Weird Mindworm!!

[Googlie]

Guilty as charged

In an endeavor to smarten up the AI I amended the alpha.txt to add a trawler as a prebuilt unit, pending prerequs of Ind Auto and doc Flex. Well, this is the graphic that comew=s up in the workshop, and appears on the map when you build one.

As Flubber says, if you obsolete it, then rebuild it the trawler appears as it should (or if you add armor, or trance)

Many scenarios I created will have that as it did seem to work - The Drones actually built a few of the things in one game

G.

[Vultur]

I've got the solution!

It's simple: Hydro has modified the mindworm in alpha.txt in an "illegal" manner (I don't know how, but he has done it )
In fact if the game cannot "read" a unit, it will replace the wrong one with this strange unit: a sort of icon that show a Scout Patrol
(1-1-1).
I've discovered it trying to put on a Hovertank-Planet Buster (99-x-3), that work, the ability "Bombard" -I was just trying to built the Ultimate Destructive War Device, or something similar -

Merry XMas!!!

[Missourian]

I have captured that strange looking lifeform before. When ever i used it in combat my game would freeze up so now when i get them i disband them in one of my cities.

[Googlie]

It's actually the default graphic that the program inserts if anyone has tinkered with the #UNITS23 (in alphax.txt) or #UNITS14 in alpha.txt

If for any reason the # and the list don't match, that graphic appears (if e.g. you add a unit but don't edit the # to 24 or 15 respectively, then you get the graphic. If you edit within the list, then the lists's last unit will assume that graphic.

The mindworm is in the middle of the list in both .txt files which suggests some serious tinkering at some time (not necessarily on Hydro or his partner's part - he need just have imported a game turn or scenario from someone who had done some serious tinkering like xenofungus or shining, usually in a scenario. My games just produce that graphic for trawlers (and I have not edited the text when installing in my new rig)

G.

[LoD]

wgabrie: You're right, it is an early colony pod. I remember that once back at alpha.owo we tried to guess what each of the icons in units.pcx were representing. As far as I remember, I got them all right except for that one (eventually one of the designers jumped into the discussion) ...

[Hydro]

Thanks for the responses. I ended up capturing the durn thing. I used it to pop a pod, and another weird MW popped out. I attacked it, and it attacked as a 1-1-1 scout against a 1-1-1 scout (at a penalty since the MW 'scout' was in fungus). I reloaded and attacked a nearby real MW to see what would happen and the game crashed, giving me a nasty TERRAX error.

My guess is that I loaded a SMAC file as a SMAX file, and that the confused program loaded this image instead of a fungal tower (or something). Serves me right for leaving my laptop and SMAX unattended for so long. In the past the game has given me a warning that I was loading the wrong game, or crashed immediately.

Hydro