Fixing SMACX Bugs

[Doux]

Can someone confirm the following bug I found in the FAQ (I don't have SMACX), especially the part in bold:

27) Q: Why does the progenitor music play with all the new SMAX factions? How can I restore original music?

A: The ambient music used in SMAC/X is located in the fx folder in your SMAC directory. They are the .amb files; sset1.amb is for the Spartans, gset1.amb for the Gaians, and so forth. There is no new ambient music for the SMAX factions and the progenitor music (aset1.amb) plays for all of them (a bug in the expansion includes the Believers while under SMAX). If you wish to use ambient music from the original seven factions for the new factions, back up the aset1.amb file and replace it with a copy of one of the other .amb files, properly renamed. It's not a direct translation of the same ambient music, but it is close.

Because if the believers do not have their own music anymore in SMACX, which would be erroneous, that might be possible to fix.

[scient]

So what exactly is the bug with sound files? I don't follow that bug report.

[Psyringe]

Quick info: Unexpectedly my RL requires increased attention at the moment, I may not be able to construct the probe testbed until next week. I'll follow the thread though, and as soon as I can, I'll try to be of more help.

[Psyringe]

So what exactly is the bug with sound files? I don't follow that bug report.

IIRC the Believers had faction-specific music/sound in SMAC, like the other factions. SMAX then introduced one new music/sound set which was used by all SMAX factions. For unknown reasons, these SMAX music/sounds also play for the Believers instead of their original music/sound. This replacing of sound does not happen for any of the other SMAC factions, so it's probably a bug.

[Darsnan]

OK, couple other very minor bugs:

1) under the #RESOURCEINFO section of the alpha(x).txt the nutrients value for boreholes does not track correctly. Example: if a 1 is put in the placeholder position, the actual value in-game is 3.

2) if a negative nutrient value is assigned to a borehole, the GUI in-game cannot display the negative sign. Example: if the nutrient value for a borehole is set to -2, the in-game GUI shows it as 2 (however the game does treat it correctly as a negative 2 and detracts 2 nutrients for a worker assigned to the square).

3) Under the #RESOURCEINFO the "Improved Land" cannot be modified for mineral or energy values. Is this something that could be changed and be backward compatible?

4) All units listed in the #UNITS section of the alpha(x).txt are prototyped: bug or feature? Personally speaking I think this should be left as is, as in its current form it assists the AI slightly.

D

[Googlie]

WOW

Back from a prolongued absence from the game, and what a joy to read thru the various fixes by scient!!!!


(and scient .... can u send me your latest version with the fixes?? thanx in anticipation)

Googlie

[scient]

Quick info: Unexpectedly my RL requires increased attention at the moment, I may not be able to construct the probe testbed until next week. I'll follow the thread though, and as soon as I can, I'll try to be of more help.

Sounds good. Also, thanks for clearing up issue with sound I'll look into it. I usually have sound disabled when debugging.

@Darsnan: 1/2 should be easy to sort. Not sure about 3.

@Googlie: Oki, will send in a few mins.

[Buster Crabbe's Uncle]

Another bug/exploit- time warp

I've never seen this one mentioned anywhere, either.

When the game zooms to a base screen at the beginning of a turn -like for golden age beginning- you can load a savegame from a previous turn. When you close the base screen, all bases built after it continue as if you hadn't loaded the save. But for the first base, any bases older, and the rest of the world, it's the year of the save.

Not a real big deal, right? But if you exploit this by saving at the end of the turn and doing it again and again until you get too bored, it's possible to put all but your first base in a time warp. Energy accumulates, as does research, the bases grow, and any units that got killed between turns didn't get killed.

Trouble is, no units get their move points back and there's no terrain improvements, either. This is a tedious cheat to keep up for long.

Still, see the attached save from a SMAniaC game as the Bree for a demonstration. Pontus is up to 7 population and building a Hab Complex-- in year five. The build queue exploit is also demonstrated, (and Petek: this time I labled the build queues).

This one just might be worth fixing, as it's a real game breaker.

[scient]

1) under the #RESOURCEINFO section of the alpha(x).txt the nutrients value for boreholes does not track correctly. Example: if a 1 is put in the placeholder position, the actual value in-game is 3.

If nutrient field for Borehole Square is non-zero, it adds Bonus Square nutrients to value. I think the problem is a mix up with check, see screenshots below. I've got to determine what edi value is but I think all that needs to be done is to change borehole check from "test esi, esi" where it's testing itself to "test edi, edi" like rest of checks. What determines a bonus square?

2) if a negative nutrient value is assigned to a borehole, the GUI in-game cannot display the negative sign. Example: if the nutrient value for a borehole is set to -2, the in-game GUI shows it as 2 (however the game does treat it correctly as a negative 2 and detracts 2 nutrients for a worker assigned to the square).

Is it possible for any of the other stats like minerals or energy to be displayed as negative? Or is it just nutrients that has display problem?

3) Under the #RESOURCEINFO the "Improved Land" cannot be modified for mineral or energy values. Is this something that could be changed and be backward compatible?

Well, those values do get read in as zero with *. However the global values have no references anywhere in code ie. not used anyplace. The same goes for that "unused" variable field. Now, I could always add in code that would access them but that would be more mod territory.



@Buster's Uncle: Will add that to list of exploits. The production queue one tho is 100% sorted.

[vyeh]

I believe the problem with a negative value for nutrients has greater applicability.

In the SMAX Angel Scenario: Adaption 101, Darsnan set up a scenario where ocean squares had -2/2/2, i.e working such a square subtracted 2 nutrients to reflect the increased nutrient requirements for the worker due to toxic materials.

The base screen showed 1/2/2 although the game subtracted the two nutrients from the base square nutrients to get 0 nutrients correctly.



I believe each resource icon is separate (note how 1 mineral looks different from 2 mineral and that minerals above 8 are represented by 8+). Short of finding where the images are stored and putting in icons for -1, -2, I don't see how we can show negative numbers (unless there is a red border we can put for negative values).

What I'd like to see happen is that the 1-2-2 on the base screen in my example should look like 0-2-2.

[scient]

Ya, they're fixed images in here: newicons.pcx

I'd have to look into how pcx files are parsed into prog, maybe fixed offsets? If so, it may be possible to add in say -3, -2, -1.

edit: For next update, borehole square nutrient values will be correctly read in. Like I said above it is just a matter of changing it from checking itself (which makes no sense) to checking toggle if square has bonus or not. How do you toggle a bonus square anyway?

[scient]

Ok, fixing the loading of ambient sound is simple. It basically retrieves the current faction name and then does a string compare. There is indeed a bug with believers because the faction id is "believe" but it does a string compare to "believers". So, I simply change "believers" to "believe" and it's sorted.

Here is which faction uses what. If it can't find anything, it uses aset1.
gaians: gset1.amb
hive: mset1.amb
univ: user2.amb
morgan: mset1.amb
spartans: sset1.amb
believe: bset1.amb
peace: gset1.amb
otherwise: aset1.amb

It looks like "pset1.amb" and "ustart.amb" aren't used. Anyone have an idea what pset1/ustart should be used for? At first I thought pset1 was for Peacekeepers but if it is it looks like they never finished making it. Also, if anyone knows how to make the amb files, I could easily add in check that would load them for other factions.

[vyeh]

There are 3 types of bonus: bonus nutrients, bonus minerals and bonus energy.

A square can have none or one of these. In the map editor, I can specify a square with no bonus or with one. So there must be a 2 bit flag for each square. One setting is no bonus. The other three settings specify one of the different types.

In the alphax.txt, there is a line under

#RESOURCEINFO

Bonus Square, 2, 2, 2, 0, * Mineral +1 if mine present

I suppose pset1/ustart could refer to progenitors and usurpers.

[scient]

There are 3 types of bonus: bonus nutrients, bonus minerals and bonus energy.

A square can have none or one of these. In the map editor, I can specify a square with no bonus or with one. So there must be a 2 bit flag for each square. One setting is no bonus. The other three settings specify one of the different types.

In the alphax.txt, there is a line under

#RESOURCEINFO

Bonus Square, 2, 2, 2, 0, * Mineral +1 if mine present

I suppose pset1/ustart could refer to progenitors and usurpers.

Ya, I was right it is checking if square has bonus or not. I just wanted to confirm that for fix.

As for pset1/ustart, they're on AC disk so not ACX specific. I tried to load them as ambient sound files but that didn't work. Is the "amb" format used in any other civ? I was curious if there was an editor or something that would let you create them. Or any info about their structure.

edit: I realized that in unmodified vanilla game, squares with both borehole and nutrient bonus don't get the bonus. Since default in alphax.txt for borehole nutrients is zero, it would fail check and never give bonus. So the fix I did has an added bonus of resolving this as well.

[Maniac]

As for pset1/ustart, they're on AC disk so not ACX specific. I tried to load them as ambient sound files but that didn't work. Is the "amb" format used in any other civ? I was curious if there was an editor or something that would let you create them. Or any info about their structure.

Oh, for a moment there I was hoping you could see in the exe how the ambient soundtrack was created. Would have been awesome for Planetfall.