Various Ground Support Fighters Bugs and issues:
- "Planetary Search and Destroy" Mission for Ground Support Fighters does not seem to work if there are no Ground Units on the ground, contrary to what is written in Steve's C# changes post (hxxp: aurora2. pentarch. org/index. php?topic=8495. msg110233#msg110233)
Steps to reproduce:
- Create a Ground Support Fighter Design (in case I am missing something: fighters < 500t with fighter pod bays, fighter pods (in my case autocannon) and small missile fire control, plus a carrier with the appropriate hangar space). Create a fleet with the carrier and the fighters (assign fighters to mothership)
- Move the fleet to a world with hostile ground forces (such as a precursor world whose naval forces have been wiped out). In my last test, I had 17,900 tons of hostile Ground Forces detected.
- Create a fleet with exclusively fighters (use "detach" order from the Carrier Fleet/Ship List on selected fighters)
- Select the fighter fleet and order the "Planetary Search and Destroy" Mission. Note: There needs to be a colony on the planet or the Search and Destroy order will not appear.
- Wait however long you want, nothing happens. I waited 2 weeks, until my fighters' intended deployment time was exceeded. . .
- While testing the various Ground Support Fighter Missions (same set up as previous description, but with Ground Units on the ground, 24 fighters assigned to Ground support, 12 to Search and Destroy and 12 to Flak Suppression), I encountered the following errors (translated from french):
1. 9. 4 Function #2712: The object reference is not set to an object instance - Five times
1. 9. 4 Function #327: The object reference is not set to an object instance - Two times
I don't know if it is linked, but in the combat summary report, I get the following anomaly:
- It seems a fighter (one of those assigned to planetary search and destroy) suffered from a catastrophic failure and exploded. Nothing strange here
- However this seems to have happened twice, simultaneously, to the same fighter.
- In one case, nobody survived, in the other one of the crew (they have 3 crew) survived (I might rename him Schrödinger if it is possible).
- I have two lifepods corresponding to the same ship. See attached image, which was taken a few days later as I didn't notice earlier
- I got two events of type "Combat Summary" with absolutelly no text. See attached image.
- The same messages happened 8 hours later, but this time with no fighter loss
- 8 hours later, again the same messages (I believe one less of the #327), with one fighter loss (catastrophic failure) but no duplication
- Again 8 hours later, only the #2712 message appeared, and only 3 times
- 8 hours later, #2712 appeared 11 times
- After that, combat stopped, though I still got the "Ground Combat Intelligence" event with the Estimated Hostile force (and an empty Error Range that does not say much). I believe this is because both forces are on the defensive. I do not get any error message either.
- Indeed, when I go on the offensive, combat starts anew, but still without any error message. I do not know if it is because I am on the offensive, or because the problematic enemy units died in the previous fighting (or something else. . . ).
Following this test, I can conclude that none of my fighters did anything, on any of the missions, except die of catastrophic failures. . . I believe this is also a bug, or I am missing something.
Reproductibility: Systematic with the attached database. Just load and hit 8 hours.
After a few tests with it, I can state that :
- error #327 is linked to the loss of a fighter from Catastrophic failure, and systematically with one of those on the search and destroy mission.
- If I cancel all fighter missions, none of the errors appear (=> errors are linked to fighter missions)
- If I cancel the search and destroy mission, error #327 disappears, but #2712 still happens (=> #327 linked to search and destroy missions)
- If I cancel the ground support missions, error #2712 disappears, but #327 still happens (=> #2712 linked to Ground Support Missions)
=> Additional test: If I put my ground units on the offensive from the beginning of combat, #2712 does not appear (=> #2712 linked to Ground Support Missions, when the supported formations are on the defensive)
I believe there are 3 bugs here: the two linked to error messages and the possibility of fighters on search and destroy missions to die twice simultaneously.
- Ground Support Fighters must be set up in support of ground units ship by ship instead of by fleet, contrary to what is written in Steve's C# changes post (hxxp: aurora2. pentarch. org/index. php?topic=8495. msg109886#msg109886). This very significantly complicates the use of Ground Support Fighters.
Steps to reproduce:
- Create a Ground Support Fighter Design. There doesn't even need to be a carrier as this also works at the homeworld
- Create a fleet with exclusively fighters
- Set the fleet order to "Provide Ground Support"
- Check the Ground Forces Tab, the ships all appear under the "Ground Support Aircraft" Node, with no way to collapse them by fleet
Context:
The function number - #2712 and #327, plus other issues without error messages
The complete error text - The object reference is not set to an object instance, see text
The window affected - No particular window.
What you were doing at the time - See description
Conventional or TN start - TN start
Random or Real Stars - Random Stars
Is your decimal separator a comma? - No
Is the bug is easy to reproduce, intermittent or a one-off? - Systematic with the attached DB, unclear otherwise (though I would expect systematic, see text)
If this is a long campaign - say 75 years or longer - let me know the length of the campaign as well: Short campaign, 4 years
Edit: Everything to here checked /Bughunter
