Wolfpack 4.3.0 Server Release

We are happy to announce that Empire 4.3.0 is now available. You can
download it from

http://sourceforge.net/projects/empserver/

More information on Empire can be found on our home page

http://www.wolfpackempire.com

Highlights in this release: customizable unit tables, xdump (a new
comprehensive dump facility for clients), support for IPv6, and a new
build process. Additional player-visible changes include better
information on game configuration and a more useful country command.
Additional deity-visible changes include improved origin and nation
commands. As usual, the release also fixes crashes and abusable bugs.

We recommend deities use this release for new games. Upgrading
mid-game is not supported and expected to result in total disaster.

Our pthreads code has known problems with shutdown. In particular,
the shutdown command may fail to terminate the server process. Note
that configure prefers LWP over pthreads when both are available, as
they are on most platforms.

Solaris /bin/sh has a broken test builtin. Try passing
SHELL=/usr/bin/ksh or SHELL=/usr/bin/bash to make. Pthreads don't
currently compile, but LWP is available.

Attention, client writers: quite a few changes can possibly trip
up smart clients:

* version no longer pretends option SHIPNAMES still exists.
* zdone now displays information about demand update vetoing.
* version report now shows all the configurable settings of interest
to players.
* carg and lcarg now display people as well.
* ldump now dumps civ and uw as well.
* Simplify baroque version numbering to a single version number.
This affects output of version.
* Minimize output format differences between options:
- census shows column fall regardless of FALLOUT.
- show nuke now shows column res regardless of DRNUKE.
- report no longer suppress column status when HIDDEN is enabled.
HIDDEN limits status information like for the country command.
- relations column width differed depending on option SLOW_WAR.
Always use the wider format.
* Fix justification of coordinate output in cutoff and mission.
* Fix nation to display SANCTUARY instead of VISITOR for countries in
sanctuary.
* census now shows the old owner instead of `*'. dump is unchanged
to avoid breaking clients.
* peek no longer prints the old owner.
* country reports on all countries, but carefully limits information
disclosed to mortals. Output format changed.

We apologize for the inconvenience.


Change log:

Changes to Empire 4.3.0 - Sun Mar 19 08:13:10 UTC 2006
* version no longer pretends option SHIPNAMES still exists.
* Remove files auth and ban. They could be used to restrict client
address and user. Restricting user is useless, because players can
send whatever they want. Banning IPs is better done with a packet
filter. That leaves restricting deity IPs. Provide new econfig
key privip for that. Apply it to session kill as well as login.
* xdump escapes GUINEA_PIGS status:
- xdump is now enabled unconditionally.
- xdump sect now dumps selector coastal, because it can't be
reliably computed from other xdump information.
- New xdump realm and country. Realm information is now stored in
a separate file, with appropriate selectors.
- Reviewed for completeness and information leaks. See info xdump
for remaining issues. New treaty selector uid, nat selectors
relations, contacts. Removed useless selectors: news and lost
uid, nat dayno.
- Command syntax changed.
- xdump opt is no more, option information is now in xdump ver.
- xdump can now dump meta-data.
- Header and footer changed to be more compact. You now need
meta-data to identify fields.
- Bug fixes.
- Documentation in doc/xdump.
* New econfig key builtindir.
* New econfig key custom_tables lets you customize configuration
tables without recompiling. Customizing tables other than unit
tables is not recommended for now. See doc/econfig for
instructions.
* Check configuration and game state are sane on server startup.
* Remove option NONUKES and NEUTRON. Deities can load a suitable
nuke table to get the same effect.
* Remove option DRNUKE. Use econfig key drnuke_const to control
whether nukes need research.
* Disqualify land units from performing missions while loaded on
ships or trains.
* Fix dump for strings without terminating zero.
* Fix login command option not to send an extra prompt.
* zdone now displays information about demand update vetoing.
* The Windows port now requires Winsock version 2.
* Remove econfig key powe_cost.
* version report now shows all the configurable settings of interest
to players.
* carg and lcarg now display people as well.
* ldump now dumps civ and uw as well.
* Fix dangling pointer dereference in dogfighting code.
* Tell sector owner when partisans take over. But don't disclose che
casualties then.
* emp_server, files, fairland now support options -h and -v.
* Simplify baroque version numbering to a single version number.
This affects output of version.
* New show item and show news.
* New build process:
- Follow the usual steps: configure; make; make install. The
latter is optional. The only file deities still have to edit is
econfig.
- Use GNU Autoconf for system configuration.
- Use GNU Make for portability and features.
- Support separate build trees.
- Remake out-of-date dependencies automatically.
- Remake out-of-date info files automatically.
- Flatten info directory.
- Formatted info files are no longer distributed in source tarball.
- Use LWP only with UCONTEXT. Autoconfiguring the other LWP
low-level options doesn't seem to be worth the effort, as
UCONTEXT should be pretty portable.
* Fix use of freed memory in sail.
* sail could let large ships enter big cities.
* Fix reject and accept not to require contact.
* Fix sharebmap and telegram to prompt for a missing first argument.
* Fix report to align column research correctly for deities.
* When the optional newspaper argument doesn't work because HIDDEN is
enabled, complain instead of ignoring it silently.
* When BLITZ is enabled, fairland no longer permutes country numbers
in newcap_script so that start islands are ordered from top left to
bottom right.
* Minimize output format differences between options:
- census shows column fall regardless of FALLOUT.
- show nuke now shows column res regardless of DRNUKE.
- report no longer suppress column status when HIDDEN is enabled.
HIDDEN limits status information like for the country command.
- relations column width differed depending on option SLOW_WAR.
Always use the wider format.
* Fix a bug in edit that suppressed the player notification telex on
military reserve change.
* Fix command dispatch not to let deities use commands that are
declared not to be available to them. The only command affected is
break.
* Fix the list command for visitor.
* econfig key m_m_p_d no longer applies to deities.
* Fix the origin command for country #0. Allow moving origin to
another country's origin. Allow deities to reset origin to
absolute 0,0. This turns origin into a superset of the offset
command. Remove offset command.
* Fix a bug that caused unpredictable flak damage when it should have
been maximum damage (was broken in 4.2.19).
* Don't store initial capital location, remove the associated nat
selectors xstart, ystart.
* Fix production command to consider resource depletion.
* Fix justification of coordinate output in cutoff and mission.
* Option UPDATESCHED is no longer optional. Disabling it didn't
work anyway.
* Support IPv6.
* Turn options into ordinary econfig keys.
* New econfig key start_cash.
* BTU regeneration now depends on the capital's work percentage.
* nation now supports an optional argument that lets deities ask for
somebody else's nation report.
* Fix nation to display SANCTUARY instead of VISITOR for countries in
sanctuary.
* Fix capital to let you use a regained sacked capital without
activating another one in between.
* Don't move capital when it is sacked.
* New ship capability canal, replacing obscure formula based on build
materials.
* You now need a capital to request a demand update.
* power now ignores landspies.
* Fix LWP stack checking.
* Clean up LWP, drop dead machine-specific code, fix portability bugs
in UCONTEXT code.
* census now shows the old owner instead of `*'. dump is unchanged
to avoid breaking clients.
* peek no longer prints the old owner.
* When a bombed land unit retreated, collateral damage was applied to
the wrong sector.
* paradrop, drop and fly can no longer abandon the base sector.
* Tending foreign ships now sends a bulletin to the owner.
* Fix bug that permitted login for inactive countries, including ""
* Fix tend for spies.
* Change launch to fire all missiles selected at the same target.
Previously, it prompted for a new target after each missile.
* add, consider, build, launch and fire no longer re-prompt when
supplied with a bad argument, they just fail. Consequently, the
build command no longer lets you list types you can build. It
points to the show command instead.
* Fix add not to truncate country number.
* Fix selector coastal to be accurate at all times.
* Fix obscure bug in fairland: the sector added last to an island
wasn't considered coastal. Affected resource computation.
* Fix sector wiping in add command.
* Remove options NO_LCMS, NO_HCMS, NO_OIL. They were broken in many
ways. Custom configuration tables should become a serviceable
replacement eventually.
* Client no longer freezes on long lines of server output.
* Fix uninitialized signal mask bugs.
* Fix Windows service code's treatment of -e.
* Sub interdiction disclosed sub owner through news' actor selector.
* country reports on all countries, but carefully limits information
disclosed to mortals. Output format changed.
* Market no longer forces sellers to grant loans.
* Fix potential crash bug in set command. Friendlier prompt and
diagnostics.
* Substantial code cleanup and portability fixes.
* Extend empfile abstraction to cover game configuration.
* Overhaul of game state storage.
* The above includes major contributions from Ron Koenderink. Many
thanks!


MD5 checksums:

09ff8f05ae87ae5d531ed7e701e7cbb6 empire-4.3.0.tar.gz
00aeefbdd86184646cb37dca0cae52ca empire-client-4.3.0-i386-linux.gz
ad2932a06feb1221f1f84c94edd6e61c empire-client-4.3.0-i386-win.exe
177c248517e6e65b73936f73004bc0ed empire-client-4.3.0-i386-win.zip
d579d799b9c0b1de03892af0586ef3f6 empire-client-4.3.0.tar.gz
22900432b699fac4e41dff91a1023ef4 empire-info-html-4.3.0.tar.gz
c810ab218fe225f17b85f6e4fb07c338 empire-info-text-4.3.0.tar.gz


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