• PHost now reports ship-specific hull abilities with a util.dat record. (v4.0a)
  • Mine laying rules changed again: every player's ships lay in Id order, but sequences are randomly interweaved. This gets you predictability for the general case while maintaining fairness in extreme situation. This order of operation is called per-player Id order, we expect to use it as a means of conflict resolution in many more places (see below). (v3.4e/4.0a)
  • Per-player-Id order is also used for Super Spy Deluxe. (v3.5/4.1)
  • Mines Destroy Mines got improved: instead of laying mines and considering intersections with just that one field, PHost now does a complete Mines Destroy Mines after all mine laying. This gives us 100% Id independence and predictability (in other words: fairness). The main reason, however, is, that this will also consider mines which overlap by another means: when you use add-ons which lay mines (Starbase+, ACP) or a mine-level alliance is canceled. To get back the old behaviour, turn on AlternativeMinesDestroyMines. (v3.4f/4.0b)
  • Added a command line switch to set config options on the fly (-o option=value). See Command Line Options for details. (v3.4g/4.0c)
  • PControl got a face-lift. You can now execute commands before and after each stage, settings are cumulative, and you can specify shell commands directly in pconfig.src. (v3.4g/4.0c)
  • You can now use placeholders %d and %r in PControl commands. You can specify commands for Auxhost1 and Auxhost2 directly in pconfig.src. You can refer to canned pcontrol sequences to simplify your config files. (v3.4m/4.0k)
  • The AllowBuildFighters config parameter replaces the three original parameters (RobotsBuildFighters etc.). You can now enable lfm for all races. (v4.0e/f)
  • Towed ships can now be configured to cooperate (not break a tow). (v4.0e)
  • remote has a new sub-command, "give", to simplify use of remote control. (v3.4h/4.0e)
  • Wormhole scanning was made simpler. The WormholeScan phase now happens after movement, at almost the same place as sensor sweep. Therefore, you'll always (well, almost) see a wormhole you've just traveled through. In addition, a new config option WrmScanRange can be used to remove probabilities from wormhole scanning. (v4.0e)
  • You can now configure ships to burn fuel for each fight they're taking part in (FuelUsagePerFightFor100KT). This weakens a huge ship's position against many small ones a bit. Likewise, you can configure ships to burn a fixed amount of fuel each turn for staying ready (FuelUsagePerTurnFor100KT). Idea: Eugene Goroh. (v4.0f)
  • The effect of experience training can now be scaled up or down (EPTrainingScale); by default, you now get twice the experience as before. (v4.0f) In addition, training now takes the crew amount into account, so that a ship with little crew can be trained faster than a battlestar with thousands of people aboard. Idea: Degi. (v4.0g)
  • Combat experience can now be scaled up or down according to the damage taken by a ship, to award risky fights. Idea: Sascha Rambeaud. (v4.0f)
  • Players can now declare additional enemies. Idea: Maurits van Rees. (v4.0g)
  • Players can now transmit data about their units to friends. Unlike VPA Data Transmissions, this information is guaranteed to be current, and it interacts correctly with the cheat check (i.e. a ship shown this way will be interceptable). (v4.0h)
  • The Federation now has more control over Super Refit. The new refit command allows to precisely specify what components you want to build into the ship. Idea: Maurits van Rees. (v4.0h)
  • You can now unload (or jettison) money and ammunition, or transfer it to enemy ships, using command processor commands. In addition, these commands allow you to overcome restrictions imposed by your client's unload or transfer function. (v4.0h)
  • The Hull statement in shiplist.txt can now take a list of hulls so you can assign a function to many ships at once. RacesAllowed and PlayersAllowed are now cumulative. (v3.4k/4.0i)
  • There are now rules for combinations of hull functions. Up to now, these had undefined, undocumented or just not-well-thought-out behaviour. (v3.4k/4.0i)
  • There are a few new hull functions (v4.0i):
    • PlanetImmunity combines the previous special handling of the ImperialAssault ship and the Klingon/Rebel racial ability.
    • OreCondenser is a new terraforming function to improve the mineral density on a planet.
    • The ability to tow is now defined by the hull function Tow. The former Crystal/Privateer racial ability to board ships is now also a hull function (Boarding), ships need these two to be able to board.
    • There Chunneling special can now be split into ChunnelSelf, ChunnelOthers, and ChunnelTarget.
    • You can now make ships immune to Lokis and D19bs using AntiCloakImmunity, and you can make Lokis more powerful using AdvancedAntiCloak. (4.0k)
    • Academy ships specialize on educating crew and supplying battleships with new crew. There is a new extended mission Exchange Crew.
    • Repair ships can repair others in deep space using the new Repair mission.
    • Even when damaged, ships with FullWeaponry can use all their weapons in combat; ships with HardenedEngines can go full speed.
    • Ships with HardenedCloak can cloak even if damaged. (4.0j)
  • Hull functions can now be restricted to certain experience levels. (v4.0i)
  • There are now some new utilX.dat records: ships produce items, ships being repaired, modified hull functions. (v3.4k/4.0i)
  • Ion storms. This was the last major HOST feature PHost did not have. Our ion storms use similar, but not identical, rules. See Ion Storm formulas. Together with that goes the new Ion Shield ship function. Comments appreciated. (v4.0j)
  • There is a new command password to change a player's password. The main intention is to allow hosts to change the password of a dropped-out player. (v3.4l/4.0j)
  • A new hull function Commander allows you to build ships that give experience bonuses to other ships in combat. Idea: Quirin Herman. (v4.0j)
  • Ships must now decloak at once when they reach the DamageLevelForCloakFail in combat. Previously, they were given lots of time to supply-repair and stay cloaked. (v4.0j)
  • CloakFailureRate is now arrayized. Idea: Quirin Herman. (v3.4l/4.0j) The options AllowEatingSupplies, BorgAssimilationRate, ClimateDeathRate, CloakFuelBurn, DarkSenseRange, EngineShieldBonusRate, FuelUsagePerFightFor100KT, FuelUsagePerTurnFor100KT, HissEffectRate, MaxPlanetaryIncome, MaximumWebMinefieldRadius, PlanetaryTorpsPerTube, RecycleRate, RobFailureOdds, TowStrengthDistanceScale, TowStrengthEngineScale, and WebMineDecayRate are now also arrayized. Indirectly followed from suggestions by Chris Carr. (v3.5/4.1)
  • The alX and naX friendly codes now also work on refinery ships and can be used to limit the minerals consumed. Idea: Patrick de Groot. (v3.4m/4.0k)
  • PHost now includes the often-requested ability to change the cost of starbases and fighters (StarbaseCost, BaseFighterCost, ShipFighterCost, FreeFighterCost). The first two of these options need updated clients to handle the changed costs. Currently, no such client exists, but we hope that such clients will now be made. To avoid that hosts accidentally configure unplayable games, there's the new AllowIncompatibleConfiguration meta-option. (v4.0k)
  • Likewise, there is now also an option that allows you to raise or lower the number of fighters (MaximumFightersOnBase, v4.0k) and defense posts (MaximumDefenseOnBase, v4.1) on starbases. Raising these values needs updated clients as well.
  • You can now set the UnitsPerWebRate different from the standard UnitsPerTorpRate. (v3.4m/4.0k)
  • Planets can receive additional experience for good government (EPPlanetGovernment). Planets can receive additional torpedoes due to experience (EModPlanetaryTorpsPerTube) (v4.0k)
  • Due to popular demand, PHost can now send exact experience reports. The upper limit for experience can now be configured. (v4.1)
  • There are two new options to configure PAL awards for glory devices: PALGloryDevicePer10KT and PALGloryKillPer10KT. (v3.5/4.1)
  • hullfunc.dat is now described in the documentation, and includes level-restricted and ship-specific functions. (v4.1)
  • The new option BuildChangeRelativePenalty can be used to give a relative priority penalty to changed build orders (instead of complete loss of points in PBP/FIFO mode). This option kind-of supersedes SBQBuildChangePenalty. (v3.5/4.1)
This is a testing version.
It may be incomplete, and have more bugs (or features) than the public live version at planetscentral.com.