I must confess that I did not document most of the changes I made. Beta 2A was when the bulk of the advanced CPU option algorithms went in for the computer AI and there was just so much done there that it would have gotten incredibly lengthy to list every little change. Suffice to say that the AI, if the HIGH cpu options are used, should behave significantly more intelligent.
Over the Christmas break, we're working on making final tweaks and such. For instance, Super Hive will probably be changed such that manufacturing improvements cost 1/4th as much instead of just being built in a single turn. This keeps them powerful but without upsetting the game.
Here's some of the things that changed between beta 2 and beta 2A:
** TWEAKS AND ADDITIONS **
+ You now reach intelligence levels based on how many agents you have on alien worlds and how long those agents have been placed. When your cummulative points for that race reach a certain amount, you will level-up in espionage.
+ Renamed race movie files so that when you choose an image for your custom race, it will also use the associated bink files
+ Made AICreateRandomShips only use up to medium hulls so that the Pirates won't be so overwhelming.
+ Added custom homeworld definitions for korath and krynn.
+ Super Ability description now listed in race's stats windows (for both local player and AI players).
+ Made it so that both sides have to have alliances tech to create an alliance.
+ Changed the movement speed of the subpspace tear event to 5.
+ Rearranged which animations and beam widths were used for each component so that they progress better as you improve your weapons.
** FIXES **
+ Fixed Bug where “Are you sure you want war” dialog popped up when AI attacked player’s mining base.
+ Fixed Bug where when using a template that was saved in older shipcfg version, parts would be stripped off the ship.
+ Fixed crash where Texture painter was not checking pointers before releasing them.
+ Fixed bug where Campaign would overwrite settings from last sandbox game.
+ Made trade routes save the year established.
+ Fixed null pointer crash in shipdetailswnd.
+ Fixed Minor Race spinner in Galaxy Setup screen would randomize the number of races if “8 Minor Races” was selected
+ Fixed Bug where asteroid fields were randomly placed on custom maps
+ Fixed Super Manipulator conversation oddity where players would say there're joining a war to help you, even though there's no war going on.
+ When zooming in and out of the tech tree, the camera will remain focused on the same spot
+ When zoomed out to see the whole tech tree, the tree will center itself on the screen
+ If a ship is improving an asteroid field, and it is upgraded, the asteroid field improvement is cancelled (The ship may resume improving the field when its upgrade is complete)
+ Revolt icons now appear on the mining base instead of around the asteroid field. There was some confusion as to which base the icon was referring to. Revolt symbol will show on asteroid field icon when zoomed out in tactical mode.
+ Fixed bug with displaying superability on opponentwnd.
+ Fixed bug with disabling super abilities.
+ Obsolete improvements with placement limits will no longer be allowed to be built after limit has been reached.
+ Added support for old galciv2 height maps, since height maps from dark avatar will be in base galciv2 folder.
+ Fixed bug when clearing renamed major race on customracewnd.
+ Disabled random events for campaign.
+ Made 'Menace' mega event not take homeworld of civs.
+ Updated super hive description.
+ Fixed bug where custom race description kept getting overwritten (custom races files created with the old code will assume that they have custom descriptions, and will not generate a new one as the player edits their personality, but new files will still change the generated description until it is edited.)
+ Fixed crash on foreign stats.
+ Replaced old “Space Truck” ability terminology in ship report to newer “Build Mining Bases” terminology.
+ Fixed bug where GameScreen kept calling ActivateKeymap.
+ Fixed bug in planet improvements save/load code.
+ Fixed bug with "Neutral Ground" United Planets issue where ships in orbit were moved out of the territory, but not marked as not orbiting. This caused them to shoot across the galaxy when they were attacked. Now, ships in orbit remain in orbit, since the tile the planet is sitting on would be considered their territory.