http://phost.de/~stefan/vgapage.html This RSS feed reports what's new on Stefan's VGA Planets page. http://phost.de/~stefan/vgapnews.0120.html Updated File Format List. This update adds a few changes that have accumulated over the years (although I must admit that there's not much going on). http://phost.de/~stefan/vgapnews.0119.html New version of PCC2 NG (2.41.4) released! As a major new feature, auto waypoints are now shown on the starchart - a PCC1 feature that never made it into PCC2 so far. Perceived performance has been improved: control screens should now feel as fast as in PCC1/PCC2. The VCR player introduces a configuration dialog. In particular, it allows selecting different display modes. In "traditional" mode, weapons fire one after another, like in Dosplan/Winplan/PVCR, stopping movement for each shot. In "interleaved" mode, PCC2 tries to play smoother and avoid these stops, by firing weapons earlier. "Standard" mode (default in PCC2 since the beginning) is somewhere inbetween. http://phost.de/~stefan/vgapnews.0118.html New versions of PCC2 (2.0.17) and PCC2 NG (2.41.3)! PCC2 mostly received gentle updates ("software maintenance"), no major new features. However, this release is now built with a new (cross) toolchain. This is a big technical change. One effect is that this version probably no longer runs on Windows 95. It is known to run on Windows 7; in theory, the minimum probably is Windows XP SP3. Otherwise, this change should not affect users, but you never know. PCC2 NG now got a German translation (like PCC2 already has), and got improvements regarding network play. For PlanetsCentral, the whole game directory is now taken from the server. For planets.nu, we now load many more properties (in particular, racial advantages, which is a new concept). Other additions include: detect data file conflicts, fix an annoying bug where the starchart animates needlessly upon entering, add ability to interrupt runaway scripts, and many robustness improvements especially dealing with corrupted files. Disclaimer: an unfortunate last-minute discovery is that whereas the network code seems pretty solid under Linux, it seems to be less stable in Windows. http://phost.de/~stefan/vgapnews.0117.html New versions of PCC (1.1.22), PCC2 (2.0.16), and PCC2 NG (2.41.2)! One major new feature for all of them is the ability to filter ship missions by category, e.g. "Lay" (mine laying) or "Gather". This is especially useful for PHost games, where missions come in multiple flavors. Another helpful feature is that, on the hull function list for a ship, if an ability is available only at certain experience level, you will now see how many turns it takes to reach it. This prediction considers aging and training. Otherwise, PCC was updated with fixed and improvements its big brothers got previously, e.g. percentage population growth on the taxation dialog. PCC2 got a small number of minor improvements. One new feature is that you can now build a starbase from a planet auto-task (Orders > Build Starbase). This is useful if you do not have all the material right now, because it will tell you how much is missing. PCC2 NG now comes with preloaded ship images. (For the other versions, those are available as an addon.) It also received the improvements the others got. http://phost.de/~stefan/vgapnews.0116.html Added Next Generation Images. This is a brand-new picture set with ship pictures created from actual 3-D models. It greatly improves the look of PCC1 (and PCC2). http://phost.de/~stefan/vgapnews.0115.html Released PCC2 2.0.15: This version adds improvements to the starchart and the console. The improvement that you might notice most is that distance mode now gives a precise estimated travel time using actual movement formulas, not just "distance divided by warp-squared". A 81.8 ly distance will be reported as one turn, not two. This version fixes some bugs in the VCR, in particular a long-standing one affecting carrier-vs-carrier fights in PList 3.2 games. Among other bugs and improvements, a crash in the Command Edit dialog was fixed. http://phost.de/~stefan/vgapnews.0114.html Released PCC2 2.41.1 (c2ng): Compared to version 2.41, this version mainly adds more small features, details missing compared to PCC2. This version also improves stability. Unfortunately, Windows network code is still unstable. However, Windows local operation is pretty stable, and all functionality can be used in Linux without concessions. The graphical user interface still is a bit rough. But if you're brave, give it a try! http://phost.de/~stefan/vgapnews.0113.html Released PCC2 2.41 (c2ng): With this version, PCC2 Next Generation reaches feature parity with PCC2. It even includes some PCC1 features that, until now, never made it into PCC2. In addition, it includes a prototype feature of playing directly from the PlanetsCentral server. The graphical user interface still is a bit rough. But if you're brave, give it a try! http://phost.de/~stefan/vgapnews.0112.html Released PCC2 2.0.14: New features include: starchart can display minefields after decay (Alt-Y; from PCC1); starchart can use 'x' to switch between ship position and waypoint (from PCC1); ship-task prediction considers towing; when locking when locking at a planet, consider time. Sometimes, farther move will be faster; One major bugfix applies to map geometry; you can now use wrapped maps with a gap (as is common with non-THost). http://phost.de/~stefan/vgapnews.0111.html Released PCC2ng 2.40.13. New features include: Lots of improvements to starchart; Global Actions including Export; Fleet Screen (F10); Ship History Screen (F6).