DESIGN: CTP2 Bugs and alterations [fix list]

[J Bytheway]

With the prospect of having our hands on the source, Maquiladora suggested that we try to compile all the bugs and assess their importance. So, I'll start that here. Any you wish to add, please feel free to post, but I think it would be best if we focus on bugs and removing hard-coded limits like 200 sprites, rather than daydreaming about things over and above what is already there (of course, the line between these two is very blurred).

Stick to simply listing bugs here. Discussion should go in Solvers thread at:

http://apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?threadid=93170

For the moment I'll just try and list them, and not worry about importance. These are primarily taken from the posts in the thread about the source starting with Dales post:

http://apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?postid=2190743#post2190743

I may or may not collate the contributions. Either way, I won't do it soon.

I've divided things into categories in a manner suggested by Locutus. This gives a rough order of ease of implementation, since bugfixes are easier than improvements, which are easier than additions (with many exceptions, obviously).

Fixes

- Fix infinite rush build bug
- Fix Sea city sprite bug
- Fix boni of undersea tunnels for sea units bug
- Fix PBEM
- Fix pillage neutral tileimprovement bug
- Fix all the non-functional functions (If anyone wants to determine exactly which these are, it would be welcome, but it's probably not worthwhile right now).
- Fix goods.txt to allow for other bonuses besides gold.

Improvements

- Increase the sprite limit
- Increase the limit of wonders, improvements, and any other files with low limits we don't know about.
- Expand the scenario support so that it can handle mods.

Additions

- Fix the AI's air useage
- Fix the AI's naval useage (including marine invasions)
- Make the AIs more nuclear aware
- Add human-human diplomacy in PBEM/Hotseat
- Allow handling of the other variable types in SLIC so that we can call functions like the one about trade routes.

[Tamerlin]

[BUGS] (?)

- Fix the revolution bug (the game crashes when a new civilization is created after a revolution in a city)
- The game does not center on pirating units during the turn of the AI involved (you can hear the sound but you don't know where the h*** piracy is taking place)
- Fix the Wonders without any effect
- Fix the outdated improvements still appearing in the Build Lists (example: after you have built the Central Matter Decompiler wonder, the Matter Decompiler improvement is still available in the Build List)
- ...

[Peter Triggs]

1) The AI prepares a big list where it matches it's armies against possible goals. It then does a number of passes (5 to 7, IIRC) through this list depending on the difficulty level that's been chosen. This number is hard coded and Azmel2 once commented that he regretted that he hadn't exposed it. It needs to be exposed and increased at each level; this may be the single most easy thing to do to get a better AI. (There's a SLIC event, ProcessMatches, for this; but I've never been able to generate it.)

2) When players get killed the player sequence in the Cheat Editor gets messed up. This needs fixing.

3) In DiffDB the resource adjustment co-efficients for the AI are set for 5 ages (and this can't be changed). OTOH, you can add more ages to age.txt; 10 ages is now common. I've often wondered if there's a clash here, it needs looking into.

4) AFAIK, there's no way, via SLIC, to determine how many units a transporting unit is carrying. We really need this for cross water invasion scripts.

5) It would be good to be able to add new proposals to diplomacyproposal.txt. This will enable us to flesh out the diplomacy system.

Edit: I'll probably keep adding to this as things that other people say remind me of things that I wanted to do but was unable to do.

[SMIFFGIG]

fix the bug where if u want to sell an advance for say 500

the AI get the advance but you never recieve your 500 gold

*this of course happens with any amount of gold*


fix the bug where AI dont use naval units

fix the bug where if ur on an island the AI will never attack u (related to above)

Implement mines and mine clearers etc

[Dale]

- That's right, further to what SMIFFGIG said, make sure all the gold diplomacy options work.
- Put a scroll bar on "Give City" city list.
- Proper AI-AI diplomacy (even though Peter did fantastic SLIC work on this).
- Allow the AI super-alliance (like in Civ2) for end-game superpower battles.

EDIT: (Missed from my post in the source thread)
- Fix the fact that the AI only builds the most current unit in its build lists of each type (to allow mixed naval stacks, mixed land stacks, etc).

[MrBaggins]

two slic issues off the top of my head:

the continent size function doesn't work at all.

the mod functions don't work and would be vastly useful.

also... we should give veteran units advantages, as there is none right now... thats pretty easy and significant in my view.

[SMIFFGIG]

so what exactly do veterans do, is this something that has just been overlooked by activision or something that has been broken from CtP1 ?

[MrBaggins]

Veteran status does nada, in CtP2, and is just broken in CtP2, and not in C:CtP iirc.

[stankarp]

I would like to see more and different combat modifiers, eg
-veteran status that does work,
-attacking across rivers and amphibious assualts being more difficult.
-more tile improvements.
-units with specific functions such as seige trains that can only attack cities and forts.
-cities surrounded by zones of control start to starve and troops are reduced in effectiveness in a few turns.
-counter bombard for defenders only once per turn.

Also bribing cities to revolt and join you, (costing heaps).

[groenie]

- Goodie huts from beginner level (since the AI's gonna come to the party from now on)
- Centering on the active unit (if I was in a city when my turn ended, it is sometimes difficult to find active units)

[J Bytheway]

- Fix SLIC operator precedence (How (3*4)/4 can give you zero, etc.)

[MrBaggins]

-repeatable randomness (with possible seed selection)

[Ekmek]

Maybe the first post should be a compiled list of all of our recommendations so you dont scroll through the whole thread.


Fix:
AI not respecting Borders

Improve:
How borders grow (not just population but maybe an improvement, or 'culture points a la civ3)

Addition:
Resources as unit prerequisites
Civ3-ish hidden nationality
Removing the shield and have units that are civ colored

[Pedrunn]

- Fix the AI's air useage
- Fix the AI's naval useage (including marine invasions)
- Make the AIs more nuclear aware

Give power to slic to do this!!!

[finfahey]

Originally posted by MrBaggins
Veteran status does nada, in CtP2, and is just broken in CtP2, and not in C:CtP iirc.

That opens a can of worms. If the CTP2 code is to be available, why not the CTP1 code too? For example, it would make debugging this example easier if we can see how CTP1 is handling it.

Of course this could result in someone putting the space layer back in CTP2

Fin