The Altera Centauri collection has been brought up to date by Darsnan. It comprises every decent scenario he's been able to find anywhere on the web, going back over 20 years.
25 themes/skins/styles are now available to members. Check the select drop-down at the bottom-left of each page.
Call To Power 2 Cradle 3+ mod in progress: https://apolyton.net/forum/other-games/call-to-power-2/ctp2-creation/9437883-making-cradle-3-fully-compatible-with-the-apolyton-edition
Another issue to consider: There are several bugs/exploits that have never been made public (or were removed shortly after being posted). Should the details be given to scient (via PM or email, of course) for possible correction?
Petek
"The avalanche has already started. It is too late for the pebbles to vote."
-- Kosh
Another issue to consider: There are several bugs/exploits that have never been made public (or were removed shortly after being posted). Should the details be given to scient (via PM or email, of course) for possible correction?
Petek
I would say, yes! If they are kept secret, it means they can be considered the most harmful.
It looks like there is a lot of work to do, many bugs, possible improvements and liquidations of annoyances. We should get a compilation of a list with these issues grouped in the order of importance to remove. Scient's work is very much appreciated. Let us prepare such a list and try to provide as much insight into possible solution as possible. It may save Scient time. What I mean is maybe a txt document with everything in it, so it is not needed to read multiple posts.
Also, somehow we have to decide on many issues if they are actually game features and not actual bugs. Everyone has some different way of seeing and understanding things. In some cases I can imagine, that what a game designer thought as logical feature, majority of players considered later a "broken" feature, or bug.
As a note to consider, in the thread, that you quoted, Petek, where Chaos Theory compiled a list of bugs for civ4 mod to eliminate, he mentioned that TCP/IP worked differently in some cases. It may be very important to know, if there are possible alternative functions with copied functionality for TCP/IP play as opposed to Singleplayer/hot seat play.
... Let us prepare such a list and try to provide as much insight into possible solution as possible. It may save Scient time. What I mean is maybe a txt document with everything in it, so it is not needed to read multiple posts.
....
I should have mentioned it there. I'm willing to start working on such list. It would be open to view, correct where needed and add discussion and proposals.
I do find your comment offensive in combination with post #16.
You're entitled to your opinion; however, scient is interested in getting a complete list of bugs. He may choose not to work on some of them, but if something is universally considered a bug (being able to change workers of an infiltrated faction into a specialist is one of those) and it is easily fixable, then he may choose to work on them.
The fact that it is a specific rule in most multiplayer games means that it is not a rare case of abuse. In multiplayer games, it is not a question of "don't use them;" it is a question of keeping the game fair.
I manage to avoid the problem that annoyed you in post #16 above simply by first moving the gravship to the side of an intervening base and then to the final destination. I suppose someone could say that it is not so important to fix something that is merely a convenience.
So let's let scient decide what is important. If he doesn't want to address the F4 issue or other commonly acknowledged bugs, that is fine with me. I won't tell him what is important or not.
Well, we all have our issues and ideas about what is important - mine is what would make this damn good game way better by getting rid of some of some of the really annoying qirks in the general use.
You have issues with some problems in MP where players can abuse certain specialities- well, isn't that more a problem of trust ?
Lastly, I certainly don't want to influence scient in his work - actually, I don't think it's possible - he chooses what he thinks is most entertaining/challenging (being a programmer myself, that would be my choice)
With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.
It looks like there is a lot of work to do, many bugs, possible improvements and liquidations of annoyances. We should get a compilation of a list with these issues grouped in the order of importance to remove. Scient's work is very much appreciated. Let us prepare such a list and try to provide as much insight into possible solution as possible. It may save Scient time. What I mean is maybe a txt document with everything in it, so it is not needed to read multiple posts.
I agree. We also need to test. Some reported bugs may have been fixed by a patch.
I should have mentioned it there. I'm willing to start working on such list. It would be open to view, correct where needed and add discussion and proposals.
That would be great and save me a lot of time. It's getting to the point that I'm getting overwhelmed. Maybe sort them into categories? Like "severe bugs" would be things like the CTD with interceptors or any other major game breaking bug. Next, general confirmed bugs which aren't as severe as crash to desktop or game halting but still pretty bad. After that, stuff like "exploits" which would be geared toward multiplayer games. Then lastly would be tweaks to improve the game by adding features or altering game play in a way that it is questionable whether it is a bug or not. I dunno, something like that would be handy so I could prioritize what to look at. I'd make a public release after majority of server bugs are fixed.
Maybe start a new thread? I kinda hijacked this one.
Thanks again for all your work. BTW, in the "bug reporting thread" that I posted on Civ Fanatics, Firaxis programmers were unable to reproduce the interceptor bug, much less fix it. Good work!
This could be because there has to be certain conditions where unit id variables aren't reset properly causing a crash. That said, this was fairly easy to find and fix even at the assembly level. If only I had the source code...
Lastly, I certainly don't want to influence scient in his work - actually, I don't think it's possible - he chooses what he thinks is most entertaining/challenging (being a programmer myself, that would be my choice)
So let's let scient decide what is important. If he doesn't want to address the F4 issue or other commonly acknowledged bugs, that is fine with me. I won't tell him what is important or not.
At the moment I'm still getting my bearing about how ACX code works. I've only started looking at exe day or so ago. It will be few months before I'm more comfortable enough to fix some of the more wide spread or complex issues. I probably should of started to fix another Infinity Engine game (Baldur's Gate 1, Baldur's Gate 2) since I know the ins and outs extremely well from my work on PST. However, I have fonder memories of AC.
Another issue to consider: There are several bugs/exploits that have never been made public (or were removed shortly after being posted).
Almost missed this. Well, if you have them documented send them over and I'll add them to my ever growing folder of notes. If they're really bad I could keep them out of public release changelog/readme so as not to compromise unpatched versions. Maybe list them as general severe security and exploit fixes?
I agree. We also need to test. Some reported bugs may have been fixed by a patch.
That's a good idea. I remember reading on several occasions that there are multiple bugs fixed in the Win 2000/XP patch. Both vanila and expansion, and many are not documented. So sometimes there is a surprise, that certain bugs no longer occur when smacx is patched with it.
- multiple air drops with right-click menu in a single turn, even from outside a base
Fixed. Now right click "Airdrop here" is subject to the same restrictions as hotkey "I" or "i" airdrop. However, unlike hotkey which brings up the parachute cursor the right click will instantly drop you to location as long as you pass all the checks. So right click is working as it should.
Another issue to consider: There are several bugs/exploits that have never been made public (or were removed shortly after being posted). Should the details be given to scient (via pm or email, of course) for possible correction?
Petek
Almost missed this. Well, if you have them documented send them over and i'll add them to my ever growing folder of notes. If they're really bad i could keep them out of public release changelog/readme so as not to compromise unpatched versions. Maybe list them as general severe security and exploit fixes?
I do not believe at all in keeping away such information from the public. Why not make them known? Because there would be abuse? Well, there is a select group that already knows of these exploits and might be abusing without our knowing! We cannot defend ourselves unless we know about the threat. Then we are warned. Free flow of information is in everybody's interest.
I do not believe at all in keeping away such information from the public. Why not make them known? Because there would be abuse? Well, there is a select group that already knows of these exploits and might be abusing without our knowing! We cannot defend ourselves unless we know about the threat. Then we are warned. Free flow of information is in everybody's interest.
That makes sense as long as I've fixed them. Meaning, not to include them in a list of known issues I've yet to resolve. However, I'll defer to consensus of long time ACX multiplayer users.
- repair bay special ability does not work.
Couldn't confirm. Transport with repair bay heals units and it seems to be faster than standard transport? Let me know if you can confirm this doesn't exist anymore or find repeatable steps. Maybe factor of healing isn't correct? If that's the case then it's most likely a script issue rather than engine.
instant demon boil on patrol...
Need repeatable steps.
- energy stockpile bug (many people love it though) but overall it kills production queue feature - mostly people don't use it to get extra energy. after facility one even do not need to add a stockpile energy item to queue
Repeatable steps.
In F4 (Base Operations), after visiting a colony and returning to the list, that colony still be in focus. Same when visiting another factions colony, that faction should still be the active.
I can see this but I think it will be a difficult one to crack so will hold off for now. I can see how this is annoying tho.
- The Scenario Generator crashes like crazy. Most of us who utilize it long ago adapted the strategy of saving off the scenario we're working on about once every ten commands entered.
I take it you mean "Create Scenario" under Scenario main menu? If so, I can see what you mean. The first time I loaded it without doing anything the game crashed to desktop. However, when I restarted it works. If you can come up with some steps to cause a crash like do x, y, z then I'll track down and find problem.
(13) Due to the probe rollover bug, an enhanced probe team mind controlling a unit of a faction running +3 or higher Probe SE rating would only have to pay half the credits it would have had to pay without the bug. To compensate for that bug, the probing faction needs to get rid of a sum of credits equal to the probe cost. This can be done by, for example, significantly overpaying for a hurry order, meaning the credits are wasted.
Can you explain this? I didn't see any issue with units and PROBE SE value being over 3 or below -2. Unlike cities, it actually handles range of -6 to 9. If the bribe amount being generated is incorrect for <3, well I can fix that but as far as I can tell in vanilla game you could never bribe units that had PROBE SE of >=3. Since I already have code location and some understanding of probe stuff works I could easily fix any issues.
Also, what exactly is an "enhanced probe team"? Can they bypass SE restrictions?
First base doesn't receive 10 free minerals if "look first" option is turned off
I couldn't confirm this. It seems dependent maybe on faction/location? Sometimes I would get more or less than 10.
Ability to activate the scenario editor for a PBEM (CGN 16)
What is a PBEM?
Inexpensive completion of several expensive builds (like projects) at once
Is this the energy stockpile bug mentioned above?
Trading bases with the AI (as opposed to extorting or gifting) (CGN 4)
Why is this a bug?
Units can be instantly upgraded to elite by way of the patrol command (CGN 74).
Artillery can sometimes fire upon tiles more than 2 tiles away.
The build queue can be abused in many ways, allowing facilities to be built without prerequisites (CGN 50), sea units to be built in landlocked bases, and other Bad Things.
Need steps to repeat.
Because of this alien civil war, each game has either both the Usurpers and the Caretakers, or neither. Whether you are using the faction editor or playing with a mix of factions from Alien Crossfire and Alpha Centauri, you can never have just one alien faction in the game
That's from the manual and I can easily start a game with only one alien race. Not knowing the story behind ACX (I've only played AC), is this considered a bug? Or something that was dropped?
Lastly. the drone issue I'll have to read up more about how UI works so I understand how it should be and what's going wrong. My hunch is this will be a difficult one to crack (like all complex UI stuff) so going to hold off until I've gotten a better understanding of ACX code.
Units aboard a transport without a repair bay that haven't moved will heal normally (10% per turn; additional 10% if it is within territory). Repair bay is supposed to heal unit completely in one turn.
To see stockpile energy bug, go to base that is on verge of building a unit. Save the turn.
(1) Let the base build the unit. Check total energy of faction (labs accumulated and credits accumulated).
(2) Go back to save. Insert "stockpile energy" in production queue #1 slot. Now let the base build the unit. Check total energy of faction (labs accumulated and credits accumulated).
Enhanced probe team has algorithmic enhancement (this is a ACX addition). Look at manual on ACX disc to see what it is supposed to do. It was added so hunter seeker algorithm didn't end probe combat.
The bribe isn't correct for units > 3. I believe that it isn't correct for bases > 3.
PBEM = play by email.
AI doesn't evaluate bases properly. It will trade a size 10 base with several secret projects for a new size 1 base.
I wouldn't consider the ability to start a game with 1 alien race a bug. Obviously the game designer wanted both races or none, but if someone wants to play single player as an alien against 6 human factions, it doesn't hurt anyone. Similarly if a group of multiplayers want to have only one alien AI faction, it doesn't hurt anyone else.
Drone issue is complicated. It doesn't quite work the way the manual implies it should.
Quote:
instant demon boil on patrol...
Need repeatable steps.
Set a unit to patrol and give it three waypoints. The unit goes off in some seemingly random direction and is immediately promoted to Elite/Demon Boil status (depending on whether it's human or native life).
Quote:
- energy stockpile bug (many people love it though) but overall it kills production queue feature - mostly people don't use it to get extra energy. after facility one even do not need to add a stockpile energy item to queue
Repeatable steps.
In addition to what vyeh said, the energy stockpile bug occurs in another situation: When a base completes a facility, the faction receives energy credits (on the same turn) equal to what stockpile energy would produce. This happens even if "stockpile energy" hasn't been added to the queue.
Quote:
First base doesn't receive 10 free minerals if "look first" option is turned off
I couldn't confirm this. It seems dependent maybe on faction/location? Sometimes I would get more or less than 10.
I didn't realize that this acted inconsistently.
Quote:
Inexpensive completion of several expensive builds (like projects) at once
Is this the energy stockpile bug mentioned above?
I think this describes a different exploit. However, if it's the one I'm thinking of, it's one of the "embargoed" exploits.
Quote:
Units can be instantly upgraded to elite by way of the patrol command (CGN 74).
This is the same as the "Demon Boil" bug mentioned earlier.
Quote:
The build queue can be abused in many ways, allowing facilities to be built without prerequisites (CGN 50), sea units to be built in landlocked bases, and other Bad Things.
Need steps to repeat.
I've never used this exploit. I think an example is: A base needs to have an Aerospace Complex (AC) to build satellites. Assuming you have the required tech, you place an AC in your queue and then add a satellite after the AC. Now delete the AC from the queue. The satellite will still be built, even though the base has no AC.
Petek
"The avalanche has already started. It is too late for the pebbles to vote."
-- Kosh
To get a ship (or aquafarm) in a landlocked base, go to a seaport, put the ship (or aquafarm) in the #1 slot in the build queue. Copy the queue. Then go to the landlocked base and paste the build queue from the seaport. Now the landlocked base will build a ship after it finishes its current build.
There is also a bug with formers. On the turn formers complete their task, it will show up as already moved. If you set it to a terraforming task, then it will show as already moved with the correct number of turns to complete the terraforming task.
If you now activate the formers, they will have regained a movement point.
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.
When Mart or someone puts together a list of bugs, the serious ones are the interceptor bug and the probe rollover bug.
Tweet
Comment