Fixing SMACX Bugs

[Lord Avalon]

(2) more surprising, the land transport can move into the sea base!

(3) the land transport can also move from the sea base to an empty adjacent land square (so it can be the available transport unit in the base -- unlike the repair bay where a unit couldn't heal itself, it can provide its own transport out of a sea base).

Land transports are amphibious! [/B.C.]

[Illuminatus]

Agreed. Or a simpler title: Fixing SMACX Bugs.

Renaming it "Fixing SMACX Bugs" sounds good. I could start a new post with changelog of current readme (and that title) then Illuminatus could split this topic and merge everything from my first post onward into new thread.

That is not possible. Each post has its unique id which determines position in threads (this is what sometimes causes bizarre post ordering mistakes). It would probably require direct editing of Poly's database which would probably annoy our technical staff. On the other hand you now have a free to edit OP.

Or you could create a sub-forum.

As soon as official releases get the seal of approval I'll be glad to.

[vyeh]

Land transports are amphibious! [/B.C.]

You can't load a transport unit onto another transport unit so a ground transport would never be on a sea transport.

In any event a ground transport can't attack, so amphibious only means it can move across the sea channel between land and an adjacent sea base.

[scient]

Cheers Illuminatus, I edited first post with quick note and current changelog and I'll update it with each release.

[Russia4Life]

More of a game imbalance than a bug, but is it possible to limit a helicopter to 1 attack per turn. It seems a general consensus among peoples posts that I've read that helicopters being able to attack multiple targets in one turn makes them imbalanced.

I am not sure if this is the sort of thing you are interested in working on, or if it is even possible for that matter. Thought I'd bring it up none the less though.

[vyeh]

Renaming the topic would be a good idea, and a sub-forum would be even better. I personally didn't read the topic until today because of the title.

When scient first threadjacked "Data Angels Bug," it was a thread that saw the last post 2 and a half months ago and the only other active threads were the ACDG6 threads.

For the old-timers, the name was irrelevant; there wasn't much choice of reading material ...

[Nims]

Randomly getting a free Network Node / Perimeter Defense in one of your core bases when conquering a Uni / Hive base.

[vyeh]

On the other side, not getting your free facility in a captured base. Usually you get it, but occasionally you don't. This has happened in ACDG6.

[Russia4Life]

Got a scenario editor bug for you. Upon starting the game if you go to Scenario -> Create Scenario. You start on a blank map. Editing this map or generating a different sized blank map and then editing that one will cause alot of bugs and glitches. Incorrect elevation listings, placing rivers will cause the terrain to raise and lower, and a few other things as well. If you first generate a random map either in the scenario editor or by starting a game, or loading a map in the editor or game this doesn't happen though.

I found this quite annoying after I had to restart a couple of maps I started making, before realizing what was causing it.
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I have another one as well. It involves starting a game on SMAC saving then loading in SMACX. You can get some bugged native lifeforms I made a save of these units. I believe it was supposed to be a spore launcher, since those aren't available in SMAC it likely didn't know what to do when one was triggered. They are actually somewhat usable as long as they do not engage in psi combat, if they do the game crashes. I attached a save for you showing what they look like. I have the map centered on it over by the peace keepers.
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Yet another, this one involving the sound played when a formers is attacked by a mindworm. When this occurs there is the sound of a laser that is played instead of just the psi battle sound.

[scient]

The morale related combat functions I was working with awhile ago are actually subfuctions of the main combat bonuses code. I've only been looking at the defensive one but attack is pretty much the same. First it retrieves unit morale so 0 for very green and 6 for elite. If unit is in base it has modifiers for Brood Pit and Children's Creche. This bit is messed up most likely a sign error. Next check is if defending unit doesn't have Dissociate Wave and attacking unit has Sorophic Gas, subtract 2 from morale value. It then checks if morale is < 1, set to 1. If > 6, set to 6. After bounding it, it adds 6 to value. So min and max are 7 to 12. After this are some checks regarding psi units that I haven't looked at (Neural Amp, etc). It then retrieves the armor value of defending unit and multiples it by 8. The algo for standard units goes as follows:

strength = ((armor_val * 8) * morale_fin) / 64

Maybe this has already been posted. So if you have a disciplined infantry unit on flat ground (morale_fin = 2+6 = 8) with armor of 3, it's strength would be 3.00. If unit is hardened (morale_fin = 3+6 = 9), strength would be 3.37. These values are before any bonuses. So the problem is definitely with generation of morale_fin where CC and BP are taken into account.

[scient]

The same algo above is used for PSI units except armor value is fixed per values below.

Locusts of Chiron, Isle of the Deep, Sealurk: 1
Mind Worms, Spore Launcher, PSI armor: 2
Fungal Tower: 3

If unit is psi and defending faction has Neural Amp, armor_val is increased by 50%.


Also, if unit has Plan set to "Info Warfare" or "Alien Artifact" then it skips out without calcuating the strength algo. There is an exception for probe teams if they have armor set. There is also another probe team exception even if it has no armor that I haven't identified.

[Lord Avalon]

A probe team could have Trance but no armor.

I wonder if that really helps, though. I seem to remember losing whenever a trance probe team gets attacked by a mindworm. Adding regular armor seems to make a difference.

[scient]

A probe team could have Trance but no armor.

I wonder if that really helps, though. I seem to remember losing whenever a trance probe team gets attacked by a mindworm. Adding regular armor seems to make a difference.

Ya, that's it! Cheers!

Nims/vyeh: Could you expand upon what is wrong and how the game should work regarding getting facilities? Not going to look at it now but for next release since I'm focusing on combat. It would still be good to add it to my list.

@Russia4Life: Ok, will add scenario bug to my list for future. Are SMAC saves suppose to be able to be loaded into SMAX? I would think they wouldn't but if it is the case that they should load fine I'll add it to list. Good catch with former/mind worm! I'll add that to fix along side the "pod recovered" for marine detachment. I normally play without sound so any audio bug reports are appreciated. What's even stranger is super formers use the correct sound.

[Russia4Life]

Not sure if they are supposed to be able to be loaded into smacx, but they can be loaded. If you try loading a smacx game in smac, you get a message somewhere along the lines of "a password protected multiplayer game cannot be loaded in single player", so I'm guessing the game has some way of recognizing the different type of save files even if it is not the correct recognition. Don't know if this is something you would be able to fix or not, probably just something people will have to use their commonsense with. Start a game in smac finish it in smac.

[vyeh]

There are two (probably related) bugs involved.

In Nim's bug, when you conquer a base, facilities show up in bases that you originally built.

In my bug, you have a faction that gets a free facility, e.g. University gets a free network node. Usually when you conquer a base, you get your free facility, i.e. network node, in the the captured base. However, occasionally you don't get your free facility.

In connection with the morale < 1 being set to 1, please note my posts #159 and #167, where I note the game treats very green the same as green for defensive purposes, but does distinguish between very green and green for offensive purposes. I think it should be morale < 0 being set to 0.

I believe this is a bug since the manual says very green is different from green for both offensive and defensive purposes.