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I noticed this one when I was in the final phase of Kobayashi's Lord of the One Ring.
In brief, on Day 101, Frodo destroyed the Ring and things happened to Mordor, like cities disappeared, techs were given, etc. Subsequently, there have been 3 instances where a total of 29 of Mordor's Siege Towers have unaccountably vanished from Mordor's OOB.
The following is the raw data, giving the number of Siege Towers at the start of a human turn and at its end. The bold numbers indicate when and how many units inexplicably disappeared between the end of one human turn and the start of its next turn.
DAY
100_____END______54
101_____START_____54
_______ END______53
102_____START_____42_____[ 11 ]
_______ END______41
103_____START_____36_____[ 5 ]
_______ END______32
104_____START_____33
_______ END______27
105_____START_____26
_______ END______20
106_____START_____21
_______ END______18
107_____START_____17
_______ END______14
108_____START_____15
_______ END______14
109_____START______1_____[ 13 ]
Changes during the human turn are due to human attacks.
Changes from the end of a human turn to the start of the next turn could be attributed to warfare between Mordor and the human Allies and failed Mordor attacks on the human civ. However, the anomalous losses occurred even if:
All other civs were destroyed at the end of the previous human turn.
No Siege Towers could or did attack the human civ during Mordor's turn.
Also:
The results were repeatable.
No other Mordor units were similarly afflicted.
A hex-editor check of the end of Day 108 save showed 14 active Siege Towers.
A similar check of the start of the Day 109 human turn showed that 13 of the 14 had been mysteriously deactivated.
The casualty list did not reflect the loss of these units.
There were only about 950 units in the units table.
Dismayed as I was to see a monster AI civ lose half of its strongest units for no apparent reason
. . . . . . . especially when it was getting the stuffing knocked out of it . . . . . . . I persisted with the investigation until I could make all types of Mordor units gradually disappear. However, beyond knowing that the disappearances happen and what triggers them, I have no idea why they should happen, why they seem to occur only on certain turns and what algorithm governs the number of units that vanish.
I might add that I would not be surprised if I encountered this previously in playing scens but failed to recognize it because it is so subtle. In this instance, I only noticed it because on Day 104 I had begun a campaign of attrition against Mordor and was recording its losses every turn as a way to keep score.
As this is definitely a scen design issue, before I spill the beans as far as I understand them and suggest a possible use of this phenomenon in designing scens, are there any designers who would like to offer a solution to this mystery?
In brief, on Day 101, Frodo destroyed the Ring and things happened to Mordor, like cities disappeared, techs were given, etc. Subsequently, there have been 3 instances where a total of 29 of Mordor's Siege Towers have unaccountably vanished from Mordor's OOB.
The following is the raw data, giving the number of Siege Towers at the start of a human turn and at its end. The bold numbers indicate when and how many units inexplicably disappeared between the end of one human turn and the start of its next turn.
DAY
100_____END______54
101_____START_____54
_______ END______53
102_____START_____42_____[ 11 ]
_______ END______41
103_____START_____36_____[ 5 ]
_______ END______32
104_____START_____33
_______ END______27
105_____START_____26
_______ END______20
106_____START_____21
_______ END______18
107_____START_____17
_______ END______14
108_____START_____15
_______ END______14
109_____START______1_____[ 13 ]
Changes during the human turn are due to human attacks.
Changes from the end of a human turn to the start of the next turn could be attributed to warfare between Mordor and the human Allies and failed Mordor attacks on the human civ. However, the anomalous losses occurred even if:
All other civs were destroyed at the end of the previous human turn.
No Siege Towers could or did attack the human civ during Mordor's turn.
Also:
The results were repeatable.
No other Mordor units were similarly afflicted.
A hex-editor check of the end of Day 108 save showed 14 active Siege Towers.
A similar check of the start of the Day 109 human turn showed that 13 of the 14 had been mysteriously deactivated.
The casualty list did not reflect the loss of these units.
There were only about 950 units in the units table.
Dismayed as I was to see a monster AI civ lose half of its strongest units for no apparent reason
. . . . . . . especially when it was getting the stuffing knocked out of it . . . . . . . I persisted with the investigation until I could make all types of Mordor units gradually disappear. However, beyond knowing that the disappearances happen and what triggers them, I have no idea why they should happen, why they seem to occur only on certain turns and what algorithm governs the number of units that vanish.I might add that I would not be surprised if I encountered this previously in playing scens but failed to recognize it because it is so subtle. In this instance, I only noticed it because on Day 104 I had begun a campaign of attrition against Mordor and was recording its losses every turn as a way to keep score.
As this is definitely a scen design issue, before I spill the beans as far as I understand them and suggest a possible use of this phenomenon in designing scens, are there any designers who would like to offer a solution to this mystery?
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