Prerelease 1.009L (AI Voice Taunts -- Last 1.009 Prerelease).

[x4000]

Yeah, with the sort of scale you have here, "microing" can still consist of shifting groups of 200 guys around at once.

There's just not many cases when it's ideal to be moving one ship at a go.  Usually engineers will do their own thing (except when you want to assign them to a dock or whatever constructor permanently, for instance).

[darke]

Yeah, with the sort of scale you have here, "microing" can still consist of shifting groups of 200 guys around at once.

There's just not many cases when it's ideal to be moving one ship at a go.  Usually engineers will do their own thing (except when you want to assign them to a dock or whatever constructor permanently, for instance).

Speaking of which I'm still recovering from the grief of finding out that I shall never have a fleet of 150+ Tech III Engineers again. 

In an unrelated note, I think I encountered a couple of odd AI bugs.

I took out the command center of one place and a the usual stream of Tech III ships flew from the wormholes/resource points towards me... and then stopped. I scratched my head, waited patiently for a couple of minutes as more of my ships flew through the wormholes to re-enforce; I dragged in a colony ship and built a command center; built a Tech II engineer to do some repairing; pulled in a few science labs to do a bit of research; and the AI sat there. Interestingly my Ion Cannon I had taken over also didn't fire during this time, but I'm not sure if that's because there were no Tech I ships left, or reinforcing wasn't happening, or it was busted as well.

Eventually I lassoed my ships and sent them flying towards the enemy AI, and when my ships got into range they woke up and started attacking and such. Quite odd.

Second bug is that I went in on another world, took out the command center, and ran back to my home wormhole. Except I miss-clicked and my ships overshot it and were way on the other side, with only the cruisers in attack range of the wormhole. Given it was 90% Tech I and Tech II cruisers since most of the other ships are a little more fragile this wasn't actually an insignificant force, however I expected them to be swarmed by the stream of ships that were almost up to them when I noticed them, before they turned around and ran back through the wormhole. So I swapped back to the other planet and frantically bolstered my defense leaving them to sit there and distract for a bit before dying painfully.

Except they didn't. The AI ships flew up... then delicately parked themselves on the wormhole, in range of my ships, and sat there patiently waiting for their allies to show up so they could all assault at once as my cruisers (Tech I and a few Tech II) took them out (Tech II, III and IV) faster then they arrived. I think I lost half a dozen ships, but wiped out 100+ without any issues.

A new tactic has been discovered! Though it is probably not intended...

[x4000]

Speaking of which I'm still recovering from the grief of finding out that I shall never have a fleet of 150+ Tech III Engineers again. 

So sad...

I took out the command center of one place and a the usual stream of Tech III ships flew from the wormholes/resource points towards me... and then stopped. I scratched my head, waited patiently for a couple of minutes as more of my ships flew through the wormholes to re-enforce; I dragged in a colony ship and built a command center; built a Tech II engineer to do some repairing; pulled in a few science labs to do a bit of research; and the AI sat there. Interestingly my Ion Cannon I had taken over also didn't fire during this time, but I'm not sure if that's because there were no Tech I ships left, or reinforcing wasn't happening, or it was busted as well.

Eventually I lassoed my ships and sent them flying towards the enemy AI, and when my ships got into range they woke up and started attacking and such. Quite odd.

Actually, I think I know what this was.  Basically, when you attack the command station for an enemy planet, they have 30 seconds in which they will attack you even if they are still guarding.  This makes the biggest difference on the AI home planets.  Then if the command station is destroyed, there is a 50% chance that they will keep pressing the attack towards you, otherwise they just go back to guard duty (which is what happened here, it sounds like).

Second bug is that I went in on another world, took out the command center, and ran back to my home wormhole. Except I miss-clicked and my ships overshot it and were way on the other side, with only the cruisers in attack range of the wormhole. Given it was 90% Tech I and Tech II cruisers since most of the other ships are a little more fragile this wasn't actually an insignificant force, however I expected them to be swarmed by the stream of ships that were almost up to them when I noticed them, before they turned around and ran back through the wormhole. So I swapped back to the other planet and frantically bolstered my defense leaving them to sit there and distract for a bit before dying painfully.

Except they didn't. The AI ships flew up... then delicately parked themselves on the wormhole, in range of my ships, and sat there patiently waiting for their allies to show up so they could all assault at once as my cruisers (Tech I and a few Tech II) took them out (Tech II, III and IV) faster then they arrived. I think I lost half a dozen ships, but wiped out 100+ without any issues.

A new tactic has been discovered! Though it is probably not intended...

Oh, I see what is happening here.  This is not a bug, per se, but just bad planning on my part.  Those guys are basically queuing up to go through the wormhole all together, but in the meantime they will not move to defend themselves.  If they were longer-ranged this would not be a problem, but in the case of your cruisers these guys really need to be able to move to defend themselves.  What I'm going to need to do is make it so that when guys are in "wait" mode they treat themselves as mobile to a point, like they do in regular "guard" mode.  This definitely wasn't intended the way you were exploiting it -- thanks for the note, it's been added to my list.

[darke]

I took out the command center of one place and a the usual stream of Tech III ships flew from the wormholes/resource points towards me... and then stopped. I scratched my head, waited patiently for a couple of minutes as more of my ships flew through the wormholes to re-enforce; I dragged in a colony ship and built a command center; built a Tech II engineer to do some repairing; pulled in a few science labs to do a bit of research; and the AI sat there. Interestingly my Ion Cannon I had taken over also didn't fire during this time, but I'm not sure if that's because there were no Tech I ships left, or reinforcing wasn't happening, or it was busted as well.

Eventually I lassoed my ships and sent them flying towards the enemy AI, and when my ships got into range they woke up and started attacking and such. Quite odd.

Actually, I think I know what this was.  Basically, when you attack the command station for an enemy planet, they have 30 seconds in which they will attack you even if they are still guarding.  This makes the biggest difference on the AI home planets.  Then if the command station is destroyed, there is a 50% chance that they will keep pressing the attack towards you, otherwise they just go back to guard duty (which is what happened here, it sounds like).

That makes sense. It would probably be better if they decided to wander back to their original defensive position then it leaves the player somewhat less perplexed.

Second bug is that I went in on another world, took out the command center, and ran back to my home wormhole. Except I miss-clicked and my ships overshot it and were way on the other side, with only the cruisers in attack range of the wormhole. Given it was 90% Tech I and Tech II cruisers since most of the other ships are a little more fragile this wasn't actually an insignificant force, however I expected them to be swarmed by the stream of ships that were almost up to them when I noticed them, before they turned around and ran back through the wormhole. So I swapped back to the other planet and frantically bolstered my defense leaving them to sit there and distract for a bit before dying painfully.

Except they didn't. The AI ships flew up... then delicately parked themselves on the wormhole, in range of my ships, and sat there patiently waiting for their allies to show up so they could all assault at once as my cruisers (Tech I and a few Tech II) took them out (Tech II, III and IV) faster then they arrived. I think I lost half a dozen ships, but wiped out 100+ without any issues.

A new tactic has been discovered! Though it is probably not intended...

Oh, I see what is happening here.  This is not a bug, per se, but just bad planning on my part.  Those guys are basically queuing up to go through the wormhole all together, but in the meantime they will not move to defend themselves.  If they were longer-ranged this would not be a problem, but in the case of your cruisers these guys really need to be able to move to defend themselves.  What I'm going to need to do is make it so that when guys are in "wait" mode they treat themselves as mobile to a point, like they do in regular "guard" mode.  This definitely wasn't intended the way you were exploiting it -- thanks for the note, it's been added to my list.

I really should stop reporting these things. I get a new trick to play with for a whole day at most, then you come along and break it in the next patch. It's traumatic I tell you! You need to stop being, like, so efficient.

[x4000]

That makes sense. It would probably be better if they decided to wander back to their original defensive position then it leaves the player somewhat less perplexed.

Were they outside their valid guard ranges?  I increased the guard ranges a bit, so that can leave them a bigger area in which they are considered "valid" guards, but it shouldn't be like they are half a system from their post or something.

I really should stop reporting these things. I get a new trick to play with for a whole day at most, then you come along and break it in the next patch. It's traumatic I tell you! You need to stop being, like, so efficient.

Hahah.  Well, you probably have a few days on this one, as I'm a bit tied up with coding on the puzzle game that will be Arcen's next title for today and tomorrow.  Over the weekend, and then early next week, I'll be getting to all of these suggestions and requests that are queuing up.  So that gives you a bit of time!

[darke]

That makes sense. It would probably be better if they decided to wander back to their original defensive position then it leaves the player somewhat less perplexed.

Were they outside their valid guard ranges?  I increased the guard ranges a bit, so that can leave them a bigger area in which they are considered "valid" guards, but it shouldn't be like they are half a system from their post or something.

Hrm... about an 8th of a map away from the guard post? I might have a savegame around if you're curious, I've actually started trying to remember to save odd things like this now.

I really should stop reporting these things. I get a new trick to play with for a whole day at most, then you come along and break it in the next patch. It's traumatic I tell you! You need to stop being, like, so efficient.

Hahah.  Well, you probably have a few days on this one, as I'm a bit tied up with coding on the puzzle game that will be Arcen's next title for today and tomorrow.  Over the weekend, and then early next week, I'll be getting to all of these suggestions and requests that are queuing up.  So that gives you a bit of time!
[/quote]

Yay!

[x4000]

Hrm... about an 8th of a map away from the guard post? I might have a savegame around if you're curious, I've actually started trying to remember to save odd things like this now.

If you have it, that's cool.  If not, I'll check for it during my playtesting session tomorrow night.

Yay!

[darke]

A random thing that seemed strange:

One of my teleporting engineers got hit by a single attack by an engine-damaging ship, it knocked him down to only 97% engine, but any engine damage at all seems to stop them from being able to teleport. Are all teleport ships this fragile, or my engineers just unusually delicate?

[x4000]

A random thing that seemed strange:

One of my teleporting engineers got hit by a single attack by an engine-damaging ship, it knocked him down to only 97% engine, but any engine damage at all seems to stop them from being able to teleport. Are all teleport ships this fragile, or my engineers just unusually delicate?

Actually, all teleporting ships that don't have infinite engine health would probably exhibit this (I'm going to change it so that these are now infinite engine health -- I think all the others already are, but I will check to be sure).  They don't actually use their move speed, but all teleporting ships have a movement speed of 1, so when that gets knocked down much at all, it goes to 0 and then they can't move.  But they should have inf engines, that was an oversight.  Thanks!

[darke]

A random thing that seemed strange:

One of my teleporting engineers got hit by a single attack by an engine-damaging ship, it knocked him down to only 97% engine, but any engine damage at all seems to stop them from being able to teleport. Are all teleport ships this fragile, or my engineers just unusually delicate?

Actually, all teleporting ships that don't have infinite engine health would probably exhibit this (I'm going to change it so that these are now infinite engine health -- I think all the others already are, but I will check to be sure).  They don't actually use their move speed, but all teleporting ships have a movement speed of 1, so when that gets knocked down much at all, it goes to 0 and then they can't move.  But they should have inf engines, that was an oversight.  Thanks!

Cool. I couldn't remember seeing any other teleporting ships with this problem, but I figured that I mustn't have gone against the engine-paralysing ships with them or something.

[x4000]

Yeah, I don't use Mark II engineers much myself, and especially not in combat situations, so I just hadn't run into it with them.  I should have remembered to check that, but oh well -- there's so many little things to remember, it's a wonder more doesn't fall through the cracks.

[darke]

Yeah, I don't use Mark II engineers much myself, and especially not in combat situations, so I just hadn't run into it with them.  I should have remembered to check that, but oh well -- there's so many little things to remember, it's a wonder more doesn't fall through the cracks.

I don't use them in combat either, it just appears that I got an assault on a the world with paralyzing ships that broke through my defenses. They must have started attacking my engineer (since they seem to think they're Really Quite Evil when I use them for some reason... ), then got taken out by something else before managing to kill it.

I'm actually more surprised that more stuff doesn't fall through the cracks, given the massive amount of changes this program seems to go through ever new version number. Lots of the stuff is things that just happen in special cases that are pretty rare all things considered (such as the parasites taking over harvesters, or this particular bug). Plus the game takes sufficiently long to play that I expect that a lot of people will get through maybe a couple of games between new versions (I know I get maybe one game played during the week, and another one or two on the weekend, due to awful things like having to go to work ), so shaking out bugs takes a while too.

[x4000]

Yeah, if I had a dedicated team of 200 testers or whatever like a AAA studio, then this process could be gone through with them before release.  As it was, with 12 testers doing it part-time, I think it was pretty low on bugs at release -- like you say, mostly edge cases that are hard to come by.  A lot of the more recent bugs have been caused by post-release additions, so it's lucky I have a dedicated group like you guys playing the prereleases and finding the little mistakes that made it through.

[x4000]

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