Problems with an invalid unit

[Martin Gühmann]

During testing I find something that I would call an invalid unit, it was in a sea city with 6 Coracles and 6 other units with 3 in a group. In the invalid unit as 13th on that square. As it was a test game with me playing the Barbarians and watching the AIs I bombarded this invalid unit in order to kill it. That helped but some turns later the problem occured again with another AI. Unfortunatly if I tried to access the unit via the empire unit manager or by grouping all the units on that quare ito one stack the game crashed. I could touch the quare with the unit on it so that it was possible to remove all the other units from it. I noticed the health bar of that unit was missing.

So my question did anybody see this problem before and if yes was a solution or the cause of the problem found?

-Martin

[Immortal Wombat]

Are you using any new SLICs?

I found the other day the DamageUnit function can work even when units drop below 0 hp. They end up with negative HP, and any battle their in comes up with a black battleview, and isn't resolved properly, even though the victory/loss sound is played. I don't know if these units would exist in the same was as normal units do.

[Martin Gühmann]

Actual I used GoodMod for ApolytonPack Ultra Gigantic map in a test edition that removed all the show functions form the messages, so that the game can continue when I am not sitting in front of my computer and a wonder message pops up for instance. I just checked the script.slc file I used and found out that it is running without frenzy, without the commerce improvemnt slic for AIs, and with Dale's old airunit.slc, that will give some slic errors in the later stage of the game as DebugSlic is set to Yes, but so far no slic errors. In addition it contains my latest version of the City Capture Options but as they only work for the human they shouldn't be the problem.

My suspicion was that it could have to do with a script that moves units like my BetterAI.slc or the frency code. If it is such a unit move script then it could only be the BetterAI.slc.

For the batleview it is possible to attack the quare on that you find these invalid units, the battleview comes up as normal and that additional unit is there.

-Martin

[Peter Triggs]

Does any of the code you're running generate the MoveUnits event? You've mentioned a couple of times that you can do some very strange things with it.

In the battleview, what does the invalid unit look like? Here's a phantom unit that I noticed recently (look at the guy standing behind the settler in the center of the screen):

[Martin Gühmann]

The BetterAI.slc doesn't use the MoveUnit event, afterwards I noticed how much I have to take care on it I outcommented it and used instaed of it the MoveToOrder event and the MovePathOrder event. Both events work if I use the ClickedArmy event to trigger them. But I got the suspicion that these order events doesn't work as I hope. I tried them in the City Capture Code, the GroupOrder is not executed and that code and also a move order on the enemies turn is not executed, therefore the stuff could not work either, I did in the better AI code that explains why I found 6 ships in a sea city that should have been moved onto the sea. Well I could use the MoveArmy event.

To the screenshot, Peter: Unfortunatly I have to admit that I am not able to find the phantom unit you mean, could you put a cycle around it, please. The invalid unit was of type archer, it appeared on the unit tap with the right icon but without health bar, in the battlescreen it was displayed as an additional archer. Unfortunatly I don't have the savegame anymore, well let's see if I can recreate it.

-Martin

[Martin Gühmann]

After running the game 300 or 400 more turns the bug didn't occur again. One think I saw was the conquering behaviour of one of the AIs, it conquered cities until it reached 38 cities that were 8 cities over the limit on my setup, the happiness was under controll meaning only a few cities were at happiness level of 72/71, to achieve this it lowerd a little bit the slider settings. After a lot of turns later the AI got an more advanced government that allowed 70 cities. The AI conquered again a lot of cities killed finally one civ and reduced two other civs to a minimum of 2 or 3 cities, unfortunatly it has now 8 cities more then allowed, happiness is still ok. So it looks to me the AI knows when to take cities and when to slow down city taking.

-Martin

[Martin Gühmann]

Well this post not recognize bug gets old and boring, Marcos you should do something about it.

-Martin

[Peter Triggs]

I've blown up the image. You can only see the top half of the phantom unit. Actually, he only seems to have a top half.

But it can't have anything to do with your problem: he's not an archer. Has anybody else ever seen this guy before?

[J Bytheway]

I still see nothing unusual in that picture...

[child of Thor]

J Bytheway, you need to drink more scotch But seriously there is a 'phantom' unit visable between the two settlers, and no i have never seen that before. It kinda looks like a ghost of the settler units, but without legs or the mule......ah no it's a warrior unit - you can just make out the shield......i think????
What Mod were you using? It seems CTP2 is now haunted, and not just by bad sales

[Immortal Wombat]

This is fun.

Has anybody else ever seen this guy before?

Yep. Last time I lined up two settler in the same adjacent squares, diagonally NE/SW of each other on plains.

Spoiler:

Lose focus slightly.
Allow the north-easternmost settler's sythe in the back of his mule pack to turn into the hair of the phantom unit.
Then, simply allow your subconcious mind free reign over cognitive thinking. The brain will automatically attempt to find a human form where there is none. The plains will be seen as flesh-tone, the shadows will be seen as clothing, or whatever.

[child of Thor]

Maybe i should drink less scotch!
I can also now see one to the left(as you look at it) of the left settler. Thanx IW, its amazing what the mind can do
Its not April yet is it?