v4.9 Bugs Thread (no longer current)

[Caesar]

Every time I press F9 to go to the system information screen as described in the tutorial in the wiki, or whenever I click system view in the System map, I get the following error;


[spoiler:2thnvec9]Error in LaunchSystemWindow

Error 713 was generated by Aurora
Class not registered.
You need the following file to be installed on your machine. MSSTDFMT.DLL.
Please report to viewforum.php?f=11[/spoiler:2thnvec9]

I don't recall making any mistakes with installing Aurora.

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

Every time I press F9 to go to the system information screen as described in the tutorial in the wiki, or whenever I click system view in the System map, I get the following error;


[spoiler:3kwikrsl]Error in LaunchSystemWindow

Error 713 was generated by Aurora
Class not registered.
You need the following file to be installed on your machine. MSSTDFMT.DLL.
Please report to viewforum.php?f=11[/spoiler:3kwikrsl]

I don't recall making any mistakes with installing Aurora.

If you check the FAQ post on "Getting the game to run questions", this is the first question addressed.

viewtopic.php?f=100&t=2031

Steve

[Kishmond]

Once you click through "Auto Rename" for ships enough times it eventually refuses to give you a new name. This is kind of silly.

[Shinanygnz]

Well, there are a limited number of names in each theme.  It'd be "sillier" if it just started picking random names from another theme (IMO natch).  You just have to change your theme or don't set one and enter them all yourself.
However, whilst I think "silly" is not the right word, I see where you're coming from having had it happen too.  "Mildly irksome" might be better.  Steve, perhaps you could add a check so that when you run out of names, it prompts you to select a new theme?  A bit of work for you, then less for us  

Stephen

[sloanjh]

There's a thread from micro102, where his civies became inexplicable hostile.  He says that he didn't do anything overt to upset them (like mass-packet bombing Terra ).  One thing that came up in that thread is that civie designs might have active sensors, as long as they're <= 1 HS.

Two issues:

1)  Is it possible that the civies are buying e.g. freighters with active sensors, turning them on, seeing player ships, and getting hostility points because the player ships aren't classified as "friendly"?

2)  Shouldn't the rating between civies and their home race be "really really friendly" - ISTR having them show up as neutral contacts when I first saw them (although that might have been because I only had them on thermals, not active).

John

[sloanjh]

non-parasite Ships in TG which are given "land on mothership" orders are disintegrated.

I had an Apache scout with my strike group of FAC.  When I told the group to land, the Apache disappeared - I looked on F6 and didn't see it.

John

[Kishmond]

Well, there are a limited number of names in each theme.  It'd be "sillier" if it just started picking random names from another theme (IMO natch).  You just have to change your theme or don't set one and enter them all yourself.
However, whilst I think "silly" is not the right word, I see where you're coming from having had it happen too.  "Mildly irksome" might be better.  Steve, perhaps you could add a check so that when you run out of names, it prompts you to select a new theme?  A bit of work for you, then less for us  

Stephen

I mean what it should do is go back to the beginning of the list. It's not that I have a ship for every name in my theme, I was just looking at every name.

[Osmosis Jones]

Getting an overflow error (error 6) due to the number of planetary deep space tracking installations on Earth, which occurs everytime I attempt to advance a time increment. Advancing five seconds yields the same error, but small enough that the error windows can be clicked through. Attempting to advance a longer time period, e.g. 30 days, yields so many repeats of this error that even highlighting the button and holding down enter for a full minute fails to get rid of them.

Working under the assumption that this was due to the number of sensors giving me a riduculously large tracking strength, I used SM mode to systematically reduce the number of sensors from 71 down to 66, at which point the game ceased giving the overflow. Increasing the number back to 67 returned the error messages.

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

Well, there are a limited number of names in each theme.  It'd be "sillier" if it just started picking random names from another theme (IMO natch).  You just have to change your theme or don't set one and enter them all yourself.
However, whilst I think "silly" is not the right word, I see where you're coming from having had it happen too.  "Mildly irksome" might be better.  Steve, perhaps you could add a check so that when you run out of names, it prompts you to select a new theme?  A bit of work for you, then less for us  

One of the problems with auto-rename is that once a theme name is used, it is discarded. The other option is to only avoid currently used names but the problem then became that every new class has a name you already rejected, which would be even more annoying.

There is already a popup in auto-rename for "No New Name Found" I have extended this to "No New Name Found - Please select a new racial theme if you want additional themed class names"

I have also added a new Random Name button to the Class window button that selects a name from a list of all class names for all themes.

Steve

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

There's a thread from micro102, where his civies became inexplicable hostile.  He says that he didn't do anything overt to upset them (like mass-packet bombing Terra ).  One thing that came up in that thread is that civie designs might have active sensors, as long as they're <= 1 HS.

Two issues:

1)  Is it possible that the civies are buying e.g. freighters with active sensors, turning them on, seeing player ships, and getting hostility points because the player ships aren't classified as "friendly"?

2)  Shouldn't the rating between civies and their home race be "really really friendly" - ISTR having them show up as neutral contacts when I first saw them (although that might have been because I only had them on thermals, not active).

The political modifier for civilians starts at 10,000. You would have to do something overtly hostile to upset them, like destroying a civilian ship. I can't see a reason for civs to turn on active sensors as the only NPR code for that involves warships. In any event, Civilians won't have a separate "Alien Race" modifier because the civilian race ID and the player race ID are the same. As the primary key for the AlienRace table is AlienRaceID and ViewRaceID, it is physically impossible for the civilians to have a different attitude to the player than the player has to the civilians.

The only thing I can see that might cause it is planetary bombardment or if the player attacks one of his civilian ships. To avoid this problem in v5.0, I have added a check to the code that updates political modifiers due to damage. If the alien race and the viewing race are the same, the function will exit without changing anything.

Steve

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

Getting an overflow error (error 6) due to the number of planetary deep space tracking installations on Earth, which occurs everytime I attempt to advance a time increment. Advancing five seconds yields the same error, but small enough that the error windows can be clicked through. Attempting to advance a longer time period, e.g. 30 days, yields so many repeats of this error that even highlighting the button and holding down enter for a full minute fails to get rid of them.

Working under the assumption that this was due to the number of sensors giving me a riduculously large tracking strength, I used SM mode to systematically reduce the number of sensors from 71 down to 66, at which point the game ceased giving the overflow. Increasing the number back to 67 returned the error messages.

In the past, this same error occurred when NRRs built a large number of sensors and I fixed it. I hadn't considered the situation where a player would do the same. I'll take a look and see if the best option is to allow greater sensor strength or restrict the max sensor strength. By the way, you really don't need that many sensors. On the other hand, if someone strikes a match on Pluto, you will know about it

EDIT: I have added a upper limit to planetary sensor strength of two billion. Any sensors beyond that will have no effect. This is still enough for Earth-based sensors to detect a single tracking station on Pluto.

Steve

[Osmosis Jones]

Oh, I know it's overkill, but DSTSs are so cheap, it seemed rude not to overengineer them. At my current capacity, it took maybe a year to get them into the realm of the ridiculousness. Just out of curiosity, if I research improved DSTSs, will the tracking increase mean I will have to again cull stations?

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

Oh, I know it's overkill, but DSTSs are so cheap, it seemed rude not to overengineer them. At my current capacity, it took maybe a year to get them into the realm of the ridiculousness. Just out of curiosity, if I research improved DSTSs, will the tracking increase mean I will have to again cull stations?

Yes, you wil have to cull again. Its the total sensor strength that is the problem, rather than the physical number of sensors

Steve

[MoonDragon]

Had a bug today (4.91) that confused me, more than hurt the gameplay.

Design a new PDC. Reopen the class design window, and click new. The type will say that you're designing a ship, but the part list will be filtered for a PDC.

[Commodore_Areyar]

Had a bug today (4.91) that confused me, more than hurt the gameplay.

Design a new PDC. Reopen the class design window, and click new. The type will say that you're designing a ship, but the part list will be filtered for a PDC.

True. I had this happen too I remember.