AND2 and SVN Bug Reports - A New Dawn 2 ONLY

[dbkblk]

I'm on turn 701, and when I end my turn, game endlessly processes the AI turns and never ends the turn.

Do you use unit tile limit ? It is known to freeze the turns frequently under 5, but it pretty much never freeze with 20 or higher.

 

[Hyzoran]

Do you use unit tile limit ? It is known to freeze the turns frequently under 5, but it pretty much never freeze with 20 or higher.

Yes, I do. I have it set to five. I dont like having deathstacks roaming around though so I keep it low, I might raise it to seven in that case and see what happens, thanks for the suggestion! :3

 

[JosEPh_II]

10 is a pretty safe number.

JosEPh

 

[dbkblk]

I dont like having deathstacks roaming around though so I keep it low

Same here, but in fact the functionnality isn't well implemented as the AI try to move units on a tile no matter how many there are already. Somehow, the code seems to prevent that, but sometimes it don't and the game freeze.

 

[<Nexus>]

About TechDiffusion I have an idea with a different aproach:

Give points to every unlearned techs of civs every turn by the following formula:

(Cont + TR) x HCL x BUG /turn

Cont = Civ's number of contacts that already know that tech
TR = Civ's traderoutes leading to civs that already know that tech
HCL = variable depending on handicap level (since the AI can use flex.dif. too)
BUG = editable variable in BUG options, to give the players some hands on it

This way civs that are very behind would learn slowly but simultaniusly many techs, all that they don't know at the moment, while the ones not so behind still learn all they don't know at the moment, but that is still less.

I dont know how memory consuming would it be, to check every tech every turn and calculate how much to add to them. If it is stressful for the memory, than it could be done only every N turns and multiply the whole formula by N, which could be also editable in BUG.

Do you think it would work?

 

[Afforess]

About TechDiffusion I have an idea with a different aproach:

Give points to every unlearned techs of civs every turn by the following formula:

(Cont + TR) x HCL x BUG /turn

Cont = Civ's number of contacts that already know that tech
TR = Civ's traderoutes leading to civs that already know that tech
HCL = variable depending on handicap level (since the AI can use flex.dif. too)
BUG = editable variable in BUG options, to give the players some hands on it

This way civs that are very behind would learn slowly but simultaniusly many techs, all that they don't know at the moment, while the ones not so behind still learn all they don't know at the moment, but that is still less.

I dont know how memory consuming would it be, to check every tech every turn and calculate how much to add to them. If it is stressful for the memory, than it could be done only every N turns and multiply the whole formula by N, which could be also editable in BUG.

Do you think it would work?

Yeah I had some similar thoughts on the matter. I don't really want trade routes to affect it because:

Trade routes are complicated, and players don't actively control who they have trade routes with, it's chosen for them. It's not good to use an automated feature to control another automated feature.

The number of civs in contact are already checked. I do think, that there should be a threshold number of civs that have researched the tech before diffusion kicks in. It seems silly that if 1 civ you know has researched it, suddenly everyone gets it cheap. I think at least 1/3 should have to know it. If there was a threshold for the number of civs with the tech before it kicked in too, we could raise the amount of tech diffusion higher.

I argued Handicap adjustment was redundant because Handicap already adjusts how much the base tech costs anyway. It's in the XML.

 

[<Nexus>]

Yeah I had some similar thoughts on the matter. I don't really want trade routes to affect it because:

Trade routes are complicated, and players don't actively control who they have trade routes with, it's chosen for them. It's not good to use an automated feature to control another automated feature.

The number of civs in contact are already checked. I do think, that there should be a threshold number of civs that have researched the tech before diffusion kicks in. It seems silly that if 1 civ you know has researched it, suddenly everyone gets it cheap. I think at least 1/3 should have to know it. If there was a threshold for the number of civs with the tech before it kicked in too, we could raise the amount of tech diffusion higher.

I argued Handicap adjustment was redundant because Handicap already adjusts how much the base tech costs anyway. It's in the XML.

Looks like I could not be clear enough. English is not my native tounge.

What I thourht about was not how the actual TD code should work, but an additional effect. To say, one more layer or one more option.

My idea is not (only) to affect a civs research output but the techs themselves. Each and every one by one.

Try to put it by an example:
America (A) has connection to 4 other civs, and is beelining for Polytheism.
Others are Babilon (B), Carthage (C), Dutch (D) and Egypt (E).
B, C and D knows Hunting, while The Wheel is known by B and C only.

So every turn A gets 3 for Hunting and 2 for Wheel, altough he is researching none. If in that given game Hunting costs 100, A gets it for free after 34turns (3x34=102) and if TheWheel costs 150:science) A gets that after 75turns (75x2=150).

Now let's say that E is a human player on Settler difficulty. He does the same as A, but faster, because there is a (say) 1.5x multiplier on Settler. In this case E gets Hunting in 23turns (3x1.5x23=103.5) and The Wheel in 50turns (2x1.5x50=150).

So civs could get techs even not choosing them. Sometimes it happens, that a minor civ does not know Writing (to become a full civ) but is researching Philosophy.

...or am I mistaken at some point?

 

[aggri1]

Sogroon, that mechanism is exactly what I was suggesting a little while ago for Tech' Diffusion - I like your explanation! To me it makes much more sense than the current inflated-beakers mechanism (which I quite dislike).

The rate of one beaker per Civ which you've proposed might need some scaling in order to be useful later in the game: per era or dependent on how backward you are (total beakers or tech' count?), perhaps.

I'm all for it!

 

[45°38'N-13°47'E]

Has someone tried rev700? I'm getting frequent repeatable CTD while testing with autoplay but I can't get anything from minidump. I fear there's something with the art changes, but I can't be sure. Vokarya, have you experienced crashes?

Edit: I can't get past classical/medieval era

 

[Vokarya]

Has someone tried rev700? I'm getting frequent repeatable CTD while testing with autoplay but I can't get anything from minidump. I fear there's something with the art changes, but I can't be sure. Vokarya, have you experienced crashes?

Edit: I can't get past classical/medieval era

I ran through the Civilopedia with every art style and didn't have anything crash. Do you still have the old RoM FPK files in your folder? Both RoMPak0.fpk and RoMPak1.fpk should be gone. Or could you post a save and I can try it?

 

[45°38'N-13°47'E]

I ran through the Civilopedia with every art style and didn't have anything crash. Do you still have the old RoM FPK files in your folder? Both RoMPak0.fpk and RoMPak1.fpk should be gone. Or could you post a save and I can try it?

There's ony RoMPak.fpk, ANDPak0.fpk,ANDPak1.fpk, Vokarya.fpk and RevDCM.fpk, it was a fresh install. Here's the save (I've tried with autosave too). Minidump is also attached if Afforess wants to see it, rev700. You might need to recalc because I've also tried with another dll which should be the same as the one in rev700 (I haven't changed anything, simply recompiled). I've been able to pass 1 turn a couple of times, mostly by playing it through; but if I autorun, either this turn or the next one I get a CTD.

Edit: In order to load the save, you have to rename your AND folder to "Rise of Mankind - A New Dawn EXP", that's the folder I use for experiments and you can't load the save if your folder is different. Simply renaming it for the test should be enough to let you load the game.

 

[45°38'N-13°47'E]

And here's another one.
Another possibility is that something is happening with trading war because CTD start when you start knowing other civs.

 

[Vokarya]

There's ony RoMPak.fpk, ANDPak0.fpk,ANDPak1.fpk, Vokarya.fpk and RevDCM.fpk, it was a fresh install. Here's the save (I've tried with autosave too). Minidump is also attached if Afforess wants to see it, rev700. You might need to recalc because I've also tried with another dll which should be the same as the one in rev700 (I haven't changed anything, simply recompiled). I've been able to pass 1 turn a couple of times, mostly by playing it through; but if I autorun, either this turn or the next one I get a CTD.

Edit: In order to load the save, you have to rename your AND folder to "Rise of Mankind - A New Dawn EXP", that's the folder I use for experiments and you can't load the save if your folder is different. Simply renaming it for the test should be enough to let you load the game.

I was able to load the save, and it does crash the turn after the current one. Is there anything we can do with logging? The Autolog shows that the game finishes processing everything for you for turn 206. If you look in WorldBuilder, the next player is Suppiluliuma, and he doesn't have anything new coming up, so I doubt that it is a unit artwork issue. The only real artwork changes I made in rev700 were to take out the GP glow on the Adventurer, which you are not at yet, and put in a new Middle Eastern Mounted Infantry, which I tested myself to make sure that it worked (both on attack and defense) and it didn't crash then. So I don't know where the problem is.

 

[45°38'N-13°47'E]

I was able to load the save, and it does crash the turn after the current one. Is there anything we can do with logging? The Autolog shows that the game finishes processing everything for you for turn 206. If you look in WorldBuilder, the next player is Suppiluliuma, and he doesn't have anything new coming up, so I doubt that it is a unit artwork issue. The only real artwork changes I made in rev700 were to take out the GP glow on the Adventurer, which you are not at yet, and put in a new Middle Eastern Mounted Infantry, which I tested myself to make sure that it worked (both on attack and defense) and it didn't crash then. So I don't know where the problem is.

I've made some other attempts and to me it looks like the problem is some art file you've updated. I've tried again my saves with rev699 and I have no problem at all. I can play on both of them as long as I want without CTD. Retried with rev700 and bam! CTD again, always at the same turn.
Could it be something related to terrain or some effect? I've noticed that when I start the latest revision downloaded with SVN I start with default terrain. I usually play with Blue Marble textures but now if I want to play with it I need the full installer and select Blue Marble when I install the game.

 

[Vokarya]

I've made some other attempts and to me it looks like the problem is some art file you've updated. I've tried again my saves with rev699 and I have no problem at all. I can play on both of them as long as I want without CTD. Retried with rev700 and bam! CTD again, always at the same turn.
Could it be something related to terrain or some effect? I've noticed that when I start the latest revision downloaded with SVN I start with default terrain. I usually play with Blue Marble textures but now if I want to play with it I need the full installer and select Blue Marble when I install the game.

I agree with you. I also tried your save with the old art definitions and it went past the fatal turn without a problem. I have a hard time believing it's terrain because that should be problem at the start of the game, not two hundred turns in. I suspect I have a malformed KFM call somewhere in the art definitions file; a bad NIF call would give you red blobs but not crash the mod. I'll see what I can do.

 

[asdvbn]

Revision 700, giant earth map.

I see several CTDs when attacking a city. Save attached.

 

[Vokarya]

I've made some other attempts and to me it looks like the problem is some art file you've updated. I've tried again my saves with rev699 and I have no problem at all. I can play on both of them as long as I want without CTD. Retried with rev700 and bam! CTD again, always at the same turn.
Could it be something related to terrain or some effect? I've noticed that when I start the latest revision downloaded with SVN I start with default terrain. I usually play with Blue Marble textures but now if I want to play with it I need the full installer and select Blue Marble when I install the game.

I'll keep digging on this. It will probably take some time to pin down. Here's what I have tried so far:

• Empty all the art definitions from Civ4UnitArtStyleTypeInfos.xml so that only default unit art types are included. That did not work - it still crashed.
• Use WorldBuilder to erase every AI city from the map. That prevents the crash. I think this points to a unit just being built in a city that is causing the crash.

I have just discovered that if I use WB and erase just Inca from the map, the game continues for at least 2 more turns without crashing. I'll have to work on this in more detail and see what happens.

Even more detail: open WorldBuilder and find Burgundian. It's a Barbarian city southwest of the main Incan landmass. There is a Heavy Horseman and an Elite Quechua right next to it. Erase both those units in WB and the turn continues without a problem.

 

[45°38'N-13°47'E]

I'll keep digging on this. It will probably take some time to pin down. Here's what I have tried so far:

• Empty all the art definitions from Civ4UnitArtStyleTypeInfos.xml so that only default unit art types are included. That did not work - it still crashed.
• Use WorldBuilder to erase every AI city from the map. That prevents the crash. I think this points to a unit just being built in a city that is causing the crash.

I have just discovered that if I use WB and erase just Inca from the map, the game continues for at least 2 more turns without crashing. I'll have to work on this in more detail and see what happens.

Even more detail: open WorldBuilder and find Burgundian. It's a Barbarian city southwest of the main Incan landmass. There is a Heavy Horseman and an Elite Quechua right next to it. Erase both those units in WB and the turn continues without a problem.

I've tested the game, problem is that barbarian city, not the incan units. In fact, in my other savegame that I've provided there are no Inca. Delete those units/cities (I've tried deleting both those barbarian cities), and the game will continue.

Edit: Problem is specifically with barbarian javelineers. If I delete them and leave only archers, that's fine, the game goes on. If a barbarian javelineer is being attacked, the game crashes.
Edit2: No, I've made some more test and it crashed even with archers. Problem might be if the Elite Quechua gets damaged in the battle. But that doesn't explain why my other savegame crashes, since there are no incan units. Might be that more than 1 unit type is causing troubles. Anyway I don't see Elite Quechua in the civilopedia, nor in the worldbuilder. Look like it's a replacement for Axemen but it doesn't show up in civilopedia.

Edit3: Definetely that Elite Quechua. If I remove ART_DEF_UNIT_INCAN_QUECHUA2 from \XML\Civilizations\CIV4UnitArtStyleTypeInfos.xml the game doesn't crash anymore. A bit surprisingly, this doesn't make Incan Axeman look like any other axeman. It has a different art anyway. Probably there were 2 conflicting arts. This also means that there are other problems with other units, since as I said in my second save there was no Inca civ.

Edit4: More on this; in my second savegame the problem is a barbarian light swordman near the turkish city of Samsun, near equator. If I delete that barbarian swordsman, the game goes on.

Edit5: Mmmmmm, no, it looks like the problem with the Elite Quechua is still there even after deleting that line above. I guess the problem appears during battle with some units, but I can't understand where the problem is. I suppose the problem might be with barbarian units since on both occasion the crash disappeared by removing some barbarin unit

 

[45°38'N-13°47'E]

Revision 700, giant earth map.

I see several CTDs when attacking a city. Save attached.

I've tried your save but I can't load it, I get a runtime error. Can you try uploading an autosave?

 

[45°38'N-13°47'E]

Again, on the crash issue. I've tried removing those barbarian units from the city; I've put a barbarian warrior to defend it, and the game didn't crash for 10 turns or so and Incas conquered that city. I can't understand where the problem might be, but it looks it's connected with barbarians or with conquering a city.