, and it seems helpful to people running their monitor at high resolutions. What about the buttons and text (that appear in the non-map interface)? Are they large enough, or is that a problem? By turn execution, do you mean the processing that happens each turn after everyone has submitted their orders?

The mouse wheel is used in two different ways: - Click the mouse wheel (like a button) to zoom-out, move the mouse to a new location, and click it again to zoom-in to a new location. - Hold the mouse wheel down while moving the mouse to pan around the map (without zooming in or out). It's possible that your mouse doesn't have a mouse-wheel-button function. Let me know if that's the case, I don't know how common that is and would be curious.

No, sorry, there is currently no way to zoom-in.

A couple people emailed me about this, too. I downloaded it from the server, and it worked okay for me. This may be an intermittent problem with the server. To everyone: have you had any trouble downloading the file? Did you had a problem at first, try it again later, and it worked?

Yes, we're hoping to have it out tonight. [Correction: Looks like things will be delayed a few days. Sorry. ]

No, the random map generator isn't setup for that.

Yes, you can form teams with other players. These teams can be formed during the game, and the game ends if all remaining players are part of the same team. It only made sense to allow teams for historical reasons (e.g. if you're playing a World War 2 game with five players, the American, British, and Russian players shouldn't have to fight it out once the Axis has been defeated).

No, tech-trading is always available. That doesn't really happen in the games. Also, based on past experiences in multiplayer games, there was a barrier added to tech trading. I didn't want it to get too out-of-hand. When players trade technology, what they are trading is a technology "hint". The technology hint means that you can research the technology twice as fast. From a more "real world" perspective, you could say that your scientists needed some time to fully understand the new technologies they were given to you from your neighbors. Functionally, what this means that four players working together can't get technologies 4x as fast as one player (which would allow them to research the entire tech-tree very quickly). Assuming everything is equal, two players working together can research 1.33x as one player (instead of 2x), and three players can research 1.5x as one player (instead of 3x). Historically, this makes some sense, too, because two nations who are allies didn't automatically get all the best technologies from their allies (e.g. Italian tanks weren't as good as German tanks, even though they were allies in World War 2).

Well, I could come up with some more advanced random-map generators; something with more options. It won't be something in the upcoming beta. Speaking of which: in the beta-demo you'll be able to open up the map-editor and generate some random maps with the existing system. It'll give you a feel for how the system currently works.

All cities exist at the beginning of the game. Most cities start out as "neutral", and they contain a militia which you have to defeat before you capture the city.

Are you asking how easy it is to setup scenarios inside the map-editor? It's pretty easy to do that. The scenario-editor let's you set control of resources on the map, and the initial resource pools for each player. For example, you can setup one player with initial resource reserves of 1000 oil, 500 food, 200 Iron, and $1000 money, and something completely different for another player. The scenario editor also let's you setup the technologies owned by each player. So, if you wanted to, you could give one player a lot of advanced technologies, and another player none at all.