| Fracas 2.0 BETA Progress Page -
Updated 10/18/2001 5:37pm
Welcome to the Fracas 2.0 BETA Progress page! Fracas 2.0
has been released, but this page will stay here to show what work has been done
since 1.1, and what work will eventually be done on the next version. You can
peruse the list of features below, or view my development log
here. And as always, you can send me feedback at the
Email address below.
Fracas 2.0 BETA Feature List
I've listed the features that were considered for
inclusion in Fracas 2.0 below, along with a severity ranking from 1 to 3 and
the current status of the change. These are defined as follows:
- Issues marked 1 will definitely make it. I'll kill myself to add these.
- Items marked with a 2 will likely be included, but may be demoted to 3
during development.
- Anything with a 3 is not a priority and will be considered again as I get
closer to a release.
- NYA: Not yet addressed.
Beta testers: If you feel that this list should be updated in any way, please
let me know by firing out an Email to the address below. Thanks!
Fracas 2.0 incidents reported:
Beta incidents reported:
| ISSUE |
RELEASE |
STATUS |
| Preferences are sent to clients in a network game.
Only Options and Terraform stuff should be sent. |
BETA 2 |
Resolved. |
| Some border settings don't work anymore. |
BETA 2 |
Resolved. |
| ACK errors have occured for two people. |
BETA 2 |
Added some prevention to the Random Event
network code. |
| The chat dialog should have a taskbar icon so that
Alt+Tab works. |
BETA 2 |
Resolved. |
| When moving troops TO a country, the message at the
bottom doesn't update properly. |
BETA 2 |
Resolved. |
| Opening message "Choose game parameters..."
needs to be updated now that there are no more menu checkboxes. |
BETA 2 |
Resolved. |
| Installer offers an option of 'Start now' or 'Read
readme' but there's really only one thing to do: Click Finish. |
BETA 2 |
Resolved. |
| Countries appear unclaimed, yet with HQ stripes. Not
sure what's causing this yet. |
BETA 1.5 |
Resolved. |
| The troop totals on the right are sometimes updated
incorrectly when an HQ is destroyed. |
BETA 1.5 |
Resolved. |
| Windows 2000 machines seem to have more problems with
performance than others. |
BETA 1.5 |
NYA |
| The taskbar is still eclipsed by the Fracas app, but
only in 800x600 and 640x480 modes. |
BETA 1.5 |
Resolved. Clipped 30 vertical pixels off of the
other resolutions too. |
| Sometimes players don't receive a score at end-game
on the statistics screen. |
BETA 1.5 |
Resolved. |
| Oh no! Another error 6 during troop movements. |
BETA 1.5 |
Added more prevention, thanks to the next
incident below. |
| An error 9 pops up during the troop reinforcement
phase when a computer has only one maxed-out country. |
BETA 1.5 |
Resolved. |
| The main window freezes up if someone wins while the
app is minimized. |
BETA 1.5 |
Resolved. |
| You can now resign before placing your first country,
which doesn't seem to work all the time. |
BETA 1.5 |
Resolved. |
| At 1024x768, the Taskbar covers up the bottom text
line of the main Fracas dialog. If the Taskbar is set to Auto-hide, there is no
problem, but we don't want to force users to do this. The window should be
vertically smaller to accommodate everyone. |
BETA 1 |
Resolved. |
| Player 6's commentary text doesn't show up at all
when playing with manual HQ selection. |
BETA 1 |
Resolved. |
| When selecting the country to move troops from, the
number in the box should get the focus so that numbers can be immediately
typed. |
BETA 1 |
Resolved. |
| Killing an enemy HQ destroys ports on their countries
-- and on the attacking player's countries! |
BETA 1 |
Resolved, I think. |
| A subscript out of range error hits when the computer
has only their HQ left and it's maxed out. |
BETA 1 |
Resolved. |
| You should be able to view high scores on the map you
just played. |
BETA 1 |
Resolved. |
| Ports do not, in fact, always contain at least one
wooden pier. |
BETA 1 |
Resolved. Really this time. |
| Saving a map, then saving a game, and then saving a
new map over the old one causes the game to act erratically when the game is
loaded because its parent is no longer the same. |
BETA 1 |
Resolved. |
| Stats are lost when reloading a saved game. |
BETA 1 |
Resolved. |
| Need a debug.txt file created with each game so that
testers can report exactly what their game settings are. |
BETA 1 |
Resolved. |
| The title screen is not always resized properly when
changing resolutions. Sometimes a block of water is left in the upper left.
|
BETA 1 |
Resolved, I think. |
| We are updating the 'checked' property of every menu
item in one of the form timers. This is causing lots of slowdown and timing
problems. |
BETA 1 |
Resolved. |
| We need a "New Game, New Map, but based on an
existing map's parameters" option so we don't have to load a map, abort
the game, and then start a new game. |
BETA 1 |
Resolved. |
| You shouldn't be able to start a game with no initial
troops *and* no troops to place. |
BETA 1 |
Resolved. |
| An error 6 was reported while the computer was
destroying an enemy country. Trying to get more info on this. |
BETA 1 |
Added some more prevention. |
| CTL3D32.dll is the wrong version for NT. Need to use
Installshield to distinguish between the two versions of these files during
installation. |
BETA 1 |
Resolved. |
| We should improve the contrast between dark and light
colors where text is concerned. This means in the commentary line and maybe on
the countries themselves. |
BETA 1 |
Resolved. |
| Sometimes options in the graphics dialog don't stick
when changed. |
BETA 1 |
Resolved. |
| Allow only one instance of Fracas at one time on one
machine. |
BETA 1 |
Resolved. |
| If the map fails spec, just silently rebuild a new
one with no input from the user. |
BETA 1 |
Resolved. |
| Some serious timing problems between the title screen
and the first player's turn have been reported. The game has hung in most of
these instances. Might be related to the animation speed setting. |
BETA 1 |
Resolved. |
| When right-clicking, the countries that are
highlighted should stay lit while the button is held down. |
BETA 1 |
VB forms don't seem to support this, so I'm making
the second flash cycle longer. Deferring for now. |
| Only one sound effect can be playing at one time. The
rest are 'clipped off.' |
BETA 1 |
Deferring. |
| Automatic HQ selection should guarantee a country
with troops in it. |
BETA 1 |
Deferring until new AI comes around. |
| Alt-tabbing out of Fracas and back stops the water
animations. |
BETA 1 |
Having trouble getting GotFocus, LostFocus,
Activate, and Deactivate events working with other apps. Deferring for
now. |
| Animations should stop if the main Fracas form loses
focus. |
BETA 1 |
See above. |
New features, enhancements, and bugfixes:
| ISSUE |
SEVERITY |
STATUS |
| BUG: When placing troops, clicking a country
quickly can perform the troop addition multiple times. |
1 |
Resolved. |
| BUG: When annexing countries, clicking several
in rapid succession will claim all of them. |
1 |
Resolved. |
| BUG: Pressing pass twice in rapid succession
crashes the game, reportedly. |
1 |
Not reproduced, but put some prevention in there
anyway. |
| BUG: If the computer has all maxed-out
countries (999 troops), troops are placed in other countries that they don't
own during troop placement phase. It should just abort the phase and pass the
turn. Also need to perform a check for this during human turns. |
1 |
Resolved. |
| BUG: An Error 6: Overflow error, or Error 9:
Subscript out of range error sometimes halts the game unexpectedly. This
usually happens on maps with lots of countries. Also reported to happen if you
change any options in the options menus. |
1 |
Resolved for now. Found at least one cause of
the Error 9 and repaired it. Also added preventative code for the overflow.
We'll see how beta testing goes. |
| BUG: Sometimes the game just freezes with no
error message at all. You can still click in the water to make splashes, but
the computer will never finish their turn. |
1 |
Resolved at least one cause of this. |
| BUG: Sometimes the game hangs during Moose's
troop movement phase. Moose isn't supposed to make troop movements. May be
related to the above crash, though it's been reported that you can't even
splash in the water at this point. |
1 |
Resolved. The random event handler had an
infinite loop. |
| BUG: See if I can force the 'Small Fonts'
display setting. If something other than this is selected, some of the text
won't display correctly until you change it. |
1 |
NYA |
| BUG: Include the latest common dialog control
(Comdlg32.ocx) in the distribution this time! |
1 |
Resolved. |
| BUG: Closing the app with the X gadget right
before the victory dialog pops up will crash the app and reboot your computer.
Others have reported hangs after the victory dialog. |
1 |
Spontaneous reboot sounds like it may be drivers
or hardware, but still trying to reproduce it. |
| BUG: Screen savers interfere with Fracas, and
leave it in a hung state where turns don't progress. Reported with the 3D
Flowerbox screen saver left on for 10 minutes during a human turn. After
cancelling the screen saver, could never get out of troop addition phase. |
1 |
NYA |
| Improved AI, with dialogs to tweak custom AI instead
of text files. |
1 |
NYA |
| Network play over LAN. |
1 |
Resolved! |
| Calculate a rating for the winner and have a high
score list for each saved map. You'd need to select that particular map to be
considered for the high score list. Modifying that map's options forfeits your
chance at getting on the board. Saving the new map with the new options creates
a new high score list. |
1 |
Resolved. |
| More and better-balanced random events. Also
checkboxes to select which players are affected. |
1 |
Resolved. Added a frequency setting, but they
will always affect all players for fairness. |
| Option to save the game in progress. |
1 |
Resolved. |
| Statistics at end-game (how many times did each
player kill each other player, etc) |
1 |
Resolved. |
| A config file (.ini) to store all menu checkboxes
between sessions. Also include animation speed, computer speed, sound, and
other non-map related parameters. |
1 |
Resolved. Now an .ini file is created which
maintains all menu settings. |
| Selective sound disabling (the whistles on passing
turns annoy some folk). |
2 |
NYA |
| 'Boss' key to instantly close the app. |
2 |
Resolved. The ESC key kills the app now. |
| Ports should always have at least one wooden pier,
especially if they have only one square of coastline. It's hard to see the
metal docks in that case. |
2 |
Resolved. |
| Add an option to turn off explosions for really slow
computers (maybe flash the country instead). Also an option to turn off wave
animations, since it's been reported that these can cause sluggish performance
on low-end machines. |
2 |
Resolved. Country 'flashing' will be addressed
in a separate incident. |
| When right-clicking a country, highlight other
countries that it borders (over land and sea). |
2 |
Resolved. |
| Variable map sizes and/or a resizable window. |
2 |
Resolved. |
| Have an option for the computer to randomly place
all HQs and start the game in round two. Basically, do away with the HQ
selection phase if you like. |
2 |
Resolved. |
| Be able to select any player to start the game, not
just the first one. |
2 |
Resolved. |
| Have an option for a range of country sizes on one
map (tiny countries next to continents!) |
2 |
Resolved. |
| Map templates. A map template contains an outline of
the areas where countries could go, and areas where they can't. For example, a
template might have a large area in the center where countries could never be
placed. This would force a lake in the center of the map, yet the countries
around it would still be random from game to game. |
2 |
Pete Holiday's Genesis doesn't do templates, but hey -- we have a map editor! |
| A map/template editor. This would likely be a
separate application. Include some canned maps with the distribution, like
famous battlefields, the USA, Europe, etc. If this makes it in, beta testers
can contribute! |
2 |
Pete Holiday's Genesis is out there! |
| Add an option for ports that affects whether they
are destroyed or captured when taken over. If the attacker really
exceeds what is needed to win the country, the port gets destroyed in the
chaos. If it's a smaller victory, just capture the port. |
2 |
Resolved. The magic number is 4. If you have 4
times as many attacking troops as defenders, you'll destroy the port. |
| Allow a troop movement during the action phase. This
could give you two troop movements in a turn, if there's really nothing else
you can do. |
2 |
NYA |
| The troop totals over water are truncated on a per
country basis. For example, with 1/10 naval power, 19 troops will get cropped
to 1. Troop totals should be added up for all overseas countries and
then divided. |
2 |
Resolved. |
| Add multi-language support. This would affect text
in dialogs, the status text at the bottom, and menus. |
2 |
NYA |
| BUG: Fracas sometimes interacts poorly with
NProtect.Exe (Norton Protected Recycle Bin). Occasionally, a second NProtect
thread is started which slows Fracas to half speed. Ending this thread returns
speed to normal. When Fracas isn't running, the second thread is never
created. |
3 |
Update: Other VB6 apps seem to work fine with
NProtect. Since NProtect is likely trying to catch a file deletion or
something, that's why things go awry. Still need to investigate. |
| Type troop movements directly into the countries
themselves. |
3 |
NYA |
| 'Armageddon'-type quick endgame which instantly
tallies troops to determine victory, probably with a penalty to the player who
calls it. |
3 |
NYA |
| More color options for the players, instead of
having to be one of the canned six. Also have a selection for unclaimed
countries. Maybe do away with the 'multiple shades of green' and have green as
a selectable player color. |
3 |
Resolved. |
| Flash countries when attacked. |
3 |
Resolved. |
| New border setting: Thin lines that aren't
dotted. |
3 |
Resolved. |
| When turning off borders, make adjacent countries
owned by the same player a slightly different shade of color. |
3 |
NYA |
| Have a toggleable National border, which is a
highlight around all of the countries owned by a player. |
3 |
NYA |
| 'Replay' option to watch the entire game
step-by-step. |
3 |
NYA |
| Background 'ambient' music and/or sound effects
(toggle on or off separately). |
3 |
NYA |
| Allow players to name their own countries at
will. |
3 |
Resolved. |
| Add statistics for number of games played, number
won, total time spent, total turns taken, total number of countries... |
3 |
NYA |
| Enlarge the arrows that point to where computers are
moving, and/or flash the country or something so it's easier to see where
they're moving. |
3 |
Resolved. Arrows will stay as they are, flashing
does the job nicely on its own. |
| Add an option for upgradeable defense levels. For
example, sacrificing 10 troops or so from a country will give it a permanent %
increase in its defense total, up to a certain level. |
3 |
NYA |
| Add an option for initial port placement. For
example, No Ports, Some Ports, All countries have ports, only islands have
ports, etc. Also an option that allows or disallows port building during the
game. |
3 |
NYA |
| Add an option for upgradeable ports! We've already
got the framework built for 1/10 strength up through full power ports. Why not
make people spend multiple action phases pumping them up? On a map with lots of
islands, this could get interesting. Also see about having a cost to upgrade,
for example, 10 troops per pump, depending on the initial troop counts. |
3 |
NYA |
| Add an option to let the size of a country determine
the max number of troops it holds. |
3 |
NYA |
| Have a visible timer to control how long a human
player has to make their move. If a player doesn't move within that time, then
troops are automatically placed and other phases are passed. Might be good for
network games. |
3 |
NYA |
| Put all Terraform and Options settings in a dialog
instead of menus with checks. |
3 |
Resolved. |
| Various fun graphical additions, such as ships on
the water when a port is built (color coded to the player of course), flocks of
birds, a flag at the HQ, etc. |
3 |
NYA |
|
