AI attacking city question

[sojourner96]

First I'd like to say this is a great mod. I've only played about 4 or 5 games but am very pleased with the mod as a whole.

I have a question about though. I am unsure if this is normal or a bug and if it is normal I'd like to know how to counter it. In two of my games I have had a city that was defended by 4 or 5 units. One of the AI would surprise attack me and my units would be kicked out of the city and the AI would capture it. In both cases no units took damage and the city was instantly lost. In the first case My city was taken over by Deirdre with mind worms. The second case was Yang and some infantry units loaded in a stealth transport.

 

[Maniac]

Please attach a save file of just prior to this happening. I'll have a debug look.

 

[sojourner96]

I will look tonight and see if I still have the second one. I believe I do as it is for the current game I am playing and I changed the backups to every turn and 150 backups as you recommended.

 

[sojourner96]

I have looked through my auto saves and can not find this file. When it happened I went back a few turns to try to figure out what happened and I think I may have overwritten the save. I'm away from home right now playing on my work laptop. When I get home I will see if I have a save from the first game. If I don't have it I will see if I can get another game to do it.

 

[Maniac]

Have fun bugtracking!

 

[sojourner96]

I have another game that did it. This time I was already at war with Lal and he took my city without attacking a single unit. I have a before and after save. In the after you can see my troops outside the city and no damage done to them. Ending turn for the before doesn't seem to do it every time but that is just probably some randomness the AI has. You can even go into the worldbuilder and give the city multiple strong units and still get kicked out of the city. I notice that Lal has used a stealth transport again. It seems that that may have something to do with it. In my Yang game he used a stealth transport too.

EDIT: I can confirm that the stealth transport has something to do with it. If you remove the stealth ability from his transport (located in the sea city to the north west) the city is not taken.

EDIT 2: I figured out how to do it. I was able to do the same thing to one of his bases. It requires loading units on a transport (Stealth is not required) and placing them next to one of his cities but at least one tile from land. If you try to move the units from the transport to the land and they path through the city it will kick him out of the city and give it to you.

Before: http://www.filefront.com/16805937/Before Kicked out of city.CivBe

After: http://www.filefront.com/16805941/After Kicked out of city.CivBeyo

Full autosave: http://www.filefront.com/16805967/Full autosave backup.zip

 

[Maniac]

Thanks downloaded!

 

[Skyvaheri]

Hello,
excuse my english, but I think i have some information to that bug:

I am playing V13.
If i attack with artillery or vanguard units directly from transporters (naval or dropship), they can attack several times. They are only losing one movement. If i do that the defenders are moved to neighbours plot and the city is taken.

They were problems too with loaded sporelaunchers, but i don't remember exactly.

By the way:
Unloading single units from a dropship kills the movement. Using the buttom from the dropship works fine. But this is not so good if several unit are damaged and needs time to rest.

Its a very nice MOD. I loved SMAC, so I love this MOD.
Excellent units an so on.

 

[Maniac]

Some observations:

I can't replicate the issue you describe when I set up such a situation myself in Worlbuilder.

I can't load your saves. The game crashes if I try, even for the MY 2100 initial save.

So the question becomes, what's different between the Planetfall installations of for instance Pfeffersack and me on one hand (for whom Planetfall works fine), and yours and Skyvaheri on the other hand.

Also why is this issue only reported now, and not for one but two people? I haven't changed anything related to transport code in ages.

I have no idea.

At least provided patch k isn't the first patch you have ever downloaded and installed (you have the patch I assume?), could you try deleting your entire Planetfall folder, and reinstall Planetfall plus the patch from scratch. Then try if you still load the save, or still get the transport problem.

 

[sojourner96]

I actually think I have patch i (I thought that was the latest). That may be the issue. I will download patch k and see if I can replicate it. Also, what Skyvaheri described, is exactly what happened for me when I was able to take his city.

 

[sojourner96]

I've downloaded patch k and installed it. I haven't had the AI take one of my cities in the same way but I have been able to reproduce it taking one of theirs. In the attached file I have a stack of ships north of "Far Jericho". If you try to move one of the Behemoths to the square just to the left or south of the city it will kick her from the city and give it to you. It appears to simply be a pathing thing. The unit trys to path through the city when it shouldn't be allowed to.

Before taking city: http://www.filefront.com/16838135/Before-taking-city-from-Miriam.CivBeyondSwordSave/

After taking city: http://www.filefront.com/16838177/After-taking-city-from-Miriam.CivBeyondSwordSave/

 

[Maniac]

I've attached a DLL that fixes the problem in the Download thread.

 

[sojourner96]

Thank you very much sir. I must say you provide outstanding community support.

 

[Maniac]

Really? I thought I sucked at community support/building.

 

[sojourner96]

Well, I look at it this way. You are doing this mod in your free time and free of charge. You have no "obligation" to even answer posts. The mod has been in development for 3+ years and you appear to be quite active. I have paid for games that had less support from major game developers. So, my hats off to you and if someone were to complain about lack of support I would tend to think they are just complaining to much and expecting to much.

 

[GeoModder]

So, my hats off to you and if someone were to complain about lack of support I would tend to think they are just complaining to much and expecting to much.

All hail Maniac!

 

[Deon]

I agree. Wait, too short. I wholeheartingly agree. That's it. Awesome job .

 

[Skyvaheri]

I agree too!

I have installed patch k. I tried it again and now I have made screenshots and a savegame.

history (exactly):
I am going to take New Jerusalem.
[1. Bunker II (on 3-3-3) bombardet New Jerusalem.]
2. 2 mass driver (on board the transport) bombardet New Jerusalem.
3. Rotor "Raptor *** **" attacked the City from board the transport.
4. You can attack the city once more with the rotor or mass drivers. If you do that Miriams units are kicked out the city and New Jerusalem is taken.

But I understand. they are afraid of my power and flee...

 

[GeoModder]

Was that Miri's last city?

 

[Pfeffersack]

I've attached a DLL that fixes the problem in the Download thread.

The bug has been fixed now.