Author Topic: Bugs, crashes, typos & bad taste  (Read 1326847 times)

Offline Solarius Scorch

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Re: Bugs, crashes, typos & bad taste
« Reply #1830 on: June 05, 2019, 09:53:25 am »
This is in my normal game.

OK, thanks. Found and fixed.

Offline tarkalak

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Re: Bugs, crashes, typos & bad taste
« Reply #1831 on: June 05, 2019, 12:39:14 pm »
Bugs:
The quillboar/spikeboar makes an SMG sound when shooting. The crossbow sound will be better fitting if you don't have a specific one.

Not sure if bugs:
The Gauss rifle doesn't require the Std. Lab to research. I see that the Laser pistol needs the Std. Lab so it is logical that the gauss rifle will need it as well.

Bad Taste:
In the ski Resort/Beach missions: often the first soldier is placed on the balcony along with all the extra equipment. It would be more logical that it is placed in the house instead.
Attack dogs (the enemy type) prefer barking. And as the proverb says "A dog that barks doesn't bite". That makes them almost completely harmless.

Offline Solarius Scorch

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Re: Bugs, crashes, typos & bad taste
« Reply #1832 on: June 05, 2019, 07:44:28 pm »
Bugs:
The quillboar/spikeboar makes an SMG sound when shooting. The crossbow sound will be better fitting if you don't have a specific one.

Good point. Changed.

Not sure if bugs:
The Gauss rifle doesn't require the Std. Lab to research. I see that the Laser pistol needs the Std. Lab so it is logical that the gauss rifle will need it as well.

Not necessarily. You don't invent anything, it's just about taking the weapon apart and examining the remains. It doesn't strictly require very advanced equipment.

Bad Taste:
In the ski Resort/Beach missions: often the first soldier is placed on the balcony along with all the extra equipment. It would be more logical that it is placed in the house instead.

OK, I will check... Though I'm sick of this stupid house :P

Attack dogs (the enemy type) prefer barking. And as the proverb says "A dog that barks doesn't bite". That makes them almost completely harmless.

OK, I'll make more tests.

EDIT: Fixed a crash on selling X-Rats (thanks Yankes).
« Last Edit: June 05, 2019, 08:00:04 pm by Solarius Scorch »

Offline tkzv

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Re: Bugs, crashes, typos & bad taste
« Reply #1833 on: June 05, 2019, 11:42:21 pm »
Several texts — research, mission briefing — say that Red Dawn HQ is in Siberia, but I got it in Grenland.

Does Dragonfly craft carry light sources? Very inconvenient for trying to strike from the dark.

First time I saw Red Dawn sailors was in the HQ. Did you remove them from other missions and forget this one? Or was it just luck?
« Last Edit: June 06, 2019, 05:22:14 am by tkzv »

Offline tarkalak

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Re: Bugs, crashes, typos & bad taste
« Reply #1834 on: June 06, 2019, 12:14:48 pm »
Several texts — research, mission briefing — say that Red Dawn HQ is in Siberia, but I got it in Grenland.

Does Dragonfly craft carry light sources? Very inconvenient for trying to strike from the dark.

First time I saw Red Dawn sailors was in the HQ. Did you remove them from other missions and forget this one? Or was it just luck?

The lights are on the top of the craft and the Dragonfly itself casts a shadow over the ramp and the underside.

PROS:
1. You get a nice dark spot surrounded by light at the start. Great for clearing those close to you.
CONS:
1. The dark area is not visible in Night Vision mode and you can easily step in the light by accident.
2. Moving away from the Dragonfly itself is problematic.
3. Enemies with dark vision and explosives.

I have sailors on the Cult Outpost missions. You probably got a high ranking Red Dawn on the Manufacturing mission and never got one of these.

Offline tkzv

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Re: Bugs, crashes, typos & bad taste
« Reply #1835 on: June 06, 2019, 01:17:53 pm »
The lights are on the top of the craft and the Dragonfly itself casts a shadow over the ramp and the underside.
Worst of both worlds. Agents end up packed in the shadow, where grenades easily get them. Any way to switch the lights off?
I have sailors on the Cult Outpost missions. You probably got a high ranking Red Dawn on the Manufacturing mission and never got one of these.
There were no sailors in 4 outpost missions. I paid close attention in the last 3. Since I got Durathread and HQ without them, I figured they were no longer in the game. Then I saw one in HQ. :o

Offline tarkalak

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Re: Bugs, crashes, typos & bad taste
« Reply #1836 on: June 06, 2019, 04:02:34 pm »
Worst of both worlds. Agents end up packed in the shadow, where grenades easily get them. Any way to switch the lights off?

Modding them out, convincing Solaris to remove them or if the OXC team implements a feature that allows you to switch the craft lights off.

Blasting them with sufficiently powerful weapons should work as well if they are not undestructible.

Other then that - no.

Offline tkzv

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Re: Bugs, crashes, typos & bad taste
« Reply #1837 on: June 07, 2019, 02:05:48 am »
When researching of EXALT Brainer finishes, "Brainer Hybrid" article is unlocked (correct), but not displayed.

Offline Solarius Scorch

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Re: Bugs, crashes, typos & bad taste
« Reply #1838 on: June 07, 2019, 02:19:32 pm »
Sorry for being brief, I am currently travelling:
- Every Outpost has at least one Sailor (or more, depending on difficulty). No exceptions.
- The article which is displayed in the Pedia after research is (in short) either the same as the research topic or using lookup (like Sectoid Soldier -> Sectoid). The only exception is getOneFree (random research from interrogations and such). Anything else you have to check manually - use the "show only new" button (currently needs to be enabled in the options).
- The Dragonfly is what it is. I could remove its lights, but it's a semi-civilian craft, so I prefer to keep it somewhat handicapped in terms of stealth.

Offline tkzv

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Re: Bugs, crashes, typos & bad taste
« Reply #1839 on: June 07, 2019, 02:53:02 pm »
Every Outpost has at least one Sailor (or more, depending on difficulty). No exceptions.
Lowest difficulty, 1 sailor. Rechecked old saved games in debug mode. Looks like all sailors were killed by friendly fire :)

UPDATE: Odd behaviour.
I shoot an enemy, he falls and my turn ends automatically. But the mission doesn't end, the enemies get their turn and  move around. On my next turn I shoot another. Again my turn ends automatically, and again the mission doesn't end. I managed to finish from the third attempt.

Looks like my turn ends automatically when there are no non-panicked enemies left. But then an enemy turn is computed, some unconscious enemies wake up and mission ending is cancelled. Was it always like that or is it a recent change?

To reproduce, load the attached "end turn after shot.sav" and make Paulo Esteves shoot the Chosen of Dagon to the right. Chosen falls, turn ends, cultists move, on the next turn the Priest of Dagon wakes up.
« Last Edit: June 07, 2019, 04:37:55 pm by tkzv »

Offline BlackStaff

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Re: Bugs, crashes, typos & bad taste
« Reply #1840 on: June 07, 2019, 11:26:28 pm »
To reproduce, load the attached "end turn after shot.sav" and make Paulo Esteves shoot the Chosen of Dagon to the right. Chosen falls, turn ends, cultists move, on the next turn the Priest of Dagon wakes up.
In the order you give... Confirmed (OXCE 5.5 + XFiles 0.99c)!
Very strange !
But if you shoot the disciple first and then with Paulo you paralyze the "Chosen of Dagon" everything ends normally!
« Last Edit: June 07, 2019, 11:42:50 pm by BlackStaff »

Offline Solarius Scorch

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Re: Bugs, crashes, typos & bad taste
« Reply #1841 on: June 10, 2019, 02:39:41 pm »
Sorry, I didn't have the time to investigate. But I'm sure everything happens according to the normal turn sequence. ("Sure" means I have confidence in Meridian's design, not that I investigated it.)

Offline tkzv

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Re: Bugs, crashes, typos & bad taste
« Reply #1842 on: June 12, 2019, 05:59:58 am »
Sorry, I didn't have the time to investigate. But I'm sure everything happens according to the normal turn sequence. ("Sure" means I have confidence in Meridian's design, not that I investigated it.)
Actually, I hoped Meridian would answer that :)

Anyway, another suggestion.
"Human Sonic Weapons Concept" article says "Unfortunately we cannot simply go behind their backs and copy the data from their computer due to the nature of the software and its tight binding to the architecture of the computing core." I find it somewhat hard to believe. If X-COM has already read the data, converting it to another format for another architecture is only a matter of man-hours. Even if they need this particular piece of hardware to do the computing, since they claim to understand the ideas better than the original researches, they should be able to reimplement the algorithms on any machine. They may not be as efficient, but time isn't a problem, since the competitors hit a dead end.

I suggest a different explanation. Either a piece of hardware they mistook for an ordinary computer actually contains a test bench too complex to copy quickly — maybe it's based off some alien design. Or it's a matter of power struggle — this group of military researchers don't like being one-upped by a new organization and they are backed by some Council members.

By the way, I've seen an IR spectrophotometer (or maybe an impedance spectroscope) with a built-in Sharp computer, which could be mistaken for a contemporary computer like Compaq Portable.

I suggest the following text (a few bytes shorter than the original):
"This computer case contains a test bench for top-secret military experiments related to sonic weaponry, as well as a computing core and a vast array of experimental data. However, the development is far from complete, and the military researchers seem to have hit a dead end. This morning a convincing representative of the military intelligence contacted us and asked to return the hardware.{NEWLINE}Commander, I believe they will not be able to realize this concept in the near future. Unfortunately, we cannot simply copy the data. We need this test bench to run some experiments of our own.{NEWLINE}I propose to refuse this transfer and complete the weapons ourselves. This will probably entail Council sanctions, though.{NEWLINE}In case we agree, the military offers a reward of {ALT}$ 5,000,000{ALT}. Given the unofficial nature of the deal, the money will be transferred in cash."

Maybe the research should give a "Sonic prototype test bench" item. Then the last two lines would be "I propose to refuse this transfer and study {ALT}Sonic prototype test bench{ALT} ourselves. This will probably entail Council sanctions, though.{NEWLINE}In case we agree to sell it, the military offers a reward of {ALT}$ 5,000,000{ALT}."



Unrelated question. When an enemy weapon is too big and covers the body, it's unclear if the body is stunned, bleeding or dead. Is it possible to do anything about it?
« Last Edit: June 12, 2019, 09:39:17 pm by tkzv »

Offline Solarius Scorch

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Re: Bugs, crashes, typos & bad taste
« Reply #1843 on: June 13, 2019, 10:37:34 pm »
I'll leave the sonic weapons concept to Finnik.

Unrelated question. When an enemy weapon is too big and covers the body, it's unclear if the body is stunned, bleeding or dead. Is it possible to do anything about it?

I don't think so, sorry.

Offline tkzv

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Re: Bugs, crashes, typos & bad taste
« Reply #1844 on: June 13, 2019, 11:10:59 pm »
OXCE engine 5.5.1 refuses to work, gives errors like
"Error for 'STR_MAGMA_CHAINSAWBOT_WEAPON': offset '-3' have incorrect value in set 'BIGOBS.PCK' "

The problem is described here: https://openxcom.org/forum/index.php/topic,3287.msg113764.html#msg113764 If i understand correctly, mainly 2x2 units are affected.