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THE
IRON
GUEST		 TACTICS AND PERIL ON THE HIGH SEAS
Download Size
Iron Guest for Mac OS Classic 3.4 MB
Iron Guest for Mac OS X 3.6 MB
Iron Guest for Windows 4.6 MB
Deluxe sounds for Mac OS 5.3 MB
Deluxe sounds for Windows 5.5 MB
    

RELEASE NOTES

1.0b001
6/05/03
   *** Internet play is now available ***

Vanquish your friends -- all you need is an IP address!

(Note that although only two machines can connect at once, multiple humans can play on each machine.)

Known issues with net games:
- There is no support for restoring dropped connections -- that game is toast.
- The ReadMe and Help haven't been updated for net play yet.

Convenience features:
- Pressing '2' to dismiss the victory dialog zooms you back to the game that just ended.
- New "Widescreen" layout option for net play -- see Camera menu.
- Game options window can now restore parameters from saved games.

Misc:
- Play-by-play messages now appear in status area.
- Redesigned and rewritten help window.
- Rearranged some menu items.


1.0a001
10/7/02		   Rules implemented:
- Ships are not allowed to move into dead-end spaces, if there is an alternative.
- Ships that block movement of friendly ships must be moved first, if possible.

 AI:
- Computer ships can now fire from both sides in a single turn, heh heh...

 Convenience features:
- Click and drag the background and ocean surface to manipulate the view (Shift to constrain, Control to zoom).
- Target- and ship-selection dialogs can be cancelled by the '2' key.
- The '0' (zero) key will activate "Hurry up" mode while it is held down, and will stop computer players ('Enter' to start them again).
- Caps Lock will activate "Hurry up" mode, without stopping computer players.
- Initial edge placement altered, so that first ship selected is more likely to be first moved.

 Eye candy:
- Revised textures/graphics for game board, radar sweeps, targeting.
- Revised ship textures for better contrast and to get rid of "paint" look for 5 or 6 players.
- Ship textures are picked randomly for all players.
- New backgrounds, improved cannon fire animation, shipwrecks (treated as shoals).
- Night, sunset, and arctic themes, with appropriate lighting and surfaces.
- Height and appearance of shoals, and height of capsized ships, reflects whether you can fire over them.

 Misc:
- Tweaked victory audio.

Bug fixes:
- No longer lists capsized ships in ship-selection dialog.
- Less "scissoring" (display getting confused about which surfaces are in front).

1.0d042
9/19/02
Happy
"Talk Like
a Pirate"
Day, arr!
  Misc:
- Masts now fall in a more natural order, depending on the relative position of the attacking ship.
- (Windows) Application window is maximized by default, game window is appropriately placed within it.

Bug fixes:
- Fixed bug that sometimes allowed a ship to move into a cell already occupied by a capsized ship.
- If you try to execute an incomplete move, message is no longer erased before you can read it.
- No longer beeps and shows an inappropriate error message when computer is first player.
- Once again plays intro music.

1.0d041
9/18/02		   Misc:
- Changed shoal density calculations; random and group placement now result in fewer shoals at all densities.

Bug fixes:
- Fixed problem with random placement that would limit ships to the perimiter, and in some cases hang the application.
- Fixed crash bug encountered when firing port guns on OS X and Windows.

1.0d040
9/17/02		   Rules:
- Updated rule page to match current defaults for firing over shoals and capsized ships.
- Removed "friendly fire" option from official rule page (since it was pointless).

Misc:
- Updated file format (get used to it); old saved games no longer work.
- Most recent game parameters are saved between sessions and used to initialize new games.
- Replaced non-functional Net Play button with Options button for more obvious access to new-game dialog.
- New-game dialog allows initial placement of ships in groups, which is now the default.
- New-game dialog keeps human players checked (when possible) after being edited in the player roster.
- New-game dialog ignores all but first word of human player roster entry.
- Human player roster enforces initial caps and has better default names.
- Slight reduction in shoal count for the medium-density setting.
- Ship-selection dialog initially highlights the selected ship, if there is one.
- Improved cannon fire animation.
- Added target's-eye view of firing.
- (OS X) Succulent new icon.

Bug fixes:
- New-game dialog once again selects a human player by default.
- Adjusted layouts to avoid cutting off button titles and overlapping controls in OS X.
- (OS X and Windows) Help tags now display properly in new-game dialog.
- (OS X) Dice rolls now animate properly.

1.0d039
9/10/02		   Misc:
- Replaced splash window with new master control window (w/clickable URL).
- Added a victory flyover, plus now auto-closes game window.
- Added a "humans play first" option (default is off) to new-game dialog.
- Updated file format (again); old saved games no longer work.
- Added Mac OS X version.

Bug fixes:
- (Windows only) New-game dialog radio buttons now work correctly.
- New-game dialog no longer expands offscreen.
- More appropriate capitalization of player names.

1.0d038
9/4/02		   Rules:
- Ships can no longer fire after entering the site of a grapple. (Note: "entering" means that the center of the ship has passed over the border between the two spaces; i.e., it is not in the preceding space nor on the border. A ship can still fire into several cells previous to this point when advancing into a grapple.)
- Ships can no longer fire over shoals, but they can fire over capsized ships. This is an experiment and is settable in the new-game dialog, along with dice roll totals needed to hit the enemy.

Misc:
- Updated file format; old saved games no longer work.
- Better victory message presentation.
- Error messages when an order can't be accepted are more specific.
- A boring demast sound was eliminated (also in Deluxe sounds).
- While computer player is thinking, all playable ships are highlighted.
- Sped up animation for Windows and Mac OS X versions.

Bug fixes:
- Improved handling of file input errors.

1.0d037
9/1/02		   Misc:
- Messages now appear in the main window instead of a separate dialog.
- Moved controls around in main window to better accomodate dock/taskbar.
- New "About" box with version number.
- (Mac only) Added splash screen.
- (Windows only) Changed text output (including ReadMe.txt file) to use standard newline characters.
- (Windows only) Uses more appropriate fonts for various buttons and text items.
- Minor update to saved game file format, for readability (old files will still work).
- Resampled several sounds (including Deluxe sounds) for smaller download, replaced one demast sound.
- Revised background images to eliminate seams, added one new image.

Bug fixes:
- Ship selection dialog no longer allows you to select sunken ships.
- Fixed bugs allowing you to fire through ships in certain situations.
- Items on View menu are no longer disabled when their corresponding buttons are hidden.
- (Windows only) Revised audio files and folders (including Deluxe sounds) so sounds will play properly.
- Fixed error after human victory when entering a long string of orders.

1.0d036
8/26/02		   Rules:
- Ships can no longer fire through other ships.
- Now enforces the rule that ships must move ahead when possible, and toward nearest available cell when not.

Bug fixes:
- Fixed a fire-counting bug that could prevent a legal fire order from being issued.
- Fixed a potential crash after a player has won.
- Fixed a crash when using the keypad to enter orders after using the arrow keys.

1.0d035
8/23/02		   Computer opponents: Revised new-game dialog allows a customized list of human players and handles selection of computer players. By default, the opening game is one human vs one computer. Use File:New Game... for variations.

Note: Computer players don't follow all the official rules yet, such as not moving into a corner, or advancing on every move, or shooting through obstacles. But you don't have to either. This lawless situation will probably be improved in the next release. For now, the computer behaves most of the time.

Auto-open file: If a file is called "auto-open.txt", the application will attempt to open it as a game upon startup. (So it's a good idea to give this name only to files that you have saved via the File menu. Currently, these are always saved under the name "saved_game.txt".)

New file format: Has no effect on usage, but old saved games can't be opened by this version. (If you want to use an old game, save a new game, open it in a text editor, copy the first two lines, and insert them at the top of the old game file.)

Deluxe sounds: To save download time and increase flexibility, the game is packaged with a minimal sound set. To get the full set of sounds, download the deluxe sounds package for your platform, expand it, and follow the instructions in the "Read Me" file. (Don't worry, it's easy.)

Graphics: Cleaned up ship textures (some had jaggies and wrong grain direction). Game windows are full-screen by default.

Animation: Ships now fire when they are pointing at their targets (rather than at the start or end of their motion). Grappling no longer occurs visually before firing.

Windows compatibility: Ship selection and target selection dialogs now work. (Note: There are a number of known cosmetic problems on Windows, but the only known functional problem is that clicking a cell to select it is error-prone. Type * or Ctrl-A to use the ship-selection dialog instead.)

1.0d034
5/1/02		   Changed ship selection dialog and target selection dialog to Verdana font to see if it prevents crashes on Windows (it doesn't). Also made these dialogs resizable.

Fixed jerky camera motion (was getting bogged down when updating captions of camera controls).

Made range slider logarithmic. Note that this has introduced a benign bug of not updating the slider properly when camera is under computer control.
©1998-2002 Lars Jensen http://ljensen.com/ironguest