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bug list

Posted: Wed Jul 27, 2005 7:28 am
by siron
I started with a bug list during my vacation.

http://masteroforion2.blogspot.com/2005 ... 2652176415

I am sure there are further bugs....so contact me please.

Maybe you propose a different classification of these bugs? I guess here is a nice place to discuss it.

What are the most important bugs in your view?

Posted: Wed Jul 27, 2005 12:08 pm
by Gusset
Hi Siron,

Nice collection of bug information on your site.

I have to voice a disagreement, though.
Cloaking Device, Phasing Cloak (main map) They should work on main map like Stealth fields.
This is not a bug, and should be removed from your list, IMHO. One technology should not give you both benefits. Detecting a ship that is travelling at FTL speeds SHOULD be different, technologically, from detecting a ship at non-relativistic velocity.

As support in the MOO2 universe, I point out that Neutron Scanner technology increases galactic scanning range, yet does not impact ship detection in combat...different technology is involved at the galactic scanning level. Further, taking the racial stealth pick does nothing for your ships in combat. Hence, "galactic" stealth and "combat" stealth are different concepts. One stealth technology should not affect both.

Tractor Beams The excessive use of tractor beams (ca. 7 BBs or more) can cause crashes. There is often a crash to desktop for one of the both players, when:
a) A ship with activated tractors moves.
b) An "immobile" opponent ship moves.
Perhaps I can provide some additional information on this one. I believe the tractor beam bug can be "avoided".

In my memory/experience, the bug occurs when a tractor beam is "stretched" (ie animated) across the visible screen boundary. If I get to move a tractored ship, and the ship armed with the TB is OFF-SCREEN when I am moving, the result is a crash. It seems to occur when the tractor beam is "re-drawn" during ship movement animation, and has a "start point" that is off-screen. I have only noticed this in games played, and have not actually performed a focused test on it. My hypothesis should be pretty easy to either verify or refute.

I appreciate the level of detail on your web site, Siron. It's been helpful to me in a number of ways. Keep it up.

-Gusset

Posted: Wed Jul 27, 2005 3:41 pm
by siron
Hi Gusset,

first thanks for nice words and your tractor beam hypothesis. Sounds convincing. Sadly, I have no LAN here right now (Laptop display still broken) but I guess someone else can test your hypothesis easily.

@ Cloaking:
I remember some kali players were opposed when Lord Brazen decided to fix Stealth Fields. "Too strong etc." Fact: Personal Shield is still the most popular choice.

About your claim that moo2 has some general distinction between scanner technology regarding main map/battle. I think it is wrong.

Examples:
Battle Scanner adds 2 parsec on main map and adds 50 to the BeamAttack. Therefore, Scanner helpful on main map and in battle.
Neutron and other Scanners add parsecs on main map AND they reduce missile evasion of the opponents. (Since this evasion reduction is not displayed in battle it is treated like a bonus to the unlisted MissileATTACK. Without scanners this attack value is 50.)

So, all these scanners are helpful on both screens.

Just read the manual and the online help. IMHO there can be no doubt at all about the intention of the game designers.

Manual:

Cloaking Device (System)
The Cloaking Device hides a ship from long-range scans completely. In
combat, as long as the ship does not attack, it has an 80% bonus to its
defense against beam weapons. When a cloaked ship does attack, it loses
this bonus. Once the ship has attacked, it must remain uncloaked until it
spends one full turn without firing; then it can recloak.

1) "long-range scans" refer to main map
2) The introduction of the 2nd sentence "In combat,..." makes clear that the first sentence has nothing to do with combat.

Phasing Cloak (System)
The Phasing Cloak is a vast improvement over the Cloaking Device. It
allows the ship to temporarily shift its hyperspatial harmonics in a sense
moving its atoms partially into another dimension instead of just
eliminating the evidence of its movements. This system hides the ship
completely from all detection scanners, combat sensors, and targeting
systems. While cloaked, the ship cannot be attacked. After 10 turns in
combat, side effects of the Phasing Cloak become a serious risk to the
survival and sanity of the crew. Its effect must be tuned down, and thus it
functions just like a Cloaking Device until the end of that combat.

"This system hides the ship completely from all detection scanners, combat sensors, and targeting systems."

There can be no doubt.

When you still have doubts...

Start a moo2 game and use the alt einstein cheat. Go to the Ship Design Screen and look at the short description of the ship specials.

Here are the quotes from the Ship Design Screen:

Stealth Field: Invisible on main screen
Cloaking Device: +80% Defense, Invisible on main screen
Phasing Cloak: Invisible in combat and on main screen

I don't see anything what supports your hypothesis here.

Posted: Wed Jul 27, 2005 10:30 pm
by Gusset
Here are the quotes from the Ship Design Screen:

Stealth Field: Invisible on main screen
Cloaking Device: +80% Defense, Invisible on main screen
Phasing Cloak: Invisible in combat and on main screen
I had not looked at the ship design screen descriptions. There is no ambiguity there. I guess it's time to admit that I am wrong on this one.

-Gusset

Posted: Sun Jul 31, 2005 3:58 pm
by siron
any progress with the tractors issue?

you wanted to try it IIRC.

alex seems not convinced by this hypothesis.....but a LAN test in near future would be nice....

nasty bug in most prod race ladders....

Posted: Wed Aug 03, 2005 4:37 am
by siron
from

http://lordbrazen.blogspot.com/2005/08/ ... on-in.html
"Work on a few bugs ( just those that I can duplicate easily):"
When you have problems to duplicate some of these bugs (but you are interested to fix them asap), just ask for saves.
"Can't land outpost when a cship is present sometimes (not sure of conditions required yet)."
The conditions are: Cship and Outpost at same system. That system contains asteroids or gas giants but no planet where you could land your Cship. I have always this bug then.

Posted: Wed Aug 10, 2005 7:09 pm
by avich
I have a very old problem too share...

MoO2 hangs up in combat screen when I have managed to capture a few enemy ships :evil: . Last thing that happens is a screen panning, after which the game is dead, and only mouse cursor is moving. This happens regardless of which executable I use -- orion2 or orion95 or even orion2v140... :(

I think this can be a result of some off-screen drawing, too.

Posted: Wed Aug 10, 2005 8:05 pm
by siron
Hi avich!

Yes. I also observed this bug. I had it very often in some blitz tests against ai...

...but also in 4ways when some player resigns (the AI continues then).

Most players seem unaware of this. I observed it in 4ways with demo lith and early transporters.....same frozen screens against AI opponents.

In the bug list it is mentioned under serious bugs:

Ship Capture When you capture several ships the battle can freeze. Similar lock up also occurs because of excessive use of stasis fields. So far, I observed this only against AI opponent. (Probably, autocombat issue.) Nevertheless, there are battles against Ais in xWays.

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

Serious....the other players suspect that you just crashed the battle because you were unsuccessful. This bug is a source of disputes.

Posted: Wed Aug 10, 2005 8:26 pm
by avich
Oops, I overlooked this one... Thought that the list is same as "2.1. What are the bugs in the latest (v1.31) official patch?" in FAQ...

I tried to run MoO2 using DosBox v0.63 (http://dosbox.sourceforge.net) - same sad story...

Posted: Thu Aug 11, 2005 12:50 am
by DJ
I know several bugs, perhabs they are already fixed, but I describe

Network game: Game crashed when yours and other 2 scouts arrive to planet.

Hot Seat: (2 player) Feudal bonus affect opponent in even turns

Hot Seat: Leaders get new task without 5 turn delay.
Set new task for Leader, then press "Pool", and leave screen.
Set task again - no more 5 turns delay !

Posted: Thu Aug 11, 2005 2:49 pm
by siron
Network game: Game crashed when yours and other 2 scouts arrive to planet.
I havent observed this yet. And this rarely happens so I have to test it if it still occurs in 1.31/1.4.
Hot Seat: (2 player) Feudal bonus affect opponent in even turns
First I have not understood but I guess you mean the following.
Opponents can build ships with feudal prices?
Strike. I observed this once (on some turns) in a MP game (network) and had no clue why this happened. Now I remember that one opponent was feudal!
Hot Seat: Leaders get new task without 5 turn delay.
Set new task for Leader, then press "Pool", and leave screen.
Set task again - no more 5 turns delay !
But in Network it is fixed? I observed this just for homeworld (and we treat this as feature there). I guess this is fixed what you mean:

ftp://ftp.infogrames.net/patches/moo2/moo2v131.txt
It used to be possible to circumvent the 5-turn ETA by sending the
leader to the pool and then back to the same star system. This has
been fixed.
DJ, thanks for your post!

Posted: Tue Aug 16, 2005 10:34 am
by Lord Brazen
It used to be possible to circumvent the 5-turn ETA by sending the leader to the pool and then back to the same star system. This has been fixed.
Well, part of this bug has been fixed. I beleive that you can still send a ship leader (who is located on a ship a long way from your homeworld) back to the pool and then immediately assign him to a new ship located at your homeworld. This can be exploited to help defend your homesystem or to deliver a leader faster then 5 turns to a location (just load him on a ff at the homeworld and fly him to the main fleet assuming the ff can get there faster than 5 turns)

Maybe I am wrong...I'll have to check it sometime

Posted: Tue Aug 16, 2005 12:53 pm
by siron
I beleive that you can still send a ship leader (who is located on a ship a long way from your homeworld) back to the pool and then immediately assign him to a new ship located at your homeworld.
Yes this works and many players use this "feature".

Posted: Tue Aug 16, 2005 6:56 pm
by ALEX|D
U also can send fleet with navileader +1. After fleet has a eta, u can go to fleet and order the ship with leader back to orbit of starsystem, the fleet (without a navileader) flys with +1 speed.

So u can use ur navileader everywhere, not alone on ur HW by sending him to pool.

---

That a Leader needs everywhere to go, 5turns from HW, isnt good.
It would be better if he takes as long as a POP needs to be send from A to B imho.

Posted: Wed Aug 17, 2005 2:46 am
by DJ
About Feudal bonus bug - I have idea :idea: ! We are play hot-seat game in that order,
Player 1 - play
Player 2 - play (Turn generated)
Player 2 - ...
Player 1 - play (Turn generated) so I think this order generate bug? and opponent use yours Feudal bonus

Another one what I just remember :
(1.3x version?) (Hot Seat?) Mark all Transport's and press Unload Troops button,
Enter the planet - troops unloaded, Look on yours Transports again - all Transport ships - alive !