aliens

Author Topic: Bugs, crashes, typos & bad taste  (Read 1132550 times)

Offline Solarius Scorch

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Re: Bugs, crashes, typos & bad taste
« Reply #3780 on: July 15, 2023, 06:21:40 pm »
That 'many' is three, while 'Reclamation' is used about 20 times. Granted, one of them is the organisation description (but the name of the article is "Reclamation..."!). Which IMO makes the whole thing a bit confusing. Maybe add "Reclamation, also known as Children", or something along these lines, into the main article?

This seems like the best decision. Done!

IMO, the problem is still "Kitsune comes too early". Skyraider is a good fast strike craft, with reasonable tradeoffs compared to the Skyranger - but the Skymarshall is already starting to blur that line, and then the Kitsune comes and eats Skyraider's lunch soon after. In my experience. there's a very limited time window where Skyraiders actually fulfill their apparent niche, that being being a Dragonfly successor.

I am leaning towards the same view.
Perhaps it would be good to make the Kitsune timing more random...

In a similar fashion, I was at first a little bit confused about "tritanium" vs "alien alloys". Why use two terms for the same thing, wouldn't it be more straightforward to use, for example, Tritanium everywhere? AFAIR, Hardmode expansion used a shorthand "alloy" in the names, which was obvious on the first sight.

I mostly kept "Alien Alloys" for the pun of "Our Alloys". :P
Feel free can throw vegetables at me, I'll understand.

To be fair, the Kitsune is a one-off, while the SKY-series have no such limitations. In the (unlikely) event that the player either fails to get the Kitsune or loses it, the Skyraider becomes more of a fall-back than a niche craft, at least until the Skymarshall becomes available.

Using the Kitsune and the Starfighter feel a bit like cheating to be honest, and I find myself avoiding either craft and more or less jsut use them as display pieces.

For what the Kitsune is, the player really doesn't have to go through all that much trouble to earn it. It's also kind of strange that X-COM get's nothing tech-wise of what might as well be the first actual alien craft they recover. Sure it's not as advanced as the "usual" aliens, but nonethless it's a space-capable combat-landing craft that's more sturdy than anything X-COM can put together at that point. Even if they can't figure out how the engines work there should be some advanced tech in there that is beneficial.

These are also valid concerns. I'll take them into consideration.

I see this as a feature, not an issue. :D

Of course! :)

Tritanium is a specific alloy? So it might not apply in all instances.

I think it's more of the other way around: tritanium is a class of materials, like "alloys" or "plastic" or "ceramics". With many subtypes geared towards various functions. Tritanium can, for example, be a conductor or an isolator, depending on its intended parameters. It's not only about its composition (which is the same, chemistry-wise), but about its crystalline structure, which is carefully arranged at nanoscales.

Might also be an artifact of mod development history, 'alloys' have been getting replaced with Tritanium with some regularity.

Well, it's true, but it's not an excuse if the current arrangement doesn't work. But I currently think it's fine.

I was under the impression that the Kitsune was actually more advanced in the "MOO2 tech tree" sense, or at least the propulsion systems were.

It's less technologically advanced than standard Cydonian craft, but it has some advantages due to how it was designed specifically for war (UFOs typically aren't - a controversial statement, I know).

Again, it's not about X-COM being unable to figure out the drive system, but more the potential "this is the first actual alien space-craft I have recovered and all got is this shirt"-issue. Even "significantly less advanced" is probably quite a bit more advanced than X-COM is at that point, given that they are working mothballed Canadian fighters and MIGs. I just think there should be some kind of small technological (or even just lore) payoff for recovering a one-of-a-kind alien craft apart from "we have bolted the doors back on, hopefully shouldn't disintegrate mid-flight now".

Hopefully this will be addressed in the future.

Offline Juku121

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Re: Bugs, crashes, typos & bad taste
« Reply #3781 on: July 15, 2023, 07:05:12 pm »
Well, if tritanium is a whole separate classification, instead of an element as in Star Trek, or a specific material (I forget whether it was an element, alloy or something else) in MOO, perhaps the alien alloy article could make the distinction somewhat clearer? Right now, it implies that tritanium is an alloy with special properties.

Also, there's the inconsistent capitalisation of tritanium. If it's a class of materials instead of a specific one, 'tritanium' seems more suitable than 'Tritanium'. Except in cases where everything is capitalised, of which there are certainly plenty. :)

Offline Solarius Scorch

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Re: Bugs, crashes, typos & bad taste
« Reply #3782 on: July 15, 2023, 07:33:14 pm »
Well, if tritanium is a whole separate classification, instead of an element as in Star Trek, or a specific material (I forget whether it was an element, alloy or something else) in MOO, perhaps the alien alloy article could make the distinction somewhat clearer? Right now, it implies that tritanium is an alloy with special properties.

Well, technically it is, but it's more complicated.

I will think about how to improve the article. Suggestions welcome, but not necessary.

Also, there's the inconsistent capitalisation of tritanium. If it's a class of materials instead of a specific one, 'tritanium' seems more suitable than 'Tritanium'. Except in cases where everything is capitalised, of which there are certainly plenty. :)

Here I definitely need help, since I have zero understanding on how capitalisation works in English. There doesn't seem to be any rules to my eye... :)

Offline Juku121

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Re: Bugs, crashes, typos & bad taste
« Reply #3783 on: July 15, 2023, 07:42:09 pm »
Here I definitely need help, since I have zero understanding on how capitalisation works in English. There doesn't seem to be any rules to my eye...
Well, the rule is that only proper nouns are capitalised. But the rule isn't always followed, whether from ignorance or from a reasoned position or because English is a mongrel language that doesn't care about its own rules... ;D

Even titanium is commonly not capitalised, and tritanium seems at least as generic as that. So I'd personally decapitalise most of the instances. Then again, we are discussing a game and while technically alien alloys should be lowercase, saying "Alien Alloys!" is definitely more awesome.

Offline Solarius Scorch

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Re: Bugs, crashes, typos & bad taste
« Reply #3784 on: July 15, 2023, 08:18:25 pm »
Even titanium is commonly not capitalised, and tritanium seems at least as generic as that. So I'd personally decapitalise most of the instances. Then again, we are discussing a game and while technically alien alloys should be lowercase, saying "Alien Alloys!" is definitely more awesome.

From what I'm seeing in vanilla (and other games), terms which are capitalised are those that are actual items or article titles. Which is why "Dart Rifle" is generally capitalised, despite being a mundane object.

I honestly hope I don't have to change the entire Pedia... Especially because all translations will go to hell, too. :/ (Change string => Transifex removes all translations of it)

Offline zombieguy223

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Re: Bugs, crashes, typos & bad taste
« Reply #3785 on: July 15, 2023, 08:55:06 pm »
I was looking through the online Pedia and happened to notice the Old UFO Landing Site/Crash Site missions, realised that I had never encountered those missions and got curious as to why. In the files they require the research STR_MIB to spawn, but as far as I can tell no such research topic exists, and so they can never spawn.

Am I understanding this correctly, or have I misread something?

Offline Solarius Scorch

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Re: Bugs, crashes, typos & bad taste
« Reply #3786 on: July 15, 2023, 09:03:07 pm »
I was looking through the online Pedia and happened to notice the Old UFO Landing Site/Crash Site missions, realised that I had never encountered those missions and got curious as to why. In the files they require the research STR_MIB to spawn, but as far as I can tell no such research topic exists, and so they can never spawn.

Am I understanding this correctly, or have I misread something?

Dang, looks like you're right. O_O
I suspect I mistakenly placed the race there, instead of trigger...

Offline Vakrug

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Re: Bugs, crashes, typos & bad taste
« Reply #3787 on: July 16, 2023, 12:34:25 pm »
Just noticed that there is no monthly purchase cap for "HC-AA-BS Clip". This is alien alloys burst ammunition for Heavy Cannon.

Offline Solarius Scorch

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Re: Bugs, crashes, typos & bad taste
« Reply #3788 on: July 16, 2023, 03:23:34 pm »
Just noticed that there is no monthly purchase cap for "HC-AA-BS Clip". This is alien alloys burst ammunition for Heavy Cannon.

Yes, it's an omission. Thanks.

Offline Vakrug

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Re: Bugs, crashes, typos & bad taste
« Reply #3789 on: July 16, 2023, 03:44:30 pm »
And 5 seconds ago I noticed the same problem with AC-AA Clip. Alien alloys ammo for autocannon (no burst).

Offline sudtrap

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Re: Bugs, crashes, typos & bad taste
« Reply #3790 on: July 17, 2023, 09:19:56 pm »
@Solarius; I kind of felt like the ghost variety was lacking. If you had the sprites to go with them, would you introduce more ghosts? Are there any particular ghosts you additionally wanted to have in the missions?

Offline psavola

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Re: Bugs, crashes, typos & bad taste
« Reply #3791 on: July 18, 2023, 07:19:35 am »
On MAGMA Lab mission (one of the most difficult ones with SH at least, BTW), I noticed that when a Zombie Trooper got close and I killed it, Battered Zombie Trooper spawned on death as usual. I though to capture one alive, and went in with a stunner. However, the respawned trooper killed my agent with melee reaction attacks.

I don't think I have ever before seen a death-respawned unit (or even chryssalid zombie) could (reaction) attack on the turn it is created.

This smells like a bug (in OXCE, because this behaviour does not seem to be controllable by rulesets, although it could be modified by scripting even if XCF has not done so) or at least an unintended feature. I had assumed that respawned units would have zero TU on the turn they spawn. Do they get default TUs (the same as in the beginning of turn 1)? Full TUs? The same TUs their host unit had on the turn it died? Something else? Based on this experience I suspect it's the "default TUs, the same as when the game starts on turn 1".

...

Another interesting thing I noticed earlier. Enemy units can drop down from a hole in a building wall, and if there is some agent in the square below, the agent will get moved into an adjacent square and the enemy will drop to the landing square - instead of the enemy having to tumble to a square next to the landing square.

I was expecting that either the dropdown would have been prevented by having a unit in a the dropdown square or that the falling enemy would land on an adjacent square (and the units down below would have time and the right facing for reactions). But I suppose all three are as such valid for OXCE.

Offline Juku121

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Re: Bugs, crashes, typos & bad taste
« Reply #3792 on: July 18, 2023, 10:09:32 am »
Weren't killed-Zombie-spawned Chryssalids with full TU one of the reasons for why the OG Chryssalids were so terrifying?


The other thing used to be known as the 'Goomba Stomp' :D and stunned the unfortunate unit at the bottom. I didn't even know that got changed.

Offline psavola

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Re: Bugs, crashes, typos & bad taste
« Reply #3793 on: July 18, 2023, 10:49:18 am »
In Osiron Beach mission, sometimes the dogs cannot attack the goons outside.

Based on FPS look, it seems that the grass is growing too tall and obstructing the attack of the dogs? An obvious bug in terrain definions? (Or if the grass was indeed intended to be so tall as to obstruct the attacks, the sprites should be different.)

I have noticed the same thing before, but I no longer recall if it was this specific mission or something else.

See the attached images and a save, if necessary.

Offline Juku121

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Re: Bugs, crashes, typos & bad taste
« Reply #3794 on: July 18, 2023, 10:59:59 am »
Be glad you're not using rats. :D