random number generator, some bugs and questions

[Seont]

Excellent mod, really fun. That said, a couple bugs and questions. I've search for all of these, but am likely using the wrong criteria.


i just put .20f on,(from .16) and since then i've lost numerous sure thing fights. for example in 2 turns i lost 3 of 4 battles each with a 98.6 percent chance. earlier in that same game a warrior with combat 1 and 40 percent melee defending a forested tile was killed by a goblin, then a hunter on the same tile was killed by another ordinary goblin. In the very same game another hunter was killed in a 99.1 percent chance battle. This isn't counting all the 70+ percent chance battles that were lost.
In several games I've been unable to get past turn 100 because i quit out of sheer frustration. Is it possible the patch comprimised the random number generator or that the new combat values(death, fire, etc.) are messing with the combat odds and resolution. Am i the only one afflicted with this? It doesn't seem anything like the normal bad luck of .16 or warlords and vanilla civ.

The popup displays for units sometimes persist after the unit is no longer selected, so i might be looking at the tile bonuses pop up through the popup for the last unit i had selected. i can alt tab to correct this, and sometimes normal unit cycling will resolve but. In .20 i've actually had the city window persist after having exited to the main map window.(ofcourse the game promptly crashes) I've never seen this behavior in vanilla or warlords.

i haven't made it far enough to see in .20, but in .16 i had several hidden nationality mercenaries on non hidden nationalitly frigates/galleons killed by rival civ's navies. seems odd a boat can kill a unit on another boat. likewise i was unable to attack a pirate boat with one of my man-o-war's while it contained a non hidden nationality unit(a settler) i was however able to blow both up with a fireball, go fig.

while i have seen this behavior in warlords and vanilla civ, it seems more prominent in ffh, so i'll ask here. is there something which causes barbarians to target and swarm a specific civ. sometimes i'll go to turn 80 or 90 before i see a single barbarian and then only 2 or 3 every few turns, other times at turn 40 or 50(70 with .20, and earlier if you count lizards and skeletons) i'll have a dozen on my screen respawning as fast as i can kill them. more than just getting swarmed, i actually placed a hunter on a look out tower and watched barbarians pass through the cultural borders, right by the city tile, of a non barbarian civ on their way to attack me.
Though i am admittedly not very observant, i see no correlation between the behavior, sometimes my civ is poor, sometimes rich, sometimes powerful, sometimes weak, technologically advanced or backwards. seems to make no difference, sometimes they leave me alone, other times Literally i've been so swamped with them that for 100 plus years i am stagnant producing only warriors to fight. Incidently, i always play with raging barbarians.

Thanks for your time, and really, a great mod.

 

[BeefontheBone]

The RNG is exactly the same as it always is, at least as far as anyone can tell - you're just being unlucky/selectively remembering I'd say.

The tooltips hanging around is a known problem with the PLE mod integration - you can clear them quickly by mousing over something which generates the same type of tooltip as the one which is stuck (a stack, action button, unit picture, whatever).

The hidden nationality thing is very annoying - there's also some issues with pathfinding with them too. HN is specced to be done properly in Shadow - I wouldn't expect more than tweaking to it before then.

No idea about the last bit - I tend to avoid raging barbs given that between Orthus, the Sailors' Dirge (with its misplaced apostrophe) and barrows and ruins you can end up with plenty to deal with anyway.

 

[Jarlaxle135]

I also have had a recent surge of "unlucky" losses. I've lost Bambur and Arthedian, both level 10, in my recent game. The odds were 99.1% and 99.8%. I also lost at least three or four other battles with over 97% odds. I admit that this is the only .20 game I have played, thanks to grad school. However, things like this annoy me into studying, and that is not a good thing. That said, I also had Hyborem attack and lose to one of my paramanders--which was probably 99% in his favor. Hopefully someone can pinpoint what is happening. Keep up the good work.

 

[loki1232]

Yeah I also had a funny win--my raider attacked a hill giant and won with a 3.1% chance.
I'd say its probably just luck though

 

[Kael]

There is a problem with the way resistances are being calculated. I'll fix it in 0.21. Basically the attackers strength isnt being adjusted by resistances the defender may have.

After adding that calculation a unit with special damage types (a fire elemental attacking a demon for example) with correctly show lower odds than it had previouslt. Conversly an attacker with resistances (a demon attacking a fire elemental) will correctly show higher odds than it had previously.

 

[Seont]

The RNG is exactly the same as it always is, at least as far as anyone can tell - you're just being unlucky/selectively remembering I'd say.

I can understand why you'd think that, but It wasn't just 1 game, it was several, by the last, the one i quoted, i was paying close attention. I didn't fight that many battles(the barbs left me alone somewhat) and i lost far too many of them. It seems ridiculous that its a run of bad luck, i mean thats really really bad luck. here's hoping what kael said is it.

The tooltips hanging around is a known problem with the PLE mod integration - you can clear them quickly by mousing over something which generates the same type of tooltip as the one which is stuck (a stack, action button, unit picture, whatever).

thank you, ill have to try that.

The hidden nationality thing is very annoying - there's also some issues with pathfinding with them too. HN is specced to be done properly in Shadow - I wouldn't expect more than tweaking to it before then.

aye, trying to move through enemy cities and getting killed, etc but actually found those bugs mentioned in other threads, didn't see the 2 i mentioned.

incidently, i understand why hidden nationalities can't capture cities, but since they can't pillage improvements or raze / pillage citties, they seem kinda useless to me. shouldn't they function like real barbarians or would that make them too powerful

No idea about the last bit - I tend to avoid raging barbs given that between Orthus, the Sailors' Dirge (with its misplaced apostrophe) and barrows and ruins you can end up with plenty to deal with anyway.

too often orthus, the dirge and the dragon spawn so far away that i never see them till late game, and the dirge has a nasty habit in my games of docking with a barbarian city and never leaving again(really, i've only ever seen the thing dump a load of troops once). while i despise lizardmen with every fiber of my being, sometimes i don't see any, and the skeletons are just too easy, what with going straight for the city everytime I just leave a couple of gaurds on defend and watch them level.
also i like raging barbarians on because it seems to spawn more animals which i try to collect for my carnivals. without raging barbarians the AI seems to pointlessly wipe most of them out long before i can capture anything. and the xp from the goblins and orcs lets me level my hunters faster to get that subdue animal trait.

 

[Silverkiss]

too often orthus, the dirge and the dragon spawn so far away...

Wow, in all games on Fire that I played, the big bad Orthus spawed 50% times near my borders and 50% times INSIDE my borders....

 

[Sarisin]

Yeah I also had a funny win--my raider attacked a hill giant and won with a 3.1% chance.
I'd say its probably just luck though

In the tens of thousands (yes, I have no life) of battles I have fought in CIV4/FFH I have lost thousands of battles with the odds at 9X.X% and perhaps a dozen with the odds at 100.0%. Those still amaze me.

On the flip side, how many single digit % battles have I won?

Just a handful...like the one you mention.

You just learn to not even attempt battles where the odds are less than 80-90% unless you expect to lose.

More frustrating for me are the ones I lost when attacked. You don't definitely know the combat odds then, but you can guess if they are strongly in your favor or not. For example, I lost a Druid to a Goblin Chariot. The Druid had Combat V and other promotions, the chariot was your basic barb unit.

Combat in CIV4/FFH is very unpredictable despite what the odds tell you!

 

[onedreamer]

On the flip side, how many single digit % battles have I won?

Just a handful...like the one you mention.

But how many attempts did you try ?
I don't think the fix on resistances will fix the OP's problem btw, since warrior vs goblin doesn't involve resistance AFAIK.