Destiny of the World News

The main new features of this release are two new game modes: Play-by-Email (PBEM) and Hotseat.

With both new Multiplayer Modes, you play against a human opponent instead of the computer AI. Both multiplayer modes use Axis vs. Allies Mode. Meaning that one player will control all of the Axis Countries, and the other will control the Allies.

In PBEM Mode, The first player enters his orders normally. When he clicks the End Turn Button, the game is saved automatically, and the game will display a message box identifying the name of the file that needs to be emailed to his opponent.

When your opponent receives the email, they save it to the DOTW Multiplayer folder on their computer, and then load the game into DOTW. They player their turn normally, and then send the file to player 1, and so on.

Hotseat mode is similar to PBEM mode, except both players play on the same computer, and no email is required.

Multiplayer is still in BETA. You may encounter some bugs (please report them if you find any), but the game should be fully playable.

I hope you enjoy!


New Functionality:

• Save files are now compressed to save space. The game will still load old save file format files, but all new saves are compressed and take up much less space.
  

Changes:

• Game Over Screen changed to show flag of winning faction instead of player country.
  

New Functionality:

• AI Historical TimeLine: This is a new game option that will force the AI to more closely follow the historical event timeline for major events. Optional game events will also always fire (e.g., Norway, Greece, etc.). You can use this new game option if you don't want the AI to progress faster than events occurred historically. With default game settings, the AI will pursue its goals as quickly as possible.
  
• Axis vs. Allies Mode moved from Beta Status to General Release
  

Bug Fixes:

• In Axis vs Allies mode, when difficulty level other than sergeant, player's allies incorrectly receive transport penalty or bonus.
  
• Force Size Editor: Additional convoys and transports weren't being added to player forces.
  
• Production screen didn't check that you had researched rockets to level 3 before allowing you to build them. The rockets built were non-functional, but the game should have prevented you from trying to build until you had researched level 3 rockets.
  
• Countries that start as neutral (USA, USSR, and Italy), could not initiate trades with their future allies until they had formally joined the war. Now they can initiate trades while they are still neutral.
  

This release of DOTW includes a new game mode: Axis vs. Allies Mode. It's still in Beta, but if you want to give it a try, it's included in this release.

When you start a new game, you will still be able to play as a single country. However, there will be a new "Control Alliance" option on the New Game Screen that will allow you to control every country in your alliance.

For those of you who like total control, this mode is for you.

You can also use this new mode to play the game "hotseat" with friends, where you each control an allied country on the same computer.

When you start a game in this new mode, you will see a new Country Control Button next to the Information Panel that will allow you to cycle through all of the countries you control, and enter orders, production, trade, espionage, and research for every country in your alliance.

The Country Control Button will show the flag of the Country for which you may currently issue orders. Each time you click on the button, it will select another Country in your alliance. You can switch to each Country by continuing to click the button.

For example, if the button shows the UK flag, and you wanted to enter orders for France, you would click the button until you saw the French Flag displayed.

You can cycle through your Countries as many times as you want, prior to ending your turn.

But you must enter orders for every Country in your alliance before clicking the End Turn Button. After you click End Turn, no more orders can be given for that turn.

Tuning
[List]
Increased French War Weariness morale slightly


Changes:

• Added airfield to Midway Region
  
• Added crossing arrows to map between Sevastopol and Krasnodar
  
• Added messages when troop replacements, air replacements, tank replacements and repair points are completed, to the messages panel.
  
• Previously, at difficulty levels higher than Sergeant, the game would not provide starting Production, Trade, Research or Espionage plans. This was intended to create additional challenge, but actually just created additional annoyance, since you had to recreate the plans manually. This has been changed so that you still get starting plans that you can use as a template. This should reduce "busy work" at game startup at higher levels.
  

Bug Fixes:

• Fixed map error that allowed movement between Tegucigalpa and Belmopan
  
• Fixed map error that allowed movement between Phoenix and Gallup
  
• Fixed error when major country defeated, and colony regions were transferred to an ally that was still neutral (e.g. USA). Region was flagged as Allied or Axis, which didn't match faction of recipient.
  
• Fixed error where Pearl Harbor Message was still displayed, even though USA was already at war (had been attacked early).
  
• If Japan attacks Thailand early, Thailand surrender event will now be properly cancelled.
  
• Unit Specs Report was not displaying the correct Land Attack, and AirSea Attack values for aircraft
  
• Fixed bug with game over screen not displaying
  

New Functionality:

• Canals and crossing which allow land units to transit water, are now marked on the map with red arrows. For example: Suez Canal, Turkish Straights, etc.
  

Tuning
[List]
Surface ships firing guns at submarines had the same chance to hit as they would against other surface ships. This has been reduced to reflect the difficulty in targeting submarines.
Increased damage done by sabotage missions.
Added a bit more randomness to the research progress made, to better reflect the uncertainty associated with research.


Changes:

• When sabotage target is not specified, the mission will now target the best target in the largest factory region. Previously it targeted the first production item in the region.
  
• When conquering a major country, the conqueror will capture half of the stockpiled resources. Previously, this only occurred with the creation of Vichy France.
  
• Added airfields to Alice Springs, Carins, Townville, Sydney, Canberra, and Melbourne in Australia.
  
• Removed retired German ship Hanover from starting Order of Battle, and added missing ships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau
  

Bug Fixes:

• Corrects a bug where the AI unintentionally gets a large number of transport points at higher difficulty levels.
  
• Fixed a bug where Paratroop unit using Strategic Redeploy was constrained by Air Range when they initiated the SR from a region with an airbase.
  
• Fixed a map error which prevented you from moving between Dusseldorf and Liege, even though the map shows a border.
  
• Fixed a map error which prevented moving from Sumbawanga to Mukunsa
  
• Fixed a bug where sabotage mission fails if primary target not found. Should have targeted best available target.
  
• Fixed a bug when sabotaging resources (coal, oil, metal, food) would fail.
  
• Fixed a bug where if you didn't also have an ID Production Mission, a specific sabotage mission would not find a target.
  
• Sabotage missions against a specific target type would always pick the same production item. Now the mission will target the production item whose production has progressed the furthest within the region.
  
• Fixed a crash that could occur when generating a supply unit from a depot to a unit.
  
• Army, Air Fleet, and Naval Fleet filters on Future Name Screen should be working properly now.
  

The major feature in this release is: AI strategy sharing. Your allies will now share their plans to attack regions and conduct strategic bombing, in the messages log. This should help you better coordinate your plans with theirs.

To accomplish this, you will see a change in the turn processing cycle. Previously, the AI attack planning was done after you entered your moves. Now the AI will plan their moves at the start of the turn, so that they can inform you of their plans. As a result, this information will be available to you when you are making your own plans.

New Functionality:

• Your AI allies will now report their attack and bombing plans so that you can better coordinate your plans with theirs.
  

Tuning
[List]
Reduced damage from ground unit AA.


Bug Fixes:

• Under some circumstances, the battle log messages would say that ships without depth chargers were firing them. This message shouldn't have been displayed. In these instances, no damage would have been done, because the actual firing logic would determine the ship had no launchers, and wouldn't actually do anything, but the messages shouldn't have been displayed.
  
• Fixed crash bug that could occur when AI reorganized its fleets.
  
• USA ships in Hawaii are no longer locked there (prior to Pearl Harbor Attack) when the "Early USA Entry" option is selected.