3.1 Bugs

[SteveAlt]

"Error 3201 was generated by DAO.Recordset
You cannot add or change a record because a related record is required in table 'StellarType'."

Due to repeated apprearances, I have narrowed this down to the 'DA5-' type white dwarf stars.  'DA6-' is okay, but I can't speak to any other 'DA' white dwarves.

I have seen this error a few times myself, although its fairly rare and I haven't been able to reproduce it. The DA5 information is very useful but I just forced a system to select a DA5 and it generated normally. There also doesn't seem to be any significant difference in the DB between the DA5 and DA6, apart from the differences in mass, luminosity, etc. What led you to believe it was the DA5 that was causing the problem?

Steve

[SteveAlt]

On the F2 (Population & Production) screen, on the Environment tab, it claims that the Greenhouse Factor is capped at 5.0.  However, it appears that it is actually capped at 3.0.  I have several poor moon bases shivering away in the cold due to their unexpectedly thin Greenhouse gas blankets.  #:-[

It is capped at 3.0. I forgot to update the text on that window.

Steve

[SteveAlt]

Transferring system knowledge from a player race to the SM race (Using the main menu --> Empires -->Systems --> Transfer System Knowledge command to open the 'Transfer Survey Knowledge' window) resulted in a cascade of "Errror 3265 was generated by DAO.Fields  Item not found in this collection." messages - approximately one for each system, jump point, and system body in the selected systems (ie - a few thousand).  If you click 'OK' all the way through, it does seem to transfer all the selected survey info though.

The items not found were related to old Starfire Assistant information on survey points for habitable, non-habitable, asteroids, etc that was still in the code but long gone from the database. I've fixed the problem for the next version.

I've also restored the system transfer option to the right-click menu in the galactic map. If you highlight on the galactic map the systems for which you want to transfer information, then the use the right-click menu option of Transfer System Info, it now brings up the Transfer Survey Knowledge window with the systems currently highlighted on the galactic map now highlighted in the system list of the Transfer window.

Steve

[SteveAlt]

I'v found a bug where the SM Race (or any other race) can't open the galactic map if it doesn't have a capital. I have fixed this by assigning the oldest system as the centre of the map if no capital exists.

Steve

[SteveAlt]

I've fixed a bug where the estimated completion date for shipyard modification was different in the column on the list of complexes compared to the Shipyard Complex Activity section. Fixed for the next version.

Steve

[SteveAlt]

Steve -

I noticed this one while setting up a new campaign in a v3.1 install.  

I created a new game, and allowed Aurora to create a human race in the pre-generated solar system.  I then began generating new human govenments based on earth, intending to use the human race I initially set up.  When I created my second human race, when Aurora asked if I wanted to use a pre-existing race, and I answered yes, it allowed me to select from pre-existing races.  I noticed at that point that there were seven or eight races to select from, and eventually I realized that they were from your Preservation II campaign.

I selected "Human" as my race, and continued to create my races, and then later decided to delete your Preservation campaign to avoid confusion.  Unfortunately, it was at this point that I realized that I had selected your human race as my race type, not mine, and so now all of my governments have an undefined race.  

I would suggest that players be limited to being able to select only races from the same game, not any game in the database.  

Done for the next version

Steve

[SteveAlt]

On the F2 (Population & Production) screen, 'Manage Shipyards' tab, in the 'Shipyard Complex Activity' section, when I select any task from the dropdown list (ie Add Extra Slipway, Add 1000 tons capacity, Retool for Selected Class, etc) Aurora throws the following error:  "Run-time error '381':  invalid property array index" and crashes to desktop.

Note, I am able to set an initial class for the shipyard (using 'Retool for Selected Class') without difficulty, and change the capacity and/or number of slipways with the 'SM SY mods' button.  Only the dropdown box throws the fatal error.

I am playing my own campaign at the moment and can't reproduce this at all. This is a significant bug so it should also be affecting everyone else using v3.1. There must be some other factor at work. Is this affecting every shipyard or just certain shipyards?

Steve

[SteveAlt]

Four times now, clicking on 'Commands' on the Personnel screen has generated a massive (infinite?) series of "Error 3420 in DAO.Recordset.  Object invalid or no longer set." messages.  Clicking on 'Vacancies' works just fine though.

Fixed for the next version. The problem was related to the very first error that appeared (too many fields defined) that preceded all the "Object invalid or no longer set messages". It was a join that was accessing too many fields over too many tables. It was probably working fine until I added additional fields to one of the tables being accessed by this query. I have now specified the individual fields and the problem has gone.

Steve

[SteveAlt]

Possibly related to the Personnel --> 'Commands' bug above.  If you add a Sector Command through the 'SM Mods' button on the F2 (Population & Production) screen - if you're setting up a multi-system polity, for example - the Sector Governor position does not show up on the officers screen.  At least, not until you advance the clock far enough to trigger a production cycle.

When you build a sector HQ in the normal way, there is a routine that runs to setup the sector. If you just added one using the SM mods window, the routine wasn't accessed and the sector wasn't created. Fixed for the next version.

Steve

[Kurt]

Steve -  

I'm not a hundred percent sure this is a bug, but I'm confused and this is as good a place to ask as any other.  

I have multiple human governments set up on Earth.  I opened up the diplomacy and communications screen to begin getting them to the point where I could set up their relationships should be, but I'm having a problem.  When the screen opens I see the currently active government in the upper left side, as it should be, but there is no race available to select in the upper right side.  No matter what I do I can't get that to change.  

All six governments are on the same planet and I've advanced the time several months at this point.  Each of the governments can detect the populations of the other governments, and they show up on the system map.  But for some reason I can't initiate contact.  

I'm sure I'm missing something, but I can't for the life of me figure out what.  The only other alternative is that Aurora doesn't recognize the other populations as being eligible for communications and diplomatic actions because they are all the same race.  

Kurt

[SteveAlt]

The "Join Task Group" order still does not work properly in the F12 screen, does not delete the old task group and duplicates the ships into the target task group. If you delete the extraneous task groups you delete your ships!

Do you mean the Join Task Group that order that you issue on this window and it happens as the clock advances or one of the various combine orders using buttons? I use the Join Task Group order all the time without any problems. There is something very weird here because it is physically impossible within the database for a ship to be in more than one task group. There is a single ID on the Ship table that specifies the ship's current task group and it can't contain more than one task group ID.

How did you see the ships in more than one task group? Were they listed on the F12 window? Please can you try this again and if you get the duplicate ships, send me a copy of your database file (Stevefire.mdb) so I can see what is happening.

Steve

[SteveAlt]

Steve -  

I'm not a hundred percent sure this is a bug, but I'm confused and this is as good a place to ask as any other.  

I have multiple human governments set up on Earth.  I opened up the diplomacy and communications screen to begin getting them to the point where I could set up their relationships should be, but I'm having a problem.  When the screen opens I see the currently active government in the upper left side, as it should be, but there is no race available to select in the upper right side.  No matter what I do I can't get that to change.  

All six governments are on the same planet and I've advanced the time several months at this point.  Each of the governments can detect the populations of the other governments, and they show up on the system map.  But for some reason I can't initiate contact.  

I'm sure I'm missing something, but I can't for the life of me figure out what.  The only other alternative is that Aurora doesn't recognize the other populations as being eligible for communications and diplomatic actions because they are all the same race.  

This is going to sound like a strange question, but have any of the races detected anyone else's ships? One of the things I am trying to do at the moment is restrict information on a racial level. One of the ways this is being implemented is to only show alien races with which a race has had contact. It is explained in the thread below.

http://aurora.pentarch.org/viewtopic.php?t=1170

When you detect alien ships, they are only identified as belonging to Alien Race #1. Alien Race #2, etc. rather than by that race's actual name. You can rename alien races on the TacIntel window. Therefore the only races you will see for diplomacy purposes are those races you have previously detected. I can see why this would be a problem though in a game where you have multiple starting races on the same planet but no active sensors have been used. I will fix this by adding a way to determine which race a population belongs to by its EM signature. In that way, you can detect and identify different alien races based on population emissions as well as by ships.

Steve

[Kurt]

Steve -  

I'm not a hundred percent sure this is a bug, but I'm confused and this is as good a place to ask as any other.  

I have multiple human governments set up on Earth.  I opened up the diplomacy and communications screen to begin getting them to the point where I could set up their relationships should be, but I'm having a problem.  When the screen opens I see the currently active government in the upper left side, as it should be, but there is no race available to select in the upper right side.  No matter what I do I can't get that to change.  

All six governments are on the same planet and I've advanced the time several months at this point.  Each of the governments can detect the populations of the other governments, and they show up on the system map.  But for some reason I can't initiate contact.  

I'm sure I'm missing something, but I can't for the life of me figure out what.  The only other alternative is that Aurora doesn't recognize the other populations as being eligible for communications and diplomatic actions because they are all the same race.  

This is going to sound like a strange question, but have any of the races detected anyone else's ships? One of the things I am trying to do at the moment is restrict information on a racial level. One of the ways this is being implemented is to only show alien races with which a race has had contact. It is explained in the thread below.

http://aurora.pentarch.org/viewtopic.php?t=1170

When you detect alien ships, they are only identified as belonging to Alien Race #1. Alien Race #2, etc. rather than by that race's actual name. You can rename alien races on the TacIntel window. Therefore the only races you will see for diplomacy purposes are those races you have previously detected. I can see why this would be a problem though in a game where you have multiple starting races on the same planet but no active sensors have been used. I will fix this by adding a way to determine which race a population belongs to by its EM signature. In that way, you can detect and identify different alien races based on population emissions as well as by ships.

Steve

That did it!  I had each of the races turn on one set of active sensors for five seconds, and all of the races popped up.  I should have thought of that.  thanks.

Kurt

[SteveAlt]

That did it!  I had each of the races turn on one set of active sensors for five seconds, and all of the races popped up.  I should have thought of that.  thanks.

No problem. I should have thought of the situation in which you found yourself. In v3.11, you will be able to detect the race of a population based on its EM emissions. This will allow you to detect a new alien race without seeing any of its ships and it will also tell you to which race each population belongs, in the same way you can currently tell which race built a specific ship (which is not necessarily the same as the current owner )

In v3.11, if you have an EM contact for a pop, the race name will be shown on the F3 System Map and the F9 System View along with the EM contact information.

Steve

[SteveAlt]

Steve -

I got a large number of error messages from Aurora as I was creating systems.  I was trying to generate a system with certain characteristics that I needed, so I was generating system after system and deleting them if they didn't have what I needed.  

I got two different types of errors.  The first related to wrecks, for some reason.  After hitting the system create button, Aurora would throw a series of errors relating to wrecks.  I forget what the exact error message was, but I'm fairly sure I can recreate it if you need it.  I wasn't aware that wrecks were generated at the same time systems are, but this one showed up often.  

The second type of error related to the star type.  IIRC, Aurora couldn't find information for a certain kind of star.  I noticed that when this error appeared, there would be a blank line in the star portion of the system display, as if there was supposed to be a star, but no characteristics were generated.  As I said before, I can probably recreate this one if you need the exact error message.  

Both of these cropped up quite a bit, though, and I haven't done anything unusual in this campaign, so they should be easy to recreate by generating random systems.  

Father Tim mentioned the star type errors as well, although not the problem with wrecks. I get the star type error occasionally as well, although not the wreck errors. That could be something left in my database which is not present in a new game though.

Aurora generates precursor classes and old precursor wrecks based on those classes in some systems, which you can detect and salvage. Those will be the source of the errors. Its probably safest to simply remove the precursor class and wreck generation code entirely until I can revisit the whole precursor situation.

I am still at a loss on the star-related problem as I cannot reproduce it when I need to.

Steve