Bug Report Archive

[Gyrfalcon]

Here is the combat associated with the error for game_64, although the marauder was lower down and facing up when the error was generated and made a right turn while I was uploading the report.

Facing.jpg (86.81 KiB) Viewed 19440 times

[sven]

Here is the combat associated with the error for game_64, although the marauder was lower down and facing up when the error was generated and made a right turn while I was uploading the report.

opps. little bug related to the new reactive fire changes. thanks for reporting it. fixed in r12063 (stable).

[icekatze]

hi hi

I came across a strange little bug just recently. Nothing game breaking, but still a little bit odd.

I was trying to build a military transport, and when the ship showed up in the colony production window, it was missing the modular transport section.

militarytransportbug.png (774.43 KiB) Viewed 19435 times

[Dinkelsen]

Moved here from "Bug Reports Archive", where I accidentally posted it...

Planetary report pane
In the planetary report pane (where all the planets are listed with their current production projects) when a planet "produces" research, a progress bar is shown that fills up as the research advanced towards completion. The bar is incorrect when researching hive worlds (12.000 something RP) Research is completed earlier as indicated by the progress bar. Maybe it is connected to the fact that the Yoral have a bonus when researching planetology techs. (just checked with Orbital Mirrors tech where the Yoral also get a bonus, yes it is also incorrect)

Headlines in planet report window
Minor issue, but I will still report it: The planet details page has a different headline fonts for planets with colonies and planets without colonies. (or better: for planets with colonies belonging to me (comic font) and planets without such colonies (arial font))

Yoral color coding
The Yorals color coding for settled systems is very similar to the color coding for unsettled systems which makes Yoral systems hard to spot.

Terraforming
There are a few planets that can not be terraformed. I understand that homeworlds cannot be terraformed but I have found a small arid world that could only be terraformed to a glacier world and hive wold (Fargone I) and a medium Iceball world that could not be terraformed into anything (Pollux II) but it was not a homeworld - or was it? Maybe a pirate homewold? (I will upload the game later this evening, its a Yoral game - later: ok, the game crashed a few turns after I uploaded a bug report in tactical combat. I uploaded an earlier save but the planets and their terraforming behavior are there to look at. I need to save more often)

[sven]

The bar is incorrect when researching hive worlds (12.000 something RP) Research is completed earlier as indicated by the progress bar. Maybe it is connected to the fact that the Yoral have a bonus when researching planetology techs. (just checked with Orbital Mirrors tech where the Yoral also get a bonus, yes it is also incorrect)

Definitely a bug. Thanks for the report.

[sven]

Minor issue, but I will still report it: The planet details page has a different headline fonts for planets with colonies and planets without colonies. (or better: for planets with colonies belonging to me (comic font) and planets without such colonies (arial font))

Known issue. Both planet screens are due for a UI upgrade, and when they're fixed, the fonts, layouts, and frames will be more consistent.

[sven]

The Yorals color coding for settled systems is very similar to the color coding for unsettled systems which makes Yoral systems hard to spot.

Hrm -- are you referring to the star orbit lines, or the colored text used for the star names? On my monitor, the Yoral's star text is pretty clear. The star orbit lines are faded, and hardly distinguishable from the uninhabited star case -- but, the orbit lines are pretty faded for almost all the races.

[sven]

Terraforming
There are a few planets that can not be terraformed. I understand that homeworlds cannot be terraformed but I have found a small arid world that could only be terraformed to a glacier world and hive wold (Fargone I) and a medium Iceball world that could not be terraformed into anything (Pollux II) but it was not a homeworld - or was it? Maybe a pirate homewold?)

You've stumbled into a whole combination of different bugs / incomplete features here First, as you've noticed, there's a bug that's preventing terraforming from being applied to many homeworlds (confusingly, the planet type does indeed change, but, the planet graphics assets don't.) That's a simple bug to fix. I'll get a patch posted later today.

Then there's the mystery of what's going on on Pollux II... The planet terraforming rules, as currently implemented, are somewhat complicated. What terraforming options are available on any planet are affected by things like the temperature of the planet (a variable that we don't make a big deal out of anywhere else in the game), along with its size, and its current type.

Pollux II, in particular, is an iceball world, and marked as "Cold". That means you can't terraform it to one of the more habitable types without some way of warming it up -- (in the alpha builds, there was a tech called "artificial suns" that did this -- but, I've taken it out of the current build, while the terraforming options remain under-developed.)

However, while the rules are complex, we're not doing much in-game to explain to players why they can or can't terraform certain worlds. This is a part of the game that certainly needs improvement. Right now, my thought is that the best option is probably to show all plausible terraforming targets in the production pane, but, to grey out options that are impossible given the world's size/temperature, and then include a bit of on-hover text that explains why, exactly, those terraforming options are impossible on that particular world. This should also help clarify the role of techs like "orbital mirrors" and (if/when we reintroduce them) "artificial suns".

[Arioch]

The current beta build really only covers the first two technology tiers -- Star Frontiers (lasers/atomic) and Fusion (ion/plasma). The last two tiers (Antimatter and Superscience) have some items in the game (hellbores, dread stars, terraforming), but others are missing or improperly implemented.

[Dinkelsen]

Ok, I see.

I checked more planets on the terraforming topic and there is something else that I think is noteworthy. You said the homeworlds could be terraformed, but the graphics doen't change. This made me look closer, because when I said planets cannot be terraformed I really meant that there was no entry in the planetary build list to terraform them.

I the Phidi's homewolds is Tendao then there is an inconsistency I want to at least mention here. (I haven't played Phidis yet but I think I saw that planet in a list of homeworlds) I understand terraforming isn't complete, but for the Phidi's hoimeworld there are options in the build menu (Glacier, Arid, Hive, Garden) for all other homeworlds there are none. (same savegame as a few posts above)

One last observation on terraforming: there are no terraforming options for the inferno world of Acamar II but in the meantime I an not entirely sure if there should be some. (Orbital mirrors was researched)

Should I still report things I find strange about terraforming or is it a feature that is best left for later?

Then there's the mystery of what's going on on Pollux II... The planet terraforming rules, as currently implemented, are somewhat complicated. What terraforming options are available on any planet are affected by things like the temperature of the planet (a variable that we don't make a big deal out of anywhere else in the game), along with its size, and its current type.

Oh, so the terraforming mechanics are far more complicated than I thought they were. (Complicated being "more interesting" leading into "more good" in this case) When I first saw the "Glacier to Arid" terraforming option I was reminded of Endless Space where you could transform any planet into any other when the tech was researched. You simply unlocked one step at a time. (I always found it highly unrealistic to transform a molten planet into an iceball when it was close to a very bright star, or even better, have a molten planet in Plutos orbit, but that's what was implemented there)

I had something similar in mind when I designed a terraforming system for a pet peeve of mine (its never going to be implemented as I have so little time) where planet type is determined by a two dimensional matrix of temperatre and abundance of water. With enough research you could build structures that influenced both variables (heat shields for temperature, hydrosphere regulators for water) The heat shield was semi-permeable and would be able to either block heat coming from the star if the planet was close or keep the heat on the planet if it was far away. With advancing tech the heat shield had better efficiency and in time, the planet type would change on itself. Your "orbital mirrors" and "artificial suns" are pretty much the same concept with different names.

@Yoral color coding:
I meant the color of the starname that is visible under the star on the main map. On my monitor - and maybe its my eyes as well - I *can* distinguish between uninhabited stars and Yoral stars, but I have to look harder as the colors (grey and very light blue) are more similar than lets say Orthins green and uninhabited grey. When you play Orthin, Gremak, Ashdar or Humans the difference jumps into your eye while with Yorals you have to look. That is all I wanted to mention. If you say its ok, then it is.

Regards,
Stephan

[Gyrfalcon]

I'm not sure if this is a bug, exactly, but it is weird. Firing weapons or moving is confirmed with a right-click, but confirming boarding actions (Raid/Capture) is a left-click.

edited by sven: should be fixed as of r13805.

[Arioch]

I'm not sure if this is a bug, exactly, but it is weird. Firing weapons or moving is confirmed with a right-click, but confirming boarding actions (Raid/Capture) is a left-click.

Any action that is triggered by left-clicking on a button can be confirmed with a left-click on the target. This includes movement, firing, and boarding.

You can also right-click on a target to move or fire implicitly, without having to click the "move" or "fire" button. So in the case of movement and firing, if you left-click on the "move" or "fire" button, either a left or right click on the target will confirm the action. Maybe it would make sense to do the same for capturing.

[Gyrfalcon]

Either that or have right-click bring up a context-sensitive menu: Fire Weapons, Capture, Raid if the cursor is on an opponent's ship and Move if the spot is a valid move location.

[sven]

You can also right-click on a target to move or fire implicitly, without having to click the "move" or "fire" button. So in the case of movement and firing, if you left-click on the "move" or "fire" button, either a left or right click on the target will confirm the action. Maybe it would make sense to do the same for capturing.

As of r12097 (currently 'dev'), both left and right clicks can now be used to complete a boarding action. The boarding UI remains an awkward and under-developed one though -- and the boarding mechanics themselves are also slated for a bunch of adjustments. Several additional changes re: boarding are currently in the pipeline.

[Gyrfalcon]

game_96 looked to be that I'd sent bombers out to a ship that was close to dead and maybe they did more damage than the ship had hit points.