Prerelease 1.009E (Cheat Codes and AI Updates).

[darke]

-The tooltip font size in the lobby no longer scales up with the "Extra Tooltip Font Size" setting.  That settings is now for in-game tooltips only.

Here I shall yay once again for being able to resize the font tooltips. It does reallyreally help on large screens.

-The four different ship type abilities that are AI-only now only show "AI ONLY" in parentheses behind them to be more clear.

Yay!

-Ion cannon shots are no longer blocked by counter-sniper turrets.

My beloved Ion Cannons have been nerfed once again! The psychological trauma is unending! Wait, no they haven't, yay for even more powerful Ion Cannons!

-The lobby now has an option for enabling cheats.  The first fifteen cheats are also now available (see ArcenWiki for details: http://arcengames.com/mediawiki/index.php?title=AI_War_-_Cheats).

This will be rather useful when doing testing actually.

Also a new game mode might be good as well, called something like "Fast Start". You start with your picked planet, and two adjacent planets already captured, a control center in each, a handful of units in each, all harvesting points capped, and a small amount of cash (and appropriate knowledge). Useful for testing and also useful for a quicker start. (Or in my case, useful for when the only good start worlds on a map have x2 or x3 exits; that way I can have to actually have challenge defending things at the start having to defend 3 world's wormholes. )

-Previously, engineers could not assist another engineer that was under construction if the under-construction engineer was already given a repair order.  Fixed.

Found another edge case. When I've got two engineers in a pack of ships repairing in a hostile world, if Engineer1 is damaged, but in the middle of a pack of ships needing repairing, Engineer2 can't actually repair him until basically the entire set of ships has finished being repaired. Probably the more specific case to stop the round-robin repairers, is that an engineer can't repair an engineer, that is repairing an engineer.

Of course, now I need to check if a repair station can repair an engineer, that is repairing something.

-The AI is now MUCH more intelligent about how it sends batches of ships through wormholes to player planets.  It will try to batch its ships together instead of letting them trickle through, which lets them be much more damaging and surprising with just the same number of ships as they previously had. A new "wait point" mechanism has been added to the underlying AI capabilities in order to support this, in addition to some other AI data structure extensions.  This is all handled on the AI thread, so it doesn't slow down the main simulation.

This is rather neat. Though I have found one bug. The munitions boosters will pile up at the wormhole waiting to go through... but never go through with the rest of the ships.

Another map seed that produces insufficient start worlds (only 4): 84960938 / Realistic / 80 planets

Another random crash. Interestingly this happened whilst I had the game paused, and was away from the keyboard for 10 or 15 minutes:

-----------------------------------Application_ThreadException-----------------------------------
System.IndexOutOfRangeException: Index was outside the bounds of the array.
   at AIWar.GameForm.DrawDirect3D() in C:\vcprojs\AIWar\GameFormParts\GamePanel.cs:line 1731
   at AIWar.GameForm.RunNextCycle(Boolean DoRendering, Boolean DoScrollingAndInput) in C:\vcprojs\AIWar\GameFormParts\GameLoop.cs:line 1054
   at AIWar.GameForm.gameLoop() in C:\vcprojs\AIWar\GameFormParts\GameLoop.cs:line 239
   at AIWar.GameForm.GameForm_Load(Object sender, EventArgs e) in C:\vcprojs\AIWar\GameFormParts\Startup.cs:line 274
   at System.Windows.Forms.Form.OnLoad(EventArgs e)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Form.OnCreateControl()
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.CreateControl(Boolean fIgnoreVisible)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.CreateControl()
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WmShowWindow(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.ScrollableControl.WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.ContainerControl.WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Form.WmShowWindow(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Form.WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.OnMessage(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.NativeWindow.Callback(IntPtr hWnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wparam, IntPtr lparam)

[Admiral]

Hi X,

Last night while playing the save game (attached, made on the other computer, v1.009E, moments after the crash; my computer was saying Waiting for Players or something) there was a crash on the host computer (desktop, Quad core, 8G RAM, Vista x64). My friend said it was an "out of memory error," but I didn't get a screenshot and didn't see it myself. (Is there a crash report file I can attach?)

During this game, there were also two other things that resolved themselves when we restarted:

• Astro Trains had stopped moving. They just clustered around wormholes. As you had asked in another post, we had not killed every single train station (yet), so presumably they should have been moving. My friend remarked that they were not there anymore when we reloaded, and I noted them moving around after the reload
• More problematically, there were several sectors (I know, planets, I like to call them sectors for some reason) loaded with (only) stealthed ships. We spent quite some time running scout starships and such around trying to find them, but they neither attacked us nor were found by us, so we figured they were just lurking. After the reload, they attacked again with a vengeance (after we had become complacent, of course). Unfortunately, they didn't attack en-masse, which maybe isn't surprising given the situation (level 3, 4 AIs), so they weren't hard to defeat even if they were annoying and time consuming.

Hope this helps, somehow.

Cheers!

[x4000]

Also a new game mode might be good as well, called something like "Fast Start". You start with your picked planet, and two adjacent planets already captured, a control center in each, a handful of units in each, all harvesting points capped, and a small amount of cash (and appropriate knowledge). Useful for testing and also useful for a quicker start. (Or in my case, useful for when the only good start worlds on a map have x2 or x3 exits; that way I can have to actually have challenge defending things at the start having to defend 3 world's wormholes. )

Added to my list for future DLC additions at some point down the line.

Found another edge case. When I've got two engineers in a pack of ships repairing in a hostile world, if Engineer1 is damaged, but in the middle of a pack of ships needing repairing, Engineer2 can't actually repair him until basically the entire set of ships has finished being repaired. Probably the more specific case to stop the round-robin repairers, is that an engineer can't repair an engineer, that is repairing an engineer.

Actually, I doubt this one is an issue.  Right after a ship is damaged (for 3 or so seconds), engineers can't repair it at all.  So if something is actively being shot at, engineers can't repair it.  For the engineer who is shot, it will then most likely be repairing something else by the time it is otherwise repairable.

This is rather neat. Though I have found one bug. The munitions boosters will pile up at the wormhole waiting to go through... but never go through with the rest of the ships.

Are you sure that those were actually waiting to go through, and not just wormhole command post guards?  Try hitting F3, and then hover your mouse over those units.  In the yellow row, you will either see an entry that says "Wait" in there, or one that says something about guarding.  My guess is for the latter.

Another map seed that produces insufficient start worlds (only 4): 84960938 / Realistic / 80 planets

Thanks -- I didn't know there had been one before now.  Added to my list to check out.

Another random crash. Interestingly this happened whilst I had the game paused, and was away from the keyboard for 10 or 15 minutes:

-----------------------------------Application_ThreadException-----------------------------------
System.IndexOutOfRangeException: Index was outside the bounds of the array.
   at AIWar.GameForm.DrawDirect3D() in C:\vcprojs\AIWar\GameFormParts\GamePanel.cs:line 1731
   at AIWar.GameForm.RunNextCycle(Boolean DoRendering, Boolean DoScrollingAndInput) in C:\vcprojs\AIWar\GameFormParts\GameLoop.cs:line 1054
   at AIWar.GameForm.gameLoop() in C:\vcprojs\AIWar\GameFormParts\GameLoop.cs:line 239
   at AIWar.GameForm.GameForm_Load(Object sender, EventArgs e) in C:\vcprojs\AIWar\GameFormParts\Startup.cs:line 274
   at System.Windows.Forms.Form.OnLoad(EventArgs e)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Form.OnCreateControl()
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.CreateControl(Boolean fIgnoreVisible)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.CreateControl()
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WmShowWindow(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.ScrollableControl.WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.ContainerControl.WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Form.WmShowWindow(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Form.WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.OnMessage(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.NativeWindow.Callback(IntPtr hWnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wparam, IntPtr lparam)

This is a really nonsensical error, because there is no array indexing at that line number, or near it.  I'm not sure what the deal is there.  If it happens again on the next version, which has some slightly different line numbers in that file, please let me know -- maybe it will provide some clue.  But that's the first I've heard of that one...

[x4000]

Last night while playing the save game (attached, made on the other computer, v1.009E, moments after the crash; my computer was saying Waiting for Players or something) there was a crash on the host computer (desktop, Quad core, 8G RAM, Vista x64). My friend said it was an "out of memory error," but I didn't get a screenshot and didn't see it myself. (Is there a crash report file I can attach?)

On the other end, it should have created a crash report in the game data folder (your friend can find the url for that under the Settings page, in a textbox at the bottom -- it varies by computer, given the security on Vista).  I'd need that file before I can really begin to look at this one; he might try making sure that all his graphics and sound drivers are up to date, just in case.

• Astro Trains had stopped moving. They just clustered around wormholes. As you had asked in another post, we had not killed every single train station (yet), so presumably they should have been moving. My friend remarked that they were not there anymore when we reloaded, and I noted them moving around after the reload

Yeah, they were waiting for other ships to come join them -- that's fixed for the next prerelease, I noticed that in my game last night, too.  They weren't intended to be included in that behavior.

• More problematically, there were several sectors (I know, planets, I like to call them sectors for some reason) loaded with (only) stealthed ships. We spent quite some time running scout starships and such around trying to find them, but they neither attacked us nor were found by us, so we figured they were just lurking. After the reload, they attacked again with a vengeance (after we had become complacent, of course). Unfortunately, they didn't attack en-masse, which maybe isn't surprising given the situation (level 3, 4 AIs), so they weren't hard to defeat even if they were annoying and time consuming.

Hmm, that's very strange.  And this wasn't a planet with a Planetary Cloaker, was it?  If you see something like this again, and can get a savegame in the middle of it, please let me know...

[Admiral]

On the other end, it should have created a crash report in the game data folder

I'll get this posted for you soon.

Hmm, that's very strange.  And this wasn't a planet with a Planetary Cloaker, was it?  If you see something like this again, and can get a savegame in the middle of it, please let me know...

The save I gave you exhibited this behavior (no cloaked ships attacking), although it was after the other computer (the host) crashed. And, there was no Planetary Cloaker that I know of - I didn't build one (if it is supposed to be mine) and there were no visible enemy units; only those which were cloaked, per the intel display.

Cheers!

[x4000]

The save I gave you exhibited this behavior (no cloaked ships attacking), although it was after the other computer (the host) crashed. And, there was no Planetary Cloaker that I know of - I didn't build one (if it is supposed to be mine) and there were no visible enemy units; only those which were cloaked, per the intel display.

Got it -- that would have been a visible enemy ship.  I'll take a look at the save file on Monday, and see what I can see!

[Admiral]

As requested: (v1.009E for line numbers)

Code: [Select]

7/4/2009 12:23:04 AM
-----------------------------------Application_ThreadException-----------------------------------
System.OutOfMemoryException: Exception of type 'System.OutOfMemoryException' was thrown.
   at System.Collections.Generic.ObjectEqualityComparer`1.Equals(T x, T y)
   at System.Collections.Generic.Dictionary`2.Insert(TKey key, TValue value, Boolean add)
   at AIWar.MiniMap.Render(Direct3DRenderer R) in C:\vcprojs\AIWar\Framework\MiniMap.cs:line 250
   at AIWar.GameForm.DrawDirect3D() in C:\vcprojs\AIWar\GameFormParts\GamePanel.cs:line 1622
   at AIWar.GameForm.RunNextCycle(Boolean DoRendering, Boolean DoScrollingAndInput) in C:\vcprojs\AIWar\GameFormParts\GameLoop.cs:line 1054
   at AIWar.GameForm.gameLoop() in C:\vcprojs\AIWar\GameFormParts\GameLoop.cs:line 239
   at AIWar.GameForm.GameForm_Load(Object sender, EventArgs e) in C:\vcprojs\AIWar\GameFormParts\Startup.cs:line 274
   at System.Windows.Forms.Form.OnLoad(EventArgs e)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Form.OnCreateControl()
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.CreateControl(Boolean fIgnoreVisible)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.CreateControl()
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WmShowWindow(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.ScrollableControl.WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.ContainerControl.WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Form.WmShowWindow(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Form.WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.OnMessage(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.NativeWindow.Callback(IntPtr hWnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wparam, IntPtr lparam)


[darke]

Also a new game mode might be good as well, called something like "Fast Start". You start with your picked planet, and two adjacent planets already captured, a control center in each, a handful of units in each, all harvesting points capped, and a small amount of cash (and appropriate knowledge). Useful for testing and also useful for a quicker start. (Or in my case, useful for when the only good start worlds on a map have x2 or x3 exits; that way I can have to actually have challenge defending things at the start having to defend 3 world's wormholes. )

Added to my list for future DLC additions at some point down the line.

Yay!

This is rather neat. Though I have found one bug. The munitions boosters will pile up at the wormhole waiting to go through... but never go through with the rest of the ships.

Are you sure that those were actually waiting to go through, and not just wormhole command post guards?  Try hitting F3, and then hover your mouse over those units.  In the yellow row, you will either see an entry that says "Wait" in there, or one that says something about guarding.  My guess is for the latter.

Will check next time I see it, but there was only munitions boosters waiting at the point, nothing else. And they did look like they were arriving in the pack as the rest of the ships that bunched up and went through. The only reason I really noticed it is they were mostly Tech IV munitions boosters, and I had a pack of ships that were half parasites on the other side so I could "acquire" some.

Another map seed that produces insufficient start worlds (only 4): 84960938 / Realistic / 80 planets

Thanks -- I didn't know there had been one before now.  Added to my list to check out.

This was the other one:
1921386719 / 60 planet / realistic: only generates 5 starting worlds to choose from

Must have gotten missed in another thread. I think it was 009A or 009B I found it in.

Another random crash. Interestingly this happened whilst I had the game paused, and was away from the keyboard for 10 or 15 minutes:

-----------------------------------Application_ThreadException-----------------------------------
System.IndexOutOfRangeException: Index was outside the bounds of the array.
   at AIWar.GameForm.DrawDirect3D() in C:\vcprojs\AIWar\GameFormParts\GamePanel.cs:line 1731

This is a really nonsensical error, because there is no array indexing at that line number, or near it.  I'm not sure what the deal is there.  If it happens again on the next version, which has some slightly different line numbers in that file, please let me know -- maybe it will provide some clue.  But that's the first I've heard of that one...

Strange. Oh well, I'll blame cosmic rays, or Vista needing a reinstall. Or possibly something flaky with the graphics card driver too, given it died within a 3d rendering function.

[x4000]

As requested: (v1.009E for line numbers)

Code: [Select]

7/4/2009 12:23:04 AM
-----------------------------------Application_ThreadException-----------------------------------
System.OutOfMemoryException: Exception of type 'System.OutOfMemoryException' was thrown.
   at System.Collections.Generic.ObjectEqualityComparer`1.Equals(T x, T y)
   at System.Collections.Generic.Dictionary`2.Insert(TKey key, TValue value, Boolean add)
   at AIWar.MiniMap.Render(Direct3DRenderer R) in C:\vcprojs\AIWar\Framework\MiniMap.cs:line 250
   at AIWar.GameForm.DrawDirect3D() in C:\vcprojs\AIWar\GameFormParts\GamePanel.cs:line 1622
   at AIWar.GameForm.RunNextCycle(Boolean DoRendering, Boolean DoScrollingAndInput) in C:\vcprojs\AIWar\GameFormParts\GameLoop.cs:line 1054
   at AIWar.GameForm.gameLoop() in C:\vcprojs\AIWar\GameFormParts\GameLoop.cs:line 239
   at AIWar.GameForm.GameForm_Load(Object sender, EventArgs e) in C:\vcprojs\AIWar\GameFormParts\Startup.cs:line 274
   at System.Windows.Forms.Form.OnLoad(EventArgs e)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Form.OnCreateControl()
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.CreateControl(Boolean fIgnoreVisible)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.CreateControl()
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WmShowWindow(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.ScrollableControl.WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.ContainerControl.WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Form.WmShowWindow(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Form.WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.OnMessage(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.NativeWindow.Callback(IntPtr hWnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wparam, IntPtr lparam)


Hummm... that's a very unexpected place to have the error.  From the looks of it, that's completely coincidental.  It appears that your friend's machine did in fact run out of memory in general, and this was just the straw that broke the camel's back, so to say.  If it happens again, can you have him check how much memory AI War is using at the time?  I wonder if there is a resource leak in some of the newer AI thread stuff (which is why he would see it and not you).  I played for several hours last night on a three-player 80-planet map and did not run into this, though.

EDIT:  You might also make sure that your friend is on .NET 3.5 SP1.  Perhaps this is some sort of pre-SP1 bug for .NET.

[x4000]

This is rather neat. Though I have found one bug. The munitions boosters will pile up at the wormhole waiting to go through... but never go through with the rest of the ships.

Are you sure that those were actually waiting to go through, and not just wormhole command post guards?  Try hitting F3, and then hover your mouse over those units.  In the yellow row, you will either see an entry that says "Wait" in there, or one that says something about guarding.  My guess is for the latter.

Will check next time I see it, but there was only munitions boosters waiting at the point, nothing else. And they did look like they were arriving in the pack as the rest of the ships that bunched up and went through. The only reason I really noticed it is they were mostly Tech IV munitions boosters, and I had a pack of ships that were half parasites on the other side so I could "acquire" some.

Oh -- there's another reason this might have happened:  Munitions Boosters are slow.  The ships queue up at the wormhole, waiting to go through, and then as soon as there are enough of them they do.  If that threshold was reached while the munitions boosters were still on the way, they would have then arrived just too late and waited for the next batch.

This was the other one:
1921386719 / 60 planet / realistic: only generates 5 starting worlds to choose from

Must have gotten missed in another thread. I think it was 009A or 009B I found it in.

Thanks!  Yeah, I must have missed it, I don't recall seeing that note.  Sorry about that, and thanks for reposting it!

[/quote]
Strange. Oh well, I'll blame cosmic rays, or Vista needing a reinstall. Or possibly something flaky with the graphics card driver too, given it died within a 3d rendering function.
[/quote]

It actually died on aggregating the scores for display, not actually during a write to the graphics card.  But I do wonder if the PC went into suspend or screensaver or something.  That's not supposed to matter (I tested that on my Vista test machine), but I haven't retested that recently.  Usually that was an internal DirectX issue, which wasn't the case here.


All right, and with this, I'm off for the day.  Have a good one, guys!

[Admiral]

Hummm... that's a very unexpected place to have the error.  From the looks of it, that's completely coincidental.  It appears that your friend's machine did in fact run out of memory in general, and this was just the straw that broke the camel's back, so to say.  If it happens again, can you have him check how much memory AI War is using at the time?  I wonder if there is a resource leak in some of the newer AI thread stuff (which is why he would see it and not you).

EDIT:  You might also make sure that your friend is on .NET 3.5 SP1.  Perhaps this is some sort of pre-SP1 bug for .NET.

The above was my reaction as well, albeit knowing nothing about .NET. (I've been using VMs though since '82 with the UCSD p-code system, though, so some things are familiar.)

The two computers have the same exact version of .NET (3.5, SP1, with two hot fixes listed in Windows Update). The main difference is that the desktop is Vista Ultimate x64, nVidia, 8G, RAM, Quad an the laptop Home x32, ATI, 3G RAM, Dual.

I'll do as many diagnostics as I can next time it happens.

Have a great vacation!

[darke]

This was the other one:
Strange. Oh well, I'll blame cosmic rays, or Vista needing a reinstall. Or possibly something flaky with the graphics card driver too, given it died within a 3d rendering function.

It actually died on aggregating the scores for display, not actually during a write to the graphics card.  But I do wonder if the PC went into suspend or screensaver or something.  That's not supposed to matter (I tested that on my Vista test machine), but I haven't retested that recently.  Usually that was an internal DirectX issue, which wasn't the case here.

Very strange. I don't have suspend mode turned on, on this machine, but yes, it's possible the screensaver might have kicked in. Though I've had it paused for just as long before and not had it die on me though, so it still seems semi-random.

[darke]

As requested: (v1.009E for line numbers)

Code: [Select]

7/4/2009 12:23:04 AM
-----------------------------------Application_ThreadException-----------------------------------
System.OutOfMemoryException: Exception of type 'System.OutOfMemoryException' was thrown.
   at System.Collections.Generic.ObjectEqualityComparer`1.Equals(T x, T y)


Hummm... that's a very unexpected place to have the error.  From the looks of it, that's completely coincidental.  It appears that your friend's machine did in fact run out of memory in general, and this was just the straw that broke the camel's back, so to say.  If it happens again, can you have him check how much memory AI War is using at the time?  I wonder if there is a resource leak in some of the newer AI thread stuff (which is why he would see it and not you).  I played for several hours last night on a three-player 80-planet map and did not run into this, though.

EDIT:  You might also make sure that your friend is on .NET 3.5 SP1.  Perhaps this is some sort of pre-SP1 bug for .NET.

Curiously, I noticed I had an out of memory exception a while back as well, it is however completely useless.

Code: [Select]

2009/06/23 5:27:51
-----------------------------------CurrentDomain_UnhandledException-----------------------------------
System.OutOfMemoryException: Exception of type 'System.OutOfMemoryException' was thrown.
   at System.String.Concat(String str0, String str1)
   at SlimDX.ObjectTable.ReportLeaks()
   at SlimDX.ObjectTable.OnExit(Object sender, EventArgs e)


[Admiral]

The F9, F10 keys are "hold" toggles so they should probably be F9(hold) and F10(hold) for consistency with the rest of the document.

Cheers!

[x4000]

Curiously, I noticed I had an out of memory exception a while back as well, it is however completely useless.

Code: [Select]

2009/06/23 5:27:51
-----------------------------------CurrentDomain_UnhandledException-----------------------------------
System.OutOfMemoryException: Exception of type 'System.OutOfMemoryException' was thrown.
   at System.String.Concat(String str0, String str1)
   at SlimDX.ObjectTable.ReportLeaks()
   at SlimDX.ObjectTable.OnExit(Object sender, EventArgs e)


Wow, that's a long while ago, so that's not related to the current issues.  Interestingly, that's some sort of internal bug with SlimDX, it would seem.  Not a major one, since it's basically just throwing that exception as it is shutting down the application, but still.