Tiberian Sun patch 1.16a1

Patch 1.16a1 for Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun, known also as the Hyperwire patch, was released in December 1999. The nickname was given because of the name Westwood Studios gave their new online features - Hyperwire On-line Enhancements. Information on it was available at a special webpage that has since been closed.

Patch 1.16a1 was directly preceded by its beta test, labeled patch 1.15.

The downloadable patch executable includes all the patches that were released before it.

Changes

 * Fixed bug where harvester truce could be on in a skirmish game.
 * Tweak to improve unit response time at the start of the game.
 * If the host of an Internet game is using a modified or user created map, the guests will now get a warning message instead of just a blank preview.
 * Fix for occasional 'Packet received too late' or 'Reconnection error' at the end of an Internet game.
 * Fix for possible 'Packet received too late' or 'Reconnection error' when playing a LAN game right after playing an internet game.
 * Fix for bug which would allow mixed game versions to start a LAN game with subsequent bad behavior.
 * Fix for a bug where the player could get stuck in building placement mode if they lost their last construction yard.
 * A new "game speed" slider on Internet Game setup screen. This allows players to set the initial game speed. A game speed slider has also been added to the in-game options top level so that it is easier to access.
 * An improved game setup screen layout (Random map is now a button under multiplay map).
 * The map select screen now includes a new map preview.
 * A new game-latency tolerance setting in the game options screen allows players to increase the tolerance of network latency on laggy connections.
 * New granularity of game speed slider (now has a 45 fps setting). The slider now has the following settings in Internet multiplay. 15 fps (middle) - 20 fps (default) - 30 fps - 45 fps (new) - 60 fps (max).
 * Advanced code to evaluate and manipulate slow or high latency connections. The game now uses the ping times from the lobby/game options screen to set up multiplayer timing values for the game. You should notice that the game runs faster at the start of the game (if you have a good connection) than it used to.
 * New code to reduce bandwidth used when game speed is set to 30 fps (one notch above the default) or above.
 * Generally reduced bandwidth in multiplayer game. Combined with the above feature, the game now consumes significantly less network bandwidth compared to earlier versions.
 * Out of sync due to certain turrets is fixed.
 * Fixed a crash in modem disconnect code after playing a game.
 * New "locale" setting on login dialog so that you can set your geographic location. This will eventually be used in a future new feature on our web site and in the tournament ladders.
 * New server select dialog. Many players were not aware that they could change the Westwood Online server to which they were initially connected. To address this, we have inserted a "select server" dialog immediately after the login dialog. The game remembers if you change the default and will select that server as default for subsequent logins.
 * New "short game" option added. This mode results in a loss when all buildings are lost and leads to a more decisive result when a shorter game is desired. The MCV counts as a building for game over purposes.
 * Up to 32 nicknames can be now stored on the login dialog box.
 * Immediate feedback when giving a move order in multiplayer.
 * Added harvester logic to allow redirection to an alternative refinery.
 * Added notification to other players when game speed or latency settings are changed.
 * Added packet CRC check in Internet and network games to address problems some users were experiencing with packet corruption with some types of network card. (We have not been able to repeat this internally, but RealTek cards seem to be common culprits.)