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Re: 1.50.2.1 Fan Patch

Posted: Thu Jun 16, 2016 5:20 am
by Belix
Thanks again.

So, I found a hang/crash bug...

If you use the NUMBER_OF_RACE_PICKS .cfg feature and add enough attributes (try max neg picks = -100, then take all the negatives you can, then take all the other abilities that don't cancel out any negatives and start the game), the LASTRACE.RAC file that is saved causes the game to lock up the next time you go to choose a Custom race, printing the error message "DYNX86:Can't run code in this page!" into the DOSBox console forever until the game eventually crashes.

Slightly related: I'm not sure if this is part of the game code, this text might be out in an .lbx string file somewhere, but no matter what you set the negative picks it incorrectly says: Racial penalties are only allowed to -10 picks.

Re: 1.50.2.1 Fan Patch

Posted: Thu Jun 16, 2016 6:07 am
by Rocco
If you use the NUMBER_OF_RACE_PICKS .cfg feature and add enough attributes (try max neg picks = -100, then take all the negatives you can, then take all the other abilities that don't cancel out any negatives and start the game), the LASTRACE.RAC file that is saved causes the game to lock up the next time you go to choose a Custom race, printing the error message "DYNX86:Can't run code in this page!" into the DOSBox console forever until the game eventually crashes.
This bug occurs somewhere beyond 18 total traits (negatives & positives) in a race. Coz its an extreme case and races don't have more than 18 traits even in modded games, we'll just leave this one as it is. Still nice that you are testing such extreme cases though.
Slightly related: I'm not sure if this is part of the game code, this text might be out in an .lbx string file somewhere, but no matter what you set the negative picks it incorrectly says: Racial penalties are only allowed to -10 picks.
The warning text is in Kentext.lbx, file # 444. It can be modded with the MOO2 Workshop.

Re: 1.50.2.1 Fan Patch

Posted: Thu Jun 16, 2016 6:20 am
by Overlord2
EDIT #2: Whoa. I just decimated an entire AI fleet that attacked my home star -- 1 cruiser, 3 battleships, and 5 titans -- and I managed to take them all out without losing a single ship. After the battle, their entire fleet is still intact and blockading my system, as if the fight never occured.
This reminded me of another bug - in MP when two players attack same kind of monster in one turn, one of it doesn't get killed and stays on orbit forcing a player to fight it next turn. Noteworthy this bug doesn't happen with 100% regularity. Sometimes you pass it OK. Also if you remove monster with save editor, game doesn't allow to land a colony ship on that planet in that turn.

Re: 1.50.2.1 Fan Patch

Posted: Wed Jun 22, 2016 4:56 am
by Belix
I've been able to play 2 full games with no ships disappearing or any other oddities, so no luck getting a save yet that can reproduce either issue I've had after battles. But playing the game more, I did come up with 2 more suggestions you may consider.

1) Any chance Auto Fire weapons could be adjusted to fire all 3 rounds in rapid succession? Long range combat with Auto Fire weapons is very slow since MoO2 waits for each of the 3 shots to hit the target individually before firing the next shot, whereas
point blank Auto Fire weapons fire very fast. It would be nice if the weapon always fired at the same (fast) speed so such battles are not so slow.

2) Is it possible 'Drop All' can be made not to create an extra Bombard sound for every bomb dropped? The sound of tens or hundreds of bombs going off at once has been harsh on my ears for years.

Thanks again!

EDIT: Not sure if this would be considered a significant bug, but when I scrapped a captured ship, I learned the same technology twice. I assume the same weapon (Plasma Cannon) was on the AI ship twice being the cause. Just mentioning it.

EDIT #2: I was able to recreate the ship disappearing bug in a test hotseat game. 1 EMG Nuke seems to consistently immobilize a Nuclear Drive, Titanium Armored Battleship, and using this combination I tried immobilizing ships ordered to retreat before and after they began to move away. As I suspect Darza already found and fixed, the ship that begins moving away to retreat, when hit with a missile, continues to retreat rather than come to a stop, and consequently vanishes after combat. It seems strange that a ship retreating can be destroyed, but not stopped. Not sure if the fix in the next version will allow the ships to retreat without vanishing or immobilizes them on the spot, but either way, looking forward to the next version!

Re: 1.50.3 Fan Patch

Posted: Tue Jun 28, 2016 7:14 am
by Rocco
I did come up with 2 more suggestions you may consider.
1. imo, only Heavy Mount Autofire Mass Driver is too slow. Are you playing with fast animations on?
2. no plans for it atm, we might take a look at it, not sure though.

the issue of immobilization/disappearing ships has been solved in our latest 1.50.3 patch!
downloadable now from the site.

Changelog:
http://moo2mod.com/patch/README_150.TXT

Detailed overview of all new features and bug fixes in this manual:
http://moo2mod.com/patch/MANUAL_150.PDF

Re: 1.50.3 Fan Patch

Posted: Tue Jun 28, 2016 7:37 pm
by Belix
If you mean the 'Animations' option in the game menu, that's checked. I guess I should try with that off. Seems I've overlooked that setting for years. I'll check it out.

I seem to be having an unexpected issue with one of my race mod files I made now. I get an error reading:
unable to interpret value for parameter 'stock_races Alkari ', got: gnd0 spy0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1: # LHW canceled by Warlord
LHW canceled by Warlord? That can't be right...

RPs produced on turn 0 are not lost even if you did not choose tech yet.
You guys are great.
Option to play against a random number of AIs.
You guys are amazing.
Updated NEWGAME.LBX, added pictures for cluster, random and post warp.
That's really nice. Thanks! I was actually thinking of making these myself; now I don't have to.
Option to skip delete housing / trade goods dialog without deleting them.
You guys are awesome. This was one thing I was thinking of asking about, but was unsure if it warranted the work involved.

Seriously, this is the kind of great work that would prompt me to click a 'donate' button somewhere after enjoying it for awhile as a thank you.

Seems like some work went in to balancing Stasis Fields. Are they fair now? I've often modded it out for years now, replacing them with Reflection Field instead.

Re: 1.50.3 Fan Patch

Posted: Tue Jun 28, 2016 7:49 pm
by Rocco
Glad you're liking the new stuff, Belix

About for your item:
unable to interpret value for parameter 'stock_races Alkari ', got: gnd0 spy0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1: # LHW canceled by Warlord
the code 'gnd' has been changed to 'gc'
and so they need to be changed in all your race lines.
sorry for that, but as we develop the patch its possible that such naming conventions can change too

Also, i did not mean the 'animations' option in game settings, but i meant in combat there are also a few options in the menu in bottom-center and one of them is "fast animations", whichs speeds up your beams.

And yes, I think stasis field has been much improved in this version.
i still have it taking up more space in ice than in classic, but it should be playable now

Re: 1.50.3.2 Fan Patch

Posted: Thu Sep 22, 2016 6:07 am
by Deflaktor
OMG this is amazing! Thanks for that great effort you put into this version!
How have you managed to change some much code in the game? Do you have access to the source? When I read through the change log I imagined that some of the things are very hard to fix in assembler.

Also a question. I remember there was a useless leader trait, namely Tactics. Through a lot of testing I was still unable to find out what it actually does. I tried many combinations of boarding during combat, being boarded, raiding, being raided, conquering a planet and being conquered. No matter what I did, having a leader with tactics or not did not change the outcome in the slightest bit. Do you guys plan on fixing that, too?

Re: 1.50.4 Fan Patch

Posted: Thu Sep 22, 2016 7:31 am
by Rocco
Sadly Tactics does absolutely nothing. We have the item on our list of identified problems, not sure if we'll fix it. If we do look at it we're actually open to suggestions on what Tactics should do. Acoording description it should raise the Initiative rating for the fleet, but perhaps some other benefit could be more exciting.

Note that we just released 1.50.4 that got even more stuff fixed, some great enhancement of build queue management: up to 11 lists can be created now, Unbuy function, Defensive fire fixed and more standard configs in the pack; a new mapmod, balance settings and improved AI ships. Check readme or manual as usual.

Note also the cool cover: http://moo2mod.com/patch/MANUAL_150.PDF
Thanks to SirTiefling for allowing us to use his artwork on our manual.

Re: 1.50.4 Fan Patch

Posted: Thu Sep 22, 2016 7:47 am
by Deflaktor
Thank you so much for your continuous improvement of this gem =) will check it out =)

I dont know what to do about tactics. For all I care it could just be removed altogether to reduce confusion. Or be replaced by a random trait.

Re: 1.50.4.2 Fan Patch

Posted: Mon Oct 10, 2016 12:46 am
by Kornstalx
Regarding the Random option for number of AI players:

Is there a variable hidden somewhere in a .cfg that lets you specify the span of player # randomness? For instance I love not knowing how many opponents exist, but I don't like playing for an hour before realizing it's just me and Mr. Sakkra on a Huge map. It would be nice if we had a variable to specify "not less than" or something, ie 4-6.

Re: 1.50.4.2 Fan Patch

Posted: Mon Oct 10, 2016 1:03 am
by Darza
No, there is no. It cannot be less than # of human players though. Thats quite a point of "Random number" option; to play random number of opponents, if you dont want to be able to employ the most optimal strategy every time, knowing the exact number of opponents at start. If you just want to chose from 4-6 only - it can easily be done using a dice.

Re: 1.50.6 Fan Patch

Posted: Sun Dec 04, 2016 12:30 pm
by Rocco
Patch version 1.50.6 has just been made available, containing another 3 dozen bug fixes or so.
Note that for this edition, a lot of parameter names have been changed.
Your personal mods will need an update to run on 1.50.6.

Re: 1.50.6 Fan Patch

Posted: Tue Dec 06, 2016 5:29 am
by Overlord2
In 1.50.6 there is a bug with food production for 'fixedhw' switch planets. It produces one food less. Second bug, it shows wrong visuals (rightclick mouse on a planet) of food production for outside from homeworld planets for aquatic race (tudra & ocean, terran).

Re: 1.50.6.1 Fan Patch

Posted: Wed Dec 07, 2016 4:56 pm
by Rocco
In 1.50.6 there is a bug with food production for 'fixedhw' switch planets. It produces one food less. Second bug, it shows wrong visuals (rightclick mouse on a planet) of food production for outside from homeworld planets for aquatic race (tudra & ocean, terran).
These items have now been fixed with the 1.50.6.1 hotfix