[We the People] Bug reporting

[Sarin]

I've had the same bug happen in my game. On Marathon, it can result in vast stretches of ocean being permanently visible. Does it break anything, short of some extra visibility?

 

[raystuttgart]

Does it break anything, short of some extra visibility?

No, it does not break anything else.
It is completely harmless considering gameplay itself.

It may influence performance a bit though.

 

[Nightinggale]

I have done some looking.

As you surmised, the bug occurs when weather features are applied in between a player's turns. When a weather feature is applied, a unit is still able to see tiles on the other side of the weather (screenshot 0001). When the unit then moves away, the game expects that visibility should have been being blocked by the weather, and therefore increases it to compensate (screenshot 0002), resulting in the tile becoming permanently visible.

This does not occur when the unit moves near to a weather tile, as the visibility reduction is correctly applied (screenshot 0003).

Forest chopping alone would not be sufficient to trigger this bug, as the bug relies on a prior visibility reduction having failed to be applied correctly. I couldn't test whether this bug can occur by having a forest grow while within sight of a unit, due to the rarity and unpredictability of forest growth.

Thank you for your great work. This really narrows down the cause of the problem. Fixing it is much easier once the cause of the issue is identified rather than just the end result.

Does it break anything, short of some extra visibility?

I think if it happens to the AI, then the visible plot will be used for AI planning because it's visible. However unless you happen to end your turn with a ship at precisely that plot, it will be very unlikely that the AI will change behavior just because it can see a plot of water. The same is true for a human player. A few plots might not be covered by fog of war when they should, but that's not the same as you will change strategy.

 

[Raubwuerger]

Hi all,

in my current game there are no wild animals at all. Neither on land nor in the ocean. I'm playing Louis de Frontenac an a gigantic map and the year is 1570 ...
In the game settings you can select "No wild animals on land/water", but i've not checked this option.
Is there a trigger then wild animals show up?

 

[Ramstormp]

Hi all,

in my current game there are no wild animals at all. Neither on land nor in the ocean. I'm playing Louis de Frontenac an a gigantic map and the year is 1570 ...
In the game settings you can select "No wild animals on land/water", but i've not checked this option.
Is there a trigger then wild animals show up?

../Assets/XML/GameInfo/HandicapInfo.xml

For instance Pilgram difficulty level:

<iAIAnimalLandNumTurnsNoSpawn>5</iAIAnimalLandNumTurnsNoSpawn>
<iAIAnimalSeaNumTurnsNoSpawn>5</iAIAnimalSeaNumTurnsNoSpawn>

I always put it to zero. I don't like the emptiness myself. If a bear succeeds in killing my pioneer, sad for him. I keep going until completely scalped and a little longer.

 

[Raubwuerger]

Will it take affect only if you start a new game? Or also if you change it and load a already saved game?

 

[Ramstormp]

Will it take affect only if you start a new game? Or also if you change it and load a already saved game?

Well, It's not like I am the best person to answer these questions or anything. It won't break a save game. It will only take effect, I believe, if you happen to be at the less than five turns into the game stage, and it's not going to retroactively throw in extra animals to make up for lost spawns. And for some reason it took me until 1583 yesterday before I saw my polar bear roaming the desert border, even on '0', so maybe there is a bug; but I didn't really pay overt attention before.

 

[raystuttgart]

And for some reason it took me until 1583 yesterday before I saw my polar bear roaming the desert border, even on '0', so maybe there is a bug; but I didn't really pay overt attention before.

No there is no bug in there to my knowledge.
(I had Wild Animals showing up quite regularly in my games.)

The XML variables mentioned above only affect the earliest turn Animals spawn - but there are other variables as well that determine frequency and amount (per land mass) of animals spawned.

However:

There are many ways to mess up a Map Scenarios considering the max. amount of Players that will prevent Anmials to be spawned.
(It will then not create a Player Wild Animals and thus not spawn Wild Animals.)

So if Wild Animals do not show up in Game:
Please check in WorldBuilder if Player "Wild Animals" exist.

If it does not exist, then the Map Scenario is messed up.
(The bug can not occur if you play a game created by a Map Script.)

 

[Schmiddie]

Since the last update the King ever refuses to grant troops in the diplomacy screen. Has something been changed in the DLL?

 

[raystuttgart]

Since the last update the King ever refuses to grant troops in the diplomacy screen. Has something been changed in the DLL?

I just tested and it works perfectly.
(The troops were spawned as expected in Europe.)

What is your relationship to the King? (His attitude.)
Your King only grants troops if you have a good relationship with him.

Do you have enough money?
The troops cost a little bit - they are not completely for free.

 

[Schmiddie]

I have enough money but he does not grant anything - also at the beginning when the relationship is very good.

 

[devolution]

I have done some looking.

As you surmised, the bug occurs when weather features are applied in between a player's turns. When a weather feature is applied, a unit is still able to see tiles on the other side of the weather (screenshot 0001). When the unit then moves away, the game expects that visibility should have been being blocked by the weather, and therefore increases it to compensate (screenshot 0002), resulting in the tile becoming permanently visible.

This does not occur when the unit moves near to a weather tile, as the visibility reduction is correctly applied (screenshot 0003).

Forest chopping alone would not be sufficient to trigger this bug, as the bug relies on a prior visibility reduction having failed to be applied correctly. I couldn't test whether this bug can occur by having a forest grow while within sight of a unit, due to the rarity and unpredictability of forest growth.

Thanks for the investigation!

I've started to look into resolving this issue (see the progress here: https://github.com/We-the-People-civ4col-mod/Mod/issues/254). A save from a situation like in screenshot 1 or a recipe for reproduction would be most helpful

 

[raystuttgart]

I have enough money but he does not grant anything - also at the beginning when the relationship is very good.

@Schmiddie

As I said, it is working perfectly for me.
I see no reason why it should not work in unmodified WTP considering Unit balancing.
(But I see a lot of possibilities to mess it up by XML changes - e.g. converting Cannons from Units to Professions.)

I also checked the code:
(Code excerpt at the bottom of the post.)

The main checks it does is checking for Attitude in DLL (Cautious or better) and Gold in Python Diplo Screen logic.

Python Diplo Screen logic is unmodified compared to Vanilla.

It also tries to give you a Unit type you have least often. (So if you have lots of Artillery it might give you Hessians or something else instead.)
But this part of the logic should also always work.

devolution added a check for kUnit.getCombat() > 5 in DLL to determine valid Units to be given by the King.
(Which basically checks for a min combat strength and should not cause any issues big issues with current balancing).

@devolution
Why did you change that code? Was there a bug? I am pretty sure it was working before as well.
Also the Promotion check itself is / was not bad, because most expert Military Units come with a Promotion.
(Non-Military Units do not have Promotions - at least I can not think of any.)

I also have an issue with the current code:
(unless I misread the code)

Spoiler :

Your code kUnit.getCombat() > 5 only checks Units and completely ignores the (default) Professions a Unit might have.

Thus you directly ignore "Expert Line Infantery", "Expert Dragoons" and all other Units that are weak as a pure Unit but quite strong in their Default Profession.
All that is left are Artillery and Hessian Mercenaries.

It should work in our current balancing at the moment, and for my version (almost unmodified) it does.

But as I said, it excludes a lot of military Units with Professions.
(Thus making the feature a little bit more boring.)

But once we change our current balancing (by e.g. transforming Artillery from Units to Professions, it might cause issues.

Please remember Civ4Col is heavily based on Professions, not only Units.
This is of course totally different in Civ4BTS.

Summary:

The code seems to work fine in unmodified WTP.
(Although the variation of Units you may get is probably smaller.)

It is possible though to create balancing where it will not work anymore.
(because of kUnit.getCombat() > 5 that checks only Units)

Spoiler :

int CvPlayerAI::AI_militaryHelp(PlayerTypes ePlayer, int& iNumUnits, UnitTypes& eUnit, ProfessionTypes& eProfession)
{
   FAssert(GET_PLAYER(ePlayer).getParent() == getID());

   iNumUnits = 0;
   eUnit = NO_UNIT;
   eProfession = NO_PROFESSION;

   if (AI_getAttitude(ePlayer) < ATTITUDE_CAUTIOUS)
   {
       return -1;
   }

   CvPlayer& kPlayer = GET_PLAYER(ePlayer);
   int iBestValue = MAX_INT;
   for (int i = 0; i < GC.getNumUnitClassInfos(); ++i)
   {
       UnitTypes eLoopUnit = (UnitTypes) GC.getCivilizationInfo(kPlayer.getCivilizationType()).getCivilizationUnits(i);
       if (eLoopUnit != NO_UNIT)
       {
           CvUnitInfo& kUnit = GC.getUnitInfo(eLoopUnit);
           if (kUnit.getDomainType() == DOMAIN_LAND && kPlayer.getEuropeUnitBuyPrice(eLoopUnit) > 0)
           {
               // ERIK: TODO: Find out how to check for combat / armed units
               bool bValid = (kUnit.getCombat() > 5);
               /*
               for (int j = 0; j < GC.getNumPromotionInfos() && !bValid; ++j)
               {
                   if (kUnit.getFreePromotions(j))
                   {
                       bValid = true;
                   }
               }
               */

               if (bValid)
               {
                   int iValue = kPlayer.getUnitClassCount((UnitClassTypes) i);
                   if (iValue < iBestValue)
                   {
                       iBestValue = iValue;
                       eUnit = eLoopUnit;
                   }
               }
           }
       }
   }

   if (eUnit == NO_UNIT)
   {
       return -1;
   }

   iNumUnits = 1;
   eProfession = (ProfessionTypes) GC.getUnitInfo(eUnit).getDefaultProfession();

   return kPlayer.getEuropeUnitBuyPrice(eUnit) * GC.getDefineINT("KING_BUY_UNIT_PRICE_MODIFIER") / 100;
}

 

[devolution]

I added that "quick hack" to work around the king offering Medics (due to them having medic 3 which is OP btw). I agree that it was an unforeseen consequence that the European infantry is now a profession rather than a unit which breaks this check.

 

[raystuttgart]

I added that "quick hack" to work around the king offering Medics (due to them having medic 3 which is OP btw)

Ah ok I undstand.

The Medic was added during the time when I was not a team member.
Thus did not think about it.

I agree that it was an unforeseen consequence that the European infantry is now a profession rather than a unit which breaks this check.

It is not only the "European Line Infantery". There are many more "Experts for Military Professions".
(e.g. Expert Dragoons, Expert Militia, Expert Townguards, ...)

The code however could have an "OR" checking for the Combat Strength of the Units Default Profession.
That should do the trick.

 

[raystuttgart]

The code however could have an "OR" checking for the Combat Strength of the Units Default Profession.

@devolution: I will take care of this and try to improve the logic, if you do not mind.

 

[devolution]

devolution: I will take care of this and try to improve the logic, if you do not mind.

Go ahead

 

[raystuttgart]

Go ahead

It is fixed, tested and committed.

Now all possibilities (Land Experts of Military Professions and Land Military Units) are spawned.
We now have a nice variations of many different Units the King grants (for a little gold).

 

[devolution]

.. and hopefully no medics

 

[raystuttgart]

.. and hopefully no medics

Nope, no evil medics with their devlish poison !
(Only Units for Combat of Units having a Default Profession for Combat are granted. No civil units.)

The logic is checking iCombat of Units and CombatChange of their Default Professions in an "OR" logic.
(Basically only the additional CombatChange of Default Profession was missing.)

The feature logic used to give only "Heavy Artillery" and "Light Artillery".
Now it also gives Cuirassiers, Dragoons, Militia, Line Infantery, ...

To simplify:
It can now handle Experts for Militarty Professions as well.
We will not run into problems if we e.g transform Artillery Units into Experts of Artillery Professions.
It will handle such changes correctly without having to adjust the logic itself.