EE2, EE2X - Empire Earth II - Unofficial Patch 1.6 (2014+)

[Dr.MonaLisa]

Minor update 159013 has been released!

Update Type: Multiplayer Features Update Changes: https://www.ee2.eu/patch/changes/#159013

- Game Menu / Multiplayer Lobby / Loading Screens, etc.:
* AI-Enhanced and upscaled many textures which were blurry on modern screen resolutions.
* Replaced the ugly chat expand / collapse buttons with the new ones that match the original EE2 style.
- Improved the hosted multiplayer game system messages:
* Changed the color to the darker red shadow, to make messages easier to read.
* Fixed an issue where the host player was not seeing system messages when other players changed their civilization, player type or other settings.
* The host player can now see all system messages, just as the other players in the game.
* All players are now seeing system messages about their own settings changes.
* These fixes are currently tested and are enabled by the UP1.5 KeepAlive Live-Update system (they might be disabled at any time when Dr.MonaLisa detects problems).
- Fixed an issue in Icon Badges (feature from the last update) where the cloud icon was not working (NAT / MonaNAT messages).
- Optimized the Launcher thread (LowLevelKeyboardProc) which monitors hotkeys.

If you have got UP1.5.5+, you can update by clicking: empireearth2://FunctionMinorVersionInstall

[Dr.MonaLisa]

Unofficial Patch 1.5.9.013 was the last UP1.5 release. All good things must come to an end. Unfortunately, this decision won't be changed. Please download UP1.5 installer before it's removed from website.

[Bogdan]

Very sad to see you go, Mona

[Dr.MonaLisa]

Very sad to see you go, Mona

Indeed. It's very sad to see UP1.5 gone.

Let's hope that Unofficial Patch 1.6 won't be any worse

[Bogdan]

You mean you will continue development? I’m glad I got it wrong

[Dr.MonaLisa]

You mean you will continue development? I’m glad I got it wrong

That was my intention.

There was a nice drama on Discord / FB comments. I didn't write anything that would be a lie. People just got too used to this major version that they weren't finding the most simple possibility. Besides that I scared them about multiplayer

https://twitter.com/EE2News

[Dr.MonaLisa]

Unofficial Patch 1.6 has been released!

Update Type: Core Release. Changes: https://www.ee2.eu/patch/changes/#160000

- Includes changes from all previous Unofficial Patch updates.
- UNOFFICIAL PATCH 1.6: The Enhanced Experience:
* The Enhanced Features are described with screenshots at: https://ee2.eu/patch/enhanced/
* They're only available for players who support the project (donators).
* AI-Enhanced and upscaled UI textures:
# This feature gives you a totally new, remastered experience in game. All User Interface textures (over 2300, including icons) have been upscaled, AI-Enhanced, and manually adjusted for the existing widgets in game. As a bonus, the nuclear explosion textures were also enhanced. Additionally, this feature is compatible with the Non-Enhanced version of the game and won't cause problems in Multiplayer.
* Mouse Cursors Scale:
# Allows you to select a scale (100%-400%) of the AI-Enhanced cursors in game. It includes over 88 textures and is extremely useful on modern screen resolutions. Option "No scale" uses the original mouse cursor textures, while option "100%" uses the same size textures which were additionally AI-Enhanced.
* Regrettably, making these special features exclusive has become the only viable option to sustain the project. For over 10 years, Dr.MonaLisa was providing a wealth of features, which required an immense amount of work, free of charge. Despite these efforts, player support through donations has been minimal, eventually becoming insufficient to cover the costs of our multiplayer services' relay servers. While the servers incur a modest expense of approximately $40 per month, the donation amounts received have been disappointingly low and somewhat disheartening. Historically, only about 1 in 2000 players chose to donate. Presently, Dr.MonaLisa is gathering funds for a crucial eye surgery, prompting her to prioritize her well-being and reassess the distribution of the Enhanced Features.
- Fixed a bug where the game was not using some of the models added by the official patches 1.1 and 1.2.
- Optimization & Unofficial Patch files improvements:
* The texture files (.dds, .tga) have been converted to the EE2-optimized .texcache format.
* The model (.nifcache) and texture (.texcache) files have been packed to the uncompressed .zip archives.
* These operations have drastically improved the loading speed of UP1.6 files and reduced mini-freezes.
* Fixed minor problems related to incorrect or duplicated models and textures in the previous versions of Unofficial Patch.
- "Large Address Aware" improvements: Fixed an issue, where sometimes the game was unable to load folders, because a handle returned by the MSVCRT_findfirst function was an address from range above 2GB. This could be noticed e.g. when option "Advanced Cache Preloading" was enabled, and a player tried to load a game save, map, favorite setting or other file which required folder listing. Fix explanation: https://ee2.eu/p28005
- Loewenherz's "Map Chooser 1.6" improvements ( https://ee2.eu/maps/ ):
* Added descriptions & preview images to another 53 maps.
* Removed 14 bad quality EE2 & EE2: AOS maps from Unofficial Patch 1.6.
- Added option "Missing Font/Text Fix" to UP1.6 Settings: https://ee2.eu/t5672
- Added a lot of UP1.6 Launcher improvements: replaced outdated libraries with their modern alternatives. Improved security by using the newest available version of OpenSSL, LibCurl, Zlib, Boost. Fixed an occasionally occuring on-exit crash. Fixed a problem where the launcher window could be wrongly positioned on secondary monitors. It's now possible to vertically resize the UP1.6 Settings window.
- Please note that in the game directory, you might still find some files or folders identified by "1.5" in name. This is expected, not to force recreation of some of the registry keys, firewall rules, and cleaning up old entries just because of the version name change.

If you have got UP1.5.5+, you can update by clicking: empireearth2://FunctionMinorVersionInstall

[Dr.MonaLisa]

Minor update 160001 has been released!

Update Type: Optional Hotfix Update. Changes: https://www.ee2.eu/patch/changes/#160001

- Enhanced version: Resolved an issue preventing the selection/deselection of units below 66% health by clicking the red triangle on their icon.
- Non-Enhanced version: Resolved an issue preventing the selection/deselection of UP1.6 units below 66% health by clicking the red triangle on their icon.
- Updated "Loew's Ambient Pack 2":
* Some ambient sounds can now be placed via IES script. A bug with too long names was fixed.
* Adjusted Ambient Pack sound values in the database, because some of them were set incorrectly.
- Fixed duplicated icons on Desktop / Start menu. Auto-removed the ones from Unofficial Patch 1.5.

If you have got UP1.5.5+, you can update by clicking: empireearth2://FunctionMinorVersionInstall

[Dr.MonaLisa]

Minor update 160002 has been released!

Update Type: Monthly Update. Changes: https://www.ee2.eu/patch/changes/#160002

- "Map Chooser 1.6" improvements: Added displaying of the map preview images directly in the game!
- Enhanced Features Update:
* Added over 600 enhanced terrain and under building textures. They now look much better when the camera is zoomed-in.
* Improved some textures (e.g. a globe icon on the Multiplayer Lobby).
* The Enhanced Features are described with screenshots at: https://ee2.eu/patch/enhanced/
- Fixed some of UP1.5 features not working correctly in UP1.6 (mistakes during Launcher optimization):
* Rotating camera using the "Middle Mouse Button Actions".
* Opening links from the started multiplayer game chat using "CTRL+C Improvements" from update 159011.
- Fixed a game crash when "Dronecopter (1.6)" in epoch 13 was produced. It's due to incorrect texture size which didn't work well in UP1.6 (new .texcache format). Thanks for the problem report to player "Mohamed".
- Bomb Shelters (Bunkers) reworked:
* Reduced health by 25% (epochs 10-13), 33.333% (epochs 14-15).
* Increased building and repairing time by 33.333%.
* Fixed an issue where the light infantry (and some other units) dealt reduced damage to Bunkers, caused by their non-combat RPS.
* Due to abusive usage of bunkers in multiplayer games, the defensive buildings such as fortresses, outposts or wall towers can no longer attack units behind them. It might look less realistic in game, but it's for the greater good.

If you have got UP1.5.5+, you can update by clicking: empireearth2://FunctionMinorVersionInstall

[Dr.MonaLisa]

Minor update 160003 has been released!

Update Type: Hotfix Update. Changes: https://www.ee2.eu/patch/changes/#160003

- Fixed an game crash on Empire Earth II: The Art of Supremacy, when the Tundra (1.6) climate was loaded on version 160002.
- Enhanced version only:
* Disabled the enhanced terrain and under building textures on Empire Earth II: The Art of Supremacy, due to detected significant performance penalty when playing on the Temperate climate. It seems that the expansion pack (AOS) is doing many useless things with textures (including rendering all 12-months seasonal textures, even when they're not displayed), which are overloading the game 10x more than in the normal EE2. We didn't detect any performance impact of the enhanced terrain textures in the normal EE2.
* Added a new custom configuration command to UP1.6 Settings, which allows to enable/disable the enhanced terrain textures: "EnhancedTerrainTexturesMode=1".
# 0 = disabled for EE2 and AOS; 1 = Auto Mode - enabled for EE2, disabled for AOS; 2 = enabled for EE2 and AOS; 3 = enabled for EE2, disabled for AOS; 4 = disabled for EE2, enabled for AOS.
- Included the new EE2 maps created by Bogdan: "Dominicana", "Koren Peninsula", "Late Byzantium", "North Africa", "The remnants of the Empire". Details: https://ee2.eu/t5754

If you have got UP1.5.5+, you can update by clicking: empireearth2://FunctionMinorVersionInstall