Below are listed the most recent updates to Four Winds Mah Jong version
2.0. If you look for updates to version 1.0, please check the
Version 1.x files section, instead.
Four Winds Mah Jong version 2.09 – A patch that updates an
already installed 2.x version
File Size: 15 984 kB, Date: June-19-2007 –
Download
now
NOTE: The packages containing the
latest version of the program are available to registered
users of version 2.x only. If you have registered version 2.x but do not have the required
download password (it is delivered within the confirmation e-mail for
orders that have been made after September 18, 2002), please contact
technical
support to have it sent by e-mail. If you have not registered,
you can download a test version (2.01) from the section
C of the Program Files download page. IMPORTANT: Please make sure that
your ISP or spam mail filter does not block e-mail from lagarto.fi since
support e-mail normally proceeds from this domain name (and not
4windsmj.com).
Note to Windows Vista users:
The latest version of Four Winds can display context help even if
WinHlp32.exe is not installed, but since the WinHelp module supports
rich formatting, it is recommended that Windows Vista users download
WinHlp32.exe for Windows Vista from Microsoft's site (search the
download address with Internet search engine by using "WinHlp32.exe for
Windows Vista" as a keyword).
Update to the Microsoft HTML
Help Control (needed if you have Microsoft Internet Explorer
version 3.0 and wish to use Four Winds HTML documentation). This also
works if you have Virtual PC (software that allows Windows programs to
be run on a Macintosh), since older versions come with IE 3.0.
Note: Windows Vista, XP, 2003, 2000, ME, and 98 users should
not run Hhupd.exe, but instead update their systems by using service
packs or Windows Update.
HHUPD v. 1.40 (updates HHCTRL.OCX to version 5.02.3735.0)
File Size: 752,994 bytes – Download now
Version history
For details, click to expand the list items.
June-19-2007 – Version 2.09
Fixed bugs:
Fixed minor errors in the user interface (e.g.,
incorrectly updated menu commands when changing certain
rules having effect on menus, discarded jokers occasionally
showing as black tiles, the Tile Claimed box not
always showing all required buttons when using jokers).
Errors in recognizing certain Limit hands (e.g.,
Hidden Treasure and All Green) in a loser's
calling hand. Also, the code erroneously gave points for
All Green in joker based hands containing Chows of
non-green tiles. In addition, the code failed to recognize
Emerald, Ruby and Diamond Snake hands
containing unassigned jokers.
The program failed to recognize a chance for claiming a
tile for a Pung in a joker based hand that could go out on a
discard and had three true identical tiles already in hand.
The multiplayer games would go out of sync in certain
situations where two or more human players claimed the same
tile (Chow claims and player's own Out declarations were
handled correctly, but Pung vs. other human player's Chow
based claims and Pung vs. other human player's Out
declarations resulted in unsynchronized game).
In a multiplayer game the AI players games would make
different decisions on the hosting and joining computers and
cause the game go out of sync, if the hosting player started
the game by using the Game > Start a Multiplayer
Game command directly after having launched Four Winds,
instead of using the Game > New Game command.
In a multiplayer game, if the hosting player was East,
the joining players were not able to claim East's first
discard (it was just shown and immediately placed amongst
discards).
The code ignored the "Included melded tiles" option in
Early Winning 1 and Early Winning 2 hands
(this would affect e.g. the Taiwanese rules): melded
tiles were always included in the tile count no matter what
the option's setting was.
Fixed exclusion rules that incorrectly ignored certain
patterns in complex hands. E.g., some Kong combinations were
not given extra points when appearing with Two concealed
triplets and Three concealed triplets kinds of
patterns.
The offending player's "Scores before" value was
miscalculated in a situation where the player declared
faulty out as East, and the rules specified double penalties
for East.
Competitive claiming precedence option "Pair > Pung >
Chow" did not work correctly: the order of precedence was
still "Pung > Chow > Pair" even if the alternative option
was checked.
Other changes:
Chinese Official rules have been updated (there
are minor changes in Kong scoring and certain Limit hands,
as well as scoring for the Fully concealed hand: now
many limit hands that by nature are always concealed, get
extra 4 points for Fully concealed instead of 1 point
for going out self-drawn). Also, scoring for complex Kong
hands has been updated to meet the CO rules (see help
documentation for details).
The program now supports user-specific data folders for
saved games, statistics, high scores, etc. The default
parent folder for these data files is still the Four Winds
program folder, but on systems where restricted user
privileges have been set, and on Windows Vista, the data
files will be saved in folders under user's and all users'
"Documents\4Winds2" folders. The folder paths can be
specified in the Preferences dialog box.
Context help now works on Windows Vista, even if
WinHlp32.exe is not installed. Since the alternative method
does not support formatted text, it is recommended though
that users download WinHelp for Vista from Microsoft's site
(Microsoft unfortunately does not allow including of WinHelp
in 3rd party setup packages).
The sound effects have been updated. Also, if DirectX is
installed on the system, new background and win of the game
music (.MP3 files) are used instead of MIDI files.
January-04-2006 – Version 2.08
Fixed bugs:
The game would incorrectly give points also for a Pung hand
in seven-pair hands that would get scores for being All even
or All odd. This would happen e.g. in Chinese Official rules.
There was an error in recognizing the special hand Knitted
Dragon in certain situations. In addition, there were errors in
displaying correctly the sets composing this special hand when
showing the winning hand after a won deal. These errors would appear
e.g. in Chinese Official rules.
The code failed to recognize the character suit in the pattern
4 triplets in sequence of 1 suit and would only give it the
merit for 3 triplets in sequence of 1 suit.
Errors in recognizing the special hand Squirming Snake:
the code did not check the presence of the Pung of nines in this
hand.
For the pattern 123789 twice of the same suit there is an
option "Require pair of 5's of the same suit" but when the option is
applied, the code would accept a pair of fives of any suit.
Similarly, for the pattern 123789 twice of two suites there
is an option "Require pair of 5's of the third suit" that would also
accept a pair of fives any suit. These errors would appear e.g. in
Chinese Official rules.
There was an error in version 2.07 that would make use of the
guided tour (Help > Guided Tour) impossible (the tutorial would get
stuck once started).
If the pattern Three Little Winds was used, the code
would calculate incorrectly the number of surplus triplets in the
hand. This might result in giving extra points for non-existing
Pungs or Kongs.
In a multiplayer game the game would go out of synch if a human
player would claim a tile only for a Chow instead of using the same
tile to declare out.
Quitting the game via the Scores dialog box with a non-saved
game file and saving the file to a location that would result in a
full path name longer than 58 characters would cause program
crashes.
The Four Winds font that is used in printing the scores and
graphical hand descriptions had Character tiles 7, 8 and 9 in
incorrect places, resulting in these tiles being mixed.
Fixed a scoring assignment error in Chinese Classical: losers
should get 4 doubles for Big Four Winds instead of 5.
Fixed an error in printing the favorite hands (the hands would
have incorrect names).
February-04-2005 – Version 2.07
Fixed bugs:
Fixed an error related to recognition of special hands
Big/Small Four Winds and Big Three Dragons(Three
Great Scholars) in a loser's hand containing jokers.
AI players failed to go out immediately on a joker they grabbed
from another player in a situation where the hand was declared
ready.
The initial replacement of flowers in the dealt hand would
reveal the number of jokers in a player's hand by turning the flower
tiles in their correct positions. Now the flowers are always
replaced from the tail end of the hand.
If the use of jokers was limited in some way (e.g., not allowed
in Chows or in pairs), and the jokers were auto-assigned in the
human loser's hand, checking of legal use of jokers would fail and
often result in giving zero points for the player's hand.
If jokers were allowed in melded sets only when that set would
complete the hand, the code would still allow the human player to
use jokers in other melded sets in situations where the player
actually could have declared out but instead declared Chow, Pung or
Kong.
The code could not recognize the pattern Run of 6 tiles of 1
suit in situations where the hand contained other Chows of the
same suit that would go between the run, or Chows starting from 5, 6
or 7 that would precede the Chows forming the run.
Fixed recognition errors in the following special hands:
Royal Chows, Suit Pairs and Honor Orphans (did not accept
Dragons), Golden Gates (did not allow the Character suit or a
Pung of 9's), True Gates and certain other "gate hands" (did
not allow the Character suit).
Fixed errors in the scoring logic: Windy Ones/Nines now
precede Windy Pungs and Windy Pungs of Same Number,
and Emerald, Ruby and Diamond Snake, and Great
Brothers, now precede Great Snake.
Jewel hands that can contain Chows (Jade Dragon, Ruby Dragon,
Pearl Dragon, Jade Hand, Pearl Hand, Ruby Hand, All Red and All Green) were not always examined properly for alternative (Pung
based) arrangements, which might result in failure to recognize
these hands in situations, where the number of Chows was limited in
the winning hand.
AI players having jokers in hand were sometimes incorrectly
given scores for Windy Pairs.
Fixed yet another error in the recognition of the special hand
Numbers Racket.
Windy Pungs of Same Number did mistakenly get scores of
the special hand Windy Pungs.
Fully concealed hands where double Chows of the same suit
followed each other (like B223344 556677) were not recognized as
legal winning hands.
The 1.x rule preset "Four Winds" was mistakenly marked as
"Taiwanese 16-Tiles Rules" when opened in 2.x version.
If the use of jokers was restricted so that they were not
allowed in melds, the code might prohibit declarations of Pungs or
Kongs even if no jokers were involved in the declaration.
If the use of jokers was restricted somehow (e.g., not allowed
in pairs, single tiles or Chows), the code might fail to see in
which set the jokers were or could be used, if the winning tile was
claimed from another player's discard.
Errors in calculating limit scoring for losers. E.g., if the
loser got 50% of the Limit for some special hands, the final score
of other losers would be zeroed. In addition, the limit was
erroneously applied to the scoring difference between two losers
rather than to the final score of the hand itself (i.e., the option
on the Payments option page was always on), and the
calculation itself also contained errors. Also, if the loser's limit
hand contained jokers, they might have been re-assigned with garbage
data ("black tiles"), even though the scoring would still be applied
correctly.
September-23-2004 – Version 2.06
Fixed bugs:
Red Dora tiles were shown incorrectly when the user had two or
more fives of the same suit in hand, and manual tile arrange was
used (even the regular fives were shown as red fives).
The code did not check the condition for sacred hand before
checking the missed discard. This would result in false warnings as
regards the player's rights to go out on a discarded tile. The error
would appear only in Japanese Modern rules.
Errors in handling the Limit point scoring for certain snake
based special hands (i.e., hands consisting of a run from 1 to 9 of
the same suit, the rest being winds and/or dragons). The scores were
multiplied in certain situations.
When starting a saved multiplayer game where no discards had
been made so far, the program failed to synchronize the hands (the
starting player was erroneously given the next tile of the wall
while other players saw the original correct hand).
In certain situations the bonus for Flower and Season of Wind
of the Round was given for hands that did not merit it.
Joker restrictions (e.g., allowing them in Chows but not in
pairs) were not handled correctly. This caused erroneous faulty
declaration of out messages in some situations, and apparently
erroneous use of jokers in certain other situations. AI players also
failed to recognize certain winning hands (e.g., Nine Gates) because
of flaws in handling the joker restrictions.
Fixed a couple of errors in printed scoring report (e.g.,
computer player's point scores were not shown in detail).
The Pay between winners setting was not retained when the
Preferences dialog box was opened.
Fixed minor scoring errors (e.g., point scores for flowers were
skipped in certain circumstances).
Replaying a hand would cause occasional program shutdowns on
computers running Windows 9x operating systems.
The optional rule of Kuikae (forbid against illegal claims) did
not work correctly as it would check also hands that were legally
declared Out!
Fixed a couple of errors related to use of jokers as part of the
winning hand, and incorrect or missing tile assignment of jokers in
AI players' hands (display problems only).
Fixed some minor problems in the user interface: e.g. draw
options related to payments for dealer's extra hands were not
retained in certain situations, and the Available Tiles
window behaved erratically when the Hints option was disabled.
Ordinary Pung hands with a Dragon triplet and a Dragon pair, or
a Wind triplet and a Wind pair were falsely given scores for the
limit hand Numbers Racket.
Improved losers' joker assignments when calculating points for
losers.
Fixed recognition errors related to the special hands Sparrow's
Sanctuary and Fully Concealed Suit Hand. There were also errors
in recognition of the special hand Nine Gates. In addition,
Thirteen Orphans (impure) was not recognized if the rules specified
scoring also for Thirteen Orphans (pure).
Fixed problems related to continuing a saved multiplayer game
when 3 or more human players participated in the game.
Points for flowers and seasons were ignored in total scores for
a special hand with a cumulative scoring assignment (i.e. a scoring
setting which is not counted alone but combines with scoring values
for other patterns) in situations where the rules would require a
minimum point for a winning hand and would not allow points for
flowers and seasons to be included in the check.
When using the penalty option No choice, the notification
"No choice" was shown in vain, if the penalty option Nine tiles error
was enabled.
Other changes:
Italian rules have been updated, and some scoring errors were
fixed at the same time.
Improved support for multiple monitor systems.
Improved AI related to games where jokers are used.
The special hand Knitted Dragon now also accepts component
points for Independent (Knitted). This addition is meaningful in
Chinese Official rules, where both these special hands have a
scoring value specified in the point unit.
The joker can now be assigned also by clicking the top right
corner of the joker, holding down the mouse button, moving the mouse
cursor over the joker palette that pops up, and releasing the button
on the tile to be used as the joker's value.
February-22-2004 – Version 2.05
Fixed bugs:
Fixed problems related to new statistical features when used with
random or changing seat order. E.g., in certain situations the
statistical view of the Points dialog box would show mixed total
points (assigned to wrong players). The random seat order would also
cause incorrect point adjustments when an already played deal would be
replayed, and show mixed skill levels on the Players option page of
the Preferences dialog box. In addition, the players' scores were
added incorrectly in the Top 50 Games scores.
Statistics tab of the Game Manager would display erroneous
statistical information when the Scores dialog box was open (either as
a result of a finished deal or using the Scores command on the
View menu).
The To Favorites button would be dimmed when returning from
High
Scores view to Current game view.
Errors in display of tiles in situation where separate discards
were shown for each player. E.g. when flowers and seasons needed to be
rearranged because of having more than 16 tiles melded, the background
was painted erroneously for the human player. Also, the extra tiles
were not re-arranged correctly when a player declared a concealed or
open Kong on his own turn. In addition, discards were shown
erroneously for AI players when they were displayed on the second row
(and when "Large" game board was used).
In the Chinese Official rule preset the special hand
Knitted Dragon
did not allow
regular melds.
Errors in loser scoring in situations where a loser had a calling
hand and would get bonus points for patterns like Concealed hand and
other hands needing only one tile to be complete. This had effect in
rules like Dutch League Rules or American Modern that specify a bonus
for losers for certain calling hands.
Certain irregular hands (like Wriggling Snake or
Little Snake with
Dragons), when having a percentage of Limit scoring assignment, were
not given correctly scores. Instead of receiving the percentage of
Limit scores they would be given only 1 double.
When applying the minimum point requirement, the program evaluated
incorrectly the pattern "All Chows and Simples", resulting in
occasional poor playing. This was accentuated in rules like Hong Kong
that do not give extra points for All Simples.
Joker grabbing (replacing an opponent's melded joker with an
equivalent real tile in the player's own hand) worked incorrectly,
when manual tile arrange was used.
In Italian rules the scoring for Seven pairs (2 doubles) was specified incorrectly so that points for all other patterns were
ignored.
Other changes:
You can now show the statistics of the specific deal number by
holding down the Ctrl key and clicking the bar graph of that deal
(this works while having the Statistics view active in the Points
dialog box).
October-11-2003 – Version 2.04
Fixed bugs:
In scoring for losers with a calling hand the program erroneously duplicated scoring for certain patterns (e.g., Pungs), if the true scoring value of the hand after rounding off the final score would be zero.
The program failed to recognize White Dragons as valid tiles in the pattern
All Same Upside Down.
The program sometimes listed bogus scores for losers that had a calling hand. This did not have effect on the final scores and payments but would be reflected in statistics.
If the Preferences dialog box was closed with the
Cancel
button while there was a game in progress, the Random
seats setting on the Players option page would be reset to the value saved in the system registry. This might have resulted in confused scoring in subsequent deals. Also, certain settings on the
Gameplay option page that normally can be changed while a game is in progress, but which are disabled when a multiplayer game is played, could be reset to the system registry values by closing the
Preferences dialog box with the Cancel button (accordingly, a player could override the host's setting).
The statistics of the current game (e.g., the amount of points won and lost) were calculated incorrectly if a deal was replayed from the
Scores dialog box.
Fixed errors in drawing the bar and pie graphs that would eventurally cause exhaustion of system resources. The problem was only evident on Windows 9x systems.
The bar graph for the current game, as shown on the statistics page of the
Scores dialog box, would be erroneously drawn if the number of deals in the whole game exceeded 100. In addition, the percentual wins and average winnings were calculated erroneously.
The program would make the ready declaration for the player instead of just suggesting it, if the
Hint command was used with rules that require obligatory ready declaration.
Fixed certain inconsistencies in using the text color (Tile Claimed
dialog box and the dialog box that showed the tournament scores). This would show in themes using other than the default system color (normally black) for the dialog text.
If the discard timer was turned off (set to zero) and the
Scores
dialog box was opened while there was a discarded tile in
a discard slot, the game could not be continued after closing
the Scores dialog box without claiming the tile (and
then making the claim or canceling it).
If the crown or triangle symbol was clicked to access Top 50
Hands or Top 50 Games view, it was not possible to return back
to the scores for the current game (crown and triangle symbols
appear after a finished deal on the main page of the Scores
dialog box, if the human's most recent hand or game has
been added to these lists).
Other changes
Statistical bar graphs for games belonging to a tournament are now shown separately for each game.
August-10-2003 – Version 2.03
Fixed bugs:
In scoring for losers, the program failed to give doubles
for Four Seasons (instead, an extra bonus would be
given for the pattern Own Season).
In scoring for losers, the program would ignore doubles for
a Kong or Pung of player's own Wind, in case the wind would
also be either Wind of the Round or Dominant Wind
(disregarding whether points were given for these patterns).
In scoring for losers, the program would mistakenly assume
that a calling hand would automatically be given the best
score by using the winning/calling hand's scoring engine. In
certain situations, however, this method would ignore
concealed suit Pungs and multiple pairs in hand. Now the
program performs point calculations by using both the
winning/calling hand's scoring engine, and the scoring engine
for uncompleted hands, and picks the best by comparison.
If the rules specified scoring for Flower or Season of
Wind of the Round, the program would erroneously give these
bonus points for having Flower or Season of Own Wind (rather
than of Wind of the Round). This would occur only in scoring
for the winner.
The program would let a user overwrite a tutor card file
in certain situations.
Fixed a couple of errors in ASCII file reports.
In Chinese Classical and American Classical rules scores
for certain limit hands specified with the double unit (e.g.,
Little Four Winds, especially in loser scoring) were
calculated erroneously. This was related to handling these
scores as direct counts (that is, ignoring points for all
other patterns), resulting in absurd scoring values like -1 or
-3 points.
The program would allow jokers in 7-pairs hands, even if
the rules would prohibit the use of jokers in pairs or as
single tiles.
In multiplayer games the program could not calculate the
losers' scores identically on all computers, if jokers were
included in a loser's hand and they had been assigned a real
tile value.
In multiplayer games, if 8 jokers were used, the
program would initialize incorrectly the joining players' data
structures, which might have resulted in different moves on
the joining players' computers than on the host's computer.
Fixed an error related to unitialized index pointer to
the supplement tile when using the rule according to which the
supplement for a Flower or Season tile is taken from the open
end of the Wall (rather than from the Dead Wall). This error
resulted occasionally in unsynchronized multiplayer games when
using Chinese Classical rules (where this type of supplement
tile rule is used).
'No choice' declaration (related to pao penalties) did
not work properly for the special hand All Green.
The Random Seats option (on the Players option page) would not be saved with a saved game file,
resulting in incorrect accumulation of scores when the game
would be continued at a later time (this would happen if the
current Random Seats option would differ from the
initial setting used when the game was started.)
When resuming a saved multiplayer game, the code could
not handle situations where the joining player would hold the
third seat counting from the host (e.g., if the host was East
and the joining player North).
Discarding and undoing repeatedly a tile by using the
keyboard (and without lifting up the tile between the
operations) would give a player superfluous tiles in hand.
When Expose Wall after deal is over option
(on the General option page of the User Interface
category) was
used, the Wall window would be left in a stage where the Wall
and the Dead Wall were exposed, in case a user replayed a
deal.
Restart of hand was mistakenly allowed during
Charleston. Now the user can use the replay feature only after
Charleston is fully completed.
In multiplayer games the game would lock up if a human
player promoted a melded Pung into a melded Kong or declared a
concealed Kong on the last tile of the Wall, and there were no
supplement tiles available for replacing the missing tile.
The rule option according to which the seats are
changed during the game session did not work in multiplayer
games (the players would hold differents seats on different
computers).
Fixed several problems related to use of
non-traditional precedence rules for competetive winning
claims. In addition to not giving the win to the correct
player, these errors would cause multiplayer games go out of
synch.
If overclaiming was allowed in a multiplayer game, the
game would occasionally go out of synch in situations where
the same tile was claimed by more than one player.
When a saved multiplayer game was resumed and discards
were placed in random manner, the joining players would be
shown only part of the discards.
Corrected some screen paint problems related to
continuing a saved multiplayer game (e.g., the status bar
information was not correctly shown, and changing the UI
language before starting the game would result in displaying
an empty board).
If Nagashi Mangan was enabled and the deal ended in a
draw or non-East's win, and East loser had only Terminals and
Honors amongst his discards, the code would mistakenly think
that East won the deal on Nagashi Mangan and would not pass
the deal.
Errors in recognizing a 16-tile winning hand if it
contained more than two overlapping or identical Chows (e.g.,
B234 234 345 or B234 234 234).
The program could not import correctly scoring for
deals played in version 1.x of Four Winds.
Corrected minor problems with overriding rules.
Other changes:
Added statistics page in the Scores dialog box. In addition,
the Statistics tab of GameManager now shows summary
information and pie graphs of the collected data.
High score tables can now contain up to 50 high scoring
winning hands. In addition, the program now also keeps Top
50 Games tables for each rule preset and saved, user-defined
rule preset.
Improved algorithms for calculating scores for AI losers
when they have jokers in hand.
Improved algorithms related to Kong declarations.
The default chat command (Send to all players) can now
be performed also with the Enterkey (in addition to F5).
Improved AI for Dutch League rules and other related
rules applying minimum double requirements for a winning hand.
January-03-2003 – Version 2.02
Fixed bugs:
Fixed an error that caused program crashes during Ding Dong
(exchange of single tiles used e.g. in American Modern rules).
Fixed an error related to the special hand "Run, Pung
and a Pair". Due to an error in the evaluatioan algorithm, the program would crash
if one of the AI players decided to go for this hand.
Yakitori rule worked incorrectly: the winning of the last
deal of the complete game was ignored when determining whether
a player had won any deals during the game.
The winning tile was erroneously ignored when determining
the number of Ura Dora and Kong Ura Dora tiles a player had in
hand.
Discarded Red Dora tiles were not displayed correctly when
discards were shown per player.
The use of "Random seats" option on the Players
option page of the Preferences caused errors with sound and
player bitmap assignments, as well as with statistics.
The program failed to recognize "Triple Knitting"
if the pair was required to be a true pair and it did not
appear as the last set of the hand (this error would occur in
Australian Modern rule preset).
"Out on a Chow hand" pattern (in the "Basic
points" category) did not work correctly with some
special cases of Chow hands (the points were omitted).
Fixed errors related to recognition of special hands Little
Snake with Dragons, Windy Chows, Dragonfly and 7-pairs version
of Ruby Jade.
Fixed several errors related to joker restrictions. E.g.,
the human players were allowed to use more than four identical
tiles in irregular hands, and all players could use a joker in
a Chow, pair or as a single tile in a regular hand if the
joker was the winning tile (or any other tile in an irregular
hand), even if these uses had explicitly been forbidden by the
rules.
When "Regulated doubles" settling table was used
in customized rules, the "double" units were not
available for editing. In addition, totals for losers were
calculated incorrectly.
Fixed a couple of errors related to replaying the hand,
especially when Charleston was used in rules.
The program did not update the joker counter in situations
the human player used a joker in a concealed Kong, or used the
replay feature while jokers were used in hand.
Fixed problems related to use of jokers and special hands
Jade Hand, Pearl Hand, Ruby Hand, Imperial Jade, Imperial
Pearl, Imperial Ruby, All Red and Ruby Jade, especially when
7-pairs versions of these hands were allowed. The error would
happen when examining near-complete hands where one or more of
the examined sets (e.g. a pair or a Pung) consisted of mere
jokers.
Fixed problems related to allowing a player to go out on a
non-supported 7-pairs hand in certain special circumstances
(e.g., when Chow restrictions were applied and the hand could
be interpreted as a regular winning hand consisting of 2 or
more Chows).
Fixed an error related to exhaustion of multimedia timer
resources. The error would appear as sticky tile animation
after the game had been played for about 20 minutes. The error
was noticeable only on Windows NT and XP systems.
Other changes
Following changes have been made to Australian Modern rule preset: identical pairs are
now allowed in 7-pairs hands (including the special hand Knitting), and a knitted pair
is now required in the special hand Triple Knitting.
Improved slightly AI related to claiming of Kongs.
Added support for Windows XP Visual Styles.
September-09-2002 – Version 2.01
Fixed bugs:
Fixed an error that
would result in occasional random winning hands (normally one
of the AI adversaries declaring out with a non-existing 7-pairs
hand).
In rules where a minimum point requirement was applied on a
winning hand, the losers might occasionally receive points as
if they had a winning hand (this would appear e.g. in Dutch
League Rules).
The joker counter was not correctly updated if a player had
Flowers or Seasons in the dealt hand and received one or more
jokers as a supplement tile while exchanging the extra tiles.
This would eventually result in inability to assign true
values for jokers and other related problems.
If eight jokers were used in the game, the Available
Tiles window would not show the number of remaining jokers
correctly.
Performing Windows shut down while Four Winds was running
would result in program error in case a user chose not to save
the ongoing game. Also, the prompt for saving the game would
be displayed twice.
Fixed several problems related to games where rotation of
seats was enabled (e.g., the customized sound assignments were
displayed incorrectly, replaying deals across the seat
rotation failed, etc.)
The non-traditional Chow claiming options of a version 1.x
game were not retained correctly when loading a version 1.x
game in version 2.00.
The basic point scores (for losers) and doubles for basic
sets (for losers) were not imported when loading a version 1.x
game in version 2.00.
Errors in recognizing Knitted Chows in
situations where a human player would go out by claiming the
winning tile to a knitted Chow.
Music files (background music and winning the game) were
occasionally not played because the code omitted the path to
the music files.
When playing a tournament consisting of several matches, and
the previous match ended in a Goulash deal, the first deal of
the new match was erroneously played with Goulash rules, as
well. This error would appear e.g. in British Official rules.
Arranging tiles manually might result in dead locks in
certain situations, e.g. arranging a tile while a computer
player was claiming a tile would cause a dead lock. Now
conflicting processes should not occur, or if they occur and a
dead lock appears, the game can be resumed by Ctrl+clicking
the hand (performing a temporary auto-arrange of the hand).
Arranging tiles manually with the keyboard while the other
players were making their moves would cause program errors and
lockups. These problems appeared only when a Small or Medium
sized game board was used.
The regular payoff scheme was not correctly restored after
an insurance penalty was applied. Accordingly, the remaining
deals of the game were played with an incorrect payoff scheme
according to which the discarder of the winning tile pays for
all losers.
Windows user names longer than 12 characters and without
space characters (e.g., "Administrator") would
result in reverting to default game settings each time Four
Winds was launched. Now the default human player name
"Player" is used if the Windows user name is too
long.
Error in the Missed Discard rule – in "Absolute"
and "Absolute (conditional)" modes – when jokers
were used and a player who missed the winning tile had at
least one joker in hand. The program could not handle the
jokers properly when evaluating whether the recent discards
would have made a player's hand a winning hand.
Start a Multiplayer Game Wizard could not handle
correctly a join procedure, if the joining player did not have
a registered copy of Four Winds.
A multiplayer game would go out of synch if a human player
clicked a discarded tile but did not specify the actual claim
within a log-off timeout specified by the host (default value
being 180 seconds). In addition, setting the log-off
timeout to zero (which should have resulted in not using
log-off timeout at all) would trigger this behavior
practically immediately when a human would make a claim.
Errors in scoring if One-chance
hand or Last-chance hand was acknowledged in rules.
If the winning tile was claimed from the previous player, the
program could not restore the state of the hand (as regards
its being a hand that goes out on a discard) after checking
whether a hand was one-chance or last-chance. This, in turn,
would result in scoring errors, and as a side effect,
considering irregular hands that go out on a discard as faulty
declarations.
Text color of tool tips did not
honor the corresponding system color setting (though the
background color did).
If a custom tile set was used to
override an internal tile set, the setting was not retained
between the sessions or if a saved game file was opened, or a
game was aborted and a new one was started –
instead, the internal tile set was used.
The contents of players' hands
after a just finished deal were not shown in the Scores dialog
box even if Always show all hands when the deal is
over option (on the Gameplay option page of the Preferences
dialog box) was checked (the hands were correctly exposed
on the table, though).
The program could not automatically assign files with .mp3 and other DirectX supported sound extensions for the 'Win of the game' and 'Background music' events of
a user-defined theme.
Scores for All same upside down were erroneously
given according to the scoring value specified for another
pattern, All 2's, 5's or 8's.
Fixed several serious problems in handling Triple
Knitting hands (the version allowing a true pair in the
winning hand).
The winning tile was excluded from the count of Kong Dora
and Kong Ura Dora tiles. In addition, Ura Dora tiles were not
displayed in the Dora Tiles window (below the Wall)
unless the winner actually got scores for Ura Dora (however,
the Scores dialog box displayed the Ura Dora tiles
correctly).
The fixed point scoring value for Seven pairs was
not correctly saved when using customized rules with a Mangan
settling table.
Corrected some problems related to use of Red Dora tiles
(e.g., changing of Red Dora to regular tiles or vice versa,
inability to use miniature sized Red Dora tiles from a custom
tile bitmap, etc.). The program also failed to use custom
tiles in creating the joker palette.
Fixed problems related to marking the claimed tile in Pungs
or Kongs in situations where one or more of the tiles involved
was a joker or a Red Dora. Now the claimed tile is always the
last tile of the set. Also, if the claimed tile was a joker
and the game was replayed, all tiles of the claimed set would
be shown as jokers.
Other changes:
Minor corrections in the following rule presets: Taiwanese
16-Tile Rules (changed scoring for Flowers and Seasons),
Korean Style (changed scoring
of All Flowers, ready declarations and fully concealed
hands that by definition imply Concealed hand) and Dutch League Rules
(changed scoring
for certain 7-pairs patterns).
Added a feature that lets a user specify which of the
buttons of the Tile Claimed dialog box (Chow, Pung,
Kong, Out or Ignore) gets the keyboard
focus when the window is opened. This can be done by pressing
and holding down the Ctrl key and clicking the desired button
(to avoid choosing the action assigned to the button, move the
mouse cursor outside of the button area and release the mouse
button only after that).
Added Use smart cursor option on the General
option
page of the User Interface section of the Preferences
dialog box. When checked, the mouse cursor is
automatically moved over the button having the keyboard focus
when a window is opened. The feature works only with windows
with owner-drawn graphics and buttons (it has no effect on
standard windows). This features is useful especially when
using a system extension (like Smart Move included in
Logitech's
MouseWare) that does the same for standard windows.
The maximum length of a theme name is increased to 50
characters (was 20).