FileShack

Version 1.91:
NOTE: Please back up your data files prior to installing the patch. This patch has been updated as of 03/07/2004 to handle a crash on some XP systems when the patch searched for an install directory.
Big New Features:
1. New Intro screen.
2. Added new abilities for better modding.
3. Mousewheel support!
4. Play balancing.
Version History for Space Empires IV
Version 1.91:
1. Changed - Revised title screen bitmap to make the buttons more visible.
2. Fixed - Upgrading just 1 facility would incorrectly upgrade them all.
3. Fixed - Bug from last version resulted in huge spikes in intel and research points.
4. Note - Spaceyards will not work on cloaked planets or ships.
5. Fixed - Cloaked planets were allowing you to add multiple spaceyards to them.
6. Fixed - A planet that was damaged and lost its cloaking facility would not decloak.
7. Fixed - A planet that scrapped its cloaking facility would not decloak.
8. Added - You can now use an override field for Vehicle Type in Components.txt which will allow you to use a list instead of a hard-coded value. Another field is used for the description used in the Components Report.
9. Added - You can now use an override field for Weapon Target in Components.txt which will allow you to use a list instead of a hard-coded value. Another field is used for the description used in the Components Report.
Version 1.90:
1. Fixed - Descriptions for the Facilities changed in the last version were still old.
2. Changed - New title screen bitmap courtesy of David Gervais.
3. Changed - Added black drop shadow to "Version" and "Loading" text on main screen.
4. Changed - You can now save/load your turn in the middle when playing a simultaneous multiplayer game.
5. Added - "Generate Points" abilities which will generate points for an empire each turn. These abilities are independent of a planet and will generate an unlimited number of points. These abilities can be used on a facility, component, ship, or anything else.
6. Added - "Order By Name" and "Order By Class" buttons to the Scrap window.
7. Fixed - The View Orders window would show the name of unexplored systems.
8. Fixed - Attempting to colonize in an unexplored system would sometimes show the planets in the sector.
9. Fixed - Rare Access Violation bug during Movement Log Replay.
Version 1.89:
1. Changed - The Create and Destroy Storm components are now destroyed on use.
2. Changed - Mineral Scanner I, II, III have had their modifiers increased to 15%, 30%, 45%.
3. Changed - Hybrid Eco - Farms I, II, III have had their modifiers increased to 15%, 30%, 45%.
4. Changed - Radioactives Collider I, II, III have had their modifiers increased to 15%, 30%, 45%.
5. Changed - System Mineral Scanner I, II, III have had their modifiers increased to 15%, 30%, 45%.
6. Changed - System Eco - Farms I, II, III have had their modifiers increased to 15%, 30%, 45%.
7. Changed - System Radioactives Collider I, II, III have had their modifiers increased to 15%, 30%, 45%.
8. Fixed - The owner of a minefield would not get a log message if the minefield was completely sweeped.
9. Added - Added "Race Directory" to the Empire/Race Report.
10. Fixed - When you replied to a demand for a gift or tribute, you were unable to view the package of the gift or tribute that was demanded.
11. Fixed - Range Check Error upon loading a turn where massive numbers of units were launched the previous turn.
Version 1.88:
1. Changed - Added in Imperator Fyron's smoothed population modifiers.
2. Fixed - A ship would clear its remaining orders if it tried to load cargo and it had no cargo space available.
3. Fixed - A colonizer ship will still be counted as available for colonization even if it has low supplies (but not if it has zero supplies).
4. Fixed - Sometimes an attack force would invade an ally's planet if it was in the same sector as an enemy planet.
5. Fixed - Occasional Access Violation or Range Check Error from the Combat Replay.
6. Fixed - Component mounts were not being used in retrofit change comparisons.
7. Changed - You must have movement remaining on your ship to create a storm.
8. Fixed - "Remove All" in the Fleet Transfer window would break up other player's fleets.
Version 1.87:
1. Added - "Move Hundred" to Cargo Transfer window.
2. Fixed - In Simultaneous games, scanned enemy ship designs would not be saved.
3. Fixed - "Max Positive Anger Change" and "Max Negative Anger Change" were being used as percents instead of tenth of percents.
4. Fixed - Ships were not receiving experience for kills made with seekers.
5. Fixed - Increased the population amount for the storehouse in combat simulations.
6. Fixed - The Small Graviton Beam is now under the Gravitational Weapons tech area.
7. Fixed - Mothballing would not generate a log message in simultaneous games and would show a messagebox instead.
8. Fixed - Unmothballing would not generate a log message in simultaneous games.
9. Fixed - Converting resources would not generate a log message in simultaneous games.
10. Fixed - The Abandon Planet order would not generate a log message in simultaneous games.
11. Fixed - Intelligence reports on planets were not showing the cargo they contained.
12. Fixed - In Computer Versus Human games, the AI's would get negative happiness modifiers on treaties (Partnership) they were forced to have.
13. Fixed - AI's would continue to propose the existing treaty in a Computer Versus Humans game.
14. Fixed - In the Combat Simulator, any player that has a base or a planet will start in the center of the combat map.
15. Fixed - The Fleet Report window's list will now respond to the Mousewheel.
16. Fixed - The component list in the Tactical Combat window will now repsond to the Mousewheel.
17. Fixed - The Add Design window's components available list will now respond to the Mousewheel.
Version 1.86:
1. Added - "AI Tag ##" abilities for use in getting AIs to use specific components.
2. Fixed - Improved Empire placement using the "Evenly distributed through the quadrant" option.
3. Fixed - AI would purchase ships even if it had no resources available.
4. Fixed - Cloaked unit groups would not show a dotted circle around them.
5. Added - Empire style directory label to the Empire setup window.
6. Fixed - AI would still try to launch units when its maximum units in space had been reached.
7. Fixed - The name of the current item under construction should show how many as well.
8. Fixed - Drones were not inflicting special damage types.
9. Fixed - Decreased seeker damage factor required to move to next target.
10. Fixed - You could build designs which had mounts of higher technology than your empire.
11. Fixed - AI would build all of the same colonizer type in a given turn.
12. Added - Mousewheel support to lists.
Version 1.85:
1. Fixed - AI players were giving away technology too easily.
2. Fixed - There was a limit of 5 neutral players in a game. Now the amount of neutral players is based on the values in the Settings file.
3. Added - 4 more neutral races.
4. Fixed - AI was not taking into account bonus resources for scrapping.
5. Fixed - Changed Population Transport minister so that it takes population to lowest populated planet regardless of distance and also taking into account if a pop transport is already heading to the planet.
6. Fixed - Problem with AI checking its existing ship's orders.
7. Fixed - The race setup screen no longer errors if an empire ship picture is not present.
8. Fixed - "Change Bad Event Chance - System" ability was not working right.
9. Fixed - "Change Bad Intelligence Chance - System" ability was not working right.
10. Fixed - Planets would not recalculate their sight values when a new facility was built (this would make planets with cloaking abilities not light up cloak button).
11. Fixed - A cloaked planet would still show its name for the option "Show Planet Names".
12. Fixed - Rebelling planets would double their population.
13. Fixed - Simultaneous different machine multiplayer games now require that a game master password be provided.
14. Fixed - In the Select Package screen, clicking in the package list would not reduce the resources by the x10000 or x100000 amount selected.
15. Fixed - Integer Overflow if a finite resource planet had too large a value.
Version 1.84:
1. Fixed - Reordered some of the formations to be better for ship movement.
2. Fixed - Tech Areas that were not allowed in the Game Setup would still show under the expected results list of research.
3. Fixed - Ships in combat will follow their fleet's strategy until they are no longer in a combat group. Once they are no longer in a combat group, they will follow their own strategy.
4. Changed - When planets take damage, weapon platforms will be destroyed first. After all weapon platforms are destroyed, then the remaining units will take damage randomly.
5. Added - Added two new target types for components: "Ships" and "Ships".
6. Fixed - The Designs Window list would not show a design with the same name as another, but with different case.
7. Fixed - AI would build multiple system-wide resource modifier facilities in a system.

Version 1.83:
1. Fixed - You could stop a "Slow Build" by clearing the queue.
2. Fixed - You could stop a "Slow Build" by giving a planet to another player.
3. Fixed - The Jraenar battleship portrait was 1 pixel to large.
4. Fixed - Intro screen graphic stretches to the screen size.
5. Fixed - "Any" and "None" were being confused in CompEnhancement.txt for the field "Weapon Type Requirement".
6. Fixed - Weapon Mounts were not showing in the expected benefits list when looking at a Tech Area report.
7. Fixed - AI will now use Master Computers on his ships correctly.
8. Fixed - Added more slots to all of the formations to keep ships together better in combat. New formations thanks to Imperator Fyron.

Version 1.82:
1. Changed - Ships in combat will now follow their fleet's strategy regardless of whether they are in a combat group or not.
2. Fixed - Computer Players which had a "Computer Player Bonus" set above None were not using all of their bonus funds.
3. Fixed - The largest ship in a sector was not always being drawn on top in the system display.
4. Fixed - Planets in combat would not fire all of their weapons (sometimes).
5. Fixed - Planets in combat would not fire enough seekers against a target to guarantee its destruction (sometimes).
6. Fixed - Improved the Transport minister a little.
7. Added - The Log Window will now return you to the item you had selected the last time you were in the window.
8. Fixed - Ships with a Tractor Beam would not fire weapons located after the tractor beam in their design.

Version 1.81:
1. Fixed - "Crew Conversion" damage type will work on all target types, again.
2. Fixed - "Crew Conversion" damage type will fail against a ship with a Master Computer (regardless if that component is damaged or not). It does not matter if there is a Bridge on the ship.
3. Fixed - AI will no longer launch "Anti-Planet" Drones in combat.
4. Added - Option to strategems to control how many drones are launched per target in combat.
5. Changed - You can now give drones orders to Attack warp points. This is essentially the same as telling them to warp through and attack anything on the other side. Any survivors can then be given new orders.

Version 1.80:
1. Fixed - Integer Overflow when a unit with no shields was hit by normal weapons.
2. Changed - "Crew Conversion" damage type will only work against ships regardless of the target type.
3. Fixed - "Crew Conversion" damage type will fail against a ship with a Master Computer (regardless if that component is damaged or not).
4. Fixed - You can now give resource gifts in excess of 200,000.
5. Added - "x10000" and "x100000" to the Select Package window for resources.
6. Fixed - Fighters were unable to "Fire On And Destroy" ships.
7. Fixed - Organic Armor was pre-regenerating itself before damage occurred in combat.

Version 1.79:
1. Fixed - "X Damage to Shields" damage types were not working correctly.
2. Fixed - Shield Depeleters will now work properly against units.
3. Fixed - The result of a Communication interception intelligence project will be displayed with arrows in the log window.
4. Fixed - Ships would clear their order if trying to move to sector 0,0.
5. Fixed - Ships with regnerating armor will regnerate all of their armor at the end of combat.
6. Fixed - During a Deconstruct & Analyze, you would sometimes receive duplicate techs if a component and the vehicle size were new to you.

Version 1.78:
1. Fixed - Mine damage was not accumulating against Fighters or Drones moving through minefields.
2. Added - More Empire options for showing letter identifiers for facilities on planets.
Version 1.77:
1. Fixed - Vehicle Size Minimum text in Mount report was 2 pixels off data value.
2. Fixed - Mines would accumulate damage beyond their means and sometimes cause an Integer Overflow.
3. Fixed - Orders to destroy stars, planets, storms, etc. could be executed even after the ship moved away from the location.

Version 1.76:
1. Fixed - New damage types were not being recognized.
2. Changed - If you change treaties with another race and you were at a Trade alliance or better, and you change to a Trade alliance or better, then you retain the same Trade %.
3. Fixed - In Simultaneous Games, sometimes the treaty between two races would be set to None.
4. Added - Added the Weapon Mount Report window which you can get by right-clicking on the mount name in the list or by going to the Help window.
5. Fixed - A space yard ship that was cloaked would not decrease its emergency build time.
6. Added - Added a flag to the Shield Components decsription so that they will show the true shields generated taking into account any mounts.
7. Fixed - AI player would choose Atmospheric Converter I over an Atmospheric Converter III.
8. Fixed - Fighters would skip targets who had emissive armor high enough to prevent one fighter's attack.
Version 1.75:
1. Fixed - Players can no longer exceed the maximum mines / maximum satellites per sector restriction.
2. Fixed - Rare error on warp command execution.
3. Fixed - More improvements to Escape and Enter key usage.
4. Added - "Shield Percent" to CompEnhancement.txt.
5. Added - Added damage types - "Double Damage To Shields", "Half Damage To Shields", "Quarter Damage To Shields".
6. Fixed - Improvements to how Emissive Armor is applied.
7. Added - Added new Settings.txt fields - "Seeker Combat Defense Modifier", "Planet Combat Offense Modifier", "Planet Combat Defense Modifier".
8. Fixed - Point-Defense will now fire automatically on moving drones.
Version 1.74:
1. Fixed - Null-Space Projectors and Computer Viruses had the same component family.
2. Fixed - Rare BitList error during combat.
3. Fixed - Rare Integer Overflow.
4. Fixed - Access Violation when completing combat.
5. Changed - A ship will gain benefits from a training center even if it is cloaked.
6. Fixed - Players can no longer exceed the maximum mines / maximum satellites per sector restriction.
7. Fixed - Planets now display the number of drones they can launch / recover in the Unit Launch window.
8. Fixed - Ships without cargo capacity are now omitted from the Cargo Transfer window.
9. Fixed - Ships without unit launch capacity are now omitted from the Unit Launch window.
10. Fixed - Escape and Enter keys work a little better on dialogs.
Version 1.73:
1. Fixed - "Different Machine" games would report an error in different exes.
2. Fixed - All messages being sent default to "General Message".
3. Fixed - Damage Types of Pull Ship, Push Ship, and Teleport Ship will now be targeted on as many enemies as possible (not all weapons on one ship).
4. Fixed - A Component Enhancement which has a weapon type of None means it can only be used on non-weapon components.
5. Changed - The Comp Family Requirement in CompEnhancement.txt is now a list.
6. Fixed - The Mount listing in the Vehicle Design Add window will only show valid mounts for the current type and size of the vehicle.
7. Fixed - Normal components will now display the mount they are using on their report window.
8. Fixed - Capturing Ships during combat was not restricted to nearby square.
9. Fixed - Drones were not changes their target when the target was hit by an allegiance subverter.
Version 1.72:
1. Fixed - Non-required fields were still being required.
2. Fixed - Fighters with weapon range of 2 or less were not attacking planets.
3. Fixed - Weapon Platforms were firing weapons at targets out of range.
4. Fixed - Added protections against the player file switching cheat.
5. Fixed - Added protections against exe hacking. The players and the host must now be running the *exact* same exe.
6. Fixed - Fixed problem where cargo would sometimes show zero units remaining.
7. Changed - Revamped Jettison Cargo window.
8. Added - Mounts now support "any" weapon type, component families, maximum vehicle size, and tech requirements.
Version 1.71:
1. Fixed - Ships were unable to ram planets.
2. Fixed - Drones were not smashing into planets.
3. Fixed - Tactical Combat was not displaying correctly after a Ram.
4. Fixed - Distance to planets has been reduced.
5. Added - Added fields to Settings.txt to allow for a higher maximum value or resource amount.
6. Added - Added a "Bases Can Join Fleets" field to Settings.txt.
7. Fixed - AI would attempt to add units even when a planet was full.
8. Added - Added "No Retrofit Adding Of Spaceyards" and "No Retrofit Adding Of Colony Module" so players can set whether the game will enforce these rules.
9. Changed - Fighters and Drones will have full movement when launched.
10. Fixed - In a Turn-Based Game, fighters can only be recovered if they have their full movement points (and are not in combat).
Version 1.70:
1. Fixed - Troops were unable to drop onto planets in combat.
2. Fixed - Only ships and fighter groups can join fleets.
3. Added - Added Fighters, Satellites, and Drones Weapon Target Types in Components.txt.
4. Added - Added "Two Per Vehicle" to "Ten Per Vehicle" to Restrictions in Components.txt.
5. Fixed - Minefields will now accumulate damage against ships when hitting them.
6. Changed - If a mine will not do damage to a target because of its damage type, it will not strike the target. For example, if the mine only does engine damage, and the target does not have engines, then the mine will not strike the target.
7. Changed - Engine Damaging Weapons no longer skip shields.
8. Fixed - Integer Overflow when viewing a planet report window for a planet that had been captured during combat.
9. Fixed - Ai should be cloaking again in Simultaneous Games.
Version 1.69:
1. Fixed - The Massive Ship Mount stated that you needed a ship size of 1100kT but it should actually be 1200kT.
2. Fixed - Rare Integer Overflow in combat when a planet was attacked.
3. Fixed - There was a way to bypass the Next Player Password dialog.
4. Changed - A ship cannot be retrofitted from a design which does not have a Spaceyard to one that does.
5. Changed - A ship cannot be retrofitted from a design which does not have a Colony Module to one that does.
6. Fixed - Range Check Error when a luck trait tried to prevent a star from exploding.
7. Fixed - Set Players To Computer Control window was setting all ministers off even for human players.
Version 1.68:
1. Fixed - Fighters no longer share their supplies with other ships. They will not pool their resources when in a fleet.
2. Fixed - Newly launched fighters in a turn-based game will have no movement. The next turn after they are launched, they will receive full movement.
3. Fixed - AI was not reacting with anger when a planet or system was destroyed.
4. Changed - Increased the number of formation positions from 30 to 100.
5. Fixed - AI was still not always closing to optimum distance for launching seekers against planets.
6. Fixed - Seeker hit on a planet would sometimes not show an explosion even if damage was done.
7. Fixed - AI was not always moving on the first turn of Tactical Combat if it was the first player.
8. Fixed - Planet hit points would not always accurately portray damaged units on the planet as well.