Public Beta C for Wargames 2 will be released with the posting of this blog post. I had intended this to be a fleshing out of the Iron and Romanic Ages but they will remain skeleton ages with little use right at the moment. What has been done is a range of varied stuff, which I've conveniently laid out in groups:

Bug and Glitches:

* A bug with the Combat Archery research meant that it was only accessible if you went up to the Iron age rather than start at it or after it, fixed.
* Attempted fix at Transport ships which needs testing.
* Glitch in which one could technically gain metal even when they shouldn't be able to fixed.
* A bug in which dock town tiles would not upgrade at age increase fixed.

Map and Game Generation changes:

* Added full turn based ticks, meaning it waits for all players to end turn before next tick starts.
- It does not take into account Idlers
- It does not take into account players with no towns or units
- It does not take into account players who log out
* Added deposits, they are desert tiles with 1 metal 1 oil.
* Desert creation has slightly changed so that it should be more gradual from low at the top and bottom of the screen to more round the middle.
* Added Arid squares, these, as you might have guessed, supply wood as well as oil (1 each) meaning a map completely of desert squares is playable.
* Technology King Win condition is available - currently only for subscribers.

New Research and Units or changes:

* Unit costs have been modified so that they have a reasonable cost that isn't too restrictive.
* Settler units costs population as well now, meaning seemingly unlimited settlers is not a possibility.
* Counting research, a cheap way of making gold collection require a tech research. Researching can be done without this, but units requiring gold will not be available without this.
* Sanitation research, another cheap research which limits town expansion unless researched.
* Maces research, allows Maceman unit (stronger Copper age unit).

Other changes:

* Gold generated by towns is increased to one per level.
* ..But researching now costs one gold per thinkpoint - meaning when something is being researched you wont make cash as it will balance out.
* The terrain has helpful notifier of what each square holds resource wise, like how research explains what it does.
* Borders have been changed slightly in preparation for a later feature.
* Some minor changes to the nation and town stat screens.
* Players online modified to display nation names and subscribers.

Subscribers:

* Recognition on Players Online.
* Technology King Win condition (Host Feature)

The main thing for testing in this beta is unit costs, and desert based tiles. There is also a new Win condition, but I've decided to make this an "Advanced Access" feature for subscribers, which will probably be more common from now on to give a better deal for subscription.

There is a reason for keeping this to betas, and not just the lack of progress in developing the eras. The cost of units had to be addressed, so that is the main thing to me that this beta is testing, alongside the new features and research. The next beta will start to develop into politics and town management. I will most likely flesh out Iron and Romanic ages this time.

With this version, there are 26 technologies to research, and 15 units to create. Admittedly, I still haven't got round to doing Horse units, because I suck at drawing horses. I expect to get chariots and armoured units done next version, along with research that will back up the political and management development that will be coming with the next version.

The point of the Turn based option in this version, is not only to give players a chance to think rather than rush, but also to open up the idea of AI players, although they will most likely be independent towns which don't do a lot at first. This will probably crop up as well next version.