Read-Me File for Army Builder (tm) V2.

2c ---------------------------------------This document outlines important details that were not able to be incorporated into the manual, plus a few that simply warrant repeating. For full information on the Army Builder product, its requirements, and how to use it, please refer to the manual, which will be found in the file "armybldr.rtf". *************************** ***** ***** ***** VIRUS ALERT!! ***** ***** ***** *************************** Many users are encountering the following error message when they launch Army Builder (both older versions and the new one): Launch Error! Please notify Lone Wolf Development with the following information: WARRSC #301 - abrsc.dll If you encounter this message, then it is 99.9% likely that your system has been infected with a VIRUS. Many viruses insert themselves into program files on your computer - that's how they move from one computer to another. In many cases, Army Builder will catch this change and present the error message shown above. Should you see this message, the first thing you should do is obtain the MOST RECENT version of a good virus detection program and run it on your system. This should identify the virus and hopefully remove it. System Requirements ------------------In order to run the Army Builder product, your system will need to meet the following minimum requirements: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. PC running Windows 95/98/ME, Windows NT, or Windows 2000 16MB RAM memory SVGA video display (minimum 800x600 resolution with 8-bit color) 3MB free hard disk space Mouse or other pointing device Internet access (to obtain data files)

Product Installation -------------------If you have purchased the CD-ROM version of Army Builder, the installation program should automatically launch a few moments after you insert the CD-ROM into your system. If this occurs, simply follow the instructions presented to install Army Builder. If you are installing Army Builder after downloading it from the Internet or obtaining it from a friend (or if, for some reason, the CD does not automatically launch the installer), you will have to invoke the installation program manually. To do this, please follow these instructions: 1. Click on the Start menu in the lower left corner of the display. 2. Select "Run..." 3. Click on the "Browse..." button.

4. Navigate to the location where the installation program is located. If you are installing from a floppy, this will likely be the "a:" drive. If you downloaded the program, this will be the location that you saved the file into. If you are installing from the CD-ROM, go to the CD-ROM drive. 5. Double-click on the "abldr22c.exe" file containing the Army Builder installer (this should be the file that you downloaded). 6. Follow the instructions presented by the installation program. Once the product has been installed, you can launch it via the Start menu. It will be found in "Start->Programs->Army Builder->Army Builder". Enhancements and Changes in V2.2c --------------------------------None Enhancements and Changes in V2.2b --------------------------------None Enhancements and Changes in V2.2a --------------------------------1. Added support for watermarks on summary roster printouts. 2. If a newer release of Army Builder is available, this new release is now always listed first in the list of available updates. Too many users were grabbing new data files without bothering to notice that a new version of Army Builder was also available (and the new files needed the new version of the product). 3. Added a number of new color entries to the internal color table. These new color entries can be specified within a custom interface extension DLL and offer additional flexibility when designing skins. If the new color entries are not found in an interface extension DLL, the old default behaviors are automatically utilized for those entries, which should ensure that old skins continue to work without any problems. The new color entries are as follows: a. Resource #3035 controls the text color of disabled options. It is also used as the text color for disabled edit controls. Previously, the system color for disabled text was used, but it wasn't always an optimal match for a particular skin set. The system color is used by default. b. Resource #3036 is used for the background of the composition breakdown region in the lower right corner of the main window. If this color is equal to the "Warning" color (resource #3002), then the breakdown data is overlayed directly on the tiled background texture. Otherwise, the specified color is used as a solid background for the region. c. Resources #3037 and #3038 specify the text and background colors of the validation bar at the bottom of the main window. If the background color is equal to the "Warning" color (resource #3002), then the dark texture is used as the background for the region (resource #1001). Otherwise, the specified solid color is used. d. Resources #3039 and #3040 are used for the text and background colors of static text boxes, including the "item left" and "total points" regions on the special items form. If the background color is equal to the "Warning" color (resource #3002), then the dark texture is used as the background for the region (resource #1001). Otherwise, the specified solid color is used.

Enhancements and Changes in V2.2 -------------------------------1. When saving a roster for the first time, the name of the file defaults to the name of the roster. This default name can be freely changed by the user. 2. Added a "release notes" mechanism to the importing of data files. If a text file with a ".txt" file extension is included within an import file, that file is automatically assumed to contain release notes. The contents of the file are displayed to the user as release notes when the user imports the data files. Note that this mechanism will simply use the FIRST such file it finds within an import file, so including multiple text files will result in only the first one being displayed to the user (whichever one AB happens to select first - no order is guaranteed). 3. When importing a new set of files, the required version of Army Builder is now checked for each file. If any file requires a newer version than the currently running version of AB, the user is notified with a warning to make sure they know the minimum version required to use the files. 4. Added a "Send Email" button to the "About Loaded Files" form. This button will auto-launch the configured email program and send an email to the specified author of the data files. 5. If an "old" roster is loaded (i.e. from a previous set of data files) and an error occurs during the load (i.e. due to changes in the data files), an error is reported and the user is given the opportunity to try salvaging the roster file. If requested, as many units as possible will be loaded from the old roster, although there still may be problems lurking in the loaded units (due to minor changes in the data files that don't preclude loading). 6. Users can now double-click on an entry in the "Locate File" dialog to initiate the download and import of the file. 7. Extended the auto-notify mechansim to enable special announcements to be downloaded automatically and displayed to the user. These announcements can include both text and graphics, as well as hot-links to URLs of note. 8. If AB is already installed on the user's system and it is not a copy of V1.x, the warning dialog for V1.x upgraders is no longer displayed. 9. Added a menu item to the Help menu that is labeled "Contact Data File Author". This menu item triggers an email to be sent to the data file author, using the email address embedded in the data files. If no email address is provided, this menu item is disabled. 10. Added the option to let users print Option Footnotes on a separate page instead of continuing them immediately after the last unit. This makes for easier reference during game time. If there is room after the units, roster totals, notes, and validation results are all output on the page with the units, subject to space limitations. Any remaining information that won't fit is output after the option footnotes. This is controlled via a new option on the Output Settings menu. 11. Added the ability for users to force custom unit notes (via the Distinguish Unit mechanism) to start on a new line within roster output. This is controlled via a new option on the Output Settings menu. 12. Added the ability for the user to specify a watermark bitmap to be used on all roster printouts. This is great for stores that want to identify themselves on the printouts, tournaments to identify "official" rosters, and a wide range of other uses. The watermark bitmap is assumed to be 300dpi and is centered on the page and scaled to the appropriate resolution to maintain its dimensions on higher/lower resolution printers. If a watermark bitmap is not 300dpi, it will appear correspondingly smaller/larger on the roster printout. When dealing with watermark bitmaps, it is the responsibility of the user to ensure that the bitmap is appropriately screened back to yield a background image that doesn't overpower the roster details in the foreground.

13. When a new version of AB itself is downloaded via the updates mechanism, the new version can be automatically installed. The user is now prompted whether to immediately install the new version. If requested, AB will immediately exit and initiate a specialized installation of the new version. The installation will display no prompts, but it will show the progress of the installation. Once completed, the new version of Army Builder will be immediately re-launched. 14. Added the "Output Extensions" sub-menu to the "File" menu. This sub-menu will list all custom XML extensions for the current game system. Custom XML extensions can now be integrated directly into AB via the data files. 15. Added a new dialog that always appears at least one to notify users when new updates are found. This only occurs when auto-update checking is enabled. The dialog can be immediately turned off by the user so that the menu in the upper right corner is relied upon thereafter. This dialog basically serves to point new users to the menu item in the upper right corner, since many users don't notice it and don't read the welcome dialog. 16. Added separate tags for the major and minor version numbers of the data files to the public XML format specification. This enables authors of custom extensions to properly verify appropriate version information. 17. Added a popup menu that appears when the user right-clicks on a unit in the roster area. This menu lists all of the pertinent options from the "Unit" menu that aren't implemented via buttons to the right of the roster. It also includes the ability to "Show Roster Notes", just like a right-click behaved in previous versions. 18. Added support for a custom resource DLL that allows users to customize Army Builder's graphics. When Army Builder is launched, if the file "altgfx.dll" is found in the main product directory, that file is loaded. Any resources found in that file are used in preference to the standard Army Builder resources, allowing the user to selectively override individual facets of the product graphics. For example, the file "gfxgreen.dll" used by Army Builder Lite can be copied to the alternate graphics file, which results in the entire Army Builder interface using the color scheme from Army Builder Lite. This new mechanism is officially UNSUPPORTED, but it is provided to allow the adventuresome to give it a try. Alternate graphics are only supported on systems running 16-bit graphics or higher. If you are running 8-bit (256-color) graphics, no alternate graphics file will be loaded. Further documentation should be found on the web-site at www.wolflair.com. 19. Removed the "What's New in V2" document and shortcut from the installer. This file is also deleted during upgrade installations if found. 20. Added a few more pieces of information to the public XML file format. Bugs Fixed in V2.2c ------------------1. Due to rounding errors in the compiler, percentage composition limits were incorrectly reporting out-of-range validation errors when the points in the composition group were at the exact limit of the valid range. For example, a <=50% limit in a 1000 point roster would erroneously report that the limit had been exceeded when exactly 500 points of units were in that group. Bugs Fixed in V2.2b ------------------1. The "lcmp" attribute was not processing the "-mode" or "-legal" qualifiers properly. 2. The "preq" attribute was only being processed correctly when linked directly to the unit. Therefore, use of "preq" in an option that was chained to the unit via "more" was being ignored.

3. If a tweak used the "zrng" attribute and also chained to another tweak via the "zmor" attribute, the handling would sometimes be incorrect. If the "zmor" attribute specified either a "cost" or "auto" link nature and the chained tweak had a non-zero cost, the cost of the chained tweak was not being added to the item. 4. Changed the background color of the region displaying the System Code on the Registration form. The previous color provided very little contrast when the code was selected for copying and pasting, resulting in confusion for some users. 5. The "View Full-Size Roster" menu option was limiting the window size based on the default window size. The full-size window now utilizes whatever height is available, based on the current user-defined size of the main window. 6. When the primary import confirmation dialog was cancelled out of and the import file included release notes, the release notes were being displayed anyways, although the import was being properly aborted after that. Bugs Fixed in V2.2a ------------------1. The "note" attribute on tweaks was not being processed for roster output, although it was appearing properly within the UI. 2. When the "uadd" attribute was used on an item under certain conditions, Army Builder would crash. 3. The cost calculations associated with a unit of zero size were being handled incorrectly with certain types of options. 4. Added documentation on Interface Extensions to the manual (it was missing). 5. Fixed a boundary condition that would result in valid data files crashing Army Builder when loaded under the right circumstances. This problem only occurred extremely rarely, and the slightest change to the data files would usually cause the problem to go away, since the special boundary condition would no longer be encountered. 6. The XML output was not outputing a stat if the stat was not normally visible, even if the stat belonged to a stat-set and was visible for that stat-set. 7. If an item count was adjustable via the "irng" attribute and "ipts" was used to bound the points assigned to the unit, incrementing the item count was not triggering an error if the item limit was exceeded. Attempts to exceed the point limit via incrementing an item count will now fail. 8. The "trat" attribute was not working properly when point values of one type were compared against unit/model counts of another type. 9. The license text on the splash dialog was using an incorrect font color and was potentially unreadable when skins were used. 10. The sizing of the composition breakdown region in the lower right corner was off slightly when the main window was resized. 11. The title font color wasn't being used at the top of all forms properly. 12. Modified the message boxes to use the appropriate color as the basis for the rectangle around the message text. 13. The borders on the droplist control were not always drawn completely. This occurred only within certain regions of the list when it was dropped for selection. Bugs Fixed in V2.2 -----------------1. If a roster was loaded in that was created with an outdated set of data files relative to the current set of data files, a warning would be displayed and then the roster would be displayed as empty, even though the

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roster contents were proper internally. This was because the error caused the display to fail to update properly. The effects of elements within constructed items were only being applied once, even if an element was assigned to an item multiple times. For example, if 3 elements that granted a stat adjustment of +1 were selected, only a net of +1 was displayed (should be +3). When saving a roster to XML, the presence of a special item that had a child unit attached would cause Army Builder to crash. Revised anti-piracy protections somewhat to make that product less susceptible to hackers. When switching between game systems, options that display lists of child units would not be properly updated for the new game system. The list of visible stats from the previous game system would still be displayed, even though the list had changed for the new game system. If Army Builder was minimized while a non-top-level unit/item was selected, restoring would result in the Options Panel showing the options for the top-level unit instead of the previously selected child. If a unit was assigned a custom name (via Distinguished Unit) that was 32 characters or longer, sometimes the product would crash and/or fail to properly save the roster. This behavior would not always occur and was more likely as the name got longer. If you had a top level unit with more than 15 items in it, the roster was considered to be invalid and Army Builder would constantly warn the user before saving the roster, printing it, etc. This warning no longer occurs if the only thing "wrong" with the roster is a unit with more than 15 items in it. If a unit's name contained a character that was invalid within a filename (e.g. "Fred/George"), then any attempts to save the unit would fail. Toggling the visibility of special items for a unit would cause the roster to be marked as dirty even though no changes were made. If the roster wasn't dirty, the "Save" mechanism would complain that the roster wasn't valid, even though nothing was being output. The complaint only appears now when the roster is actually going to be saved. The point limit in demonstration mode now utilizes the absolute value of the units added, so the addition of units with a negative point value no longer bypasses the point restriction. If the AB installer was copied to a CD for backup purposes and then re-installed from the CD, it would try to install the Construction Kit even if it didn't exist on the CD. This has been corrected. When running in demonstration mode, increasing a range-based or table-based option when the army exceeded the maximum limit would display the selection change, even though the change would not actually take effect and the warning dialog would properly appear.

New Bugs Found That Haven't Been Fixed -------------------------------------1. If you click the mouse and drag it within in the Available Units window, the window contents will scroll properly, but the selected item and the scroller will not be updated until you release the mouse. This appears to be a limitation of the behavior of a Windows listbox. 2. If you scroll through a drop-list via the scroller and the current selection scrolls off the visible set of options, a new selection is not highlighted until the mouse again moves over the list. 3. Switching to 640x480 resolution (an unsupported resolution) while Army Builder is running will potentially crash the product in some cases. 4. If the main window is moved off-center and exited, then restarted and maximized and exited, the third launch would cause the splash screen to appear centered over the non-maximized position of the main window.

5. If an item is renamed (using the "name" attribute), it still uses it's original name to determine its sorted order when item are sorted in alphabetical order. 6. When the "xcst" attribute is used to override the cost for items and/or elements and the attribute stipulates a unit-specific change, the sort order of the items/elements is based on the standard cost and not the overridden cost. Known Problems -------------At the time of this release, the following problems are known to still exist. Problems identified above are not repeated in this list. Functional Problems: 1. On some monitors, the graphics used within Army Builder can appear to be extremely dark. If this occurs, try increasing the brightness setting on your monitor a little bit. 2. A couple of users have reported problems with the auto-notify mechanism not working correctly. This should only occur with V2.0 and V2.0a. Problems should have been corrected in V2.0b. 3. In at least two cases, users were required to install the HP Laserjet II printer driver for compatability, as their existing driver exhibited problems when used with Army Builder. 4. If you install Army Builder and then manually attempt to delete the tool, doing so incompletely, subsequent attempts to install Army Builder MAY result in the program failing to run correctly. The simplest solution here is to always use the "unwise.exe" tool to automatically uninstall the product. However, if you must delete the tool without using the uninstaller, please be certain to delete all Army Builder files AND all registry entries associated with Army Builder before attempting to re-install the program. 5. If you install the "Protect It!" tool from Microsoft AFTER already installing Army Builder, this will typically cause your system code to change, which will invalidation your current key file if you are a licensed user. Similar problems will occur if you add or make changes to the set of users on your system and then try to run the program as a different user. Doing any of these will require that you transfer your registration license to obtain a new key file. 6. Army Builder retrieves files matching "*.xxx*" when a filespec of "*.xxx" is specified. This is true of other Windows programs and appears to be a "feature" within the Windows API. 7. Clicking on a unit in the army roster causes multiple display updates to occur, which causes undesirable flashing and slower performance on slower systems in some cases. Data Limitations: None Known Limitations ----------------The following list of items are known to exist as limitations, but they are currently not considered to be bugs. The nature of these issues goes beyond the designed intent of the Army Builder tool, and there are no current plans to address these issues. They are all minor items that can be managed easily enough by the user, as well. 1. Due to a limitation of Microsoft Windows, it is impossible to view more than

15 child units/items for a single top-level unit. This is a display limitation only, as there is no practical limit to the total number of child units/items that may exist for a given unit. Roster printouts will properly include all children without any problems. If you run into this limit, Army Builder will identify that the visible list has been truncated by placing a small scissors icon next to the last visible unit/item. To work around this limitation, you can selectively hide/unhide the display of special items for individual units. When hidden, an icon appears next to the unit name to remind you that its items are hidden, and hidden items are always included in all roster output - they are only hidden in the roster display on screen. Support Options --------------Technical support for Army Builder is provided only via email at this time. You can contact the support staff at the email address below: support@wolflair.com Please do NOT attempt to phone us for support, as we most likely will not be available to help you when you call, and no support calls can be returned. We do our best to ensure that all email support questions are answered in a timely manner, so please contact us via email. You can also find a great deal of information about Army Builder by visiting the Wolf Lair web-site at the URL below. Links to this site are provided on the 'Help' menu within the program (see the 'Visit Wolf Lair' sub-menu). www.wolflair.com Another excellent source of support for Army Builder is the product support forum on eGroups, where users can post questions and share information. This forum is free and is accessible at the following URL: www.egroups.com/group/armybuilder Accessing the Manual -------------------The manual for Army Builder is in the Rich Text Format, nearly all word processors. with Windows, although some by WordPad. will be found in the file "armybldr.rtf". This file which is a standard format that can be read by You can also read the file into WordPad, which ships of the formatting will not be preserved successfully

A copy of the manual in Adobe's PDF format is also available (the file is "armybldr.pdf"). If you downloaded Army Builder from the web-site, then this file can also be downloaded from the web-site. You can also obtain the Adobe Acrobat Reader software which is needed to view the file via the web-site. However, if you purchased the CD-ROM version of the product, this file is included on the CD. The Acrobat Reader software is also included on the CD - for installation instructions, please see elsewhere in this document. Removing Army Builder --------------------If you wish to remove Army Builder from your system, you can do this by clicking

on the shortcut icon labeled "Uninstall Army Builder". This shortcut is installed when Army Builder is installed. Once the uninstall program has been launched, simply follow the instructions presented to complete the task. When you uninstall Army Builder, any installation of the Construction Kit is also removed automatically. The Construction Kit -------------------Available with Army Builder is a companion set of tools called the Construction Kit. This toolset allows you to create your own data files for use with Army Builder. The toolset is obtained and installed separately from Army Builder, since not all users will want to make use of the tools. You can download it for free (there is no registration fee required) from the Lone Wolf Development web-site (www.wolflair.com). If you purchased the CD-ROM version of the product, then the Construction Kit is provided on the CD. To install the Construction Kit, the steps are identical to those for installing Army Builder, except that the installation program is named "kit22.exe" (this should be the file that you downloaded). Please be certain that you have properly installed Army Builder before you install the Construction Kit. The manual for the Construction Kit is installed by the above process and will be found in the file "constkit.rtf". If you have the CD-ROM version, the file will also be available in PDF format within the file "constkit.pdf" on the CD. Important information about the Construction Kit will be installed as the file "readkit.txt". Please read this file for any last minutes notes about the tool set that didn't make it into the documentation. Adobe Acrobat ------------If you purchased the CD-ROM version of the product, then all of the documentation is provided in Adobe's Acrobat format on the CD (in addition to the RTF format documents, which are automatically installed). In addition, a copy of Adobe's Acrobat Reader software is also provided on the CD to enable you to view these documents. To install the Acrobat Reader software, please follow these instructions: 1. 2. 3. 4. Insert the CD-ROM into your system. Click on the Start menu in the lower left corner of the display. Select "Run..." Enter "d:ar405eng" and press the <Enter> key. NOTE!! If your CD-ROM drive uses another letter besides "d", be sure to substitute the correct drive letter. For example, if the drive letter is "r", you would type "r:ar405eng" and press the <Enter> key. 5. Follow the instructions presented by the installation program. NOTE!! The Search and QuickTime components of Acrobat are not required for the Army Builder manual. You may install them if you wish. Once Acrobat has been installed, you can read the PDF formatted documentation files by simply double-clicking on the documents from within the Explorer. Alternately, you can launch the Acrobat Reader directly and then open the file from within Acrobat.

Legal Stuff ----------This software product is the property of Lone Wolf Development, Inc. and is protected by copyright laws and international copyright treaties. The software is NOT sold, it is licensed. This license grants the licensee to use the software on a single computer workstation and to make a single copy of the software for archival purposes only. This software is provided "as is" without warranty of any kind, express or implied, including, but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability and of fitness for any purpose. The user assumes the full risk of using the software. While reasonable efforts have been made to ensure the correct operation of this software, Lone Wolf Development does not warrant the accuracy, performance, or results you may encounter by using this software. In no event will Lone Wolf Development be liable for direct, indirect, special, incidental, or consequential damages resulting from the use of this software or any defect within the software, even if Lone Wolf Development has been advised of the possibility of such damages. Any liability of Lone Wolf Development will be limited to the refund of the purchase price. Army Builder is Copyright (C) 1998-2001 by Lone Wolf Development, Inc. All rights reserved. Army Builder is a trademark of Lone Wolf Development, Inc. Windows is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation. Other brand or product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders. Acrobat(R) Reader copyright (C) 1987-1999 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved. Adobe and Acrobat are trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated.