Fixing SMACX Bugs

[T-hawk]

To tell the dimensions of a map, just move the cursor all the way to the bottom right of the world map. The little info box on the bottom left shows the numeric coordinates of the currently selected tile. The displayed horizontal coordinate is twice the number of actual squares on the map (because of the 45° rotated isometric grid.)

[scient]

Ok, so bottom most unit in BlackCat's map is (383,255) zero offseted tiles would mean 384 and 256. With isometric view looking at 768x256?

[vyeh]

192x256

[Darsnan]

I've been busy with some other stuff so haven't had chance to work on anything new. I take the latest fixed exe has held up so far? Issues in changelog have been sorted properly?

I have played two games so far (one as the DA and one as Usurpers), and no issues to date. I have not really tested the DA +6 Probe rating though, and only done a little testing of the alien Drop CP capability. Will continue playing around with these and see what happens.

Some other minor "bugs" that are more pie-in-the-sky wishes than anything else:

1. Slow special ability doesn't work on infantry chassis. Example: in the #UNITS section of the alphax.txt file if I define a foil (default movement 4) as having the Slow special ability, its movement per turn is 3. If I give a rover unit the Slow special ability, its movement is 1. However if I give an infantry unit the Slow special ability, its movement remains one.

2. If you try and give an NL unit a weapon value larger than 2, it defaults to a value of 3. Example: in the #UNITS section of the alphax.txt file if I change the mindworm's weapon from psi to Fusion (level 10) and start a game, the mindworm's weapon level is 3.


D

[scient]

Well, I'm still not 100% sure what the function causing pole crash does but it looks like it handles some animation involved when a unit moves. Regardless, I've come up with a solution. The problem has to do with y coordinate exceeding bounds (north/south pole). There is code that prevents this from happening for x coord so I added a bit of code that closely emulates this. I'll have to do some more testing but should finalize fix in a day or so.

@Darsnan: I'll add those to my ever growing list.

[Doux]

1. Slow special ability doesn't work on infantry chassis. Example: in the #UNITS section of the alphax.txt file if I define a foil (default movement 4) as having the Slow special ability, its movement per turn is 3. If I give a rover unit the Slow special ability, its movement is 1. However if I give an infantry unit the Slow special ability, its movement remains one.

But when a slow infantry unit has elite morale, how many movement points does it have?
I wouldn't count it a bug that a slow unit is not so slow that it can't move.. or is there the possibility of a unit having 1/3 move at the start of the turn (so that it can only use roads and magtubes with certainty)?

[Darsnan]

But when a slow infantry unit has elite morale, how many movement points does it have?

How does the software treat any elite unit? I think the way it works is that the software takes the base movement for infantry chassis (i.e. one), subtracts the Special Ability of -1 movement, then adds one for Elite status. But I could be wrong.

Anyways, as I'd originally posted this is more a pie-in-the-sky type thing than anything else: the Slow Movement SA is only available to people who mod the game (via the alphax.txt), so would effect only a small group of people. Not a real pressing need for this, but I've had ideas for zero movement units in the past, and haven't been able to implement them because I can't produce a zero movement unit.


D

[Petek]

scient,

I've tried to create a situation in which a unit gets "stuck" at a pole, but no luck so far. Either I was imagining it, or there's some other necessary condition that I haven't found.

Oh, one easy way to determine the map size is to open the scenario editor. The size should be displayed in the box at the bottom middle of the screen. You might have to select the "T" button if either "M" or "I" is active.

Everything else working OK.

Petek

[BlackCat]

Not a critical bug, nor serious, just one that have puzzeld me - sea formers can't build sensor arrays - you get the message that SA's can't be build at sea, but nontheless autoimprove seaformers do build SA's - typically in fungus tiles.

[Petek]

BC,

You can mod alpha(x).txt to add the ability to build sea sensors. Find the line for Sensor Array and change it to:

Sensor Array, None, Sensor Buoy, None, 4, Construct $STR0, O, O

However, note that sea sensors don't confer a defensive bonus to nearby bases. If I recall correctly, they do increase your sighting range.

Petek (who never sleeps!)

[BlackCat]

Well, I don't exactly want to build them - was just puzzeled why autounits can while I can't.

Oh, and please take a nap once in a while - we certainly want you to be around for many years yet

[scient]

Well, I've tested fix to poles crash and it looks good. It handles both upper and lower (north/south pole) overflow correctly without dying.

Got another fix and a fix to one of my fixes. The exploit has prob been posted somewhere in this thread: "If you have another player infiltrated, you can affect his workers via the F4 screen (CGN 75)."

Sorted! When I was working on something else I noticed below output to debug log:

Base report psych click 0 0 0
LockBase 0 0 4
UnlockBase 0 4 0
Base report psych right click 0 0 0

This made tracking down the code location take few mins. So I added faction check like there is for garrisoned units. While fixing this I noticed I had an issue to fix #9 (city product queue exploit) where it would disable UI when it shouldn't. I think Base OP was the only window affected but I rolled back existing fix just to be on safe side. Now, the patch only effects city production queue as I intended.

I've still got to do some more testing but I'll prob throw in 1-2 more fixes and release an update by weekend.

edit: Still needs some testing but "go to home" hotkey/right click is now working correctly (ie. going to actual home base rather than closest).

[scient]

"Go to home" is now working 100%.

13. In vanilla game, "Go to Home Base" (shift-g) sends unit to closest base rather than actual home. Fix retrieves unit's home base and sets goto waypoint similar to how game recalls units within city UI. If a home base cannot be found (independent), default to vanilla code and go to nearest base.

I figured it would be best to sent indep units to closest base rather than have them do nothing.

--

On another topic, can I get some more info about the drone psych window bug? Now that I understand how to locate portions of code based on window UI, locating drone stuff shouldn't be too hard. I guess I just don't understand what is wrong.

@vyeh: I got the saved game from here. Can you help explain how captured base, facilities, police, and secret projects all combine together to make the total psych shown under base name?

Is the problem there shouldn't be two drones in facilities? And why doesn't base riot if "captured base" are all drones?

I do see that if you look up citizens tab for city in Base Op there are no drones. Maybe issue is here rather than base?

[vyeh]

Look at pp. 71-72 of the manual.

"Psych MFD

"The screen displays the graphic readout of the citizens in the base and the effect of various factors on their attitude.

"This graph contains up to five lines, each line cumulative with the ones above it. A line is displayed only if it's actually applicable to the base at the moment."

The final line in the display should be the same as the population readout under "Fungi League." It is not. This is the display bug.

As you've seen, the final line is the same as the citizens tab for Fungi League in Base Operations. Obviously, if you can find the code that correctly displays the final line or the code that displays the citizens tab under Base Operations and use that code for the population readout, you will fix the display bug.

An explanation of the various lines.

"Unmodified. Shows all citizens and their attitude before other modifiers are taken into consideration."

For bases captured 50 turns or more and for bases you've established, the line will read "Unmodified" rather than "Captured Base."

All citizens start as drones except for those starting as workers because of the difficulty level or as talents because of faction characteristics (e.g. peacekeepers get one talent for every four citizens).

"Psych. Shows attitudes modified by your energy allocation to Psych (see Energy Allocation p. 117), if any, cumulative with the above."

There is no psych line in the example because psych is zero. Generally 2 psych turns one worker into a talent or one drone into a worker.

"Facilities. Shows attitudes modified by the base's facilities, if any, cumulative with the above."

In the example, Fungi League has a recreation commons (suppresses 2 drones) and a hologram theatre (suppresses 3 drones). As expected, this line has 5 less drones than the line above.

"Police. Shows attitudes modified by any police units (see Drone Riots, p. 63) assigned to the base, cumulative with the above."

Fungi League has a scout (suppresses one drone) with non-lethal methods (suppresses an additional drone). As expected, this line has two less drones than the line above.

"Secret Projects. This line adds in the effects of any Secret Projects your faction has completed, cumulative with the above."

In the example, the faction has The Longevity Vaccine (which gives a talent). As expected, in this line, one worker has become a talent.

That is an explanation of how the captured base (or unmodified), facilities, police, and secret projects all combine to make the total psych. Unfortunately the total psych shown under the base name is incorrect (this is the display bug).

There should be two drones under facilities. There were seven drones in the line above. The facilities only suppressed five drones.

The base doesn't riot because all factors (psych, facilities, police and secret projects) have to be applied.

The citizens tab for the base under Base Operations is the correct display. If it shows drones are less than or equal to talents, there is no drone riot. In contrast, Fungi League population readout shows more drones than talents, yet there wasn't a riot.

My bug (see post #70 and #135) has to do with the situation in which a secret project does not create a change with the line above (police or facilities, if there is no police).

Talents don't work the way the manual mentions.

Suppose you have a base that only has drones generated by having a lot of bases ("bureaucracy" or "double" drones). Suppose you have a secret project that generates a talent, e.g. human genome project. Suppose you have a recreation commons. Suppose you have 3 drones.

According to the manual, the recreation commons should turn the drones to workers and then the secret project should turn one of the workers to a talent. So you would expect 1 talent, 1 worker and 1 drone.

Instead, the game acts as if the secret project were applied first, turning the double drone into a drone and then the recreation commons is applied turning two of the three drones into workers.

The attached image is from ACDG6 (a SMAniaC game) for 2146. I went into that save, turned the doctor in Cytosino into a drone. In that game we have the human genome project (called the rejuvenation tanks in SMAniaC).

Note that the recreation tanks turned 2 of the drones into workers, but while the screen displays the secret projects line, there is no effect.

[scient]

Ok, thank you. Now I know what to look for and try to fix.