Changes in 0.9.3 (released 20080424)

Gameplay Improvements

• Better unit movement:

• Removed hidden forbidden area, replaced with a new 'immobile units' array (same purpose (avoid unit clashing), done differently)
• Units can now move backwards to get around blockages (before they had to move forward or stall)
• Warriors no longer consider enemy walls and towers blockages when plotting their route to a war flag / defence area.
• Warriors now pathfind using an A* algorithm. This means that attacks are more effecient (they surround enemies to kill them faster for example)

• Better flag/area functionality:

• Checkboard and half-checkboard brush are now tilable (they space out on a grid rather than clump together)
• Clearing areas have been adjusted to pull free healthy units, rather than waiting for one to walk into a clearing area
• Clearing flags no longer call units that can't swim, if what they have to clear is over water
• Forbidden areas are now respected over clearing areas/flags

• Many improvments to Nicowar's stability and performance (fewer crashes, and now uses ground attack explorers if the game goes on that long)
• Script text is now added to the history box ('h') so people who play the tutorial can read the last messages if they forget
• Now more more than 4/3 units per resource needed for a building construction/upgrade are allocated to a building
• Explorer attacks are now 2/5 the power of what they once were
• Tutorial text updated to reflect features in recent version.
• Building worker count, and building future working count (the amount assigned the moment a construction is complete) is now saved in the game file and restored when loaded

Overall Improvements

• Moved fertiliy from on the fly, to being calculated with the map when saving it (less bugs, faster performance). Older maps will compute fertility before being playable
• Fixed several memory leaks
• syncRand system changed to use the well known Mersenne Twister algorithm through Boost Random
• Removed the verbose messages from Map that outputted things like "pathfind local resource failed" in the console
• Map editor now asks you if you want to save the map before quitting
• Improved keyboard shortcut system (can now assign shortcuts with CTRL, ALT, SHIFT, and meta (Mac OSX Command key for example), as well as pressed/unpressed events)
• Flag default worker settings are now editable in the Unit Settings tab

Network Improvements

• Made net connections multi-threaded
• General code improvements for maintainability
• New Administrative YOG commands (for muting and unmuting players who spam the channel, or resetting a player password)
• Ghost buildings (previous release feature) now display in your teams color
• Improved latency computation on server (games with lag should run a bit smoother now)
• Games will now be sent over network to joining players when the computed sha1 does not match (no longer uses game checksum). More reliable now
• VOIP changes:

• Experimental Win32 VOIP
• You can now adjust the sound of someone talking through the Settings panel on the main menu or in game

Graphical Improvements

• Minimum (default) resolution now 800x600
• The cursor now uses your team colour, rather than the default pink
• A new talk indicator (for Linux players) shows who is talking on VOIP
• Flag/Area in game button now differs from the building button.

Translation Improvements

• The tutorial campaign text is now in the translation files (the ingame text isn't yet though)
• Updated Italian and Russian translations

Miscellaneous Improvements

• scons script now checks for a compiler, to prevent problems with it tries to compile with nothing
• Experimental, but semi stable, Mac OS X .app bundle and dmg file creation in scons. Needs more people to test
• Added spec files for making Fedora packages
• The adition of two new command line options:

• -test-games  : Runs the game automatically, with different maps, different players, for 1 hour or until game is won, using GUI. Good for testing features or AI's
• -test-games-nox  : Same as -test-games, but without a GUI, so many times faster, but harder to know if features are working as they should. Good for finding bugs in the engine