PBeM 2.4 BETA is finished!!!!

[GalakStarscraper]

Okay, version 2.4 Beta of the PBeM program is finished and posted to http://www.pbembb.com

There were over 100 changes to the program and Ronald and I have dropped about 150 hours of programming time in on this new release (example ... throwing bombs, big bombs, stink bombs, and nets took 12 hours to program by itself).

What does that mean ... there is a lot of cool new features and probably a bag of bugs bigger than my car. Old_Man_Monkey and I played one game and found 5 bugs in the new features ... so they are in there. But Ronald and I always test every new feature added, so it should not self-destruct or anything ... like I said I have played a whole game already against another coach to make sure it was functional and useable for league play for all the leagues that use the software.

Feedback positive and negative is appreciated. Other than patching the bugs ... I'm taking a break from programming the PBeM software ... severe burnout from the 1 1/2 month programming marathon.

The list of new features is too long to list. Look through the pull down menus at the top of the program, browse through the new right click options, and definitely review the settings pages (the PBeM Tool is now so flexible it can play just about any type of BB game with whatever house rules you desire). Ronald or I programmed in just about every single request that was ever made for a program improvement and those not finished have been added to the list of the plans for the next 3 versions
3.0 (International language support)
3.1 (Player icons)
3.2 (Automated Blocking)

Anyway its now available for download. Two words of warning on 2.4 BETA.

1) Install the entire thing .. the inis and everything changed. The only thing that didn't change was the roster directory and anything in it, so you don't need to redownload and install the roster files. You can just copy and paste the old roster directory from 2.3b into 2.4. Everything else needs to come from the zip file ... AND DON'T FORGET to UNZIP with the USE FOLDERS option.

2) 2.4 and 2.3b are from two very very very different worlds. I have no idea what types of errors you'll get if you try and load a 2.3b into 2.4, but trust me it will not be pretty. If you have 2.3b games currently happening ... finish them in 2.3b.

Knowing the future plans for the program, I BELIEVE version 3.0 to 3.2 will be backwards compatible with 2.4 ... at least that was the goal with 2.4 BETA. Hopefully that will be true as the tool has never been very good at backwards compatibility (has to do with the Settings options expanding so rapidly).

By the end of May, all the bugs in the BETA version should have been discovered in theory and at that time, we'll switch it over to an official 2.4 version.

Thanks to everyone for the their patience and suggestions ... I hope you like the end product.

Galak

[Dangerous Dave]

Well done Galak - your efforts are much appreciated.

Dave

[sean newboy]

Same here.

[Darkson]

Cheers Galak (and Ronald). I see if I can break it

[Pitch Dark]

*Joins in on the praise*

[Robotorz]

First of all I wanted to thank you and Ronald for making such a brilliant thing for us all!

And the Error I found is just marginal:
When you push a player of the field (I use Norse Blitzers and they do that pretty often) and he becomes Stunned as result of this. The player is not placed in the Reserve but Stays on the field and loses his number. Like when he uses his Tacklezones

Just wanted to share that

[TiMuN]

Stunned players stay on the field, upsides down, while Knocked Out players go to the KO box ... what's the error then?

[GalakStarscraper]

And the Error I found is just marginal:
When you push a player of the field (I use Norse Blitzers and they do that pretty often) and he becomes Stunned as result of this. The player is not placed in the Reserve but Stays on the field and loses his number. Like when he uses his Tacklezones

Hmmmm ... interesting ... that's definitely goes on the bug list to swat.

Galak

[Moonsong]

Stunned players stay on the field, upsides down, while Knocked Out players go to the KO box ... what's the error then?

The error is that a player that goes out of bounds, shouldn't be able to return on the field until the next Kick Off...

Great work, Galak. We all appreciate it.

Moonsong

[GalakStarscraper]

When you push a player of the field (I use Norse Blitzers and they do that pretty often) and he becomes Stunned as result of this. The player is not placed in the Reserve but Stays on the field and loses his number. Like when he uses his Tacklezones

Found the bug ... has to do with the application of the Injury Result. All injuries remove the player from the pitch, but since Stunned players don't automatically go off the pitch the game applies the Stunned and the player stayed.

One line of code fixed it:
If InjuryStatus=4 then InjuryStatus := 0;

4 = Stunned ... 0 = Reserves.

Tested it and it fixed the problem .... good bug catch ... thanks. Assuming no one finds a critical error, I'm going to release an official 2.4 version at the end of May that patches all the problems like this one.

Galak

[GalakStarscraper]

2.4a BETA released this morning.

One new feature added and about 10 bugs fixed from 2.4 BETA.

Its fully compatible with the previous 2.4 BETA so you can upgrade if you have already started a 2.4 BETA game without worrying about version problems.

Galak