Later...
I apologize for the Friday evening restart of the servers. Two related problems were causing servers to crash and it would have been a long weekend if I tried to nurse them along.
Arena Crashes Server
Attempting to enter an arena causes the server to crash.
Fixed crash due to failure to acquire a species for the officer and crew.
Pirates Crash Server
Pirate encounters crash the server.
Fixed crash due to failure to acquire a species for the officer and crew. People could avoid entering arenas but they can't avoid pirate encounters. This problem was going to get worse as more people got into space.
Empire Flag Size
A request was made to increase the size of empire flags.
Empire flags can now be up to 256x256 pixels. To compensate for the extra pixels, flags are now reduced to an indexed palette automatically. This can result in graininess if the picture is very detailed. Normal flags reduce fine. The sample flag on the new empire window is the reduced result, so you can see before submitting it.
You can change your empire's flag on the Policy page of the Governance window. Just click on the flag there.
You will need a new client program to use larger flags. It is building as I write this and it will be posted when ready. The client update was not essential for the server update so I decided not to wait for everybody to be built at once.
Horseback Trick Riding
My first farm made a great big "horse". They are handy when you haven't developed vehicles yet. I mounted the noble steed and found myself riding sideways, head sticking out to one side.
Fixed initial positioning when mounting a horse.
An updated client is needed. It is still building.
Clinic
Basic hospital design has 400 offices! That's a lot of jobs when your first town's population reaches 80 and they start asking for a hospital.
Created two new hospital designs: Clinic and Colony Clinic. They look strangely identical to each other. Each has 2 offices.
Modified the Hospital design so it only has 8 offices now. I'm not sure why it had 400. This is published as a new design. Existing 400 office hospitals are unaffected.
Ship Mooring Snafu
My ship is stopped next to a station. I bring up the helm, moor the ship, and turn off the engines. As soon as I leave the console, the pilot turns the engine and power plant back on and unmoors the ship.
Pilot no longer unmoors the ship unless the current mission order is a travel order or there is a nav waypoint set. Since the ship remains moored, the pilot no longer feels the need to turn on the engines.
Butcher Head for Stomach
I butchered a head. A stomach came out.
Fixed error in butchering code.
Fog Top Down View
Fog is supposed to be disabled automatically in top down view.
Disabled some remaining fog code that was affecting terrain. Other objects were not fogged.
GD File Error on Mac
After launcher installs all the files on MacOS, attempting to run primeval world reports the GD file is missing. You are supposed to be able to try this without logging in to any servers.
I think this is fixed. Simple test passed. Needs more thorough testing.
I apologize for the Friday evening restart of the servers. Two related problems were causing servers to crash and it would have been a long weekend if I tried to nurse them along.
Arena Crashes Server
Attempting to enter an arena causes the server to crash.
Fixed crash due to failure to acquire a species for the officer and crew.
Pirates Crash Server
Pirate encounters crash the server.
Fixed crash due to failure to acquire a species for the officer and crew. People could avoid entering arenas but they can't avoid pirate encounters. This problem was going to get worse as more people got into space.
Empire Flag Size
A request was made to increase the size of empire flags.
Empire flags can now be up to 256x256 pixels. To compensate for the extra pixels, flags are now reduced to an indexed palette automatically. This can result in graininess if the picture is very detailed. Normal flags reduce fine. The sample flag on the new empire window is the reduced result, so you can see before submitting it.
You can change your empire's flag on the Policy page of the Governance window. Just click on the flag there.
You will need a new client program to use larger flags. It is building as I write this and it will be posted when ready. The client update was not essential for the server update so I decided not to wait for everybody to be built at once.
Horseback Trick Riding
My first farm made a great big "horse". They are handy when you haven't developed vehicles yet. I mounted the noble steed and found myself riding sideways, head sticking out to one side.
Fixed initial positioning when mounting a horse.
An updated client is needed. It is still building.
Clinic
Basic hospital design has 400 offices! That's a lot of jobs when your first town's population reaches 80 and they start asking for a hospital.
Created two new hospital designs: Clinic and Colony Clinic. They look strangely identical to each other. Each has 2 offices.
Modified the Hospital design so it only has 8 offices now. I'm not sure why it had 400. This is published as a new design. Existing 400 office hospitals are unaffected.
Ship Mooring Snafu
My ship is stopped next to a station. I bring up the helm, moor the ship, and turn off the engines. As soon as I leave the console, the pilot turns the engine and power plant back on and unmoors the ship.
Pilot no longer unmoors the ship unless the current mission order is a travel order or there is a nav waypoint set. Since the ship remains moored, the pilot no longer feels the need to turn on the engines.
Butcher Head for Stomach
I butchered a head. A stomach came out.
Fixed error in butchering code.
Fog Top Down View
Fog is supposed to be disabled automatically in top down view.
Disabled some remaining fog code that was affecting terrain. Other objects were not fogged.
GD File Error on Mac
After launcher installs all the files on MacOS, attempting to run primeval world reports the GD file is missing. You are supposed to be able to try this without logging in to any servers.
I think this is fixed. Simple test passed. Needs more thorough testing.