The Universal World Owner's Manual

25-May-2005

- destroyed vehicle effect 8, same as 4 but cash is also reset to default
- control for plane when on ground fixed
- fixed up some things on the value control so that certain windows (like sell to building and trade items) dont close (and print a warning message) when the user does something daft, like trying to exchange 0 items
- tidyups for leaving comms channel in space
- fixups for the termination of file receives, so the p2p guaranteed file transfer doesnt stop working after 1 successful transfer (i.e. ppl's profile images should always show up in space)
- fix for vehicle returning to 1 (rather than the settings 'Default Vehicle') on a full wargame reset.
- some fixes for turret + mouselock controls etc
- General menu tidyups (returning properly to parent window on a failed transaction etc)

- graphics -> playerlistmode of 100+ do the same as 0-99 but also show different things before the names of sysops, gods etc.
- building damage mode 8 - weapons dont affect buildings. Armour field in b.dat is used to control decay. 0 means the building doesnt decay, 1 means it decays at the rate set in the settings, 2 is twice that etc. etc.
- various lil fixes n msgs n stuff for things on republic
- fixes for killing wildlife ai type 4
- fixed potential server crash if attempting a log before the sys has been activated
- more gal econ updates - gal trade items prices now based on supply and demand and planetary type data.
- new 'end sequence' items
- towns removed properly from map on demolish/destroy/decay
- fix for the building list not showing correctly when using specialmenumodes
- server options to send position updates intermittently to reduce position send bandwidth

- multiple ship-types in space, linked to gal inventory
- new server setting 'Graphics -> Building Landscape Graphics' to have buildings affect the landscape in different ways - e.g. have a circle of trees around the border of every town, and have texmap 16 added underneath every tech 1 or above building. (unless theres other texmaps or surfaces already present)
- New dialog for allowing players to re-enter their password (or retrieve a forgotten one) when there gal connection is refused - better handling of failed connections to the gal (lil popups to prompt user to re-enter password, username or whateva as necessary)
- fix for *vehicle 1 command overriding default vehicle settings
- fix for text on needs % at home
- new template files for cutscene stylee end sequences trigged by one of the 'end 
sequence items' being used
-implemented 'DemolitionKit' item (use next to any building to destroy it)
- rubbish 'nuke' end sequence
- added level numbers to town on world map (when appropriate building process settings are used)
- fix for new wildlife models not showing up the first time they're downloaded
- Added 'ignore town limits' option to buildings editor 

3-Jun-2005

- added server option to change name displayed in chat when using server panel
- fix for sea disappearing when autoreset maps are triggered
- added new 'world -> building access mode' 9, that is like 5 (family members have partial control on all family buildings) but also allows ppl to acces non-family buildings as normal.
- End sequence for launch
- icons, mouse controls and screen layout tidyups on the space station screens
- building owners can use their own skill exchange buildings
- ship explosions in space 
- not drawing players in space when they're in the space station
- changed the lounge chat channel to a system wide one
- replicated shift state so that remote monkeys trigger run animations (etc)
- tweaked some of the positioning code to help keep server bandwidth use down
- Put the sun back in place.. ooh if i ever found out who stole that..!

17-Aug-2005

- browser updates - scroll bars & some html layout fixes
- split the inventory up so that 'purchased' items are dealt with separately from 'transferred' items
- Added 'log files' dialog to server to control what is and isnt logged
- fix for fire particles from a static 'campfire'
- change the nebula in space, and added a new landscape rendering routine which i thought would be 10 times faster than my old bodgy one but turned out to be 10 times slower. yay.
- new font drawing stuff so all game fonts load up from files generated by fontrast. (and they're now rendered as proper alpha-blended images rather than using some weirdass colourblend mode)
- fixups for the gal inventory screen
- extra server logging of building purchases
- removed .refreshweap (replaced with server command *refreshweap - to avoid all those times when a weapon is added or changed and the change is not picked up on the server, resulting in the server refusing to forward weapon messages coz it thinks a player is cheatin or somethin)
- made the namechange option only work when in space (as changing it when connected to a world had possible 'abuse' issues)
- added subgame -> racing mode 3  where the racecourse is permanently active
- modularised a pile of replicated code, moved a load of things around, took out a load of crap, did a lil jig - the result of all of it being better interpretation of remote player positions, and better physics calculations - particularly with regard to launching from the tops (and sliding down the sides) of hills n suchlike. Also re-enabled the vehicle settings -> bounce (0-999) where 999 is a near perfectly efficient bounce response
- changed the census screens so they dont show items/skills that arent present or being used on the world
- added close button to the ingame browser and made the window draggable
- added settings -> landscape -> wall rendering mode to um, control the um, rendering of walls (in some way that ive since forgotten)
- added settings -> economy -> cargo rules to um, control the um, rules for carrying cargo (in some way that i have since forgotten)
- added indication of passworded worlds on the f5 system map
- changed the camera on the 'landing on world' sequence
- added 'about' screen on the frontend, started linking in local world servers, and changed the startup sequence so skipping the 'a collection of monkeys presents' screen takes you to the intro screen rather than straight to space
- added realtime clock and player count to bottom right corner of space display
- made sure the gal radio gets turned off when its supposed to be
- (wip) replication & tracking of space missiles
- made sure the game properly resets if you fly into the sun
- better trails on missiles, ships and crows
- added muzzle flashes
- added textures to the flags (and made em all shiny like)
- clientside fix for robocrows not working until after a player has died once
- optional better server logging of player deaths
-  added fire=jumpjet to weapon script, and some other bits ill definitely have to document sometime
-  added pointless woomph-stylee gravity particles to subspacemode 2

19-Aug-2005

- Economy-> bank interest limit setting
- graphics -> particle effects setting  (1 turns off skid smoke)
- fix for weapons list display on weaponscontrolmode 5 and added mode 6 (same as 5 but ctrl instead of shift+del)
- fix for floaty gravity bug in control mode 1 (and similar)

- interior maps and rooms downloaded thru the httpdownloads stuff
- bits to stop the browser crashing on 'complicated' websites
- added messaging for 'scan player's inventory' (in space)
- changed the urdium/parsec range.. so that 1 uridium is enuf fuel for a 1 parsec journey. When uridium is bought, its in blocks of 10
- jettisoning cargo launches cannisters into space
- trade report screen on comm station in space
- rearranged and tidied some of the space station screens
- changed the system for calculating cargo space in ships, so each shiptype has a default cargo capacity (and cargo bay's are only required as extensions).
Also added 'System Scanner' gal item for allowing players to scan the inventory of anyone anywhere in space
- tidied space menus stuff a lil for very small resolutions
- [DeVice] - Unix version of server

- (Device) - Changed the radio download progress bar so that :
- The lil sliding bar shows the reading position again.
- The progress bar stays after downlad completed until we listen the whole song.
- (Device) fix for another crash when re-joining a world after ".launch".
- fix for rendering of turretted models in space
- (Device) Fix for being able to capture "shiny foutains" on mechzone.
- (Device) Reward for team holding the "crow flags" can now be kudos too. (Set by subgame->fixed reward param = 1)
- weapons ammo display disappears when other screen has focus
- various wip fixes for the 'remote access' model & texture selector screens
- tweaks to attempt to stop z-fighting issues in space
- duplicated cam zoom on - and = when not in process of typin stuff (to make it easier for laptops etc)
- fixed missing indicator on 'forget skills' menu
- layout tweaks (including fixin the rotated glass in the starport at last)
- exter server logging options
- various lil tweaks to the gal econ, fixed up the display of uridium purchases on the client and server, and increased the uridium capacity of stardrives to 10x their range. (e.g. L4 can hold 40 uridium, L8 can hold 80 etc)
- game requests a 32 bit z-buffer by default now
- fix for the calculation of sell price on the gal server (price was goin lower as reserves got lower)
- changed the way f-key icons are drawn in space & changed the method for accessing different views
- space autopilot
- tidied up the ship trails
- new docking and launching from space station camerawork n stuff
- fix for crash exiting space station on 47.7
- fix for 'reading over the end of allocated memory and into random territory' bug when loading compressed atm models
- added delay between retrieving building info as ppl often drain a lot of pointless bandwidth driving fast across populated worlds like sabrada with the building access menu open..
- fix for the occasionally broken trade list scrollbar
- fix for the comm station focus being lost after using infimp
- added hilights to indicate which console currently has the string focus 
- fix for stardrive textures not appearing
- added finite improbabilty drive
- swapped the finite drive and infimp drive items about
- changed/fixed the behaviour of the up and down arrows next to the space crosshairs
- fix & checks for font texture oddities
- changed gal player starting cash to 100cr

17-Oct-2005

- (Device) More unix build fixes
- stuff to allow the textures to be refreshed at runtime
- Allowing access to starport through escape menu when no other building access is possible ("Iridis" mode).
- added space in gal records to store galactic bounty + number of 'space' kills and deaths
- putting in some code that might one day let us have bigger islands (in terms of number of tiles, rather than just scale)
- added new settings chunk for storing more details on surface properties
- turned off plane throttle display stuff when another primary screen has focus
- automatic landscape texture generation
- game uses more 32bit textures when possible
- additional stuff to allow the source textures used in the auto-terrain gen to be downloadable
- moved some of the landscape settings to 'surfaces' and linked in the auto-terrain gen (Settings -> Landscape -> Auto-texture generation mode )
- reformatted the settings edit screen and added description text for each setting
- fix for bug in import settings text
- (magicfinger) Disabled the password dialog box and brought the password function to the game window (like it is in full screen mode)
- added a few modes and some shading bits to the sky renderer
- World owners please note! - Swapped vehicle-> armour and turret limit settings around for 48.0. Armour now works with a different, simpler method... Default 0 is equivalent to 100 .. or 100% armour. A value of 200 means damage would be halved, value of 10 means damage done would be 10x.
- added property slots for the autogenerated textures
- stuff for running local, unregistered worlds
- market trader skill added
- settings for default server
- added robocrow cam mode 3 (behind crow view) and fixed robocrow cam mode 2
- filtering option to improve the small font rendering
- (Device) - Switching makefiles from pmake (FreeBSD) to GNU make format to ease up linux building.
- Added 'Market Stalls' - allowing players to create a stall to sell stuff from their inventory.
- Fix for the red and blue components of autogenerated landscape textures getting inverted.
- added some gal commands to reset users based on their ID and allow ppls passwords to be reset.
- changed the activity limit for ppl to appear on the gal top 10s to 30 days from 60
- (Device) - Fix for the REGISTERED worlds entering an infinite wait while connecting to gal. Thanx Zar :-)
- added some (wip) stuff to draw low level-of-detail terrain in the distance.
- Optimisation of landscape texture gen to reduce jerkiness & framerate drop
- added economy -> building process 11. As 10, but the item required to make each building is defined by the building tech level and ranges from "Build Item 1" for tech level 0 buildings, to "build item 8" for tech level 7 buildings (and up). 
- added a couple of extra weather settings
- Added avatar select screen and replication of players' current avatar selection
- fixed *recycle crash on local world, fixed non-exiting process & generally tidied up all the code that handles the main game loop
- fix for texture loads reverting to 16bit when a file is missing
- Changed on-world window appearance - added some prettier shading.
- changed weapon.mts load to gamescript.mts, (for later, more generic script code) and added it to the .isl export
- proper rendering of billboard sprites in robocrow cam 3
- removed old radio interface, replaced with smaller text display. linked radio to new icon button - (1 click to activate, right click to go back a track, double left click to advance a track, 1 left click to turn off)
- server option to log marketstall transactions. Added * settings -> World -> Market stall Rules to control access to marketstalls
- added *setitngs -> Landscape -> 'auto radio' to automatically play toons when a player joins the world
- various (wip) re-arrangements of the info & census screens (etc)
1) A new *settings screen with help and descriptions for all the settings - Makes life 10 times easier for sysops and world owners.
2) A new automatic terrain texture generation system - It produces quite pretty landscapes at the click of a button, rather than the world owner having to spend hours and hours with texmaps and surfaces trying to get something looking decent.
3) Free, unregistered worlds have been linked in and will be available publicly - anyone will be able to have a go at building their own world.

19-Nov-2005

- final bits for marketplace - pending offers & offer cancel
- coupla fixes for some login oddities on the gal server, few tidyups of some gal loading code for future version updates, added capacity for more planet types, added few more trade items ("Construction Materials","Science Equipment", "Military Hardware","New Technologies")
- added data to the star system records to record how far each system is from cirrus + gave all planets a planet-type, based on their distance from the starting systems. (As you get further out, different types of planet start to become more predominant)
- general space trade prices increase gradually as you get further from the starting systems
- fix for players occasionally being whapped into the sun (when recycling local world etc)
- fix for thread not exiting properly when feckin about with local worlds
- Screens return to normal after sundeath etc
- coupla fixes for building process 11 (so material amounts can be controlled etc)
- All text box stuff now goes through the browser (so can put html type types in the help.txt docs etc)
- 'Lifeless' planets no longer have a station
- added ninja.(no artificial flavourings)
- fix for autogen texture crash when outside main map region
- basic implementation of landscape LOD system
- Renamed character 'Score' to 'Level'. Added Defenses Weapon / Trigger 9 - Sets the players level to the value set in the Trigger Param (if the trigger param is higher than the player's current level)
- added 20 'Level Skills' that can be used to advance a player's 'Level' score when learnt.
-  towns automatically default to the team specified in the building's Defense Weapon / Trigger. (e.g. if thats set to 1, this town will always start as a team 1 town)
- changed the on world main window loop so that the game uses 1/4 of the normal process time when the window doesnt have focus
- fixed f10 in space station causes re-docking sequence
- banned weapons in federation space
-  fixes for landing on unknown worlds (checks if a local world is running, and tries to assign that to the unknown world if possible.. if not, player is placed back in orbit)
- tweaks to the gal econ so that cheaper items increase in price more rapidly in remote planets than more expensive items
- atmospheric glows and ring patterns on planets (when appropriate). shortened the stardrive sequence. added some planetary graphics and an asteroid field
- space weapons stuff - guaranteed replication of missiles & missile hit effects etc
- tidyups for subgame frontends
- added some settings to control the height of robocrows off the ground and whether they draw trails etc
- opimitised some of the texture stuff has using 32bit throughout was starting to hit my render time.. bmps are default loaded as 16 bit now, tgas as 32 bit (with 8 bit alpha channel) and others are loaded as 24 bit (i.e. no alpha channel in jpgs.. which is perfectly normal)
-  fixes for the radio when not using the radiolist.txt
- a small pile of space combat things - incoming missiles bring up an alert panel with buttons for launching ecm defenses, being hit brings up a damage control display window, shields have been added (you don't take damage from lasers when your shields are active), being hit by missiles will occasionally cause (temporary) systems damage (such as deactivating shields or thruster control). etc etc.
- made = and - act as numpad +,- on the settings screen (for laptops etc)
- added arcade to space comm station (and changed invaders fire button to tab)
- smoothing of robocrow cam 3
- check to see if player is currently in middle of standing bored animation when starts moving (in which case the walk/run animation is applied immediately rather than being blended in)
- modelconverter fix for 'compressed vertices screw up simple planar models'
- storing & transmission of space kills & deaths
- added obscenity filter to comm station output
- fix for the radio icon showing up when there are no stations
- Added "BUILDMSG" param for NamesFile.txt to allow default building messages to be set for each building in the b.dat
- fix for occasional 'random' lockup
- autorecycling of building records when using destroyedbuildingremoval 1, 3 or 6
- added world -> crows mode 6, where the 'Shamanic Sight' (rename as appropriate please :]) skill is required to access robocrows
- fix for mutliple- control=javelin weapons on a single vehicle
- lots of screen layout tidyin
- changed the census update rate to every 60 realtime mins, rather than every game quarter + changed the 'date the census was taken on' to a realtime rather than a gamedate
- 'Shoutcast' radio stations on the gal radio + added audio options to the small menu
- added new building settings group
- space combat - ecm interaction with missiles. per ship capacities for missiles and ecms
- default vehicle setting 25 + vehicle "default level" option to allow lotsa vehicles per level type arrangements
- Added 'town levels mode' setting to control whether tech level of towns affects which level buildings can be built there

“Mostly a maintenance update this, as it fixes the problem some people were having buying missiles. Current ship capacities are:

Interplanetary Shuttle
Basic ECM: 2  Standard Missile : 1  'Advanced' defenses : None  'Advanced' Weapons : None\\
Cargo Transport
Basic ECM: 5  Standard Missile : 2  'Advanced' defenses : 2  'Advanced' Weapons : None
Cobra Mk II
Basic ECM: 5  Standard Missile : 5 'Advanced' defenses : 6  'Advanced' Weapons : 7
Pirate Ship
Basic ECM: 3  Standard Missile : 8 'Advanced' defenses : 3  'Advanced' Weapons : 9
Stellar Freighter
Basic ECM: 15  Standard Missile : 3 'Advanced' defenses : 25 'Advanced' Weapons : 8
Police Fighter
Basic ECM: 9  Standard Missile : 7 'Advanced' defenses : 13 'Advanced' Weapons : 11
X Fighter
Basic ECM: 2  Standard Missile : 4 'Advanced' defenses : 2 'Advanced' Weapons : 4
GalFreighter
Basic ECM: 10  Standard Missile : 3 'Advanced' defenses : 7 'Advanced' Weapons : 4

This vers also adds in the favourites list to the gal radio, and gives world owners the option of having a shoutcast station as their world radio.
Ship rendering should also be fixed, and the ctrl + f10 cam has been tweaked a bit for some really nice views when you're doin flybys n suchlike. (Strangely they seem particularly pleasant to me while listening to crap 70s stations on the gal radio.. dunno why :] )
Gal econ got various lil tweaks n fixes over the weekend - a lotta prices will have changed and it may need its customary 'few days' to bed in. Gal server update has included some extra commands n suchlike that'll make re-adjusting the econ less painful in the future.”

30-Nov-2005

- Lots more layout/interface tidyups (scrollbar arrows, textboxes etc)
 -Various gal econ tweaks
- killing someone carrying illegal trade goods is rewarded
- killing someone carrying illegal trade goods is rewarded
- fix for flares showing thru ship on cutscenes and for ships rendering without ztest
- favourites list and 'add to' screens for gal radio
- world radio can be linked to a shoucast station
- tidyin up the default model selections for the new world installer
- changed some of the targetting code - extended the range at which u can scan ppl, tidied a few bits of text in space, other space b&p
- Framework for new world-based minigames
- Added stargate to space
- stopped plasmas exploding when they expire & tweaked lighting values
- fix for players exploding when remote crows hit landscape
- added some space puter voice samples
- New landscape quadtree renderer (landscape -> culling mode 1)
- More interface layout tidyups (e.g. moved the actions list, moved all the status info to the bottom of the screen. added background home graphics and tidied the layout of the home screen for small screen sizes)
- adding in some more mouse select stuff for menus and streamlined/tidied various layout things (clare-proofing)
- zoomable island map

28-Dec-2005

- various layout rearrangements - added lil 'ctrl to acces building' message, fixed a few menu bugs, added a bit more info text, fix for the browser not correctly parsing < etc etc
- added auto-updater
- more work on the more advanced landscape renderer
- New tools for creating and installing auto-update packs
- redid the system by which the gal server transmits information regarding which players are currently in space with you (as the old way was daft and bandwidth-inefficient)
- added landscape -> player landscaping setting - 0 turns off all the menu options to do with letting players add roads etc. 1 enables em as normal (i.e. they still need appropriate skills n whatnot)
- changed building access rules so towns of any team can be accessed in the team-building access modes
- added team selection mode 15 and 16
- Various more bits of menu/layout tidying + fixes for purchase box on the sales mode used on zoric
- new shadow system - graphics -> shadow mode 5 uses the new building shadow method + places simple blob shadows under trees
- added new button interface for racing (from the minigames menu) and added more racing & subgame menus
- fix for building rotation (and various other oddities). restored the 'makes..' building list. fixes for messed up town menus
- extended shadow mode 5 to cope with large buildings
- added 'no collisions' flag to building.dat 
- added town mode 12 to take 'apply for residency' off the menus
- generic messaging management for subgames
- help menu bar in space
- linked ultrakricket & hornball into the new minigames system
- added some new engine noise options (9,10,11)
- added ballgames mode 5, which warps the player to spawnzone 8 when they join ultrakricket
- fix for occasional client crash
- tidied the way the subgame clients query the chat server for their subgame list (to conserve bandwidth on the chat server)
- changed hornball about a bit so it is always active if theres a pitch, and any vehicle with a horn or a sound trigger can horn the ball
- rearranged the static map effects so that all 8 treetypes can be used
- finished off layout changes on building screen, fixed a sales mode 0 bug, and changed the 'sells..' menu so it doesnt display stuff that isnt in stock or for sale
- linked the .drawdist to the culling mode 1 landscape renderer
- tidied the robocrow graphics & explosions
- tweaks to the behaviour of the ball and batting in ultrakricket
- added manual version update check and link to website on the small mode menu
- added .nobuild  command to specify box regions in which players cannot build buildings. 
- server fix for new buildings not initially appearing correctly to the client (worlds prior to 0.49.1 may produce strange behaviour on new clients)
- various ultrakricket fixes,tweaks and enhancements
- fix for the "name your building" window always being greyed out
- client fix for ghost buildings reappearing when destroying and rebuilding stuff on a server that uses the recycling of building records
- tidied player info display when learning skills
- tidied the world password screen a lil and made it abortable
- linked the finite drive to the same system used by subgame clients for getting a server list, so it can be changed dynamically
- changed the frontend so that if the client fails to connect to the gal server, it shows the same server list as on the finite drive, allowing ppl to reach worlds without the gal being involved.
- Implemented 'change building message' dialog ( + lots more menu and layout tidying)
- change for file saving behaviour on gal server to stop it creating an exchange file for every player, even if they havent done any exchanges
- Started adding a mousecontrolled topdown map editor for world owners
- fix for 'port' buildings - so that using 0 as the maximum capacity for an item has the intended effect of making it accept unlimited sales
- cargo-stealing on space kills
- added economy rate 3 setting that pays wages at the rate of the global production setting, but unemployment benefit is paid monthly
- More work on the culling mode 1 landscape renderer
- When using wages source modes that take wages only from building invest, the 'job vacancy' signs are not displayed if the building doesnt have enough investment to pay at least 1 wage
- fix for mouse control on the purchase/trade lists sometimes being offset
- Various tidyups and fixes of the read and send mail screens
- tidyups of no-gal/no-chat frontend so previous finite drive list is used if available (or a default if not).