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Apr 3

Update 4.47.390 - Game Auto-Deletion & Maintenance

Age of Conquest IV - noblemaster

Game Auto-Deletion: multiplayer games without activity are auto-deleted (as always). There is now a notification which will be given to the player that his/her game has been auto-deleted for clarity.
Map Zoom: pressing the SHIFT-button will allow an extra 2x Zoom-In/Out of the map via mouse wheel (or keyboard).
Game Manual: updated the refund policy (consumable products).
Language: latest translations added - Thanks :-D
Maintenance: created new Windows, Mac OS and Linux binaries with latest compatibility updates. Especially, the list of Mac OS Binaries improved.
Maintenance: Updated libGDX to 1.13.1. Misc. bugfixes across multiple platforms. E.g. Droid keyboard now works correctly.
Maintenance: Updated TeaVM to 0.11.0. Misc. fixes especially to code generation.
Maintenance: functionality to test the catalog purchasing system (for development).
Maintenance: updated Droid Sign-In functionality to the new CredentialManager (old way retired in 2025).
Maintenance: Jetty updated to 9.4.56.v20240826 (fixes thread starvation).
Maintenance: improved memory management for low-memory devices.
Internal: dev.-environment automatically puts the 1 internal game server as LIVE.
Bugfix: login would not work if a space ' ' was added to the username or password. Trimming the entry before logging in players.
Bugfix: credentials were missing for in-app purchases (public RSA key).
Bugfix: Droid notification now opens the app again when clicked (broken previously).
Bugfix: SecurityManager doesn't work with JDK 21+.
Bugfix Crashes: for when we don't properly parse R2L characters.
Bugfix Crashes: when the display mode could not be loaded.
Bugfix Crashes: attempt to fix crashes due to Audio (iOS).
Bugfix Crashes: when "Wait" panel was still 'null' but called to be shown.
Bugfix Crashes: when comparing two objects and one was null (note panel).

Nov 16, 2024

Update 4.46.388 - Bugfix Crashes

Age of Conquest IV - noblemaster

Bugfix crashes while parsing some non-English texts.

Nov 10, 2024

Update 4.46.387 - Skull Avatar & Maintenance

Age of Conquest IV - noblemaster

New Avatar "Skull": Skull avatar generator is now available for profile images.
End Game Statistics: animated icon indicating victory & loss.
Language: latest translations added - Thanks :-D
Maintenance: latest libGDX 1.13.0 release.
Maintenance: latest Epic SDK DLLs.
Maintenance: better detection of slavic languages (for translation verifications).
Maintenance: limiting to TLSv1.2 (e.g. for Steam).
Maintenance: firewall updated to allow sending purchase confirmation and password recovery emails (Sept. 27, 2024).
Maintenance: improved log output describing which provider is registered (if any).
Maintenance: Droid permission for MEDIA removed (currently not supported anymore).
Bugfix: Declare War option in the message dialog did allow sending messages even if a nation's happiness was too low (works now ditto the declare war dialog).
Bugfix: Annihilation mode didn't properly calculate the points. It could differ from turn-to-turn when troops on same tile got combined.
Bugfix: making sure ELO calculations don't end at '1' just after the 1. game (math updated).
Bugfix: preventing timeouts when making purchases (e.g. via Stripe).
Bugfix: log file parser on server was wrong.
Bugfix Crashes: if there is no scenario defined for a map in a randomly generated game setup.
Bugfix Crashes: if user is not properly logged in!
Bugfix Crashes: for invalid L2R/R2L texts.

Jul 17, 2024

Update 4.45.384 - Save-Games & Balancing

Age of Conquest IV - noblemaster

Save-Games: in addition to the already existing auto-save functionality, it's now possible to save custom restore points when a game is paused (single player).
Balancing: when "Open Travel" is enabled, allied troops defending a non-owned fortified province will not get the defense bonus applied. Only the actual owner of a province will get a defense bonus.
In-Game Manual: large texts including the in-game manual now come with a jump-list to quickly go to specific topics (usability).
In-Game Manual: updated the info about the defense bonus to make it clear it is not applied to allied troops (when "Open Travel" is enabled).
Graphics: render performance update via improved shader switching (less).
Language: latest translations added - Thanks :-D
Maintenance: logging system improved.
Maintenance: Alipay disabled (backend library was deprecated - pending impl. of new system).
Maintenance: New Droid SDK version 35 (from 33).
Maintenance: New Droid Billing Version 7.0.0.
Bugfix: last update time for save-game was not properly updated (minor).
Bugfix: fixed the game's REST API, so the game listing did return actual games (rather than an exception).

Apr 30, 2024

Update 4.44.380 - New Avatar Generators

Age of Conquest IV - noblemaster

Avatar Generator: updated with additional components such as Viking Helmet, Pirate Hat, Rabbit Ears, Cat Ears, Maid Hat and such.
Avatar Gen. "Pig", "Dog" and "Frog": new avatar generators added representing a pig, dog and frog heads with corresponding customizations.
Avatar Gen. "Chimp", "Bunny", "Rhino", "Cat", "Elephant", "Crocodile" and "Bear": new avatar generators.
Menu UI: Announcement button icon updated (clip) for clarity it doesn't represent the chat.
Level of Detail: minimum level of detail is now "few" (not "none" for all platforms).
Language: latest translations added - Thanks :-D
Language: make sure too long texts don't overlap (cut via "...").
Language: misc. fixes for texts (e.g. male and female switched in translation guide).
Maintenance: update for permission system (server).
Maintenance: "PrivacyInfo.xcprivacy" privacy info file added (iOS).
Bugfix: Victory table only counts each AI category once (otherwise problems adding to DB due to constraint issues).
Bugfix: improved link-handling, i.e. when already handled, we don't pass it on further (e.g. user://).
Bugfix: some animated images were not properly garbage collected and could still stay retained (causing out of memory errors).
Bugfix: proper safe area insets for mobile (Droid & iOS).
Bugfix: calculating cropped image (for mirrored frames).
Bugfix: multiplayer setup option "Last Joinable" & "Game Start" (e.g. auto) were not available.
Bugfix Crashes: when user account was not 'null' when loading a multiplayer game.
Bugfix Crashes: badly formatted strings could produce a stack overflow.
Bugfix Crashes: when animation was 'null' and could not be played.

Feb 23, 2024

Update 4.43.378 - FAST Tournaments & Improved Menu UI

Age of Conquest IV - noblemaster

Tournaments: there is now the option to create tournaments for FAST games. An indicator by the chat has been added to show if one has to be aware that the tournament can have multiple rounds. Please advice on other hints required (as needed)?
UI: multiplayer section directly lists joinable games with option to create new games. The announcements and existing games are now available above the chat.
UI: improved the multiplayer account settings to make them more compact (clarity).
UI: improved layout, fonts, etc. of misc. other UI components to make them more streamlined (clarity). Generally, things were moved, not removed.
Passwords: indicator if a password was set when logging in via e.g. Steam (to show if one needs to be set for cross-platform login). Only works for new accounts!
Fair-Play: Duels cannot be started early (a second player needs to join).
Victory UI: improved layout for team-games.
Victory UI: shows if a game was rated or not.
Victory UI: also provides info about map used (via link).
Victory UI: info button added with a few more details (e.g. when/if entries are deleted).
Scenario UI: coloring of buttons updated (more harmonic).
Input: long-touch delay decreased from 1100ms to 500ms (e.g. for showing tooltips & popup menus).
Manual: info added that clans are currently limited to 64 members max.
Steam DLC: should now also be added to an account and work cross-platform (trial implementation).
Login Problems: updated the error popup with a suggestion to reboot and a link to the actual server status (for verification).
Moderation: admin terminal moved into admin controller.
Translations: option to not show the translation by the original English if the translation is e.g. not 95% complete. See "Language Requirement" option in settings.
Language: latest translations added - Thanks :-D
Credits: listing eos4j & discord-game-sdk4j.
Maintenance: improved logging for the game updater service.
Maintenance: limiting the AI calculations for very large maps with lots of factions to 3 minutes on the server.
Maintenance: remotes.conf without port number (auto-determined).
Maintenance: improved handling of URLs, HTTP(s), WS(S), hosts and ports (clarity).
Maintenance: improved common code in play and map management (reduced duplications across games).
Bugfix Server: reducing broker service disk space from 20GB to 8GB.

Jan 3, 2024

Update 4.42.369 - Victory Table, Fertility Festivals & DUEL Rating

Age of Conquest IV - noblemaster

Victories: there is now a list of last victories available for regular games as well as official minor & major events (accessible via multiplayer screen).
Balancing: Fertility Festivals do not reset when the owner of a province changes. That means abandoning and re-capturing the province will not allow doing a Fertility Festival right away anymore (unless the timer has previously elapsed).
Team Games: for private games, there is no restriction for clan members as to which team they play in.
Ratings: new DUEL & DUEL/SLOW rating added. Will get rated if you play a duel.
UI: Province selection also shows pillage information if the image is pillaged (remaining turns in red).
UI: Province info popup in-game now also shows how many troops are on a province (not just the owner). Good for when e.g. multiple ships are on a single province.
UI: Optimized the dual-column layout (more for the main component).
UI: Condensed the AI setup options to be more compact (UI clarity). Just expand to get the full options (they have not been removed!).
UI: Scenario listing update without a popup (directly listed when a map gets selected).
UI: scenario filter also filters the actual scenarios.
UI/Scenario Icons: increased the size to better show how the scenario looks like (scenario selection).
Menu UI: moved the game statistics into the [Modding] section.
Modding: please update your maps to have the larger scenario icon format.
Statistics: user statistics, i.e. how many players are ONLINE over a day/weak/year are now available (recording just started, so older statistics are currently not available).
Statistics: showing how many newly registered accounts per the past 24h hours also (in addition of daily unique users).
Menu UI: slightly improved title headers.
Menu UI: slightly darker BG images (castle scene).
Account Management: additional final warning popup added when one wants to erase an account. Accounts cannot be restored!!!
Moderation: the "Admin Guide" now contains a section about featuring maps with points of consideration.
Moderation: "TOP" games are not considered as unfair games given they are mandatory for top players (relationship table).
Moderation: deletion of active/ongoing games are now shown as notification in the moderator area.
Moderation: minor streamlining for Admin Terminal.
Language: word censor updated with a few more words.
Language: latest translations added - Thanks :-D
OpenBSD/etc.: general support for OpenBSD, FreeBSD and NetBSD (needs the generic version from the website to run). Also needs proper natives supplied by the player in addition (currently not out of the box).
Maintenance: TeaVM backend for webapp updated to 1.0.0-b8 (from b6).
Maintenance: simplified server startup config (DB, DB-DAEMON, HTTP on/off)
Maintenance: unused imports removed (code cleanup).
Maintenance: for multiplayer, removed the option to set the weekdays and hours per day where a game can be played. Removes the potential of early game removal (inactive timer).
Bugfix: text files can now also be opened on Mac OS X.
Bugfix: sound FX & music converted to mono (from stereo) as needed.
Bugfix: System tray notifications disabled on Steam as they can cause problems during updates or uninstalls.
Bugfix: update for render pool updater, i.e. making sure only actively run once (not multiple times).
Bugfix: making sure the tutorial completion is successfully recorded!
Bugfix: calculation of max. clan players for team games was wrong.
Bugfix Crashes: increased max. memory to 1536MB (from 768MB).

Nov 5, 2023

Update 4.31.361 - Maintenance Release with Bugfixes

Age of Conquest IV - noblemaster

Team Games: more clan players allowed if a game is password protected.
Main Wall: limitation removed for new accounts, i.e. they can now post right away (no wait of 30 days!).
Screenshot Button: long-touch (or long-press) also activates the camera button that takes screenshots even if a popup is above the button.
Language: latest translations added - Thanks :-D
Maintenance: auto-submitting latest release notes to Reddit.
Maintenance: auto-uploading latest translation text after update.
Maintenance: improved logging of WARN or ERROR (reduced normal errors to INFO).
Maintenance: setting server max. memory now automatically based on device memory available.
Maintenance: disabled the option on the server to stop showing full stacktraces for null pointers if duplicates.
Maintenance: auto-restart of server services in case they get killed (e.g. low memory).
Maintenance: update to run servers on ARM64.
Maintenance: update to run servers on Debian 12.
Maintenance: updated hardware info utility (OSHI 6.4.5).
Maintenance: libGDX library updated to 1.12.1 (maintenance release).
Maintenance: gdx-pay library updated to 1.3.6.
Maintenance: Google Play next generation "Player IDs" enabled.
Development: editor button on menu "Home" screen (during development for easy access).
Bugfix: Clipboard was broken and didn't work anymore (missing jmod for datatransfer added).
Bugfix: missing jmod modules added.
Bugfix Crashes: when no logged-in account could be detected.
Bugfix Crashes: when allocating direct ByteBuffer and receiving an out of memory error (now replaced with error image and logging).
Bugfix Crashes: when initializing a game and the account was 'null'.
Bugfix Crashes: sorting the active games list could crash due to violating general contract for sort.
Bugfix Crashes: when receiving information about a joined game (and user was 'null').
Bugfix Crashes: trying to send wall message when the user account is 'null'.

Jul 27, 2023

Bugfix Crashes

Age of Conquest IV - noblemaster

Bugfix for Crashes due to ByteBuffer.

Jul 21, 2023

Update 4.40.357 - Fair-Play, Clan & Bugfixes

Age of Conquest IV - noblemaster

Grace Period: there is a 1 turn grace period for when someone joins a rated game when no rating points are assessed if the player is eliminated within that period.
Team Games: for fair-play, sending and requesting assets is not possible anymore across teams. You can only send assets to your team members (or receive from team members).
Clan Games: clan members are placed into the same team if they play a game with random join option.
Clan Games: clan members need to join the same team as their clan mates when going into a team game.
Clan Games: max. number of clan members for teams games needs to be equal or smaller to the average team size (fairplay).
Clan Owners: owners cannot expel or change privileges of other owners.
Clan Owners: owners can now leave the clans if there's another owner on the clan.
Clan Owners: owners cannot leave the clan if there are other players and there is no other owner. They need to designate another owner before leaving.
Clan Owners: owners leaving the clan and being the last members means the clan will get deleted after a confirmation.
Clan Member (or not): now also shown in friend's list.
Clan Member (or not): also showing for teams (e.g. moderators).
Clan Member (or not): also showing in search.
Teaming Flag: will be ignored & hidden if a player joins a clan. The regular clan rules will apply and the teaming flag will have no effect.
Fullscreen Mode: auto-fullscreen mode at startup when run via Steam (unless it's not the first time you run the game).
Sound FX: max. simultaneous sound FX increased to 64 (from 32) to make sure all relevant ones can be played.
Cutscene Music: the music volume for cutscenes can now be adjusted manually.
Audio Output: it's now possible to select the desired audio output channel in the game's settings, i.e. which speakers etc. (desktop only)!
Home Indicator: home indicator hidden be default on iOS.
Immersive Mode: immersive mode by default on Android.
Game Guide: ONLINE Policy section updated, explaining that you generally shouldn't buy accounts (you carry full responsibility and also should notify the moderators).
Settings: option to enable or disabled handicaps by default in newly created games (rather than manually adjusting them every time).
Settings: "Join Anytime" option in settings which determines the default for new games you create, i.e. if they are unlimited as to when other players can join.
Chat Bans: moderator accounts cannot be banned from the chat by regular players (e.g. that created a game).
Moderator Email: now available via the "Moderators" group profile!
Manual: In-Game FAQ updated to let everyone know that randomly banning players in the chat goes against the fair-play policy amongst other.
Manual: Clans playing team games should join the same team. Joining opposing teams on purpose will be appropriately handled by the moderators.
Language: missing texts added for official maps of Africa and the Mini World conquest (so the texts can be translated also).
Language: latest translations added - Thanks :-D
UI: "Search Utility" popup now auto-focus the text cursor in the input field when the popup is opened.
UI: larger file selector.
Pending Translations (Moderators): original and translated messages can now be copied (via popup menu).
Performance: speed update for misc. functions to reduce ANRs.
Moderation: password resets by moderators are now displayed in the moderator notifications (password is obviously not displayed).
Moderation: remark added to disabled accounts, i.e. the cannot login, but the login attempt will still show up in the logs.
Maintenance: news DB & I/O removed as it isn't used anymore.
Maintenance: improved compression for main font file (about 35% smaller).
Maintenance: WebGL's gdx-teavm updated to 1.0.0-b5 (teavm 0.9.0-dev-4).
Maintenance: WebSockets updated to Draft 6455.
Maintenance: Jetty updated to 9.4.51.
Maintenance: Steam SDK updated to 1.57.
Maintenance: steamworks4j library update to 1.10.0-SNAPSHOT (latest 2023-06-04).
Maintenance: using getAuthTicketForWebApi() for login on Steam.
Maintenance: Droid login functionality upgraded from 20.4.0 to 20.5.0.
Maintenance: Droid AppCompat version updated to 1.6.1 (from 1.2.0).
Maintenance: Google Play Billing library upgraded to 6.0.0 (from 5.0.0).
Maintenance: disabling registration on server during automated lab-tests (e.g. Firebase).
Maintenance: compiling to Java 8 (on Desktop) using Java 17 (updated obfuscation).
Maintenance: i18n-parser updated to 3.0.0 (from 2.1-SNAPSHOT).
Maintenance: update for development and test mode functionality (code clarity & customization).
Maintenance: getdown deployment speed up by uplading a zipped file (instead of many single files).
Maintenance: GeoIP database updated (latest version).
Maintenance: improved logging when there is a library linkage problem (e.g. JARs missing or wrong).
Maintenance: libGDX backend updated to version 1.12.0 (from 1.11.0).
Maintenance: updated LWJGL library from 3.3.2 (from 3.3.1).
Maintenance: minimum iOS version now 11.0 (no support for older versions due to missing support by Apple).
Maintenance: iOS binaries now all 64bit (32bit support dropped by Apple).
Bugfix: fixing vulnerability for Google Play login. See https://www.cybersecurity-help.cz/vdb/SB2022061720
Bugfix: high-precision calculations in shader to prevent blurry font rendering.
Bugfix: improved handling when a music file is not found (we check for file beforehand).
Bugfix: selecting monospaced font keeps the text monospaced (e.g. admin terminal).
Bugfix: platforms without monospaced font would show monospaced text blank (instead of the default font).
Bugfix: when being in a game and opening another game, the previous "Nation Information" popup window stay on the screen.
Bugfix: threading update for screenshot taking (prevents ANRs).
Bugfix: cutting long country names in statistics (so they don't overflow to next line).
Bugfix: Permissions fix for latest Android SDK version 33 (should now be able to select images).
Bugfix: players already in a clan cannot create a new clan (they will need to leave their current clan first).
Bugfix: iOS Apps were not running on Mac OS X Silicon (M1, M2 etc.). Search path for libraries updated.
Bugfix: also keeping track if failed login attempts via provider, i.e. when no username/password but platform-based login was used (fail after 3 attempts).
Bugfix: earlier check making sure banned accounts don't enter matchmaker games (failed too late).
Bugfix: improved audio on desktop (should not stop anymore).
Bugfix: stereo audio on desktop can now be played on mono output devices.
Bugfix: Cron scheduler wasn't working properly during winter-summer time switches.
Bugfix Crashes: making sure the game doesn't crash if the game had an old icon-array but new code (array out of index exception).
Bugfix Crashes: game would crash on Droid when the achievements client couldn't be initialized at startup.
Bugfix Crashes: making sure we don't open the user popup if there is no logged-in user.
Bugfix Crashes: when tournament advancement status could not be determined, i.e. 'null'.
Bugfix Crashes: when the monospaced font could not be loaded (continuing without).
Bugfix Crashes: removed "installscript_osx.vdf" from the Steam binary because it has become obsolete and some stuff was causing problems on Mac OS M1/M2 (symlink)!
Bugfix Crashes: Universal Binaries for Mac OS should now work on both AMD64 and ARM64 (M1, M2) architectures.
Bugfix Crashes: when exiting the application and disposing observers which haven't been registered yet.

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