HOST 3.2 Beta 1a:

Red error when starbase's are built bug
fixed.

HOST 3.2 Beta 1c:

All ships in free space visible
to Informer bug fixed.

Super star destroyer always visible bug
fixed.

Bio scanners will not scan native life
on planets with 20 or more defense outposts.

Spelling error: "Trader" ----> "Traitor"

Spelling error: "Assult" ----> "Assault"

Defaults set to:
Cloaked Ships May be robbed: NO
ATT/NUK : YES
Web mine sweep range : 0 ly
Mine sweep range : 5 ly
Max minefield radius : 150 ly

Glory device no longer sends two messages if
one of your own ships get hit with the shock
wave.

SENDMESS.EXE now sends messages from the host
to the 3.5 interface.

The REAL XYPLAN.DAT file is:
XYPLAN DAT 3,000 02-23-93 8:34a

The other XYPLAN.DAT file that was sent out
with the other beta test host files was not
the one and only one that I made. I don't know
where in the world it came from. Delete the
bogus XYPLAN.DAT that came with the other beta
test.


HOST 3.2 Beta Test 1d

--------------------------------------

Thanks to the help of [email protected] ( Colin Foss )
Bugs in 3.2 that caused host crashes have been found and fixed.

Super Spi ships caused the host to crash when they were successful
at changing the planet's friendly code.

Chunnel function crashed host if the fire cloud's friendly code
was set to a certain friendly code.

---------------------------------------

Other fixes and changes:

Cobol ram scoop works even if the cobol reaches its waypoint.

TYPO Fixed: "on the this planet" ---> "on this planet"

TYPO Fixed: "We can have" ---> "We have"

Master.exe 3.20a now clears the priority build points.

Fixed clone function, it sometimes required one unit too much
tech to clone a ship.

TYPO FIXED: "A cloaked ship has detected" --->
"A cloaked ship has been detected"

BAD GAMMAR FIXED: "Defense outposts using ion discharge" --->
"Defense outposts are using an ion discharge"

TYPO FIXED: "magacredits" ---> "megacredits"


ADDED: A LOKI will not decloak a cloaked Lizard ship or Fed Ship.

ADDED: Hyper jumping ships do not get sucked into planets by warp wells.

Error in growth rate fixed, populations grow at a faster rate. (Same as 3.14b)

ADDED: Hitting a deep space mine will slow a ship by 10 ly.

ADDED: Cloaked ships that hit a mine and go over the damage that prevents cloak
limit will come out of cloak.

HOST now dumps messages to RACE 12 to a HOSTMESS.TXT file and to HOST.LOG.

ADDED: Engine shield bonus is not in effect when a ship is attacking a planet.

----------------------------

HOST 3.2 Beta Test 1e

Fixed: The Super Stardestroyer is immune to all NUK / ATT attacking planets
if the Imperial Assault mission is turned on. It does not matter
which race owns the Super Star Destroyer, it is immune.
It is a ship thing, not a race thing.


----------------------------

HOST 3.2 Beta Test 2a

Fixed:
BUG: "bum" on a planet causes the money to vanish
When a planet's friendly code code is set to "bum" and the money
on the planet is greater then 32,768 mc the money is not beamed
up to the enemy ships in orbit. Negative amounts of money may
appear on the ship in orbit instead.

FIXED: Bug Number 0007 fixed.
Primarily what the bug is involves the score not decrementing
when losing a base.

Changed: Ion storms now start closer to the edge of the map

----------------------

Size of HOST.EXE reduced from 151,774 bytes to under 143,700 bytes.

Speed increase:

Speed of HOST 3.2 beta 2a is about 55% faster than HOST 3.2 beta 1d.

On an Intel 486DX2-66 8meg of ram
Windows 95 Final Beta
running HOST.EXE in a small DOS Window (Not full screen):

500 ships 47 starbases 150 to 200 messages per player:
HOST 3.2 Beta 1d: 2' 42"
HOST 3.2 Beta 2a: 1' 13"
Host used 337K of Conventional memory

---------------------

HCONFIG ITEMS ADDED:

Cobol Fuel Scoop:
The amount of fuel that the Cobol Class makes per LY can be
changed from the default of 2kt to 0kt 1kt 2kt 3kt or 4kt
per light year traveled. This is the amount of fuel that
a Cobol class ship will extract from the near-vacuum of space
for every light year that the ship travels.

Aries Alchemy Switch
If yes the Aries class starship will convert minerals into fuel.

Bioscanners Switch

If yes the Cobol, Pawn and Brynhild class starships are capable of detecting
native life on other planets. If the starships mission is sensor sweep this
ability will be activated.

Mine Hit Tech Slowdown

This is the tech level of starship hulls that are not slowed down by a mine
hit. Ship hulls at this tech level and above will not be slowed by a mine hit.
Ship hulls below this setting will be slowed by 10LY when they hit a space
mine. (range 1 to 10 ) default = 7

HCONFIG.EXE now makes a CONFIG.TXT file in the hst data directory that it is
configuring when you save. This a text file is a listing of the current
config settings being used in the game.

Run the new HCONFIG.EXE before you run the new HOST 3.2 Beta 2a and
set the last 4 items or else HOST will switch ALL settings to default
settings.
You should set the last 4 settings to this:
Cobol class free fuel per LY 2 KT
Aries can convert minerals to fuel YES
Bioscanners YES
Hull Tech not slowed by mine hits 7

----------------------------

HOST 3.2 Beta Test 2b

Added: Friendly code of minefields now take effect as soon as mines
are dropped .

Added: Minefield friendly code now prevents web mines from draining
ships with matching friendly codes

Added: Ship data error check after AUXHOST2.BAT.

Fixed: Long waypoints crashing DOS PLANETS.EXE fixed.

Changed: The Super Star Destroyer must have 0 damage to do the
imperial assault mission.

Added: When a cloaked ship is burning fuel to stay cloaked and it
does not have enough fuel to remain cloaked the ship will decloak
and not burn the cloak burn fuel. Before this fix it was
decloaking and burning the cloak burn fuel at the same time.
Problem found by:
Richard Nadolny

-------------------------------------------------------------------

HOST 3.2 Beta Test 3a

Fixed: HYP ships burned no fuel if fuel < 50kt and friendly code to "HYP"
They now burn fuel.

Fixed: Message error causing black lines on version 3.00 PLANETS.EXE client
programs, when a message is sent from a WINPLAN.EXE 3.5 client.

Rule Changed: Ships on intercept courses now burn the "standard" amount of fuel.
I.E. A ship intercepting a ship 3 LY away now burns 3 LY of fuel.
Intercepting ships were burning an amount equal the maximum amount
that will be burnt at the set warp factor. A ship incepting a ship
3LY away at warp 9 was burning the amount needed to go 81LY.

FIXED: Host now uses a random number seed other then TIMER
(seconds past midnight) The random number seed is now the sum
of the total amount of fuel on all ships plus the race ID of
all ships.

Spelling error: Captian's >> Captain's

NEW: The planet friendly code "dmp" cancels the building of a ship if
a ship is not built due to the 500 ship limit. If the ship limit
is not reached the ship is built and then the starbase parts are
"dumped" ("dmp").

Changed: The planet friendly code "dmp" does not recycle starbase torpedoes
into minerals.

Changed: Mine sweeping ships do not sweep minefields with a friendly code
matching that of the ship.

FIXED: No more freighter vs freighter VCRs

Changed: Cloaked ships do not attack planets

Changed: Warp wells are 3.00 light years in diameter
( prefect circle ) (not a square)

Spelling error: Reptain >> Reptilian

Spelling error: Riped >> Ripped

Host checks to see if messages are coming from the true players
and not from a 3rd party hack program that sends fake messages.

NEW: You do not sweep enemy mine field that have a friendly code
that matches your ship.

NEW: Mine hit messages include ship ID numbers of the ship that
hit the mine.

The Cobol Class (colonial fuel scooper) does not scoop fuel when
it is on an intercept mission, being towed and towing.

The is >>NOT<< a right/left side ship combat advantage in host 3.2x.

The cloak fail rate is not 50% all the time. The cloak fail rate
works as documented. The odds are within a few percentage points
of the set rate. The HOST.LOG now will tell you how many cloak fails
took place out of how many ships are cloaked.
The is more misinformation being spread about HOST.


New: Chunnel rules:

A ship belonging to a race other than the race of the Firecloud
opening a chunnel at the same point in space as the firecloud must
have a warp speed of 0 to enter the chunnel (way point setting does
not matter). The chunnel ship's race can enter the chunnel at any
warp speed.

For Example: If fleet of enemy ships that warp onto a planet that
is hiding a firecloud with its chunnel engaged only the enemy ships
with a warp speed of 0 will enter the chunnel. The only ships that
can move onto a planet with a warp speed of 0 are ships that are
being towed. None of the ships that moved their under their own
will enter the chunnel.


-------------------------------------------------------------------

HOST 3.2 Beta Test 3b

Bug in HOST Beta 3a fixed:
"HYP" now works. ( Hyperspace jumps )

Bug in HOST Beta 3a fixed:
Warp wells now work. They are circles 3.001 light years in radius
that will suck all ships within range to the planet.

Bug in all host 3.2 beta fixed:
Parts disappearing on ships being built, leaving ships with 0 weapons.
This happened on starbases that had weapon tech levels that were lower than
that part that was placed on the ship, starbase tech levels no longer
matters. ( Bug found by: Kyle D. Lanclos [email protected])

New Chunnel Rule:
Cloaked ships of any race will ether a warp chunnel at any warp speed.
The will come out at the other end cloaked, but with no shields.

Bug in all host 3.2 beta fixed:
Ion storm Math error! I got my SIN() and COS() functions confused (backwards).
This has been repaired and the ION storms will now travel along their
heading correctly.

Changed:
When a player did priority point ship build the ship queue reseted to
the starbase that did the build and continued. This has been changed
to the priority build ship is built and then the queue continues where
ever it was before the priority build took place.

NEW:
Ships that are being cloned must stay at the starbase.
A ship that is being cloned will have its warp speed set to zero.



Old rules to remember:
A pair Fireclouds can not use a chunnel if ANYSHIP with fuel locks
a tow beam on it, the warp speed and waypoint setting of the ship
locking the beam does not matter.

Minimum range of chunnel: 100 LY

Special climate max populations:

Rebels: Surface temp 19 and lower
Maximum clans that can survive: at least 200

Fascists and Robots: Surface temp 81 and higher
Maximum clans that can survive: at least 60

-------------------------------------------------------------------

HOST 3.2 Beta Test 3b

Bug: in Beta 3a:
Warp well fixed.
3.001 light years in radius

Bug: in Beta 3a:
"HYP" bug in HOST 3a fixed.
"HYP" jump ships now jump.

Bug: in all 3.2 hosts fixed:
Ships being built with 0 weapons on that starbases that
do not have equal to or greater than the tech of the parts
used in the construction of the ship. This has been fixed.

Bug: in all 3.2 hosts fixed:
Ships were being cloned at starbases where ships were being
built. You can clone or build but not both now, unless you have
the priority build points to do so.

Bug: in all 3.2 hosts fixed:
Ships being cloned were allowed to move while being cloned.
Warp speed of ships being cloaked is now set to 0.

New:
All cloaked ships of any race will enter a warp chunnel
at any speed.




--------------------------------------------------------------------

HOST 3.2 Beta Test 3c

New:
When a web minefield drains all the fuel from a cloaked ship
that ship will decloak. ( Bug Found by: [email protected] )

New: AUXBATT.INI hook added:
1. It runs just like a normal batch file.

2. It must be placed in the HST data subdirectory.
(This is so that it can be used on a game by game basis)

3. It runs just before normal combat.

4. If host finds this file, host will:
a) Disable ship to ship combat.
b) Disable ship to planet / planet to ship combat.

Fixed: md0 now drops 100 mines.

New:
When a cloaked ship attacks and goes reaches the damage limit that
prevents cloak the ship will now decloak, unless it has enough
supplies on board to repair the damage.
( Pointed out by: Dave Jones @ Tim Continuum BBS )

Bug Fixed: An error in the distance reported to the outside edge
of mine fields has been found and fixed. Host now reports the
correct distance to minefields.
( bug found by: Cory Langford @ Tim Continuum BBS )

Fixed: You can clone a ship that you are also towing away, however
you can not longer do a normal build on that starbase that turn.
( bug found by: Richard T. Vogt @ Warp Speed BBS )

Fixed: When host gets a trying to build a ship without engines
error, the build is canceled.

New Score Hook Added:
The file name is "TONS.HST". It keeps a running total
of the number of kilotons of enemy ships that a race
has "sunk" in ship to ship combat:
The first 11 records (4 bytes each) are the totals
so far. The second 11 records (4 bytes each) are the
amounts for this turn only.
'This code will read the TONS.HST file
dim tont(11,2) as long' (4 bytes each)
f4 = FreeFile
Open gamepath + "TONS.HST" For Binary As #f4
For i = 1 To 11
x1 = (i - 1) * 4 + 1
Get f4, x1, tont(i, 1)
Get f4, x1 + 44, tont(i, 2)
Next i
Close #f4
Host only generates this file, it does nothing else with it.
( Hook requested by: Eat Flaming Death! BBS )

New: The Glory device will now knock any cloaked ship that goes
over the damage limit out of cloak.
( Bug Found by: [email protected] )

New: When host 3.2 sends the config messages to the WINPLAN
players and no changes have been made to the config settings
the first message will read: "<< NO CHANGES HAVE BEEN MADE >>"

Changed: The Glory device explosions do not show up on the WINPLAN's
starmap. They were showing up before this.

New: Enemy ships will enter a Warp Chunnel if their friendly code
matches the Firecloud's friendly code or if it is out of fuel.

New: Ships that are destroyed by minefields cause an explosion marker
to be displayed on WINPLAN's starchart.

Improvement: AUXHOST1 AUXHOST2 AUXBATT events all have 12,368 more
bytes of free memory to work in than they had when run under
beta 3b.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

HOST 3.2 Beta Test 3e

Fixed Bug: Glory device "trg" was set off by own ships when mission
was set to "KILL". Your own cloaked ships will not set it off now.

New: When a Privateer or Crystalline ship uses the friendly code
"nbr" the tow capture mission is disabled and the enemy ship can
be towed without being captured.

Fixed Bug: Bug that caused a fatal error in host when the turn number
reached 313 and WINPLAN was being used.
( Bug found by: Ronald Gretz )

Changed: The friendly code "cln" will not delay the building of a
ship by the Privateer or Crystals.

Added: The base mission "UNLOAD FREIGHTERS" now unloads money from
ships in orbit.

New: Any message containing the code *w* anywhere in the body of the
text will cause the message to become anonymous.


-------------------------------------------------------------------

HOST 3.2 Beta Test 3f

One small change:

When a player uses the *w* in the body of a message to
make the message anonymous that message is now sent after all normal
messages are sent. All anonymous messages are sent in a random order.
There should be no way for a player to tell where the anonymous
messages are coming from, even when they have access to the HOST.LOG
file as many BBS players do.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

HOST 3.2 Beta Test 3g


Bug Fix: The broken HYP jump has been fixed.

Changed: Bio scanners will not scan planets that you own.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

HOST 3.2 Beta Test 3h

Final Adjustments to the "Game Balance"

NEW:
Intercept Attacks
Battle Ordering: All ship to ship combat has two combat stages:
1. Intercepting ships attack their intercept targets.
2. The Friendly Code Battle order.

Intercepts Attack - Under HOST.EXE Version 3.2 Beta 3h
( and better ) ships on intercept missions will attack
their intercept target ship first. The highest ID ships
on an intercept mission attack before the lower ID ships
on intercept missions. Anytime a ship on an intercept
mission goes into combat it looses its intercept lock.
This allows ships with higher IDs to intercept intercepting
ships before they reach their target. REMEMBER: You must
set your primary enemy to the race of the ship you are
intercepting if you wish to attack them.

If you are a race that depends on cloaking to survive
this is a useful attack mode to use to take out loki(s)
that are members of an enemy fleet.

NEW:
The LOKI must have fuel and less than 20 damage points to
decloak enemy ships.

NEW: If a planet is left with 0 colonists any starbase in orbit
will be lost. Any buildings on the surface of the planet
will disappear slowly at a decay rate set by the host.
If you wish to give a planet to another race you must
leave at least 1 clan on the surface and have them beam
their clans down right on top of you.

NEW: The Super Star Destroyer can not attack an enemy planet using
fighters or beam weapons. An enemy planet can not attack a Super Star
Destroyer using "NUK" or "ATT". The only way a Super Star Destroyer
can take over an enemy planet is by dropping clans on the planet.

NEW: The Robots Pawn class ship will do a bio scan on 100% of the
planets within scan range.

NEW: The Evil Empire planets will cause the bio scanners to send back
false readings to all races, except for the Rebels.

NEW: The Rebels can have up to 9,000,000 colonists on Ice Planets.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

HOST 3.2 Beta Test 3J

Final ReAdjustments to the "Game Balance"

NEW:
Only ships with a cloaking device can do an Intercept Attack.

Intercept Attacks
Battle Ordering: All ship to ship combat has two combat stages:
1. Intercepting with a cloaking device ships attack their
intercept targets.

2. The Friendly Code Battle order.

Intercepts Attack - Under HOST.EXE Version 3.2 Beta 3J
( and better ) ships on intercept missions with a
cloaking device will attack their intercept target ship first.
The highest ID ships with a cloaking device on an intercept mission
will attack before the lower ID ships with a cloaking device
on intercept missions. Anytime a ship on an intercept mission
goes into combat it looses its intercept lock. This allows ships
with a cloaking device and higher IDs to intercept intercepting
ships before they reach their target. REMEMBER: You must
set your primary enemy to the race of the ship you are
intercepting if you wish to attack them.

Changed: The Super Star Destroyer can once again attack planets
using fighters and beam weapons.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

ERROR 67!!!

This is the not enough file handles error. Increase the number
of file handles on your system by editing the following line in
config.sys:

FILES = XX

Increase that "XX" number by 10 or 20.

This is the number of file your system can have open at
one time. HOST 3.2 opens 15 files while it is running, so
you will need 15 plus however number of file handles the other
programs on your system are using.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Maybe A Bug:

I have reports of "btt" and "btf" causing ships to exploded.

The reported way that this is done is a cloaked ship uses
"btt" and "btf" to transfer torps or fighters to unsupecting
enemy ships. The torps or fighters explode the next turn.

I have spent a whole day testing "btt" and "btf" and have been
unable to repeat the bug.

I supect it to be caused by bugs in WINPLAN 3.5 Beta 1x's
transporters. These bugs have been fixed in WINPLAN 3.5 Beta 2b.

If you can figure out anything on this bug please report it
at once.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Maybe A Bug:

BIO-SCANNERS are reported to not be able to detect life
on unowned planets. I tested it and it seems to be working
as it should.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Reported Bug:

The "gsN" (Give Ship to race N) command is reported to not work.

The code requires that the "enemy race" that you are giving the
be at the same spot in space with at least clan of colonists.

Only registered players can give ships away using "gsN".

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Not a bug:

The Lady Royale Class Cruiser:
False bug reported: "When I beam all the colonists off of a Lady Royale
the ship still makes 160mc"

You can collect money from a group of colonists on a Lady Royale the
same turn that they beam down to an unowned/enemy planet.

If 160 colonist clans beam down to a planet that you do not own you will find
0 colonist clans plus 160 megacredits onboard the ship the next turn.


-------------------------------------------------------------------

Super refit mystery solved!

Problem:

Fed superrefit does not work, it removes the
ships weapons and leaves it with none.

Solution:

This happens when you are refitting a ship and you do
not have 100% of the beams or torp tubes on the starbase for
the refit.

E.I. To super refit a Nova Class you need at least 10 beam of
any one type on the starbase and at least 10 torp tubes of
any one type on the starbase. Normal ship building takes place
before the super refit, so if some other ship uses the refiting
ship's parts before hand, the super refit will not take place and
the ship will be left with no weapons. NOTE: If the Nova has 10 torp
tubes and 10 beams before the super refit, it will have the same
weapons after if there were not a full set of better parts on the
starbase.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

NOT A BUG:

If a ship that you are towing cloaks you are still towing it.

Cloaking does not break a tow.

This is not a bug, it is game design. I want players to be
able to tow cloaked "enemy" ships into battle or accross a
minefield.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

NOT A BUG:

Having a fixed fuel burn rate is not a bug.

It is part of the game design.

The ships in VGA Planets burn all their fuel at once to
jump to the set warp speed all within a few seconds. Like
a gun being fired in a vacuum.