Author Topic: Forcefield glitch?  (Read 995 times)

Offline Gallant Dragon

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Forcefield glitch?
« on: October 21, 2010, 07:55:53 pm »
Hi,
I was recently playing the recent beta (3.900, I think), and I discovered that some units under AI forcefields for some reason don't have the little forcefield circle on them.  Is this a glitch or am I missing something?
It's just carriers all the way down!

Offline x4000

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Re: Forcefield glitch?
« Reply #1 on: October 21, 2010, 08:25:25 pm »
That's not really a glitch, but you're right it's not the way that it "should" be.  But actually, the program is doing exactly what it should.  Confused? ;)

What you are seeing is that those ships aren't getting forcefield protection, that's true.  But, the reason for that is that they are in "cold storage" on a planet that you're not at (just the scouts, I see, which have no guns and so don't affect cold storage).  Ships in cold storage are skipped from all calculations, which is why they aren't under the force field's protection -- this is critical for maintaining good performance with many tens of thousands of ships.

As soon as your ships with guns visit this planet, then all those AI ships come instantly out of cold storage, the calculations run, and then the ships are under the force fields as they should be by the time you'd actually want to shoot at them.

So... all is well. :)
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Offline Gallant Dragon

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Re: Forcefield glitch?
« Reply #2 on: October 21, 2010, 09:51:13 pm »
Ah, so I was missing something.  ::)
All is now well!
It's just carriers all the way down!

Offline Giegue

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Re: Forcefield glitch?
« Reply #3 on: October 22, 2010, 02:13:46 am »
so... whats cold storage for?

Offline Lancefighter

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Re: Forcefield glitch?
« Reply #4 on: October 22, 2010, 02:39:56 am »
cold storage is basically the AI equivalent of
If no human ships, do nothing

However, instead of each ship doing it each combat turn, they go into cold storage.
Basically, its a performance boost, because not as many units are asking if theres something to shoot at.
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