Valar Morghulis

[poolside]

Hi, I'm new here. Not really sure where else to post this.

I'm using GOG's version with Yitzi's SMAX patch 2.5g. This is my compilation of stuff I've noticed.

Bugs:

* 9 times out of 10, when the enemy uses a Planet Buster, my game crashes. (Game-stopping bug. Have to reload 10-20 turns back to prevent the enemy from using it.)

* Very often, when a base stockpiles energy and it has drone riots, its credit influx can be a very high number, like 1070721313. (Can work around by loading back one turn, then fixing the riot and/or giving the base a dummy job.)

Annoyances:

* The pop-up for a faction's "urgent message" can appear up to five times in succession. (Though minor, it is nerve-wracking.)

* Sometimes, starting a new game will result in a game with an incomplete interface (no menus and zero information in the lower part of the interface). I have no idea what triggers it.

* It's asinine to click on "Transcendent Thought XX" when Blind Research is turned off, and so is the prompt for this "breakthrough". It's easy to suppress this by disabling the tech in alphax.txt, though I believe the tech score stops racking up at that point.

AI:

* I'm most often playing on "Thinker" level, but no faction ever uses Orbital Improvements.
* While the AI is devious enough to encroach on your territory by spamming colony pods (even when they're your Pact Brother/Sister), it could also "terrorize through terraforming" - plant fungus, take away land, etc.

Workshop:

* Why don't we get upgrade prompts more often? It's usually only when
 - a prototype of a unit is completed;
 - I have enough credits to upgrade all the obsolete units to the new
prototype;
 - a new power source is discovered.
Otherwise I'm in the workshop 24/7, upgrading units. Here's my proposal:
get an upgrade prompt every time there's enough credits to upgrade an obsolete unit to the new prototype/unit. Canceling the upgrade prevents any future prompt for that obsolete version.

* "Yes to ALL" doesn't seem to function as an option; I'm still having to click through all the prompts to upgrade.

* When I take over another faction's base, either the units they were building or if I get the units by mind control or if they transfer the unit over to my control, the unit's design sneaks into my workshop. That's completely unnecessary and annoying, considering I don't even get an upgrade prompt for it (and it's not even marked as obsolete when it often should be).

* The autobuild feature:
 - Probe Teams should provide Hovertank and naval versions;
 - Formers should provide Speeder, Hovertank and Cruiser versions;
 - Colony Pods should provide Speeder versions;
 - Probe Teams should upgrade their power sources.

The underlying principle is that non-combat units should be provided with new chassis and/or new power sources as they are discovered.

* SAM versions of units are excluded from the same upgrade path as non-SAM versions. I don't know if this is deliberate or not, but it makes for a very painful design and upgrade process, such as for example
 - not being able to upgrade a non-SAM unit to a SAM unit;
 - not being able to upgrade an obsolete SAM unit to a newer unit without SAM;
 - having to design two separate units with near-identical properties.

This could be intentional, but it is hellishly annoying still.

That's just off the top of my head. Happy to provide save games/screenshots.

[Buster's Uncle]

1.)  He'll want saves from the turn the bugs appear, just before w/ instructions on how to trigger.  He'll be by in about two hours, probably.

2.)  Welcome to AC2!    How did you find us?

[poolside]

1) Great, I've got the Planet Buster bug right here, in the attached save. Just play the turn as per usual (I attack a base and another ship with the two ships.)

I'll post a credit bug save as soon as I encounter it.

2) All hail Google the Almighty! Developing a fiery love for this game over the past few months didn't hurt either.

[Buster's Uncle]

What search term(s)?  I have to worry about stuff like that...

[poolside]

smax patch 

[ete]

AI:

* I'm most often playing on "Thinker" level, but no faction ever uses Orbital Improvements.
* While the AI is devious enough to encroach on your territory by spamming colony pods (even when they're your Pact Brother/Sister), it could also "terrorize through terraforming" - plant fungus, take away land, etc.

First may be a mid-term goal for kyrub's patch, which will shortly be merged into yitzi's. Second seems unlikely to be changed, allies should generally be friendly and figuring out when they want to push you would be really hard to get right in assembly.

* When I take over another faction's base, either the units they were building or if I get the units by mind control or if they transfer the unit over to my control, the unit's design sneaks into my workshop. That's completely unnecessary and annoying, considering I don't even get an upgrade prompt for it (and it's not even marked as obsolete when it often should be).

I use that to upgrade all sometimes. It's a bit of a bother, but also handy occasionally.

* The autobuild feature:
 - Probe Teams should provide Hovertank and naval versions;
 - Formers should provide Speeder, Hovertank and Cruiser versions;
 - Colony Pods should provide Speeder versions;
 - Probe Teams should upgrade their power sources.

The underlying principle is that non-combat units should be provided with new chassis and/or new power sources as they are discovered.

This can be changed in alphax.txt #UNITS, we're planning which custom units to include by default over in the modding forum.

* SAM versions of units are excluded from the same upgrade path as non-SAM versions. I don't know if this is deliberate or not, but it makes for a very painful design and upgrade process, such as for example
 - not being able to upgrade a non-SAM unit to a SAM unit;
 - not being able to upgrade an obsolete SAM unit to a newer unit without SAM;
 - having to design two separate units with near-identical properties.

This could be intentional, but it is hellishly annoying still.

Pretty certain this is intentional. It makes the divide between air and anti air cleaner, stops you from being able to massively change the roles of units on the fly. Is annoying, but a feature not a bug.

[Yitzi]

When I tried to load your save to test it out, I got an error reading the file.  Maybe try another game with the same bug?

Also, ete, Kyrub's patch probably won't be merged into mine for a while, as porting from SMAC to SMAX may not be that easy and Kyrub isn't ready to do that until there's full SMAC'ing capability, which I do plan to get to but not that soon.

[poolside]

I did make some changes to the vanilla configuration. I'll include the modified files in a .zip file as soon as I'm able.

Edit: here it is. As a sidenote, I've tried to load the save on a vanilla GOG version, and it loads normally, and there's also no crash after Domai uses the Planet Buster.

[poolside]

AI:
* While the AI is devious enough to encroach on your territory by spamming colony pods (even when they're your Pact Brother/Sister), it could also "terrorize through terraforming" - plant fungus, take away land, etc.

Second seems unlikely to be changed, allies should generally be friendly and figuring out when they want to push you would be really hard to get right in assembly.

Lowering or raising terrain, for example, that would somehow affect an ally's base or territory, gives you a prompt to pronounce vendetta, and you can't do it in the vicinity of a Pact ally (the game requires you to cancel the Pact first).

Which leads me to believe that the "figuring out when they want to push you" would be unneeded - let them "terrorize through terraforming" only when they're in vendetta against you.

[Yitzi]

I did make some changes to the vanilla configuration. I'll include the modified files in a .zip file as soon as I'm able.

Edit: here it is. As a sidenote, I've tried to load the save on a vanilla GOG version, and it loads normally, and there's also no crash after Domai uses the Planet Buster.

Hmm...it's loading for me under Kyrub's patch, but not my own.  I'll have to figure out what's causing it, as that's probably the culprit.

[Yitzi]

Well, my difficulty loading it seems to be something where certain games don't agree with the combination of the debugger and the name terranx.exe.  Not quite sure what's going on there, but it happens even with Kyrub's .exe but not when it's not run through a debugger, so it can't be something to do with what I did and shouldn't affect most people.  So I'll just have to work around it to figure out what's with the planet buster crash.

[Buster's Uncle]

Why, BTW, the Silmarillionn reference in the thread title, poolside?

[Yitzi]

The bug has been fixed (and in the process I seem to have accidentally fixed the bug that was preventing me from loading it too), and a patch should be up shortly.

Why, BTW, the Silmarillionn reference in the thread title, poolside?

It's not Silmarillion, but rather A Song of Ice and Fire (whether George R.R. Martin was influenced by Tolkien in his choice of the word "Valar", I'm not sure.

[Buster's Uncle]

"Morghulis" sounds like something pertaining to Morgoth, too.  Not a subtle influence showing.

[poolside]

It's a customary greeting in Essos.