From: chuckg@meaddata.com (Chuck Greenwald)
Subject: Global Conquest Version 2.0 
Organization: Mead Data Central, Dayton OH
Date: Wed, 29 Jul 1992 13:45:42 GMT

This is the CHANGES.TXT file from GCV20.ZIP on the Microprose BBS
at (410) 785-1841.

30 June 1992

-- CHANGES TO GLOBAL CONQUEST --

The new version is v2.0.  All known bugs in the original have been addressed,
and some additions and changes (detailed below) are included.  The files
needed for the update are:

	CHANGES.TXT	(this file)
	GC.EXE		v2.0 of the main program
	HTERRAIN.PIC	main art file
	M_GAME.PIC	play options menu
	OSCR.PIC	opening screen
	DRIVER1.OVL	new "host" overlay
	SERIAL.OVL	new 2 player overlay

The changed and added features include:

-- RANDOM EVENTS --

Economic Upturn and Economic Downturn now last only 5 turns each (previously
permanent).

Volcanos are no more.

Diplomacy Disruption no longer cancels all treaties, but imposes random levels
of treaties for 5 turns.

Space Pirates not only take saved money from burbs, but cancel any pending
production as well.

-- COMBAT --

Carriers firing range is now 6 spaces (previously 4).  The "scan" range
(range at which units "see" other units) is 6 as well.  The range of the
Comcen attacking carriers has been increased as well to keep things equitable.

-- AIRPLANES --

A new airplane command has been added: "Orbital Recon."  This feature is to
calm the popular revolt caused by the Thinking Man's Map (i.e., undiscovered
territory is ocean until proven otherwise) in the shipped version of the game.
This feature puts dots on "undiscovered" spots of the map, like the film.

When a plane flies an "Orbital Recon," the ComCen launches it into a low geo-
synchronous orbit and gets information from the plane via a "tether."  This
lifeline also keeps the plane from drifting out into space.

This airplane mission has several restrictions and side effects.  It must
be flown by a plane based on your ComCen.  The energy drain from keeping the
plane in orbit causes a 3% attrition to your COMCEN each round the plane is in
orbit, to a minimum level of 30%.  The orbit lasts as long as your ComCen's
energy level remains above 30%.  The plane will automatically be off-line for
3 turns, no matter how long the orbit lasts.

While the plane is in orbit, your ComCen MUST NOT MOVE.  If you set any
movement destination for your ComCen, the Orbital Recon data will immediately
be lost and your plane will drift out of the atmosphere, lost forever.  What
this means in practical terms is that if your ComCen is at 100% at the start
of an Orbital Recon, it must STAY PUT for three turns while it attrits down to
30%.  Needless to say, you want to do this only when you REALLY need the
information.

The "Hot Key" while in airplanes display mode for Orbital Recon is (the
envelope, please) 'O'.

-- ECONOMICS --

You can now transfer money into other players' treasuries (bribe them).  The
mechanics of this are the same as transferring money on the Burbs menu, except
that the money must first come from your treasury and you click on the
player's quadrant in the top monitor.  For example, if you want to give Cyan
Circle $10, you open the Burbs menu, click Transfer to begin transferring
funds, click on your own treasury to pick up a $10 bill, then click on the
Cyan corner of Monitor 1 to give it to Cyan.

Also, while the Burbs menu is shown, the contents of each player's treasury is
shown in Monitor 1 as a number on top of a stack of dollar bills.  This way,
you can tell who's bribing who if you happen to be watching.  Oh.  Bribing the
computer has absolutely no effect.  He doesn't need your stinking money.

-- GAME OPTIONS --

By popular demand and not-so-difficult code, a fourth Visibility option is
available in custom scenarios.  This option is called "HQ Style" and mimics
the map and unit visibility of Command HQ.  In other words, everyone can see
the map, but units must be discovered.  We personally don't see the appeal,
but this was the third-most requested feature, so here it is.

-- TREATIES --

An extra incentive has been added to the "Teammates" level of play, which Alan
has dubbed "Knockout Insurance."  If you're teammates with someone who get's
knocked out, you get ALL of their units and burbs, not just your apportioned
number.  If, for some odd reason, THREE people are teammates and one of them
gets KO'd, units get divided as before.  If all four people are teammates, you
should all see your analyst for some aggression therapy.

-- GAME STARTUP --

If you're having problems with non-standard (i.e., OLD) EGA cards, typically
lots of white bars on the screen, try starting the game with a '/E' parameter.
"GC /E" for example.  This turns off the VGA palette manipulation calls
regardless of what kind of card the game thinks you have, and has been proven
to solve certain problems.

-- MODEM/PHONE CONNECTIONS --

A rudimentary "dialing directory" has been added to both the point to point 
and host mode serial overlays.  It merely holds telephone numbers in a text 
file so you can pick them quickly (by name) rather than enter the full phone 
number each tim you play.  In order for this feature to work, you must have a 
DOS text file called CONQUEST.DIR in you main Conquest directory, and the file 
MUST be formatted as follows:

columns 1-19: telephone number (may include hyphens and 'P' or 'T' in front to 
indicate tone or pulse dial.

columns 20-40 or so: name of this entry.  The length limit here is restricted 
by how many characters can fit in a standard menu, and since the fonts are 
all proportional, this can vary widely.  But around 20 characters.

Like this:

T1-501-227-7694    Ozark's BBS
T1-501-376-8111    JD's home number (NOT!)

		   ^
		   |__ column 20

You can have up to eight numbers in your directory, and you always have the 
choice of manually entering a number.

-- BUG FIXES --

While (embarrasingly) too numerous to list in full, here is a partial list
(i.e., the ones I remember) of bugs fixed in v2.0:

	* probabalistic crash with 60+ turn games
	* saved games of longer than 60 turns or so unloadable
	* "no-support" units only attrit to 63%, not 10% as the manual says
	* FBI comes to your house and confiscates computer equipment after
		game ends
	* game freeze when moving the mouse really fast (Mouse Fatigue
		Syndrome)
	* "Free" units go no-support rather than assigning to nearest city.
		Not actually a bug, but it's fixed anyway.
	* 1 point per burb or resource in econ scoring scenarios rather than
		the "value-rated" system in the manual
	* game freeze during random event card flip
	* 'E' hot key for Infantry Exploit non-functional
	* multiple players on 1 machine leaves nasty info in message window

JD
CIS 76326,403 on GAMPUB

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chuck Greenwald                     |   chuckg@meaddata.com  
Mead Data Central                   |   (513) 865-1020