Seven Years War: Releases End of October

[Asid]

Update to version 1.094
16 January

Game enhancements:
- added annexion of cities (occupied cities now have higher corruption and recruiting is disabled, ownership can be claimed after peace negotiations) - added details to manual
- added victory points for auto-calc battles (can be seen now in battle result menu, top right)

Game balance:
- now preventing armies with relative low strength from taking offensive actions
- increased cost for exchange of provinces

Fixed bugs:
- cost of peace negotiations now deducted correctly from existing victory points
- now preventing background actions and mouseinformation if below open menues
- file menu in campaign mode deactivated if battle start screen shows to prevent stuck situations when reloading
- suppressed high goods demand (e.g. for food) on the first day of a new scenario
- fixed crashes related to new gamestart after deleting buildings in an older game
- added workaround preventing too high goods demand in the first minutes of play
- fixed problem enemy units did not engage in battle if they have fought against AI before
- beaten armies now retreat promptly after battle (sometimes they went for a second engagement)

Layout:
- added complete black background in red/black tutorial informations
- added multiple smoke color and slightly more smokey battlefields
- added possibility to lighten then background of the menues (adjustable in options menu)
- increased side of unit icon information in battle

Others:
- now indicating if diplomacy partner has researched tech to exchange or not (until now only the own research was signaled by checkmark)
- added small moving delays for soldier sprites in battles to simulate unorderly movement
- added single click attack (with normal speed) when rmc on enemy unit and ceasefire is activated or unit has no range weapon
- armys on enemy terrain which have too low moral (currently <20%) or too low relative strength (currently <40%) are routed and moved to the nearest friendly city to rally
- army on enemy terrain moved back to nearest city if peace is declared

[keppelmueller]

here a small screenshot of the battle of Minden, smokes have been drastically increased.

[magnus]

By all means, please keep working on the main program.

I was just wondering if at sometime you were planning on adding more battles and perhaps more wars.

I would think that there would not be too many differences in the world map from 1740 to 1756.

I am not saying it would be easy and thank you for all of your efforts, both before and after release.

[Asid]

Update to version 1.095
26 January

Game enhancements:
- added abortion of recruiting by clicking on the progress ring
- occupied provinces are now automatically annexed if prior owner was defeated (no provinces left)
- diplomatic actions with defeated nations now not possible any more
- added option to deactivate mouseover-infos (although you won't like to do this)
- added information about highest demand or offer of own and foreign provinces if mouse cursor is placed over city short info
- provincial forts now constructable

Game balance:
- increased probability of AI constructing defense buildings and holding garrisons

Fixed bugs:
- corrected weapons of dragoons in the historic battle of Torgau
- fixed some not applicable weapons after tech was researched
- fixed payment of fleet supply costs while not having fleets
- added stability for campaign battles (fixed some crashes related to high memory usage)
- fixed wrong resource demand for building repairs
- corrected negative building or repair duration

Layout:
- smoothed battle ground texture on greater distances
- polished vegetation for battle & campaign mode
- polished winter tree textures
- added autumn landscape for battles
- polished ground textures in campaign mode
- polished water animation in campaign mode
- added light font for scales

Others:
- reduced smoke effect of canister shots
- removed plain mouse cursor in windowed mode (but not the specials like target cursors and mouseinfos)
- added mouseover-information for ammo options in battles


Update to version 1.096
6 February

Game enhancements:
- added intelligent fire range radius for artillery and infantry in battles, now showing real fire distance for each angle

Fixed bugs:
- two high weapon technologies set to not researched (was set to researched for debugging purposes)
- regiments placed on water at the start of the game are replaced now
- added workaround for sometimes happening "sailing over land" fleets and "moving over water" divisions
- removed dark lines on campaign map when showing posession colors
- lost graphics due to alt+tab are now reloaded in campaign mode (battle mode to follow)

Layout:
- increased width of barricades
- national borders now colored darker than provincial borders
- updated unit GUI for battles

Others:
- prices for products can now be adjusted into negative
- renamed provinces with capitals Dublin and Cork to Leinster and Munster
- regiments which have lost all of their strength are now removed from battlemap




Version 1.097 presenting new unit animation and better 3D Models
13 February

Game enhancements:
- now multiple menus of battle GUI can stay opened
- animation of regimental casualties and replacements
- implemented intelligent memory sprite quality: in battles with a lot of different unit types the memory utilization is reduced by loading less smooth unit sprites to prevent too high memory utilization and crashes
- implemented intelligent pathfinding in battles to increase waypoint searches (now balancing depending on the pc speed)

Fixed bugs:
- fixed crash exiting from battles by clicking retreat button
- solved scenarios ending one month too early
- fixed not passable bridges in battles
- fixed traders and supply trains stuck in campaign map near rivers

Layout:
- improved house and church models on battlefields
- improved unit sprite quality in battles
- improved 3d artillery models

Others:
- smoothed sprite positions when regiment turns

[magnus]

Excellent, now throw an email to the Histwar guy and explain it to him ;D.

[Skoop]

Definitely picking this up in the next steam sale, looks like it's maturing nicely.

[sandman2575]

Keppelmueller's support of his game has been really extraordinary. The improvements have been coming out at a quick and steady pace -- and the fact that he's doing this all on his own makes it even more impressive.

That said --

I really hope someone puts together a Steam guide or walk through. There are a couple of recent YouTube vids by a Hofstader, but they mostly emphasize the battles.

The game at first blush, and at second blush, is fairly baffling. I've done the tutorial, but it fails to explain things in context. It proceeds in a "You can do this, and you can do that" fashion, but it doesn't adequately explain *why* you'd be doing any of these things, and how those actions contribute to the big strategic picture.

The manual is also inadequate. Again, explains some of the "what" and "how" of the game, but not the "why"...

I've fired this up a few times now, and my feeling hasn't changed: it's a feeling of utter helplessness. I have no idea where to begin.

[Hofstadter]

Keppelmueller's support of his game has been really extraordinary. The improvements have been coming out at a quick and steady pace -- and the fact that he's doing this all on his own makes it even more impressive.

That said --

I really hope someone puts together a Steam guide or walk through. There are a couple of recent YouTube vids by a Hofstader, but they mostly emphasize the battles.

The game at first blush, and at second blush, is fairly baffling. I've done the tutorial, but it fails to explain things in context. It proceeds in a "You can do this, and you can do that" fashion, but it doesn't adequately explain *why* you'd be doing any of these things, and how those actions contribute to the big strategic picture.

The manual is also inadequate. Again, explains some of the "what" and "how" of the game, but not the "why"...

I've fired this up a few times now, and my feeling hasn't changed: it's a feeling of utter helplessness. I have no idea where to begin.

Yeah I keep trying to make new videos. I had the developers economics tutorial up and ive been reading the forums. But economics is far and away from being my strong suit.

Ill do some extensive testing and see what I can do to make a proper economics guide. God knows if any of it would be right though. In my opinion he needs to make a flowchart showing economic trickle. A good example would be the production guide in war in the west, where it shows how oil is distributed throughout the warmachine. The limit of my economic capability is total war where my soldiers are shown against my income XD

[Swatter]

After WitP:AE, I am not afraid of any game system, but I will not touch this game until I see some sort of detailed review of the campaign AI. Many posts in this thread, but there are very few people who actually play this game. This graphics make me want to poke my eyes out, but I don't care much about that. What I want is an AI that makes it all worthwhile. You can have the most detailed economic system in gaming history (Supreme Ruler 2010, 2020, CW), but without a decent AI it is all wasted (Supreme Ruler).

[sandman2575]

Anything you can do to help lessen the steep learning curve would be much appreciated, Hofstadter. Especially anything that helps clarify the larger strategic picture and how to approach it in the early game.

[Hofstadter]

After WitP:AE, I am not afraid of any game system, but I will not touch this game until I see some sort of detailed review of the campaign AI. Many posts in this thread, but there are very few people who actually play this game. This graphics make me want to poke my eyes out, but I don't care much about that. What I want is an AI that makes it all worthwhile. You can have the most detailed economic system in gaming history (Supreme Ruler 2010, 2020, CW), but without a decent AI it is all wasted (Supreme Ruler).

IMHO, the battle AI needs a little work for some historical scenarios. But its far better then Total war Napoleon and Empire.

In Seven years war, the AI actually knows HOW TO FORM A BLOODY LINE.

[Swatter]

Hopefully we can get an in depth campaign review at some point.

[Hofstadter]

Well I made the first part of a Russian campaign video, check it out in the video thread.

[Jarhead0331]

Swatter...if we get you a copy of the game, would you be interested in doing a detailed in depth review?

The offer is open to any serious gamer who is prepared to put the time and effort into playing the game and then reporting details about your experience in a written review.

PM me if you're interested.

[keppelmueller]

hi folks, thx for all your comments. as i am still working on major game improvements the expansion of tutorials and manuals unfortunately have second priority. every type of support like hofstadters is welcome. and pls use the "right way" of support if you are interested in a further game development. thx everybody ;)