Pride of Nations - New Patch

[Nefaro]

Don't have DL yet, but will tonight.

Nef, maybe you and I should take Germany and Austria, crush all of those little people around us :)

>:D

Steam isn't but I think you can update without going through Steam. The current version is 1.04.3.

I'm not sure but it looks like you need to be patched up to 1.04 and then apply the 1.04.3 hot fix.

Ugh.

What the hell is going on with this patch silliness?  Do we have three different versions of the same game, plus two different patches? 
Makes me wanna lactate pure fury into pried eyeballs.  :pullhair:   

I have a bad feeling about this.

[undercovergeek]

Don't make me corner the hand bag and ladies shoe market again!

[Martok]

Gah.  I am actually now considering buying this game again so I can get the new patch (my version was purchased from GamersGate, which is no longer available there).  I continue to be drawn in by PON, despite its issues.  Oy... 

I'm in.  Now that they fixed the immortal Chechen hoarde bug, what could possibly go wrong?

Don't make me corner the hand bag and ladies shoe market again!

;D

[Nefaro]

Don't make me corner the hand bag and ladies shoe market again!

It's very lucrative.  Just double the prices, then display a "50% Off" sign over them.  Fly right outta there.     :clap:

[OJsDad]

Don't make me corner the hand bag and ladies shoe market again!

It's very lucrative.  Just double the prices, then display a "50% Off" sign over them.  Fly right outta there.     :clap:

My wife falls that that all the time :(

[Anguille]

Gah.  I am actually now considering buying this game again so I can get the new patch (my version was purchased from GamersGate, which is no longer available there).  I continue to be drawn in by PON, despite its issues.  Oy... 

I'm in.  Now that they fixed the immortal Chechen hoarde bug, what could possibly go wrong?

Don't make me corner the hand bag and ladies shoe market again!

;D

Imho, it should still be in your library.

[OJsDad]

Purchased PON and DL now.  With my lightning fast 1.1 DSL connection, it'll only take a few hours :P

[Tuna]

Gah.  I am actually now considering buying this game again so I can get the new patch (my version was purchased from GamersGate, which is no longer available there).  I continue to be drawn in by PON, despite its issues.  Oy... 

I have the Gamersgate version and I downloaded yesterday and was able to install the patch fine.. but i did have a couple of later patches.. 1.03 and the 1.04 before. But patches seemed to install fine.. However I didn't have a chance to 'play' yesterday to see that all is well.

Edit: However I did contemplate purchasing again on Steam since it's on sale to make the whole process easier. FYI, that patch is huge.. 1.4 Gig!

[OJsDad]

Edit: However I did contemplate purchasing again on Steam since it's on sale to make the whole process easier. FYI, that patch is huge.. 1.4 Gig!

If the patch is 1.4, then it must have change everything, because the base game DL is 1.3 on Steam.

[Tuna]

Edit: However I did contemplate purchasing again on Steam since it's on sale to make the whole process easier. FYI, that patch is huge.. 1.4 Gig!

If the patch is 1.4, then it must have change everything, because the base game DL is 1.3 on Steam.

I would think 1.3 is good enough to install the latest patch.. go to that link and download it.

[JasonPratt]

Re Steam patching: the game was updated to 1.04 back in early September. There have been incremental patches and hotfixes since then (including a hotpatch to fix the unpopular 1.044 change of needing a 7th level imperialism to declare war on someone. This was meant to keep the AI from having a bunch of insane Paradox-ian wars going on with Korea declaring war on Chile, etc.) Current Steam version reads as 1.04.2, Sept 30th. However, the hotpatch on Steam seems equivalent to 1.04.3 on the Matrix forum which can be downloaded here: ftp.ageod.com/pub/PON/PONQF1043.exe

The Matrix update 1.04.3 page reads:

This will be a rather heavy archive, because baring a few configurations files that are generated automatically, plus your private and personal settings file, you get almost a full setup. The missing files are there to ensure you have a legit copy of PON.

This is done this way so were are sure there is no issue coming from a missing or misplaced file, as official 1.04 is suspected to leave some files behind.

However, later in the thread there is concern that the patch path doesn't work. I have tried it and it does currently work (for a 1.4 Gig update, naturally.) Another link in the thread that I haven't tried is: https://we.tl/1PR7lu0LAm


Re nation choosing: there is a small fan mod that makes all the nations choosable, if someone doesn't want the main ten (including Ottomans and Belgium as of the late 1.01h build). The downside is that the developers included few scripts for them, and a player has to do a bit of text editing to make the starting troops capable of being moved. I suppose for mp purposes I don't recommend it. ;)

So currently the unattached playable nations are:

United Kingdom
United States
Prussia (i.e. Germany later)
Austria (which starts holding or influencing a lot of Italy)
Piedmont-Sardinia (balloon and handbag capital of Europe, eventually becomes Italy)
Japan
Belgium (somehow not the handbag capital of Europe, despite being the most economically efficient nation for its size at gamestart)


I will mention here that I have no idea how to even start a multiplayer game; but someone read the rules previously, so I'll just follow their lead.  O:-)

[JasonPratt]

In regard to play options, some things to consider checking:

Under the Media tab:
Pause after battle
Turn Compression (kind of necessary for multiplayer games; supposedly reduces potential for save file corruption!)

Under the Game tab:
Use Fog of War (duh)

Redeployment -- the first checkmark makes it impossible for players to freely redeploy any commanders or HQs (they have to travel normally) The AI always gets three free redeployments per turn (except for the final option which gives them 6). Different options give the human player(s) one, or three free redeploys. Any redeploys suffer significant maluses for one turn and cannot move that turn. I'm inclined to suggest either none (the default) or three for us squishy bags.

Activation rule -- the three options allow commanders to always move troops; to give a large movement and combat penalty if the moving troops don't have an activated commander; or to give a large chance of troops not moving at all without an activated commander. I'm inclined to go with option 2, but option 3 might help keep minor nation troops from wandering much.

Delayed commitment -- this affects how much certain factors will delay troops getting into battle once committed. I guess I recommend the most historical version, the far right option.

Historical attrition -- the middle option gives non-moving attrition for human players only. The other options are no attrition for standing units, and non-moving attrition for the AI. Basically the game doesn't know what to do about attrition, but the working theory is probably that any lesser nations just won't have attrition being small enough and rural enough to live off the land (even in a desert) or off carried supplies. Turning this on for everyone simply erodes the AI troops quickly. I recommend either turning it off for everyone or leaving it as it is for humans.

Randomized generals -- four levels; maybe second level is best? (Slight randomization of historical stats.)

Extended (military) Pool and Extended Structure Pool -- there are levels for granting up to twice the historical allowances. I guess I prefer historical?

SOIs and Claims -- historical SOIs actually give a nation prestige penalties for holding unhistorical spheres of influence, which seems insane! Presumably this is meant to curb freaky AI exploits. Expanded SOIs will not grant negative prestige (but can still grant no prestige). Historical instead of extended claims seem the better way to balance out of control expansion: there are ways in-game to bring a population to be loyal to you, allowing you to make a permanent territorial claim on a region.

Under the AI tab:

The ideal recommended designer settings are Activate AI (duh), slight Detection Bonus (though I'd be okay with no special bonus), sergeant ranking (second level rank, no bonuses or debuffs), normal aggressiveness, use all behaviors, give more time, and second level (+1) activation bonus roll (though I'd rather see none to bonus rolls).

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

I have seen a couple placeholder file names on the GUI while faffing around.  Mostly they appear along the top of the military unit cards.  I'm not concerned about it.

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

I can host again unless someone else wants to.

Basically, to run a PBEM game, the host sends country specific .TRN files to each other player.  They load this file into their save folder  (default X:\PONGame\PON\Saves\).  Then they load the game, do their turn, and save without hitting end turn button.  Then each player goes into their save folder and emails the host their .ORD file.  The host runs the turn and emails out the .TRN files again.

[Martok]

Gah.  I am actually now considering buying this game again so I can get the new patch (my version was purchased from GamersGate, which is no longer available there).  I continue to be drawn in by PON, despite its issues.  Oy... 

Imho, it should still be in your library.

It is, but as I've long understood it, the GG version of PON cannot be updated to the most recent patch.  (I'm not sure if it was updated to even 1.3.)