SMACX bug reporting thread - Page 2

Vi Vicdi · January 10, 2000, 21:48

An ancient bug, which I first posted to the Firaxis forums last year:

Air-to-air combat rules are inconsistent for a fighter attacking a bomber.

In a direct attack against a bomber, whether on the ground or in the air, the fighter gets a 100% air-to-air bonus and the bomber defends with its armor.

In an air defense scramble the fighter does NOT get its 100% air-to-air advantage and the bomber defends with its weapon.

Another bug:

Using the right-click menu a supply crawler with drop pods can make an infinite number of airdrops (reselect it after its movement is over). I don't know if other units can do this as well.

(Have these bugs been assigned numbers & mnemonics yet?)

Bblue · January 10, 2000, 21:49

Tim,
Confirmed it without useing the scenerio editor.. save is in the mail

one also on the way to you zsozso

Vi Vicdi · January 10, 2000, 21:52

Hey, I found another one! The "amphibious helper" bug!

If you have a unit on land adjacent to a sea base units can move out of the sea base without transport or amphibious ability.

Urban Ranger · January 10, 2000, 22:26

Quote:

Originally posted by Aredhran on 01-10-2000 08:36 AM
You obviously did not look very hard. It's the first "news" item on the firaxis site...

www.firaxis.com/files/filedetail.cfm?file_id=19

Aredhran

On the contrary, I looked too hard. There is indeed a link on the Firaxis site, but none on Alpha Centauri, Alien Crossfire, or EA.

Can somebody at Firaxis fix that?

[This message has been edited by Urban Ranger (edited January 11, 2000).]

Aredhran · January 11, 2000, 01:05

Re: bug #0137

It sounds like you are in PAINT MODE.

Make sure you are in EDITOR mode to edit elevation. To toggle back and forth, press the SCROLL LOCK key.

***

There is a known bug with the Elevations in the Scenario Editor though (Details for Bug #0118):

When creating a map from scratch (ie. all ocean), the first time the "Elevation Algorithm" is triggered, for example by creating a river or by reloading a previously saved game, a flash-flood occurs, following which some tiles's elevation cannot be raised anymore (the tiles that were at max altitude before the flood happened). They will *look* like they're at, say, 3500 meters, but in fact they are 1000 meters lower. This occurs only the *first* time the Elevation Algorithm is executed.

There is workaround for this : raise one tile just above the ocean, save the map and reload. You won't experience the problem anymore.

Aredhran

[This message has been edited by Aredhran (edited January 10, 2000).]

zsozso · January 11, 2000, 15:18

I have deleted Earthquake_Destroy and Destroy_Cluster bugs from the list, because many people aggreed that they were not really bugs.

Their slot numbers (133 and 134) have been reused for 2 new bugs Crawler_Crash and Amphibious_Probe.

I also added 4 other new bugs (reported here or in emails):
#0139, 1x1_Island_Start
#0140, Elevation_Change_Display
#0141, Bomber_Air_Defense
#0142, Amphibious_Helper

And thanks for the confirmations and bug saves you sent me, one third of the bugs are now off the temporary 'Pending' status!

Zsozso
[This message has been edited by zsozso (edited January 11, 2000).]

LTD · January 11, 2000, 15:44

Another starting location bug, on the Map of Planet I have seen the Pirates starting in the Freshwater Sea at least 3 times, when AI controlled this really inhibits their development.

------------------

korn469 · January 11, 2000, 17:21

BugID: punishment sphere F2 calculation
Submitter: korn469
Version: SMAC/SMACX?
Category: UI
Status: Pending
Priority: 4
Save before: save emailed to zsozso
Save after:
Description: when a punishment sphere is present in a base the F2 screen displays the wrong time until a new tech is discovered and the wrong amount of tech points per turn...the F2 screen does not take into account that a punishment sphere halves the techs per turn so the techs per turn are off by as much as double (depending on how many bases have punishment spheres) so the time displayed until a new tech is discovered is really as much as double what it should really be...however despite the display the techs accumulated are correct and take into account the punishment sphere, and the when the tech is actually discover is correct too

Urban Ranger · January 11, 2000, 23:45

Re: bug #0047

zsozso - I haven't noticed that before so I can't help. It occurred to me many times, however, that a native unit captured some distance away from any of your bases turns out to be not independent. This is esp. true with IoDs.

MosesPresley · January 12, 2000, 06:08

SOUND

priority 4: no missle launcher sound or probe (lack of probe battle sound previously reported above) sounds during battles. It maybe minor, but it is sure annoying.This is repeatable and I can submit a saved game.

Bblue · January 12, 2000, 07:27

Can now confirm the TECHSTEAL bug is FIXED!

Fistleaf · January 12, 2000, 08:25

3 Suggested enhancements:
1. A pollution indicator - bases with ecodamage are indicated in one of the menus perhaps.
2. Cult of planet special interlude - description of Cha Dawn's relationship with Planet and explain how Transcendence is keeping Planet pristine.
3. Autoupgrade Supply and Probes to better reactor every time.

Bblue · January 12, 2000, 10:05

Quote:

Originally posted by MosesPresley on 01-12-2000 05:08 AM
SOUND

priority 4: no missle launcher sound or probe (lack of probe battle sound previously reported above) sounds during battles. It maybe minor, but it is sure annoying.This is repeatable and I can submit a saved game.

Just got out of a game and can confirm that this exists AND that it's annoying

[This message has been edited by Bblue (edited January 12, 2000).]

Radegast2 · January 12, 2000, 10:50

NextId, Shared_Working
Type Base
Priority 3/4
Pending

(soory, dunno where the 'proper' form is)

I have encountered a situation where two different bases from two different factions were working the same square.

The map set up was a little unusual

SPS
SSS
LLL
SSS
LDL

Where L is land, S is sea, D is Datajack land base, P is Pirate sea base.

Both Datajack's and Pirates were able to work the island in the middle, indeed both were able to work the same square at the same time.

Suspect that this has something to do with borders and sea squares limiting borders.

No save, as I captured the base the turn I noticed. But I wonder if it can still be done with my own units. Build boreholes if it can!

zsozso · January 12, 2000, 11:10

SOUND:
Both probe and missile sound problems are described in BugID: #0069, Battle_Sound, and the bug is already in Confirmed state.

Radegast2:
This bug is described in BugID: #0112, Land_tile_usage, with a save demonstrating a situation very similar to yours (the only difference is that both bases are in the sea, but they work on the same little island).

You can see the bugs if you follow the links below:
http://apolyton.net/forums/Forum12/H...0677-2.html#69
http://apolyton.net/forums/Forum12/H...677-3.html#112

[This message has been edited by zsozso (edited January 12, 2000).]

gnome · January 12, 2000, 15:07

Some new bugs, some followups on old bugs:

1. When you have a Pact with someone, you can tell what they are producing only by clicking on the individual cities. You can tell how much energy reserves they have only by checking their faction profile. As long as this information is available to you, why not show it under the city name, and on the negotiation screen, as though you had infiltrator information?

(Saved game sent to zsozso)

2. When you gain a technology advance, the quote and the description rearrange themselves as you scroll downwards (I have noticed this in 800x600 and 1024x768). This makes reading long quotes or descriptions
difficult.

(Saved game sent to zsozso)

3. (request) It would be nice if the news window contained announcements of factions who change their social engineering choices
(at least those you have infiltration or alliance with).

4. (request) It would be useful to have an automation preference for "Automated terraformers can build bunkers" so that you could turn it off.

5. Bug #0027 (Research Limits). I don't consider this a bug at all. What this does is allow the Cybernetic Consciousness to make one non-science social choice (such as "Power") and still max out their research rate.

6. In one of my games, I learned Adaptive Doctrine, yet it would not allow me to add a Marine Detatchment to my boats.

(Saved game sent to zsozso)

7. Bug #0051 (Humanoid Aliens) has been fixed! I tested it using the patched version and now the aliens ask you in their own patterns of speech to abandon Green economics.

Paul · January 12, 2000, 17:32

BugID: PBEM_save_and_exit
Submitter: Paul
Version: SMAC v4
Description: at the end of a pbem turn when I choose save and exit the game will lock after it has saved. The only thing I can do to get out of it is ctrl-alt-del.

Luckily the saved game still works, but it's still annoying. This happens every time in all my pbem games, I don't know if other players also have it or if it's system-specific.

January 12, 2000, 18:13

Paul -

I get the same thing, but only with a less-than-full install and the CD not present. With a full install or the CD around, I can exit PBEM/hotseat games and not have to CTRL-ALT-DEL my way back to the desktop.

Hope this helps

-Warp

Trav · January 13, 2000, 01:41

This is in regards to bug #0138 : Brood_Pit

As stated,

"Brood Pit does not give +1 Life Cycle. Instead, units get +1 Life Cycle only
when present inside city.(Similar to Children's Creche effect)"

However, looking in the manual, it never says that the Brood Pit is supposed to give +1 Life Cycle - in fact it just says that it acts as a children's creche for native units (which is how it's apparently acting). So, I don't think that this is actually a bug.

Tau Ceti · January 13, 2000, 10:05

BugID #51:

They may have fixed the complaints about not running Planned economics, but there are still cases where Progenitors are treated as humans. For example I have seen someone say "I have located the settlements of our former colleague H'minee..."

Also, when I was playing the Usurpers, Svensgaard said "I've heard rumors of an alien race living here on Planet, led by one calling itself H'minee. Is this true? (...)", and one of my possible answers was "Aliens, you say? Oh my. Nope, haven't heard a word."

Not without its charm, of course, but still...

Save of the latter sent to zsozso.

Bblue · January 14, 2000, 10:54

A few more wrong announcments:
see: BugID: #0068, Anouncement_Graphics
Description: When new energy resourses randomly appear during gameplay, the pop-up annoncement screen shows the graphic for new minerals, not energy, even though the text and world map correctly show new energy resourses.

The wrong announcement graphics also occurs when some/all(?) of the resourse 'bonuses' randomly deplete (It show the graphic for energy market crash) btw.. all the correct graphics are in the SMACX folder they are just not be correctly routed to.

Also: MarkG or DanQ would one of you please delete that random newbie post in the 'Offical' buglist.

zsozso · January 15, 2000, 01:10

I will be offline next week and therefore unable to maintain the official bug list.

I asked Bblue and he accepted to substitute me for this time. So he has to official authority to post new bugs from this reporting thread to the official list starting Sunday the 16th.

Zsozso
ps. MarkG or DanQ, could you please delete post #144 from the official bug list.

January 15, 2000, 18:26

np... Post #144 deleted.

----------------
Dan; Apolyton CS

zsozso · January 15, 2000, 19:43

Thanks a lot, DanQ !

Bblue, I have added all the reports from this thread to the official list up to this point (last one is #0149, PBEM_save_and_exit, Paul).
Now, the official list is yours 'till further notice (Sunday 23rd unless I get stuck at the Caribbean

)

Zsozso

Misotu · January 17, 2000, 15:20

I have checked the list carefully but apologies if this has already been reported or if it's something you can turn off somewhere.

BugID: GoTo command, Air Units
Submitter: Misotu, misotu@birdmail.com
Version: Alien Crossfire
Category: Movement
Status: Pending
Priority: 3
Description: When moving using the goto command, some air units stop if they encounter a friendly city even though they have sufficient movement points remaining to execute the goto command in full. This is true of missiles (all types inc planet buster), copters, gravships and locusts of Chiron.

Needlejets stop in friendly cities if they are damaged. If health is 100%, they don't stop.

This is pretty frustrating since, once missiles have a range of 20+ squares it's really hard to predict whether the goto command will cause them to try to pass through a friendly city. Means all missiles have to be moved by hand, unless you're not bothered how many turns they take to reach their destination.

This was true in SMAC as well. It may be by design, but if so I'd like to be able to turn it off!

Misotu · January 17, 2000, 15:26

BugID: F4 Base Screen
Submitter: Misotu, misotu@birdmail.com
Version: Alien Crossfire & SMAC
Category: UI
Status: Pending
Priority: 4
Description: When using the F4 base screen repeatedly (eg to hurry production in multiple cities), you are returned to the top of the list each time when exiting from any city view. The city you last visited is highlighted, but you have to scroll down repeatedly to find your place in the list. This is incredibly time-consuming / frustrating when you have pages and pages of cities. It would really enhance my gaming experience if the F4 screen would return to the correct place in the list. PLEASE :-))

Misotu · January 17, 2000, 15:33

BugID: Mswheel/terranx crash
Submitter: Misotu, misotu@birdmail.com
Version: Alien Crossfire and SMAC
Category: Crash
Status: Pending
Priority: 1
Save before: Available
Save after:
Description: Terranx.exe crashes mid-game onwards at various points (generally when air units attack or a city is taken) if I am running mswheel.exe. Once the crash occurs, the game cannot be continued unless the event precipitating the crash can be avoided. The crash does not happen if mswheel is killed. This is consistent and repeatable on my PC but have not tried another environment.

Misotu · January 17, 2000, 15:41

BugID: Sea terraform up lowers land in other squares
Submitter: Misotu, misotu@birdmail.com
Version: Alien Crossfire & SMAC
Category: Terraforming
Status: Pending
Priority: 4
Save before: Available
Save after:
Description: Terraforming ocean squares to ocean shelf over large areas causes other ocean shelf squares to become ocean squares, apparently randomly. Not sure if this is a bug or by design, but I've not noticed the same on land.

Also, sea terraforming seems to work differently to land, in the sense that every ocean square seems to need terraforming individually - ie raising the level of one square doesn't seem to raise adjacent squares. Seems illogical.

Misotu · January 17, 2000, 15:47

Bug # 0126 - Alien Artifact

I have seen this too, just once, in my first game of Alien Crossfire. At the time I thought it was a cute new feature, since I was being bombarded by a spore launcher. I assumed it had run out of spores and was lobbing the first thing that came to hand :-)

Misotu · January 17, 2000, 16:26

BugID: GoTo command with Xenoempathy Dome, Land units only
Submitter: Misotu, misotu@birdmail.com
Version: SMAC and Alien Crossfire
Category: Movement
Status: Pending
Priority: 4
Description: The goto command works really well except if you have the Xenoempathy Dome. If I have this, my land units often ignore magrails and use fungus squares instead if the fungus provides a shorter route. Means you have to move units manually unless the magrail route is absolutely direct.
[This message has been edited by Misotu (edited January 17, 2000).]