Bug fixes + new game

[Hans Ronne <hronne at pp dot sbbs dot se>]

I have just committed Jim Kingdon's fix for the unix Give Unit crashes and
a bunch of fixes to the mac interface.

The Ancient Near East game is now more or less done, so I have added it to
the New Game menu. The base module is now called "Advances through History"
and corresponds to the old "ane.g" module (small randomized world with four
sides). In addition, there is a new module "Ancient Near East" which uses
the "advances" base module together with a map of the real Near East, c:a
1500 BC. No Aztecs allowed in that game :-)

The advances class games use unit-based research, which means that you can
set different research goals for each advanced unit (city) manually. Right
now, this feature is only available on the mac, where you can ctrl-click on
cities (and other units) to bring up a closeup window. There is also a
research window where you can tinker with several cities at once. A third
option is to use the construction window, which I recently hacked so that
it also can handle per-unit research. Under unix, the computer will run
your research for you. You can put research on automatic also on the mac,
while still running combat etc. manually. This in case you get bored
picking new research goals all the time.

Be aware that the "Ancient Near East" is a gigantic game that will test
your hardware to the limit. Under MacOS, you must give Xconq at least 16 MB
(24 recommended). It runs reasonably fast on a G3 provided that you use the
"World Seen" option. If you run it in the dark, things really slow down,
and it also needs twice as much memory. Under Linux, the main problem is
the slow responsiveness. I think this is a general problem with the tcltk
interface that becomes more evident under heavy stress.

The base module with its small world size is much easier to play on either
platform. It is also quite fun to put all sides under mplayer control and
just sit back and watch the game.

Enjoy,

Hans


Hans Ronne

hronne@pp.sbbs.se