Edit: I have screenshots embedded in my post, but the forums are adding a space after the .in the URL and they're not showing. Until I figure out how to fix this, here is the link to the imgur album.
https://imgur.com/a/nR0CElt The screenshots are uploaded in order that I discuss them, and I'll reference them in text. If a mod can fix the img code for me through a message edit please go ahead and do so.
I have a series of catastrophic bugs in ground combat. I'll provide the requested information here, but a much more detailed walkthrough below:
The function numbers (all prefaced with 1.9.4) 2712, 1810, 327, 1821, 2868 (This last one is elusive, but the most verbose)
The complete error texts (For 2712, 1810, 327) The object reference not set to an instance of an object.(For 1821) Attempted to divide by zero (For 2868) "Index was out of range. Must be non-negative and less than the size of the collection. Parameter name: Index"
The window affected Global
What you were doing at the time Invading NPR Homeworld in NN 3819
Conventional or TN start TN
Random or Real Stars Real
Is your decimal separator a comma? Natively a period
Is the bug is easy to reproduce, intermittent or a one-off? Easy to reproduce. See below
If this is a long campaign - say 75 years or longer - let me know the length of the campaign as well 45 years, started in 1. 9. 0, migrated to . 3 and now . 4.
Detailed ExplanationI saved the game immediately after this throwing the error. I had (I believe) one successful round of ground combat before the errors began, but the fallout can be seen from the get-go.
First, when loading the game, switch the view to NN 3819. The fun is around the first planet in the system.
You should see a ton of wrecks of the "Sheean" class around the first planet. If you turn off the wrecks so the lifepods are visible, the first indication that something is wrong appears
Screenshot 1Despite there being a ton of wrecks of my fighters in orbit, I've only lost 2 fighters, but they seem to have exploded multiple times, leaving identical copies of wrecks and lifepods. I've only actually lost fighter 005 and 002. Looking at the naval organization screen proves this:
Screenshot 2As you can see, the only ship numbers I'm missing are 2 and 5, and you can see that, for some reason, the game has created empty fleets for them - this seems to be due to the engine being hit, the speed dropping and ship detaching, prior to the game calculating that we've reached HTK and the fighter is dead. Below is a clip from the events window detailing the death of Sheean 012.
Screenshot 3Advancing time by 8 hours to the next ground combat phase will give the following errors in some random combination of times: 1810, 370. Also, Sheean 001 is usually the next to explode multiple times.
Additional advancements generally also include error 2712, in addition to 1810 and 370.
Also, generally within the first or second advancement of 8 hours, one of the events will be that we've conquered a population on Mars. This is unrelated to the Ground Combat bugs, but it is a bug that's been running for several in-game years: You can see the results on the Colony Summary window:
Screenshot 4Several years ago the NPR tried to land troops on Mars and I defeated the fleet in orbit. Ever since that point, every 6 months or so the NPR creates a new colony on Mars and my lone garrison immediately conquers it. This is without the NPR having any fleet to speak of (I've been pruning them for a few years as I built an army). No error messages are shown, so I can't give any more details as to why this occurs.
Back to ground combat fun:
The elusive error that only shows up once or twice randomly (and which I had to reload the save many times to finally catch) is "Error 2686 Index was out of range. Must be non-negative and less than the size of the collection. Parameter name: Index. " I cannot consistently recreate this one, but advancing time enough will cause it to appear once or twice in the pile of error popups.
Ground Combat fun ends approximately 14 days after the start date of this save-file, just before the life pods expire. The game will throw error 1821 Attempted to divide by zero and all further ground combat breaks. When this happens, I stop getting any combat reports other than estimations of enemy composition, medal awards for destroyed tonnage (which I set up) and formation breakthroughs. The game still seems to think that I'm destroying significant amounts of enemies due to the medal awards at 5k, 10k and 25k tonnage destroyed, and the sensors in orbit detect tiny tiny changes to the ground force strength (generally 100t at a time). I will stop losing troops, however.
You can force the divide by zero error to happen sooner by moving supply elements from my reserve battalion (242nd Battalion HQ) into the top level of the 4 divisions (2 inf, 2 armored) so that the sub formations can resupply. When this happens, on the next 8h time advancement divide by zero occurs, and ground combat effectively breaks.
Screenshot 5