©	Version Changes The Portable Host Version 3.2.3.5g  Jump to Table of Contents

INDEX

• Version 3.5x
• Version 3.4x
• Version 3.3x
• Version 3.2e
• Version 3.2
• Version 3.1
• Version 3.0

Version 3.5x
Version 3.5

• Version 3.5: January 2007
• Version 3.5a: August 2007
• Version 3.5c: September 2008
• Version 3.5e: December 2010
• Version 3.5f: November 2012

Instructions for Hosts

• Upgrade the PHost program
• The plangeng.hst file is no longer used. You can remove it. PHost now only uses plang.hst.

New Features

• Per-player-Id order is also used for Super Spy Deluxe. (v3.5)
• The options AllowEatingSupplies, BorgAssimilationRate, ClimateDeathRate, CloakFuelBurn, DarkSenseRange, EngineShieldBonusRate, HissEffectRate, MaxPlanetaryIncome, MaximumWebMinefieldRadius, PlanetaryTorpsPerTube, RecycleRate, RobFailureOdds, TowStrengthEngineScale, TowStrengthDistanceScale, and WebMineDecayRate are now also arrayized. Indirectly followed from suggestions by Chris Carr. (v3.5)
• There are two new options to configure PAL awards for glory devices: PALGloryDevicePer10KT and PALGloryKillPer10KT. (v3.5)
• The new option BuildChangeRelativePenalty can be used to give a relative priority penalty to changed build orders (instead of complete loss of points in PBP/FIFO mode). This option kind-of supersedes SBQBuildChangePenalty. (v3.5)
• Added inactivity detection for combat. With certain settings, combat takes forever. PHost now terminates combat when it thinks it will not complete, and displays a message

  WARNING: combat terminated due to inactivity after NNN ticks.
      Please check your combat configuration. With the current settings,
      the fight might have taken forever.

  If you get that message (which, I think, is very unlikely), change your combat configuration to get closer to the default configuration or another one known to work. (v3.5a)
• The new UseBaseTorpsInCombat option allows hosts to turn off use of torpedoes from starbase storage in combat. They will still use the free torpedoes if PlanetsHaveTubes is enabled. (v3.5c)
• The new MinimumHappiness option provides a lower limit of happiness after a planet is conquered. This restricts the damage players can do to their planets if they know they'll be losing. (v3.5c)
• When a ship explodes in a minefield, PHost now generates a new util.dat record for all players. Previously, this information was sent to non-involved races only when they were using Winplan. (v3.5c)
• Battle order was slightly changed: ships without numeric friendly codes are now distinguished into aggressive armed ships, non-aggressive armed ships, and freighters, with battle-order values 1000, 1002, and 1004, respectively. Previously, there were only two classes, armed ships and freighters, with values 1000 and 1002. Idea by Quirin Herman. (v3.5e)
• New options, AllowUniversalMinefieldFCode, AllowMinefieldIdentity. (v3.5g)
• When -c is used to check one player's turn file, PHost now reports errors in command processor commands to the log file (check.log). The idea is that players can read these log messages, and correct their commands before the host run. When errors are detected during the host run, these are reported with subspace messages as usual. (v4.1g/3.5g)

Bugs Fixed

• It was not possible to supply-repair a ship and fly faster when auxhost1 add-ons were used (or any other add-on before Movement). This bug was already fixed in v3.4c but crept back in. (v3.5)
• Version 3.5 crashed when player 11 was using a Language which was not used by anyone else in the game. Found by Markus Rektor. Another side-effect of the switch to the new language code was a control statement appearing on top of the wormhole scan message, causing VPA not to understand it. Found by Andreas Huettner. (v3.5a)
• Mines Destroy Mines could leave some overlaps around due to rounding errors. PHost now removes these as well. This can make mines lose a few more units than before. This also means PHost now generates util.dat record 53. (v3.5a)
• Several ways to crash PHost with a floating-point exception have been blocked. (v3.5a)
• Minefield friendly codes are now computed more often. When add-ons were used, friendly code assignments could have stayed around longer than expected. (v3.5a)
• An overflow during computation of mining rates made it impossible to mine more than 655 kt of a mineral each turn; instead, the amount "wraps around". Found by Alex Timofeev. Bug only in 3.5 and 3.5a. (v3.5b)
• Some clients generate build orders with a defined beam type but a beam count of zero (instead of setting both to zero if user doesn't want a beam). PHost was not always detecting and fixing this anomaly consistently, causing those build orders to be reset to the end of the queue when the player misses a turn. Reported by Heiko Schlenker. (v3.5c)
• PHost now cancels Intercept missions during intercept resolution (part of movement) if they fail because the target got destroyed or cloaked. This prevents them from accidentally popping up later, which allowed players to track ships they shouldn't be able to track under various circumstances. Pointed out by Patrick de Groot. (v3.5c)
• When minefields overlap, mine hits are now accounted to minefield owners in a more fair way. (v3.5c)
• The auxcmds.txt could get confused by strategically-placed spaces, causing it to ignore or misinterpret commands. (v3.5c)
• PHost could crash when some very specific tow chains with more than four ships were used. (v3.5d)
• PHost could crash when receiving certain incomplete command processor commands. (v3.5e)
• When producing a DOS-style RST file, PHost now produces the same set of targets on all platforms. In addition, targets are now sorted. (v4.1e/3.5e)

Miscellaneous

• The language file, plang.hst, now has a different format. The file can be manipulated by standard tools, and compresses much better than the previous one. (v3.5)
• For computation of tow resistance, hyperjump ships now always use the maximum distance (e.g. 81), independant of their actual waypoint distance. This is to reflect the fact that, in case they win the tow conflict, their movement will be the same independant of their waypoint. (v3.5a)
• If a meteor kills a planet's population, the planet now becomes unowned instantly. Previously, the now uninhabited planet could still fight and produce. The same problem also occured when ground combat yielded "almost" mutual annihilation. (v4.1a/3.5a)
• Unless the Master program already set a default (PMaster and AMaster do, master.exe doesn't), PHost now initializes the default remote control state to remote forbid default. (v4.1c/3.5c)
• If a player has no planets, his minefields were behaving as if controlled by a planet with friendly code "AAA". They now no longer match any friendly code. (v4.1c/3.5c)
• If Rob fails (due to random chance), players now receive a message in addition to the util.dat failure notice they're already getting. (v4.1e/3.5e)
• Pieter van der Eems provided an update of the Dutch language file (v3.5e)
• Like the other command processor commands, beamup commands can now be given through auxcmds.txt even when AllowBeamUpMultiple is off. They were accepted but not executed until now. (v4.1e/3.5e)
• PHost can now pass its random seed to add-ons for repeatable invocation. %s in a pcontrol command will be replaced by the current seed. In addition, the seed is passed through the PHOST_RANDSEED environment variable. (v4.1e/3.5e)
• Slight change to boarding crew computation: if the captor has too little crew to beam anything over, make the number of traitors at least two, not exactly two. (v4.1f/3.5f)
• Recycling ship parts using dmp now rounds after accounting for all parts, not after recycling each individual part. This usually produces a handful minerals more than before. (v4.1g/3.5g)

Version 3.4x
Version 3.4m

• Version 3.4m: September 2006
• Version 3.4l: October 2005
• Version 3.4k: January 2005
• Version 3.4j: July 2004
• Version 3.4i: March 2004
• Version 3.4h: January 2004
• Version 3.4g: October 2003
• Version 3.4f: August 2003
• Version 3.4e: May 2003
• Version 3.4d: March 2003
• Version 3.4c: December 2002
• Version 3.4b: October 2002
• Version 3.4a: June 2002
• Version 3.4: May 2002

PHost has moved. The new website is now http://www.phost.de/. We hope that phost.org will continue functioning for a while, and redirect to the new site.

Instructions for Players

• Upgrade the PHost documentation.
• Upgrade the PVCR program if you wish. The battle algorithm was not changed, just the player was improved in some details: when you use VPA 3.60 or later, you should use at least PVCR 3.3e(2).

Instructions for Hosts

• Upgrade the PHost program
• Optionally, upgrade pconfig.src. The following values will make this PHost version behave as the prior ones (note that the defaults for some of these options are different!).

      % PHOST
      AllowShipNames               = Yes
      StructureDecayOnUnowned      = 1
      MinimumChunnelDistance       = 100
      DamageLevelForHyperjumpFail  = 100
      TowStrengthEngineScale       = 163
      TowStrengthDistanceScale     = 1
      WebHitFuelLoss               = 50
      BuildPointReport             = No
      MaximumWebMinefieldRadius    = <whatever is appropriate>
      AlternativeMinesDestroyMines = Yes
  
      % PCONTROL
      ShipBuildOrders             = Normal
      TowResolution               = Normal
      MinesDestroyMines           = Skip
    

• When you use an add-on which hooks into the ShipBuilding_1 or Movement stage (i.e., the respective PCONTROL entry reads anything other than Normal), you must modify the above new PCONTROL entries accordingly.
• If you use some nonstandard settings for AllowPlayerMessages, CPEnableMessage and CPEnableRumor, you should check your settings.

  In case you gave some ships multiple hull functions, be aware of the changes introduced in 3.4k.

New Features

• PVCR is now aware of things like corr.exe. (v3.4)
• There is now an option AllowShipNames, which is useful for anonymous games. (v3.4)
• The PCONTROL stages ShipBuilding_1 and Movement were split. The build queue is now filled in stage ShipBuildOrders (formerly part of ShipBuilding_1), so add-ons that manipulate the queue behaviour can hook inbetween. Likewise, tow resolution is now separate so add-ons can hook inbetween to check which tows are successful. (v3.4)
• The command processor was improved. It now accepts commands of arbitrary length as well as a shortcut for commands to add-ons. (v3.4b)
• The tow strength formula was changed so that huge ships are no longer un-towable just because they are huge ships; movement now has a larger impact. The actual scale factors can be configured (TowStrengthEngineScale, TowStrengthDistanceScale), so you can emulate the old behaviour if you wish, for continuing a running game, maybe. (Idea: Degi and Thomas Klebes on phostdev) (v3.4b)
• In addition to the "tons destroyed", PHost now also logs the "tons lost" (additional 2x11 DWORDs at the end of tons.hst). (v3.4b) In addition, ships destroyed by Glory Devices now also contribute to this score. (v3.4d) (Ideas: Heiko Schlenker)
• Intercept attack now respects battle order instead of just Id numbers. (Suggested by Thomas Klebes) (v3.4b)
• There is now an alternate configuration file for ship-list specific parameters: shiplist.txt. It can contain a section hullfunc with hull function definitions, and a section phost with PConfig parameters. The idea is that ship-list specific parameters go in shiplist.txt, game-specific parameters go in pconfig.src. For example, PList is always played with the same combat settings, so these could go there. It is an error for a configuration key to appear in both pconfic.src and shiplist.txt. When there is a shiplist.txt, hullfunc.txt is ignored. (v3.4b)
• There are now two new languages:
  • Polish is available due to the tireless efforts of Piotr Winiarczyk. To receive Polish messages, send yourself a message containing lang polish
  • NewEnglish is an (still incomplete) attempt to get rid of all these HOST compatibility quirks. The standard English messages often read quite fishy, but we need 100% bug compatibility for the benefit of message scanning programs. If you don't need that, but don't want to offend your linguistic sense any longer, say lang newenglish
  • Thanks Brivido, the Italian and French language files finally got a major update.
  • Evgeny Larionov contributed an update of the Russian file.
  • Jorge Sánchez Aparicio updated the Spanish language file.
  • Many thanks to these brave souls!
  You can select these languages using the language command processor command or the Language config option. (v3.4c)
• The maximum size of web minefields can now be set separately using the MaximumWebMinefieldRadius parameter. (v3.4d)
• Support for external alliance policies. When you set CPEnableAllies = External, PHost will no longer process allies commands itself. Instead, it will leave them for an external add-on, which can employ any restrictions it wishes. The same goes for remote and give. See Externalizing Commands for details. (v3.4d)
• Mine laying order changed: each player's mine layers now operate in Id order (e.g. if you have ships #3, #10 and #293 on Lay Mines, they'll do that in this order). All player's sequences are randomly interleaved. This order is called per-player-Id order. Therefore, you can easily predict your own minefields while fairness is still preserved. The same algorithm is also applied to RGA and Pillage: all ships at one particular planet operate in per-player-Id order. (v3.4e)
• Mines Destroy Mines got improved: instead of laying mines and considering intersections with just that one field, PHost now does a complete Mines Destroy Mines after all mine laying. This gives us 100% Id independance and predictability (in other words: fairness). The main reason, however, is, that this will also consider mines which overlap by another means: when you use add-ons which lay mines (Starbase+, ACP) or a mine-level alliance is cancelled. To get back the old behaviour, turn on AlternativeMinesDestroyMines. (v3.4f/4.0b)
• Added a command line switch to set config options on the fly (-ooption=value). See Command Line Options for details. (v3.4g/4.0c)
• PControl got a face-lift. You can now execute commands before and after each stage, settings are cumulative, and you can specify shell commands directly in pconfig.src. (v3.4g/4.0c)
• You can now use placeholders %d and %r in PControl commands. You can specify commands for Auxhost1 and Auxhost2 directly in pconfig.src. You can refer to canned pcontrol sequences to simplify your config files. (v3.4m/4.0k)
• remote has a new sub-command, "give", to simplify use of remote control. (v3.4h/4.0e)
• The Hull statement in hullfunc.txt can now take a list of hulls so you can assign a function to many ships at once. RacesAllowed and PlayersAllowed are now cumulative. (v3.4k)
• There are now new rules for hull function combinations:
  • HeatsTo50+HeatsTo100 gives double-speed heating below 50F
  • Alchemy+Refinery gives direct alchemy 4Sup -> 1Neu
  • Alchemy+AdvancedRefinery gives direct alchemy 3Sup -> 1Neu
  • Ramscoops give only half the normal amount when cloaked
  • Hyperjumpers or Chunnel Initiators/Mates must decloak
  • AntiCloak ships do not decloak themselves
  • If an AntiCloak ship uses a glory device, it will perform its AntiCloak operation before exploding
  Refer to the PHost 4.0 docs for complete details. (v3.4k)
• There are now some new utilX.dat records: ships produce items, ships being repaired. (v3.4k)
• There is a new command password to change a player's password. The main intention is to allow hosts to change the password of a dropped-out player. (v3.4l)
• CloakFailureRate is now arrayized. Idea: Quirin Herman. (v3.4l)
• The alX and naX friendly codes now also work on refinery ships and can be used to limit the minerals consumed. Idea: Patrick de Groot. (v3.4m)
• You can now set the UnitsPerWebRate different from the standard UnitsPerTorpRate. (v3.4m/4.0k)

Bugs Fixed

• Build queue management is now deterministic. The sorting algorithm previously used by PHost would lead to unpredictable results, including doing of Clearly The Wrong Thing™, when two build orders had the very same priority. Found by Horst Niggemeier. (v3.4)
• Structure decay on unowned planets now works as it should. This needed a new config option (StructureDecayOnUnowned). Found (not only) by Thomas Klebes. (v3.4)
• PVCR's -b option now works as it should. (v3.3e2)
• The cloning failure message did not work on Suns. (v3.4a)
• When a ship is tow-captured, its mission is cleared (HOST compatibility: mission is cleared in all cases a ship changes ownership). (v3.4b)
• The German mine sweep reports would report absurd mine unit counts for own mines. (v3.4b)
• When a race was killraced, do no longer report their alliances via util.dat. (v3.4b)
• Cheat check reliably now suppresses blind intercepts. It is not allowed to jettison stuff while orbiting a planet. (v3.4c)
• Remote control and alliance commands are now processed more reliably. Previously, when one player allows remote control for a ship and another one requested control in the same turn, that action would have a 50% chance of failing, depending on the order in which turns are read. The same problem happened when you complete an alliance and do remote control at the same time. Reported by Andreas Weigand. (v3.4c)
• Ships that move across a minefield edge were burning too little fuel. Pityfully encountered by Klemens Reuther. (v3.4c)
• When an intercept target explodes, the interceptor will move towards the target's starting position (not to the position of the explosion!). It was doing this only when the target Id was lower than the interceptor Id; in the other case, interceptors were just sitting still. Reported by Daniel Brüdigam. (v3.4c)
• It was not possible to supply-repair a ship and fly faster when auxhost1 add-ons were used (or any other add-on before Movement). Reported by Andreas Weigand. (v3.4c)
• Wormholes that reached a mass of over 32767 would have disappeared. They now stay and keep that mass. Found by Rainer Wegner. (v3.4c)
• When given a PlayersAllowed or RacesAllowed without preceding Hull and Function in hullfunc.txt, PHost would exit with an assertion failure. This has been replaced by a proper error message. (v3.4e/4.0a)
• Dark Sense and Super Spy now work properly even when many players play the same race. (v3.4e/4.0a)
• When a ship changed ownership (combat, give, surrender, boarding), its ship name would be sent to the new owner even if AllowShipNames says it should not. Found by Daniel Brüdigam. (v3.4e/4.0a)
• If the "Beam up Clans" mission was used to gather more than 655 clans, PHost would remove too few from the planet due to an overflow. It would report a bogus amount in the message, too. Found by Bart Dopheide. (v3.4f/4.0b)
• When writing util.dat records, PHost would have consulted the AllowMoreThan500Minefields of the minefield owner, not of the player who's receiving the record. (v3.4g/4.0d)
• util.dat Record 51 with current minefield counts used wrong value for "unknown" entries (65535 instead of -1). (v3.4g/4.0d)
• When AllowShipNames is off, PHost now includes proper remote-control tags in the names. (v3.4g/4.0d)
• Not actually a bug, but a very strange rule: with UseAccurateFuelModel enabled, it was hard to have a ship end a turn with exactly 0 fuel: if you have 3 kt, and your ship burns 2.2, this yields 1 kt remaining. If you remove one kt, you now have 2 kt on the ship, which is too little for the move. The "fuel exhausted distance" formula was modified to make this possible. Encountered by Sascha Rambeaud. (v3.4h/4.0e)
• If a fuel-less refinery ship makes fresh fuel, PHost did not allow that ship to use that fuel to defend against tow-capture or for movement, except if an add-on was used between these stages. Possibly, some other goofs lurked there, too. Again, found by Sascha Rambeaud. (v3.4h/4.0e)
• If a pcontrol-add-on was used after Movement, cloaking devices would fail unless, after burning cloak fuel and movement fuel, cloak fuel for another turn remains on the ship. (v3.4h/4.0e)
• With AllowShipNames restrictions in effect, PHost would blank some ship names in VCRs which it did not have to blank. (v3.4h/4.0e)
• PHost now does explicit tow loop resolution. Results were close-to-unpredictable before. (v3.4h/4.0e)
• Winplan-shareware users were not able to jettison stuff. (v3.4h/4.0e)
• In version 3.4h only, RobotsBuildFighters et al were affecting player 9, not race 9. Player 1 playing robots could not build fighters at all. Noticed by Maurits van Rees. (v3.4i)
• In version 3.4h only, players would sometimes see more wormholes than they should. Found by Rainer Wegner. (v3.4i)
• Intercept now does The Right Thing[tm] for ships that broke free from a tow. It did not work before. Found by Sascha Rambeaud. (v3.4i)
• PHost could possibly crash when there are very many minefields (more than 85) on a ship's waypath. (v3.4i)
• PHost gave you a red error when you use planets.exe with certain 3rd-party maketurn programs. (v3.4j)
• After commands in PControl did not work if there were no Before commands for the same section. PHost did not complain if a file referenced through PControl did not exist. (v3.4j)
• Long file names in a PControl caused PHost to crash; absolute file names did not work. Found by Elfi Heck. (v3.4j)
• Fixed an overflow in money cost computation for Gather-build Torpedoes when more than 65535 mc were used in one turn. This is not possible with the standard ship list or PList, but can happen with other lists such as Penger. (v3.4k)
• With UseAccurateFuelModel enabled, cloaking could fail when you end the turn with exactly 1 kt, claiming you have too little fuel. The movement formulas can return fractional values, so your ship may end its turn with, for example, 0.8 kt. This is rounded to 1 kt, but at first it is smaller than the 1 kt needed to cloak. Found by Sascha Rambeaud. (v3.4k)
• Even when the build queue was full, one ship slot could remain empty. When the ship with the highest Id in the game was being destroyed, PHost was getting confused with the "total ships in game" number. (v3.4l)
• If a hyperjumper was damaged above DamageLevelForHyperjumpFail, fixing it would still not allow it to jump this turn. Found by Sascha Rambeaud. (v3.4l)
• Add-ons could crash PHost by creating bogus build orders, for example by not building the necessary parts. Found by Ed Robinson. (v3.4l)
• Ships now de-cloak automatically when they change ownership. This is the natural consequence of the mission being reset. Problem pointed out by Martin Williams. (v3.4l)
• When a base changes ownership, clear the shipyard order (fix/recycle) to avoid a few goofs with "give". (v3.4m)
• Comments in hullfunc.txt could confuse the parser and make it do the Wrong Thing™. (v3.4m)
• Ships are again allowed to drop all their fuel and some other stuff in one turn. Reported by Heiko Schlenker, Mathias Kaeckenmeister. (v3.4m)
• If a remote-control ship was doing imperial assault, the wrong player was receiving the message or PHost even crashed. Found by Ingo von Borstel. (v3.4m)
• PHost did not prevent ships from fighting each other even if they have no offensive potential or no effective weapons against their current target. This would generate combat recordings that immediately end before a shot has placed. It would also prevent these ships from attacking following targets against which their weapons are effective. Found by Heiko Schlenker. (v3.4m)
• Ships that were cloaking and hyperjumping at the same time but had not enough fuel to do both crashed PHost. They do now decloak a little bit earlier, so that they no longer burn cloak fuel. Found by Thomas Klebes. (v3.4m)
• Add-ons could cause PHost to crash by submitting bogus cargo dump orders. (v3.4m)
• Mutual Intercept across map borders should now yield more intuitive movement. (v3.4m)

Miscellaneous

• You do now get a message when cloning fails due to lacking minerals. (v3.4) You do now get util.dat records to report certain failures. (v3.4, v3.4b)
• Reduced size of PHost binary compared to 3.3e. (v3.4) In 3.4b we got smaller and much faster again. Stefan just thinks this is still worth saying even in days of 80 GB harddisks and 2 GHz processors.
• PHost will now update the host-side xtrfcode.txt file to contain the special friendly codes of the host. This makes it easier for add-ons to check what's special, and it makes playing directly in the host directory easier. (v3.4)
• The file util.tmp now uses a portable file format. This allows better add-ons to be written. See the PDK for details. (v3.4, v3.4d)
• The config option AllowMeteorMessages is no longer used. PHost was sending out util.dat records anyway. (v3.4a)
• There is now a util.dat record for planet trades. There is now a record to report high-Id minefields even when AllowMoreThan500Minefields is off. The glory damage record now contains the name and type of the damaged ship, like the message. The mine hit record now includes the ship name. The Battle result record now includes the random seed. (v3.4b) The web drain complete record now includes the ship name and owner. (v3.4d)
• The transfer torps, transfer fighters and transfer credits extended missions do now also work for same-race ships. This may be the only way to transfer stuff between ships in the presence of remote control. (v3.4b) These missions no longer override a beam transfer friendly code. (v3.4d)
• The Gather-build Torps and Gather-build Fighters missions now also work when you're friendly code matching. They were working for allied, own and unowned planets only before. (v3.4b)
• When AllowAlliedChunneling is enabled, allied ships are permitted to pass the chunnel too, even if they do not have warp zero. Before, allied chunneling would only affect whether you may chunnel to an ally's Firecloud. This needs a bidirectional ship-level alliance. (v3.4b)
• In anticipation of PHost 4, PHost now accepts and ignores AssignTo = {Ship|Hull} in hullfunc.txt files. (v3.4b)
• The CPEnableMessage option is now ignored. The ability to send messages is now solely determined by AllowPlayerMessages. Rumors can now also be sent if that option is off but CPEnableRumor is on. (v3.4b)
• The minimum amount of fuel lost after a web hit can now be configured (WebHitFuelLoss). (v3.4b)
• There is a new config meta-option ConfigLevel. (v3.4b)
• Rumors are now sent in a random order after the normal messages, so there should be definitely no way to tell who sent what. (v3.4c)
• TAL is now computed accurately. Previously, PHost was truncating after each step. Now, TAL is computed with 3 fractional digits precision and only truncated at the end of the turn. Thus, you'll now get slightly more points; in particular, the recommended PBP settings will get you the exact number of points for a ship kill. (v3.4c)
• When using the Lay Mines In or Lay Web Mines In missions with a valid alien minefield Id, PHost no longer requires you to set the miX friendly code to clarify your intent. (v3.4c)
• The CPEnableBigTargets option is now ignored. It makes no sense to disallow protocol negotiation. (v3.4c)
• The Colonize mission will now work when you're matching FCodes. (v3.4d)
• All distance comparisons are now done 100% exact, no stupid rounding. This mostly affects mine sweep. (v3.4d)
• When you're orbiting an unowned planet, PHost will now report the correct number of supplies, structures, and money. (v3.4d)
• Just for completeness: some of the compiled-in defaults have changed to match HOST. If you used an incomplete config file, and you ignored the warnings, the behaviour of your game has changed :-) (v3.4d)
• There are now util.dat records to report general ship scores, planet scores and player scores. (v3.4d)
• The Anti Cloak util record now reports whether the ship was seen before or after movement. All decloaked ships generate a record, not just those in orbit of a planet. (v3.4e)
• A mine-laying ship now sends you a util.dat record as well as a message even when it could not lay mines because the field was already maximal. The message will report that 0 mines were laid. (v3.4f)
• When you're hit by the Tim Continuum, your planets' happiness does not change. This way, you won't benefit from 0% tax, but you won't be hit too hard by growth tax. After all, you don't collect taxes either. Idea: Sascha Rambeaud (v3.4f)
• Messaging revised. You now get some more failure reports. Some useful messages are now forwarded to the controller of a remote-control ship, not just its real owner. (v3.4g)
• The absolute fighter bay limit was raised to 50. A 20-bay ship with 3 ExtraFighterBays now has 23 bays in total. (v3.4g)
• The CPEnableGive option can now take the value Allies to allow only ship givings between allies. (v3.4h)
• The wormhole scan record now includes the Id number of the corresponding Ufo as well as whether the wormhole is bidirectional or not. Messages now start with an (-u) tag (except for Tim-compatible English messages), which allows clients to link the message to the wormhole. (v3.4h)
• PHost now clears PBx fcodes after a normal (i.e. not clone) ship build. (v3.4h)
• Ramscoop now also works while intercepting, to match HOST behaviour. (Akseli Mäki) (v3.4i)
• The util.dat PAL record was modified so that it reports PBPs used. Idea by Stefan Glasauer. (v3.4i)
• PHost now accepts spaces in numeric fcodes. That is, a friendly code of "23 " or " 23" is accepted to mean the same thing as "023" for chunneling and combat. (v3.4j)
• Gather-build Torpedoes now happens after mkt and does no longer override it. (v3.4k)
• Ships which are brought above the DamageLevelForCloakFail limit by a glory device must now decloak after the Glory Device phase; this prevents them from entering a foreign chunnel. (v3.4k)
• Ships which have both glory devices now do low damage to own ships. They were doing high damage before. (v3.4l)
• PHost now enforces the rule that FCodes consist of printable characters only. (v3.4l)
• Wormhole travel damage is now computed in exact numbers, not truncated, so you can now also get damage which is not a square number. Idea: Mathias Käckenmeister. (v3.4m)
• As a simplification, PHost now resets waypoint, primary enemy and friendly code on all events a ship changes ownership. This has almost no effect on gameplay, but closes another covert channel for anonymous games (v3.4m)
• The AllowDeluxeSuperSpy option was disfunctional since at least PHost 3.3, and has therefore been removed from the documentation (it is still accepted). To disable Deluxe Super Spy, disable the DeluxeSuperSpy stage of PControl.
• Some formulas were modified a little to allow better predictability. In addition, mining now uess Round instead of Trunc to extract a little more minerals. (v3.5)

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Version 3.3x
Released December 2001

PHOST is in new hands since February 2001. It also has a new home on the net: http://www.phost.org/.

• Version 3.3b: May 2001
• Version 3.3c: September 2001
• Version 3.3d: October 2001
• Version 3.3e: December 2001

Instructions for Players

• Update the PHOST documentation.
• If you have problems with PVCR, install the new one. Otherwise, the old one continues to work fine as it is (i.e. no changes in battle logic).
• If your host decided to raise the minefield limit (CPNumMinefields) to more than 500, check if your client program can handle this. Send a bigminefields y command if it does, so you can see the minefields with higher Ids. Programs which support "big minefields", at the time of this writing, are
  • EchoView 1.2.20a and later;
  • PCC 1.0.11 and later;
  • VPA does not natively support it, but with VPA10k you can at least see the minefields as markers.

Instructions for Hosts

• Replace the PHOST program
• (Optional) Add the new config options to your PCONFIG.SRC file. For backwards compatibility, set:
  
  CPNumMinefields = 500
  AllowMoreThan500Minefields = No,No,No,No,No,No,No,No,No,No,No
  MaximumMinefieldsPerPlayer = 10000
  MineIdNeedsPermission = No
  PALShipMinekillPer10KT = 0
  PALIncludesESB = Yes
  SBQBoostExpX100 = 0
  AllowPriorityBuild = Yes
  DamageLevelForAntiCloakFail = 20
  DamageLevelForTerraformFail = 100
  DamageLevelForChunnelFail = 100
  BuildQueue = PAL
  

Bug Fixes

• Intercept bug on Linux (hopefully) fixed. At least we couldn't reproduce it after we turned off compiler optimization ... (v3.3a)
• Duranium and Tritanium values in meteor messages are no longer swapped. (v3.3a)
• Fixed bug in clan beamup routine. (v3.3a)
• Fixed bug in tow resolution. A ship that is under a successful tow can no longer tow other ships. (v3.3a)
• The custum hullfunctions HeatsTo50, CoolsTo50 and HeatsTo100 are no longer exclusive, so a ship can cool and heat at the same time. If HeatsTo100 conflicts with CoolsTo50 then HeatsTo100 is ignored. (v3.3a)
• If a build order is changed then the priority of the changed order will be at least the priority that a new build order would get. In previous versions the priority could be set to 0 if the SBQBuildChangePenalty option was set to -1. (v3.3a)
• Fixed bug in util.dat documentation (wrong description of the record type 19 describing a surrendering ship). (v3.3a)
• You can no longer fix/recycle distant ships. (v3.3b)
• Specially-prepared TRNs could cause PHOST's TRN parser get confused. (v3.3b)
• You can no longer set a long waypoint to break a tow, yet only move a small distance using the Intercept mission. (v3.3c)
• Ships that are under successful tow are only affected by warp wells if the tower is. (v3.3c)
• The definition of a wrapped map has changed a bit. The maximum coordinates are no longer part of the map. I.e., if the map borders are 1000 to 3000, possible coordinates range from 1000 to 2999. Please check your map: this change can cause planets now be out of range. (v3.3c)
• Mine laying could cause an assertion failure in 3.3c when an old minefield slot was being re-used. Sorry. (v3.3d)
• Wormhole UFOs now report the correct wormhole Id, ranges and radius. (v3.3e)
• Several file handle leaks closed. In addition, you now get better error messages when there are permission problems or things like that. (v3.3e)
• When two ship build orders had identical priorities, PHOST would sort them unpredictably in the queue (even when one of them had PBx) because it could not decide which of them to do first. They now keep their relative order. (v3.3f)
• The -b option to PVCR was seriously broken. (v3.3f)

New Features

• The CPNumMinefields config option allows more than 500 minefields. (v3.3a)
• The MaximumMinefieldsPerPlayer config option allows to limit the number of minefields per player, to avoid reaching the 500 minefield limit too quickly if you do not want to use 10000 minefields. (v3.3c)
• The PALShipMinekillPer10KT config option allows to award priority points for ships destroyed by mine hits. (v3.3a)
• The AllowPriorityBuild and SBQBoostExpX100 options can be used to implement a fairer ship build queue. (v3.3b)
• The cloakc.hst file is written and read anytime PHOST runs scripts. This allows external utilities to set the cloak status of ships through the cloakc.hst file. (v3.3a)
• PHOST reads cloakc.hst to determine shield levels before combat. (HOST 3.22 compatibility, v3.3a)
• If cloaking was cancelled through the cloakc.hst file, then PHOST will consider this as a failed cloak. During the various stages of redetermining the cloaking state of a ship (after combat, mine hits, repairs etc.) this ship will remain uncloaked.
• RGA now sends a UTILx.DAT record. There is now a record to signal destruction of a General Object (v3.3c)
• You now get a message when a ship clone order fails, as well as a UTILx.DAT record. (v3.3f)
• Firecloud chunnel and Terraforming can fail if the ship is too badly damaged. The Loki damage level can now be configured. The relevant config options are DamageLevelForChunnelFail, DamageLevelForTerraformFail, and DamageLevelForAntiCloakFail. (v3.3c)
• A new, PBP-based build queue has been implemented. In a nutshell, it uses the old FIFO system, but players can collect PALs (nee PBPs) and trade these for quicker ship build. That system was designed by Degi in his PBP paper. This system can be enabled with the BuildQueue config option. (v3.3c)
• It is now configurable whether the Engine Shield Bonus is included in PAL computations: PALIncludesESB. (v3.3e)
• PHOST now supports up to 1000 UFO objects (like HOST 3.22), and can report them to the players. This means in particular that you can now use more wormholes. (v3.3e)

Miscellaneous Changes

• The base mass of a planet (100kt) no longer affects the TAL of a player.
• The first ship executing the "lay mines" mission is picked at random. This way low-ID ships have no longer a better chance to lay minefields once the 500 mine limit is reached.
• The gsN friendly code (give ship) is no longer registered-only (HOST compatibility, consistency with give command). Likewise for the bdm friendly code and the Beam Down Credits extended mission. (v3.3b)
• The Rob mission now also robs cargo from transporters (HOST compatibility, v3.3b).
• You can no longer get 10000 mc per turn from gambling by storing clans in the transporters. The maximum revenue is now limited to the size of the Lady Royale's cargo room. (v3.3b)
• You can no longer transfer more than 10000 of something to foreign ships. This could possibly cause overflows. (v3.3b)
• Some bogus (non-English) messages were fixed. (v3.3c)
• Siliconoid natives like deserts (HOST compatibility). In PHOST, this rule only applies if CrystalsPreferDeserts is on. (v3.3b).
• The range for the PALGloryDevice config option has been increased to 0..1000.
• Improved comment handling for pconfig.src. (v3.3e)

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Version 3.2e
Released December 21, 1998

Instructions for Players

• Obtain the latest FORMULAS.HTM file -- see changes below.

Instructions for Hosts

• Replace the PHOST program

Bug Fixes

• Segmentation violation while reading TRN files on Linux systems has been fixed. (v3.2c)
• The TONS.HST file was not being written out. (v3.2a)
• An assertion failure could result when an add-on program removed a base from the game (e.g., after TKF combat) but did not remove a pending build order for that base from the build queue. (v3.2d)
• Cloak missions raised yellow alerts when the controller of a remotely-controlled ship was not allowed to cloak the ship via the HULLFUNC.TXT interface, even though the true ship owner did have this ability. (v3.2e)
• Cheat checking did not trap cargo dumps to non-existent planets, possibly leading to assertion failures during host processing. (v3.2c)
• Comments following an assignment for array-type config options in the PCONFIG.SRC file led to either strange error messages or segmentation violations. Now, they are ignored as they should be. (v3.2b)
• The PCONFIG.SRC file was being opened in binary mode instead of text mode on PC-based systems, meaning that a trailing end-of-file character (^Z) would cause PHOST to reject the file. (v3.2b)

New Features

• None

Miscellaneous Changes

• The formula describing the number of base torps used to aid in planetary combat was slightly incorrect.
• The formula describing ship fuel consumption now describes the meaning of the FuellessShipMass quantity.

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Version 3.2
Released March 2, 1998

Instructions for Players

• Obtain the new MISSION.INI file from your host and place it in your game subdirectory.

Instructions for Hosts

• Replace the PHOST program and the PLANG*.HST files
• Distribute the new MISSION.INI file to your players.
• Add the new AntiCloakImmunity config option to your PCONFIG.SRC file. For backwards compatibility, set:
  
  AntiCloakImmunity = Yes, Yes, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No

Bug Fixes

• A bug prevented players from changing build orders after the 500-ship limit had been reached. The new build order would not be recorded and the old build order would persist but without ever gaining priority. (v3.1b)
• Player-initiated config modifications (e.g., AllowMoreThan50Targets) were not correctly reflected in the PCONFIG.SRC file when AUXHOST programs were used during hosting. (v3.1c)
• Some of the example PCONFIG*.SRC files had an incorrect default value of the FighterFiringRange config option. The files listed a value of 100000 while the suggested default value (and the one implied in PHOST v2.x) is 3000.
• PHOST would fail with an assertion error when a wormhole's mass became exactly 0, either due to a manual setting or by programmed changes. Now, a wormhole mass of 0 on an active wormhole generates an appropriate error mesage. (v3.1c)
• Ships travelling too fast for their damage level had their warp speeds reset to 0 instead of to the maximum allowed speed. (v3.1c)
• Host data consistency checks falsely flagged problems due to ownership issues caused by remote control. Specifically, a Lizard ship under remote control had its damage-limited speed calculated without the Lizard bonus. (v3.1c)
• Host data consistency check diagnostics no longer appeared in the HOST.LOG file (although they were displayed on-screen during the host run). (v3.1c)
• The -f flag of PVCR was broken so that PVCR could not be used to view HOST-generated battles (as interpreted by PVCR). (v3.1c)
• The build queue ordering reported in the player messages (and UTIL.DAT files) was incorrect since the build queue was not sorted after TAL/PAL adjustments were incorporated. The build queue is always sorted prior to each ship building stage so this bug did not affect the order in which ships were built; only the view that players had of the build queue was slightly distorted. (v3.1c)
• Fixed "Wraparound Maps" page to consistently indicate that planets outside the wraparound region are ignored. In one place, the documentation indicated that the planets are remapped into the wraparound region.

New Features

• Two new extended missions, Lay Mines In and Lay Web Mines In were added. These missions allow control over which existing minefield is to be augmented with new mines. These missions are only available to registered players. (v3.1c)
• The Scoop Torpedoes From Minefield extended mission now takes a second parameter indicating a specific minefield to scoop from. (v3.1c)
• New AntiCloakImmunity config option changes anti-cloak immunity from a racial option to a per-player-configurable option (added for HOST 3.22.022 compatibility). (v3.1c)
• PHOST now writes a CLOAKC.HST file to the game directory prior to running an AUXBC.INI file (if one exists), and also reads it back to update cloaking information after the AUXBC.INI program returns. This interface works identically to the one introduced in HOST 3.22.017. (v3.1c)
• The remote control forbid and allow commands can now be used to set the default forbid/allow state for all newly-built ships. Previously, all newly-built ships were allowed to be remotely controlled. (v3.1c)
• The SBQPointsForAging config option has had its allowable range increased to 0-10000, up from the previous range of 0-500. (v3.1c)
• The PALCombatPlanetScaling and PALCombatBaseScaling config options have had their allowable ranges increased to 0-200, up from the previous range of 0-100. (v3.1c)

Miscellaneous Changes

• Added an entry in the Planetary Combat section of the "Detailed Operation" page for the number of natives remaining after a planet is conquered in battle.
• Added an entry in the Wormhole Formulas section of the "Detailed Operation" page for the possible exit points of a ship travelling through a wormhole.

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Version 3.1
Released October 6, 1997

First public release

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Version 3.0

Limited Beta Release

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This document is maintained by The Portable Host Project (support@phost.de).