v1.5.1 Bugs Thread

[Resand]

not sure this counts as a bug, but it'd be nice if when creating a new project, the best electronic hardening and thermal reduction technologies were the default (instead of the worst)

Both of these adds to the cost of the component, so it's not a strict upgrade with no downside, unlike say Fuel Consumption for engines.
They weren't auto-selected in VB6 either iirc

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

I had two subfleets of Battle Fleet called "1st Fleet" and "Home Fleet".  Home Fleet had three subfleets of four ships.  I Detatched Home Fleet, and it showed up as an empty fleet, and there was no way to find the ships that were supposed to be in it - the class window showed them still existing, but they didn't show up anywhere.  I reloaded, set up a subfleet with subfleets, and detatched the first level fleet again.  Exact same result - detatching a subfleet that has subfleets removes all subfleets and casts the ships in them into Limbo.

Reproduced and fixed.

I had a similar bug today, its different enough I figured I'd mention it in case your fix doesn't also cover it.

Issue: using the 'divide into single ships' order with a detached sub-fleet made out of ships landed in a mothership causes said ships to be eaten by the space kraken and disappear. This has a follow on effect of making it impossible to assign ships to said carrier. Restarting the game allows new ships to be assigned. Choosing to detach a single ship into a fleet, then adding other docked ships to it and using the 'divide into single ships' order has a similar effect, with the difference being that the originally detached ship doesn't get deleted. Combining the carrier with a different fleet causes the deleted ships to reappear (highlighted to provide people who encounter this issue a workaround). This issue occurs with both fighters and FACs. This issue appears to be related to ships being docked in a mothership.

How to reproduce:
1) Create ship with hanger space, assign and land ships in it using the 'land on specified mothership + assign' order. Advance time 5 seconds. Create a subfleet within the carrier's fleet and move docked ships into the subfleet. Detach said subfleet and order it to 'divide into single ships' in the same place as the carrier (tested locations: population, jump point, and the carrier's fleet). Advance time 5 seconds. The detached subfleet will have disappear from the Naval Organisation window with no error produced.

2) Order additional ships to land onto the carrier using the 'land on specified mothership' command (+assign and don't assign has no impact on this step). Advance time 5 seconds. The ships ordered to land will have remained in their own fleet and won't have been assigned. No error message is produced.

3a) Combine carrier with new fleet. Deleted ships should reappear; 3b) Save and exit the game. Restart. Order ships to land onto the problematic carrier. New ships will land with no problem.

Some other issues I found testing this: [major] ships equipped with commercial hangers apparently cannot be selected using the 'land on specified mothership' order (both functions) and thus cannot be used at all, [minor] commercial hanger deck isn't included in the 'Hanger Deck' category in the ship design menu and instead sits underneath the 'command and control' category - is this WAI?

The problem is that detached ships should not be still docked when in a different fleet than the mothership. This was being checked for non-sub-fleet detachment so I extended the same code to cover sub-fleets.

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

My new 1.  5.  1 game after about 15 years suddenly started throwing:

"Function #1512: Object reference not set to an instance of an Object" from the events window.   

The only other clue that I see is the 5 day increment ran 3 days and 12 hours right before this occurred.   Nothing in the event log explaining the interruption.   
I hit okay a bunch but it seems to reoccur forever.   Had to kill the game from the Task Manager. 

Can you send the db?

I'm also seeing "Function #1512: Object reference not set to an instance of an Object".  For me it happens when I try to advance time.

I don't know if it's related, but since the message started appearing, time has started to become a bit weird.  In the event log, you can see the game going from October -> November -> October of the same year.

Zipped DB attached.

(BTW - thanks for making this game.  I had great fun with the VB6 version many years ago, and am enjoying rediscovering the game)

One of the NPRs doesn't seem to have any tech, which is causing problems. Not sure how that happened. Hopefully the next version will avoid that situation arising due to extra checks in place.

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

Same issue for me, just completed a grav survey and whilst i had a message to say the survey was complete no messages about no more orders for the survey ship in question

It is obvious a widespread problem - I am just struggling to reproduce. Maybe I already fixed it without realising

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

1.5.1

There seems no way to add missile engines larger than 5MSP, or multiple missile engines to a missile design. A single 5MSP engine is simply too small for large missiles.

Is this intended?

Missile engine size now goes up to 50.

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

Can't select the class a shipyard is currently tooled for in the "Refit From" dropdown.

Yes, because there would be no point in refitting a ship of a class to the same class.

But the shipyard can build a modified class design that is very similar, and I want to refit the original design to the modified design. I can select both designs in "Refit To", but only the modified design in "Refit From".

ah - excellent point! I've changed it so you can do the above and added a check to prevent same class refits.

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

Not seen it reported yet and it strikes me as potentially unintended, the "Troop Transport Bay - Large -Drop Pod Equipped" component is flagged as commercial.

I can understand maybe regular transport bays being civilian, but drop-pod capable seems a bit suspect?

Then again, given their component size... making them military would require dedicated small number of drop-pod focused designs... so..... 

Confirmed working as intended. Transports will tend to be large so making them military would make it very difficult for players to use them. Game play over realism.

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

After a couple of years (30 - 40) i get #2088 Error.   At first it is only once per time increment but it gets worse. 
Now i played 60 years and i get 4 of theses errors everytime i increment time. 
No crashes so far with this error. 

I searched the forum if someone else had this issue, but i couldn't find anything. 

Edit:

Random Stars
Conventional Start

What is the error text?

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

I think that for the starting year you should limit the input to ±9000 years. For completion dates you could trap the exception and display a placeholder text like "?" or "heat death of the universe" or something. Of course then you still have to handle it suitably when sorting by completion date, but  robustness is never simple.

I've added a check to limit start year between 1 and 9000 and added a popup to explain why.

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

While refitting a ship to a different class, it's available for use.
I had a scout that while it was refitted, went through a jump point and discovered a new system.
In the new system it finished refitting.

I've added a check to prevent fleets with shipyard tasks being given orders.

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

I get Error Message when I launch the game: Function #2490 Object reference is not set to an object instance (Text is translated from my language, so I am not sure if it is correct). It happens again everytime when I discover new system.

Are there any player-created ruins in the game?

[Kayser90]

After a couple of years (30 - 40) i get #2088 Error.    At first it is only once per time increment but it gets worse.   
Now i played 60 years and i get 4 of theses errors everytime i increment time.   
No crashes so far with this error.   

I searched the forum if someone else had this issue, but i couldn't find anything.   

Edit:

Random Stars
Conventional Start

What is the error text?

Function #2088: object reference not set to an instance of an object

something like that

[Boris]

another "not sure this counts as a bug":
commanders automated assignment only assigns commanders of the exact rank, and never of a higher rank, even if they are unassigned

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

It appears that Unit health isn't considering genetic enhancement.   I have repeated instances of reloading a save removing any and all Capabilities a unit has, reducing hp back to normal value, instead of the genetic modification health modifier.

It appears immediately saving after making the unit and reloading, however, Means the unit keeps it's capabilities

I've just created genetically enhanced infantry, saved the game, closed and re-opened. HP are the same and genetic enhancement is listed.

[Fietsenstandaard]

Quite easy to reproduce bug:

1.     Have a ship that is stranded without fuel.   
2.     Use a ship with a the tractorbeam to bring it home.     Both ships should be in the same fleet now.   
3.     Without releasing the tractor beam, make a new fleet in the fleet window by detaching the ship that was stranded.   
4.     The once stranded ship now has a speed of 300.   000 km/s.     After receiving an order, it will rush to the end of the universe, because it cannot change its speed anymore and will never slow down.   

The problem is that detached ships should not be still docked when in a different fleet than the mothership.  This was being checked for non-sub-fleet detachment so I extended the same code to cover sub-fleets.

Are these two things related?