Empire Server Files

Release notes for Wolfpack Empire 4.3.31

This release fixes several bugs, some of them critical.

Deities are urged to use this release for new games.  Upgrading
mid-game is not supported, and expected to result in total disaster.
Fine print: you should be able to upgrade with the empdump utility, if
you know what you're doing.

This release was made from the Git repository at

    http://git.pond.sub.org/?p=empserver;a=summary


Released files:

Source code
 * empire-4.3.31.tar.gz             Everything
 * empire-client-4.3.31.tar.gz      Just the client

Pre-formatted documentation
 * empire-info-text-4.3.31.tar.gz   Text
 * empire-info-html-4.3.31.tar.gz   HTML


Change log:

Changes to Empire 4.3.31 - Sun May 12 16:58:34 UTC 2013
 * Fix read beyond end of conditional argument on missing operand.
 * Don't put broken links into info pages formatted as HTML.
 * Permit ships that can drop depth charges, but not fire.  No such
   ships exist in the stock game.
 * Consistently require guns for dropping depth charges.  Before, only
   the fire command required guns (since 4.3.12 and before 4.0.6).
 * Change econfig key rollover_avail_max from 0 to 50.
 * Make sector production more predictable.  Commands production and
   budget are now a bit more accurate.
 * Fix bugs that messed up xdump lost and xdump trade on big endian
   hosts (broken in 4.3.8), and made the server fail during startup on
   most big endian hosts (broken in 4.3.12).
 * Build process robustness fixes.
 * Use "Level: Obsolete" to mark obsolete info pages, and drop "info
   Obsolete".
 * Server now uses IPv4 format for IPv4-mapped addresses.  Simplifies
   safe use of econfig key privip.
 * Server logs a few more network connection details.
 * Fixes and workarounds for econfig key listen_addr "" (which is the
   default) when the system has both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses
   configured:
   - Server accepted only IPv6 connections on Windows and BSDs.  Fix
     to accept IPv4 ones, too.
   - Except for OpenBSD, where the fix doesn't work.  Accept IPv4
     connections instead of IPv6 ones there, and document how to get
     IPv6 accepted instead.
   - Linux systems are frequently configured in a way that makes the
     server accept only IPv4 connections.  Document workaround: use
     listen_addr "::".
 * Change fairland island size probability distribution: roll two dice
   instead of one.  This makes extreme sizes much less likely.
 * Make fairland record the island number in the deity territory.
 * Fix extension of market bidding time when high bidder changes.
   Introduced broken in 4.0.7, with insufficient fixes in 4.0.9 and
   4.2.0.
 * Fix market not to mess up ridiculously high unit prices.  Has been
   broken since 4.0.0 introduced the market.
 * Fix melting of big piles of stuff by ridiculously heavy fallout.
   Has been broken since fallout exists.
 * Fix crash on edit s, p, u key 'U' with negative argument.
 * When a deity builds ships or land units in foreign sectors, they're
   given to the sector owner.  This lets POGO build them, and it's how
   build works for planes and nukes.
 * Fix PRNG (pseudo-random number generator) seeding to resist
   guessing: seed with a kernel random number.  If we can't get one,
   fall back to a hash of high-resolution time and process ID.  This
   should happen only on old systems or Windows.  Far worse than a
   kernel random number, but far better than just low-resolution time.
   Fairland's seeding used to be low-resolution time and process ID,
   but regressed in 4.2.20 to just time.
 * Switch PRNG from BSD random() to Mersenne Twister.  This is a is a
   proven, high-quality PRNG.
 * Fix tiny error in distribution of some die rolls.
 * Increase land unit retreat chance and nuclear damage's chance to
   destroy a nuke by one percentage point, for simplicity.
 * Merge news items a bit more aggressively.
 * Fix a year 2038 bug in news item merging.
 * Retire the nightly build.
 * New make target check.  Just a few tests for now, derived from the
   smoke test that used to be part of the nightly build.
 * Really fix accepting connections from "long" IPv6 address.  The fix
   in 4.3.23 could mess up player's host address in player output and
   logs, and cause extra "Last connection" messages.
 * Take ship cost into account when picking missile interdiction
   target.  Broken in 4.3.8.
 * Really fix give, setsector and setresource not to wipe out
   concurrent updates.  The fix in 4.3.27 was insufficient.
 * Fix setsector not to disclose number of landmines to occupier.
 * Make capital fail more nicely when the sector is unsuitable.  Its
   argument must now be a single sector.  Before, it silently picked
   the first suitable one when the argument selected several.  Has
   always been that way, and never documented.
 * Changes to option GODNEWS:
   - Deity command give could downgrade the deity's relations to the
     sector owner when GODNEWS was enabled.  No more.
   - Likewise, deity commands edit and setsector can no longer
     downgrade the victim's relations to the deity.
   - News enabled by GODNEWS no longer affect news headlines.
 * Fix bomb, drop, fly, paradrop, recon and sweep to again accept a
   destination sector equal to the assembly point.  Broken in 4.3.27.
 * Fix portability bug in configure test for Windows API.
 * More user friendly server startup: journal open errors are detected
   while the server still runs in the foreground, which makes it
   possible to complain to stderr and to exit unsuccessfully.
 * Market changes:
   - Forbid selling conquered populace.  Only relevant when the deity
     allows selling civilians, which is probably a bad idea.
   - Permit selling military by default.
   - Forbid selling ships and land units carrying unsalable cargo.
 * Scrapping ships and land units now spreads the plague
 * Don't let scrap give away civilians, kill them off instead.
 * Pilots and air cargo now spread the plague.
 * Don't let fly and drop give away civilians.
 * Fix fly to permit flying civs to a carrier in an occupied sector.
   Broken in 4.2.17.
 * Don't let planes fly to a carrier without sufficient space.
   Before, planes that didn't fit were teleported home, which could be
   abused.  Broken in 4.3.17.  Almost the same bug was previously
   fixed in 4.2.17.
 * Fix tend to foreign ships:
   - Refuse to tend civilians to foreign ships.
   - Don't leak friendly foreign ships' commodity cargo.
   - Continue with remaining target ships after skipping a foreign one
     when tending a negative amount of commodities.
   All broken when Chainsaw 2 added tending to allies.
 * march sub-command 'm' can now sweep own landmines.
 * Land units no longer sweep allied landmines, except when executing
   march sub-command 'm'.  They don't hit them since 4.3.27.  Sweeping
   was forgotten then.
 * Fix bmap commands not to parse empty flags argument as "revert".
   Broken in 4.3.27.
 * Code refactoring and cleanup.
 * Info page fixes and clarifications.

The client did not materially change since 4.2.28.