Odd happenings

[Revenantus]

A couple of strange things can be observed in the system, Marusur.

Firstly, in the save game, Missiles Disappearing, if you look at the cruisers in attack-move mode at the top right (The ones firing at the friggin' forcefield-protected munitions-boosted special forces command post that I've decided to blockade until I have tech III bombers) their missiles seem to suddenly disappear after only a second of flight. I can't see a counter-missile turret around or any visual indication of something destroying the missiles.

Secondly, in the save game, Odd Spawning 2, If you watch the centre of the system Marusur and wait 30 seconds, you will see a group of AI ships spawn seemingly from nowhere. The command station and all but 1 special forces command post have been destroyed already.

[x4000]

Hey there,

I'm not sure what the deal is with the missiles yet, but I can see it in your savegame -- I'll look into it more and get back to you tonight.

However, I saw pretty quickly what is happening with the Odd Spawning example.  Basically, if you notice at the Special Forces Command Post, it allows for reinforcements to a planet.  And when the command station is not present, the reinforcements instead arrive at the very center of the planet.  This is very old logic that I've simply never noticed in play since early beta; what I will do is change it so that those ships instead come in at the special forces command post.  Thanks for mentioning it!

[Revenantus]

However, I saw pretty quickly what is happening with the Odd Spawning example.  Basically, if you notice at the Special Forces Command Post, it allows for reinforcements to a planet.  And when the command station is not present, the reinforcements instead arrive at the very center of the planet.  This is very old logic that I've simply never noticed in play since early beta; what I will do is change it so that those ships instead come in at the special forces command post.  Thanks for mentioning it!

Ah, makes sense. EDIT: Is there anything different about the ships spawned in this way? I've just noticed that my ships aren't automatically firing on them, I've tried moving everything into range but only manually ordering an attack on the ships works. My ships are still automatically attacking things coming through wormholes and on other planets.

There's a minor graphical glitch involving tachyon beam emitters, cloaking boosters, and munitions ships. If a target they're linking to passes through a wormhole, the beam line will sometimes, for a fraction of a second, be drawn to where the linked ship is on the new planet.

[Revenantus]

Saving and reloading fixes the issue.

I've attached a save game with the evidence - if you immediately hit pause as soon as the save loads and switch to Marasur, near the centre is a group of fighters and cruisers with a yellow AI cruiser right by them. The fighters are still and in circle formation because they were sitting there doing nothing when I saved the game and now upon loading they immediately fire upon and destroy the yellow cruiser.

EDIT: It actually doesn't seem to be every ship spawned in the centre via the Special Forces Command Post, just a few of them. I guess it could be unrelated to their manner of creation.

[x4000]

DIT: Is there anything different about the ships spawned in this way? I've just noticed that my ships aren't automatically firing on them, I've tried moving everything into range but only manually ordering an attack on the ships works. My ships are still automatically attacking things coming through wormholes and on other planets.

I can't duplicate this with the savegame you sent.  Putting ships in attack-move mode was making it work fine. I tried it in just regular movement mode, too, and there wasn't a problem with that...

There's a minor graphical glitch involving tachyon beam emitters, cloaking boosters, and munitions ships. If a target they're linking to passes through a wormhole, the beam line will sometimes, for a fraction of a second, be drawn to where the linked ship is on the new planet.

Thanks, added to my list.  You're on a roll!

[Revenantus]

I can't duplicate this with the savegame you sent.  Putting ships in attack-move mode was making it work fine. I tried it in just regular movement mode, too, and there wasn't a problem with that...

The save game doesn't contain the problem as reloading it seems to have solved the issue, pausing allows you to see that the cruiser is there in the save game and the fighters that are by it have been within range for a while as they're clumped into a circle.

Guess it has nothing to do with the Special Forces Command Post - something seemed however to be causing my ships not to auto attack. Oh well, I'll keep my eyes open for a reoccurrence - perhaps I missed something.

[x4000]

Hmm, maybe so.  That's pretty strange.  Let me know if you see it again, and I'll keep an eye out for it, too.

So far with the disappearing missiles, I've discovered that:

1. This isn't related to a counter-shooter, but rather to the force field itself.
2. I can duplicate this in my own current game with cruisers.
3. Bombers do not have this issue.
4. If the cruisers are set to attack the force field itself, rather than the ships under the force field (the net effect is the same either way, normally), then this problem goes away.

Why the problem occurs in the first place I am still hunting down...

[x4000]

Okay, almost all of this is now fixed in this release: http://arcengames.com/forums/index.php/topic,165.new.html#new

The only one missing, I think, is the minor graphical glitch with planet shifts.  The issue with the missiles disappearing turned out to be because the target and the object being damaged were different (the force field is damaged, even though that's not what you're shooting at), and some recent self-checking code was thus thinking that those shots were out of date and needing to be removed.  Now the self-checking code handles this case properly, and the problem is resolved.