WebLord : Freeware StarWeb Utility (Projects)
Current Version : 1.2.5 (see below for release notes)
WebLord is a free player assistant for Flying Buffalo's “Play-by-(e)Mail” game StarWeb. Currently, it provides tools for mapping and visualizing the state of the game, order entry and verification, and alliance coordination tools (composite turnsheets, information limiting, map importing, etc)
Here are some screenshots from a recent version of the app, showing the interface in some detail. Click on a thumbnail to get the full image (quite large).
Program features include:
- Drag and drop turn entry and map manipulation.
- Zoomable maps.
- Selectable information halos around worlds or as a sidebar.
- Free-format search (for example, find all the worlds with Metal>5)
- Map editing is a breeze, select and drag.
- Advanced mapping tools, such as synthetic annealing and loop finding.
- Map manipulations, such as rotate, mirror, and shift links.
- Information displays sortable on any field.
- Point-n-click order entry and validation.
- Simulates the results of orders. Shows you things like how much metal a world will have next turn, how much is incoming, how many shots a fleet is going to take, and more. Even tries to estimate population and convert increases, and deduce the scores of other players!
- Runs on Mac (Intel only), Windows and probably Linux too.
- Undo and redo are fully supported to infinite levels.
- Import and export of turnsheets, maps and order lists, customized for each player, using information that other players have decided to share with them.
- Alliance coordination tools, such as commented order lists.
Downloads:
The Macintosh version of WebLord runs on Mac OS X 10.6 (Intel Macs only) or better.
The Windows version runs on Windows 2000, XP, Vista and Windows 7 (and probably later).
My RealBasic license also lets me build a Linux version. Totally untested, no idea if it works!
System requirements are:
Any x86-based Linux distribution with GTK+ 2.0 (or higher), glibc-2.3 (or higher) and CUPS (Common UNIX Printing System), which includes:
Red Hat Enterprise 3
SuSE Linux 8.1 (and higher)
Mandrake Linux 9.1 (and higher, including Mandriva)
You may also need recent versions of the following packages: glib-2, pango, atk, openssl, zlib, and expat.
Copyright and Legal Information
©2006-2012 Robert Woodhead. WebLord™ is a trademark of Robert Woodhead.
WebLord is currently freeware. This may change in the future, but probably not.
Written in RealBasic. Use at your own risk (not because it's written in RealBasic, because it's written by me!)
Comments & bug reports to trebor@animeigo.com.
Complete WebLord Change Log
Just to give you an idea</A> of how many bugs I've coded into the app and had to fix, here's the complete changelog for all the releases…
WebLord ChangeLog 1.2.4 - 07/14/14 * Fixed problem with robot attack orders after ship transfers. 1.2.4 - 05/08/14 * Another artifact matching bug. 1.2.3 - 01/07/14 * App was not properly caching information about artifacts, which could lead to weird inconsistencies. 1.2.2 - 09/04/13 * Bug in the code handling SIGNs could crash the app. 1.2.1 - 05/21/13 * Fixed problem where .swgame XML files would not be saved in an easily- readable format during "Save As" or Closing-window-save operations. * Fixed error in potential ambush calculations; it turns out that fleets that are "at peace" can and will ambush. 1.1.0b - 02/09/12 * Better tracking of fleets that were seen on previous turns. * Fleets and worlds that were seen on previous turns have their titles listed in italics (in addition to the X marker that notes they are not current) * Better handling of orphan Weblord processes under Windows, avoids a minor issue. * "Do you want to save?" dialog box that comes up when you close a changed window now contains the title of the window being closed. * Fixed a rare crashing bug in the Check Overlapping Links feature. 1.0.9b - 01/10/12 * Fixed some compatibility problems with Windows 7. * Added Other:Resize to fit on Main Screen menu option. * Added preference item to enable and disable popup UI helptags. * You can now plunder worlds, even if you are not a pirate. * Minor tweak to Diplomatic message window error handling on Windows. * You can now export graphic maps on Windows. * Manually adding links now works, though it is not recommended. * Closing the last window no longer leaves an orphan Weblord process running under Windows. 1.0.8b - 06/03/08 * Could not probe with pships under certain circumstances; fixed. * Subtle update bug fixed on turnsheet import / world editing that would retain the old values if the new value was 0; mainly cosmetic as it would fix itself the next time the file was loaded. * Fixed bug in ally/loader state checking for multigames in the situation where a player has deliberately un-allied with one of his own positions. * New search term "pl(underable)" selected plunderable worlds; typical usage would be "W=[mypiratename]&plunderable" * Found out that unload, jettison and CG unload are not mutually-exclusive. * Added a check for weblord windows being opened far off the visible screen; apparently, if you try and save a minimized window under windows, it saves some bizarre coordinates that windows uses to fake minimization. In this circumstance, weblord will reset the window position to some reasonable value. Also, the app will attempt to restore a minimized window before saving. * App was not properly saving/displaying the new file name when Save As... was chosen, so subsequent saves stored in the original file, not the new one. * Save As... now defaults to using a new file name "<old file name> copy.swgame". Previously it would use "<flying buffalo's game name and turn> copy.swgame" 1.0.7b - 08/03/07 * Contextual menus that contain submenus with lots of numeric entries (ie: a ship transfer order by a huge fleet) break up the possibilities into sub-submenus in groups of 25, to make it easier to scroll through, and possibly fix a Windows Vista bug. * Turnsheet import now handles situation where fleet movement lines have been broken and wrapped; at least, a little better. * Tiny improvement in turnsheet import, fixes typo in wrapped artifact fixup code, and adds ability to fix wraps in "Gift from [xxx]" and "Lost by [xxx]" messages, as well as Ally/Loader/Met messages. * Fixes to bugs in import and entry of artifact transfer commands. * Import of mixed orders (all the orders for a multigame team, for example) is now handled in a much more elegant way. * Fixed sorting of player lists by score, and other numeric fields. * Would not let you fire with newly constructed home fleets if there were no home fleets at the start of the turn. * Order export now grabs account information from the first position that contains any such information. * Permits import of larger text files, which should avoid the problem of composite turnsheets getting too big when re-encoded as 16-bit characters during email transmission. - Unfixed bug note: the world editor dialog messes up links when one of the links is to a node. This is on my fix list for the next version. 1.0.6b - 05/26/07 * Added D{estination}=Wnnn and D{estination}=PLAYER searches. The first shows you the worlds with fleets that are moving to Wnnn; the latter shows you where fleets owned by PLAYER are going (if they are moving) * Fixed cosmetic glitch in display of header in world popup contextual menu when one of the links was to a node. * Now can import the *IDLE pseudo-order. * Link style dialog now lets you select one of 6 colors for a link. * Fixed minor glitch in next-turn convert growth calculation. * Now can import "Revised" turnsheets that FBI sends out when there's a mistake. * Improved turnsheet import attempts to fix email-created word-wrap problems when they break up artifact names (by far the most common issue). * Multigame ally/loader orders are now properly output on order lists, and the app now understands that if one "controlled" position has met a player, the other ones have as well. Note however that when you are sending allies your orders, you should export the orders for each player individually. * Graphic maps now exported with higher JPEG image quality (less compression) * Can now erase marks on selected worlds only (map contextual menu) - Unfixed bug note: the world editor dialog messes up links when one of the links is to a node. This is on my fix list for the next version. 1.0.5b - 4/26/07 * Better keyboard handling on map. * New loop display feature - display all loops of length N. Available in contextual menus and via keyboard (ctrl-# to display all loops of size #) * New loop keyboard option - Shift-# (on US keyboards) displays the tightest # loops for the world. * New Link Style option (in Edit Links... contextual submenu) lets you choose between standard direct links, and "routed" links that go horizontally and vertically between the grid lines. * Link styles output on consolidated turnsheets, a Lnk= field similar to the current Map= info. Also output on Map Exports. * Link overlap check ignores routed links, as those should be easily visible and they are a serious pain to test. * Fixed stupid bug that made mouse hover mode active on a new window even though the checkbox wasn't checked. * New "compact display of world information and orders" preference puts more than one order per line in the world/fleet info boxes if it will make them smaller. Also does a similar compression on related world information lines if it can; things like Metal and Mines, Pop, Limit and Turns, and Iships/Pships. * New "Mark" feature (available via contextual menu or menu item (cmd-M) lets you mark the currently selected worlds. Marked worlds have blue halos, selected worlds have red halos, and worlds that are both have magenta halos. This is handy when you do a search that results in a lot of hits; you mark all the selected worlds, then unselect them, and click on the marked worlds one at a time to inspect them -- really reduces the clutter. You can clear the marks at any time (contextual menu or shift-cmd-M) * The Do Nothing order was not considered exclusive to other active orders like move, fire, etc. * Fixed obscure import turnsheet / undo / redo crashing bug. 1.0.4b - 04/13/07 * Found a glitch that was causing some "moved" notifications to not be parsed on order input. * Move order menu now shows owner of the world, plus how much industry and mines it will have next turn. Great for picking the homeworld out of the list (I=30!) and finding just the right world to visit to grab metal from. * Order check now complains if a fleet is not doing one of the "exclusive actions", which are firing, moving, gifting, dropping a PBB, or robot attacking. This is a better check for missed orders, since it catches the "load but didn't move" type of problems. Also counts the ambush pseudo-order as an action. * Found and fixed crashing bug in auto-commenting of fleet probe orders. * Found and fixed error-checking error in fleet probe order import (caused by the same conceptual error). * Fixed cosmetic error in halo order display after import of UTF-16 order list; the orders would look weird. Saving and reloading the .swgame file would fix it, but it's now done internally. * Fixed a bug that would not let you enter a plunder after the first plunder's wait time was up. * Nodes that point to black holes display as black holes. * Order input error checking for probes and migrates was not being handled correctly when the order traversed a node as opposed to a direct map link. * Additional UTF8/UTF16 conversion checks to make sure everything is as clean as possible, and prevent weird character set issues. A real pain in the butt that makes me long for the days of simple ASCII code! * Ambush pseudo-orders now appear in commented order lists. * New "Do Nothing" pseudo-order for Fleets (under Misc...) lets you specify that the fleet deliberately has no orders. Same as the ambush pseudo-order but added for convenience. * If multiple players are selected, copy orders to clipboard will now combine all their orders into a single order list (which is what you want for a multigame). However, WebLord doesn't handle the multigame ally/loader special-case situations yet. * World contextual menus now include the world's connections in the greyed-out header line. 1.0.3b - 03/23/07 IMPORTANT - BECAUSE OF THE CHANGES IN THIS VERSION, I STRONGLY SUGGEST YOU KEEP BACKUPS OF YOUR OLD-VERSION WEBLORD APP AND DATA FILES. I'VE DONE A FAIR AMOUNT OF TESTING, BUT THERE ARE SOME DEEP CHANGES IN THIS VERSION AND I'D HATE FOR YOU TO LOSE ANY DATA! * Info halos were not showing the future effects of plundering a world (ie: next turn, no metal, industry, etc). They were showing the effects of a previous plunder correctly, however. * When loading new info into a window or opening a file, the map will now scroll if needed so that at least one world is visible. * Order import made more robust, less chance of a crash from malformed orders. * New autocomment feature puts detailed comments on all orders automatically. Automatic comments are displayed in the order list in italics, and if you edit them, they go to the normal font and no longer auto-update as orders change. Delete a comment completely to restore it to the automatic state. In commented order lists, auto-comments are prefaced by a ";" and locked, manual comments by a "#" * Improved checking of bad orders in import to find and prevent typo orders from screwing things up (WebLord likes all orders to be valid!) * Found a bug where the first order imported for a new player would get added before the user was asked if he wanted to delete all the orders for that player, resulting in the first order being omitted. * Order of operations for migrations was incorrect, leading to loads being executed first, and no metal available for the migrate. Also, the error message caused a crash (insult to injury). Fixed by revving file format to 3.0 * Search now understand Art=PLAYER query. * All text is converted to "UTF-16" format on import, hopefully this will reduce the problems with importing directly from other apps (like emails) * Check Orders now checks for unused builds. * Now checks for new versions every time the app launches (hold down shift to disable check) 1.0.2b - 03/10/07 * Found Windows XP problem that would crash the app when you tried to launch it using a shortcut to a .swgame file (not my bug, btw) * Check -> Order Problems... now flags fleets that will enter black holes. * Multiple I/P-ship to fleet transfers were not being permitted (ie: I2T1F3 and I2T1F4 were considered mutually exclusive). This has been fixed so that the target has to match for things to be exclusive. * Minor error in fire order code; would not let you enter a fire order if a fleet started the turn with 0 ships (ie: newly captured) * New "Short Form" halo option eliminates all simple ITEM=0 entries in world info halos. So if checked, entries like Ind=0 won't appear. * New "Mouse Hover" halo option; when checked, the world the mouse is hovering over is automatically selected (without clicking). When the mouse moves to another world, the first world is unselected and the new world is selected. This lets you quickly look at individual worlds simply by mousing over them. Can be temporarily disabled by holding down the CMD key (CTRL on Windows) 1.0.1b - 03/08/07 * When you break a link to create nodes, Weblord now tries to position the nodes in a pleasing way, so you don't have to clean up their positions as much. * Found and fixed crashing bug when you tried to undo a node creation or removal. * New "Find and Expose Loops containing Hidden Worlds" preference. If checked, then the map loop finder will find loops containing hidden worlds and unhide them. This makes unscrambling maps a lot easier - just hide the worlds you haven't positioned yet, and find loops on the perimeter worlds to unhide and select just the worlds you'll need to move to build your map. Lather, rinse and repeat. * When a world is selected, pressing "L" will find all its loops. Other new keyboard options include 1-9 to hilight worlds within 1-9 jumps of current world, C to center map on current world, H to hide selected worlds, and S to show hidden worlds. * Path finder can now traverse nodes, as can the various "select worlds within n jumps" options. * Shift-Doubleclick on an order selects the world that is the target of the order, very handy for selecting the destination world for a movement order! * Fleet movement options no longer permit you to fly into a black hole unless you specify an explicit path to or through it. * Fixed bug in ambush checking. * Check orders now brings up a list of all the players that have orders, and lets you choose which players' orders you are going to check; only players for whom orders have been entered are listed, and controlled players are checked off for you. This is in preparation for some modifications to better handle the idiosyncracies of multigames. * Order import now maintains order comments when you import an uncommented order list. Let's say you do some orders for A, and send them to him with comments. He sends you back revisions, uncommmented. When you import the new orders and delete all the old orders, Weblord will automatically add the old comments to any matching orders if a new comment is not specified for that order. 1.0.0b - 03/02/07 * Ran out of alpha digits, so we're into beta test * Art on fleets stopped getting recognized; fixed. * New Utilities -> Analysis -> Overlapping Links option checks for link lines that are on top of each other (and thus confusing the map. On grid-based maps, when wraps occur, it is sometimes hard to see new wrapping links that get added. * Order parsing would not accept orders for F255 or W255 and claim they didn't exist. This was a classic off-by-one error, ie: num < 255 instead of num <= 255 * World "seen by" information updated more intelligently during turn input, so that consolidated turnsheets now include information for worlds not seen this turn, but seen in previous turns. * Shared maps handle appropriate display of nodes in a more elegant way. * Orders list now has an "at" column. When you sort by that column, orders are listed by the world the event takes place at, and then by order of operations. This makes it much easier to comment the orders. * New "Copy orders to clipboard in listed order" option in the Orders contextual menu. This is particularly handy if you use the At column to sort the orders by world (and subsort by execution order), because it generates a nice list of all the orders, complete with comments and a label that shows what player is executing what order. This makes order coordination and checking MUCH easier. Also includes comments for each world, if sorted in "At" order. * Order import now understand the format of "Copy orders to clipboard in listed order" order lists, and can read them. It can also read signs and messages. * When changing a comment in the orders list, you can now hit tab to go down to the next order's comment, or shift-tab to go up to the previous order's comment. * Double-clicking on an order in the orders list will add the "at" world for the order to the current selection. * Ditto for double-clicks on worlds in the worlds list, though this has the side-effect of making that item the only world in the worlds list (since that list shows the currently selected worlds, or all of them if none are selected) * Now understands format of Jihad declarations in turnsheets, and keeps track of that in the .swgame file. 0.99a - 12/24/07 * Fixed minor glitches in select empire and select N jumps options that only caused them to screw up on very tightly connected maps. * Fixed rare crashing situation in the score deduction code. * Partial printouts were sometimes not giving complete link lists for unseen worlds. * Consolidated turnsheets now include information about the special map nodes that are used to unroll the maps. 0.98a - 12/23/07 * Better import of order lists with strange spacing and alternate space characters. * Order import now infers who the current player is from the orders, so the <PLAYERNAME:ORDERS> comments aren't needed as much. * Order import detects when player A tries to make an order for one of player B's assets, and asks if the order should be accepted. * <NEUTRAL:ORDERS> lets you import orders for neutral fleets and worlds (useful when gaming out what they might do). * <NEUTRAL:ORDERS> now listed in consolidated turnsheets. * Fleet/World contextual menus now let you add possible orders for neutral fleets and worlds, to test the effects of possible autonomous orders (basically, conditional fires) * Batch export would barf when asked to export a map for a player that is known but who has no known worlds or fleets. * Turn import may not have been updating the "seen by" data properly in certain circumstances (creating the bug mentioned above). * Gifts and Jihads can now only target players that have been met. * Scores are now re-deduced after you change a character's type, since that can permit additional inferences. * Sharing popup now has a "Sharing Matrix..." option that lets you set the sharing for a player using a convenient dialog, and also lets you specify that the sharing is bidirectional. * App was not properly moving the map/info splitter when a document was loaded. * Check Orders ambush detection now takes into account the orders of potential ambushers (which may cause them to be unable to ambush). * Map nodes (broken connectors used to unwrap maps) are now painted as hexagons to make them easier to distinguish from worlds when the map is zoomed out. * Consolidated turnsheets were not showing art on worlds! * Import of consolidated turnsheets got confused by the multiple player info lines. * Sharing info and player color are now listed in consolidated turnsheets so when imported, the player colors used in the map will match the equivalent exported graphic map. 0.97a - 02/15/07 * Order import routines now ask if you want to delete existing orders when they encounter a <playername:ORDERS> command. * Consolidated turnsheets were not showing who the owner of converts were. * And they weren't showing art on fleets either! * Turn import wasn't handling PBB Built messages quite right. * More informative displays when PBBs are built or dropped, and fleets are lost. * Unloading consumer goods on a world without converts was creating "negaverts"! * Slightly improved parsing of turn due dates. * Ambush checking wasn't quite right. It is now more right (I hope!) * The app was giving Apostles a chance to convert robots. Impressive if they could! * Plundered worlds no longer show available mines or estimated population increase. * Map import now warns if the worlds could not be placed where it wanted to because of conflicts with existing worlds, and suggests importing the map a second time to incrementally resolve the conflicts (usually works!) * Moved the various copy-to-clipboard contextual menu items into a submenu. * New "delete all orders by player" options in player and orders contextual menus are useful when importing a complete list of orders from another player. To avoid problems, you first delete all the old orders, then import the new ones. * Added Copy Limited Turnsheet to Clipboard option. This lets you create turnsheets containing only information known to particular players. So if you're sharing turnsheets with ADAM and BETTY, but don't want to share ADAM's info with BETTY, or vice-versa, you can create a turnsheet with just your info and ADAM's, and another with your info and BETTY's. * New "Share With" menu items in the player list contextual menus let you specify that a player is willing to share his turnsheet with particular players. This does not need to be reciprocal. So ADAM can share with BETTY, and BETTY can share with ADAM and CALVIN, and CALVIN can share with BETTY, for example. * New "Copy to Clipboard...Shared turnsheet for PLAYER" option in the player contextual menus generates a composite turnsheet containing the player's information plus that of all the other players that have decided to share WITH that player. Using the previous example, ADAM's shared turnsheet would combine info from ADAM and BETTY's turnsheet, BETTY's from ADAM, BETTY and CALVIN's, and CALVIN from BETTY and CALVIN. This should make it easier for a player to be the middleman between several alliances, as well as a central mapping authority, without leaking sensitive information between the alliances. * Graphic map export can now export maps containing information known to particular sets of players (ie: similar to limited and shared turnsheets) * Graphic maps now have a title and color-coded legend. * Map export (in particular, when doing a limited turnsheet) now includes a listing of those worlds that the players know about but have not visited (and thus have no info on), along with their map positions, so when the turnsheet is imported, those worlds appear in the right places on the map. * New File > Export > Batch Maps and Turnsheets... option creates custom graphic maps and turnsheets for each player, based on what other players are sharing information with them. * Turn import now can handle stray tab characters in the input (sometimes added by "helpful" word processors and spreadsheets). * Score inference engine now handles the rare case where a player can be inferred to have one of N possible scores, and all the possibilities are the same! I actually saw this happen in SW-1358, Turn 4. * Subtle bug in turn input could, under specific circumstances, not properly update a world when it was first recognized as an unknown world at the edge of one player's map, and then actually described on another player's turnsheet. * Not so subtle bug in order parsing messed up proper handling of ally and loader type commands. They are now handled properly, I hope. 0.96a - 02/08/07 * Minor tweak to the world editor window to permit it to handle the case of world info lines that contain embedded parentheses (ie: I-Ships=3(AF123)) * Order contextual menus were permitting order entry for neutral worlds and fleets, which in some cases could cause a crash. * Fleet contextual menu was permitting loads on neutral worlds, which could also cause a crash. * Added "Unload All Metal (blind)" as only unload option for a fleet you don't have complete info on (such as a merchant who hasn't sent you turn info yet). * Load <number> wasn't correctly handling the case where there was less metal on the world than the fleet's capacity, and was letting you enter an explicit load command for more than what was available. * Ships in range and Artifacts in Range contextual menu items now have submenus that let you see what's available next turn, the turn after, or 3 turns from now. * Fixed bug in "Cancel Order... all of the above" in both Worlds and Fleets that could cause either an inconsistent display or even a crash. * Could not probe with newly built I- or P-Ships. * Options -> Check Orders is now simpler. It complains if a fleet is not doing anything; that is, it has not orders for which it is the initiator vs. the recipient of the order. So a fleet that is built onto but then does nothing will trigger the message. * Possible non-loader warnings now appear in the log only when you do a Check Orders. You will still see a flag in the fleet information halo. * Robot attack popup menu now correctly shows results of a robot attack on a robotized world. * Check -> Order Problems now checks for possible ambushes during fleet movements. It assumes all non-allied fleets and worlds will ambush. * Fixed minor glitch in robot attack popups that made it annoying when you wanted to change a robot attack that left the fleet with a single ship. * Changed order of operation of probe and scrap orders so that they execute before builds and transfers. This is required because you can only do these orders with ships that exist at the start of the turn. * Changed XML version number of the .swgame files to 2.0, so that they can be auto- converted to update on load to properly deal with the order of execution changes for probe and scrap orders. * Found a couple of cases where, if orders became illegal due to order of operation changes, the app would bomb. * App was not properly handling the case of a brand-spanking new PBB, which is reported on the turnsheet slightly differently that I expected. * You can now use a single object (fleet,homefleet) to probe multiple connected worlds if you have enough ships. * The XML in .swgame data files is now prettyprinted to make it easier to read. 0.95a - 01/10/07 * Robot attack command now properly requires that at least one ship remain on the key; previously it would let you try and attack with all the ships. * Robot attack popup menu selection now tells you how many ships you'll use, how many robots will be generated, and what the results will be. (yep, I'm doing robot attacks this turn in a game, so I'm making life simpler for myself) * Order Check only complains about fleets not doing anything if they have at least one ship. (a big fight this turn left me with a lot of empty keys!) * New "Select->Fleets In Range" option in the worlds contextual menu selects all worlds within 3 jumps that have fleets on them. Handy for finding reinforcements! (which I need for the big fight!) * New "Select->Artifacts In Range" option in the worlds contextual menu selects all worlds within 3 jumps that have artifacts on or above them. Handy when you're running around creating a museum. * Slightly better order sanity checking catches situation where a subsequent order makes a previous order impossible. For example, you order a fleet to move, then transfer all its ships off the key, it'll remind you that the move order is now invalid, but will not delete the order. Similarly, if you first transfer all the ships off the key, you won't be able to enter a move order in the first place. * Some orders were not being put in (parentheses) when they appeared in the target's "Cancel Order..." contextual submenu. * Adding and then removing a firing order did not remove the TARGETING message. * Population growth was not displayed correctly on a totally converted world. Fanatics are apparently hard to count. * Added new "converts=<player>" search option. * Added new "owner=<player>" search option; finds fleets or worlds with the desired owner. Shortcut: just type in the owner name. * Added new "artifacts" search option; finds fleets or worlds with artifacts. For example, "art>1" finds objects with two or more artifacts. Shortcut: just type in Artifacts, Artifact or Art to do "Artifacts>0". Note that a query like "Artifacts and NEPTUNE" will find all the worlds where artifacts exist that also contain NEPTUNE objects (ie: the world is owned by NEPTUNE, or NEPTUNE has a fleet there). NEPTUNE may not own the artifacts, though no doubt, he wants them (grin!). * Scores were not being properly calculated/displayed when a player had a score of 0 (which results in the Score=# element being omitted from the player info line) * Now attempts to find and parse the due date line of turnsheets and displays the due date in the title bar of the document. 0.94a - 12/23/06 * Sidebar now puts multiple worlds info lists per column if there is space, with a gap between them. Also indents fleet info blocks slightly to aid in picking things out. Layout is slightly improved. * Documentation note: Sidebar only displays info for selected worlds that are VISIBLE in the map window. * New "Unselect World" option in world info halo contextual popup makes it easier to unselect worlds to unclutter the sidebar display. * BLACK HOLE info halo simplified. * Added special screen digit fonts that make world numbers more legible on tiny maps. * Fixed bug that was causing fleet information to be incorrectly updated with less complete info when multiple turnsheets were entered. * Fixed bug that could create "ghost fleets" in situations where a fleet moves to a world that you can't see this turn - a ghost of the fleet would remain in the original location. * At-Peace fleets were not properly being recognized as such, which meant that you could not unpeace them. I'm just a pacifist at heart, I guess. * Fixed glitch in ally/loader/met player counting, which in some cases could miss the fact that a player had met another player if the app didn't see the turnsheet where they first met, but instead got a turnsheet where they were already allies or loaders. * Print now honors page start/end selections. * New Map export/import features (with or without links) let you share your mapping info, both layout of the worlds and optional links between them, without sharing info about the current state of the worlds. * Search function had a bug that was matching some things that it shouldn't have when the < or <= operators were used. * Search now can handle simple and/or queries, ie: (pop<50 and limit>100) * Wrapping of long world/fleet info lists when in sidebar mode slightly improved. * Probe orders were not being handled correctly. * Now properly recognizes fleet move notifications with extra info, ie: F1[DERF](Unload)-->W2 * Fleet movement menu now much improved. Instead of having to specify the exact path the fleet moves, a list of the worlds that fleet can move to is show (if there are multiple paths to the world, the options are shown in a submenu). This makes it much easier to send a fleet to a world, since usually there is only one or two paths. At the bottom of the menu, an "Explicit Path..." submenu gives you access to the older system, which you'll only need to do if you're doing "out and back" moves that visit a world more than once. Note that to do the "double jump on turn 1" trick, you need to hand-edit the final orders. * Added ambush pseudo-orders for Fleets, I-Ships and P-Ships. While this is the default if they are not doing anything else, it is convenient to be able to explicitly specify this is what they are doing. This also prevents the check feature from complaining that the fleet isn't doing anything. * New Fleets... selection options in the map contextual menu. Hilights all worlds... All ...with fleets Controlled .. with fleets controlled by player Allied ...with fleets controlled by allies Controlled+Allied ...with fleets controlled by player or allies Enemy ...with fleets controlled by enemies (including neutrals) Conflicts ...places where fights can occur between you and your allies and enemies (fleets or worlds) * New options to export orders and consolidated turnsheets with order comments included. You can also import orders that contain comments and the comments will be included in the file. A comment is anything from a ; to the end of the line. If multiple orders are in a line, the comment applies to the last order in the line. * After rendering Rick Loomis to an undisclosed location and applying the Hot Needle of Inquiry, he revealed that the algorithm for handling cargo loading is as follows: First, the fleets of the owner of the world get loaded, in ascending order of fleet number. Then, all the other fleets trying to load get loaded, in ascending order of fleet number. There is no preferential treatment of numeric loads vs. "load all" commands. Weblord now understands this algorithm and will properly figure out what fleets will get what metal. It flags fleets that are getting less than they expect with an UNDERLOADED comment. The app also checks for non-loaders attempting to load and flags those attempts (but assumes that the load will go through). However, since it can't know for sure what the loader status is for players who are not sharing turnsheets with you, if you try and load on their worlds, you'll see the NON-LOADER? flag in the fleet. 0.93a - 11/22/06 * Minor update to the turn parser to help it handle situations where the lines are wrapped in weird ways. Sort of a bandaid. If you get a line that has an error on load (and possibly crashed the app!) it is likely to be a weird wrap. At present, the parser knows that lines that end in , need to be combined with the next line, and lines that start in [ get combined with the previous line if it does not end in a ]. This is sort of a bandaid, but it works for standard turnsheets. The problem happens when you forward a turnsheet and it gets quoted and wrapped. * Consolidated turnsheet now flags out-of-date information. * Turnsheet to Clipboard also available as a map contextual menu action. * You can now have multiple transfer orders from the same source (IShips, PShips, or a fleet) to different destinations. * Info fields in player list are now editable (mostly useful for entering Score=NNN data, to help compute other player's scores). Changing one of these fields will redo the score computations, and update the value of the Last field for the player. * Edit World... contextual menu item (in world list and on map) let you edit all the info about a world, its fleets, and movements through it. Useful for hand-editing the map. * Add World... contextual menu item (same places) let you create a new world and link it into the map. * World information halo now displays if world information is outdated (and what turn it is from) in the header line. * New "Halos in sidebar" suboption of Halo Selected Only moves the info halos of selected worlds to the right edge of the map window, in vertical columns. This lets you have the map displayed compactly, while still having big halos; just move the map to the left part of the window. As the map tries to constrain itself to the smallest rectangle that fits both the mapped worlds and the window, in order to get the mapped worlds to the left-hand edge (leaving the right-hand side empty), you sometimes need to grab a world and move it to the far- right, then resize the map and scroll it to where you want it, then move the world back to where it was. * Turnsheet and order import is now more robust, in particular when you drag total garbage into the application. It gets grumpy but doesn't go titsup. * If you drag a .swgame file into a window, the app no longer tries to treat it as a turnsheet or order list; instead of doing the digital equivalent of upchucking, it now opens the file in a new window. * New searchbox in the window lets you hilight all worlds/fleets that match the query. You can do searches like "Industry>2" to show all worlds with more than two industry, "Vegan" to find all the Vegan artifacts, "Captured" to find all captured worlds, etc. * Fixed bug in world list sorting, some of the numeric columns did not sort in numeric order properly. 0.92a - 11/09/06 * If you had a fleet at a world which was not owned by you, orders to that fleet were not added to the list of orders put in the clipboard for sending on to Flying Buffalo. But they did make it onto the consolidated turnsheet. Whups! 0.91a - 11/06/06 * Running out of version numbers before 1.0 release, so changing the second digit now! * Fleet info halos attempt to avoid world info halos and world number blocks. Not perfect, but makes for a better display. * New Collapsing Halos option gives full info on selected worlds and the fleets at them, and a summary for non-selected worlds, reducing clutter. Basically, if a halo is collapsed, you don't see the order list, but do see the effects. * Fleet info halos now tell you what the fleet is targeting, and where it is going, so you don't have to decipher the orders to figure that out. * Max map zoom increased, and max world number block size decreased. * Some Windows XP users were having a problem where a new game could not be saved. I replicated the problem, but a recompile (without messing around with the code that might have caused the problem) seems to have fixed it. Just in case, I have included an empty "New Game.swgame" file in the distribution. If you still run into this problem, I would greatly appreciate knowing about it! 0.9a - 11/04/06 * Can now drag/import/paste orders as well as turnsheets! * New contextual menu option for nodes lets you select the matching node; this makes it easier to find it on the map. * Added Delete All Orders to the Edit menu * Composite turnsheet now saves email address, scores-seen and last-seen turn information as extra fields in the player information line, so they can be recovered on import. * Plunders and CG drops now update the world info panels with notes as to the action. * New map contextual menu options to select homeworlds (>=30 industry) and conflict worlds (worlds owned by you with non-ally fleets at them, or worlds not owned by allies with ally fleets at them) * Composite turnsheet import (with map positions) was sometimes saying there was a map position conflict when there actually wasn't one. Harmless, but annoying. * Subtle glitch that might add duplicate players fixed. Probably introduced in 0.9a, so almost certainly won't affect previous versions. * You can now paste turnsheets/moves into the app as well as import and drag. * Import options (and Paste) were not saving an undo position; they do now. 0.8a - 10/27/06 * # of ships and cargo on incoming fleets is shown in brackets (eg: [5] = a 5 ship fleet with no cargo, [5/3] = a 5 ship fleet with 3 metal) after the move order, if you have Display Copy of Orders in Order's Target enabled. This makes it easier to see what's arriving next turn. * Fixed glitch in Ally/Loader command updating. * Industry world numbers now displayed inside a sharp-cornered octagon to make them easier to find. * Fixed glitch that would cause wrong contextual menus to sometimes appear after a window zoom or scroll. * Some ship movements were not being recorded or displayed properly. This has been fixed, and you can just reload in your latest turnsheets to get them to update properly. * iShip and pShip status was not updating properly when a new turnsheet was added. * Now tracks ally/loader state better. Information on allies/loaders is kept for all players individually, so if you are playing multiple positions, you can have different ally configurations for each position. Ally/Loader columns in the player list now display # of allies and loaders, and under Orders... in the contextual menu popup of the player list, you can check and uncheck allies. * Cancel orders submenu in world/fleet contextual menus now displays orders affecting the item in (parentheses), and order by the item without them. Added options to delete all the orders by the item, or all of the orders by/affecting the item. * Text in colored headers of information halo boxes is now either white or black, depending on the color of the box; the app tries to pick the color that contrasts the most with the background. * New option in the player list contextual menu lets you enter account information (name, account number and password) that gets added to the header of your moves when you export them. * New option in map contextual menu lets you copy the map to the clipboard as a graphic. * World blob (not info halo) contextual popup now has world show/hide options for added convenience. * New Import and Export submenus in the File Menu: Import... Turnsheet... Folder of Turnsheets... Export... Graphic Map... Composite Turnsheet... (a master turnsheet with everyone's info on it) * Composite turnsheets can be imported back into the app, and they contain the map location information as an extra information field. * New Utilties -> Check -> Order Problems menu item looks for problems with the orders of controlled players, like too many messages, too many gifts, and fleets that don't seem to be doing anything. * You are now warned if you try and move a fleet that has no ships. * If no worlds are selected on the map, the worlds list shows all the worlds. 0.7a - 10/14/06 * Accidentally removed logging of loops to log panel; added it back. * PBB builds and drops were restricted to Berserkers; this has been fixed. * App would crash when you try to enter orders for a world with an IShip or PShip. * Was not permitting a world to build onto two different fleets at the same time. * World METAL= line now shows amount of metal that will arrive next turn (on incoming fleets) in parentheses. * Added "Double World Spacing" and "Halve World Spacing" map manipulation options. * Added some of the more subtle exclusive orders, such as no firing and migrating at the same time. * Now deals properly with the case of an order being mutually exclusive with more than one existing order (ie: a gift vs firing both I and P ships) * Should now permit artifact transfers between fleets of the same player, not just when recipient is an artifact collector. * Now attempts to deduce player scores from the list of players seen and their scores. New scores column in the player list shows what it has found. Uses inductive logic to reduce the number of possibilities for each player (including the trick that Artifact-Collectors must have scores that are a multiple of 5) * Signs, Messages and Anonymous Messages are now supported. 0.6a - 10/04/2006 * World Information halos now have world number in the header, not just owner. * Initial stab at order entry. Handles all the starweb orders I know about. * Players in the player list can be marked as "controlled" or "uncontrolled". You can, however, enter commands for any player, even neutrals. * Worlds and fleets now display the effects of orders (and turn events like population growth). In some cases (conversion, for example), these are estimated. * Last seen counter wasn't getting updated properly. * Changing sizes of the columns in the listing boxes now noted as a reason why the file must be saved on quit. * Ability to change font size of the lists. * Mac version now a universal binary (supports Intel Macs natively) * For help in mapping some of the new 3D surface maps, see http://www.mathconsult.ch/showroom/unipoly/#Geometric 0.5a - 09/16/2006 * Initial Release